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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.38.25

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.

1.38.25

bhagavan pṛthivī sarvā khanyate sagarātmajaiḥ
bahavaś ca mahātmāno vadhyante jalacāriṇaḥ

“O venerable one, the whole earth is being dug up by Sagara's sons, and many great water-dwelling creatures are being killed.

Words: bhagavan — O venerable one, O lord; pṛthivī — the earth; sarvā — whole; khanyate — is being dug up; sagarātmajaiḥ — by Sagara's sons; bahavaś — many; ca — and; mahātmāno — great (creatures); vadhyante — are being killed; jalacāriṇaḥ — water-dwelling (creatures)

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.