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Ravana

Ravana may be Indian mythology’s greatest villain. The story of the Ramayana is as much about Ravana as it is about Rama. Even Valmiki was undecided whether to name it after Rama or Ravana. Let’s talk about him today. He is a very interesting character. He was a Brahmin and a rakshasa. How come?

Brahma had many sons. One was Kashyapa Muni who had many wives and begot devas and asuras. Another was Pulastya who begot rakshasas and yakshas. There’s a rakshasa kanya (daughter) born to Pulastya called Kaikesi who marries a Brahmin called Vishrava. Their son is Ravana. He has Pulastya’s blood, rakshasa blood, and Vishrava’s blood. So he’s both Brahmin and rakshasa. Rakshasa is an ethnic group whereas Brahmin is a caste identity. Brahmin is a social construct whereas rakshasa is about lineage and descent.

There’s some confusion about the two words rakshasa and asura. What’s the difference?

In the Puranas, the asuras battle with the gods. They live under the earth in Patala while the gods live in heaven in the sky. So this is a vertical alignment. The rakshasas battle with human beings. They live in forests and follow matsya nyaya (jungle law). Human beings try to follow dharma, guided by rishis. There’s a horizontal altercation here. Daityas (Diti’s sons) and Danavas (Danu’s sons) are called asuras. These words are used interchangeably. So asuras are below the earth and rakshasas are in the jungles. In the Mahabharata, asuras have been called rakshasas. Hidimba is called asura although she seems to be a rakshasa as she lives in the jungle. People say rakshasas are south Indians and Rama is from north India. That’s when these words become divisive, like Blacks and Whites. The British brought in these racial divisions that a lot of people still believe in. Nothing of the kind has been written in our Puranas.

Ravana is a Shiva bhakt. What was this connection?

The Ramayanas written after the eleventh century in Tamil (Kamba Ramayana) and Telugu (Ranganatha Ramayana) gave a lot of importance to Shiva. During those times there used to be a rivalry between the Shaiva and Vaishnava paramparas. Tulsidas wrote the Ramcharitamanas 400 years ago. He noticed this tension too. He says Rama and Ravana both worship Shiva who does not distinguish between the two. This idea that everyone worships Shiva spread everywhere. Rama worships Shakti on Sharad Navaratri. Ravana too worships Shakti. There are stories of Ravana trying to meet Shiva in the Himalayas. He meets Nandi first, who curses him that a monkey will defeat him one day. One story is about how Ravana cuts off his ten heads and offers them to Shiva. Shiva is pleased and gives him a boon that he’ll have a sword which, whenever he uses it, will give him victory. It’s said in some stories that his ten heads represent how knowledgeable he is. Another story is that he composed the Rudra stotra and made the Rudra veena by cutting off his arm and using his nerves as strings. When he sings for Shiva, he is so pleased that he asks him what boon he would like. Ravana says he wants to take him to Lanka so that nobody can defeat Lanka. He then lifts the Kailasa mountain. Shiva’s family gets scared. To cut Ravana’s ego down to size, Shiva presses his foot down and the mountain crushes Ravana. He worships Shiva again, sings the Rudra stotra and asks for his forgiveness. All these stories show Ravana as a bhakt and an arrogant student; it’s almost a guru–shishya relationship. It’s said that Ravana acquired knowledge of astrology from Shiva. He wrote the Lal Kitaab or Ravana Samhita. A book on Ayurveda is also associated with Ravana. So the picture of Ravana is of a very educated, literate and cultured man who is also a good warrior. The negative stories depict him as a man who throws his brother, Kubera, out and takes over his kingdom. Lanka was created by Kubera. Ravana also tries to seduce a yogini, Vedavati, who curses him that she’ll be reborn as a woman who will be the cause of his death.

So it’s hard to depict him as a hero or villain. Most stories show him as a villain though.

Yes. On Dussehra, we even burn his effigy. This became popular around 500 years ago along the Gangetic plains. Some communities in India believe they are descendants of Ravana or that Ravana’s wife, Mandodari, is from their clan. In the Puranas, no one is fully positive or negative. While he may have a negative trait, he also has good qualities. In our world too, there’s no one who’s 100 per cent evil. Everybody should be seen in context.

We mostly hear of Ravana’s stories in association with Rama. Are there other stories?

There are several. These are not very popular but are found in the Uttara Ramayana. Ravana battles with the strong monkeys Sugriva and Vali who defeat him, tie him up with his tail and drag him to Kishkinda. There’s another character called Kartavirya Arjuna who has 100 hands with which he makes a dam to stop the flow of water. In a battle, he defeats Ravana. Vali is defeated by Rama and Kartavirya Arjuna by Parashurama who is then defeated by Rama. Whoever defeats Ravana is defeated by Rama. This shows that Rama was a greater warrior than Ravana.

