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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.6.19
Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 6: Daśaratha and Ayodhyā’s inhabitants. Daśaratha rules a prosperous and disciplined population, supported by trained warriors, fine horses and powerful elephants
In the sequence: trained warriors guard the city, which is supplied with fine horses from Kāmboja, Bāhlīka, Vanāyu, and river regions, and powerful elephants from the Vindhya and Himālaya and celebrated elephant lineages
1.6.19
yodhānām agnikalpānāṃ peśalānām amarṣiṇām
saṃpūrṇākṛtavidyānāṃ guhākesariṇām iva
(The city was filled) with warriors like fire, skilled and unforgiving of insult, their training fully perfected, like lions dwelling in mountain caves;
Words: yodhānām — of warriors; agnikalpānāṃ — fire-like; peśalānām — skilled, adroit; amarṣiṇām — impatient of insult, unforgiving; saṃpūrṇākṛtavidyānāṃ — of fully perfected training; guhākesariṇām — like cave-dwelling lions; iva — like
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.