उत्तररामचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - संस्कृत मूल एवं हिन्दी व्याख्या)

204 TRANSLATION OF [II 3- Ātreyī -- And the venerable Vālmīki having taken charge of them from the duties of a nurse brought them up and looked after them. When their tonsure ceremony was performed he carefully instructed them in the lores except the three Vedas. Just after that in the eleventh year from conception, he invested them with the sacred thread according to the rite proper to the Kshatriya class, and taught them the three Vedas. There is no possibility of persons like me studying with these two possessing a very brilliant intellect and a strong memory. For, (Verse 4) The teacher imparts knowledge to the clever as well as to the dullard, but he does not, indeed, give them the talent for learning nor does he take it away, and there is a great difference between them with respect to results, it happens thus: a pure jewel is able to take in a reflection, not so a lump of clay and other things. Goddess -- Is this the impediment to study (to which you referred)? Ātreyī -- There is another also. Goddess -- What is that other? Ātreyī -- Thereafter once the Brāhmaṇa sage went to the river Tamasā for the mid-day bath. There he saw that one out of a pair of herons was being shot by a hunter. He then uttered divine speech, of well-regulated composition, which suddenly manifested itself to him and which developed in the form of the Anushṭubh metre. (Verse 5) 'Mayst thou never attain rest, O Nishāda through eternal years, inasmuch as thou slewest one of a pair of herons when it was maddened by love.' Goddess -- Wonderful! A new advent of metre different from that of the Veda! Ātreyī -- Then just at that time, the divine Brahmā, the pro-creator of beings appearing before the revered sage, to whom the light of Brahma in the form of speech had been revealed, said -- 'Sage, thou art enlightened in the Śabda-form of Brahma: describe, therefore the life of Rāma. Thy eye of genius will be prophetic and will have its vision never obstruct- ed, thou art the first sage who has seen the light of speech and there is by thee the story of Rāma to be composed in the metre called Anushṭubh which is the first Śabdabrahma in that garb in the mortal world.' Goddess -- Ah, then the world has been embellished.