Canto 1 - Boyhood
Bāla-kāṇḍa
Chapter 4: Kuśa and Lava Meet Lord Rāmacandra
Text 1.4.26
आश्चर्यमिदमाख्यानं मुनिना सम्प्रकीर्तितम्।
परं कवीनामाधारं समाप्तंच यथाक्रमम्॥
āścaryam idam ākhyānaṁ muninā samprakīrtitam
paraṁ kavīnām ādhāraṁ samāptaṁ ca yathā-kramam
āścaryam = astonishing; idam = this; ākhyānam = history; muninā = by Vālmīki Muni samprakīrtitam = composed; param = is the supreme; kavīnām = for poets; ādhāram = sustenance; samāptam = conclusion; ca = and; yathā-kramam = it has an appropriate.
“This astonishing history composed by Vālmīki Muni is the supreme sustenance for poets and it has an appropriate conclusion.”
[26] kathā tv ākhyāyikākhyānam (Yādava).
1 In other words, it does not end abruptly.
Not only the sages, but everyone else praised the Rāmāyaṇa and the two singers, Kuśa and Lava. Ākhyāyam indicates that it is a certain type of composition, a history, in fact [26]. Samprakīrtitam indicates that the sage Vālmīki had narrated this history with great elaboration, exactly as defined for such works. The Rāmāyaṇa is the supreme sustenance for poets, that is, it is the cause of their poetic compositions. Samāptaṁ ca yathā-kramam (“which has an appropriate conclusion”) indicates that the Rāmāyaṇa’s conclusion does not deviate from its sequence of events.1 In some editions, we have samāptaṁ ca yathā-kṛtam in the place of samāptaṁ ca yathā-kramam, which indicates that the poem concluded just as it began. The people glorified Kuśa and Lava as expert in all kinds of songs, that is, capable of singing all kinds of songs.