← 3.20.5 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 20: Śūrpaṇakhā challenges Khara · 3.20.7 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.20.6

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 explains that Rāma killed all fourteen almost immediately and that witnessing it has terrified her

3.20.6

ity evam uktā durdharṣā khareṇa parisāntvitā
vimṛjya nayane sāsre kharaṃ bhrātaram abravīt

Thus addressed and consoled by Khara, the redoubtable one, wiping her tear-filled eyes, said to her brother Khara:

Words: ity evam uktā — thus addressed; durdharṣā — the redoubtable one, hard to assail; khareṇa — by Khara; parisāntvitā — consoled, comforted; vimṛjya — having wiped; nayane — the (two) eyes; sāsre — tear-filled; kharaṃ — to Khara; bhrātaram — brother; abravīt — said

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.