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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.57.14

Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 57: Daśaratha’s arrow aimed at a sound. He recalls mistaking a filling pot for an elephant and shooting a youth who directs him to his blind parents

In the sequence: He recalls his youth, before their marriage, when he was still heir: during the rainy season he went hunting beside the Sarayū

2.57.14

tasminn atisukhe kāle dhanuṣmān iṣumān rathī
vyāyāma kṛtasaṃkalpaḥ sarayūm anvagāṃ nadīm

In that most pleasant season, bearing bow and arrows and mounted in a chariot, bent on sport, I went along the river Sarayū.

Words: tasminn — in that; atisukhe — most pleasant; kāle — season, time; dhanuṣmān — bearing a bow; iṣumān — bearing arrows; rathī — mounted in a chariot; vyāyāma — sport, exercise; kṛtasaṃkalpaḥ — resolved, having made up my mind; sarayūm — the Sarayū; anvagāṃ — I went along; nadīm — river

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.