← 1.65.21 · Bāla Kāṇḍa 65: Story of Sītā & Śiva’s bow: Birth, suitors and Janaka’s condition · 1.65.23 →
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.65.22
Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 65: Story of Sītā & Śiva’s bow: Birth, suitors and Janaka’s condition. Janaka recounts Sītā’s birth, Śiva’s bow and the suitors’ failure, offering her hand to Rāma if he can string it
In the sequence: humiliated, they besieged Mithilā → after a year his resources were exhausted
1.65.22
ātmānam avadhūtaṃ te vijñāya munipuṃgava
roṣeṇa mahatāviṣṭāḥ pīḍayan mithilāṃ purīm
Realizing themselves to be spurned, O bull among sages, seized with great rage, they harassed the city of Mithilā.
Words: ātmānam — themselves; avadhūtaṃ — spurned, rejected; te — they; vijñāya — having realized; munipuṃgava — O bull among sages; roṣeṇa — with rage; mahatāviṣṭāḥ — seized with great (rage); pīḍayan — harassed, oppressed; mithilāṃ — Mithilā; purīm — the city
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.