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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.39.11

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 39: Story of Sagara: Kapila’s anger and the sons’ destruction. The sons pass the elephants supporting the earth and find the horse beside Kapila, they accuse him of theft and his “huṃ” reduces them to ashes

In the sequence: descending again, they encounter Virūpākṣa, the eastern elephant supporting the earth, whose movements cause earthquakes → they honor and circle him

1.39.11

pitur vacanam āsthāya sagarasya mahātmanaḥ
ṣaṣṭiḥ putrasahasrāṇi rasātalam abhidravan

Abiding by the word of their father, the great-souled Sagara, the sixty thousand sons rushed down toward Rasātala.

Words: pitur — of the father; vacanam — word; āsthāya — having held to, obeyed; sagarasya — of Sagara; mahātmanaḥ — the great-souled; ṣaṣṭiḥ — sixty; putrasahasrāṇi — thousands of sons; rasātalam — Rasātala (the nether world); abhidravan — rushed toward, ran down

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.