Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 65

Meaning

When the night had ended, there arrived forthwith at the residence of the aforesaid Emperor early next morning panegyrists, highly cultured minstrels and bards whose information (about genealogical tables etc.,) was of a superior kind, as well as singers capable of distinguishing the difference in the tones of a Vina etc., and singing according to their different styles. (1-2)

Meaning

The sound of the praises uttered by the aforesaid bards and others, who were glorifying the king and by whom benedictions were pronounced in a loud voice, actually pervaded the interior of the palaces in the form of echo. (3)

Meaning

While the aforesaid minstrels for their part were engaged in uttering praises, those who sang with the clapping of hands thereupon clapped their hands recounting the marvellous feats of the rulers of Ayodhyā. (4)

Meaning

Nay, roused by that sound of clapping, birds appearing in the royal palace and perched on the boughs of trees as well as confined in a cage uttered forth their notes. (5)

Meaning

The holy words uttered by the Brāhmaṇas and parrots etc., as well as the notes of Vina and the benedictory portion, set to music, of epic verses composed by Brāhmaṇas in praise of the king filled that palace. (6)

Meaning

Then attendants, mostly consisting of women and eunuchs, of unimpeachable conduct and proficient in service, stood ready to serve as usual. (7)

Meaning

Servants who knew how to conduct the bath of Emperors brought at the appropriate hour and in the prescribed manner water scented with sandal-paste in pitchers of gold. (8)

Meaning

Virtuous women, largely consisting of virgins, whose very sight is believed to be propitious, likewise brought cows etc., whose very touch is considered to be auspicious, articles worth sipping the first thing viz., the water of the holy Gaṅgā, water in which the feet of a deity have been washed and so on and articles of dress, toilet etc. (9)

Meaning

All that was worth bringing within the sight of the Emperor at the time of his waking for his good luck and was endowed with all auspicious characteristics and all that was praiseworthy, of excellent quality and possessed of charm was kept ready in accordance with the scriptural ordinance. (10)

Meaning

Till sunrise all the king’s retinue stood immensely eager to see the king and apprehensive as to what mishap had befallen the king, who had not yet come out of the gynaeceum. (11)

Meaning

Now approaching their consort, those ladies, other than Kausalyā and the other principal queens, for their part, who were close to the couch of the king of Kosala, began to rouse him by calling him in gentle and polite words and touching his person. (12)

Meaning

Nevertheless, on touching his couch with reverence and skill, the ladies, whose behaviour on the occasion was perfectly justifiable, could not detect any sign of life whatsoever in him. (13)

Meaning

Those ladies, who knew the condition of a body in slumber, did not discover any throbbing in the heart, the pulse and other organs. They were accordingly seized with tremor, apprehensive as they were about the king’s life, and looked unsteady like the ends of reeds standing against a stream. Now on seeing the condition of the Emperor at that time a certainty rose in the mind of the doubting ladies about the disaster in the form of death, which was apprehended. (14-15)

Meaning

Being fast asleep, Kausalyā and Sumitrā too, who had been prostrated with grief caused by separation from their sons, would not wake up as though they had been overtaken by death. (16)

Meaning

Shorn of splendour and divested of her native colour, nay, stricken and laid prostrate with grief, Kausalyā did not shine brightly as before any more than a star engulfed in darkness. (17)

Meaning

Laying asleep close to the king, who was now dead and therefore pale, Kausalyā too did not shine brightly any more than the king nor did Queen Sumitrā, who lay asleep next to Kausalyā, and whose face was bathed in tears of grief. (18)

Meaning

Seeing both the aforesaid queens, Kausalyā and Sumitrā, asleep at that time, the inmates of the gynaeceum concluded that King Daśaratha had breathed his last while asleep. (19)

Meaning

Then those pretty women loudly wailed, afflicted as they were, like female elephants in a forest, the leader of whose herd had strayed away from their abode. (20)

Meaning

Roused all of a sudden by the noise of their wailing, Kausalyā and Sumitrā too shook off their slumber. (21)

Meaning

Looking at the Emperor and touching him and crying loudly “Ah my lord !” Kausalyā and Sumitrā too dropped to the ground. (22)

Meaning

Tossing on the floor and covered with dust, that daughter of the ruler of Kosala (a principality of that name to the south of the kingdom of Kosala and later merged in it) did not look charming any more than a shooting star fallen from the heavens. (23)

Meaning

The king having expired, all those ladies beheld Kausalyā fallen on the ground like the dead wife of a Nāga (a semi-divine being credited with a human face with serpent-like lower extremities). (24)

Meaning

Then the king’s wives, Kaikeyī and others, who were all weeping, sore stricken with grief as they were, fell down, consciousness having departed from them. (25)

Meaning

That tremendous noise already heard in the gynaeceum was supplemented by those wailing ladies by means of their own lamentation, swollen by which it rendered the house all the more noisy. (26)

Meaning

That gynaeceum of the king, who had now met his appointed end, was thronged with men and women who felt greatly alarmed, flurried and over-excited, was filled with a tumultuous wail on all sides and crowded with the king’s relations who were stricken with deep agony. Joy had suddenly disappeared from it and it wore a miserable aspect and presented a perplexed appearance. (27-28)

Meaning

Concluding the illustrious Daśaratha, the foremost of kings, to be deceased and surrounding him on all sides, his consorts, for their part, who were profusely shedding tears, greatly afflicted as they were, piteously wailed like helpless women, clasping his arms. (29)