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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.60.4

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 60: Story of Viśvāmitra: Śunaḥśepa is bought for sacrifice. Indra steals Ambarīṣa’s sacrificial victim, the King purchases Śunaḥśepa after the boy’s parents reserve their eldest and youngest sons

In the sequence: Viśvāmitra tells the departing ṛṣis that the southern region has become a place of obstruction → he moves west to Puṣkara and resumes austerity on roots and fruit

1.60.4

evam uktvā mahātejāḥ puṣkareṣu mahāmuniḥ
tapa ugraṃ durādharṣaṃ tepe mūlaphalāśanaḥ

Having spoken thus, the great sage of great splendour, in the Puṣkaras, practised fierce, unassailable austerity, eating only roots and fruit.

Words: evam uktvā — having spoken thus; mahātejāḥ — of great splendour; puṣkareṣu — in the Puṣkaras; mahāmuniḥ — the great sage; tapa — austerity; ugraṃ — fierce; durādharṣaṃ — unassailable, hard to withstand; tepe — practised; mūlaphalāśanaḥ — eating roots and fruit

Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki. 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.