The Birth of Ravana and His Mastery of the Vidyas

In Rathanupura, King Sahasrara's queen Manasundari craved in pregnancy to enjoy the splendour of Indra, which he granted at once by his great vidya, and their son, born amid good omens for friends and calamities for foes, was named Indra. Grown up and served by all of Vijayardha, Indra recreated heaven's court: 48,000 wives with Shachi as chief queen, 26,000 dancers, the eight-tusked elephant Airavata, the four lokapalas Soma, Varuna, Kubera and Yama, the Sudharma assembly, dancers named Urvashi, Menaka and Rambha, the general Hiranyakeshi, the singers Narada, Tumburu and Vishvavasu, and the minister Brihaspati.

Meanwhile Mali of Lanka, proud of his brothers, still commanded the Vidyadharas and took the finest gems, elephants, horses and maidens from both rows; when, trusting in Indra, they began to defy him, he marched on Vijayardha with his brothers, sons, the whole Rakshasa clan and the Vanaras, Kishkindha's sons among them, riding illusory mounts from lions and leopards to camels, buffaloes, swans and jackals.

At the first march bad omens appeared: a crow on a dry branch cawing harshly toward the sun, a she-jackal howling on the right, headless torsos, thunderbolts and a phantom woman with flying hair, and Sumali begged his brother to halt or return to Lanka. Mali laughed that heroes mounted on the elephant of victory never turn back; he had enjoyed every pleasure, worshipped the Jinas and given freely, and would rather die in battle than let the world say Mali fled in fear.

Mali sent commands to all the Vidyadharas and laid waste the towns and gardens of those who refused, until the frightened people sought refuge with Sahasrara, who sent them to his son Indra. Eyes red with anger and glancing at his thunderbolt weapon, Indra vowed as protector of the world to remove this thorn, and rode out of Rathanupura on Airavata with his lokapalas and an army on illusory mounts.

Gautama reminds Shrenika that these so-called gods and Rakshasas are all human Vidyadharas of the line of Nami and Vinami. When the Vanara kings Suryaraja and Riksharaja joined to rescue the hard-pressed Rakshasas, Indra himself entered the fray, cutting every arrow down in mid-air; Mali twice drew blood from his forehead with a shakti (spear-dart), but when Mali leapt at him again, Indra in fury cut off his head with a chakra (discus) bright as the sun's orb.

Seeing Mali dead, Sumali fled with his family in bitter grief. The lokapala Soma begged leave to pursue and wipe out the clan, but Sumali's younger brother Malyavan turned and struck Soma's chest with a bhindipala (heavy javelin), knocking him senseless, and by the time he woke the Rakshasas and Vanaras had reached Patala Lanka; Indra returned in triumph to Rathanupura on Airavata, bowed to his parents and became famous everywhere.

The lokapalas were gods fallen from heaven and reborn as Vidyadharas: Soma, son of King Makaradhvaja and Queen Aditi, guarded the east from Jyotipura; Varuna, son of Megharatha and Varuna, whose noose weapon terrified foes, the west from Meghapura; Kubera, son of Kishkindhasurya and Kanakavali, the north from Kanchanapura; and Yama, son of Balagni and Shriprabha, the south from Kishkupura. The Vidyadharas of Asuranagara, Yakshakirti, Kinnaranagara and Gandharvanagara were styled Asuras, Yakshas, Kinnaras and Gandharvas, and Indra, though only a man, came to believe he truly was Indra and that Vijayardha was heaven.

King Vyomabindu of Kautukamangala and Queen Mandavati had two daughters: the elder, Kaushiki, married King Vishrava of Yajnapura and bore Vaishravana, whom Indra honoured as his fifth lokapala and who, at Indra's command, settled in Lanka without fear of the Rakshasas; the younger was Kekasi.

In Patala Lanka, Sumali's son Ratnashrava, generous and virtuous, who saw other men's wives as mothers and others' wealth as straw, went to practise vidyas in the fearsome Pushpa forest, and Vyomabindu sent Kekasi to serve him. When his vow ended and he broke silence to ask who she was, he gained the Manastambhini vidya at that very moment, by which he built the city of Pushpantaka in that forest, and he married Kekasi with due rites.

Kekasi dreamed of a roaring lion that tore the temples of great elephants and entered her mouth, of the sun coming into her lap, and of the moon before her. Ratnashrava, versed in the eightfold science of omens, foretold three famous sons who would come from heaven, the eldest to be the eighth Prativasudeva (Pratinarayana, the great adversary of a Narayana) but somewhat harsh and so stubborn that not even Indra could sway him, the two younger gentle, truthful and steadfast in the Jina path; to her dismay he explained that every being takes a body according to its own karma, and parents are only the instrument.

