← 1.25.10 · Bāla Kāṇḍa 25: Rāma kills Tāṭakā · 1.25.12 →
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.25.11
Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 25: Rāma kills Tāṭakā. Rāma’s bowstring draws her attack, he kills her with an arrow to the breast and the Devas ask Viśvāmitra to reward him with divine weapons
In the sequence: seeing the rākṣasī’s monstrous body, Rāma tells Lakṣmaṇa that he still intends to disable her rather than kill a woman: he proposes cutting her nose and ears and destroying her power to move and attack
1.25.11
enāṃ paśya durādharṣāṃ māyā balasamanvitām
vinivṛttāṃ karomy adya hṛtakarṇāgranāsikām
Behold her, hard to assail, endowed with the power of magic; today I shall drive her back, her ear-tips and nose lopped off.
Words: enāṃ — her; paśya — behold; durādharṣāṃ — hard to assail; māyā — magic, illusion; balasamanvitām — endowed with power; vinivṛttāṃ — turned back, driven off; karomy — I make; adya — today; hṛtakarṇāgranāsikām — with ear-tips and nose cut off
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.