← 1.40.21 · Bāla Kāṇḍa 40: Story of Sagara: Aṃśumat retrieves the horse · 1.40.23 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.40.22

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: Aṃśumat returns and reports everything → Sagara completes the rite and returns to Ayodhyā, but cannot discover how to bring Gaṅgā down → after a reign of thirty thousand years, he dies.

1.40.22

suparṇavacanaṃ śrutvā so 'ṃśumān ativīryavān
tvaritaṃ hayam ādāya punar āyān mahāyaśāḥ

Hearing Suparṇa's word, that exceedingly mighty Aṃśumat of great renown quickly took the horse and came back again.

Words: suparṇavacanaṃ — Suparṇa's word; śrutvā — having heard; so 'ṃśumān — that Aṃśumat; ativīryavān — exceedingly mighty; tvaritaṃ — quickly, hastily; hayam — the horse; ādāya — having taken; punar — again, back; āyān — came, returned; mahāyaśāḥ — of great renown

Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki. 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.