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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.39.6

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 39: Mārīca’s final warning. He condemns advisers who fail to restrain a destructive ruler and predicts that the abduction will kill them both and ruin Laṅkā

In the sequence: he condemns ministers who fail to restrain a ruler on a destructive course, because the ruler's failure ruins everyone dependent on him

3.39.6

vadhyāḥ khalu na hanyante sacivās tava rāvaṇa
ye tvām utpatham ārūḍhaṃ na nigṛhṇanti sarvaśaḥ

Truly your ministers deserve death yet go unpunished, Rāvaṇa—those who do not by every means restrain you when you have taken to the wrong path.

Words: vadhyāḥ — deserving death, to be slain; khalu — indeed; na hanyante — are not slain (go unpunished); sacivās — the ministers; tava — your; rāvaṇa — O Rāvaṇa; ye — who; tvām — you; utpatham — onto the wrong path; ārūḍhaṃ — mounted, taken to; na nigṛhṇanti — do not restrain; sarvaśaḥ — by every means

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.