Kuśa and Lava Sing at Rāma’s Aśvamedha

At Bhagavān Rāma’s great Aśvamedha yajña (horse sacrifice), two young boys came into the assembly. They were Kuśa and Lava, the twin sons of Sītā and Rāma, raised by Vālmīki. They entered the gathering of ṛshis (seers) and kings and sang the whole Rāmāyaṇa, twenty-four thousand ślokas, in beautiful voices and with the calm of ṛshis.

Everyone listened, held still by the song. Rāma heard his own life sung back to him by sons he did not know. He saw how much they looked like him but could not say who they were. In the end he sent for Vālmīki, who brought Sītā to the assembly to show her purity before all. This led to Sītā’s bhūpraveśa (entering the earth).

The setting: Rāma’s Aśvamedha

The Uttara Kāṇḍa tells that Rāma performed an Aśvamedha yajña, the great horse sacrifice, which is the highest rite of a king who rules the world. The sacrificial horse was sent out to range over the kingdoms with Śatrughna as its guardian. At Ayodhyā a grand yajña-śālā (sacrificial hall) was built, and all the great ṛshis, kings and citizens were invited.

The yajña was a time of royal glory, but beneath it was great sorrow, because Rāma was performing it without Sītā. A golden image of Sītā was made and set beside him, since the rite needs a queen at the king’s side. (Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 96)

The two boys enter the assembly

Into this assembly came Kuśa and Lava, two young boys of striking looks. They stood like ṛshis. Their faces shone like the sun and the moon, and their eyes were large and shaped like lotus petals. They wore bark garments and matted hair, as students in an āśrama do. They carried bows and were fully trained in dhanurveda (the science of archery).

They walked into the assembly of ṛshis and kings without fear. They said that they would sing the work of the great ṛshi Vālmīki, the Rāmāyaṇa, in twenty-four thousand ślokas. (Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 96)

The singing

Kuśa and Lava began to sing. Their voices were clear and full, and they kept exactly to the metres and tālas (rhythm cycles) of the work. The ślokas came from them in a musical setting of great beauty. The ṛshis and scholars present agreed that the work was perfect. Every syllable of the twenty-four thousand ślokas was in its place, and the metre, the music and the meaning were without fault.

The assembly was held still. Kings who had come for the yajña forgot the yajña. Ṛshis who kept their calm in every situation wept. From the oldest mahāṛshis to the servants, everyone listened in silence. (Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 96 and 97)

Rāma listens to his own story

Rāma listened as Kuśa and Lava sang the Rāmāyaṇa, which is the story of his own life. He heard of his childhood, the exile, his meeting with Sītā, the Laṅkā war, and all the rest. It was a deep experience to hear his own life sung in beautiful verse by two boys whose faces were like his.

Rāma was deeply moved. He saw that the boys looked like him. They had his eyes, his build and his manner. He wondered who they were, but he did not know. (Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 97)

The question and the answer

The singing went on day after day. Rāma called the boys and asked who they were. They answered simply: “We are the sons of Vālmīki. He is our guru.”

Rāma then asked Vālmīki who the boys were. Vālmīki said that they were the sons of Rāma and Sītā. Sītā had been left in his āśrama. She had lived there in honour and purity and had raised the boys there.

Rāma was overwhelmed. (Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 98)

Sītā’s purity before all

Rāma asked Vālmīki to bring Sītā to the assembly, so that she could show her purity in front of the whole gathered world. He did not doubt her, and never had. But the lokāpavāda (public blame among the people) that had caused her banishment still remained. Only a public declaration before all witnesses could end it.

Vālmīki brought Sītā to the yajña-śālā. She came in a garment of the āśrama, with matted hair, and her face showed both dignity and the sadness of the long separation. The whole assembly fell silent. (Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 99)

The prayer and the bhūpraveśa

Sītā stood before the whole assembly: the ṛshis, the kings, the devas who had gathered, and all of Ayodhyā. She spoke:

“If in thought, word, and deed I have been faithful to Śrī Rāma and to Rāma alone, if this is true, then let the earth, my mother, receive me.”

When she had said this prayer, Bhūmi Devī (the Earth Devī) rose from under the ground on a great divine throne. She held out her arms to Sītā. Sītā went down into the throne and into the earth, and the ground closed over her. She was gone. (Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 100)

The grief of the assembly

The assembly sat in silence. Rāma was crushed by grief beyond words. His sons, his knowing them, and the beauty of the Rāmāyaṇa they had sung all came together in this moment of loss that could not be undone.

The devas rained down flowers. The ṛshis praised Sītā’s purity and power. But Rāma’s grief could not be eased. After this, what remained of Rāma’s life on earth was the completion of his purpose as an avatāra and his return to his divine source.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 96 to 100