← 3.53.11 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 53: Rāvaṇa’s offer to Sītā · 3.53.13 →

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.53.12

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 53: Rāvaṇa’s offer to Sītā. He displays his palace, promises wealth and authority over his wives, claims rescue is impossible and bows at her feet

In the sequence: he forcibly leads her through his residence to display its mansions, jeweled pillars, golden stairs, ivory and silver windows, decorated floors, and lotus pools

3.53.12

dīrghikāḥ puṣkariṇyaś ca nānāpuṣpasamāvṛtāḥ
rāvaṇo darśayām āsa sītāṃ śokaparāyaṇām

Rāvaṇa showed grief-stricken Sītā the oblong ponds and lotus-pools covered with flowers of every kind.

Words: dīrghikāḥ — oblong ponds; puṣkariṇyaś — lotus-pools; ca — and; nānāpuṣpasamāvṛtāḥ — covered with flowers of every kind; rāvaṇo — Rāvaṇa; darśayām — showed; āsa — (showed); sītāṃ — to Sītā; śokaparāyaṇām — given over to grief

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.