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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.2.9
Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 2: Grief becomes the first śloka. A bird’s death moves Vālmīki to utter the first śloka, Brahmā asks him to compose Rāma’s life in that form
In the sequence: looking around the forest, he sees an inseparable pair of sweet-voiced krauñca birds → a hunter kills the male before his eyes → the bloodied bird writhes on the ground while his mate cries out
1.2.9
tasyābhyāśe tu mithunaṃ carantam anapāyinam
dadarśa bhagavāṃs tatra krauñcayoś cāruniḥsvanam
And nearby the venerable one saw there a pair of krauñca birds, sweet-voiced, moving about inseparable from each other.
Words: tasyābhyāśe — in his vicinity, nearby; tu — and; mithunaṃ — a pair, couple; carantam — moving about; anapāyinam — inseparable, never parting; dadarśa — saw; bhagavāṃs — the venerable one; tatra — there; krauñcayoś — of the two krauñca (curlew) birds; cāruniḥsvanam — sweet-voiced
Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki, the ādikavi of the ādikāvya: the first poet of the first poem. Sanskrit: The Vālmīki-Rāmāyaṇa: Critical Edition, Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1960–1975 (gen. eds. G. H. Bhatt, U. P. Shah); IAST from GRETIL (Göttingen). Translation and word glosses: Claude Opus 4.6–4.7; summaries and sequences: ChatGPT Astra (machine-made). Numbering follows the Critical Edition, not the vulgate (e.g. Gita Press, valmikiramayan.net), so sarga and verse numbers can differ from those editions.