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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.18.30
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
2.18.30
na khalv etan mayaikena kriyate pitṛśāsanam
pūrvair ayam abhipreto gato mārgo 'nugamyate
Truly this carrying out of a father's command is not done by me alone; this is the path desired and trodden by my forebears, and I follow it.
Words: na — not; khalv — truly, indeed; etan — this; mayaikena — by me alone; kriyate — is done; pitṛśāsanam — a father's command; pūrvair — by the forebears, ancestors; ayam — this; abhipreto — desired, intended; gato — gone, trodden; mārgo — the path; 'nugamyate — is followed
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.