Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

Like a wish-fulfilling vine she sways in matchless beauty beside her beloved dark tamala tree.
The body of Videha’s daughter blazes with light, as though it were a shining lamp in the mansion of beauty and affection.

Description of the Sari

Fine, colourful, and ever new, it is like a cloud of adornment raining down beauty.
Its border is worked with golden thread, beautifully revealing the splendour of dark Rama.
Dearer still because, filled with love, it forever touches the lady’s limbs.
How can Rasrangmani describe the way Sita’s sari flows with rasa upon her body?

Description of the Lotus Feet

Deeply red and succulent, they adorn the heart and destroy the sorrow and faults of servants.
Sharada, the Daughter of the Ocean, and Girija worship them daily, their love made manifest.
The sound of their anklets is the root of the Veda, while the light of their nails illumines the world as the Supreme Brahman.
The lotus feet of Rama’s beloved dwell within Rasrangmani’s lotus heart.

The toes upon Rama’s beloved’s lotus feet bear the burden of every lovely auspiciousness.
Each destroys the servants’ pain, while the abundant radiance of the nails bears their great good fortune.
Filled with luminous lines, says Rasrangmani, they remove the darkness born of delusion.
More numerous in splendour than the stars of heaven, they are boats that carry the humble across.

The ten of them shine with the essence of the ten Upanishads and the radiance of the ten avatāras.
Or they are splendid jewels set upon the brows of the ten guardians of the directions.
Each is one form of light joined to her feet, arranging the happiness of tenfold devotion.
Thus, says Rasrangmani, all ten lovely nails upon Sita’s feet shine in majesty.

The Monsoon

Upon the bank of the Sarayu, Sita and Raghuraj swing on an exquisitely fashioned swing, O companion.
The clouds rain softly, pattering and pattering; Sita’s sari and her beloved’s shawl grow wet, and droplets shine upon their faces, O companion.
Taking up the edge of their garments, Raghubar and his chief queen laugh as they wipe the water from one another, while the entire assembly looks on in delight, O companion.
The companions sing of the lovely monsoon; hearing them, says Rasrangmani, every heart is captivated and today overflows with bliss, O companion.