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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.16.23

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 16: Śūrpaṇakhā’s proposal. Rāvaṇa’s sister asks Rāma to marry her and threatens to eat Sītā & Lakṣmaṇa so they can roam the forest together

In the sequence: she threatens to eat Sītā and Lakṣmaṇa so that she and Rāma can roam the forest together → Rāma begins his answer with a smile.

3.16.23

imāṃ virūpām asatīṃ karālāṃ nirṇatodarīm
anena saha te bhrātrā bhakṣayiṣyāmi mānuṣīm

This ugly, unchaste, dreadful, hollow-bellied human woman — her, together with this brother of yours, I shall devour!

Words: imāṃ — this; virūpām — ugly; asatīṃ — unchaste, wicked; karālāṃ — dreadful, gaping (of terrible teeth); nirṇatodarīm — hollow-bellied; anena — with this; saha — together; te — your; bhrātrā — brother; bhakṣayiṣyāmi — I shall devour; mānuṣīm — the human woman

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.