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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.57.22

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: a young forest tapasvin cried out, asking why someone had attacked a harmless person fetching water

2.57.22

evaṃ niṣphalam ārabdhaṃ kevalānarthasaṃhitam
na kaś cit sādhu manyeta yathaiva gurutalpagam

'Such a deed, undertaken to no purpose and fraught with sheer calamity, no one would deem right, just as none approves defiling the teacher's bed.'

Words: evaṃ — thus, such; niṣphalam — fruitless; ārabdhaṃ — undertaken; kevalānarthasaṃhitam — fraught with sheer calamity; na — not; kaś — any(one); cit — -ever; sādhu — good, right; manyeta — would deem; yathaiva — just as; gurutalpagam — (one who) violates the teacher's bed

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.