स वध्यमानः सुभृशं बाहुभ्यां परिरभ्य तौ।
अप्रकम्प्यौ नरव्याघ्रौ रौद्रः प्रस्थातुमैच्छत॥
sa vadhyamānaḥ subhṛśaṁ bāhubhyāṁ parirabhya tau
aprakampyau nara-vyāghrau raudraḥ prasthātum aicchata
saḥ = the; vadhyamānaḥ = [though] They beat; subhṛśam = very severely; bāhubhyām = in his arms; parirabhya = he captured and; tau = the two; aprakampyau = and they could not [even] be shaken; nara-vyāghrau = princes; raudraḥ = rākṣasa of terrifying appearance; prasthātum = to depart; aicchata = wanted.
[Though] They beat the rākṣasa of terrifying appearance very severely and They could not [even] be shaken, he captured the two princes in his arms and wanted to depart.
1 Rāmāyaṇa-bhūṣaṇa: nara-vyāghrau puruṣottamau. The word puruṣottamau in the Sanskrit commentary has been rendered as “the best of souls” instead of “the best of men” because Śrī Vālmīki is aware from Śrī Nārada’s description of Lord Rāmacandra that He is not the best of mankind—He is the best among all sentient entities: the best of the souls. See Bhagavad-gītā 15.16-20.
The poet Śrī Vālmīki laughs [at Virādha] by using the word aprakampyau. [Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa] could not [even] be shaken, what to speak of being captured, because They were nara-vyāghrau, “tigers among men,” that is, the best of souls.1