[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879) › c5.1504 # A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1504 A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1504 - **Language:** English ### [c5.1504.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1504.1) RĀVANA. The demon king of Lankā or Ceylon, from which he expelled his half-brother Kuvera. He was son of Visravas by his wife Nikashā, daughter of the Rākshasa Su-mālī. He was half-brother of Kuvera, and grandson of the Rishi Pulastya; and as Kuvera is king of the Yakshas, Rāvana is king of the demons called Rākshasas. Pulastya is said to be the progenitor, not only of Rāvana, but of the whole race of Rākshasas. By penance and devotion to Brahmā, Rāvana was made invulnerable against gods and demons, but he was doomed to die through a woman. He was also enabled to assume any form he pleased. All Rākshasas are malignant and terrible, but Rāvana as their chief attained the utmost degree of wickedness, and was a very incarnation of evil. He is described in the Rāmāyana as having "ten heads (hence his names Dasānana, Dasa-kantha, and Pankti-grīva), twenty arms, and copper-coloured eyes, and bright teeth like the young moon. His form was as a thick cloud or a mountain, or the god of death with open mouth. He had all the marks of royalty, but his body bore the impress of wounds inflicted by all the divine arms in his warfare with the gods. It was scarred by the thunderbolt of Indra, by the tusks of Indra's elephant Airāvata, and by the discus of Vishnu. His strength was so great that he could agitate the seas and split the tops of mountains. He was a breaker of all laws and a ravisher of other men's wives. . . ### [c5.1504.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1504.2) Tall as a mountain peak, he stoped with his arms the sun and moon in their course, and preveted their rising." The terror he inspires is such that where he is "the sun does not give out its heat, the winds do not blow and the ocean becomes motionless." His evil deeds cried alod for vengeance, and the cry reached heaven. Vishnu declared that, as Rāvana had been too proud to seek protection agains men and beasts, he should fall under their attacks, so Vishnu ecame incarnate as Rāma-chandra for the express purpose of desroying Rāvana, and vast numbers of monkeys and bears were created to aid in the enterprise. Rāma’s wars against the Rākshasas inflicted such losses upon them as greatly to incense Rāvana. Burning with rage, and excited by a passion for Sītā, the wife of Rāma, he left his island abode, repaired to Rāma’s dwelling, assumed the appearance of a religious mendicant, and carried off Sītā to Lankā. Rāvana urged Sītā to become his wife, and threatened to kill and eat her if she refused. Sītā persistently resisted, and was saved from death by the interposition of one of Rāvana’s wives. Rāma called to his assistance his allies Su-grīva and Hanumān, with their hosts of monkeys and bears. They built Rāma’s bridge, by which they passed over into Lankā, and after many battles and wholesale slaughter Rāvana was brought to bay at the city of Lankā. Rāma and Rāvana fought together on equal terms for a long while, victory sometimes inclining to one sometimes to the other. ### [c5.1504.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1504.3) Rāma with a sharp arrow cut off one of Rāvana’s heads, “but no sooner did the head fall on the ground than another sprang up in its room.” Rāma then took an arrow which had been made by Brahmā, and discharged it at his foe. It entered his breast, came out of his back, went to the ocean, and then returned clean to the quiver of Rāma. “Rāvana fell to the ground and expired, and the gods sounded celestial music in the heavens, and assembled in the sky and praised Rāma as Vishnu, in that he had slain that Rāvana who would otherwise have caused their destruction.” Rāvana, though he was chief among Rākshasas, was a Brāhman on his father’s side; he was well versed in Sanskrit, used the Vedic ritual, and his body was burnt with Brāhmanical rites. There is a story that Rāvana made each of the gods perform some menial office in his household: thus Agni was his cook, Varuna supplied water, Kuvera furnished money, Vāyu swept the house, &c. The Vishnu Purāna relates that Rāvana, “elevated with wine, came on his tour of triumph to the city of Mahishmatī, but there he was taken prisoner by King Kārta-vīrya, and confined like a beast in a corner of his capital.” The same authority states that, in another birth, Rāvana was Sisu-pāla. Rāvana’s chief wife was Mandodarī, but he had many others, and they were burnt at his obsequies. His sons were Megha-nāda, also called Indra-jit, Rāvani, and Aksha; Tri-sikha or Tri-siras, Devāntaka, Narāntaka, and Atikāya. See Nandisa. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1504](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1504) · Pramāṇa