Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

Above the anklets, goḍharā ornaments adorn Jānaki and her Beloved.
Pure gold and carefully selected jewels fashion matching ornaments for Sita.
The skilful companion Shyama adorns their feet.
Tell me: on beholding Rama’s lady, who would not fall under her control?

Sita’s graceful ornament is arranged in strands of five, three, and one,
with pearls set into golden casings and strings of gems woven through it.
Jānaki’s waist glitters above the blue cloth,
like the wives of the Seven Sages rising upon a dark cloud.
Three rows of tiny bells encircle Ramachandra’s waist,
like lightning at dawn between dark-blue mountain peaks.
Three dense rows of girdle-bells surround Jānaki’s waist,
like the garland of Venus threaded upon a cord of lightning.
Beneath the bells, the waist-cords upon both possess such beauty:
they are nets of lightning beneath golden creeper and dark tamāla tree.
The companions lovingly fashion paired waist-cords for darling and Beloved.
Ramcharan says: the beauty of their adornment has itself become a jewelled girdle.

Sri Rama’s adornment

Upon Sri Rama Ju’s neck shines an extraordinary necklace of great elephant-pearls.
A triangular Kaustubha gleams upon his breast, dense with the light of ten million suns and moons.
Beneath the Kaustubha lies an excellent cluster of guñjā, gold, jewels, and wondrous gems.
A jewelled pendant upon his heart emits the light of a hundred million suns.
Below the navel hangs a captivating excellent garland of gold and coral.
Beneath the girdle, the Vaijayanti garland shines with five-coloured jewels.
Dark blue, crimson, white, and yellow bands glitter there.
A forest garland fashioned for his adornment descends from his neck to his feet like sun and moon.
Golden, purified ornaments and flower-shaped jewels are threaded and set upon his hands.
Against the fresh blue cloud appear stars, the nine planets, lightning, moon, and many suns.

The companions adorn Sita and Rama

One companion places beautiful vermilion in the parting of Sita’s hair,
as though lighting a divine lamp upon the summit of a stainless moon.