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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.2.10

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 2: Grief becomes the first śloka. A bird’s death moves Vālmīki to utter the first śloka, Brahmā asks him to compose Rāma’s life in that form

In the sequence: looking around the forest, he sees an inseparable pair of sweet-voiced krauñca birds → a hunter kills the male before his eyes → the bloodied bird writhes on the ground while his mate cries out

1.2.10

tasmāt tu mithunād ekaṃ pumāṃsaṃ pāpaniścayaḥ
jaghāna vairanilayo niṣādas tasya paśyataḥ

And from that pair, a Niṣāda hunter of cruel resolve, a very abode of malice, struck down the male, as the sage looked on.

Words: tasmāt tu — and from that; mithunād — pair; ekaṃ — one; pumāṃsaṃ — the male; pāpaniścayaḥ — of cruel resolve; jaghāna — struck down, slew; vairanilayo — an abode of enmity; niṣādas — the Niṣāda (a forest hunter); tasya paśyataḥ — as he (the sage) looked on

Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki, the ādikavi of the ādikāvya: the first poet of the first poem. Sanskrit: The Vālmīki-Rāmāyaṇa: Critical Edition, Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1960–1975 (gen. eds. G. H. Bhatt, U. P. Shah); IAST from GRETIL (Göttingen). Translation and word glosses: Claude Opus 4.6–4.7; summaries and sequences: ChatGPT Astra (machine-made). Numbering follows the Critical Edition, not the vulgate (e.g. Gita Press, valmikiramayan.net), so sarga and verse numbers can differ from those editions.