Valmiki Ramayana 2.40.29: Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 40, Shloka 29
प्रयाणवर्णनम्
Departure from Ayodhya; Civic Lament and the Chariot’s Urgency
Setting: Ayodhyā palace environs
शुश्रुवे चाग्रतः स्त्रीणां रुदन्तीनां महास्वनः ।
यथा नादः करेणूनां बद्धे महति कुञ्जरे ॥२९॥
śuśruve cāgrataḥ strīṇāṃ rudantīnāṃ mahā-svanaḥ |
yathā nādaḥ kareṇūnāṃ baddhe mahati kuñjare ||29||
മുന്നിൽ കരയുന്ന സ്ത്രീകളുടെ മഹത്തായ വിലാപധ്വനി അവൻ കേട്ടു—മഹാനായ ഗജരാജൻ ബന്ധിക്കപ്പെട്ടപ്പോൾ കരിണികൾ മുഴക്കുന്ന തുമ്പിക്കൈ-നാദംപോലെ.
Sandhi Notes
- चाग्रतः → ca agrataḥ
- स्त्रीणां रुदन्तीनां → strīṇām rudantīnām
- बद्धे महति कुञ्जरे → baddhe mahati kuñjare
He heard the women crying loudly in front like wailings of cow-elephants when their bull elephant is captured.
The teaching
A community’s grief can become a ‘mahāsvana’—a moral atmosphere reflecting the weight of a single dharmic rupture.
- Ethical theme
- Pathos depiction; social consequence of adharma/forced separation
For your practice
Contemplation on compassion: hearing others’ suffering as a call to soften the heart and restrain harmful decisions.
Mood and themes
- Rasa
- Karuna (compassion), with Bhayanaka (fear)
- Mood
- Piercing, lamenting, ominous
Themes
- Dharma
- Śoka (grief)
- Kāvya-alankāra (simile)
- Satya
- Pathos
Bandhana imagery: the ‘binding’ that causes anguish parallels bondage of saṃsāra; cries arise when the sustaining center is constrained/removed.
Metaphor of bondage (bandha) and resultant duḥkha—an experiential pointer toward the need for inner freedom.
- Palace women and Dasharatha
- Queens/attendants lamenting before/around the king (grieving)
- Palace women and Rama
- Mothers/elders grieving separation from son/prince (grieving)
Mahābhārata: frequent elephant similes for overwhelming sound and distress in battle/lament contexts; Rāmacaritamānasa: lament imagery likening cries to animal calls in separation
Classical kāvya convention: animal simile to intensify human emotion
Ayodhyākāṇḍa: repeated descriptions of women’s cries filling the palace/city like natural calamity
Anuṣṭup (śloka)
Grieving
Sharp rise on ‘mahāsvanaḥ’ then falling lament cadence
FAQs
The verse underscores the social cost of dharmic upheaval: when the righteous are separated from their place, collective suffering erupts—dharma is not abstract but affects an entire community.
As the king comes out, he hears intense lamentation from the women, described through an evocative elephant simile.
Not a single virtue but the depth of shared loyalty and attachment within the royal household, expressed as uncontrollable grief.
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