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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.65.16

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 65: Story of Sītā & Śiva’s bow: Birth, suitors and Janaka’s condition. Janaka recounts Sītā’s birth, Śiva’s bow and the suitors’ failure, offering her hand to Rāma if he can string it

In the sequence: when Kings sought her, he maintained that condition and brought out the bow to test them → none could even lift it, and he rejected their claims

1.65.16

bhūtalād utthitāṃ tāṃ tu vardhamānāṃ mamātmajām
varayām āsur āgamya rājāno munipuṃgava

When my daughter, risen from the ground, was growing up, kings came and sought her hand, O bull among sages.

Words: bhūtalād — from the ground; utthitāṃ — risen; tāṃ — her; tu — and; vardhamānāṃ — growing up; mamātmajām — my daughter; varayām āsur — sought in marriage, wooed; āgamya — having come; rājāno — kings; munipuṃgava — O bull among sages

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.