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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.57.34

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 directed Daśaratha to his parents' hermitage and asked him to confess and seek their forgiveness → he also asked him to remove the arrow, explaining that his father was a Vaiśya and his mother a Śūdra, to relieve the prince's fear of having killed a brāhmaṇa → Daśaratha drew it out, and the youth gasped from the wound.

2.57.34

pitus tvam eva me gatvā śīghram ācakṣva rāghava
na tvām anudahet kruddho vanaṃ vahnir ivaidhitaḥ

'Go quickly yourself, O Rāghava, and tell this to my father, lest, enraged, he consume you as a kindled fire consumes a forest.'

Words: pitus — to (my) father; tvam — you; eva — yourself, indeed; me — my; gatvā — having gone; śīghram — quickly; ācakṣva — tell, announce; rāghava — O Rāghava; na — not, lest; tvām — you; anudahet — may burn up; kruddho — enraged; vanaṃ — a forest; vahnir — fire; ivaidhitaḥ — like a kindled (fire)

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.