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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.58.20

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 58: Story of Viśvāmitra: Triśaṅku’s sacrifice and the priests’ refusal. Viśvāmitra promises Triśaṅku bodily ascent and summons priests, then curses Vasiṣṭha’s sons & Mahodaya for rejecting the sacrifice

In the sequence: enraged, Viśvāmitra curses Vasiṣṭha's sons to destruction and seven hundred births as deformed, pitiless corpse-eaters called Muṣṭikas, living on dogs' flesh

1.58.20

śvamāṃsaniyatāhārā muṣṭikā nāma nirghṛṇāḥ
vikṛtāś ca virūpāś ca lokān anucarantv imān

'Having dog's flesh for their fixed food, pitiless, called Muṣṭikas, deformed and misshapen, let them wander through these worlds.'

Words: śvamāṃsaniyatāhārā — having dog's flesh for their fixed food; muṣṭikā — Muṣṭikas (a degraded tribe); nāma — by name; nirghṛṇāḥ — pitiless; vikṛtāś ca — and deformed; virūpāś ca — and misshapen, ugly; lokān — the worlds; anucarantv — let (them) wander through; imān — these

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.