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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.37.17

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 37: Story of Sagara: One heir and sixty thousand sons. Sagara’s wives choose one dynastic heir or sixty thousand sons, the many grow in ghee-filled pots while Asamañja is banished for killing children

In the sequence: Sumati produces a gourd-like embryo, which bursts open to release sixty thousand sons → nurses rear them in ghee-filled pots until, in time, they grow into young men

1.37.17

sumatis tu naravyāghra garbhatumbaṃ vyajāyata
ṣaṣṭiḥ putrasahasrāṇi tumbabhedād viniḥsṛtāḥ

But Sumati, O tiger among men, gave birth to a gourd-like embryo; and sixty thousand sons came forth from the bursting of the gourd.

Words: sumatis — Sumati; tu — but; naravyāghra — O tiger among men; garbhatumbaṃ — an embryo-gourd; vyajāyata — gave birth to; ṣaṣṭiḥ — sixty; putrasahasrāṇi — thousands of sons; tumbabhedād — from the bursting of the gourd; viniḥsṛtāḥ — came forth, issued out

Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki. 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.