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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.2.4

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 2: Virādha’s attack. The weapon-bearing man-eater seizes Sītā and claims her as his wife, Lakṣmaṇa steadies Rāma and vows to kill him

In the sequence: the travelers encounter a huge, misshapen man-eater wearing a bloodstained tiger skin and carrying an iron spike loaded with lions, tigers, wolves, deer, and an elephant's head

3.2.4

vanamadhye tu kākutsthas tasmin ghoramṛgāyute
dadarśa giriśṛṅgābhaṃ puruṣādaṃ mahāsvanam

In the middle of that forest teeming with dreadful beasts, Kākutstha (Rāma) saw a man-eater, huge as a mountain peak and loud-voiced.

Words: vanamadhye — in the middle of the forest; tu — and; kākutsthas — Kākutstha (Rāma); tasmin — in that; ghoramṛgāyute — teeming with dreadful beasts; dadarśa — saw; giriśṛṅgābhaṃ — resembling a mountain peak; puruṣādaṃ — a man-eater; mahāsvanam — loud-voiced

Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki. 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.