The King's Court Fills with Unknowing Joy
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 23
Doha 23 · Movement 2 of 2
Keep this contemplation
Preserve, print, or share
Men and women across the city prepare auspicious celebrations. People enter and leave the palace, carrying instructions, gifts, vessels, flowers, and news.
Dasharatha's court grows crowded with joyful visitors. Public movement gives the coronation the rhythm of something already beginning.
No one within the throng knows what has been arranged in Kaikeyi's chamber. The doha holds both realities without joining them: an open court filled with hope and a closed room preparing its ruin. Every face is turned toward tomorrow. The people move through light while calamity waits behind an interior door.
The court overflows with celebration, while one closed chamber gathers the night around it.
Read the passage from the Manas
प्रमुदित पुर नर नारि। सब सजहिं सुमंगलचार। एक प्रबिसहिं एक निर्गमहिं भीर भूप दरबार।।23।।
The men and women of the city were overjoyed, all preparing auspicious celebrations. Some entered and some departed; the king's court was thronged with people.