{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry081.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry081.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry081.htm","text":"The monarch with the prayer complied\n Of suppliant hands, on every side\n Uplifted like a lotus-bed:\n And then these gracious words he said:\n 'Great joy and mighty fame are mine\n Because your loving hearts incline,\n In full assembly clearly shown\n To place my R\u00e1ma on the throne.'\n Then to Vas'ishtha, standing near,\n And V\u00e1madeva loud and clear\n The monarch spoke that all might hear:\n ''Tis pure and lovely Chaitra now\n When flowers are sweet on every bough;\n All needful things with haste prepare\n That R\u00e1ma be appointed heir.'\n \n \n Then burst the people's rapture out\n In loud acclaim and joyful shout;\n And when the tumult slowly ceased\n The king addressed the holy priest:\n 'Give order, Saint, with watchful heed\n For what the coming rite will need.\n This day let all things ready wait\n Mine eldest son to consecrate.'\n Best of all men of second birth\n Vas'ishtha heard the lord of earth,\n And gave commandment to the bands\n Of servitors with lifted hands\n Who waited on their master's eye:\n 'Now by to-morrow's dawn supply\n Rich gold and herbs and gems of price\n And offerings for the sacrifice,\n Wreaths of white flowers and roasted rice.\n And oil and honey, separate;\n New garments and a car of state,\n An elephant with lucky signs,\n A fourfold host in ordered lines,\n The white umbrella, and a pair\n Of chowries, \u00a01 and a banner fair;\n A hundred vases, row on row,\n To shine like fire in splendid glow,\n A tiger's mighty skin, a bull\n With gilded horns most beautiful.\n All these, at dawn of coming day,\n Around the royal shrine array,\n Where burns the fire's undying ray.\n Each palace door, each city gate\n With wreaths of sandal decorate.\n And with the garlands' fragrant scent\n Let clouds of incense-smoke be blent.\n Let food of noble kind and taste\n Be for a hundred thousand placed;\n Fresh curds with streams of milk bedewed\n To feed the Br\u00e1hman multitude.\n \n \n \n With care be all their wants supplied.\n And mid the twice-born chiefs divide\n Rich largess, with the early morn,\n And oil and curds and roasted corn.\n Soon as the sun has shown his light\n Pronounce the prayer to bless the rite,\n And then be all the Br\u00e1hmans called\n And in their ordered seats installed.\n Let all musicians skilled to play,\n And dancing-girls in bright array\n Stand ready in the second ring\n Within the palace of the king.\n Each honoured tree, each holy shrine\n With leaves and flowery wreaths entwine,\n And here and there beneath the shade\n Be food prepared and presents laid.\n Then brightly clad, in warlike guise,\n With long swords girt upon their thighs,\n Let soldiers of the nobler sort\n March to the monarch's splendid court.'\n \n \n Thus gave command the twice-born pair\n To active servants stationed there.\n Then hastened to the king and said\n That all their task was duly sped,\n The king to wise Sumantra spake:\n 'Now quick, my lord, thy chariot take,\n And hither with thy swiftest speed\n My son, my noble R\u00e1ma lead.'\n \n \n Sumantra, ere the word was given,\n His chariot from the court had driven,\n And R\u00e1ma, best of all who ride\n In cars, came sitting by his side.\n The lords of men had hastened forth\n From east and west and south and north,\n \u00c1ryan and stranger, those who dwell\n In the wild wood and on the fell,\n And as the Gods to Indra, they\n Showed honour to the king that day.\n \n \n Like V\u00e1sav, when his glorious form\n Is circled by the Gods of storm,\n Girt in his hall by kings he saw\n His car-borne R\u00e1ma near him draw,\n Like him who rules the minstrel band\n Of heaven; \u00a01 whose valour tilled the land,\n Of mighty arm and stately pride\n Like a wild elephant in stride,\n As fair in face as that fair stone\n Dear to the moon, of moonbeams grown, \u00a02\n With noble gifts and grace that took\n The hearts of all, and chained each look,\n World-cheering as the Lord of Rain\n When floods relieve the parching plain.\n The father, as the son came nigh,\n Gazed with an ever-thirstier eye.\n Sumantra helped the prince alight\n \n \n \n From the good chariot passing bright,\n And as to meet his sire he went\n Followed behind him reverent.\n Then R\u00e1ma clomb, the king to seek\n That terrace like Kail\u00e1sa's peak,\n And reached the presence of the king,\n Sumantra closely following.\n Before his father's face he came,\n Raised suppliant hands and named his name, \u00a01b\n And bowing lowly as is meet\n Paid reverence to the monarch's feet.\n But soon as Das'aratha viewed\n The prince in humble attitude,\n He raised him by the hand in haste\n And his beloved son embraced,\n Then signed him to a glorious throne,\n Gem-decked and golden, near his own.\n Then R\u00e1ma, best of Raghu's line,\n Made the fair seat with lustre shine\n As when the orient sun upsprings\n And his pure beam on Meru flings.\n The glory flashed on roof and wall,\n And with strange sheen suffused the hall,\n As when the moon's pure rays are sent\n Through autumn's star-lit firmament.\n Then swelled his breast with joy and pride\n As his dear son the father eyed,\n E'en as himeself more fair arrayed\n In some clear mirror's face displayed.\n The aged monarch gazed awhile,\n Then thus addressed him with a smile,\n As Kas'yap, whom the worlds revere,\n Speaks for the Lord of Gods to hear:\n 'O thou of all my sons most dear,\n In virtue best, thy father's peer,\n Child of my consort first in place,\n Mine equal in her pride of race,\n Because the people's hearts are bound\n To thee by graces in thee found,\n Be thou in Pushya's favouring hour\n Made partner of my royal power.\n I know that thou by nature's bent\n Both modest art and excellent,\n But though thy gifts no counsel need\n My love suggests the friendly rede.\n Mine own dear son, be modest still,\n And rule each sense with earnest will.\n Keep thou the evils far away\n That spring from love and anger's sway.\n Thy noble course alike pursue\n In secret as in open view,\n And every nerve, the love to gain\n Of ministers and subjects, strain.\n The happy prince who sees with pride\n His thriving people satisfied;\n Whose arsenals with arms are stored,\n And treasury with golden hoard,--\n \n \n \n His friends rejoice as joyed the Blest\n When Amrit crowned their eager quest.\n So well, my child, thy course maintain,\n And from all ill thy soul refrain.'\n \n \n The friends of R\u00e1ma, gathered nigh,\n Longing their lord to gratify,\n Ran to Kaus'aly\u00e1's bower to tell\n The tidings that would please her well.\n She, host of dames, with many a gem,\n And gold, and kine rewarded them.\n \n \n Then R\u00e1ma paid the reverence due,\n Mounted the chariot, and withdrew,\n And to his splendid dwelling drove\n While crowds to show him honour strove.\n \u00a0\u00a0 The people, when the monarch's speech\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Their willing ears had heard,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Were wild with joy as though on each\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Great gifts had been conferred.\n \u00a0\u00a0 With meek and low salute each man\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Turned to his home away,\n \u00a0\u00a0 And there with happy heart began\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To all the Gods to pray.\n \n \n \n \n \n91:1 Whisks, usually made of the long tails of the Yak.\n92:1 Chitraratha, King of the Gandharvas.\n92:2 The Chandrak\u00e1nta or Moonstone, a sort of crystal supposed to be composed of congealed moonbeams.\n92:1b A customary mark of respect to a superior.","title":"Book II: Canto III.: Das'aratha's Precepts.","type":"page"}