कासि कस्यासि रम्भोरु किमर्थं चेह तिष्ठसि ॥
कथं च निर्जने ऽरण्ये चरस्य् एका शुचिस्मिते ॥
त्वं हि सर्वानवद्याङ्गी सर्वाभरणभूषिता ॥
विभूषणम् इवैतेषां भूषणानाम् अभीप्सितम् ॥
न देवीं नासुरीं चैव न यक्षीं न च राक्षसीम् ॥
न च भोगवतीं मन्ये न गन्धर्वीं न मानुषीम् ॥
या हि दृष्टा मया काश् चिच् छ्रुता वापि वराङ्गनाः ॥
न तासां सदृशीं मन्ये त्वाम् अहं मत्तकाशिनि ॥
kāsi kasyāsi rambhoru kimarthaṃ ceha tiṣṭhasi ||
kathaṃ ca nirjane 'raṇye carasy ekā śucismite ||
tvaṃ hi sarvānavadyāṅgī sarvābharaṇabhūṣitā ||
vibhūṣaṇam ivaiteṣāṃ bhūṣaṇānām abhīpsitam ||
na devīṃ nāsurīṃ caiva na yakṣīṃ na ca rākṣasīm ||
na ca bhogavatīṃ manye na gandharvīṃ na mānuṣīm ||
yā hi dṛṣṭā mayā kāś cic chrutā vāpi varāṅganāḥ ||
na tāsāṃ sadṛśīṃ manye tvām ahaṃ mattakāśini ||
"Who are you, whose are you, O lovely-thighed one, and why do you stand here? How do you wander alone in this empty forest, O radiantly smiling one? For you, flawless in every limb, adorned with every ornament, are yourself, as it were, the coveted ornament of these ornaments. I do not think you a goddess, nor an asuri, nor a yakshi, nor a rakshasi, nor a nagini, nor a gandharvi, nor a mortal woman; of all the beautiful women I have seen or of whom I have heard, I think none of them your equal, O intoxicatingly radiant one."
242306a94460 · published Jul 12, 2026, 5:19:51 PM UTC
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Here wonder strains to grasp the nature of the one beheld. Notable is the delicacy of the praise: the maiden is so lovely that the ornaments themselves are adorned by her rather than she by them -- her beauty surpasses every adornment. Notable too is the king's bewilderment: he cannot place her within any known order of beings -- the wondrous does not fit the usual measures. Here it is disclosed that what is truly exalted strikes one by its very transcendence of the world. Thus the verse reveals rapture before the incomparable; and the king's question is at once an act of reverence and reason's attempt to grasp the immeasurable.