Awadhi Under Shiva's Seal
Bala Kanda, Doha 15
Doha 15 · Movement 2 of 2
Keep this contemplation
Preserve, print, or share
Tulsidas places every claim he has made about the power of common speech beneath the judgment of Shiva and Gauri. Prestige cannot certify the poem. Argument cannot make its promise true.
He asks that their grace rest upon him in dream and in waking, through the hidden movements of mind and the clear hours of action. If that blessing is real, then the vernacular words will bear the sacred force he has proclaimed for them.
The prayer closes like a seal pressed into warm wax. Awadhi lies upon the page, awaiting the mark of Kailash.
Shiva's blessing touches the common tongue, and the seal becomes unbreakable.
Read the passage from the Manas
सपनेहुँ साचेहुँ मोहि पर जौं हर गौरि पसाउ। तौ फुर होउ जो कहेउँ सब भाषा भनिति प्रभाउ।।15।।
If the grace of Shiva and Gauri truly rests upon me, whether in dream or in waking, then may all I have said about the power of this vernacular composition come to pass.