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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.20.13

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 20: Śūrpaṇakhā challenges Khara. She reports the fourteen deaths, threatens to die and tells him to fight Rāma or abandon Janasthāna

In the sequence: she again asks Khara to rescue her and avenge the dead

3.20.13

mayi te yady anukrośo yadi rakṣaḥsu teṣu ca
rāmeṇa yadi śaktis te tejo vāsti niśācara
daṇḍakāraṇyanilayaṃ jahi rākṣasakaṇṭakam

If you have compassion for me and for those rākṣasas, if you have the strength or the might against Rāma, O night-roamer, then slay him who dwells in the Daṇḍaka forest, that thorn in the side of the rākṣasas.

Words: mayi — for me; te — your; yady — if; anukrośo — compassion, pity; yadi — if; rakṣaḥsu — for the rākṣasas; teṣu — those; ca — and; rāmeṇa — against Rāma; yadi — if; śaktis — strength, power; te — your; tejo — energy, might; vāsti — or there is; niśācara — O night-roamer; daṇḍakāraṇyanilayaṃ — (him) dwelling in the Daṇḍaka forest; jahi — slay, strike down; rākṣasakaṇṭakam — the thorn in the side of the rākṣasas

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.