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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.40.26

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 40: The golden deer appears. Mārīca yields to Rāvaṇa, travels to the hermitage and assumes a jewelled deer’s form that attracts Sītā while frightening the real deer

In the sequence: he repeatedly goes away and returns, mingling with the deer → the real deer smell him and flee; he suppresses his habit of eating them so as not to expose himself

3.40.26

upagamya samāghrāya vidravanti diśo daśa
rākṣasaḥ so 'pi tān vanyān mṛgān mṛgavadhe rataḥ

approaching and smelling him, fled in the ten directions. And that rākṣasa too, though delighting in the slaughter of deer,

Words: upagamya — having approached; samāghrāya — having smelled; vidravanti — flee; diśo daśa — the ten directions; rākṣasaḥ so 'pi — and that rākṣasa too; tān vanyān mṛgān — those wild deer; mṛgavadhe — in the slaughter of deer; rataḥ — delighting

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.