Hindu Pantheon
Ravana
रावण(Ravana)
Also known as Dashanan, Dashagriva (ten-necked)
- rakshasa kingship
- hubris
- scholarship (per tradition)
- the antagonist role in the Ramayana
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.
About Ravana
The Rakshasa King
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.
Conqueror of the Three Worlds
Armed with his boon, Ravana conquered the three worlds, humbled the gods, and ruled Lanka in tremendous splendor from a city said to be built of gold. He is also described in the epic as a formidable scholar, a skilled player of the veena, and a devoted worshipper of Shiva, complicating any simple reading of him as merely a monstrous villain.
The Abduction of Sita
After his sister Shurpanakha was mutilated by Lakshmana following her advances toward Rama, Ravana resolved to avenge her by abducting Rama's wife, Sita. Using the rakshasa Maricha disguised as a golden deer to lure Rama and Lakshmana away, Ravana seized Sita and carried her to Lanka in his flying chariot, confining her in the Ashoka grove and repeatedly, unsuccessfully, pressing her to marry him.
Defeat and Death
Rama, aided by the monkey armies of Sugriva and the devoted Hanuman, built a causeway to Lanka and waged war against Ravana's forces. Ravana's own brother Vibhishana, disapproving of the abduction, defected to Rama's side, providing counsel that helped Rama ultimately defeat Ravana in single combat. Rama killed Ravana with the Brahmastra, a decisive weapon, ending his rule and freeing Sita. In some later devotional traditions Ravana is honored as a great devotee whose death at Vishnu's avatar's hands granted him liberation (moksha) despite his villainy, a theological reading elaborated well after Valmiki's original text.
Origin story
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.
Across traditions
Parallel figures
Figures who play a role like Ravana's in other traditions.
NorseFenrirIllustrationBoth are powerful antagonists who win extraordinary strength through fate or boon and are ultimately overcome by a divinely favored opponent
Compare Ravana and Fenrir side by side
Worship and cult
Temples, festivals, and practices recorded for Ravana
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.
Sacred 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
Family
Family tree
Ravana's parents, consorts, children and rivals, as recorded in the atlas.
In the museums
Ravana in art
Real objects in public collections, released into the public domain by the museums that hold them. Dates refer to when each object was made. Objects made within the tradition come first, later depictions after.
(opens the museum record)Later depiction
The Combat of Rama and Ravana (opens the museum record)
A painted and dyed cotton hanging from the Coromandel Coast depicting the battle between Rama and Ravana. The museum's own title names both figures directly.
(opens the museum record)Later depiction
The Demon Marichi Tries to Dissuade Ravana; Illustrated folio from a dispersed Ramayana series (opens the museum record)
A Kangra-school folio from a dispersed Ramayana series showing the demon Marichi trying to talk Ravana out of his plan. The museum's title names Ravana explicitly as the recipient of the advice.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Ramayana of Valmiki, Uttara Kanda (trans. Griffith)
- Ramayana of Valmiki, Sundara Kanda (trans. Griffith, paraphrased boast to Sita)
Further reading
The primary source for Ravana's lineage, conquests, abduction of Sita, and death
Read online: Ramayana (opens in new tab)Discusses later devotional reinterpretations of Ravana beyond Valmiki's text
Read online: Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook (opens in new tab)- Valmiki (trans. Robert P. Goldman, gen. ed.). The Ramayana of Valmiki: An Epic of Ancient India (Princeton University Press, multi-volume).
- Richman, Paula (ed.). Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia (University of California Press, 1991): on regional traditions that complicate Ravana's villainy, including Jain and some South Indian readings.
Cite this page
No publication date is recorded for this page, so each citation uses n.d. and today's date as the access date.
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Parallels are editorial comparisons across traditions: a shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.
Family relationships come from the atlas's kinship records. Ancient sources often disagree on divine genealogy.
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