Poetic Insults

"Devoted to one husband, being born into a pure family and having obtained one also, I am incapable of doing such a reproachable act, one that ought not to be done." (Sita Devi speaking to Ravana, Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kand, 21.4-5)

"Poetic Insults" is a collection of fifty-three essays discussing the verses from the Ramayana that cover Sita's rebuke of Ravana when he approached her in the Ashoka grove in Lanka.