कच्चित्सुमित्रा धर्मज्ञा जननी लक्ष्मणस्य या।
शत्रुघ्नस्य च वीरस्य सारोगा चापि मध्यमा॥
kaccit sumitrā dharmajñā jananī lakṣmaṇasya yā
śatrughnasya ca vīrasya sārogā cāpi madhyamā
kaccit = is she; sumitrā = Sumitrā-devī is; dharmajñā = a knower of dharma; jananī = she is the mother; lakṣmaṇasya = of Lakṣmaṇa; yā = she is; śatrughnasya = Śatrughna; ca = and; vīrasya = heroic; sārogā = healthy; ca api = and; madhyamā = My middle mother.
Sumitrā-devī is a knower of dharma. She is the mother of the heroic Lakṣmaṇa and Śatrughna, and she is My middle mother. Is she healthy?
1 Rāmāyaṇa 3.16.37 runs thus: na te’mbā madhyamā tāta garhitavyā kathañcana / tām evekṣvāku-nāthasya bharatasya kathāṁ kuru: “Dear Lakṣmaṇa, don’t condemn Your middle mother [Kaikeyī]. Just tell me about Bharata, the master of the Ikṣvāku dynasty.”
Because it is [explicitly] mentioned here that [Sumitrā devī is the] middle mother of Bharata, it should be understood that the statement in Canto 3 that Kaikeyī is Lakṣmaṇa’s middle mother (Rāmāyaṇa 3.16.37) should be understood to mean that she was the middle mother while taking into consideration the other wives of King Daśaratha.1