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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.5.17

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 5: Ayodhyā’s layout and defences. The narrative introduces Kosala on the Sarayū and its capital, describing Ayodhyā’s roads, defences, markets and abundant provisions

In the sequence: tributary Kings and merchants from many countries mingle among gardens, performers, jewel-adorned palaces, and closely built houses → grain is plentiful, water sweet, and drums, lutes, and cymbals fill the streets with music

1.5.17

gṛhagāḍhām avicchidrāṃ samabhūmau niveśitām
śālitaṇḍulasaṃpūrṇām ikṣukāṇḍarasodakām

densely built with houses, with no gap between them, laid out upon level ground, abounding in rice and grain, its water sweet as the juice of sugarcane stalks;

Words: gṛhagāḍhām — dense with houses; avicchidrāṃ — without a gap, unbroken; samabhūmau — on level ground; niveśitām — built, established, settled; śālitaṇḍulasaṃpūrṇām — full of paddy and husked rice; ikṣukāṇḍarasodakām — with water like sugarcane-stalk juice

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.