← 3.18.12 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 18: Khara sends fourteen rākṣasas · 3.18.14 →
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.18.13
Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 18: Khara sends fourteen rākṣasas. Śūrpaṇakhā demands the blood of Rāma, Sītā & Lakṣmaṇa and leads Khara’s warriors to their hermitage
In the sequence: she describes two powerful, handsome young men dressed in bark and deerskin, with a beautiful woman between them → she says they disfigured her on the woman's account and asks to drink the blood of all three
3.18.13
taruṇī rūpasaṃpannā sarvābharaṇabhūṣitā
dṛṣṭā tatra mayā nārī tayor madhye sumadhyamā
A young woman, endowed with beauty, adorned with every ornament, slender-waisted, was seen by me there between those two.
Words: taruṇī — a young woman; rūpasaṃpannā — endowed with beauty; sarvābharaṇabhūṣitā — adorned with every ornament; dṛṣṭā — seen; tatra — there; mayā — by me; nārī — woman; tayor — of those two; madhye — in the middle, between; sumadhyamā — slender-waisted
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.