← 2.18.25 · Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa 18: Resistance or obedience · 2.18.27 →
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.18.26
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
2.18.26
nāsti śaktiḥ pitur vākyaṃ samatikramituṃ mama
prasādaye tvāṃ śirasā gantum icchāmy ahaṃ vanam
"I have no power to transgress my father's word; bowing my head I entreat you—I wish to go to the forest.
Words: nāsti — there is not; śaktiḥ — power; pitur — of the father; vākyaṃ — word; samatikramituṃ — to transgress, overstep; mama — my; prasādaye — I propitiate, entreat; tvāṃ — you; śirasā — with my head; gantum — to go; icchāmy — I wish; ahaṃ — I; vanam — to the forest
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.