Foreword

रघुवरचरणारविन्दभक्तिच्छलमकरन्दनिरन्तराभिषिक्ताः ।
बकुलपरिमला गिरो मदीयाः कविकुलकर्णरसायनानि सन्तु ॥

"May my words, ceaselessly bathed in the honey that is Bhakti for the lotus feet of Rama, and fragrant like Bakula flowers, be an elixir for the ears of the community of poets." (Nishyanda 1, Sloka 7)

About Sri Ramabhadra Dikshitar

Sri Ramabhadra Dikshitar belongs to that remarkable circle of scholar-poets who flourished on the banks of the Kaveri in the Thanjavur country during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He was born in the second half of the seventeenth century, most probably between 1650 and 1670, in the village of Kandaramanikkam near Kumbakonam. In later life he lived at Tiruvisanallur, the agraharam that was renamed Shahajipuram after its royal patron.

He learned grammar from the grammarian Chokkanatha Makhi, whose daughter he later married. In his works he also honours Nilakantha Dikshita, the celebrated poet of the Appayya Dikshita family, and the ascetic Krishnananda Sarasvati. His patron was the Maratha king Shahaji I of Thanjavur (reigned 1684 to 1712), a great friend of learning. When Shahaji granted the village of Tiruvisanallur to forty-five scholars, Ramabhadra Dikshitar was one of only seven who received the largest portion of four shares, a sign of the esteem in which the court held him. Among his own students were Venkatakrishna Kavi, who wrote a commentary on his Patanjali Charitam, and Venkateshvara Kavi.

Ramabhadra Dikshitar was at once a rigorous Shastra scholar and a poet of great tenderness. His works span:

• Vyakarana (grammar): a commentary on the Paribhasha Vritti, the Unadi Mani Dipika, and the grammar section of the collaborative Shad Darshani Siddhanta Sangraha.
• The philosophy of language: the Shabda Bheda Nirupanam.
• Drama: the Janaki Parinaya Natakam, on the marriage of Sri Rama and Sita, and the Shringara Tilaka Bhana, a one-actor comic play.
• Mahakavya: the Patanjali Charitam, on the life of the sage Patanjali.
• Stotras: about eleven devotional works on Sri Rama, among them the Bana Stava (said to have been composed at Nilakantha Dikshita's request) and the present Ramakarna Rasayanam.

Through all of this runs one thread: Sri Rama is his Ishta Devata and, as he says again and again in these verses, his Kula Devata (मदीयकुलदेवता). The grammarian's precision and the Bhakta's longing meet in his Rama stotras, which tradition has always counted among the finest devotional poetry of the Kaveri delta.

About Ramakarna Rasayanam

The title means "an elixir (रसायनम्) for the ears (कर्ण), made of Rama". A rasayana in Ayurveda is a restorative tonic that renews life. The poet names the whole work after his prayer in the seventh sloka, that his words may be कविकुलकर्णरसायनानि, an elixir for the ears of poets. Keeping to this image, the sections are not called chapters but Nishyandas (निष्यन्दः), "flowings" or "streams", as though the elixir were trickling out drop by drop.

The poem opens with a confession. The poet admits that he has abandoned the duties the Shastras prescribe and done what they forbid (1.2), and that his mind, dragged in all directions by old Vasanas, will not obey him (1.3). So he settles on a single remedy: he will lead the unruly mind onto the path of poetry and make the writing of verse itself a practice of Rama-smarana. Every sloka that follows is a fresh attempt to hold Rama in the heart.

The verses are not a retelling of the Ramayana in sequence. They are a garland of contemplations (dhyana pictures), each one capturing Rama in a single moment:

• the infant Rama in Kausalya's lap and toddling through Dasharatha's palace;
• the snapping of Shiva's bow and the first, unabashed glance between Rama and Sita;
• tender scenes at Chitrakuta, on the Sarayu bank and at Panchavati, where Rama shows Sita the parrots or rests his head in her lap;
• the hero of the battlefield, the bow drawn into a circle, Ravana's pride humbled;
• Rama granting Abhaya to Vibhishana without asking about his lineage, caste or deeds (1.17), the great charter of Sharanagati;
• Rama on the Pushpaka with Sita at his side, whom the poet begs to appear before him at the hour of death (1.141).

Woven through these pictures are the poet's own confessions and resolves. He sets aside the other Devas, Indra, Brahma and even Shiva, and folds his hands only towards Rama's feet (1.130, 1.143). He declares that although he neither avoids what is forbidden nor performs what is enjoined, he becomes fulfilled simply by taking refuge in Sita's Lord (1.129). With playful affection he even asks Krishna to put down the flute and peacock feather and take up the bow instead, so that he may worship Him as Rama (1.62).

The work is also a showcase of the poet's craft. Some verses use stately long metres such as Shardulavikridita and Prithvi, others the light Arya and Anushtubh, and others intricate patterns of rhyme and alliteration (yamaka and anuprasa), in which the same syllables return with new meanings, as in दशरथसूनवे नवसुधायशसे वसुधा-. This edition names the metre of each sloka wherever it can be identified.

The text was printed at the Sri Vani Vilas Press, Srirangam, in 1920, and is also included in the Vishnu Stuti Manjari anthology. Dr. A. Thiruvengadathan's monograph Ramabhadra Dikshita and His Works is the standard modern study of the poet.