Shloka 5.19.16
सीताव्यथा-वर्णनम् / Sītā’s Distress and Rāvaṇa’s Attempt at Coercive Allurement
उत्कृष्टपर्णकमलां वित्रासितविहङ्गमाम्।हस्तिहस्तपरामृष्टामाकुलां पद्मिनीमिव।।।।
vedīm iva parāmṛṣṭāṃ śāntām agniśikhām iva |
paurṇamāsīm iva niśāṃ rāhugrastendumaṇḍalām ||
She was like an altar defiled; like a fire’s flame gone out; like a full-moon night whose lunar orb is seized by Rāhu in eclipse.
(She appeared) like a lotus-pond the excellent leaves of whose lotuses surrounded by frightened birds are destroyed by the trunks of elephants.
The sacred must not be violated: defiling an altar symbolizes adharma’s assault on sanctity. Yet like an eclipse, the obscuration is temporary—truth and dharma ultimately re-emerge.
Sītā’s loss of outward auspiciousness is portrayed with ritual and cosmic images (altar, fire, eclipse) to convey captivity’s spiritual violence.
Purity: the imagery suggests Sītā is not ‘impure’ by nature—rather, purity is being forcibly covered, like the moon during an eclipse.