Ramayana — Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 114, Shloka 16
अयोध्याप्रवेशः
Bharata Enters Ayodhya and Perceives the City’s Desolation
विपुलां विततां चैव युक्तपाशां तरस्विनाम्। भूमौ बाणैर्विनिष्कृत्तां पतितां ज्यामिवायुधात्।।2.114.16।।
vipulāṃ vitatāṃ caiva yuktapāśāṃ tarasvinām | bhūmau bāṇair viniṣkṛttāṃ patitāṃ jyām ivāyudhāt || 2.114.16 ||
Elle gisait à terre telle une corde d’arc arrachée à l’arme : large et tendue, munie de ses boucles d’attache, mais tranchée par les flèches et abattue.
FAQs
The image of something ‘severed’ and fallen suggests the rupture of rightful order; dharma is portrayed as a sustaining tension (like a bowstring) whose loss collapses the city’s vitality.
Ayodhya is being depicted through a sequence of similes as emptied and broken in spirit after Rama’s banishment.
Rama’s centrality to civic well-being is implied; the city’s fall mirrors the absence of the dharmic exemplar.