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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.38.24

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: terrified divine and subterranean beings appeal to Brahmā, reporting that the princes accuse creatures indiscriminately and kill them as supposed horse-thieves.

1.38.24

te prasādya mahātmānaṃ viṣaṇṇavadanās tadā
ūcuḥ paramasaṃtrastāḥ pitāmaham idaṃ vacaḥ

Propitiating the great one, their faces downcast, then, sore afraid, they spoke this word to the Grandsire:

Words: te — they; prasādya — having propitiated, conciliated; mahātmānaṃ — the great one; viṣaṇṇavadanās — with downcast faces; tadā — then; ūcuḥ — said; paramasaṃtrastāḥ — greatly terrified; pitāmaham — to the Grandsire; idaṃ — this; vacaḥ — word

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.