While Ravana was in the womb Kekasi turned fierce, longing to set her foot on enemies' heads and to command kings and even Indra, and gazing at her face in a sword though a mirror stood before her. Ravana was born in the ninth month as the seats of enemies trembled, and on his very first day he grasped the necklace that Bhima, the Indra of the Rakshasas, had once given their ancestor Meghavahana, guarded by a thousand Nagakumara gods.

Recalling a Charana muni's prophecy of a son who would be a Shalaka Purusha (one of the 63 illustrious beings), Ratnashrava knew this was the Prativasudeva, and because he saw the child's ten faces reflected in the necklace he named him Dashanana (Ten-Faced). Then were born Kumbhakarna, radiant as the sun, a daughter Chandranakha with a face like the full moon, and Vibhishana, gentle and righteous like dharma itself.

One day, sitting in his mother's lap, the young Ravana saw Vaishravana sweep across the sky with a great Vidyadhara host and asked who he was. Kekasi tearfully replied that he was her sister's son, master of all vidyas and Indra's lokapala, installed in Lanka after Indra killed Mali, the brother of Ravana's grandfather, and drove the family out; his father knew no rest over Lanka, and she longed for the day her three sons would win back their ancestral land.

Vibhishana flared up, asking why the mother of heroes spoke like a timid woman of this wretched Vaishravana, when Ravana, marked with the Shrivatsa on his chest, could crush mountains with a slap and his arms were pillars of the three worlds. Ravana said boasting was improper, but to end her doubt he declared that even if all the Vidyadharas of both rows united against him he would conquer them with one arm; yet since it is fitting for Vidyadharas to practise vidyas as munis practise austerity, he would do so too.

With their parents' blessings and the Namokara mantra on their lips, the three brothers entered the dreadful Bhima forest, where even gods do not go, and in white garments sat apart in meditation. In a day and a half they completed a hundred thousand recitations of the eight-syllable mantra and gained the vidya called Sarvakaryasiddha, which brought them any food they wished, and then began a thousand crore (ten billion) recitations of a sixteen-syllable mantra.

Anavrita, the Yaksha lord of Jambudvipa, came by with his consorts, who first tried to coax the young men home and then called them blocks of wood. Angered that they ignored him, the Yaksha set his servants to torment them with mountains, roars, snakes, lions, stinging insects, elephants, gales and forest fire, and then with an illusory army of Bhils that seemed to bind Ratnashrava and drag away Kekasi and Chandranakha, while the phantom Kekasi taunted Dashagriva and his brothers as cowards.

At last the gods showed Ratnashrava's and the brothers' severed heads before Ravana, and Ravana's own before his brothers; Ravana stayed as firm as Sumeru, a steadiness that in a great muni would destroy all eight karmas, though Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana were a little shaken. Even before his vowed recitations were complete, Ravana gained many thousands of vidyas, among them Nabhahsancharini (sky-travel), Kamadayini, Kamagamini, Durnivara, Jagatkampa, Prajnapti, Bhanumalini, Anima, Laghima, Toyastambhini, Giridarini, Avalokini, Vijaya, Jaya, Bandhani, Mochani, Varahi, Yogeshvari and Chanda.

Kumbhakarna won five vidyas, Sarvaharini, Atisamvardhini, Jrimbhini, Vyomagamini and Nidrani, and Vibhishana four, Siddhartha, Shatrudamani, Vyaghata and Akashagamini. Anavrita praised the brothers, adorned them with divine ornaments and promised to come to Ravana at a mere thought so that none could defeat him, and by his vidya Ravana built the city of Svayamprabha with towering palaces, jewelled Jina temples, pearl arches and ruby pillars.

Overjoyed, the whole Rakshasa clan, with Sumali, Malyavan, Ratnashrava and the Vanara kings Suryaraja and Riksharaja, gathered on Mount Panchasangama, where Ravana bowed to his elders and embraced his kin. Marvelling at Svayamprabha, the elders were given a ceremonial bath from jewelled pitchers and dressed in divine robes, and they blessed the three brothers, saying no one else possessed such vidyas.

When Mali was mentioned Sumali fainted with grief, and Ravana revived him and vowed to destroy all their enemies. Sumali hailed him as the tilaka (crowning mark) of the Rakshasa clan and recalled that an avadhijnani (clairvoyant) muni on Mount Kailasa had foretold that Ratnashrava would marry Vyomabindu's daughter Kekasi and that their son, a future lord of three khandas (regions) of Bharata Kshetra, would restore them to Lanka; by Ravana's might the Rakshasa and Vanara families returned to their homes without fear.