Chapter Seven: Literature of the Rasika Tradition
Until the complete Mādhurya-keli-kādambinī is recovered, we must remain content with these five verses. So much for that subject.
9. Rāmaliṅgāmṛta
The Rāmaliṅgāmṛta was composed in 1608 CE by a Banaras-based poet named Advaita. Its manuscript is preserved in London.1
The opening canto contains the gods’ prayer that Vishnu take an avatāra. The second relates the births of Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughna; the drinking of their mothers’ milk; childhood play in the forest; their education and sacred-thread ceremony; and Rama and Lakshmana’s departure with Vishvamitra.
In the third canto Rama and Lakshmana reach Sita’s svayaṃvara with Vishvamitra. Sita’s companions describe Rama’s beauty, and Rama breaks the bow. The fourth canto presents Sita’s svayaṃvara. The condition of the women in their eagerness to see Rama may be gathered from this śārdūla verse:
One woman, her heart thrilled by the auspicious cries, rushed from her house surrounded by companions. In her haste she put on all her ornaments in disorder. Intoxicated by the rasa born from the lotus faces of Sita and Rama, she stood high in the doorway, a garland of jasmine in her hair, while her comb wandered over the pair of her breasts.
In this same canto Lakshmi tells Sita the mystery of the Rama avatāra. The fifth and sixth cantos describe Rama’s departure for the forest, his residence at Panchavati, and his alliance with the monkeys. The seventh relates Rama’s meeting with Vibhishana, and the eighth the war in Lanka. The ninth treats the slaying of Ravana and Mahiravana. The tenth describes the glory of Rama’s name and Ravana’s vision of Rama’s form everywhere.
The eleventh canto contains Ravana’s death and Vibhishana’s consecration; the twelfth, Rama’s royal consecration. The thirteenth describes Rama and Sita’s intimate union at considerable length and mentions their morning adornment, meals, repose, and loving play. The fourteenth relates the birth and education of Lava and Kusha in Valmiki’s ashram, followed by Rama’s return to Ayodhya with Sita, Lava, and Kusha.
The sixteenth canto describes Rama’s worship of Sri Ranga, and the seventeenth Rama’s aśvamedha, at which the gods arrive and praise Rama and Sita. Here the Divine Couple depart for the transcendent realm together with the whole society of Ayodhya. At the end, the Advaita-mañjarī explains the jīva, Brahman, Ishvara, and Maya. The eighteenth canto sets out the method of Rama worship and teaches the identity of Rama with Shiva and of Rama with Krishna.2
It deserves notice that the poet Advaita was a contemporary of Goswami Tulsidas, and that the narratives of the Rāmaliṅgāmṛta and the Rāmacaritamānasa display very extensive similarities.