← 2.97.23 · Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa 97: Bharata offers Rāma the Kingdom

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.97.24

Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 97: Bharata offers Rāma the Kingdom. Rāma absolves him of blame but insists that both brothers honour their father’s division between Kingdom and forest

In the sequence: in his view, Daśaratha assigned Bharata Ayodhyā and himself the forest, and each must now fulfill that assignment → he values keeping it above any Kingdom.

2.97.24

yad abravīn māṃ naralokasatkṛtaḥ pitā mahātmā vibudhādhipopamaḥ
tad eva manye paramātmano hitaṃ na sarvalokeśvarabhāvam avyayam

What my great-souled father — honoured in the world of men and like the lord of the gods — told me, that alone I regard as the highest good for myself, not the imperishable sovereignty over all the worlds.”

Words: yad — what; abravīn — told; māṃ — me; naralokasatkṛtaḥ — honoured in the world of men; pitā — father; mahātmā — great-souled; vibudhādhipopamaḥ — like the lord of the gods; tad eva — that alone; manye — I regard; paramātmano — for the highest self; hitaṃ — the good, benefit; na — not; sarvalokeśvarabhāvam — the state of being lord of all worlds; avyayam — imperishable

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.