← 1.24.9 · Bāla Kāṇḍa 24: Story of Tāṭakā: Birth, marriage and Agastya’s curse · 1.24.11 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.24.10

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 24: Story of Tāṭakā: Birth, marriage and Agastya’s curse. Brahmā grants Suketu a powerful daughter, Tāṭakā marries Sunda and bears Mārīca, their attack on Agastya brings his transforming curses

In the sequence: after Sunda was slain, Tāṭakā and Mārīca sought to attack Agastya → he cursed Mārīca to become a rākṣasa and Tāṭakā to lose her beauty and become a hideous puruṣādī (man-eater)

1.24.10

rākṣasatvaṃ bhajasveti mārīcaṃ vyājahāra saḥ
agastyaḥ paramakruddhas tāṭakām api śaptavān

“Take on rākṣasa-hood!” — thus he uttered to Mārīca; and Agastya, exceedingly enraged, cursed Tāṭakā as well.

Words: rākṣasatvaṃ — rākṣasa-hood, the state of a rākṣasa; bhajasveti — ‘take on,’ thus; mārīcaṃ — to Mārīca; vyājahāra — uttered, declared; saḥ — he; agastyaḥ — Agastya; paramakruddhas — exceedingly enraged; tāṭakām — Tāṭakā; api — also, as well; śaptavān — cursed

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.