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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.31.8

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 31: Story of Kuśanābha: Vāyu disfigures the hundred daughters. Vāyu proposes marriage, the sisters insist on their father’s consent and Vāyu enters their limbs and leaves them hunchbacked

In the sequence: Viśvāmitra identifies the surrounding country with Vasu, its five mountains, and the river Sumāgadhī, flowing like a garland through fertile fields

1.31.8

saiṣā hi māgadhī rāma vasos tasya mahātmanaḥ
pūrvābhicaritā rāma sukṣetrā sasyamālinī

This indeed is the Māgadhī, Rāma, the river of that great-souled Vasu, coursing of old through his realm, its fields fertile, garlanded with crops.

Words: saiṣā — this very; hi — indeed; māgadhī — the Māgadhī (river); rāma — O Rāma; vasos — of Vasu; tasya — that; mahātmanaḥ — the great-souled; pūrvābhicaritā — coursing of old (through his region); rāma — O Rāma; sukṣetrā — with fertile fields; sasyamālinī — garlanded with crops

Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki, the ādikavi of the ādikāvya: the first poet of the first poem. Sanskrit: The Vālmīki-Rāmāyaṇa: Critical Edition, Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1960–1975 (gen. eds. G. H. Bhatt, U. P. Shah); IAST from GRETIL (Göttingen). Translation and word glosses: Claude Opus 4.6–4.7; summaries and sequences: ChatGPT Astra (machine-made). Numbering follows the Critical Edition, not the vulgate (e.g. Gita Press, valmikiramayan.net), so sarga and verse numbers can differ from those editions.