1. From Mānas to Movies. ^[1]

The ultimate source for songs about Sita and Rama is the sixteenth-century devotional Hindi (Avadhi) poet-saint Tulsidas. His masterly retelling of the Ramayana, Rām-carit-mānas “Reservoir of Rama’s acts” (RCM), contains many much-savored passages. An all-time favorite, frequently cited in popular movies is the episode of Rama and Sita falling in love (RCM 1: 227-36). This is known as the “Flower Garden” or Phūlvārī, so named after the romantic setting in which Rama and Sita meet each other for the first time before their marriage. Sometimes also referred to in its Sanskritized form as Puṣpavāṭikā, this scene however has actually no equivalent in the Sanskrit version of Valmiki-Ramayana. What may have been Tulsidas’ reasons for including it and concerns in describing it? And what is the effect when it is cited in popular Hindi movies? For the latter question, analysis is provided of a scene from the 1994 trend-setting hit movie Hum aapke hain koun..! directed by Sooraj Barjatya and a contrasting counterpoint from the all-time 1975 classic Sholay, directed by Ramesh Sippy.

1.  Tulsidas’ Chaste Encounter in the Flower Garden

Tulsidas’s main concern in his Hindi retelling of the Ramayana is devotional. In that context, his innovation depicting Sita and Rama’s love at first sight aims to set up an example of an ideal loving relation between devotee and God. He stresses the importance of mutual beholding or darshana that involves pondering God’s beauty. This involves the classical mood or rasa of falling in love or śriṅgāra. Yet Tulsidas makes sure to bracket the whole episode in a tone of conventional morality or maryādā. All possible titillation that might be associated with a scene featuring girls looking at boys and vice versa is carefully avoided. Tulsidas succeeds in his purpose of keeping sweet first love within the limits of maryādā in several ways.

First, he stresses that the protagonists’ presence at the scene is totally legitimate, in fact even ordered by their elders. Rama and Lakshmana are in the garden to gather flowers for their guru’s worship. They had obtained the guru’s blessing to do so and once in the garden, they ask the gardeners for permission to pick flowers.^[2] Similarly, Sita and her girlfriends received explicit orders from Sita’s mother to go and worship the Goddess whose temple is in the garden.^[3] 

Further, neither Rama nor Sita are active agents in bringing about the meeting.  Sita is dragged along by one of her more adventurous girlfriends and joins her friends timidly (RCM 1:228.7-8 and dohā, 229). Though flustered, she comes to realize that this is in fact her “old love.” She remembers the sage Narada’s prediction that she will marry Rama, since they are incarnations of Lakshmi and Vishnu. Consequently, it is pure love (prīti punīta):

calī agra kari priya sakhi soī, prīti purātana lakhai na koī;

sumiri sīya nārada vacana, upajī prīti punīta;

cakita bilokati sakala disi, janu sisu mrigī sabhīta (RCM 1:229.8 and dohā)

They set off with that dear girlfriend in the lead. None knew this was preordained love.

But Sita remembered Narada’s prediction: what she felt was a pure love!

Astonished, she glanced all around, like a timid fawn

Rama becomes first aware of Sita’s presence by the sound of anklets:

kaṅkana kiṅkinī nūpara dhuni suni, kahata lakhana sana rāmu hridayaṃ guni

mānahuṃ madana dundubhī dīnhī, manasā bisva bijaya kahaṃ kīnhī. (RCM 1:230.1-2)

Hearing the sound of bracelet-, belt-, and anklet-bells, Rama weighed up his heart and said to his brother:

“The God of love beats his victory drums, as if heralding his intention to conquer the world.”

Rama too is confused about the strength of his feelings and Tulsidas clearly is eager to stress his purity of mind (suci mana): 

siya sobhā hiyaṃ barani prabhu, āpani dasā bicāri;

bole suci mana anuja sana, bacana samaya anuhāri (RCM 1:230 dohā)

Praising Sita’s beauty in his heart, the Lord mused over his confusion.

To clear his mind, he spoke to his younger brother words befitting the occasion.

Rama confesses to his brother how his usually unperturbed mind is now agitated (sahaja punīta mora manu chobhā, RCM 1:231.3b). He worries that it is not proper for a Rāghava to be so perturbed at the sight of unacquainted women (RCM 1:231).

raghubansinha kara sahaja subhāū, manu kupantha pagu dharai na kāū;

mohi atisaya pratīti mana kerī, jehiṃ sapanehuṃ paranāri na herī (RCM 1:231.5-6)

Our family’s inclination is never to walk the wrong path, not even to think about it.

