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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.54.21

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: he returns and burns the hermitage with his missiles → munis, pupils, animals, and birds flee, leaving it deserted

1.54.21

tato gatvāśramapadaṃ mumocāstrāṇi pārthivaḥ
yais tat tapovanaṃ sarvaṃ nirdagdhaṃ cāstratejasā

Then, going to the hermitage, the king let loose his missiles, by which that whole penance-grove was burnt up with the fiery power of the weapons.

Words: tato — then; gatvāśramapadaṃ — having gone to the hermitage; mumocāstrāṇi — released the missiles; pārthivaḥ — the king; yais — by which; tat — that; tapovanaṃ — the penance-grove; sarvaṃ — whole, all; nirdagdhaṃ — burnt up; cāstratejasā — and by the fiery power of the missiles

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.