“A jackal woo a lioness!”
Ramayana“A jackal woo a lioness!” turns refusal into a sharp image of unequal standing. Spoken in defense of the speaker’s relationship with Ráma, the expression rejects both the suitor’s advances and any claim that he could displace her husband.
The Image of the Jackal and Lioness
The comparison sets a jackal against a lioness, making the attempted courtship seem not merely unwanted but absurdly mismatched. Its force depends on the contrast: the suitor is reduced to a lesser, scavenging animal, while the woman’s image carries strength and rank. The exclamation delivers that judgment in a compact, memorable form.
Refusal and Marital Allegiance
The surrounding lines make the speaker’s position explicit: she identifies herself as Ráma’s true and loving wife and says the suitor would vainly woo and press her. The simile therefore answers pressure with a claim of allegiance, not simply a judgment about the suitor’s status. Her bond with Ráma is the reason his advances cannot succeed.
Rhetorical Force
The image belongs to a sequence of impossibilities: the suitor’s hope of touching Ráma’s wife is compared with stealing glory from the sun. These escalating comparisons turn personal rejection into an assertion that the desired outcome violates an order the speaker treats as unassailable. The expression’s blunt animal contrast gives that larger claim its most concentrated form.
