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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.24.16

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 24: Battle at Janasthāna. The army surrounds and wounds Rāma, his arrows drive it back and Dūṣaṇa rallies the survivors to attack with trees and rocks

In the sequence: Rāma responds with hundreds and thousands of arrows, killing attackers and cutting through their weapons, standards, armor, and limbs

3.24.16

durāvārān durviṣahān kālapāśopamān raṇe
mumoca līlayā rāmaḥ kaṅkapatrān ajihmagān

Irresistible, unbearable, like the noose of Death in battle, feathered with heron-plumes and flying straight — such arrows Rāma loosed with ease.

Words: durāvārān — irresistible, hard to ward off; durviṣahān — unbearable, hard to withstand; kālapāśopamān — like the noose of Death; raṇe — in battle; mumoca — loosed, released; līlayā — with ease, playfully; rāmaḥ — Rāma; kaṅkapatrān — feathered with heron-plumes; ajihmagān — flying straight

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.