← 2.57.38 · Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa 57: Daśaratha’s arrow aimed at a sound
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.57.39
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.
2.57.39
jalārdragātraṃ tu vilapya kṛcchān marmavraṇaṃ saṃtatam ucchasantam
tataḥ sarayvāṃ tam ahaṃ śayānaṃ samīkṣya bhadre subhṛśaṃ viṣaṇṇaḥ
Seeing him lying there in the Sarayū, O gracious lady, his body wet, lamenting piteously, his mortal wound heaving as he gasped without ceasing, I was utterly overcome with despair.
Words: jalārdragātraṃ — his body wet with water; tu — and; vilapya — lamenting; kṛcchān — piteously, with difficulty; marmavraṇaṃ — his mortal wound; saṃtatam — continuously, without ceasing; ucchasantam — gasping, breathing hard; tataḥ — then; sarayvāṃ — in the Sarayū; tam — him; ahaṃ — I; śayānaṃ — lying; samīkṣya — having beheld; bhadre — O gracious lady; subhṛśaṃ — utterly, exceedingly; viṣaṇṇaḥ — dejected, in despair
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.