← 1.23.16 · Bāla Kāṇḍa 23: Story of Tāṭakā’s forest: Indra’s cleansing and the ruined country · 1.23.18 →
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.23.17
Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 23: Story of Tāṭakā’s forest: Indra’s cleansing and the ruined country. The Sarayū’s origin and confluence are explained, Indra’s cleansing gives Malada & Karūṣa their names and Tāṭakā’s devastation makes the region impassable
In the sequence: Viśvāmitra recounts how Indra incurred the guilt of brāhmaṇa-killing after slaying Vṛtra and was afflicted with impurity and hunger → the Devas and ṛṣis bathed him with pitchers, depositing his bodily impurities, mala and karūṣa, on this land → relieved and grateful, Indra granted the lands a boon: they would become renowned as Malada and Karūṣa for having borne his bodily impurity → the Devas acclaim Indra’s honoring of the land → the regions flourish for many years, prosperous in wealth and grain
1.23.17
purā vṛtravadhe rāma malena samabhiplutam
kṣudhā caiva sahasrākṣaṃ brahmahatyā yadāviśat
Of old, at the slaying of Vṛtra, O Rāma, when the guilt of brahmin-murder entered the Thousand-eyed one (Indra), he was flooded over with impurity and with hunger.
Words: purā — of old; vṛtravadhe — at the slaying of Vṛtra; rāma — O Rāma; malena — with impurity, filth; samabhiplutam — flooded over, overwhelmed; kṣudhā — with hunger; caiva — and; sahasrākṣaṃ — the Thousand-eyed (Indra); brahmahatyā — the guilt of brahmin-murder; yadāviśat — when it entered
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.