← 1.74.23 · Bāla Kāṇḍa 74: Paraśurāma: The two divine bows and the challenge · 1.74.25 →
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.74.24
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
1.74.24
vadham apratirūpaṃ tu pituḥ śrutvā sudāruṇam
kṣatram utsādayaṃ roṣāj jātaṃ jātam anekaśaḥ
Hearing of my father's most cruel and unparalleled slaying, in fury I exterminated the kṣatriyas as they were born, again and again.
Words: vadham — the slaying; apratirūpaṃ — unparalleled, unheard-of; tu — and; pituḥ — of my father; śrutvā — having heard; sudāruṇam — most cruel; kṣatram — the kṣatriyas, warrior-race; utsādayaṃ — I exterminated; roṣāj — out of fury; jātaṃ jātam — (each one) as they were born; anekaśaḥ — repeatedly, many times over
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.