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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.65.25

Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 65: Bharata reaches Ayodhyā. He hastens ahead of his company, finds the city silent and neglected and enters his father’s residence in alarm

In the sequence: the people look unwashed, thin, and tearful → increasingly anxious, he enters his father's residence.

2.65.25

malinaṃ cāśrupūrṇākṣaṃ dīnaṃ dhyānaparaṃ kṛśam
sastrī puṃsaṃ ca paśyāmi janam utkaṇṭhitaṃ pure

I see the people in the city, women and men alike, dirty, their eyes brimming with tears, wretched, lost in brooding, gaunt, and full of anxious longing.

Words: malinaṃ — dirty, soiled; cāśrupūrṇākṣaṃ — and with eyes full of tears; dīnaṃ — wretched, miserable; dhyānaparaṃ — lost in brooding; kṛśam — gaunt, emaciated; sastrī — with the women; puṃsaṃ — the men; ca — and; paśyāmi — I see; janam — the people; utkaṇṭhitaṃ — full of anxious longing; pure — in the city

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.