The Legend of Ravana eBook (epub)

This Legend of Ravana is a prehistoric novel, set around events that were supposed to have taken place about 3,500 to 3000 BCE. The character Ravana was made famous in the ‘Ramayana’, first put into writing by Valmiki about 500 BCE, drawing on hearsay and stories memorized and repeated from person to person over a period of 2,500 years. In this version, Ravana was described as a demon with ten heads (albeit on a single neck), thoroughly despicable, and someone you are meant to hate and fear. At the same time, he was endowed with incredibly good qualities not existing in anyone else, to make him a worthy opponent to Rama, the pure and faultless. According to Valmiki, these capabilities were given to him by the gods, with religion in Valmiki’s time being entwined inexorably with the entire plot.

However, during the period when Ravana existed, people considered the Sun and Fire as gods due to the high impact these had on their lives, so there may have been different explanations about how he acquired these qualities.

To appreciate this, we have to go back even further in time, in fact many thousands of years before the Ravana of legend was born, to understand the events that made him what he became, thus actually spanning many generations.

This story delves into the nooks, crannies and gaps of fable, drawing on the characters who closely influenced Ravana’s life, but in no way is it meant to be another version of the Ramayana.