Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Pūrva 4.37
॥
Devanāgarī
विजयश्च सुराष्ट्रश्च राष्ट्रवर्धन एव च । अशोको धर्मपालश्च सुमन्त्रश्चैभिरावृतः
Transliteration (IAST)
vijayaśca surāṣṭraśca rāṣṭravardhana eva ca | aśoko dharmapālaśca sumantraścaibhirāvṛtaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
विजयः च सुराष्ट्रः चvijayaḥ ca surāṣṭraḥ caVijaya and Surāṣṭra; Vijaya with Surāṣṭra
राष्ट्रवर्धनः एव चrāṣṭravardhanaḥ eva caand Rāṣṭravardhana as well; and also Rāṣṭravardhana
अशोकः धर्मपालः चaśokaḥ dharmapālaḥ caAśoka and Dharmapāla; Aśoka with Dharmapāla
सुमन्त्रः च एभिः आवृतःsumantraḥ ca ebhiḥ āvṛtaḥand Sumantra — by these he is surrounded; and Sumantra — by them he is encompassed
Translation
Vijaya, Surāṣṭra, Rāṣṭravardhana, Aśoka, Dharmapāla and Sumantra — by these He is surrounded.
Version
cb5f756b0ce6 · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The eight ministers of Daśaratha, inherited by Rāma; the Rāmāyaṇa lists their names at its very beginning.
Sumantra is the best known of them: it was he who drove the chariot that carried the exiles out of Ayodhyā, and he who returned alone and dared not show himself before the king.
The whole verse is a list of names, and it would seem there is nothing in it to read. But consider what exactly is inscribed in a diagram meant for contemplation.
Officials are inscribed. Men who managed taxes, embassies and courts.
They are set in the same circle as the heroes of the war, and the contemplator must remember them as he remembers Hanumān.
This continues what the tenth verse of the first Upaniṣad said: for the fashioned form the army too is fashioned, and the rest. The Lord is not conceived in a void: with Him is His kingdom, and a kingdom has its administration.
The same fullness we saw in the yantra of the Gopāla-tāpanī, where around Kṛṣṇa were placed not only the near ones, but the kin, the herds and the treasures. The deity of these books is not alone on the throne.