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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.13.2

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 13: Jaṭāyu’s offer. Daśaratha’s vulture friend recounts the ancestry of Devas, animals and humankind, identifies his own lineage and offers to guard Sītā

In the sequence: On the way, the brothers see a huge vulture and initially mistake him for a rākṣasa

3.13.2

taṃ dṛṣṭvā tau mahābhāgau vanasthaṃ rāmalakṣmaṇau
menāte rākṣasaṃ pakṣiṃ bruvāṇau ko bhavān iti

Seeing him seated in the forest, those two illustrious ones, Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa, took the bird for a rākṣasa and said, “Who are you?”

Words: taṃ — him; dṛṣṭvā — having seen; tau — those two; mahābhāgau — the two illustrious ones; vanasthaṃ — seated in the forest; rāmalakṣmaṇau — Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa; menāte — thought, supposed; rākṣasaṃ — a rākṣasa; pakṣiṃ — bird; bruvāṇau — the two saying; ko bhavān — who are you; iti — thus

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.