HomeRamayanaSundara KandaSarga 35Shloka 5.35.19
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Shloka 5.35.19

रामलक्षणवर्णनम् (Description of Rama and Lakshmana; Alliance Narrative to Sita)

चतुर्दशसमद्वन्द्वश्चतुर्दंष्ट्रश्चतुर्गतिः।महोष्ठहनुनासश्च पञ्चस्निग्धोऽष्टवंशवान्।।।।

trivalīvāṁs tryavanataś caturvyaṅgas triśīrṣavān | catuṣkalaś catullekhaś catuṣkiṣkuś catuḥ-samaḥ ||

He bears three folds, three gentle depressions, and four delicate hollows; three whorls mark his head. Four lines are seen beneath the thumb and four upon the forehead; his height is measured as four cubits, and his four parts are evenly proportioned.

"He is a person with his pairs of eye-brows, nostrils, eyes, ears, lips, nipples, elbows, wrists, knees, testicles, loins, arms, legs and buttocks in good symmetry; he has four sharp teeth. He walks in different gaits like a lion, leopard, elephant and bull as occasion demands; he has sharp nose, charming lips and jaws. He has smooth hair, eyes, skin, teeth and feet and his eight parts of his body namely back, trunk, limbs, fingers, toes, eyes and testicles are long.

R
Rāma

Dharma is portrayed as recognizable through harmony and order: the ideal ruler is ‘well-formed’—symbolically, a life arranged by discipline and right measure.

Hanumān gives an even more technical set of identifying marks, drawing on traditional bodily-lakṣaṇas used to recognize extraordinary persons.

Saṁyata (measuredness): proportion and symmetry function as outward signs of inward restraint and steadiness.