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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.74.23
Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 74: Paraśurāma: The two divine bows and the challenge. Paraśurāma ignores Daśaratha’s plea, recounts the rival divine bows and his vengeance, and challenges Rāma to string Viṣṇu’s bow
In the sequence: Paraśurāma recounts that Arjuna brought about the death of his father after he had laid down his weapons → in vengeance he repeatedly destroyed the kṣatriyas, conquered the earth, and gave it to Kaśyapa as a sacrificial fee
1.74.23
nyastaśastre pitari me tapobalasamanvite
arjuno vidadhe mṛtyuṃ prākṛtāṃ buddhim āsthitaḥ
When my father, endowed with the power of austerity, had laid down his weapons, Arjuna (Kārtavīrya), stooping to a base mind, brought about his death.
Words: nyastaśastre — having laid down weapons (loc. abs.); pitari — my father (loc. abs.); me — my; tapobalasamanvite — endowed with the power of austerity (loc. abs.); arjuno — Arjuna (Kārtavīrya); vidadhe — brought about, wrought; mṛtyuṃ — death; prākṛtāṃ — base, common, vulgar; buddhim — mind, mentality; āsthitaḥ — adopting, resorting to
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.