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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.6.8
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: Sutīkṣṇa embraces him and says that he too has delayed leaving his body because he was waiting to see Rāma
3.6.8
svāgataṃ khalu te vīra rāma dharmabhṛtāṃ vara
āśramo 'yaṃ tvayākrāntaḥ sanātha iva sāmpratam
“Welcome indeed to you, O hero Rāma, best of the upholders of dharma! This hermitage, now trodden by you, is as if it had found a protector.
Words: svāgataṃ — welcome; khalu — indeed; te — to you; vīra — O hero; rāma — O Rāma; dharmabhṛtāṃ — of the upholders of dharma; vara — O best; āśramo — hermitage; 'yaṃ — this; tvayākrāntaḥ — trodden by you; sanātha — having a protector; iva — as if; sāmpratam — now
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.