Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.758

c9.758

SAHASRAMUKHARĀVAṆA.
1) General. A Daitya King, who ruled Trilokapurī, a country thousands of miles away from India. Trilokapurī was an island at the centre of the seas. He was a terror to the whole world and possessed a thousand heads and two thousand hands.
2) Secured boon. This Rāvaṇa once went to Satyaloka and performed the most intense tapas for many years. Yet, Brahmā did not appear and then he began cutting his heads one after the other and offering them in the fire. Nine hundred and ninety-nine of his heads were cut thus. When he was about to cut the last head also, Brahmā, fearing the end of the world, appeared and granted him the following three boons.
(i) You will not die at the hands of anyone, but a woman.
(ii) Brahmāstra, which would annihilate, will be at your disposal.
(iii) You will also possess an aerial chariot for travels as you please,