The Coronation of Rama — Кассета

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Dharma Katha · Season 4: The Road to Diwali · Episode 151 Four golden pots. Four vanaras, the fastest in Sugriva's army, each holding one, standing in a courtyard in Ayodhya at night. And then they are gone. One to the eastern ocean. One to the southern. One to the western. One to the northern. Before dawn, they are back, the pots heavy and cold, full of water from the four edges of the world. Because tomorrow morning, that water will be poured over the head of a man who has been waiting fourteen years to be crowned. Who was told, on the morning of his first coronation, to put on bark and go to the forest. Who went without a word of complaint. This time, nobody is going to stop it. Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 134 first. Source note. Label: scripture. Bharata's request and Rama's acceptance, the bathing and dressing, the queens adorning Sita and Kausalya dressing the vanaras' wives, the procession with Bharata, Shatrughna and Lakshmana, the vanaras riding elephants in human form, Sugriva given Rama's palace, the golden pots and the waters of the four oceans and five hundred rivers, the anointing by Vasishtha and seven sages and then by priests, maidens, ministers, soldiers and merchants, the crown made by Brahma and worn by Manu, the umbrella and the white fans, Vayu's garland of a hundred lotuses and the pearl necklace, the gifts to the brahmins, Sugriva and Angada, Sita giving the necklace to Hanuman with Rama's words, Lakshmana declining the post of crown prince and Bharata's installation, and the description of Rama's reign of eleven thousand years, are in the Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda, the final sarga, numbered around one hundred and twenty-eight in popular vulgate editions; numbering differs in the critical edition. Ayodhya lighting lamps on the new moon of Kartik, and Hanuman breaking the pearls, are later tradition. The reflections are my own. Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.