Shloka 32

अहल्याशापवर्णनम्

The Account of Ahalyā’s Curse and the Deserted Hermitage near Mithilā

Devanagari script

तस्यातिथ्येन दुर्वुत्ते लोभमोहविवर्जिता।।।।मत्सकाशे मुदा युक्ता स्वं वपुर्धारयिष्यसि।

Transliteration

tasyātithyena durvṛtte lobha-moha-vivarjitā |

mat-sakāśe mudā yuktā svaṃ vapur dhārayiṣyasi |

Translation

အကျင့်မမှန်သူရေ—ထိုသူကို ဧည့်ခံပူဇော်ခြင်းကြောင့် လောဘနှင့် မောဟကင်းစင်၍ ဝမ်းမြောက်ပီတိဖြင့် ပြည့်ဝကာ၊ ငါ့အနီး၌ နေထိုင်လျက် မိမိ၏ မူလကိုယ်ခန္ဓာကို ပြန်လည်ရရှိမည်။

Word by Word

एवम्thus

उक्त्वाhaving spoken

महातेजाःthe greatly radiant (sage)

गौतमःGautama

दुष्टचारिणीम्the woman of bad conduct (Ahalyā)

इमम्this

आश्रमम्hermitage

उत्सृज्यhaving abandoned

सिद्धचारणसेवितेin (a place) frequented by Siddhas and Cāraṇas

हिमवत्of Himavat

शिखरेon the peak

पुण्येholy

तपःausterity

तेपेperformed (austerities)

महातपाःthe great ascetic

Context

Having thus cursed Indra, he also cursed Ahalya: 'You will be staying here for thousands of years without food and subsisting on air, lying down in ashes, doing penance, without being seen by any living beings in this ashrama'.

Characters & Entities

Gautama

Rāma

Ahalyā

FAQs

What is the core ethical principle (Dharma) in this verse?

Atithi-dharma (righteous hospitality) is portrayed as a purifying act when performed with inner reform—freedom from greed (lobha) and delusion (moha).

What is the narrative situation?

Gautama specifies the practical condition of Ahalyā’s restoration: she must receive Rāma as a guest with purified intent, after which she regains her form.

Which character virtue is emphasized?

The virtue is inner clarity: renouncing lobha and moha and acting joyfully in accordance with dharma.