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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.110.42
Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 110: Anasūyā’s gifts and Sītā’s story. Sītā receives clothing, ornaments and unfading cosmetic, then recounts her earth-birth, the bow and marriage
In the sequence: in this account, Varuṇa had given Janaka a mighty bow and two inexhaustible quivers at a sacrifice → Janaka set the lifting and stringing of the bow as the condition for marrying her → the assembled Kings could not lift it and withdrew
2.110.42
tac ca dṛṣṭvā dhanuḥśreṣṭhaṃ gauravād girisaṃnibham
abhivādya nṛpā jagmur aśaktās tasya tolane
And beholding that best of bows, like a mountain in its weight, the kings, unable to lift it, saluted it and departed.
Words: tac — that; ca — and; dṛṣṭvā — having seen; dhanuḥśreṣṭhaṃ — the best of bows; gauravād — because of its weight; girisaṃnibham — resembling a mountain; abhivādya — having saluted, bowed to; nṛpā — the kings; jagmur — went, departed; aśaktās — unable; tasya — of it, its; tolane — in the lifting, weighing
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.