Shloka 74.17Unverified draft
तस्मिंस्तमसि घोरे तु भस्मच्छन्नेव सा चमू:।
Meaning
In that terrifying darkness, the army, as though blanketed in ash, beheld a fearsome figure with matted, coiled hair.
Word-by-word (pada-artha)
| Word | Devanagari | Meaning | Grammatical role |
|---|---|---|---|
| tasmin tamasi ghore tu | तस्मिन् तमसि घोरे तु | in that terrible darkness | Locative / Locative / Locative / Adverbial |
| bhasma-channā iva sā camūḥ | भस्म-छन्ना इव सा चमूः | that army [was] as if covered with ash | Nominative / Comparative / Nominative / Nominative |
Scholar commentary
valmikiramayan.net Prose Commentary
Desiraju Hanumanta Rao's prose rendering with embedded explanatory notes
The source describes the sages' anxious whispering on sighting the axe-bearing figure: wondering aloud whether he means to resume, even now, the massacre of the kshatriya race he once carried out in fury over his father's murder, or whether that rage has since been spent.
1 of 16 traditions have commentary on this shloka. Traditions without a verse-specific commentary here are omitted rather than filled in.
Reference: 1.74.17 · Bāla Kāṇḍa