First let us look at what sources we have that tell us of Ravana’s History. He was the son of a Brahmin called ‘Vishrava’ and a princess called ‘Kaikesi’. When Kaikesi came of age to be married, her father ‘Sumali’ the king of the Daityas, wanted her to marry the most powerful and noble man in the world. He refused a lot of offers made by a number of prices and went to Vishrava instead. He agreed to marry Kaikesi. Yet, he told that Kaikesi approached her in the wrong time, and the children that were to be born to them will be bent towards evil.

Ravana was the eldest of the sons that they had. He was named “Dasagriva” or “Dashanana” since it is believed that he had ten heads. But this may be because he had the power and strength of ten men. Some say the ten heads were due to the reflections of a crystal necklace gifted to him by his father at the time of his birth or he had the mental strength of 10 people. Ravana had two brothers, Vibhishana and Kumbhakarna and one sister, Meenakshi (Later named Shoorpanakha).

During Ravana’s time, the kingdom “Lanka” was divided between three rulers by the queen Mandratha. Namely Tharaka; who ruled from a location near the current day Kelaniya, Surapadma; who ruled from the southern parts near Tissamaharama. The third, Sinha-Mukha did not have a city to rule from. Thus he called upon the greatest architect and engineer of all time, Maya-Asura (Known to some as “Vishwakarma”) to build him the city “Lankapura”. (Legend says this is Atlantis itself)

But soon, the king Surapadma had a dispute with a foreign king and takes him into custody and brings him to Lanka. This triggers an event that shapes the history of the country. A prince named Kathira (Later renamed “Mahasena” because of bringing a great army), comes to Lanka (The place he set his armies is currently known as “Katharagama” – Kathira-Gama broken down–) and rescues the abducted prince by killing Surapadma. Unfortunately, during this time, Tharaka and Sinha-Mukha leave their strongholds and escape from the country. The country goes to the hands of a king named Kuvera (AKA Kubera), also known to be a son of Vishrava. (Ravana’s father)

It is then; Ravana overthrows the attacker Kuvera and secures the country and most importantly, the “Pushpaka”, the flying machine. Kuvera might not have known to use it, but Ravana who had much knowledge given to him by his father and his studies of the Vedas might have had an idea how to fly the thing. From the stories that are told about queen Devayani (Mentioned later) showing off the battle capabilities of the Pushpaka, Ravana might have figured out that it would be a great advantage to have such a craft.


He took the country into a period of utmost prosperity. It is rumoured that the poorest of the houses in the country had golden pots to feed from. The people knew not the meaning of hunger. It is this prosperous culture, did Rama decided to bring down, and it all happened because of a single female. (We still don’t know whether this abduction story is true) We think that was a some type tragedic incident.

Ravana's last references are in the war that he made with Rama. He was quite an adversary to Rama. Given the fact that his knowledge of science and warrior tactics, Rama was no match for him. But the inside help Rama got from Vibhishana seems to have worked for him. If not for that, the story would have been told in a different manner.

Some argue that the abduction story is a setup done by Vibhishana himself to overthrow Ravana from his empire. The Ramayana states that Rama even winning his queen in a war, did not trust Seetha to be pure. But Seetha proved that she was pure and this fact also says that Ravana never even touched the woman when she was in Lanka. Why abduct her and then keep her till she says “Yes” when you can always do what you want by force. This is a serious question that we must seek answers to. We have seen political scandal stories all our life and of all the countries in the world, we must know how bad politicians become when they want power. Perhaps Vibhishana was overcome by his greed of the empire to force him into such an action.

Read more in Sinhala

It is said there were 11 Ravans found in Sinhalese history such as Nala Ravana, Manu ravana, Punu ravana and Dasis Ravana. The most famous Ravana is the king who fought with Indian hindu Rama. He is called Dasis Ravana which means the king with 10 great talents. The Dasis Ravana lived lived nearly 5000 years ago in Sri Lanka. He was a descendant of Surya Wansha and Hela Raskshasa tribe.

(Ancient Sinhalese tribe) He was one of the best fighters in Angampora, the traditional martial arts of ancient Sinhale. King Dasis Ravana was a great Scholar in Ayurvedic medicine. He was the person who invented Arka Shastra. The book Arka Prakshaya reveals this truth to the present world. As his willing to research in Ayurvedic medicine he wrote several books revealing the cures for many diseases.

In one book he wrote "Eating beef cause to infect ninety eight new diseases to human beings". The book "Kumara Tantraya" which reveals the treatments for infant diseases was written by him accepting the request of his pregnant queen Mandodari.

He has children and the eldest one was Indrajith also known as Meghanada who followed his father's steps. There are some hints in Sri Lankan rock inscriptions about the daughter of king Dasis Ravana.

