Ravana

In the Ramayana, the earlier of the two
great Indian epics, Ravana is the tenheaded demon king of Lanka. To destroy
Ravana, the god Vishnu is born in his
incarnation as Rama. Ravana is a reincarnation of Vishnu’s gatekeeper Jaya, who
has been cursed by a sage to be reborn
three times as a demon and to be killed
by Vishnu each time. As a rakshasa, a
type of demon, Ravana possesses enormous physical strength and various
magic powers. He augments these natural abilities by performing intense physical asceticism (tapas), which in Indian
culture is widely believed to generate
spiritual power and bring boons from the
gods. When the god Brahma finally
appears and directs Ravana to choose his
boon, Ravana requests that he be able to
be killed by no one but a human being.
This seems to make him practically
immortal, since his powers are such that
no ordinary human will be able to harm
him, much less kill him. Ravana then proceeds to terrorize the gods, secure in the
knowledge that they will not be able to
harm him. He begins with his half-brother, the minor deity Kubera, who loses his
home and all his possessions to Ravana.
Ravana’s virtual invulnerability goes
to his head, and the powerful demon
begins to disregard all rules of decency
and morality. He is particularly guilty of
molesting and abducting women, acts
which result in various curses being laid
upon him by his helpless victims, many
of them predicting his death. As a result
of one of these curses his sister
Shurpanakha is mutilated by Rama’s
brother Lakshmana. Ravana is determined to avenge this insult, and decides
that the best way will be to abduct
568
Rati
Relief sculpture of the demon king Ravana from Angkor, Cambodia. As the antagonist of the Hindu epic,
the Ramayana, Ravana acquires great magical powers, which he abuses until Rama kills him in battle.
Rama’s wife Sita. Although his wife
Mandodari and his brothers rebuke him
for this act and advise him to return Sita
and make peace with Rama, Ravana
stubbornly refuses to listen. His inflated
pride and desire to avenge the insult to
his sister deafen his ears to their good
counsel, and he eventually pays for his
stubbornness with his life when Rama
kills him in battle.
As with all demons, Ravana is not
completely villainous by nature but
rather greatly powerful and greatly
flawed at the same time. According to
some stories he is a devotee (bhakta) of
the god Shiva, and the hymn to the
dancing Shiva known as the
Shivatandava Stotra is often attributed
to Ravana.