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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.31.34

Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 31: A throne or one more night. Daśaratha urges Rāma to take the Kingdom, then begs him to stay overnight, Rāma refuses to delay the promise

In the sequence: he reassures his father that preserving his truth matters more than Kingship, pleasure, or life, and that he will find happiness among the forest's rivers and mountains.

2.31.34

mayā nisṛṣṭāṃ bharato mahīm imāṃ saśailakhaṇḍāṃ sapurāṃ sakānanām
śivāṃ susīmām anuśāstu kevalaṃ tvayā yad uktaṃ nṛpate yathāstu tat

Let Bharata rule this whole earth relinquished by me — with its mountain-tracts, its cities and its forests, auspicious and well-bounded; and let what you have declared, O king, so be.

Words: mayā nisṛṣṭāṃ — relinquished by me; bharato — Bharata; mahīm imāṃ — this earth; saśailakhaṇḍāṃ — with its mountain-tracts; sapurāṃ — with its cities; sakānanām — with its forests; śivāṃ — auspicious; susīmām — well-bounded; anuśāstu — let him rule, govern; kevalaṃ — wholly, entirely; tvayā yad uktaṃ — what has been said by you; nṛpate — O king; yathāstu tat — let that be so

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.