On this page
At that very time the king called his dear wives, and Kausalya and the rest came to where he was. Agni had appeared at the rite with the offering in his hand. He had told the king to divide it and make a share for each as was fitting, and become invisible. The voice from the sky had promised a birth in the line of the sun, in this house, as four brothers. The day was still to come. In the Ramcharitmanas, Rama‘s appearing comes after this household scene, a king dividing an offering among his queens.
From the shares the story moves to a noon in which everything is favorable, and then past it. A form with four arms before a mother, and the plea at which it becomes a crying infant. A father who hears of the birth and steadies his wit. A city of flags whose lanes are mired with musk. A day a month long, with the sun standing still with his chariot. Two visitors in the lanes whom no one knew, one of them the teller of this story. And a guru who gives four names.
Ayodhya at the hour of the birth
The main figures in this episode
- Kausalya who receives half the offering from the king. On her hand, with Kaikeyi’s, the king places Sumitra’s share before he gives it. She is the one before whom the Lord appears with four arms. She praises him with joined hands. She calls it a laughable thing that one in whose every hair the Vedas set hosts of universes dwelt within her. She asks him to leave that form and do a child’s play.
- Dasharatha who divides the offering by halves among three queens. He hears of his son’s birth as if merged in the bliss of Brahman. He wishes to rise and steadies his wit. He thinks, in words the commentary sets inside his mind, that the Lord whose name, once heard, brings good has come to his house. He calls for music and sends for his guru. He performs the rites and gives gifts to everyone. When the days have passed he asks the sage for the names he has kept in his thought.
- Kaikeyi and Sumitra who receive the later shares, Kaikeyi one part of the second half and Sumitra the last part. In two pieces placed first on the hands of Kausalya and Kaikeyi. They both bear beautiful sons too.
- Rama, Bharata, Shatrughna, and Lakshmana the four the voice promised: the one who appears to Kausalya with four arms and becomes an infant at her word. The sons of Kaikeyi and Sumitra. They are blessed by all with long life, and named at the naming rite by the guru. Each name is given with words on the one who bears it.
- Vasishtha the guru, who comes with the brahmins to the king’s gate at the summons and sees the matchless child. Sent for again when the time for the naming comes, he gives four names according to his own wit.
- Shiva and Kakabhushundi the teller and his companion, the two of them together in human form, known to no one, wandering the lanes swollen with bliss and love. Shiva tells this to Parvati as a concealment of his own.
- Parvati who listens, and whose wit Shiva calls very firm when he tells her what he hid.
The shares of the offering, and the happiness of waiting
The king gave half of the offering to Kausalya. He made the other half into two parts, and one of those he gave to Kaikeyi. What remained he made into two parts again. Those he placed on the hands of Kausalya and Kaikeyi and gave to Sumitra, pleasing their minds. The commentary reads the placing on their hands as the taking of their consent. The offering is the one Agni had appeared with, rice cooked in milk in the commentary’s naming. The shares go by halves: Kausalya has half of the whole, Kaikeyi a quarter, and Sumitra the last quarter. It is in two pieces that rested first on the other queens’ hands.
In this way all the wives were with child, glad at heart, and their happiness was great. From the day the Lord came into the womb, happiness and wealth spread over all the worlds. The commentary adds that he came there by his lila alone. In the palace all the queens shone, mines of beauty, good conduct, and splendor. Some time went by in happiness, and the occasion came in which the Lord was to appear.
A noon in which everything is favorable
The conjunction, the ascendant, the planets, the weekday, and the lunar day all became favorable. Everything that moves and everything that stands still filled with joy. Rama’s birth, the doha says, is the root of happiness.
It was the ninth day of the bright fortnight, in the holy month the verse calls the month of honey and the commentary names Chaitra. The hour was Abhijit, the Lord’s favorite. The time was midday, with neither much cold nor heat: a holy time that gave rest to the worlds. A cool, slow, fragrant wind blew. The gods were glad and the saints’ minds were eager. The forests were in flower, the ranges of mountains were jeweled, and every river ran a stream of nectar.
