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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.38.8

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

1.38.8

hriyamāṇe tu kākutstha tasminn aśve mahātmanaḥ
upādhyāya gaṇāḥ sarve yajamānam athābruvan

When that horse of the great-souled one was being carried off, O Kākutstha, all the companies of priestly teachers then said to the sacrificer:

Words: hriyamāṇe — being carried off (loc.); tu — but, and; kākutstha — O Kākutstha; tasminn — that (loc.); aśve — horse (loc.); mahātmanaḥ — of the great-souled one; upādhyāya — of teachers, preceptors; gaṇāḥ — the companies; sarve — all; yajamānam — to the sacrificer; athābruvan — then said

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.