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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.54.10

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 54: Story of Viśvāmitra: Defeat, Śiva’s weapons and retaliation. His army and sons are destroyed, Viśvāmitra wins Śiva’s weapons through austerity and returns to burn Vasiṣṭha’s hermitage

In the sequence: humiliated and desolate, Viśvāmitra installs his surviving son as King and goes to the forest. On the Himālaya's slopes he practices austerity to win Śiva's favor

1.54.10

hataputrabalo dīno lūnapakṣa iva dvijaḥ
hatadarpo hatotsāho nirvedaṃ samapadyata

His sons and army slain, wretched, like a bird with its wings clipped, his pride broken and his energy gone, he sank into despair.

Words: hataputrabalo — his sons and army slain; dīno — wretched; lūnapakṣa — with clipped wings; iva — like; dvijaḥ — a bird (twice-born); hatadarpo — his pride broken; hatotsāho — his energy destroyed; nirvedaṃ — despair, despondency; samapadyata — fell into, attained

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.