← 1.31.21 · Bāla Kāṇḍa 31: Story of Kuśanābha: Vāyu disfigures the hundred daughters

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.31.22

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: the sisters return to the palace → alarmed, Kuśanābha asks who has done this to them as they writhe without speaking.

1.31.22

kim idaṃ kathyatāṃ putryaḥ ko dharmam avamanyate
kubjāḥ kena kṛtāḥ sarvā veṣṭantyo nābhibhāṣatha

“What is this? Speak, my daughters! Who is it that spurns dharma? By whom have you all been made crooked? You writhe, yet you do not speak.”

Words: kim — what; idaṃ — this; kathyatāṃ — let it be told, speak; putryaḥ — O daughters; ko — who; dharmam — dharma; avamanyate — spurns, disregards; kubjāḥ — hunchbacked, crooked; kena — by whom; kṛtāḥ — made; sarvā — all; veṣṭantyo — writhing, twisting; nābhibhāṣatha — you do not speak

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.