Valmiki

Legend holds Valmiki began as a highway robber before an encounter with the sage Narada moved him to years of unbroken meditation, during which an anthill (valmika) grew over his still body — giving him his name.

The grief Valmiki felt on witnessing a hunter kill one of a pair of birds is described as crystallizing spontaneously into verse — the first shloka ever composed, tradition holds, and the origin of the Ramayana's poetic form itself. He later gave sanctuary to Sita during her exile and raised her twin sons, Luv and Kush, teaching them his own composition.