The Ramcharitmanas 1

by Tulsidas

  Rantidev: A king of the Lunar dynasty; he was renowned for his piety and generosity. He was a great devotee of Vishnu, and believed that all he had came from him. He was enormously rich and extremely generous, and offered so many cattle in sacrifice that their blood formed the Chambhal river. He saw himself as Vishnu’s instrument to serve the poor and needy. According to the Mahabharata, he had 200,000 cooks and had 2000 cattle and as many other animals slaughtered daily for use in his kitchens, and had the meat fed to innumerable poor and needy people. One day, the gods visited Vishnu in Vaikunth and in casual conversation asked him, ‘Who do you think is your greatest devotee?’ Without hesitation, Vishnu replied that it was Rantidev. The gods, intrigued, decided to test Rantidev’s devotion, and caused a great famine to overcome his kingdom. The king, with his characteristic generosity and piety, opened the royal granary and treasury to his people. But the famine continued. The king then opened his palace to the people, and gave away all that he possessed. He shared whatever food he had with them, but soon even that finished. The people were starving, and, at his wits’ end, the king turned to Vishnu for help. Giving up all food and drink, he began to meditate on Vishnu. For forty-eight days he prayed and fasted. On the forty-ninth day, his ministers persuaded him to take some food, and brought him water and a dish made of rice boiled in milk. Just as he was about to eat the rice and milk, a Brahman appeared, hungry and starving. The king gave away part of the food to the Brahman. He was just about to begin eating again when a poor man appeared begging for food. The king gave away another portion of the food to him. Just then, a Shudra appeared before him, begging for food for himself and his dogs. The king gave away the rest of the food to him. He now had only water left, just enough to slake his thirst. As he was about to drink the water, a Chandal, an outcast, appeared and begged for water. The king gave even that away. The Chandal drank the water, and as he did so, the king felt refreshed and strengthened. He opened his eyes in surprise, to see the gods before him. They acknowledged him as Vishnu’s greatest devotee, and reversed the famine and its effects, restoring his kingdom to prosperity. And Vishnu, to honour his devotee, took him unto himself. Rantidev merged with his Lord, thus attaining the highest state. An alternative version of the story states that Rantidev, in his generosity, would every now and then hold a great sacrifice and give away all that he possessed. On one occasion, having given away everything he owned, he and his family remained without food or water for forty-eight days. The king accepted his condition, and lived only upon what he received without asking. On the forty-ninth day, as he lay on the ground, starving and semi-conscious, he was given some water and a dish made of rice boiled in milk. As he was about to share this food with his wife and children the gods appeared to test him, in the guise of the Brahman, the Shudra, the low-born man with his dogs and the Chandal.

  Rati: ‘Love, desire’; the goddess of desire and sexual pleasure, the consort of Kamdev, and daughter of Daksh.

  Ravan: The evil and powerful Rakshasa king of Lanka; the son of Vishravas by the Rakshasi Nikasha; grandson of the sage Pulastya. His chief queen was Mandodari. He was the half-brother of Kuber, and as Kuber was king of the Yakshas, Ravan was king of the Rakshasas. Through penance and prayer to Brahma, Ravan received the boon of invulnerability to gods and demons, but was doomed to die because of a woman. He was also able to take any form he pleased. He is described as having ten heads and twenty arms, copper-coloured eyes and teeth as bright as the moon. He was as dark as a cloud, and as enormous as a mountain. His body bore all the marks of royalty, but was marked by the scars of the wounds he had received in his battles against the gods. It was scarred by the thunderbolt of Indra, by the tusks of Indra’s elephant, Airavat, and by Vishnu’s discus. Tall as a mountain peak, he could stop the sun and the moon in their course across the sky. His strength was so great that he could lift up Mount Kailash in play. He terrorized gods and men with his evil deeds, till at last they appealed to Vishnu for help. Since he had been too arrogant to ask for invincibility against men, Vishnu took birth as Ramchandra, son of Dasharath, for the sole purpose of destroying him; the gods became incarnate as bears and monkeys to help him in this enterprise. For his ten heads, he is called Dashashish. He is also called Dashanan, ‘ten-faced’; Dashkandhar or Dashkanth, ‘ten-necked’; Dashmukh, ‘ten-faced’. As the enemy of the gods, he is known as Surari; as the king of Lanka, he is called Lankesh.

  riddhi; Riddhi: Prosperity, affluence, accomplishment. Riddhi is also prosperity, personified as Kuber’s wife, or, in some instances, as one of Ganesh’s wives. In the plural, the Riddhis refer to some of the attendants of Kuber, and signify riches.

  rishi: A sage; the inspired sages to whom the hymns of the Vedas were revealed; also used as a title for the seven great sages, and other wise and learned men.

