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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.66.16

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 66: Rāma breaks Śiva’s bow: Janaka confirms the marriage. Rāma lifts, strings and breaks the bow, Janaka declares his marriage condition fulfilled and sends envoys to seek Daśaratha’s consent

In the sequence: both King and muni consent → he takes it easily by the middle and strings it almost playfully before the watching thousands

1.66.16

paśyatāṃ nṛṣahasrāṇāṃ bahūnāṃ raghunandanaḥ
āropayat sa dharmātmā salīlam iva tad dhanuḥ

As many thousands of men looked on, the righteous delight of the Raghus strung that bow as if in play.

Words: paśyatāṃ — as they looked on; nṛṣahasrāṇāṃ — of thousands of men; bahūnāṃ — many; raghunandanaḥ — the delight of the Raghus (Rāma); āropayat — strung, bent the string onto; sa — he; dharmātmā — the righteous one; salīlam — as if in play, effortlessly; iva — like, as; tad dhanuḥ — the bow

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.