← 1.39.2 · Bāla Kāṇḍa 39: Story of Sagara: Kapila’s anger and the sons’ destruction · 1.39.4 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.39.3

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: Brahmā explains that Vāsudeva sustains the earth in Kapila's form and that both its excavation and the princes' destruction have long been foreseen → reassured, the Devas depart

1.39.3

pṛthivyāś cāpi nirbhedo dṛṣṭa eva sanātanaḥ
sagarasya ca putrāṇāṃ vināśo 'dīrghajīvinām

And the breaking-open of the earth has long been foreseen as inevitable, as has the destruction of Sagara's sons, who are not to be long-lived.

Words: pṛthivyāś — of the earth; cāpi — and also; nirbhedo — breaking-open, splitting; dṛṣṭa — seen, foreseen; eva — indeed; sanātanaḥ — eternal, from of old; sagarasya — of Sagara; ca — and; putrāṇāṃ — of the sons; vināśo — destruction; 'dīrghajīvinām — of those not long-lived

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.