← 1.31.14 · Bāla Kāṇḍa 31: Story of Kuśanābha: Vāyu disfigures the hundred daughters · 1.31.16 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.31.15

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 31: Story of Kuśanābha: Vāyu disfigures the hundred daughters. Vāyu proposes marriage, the sisters insist on their father’s consent and Vāyu enters their limbs and leaves them hunchbacked

In the sequence: they acknowledge his power but reject his approach → they say they could curse him but will preserve their austerity, and insist that he respect their father → they say they await a svayaṃvara and will accept the husband their father gives them

1.31.15

tasya tad vacanaṃ śrutvā vāyor akliṣṭakarmaṇaḥ
apahāsya tato vākyaṃ kanyāśatam athābravīt

Hearing those words of Vāyu, of untiring deeds, the hundred maidens, laughing his speech aside, then said:

Words: tasya — his; tad vacanaṃ — those words; śrutvā — having heard; vāyor — of Vāyu; akliṣṭakarmaṇaḥ — of untiring, effortless deeds; apahāsya — having laughed aside, ridiculed; tato — then; vākyaṃ — the speech, words; kanyāśatam — the hundred maidens; athābravīt — then said

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.