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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.32.11

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 32: Śūrpaṇakhā describes Sītā. She recounts Rāma’s victory, praises Sītā’s beauty and urges Rāvaṇa to kill the brothers and take her as his wife

In the sequence: she reports that he fought alone on foot and destroyed Khara and Dūṣaṇa in little more than half a muhūrta → she says she survived because he would not kill a woman

3.32.11

ekā kathaṃ cin muktāhaṃ paribhūya mahātmanā
strīvadhaṃ śaṅkamānena rāmeṇa viditātmanā

I alone was somehow let go, spurned, by the great-souled Rāma of enlightened spirit, who shrank from the slaying of a woman.

Words: ekā — alone (fem.); kathaṃ cin — somehow; muktāhaṃ — I was released; paribhūya — having spurned, despised; mahātmanā — by the great-souled one; strīvadhaṃ — the slaying of a woman; śaṅkamānena — shrinking from, apprehensive of; rāmeṇa — by Rāma; viditātmanā — of enlightened spirit, self-aware

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.