I totally trust my heart, which wouldn’t dream of looking at another’s wife.

Rama here reasons that being unblemishable, he could not possibly feel what he does unless this is the one predestined for him, in other words, Sita must be Rama’s own wife (svakīyā).

Tulsidas keeps the ensuing meeting of the lovers well above board. Their contact is only visual and squarely within the bounds of propriety. Let alone anything more physical, there is no question of even flirting and fleeting sidelong glances (kaṭākṣa), so celebrated in Sanskrit kāvya on the topic. Instead, we could speak of a stability of the gaze, in conformity with the theological concept of darshana. Rama’s gaze is steadfast (acaṃcala; RCM 1:222.4), Sita’s eyes stop blinking (palakanhihuṃ pariharīṃ nimeṣeṃ, RCM 1:232.5c).

In fact, Sita is so overcome that she even closes her eyes (RCM 1:232.7) and keeps them closed through the ensuing head to toe (śikha- nakha) description of Rama and his brother (RCM 1:233). She does not open her eyes until her friends wake her out of this state of meditation (dhyāna) by encouraging her to stop “meditating on the Goddess”.^[4] In putting it this way, the girls interpret Sita’s closure of the eyes as a devotional act, which again heightens the atmosphere of maryādā over eroticism. When Sita finally allows herself to look at Rama, she immediately self-censures, interrupting her thoughts by “remembering” her father’s oath, namely that she will marry only the one who can break the bow.^[5]

Tulsidas is concerned to stress that neither of the protagonists tries to prolong the meeting. Both parties are so overcome by feeling that they become “stunned” and “immobile.” The girl friends take the initiative and drag Sita away, dropping a clever hint suggesting a possible future rendez-vous (RCM 1:234.5-6). Sita immediately thinks of her mother’s worry if she’d be late, well aware she’s under parental supervision.^[6] Touchingly, though, she follows the Sanskt kāvya traditon in looking back at Rama at some pretext or other

dekhata misa mriga bihaga taru, phiraï bahori bahori

nirakhi nirakhi raghubīra chabi, bāṛhaï prīti na thori (RCM 1:234 dohā)

With the excuse of looking at a deer, a bird, a tree, she turned back again and again.

As she kept drinking in the Raghu hero’s beauty, her love grew greatly.

Even after the meeting, the two lovers do not lose their composure, not even in the privacy of their thoughts. Sita goes to the temple to pray. The poet suggests matrimony is foremost on her mind as she addresses the Goddess with epithets related to her role as wife and mother:

jaya jaya giribararāja kisorī, jaya mahesa mukha canda cakorī… 

patidevatā sutīya mahuṃ, mātu prathama tava rekha (RCM 1:235.3 and dohā)

Glory to the the Mountain King’s daughter, Glory to her who’s inseparable from Maheśa’s moon-face…

Among women loyal to their husband-gods, Mother, foremost is your place.

Sita does not express her wish to marry Rama even in her thoughts, leaving it up to the Goddess, who knows her heart anyway. She humbly prays:

mora manorathu jānahu nīkeṃ, basahu sadā ura pura sabahī keṃ 

kīnheuṃ pragaṭa na kārana tehīṃ, asa kahi carana gahe baidehīṃ(RCM 1:236.3-4)

“You know well my heart’s desire, as you eternally dwell in everyone’s heart!

I don’t need to specify my purpose to you,” said Videha’s princess clasping the Goddess’ feet.

This unassuming, humble prayer immediately is received favorably with a miraculous sign of approval:

vinaya prema basa bhaī bhavānī, khasī māla mūrati musukānī (RCM 1:236.5)

“Bhavānī was swayed by her humble love, a garland slipped down as the image smiled.”

Tulsidas arranges for nothing less than miraculous divine sanction. Not only does the image smile and shed a flower garland, but the Goddess speaks her approval:

sunu siya satya asīsa hamārī pūjihi mana kāmanā tumhārī.

nārada bacana sadā suci sācā, so baru milihi jāhiṃ manu rācā (RCM 1:236.7–8).

“Listen Sita, my blessing will come true, your heart’s desire will be fulfilled.

Narada’s words always come truth. You will marry the one your heart desires”.

In case we needed a reminder that Sita’s groom is a “suitable boy,” the Goddess refers to Narada’s prediction that sanctifies this love. This divine sanction is celebrated in a following chand and dohā.

