← 2.18.24 · Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa 18: Resistance or obedience · 2.18.26 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.18.25

Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 18: Resistance or obedience. Lakṣmaṇa offers force and Kausalyā asks Rāma to stay, Rāma cites ancestral precedents and upholds his father’s word

In the sequence: Rāma answers that he cannot disobey his father → he cites Kaṇḍu killing a cow at his father's command, Sagara's sons digging the earth and meeting destruction, and Paraśurāma striking down his mother with an axe on his father's orders → he presents their obedience as precedents for keeping his own father's word

2.18.25

vilapantīṃ tathā dīnāṃ kausalyāṃ jananīṃ tataḥ
uvāca rāmo dharmātmā vacanaṃ dharmasaṃhitam

Then to his mother Kausalyā, lamenting thus in her misery, righteous Rāma spoke words in keeping with dharma:

Words: vilapantīṃ — lamenting; tathā — thus; dīnāṃ — wretched, in misery; kausalyāṃ — Kausalyā; jananīṃ — his mother; tataḥ — then; uvāca — spoke; rāmo — Rāma; dharmātmā — the righteous one; vacanaṃ — words; dharmasaṃhitam — in keeping with dharma

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.