Chapter Seven: Literature of the Rasika Tradition

More than this: Sri Krishna could attract women alone, whereas such was the quality of Rama’s beauty and sweetness that he caused even men—and among them sages wholly absorbed in austerity—to desire union with him. This is the superiority of the Rama avatāra.¹

From the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Madhuracharya establishes Bhagavan Rama precisely in his form as the enjoyer of the rāsa.² Those who continually invoke Rama’s vow of monogamy and his identity as the Supreme Person of maryādā are called by Madhuracharya “servants of social and Vedic convention.” He says they cannot understand this rasa; they remain bound within their own limits.

Here Madhuracharya cites a statement of Valmiki: sukhaiśvarya-rasa-jñaḥ san kāminī-kāma-vardhanaḥ—“Sri Ramachandra knows the rasa of bliss and sovereignty and increases the longing of women in love.”

Madhuracharya names many groves in Ayodhya where Ramachandra sports with Sita: Kamada, Keli, Kalhara, Kala, Kaushika, Kaumuda, Kaumbha, Kausheya, Kalika, Talika, Siddha, Sadhya, Susiddha, Dirgha, Shoka, Saurabha, Jambhava, Shrisadana, Barhaspatya, Vasishtha, Shandilya, Katyayana, Ganeshvara, and others.

Sita has thousands of companions, with names such as Chandra, Chandrakala, Chandi, and Chandrakanta. Those equal to Sita in beauty, character, and age are called sakhīs; those junior to her are called maidservants. They form one hundred principal companies, each named for its leading companion. Some are the Shanta company, Krishna company, Dhriti company, Prakriti company, Jnana company, Kantida company, Visharada company, Budha company, Bhavavetri company, and others.

The question of Ramachandra’s vow of one wife is also extremely important, and Madhuracharya draws attention to it at several points. Here the problem is resolved very beautifully. Adi Shakti Sri Jānaki gives her father, Sri Janaka, an exceptionally secret meditation. She says that in Purushottama Sri Rama she herself is the power whose nature is rasa:

Know me as the power whose nature is rasa within Purushottama. Sri Rama, the Great God beyond being and nonbeing, is its enjoyer. His body is stirred by the movement of my sidelong glance, while the supreme radiance of my own form arises from Raghava’s gaze. From the union of the two comes the Supreme together with Brahman—the ultimate bliss by which the universe is made happy.³