Kuśa and Lava

One rainy night in the month of Śrāvaṇa, the very night that Rāma's brother Śatrughna was resting in a leaf hut at Vālmīki's hermitage on his way to fight the demon Lavaṇa, Sītā gave birth to twin sons. Near midnight the young ascetics came to tell the sage. Master, they said, Rāma's wife has borne twin sons. Perform the rite that guards them against evil spirits.

Vālmīki went to see the two babies, shining like the waxing moon, and was glad. He took a handful of kuśa grass and of lava grass and made the protective rite for them. The elder, born first, was wiped with kuśa grass purified by mantras, and so was named Kuśa. The younger was wiped by the old women with lava grass, and so was named Lava. These twin brothers, the sage said, will be famous by the names I have given them. Śatrughna heard the news at midnight and went to the leaf hut and said to Sītā, Mother, rejoice, and in the morning he took leave of the sage with folded hands and went on his way.

The boys grew up in the hermitage dressed as young ascetics, learned in the Veda, and gifted with beautiful voices. When Vālmīki had finished his poem and was wondering who would carry it out into the world, the two princes came and touched his feet, and he saw how sharp their minds were and how deep their learning, and he taught them the whole of the Rāmāyaṇa. It was sweet to recite and to sing, set to the three measures and the seven modes, fit for the strings and the beat, and full of every feeling, love and laughter, pity and anger, courage, fear, disgust and wonder. The two boys sang it as if they were gandharvas, the singers of heaven, in human form, and they looked like images of Rāma himself.

Once, when the sages were sitting together, the two sang the poem before them, and the sages wept and cried, Well done, well done! How sweet the song, and how wonderful the verses! It happened long ago, and yet it is as if we saw it before our eyes. And in their delight the sages gave the boys gifts, a water-pot, a bark garment, a deerskin, a sacred thread, a seat, a rosary, and blessed them with long life.