Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

“Seeing your beauty, Sita becomes helpless and offers even the happiness of her own being;
she gazes eagerly upon you and looks at nothing else here or there.
You alone, Queen Sita, are the accomplished treasury of happiness;
your honoured beauty turns his eyes into fish swimming in the waters of rasa.
I offer myself to your good fortune, youthful Daughter of Janaka;
the beloved boy even longs for the face of your humblest maidservant.
‘Beloved, I offer you everything—you have stolen my mind!’
Yet without him, companion, nothing whatsoever pleases Sita.
Having made him forget himself with love’s powerful intoxicating wine,
you bind him through your virtues and still remain dear to his mind.
One bound at a single place may become helpless and poor;
but when every limb of the beloved boy is bound, how could he not be subject?
Your speech binds his living tongue and the strength of your heart binds his heart;
companion, the touch of Jānaki’s skin and the rasa of her form bind both his eyes.”

Sita’s beauty

Are the nails upon your crimson feet the crowns of youthful goddesses?
The beloved boy’s red, enamoured eyes have come to dwell there.
Beholding the lovely red lac upon your feet, the companion is filled with passion;
the mind attains the rasa of heart-enchanting love by clinging to them.
Even singers lose their rhythm when your anklets ring at the touch of your steps;
their sound exquisitely recites a mantra that steals the Beloved’s heart.
Are your two thighs, O Daughter of Janaka, auspicious plantain pillars,
lovely supports for the palace of your Beloved’s love?
Heavy hips and lion-slender waist meet beneath a garment flowing like the Gautami;
sages in the form of girdle bells bow their immortal minds there.
Is your deep navel a bee within the lotus of affection?
The Beloved’s mind is submerged within it and does not emerge even a little.
Your lovely twin breasts shine upon your breast,
casting new snares of affection and forming a treasure of your Beloved’s happiness—