Question

This is the earliest author considered in an essay that ends with a story of an “uncultured dolt” who variously tastes dessert and dog urine while asleep at a poetry recital. An invocation praises this “bird of charming song” who “mounts on Poesy’s sublimest spray.” This author legendarily cried out, “You will find no rest for the long years of eternity,” thereby inventing a 32-syllable verse form, (-5[1])when he saw a hunter kill one (-5[1])of two mating cranes. (10[2])This author (10[1])asks if anyone in the world is endowed with all virtues at the start of a work in which he teaches archery to twin boys at his hermitage. That (10[1])poem by this creator of the shloka (-5[1])is reenacted in līlā plays (10[2]-5[1])and was retold in the vernacular (10[1]-5[1])Awadhī (“UH-wuh-dee”) language by Tulsīdās. (10[2]-5[1])For 10 points, name this sage (10[1])and attributed author of an epic (-5[1])about the husband of Sita, (10[1])the Ramayana. (10[1])■END■ (10[6]0[2])

ANSWER: Vālmīki [or Bālmīki] (The essay in the first sentence is A. K. Ramanujan’s “Three Hundred Ramayanas.”)
<World Literature>
= Average correct buzz position

Summary

2025 ACF Nationals04/19/2025Y2090%0%35%127.72

Buzzes

PlayerTeamOpponentBuzz PositionValue
Albert Yingzhi NyangLSECornell A66-5
Ani PerumallaPenn StateIllinois A73-5
Micah ColmanWaterloo BTexas7710
Adam FineChicago AWUSTL B7710
Charles YoungColumbia ABritish Columbia7910
Shourjo GanguliOhio StateNorthwestern10810
Annabelle YangWUSTL AIndiana115-5
Parth JagtapToronto CVirginia12010
Aditya ShivaswamyJohns HopkinsUC Berkeley B120-5
Amogh KulkarniGeorgia StateVirginia Tech12010
Conor ThompsonIowa StateCornell B126-5
Raymond ChenToronto BMinnesota12610
Vikshar AthreyaRutgersNYU13010
Nitin RaoHarvardWaterloo A130-5
Shardul ParthasarathyIllinois BYale13010
Vinu HariharUC Berkeley BJohns Hopkins13610
Gareth ThorlaksonToronto AUC Berkeley A142-5
Elijah ScheinsonColumbia BGeorgia Tech14710
Jacky XuCornell ALSE14910
Cade ReinbergerRITChicago B1500
Liam StarnesChicago BRIT1500
Danila KabotyanskiIndianaWUSTL A15010
Mattias EhatammWaterloo AHarvard15010
Swapnil GargUC Berkeley AToronto A15010
Biniam AlaroFloridaMIT15010
Jim FanNorth Carolina AMaryland15010
Michael HundingIllinois APenn State15010