An enemy, disease, fire, sin, a master and a serpent should never be treated scorn.’ So saying, and with bitter lamentation besides, she began to weep.

In her distress she threw herself down in Ravana’s court and with many tears and cries said, ‘Do you think, O Ten-headed, that I should be treated thus while yet you live?’

At these words, the courtiers arose in great bewilderment and grasped her arms and raised her to her feet and consoled her. ‘Tell me what has happened to you,’ said the king of Lanka; ‘who has struck off your nose and ears?

The sons of Dasharath, the lord of Ayodhya, who are lions among men, have come to haunt in the woods. I understand what they were about; they would rid the earth of demons.

Relying on the might of their arm, O Ravana, the hermits roam the woods without fear. Though quite young to look at, they are terrible as Death himself, the most unwavering of archers and most accomplished.

Both brothers are unequalled in might and majesty, vowed to the extermination of the wicked and the relief of gods, and sages. He who is the very perfection of beauty is named Rama, and with him is a teenage girl,

- whom the Creator has fashioned the loveliest of women, a match for a thousand million Ratis (consorts of the god of love). It was his younger brother (Lakshmana) who chopped off my ears and nose and made a mock of me when he learnt that I was your sister.