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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.55.9
Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 55: Kausalyā reproaches Daśaratha. She fears Rāma will reject Bharata’s former Kingdom even after returning, Daśaratha collapses and recalls his past wrongdoing
In the sequence: she longs to see Rāma and wonders how her heart has survived the separation
2.55.9
vajrasāramayaṃ nūnaṃ hṛdayaṃ me na saṃśayaḥ
apaśyantyā na taṃ yad vai phalatīdaṃ sahasradhā
“Surely my heart is made of the very stuff of adamant—no doubt of it—since, not seeing him, it does not burst here into a thousand pieces.
Words: vajrasāramayaṃ — made of adamantine substance; nūnaṃ — surely; hṛdayaṃ — the heart; me — my; na — no; saṃśayaḥ — doubt; apaśyantyā — of (me) not seeing; na — not; taṃ — him; yad — since, in that; vai — indeed; phalatīdaṃ — this bursts, splits; sahasradhā — in a thousand ways/pieces
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.