When Brahma knew that the occasion had come, all the gods set out in decked chariots of the sky. The clear sky was crowded with their hosts. Bands of gandharvas, the singers of heaven, sang the Lord’s virtues. Flowers fell from joined hands, and kettledrums sounded in the sky. Nagas, sages, and gods praised him and brought, in many ways, each his own service, which the commentary reads as gifts. The hosts of gods made their prayer and reached their own homes. The Lord appeared, the dwelling of the world, the rest of all the worlds.
A wondrous form before the mother
The Lord appeared, kind to the humble, Kausalya’s well-wisher. The mother was glad, considering his wondrous form, a form that steals the minds of sages. It delighted the eyes: the body dark as a rain cloud, his own weapons in four arms. Ornaments and a garland of forest flowers, and large eyes, an ocean of beauty.
She joined her two hands and spoke. “How shall I praise you, endless one? The Vedas and the Puranas say that you are beyond maya, beyond the qualities, beyond knowledge, and without measure. The ocean of compassion and happiness, the home of all virtues, whom the Vedas and the saints sing. He, for my good, the lover of his people, has appeared, the husband of Lakshmi.”
“The Vedas say that in each and every hair stand hosts of universes made by maya. That such a one dwelt within me is a laughable thing, and at the hearing of it the wit of the steady does not stay firm.” The dwelling is in her womb, as the commentary reads it. When this knowledge arose, the Lord smiled. He wishes to do deeds of many kinds. Telling her a handsome story, he made the mother understand, in such a way that she would gain the love of a son. The commentary reads the story as that of her former birth, and the love as a mother’s tenderness for her child.
The mother spoke again, and that wit of hers had moved. “Leave this form, child, and do the child’s play that is so dear in its nature. This happiness is supreme and matchless.” Hearing her words, the king of the gods became a child and set up a cry. The stanza ends on a line the commentary gives to Tulsidas himself. Those who sing this deed reach the state of the Lord and do not fall into the well of the world.
For brahmins, cows, gods, and saints he took a human avatar. His body was made by his own will. He is beyond maya, the qualities, and what the commentary reads as the senses.
The child’s cry, and the father’s joy
Hearing the infant’s crying, a very dear sound, all the queens came in haste. The maids ran glad this way and that, and all the people of the city were sunk in joy. Dasharatha heard of his son’s birth with his ears and was as if merged in the bliss of Brahman. Supreme love was in his mind and his body thrilled. He wished to rise, and he steadied his wit. In the commentary’s reading, joy had made his wit restless and love had made his body slack. He steadied the one and gathered up the other.
The next line is the king’s, in the first person. The commentary sets it inside his mind: “He whose name, once heard, brings good, that same Lord has come to my house.” His mind filled with supreme bliss, and he called the players and said, “Play the instruments.” A summons went to the guru Vasishtha, and he came to the king’s gate with the brahmins. They went and saw the matchless child, a mass of beauty whose virtues could not be told to the end.
The king performed the nandimukha shraddha, the rite for the ancestors that opens a glad occasion, and all the rites of birth. He gave the brahmins gold, cows, clothes, and jewels.
A festival shared from the gate to the lanes
Flags, pennants, and arches covered the city. Flowers rained from the sky, and everyone was sunk in the bliss of Brahman. The women set out in troop after troop. They rose and ran as they were, in their natural adornment. With golden pitchers and with trays filled with auspicious things they entered the king’s gate singing. They did the arati, waved their gifts over the child, and fell again and again at his feet. The bards, the minstrels, the panegyrists, and the singers sang Rama’s holy virtues.
The king gave everything he had to everyone, and whoever received it did not keep it either. In the middle of every lane a mire of musk, sandal, and saffron was churned up. In house after house the glad music of congratulation played, and the root of beauty had appeared. The men and women of the city, in crowds, were glad everywhere. Kaikeyi and Sumitra, both of them, also bore beautiful sons.
