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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.23.18
Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 23: Rāma prepares to fight alone. He reads the omens as signs of victory, sends Sītā & Lakṣmaṇa into a mountain cave and faces the fourteen thousand
In the sequence: the Devas, gandharvas, siddhas, cāraṇas and guhyakas wonder how one man can face fourteen thousand enemies
3.23.18
caturdaśa sahasrāṇi rakṣasāṃ bhīmakarmaṇām
ekaś ca rāmo dharmātmā kathaṃ yuddhaṃ bhaviṣyati
“Fourteen thousand rākṣasas of dreadful deeds, and the righteous Rāma but one — how will the battle be?”
Words: caturdaśa — fourteen; sahasrāṇi — thousand; rakṣasāṃ — of rākṣasas; bhīmakarmaṇām — of dreadful deeds; ekaś — one, alone; ca — and; rāmo — Rāma; dharmātmā — the righteous one; kathaṃ — how; yuddhaṃ — battle; bhaviṣyati — will be
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.