The Ramayana · 350 of 493

Sundara Kānda (The Beautiful Book): Canto 14 — The Asoka Grove

He cleared the barrier at a bound; He stood within the pleasant ground, And with delighted eyes surveyed The climbing plants and varied shade, He saw unnumbered trees unfold The treasures of their pendent gold, As, searching for the Maithil queen, He strayed through alleys soft and green; And when a spray he bent or broke Some little bird that slept awoke. Whene’er the breeze of morning blew, Where’er a startled peacock flew, The gaily coloured branches shed Their flowery rain upon his head That clung around the Vánar till He seemed a blossom-covered hill,(822) The earth, on whose fair bosom lay The flowers that fell from every spray, Was glorious as a lovely maid In all her brightest robes arrayed, He saw the breath of morning shake The lilies on the rippling lake Whose waves a pleasant lapping made On crystal steps with gems inlaid. Then roaming through the enchanted ground, A pleasant hill the Vánar found, And grottoes in the living stone With grass and flowery trees o’ergrown. Through rocks and boughs a brawling rill Leapt from the bosom of the hill, Like a proud beauty when she flies From her love’s arms with angry eyes.

Context

The grove of aśoka trees. The very word means without grief, and the location is part of the poem's irony, since the only grieving figure inside it is the captive queen. Indian gardens of this period were laid out as miniature forests and were called pleasure-groves of the king, deliberately stocked with flowering trees, ponds, fountains, and birds. Aśoka trees in particular are associated in Sanskrit poetry with the longings of separated lovers, an association that runs back through Kālidāsa. So when Vālmīki places the captive Sītā specifically here, in a grove whose every leaf carries the same emotional charge as her own state, the convention is being put to work. The setting is meant to amplify her sorrow into something almost cosmic.On the aśoka-vana convention: Daniel Ingalls, Sanskrit Poetry, intro; on its use in Kālidāsa, J. Brough, Poems from the Sanskrit (Penguin 1968), intro.

He clomb a tree that near him grew And leafy shade around him threw. “Hence,” thought the Vánar, “shall I see The Maithil dame, if here she be, These lovely trees, this cool retreat Will surely tempt her wandering feet. Here the sad queen will roam apart. And dream of Ráma in her heart.”