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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.68.24

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: Bharata asks how much greater Kausalyā's grief must be when even a mother of countless offspring suffers for two

2.68.24

yasyāḥ putra sahasrāṇi sāpi śocati kāmadhuk
kiṃ punar yā vinā rāmaṃ kausalyā vartayiṣyati

Even the wish-yielding cow, who has thousands of sons, grieves thus; how much more, then, will Kausalyā, who must live on without Rāma?

Words: yasyāḥ — whose, of whom; putra sahasrāṇi — thousands of sons; sāpi — even she; śocati — grieves; kāmadhuk — the wish-granting cow; kiṃ punar — how much more; yā — she who; vinā — without; rāmaṃ — Rāma; kausalyā — Kausalyā; vartayiṣyati — will go on living, will subsist

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.