← 3.53.34 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 53: Rāvaṇa’s offer to Sītā

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.53.35

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.

3.53.35

kṛtāntavaśam āpanno mameyam iti manyate

fallen under the sway of Death, thought, 'She is mine.'

Words: kṛtāntavaśam — under the sway of Death; āpanno — fallen into; mameyam — 'she is mine'; iti — thus; manyate — thinks

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.