← 1.38.19 · Bāla Kāṇḍa 38: Story of Sagara: The stolen horse and the earth’s excavation · 1.38.21 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.38.20

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 earth cries out, and nāgas, asuras, rākṣasas, and other creatures are killed as the excavation reaches Rasātala

1.38.20

nāgānāṃ vadhyamānānām asurāṇāṃ ca rāghava
rākṣasānāṃ ca durdharṣaḥ sattvānāṃ ninado 'bhavat

There arose an unbearable clamour of the creatures being slain — of the nāgas, the asuras, and the rākṣasas, O Rāghava.

Words: nāgānāṃ — of the nāgas (serpents); vadhyamānānām — being slain; asurāṇāṃ — of the asuras; ca — and; rāghava — O Rāghava; rākṣasānāṃ — of the rākṣasas; ca — and; durdharṣaḥ — unbearable, irresistible; sattvānāṃ — of the creatures, beings; ninado — clamour, din; 'bhavat — arose, was

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.