King Ravana's kingdom was Lankapura. The kingdom is almost disappeared today. But If you keen on Sri Lankan folklore and ola manuscripts there you can find some remaining sites of Lankapura today known as Sigiriya and Trincomalee.

He was the first king flew over the world with his aero plane, known Dandumonaraya or Vimanaya, Kashtawahana. Some evidence of Dandumonaraya the aeroplane is found in Rock inscriptions, Jataka Stories and Ola manuscripts. The Sinhalese folk stories are enriched with Ravana Stories.

Basically, Ravana was a worshiper of nature and used to hate the Aryans Rishis and deities killing their totems in yajnyas. Manu enjoins killing of animals in Yajnyas as Madhupark [p.66, "Ravana aur uski lanka"]. It therefore follows that Ramayana is a story of conflict between Adivasi culture versus Aryans culture. "Marathi Vishva Kosh" vol. 14, p. 781 mentioned Ram Lakshman driving away Maricha, Subahu from the Yajnya of Vishwamitra. Ramaswami Periyar observed that Ravana was hating Vedic deities and Rishis because they were indulging in cruelly killing of animals and there was no other reason.Ravana had started a struggle against the Vedic Yajnyas to protect the culture of Adivasis and his Rakshasa Gana. "Raksha" means to protect. Acharya Chatursen named his book "Wayam Raksham", meaning "we protect" [p.131, "Wayam Raksham" by Acharya Chatursen] Aryans always hated the Adivasis as seen by depicting them as enemies of Gods and men.

Ravana was contemporary of Buddha(Kashyapa) and has attended His discourses and believed in Buddha's karuna and non violence. Acharya Narendra Deva in his "Buddha Darshna" describes Ravana asking one hundred questions to the Buddha about Buddhist doctrine like Nirvana. [p.53-54, Ravana aur Uski Lanka] Ravana has accepted the concept of Nibbana and Shunyata of the Buddhists.

They were in colour and complexion black opposed to the Aryans, who were bright or fair in colour and features. It (the Ramayana) represents the Rakshas as black of hue, and compares them with black cloudier and masses of black collyrium, it attributes to them curly wooly hair and thick lips, it depicts them as Loaded with chains, collars and girdle of gold and the other bright ornaments which their race has always loved and in which the kindred races of the southern still delight.

Rama went to forest for 14 years to destroy the Adivasis. He had preferred killing of Adivasis to the pleasures of king's palace. All those killed in Ramayana war were black Rakshasas and Vanaras, and not a single white Aryan was killed. All this proves that the struggle depicted in Ramayana was a struggle between White coloured Aryans crusading against the Black Adivasis and in the real sense was a struggle between Blacks and Whites.

Shoorpanakha(King Ravana's sister) was insulted by Rama and Lakshmana. To her proposal of marriage, why did they not tell her that they were already married, why was she disfigured? The real reason of this was that Ravana had accepted Buddhist philosophy of nonviolence and opposed the killing of animals in Yajnyas. To revenge this Rama cut the nose and ears of Shoorpanakha, who was much more beautiful than Sita herself. No brother would have tolerated the torture of Shoorpanakha. Ravana took away Sita to question Rama in her presence.

At the time of Swayamwara of Sita Ravana was already known to Rama but still Rama kept on searching him. It appears therefore that to liberate Sita was his secondary aim and the main aim was to destroy the culture of non violence of Ravana. Ravana kept Sita very respectfully in the Ashoka Watika and treated her with great respect as a guest and followed political protocol. He never tried to outrage her modesty or to rape her.

As a matter of fact there are many folk songs among the Adivasis that one can hear describing that Ravana had not abducted Sita but she has gone with him with her willingness. Korku Adivasis worship Ravana and Meghnath. Ravana was very handsome and expert in music and dressed attractively. That is why Sita went with Ravana with full willingness. G. B. Pradhan, "Korku che San war" edited by Sarojani Babar - "Adiwasi che San War", [p. 55-56] has given detailed folk songs prevalent among them. The summary of these is as follows:-

Sita was asked what did you see in Ravana in the guise of a Sadhu on which she replied that she went behind Ravana by seeing at his crown. She went behind Ravana looking at stick in his hand. She went behind Ravana looking at a cloth bag on his shoulder. She went behind Ravana looking at musical instruments in his lips.

Thus it appears that Sita went of her own with Ravana but misunderstanding of was spread among the masses to create the feeling of hate against him. The reason of this was that Mahatma Ravana was out side the caste system of Hindus, was nonviolent and was a great personality observing karuna.

As we know up to now King Dasis Ravana was not a thief/ratio as Ramayanaya tells us.It means there is a conspiracy between those stories.What we had to think is this battle conducted to overthrow the King Ravana from his crown & distroy the great civilization.To do this they attach sitha role in to this and change the real story behind this so as far as we concern King Ravana was the real Hero..............