अहो बत कुमारेण कल्याणगुणशालिनी । वागुक्ता परमोदारा वैराग्यरसगर्भिणी ॥ २९ ॥
ahō bata kumārēṇa kalyāṇaguṇaśālinī | vāguktā paramōdārā vairāgyarasagarbhiṇī || 29 ||
Translation
"Ah, the prince has spoken words of the highest nobility, rich in good qualities, pregnant with the essence of dispassion!"
Word by word
- ahō
- ah
- bata
- indeed
- kumārēṇa
- the prince
- kalyāṇa
- in good
- guṇa
- qualities
- śālinī
- rich
- vāg
- (vāk) words
- uktā
- has spoken
- parama
- of the highest
- udārā
- nobility
- vairāgya
- of dispassion
- rasa
- with the essence
- garbhiṇī
- pregnant
Meaning
The sages' first words are wonder (aho bata). Rāma's speech is full of good qualities (kalyāṇa-guṇa), the commentary says the qualities that please the learned, and it carries within it the rasa, the taste or essence, of dispassion (vairāgya-rasa-garbhiṇī). In the old poetics a work is judged by its rasa, the feeling it makes the hearer taste; and Rāma's discourse has made the whole hall taste dispassion. That is why it is called noble. The reader may ask what taste these twenty sargas have left in them.