Stories of Ravana from scriptures - Page 4

In response to a question in another thread, I posted stories of Ravan getting defeated by Karthviryarjun and also by Vali. I am reproducing those stories here. Please see my next two posts.

Kartviryarjun defeated Ravan

Ravan was always looking for somebody who could be a match to him in strength. On finding any such person, Ravan challenged him to a duel.
There was a king named Kartviryarjun. He was also named Sasrarjun because he had thousand hands.(The word Sahasra means thousand). He got thousand hands as a boon from Lord Dattatreya(incarnation of Lord Vishnu). In brief he is also called as Arjun. But one must not confuse him with Arjun of Mahabharat.

Ravan heard of Kartviryarjun power and went to challenge him. Before challenging Kartviryarjun, Ravan saw river Narmada. He went to the bank of Narmada and started offering worship to Lord Shiva. He found that water started flowing in opposite direction. Ravan asked his men to find out the reason. They found that at some distance Kartviryarjun was taking bath in Narmada. Some women of his gynaecium were with him. He made water flow in opposite direction with his thousand hands.
Ravan got angry that his puja was interrupted because of Kartviryarjun and wanted to have war with him. Ravan's ministers advised him that Kartviryarjun was relaxing in the water of Narmada at that time and was also in the company of women, therefore it was not appropriate to challenge him at that time. But Ravan did not listen.
Initially there was war between Ravan's soldiers and Kartviryarjun's soldiers. When Kartviryarjun was still inside water, Ravan's soldiers had upper hand and they were destroying the soldiers of Kartviryarjun. Kartviryarjun came out without any worry and defeated the soldiers of Ravan. He challenged Ravan to have single combat. Ravan and Kartviryarjun fought. Kartviryarjun easily won. He took Ravan to his(Kartviryarjun's) jail and imprisoned him.

Ravan's grandfather Pulastya came to know of this. He reached Mahismati(Kartviryarjun's capital) and requested Kartviryarjun to release Ravan. Since Kartviryarjun defeated Ravan, therefore he had the right to take anything from Ravan. If he wanted, he could also take Ravan's kingdom. But, out of respect for the great sage Pulastya, Kartviryarjun did not ask for anything and released Ravan. Not only that, he even accepted Ravan as his friend.
Some stories say that sage Pulastya asked Kartviryarjun to free Ravan and some say that Lord Brahma did that. It is possible that both Lord Brahma and sage Pulastya went to Kartviryarjun.

Monkey king Vali defeated Ravan

Ravan was very proud of his might. He had the habit of challenging anyone who was called as very powerful. He once challenged Karthviryarjun and was easily defeated. Still, his pride knew no bounds. He heard a lot about the might of ape king Vali.

Ravan came to Kiskindha city to challenge Vali for a duel. At that time, Vali had left for southern seas for his prayers. Vali was a devotee of Lord Shiv and used to go to distant places to find a quiet place where he could offer worship to Shiv without any disturbance.
Vali's younger brother Sugriv, son Angad, father-in-law Sushen, and a minister named Taar informed to Ravan that Vali had gone for his prayers.
They mocked by saying to Ravan, "Wait here till Vali comes back. Or, you are free to fly to the southern seas yourself, if you are in a hurry to breathe your last a bit too soon."

Since Sugriv was one of those who said like this to Ravan, this means that this incident occured before the animosity between Vali and Sugriv started.

By his Pushpak Viman, Ravan went to the shore of southern seas where Vali was doing prayers. Ravan went towards Vali with silent steps. Ravan decided to tie Vali. Vali somehow sensed Ravan's presence. He captured Ravan with his tail and then clapsed him in his armpit. After that he went to other seas and offered prayers there. All this while, Ravan was helplessly clapsed in Vali's armpit.

After finishing his prayers, Vali went to his city Kiskindha. There, he released Ravan from his grasp and said, "I am sorry. Since, I was very busy, I could not ask you the purpose of your visit. Now, please tell me why you wanted to meet me."

Ravan was amazed at Vali's strength. He did not know that somebody can be so powerful that he can capture mighty Ravan in his hand and fly long distances.
Ravan said to Vali, "O king of monkeys. I am a compeer of the mighty Indra. I came here seeking an encounter with you and you captured me today. Wonderful is your strength. By you, I was taken like an animal round the four seas. Having witnessed your might, I wish to enter into an enduring and exceedingly loving friendshop with you in the presence of fire."

Then Vali and Ravan became very good friends with fire as witness (because presence of fire is considered auspicious).

Ravan stayed in Kiskindha for about a month. Vali gave as much importance to Ravan as he gave Sugriv. After one month, Ravan's ministers came there and requested Ravan to come back to Lanka. Then, Ravan went to Lanka.

