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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.65.25

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: he won the Devas' favor through austerity and received a fourfold army → the defeated besiegers fled

1.65.25

tato bhagnā nṛpatayo hanyamānā diśo yayuḥ
avīryā vīryasaṃdigdhā sāmātyāḥ pāpakāriṇaḥ

Then the kings, broken and struck down, fled in all directions — the powerless ones whose valor had been doubted, evil-doers together with their ministers.

Words: tato — then; bhagnā — broken, routed; nṛpatayo — the kings; hanyamānā — being struck down; diśo — in (all) directions; yayuḥ — went, fled; avīryā — powerless; vīryasaṃdigdhā — whose valor was doubted; sāmātyāḥ — together with their ministers; pāpakāriṇaḥ — evil-doers

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.