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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.37.18

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

1.37.18

ghṛtapūrṇeṣu kumbheṣu dhātryas tān samavardhayan
kālena mahatā sarve yauvanaṃ pratipedire

Nurses reared them in pots filled with ghee; and in the course of a long time they all attained youth.

Words: ghṛtapūrṇeṣu — filled with ghee (loc. pl.); kumbheṣu — in pots, jars; dhātryas — the nurses; tān — them; samavardhayan — reared, brought up; kālena — in time; mahatā — great, long; sarve — all; yauvanaṃ — youth; pratipedire — attained, reached

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.