  Rishyamuk: A mountain in the south, near the source of the Pampa river and the lake Pampa, upon which lived the monkey Sugriv and his followers. Ram stayed there for a while with the monkeys.

  Sabar; Shabar: A tribal people of southern India.

  Sabari; Shabari: A woman of the Sabar tribe (hence her name). The daughter of a hunter, she was a devotee of Ram. She sought salvation upon the death of her guru, the sage, Matanga; just before he died, Matanga assured her that she would indeed attain salvation, and that Ram himself would grant it to her. Sabari waited faithfully for Ram, living for many years as an ascetic in the forest. During his exile, Ram, hearing of her devotion to him, visited her in her hermitage. There, she offered him fruits that she had collected especially for him in the forest, and which she had tasted herself before offering to check their sweetness. Lakshman protested that since she had bitten into the fruit, Ram should not eat them. But Ram saw only her devotion and ate the fruits she offered. He then granted her salvation.

  sachchidanand: Literally ‘Existence (or being or entity) or truth, thought (or knowledge or consciousness), and happiness (or bliss)’—a name for the Supreme Spirit.

  Sagar: A prince of the solar dynasty; king of Avadh. From Sumati, the second of his two wives, he had sixty-thousand sons. During the performance of the Ashvamedha, or horse-sacrifice, the king ordered his sixty-thousand sons to retrieve the sacrificial horse, which had been carried off to the underworld. They dug their way to Patal, where they found the horse grazing and the sage Kapil seated close by in meditation. Thinking him to be the thief, the sons of Sagar began to accuse and threaten him. This so enraged the saint that he reduced all of them to ashes. Their souls were finally liberated by the actions of Bhagirath, who brought the Ganga to earth in order to purify their ashes. Sagar finally completed his sacrifice, and gave the name ‘saagar’ to the chasm which this sons had dug (saagar means ocean).

  sagun: ‘With attributes’; possessing a form that has qualities, hence, the incarnate form of the Supreme Spirit.

  Sahasrabahu: ‘The thousand-armed’; he was king of the Haihaya tribe, and is better known by his patronymic, Kartavirya. As a result of penance and prayer, the divine saint Dattatreya granted him a thousand arms, a golden chariot to take him wherever he wished to go, the power of righting wrongs by dispensing justice, the conquest of the earth and the disposition to rule it righteously, invincibility and finally, death at the hands of a man renowned the whole world over. He ruled wisely and well for 85,000 years. He was a contemporary of Ravan, and when Ravan came to conquer his capital city, Mahishmati, he took him prisoner effortlessly; he let Ravan go on the request of the rishi, Pulastya. One day, when out hunting, Sahasrabahu reached the hermitage of the sage Jamadagni. The sage and the sons were out, but his wife, recognizing the king, treated him with due respect. But instead of acknowledging the hospitality he had received, the king in his arrogance carried off the calf of the sacred cow, Surabhi, which Jamadagni had acquired through penance. When Jamadagni’s son, Parashuram, returned and heard what the king had done, he followed the king, cut off his thousand arms with his arrows and killed him. Sahasrabahu’s sons, in retaliation, attacked Jamadagni
in his hermitage and killed him. When Parashuram found his father’s lifeless body, he laid it on a pyre and vowed to wipe out the whole of the Kshatriya race. He killed all the sons of Sahasrabahu, and cleared the earth of Kshatriyas twenty-one times. Sahasrabahu’s death at the hands of Parashuram was as per the boon granted him—to be killed by a man renowned the world over.

  samadhi: A state of profound meditation restraining the senses and confining the mind to contemplation.

  Sampati: A vulture, the eldest son of Arun, the charioteer of the Sun, and the older brother of the vulture, Jatayu.

  Sanak; Sanandan; Sanatan; Sanatkumar: The four Kumars, the four mind-born sons of Brahma; declining to create progeny, they remained forever boys, and forever pure and innocent. Sanatkumar was the most prominent of them all. They are also known by their patronymic Vaidhatra (from Vidhatra, or Brahma).

  Sanjivani: In mythology, a life-giving herb that is said to restore the dead to life.

  sanyasi: One who has renounced the world, abandoning all attachment; according to Hindu scripture, sannyasa is the last and fourth stage of life for a man.

