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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.60.21

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 60: Traces of Sītā’s abduction. Flowers, footprints, blood and chariot wreckage suggest a struggle, Rāma’s uncertainty turns to threats against the whole world

In the sequence: angered by the silence around him, he threatens to destroy the mountain or dry up the river unless they reveal her whereabouts. Rāma finds the deep footprint of a rākṣasa and Sītā's trampled tracks

3.60.21

imāṃ vā saritaṃ cādya śoṣayiṣyāmi lakṣmaṇa
yadi nākhyāti me sītām adya candranibhānanām

“Or else this river I shall dry up today, Lakṣmaṇa, if it does not tell me now of Sītā, whose face is like the moon.”

Words: imāṃ — this; vā — or; saritaṃ — river; cādya — and today; śoṣayiṣyāmi — I shall dry up; lakṣmaṇa — O Lakṣmaṇa; yadi — if; nākhyāti — does not tell; me — me; sītām — of Sītā; adya — now, today; candranibhānanām — whose face is like the moon

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.