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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.68.16

Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 68: Surabhi’s tears and Bharata’s vow. He compares Kausalyā’s sorrow to Surabhi’s grief for her exhausted oxen and offers to replace Rāma in exile

In the sequence: to explain Kausalyā's suffering, he tells of the divine cow Surabhi, whose tears fell on Indra when she saw two of her sons exhausted under a plough

2.68.16

tāv ardhadivase śrāntau dṛṣṭvā putrau mahītale
ruroda putra śokena bāṣpaparyākulekṣaṇā

Seeing those two sons of hers wearied at midday upon the ground, she wept with grief for her sons, her eyes brimming and troubled with tears.

Words: tāv — those two; ardhadivase — at midday; śrāntau — the two wearied; dṛṣṭvā — having seen; putrau — two sons; mahītale — on the ground; ruroda — wept; putra śokena — with grief for her sons; bāṣpaparyākulekṣaṇā — her eyes troubled with tears

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.