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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vibhishana
King of Lanka[1]
Member of Chiranjivi
Predecessor Ravana
Abode Lanka
Personal information
Vishrava (father)
Parents
Kaikesi (mother)
Ravana
Siblings Kumbhakarna
Shurpanakha
Sarama
Consort
Mandodari (some traditions)
Trijata (daughter)
Children Nila (son)
Taranisena (son) (Krittivasi Ramayana)[2]
Dynasty Rakshasa
This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or
boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.
Vibhishana (Sanskrit: विभीषण, romanized: Vibhīṣaṇa, lit. 'formidable')[3] is the younger brother of
Ravana, the King of Lanka, in the ancient Indian epic Ramayana.[4] Though a rakshasa himself,
Vibhishana turned his back on Ravana, and defected to Rama's side, owing to his dharma.[5]
After Rama defeated Ravana, the former crowned Prince Vibhishana as the King of Lanka
before returning to Ayodhya.
Legend
Rama and Sita worship Shiva at Rameshwaram as Vibhishana
(right) looks on with Lakshmana, Tumburu and Narada
Prince Vibhishana is portrayed as a pious and pure of heart in the epic. After performing a
penance to invoke a boon from Brahma, he begged the deity to always set his mind on the path to
righteousness, and nothing more.[6]
Vibhishana was the youngest son of the rakshasi Kaikesi and the sage Vishrava, who was
himself a son of the sage Pulastya, one of the Prajapati. Vibhishana was the younger brother of
the King of Lanka, Ravana, and also the sibling of Kumbhakarna. Even though he was born as a
rakshasa, he was pious and considered himself a Brahmin, since his father was a sage.
Due to Vibhishana's differences with Ravana, and because he was against the act of kidnapping
Sita, he fled Lanka. His mother, Kaikesi, advised him to go and serve Rama, who was at that
time assembling an army to defeat Ravana and to recover his wife. As a consequence, he
divulged the secrets of Ravana's army and made sure Rama was victorious in the great battle.
Rama accepted Vibhishana's fealty and anointed him the King of Lanka after Ravana's death. In
some versions of the epic, he takes his slain brother's queen Mandodari as his second wife,
though in others he merely seeks her blessings during his coronation.[7]
In the Lanka War, Vibhishana's knowledge about the secrets of Lanka proved invaluable to
Rama.[8] Vibhishana freely divulged many secrets that became key to the success of Rama's
attack, including revealing the secret path to the temple of Nikumbala, the family deity of the
Pulastya clan.[9] In the climactic battle between Rama and Ravana, when Rama was unable to kill
Ravana, he revealed the secret of Ravana's invulnerability to Rama. He told Rama that Ravana
has stored the nectar of immortality in his belly and it is necessary to dry it. With this knowledge,
Rama was finally able to kill Ravana.[10] He had a daughter named Trijata.
Chiranjivi
When Rama was about to leave Ayodhya at the end of his reign, he assumed his true form of
Vishnu, ordering Vibhishana to stay on earth and serve the people and guide them to the path of
truth and dharma. Hence, Vibhishana is considered one of the immortals, the Chiranjivis.[11]
Vishnu also ordered Vibhishana to pray to the family deity of Solar dynasty, Ranganatha.[12]
Characterisation
In the Ramayana, Vibhishana's characterisation assists in demonstrating the practical
implications of the concept of dharma. The epic stresses that neither Vibhishana or
Kumbhakarna strayed from the path of dharma and that there is no single way out of a moral
dilemma. The Ramayana teaches that Kumbhakarna adhered to the dharma of loyalty to his kin
when his advice fails, while Vibhishana chose to oppose his kin when his advice failed.[13]
Regional legends
Srirangam
Sri Lanka
In some period of history Sinhalese people have considered Vibhishana as one of the Sathara
Waram Deviyo (four guardian deities).[17] This belief was more prominent in the Kotte period.
According to the Ravana Katha of Wickramasinghe Adigar, after the defeat of Ravana,
Vibhishana transferred the Yaksha capital from Alaka mandawa to Kelaniya.[18] In the 15th-
century poem of Thotagamuwe Sri Rahula Thera, the sælalihini sandesaya, Myna is ordered to
carry the missive to Vibhishana at his temple in Kelaniya. After the 16th century, he was
replaced as a God of the four warrants by the goddess Pattini. He continues to be worshipped by
a diminishing number of adherents, mainly in the Kelaniya area.[19]
References
1.
"Ravana | King Ravana - Viral Sri Lanka". 3 January 2020. Archived from the original on 4 August
2018. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
Saraswati, Smt T. N. (2 March 2019). Vibhishana. Bharatha Samskruthi Prakashana. ISBN 978-93-
89020-78-6.
Shashi, S. S. (1998). Encyclopaedia Indica: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh. Vol. 21–35. Encyclopaedia
Indica. p. 222.
Maheshwari, Vipul; Maheshwari, Anil (18 October 2020). Ramayana Revisited: An Epic through a
Legal Prism. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-93-89351-07-1.
Keshavadas, Sadguru Sant (1988). Ramayana at a Glance. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 200.
ISBN 978-81-208-0545-3.
Keshavadas, Sadguru Sant (1988). Ramayana at a Glance. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 978-81-
208-0545-3.
Kalyanaraman, Srinivasan. "Evidence for temples in Bhāratam, from ca. 4th-3rd millennium BCE".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
M., Rajagopalan (1993). 15 Vaishnava Temples of Tamil Nadu. Chennai, India: Govindaswamy
Printers. pp. 66–75.
Kariyawasam, A.G.S (1995). "The Gods & Deity Worship in Sri Lanka". The Wheel Publication No.
402/404, Buddhist Publication Society. ISBN 955-24-0126-7. Archived from the original on 8 December
2015. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
Dr. Mirando Obeysekere, Was Maya Dannawa the architect of Sigiriya?, Daily News, 6 March 2003.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lkawgw/mdannawa.html
19. Nandasena Ratnapala, Folklore of Sri Lanka, State Printing Corporation, Colombo, 1991;
ISBN 955-610-089-X
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