A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.2120

c5.2120

VISRAVAS. Son of the Prajāpati Pulastya, or, according to a statement of the Mahā-bhārata, a reproduction of half Pulastya himself. By a Brahmanī wife, daughter of the sage Bharadwāja, named Idavidā or Ilavidā, he had a son, Kuvera, the god of wealth. By a Rākshasī named Nikashā or Kaikasī, daughter of Sumāli, he had three sons, Rāvana, Kumbha-karna, and Vibhīshana and a daughter named Sūrpa-nakhā. The Vishnu Purāna substitutes Kesinī for Nikashā. The account given by the Mahā-bhārata is that Pulastya, being offended with Kuvera for his adulation of Brahmā, reproduced half of himself as Visravas, and Kuvera to recover his favour gave him three Rākshasī handmaids: Pushpotkatā, the mother of Rāvana and Kumbhakarna; Mālinī, the mother of Vibhīshana; and Rākā, the mother of Khara and Sūrpa-nakhā.