The Ravan serial has shown the birth of Dashrath's sons. In the next post, I will write the story behind their births.

Story behind the ritual by which Dashrath got sons (Based primarily on Valmiki Ramayan)

Sage Kashyap had a son named Vibhandak. Kashyap created Vibhandak using his mental power. Vibhandak performed lots of austerities and gained huge spiritual powers. Vibhandak had a son named Rishyashring. Vibhandak brought up Rishyashring in forest. Rishyashring was completely devoted to his father. He did whatever Vibhandak asked him to. Under Vibhandak's guidance, he became expert in Vedas.

Meanwhile king Dashrath had a daughter named Shanta(some stories say Shanti). It is not written clearly anywhere who was Shanta's mother. Some say that it was Kaushalya. Some say that Kaushalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyee were Dashrath's principal queens. But Shanta was given birth by a wife of Dashrath who was not a principal queen i.e. neither Kaushalya, nor Sumitra nor Kaikeyee gave birth to Shanta. Dashrath wanted son. Dashrath had a friend named Romapad who was ruling over a kingdom called Ang. Romapad wanted to adopt Shanta. Dashrath agreed. Thus Romapad became Shanta's father.After Shanta came to Ang, there was famine in Ang. Even in rainy season, there was no rain. Because of no rain, there was lack of food. People started blaming Shanta. They said that Shanta must have brought bad luck. But Romapad's family astrologer said that the famine was because of the anger of a brahmin whom Romapad had cheated in the past. It so happened that Romapad conducted a ritual after which he gave donations. To one brahmin he promised a bag containing diamonds. Later on he saw that one diamond was very precious. Romapad did not want to give such a precious diamond to anybody. He replaced that diamond with another less valuable diamond. He gave that bag to the brahmin. From his spiritual power, the brahmin got to know everything. He became very angry and left the place. It was because of his anger that there was no rain. It was just a coincidence that Shanta came to Ang before the famine.

Romapad asked the family astrologer what to do. The astrologer said, "Let sage Rishyashring come to Ang. When he comes here, then there will be rain. Also marry your daughter Shanta to Rishyashring and ask Rishyashring stay here. When he stays here, then because of his spiritual power, there will be good in your kingdom."
Romapad agreed. Now the question was whom to send to bring Rishyashring. Everybody was afraid of Rishyashring's father Vibhandak. Because of his spiritual power, Vibhandak could burn anybody and any place. It was next to impossible to make Vibhandak send Rishyashring out of the forest. And there was no way Rishyashring was going to do anything against the wishes of his father. After lots of discussions, the ministers of Romapad made a plan. They decided to send courtesans to Rishyashring and that too at a time when Vibhandak was not with Rishyashring.

Beautiful courtesans went to the forest where Rishyashring lived. They camped near Rishyashring's ashram. Vibhandak was not there at that time. Romapad's ministers had already come to know of this from their detectives. While walking, Rishyashring came near the camp of the courtesans. He was amazed because he had never seen any woman till then. Here, he was seeing so many woman and that too exceptionally beautiful ones. The women made friendship with Rishyashring. Rishyashring thought that they also must be sages like him. He received them the way a guest should be received. He offered them fruits to eat. After talking to Rishyashring for some time, the courtesans went back to their camp. Next day, Rishyashring went to that camp. The women welcomed him and gave him sweets to eat. Rishyashring ate the sweets thinking them to be fruits because he had never eaten or even seen man-made sweets till then; he had been living on roots and fruits.
The courtesans said, "Our hermitage is at some distance from here. It is a very good hermitage. You must come with us to see it."
Rishyashring thought that his father would have no objection if he visited the hermitage of any sage. He had been thinking the courtesans to be sages. He did not know that they would take him to city. He was not even aware what urban life was all about because he had never stepped outside forest. He went to Ang with the courtesans. As soon as he reached there, there was rain in Ang. Everybody was happy. King Romapad explained him everything and got Shanta married to Rishyashring. Now Rishyashring found out the truth but he forgave the king because he understood the king's problems.

When Vibhandak came back to the forest, he did not find his son Rishyashring there. He found out everything. He went to Ang and was very angry. Somehow Romapad calmed him down. Then Vibhandak went back to his forest and Rishyashring lived in Ang with his wife Shanta.

On the other hand, king Dashrath wanted to perform rituals to get son. His guru Vashishth and other sages approved of this idea. Dashrath's minister Sumant suggested that Rishyashring should be made the chief priest in the ritual. Many years before that, Sanat Kumar(a mind-born son of Brahma) had predicted that Dashrath would get sons if sage Rishyashring performed the ritual. Sumant was aware of this prediction and he knew that Sanat Kumar could never go wrong. When Dashrath came to know that none less than Sanat Kumar had predicted this, then he decided to bring Rishyashring to his city Ayodhya. Since Vashishth was Dashrath's guru, Dashrath asked for Vashishth's suggestion. Vashishth also said that Rishyashring should perform the ritual.

