← 3.15.3 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 15: Rāma’s winter bath in the Godāvarī · 3.15.5 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.15.4

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: Lakṣmaṇa remarks that Rāma's favorite season has arrived: frost roughens the world, crops cover the earth, water is no longer pleasant to enter, and the warmth of a fire is welcome

3.15.4

ayaṃ sa kālaḥ saṃprāptaḥ priyo yas te priyaṃvada
alaṃkṛta ivābhāti yena saṃvatsaraḥ śubhaḥ

“O sweet-spoken one, this dear season has now arrived — the one you love — by which the auspicious year shines as though adorned.

Words: ayaṃ — this; sa — that; kālaḥ — time, season; saṃprāptaḥ — has arrived; priyo — dear; yas — which; te — to you; priyaṃvada — O sweet-spoken one; alaṃkṛta — adorned; ivābhāti — shines as though; yena — by which; saṃvatsaraḥ — the year; śubhaḥ — auspicious, fair

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.