Valmiki Ramayana 1.45.34: Bala Kanda, Sarga 45, Shloka 34
विशालानगरीप्रवेशः · Entry toward Viśālā and the Indra
Kṣīrodamathana Legend
Spoken by Viśvāmitra to Rama
न तास्स्म परिगृह्णन्ति सर्वे ते देवदानवाः ।
अप्रतिग्रहणात्ताश्च सर्वास्साधारणास्स्मृताः ॥३४॥
na tāḥ sma parigṛhṇanti sarve te devadānavāḥ |
apratigrahaṇāt tāś ca sarvāḥ sādhāraṇāḥ smṛtāḥ ||34||
लेकिन ना देवता ने इन्हे शादी के लिए लिया, ना असुर ने। क्योंकि किसी ने अक्सेप्ट नहीं किया, तो यह सबके लिए कॉमन हो गई।
Sandhi Notes
- तास्स्म → ताः + स्म
- अप्रतिग्रहणात्ताश्च → अप्रतिग्रहणात् + ताः + च
- सर्वास्साधारणास्स्मृताः → सर्वाः + साधारणाः + स्मृताः (visarga before s)
Neither devas nor danavas accept them in marriage. Unmarried, all of them have been regarded as belonging to all.
The teaching
Recognition and acceptance confer social place; refusal can render beings liminal—inviting reflection on responsibility and the ethics of exclusion.
Duties in tension
- Desire/pleasure vs. social legitimacy through marriage
- Cosmic factions’ rivalry vs. responsibility toward newly emerged beings
- Ethical theme
- Social dharma / saṅgha-nīti
- How it resolves
- Social reclassification (sādhāraṇa) rather than marital integration
For your practice
Prompts vairāgya toward possessiveness and reflection on compassion in social conduct.
Mood and themes
- Rasa
- Karuna (compassion), with Shanta (peace)
- Mood
- Unclaimed, aloof, fateful
Themes
- Dharma
- Itihasa
- Ethics
- Social status/norms
- Consequences of non-acceptance
Attachment/appropriation (grahaṇa) vs non-appropriation; beings remain ‘unpossessed’—a faint ethical mirror to aparigraha, though here socially imposed.
Aftermath of emergence: celestial society’s response (refusal) defining status.
- Devas and Apsarases
- Marriage refusal/non-acceptance (detached)
- Danavas and Apsarases
- Marriage refusal/non-acceptance (detached)
- Devas and Danavas
- Rival factions in cosmic polity (hostile)
Purāṇic accounts where apsarases remain unattached and serve in Indra’s court (varied traditions)
Dharmaśāstric notion of ‘pratigraha’ (acceptance) as socially constitutive, here inverted
Bālakāṇḍa 1.45 (narrative logic for apsarases’ role as ‘sādhāraṇa’)
Anuṣṭup
Solemn
Gāndhāra
FAQs
Actions and omissions have social consequences: refusal to take responsibility (here, acceptance) shapes how society defines status and belonging.
Viśvāmitra explains that neither devas nor dānavas married the apsarases, leading to their classification as ‘shared/common’.
Discernment about social order and consequence—understanding how communal decisions create enduring labels and norms.
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