Rama meanwhile has reported the incident to his elder, as Tulsidas puts it: so pure is his character that deceit cannot touch it.^[7] Like Sita, he receives the blessing of his guru:

sumana pāi muni pūjā kīnhī, puni asīsa duhu bhāinha dīnhī

suphala manorath hohuṃ tumhāre, rāmu lakhanu suni bhae sukhāre RCM 1:237.3-4)

The sage performed worship with the flowers they brough, and blessed both brothers:

“May your wishes come true.” Rama and Lakshmana were delighted to hear this.

Rama dutifully discharges all his tasks (RCM 1:237.5-6). When finally alone, as he sees the moon rise, he reflects on the beauty of his beloved.

prācī disi sasi uyaü suhāvā, siya mukha sarisa dekhi sukhu pāvā (RCM 1:237.7)

In the East rose a lovely moon, he rejoiced as it reminded him of Sita’s face.

But immediately he chastises himself for comparing her with the vile moon:

bahuri bicāru kīnha mana māhīṃ, sīya badana sama himakara nāhīṃ

janamu sindhu puni bandhu biṣu, dina malīna sakalaṅka

siya mukha samatā pāva kimi, candu bāpuro raṅka (RCM 1:237.8 and dohā)

But then, he thought by himself, the cold moon is not like Sita’s face:

Its birth is from the ocean, so its kinsman is poison. By day it fades. It has spots!

How could it compare to Sita’s face? This moon is poor and miserable!

Rama is applying the figure of speech of vyatireka, where the traditional object of comparison is one-upped by its subject, in this case, the moon by Sita’s beauty. Playing with traditional epithets of the moon, he adds some alliteration (anuprāsa) and internal rhyme (tuka):

ghaṭaï baṛhaï birahini dukhadāī, grasaï rāhu nija saṃdhihiṃ pāī

koka sokaprada paṅkaja drohī, avaguna bahuta candramā tohī

baidehī mukha paṭatara dīnhe, hoi doṣu baṛa anucita kīnhe (RCM 1:238.1-3)

It wanes and waxes. It saddens separated lovers. Rāhu grabs it when he can,

Upsetting birds, closing lotuses, O moon, you have many flaws!

Comparing with the face of Videha’s princess was mistaken, I’ve done her great injustice.

At this point, again, Rama goes to his guru to massage his feet (RCM 1:238.4-5). In other words, Rama’s romantic musings are properly sandwiched in between scenes of guru-worship.

In summary, Tulsidas has taken pains to stress that both Rama and Sita were in the garden with proper permission of their elders for religious purposes. They met totally innocently and remained totally chaste throughout the experience of falling in love. There is not even a question of “new” love, this love is rather the eternal relationship of Vishnu and Lakshmi. On top of that, it is also duly sanctioned by the parental and elder authority figures. At every step then Tulsi’s devotional motives are promoting maryādā, as fitting for his chosen divinity (iṣṭadevatā) Rama, who is often called maryādā puruṣottama, or “man of highest moral principles.”

2. Madhuri Dixit and Hema Malini Drop by the Phūlvārī

What happens when movies creatively appropriate the Phūlvārī episode for entertainment purposes?  Most conspicuous is the trend-setting 1994 hit-movie Hum aap ke hain koun (HAKHK), “Who am I to you?” directed by Sooraj R. Barjatya. This movie celebrates the love of two brothers and two sisters. The eldest brother, Rajesh (Mohnish Bahl), is the Rama type and the story of his love for Pooja (Renuka Shahane) is permeated with Ramayana references. This starts out with the celebration of their arranged-marriage engagement the Rama shrine of Ramtek.^[8] When the temple complex is first shown, Mānas recitation is heard in the background, to set the proper devotional atmosphere. The verse recited is a very popular dohā:

 binu viśvāsa bhagati nahīṃ, tehi binu dravahi na rāma

rāma kripā bina sapanehū, jīva na laha viśrāma (RCM 7.90 dohā “k”)

Without faith there is no devotion, without devotion Rama’s heart doesn’t melt.

Without Rama’s grace, a soul wont’ find peace, even in a dream.

This is followed by the famous auspicious caupāī line:

maṅgala bhavana amaṅgala-hārī, dravaü ju dasaratha ajira bihārī (RCM 1:112.caupāī 4)

Source of good fortune, reliever of adversity,

Playful child in Dasharatha’s courtyard, shower blessings on me.

Once the perfect match is arranged, attention shifts to the relation of the younger brother Prem (Salman Khan) and Pooja’s sister Nisha (Madhuri Dixit), which is of the more spicy or masāledār type. True to his name, he is a bit of a Krishna type, a prankster, flirting throughout, playing the mandoline for the flute. Yet here too the influence of Tulsi’s moral concerns are detectable.

