Question: Krishna Dharma’s Ramayana reads: “Rävaëa dismissed Vibhishana and sat brooding for a while. He had to have Sétä. For the last ten months he had tried everything to win Her over and was not going to give up now. If he could only kill Räma, then surely She would be won. But this Räma was no ordinary man; that much was obvious. And if the monkeys were all like Hanumän, then he had a real battle on his hands. No matter. There was no question of an ignominious surrender. A fight to the last was the only thing acceptable. If Räma were a mere mortal man, then He would certainly succumb to the might of the Räksasas. And if He were Vishnu Himself? Well, defeat at the hands of a powerful foe was never shameful.”
Is there anything like this in Valmiki Ramayana — namely, Ravana speculating that Rama may be Vishnu?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
This passage is taken from the 10th Sarga of Valmiki Ramayana. In that sarga, Ravana does not speculate that Lord Rama is Vishnu Himself, at the time when Vibhishana is giving his advice. However, later in the Ramayana, after Lakshmana kills Atikaya (in Sarga 72), Ravana says that he recognizes Rama as Narayana (tam manye raghavam viram narayanam anamayam)
