← 2.58.11 · Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa 58: The curse and Daśaratha’s death · 2.58.13 →
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.58.12
Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 58: The curse and Daśaratha’s death. The youth’s father condemns him to die grieving for a son, Daśaratha recalls the curse and dies calling for Rāma
In the sequence: Daśaratha identified himself and confessed that he had mistaken the sound of the filling pot for an animal → he told the father that the youth had died when he withdrew the arrow
2.58.12
bhagavaṃś cāpahasto 'haṃ sarayūtīram āgataḥ
jighāṃsuḥ śvāpadaṃ kiṃ cin nipāne vāgataṃ gajam
'Venerable one, bow in hand, I came to the bank of the Sarayū, wishing to kill some beast of prey, or an elephant come to the watering-place.'
Words: bhagavaṃś — O venerable one; cāpahasto — bow in hand; 'haṃ — I; sarayūtīram — to the bank of the Sarayū; āgataḥ — came; jighāṃsuḥ — wishing to kill; śvāpadaṃ — a beast of prey; kiṃ cin — some; nipāne — at the watering-place; vāgataṃ — or come; gajam — an elephant
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.