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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.45.35

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: she compares his desire to a jackal seeking a lioness and lists impossible, self-destructive acts as parallels for taking Rāma's wife

3.45.35

mandaraṃ parvataśreṣṭhaṃ pāṇinā hartum icchasi
kālakūṭaṃ viṣaṃ pītvā svastimān gantum icchasi

'You wish to carry off Mount Mandara, best of mountains, in your bare hand; you wish, having drunk the Kālakūṭa poison, to walk away unharmed.'

Words: mandaraṃ — Mount Mandara; parvataśreṣṭhaṃ — best of mountains; pāṇinā — with (your) hand; hartum — to carry off; icchasi — you wish; kālakūṭaṃ — the Kālakūṭa; viṣaṃ — poison; pītvā — having drunk; svastimān — safe, unharmed; gantum — to go, walk away; icchasi — you wish

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.