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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.24.5

Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 24: Sītā claims a share in the exile. She insists that a wife shares her husband’s fate and chooses forest hardship with Rāma over comfort without him

In the sequence: she offers to walk ahead and clear thorns from his path, saying that life beside him is better than palace comforts

2.24.5

yadi tvaṃ prasthito durgaṃ vanam adyaiva rāghava
agratas te gamiṣyāmi mṛdnantī kuśakaṇṭakān

If you set out this very day for the impassable forest, Rāghava, I shall go before you, crushing the kuśa-grass and thorns.

Words: yadi tvaṃ prasthito — if you set out; durgaṃ — impassable; vanam — forest; adyaiva — this very day; rāghava — O Rāghava; agratas te — before you; gamiṣyāmi — I shall go; mṛdnantī — crushing, treading down; kuśakaṇṭakān — the kuśa-grass and thorns

Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki. 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.