The Feast That Makes the Gods Linger
Bala Kanda, Chhand 13
Doha 99 · Movement 2 of 3
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Beautiful women sing in sweet voices, offering clever insults shaped entirely from affection. The gods listen while they eat, and delight stretches the feast far beyond its ordinary hour.
The joy rising among the rows could not be spoken through millions of mouths. Food, laughter, music, and the intimate licence of the bride's family dissolve the distance between heaven and household.
At last the guests rinse, receive betel leaf, and return reluctantly to their assigned lodgings. The taste of the songs travels with them. Heaven has been welcomed as kin.
The feast ends, but divine guests carry the laughter of the mountain women into the night.
Read the passage from the Manas
AI-created devotional illustration · Chhand 13
One unnamed adult woman singing sweet-voiced playful wedding gaari; diners and later rinsing/betel/departure outside selected portrait.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 115 · printed pages 113. Reader passage: bala-kanda-chhand-013. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Beautiful women give sweet-voiced gaari and speak witty or teasing remarks.
- Gods prolong their meal, enjoying the playful jest they hear; the source does not simply say time slips unnoticed.
- The joy during dining is beyond description even by countless mouths.
- After rinsing/achaman they receive betel and go to their respective lodgings.
- Fresh high-resolution primaryPDF115 reads सचु पावहीं, matching the historical snapshot; the old audit's printed सुखु assertion is unsupported by this witness.
Artistic choices
- New imagined unnamed adult singer, no named goddess or historical participant identification. One representative of source plural women; diners and subsequent acts outside crop. Exact age, face, jewelry, costume, gesture and pavilion architecture are artistic.
- Complete source facts retained in metadata; source and existing translations unchanged.
- Actual braid falls in front rather than requested low braid; white flowers added near hair/ear, pearl/gold ornament strands and bangle numbers, saffron-rose textile pattern, curtain, cream column and garden terrace are artist choices, not a source participant identity.
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
गारीं मधुर स्वर देहिं सुंदरि बिंग्य बचन सुनावहीं। भोजनु करहिं सुर अति बिलंबु बिनोदु सुनि सचु पावहीं।। जेवँत जो बढ्यो अनंदु सो मुख कोटिहूँ न परै कह्यो। अचवाँइ दीन्हे पान गवने बास जहँ जाको रह्यो।।
Beautiful women sing teasing wedding songs in sweet voices, delivering witty and playful words. The gods partake of the wedding feast. There is great delay, for time itself slips away in delightful celebration.