Shloka 3.52.37
सीताहरण-विलापः / The Lament at Jatāyu and the Abduction of Sītā
जलप्रपातास्रमुखाश्शृङ्गैरुच्छ्रितबाहुभिः।सीतायां ह्रियमाणायां विक्रोशन्तीव पर्वताः।।।।
jala-prapātāśru-mukhāḥ śṛṅgair ucchrita-bāhubhiḥ |
sītāyāṃ hriyamāṇāyāṃ vikrośantīva parvatāḥ ||
As Sītā was being carried away, the mountains seemed to wail—pouring forth tears as waterfalls and lifting their peaks like upraised arms.
The mountains were shedding tears in the form of waterfalls, and crying with hands lifted up in the form of peaks, while Sita was being carried away.
The verse communicates that adharma disrupts the whole order: the natural world ‘laments,’ implying that injustice is not private but cosmic, calling for restoration through righteous action.
In the climactic moment of the abduction, the landscape is poetically animated: mountains ‘weep’ through waterfalls as Sītā is taken away.
Sītā’s moral significance and purity—her suffering is depicted as so grave that even the mountains respond in grief.