Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

When Rama returns after excursions through the gardens and other places, his beloved sits with her companions at a latticed palace window called a gavākṣa and gazes upon the lotus of his face.

Thus rightly disposed and filled with the bliss of love, the practitioner should contemplate within the mind the loving recreation of Sita and Rama, an ocean of the nectar-rasa of prema.

The sixteen adornments

She bathes, places a pearl at the tip of her nose, and wears a blue silk sari with a lovely glittering border woven of golden thread. Her divine braid is dressed and her limbs suffused with fragrant cosmetic paste.

A jeweled golden girdle with tiny bells and its lovely cord beautify the upper edge of her lower garment. She is adorned with jeweled necklaces, earrings, and the other ornaments. She holds a lotus in her lotus hand and accepts betel.

She places a dot of vermilion upon the site of the tilaka and a minute point of musk upon her chin, making it exceedingly lovely. Collyrium colours her lotus eyes, and divine jeweled ornaments such as bangles beautify her lotus hands.

Red lac exquisitely adorns her lotus feet, which are further graced by lovely anklets and other ringing ornaments. One should meditate within the heart-lotus upon Sri Jānaki, beloved of Rama, Lord of all, endowed in this way with the sixteen adornments.