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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.58.54

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: Returning to the present, Daśaratha tells Kausalyā that the curse has now reached him → he longs for one final touch from Rāma, but his sight and memory begin to fail → he imagines the fortunate people who will see his son return after the exile → calling for Rāma, he dies at midnight.

2.58.54

nivṛttavanavāsaṃ tam ayodhyāṃ punar āgatam
drakṣyanti sukhino rāmaṃ śukraṃ mārgagataṃ yathā

Happy are they who will see Rāma, his forest-dwelling ended, come back again to Ayodhyā, like Venus (Śukra) returned to its course.

Words: nivṛttavanavāsaṃ — his forest-dwelling ended; tam — him; ayodhyāṃ — to Ayodhyā; punar — again; āgatam — come back; drakṣyanti — will see; sukhino — the happy ones; rāmaṃ — Rāma; śukraṃ — Venus (Śukra); mārgagataṃ — set on its course; yathā — like

Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki. 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.