Rama and Ravana stand in recorded opposition within the Hindu Pantheon.
At a glance
Hindu Pantheon
tradition
Hindu Pantheon
dharma, virtue, duty, ideal kingship
domains
rakshasa kingship, hubris, scholarship (per tradition), the antagonist role in the Ramayana
bow, arrow, lotus
symbols
ten heads, twenty arms, the flying chariot Pushpaka Vimana
Ramachandra, Maryada Purushottama
also called
Dashanan, Dashagriva (ten-necked)
Where they meet
The atlas records no shared domain or symbol between them. What connects them is elsewhere: Rama and Ravana stand in recorded opposition within the Hindu Pantheon.
Where they part
Rama alone
dharma, virtue, duty, ideal kingship
Ravana alone
rakshasa kingship, hubris, scholarship (per tradition), the antagonist role in the Ramayana
How each was worshipped
Rama
Cult sites: Ram Janmabhoomi at Ayodhya, Rameswaram, Household Ramayana recitation.
The epic is the temple. Towns stage his war with Ravana in the open; the cult is story first, stone second. Kingship and exile are both in the offering.
Ravana
Cult sites: A small number of Ravana temples exist in India, notably at Kanpur and Vidisha, reflecting his status as a Shiva devotee in some regional traditions.
Festivals: Effigies of Ravana are burned across North India during Dussehra/Vijayadashami, marking Rama's victory.
Ravana is overwhelmingly commemorated through his defeat rather than propitiated as a benevolent deity: the burning of towering Ravana effigies at Dussehra is one of the most widespread public rituals in North Indian Hinduism. A small minority of regional and Jain traditions honor him more positively, as a scholar-king or even a tragic devotee.
Rama
Hindu Pantheon
Seventh avatar of Vishnu and hero of the Ramayana epic. Ideal man, son, husband, and king. His life demonstrates perfect adherence to dharma (duty).
Born as prince of Ayodhya. Exiled for 14 years, during which his wife Sita was kidnapped by Ravana. With the help of Hanuman, he defeated Ravana and returned to rule as ideal king.
Rama is the seventh avatar of **Vishnu** and the hero of the **Ramayana** epic. Known as *Maryada Purushottama* ("the perfect man who follows dharma"), he embodies the ideals of virtue, duty, honor, and righteous conduct.
The ten-headed rakshasa king of Lanka and principal antagonist of the Ramayana. A grandson of the sage Pulastya and devout worshipper of Shiva who won great boons through austerity, Ravana's abduction of Sita brings about his own destruction at the hands of Rama.
Ravana was born to the sage Vishrava and the rakshasi princess Kaikesi, making him a grandson of the sage Pulastya. Through fierce austerities he won from Brahma a boon of near-invulnerability, which he used to conquer the three worlds before his abduction of Sita brought Rama's forces against him and led to his death.
Ravana, in Valmiki's *Ramayana*, is the ten-headed, twenty-armed king of Lanka, born to the sage Vishrava and the rakshasi Kaikesi. Through his father, he is a grandson of Pulastya, one of the mind-born sons of Brahma, giving him a partly divine lineage despite his rakshasa nature. Through prolonged, severe austerities directed at Brahma, Ravana won a boon of near-invulnerability against gods, demons, and spirits — but, in his pride, did not think to ask for protection against humans or animals, a omission that becomes his fatal weakness.