← 3.15.27 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 15: Rāma’s winter bath in the Godāvarī · 3.15.29 →
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.15.28
Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 15: Rāma’s winter bath in the Godāvarī. Lakṣmaṇa describes cold water and imagines Bharata’s Sarayū bath, Rāma bathes with Sītā & Lakṣmaṇa and offers water
In the sequence: he imagines Bharata setting out with his ministers for the Sarayū at this very hour → remembering how delicately Bharata was raised, he wonders how he can bear plunging into the river in the bitter cold before dawn
3.15.28
atyantasukhasaṃvṛddhaḥ sukumāro himārditaḥ
kathaṃ tv apararātreṣu sarayūm avagāhate
Raised in the utmost comfort, delicate, and tormented by the cold — how then, in the last watches of the night, does he plunge into the Sarayū?
Words: atyantasukhasaṃvṛddhaḥ — raised in the utmost comfort; sukumāro — delicate, tender; himārditaḥ — tormented by cold; kathaṃ — how; tv — but, indeed; apararātreṣu — in the latter watches of the night; sarayūm — the Sarayū; avagāhate — plunges into, bathes in
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.