← 3.22.23 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 22: Omens on Khara’s march · 3.22.25 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.22.24

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 22: Omens on Khara’s march. Blood-coloured rain, darkness and bodily tremors warn of disaster, Khara dismisses them and advances with his leading warriors

In the sequence: laughing at the portents, he boasts that he could defeat Death or Indra and will not return without killing the brothers

3.22.24

devarājam api kruddho mattairāvatayāyinam
vajrahastaṃ raṇe hanyāṃ kiṃ punas tau ca mānuṣau

Enraged, I could slay in battle even the king of the gods, riding his rutting Airāvata, thunderbolt in hand — how much more those two mortals?

Words: devarājam — the king of the gods (Indra); api — even; kruddho — enraged; mattairāvatayāyinam — riding the rutting Airāvata; vajrahastaṃ — thunderbolt in hand; raṇe — in battle; hanyāṃ — I could slay; kiṃ punas — how much more; tau — those two; ca — and; mānuṣau — mortals, men

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.