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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.40.15

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 40: Story of Sagara: Aṃśumat retrieves the horse. Aṃśumat recovers the horse and finds his uncles’ ashes, Garuḍa says only Gaṅgā can redeem them, Sagara completes the sacrifice but cannot bring her down

In the sequence: he finds the ashes of his relatives and weeps → seeing the horse nearby, he seeks water for their funeral offering but finds none

1.40.15

dadarśa puruṣavyāghro kartukāmo jalakriyām
salilārthī mahātejā na cāpaśyaj jalāśayam

That tiger among men, of great splendour, wishing to perform the water-rite and needing water, looked about, but saw no reservoir of water.

Words: dadarśa — looked about (lit. saw); puruṣavyāghro — the tiger among men; kartukāmo — wishing to perform; jalakriyām — the water-rite (funeral libation); salilārthī — seeking water; mahātejā — of great splendour; na — not; cāpaśyaj — and did not see; jalāśayam — a reservoir of water

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.