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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.45.41

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 insists that Rāvaṇa is as far below Rāma as lead below gold or a crow below Garuḍa, and that abducting her will destroy him

3.45.41

yad antaraṃ kāñcanasīsalohayor yad antaraṃ candanavāripaṅkayoḥ
yad antaraṃ hastibiḍālayor vane tad antaraṃ daśarathes tavaiva ca

'The difference between gold and lead, between sandal-water and mire, between an elephant and a cat in the wood — such is the difference between Daśaratha's son and you.'

Words: yad — what; antaraṃ — difference; kāñcanasīsalohayor — between gold and lead-iron; yad — what; antaraṃ — difference; candanavāripaṅkayoḥ — between sandal-water and mud; yad — what; antaraṃ — difference; hastibiḍālayor — between an elephant and a cat; vane — in the forest; tad — that; antaraṃ — difference; daśarathes — of (the son of) Daśaratha; tavaiva — and of you yourself; ca — and

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.