← 3.18.1 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 18: Khara sends fourteen rākṣasas · 3.18.3 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.18.2

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: Khara sees his bleeding sister and demands to know who has dared injure her → he boasts that he will kill the offender and asks her to recover enough to explain

3.18.2

balavikramasaṃpannā kāmagā kāmarūpiṇī
imām avasthāṃ nītā tvaṃ kenāntakasamā gatā

“You, endowed with strength and valour, able to go where you will and to take any form at will, and a very match for Death — by whom have you been brought to this state?

Words: balavikramasaṃpannā — endowed with strength and valour; kāmagā — going where you will; kāmarūpiṇī — able to take any form at will; imām — this; avasthāṃ — state, condition; nītā — brought; tvaṃ — you; kenāntakasamā — by whom — (you) a match for Death; gatā — gone, reduced (to)

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.