  Saptarishi: The seven Rishis, the mind-born sons of Brahma. They form, in astronomy, the constellation of the Great Bear.

  Sarasvati: ‘Watery’. In the Vedas, Sarasvati is primarily a river, as sacred as the Ganga is today. Though now lost, it was the third stream that met the Ganga and the Jamuna at their confluence at Prayag. Sarasvati was also a deity, the personification of the river, and as a river goddess she was the bestower of fertility and wealth. In the Brahmanas and the Mahabharata, she is recognized as Vach, the goddess of speech and eloquence. In later times, she is the goddess of learning, inventor of the Sanskrit language and the Devanagari script, and patron of the arts and sciences. She is also the wife of Brahma. She is represented as a beautiful and graceful young woman, white in colour, wearing a crescent on her brow. She is often shown as holding the vina in her hands. Her steed is the swan. In her form as the goddess of speech and eloquence, she is known as Bharati, ‘articulate’; Brahmi or Brahmani, ‘Brahma’s consort’; Gira, ‘speech’; Sharada, ‘one who bears a vina’; Vani or Bani, literally ‘sound, speech, language, voice’. As the consort of Brahma (Vidhatra), she is known as Vidhatri.

  Sarju; Sarayu: A sacred river, that flows past Ram’s city of Avadh; it is believed to rise from the sacred Manas lake.

  Sati: A daughter of Daksh, and Shiv’s first wife; she killed herself because of her father’s anger against Shiv. She was subsequently reincarnated as the goddess Parvati, the daughter of Himvat and Maina.

  Savan: The fifth month of the Hindu calendar, corresponding to July–August.

  ser: A measure of weight, roughly equivalent to a kilogram.

  Shachi: Indra’s consort.

  Shakti: Cosmic energy; it denotes the energy or active power of a deity personified as his consort, as Parvati of Shiv, Lakshmi of Vishnu, Sarasvati of Brahma, etc.

  Shatanand: Janak’s guru and family priest.

  Shatrughna: ‘Foe-destroyer’; he is Lakshman’s twin and the youngest of Ram’s three brothers. He is also called Ripusudan, Ripuhan, ‘destroyer of enemies; and Ripudaman or Ripudavan, ‘subduer of enemies’.

  shehnai: A wind instrument, somewhat like a clarinet; its sound is considered auspicious and it is especially played at weddings.

  Shesh; Sheshnag: Shesh, or Sheshnag, is the king of the Nagas or the serpent race. His kingdom is Patal, abode of the Nagas. He is represented as a serpent with a thousand heads; his coils form the couch upon which Vishnu lies, and his thousand hoods the canopy which shelter him whilst he sleeps during the intervals of creation. He sometimes bears the entire world upon one of his heads. He is also called Anant, ‘the endless’, and is regarded as the symbol of eternity.

  Shibi: Shibi was a pious and generous king, famed for his large-heartedness and his upholding of dharma. One day the gods decided to put him to the test. Agni took on the form of a dove, and Indra that of a hawk, and as the king sat in court one morning, the dove flew into his lap and nestled there. The hawk followed and claimed the dove as its rightful prey. The king refused to give up the dove, since it had sought shelter with him, but he also realized the legitimacy of the hawk’s demand. He offered the hawk anything he wanted in place of the dove, but the hawk would be satisfied with nothing except a piece of the king’s own flesh, equal in weight to the dove. So the king had a pair of scales brought, and placing the dove on one side, he began hacking off pieces of his own flesh, which he put on the other side. But no matter how much of his own flesh he cut off, the dove was always heavier. At last, he climbed on to the scales himself and would have cut off his own head, but the gods intervened, and Agni and Indra, appearing in their own forms, acknowledged his generosity and made him whole again.

