← 3.56.19 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 56: Return to the empty hut

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.56.20

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 56: Return to the empty hut. Rāma imagines Sītā’s loss and its consequences, hurries back with Lakṣmaṇa and finds their dwelling deserted

In the sequence: exhausted, thirsty, and still reproaching his brother, he reaches the empty dwelling → the familiar places where they lived together intensify his grief.

3.56.20

svam āśramaṃ saṃpravigāhya vīro vihāradeśān anusṛtya kāṃś cit
etat tad ity eva nivāsabhūmau prahṛṣṭaromā vyathito babhūva

Entering his own hermitage and retracing some of their old haunts—'here it is, that very spot'—on the ground where they had dwelt, his hair bristling, the hero became stricken with grief.

Words: svam — his own; āśramaṃ — hermitage; saṃpravigāhya — having entered; vīro — the hero; vihāradeśān — the places of (their) roaming; anusṛtya — having retraced; kāṃś cit — some, certain; etat — this; tad — that; ity — thus; eva — indeed; nivāsabhūmau — on the ground of (their) dwelling; prahṛṣṭaromā — with hair bristling; vyathito — stricken, agitated; babhūva — became

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.