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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.53.34

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.

3.53.34

na cāpi rāvaṇaḥ kāṃ cin mūrdhnā strīṃ praṇameta ha
evam uktvā daśagrīvo maithilīṃ janakātmajām

'And never has Rāvaṇa bowed his head to any woman!' Having thus spoken to Maithilī, Janaka's daughter, the ten-necked one,

Words: na — not; cāpi — and ever; rāvaṇaḥ — Rāvaṇa; kāṃ — any; cin — (any) at all; mūrdhnā — with the head; strīṃ — woman; praṇameta — would bow to; ha — indeed; evam — thus; uktvā — having spoken; daśagrīvo — the ten-necked one; maithilīṃ — to Maithilī; janakātmajām — Janaka's daughter

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.