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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.110.37

Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 110: Anasūyā’s gifts and Sītā’s story. Sītā receives clothing, ornaments and unfading cosmetic, then recounts her earth-birth, the bow and marriage

In the sequence: when she reached marriageable age, Janaka worried about finding a suitable husband for a daughter with such an unusual origin → he decided to hold a contest

2.110.37

tasya buddhir iyaṃ jātā cintayānasya saṃtatam
svayaṃ varaṃ tanūjāyāḥ kariṣyāmīti dhīmataḥ

As he pondered continually, this resolve arose in the wise one's mind: ‘I shall hold a self-choice ceremony for my daughter.’

Words: tasya — of him, his; buddhir — thought, resolve; iyaṃ — this; jātā — arose, was born; cintayānasya — of him pondering; saṃtatam — continually; svayaṃ varaṃ — a self-choice (svayaṃvara); tanūjāyāḥ — of the daughter; kariṣyāmīti — ‘I shall make’, thus; dhīmataḥ — of the wise one

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.