Canto 3 -
Araṇya-kāṇḍa
Chapter 5: Rāma Meets Sage Śarabhaṅga
Text 3.5.37
इमां मन्दाकिनीं राम प्रतिस्रोतामनुव्रज।
नदीं पुष्पोडुपवहां तत्र तत्र गमिष्यसि॥
imāṁ mandākinīṁ rāma pratisrotām anuvraja
nadīṁ puṣpoḍupavahāṁ tatra tatra gamiṣyasi
imām = this; mandākinīm = it has flowers; rāma = Rāma; pratisrotām = upstream; anuvraja = follow; nadīm = river; puṣpa-uḍupavahām = and it carries groups of flowers that resemble rafts; tatra tatra = by this river; gamiṣyasi = go.
Rāma, follow this river upstream. It has flowers and it carries groups of flowers that resemble rafts. Go by this river.
1 It was wide.
The word mandākinī [which is the source of the word mandākinīm meaning “it has flowers”] is used by the sages to refer to any river that has flowers. Therefore it was also used to refer to the river by [the mountain] Citrakūṭa.
Śarabhaṅga wanted Rāma to go by the river upstream. When a river flows towards the east and a man walks [by the river] to the west, he is walking by the river upstream. Tatra tatra gamiṣyasi (“Go by this river”) means “Go by the bank and go by the path when it diverges from the bank.”
GLOSS. The river carried flowers as well as boats and the like.1