  Shiv: Auspicious, propitious, fortunate; the Destroyer, the great and powerful third deity in the Hindu triad; he is described as the destructive power, but his powers and attributes are much wider. As the great god of dissolution, he is called Rudra or Mahakal; but in Hindu philosophy, dissolution is coupled with regeneration, so as Shiv or Shankar, he is the reproductive power that perpetually restores that which has been destroyed. He is thus also called Ishvar, and Mahadev, ‘the great god’. As the restorer, he is worshipped in the form of a linga or phallus, or as the linga combined with a yoni, the female reproductive organ representative of his Shakti, or female energy. He is also the supreme ascetic, the epitome of penance and abstract meditation through which unlimited powers are acquired, the highest spiritual knowledge is gained, and union with the Supreme Absolute achieved. In this form he is represented as a naked ascetic, with matted hair, his body smeared with ashes. He is also the lord of goblins and ghosts, and in this form he wears serpents wound around his neck and a necklace of skulls. He is a handsome man, fair-complexioned, with five faces and four arms, and is usually represented sitting upon a tiger skin in profound meditation. He has a third eye in the middle of his forehead, and surmounted by the crescent moon. His third eye, if opened, has great destructive power—it reduced Kamdev, the god of love, to ashes, and periodically destroys creation in the cycle of destruction and regeneration. His matted locks are coiled upon his head, and within it is held the River Ganga, which he caught and contained as she descended from heaven upon earth (and because of which he is called Gangadhar, ‘he who holds the Ganga’). He is often attired in the skin of a tiger, a deer, or an elephant. In his four hands he carries a deer, the bow Ajagav, a damru (small hour-glass–shaped drum) or the Khatwang (a club with a skull at the end), or a cord for binding offenders. He is usually accompanied by his bull, Nandi. His consort is the goddess Parvati. As lord of all creation, he is called Akhileshvar, and as lord of the universe he is called Vishvanath and Jagadish; as the Destroyer, he is also called Har. As lord of Mt Kailash, he is known as Girinath and Girish, ‘lord of the mountain’. The city of Kashi is sacred to him; thus he is also called Kashinath, ‘lord of Kashi’. As regent of the north-east quarter, he is called Ish or Ishan. For his action of reducing Kamdev, the god of love to ashes, he is known as Anangarati, ‘enemy of Anang (Kamdev)’; Kamari, ‘the foe or conqueror of Kam’; Kamripu, ‘the foe of Kam’. In his androgynous form he is known as Ardhanarishvar, ‘the god who is half a woman’. He has a bull (brish) on his banner (ketu), and is therefore also known as Brishketu. When vish or poison was thrown up amongst the treasures retrieved at the churning of the ocean, Shiv swallowed it and held it safely in his throat, which turned blue as a result; from this he is called Nilkanth, ‘blue-throated’ (See ocean, churning of). As the destroyer of the demon known as Tripurasur, he is also called Purari and Tripurari. An alternative explanation is that he destroyed the triple city known as Tripur, which belonged to a trio of demons collectively called Tripurasur. Since he bears the crescent moon on his brow, he is also called Shashibhushan, ‘one who has the moon as his ornament’ and Chandramauli, ‘the moon-crested one’. For the garland of skulls that he wears around his
neck, he is known as Kapali, ‘the one who wears a necklace of skulls’. He is also known as Ashutosh, ‘he who is quickly pleased’; Bhav, ‘existence’; Shambhu, ‘one who causes happiness’; Shankar, ‘one who causes tranquillity’ or ‘auspicious’; Mahesh or Mahadev, ‘the great god’; Sarv, ‘complete, entire, universal’; Sadashiv, ‘always happy or prosperous’.

  shivaling: A phallic representation of Shiv.

  Shringber; Shringberpur: The town of Shringber, it lay on the left bank of the Ganga. It was on the border of Koshal with Bhil country. The area around was inhabited by the Nishad tribe; their chief was Guha. The town has been identified with modern Singraur.

  Shringi: ‘The deer-horned’; a hermit, and son of the sage Vibhandaka. Shringi or Rishyashringa as he was called, performed the fire-sacrifice that resulted in the birth of Ram and his brothers. One version of his story says that his mother was a doe, and he was therefore born with antlers; another version says that his mother was the apsara, Urvashi, who abandoned her infant son and his father, her lover, after the child’s birth. Rishyashringa was brought up by his father in the forest, in complete isolation from all other human beings. He was endowed with magical and mystical powers. Once, when the kingdom of Anga was struck by intense drought, its king, Lomapad, was told that he must hold a sacrifice conducted by a priest who was perfectly chaste. The only such priest that could be found was Rishyashringa, who had grown up with no knowledge of women at all. He was persuaded to come to Anga and perform the sacrifice, which successfully ended the drought in Anga. Rishyashringa then married Shanta, the daughter of Lomapad. (Shanta was actually the adopted daughter of Lomapad; her real father was King Dasharath.)

  Shrutakirti: Sita’s cousin, the younger daughter of Janak’s younger brother Kushadhvaj (Kushaketu); she was married to Shatrughna.