The first confession of Prem and Nisha’s love is enacted at a harvesting scene in a folk song (yah mausam hai jādū kā mitvā “This is a season for magic, friend!”). Prem and Nisha dally around, he steals her flower bouquet, and she in revenge his beloved mandoline. After this rural excursion, Prem and Pūjā drop by the very same Ramtek temple where their brother and sister’s engagement was celebrated.^[9] During their visit, while Prem half-jokingly pays his respects to the temple manager, Nisha prepares a diyā (oil lamp) to be lit and set afloat in the temple pond, just like her sister did for her engagement. Meanwhile, in the background the Mānas passage is recited from the Phūlvārī episode where Sita receives blessings in the temple by Parvati. What is recited constitutes the end of Sita’s prayer to the Goddess, where she modestly refrained from naming the man whom she desires for husband, impressing the Goddess both by her love and her humility to grant her wish. In HAKHK, Prem and Nisha worship and do the rounds of the temple (parikramā), as the soundtrack again quotes the Mānas:

manu jāhiṃ rāceu milihi so baru, sahaja sundara sāṃvaro

karunā nidhāna sujāna sīlu, sanehu jānata rāvaro.

ehi bhānti gauri asīsa suni, siya sahita hiyaṃ haraṣīṃ alī

tulasī bhavānihi pūji puni puni, mudita mana mandira calī (RCM 1:236.2-3)

“The one your heart desires, you will get for your groom: truly handsome and dark,

Compassion itself, appreciative of skills, understanding your love.”

Witnessing Parvati blessing her thus, Sita’s friends wholeheartedly rejoiced with her.

Tulsidas says: praising the Goddess over and over, Sita went home with happy heart.

Prem’s worship is half-hearted, and he even tries to sneak one of the sweets on the tray with offerings, which quick-witted Pooja prevents with a playful slap on his hand. He is his pranking Krishna self as he follows her around while she worships. However, Nisha is serious and seems to understand the lines as they are recited: she smiles pleased about this auspicious promise that her prayers will come true and looks back at Prem at the right moment. The audience enjoys fully the irony of Prem’s careless strolling around, as the line praising the promised groom’s compassion and understanding is recited. Still, maryādā is foregrounded as a complement of even this more playful type of love. The scriptwriter has skillfully picked up on the right lines from the Mānas to get his point across, and the director in picturizing it with a nonchalant Prem, injects just the right amount of humor to make the scene work.

There is another parallel with Sagar’s phūlvārī. Just before they worship, Prem asks Nisha why she is lighting the diyā, at which Nisha truthfully answers that her mother had told her to do so. Here is again an echo of the example of Sita, whose presence in the garden was justified by her mother’s direction to perform pūjā. In short, even the spunky heroine Nisha has received for her partner choice a double blessing, one maternal, one divine, and this with quite explicit reference to the Mānas model. With this auspicious move, Barjatya inaugurated the new trend of the “clean” family movie.

For a contrasting example, the earlier cult movie Sholay (1975, d. Ramesh Sippy) also works in a reference to Sita’s Phūlvārī. The movie has an unusual heroine, the village belle Basanti (Hema Malini), who is not at all of the demure type. She has a penchant for actually talking too much. While her character is comical, she is not a fool. She is marked as an independent woman because she has taken up the masculine profession of tonga driver (with the argument that “if a mare can pull the tonga, why would not its driver be a girl”). She sure knows what she wants and is not about to be cheated out of it. The hero’s best friend, Veeru (Dharmendra), admires her spunk and falls in love with her. She is somewhat attracted to him, but also diffident, as he is not a villager, nor the rich groom she hopes to marry. For the latter purpose, she decides to undertake a series of vows (vratas) on Mondays. Here is where the parallel with Phūlvārī comes in: her first visit to the Shiva temple in her village makes for a playful persiflage of Sita’s worship of Parvati.

Like Sita, Basanti has a request to make, which she too prefaces with the apologetic statement that of course God knows everything:

prabhu, sansār men aisī koī bāt to hai nahīn jo tum se cupī ho. tum to sab jānte ho. 

Lord, there is nothing in the world that remains hidden from you. You know everything.

In contrast to the passive Sita, Basanti is prepared to take agency, much to the delight of the audience: 

dekho main to yah nahīn kahtī hūn ki tumhen yād nahīn hogā, lekin phir bhī apnī tarah se kah denā acchā hotā hai.

