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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.57.26

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: Daśaratha dropped his bow, hurried to him, and saw what he had done → the youth told him that one arrow had effectively destroyed three lives

2.57.26

taṃ giraṃ karuṇāṃ śrutvā mama dharmānukāṅkṣiṇaḥ
karābhyāṃ saśaraṃ cāpaṃ vyathitasyāpatad bhuvi

Hearing that piteous cry, from my hands — I who long for righteousness and was shaken with grief — the bow together with its arrow fell to the ground.

Words: taṃ — that; giraṃ — cry, speech; karuṇāṃ — piteous; śrutvā — having heard; mama — my, of me; dharmānukāṅkṣiṇaḥ — of me who longs for dharma; karābhyāṃ — from (both) hands; saśaraṃ — together with the arrow; cāpaṃ — the bow; vyathitasyāpatad — of me, shaken, fell; bhuvi — on the ground

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.