Valmiki Ramayana 2.77.4-5: Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 77, Shlokas 4-5
और्ध्वदैहिकक्रिया-शोकविलापः
Obsequies for Daśaratha and the Brothers’ Lament
Setting: Ayodhyā cremation ground / at the foot of Daśaratha’s pyre (citā-mūla)Places named: Ayodhyā (implied)
ततः प्रभातसमये दिवसेऽथ त्रयोदशे ॥४॥
विललाप महाबाहुर्भरत श्शोकमूर्छितः ।
शब्दापिहितकण्ठस्तु शोधनार्थमुपागतः ॥५॥
चितामूले पितुर्वाक्यमिदमाह सुदुःखितः ।
tataḥ prabhātasamaye divase ’tha trayodaśe ||4||
vilalāpa mahābāhur bharataḥ śokamūrchitaḥ |
śabdāpihitakaṇṭhas tu śodhanārtham upāgataḥ ||5||
citāmūle pitur vākyam idam āha suduḥkhitaḥ |
Wtedy, o świcie trzynastego dnia, potężnoramienny Bharata, przytłoczony żalem, przybył na obrzęd oczyszczenia; jego gardło ściśnięte przez szloch, wypowiedział te słowa u stóp stosu ojca.
Sandhi Notes
- दिवसेऽथ = दिवसे + अथ
- महाबाहुर्भरतः = महाबाहुः + भरतः
- शोकमूर्छितः (compound)
- शब्दापिहितकण्ठस्तु = शब्दापिहितकण्ठः + तु
- शोधनार्थमुपागतः = शोधनार्थम् + उपागतः
- पितुर्वाक्यमिदम् = पितुः + वाक्यम् + इदम्
Thereafter at the hour of dawn on the thirteenth day mighty-armed Bharata visited the cemetery to perform the purificatory ceremony. Approaching the place of the funeral pyre of his father, he lamented in the intensity of grief:
The teaching
Rites provide a disciplined pathway through grief, enabling speech, remembrance, and eventual restoration of steadiness.
Duties in tension
- Emotional overwhelm (śoka-mūrcchā)
- Obligation to perform śodhana/śauca and proceed to speech/ritual acts
- Ethical theme
- Śauca-dharma and pitṛdharma
- How it resolves
- Ritual perseverance
For your practice
Encourages structured remembrance and purification practices; supports grief processing through dharmic routine.
Mood and themes
- Rasa
- Karuna (compassion), with Shanta (peace)
- Mood
- Overpowered, lamenting, smoke-hushed
Themes
- Dharma
- Śauca (purity)
- Pitṛdharma
- Itihasa
- Textual transmission (recensional duplication)
Temporal rites mark the movement from acute grief toward steadiness, paralleling the mind’s gradual return to sattva through disciplined action.
The liminal pyre-setting recalls Upaniṣadic meditations on death as a passage, though here expressed through human lament.
Prātaḥkāla
- Bharata and Dasharatha
- Son lamenting father at the pyre (duplicate framing) (sorrowful)
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.77.4 (duplicate/overlap); Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.78 (Bharata’s words that follow)
Śrāddha/śauca day-count traditions (general)
Ayodhyākāṇḍa: repeated narrative framing around Bharata’s lament
Anuṣṭup (śloka)
Grieving
Vilambita with low register emphasis; slight pause before ‘pitुर्वाक्यम्’ to cue impending speech
FAQs
The ethical focus is continuity of duty: ritual and familial obligations are carried forward even when the mind is shaken by grief.
The narration reiterates Bharata’s arrival on the thirteenth day for purification and his beginning to speak at the pyre-site.
Perseverance in prescribed conduct (ācāra-niṣṭhā) despite emotional suffering.
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