Look, I’m not saying that you’ll forget, but it’s good to speak up for oneself.

Basanti is very down to earth, which renders the desired comical effect. She shows the Shiva image her hands, hardened by the reins of her tonga, and asks him for a groom who would be rich enough so she could abandon her trade:

tumhāre liye kyā muśkil hai? bas aisī jagah bāt lagāo prabhu ki basantī rāṇī jaisī bankar rāj kare, yonki mazā ā jāe zindagī kā. āge jaisī tumhārī marzī.

For you it’s no trouble at all! Just get marriage negotiations going in such a place where Basanti will rule like a queen. That way, I’ll get fun in life. For the rest, your will be done.

As she manages to end on a humble Sita-esque note, Basanti too gets a miracle: this image too starts speaking. She’s delighted when the voice reveals that Shiva has found her a groom.

ek hī somvār men ḍhūṛh liyā, vāh prabhu!

In just one Monday, you’ve found him! Wonderful, Lord!

While Basanti is getting excited, the camera reveals the source of the miraculous voice, which is actually none other’s than Veeru’s. He is standing behind the image, speaking through a tube to create a miracle effect. When Basanti eagerly asks for the name of the groom Shiva has found her, he predictably gives his own, Veeru. Her reaction is not submissive though:  

prabhu yah merī zindagī kā savāl hai jaldī se kām mat lenā.

Lord, this is a question of my life, don’t be so rash.

Veeru alias Shiva insists with a threat:

yadi hamārī ājñā kā pālan nahīn kiyā to sārī umr kunvārī baiṭhī rahogī.

If you don’t do as I say, you will end up a spinster your whole life long!

Basanti acts submissively but is not going to take that lying down and starts to argue vociferously, as is her wont. At that point though, Veeru’s friend approaches her and beckoning her to be silent leads her to the back of the image. Now she sees Veeru who however does not realize he has been exposed and keeps up his rant. He is getting really into his self-serving sermon:

āj se vīrū kā ādra karnā tumhārā dharm hai. is liye ki usī ke caraṇon men tumhārā svarg hai. yadi tumne use prasanna kiyā to ham prasanna ho jāenge. yadi tumne use krodhit kiyā to ham krodhit ho jāenge.

From today it is your duty to honor Veeru, because your heaven lies at his feet. If you please him, I will be pleased, if you anger him, I will be angry.

Basanti just interjects “Well! Well!” (acchā). It takes him a second to realize he has been exposed before Veeru/Shiva backs down.

This humorous episode playfully appropriates the theme of divine intervention that is so serious in the sources reviewed above. In contrast to the Mānas, both hero and heroine take initiative. Basanti observes a vow in a practical manner with a simple-minded assertiveness that is endearing to the audience. When Veeru usurps the voice of Shiva, he casts everything in a high-register language, though he betrays himself with a slip into dialectical pronunciation (ādra for ādar).  He spouts language of propriety and women’s duty, but clearly in a self-serving way. Thus, that discourse is deflated and again the (counter) hero is endearing to the audience. Best of all, Basanti is not fooled by Veeru’s self-serving plot but ends up giving him a good trashing. Of course, before the movie is over, she will have come around to being his beloved and give proof of her absolute dedication in a “trial by fire” type of dance on broken glass. So, there’s no escaping Sita’s model in the end. But that does not mean that the whole serious business of love cannot be made fun of along the way.

By Heidi Pauwels

Discussion Question: In what other contemporary popular movies do you detect references to Tulsi’s interpretation of Rama and Sita’s love? What messages are sent in those films?

Sources/Further Reading

Lutgendorf, Philip, trsl. 2016. The Epic of Ram. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Pauwels, Heidi. 2008. The Goddess as Role Model: Sītā and Rādhā in Scripture and on Screen. New York: Oxford University Press.

Snell, Rupert and Neha Tiwari. 2023. Reading the Rāmcaritmānas: A Companion to the Awadhi Ramayana of Tulsidas. New Delhi: Primus Books

Edition of Rām-carit-mānas

Poddar, Hanumān Prasād, ed. [1942] 1990. Śrīmad Gosvāmī Tulsidāsjī viracita Śrī Rām-carit-mānas. Gorakhpur: Gītā Press.

Filmography

Barjatya, Sooraj R., dir. 1994. Hum aapke hain koun..! Bombay: Rajshri Productions.

Sippy, Ramesh, dir. 1975. Sholay. Bombay: Sippy Films.