Ayodhya’s evening, and the sun that stood still
Ayodhya shone in this way. It was as if night had come to meet the Lord, and, seeing the sun, had grown shy in her mind, and even so, thinking it over, had become evening. The thick smoke of aloeswood incense was as if the darkness, and the colored powder flying in the air as if the redness. The heaps of jewels in the houses were as if stars, and the finial on the king’s palace the fine moon. The chant of the Vedas in the palace, in very soft voices, was as if the chatter of birds steeped in the hour. Seeing this spectacle the sun was lost in it, and the commentary says he forgot his course. A month went by, and he did not know it was going.
The day became a month long. No one knew the secret. The sun stood still with his chariot, and how could night come? This secret no one knew. The sun went on, singing of virtues the commentary names as Rama’s. Seeing the great festival, gods, sages, and nagas went to their homes, praising their own fortune. The night of the likeness had grown shy at the sight of the sun, and the sun was lost at the sight of the city.
Two visitors whom no one knew
Shiva turns to his listener. “One more thing I tell you, of my own concealment. Listen, Parvati. Your wit is very firm. Kakabhushundi and I, the two of us together, in human form, and no one knew us.” The commentary adds that they were there, and reads the human form as the reason no one knew them. Swollen with supreme bliss and the happiness of love, the two of them wandered the lanes with minds immersed and forgetful. The commentary says it was all sense of body and mind that they forgot. “This fine deed,” Shiva says, “only he knows on whom Rama’s grace is.”
The teller of the story has put himself inside it, and his companion with him, in the lanes where the mire of musk, sandal, and saffron was churned up.
At that occasion, whoever came in whatever way, the king gave him what pleased his mind: elephants, chariots, horses, gold, cows, diamonds, and clothes of many kinds. He satisfied the minds of all, and everywhere they gave their blessing: may all the sons, the lords of Tulsidas, live long. In the commentary’s reading the whole line is the blessing, with the poet’s own name inside it, and the sons are the four princes.
Four names from the guru’s mouth
Some days went by in this way. Day and night went without being noticed. Knowing that the occasion for the naming rite had come, the king sent for the wise sage. He worshiped him and spoke. “Give the names, sage, that you have considered and kept.” The sage answered. “These have many matchless names, king. I will tell them according to my own wit.”
“He who is the ocean of bliss and the mass of happiness, from a drop of whom the three worlds are made happy. His name is Rama, the home of happiness. He gives rest to all the worlds. He who bears and nourishes the world, his name will be Bharata. He at whose remembrance the enemy perishes, his is the name Shatrughna, made known by the Vedas.” And the guru Vasishtha gave the one who is the home of good marks, dear to Rama and the support of all the world, the noble name Lakshmana.
The first name comes with rest for all the worlds. That word has stood in this episode twice before: the hour of the birth was a holy time that gave rest to the worlds. The one who appeared was the rest of all the worlds. The sage the king sent for is named in the doha as the guru Vasishtha. He had come to the gate with the brahmins on the day of the birth.
One cry, and the happiness of all the worlds
The mother asked for a child’s play and was answered with a cry. The queens heard it and came in haste, the maids ran, and the city sank into joy. The father, hearing of the birth, wished to rise and steadied his wit. The form she had considered held its own weapons in four arms. She had praised it with joined hands before she asked for the play, a happiness she named supreme and matchless.
The happiness ran outward before the cry and after it. From the day the Lord came into the womb, happiness and wealth spread over all the worlds. The holy time of the birth gave rest to the worlds. The gods filled the sky and went home. The women ran to the gate as they were, the king gave everything, the receivers did not keep it either. And the sun, lost at the sight of the city, did not know a month going by. Two of those in the lanes were the teller of this story and his companion, in human form.
The voice from the sky had promised four brothers, and four names are given. The offering divided among three queens stands at the start. At the end there are four sons, blessed by all with long life and named by Vasishtha.
The same story, elsewhere: Valmiki’s Ramayana, chapter 1: The Sacrifice for Sons, and the Birth of Rama.
Source: the Gita Press edition of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, Balkand, doha 190 to 197, read with Hanuman Prasad Poddar’s Hindi commentary.