Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 25: Kausalyā Invokes Auspiciousness for Rāma
Text 2.25.37-38

इति पुत्रस्य शेषांश्च कृत्वा शिरसि भामिनी।
गन्धैश्चापि समालभ्य राममायतलोचना॥

ओषधीं चापि सिद्धार्थां विशल्यकरणीं शुभाम्।
चकार रक्षां कौसल्या मन्त्रैरभिजजाप च॥

iti putrasya śeṣāṁś ca kṛtvā śirasi bhāminī
gandhaiś cāpi samālabhya rāmam āyata-locanā

oṣadhīṁ cāpi siddhārthāṁ viśalya-karaṇīṁ śubhām
cakāra rakṣāṁ kausalyā mantrair abhijajāpa ca

iti = [uttering] these [words]; putrasya = her son’s; śeṣān ca = the sacrificial remnants; kṛtvā = placed; śirasi = on head; bhāminī = beautiful lady; gandhaiḥ = fragrances; ca api = and; samālabhya = smeared then 4; rāmam = on Rāma; āyata-locanā = the large-eyed; oṣadhīm ca api = medicine in the form of a root; siddha-arthām = whose effect she had [already] seen; viśalya-karaṇīm = and which removed splinters [shot into the body]; śubhām = an auspicious; cakāra rakṣām = [tied it to His arm] and [thus] protected [Him]; kausalyā = Kausalyā; mantraiḥ = she consecreted with mantras; abhijajāpa ca = then she again uttered mantras.

[Uttering] these [words], the large-eyed beautiful lady Kausalyā placed the sacrificial remnants on her son’s head and smeared fragrances on Rāma. She then consecreted an auspicious medicine in the form of a root, whose effect she had [already] seen and which removed splinters [shot into the body], with mantras, [tied it to His arm,] and [thus] protected [Him]. Then she again uttered mantras.

“The sacrificial remnants” refer to the unbroken grains.1

GLOSS. [The glossator reads śeśāḥ instead of śeṣān] indicating that Kausalyā gave Rāma the garlands that she had worn.2


1 Commonly referred to as akṣata.

 

2 Rāmāyaṇa-bhāva-dīpa quotes from the Viśva in this regard: prasāda-nija-nirmālya-vane śeṣā ca kīrtitā.