The River of Sita's Swayamvara
Bala Kanda, Chaupai 41
Doha 41 · Movement 1 of 2
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The story of Sita's swayamvara enters the Manas as a splendid river. Questions become boats upon it, and wise answers the skilled boatman carrying assemblies of travellers from uncertainty toward understanding. Along the banks, listeners repeat the account to one another until the road itself fills with pilgrims.
Suddenly the current grows violent with Parashurama's anger. Against that dangerous force, Ram's noble words stand as a firmly built ghat where agitation can break without flooding the shore. Then the weddings of Ram and his brothers surge through the river as a joyful tide. Those who tell and hear enter the water with thrilled bodies and delighted minds.
Farther downstream, every auspicious preparation gathers for Ram's coronation like a festival at the confluence. Yet green scum begins to spread upon the surface, the crooked counsel that takes hold of Kaikeyi. Beneath it waits the calamity that will turn palace rejoicing toward exile.
Festival lamps tremble on the water while Kaikeyi's dark moss gathers beneath them.
Read the passage from the Manas
AI-created devotional illustration · Chaupai 41
Empty boats beside well-built river steps evoke thoughtful questions and Rama’s excellent words.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 65, 66 · printed pages 63, 64. Reader passage: bala-kanda-chaupai-041. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Sita swayamvara story compared to river beauty, thoughtful questions to boats, wise answers to skilled boatmen
- Parashurama anger compared to fierce current, Rama excellent words to well-built ghats; wedding joy to swelling water
Artistic choices
- Select question-boats and well-built ghats comparisons; no literal Sita wedding or boatman episode
- Two empty boats, oars, mooring rope, carved stone steps and pillars, hills, sunset, flowers and colours imagined; no actual geographic site
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
सीय स्वयंबर कथा सुहाई। सरित सुहावनि सो छबि छाई।। नदी नाव पटु प्रस्न अनेका। केवट कुसल उतर सबिबेका।। सुनि अनुकथन परस्पर होई। पथिक समाज सोह सरि सोई।। घोर धार भृगुनाथ रिसानी। घाट सुबद्ध राम बर बानी।। सानुज राम बिबाह उछाहू। सो सुभ उमग सुखद सब काहू।। कहत सुनत हरषहिं पुलकाहीं। ते सुकृती मन मुदित नहाहीं।। राम तिलक हित मंगल साजा। परब जोग जनु जुरे समाजा।। काई कुमति केकई केरी। परी जासु फल बिपति घनेरी।।
The beautiful story of Sita's swayamvara is a charming river whose loveliness pervades all. The many skillful questions raised in the dialogues are the boats upon this river. The expert boatman is that one devoted servant who ferries listeners safely across.