← 3.37.1 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 37: Mārīca’s second defeat and terror · 3.37.3 →
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.37.2
Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 37: Mārīca’s second defeat and terror. His deer-form attack costs two companions, he abandons violence but still sees and fears Rāma everywhere
In the sequence: Mārīca continues with a later episode: despite the first defeat, he returned to Daṇḍaka with two other rākṣasas, all in deer forms
3.37.2
rākṣasābhyām ahaṃ dvābhyām anirviṇṇas tathā kṛtaḥ
sahito mṛgarūpābhyāṃ praviṣṭo daṇḍakāvanam
Undeterred, though so treated, I entered the Daṇḍaka forest together with two rākṣasas in the form of deer.
Words: rākṣasābhyām — with two rākṣasas; ahaṃ — I; dvābhyām — two (dual); anirviṇṇas — undeterred, not despondent; tathā kṛtaḥ — (though) so treated; sahito — together; mṛgarūpābhyāṃ — in the form of deer (dual); praviṣṭo — entered; daṇḍakāvanam — the Daṇḍaka forest
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.