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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.10.12
Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 10: Ten years among the hermitages. Māṇḍakarṇi’s lake music is explained, years of visits lead toward Agastya, Rāma recounts his digestion of Vātāpi
In the sequence: he recounts how Māṇḍakarṇi spent ten thousand years in the water living on air → the Devas, fearing that he sought one of their positions, sent five apsarases to interrupt his austerities
3.10.12
sa hi tepe tapas tīvraṃ māṇḍakarṇir mahāmuniḥ
daśavarṣasahasrāṇi vāyubhakṣo jalāśraya
For that great sage Māṇḍakarṇi practised fierce austerity for ten thousand years, feeding on air and dwelling in the water.
Words: sa — he; hi — for, indeed; tepe — practised (austerity); tapas — austerity; tīvraṃ — fierce, intense; māṇḍakarṇir — Māṇḍakarṇi; mahāmuniḥ — the great sage; daśavarṣasahasrāṇi — ten thousand years; vāyubhakṣo — feeding on air; jalāśraya — abiding in water (voc.)
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.