In plain words
But before going he drew a line around the āśrama. “Mother! You have reviled me; let that be. But whatever happens, do not cross this line and come out. Neither demons nor beasts nor insects and creeping things of any kind can cross it and come in,” he said. Even today many people sell it in the bazaar, calling it ‘Lakṣmaṇa Rekhā’. If you draw it, no insect or creeping thing can cross it. Even Rāvaṇa could not cross the line Lakṣmaṇa had drawn and come in. Standing outside, he cried out piteously, ‘Bhavati bhikṣāṃ dehi.’ ‘Alas, poor man, it is not right to make one who is hungry suffer like this,’ thought Sītā, and to give him alms she crossed the line and came out. The moment she crossed the line, Rāvaṇa seized her and carried her off to Laṅkā. When Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa returned and grasped that Sītā had been carried off, they grieved bitterly. Sītā kept grieving deeply that this sorry plight had come upon her only because she had not heeded the words Lakṣmaṇa spoke. Sitting in the Aśoka grove, she was thinking to herself in this way:
“Shall I ever go out of this captivity! Shall I ever see Rāma again with my own eyes! O my dear brother-in-law, O Lakṣmaṇa! I spoke cruel words to you, you who are so good!”
“Lakṣmaṇa! For speaking whatever came to my lips and wounding your heart, I am suffering the punishment I deserve,” she kept repenting. In this way Sītā spent ten months in Laṅkā. Yet not for a single day did she look at Rāvaṇa's face. However many guises he came in, however many promises he made, she did not yield in the least. ‘Chī! You are not worth even the nail of Rāma's toe,’ she spurned him. When he spoke of Rāma with contempt, Sītā flared up in anger. “Rāma is a man of great courage, valiant and noble. You are a base and petty creature. You are not fit even to utter Rāma's name,” she said.
At last Rāvaṇa foolishly declared, ‘Now I give you ten days' time,’ and went away from there.
To the mind, the mind is witness; to the body, the guṇa is witness; to factions, folly is witness; to all, Swami is witness.
“My own mind is my witness. So no one can do anything to me,” thought Sītā, and she stayed brave, contemplating Rāma. Among the demon women set to guard Sītā were two called Ajaṭā and Trijaṭā. These two were daughters of Vibhīṣaṇa. One day Trijaṭā, consoling the grieving Sītā: “Mother! In the night a dream came to me. I clearly saw some monkey come and burn Laṅkā, and Rāma come, slay Rāvaṇa and take you to Ayodhyā,” she said. Ajaṭā too: “It is true, mother! I too had the very same dream. You need not grieve any more,” she said, and gave her courage. Both of them had great Prema and trust for Sītā. Vibhīṣaṇa was a devotee of Rāma.