Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

Upon Rama’s forehead they place two lines of gorocanā in an upright mark.
The yellow radiance seems like lightning touching the summit of a golden mountain.
One companion arranges Sita’s hair and beautifully weaves the central parting.
Strings of pearls meet in the middle, extending from ear to crown.
Sita Ju’s forehead ornament rises and reaches toward both ears,
fashioned like a golden band and set with the nine gems.
A lunar pendant above that ornament inclines toward Rama’s side.
Innumerable suns and moons in the three worlds find no comparison with it.
Rama’s crown has seven peaks, with one rising in the centre;
it is set with jewels, and even ten million suns and moons together cannot equal it.
Rama’s curling locks descend toward his cheeks,
like greedy bees drinking nectar at dawn from lotuses.

Sita’s vermilion, forehead ornament, and beauty-mark
are like two banners upon a golden peak—the second-day moon and Venus.
Her matchless beauty-mark is joined to ornaments extending toward the ears,
like a golden tortoise-child resting upon the moon’s silken heart.
Rama’s swaying earrings are fashioned in the form of sea-monsters,
like Love’s swing hanging from a dark tamāla tree.
Their brilliance surpasses millions of suns, yet their coolness exceeds millions of moons;
the Daughter of Janaka’s own radiance possesses that same splendour and coolness.

Exquisite collyrium adorns Sita’s eyes,
like dark lines of anger drawn within red lotuses.
The companion applies collyrium to both of Shyama’s eyes
in precisely the same manner as she applied it to the Daughter of Janaka.
A nose-ring sways above the red lips of Sita’s face,
like a child of the moon moving upon the leaf of a crimson lotus.
Rama’s lovely bulāq pendant and the beauty-spot upon his chin
seem to arrest all beauty and stamp it there with a seal.
The companion places a blue beauty-spot upon Sita Ju’s chin,
like a spell of enchantment installed to hold Rama’s mind captive.