Srimad Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa | Bāla Kāṇḍa ~ Sarga 73 of 77

“Oh, lord of the land, in Ayodhya I have heard that you went to Mithila along with your sons for their marriages, and wishing to see my sister’s son Bharata I promptly travelled here…” Thus Yudhaajit told Dasharatha. [1-73-5, 6a]

Is this entry of this maternal uncle of Bharata a forced one or does this have any bearing on the flow of epic… is a doubt, though not a question. Further he is saying ‘my sister’s son’ i.e., Bharata alone, instead of ‘all my nephews…’ Whether this episode has a bearing on future events or not, one maama is entered in Indian epics, like this one and Shakuni maama in Maha Bharata.

Rama arrived at his father together with all of his brothers, keeping sage Vashishta and other eminent-saint ahead of them, on an opportune and appropriate hour called ‘Victory…’ and all the bridegrooms are adorned with all kinds of jewellery appropriate for the wedding time, and all have performed the auspicious ceremony for marriage-thread, conducted prior to the marriage and, all have thread-bands tied around their wrists, as they all have performed an auspicious ceremony antecedent to marriage ceremony. [1-73-9, 10a]

The ceremony for the marriage thread, the sacred thread of marriage for knotting as a necklace of the bride, mangala suutra is nowadays mixed up with gauri puuja, and this gauri puuja took precedence of that ceremony, because gauri puuja, took its roots in the auxiliary Ramayana-s, where Seetha is said to have gone to Goddess Parvati’s temple, prior to her marriage, to perform gauri puuja, pledging herself to Rama. The thread bands tied at the wrists of both the bride and bridegroom is as per wedding time vows, to bring them under the pledge of marriage, until its consummation. Indian marriages are time-oriented and every function has to happen on the appointed hour. Hence, the arrival of bridegrooms is also on an opportune hour, which astrologically brings forth success of that event. But some say that this auspicious hour Vijaya occurs in the early part of the day, where this marriage is occurring in the later part of day, hence this time is to be reckoned as one that acquires some victory later in the epic.

Brides are not the lone category of people destined to wear jewellery. But bridegrooms are also asked to wear golden ornaments, at least one, on such occasions. The metal gold is said to contain some effect by which a man or a woman will be benefited, health wise: mR^itaa dur luptam madhumat suvarNam dhanam jananam ruNam daarayiSunam… after all gold is gold.

Then that king from Videha bloodline, Janaka, said in this way to Vashishta, “Oh, the knower of punctilios, oh, Brahma-sage, oh, masterly sage, along with other sages you make happen all of the marriage ceremonies of Rama, the rejoicer of the world…” Thus Janaka spoke to Vashishta. [1-73-18, 19a].

Then that king Janaka led forth Seetha, who by now is decorated with every variety of bridal jewellery, and on positioning her en face Raghava in the presence of Altar of Fire, then Janaka addressed Rama who is the enhancer of his mother Kausalya’s rejoice. [1-73-25, 26a]

By the way, where is this Kausalya? Does Rama enrich her happiness without bringing her to his marriage? We have not heard of her or of other queens or hosts of his other wives, for the last three, four days. Has she come, at all? – Yes, she has come and she is physically present – is the argument of some, basing on Valmiki’s style of unrecorded accounts on trivial, or matter of fact scenes. They are implied and implicit. Dasharatha has performed some cow donations, religious functions etc., which he is not supposed to do without his wife at his side. These ladies are implicitly included in the first verse of sixty-ninth chapter: sa upaadhyaayaH sa baandhavaH ‘with, teachers, with relatives…’ and Dasharatha has no near relatives, not exactly relatives, but family, other than his queens and sons. So, they all are in ‘et cetera… and others’ cadre at present. Other way round, it is said in Kshatriya-s only male members will go and get the bride, which has no reasonable or tenable import, as far as marriages are concerned, and where every marriage concerns only with womenfolk and their panoply.

Seetha is said to have all bridal jewellery, which is not odd or particular to this corner of globe. But it is oddish and exotic jewellery if the bride is from well-to-do family or from royal family. Though not all, some of the jewellery items that are almost extinct now are listed here. siimanta pralamba a pendant clipped at back of head, dangle through the central parting of head-hair, onto the crown of head, with nine-gem-stud locket; shiroja suuci diamond studded hair pins on either side of head above ears; naasa aabharanam a round nasal ring; naasa bhuSaNam single or a pair of nine-gems studded nasal ornament; karNa aabharaNa, taaTanka, karNika various kinds of earrings with dangling cups, to which trinket bells dangle; shata yaSTika hundred stringed pearl necklace; anukanThii, muktaavalii, graiveyikam and many other kinds of necklaces; mekhala three finger width golden cincture, studded with nine-gems, and with fine golden chains dangling like festoons; saptakii seven stringed girdle string, where the strings dangle onto hip, with expanding festoons; keyuuram bicep-lets; kankaNam bracelets and bangles from wrist halfway up forearm; maNi manjiira, tulaa koTi, paada angada ankle-let with kinkiNii trinket bell-globules; cuuDaa maNi a circular jewel at bun of hair from which a gold sheet dangles till the end of braid, on which all zodiac signs are engraved. At the top, on the left and right of this cuuDaa maNi ornaments in the shape of sun and moon are pinned into jhair, and at the end of braid three / five gold cups studded with hair like strands upa kaca will be dangling. This set of braid’s ornamentation is said to receive the solar energy to whole of the spine. So goes on and on the list of ornaments, to the delight of the girl wearing them and to the delight of the goldsmith making them.

Here there are five Raghava-s and only one kausalya aananda vardhana i.e., Rama. Then poet should have simply said ‘Rama’ instead of ‘Raghava’ but there are many Rama-s, Parashu Rama, and Bala Rama and suchlike, and on such calling as ‘Rama…’ Parashu Rama, who is scheduled to enter after marriage, may perhaps enter now, in a faux pas. Then the poet should have said dasharatha aatmajam . Then, who will be that single soul from among the four boys of Dasharatha to come forward. And if all the four hear the calling, as ‘oh, Raghava’ all will reply in chorus “ok, it is I…” then what will happen? Avoiding all these irksome situations, the poet gave this stage-direction to Janaka that he should aim at the son of Kausalya, with a subtext, ‘you are mothered by some human female, whereas my daughter is motherless, rather un-mothered, a yoni ja non-foetal is her origination, hence it is apt of you to not to belittle her, anytime and anywhere… and you have to keep faith with her, since she outshines in outperforming your task in this so-called incarnation…’