Valmiki Ramayana 1.49.7: Bala Kanda, Sarga 49, Shloka 7
अहल्याशापमोक्षः · The Release of Ahalya and Indra’s Restoration
Spoken by Agni
अफलस्तु कृतो मेषः परां तुष्टिं प्रदास्यति ।
भवतां हर्षणार्थाय ये च दास्यन्ति मानवाः ॥७॥
aphalas tu kṛto meṣaḥ parāṁ tuṣṭiṁ pradāsyati |
bhavatāṁ harṣaṇārthāya ye ca dāsyanti mānavāḥ ||7||
“แม้แกะนั้นจะถูกทำให้ไร้อัณฑะ ก็ยังจักบันดาลความพอใจอันยิ่งใหญ่ ให้เป็นความรื่นเริงแก่ท่านทั้งหลาย และแก่เหล่ามนุษย์ผู้จะนำมาถวายบูชา”
Sandhi Notes
- aphalaḥ+tu→aphalastu
The teaching
When dharma is guided by competent authority, exceptional substitutions can preserve the rite’s purpose.
Duties in tension
- Maintaining prescribed ritual standards
- Adapting to exceptional circumstance created by Indra’s condition
- Ethical theme
- Apaddharma (exception-handling within ritual duty)
- How it resolves
- Authoritative clarification (Agni’s pronouncement)
For your practice
Encourages steadiness in duty and trust in right guidance when circumstances are imperfect.
Mood and themes
- Rasa
- Shanta (peace), with Adbhuta (wonder)
- Mood
- Assuring, ritual-legal, settling
Themes
- Dharma
- Ritual efficacy
- Itihasa
- Ethics of offering
- Satya (trust in divine assurance)
Outer form is secondary to sanctioned order and inner purpose; karma’s fruit depends on niyama and saṅkalpa within dharma.
Taittirīya Upaniṣad’s emphasis on right performance and giving (dāna, dharma) as sustaining order (general echo).
- Agni and Minor Deities / Celestial Groups
- Assurance to ritual recipients about efficacy of offering (reassuring)
- Minor Deities / Celestial Groups and Humans
- Recipients of offerings vs offerers in śrāddha/yajña economy (mutually beneficial)
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.49.7 (Agni’s assurance about the afala meṣa)
Pitṛ-yajña/śrāddha traditions where specified offerings please pitṛs
Ayodhyākāṇḍa: pitṛ-ṛṇa and ancestral duty motifs around Daśaratha’s rites (thematic parallel)
Anuṣṭup (śloka)
Solemn
Manda, reassuring cadence
FAQs
Dharma is confidence in rightful ritual action: even when an offering is altered for a higher corrective purpose, it remains valid when sanctioned by proper authority.
After ordering Indra’s restoration, Agni reassures that the now-altered ram will still yield satisfaction to the recipients and to future human offerers.
The virtue is trustworthiness in guidance—Agni provides assurance to prevent doubt and preserve the continuity of sacrificial practice.
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