Awadhi Under Shiva's Seal
Bala Kanda, Doha 15
Doha 15 · Movement 2 of 2
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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
AI-created devotional illustration · Doha 15
An iconic portrait of Shiva and Gauri blessing evokes the poet's prayer for their grace.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 40 · printed pages 38. Reader passage: bala-kanda-doha-016. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Poet seeks Shiva and Gauri's grace in dream and waking so his stated poetic power may prove true
Artistic choices
- Iconic Shiva/Gauri blessing portrait, no actual dream or meeting
- Conventional crescent, matted hair, trident, drum, serpent, complexion, robes, ornaments, platform and garden imagined
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
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.