← 1.32.10 · Bāla Kāṇḍa 32: Story of Kuśanābha: Brahmadatta restores the daughters · 1.32.12 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.32.11

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 32: Story of Kuśanābha: Brahmadatta restores the daughters. Kuśanābha praises their restraint and arranges marriage to Brahmadatta, whose touch restores each sister as he takes her hand

In the sequence: Kuśanābha praises their united restraint, calling patience an ornament of both women and men and a foundation of dharma → he consults his ministers about suitable marriages. Viśvāmitra introduces the man they will marry through a second story: the maharṣi Cūlī, an ūrdhvaretas (one who restrains his generative energy) is served devotedly by Somadā, a gandharva woman and daughter of Ūrmilā

1.32.11

etasminn eva kāle tu cūlī nāma mahāmuniḥ
ūrdhvaretāḥ śubhācāro brāhmaṃ tapa upāgamat

At just this time a great sage named Cūlī — of upward-drawn seed, of pure conduct — was engaged in holy austerity.

Words: etasminn — at this; eva — very, just; kāle — time; tu — and; cūlī — Cūlī; nāma — by name; mahāmuniḥ — a great sage; ūrdhvaretāḥ — of upward-drawn seed, perfectly chaste; śubhācāro — of pure conduct; brāhmaṃ — holy, brahmanical; tapa — austerity, penance; upāgamat — engaged in, undertook

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.