कौसल्याप्रमुखैश्चैव निजवातायनस्थितैः । संशान्तभूषणारावैरस्पन्दैर्वनितागणैः ॥ ८ ॥
kausalyāpramukhaiścaiva nijavātāyanasthitaiḥ | saṁśāntabhūṣaṇārāvairaspandairvanitāgaṇaiḥ || 8 ||
Translation
and by the women headed by Kausalyā, sitting at their own windows, unmoving, the jingling of their ornaments hushed;
Word by word
- kausalyā
- by Kausalyā
- pramukhaiś
- (pramukhaiḥ) headed
- ca
- and
- ēva
- also
- nija
- their own
- vātāyana
- at windows
- sthitaiḥ
- sitting
- saṁśānta
- hushed
- bhūṣaṇa
- of their ornaments
- ārāvair
- (ārāvaiḥ) the jingling
- aspandair
- (aspandaiḥ) unmoving
- vanitā
- by the women
- gaṇaiḥ
- the company
Meaning
The queens could not sit in the assembly; they listened from the latticed windows (vātāyana) of the inner apartments. Kausalyā, Rāma's mother, is named first. The detail that their ornaments made no sound (saṃśānta-bhūṣaṇa-ārāva) says that they did not move at all, and that the anklets and bangles that always chime were silent. A mother listening to her son speak of the emptiness of the world, from behind a screen: the verse lets the reader imagine what she felt. Its only word for it is stillness.