वित्तमन्यच्च सुबहुद्विजेभ्यो रघुनन्दन:। ददौ गोदानमुद्दिश्य पुत्राणां पुत्रवत्सल:।
Meaning
The child-loving Dasaratha, delight of the Raghus, also gave the Brahmins great quantities of other wealth in his sons' names, along with the cows.
Word-by-word (pada-artha)
| Word | Devanagari | Meaning | Grammatical role |
|---|---|---|---|
| vittam anyat ca subahu | वित्तम् अन्यत् च सुबहु | and other wealth, very abundant | Accusative / Accusative / Adverbial / Accusative |
| dvijebhyaḥ raghu-nandanaḥ | द्विजेभ्यः रघु-नन्दनः | to the Brahmins, the descendant of Raghu | Dative plural / Nominative |
| dadau go-dānam uddiśya | ददौ गो-दानम् उद्दिश्य | gave, having designated the gift of cows | Verb (perfect) / Accusative / Gerund |
| putrāṇām putra-vatsalaḥ | पुत्राणाम् पुत्र-वत्सलः | fond of his sons, on behalf of his sons | Genitive plural / Nominative |
Scholar commentary
valmikiramayan.net Prose Commentary
Desiraju Hanumanta Rao's prose rendering with embedded explanatory notes
The source glosses the deliberately repeated word 'quartet' in this closing verse as an allusion to the traditional image of dharma as a bull with four horns, three feet, and two heads: catvaari shrimgaa, trayo asya paadaa, dve shiirshe. Read together with the surrounding verses, Dasharatha amid his four sons is likened to that four-horned dharma-bull, with his sons readied as its horns to administer dharma in the world.
1 of 16 traditions have commentary on this shloka. Traditions without a verse-specific commentary here are omitted rather than filled in.
Reference: 1.72.24 · Bāla Kāṇḍa