कौसल्या च सुमित्रा च कैकेयी च सुमध्यमा। वधूप्रतिग्रहे युक्ता याश्चान्या राजयोषित:
Meaning
Kausalya, Sumitra, the slender-waisted Kaikeyi, and the other royal women busied themselves receiving the new brides.
Word-by-word (pada-artha)
| Word | Devanagari | Meaning | Grammatical role |
|---|---|---|---|
| kausalyā | कौसल्या | Kausalya | nominative |
| ca | च | and | conjunction |
| sumitrā | सुमित्रा | Sumitra | nominative |
| ca | च | and | conjunction |
| kaikeyī | कैकेयी | Kaikeyi | nominative |
| ca | च | and | conjunction |
| sumadhyamā | सुमध्यमा | of slender waist | nominative adjective |
| vadhūpratigrahe | वधूप्रतिग्रहे | in receiving the daughters-in-law | locative |
| yuktā: | युक्ताः | engaged | nominative adjective |
| yā: | याः | who | relative pronoun |
| ca | च | and | conjunction |
| anyā: | अन्याः | other | nominative adjective |
| rājayoṣita: | राजयोषितः | royal women | nominative |
Scholar commentary
valmikiramayan.net Prose Commentary
Desiraju Hanumanta Rao's prose rendering with embedded explanatory notes
The source describes the traditional bridal 'naming game': a new bride is customarily forbidden from addressing her husband by name and must be teased into eventually muttering it before being let into a room, part of a broader repertoire of women-only wedding games now fading from practice. It also notes that Dasharatha's joy here is fourfold, since he expected only one son's wedding but ended up with four sons married in a single ceremony -- and flags that Kaikeyi is singled out here as the one queen distinguished specifically by 'beauty,' a detail the source reads as quietly seeding the favoritism that will later drive Dasharatha's fateful promise to her.
1 of 16 traditions have commentary on this shloka. Traditions without a verse-specific commentary here are omitted rather than filled in.
Reference: 1.77.11 · Bāla Kāṇḍa