03/11/2021, 11:32 Ravan was a Gond king

ESSAY / RELIGION

The
Protector
Ravan was a Gond king

USHAKIRAN ATRAM

ILLUSTRATION BY OSHEEN SIVA

01 November 2021

BEFORE THE ARYANS arrived, according to Gond folklore, this

land was ruled by many great kings. Beginning with Andiperiyol
and Sukmaperi, there were 88 samboo—those who ruled the
earth—a lineage that includes Banasur, Kaliyanag, Jatasur,
Raven, Ahiraven, Mahiraven and Vishravya, as well as princesses
such as Maula, Girija, Gaura, Mandodari, Tadaka, Surpanakha
and Trijata.

In the religious texts of the Aryans, you will only find malicious and
vile representations of Adivasis and Ravan, who belonged to the
divine lineage of the samboo. They stoop very low to portray him
as evil, despicable, unworthy, arrogant and proud—as not human
at all but a demon. He is portrayed as if he did not have a shred of
human kindness, love, estrangement, thought, wisdom or goodwill.

In fact, he was just as human as any other, with two hands, two
legs, two eyes and one head. He was the son of the extremely
beautiful king Vishravya, also known as Kuber Virendra.
Vishravya, in turn, was the son of Pulastya and Trunbindu. Ravan
was actually known as Raven, the Gondi name for a blue-throated
 bird. This bird is considered the totem of the clan he belonged to;
in those times, people were often
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referred to by their clan symbols. By identifying him as Ravan in

historical and religious texts, the Aryans obfuscated his clan
identity and directly linked him to their lineage.

Ravan’s original identity has been erased by creating fictional

narratives about him. In some texts, Pulastya is called Manasputra
and portrayed as having been born from Brahma’s mind. Brahma
was an Aryan, an enemy who came from outside—how could a
non-Aryan like Vishravya come from a child of Brahma? The
Aryans have not just appropriated Ravan but also portrayed him as
a Brahmin. If he was in fact a Brahmin, why do they burn his
effigy?

Ravan, after all, only abducted Sita. He neither raped nor tortured
her. He did not touch her, or look at her lustfully. He did not even
verbally abuse her. Everyone knows the reason for the abduction:
his beloved sister Surpanakha. When she saw Lakshman, she had
merely asked him to marry her. In response, Ram and Lakshman
followed her, caught her, tied her up and mutilated her, cutting off
the beautiful princess’s nose and ears. They assaulted her and left
her there.

Ram and Lakshman committed this heinous and unforgivable

crime, but are considered gods and conferred with titles such as
maryada purushottam—the ideal man. Why are their effigies not
burnt? Ravan, meanwhile, is reviled for his single misstep. What
kind of justice is this? If Ravan was indeed a Brahmin, belonging
to a lineage that originated in the mind of Brahma, his actions
would also have been forgiven, as were those of Ram and
Lakshman.

“IN THE RAMAYANA, even if Ram is praised, Valmiki has

unknowingly also highlighted the greatness of Ravan,” Arun
Kamble, one of the founders of the Dalit Panthers, writes in his
 book Ramayanatil Samskrutik Sangharsh—Cultural Struggle in
the Ramayana. “Ravan is portrayed as the demon lord, the main
representative of the rakshasa culture. ‘Wayam Raksham’ was
their motto; they were protectors. ‘Raksh’ here is a reference to
their non Aryan, Dravidian heritage. ‘Rakshak-rakshasa’ here
means ones who protect the people, country, clan, religion,
culture, the five elements
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and life itself—these protectors (rakshak) were the demons

(rakshasas).” Similarly, the Marathi Vishwakosh, an
encyclopaedia funded by the government of Maharashtra, notes
that many scholars trace the word rakshasa from
raksha—protection.

“Wayam Raksham” translates to “we who protect.” The rakshasas

were Adivasis trying to protect their culture and way of life from the
invading Aryans. Why are such people considered bloodthirsty
cannibals? Why are they portrayed as monstrous? Why does
Ravan have ten heads? Why is he always shown to be ugly, with
long teeth and overgrown nails?

