← 1.37.15 · Bāla Kāṇḍa 37: Story of Sagara: One heir and sixty thousand sons · 1.37.17 →
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.37.16
Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 37: Story of Sagara: One heir and sixty thousand sons. Sagara’s wives choose one dynastic heir or sixty thousand sons, the many grow in ghee-filled pots while Asamañja is banished for killing children
In the sequence: Sumati produces a gourd-like embryo, which bursts open to release sixty thousand sons → nurses rear them in ghee-filled pots until, in time, they grow into young men
1.37.16
atha kāle gate tasmiñ jyeṣṭhā putraṃ vyajāyata
asamañja iti khyātaṃ keśinī sagarātmajam
Now when that time had passed, the elder wife Keśinī gave birth to a son of Sagara, known as Asamañja.
Words: atha — now; kāle — time (loc.); gate — gone, passed (loc.); tasmiñ — that (loc.); jyeṣṭhā — the elder; putraṃ — a son; vyajāyata — gave birth to, bore; asamañja — Asamañja; iti — so (called); khyātaṃ — known, named; keśinī — Keśinī; sagarātmajam — a son of Sagara
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.