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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.30.20
Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 30: The walk to Daśaratha’s palace. Seeing Rāma, Sītā & Lakṣmaṇa without royal honours, citizens propose leaving Ayodhyā to follow them
In the sequence: some propose taking their families and possessions after him, leaving Kaikeyī an empty city → wherever Rāma lives, they say, will become their city, while abandoned Ayodhyā becomes a forest
2.30.20
bilāni daṃṣṭriṇaḥ sarve sānūni mṛgapakṣiṇaḥ
asmattyaktaṃ prapadyantāṃ sevyamānaṃ tyajantu ca
Let all the fanged creatures take to (our) dens, and the beasts and birds to the hilltops; let them resort to what we have abandoned, and abandon what they had been frequenting.
Words: bilāni — holes, dens; daṃṣṭriṇaḥ — the fanged creatures; sarve — all; sānūni — hilltops, ridges; mṛgapakṣiṇaḥ — the beasts and birds; asmattyaktaṃ — what is forsaken by us; prapadyantāṃ — let them resort to, enter; sevyamānaṃ — what was being frequented, inhabited; tyajantu ca — and let them abandon
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.