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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.53.33

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: calling himself her obedient servant, he bows his heads at her feet and says he has never bowed to another woman → he wrongly assumes that she is already his.

3.53.33

prasādaṃ kuru me kṣipraṃ vaśyo dāso 'ham asmi te
nemāḥ śūnyā mayā vācaḥ śuṣyamāṇena bhāṣitāḥ

Show me your favour quickly; I am your obedient slave. These words, spoken by me as I pine away, are not empty.

Words: prasādaṃ — favour, grace; kuru — show, do; me — me; kṣipraṃ — quickly; vaśyo — obedient, submissive; dāso — slave; 'ham — I; asmi — am; te — your; nemāḥ — not these; śūnyā — empty; mayā — by me; vācaḥ — words; śuṣyamāṇena — pining away, drying up; bhāṣitāḥ — spoken

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.