Ramcharitmanas: Ayodhya Kanda, Prakarana 4
दोहा 36
त्याग-दीक्षा का सोपान: जहाँ ‘राज्य’ (भोग-धर्म) का मोह टूटकर ‘वन’ (वैराग्य-धर्म) का द्वार खुलता है। अयोध्या काण्ड साधक को यह सिखाता है कि धर्म केवल शुभ-घटना नहीं, बल्कि पीड़ा में सत्य-पालन, वचन-रक्षा, और ईश्वर-आज्ञा-स्वीकार की तपस्या है—यही मुक्ति-सीढ़ी का निर्णायक मोड़ है।
परेउ राउ कहि कोटि बिधि काहे करसि निदानु।कपट सयानि न कहति कछु जागति मनहुँ मसानु।।36।।
pareu rāu kahi koṭi bidhi kāhe karasi nidānu |kapaṭa sayāni na kahati kachu jāgati manahũ masānu ||36||
राजा ज़मीन पर गिर गए। उन्होंने करोड़ तरह से उससे समझाया। पूछा, "तू मेरी बर्बादी क्यों कर रही है?" पर वो औरत चलाक और कपटी थी। उसने कुछ भी नहीं कहा। जैसे मसान की जगह अपने जलते हुए चिताओं से जगी रहती है, वैसे ही वो चुप रही।
Speaker
Tulsidas (narrator)
Listener
General audience
Karuna (with Bhayanaka undertone)
The scene
The prasanga
In the Ayodhya Kanda, King Dasharatha has been struck down by Kaikeyi's demand for the boons. He falls to the ground and begs her in countless ways to stop. She stays silent, hard as a cremation ground.
The teaching
- Themes
- राजा की विवशता, कपट और छल, करुणा और शोक, मौन की कठोरता, गृह-कलह का परिणाम, मोह और कुमति
For right living (Ramrajya ethics)
The verse shows the opposite of Ramrajya conduct. Deceit (kapat) in a household, a ruler humbled, and a plea met with silence are the fruit of a mind closed to dharma. Ramrajya requires truthfulness, compassion for the suffering, and rule that listens to the weak.
Nirguna and saguna
The verse stays in the world of manifest, suffering persons, set against a mute, lifeless image of the cremation ground. That bleak stillness, where the world's ends are burned away, points beyond itself to the one refuge that these lines leave unspoken. The saguna Lord is absent here, which sharpens the need for him.
Dasharatha, overcome by Kaikeyi's demand, collapses on the floor and begs her in countless ways, asking why she brings about his ruin. Kaikeyi, who is shrewd and given to deceit, does not reply even a word. Tulsidas compares her to a cremation ground that stays awake, silent, cold and fearful, where the fires of grief burn without relief. The scene fixes the tragic turn of the Ayodhya Kanda: pleading cannot move a heart closed by guile. The commentators note the contrast between the king's broken helplessness and her stony stillness.
Doha (13/11 matra pattern per line). Line 2 scans cleanly as 13 matras (कपट सयानि न कहति कछु) and 11 matras (जागति मनहुँ मसानु). Line 1 closes on the 11-matra half काहे करसि निदानु, with the first half's opening word परेउ scanned lightly. The two lines rhyme at their ends: निदानु / मसानु.
Utpreksha (poetic fancy) in 'जागति मनहुँ मसानु', where Kaikeyi's silent figure is imagined as a wakeful cremation ground, the marker being मनहुँ. Anuprasa (alliteration) in the repeated k and s sounds of 'कहि कोटि', 'करसि', 'कपट सयानि', 'कहति कछु'. Atishayokti (hyperbole) in 'कोटि बिधि', a million ways of pleading. Rhetorical question in 'काहे करसि निदानु'.
The verse shows the embodied soul helpless in the grip of karma and deceit, a condition Vishishtadvaita sees as dependence on the Lord's will. The king's cry of 'why do you ruin me?' shows how little worldly power or affection can save a soul without refuge in the Lord, though Ram is not named in these lines.
Raga Bhairavi, whose grave, tender and sorrowful mood suits the king's collapse and the cold silence of Kaikeyi.
परेउ | राउ | कहि | कोटि | बिधि | काहे | करसि | निदानु |
कपट | सयानि | न | कहति | कछु | जागति | मनहुँ | मसानु ||
- निदानु
- अंत, विनाश, परिणामOrigin: Sanskrit
- कपट
- छल, धोखा, बनावटी व्यवहारOrigin: Sanskrit
- सयानि
- चतुर स्त्री, होशियारOrigin: Awadhi
- मसानु
- श्मशान, वह स्थान जहाँ शव जलाए जाते हैंOrigin: Awadhi
- कोटि
- करोड़, अनगिनतOrigin: Sanskrit
- How does the use of Sanskritized Awadhi here elevate the 'Loka' (folk) to the 'Shastra' (scriptural)?
- The verse is a natural mix of the plain and the learned. Tadbhava words such as परेउ, राउ, काहे, कछु, जागति and the colloquial verb करसि give the speech of a household in distress. Tatsama terms such as कोटि, कपट, निदानु and the image of मसानु (from Sanskrit shmashana) carry the weight of the shastra. By setting the learned words inside the everyday syntax of Awadhi, Tulsidas lets an ordinary listener feel the heaviness of death and deceit without needing a Sanskrit education. The king's anguished question and the cremation image link the domestic scene to the larger theme of mortality known from scripture.
- What is the specific 'Siddhanta' (doctrine) Tulsidas establishes regarding the Name (Nama) vs Form (Rupa)?
- This verse states no doctrine of Name against Form, and Ram's name is not spoken in it. What it does show is the world without that refuge: the king falls to the ground, pleads 'in a million ways' (कोटि बिधि), and receives only silence. The failure of every human appeal implies that the Name and Form of the Lord are the true shelter, which the verse leaves for the reader to supply. It is therefore a negative illustration, showing the need for the Name by depicting its absence.
- How does this verse reflect the poet's 'Kavi-Manas' (the lake of the poet's mind) metaphor?
- The verse reflects the Kavi-Manas idea of a lake of the poet's mind, from which images are drawn by lived experience. Tulsidas draws his comparison from a village's cremation ground, a sight seen at night with pyres that seem never to sleep. The poet's mind holds both the sweetness of devotion and the harshness of ordinary sorrow, and here the darker waters of the lake are stirred. Kaikeyi's wakeful stillness becomes, in his language, a living picture of grief and cold calculation.
FAQs
राजा दशरथ कैकेयी के सामने भूमि पर गिर पड़ते हैं। वे करोड़ों प्रकार से उसे मनाते हैं और पूछते हैं कि तू मेरा विनाश क्यों कर रही है। यह उनकी पूरी विवशता और टूटे हुए मन को दर्शाता है।
कैकेयी चतुर है और छल से भरी हुई है। राजा के इतने अनुनय पर भी वह एक शब्द नहीं बोलती। 'कपट सयानि' उसके इसी संकल्प और कठोर चुप्पी को बताता है, जिसमें कोई दया नहीं है।
कवि कैकेयी की चुप्पी को जागते हुए श्मशान के समान बताता है, जो शांत, ठंडा और भयावह होता है। जैसे श्मशान में चिताएँ जलती रहती हैं पर कोई उत्तर नहीं मिलता, वैसे ही कैकेयी के हृदय से कोई करुणा नहीं निकलती। यह उत्प्रेक्षा अलंकार है, जिसका सूचक शब्द 'मनहुँ' है।
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