Ravana tries to convince Sita to become his queen. He tells her he loves her and would shower her with all his wealth and prosperity. When Sita refuses, he gets angry and says she would never be able to meet Rama without his permission. No one will be able to enter or leave Lanka without his saying so. He says, ‘I am being good by behaving nicely with you.’ Sita scoffs at him and says, ‘Kidnapping a woman is hardly civilized behaviour.’ Ravana tells her that he could easily drag her to a mandap and marry her by force, but he would rather she did so willingly. He could easily have destroyed her beauty that had so attracted him.

Did Ravana ill-treat Sita?

No. In the story, he keeps her by force in his house, in Ashoka Vatika, but never abuses her physically. There are many reasons for this. He was cursed that if he were to touch a woman against her will, his head would burst. Another story says that Sita keeps a blade of grass and tells him that if he were to cross that, he would die. So there are many boundaries. In Kamba Ramayana, Ravana falls in love with her and wants her to come to him willingly. That would be the ultimate victory for his ego. In a way, Sita’s heart is a battlefield for him, one to defeat Rama. He does not win here also. He has everything—wealth, power and good looks for which even married women abandon their husbands—and yet it’s not enough. Saam, daam, danda, bhed (negotiation, bribery, force, division)—nothing works. He even uses magic and shows Sita Rama’s head and says he’s dead, hoping that she’ll then come to him. But she turns him down again as she is a pativrata. That hurts his ego. This is to show the psychological battle of egos in tandem with the physical war against Rama. The people, though, don’t believe Sita. When she returns to Ayodhya, they raise doubts about her character, showing society’s dark side. In a way, Ravana destroys Sita’s life.

Rama is said to feel repentant after he defeats Ravana. Why?

Karma is karma after all. Even if you are a Kshatriya and have killed your wife’s kidnapper, violence is violence. Moreover, Ravana is a Brahmin. In India, Brahmahatya (killing of a Brahmin) is supposed to be a paap (sin). In ancient times, knowledge was not written down. You had to learn the shastras by heart, which the Brahmins did. To kill a Brahmin was like burning down a library. It was a sin because all knowledge would be lost. This was a kind of protection for them. Rama was guilty of this sin too. He was a Kshatriya, hence lower down in the caste system than Ravana. In the story, Rama asks for forgiveness for killing a Brahmin. By killing the negative side, the positive side has been affected. There’s a famous folk story in which Rama tells Lakshmana to go and acquire knowledge from Ravana because when a man dies, his knowledge dies with him too. When Lakshmana goes to him, he is turned away. Lakshmana tells Rama that Ravana is too egoistical to share his knowledge. Rama asks him where he was standing when he asked; was it at his head or feet? When Lakshmana says head, Rama scolds him and says, ‘How do you expect to gain knowledge by standing anywhere except at the feet of your guru? He may be a villain, but our enmity is now over. He is now a guru from whom we want knowledge.’ Rama sits at Ravana’s feet and says, ‘I have defeated a villain but I respect Vishrava’s son, so please give me your knowledge before you die.’ Ravana breaks down and says, ‘I realize your greatness now. My ego did not let me see this till now.’ He gives him one piece of wisdom—that in life, evil attracts us and we run away from goodness. The backstory is that Vishnu lives in Vaikuntha which has two sentries—Jaya and Vijaya—who are cursed to be born as rakshasas on earth. Ravana is one of them. By killing Ravana Rama is doing his uddhar (upliftment) so that he can return to Vaikuntha. More knowledge gives a story a different perspective. It’s about more than just a hero, Rama, killing a villain, Ravana. In fact, Ravana shows viparita bhakti (‘paradoxical’ devotion). He is a sentry asking Rama to release him from his rakshasa life and to force him, he abducts Sita. It’s not lust that drives him; it’s a form of bhakti. If you see it from another point of view, the same story seems different. This is a very important wisdom from the Puranas. In the light of eternal knowledge, Ravana has negative and positive qualities. He is a bhakt, dwarpal, Lankapati—but despite all his knowledge of the Vedas and his devotion to Shiva, he does not see that Rama is a god. Rama does not hate anybody. He watches calmly as Ravana’s ego-driven actions create a big saga that is the Ramayana.

I’ve heard that there are many Ravana temples in south India. Is this true?

Ravana is a veer so he is worshipped. There are small temples in Madhya Pradesh (Ravangram Ravana Temple), Uttar Pradesh (the Ravana temple in Bisrakh) and Rajasthan (Jodhpur Ravana Temple). Some communities claim a relationship with Ravana and believe that Mandodari was their daughter; some believe they are his descendants. There are some Shiva temples believed to have been established by Ravana—Gokarna Temple in Karnataka and Kakinada Temple in Andhra Pradesh. These have Ravana idols. In fact, Shiva temples always have an image of Ravana because he was a bhakt. We should learn from the story of Ravana that one may be educated and capable but still foolish. We don’t respect women. When a woman says she’s not interested, she’s not giving you consent. So no matter how much you love her, you should let her go. Let her live her life. The Ramayana is trying to say that the Ravana inside us, who does not listen to women, should be burnt.