Ahalya Waits Inside the Stone
Bala Kanda, Doha 210
Doha 210 · Movement 2 of 2
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Gautama's wife Ahalya remains bound by a curse, bearing the stillness of stone through the passing years. Bird, beast, and human presence have left the ashram around her.
Her patience is not empty endurance. Within the stone body lives one longing for the dust of Ram's lotus feet, the touch already promised as the end of sorrow.
Vishwamitra asks Raghuvir for mercy. The hero of Raghu's line stands before what ordinary sight would call lifeless matter, while devotion waits hidden within it. One step will reveal the person no one else can see.
Beneath the silence of stone, Ahalya waits for the dust of approaching feet.
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AI-created devotional illustration · Doha 210
Source210 fullverse/contextread; selected Vishvamitra petition beside plainstone beforeliberation
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 211 · printed pages 209. Reader passage: bala-kanda-doha-211. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- GAUTAMAWIFE AHALYA underCURSE patientlyholds STONEBODY, longs for dust of LORDLOTUSFEET. ContextualMUNI Vishvamitra tellsRAMA stonehistory then asksRAGHUVIR showMERCY. Appeal is MUNI voice, not Ahalya herselfspeakingprayer.
- SelectedvisitingMUNI besideplainstone only. C208 hermitagewithoutbirdsdeer/livingcreatures, arrivingvisitors notresidents. Rama/L outsidecrop notdenied. Laterfoot-touch/liberation narrated separate stable bala-kanda-chhand-022 not combined or counted.
- Foreign brokenbowasship/armsassea layers andTulsidasselfaddressplainexplanation not thissource210; source/numbering mismatches preserved unchanged.
Artistic choices
- Approved D210 Vishvamitra brown angularaquilinenose darkgraybeard highblackgraymattedknot Burgundycream woodbeads unmarkedforehead retained artistage~60 notcertificate. Twoownhands joinednamaste petition, lipgap gesture imagined no audibilityclaim.
- Approved C208 imagined emptyhut strawroof darkdoor terracottabase andplainroughstone reused asartist siteonly. Restagedsageleft/stoneright position unverifiedsourceexactlocation, no humanstonebody carved/statue or alreadyliberatedwoman. E03 glassfloralframe decorative not shrineobject namedsource.
- Actual lips subdued/closed beneath moustache; no audible speech or clearly partedmouth certificate. Namaste andsourcecontext communicate appeal. Stone plane segmentation reflects glassmedium, not carvedhumanbody. Hut/strawroof/terracottabase motif retained fromC208 withnew restaged perspective/plants/path; no exact historiclocation claim.
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
गौतम नारि श्राप बस उपल देह धरि धीर। चरन कमल रज चाहति कृपा करहु रघुबीर।।210।।
Gautama's wife Ahalya, bound by a curse, bore her body of stone with quiet patience. She longed for the dust of His lotus feet. "Show Your mercy, O Raghuvir (hero of the Raghu line)."