← 2.57.37 · Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa 57: Daśaratha’s arrow aimed at a sound · 2.57.39 →
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.57.38
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.
2.57.38
itīva vadataḥ kṛcchrād bāṇābhihatamarmaṇaḥ
tasya tv ānamyamānasya taṃ bāṇam aham uddharam
As he was speaking thus with difficulty, his vital spot pierced by the arrow, and as he writhed, I drew that arrow out of him.
Words: itīva — thus indeed; vadataḥ — of (him) speaking; kṛcchrād — with difficulty; bāṇābhihatamarmaṇaḥ — his vital spot struck by the arrow; tasya — of him; tv — and; ānamyamānasya — of him bending, writhing; taṃ — that; bāṇam — arrow; aham — I; uddharam — drew out
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.