The Ramayana and other Hindu scriptures have used the most
despicable abusive language to describe rakshasas. This has,
over thousands of years, created an extremely hateful image in the
minds of the masses. And Ravan is considered the biggest sinner
of all—he is always portrayed as the most unworthy and villainous.
If he had ten heads, how did he manage to come out of his
mother’s womb when he was born? How did he eat, sleep, speak
or see?
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(https://caravanmagazine.in/religion/ravan
gond-king/attachment-17850)
 Ravan was not actually ten-headed. He had only one head. He
was human, just like us. He had a wife and children, parents and
other relatives. He had kindness and feelings, thoughts and
actions, joy and sadness. He did not have ten heads, but he had
the strength of ten people. He was an extremely competent
intellectual, with knowledge of the scriptures, gods and nature. He
was also extremely brave and trained in the art of combat—a
strong king. His kingdom was rich and plentiful; his household and
state were full of gold. Nobody was as rich as him. His Aryan
enemies were jealous of his looks, qualities, courage, intelligence
and riches. Because of this jealousy, Aryan chroniclers depicted
him as a disgusting villain.

Ravan’s wife, Mandodari, was the daughter of a Gond king called

Maydanav. What is today Delhi is believed to be the site of
Maynar, his

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ancient capital city. Maydanav was a scientist and is considered to

be the founder of architecture. He built several large forts and
palaces. We are all familiar with Maysabha, the palace of illusions.
It was built by Maydanav to confound any person who tried to enter
it—you would see the door or a hallway but not know how to get
there, or you would suddenly bump into a wall on your way to the
door. Soon after creating this palace, he wrote Mayamatam, a
treatise on architecture. He was an advisor to Ravan and gave him
the Pushpak Viman, the flying chariot mentioned in the Ramayana,
as a wedding gift.

In his book Pradushit Ramayana—Polluted Ramayana—Shrikant

Shetye writes that Ram was not as strong, meritorious, rich,
intelligent or well-trained in combat and prevailed only because
Ravan was betrayed by his brother Vibhishan. Ravan was
proficient in 18 skills. He also knew how to cast spells and perform
magic. His Lanka was extremely prosperous, as though the
goddess Lakshmi personally looked after him. On one hand, we
have Ravan, a rich and prosperous ruler. On the other, we have
Ram, a small-time zamindar. How are they comparable?

The all-powerful Ravan was a worshipper of the samboo. For the

people of the Adivasi community, he took on a heroic fight of self
defence. Ram’s cause was not nearly as noble. After killing Ravan,
he told Sita, “I did not take on this war for you, but to clear the
disgrace that you brought to my clan. You can now go wherever
you like; your path is now clear. Or you can live with any of my
brothers.” Does this really make Ram a god? You can decide for
yourself. There was a large conspiracy behind painting Ravan as a
sinner, as a hard-hearted, angry, lowly, arrogant and prideful
person, because he was an indigenous ruler.

It is difficult to believe, knowing all this, that Ravan was

senseless or stupid. Why, then, do the Aryan Brahmins have so
much hatred towards him?

Ravan, like most rakshasas, was against the sacrificial rituals

 performed by the Aryans. Whenever such rituals would take place,
rakshasas
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would attempt to create disruptions. But why were they against

these practices? Kamble writes that the rituals mentioned in the
Ramayana describe alcohol consumption and inebriated
behaviour, animal sacrifice and the burning of foodgrains.
Thousands of cows and bulls would be slaughtered; thousands of
women would be raped, disgraced or defamed. Ravan was not
only against these rituals, he had also announced the imposition of
the death sentence or strict punishment in response to such
actions. This was because Ravan was a worshipper of nature—a
bird was the totem of his clan. He used to respect women and
worship his mother.

From this, we can tell that Ravan was an original inhabitant of this
land and a believer in Gond culture. He was an egalitarian who
loved animals, worshipped nature and upheld justice. As he
belonged to the collectivist Adivasi tradition, Brahmins have
hatred for him and have labelled him as arrogant and proud.

FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, the Gonds have considered

Ravan as one of their great kings. They believe that they are his
descendants. Even today, on the border between Madhya
Pradesh and Maharashtra, Adivasis belonging to the Gond
lineage worship Ravan with exceeding devotion. For the nine days
leading up to Dussehra, they honour him with great fervour and
pomp. Temples for Ravan have been constructed here. In central
India, too, there are Gond Adivasis who claim to be Ravan’s
descendants. They observe fasts for Ravan and worship him.

