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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.45.24

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 45: Rāvaṇa reveals his identity. Sītā recounts her marriage and exile, he offers Queenship in Laṅkā and she rejects him with warnings of destruction

In the sequence: he says her beauty has made him dissatisfied with his own wives and offers to make her his chief Queen in island Laṅkā, served by five thousand attendants

3.45.24

bahvīnām uttamastrīṇām āhṛtānām itas tataḥ
sarvāsām eva bhadraṃ te mamāgramahiṣī bhava

'Of the many lovely women I have carried off from here and there — of them all, indeed — become my chief queen; blessings on you!'

Words: bahvīnām — of the many; uttamastrīṇām — of excellent women; āhṛtānām — carried off; itas — from here; tataḥ — from there; sarvāsām — of all; eva — indeed; bhadraṃ — a blessing; te — upon you; mamāgramahiṣī — my chief queen; bhava — become

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.