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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.37.4

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 37: Mārīca’s second defeat and terror. His deer-form attack costs two companions, he abandons violence but still sees and fears Rāma everywhere

In the sequence: as a huge, sharp-horned, flesh-eating deer, he again attacked tapasvins and their sacred places

3.37.4

agnihotreṣu tīrtheṣu caityavṛkṣeṣu rāvaṇa
atyantaghoro vyacaraṃs tāpasāṃs tān pradharṣayan

exceedingly fearsome, O Rāvaṇa, I roamed among the sacrificial fires, the holy fords, and the sanctuary-trees, harassing those ascetics.

Words: agnihotreṣu — at the sacrificial fires; tīrtheṣu — at the holy fords, bathing-places; caityavṛkṣeṣu — at the sanctuary-trees; rāvaṇa — O Rāvaṇa; atyantaghoro — exceedingly fearsome; vyacaraṃs — roaming; tāpasāṃs tān — those ascetics; pradharṣayan — harassing, assailing

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.