{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry487.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry487.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry487.htm","text":"He looked upon that archer chief\n Whose full eye mocked the lotus leaf,\n Arid thus the noble V\u00e1nar spake:\n 'Now meet the queen for whose dear sake\n Thy mighty task was first begun,\n And now the glorious fruit is won.\n Overwhelmed with woe thy lady lies,\n The hot tears streaming from her eyes.\n And still the queen must long and pine\n Until those eyes be turned to thine.'\n \n \n But R\u00e1ma stood in pensive mood,\n And gathering tears his eyes bedewed.\n His sad looks sought the ground: he sighed\n And thus to King Vibh\u00edshan cried:\n 'Let S\u00edt\u00e1 bathe and tire her head\n And hither to my sight be led\n In raiment sweet with precious scent,\n And gay with golden ornament.'\n \n \n The R\u00e1kshas king his palace sought,\n And S\u00edt\u00e1 from her bower was brought.\n Then R\u00e1kshas bearers tall and strong,\n Selected from the menial throng,\n Through Lank\u00e1's gate the queen, arrayed\n In glorious robes and gems, conveyed.\n Concealed behind the silken screen,\n Swift to the plain they bore the queen,\n While V\u00e1nars, close on every side,\n With eager looks the litter eyed.\n The warders at Vibh\u00edshan's hest\n The onward rushing throng repressed,\n While like the roar of ocean loud\n Rose the wild murmur of the crowd.\n The son of Raghu saw and moved\n With anger thus the king reproved:\n 'Why vex with hasty blow and threat\n The V\u00e1nars, and my rights forget?\n Repress this zeal, untimely shown:\n I count this people as mine own.\n A woman's guard is not her bower,\n The lofty wall, the fenced tower:\n Her conduct is her best defence,\n And not a king's magnificence.\n At holy rites, in war and woe,\n Her face unveiled a dame may show;\n When at the Maiden's Choice \u00a01 they meet,\n When marriage troops parade the street.\n And she, my queen, who long has lain\n \n \n In prison racked with care and pain,\n May cease a while her face to hide,\n For is not R\u00e1ma by her side?\n Lay down the litter: on her feet\n Let S\u00edt\u00e1 come her lord to meet.\n And let the hosts, of woodland race\n Look near upon the lady's face.'\n \n \n Then Lakshman and each V\u00e1nar chief\n Who heard his words were filled with grief.\n The lady's gentle spirit sank,\n And from each eye in fear she shrank,\n As, her sweet eyelids veiled for shame.\n Slowly before her lord she came.\n While rapture battled with surprise\n She raised to his her wistful eyes.\n Then with her doubt and fear she strove,\n And from her breast all sorrow drove.\n Regardless of the gathering crowd,\n Bright as the moon without a cloud,\n She bent her eyes, no longer dim,\n In joy and trusting love on him.\n \n \n \n \n497:1 The Swayamvara, Self-choice or election of a husband by a princess or daughter of a Kshatriya at a public assembly of suitors held for the purpose. For a description of the ceremony see Nala and Damayant\u00ed an episode of the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rat translated by the late Dean Milman, and Idylls from the Sanskrit.","title":"BOOK VI: Canto CXVI.: The Meeting.","type":"page"}