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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.38.10

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 38: Story of Sagara: The stolen horse and the earth’s excavation. Indra steals the sacrificial horse, Sagara sends his sixty thousand sons to dig for it and the devastation drives the earth’s inhabitants to Brahmā

In the sequence: the priests warn that the interruption endangers the sacrifice and demand its recovery

1.38.10

yajñac chidraṃ bhavaty etat sarveṣām aśivāya naḥ
tat tathā kriyatāṃ rājan yathāchidraḥ kratur bhavet

“This becomes a breach in the sacrifice, to the misfortune of us all; so act, O king, that the rite may be without flaw.”

Words: yajñac — of the sacrifice; chidraṃ — a breach, flaw; bhavaty — becomes; etat — this; sarveṣām — of all; aśivāya — to the misfortune, ill; naḥ — of us, our; tat — that, therefore; tathā — so, in such a way; kriyatāṃ — let it be done; rājan — O king; yathāchidraḥ — so that flawless; kratur — the rite, sacrifice; bhavet — may be

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.