Several scholars are of the opinion that Ravan was indeed a Gond
king. These include EV Ramasamy—more commonly known as
Periyar— Hasmukh Sankalia, Vyankatesh Atram, LK Madavi,
Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan, LS Sagar and Motiravan Kangali.
Madavi writes that Ravan belonged to the Tad clan and is linked to
the tad—palm—tree, which was his totem. In the Gondi language,
 he adds, “Ra” refers to the palm tree and “van” means jungle,
hence Ravan means a jungle of palm trees. Surpanakha’s name is
also related to palm trees; it means one with a beautiful nose, ears
and eyes, a beauty whose figure resembles

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that of a palm leaf. Mandodari’s name, meanwhile, is related to

the Gond belief about frogs being the gods of rain.

(https://caravanmagazine.in/religion/ravan
gond-king/attachment-17851)

There are many rauds—Gond places of worship—dedicated to

Ravan in India. Wherever there is a large population of Gonds,
there is prevalence of Ravan worship.

Even today, many Adivasis worship Ravan’s son Meghnad during

Diwali. Gonds in Chandagadh, in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur
 district, follow the traditional practice of worshipping Ravan. In
Babupeth, also in Chandrapur, there is a large stone idol of Ravan
in his ten-headed avatar that used to be worshipped. During the
rule of the Peshwas, this idol was defiled with dung and stones,
and broken. The Brahmins renamed the idol as that of a
ten-headed Durga and erased the

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historical practice of worshipping Ravan as a Gondi king.

Nevertheless, a beautiful sculpture of Ravan is still present on the
Binba gate of the Chandagadh fort.

Garoba chowk in Nagpur used to be the site of gar puja—worship

of wooden structures, known as gars, that symbolise Ravan and
Meghnad. The intersection was earlier known as Gar chowk.
Gonds living in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka continue to worship
Ravan in the gar form.

Since 1991, the village of Paraswadi, in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli

district, has been celebrating Maniravan Duga Guruji Ravan Puja
and Ravan Mahotsav. An idol of Ravan is made and, for ten days,
various discussions and lectures are held on Ravan’s life, cultural
programmes are organised and Ravan’s story is celebrated with
fervour. The village of Maushi Khamb, in the same district, also
organises a fair dedicated to Meghnad, while the Gonds in
Kodseguddam, a village in Gadchiroli’s Aheri taluka, celebrate a
Ravan rally and puja in a grand way every year.

The burning of Ravan’s effigies on Dussehra has been

completely stopped in this area. The people here are determined
that Ravan is their king, and they will not allow him to be burnt.
Similarly, Mahananda Tekam from Amravati has spent the last
decade working to abolish the burning of effigies, and to
establish Ravan worship, in her district.

In 1868, a prominent Ravan idol was installed at Kanpur. On

Dussehra every year, this space is opened up and is the site of a
 Ravan Mahotsav. In Melghat, in the Amravati district of
Maharashtra, the biggest festival
of the Korku Gonds is the puja dedicated to Ravan, Meghnad
and Kumbhakarna.

In Gondi and Korku folk songs, there are extremely

beautiful descriptions of Ravan. Here is one example:

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When Ravan from Lanka, our king, walks

The earth also shakes
His walk is that powerful
His crown sparkles with rubies, pearls and diamonds
The brightness of the sun reflects on his serene face
Beautiful King Ravan, Sita saw his beauty and decided to
follow him.

From these beautiful words, we can see that Ravan’s stature in

Adivasi culture is one of respect and greatness. Through such
songs, as well as the stories about Ravan in folk literature, we get
glimpses of his beauty, bravery, intelligence and devotion to nature,
and of the glory of Lanka.

This article was translated from Marathi by Rujuta Date.

USHAKIRAN ATRAM (/AUTHOR/61560) is a poet, writer and activist based in Kachargarh,

Madhya Pradesh. She is the author of several books in Gondi, Marathi and Hindi, including
Morki, Katha Sangrah and Gondwana ki Veeranganayein. She is also the editor of the Hindi
magazine Gondwana Darshan.

OSHEEN SIVA is a multidisciplinary artist from Tamil Nadu, currently based in Goa. Through
the lens of surrealism, speculative fiction and science fiction and rooted in mythologies and her
Dalit and Tamilian heritage, she imagines new words of decolonised dreamscapes, futuristic
oasis with mutants and monsters and narratives of feminine power.

KEYWORDS: Ramayana(/tag/ramayana) Ravana(/tag/ravana)

Gond tribe(/tag/gond-tribe) Aryan(/tag/aryan) Dussehra(/tag/dussehra)

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