1This is a new version of the story of Rāma's birth. It may he summarised in these words: Daśaratha's senior wife, Kauśalyā, feels a desire to eat wild radish which is sent for. The three queens share it and conceive. The four princes are born and an astrologer forecasts their future including that Rāma would be exiled to a forest at the age of twelve. At this Daśaratha is much perturbed but Kauśalyā consoles him by saying that she is satisfied as she, at least, no longer has to bear the stigma of infertility and, in any case, wherever Rāma would go he would be honoured by all.

1Mañca, a raised seat made of wood or metal, like a platform.

2Luniyā from S. lu, to cut. The singers, however, apply the term to a particular caste group employed for making mud huts. It is probable that they may have also been used for odd jobs or for cutting wood in the forests for planks etc. of the house.

3This city cannot be identified. It may refer to a village where the sohar was first composed or where an incident similar to the one described in the song might have taken place.
The singers stated that a nagara in the dialect means a small village with few houses. In Sanskrit nagara is a city.

4Hokhar, the singers said that this is a special term for women's craving for a certain food in certain physical conditions including pregnancy. Here the craving is without pregnancy.

5A nā̈ū (S. nāpita), a man of the barber caste also employed to carry messages and otherwise assist at ceremonial occasions. See p. 20.

1The song has the phrase ‘Bharata bhuvāla’. This the singers explain to mean ‘Bharata and Śatrughna’, Bhuvāl being a folk name for Śatrughna the origin of which cannot be traced. The singers have also taken him for Kaikeyī's son whereas in the epic he is Sumitrā's son.

2Or: ‘there is (singing of) sohar in their houses’.

3Paṇḍit, a priest and, in this case, an astrologer.

4Piṛhäī, a small, low seat.

5Make calculations from an astrological guidebook or almanac.

6The places assigned to various planets etc. in a horoscope according to their positions in the heavens at the time of an occurrence such as a birth are termed ‘houses’; on the basis of these the predictions are made.

7Śrī, a general title of respect before a name.

8Akṣaya, ‘Name of a day which is said to confer undying merit’.
The line may, however, be translated to mean, ‘at an hour which confers undecaying prosperity etc.’.

9The three houses of the three wives of Daśaratha. It was customary for the different wives of a polygamous king to live in separate chambers or houses.

10Dhaurāhar, a private chamber, usually upstairs.

1Datüin (H. dātun), about eight inches long sticks of various woods the ends of which are chewed to form a brush for the teeth every morning. They are still used in Surinam.

2‘Bą̄jh’, an infertile woman. This state left a woman totally insecure in society and in the family for she could not fulfil the function of her sex for which she was married.

3Dhotī, a sheet-like garment approximately five yards in length, tied round the loins, with one end passed between the legs and tucked in at the back. That this people would wash Rāma's garment shows the great respect they would have for him. The next line expresses it more clearly - his presence would be regarded by this people like a bath in the sacred river Ganges, a dip in which is believed to redeem a person from all sins.

4Lit. ‘will swim across’ - a term commonly used for redemption, the allusion is to swimming across the ‘bhava-sāgara’, the ocean of worldly existence.