वाल्मिकि

{ vālmikiḥ }

The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

वाल्मिकिः [vālmikiḥ] वाल्मीकः [vālmīkḥ] वाल्मीकिः [vālmīkiḥ]   वाल्मीकः वाल्मीकिः [वल्मीके भवः अण् इञ् वा] N. of a celebrated sage, and author of the Rāmāyaṇa; कवीन्दुं नौमि वाल्मीकिं यस्य रामायणीं कथाम् । चन्द्रिकामिव चिन्वन्ति चकोरा इव साधवः ॥ Udb. [He was a Brāhmaṇa by birth, but being abandoned by his parents in his childhood, he was found by some wild mountaineers who taught him the art of thieving. He soon became an adept in the art, and pursued his business of plundering and killing (where necessary) travellers for several years. One day he saw a great sage whom he asked on pain of death to deliver up his possessions. But the sage told him to go home and ask his wife and children if they were ready to become his partners in the innumerable iniquities that he had committed. He accordingly went home, but returned dismayed at their unwillingness. The sage then told him to repeat the word marā (which is Rāma inverted) and disappeared. The robber continued to repeat it for years together without moving from the place, so that his body was covered up with ant-hills. But the same sage reappeared and got him out, and as he issued from the 'valmika' he was called Vālmiki, and became afterwards an eminent sage. One day while he was performing his ablutions, he saw one of a pair of Krauncha birds being killed by a fowler, at which he cursed the wretch in words which unconsiously took the form of a verse in the Anuṣṭubh metre. This was a new mode of composition, and at the command of the god Brahman he composed the first poem the Rāmāyaṇa. When Sītā was abandoned by Rāma, he gave her shelter under his roof, and brought up her two sons. He afterwards restored them all to Rāma.]

Shabda-Sagara

वाल्मिकि  m.  ( -किः) The author of the Rāmāyaṇa; also वाल्मीकि .