← 3.6.21 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 6: Sutīkṣṇa’s hospitality

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.6.22

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 6: Sutīkṣṇa’s hospitality. The ṛṣi offers heavenly worlds and a forest home, Rāma declines a long stay because hunting the resident deer would distress his host

In the sequence: he performs evening worship and settles for the night → Sutīkṣṇa personally gives the brothers food suitable for tapasvins.

3.6.22

tataḥ śubhaṃ tāpasabhojyam annaṃ svayaṃ sutīkṣṇaḥ puruṣarṣabhābhyām
tābhyāṃ susatkṛtya dadau mahātmā saṃdhyānivṛttau rajanīṃ samīkṣya

Then the great-souled Sutīkṣṇa himself, having warmly honoured those two bulls among men, gave them fine food fit for ascetics, when the twilight had passed and he saw that night had come.

Words: tataḥ — then; śubhaṃ — fine, auspicious; tāpasabhojyam — food fit for ascetics; annaṃ — food; svayaṃ — himself; sutīkṣṇaḥ — Sutīkṣṇa; puruṣarṣabhābhyām — to the two bulls among men; tābhyāṃ — to those two; susatkṛtya — having warmly honoured; dadau — gave; mahātmā — the great-souled one; saṃdhyānivṛttau — at the passing of twilight; rajanīṃ — the night; samīkṣya — having observed

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.