Every person has another side to him and this is not only true in real life but also in mythology. One of the most famous mythological epic, the Ramayana has two main characters – Ram and Ravana. We have heard always the story where Ram was the hero and Ravana was the villain. Hindu mythology is much more than just good and bad. There are a lot of lessons one can learn from the Hindu mythology. Ravana was an evil person and that is how all the books and references say. But, what about the hidden facts? Yes, there are some amazing, interesting facts of Ravana that is not known by a lot of people. So, we thereby bring to you some of these hidden episodes from Ravana’s life.
Top Interesting Facts of Ravana
1Half Brahmin Half Demon
Ravana was from a mixed background. Like how we have inter religion, marriage nowadays, those days it was mostly inter existence marriage. Ravana’s father was Vishwashrava who was a pure Brahmin and was from the Rishi’s family. While Ravana’s father was a Brahmin, the mother (Kaikasi) of the mighty avatar was from the demon family. Hence, Ravana was a half Brahmin half demon when he was born. He attained all the power by performing penance to Lord Brahma.
2He was not Ravana during birth
Ravana’s actual name was Dashasana or Dashagriva that symbolizes ten heads. He was named Dashasana because he was capable of handling intense pressure and had intelligence of ten people. Once, Ravana tried to dislodge Kailasha which was Lord Shiva’s home ground. Lord Shiva was meditating and got irritated with Ravana. In anger, Lord Shiva crushed the mountain with his toe that crushed Ravana’s forearm. As Ravana let out a blood curling screams, he was renamed as Ravana – Ravana means a person who screams. Post this, Ravana became a great bhakth and disciple of Lord Shiva and composed the Shiva Thandavam all by himself.
[Also know – Everything about Ravana]
3His death was decided decades back
Everybody thinks that Ravana’s death was destined to be by Ram’s hands only after Seetha was kidnapped. That is not totally true. Before any of this came into light, Ravana had killed King Anaranya to acquire his kingdom, who belonged to the Ikshawku dynasty which even Lord Ram belonged to. While dying, king Anaranya cursed Ravana saying that the son of King Dasharatha would eventually be born and kill Ravana. The curse came true and hence Ravana was killed by Lord Ram.
4Ravana helped Lord Rama
Ravana was a half Brahmin and a renowned helper too. When lord Ram wanted to create the bridge to Lanka, they had to get Lord Shiva’s blessings to do so. For this particular purpose, they had set up a yagya. As it turned out, Ravana was the biggest bhakth of Lord Shiva and had all the powers that was given to him by Lord Shiva himself. Some Brahmin had to perform the yagya and so, Lord Shiva asked Ravana to perform the yagya. Since Ravana was already a Brahmin, he disguised himself into some other avatar and performed the yagya for Lord Ram and gave all of them his blessings.
5Ravana was a Veena player
Ravana was not only the head of the evil kingdom. He was an extremely artistic person and had a special interest and love for music and art. In a few depictions of Ramayana, Ravana is seen with a Veena in his hand. It is believed that he was fond of the musical instrument veena and played when he was happy.
6Most powerful avatar on earth
Despite his arrogant nature, Ravana was a great worshipper of Brahma and Shiva. He was given the power and strength that were not given to anyone else in the world. Ravana had the power to fight even planetary aliens. During the birth of Ravana’s son – Meghnad, Ravana had instructed all the planets to stay in a particular position and direction so that his son would be born in a proper time and with the power of immortality. But, the planet Saturn did not abide by Ravana’s instructions. Ravana eventually was irked and irritated and fought the Shani bagavan and imprisoned him with his mace.
7Ravana was aware of his own death
Most of the powerful demons always knew their purpose of life on earth. Likewise, Ravana always knew that he would be killed and destroyed by Lord Ram. Even after knowing that he would be killed by Ram, the confidence and power he had against the lord was only because he wanted to try till the end and not die an easy death. The ultimate reason of Ravana being killed by Ram was for the demon to attain Moksha and give up the evil avatar.
It is said that Lord Ram had asked Bharath (Ram’s brother) to take lessons from Ravana before his last breath on craftsman and diplomacy.
The essence and true spirit of Indian mythology are a lot more and beyond the fact of good vs evil. If you care enough to dig and go deeper into the facts and details of the mythology, there is a lot more of an interesting story to each step of what happened so many eras back. Though Ravana was the evil villain in the story, it was him who bought balance to the equation. For the matter of fact, there are still people in our world who have not stopped worshipping him.
We are sure, after reading this article many of you would probably start looking at Ravana with a different eye!
-Pavithra Ravi
