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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.37.23

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: after a long time Sagara resolves to perform a sacrifice and begins the preparations with his priests.

1.37.23

tataḥ kālena mahatā matiḥ samabhijāyata
sagarasya naraśreṣṭha yajeyam iti niścitā

Then after a long time a resolve arose in Sagara, O best of men — the firm intention, “Let me perform a sacrifice.”

Words: tataḥ — then; kālena — in time; mahatā — great, long; matiḥ — a thought, resolve; samabhijāyata — arose, came to be; sagarasya — of/in Sagara; naraśreṣṭha — O best of men; yajeyam — ‘let me sacrifice’; iti — thus; niścitā — firmly resolved (agreeing with the resolve)

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.