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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.9.21

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 9: Story of Ṛṣyaśṛṅga: Courtesans, rain and marriage. Courtesans lure Ṛṣyaśṛṅga from his father’s forest hermitage, rain ends Aṅga’s drought and Romapāda gives him Śāntā in marriage

In the sequence: they embrace Ṛṣyaśṛṅga and give him sweets and delicacies, which he mistakes for unusual fruits → claiming that their observances require them to leave, they hurry away. Distressed by their absence, Ṛṣyaśṛṅga returns to the meeting place the next day

1.9.21

tāni cāsvādya tejasvī phalānīti sma manyate
anāsvāditapūrvāṇi vane nityanivāsinām

And having tasted them, the radiant one took them for fruits — things never before tasted by those who dwell forever in the forest.

Words: tāni — those (things); cāsvādya — and having tasted; tejasvī — the radiant one; phalānīti — ‘these are fruits’; sma — (marks past sense); manyate — thought, supposed; anāsvāditapūrvāṇi — never tasted before; vane — in the forest; nityanivāsinām — of those dwelling forever

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.