← 3.63.19 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 63: Discovery of the wounded Jaṭāyu · 3.63.21 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.63.20

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 63: Discovery of the wounded Jaṭāyu. Rāma mistakes him for Sītā’s killer, Jaṭāyu names Rāvaṇa and explains the wreckage, the brothers embrace him

In the sequence: Rāma laments that this aged friend of Daśaratha has suffered on his account → he tends and embraces the wounded bird before sinking to the ground in grief.

3.63.20

ekam ekāyane durge niḥśvasantaṃ kathaṃ cana
samīkṣya duḥkhito rāmaḥ saumitrim idam abravīt

Beholding him, alone in that inaccessible, out-of-the-way spot, barely breathing, the sorrowing Rāma said this to Saumitri:

Words: ekam — alone, single; ekāyane — in a lonely, out-of-the-way spot; durge — in the inaccessible place; niḥśvasantaṃ — breathing hard, gasping; kathaṃ cana — barely, somehow; samīkṣya — having beheld; duḥkhito — sorrowing; rāmaḥ — Rāma; saumitrim — to Saumitri; idam — this; abravīt — said

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.