Dashrath went to Ang. He explained everything to his friend Romapad. Romapad agreed. He sent Rishyashring to Ayodhya. Shanta also came to Ayodhya with him. Rishyashring performed ritual to beget son. When the ritual was going on, then gods headed by Lord Brahma came to the sacrificial hall. Only some sages were able to see them. The gods said to Brahma, "O Lord! Ravan has become very evil. Because of boons from you, he has become very powerful and arrogant. Please devise some means by which we can get rid of Ravan."
Brahma replied, "When Ravan asked me boon, then he did not say that he should not be killed by humans because he thought humans to be very weak. He thought that, any way, no human could ever kill him. There lies the means by which Ravan can be killed."
Then Lord Vishnu came there on Garud. Brahma requested Vishnu to be born as Dashrath's son and kill Ravan. Vishnu agreed.

At the end of the ritual, a divine being came out of the fire of the ritual. He gave a pot containing kheer(a sweet dish made of rice and milk) to Dashrath and asked him to give the kheer to his queens. Dashrath gave the kheer to his three queens. In due time, Kaushalya gave birth to Ram, Kaikeyee to Bharat and Sumitra to Laxman and Shatrughan. Vishnu incarnated as Ram and his potencies incarnated as his younger brothers.

This topic should be a sticky. 😊

Nice work akhl. 😊

I post stories in this thread, in the thread titled "incarnations of Lord Visnu" and also in other threads if I need to post stories there in response to questions from other members. It is good if all these stories are put into one thread. I cannot do that because when a member asks a question in one thread, I should answer in the same.
Umi is doing this job. She is very diligently collecting stories from all these threads and compiling them together in one thread called "Indian Mythology Stories". That thread appears under "Important Topics". That is very good for members. Rather than reading stories in so many threads, they can read in one.

There's a funny thing behind the stories of how Ram was born.....

I'm not sure if this is included at all in Valmiki Ramayan......but I have seen this in Ramanand Sagar's Serial Ramayan:

When Dasarath was given the kheer, he split it in half. He gave half to Kaushalya and half to Kaikeyi, so each would get one son. He completely forgot to give the kheer to Sumitra. Then, Kaushalya and Kaikeyi each took half of their kheer and gave it to sumitra..

Since sumitra ate twice the amount of kheer as kaushalya and kaiyeyi, she got two sons, while the other two only got one.

In their case, the situation worked out perfectly. However, this same situation was bad for Jarasandh, King of Magadh.

Jarasand's father, Brihadrath, was given an apple by a sage. The sage told him that by eating the apple, his queen would be able to give birth to a child.

Since Brihadrath had two queens, he cut his apple in half and gave the halves to his queens. Since this is similar to what happened in Ramayan, one would think that instead of one son, two will be born, who are just as powerful. However, each queen gives birth to half of a son.

So, splitting these so called "janam devices" actually helped in Ram's case......but in Jarasandh's case, it didn't....well at least not at the time of birth...

Just a funny observation.......

Valmiki Ramayan says that Dashrath gave 1/2 to Kaushalya, 1/4 to Sumitra, 1/8 to Kaikeyi and remaining 1/8 again to Sumitra.

Originally posted by: islandboy401

There's a funny thing behind the stories of how Ram was born.....

I'm not sure if this is included at all in Valmiki Ramayan......but I have seen this in Ramanand Sagar's Serial Ramayan:

When Dasarath was given the kheer, he split it in half. He gave half to Kaushalya and half to Kaikeyi, so each would get one son. He completely forgot to give the kheer to Sumitra. Then, Kaushalya and Kaikeyi each took half of their kheer and gave it to sumitra..

Since sumitra ate twice the amount of kheer as kaushalya and kaiyeyi, she got two sons, while the other two only got one.

In their case, the situation worked out perfectly. However, this same situation was bad for Jarasandh, King of Magadh.

Jarasand's father, Brihadrath, was given an apple by a sage. The sage told him that by eating the apple, his queen would be able to give birth to a child.

Since Brihadrath had two queens, he cut his apple in half and gave the halves to his queens. Since this is similar to what happened in Ramayan, one would think that instead of one son, two will be born, who are just as powerful. However, each queen gives birth to half of a son.

So, splitting these so called "janam devices" actually helped in Ram's case......but in Jarasandh's case, it didn't....well at least not at the time of birth...

Just a funny observation.......

Sab Gol Maal Hai Bhai Sab Gol Maal Hai! 😉