Devalok
From the epics · 2 tellings · North India, Pan-India

Rama and the boatman on the Ganga

On the first night of the exile Rama reaches the Ganga at Shringaverapura, where the Nishada king Guha welcomes him and ferries him across. In Tulsidas the boatman will not let him into the boat until he has washed his feet, in case their dust turns the boat into a woman.

Who is in it

Places: Shringaverapura, Ganga · Texts: Valmiki Ramayana, Ramcharitmanas

The story, beat by beat

  1. Rama, Sita and Lakshmana reach the Ganga at Shringaverapura at the start of the exile.
  2. Guha, the king of the boatmen, comes out to meet his friend with food and offers him his kingdom.
  3. Rama refuses, for he has sworn to live on forest fare; they sleep under a tree while Lakshmana and Guha keep watch.
  4. In the morning Guha ferries them across.
  5. In Tulsidas the boatman Kevat refuses to take Rama on board until he has washed his feet, having heard that the dust of those feet turned a stone into a woman.

exile friendship caste devotion

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda 50 to 52

Pan-India Vaishnava

At Shringaverapura on the Ganga Rama is met by Guha, king of the Nishadas and his friend, who brings food and says the land is Rama's to rule. Rama embraces him and refuses everything but fodder for the horses, for he has taken the vow of the forest. Rama and Sita sleep on the ground under an ingudi tree. Lakshmana will not sleep, and talks with Guha through the night of Dasharatha and of Ayodhya. In the morning Rama sends back the chariot and Guha's boat carries the three across the Ganga.

The Ramayan of Valmiki, tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870 to 1874); Guha (Ramayana), Wikipedia

Popular retelling

Tulsidas, Ramcharitmanas, Ayodhya Kand

North India Vaishnava

Rama asks the boatman for his boat. Kevat says he knows the secret of those feet: their dust turned a stone into a woman, and his boat is wood, and it is all he has to feed his family. He will only take Rama across if he may first wash his feet. Rama smiles and agrees. Kevat washes the feet in a wooden basin, drinks the water with his family, and rows them across. Sita offers her ring as fare; Kevat will not take it, saying that one boatman does not charge another, and asks only that Rama carry him across the river of the world when his turn comes.

Ramcharitmanas, Wikipedia; Guha (Ramayana), Wikipedia

Sources: The Ramayan of Valmiki, tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870 to 1874); Guha (Ramayana), Wikipedia; Ramcharitmanas, Wikipedia

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