तमुवाच ततो ब्रह्मा प्रहसन्मुनिपुङ्गवम् । श्लोक एव त्वया बद्धो नात्र कार्या विचारणा ।।1.2.30।।
Meaning
Then Brahma, smiling, said to the foremost of sages: "What you have composed is indeed a sloka — have no doubt about it."
Word-by-word (pada-artha)
| Word | Devanagari | Meaning | Grammatical role |
|---|---|---|---|
| tam | तम् | to him | Object — accusative singular |
| uvāca | उवाच | said | Main verb — perfect 3rd sg |
| tataḥ | ततः | then | Adverb — sequential |
| brahmā | ब्रह्मा | Brahma | Subject — nominative singular |
| prahasan | प्रहसन् | smiling | Present participle — nominative |
| munipuṅgavam | मुनिपुङ्गवम् | to the bull among sages | Object — accusative singular |
| ślokaḥ eva | श्लोक एव | a sloka indeed | Predicate nominative + emphatic particle |
| tvayā | त्वया | by you | Instrumental — agent |
| baddhaḥ | बद्धः | has been bound / composed | Past passive participle — nominative |
| na atra | नात्र | not in this matter | Negation + adverb |
| kāryā | कार्या | is to be made | Gerundive — feminine nominative |
| vicāraṇā | विचारणा | deliberation, doubt | Subject — nominative singular |
Scholar commentary
valmikiramayan.net Prose Commentary
Desiraju Hanumanta Rao's prose rendering with embedded explanatory notes
Still preoccupied, Valmiki recites the same verse a second time, involuntarily, grieving again for the female bird -- and it is only at this second recitation that Brahma confirms directly, smiling, that what Valmiki composed is genuinely a sloka, settling the uncertainty that had been troubling him since shloka 22.
1 of 16 traditions have commentary on this shloka. Traditions without a verse-specific commentary here are omitted rather than filled in.
Reference: 1.2.30 · Bāla Kāṇḍa