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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.38.19

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 sons begin breaking open the earth with their arms, spears, and ploughs

1.38.19

śūlair aśanikalpaiś ca halaiś cāpi sudāruṇaiḥ
bhidyamānā vasumatī nanāda raghunandana

Torn open with spears like thunderbolts and with terrible ploughs, the earth cried out, O joy of the Raghus.

Words: śūlair — with spears, pikes; aśanikalpaiś — like thunderbolts; ca — and; halaiś — with ploughs; cāpi — and also; sudāruṇaiḥ — terrible, dreadful; bhidyamānā — being split, torn open; vasumatī — the earth (‘the wealth-bearing’); nanāda — cried out, roared; raghunandana — O joy of the Raghus

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.