Stories of Ravana from scriptures - Page 2

Well, all I know is that in each avatar, Vishnu killed both Jay and Vijay, in some form.

Originally posted by: akhl

The birth of Ravan
The demons Malyavan, Mali and Sumali were brothers. Because of a boon from Lord Brahma they became very powerful. They terrorized gods. On their command, Vishwakarma(the architect of gods) built the beutiful city of Lanka. The gods went to Lord Visnu to seek help. After that in a fight between demons and gods, Visnu killed Mali with his sudarshan chakra(discus), Visnu killed Mali. Malyavan and Sumai ran away from there.
Now gods once again started ruling happily. Malyavan and Sumali lost their kingdom. Sumali was looking for a suitable groom for his daughter Kaikasi. One day he saw Kubel flying in his Pushpak Viman(aircraft). Kuber was sage Vishrava's son and was ruling over Lanka now. Vishrava was a highly respected, very learned sage and possessed great spiritual powers. Vishrawa thought that a son born of a demon lady and a great sage like Vishrawa will be very powerful. He asked Kaikasi to go to Vishrava and marry him.
Kaikasi went to Vishrava. When Vishrava asked her the cause of her arrival, then she introduced herself by saying that her name was Kaikasi and she had come there on the command of her father Sumali. After that she said, "The rest you should know from your own spiritual insight." Vishrava understood everything.
In due course of time, Vishrava and Kaikasi gave birth to three sons and one daughter. The sons were Ravan, Kumbhkarn and Vibhishan. The daughter was Chandranakha(meaning nails like moon). When Chandranakha grew up, then she was called as Surpnakha(meaning nails like winnowing fans). Out of the four children, Ravan was the eldest, after that Kubhkarn, then Chandranakha, and the youngest was Vibhishan. At birth, Ravan was not named Ravan. He was called by names Dashanan(meaning ten heads) and Dashgriva(meaning ten necks). When he was born, he had ten heads, and twenty hands. The name Ravan was given to him much later.

No, it is "nails". The word nakh means nail and naak means nose.

[quote] It was explained in the serial that Chandranakha was so named because of her beautiful nose.[/quote]

I did not watch that episode but nakh means fingernail.

[quote] And as we will see later on, Lakshman will cut her nose with his arrow, which will lead to her other name, Surpanakha.[/quote]

Lakshman cut her nose, but she was named Surpanakha even before that. This is because when she grew up, then her nails were very big.

Originally posted by: akhl

islandboy401,
Could you tell the source of your information that Vishnu takes the 10 incarnations to kill Jaya and Vijaya. The scriptures that I have read do mention these 10 incarnations(also some more). But they do not say that in all these ten incarnations, Vishnu kills Jaya and Vijaya in some form.

Originally posted by: akhl

I have read about indrasan and nidrasan. But I intentionally did not write because some books say "indrasan" and "nidrasan". Some use other words. But they all agree that Kumbhkarn, by mistake, asked the boon of sleep. I decided to write what is common.