Terms · शब्द-परिचय

Words of the Ramayana, explained

Every word here comes from Valmiki's own verses: what it means, where it comes from, and where it appears in the poem.

• Antyeshti अन्त्येष्टिAntyeshti, “the last offering”: the funeral rites of the Ramayana, from the pyre and the water offered to the dead to the shraddha and the gathering of the bones.
• Apsaras अप्सरस्Apsarases are celestial women of beauty, dance and song. Valmiki says they rose from the churning of the ocean; in his stories they often test a sage’s austerity.
• Arghya अर्घ्यArghya and padya: the water of welcome and the water for the feet, the old Indian rite of receiving an honoured guest.
• Ashvamedha अश्वमेधThe Ashvamedha or horse sacrifice: the grandest royal rite of Vedic India, which Dasharatha performs in the hope of sons.
• Astra अस्त्रAn astra is a divine weapon called up by a mantra and loosed on an arrow. Vishvamitra gives Rama the whole set, with the means to withdraw them.
• Brahmarshi ब्रह्मर्षिRishi means seer; rajarshi, maharshi, devarshi and brahmarshi are its ranks. Vishvamitra climbs from royal sage to brahmarshi by tapas.
• Gandharva गन्धर्वGandharvas are the celestial singers and musicians of the Ramayana, partners of the apsarases, linked with music, beauty, enchantment and illusion.
• Ikshvaku इक्ष्वाकुIkshvaku, son of Manu, was the first king of Ayodhya. His line, recited in Bala Kanda 70, runs through Sagara, Bhagiratha and Raghu to Dasharatha and Rama.
• Putrakameshti पुत्रकामेष्टिThe offering for a son that Rishyashringa performs for Dasharatha, from whose fire comes the payasa that leads to the births of Rama and his brothers.
• Rakshasa राक्षसRakshasas are the powerful night-roaming beings of the Ramayana, led by Ravana: shape-shifters and man-eaters, yet some of them learned and righteous.
• Tapas तपस्Tapas: austerity, the “inner heat” built by fasting, silence and endurance, which in the Ramayana wins boons, titles and power.
• Vanara वानरVanaras are the forest people of the Ramayana, monkeys in form, born of the gods to help Rama: Hanuman, Sugriva, Vali and their armies.
• Virya-shulka and the svayamvara वीर्यशुल्काVirya-shulka, “a bride whose price is valour”: how Sita was won by breaking Shiva’s bow, and what Valmiki means by her svayamvara.
• Yajna यज्ञYajna: the Vedic fire sacrifice, offerings poured into a sacred fire with mantras for the gods, around which much of the Ramayana’s action turns.
• Yojana योजनYojana: the old Indian measure of long distance, used for Hanuman’s hundred-yojana leap and Nala’s bridge; its length was never fixed.