Traditional Ravana Dashagriva was a king[1][2] of the island of Lanka, and the chief antagonist in the Hindu epic Ramayana in which he was considered as a Rakshasa (demon).

[4] Rama, with the support of vanara King Sugriva and his army of varanasi, launched a rescue operation for Sita against Ravana in Lanka.

In Abhinava Gupta's Krama Shaiva scripture, yāsām rāvanam is used as an expression to mean people who are truly aware of the materialism of their environment.

[15][page needed] Ravana was born to the Brahmin sage Vishrava and the Rakshasa princess Kaikasi in Treta Yuga.

[citation needed] Ravana and his two brothers, Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana, performed penance on Mount Gokarna for 10,000 years and won boons from Brahma.

Kaikesi's father, Sumali and uncle, Malyavan were instrumental in making Ravana the king of Lanka by advising him to receive boons from Brahma, defeat Kubera, and establish rakshasa rule in the three worlds.

According to the Krttivasa text, Ravana arranged for a peaceful yajna, and invited Brihaspati to start the recitation of Chandi.

[8] Ravana had fought with the demons named Nivatakavacha along with his army for an entire year but was unable to kill them due to Brahma's boon.

The war was stopped by Brahma and Ravana formed an alliance with them, he learnt several magical tricks or maya from those demons.

[27] As per the original six books of Valmiki Ramayana, only lord Rama the incarnation of Vishnu defeated Ravana and killed him after several days of single duel.

Only Ravana managed to enter Vaikuntha's capital, Shwetadwipa, where he was hopelessly outmatched by the inhabitants and was forced to retreat.

Thousands of Kanyakubja Brahmins of the village Ravangram of Netaran, in the Vidisha District of Madhya Pradesh, perform daily puja in the Ravana temple and offer naivedyam or bhog (a ritual of sacrifice to the gods).

[38][full citation needed] The Gondi people of central India claim to be descendants of Ravana, and have temples for him, his wife Mandodari, and their son Meghnad.

They also state that Ravana was an ancient Gond king, the tenth dharmaguru of their tribe, and the eighteenth lingo (divine teacher).

Annually on Dussehra, the Gondis from the village of Paraswadi carry an image of Ravana riding on an elephant in a procession.

[43] In the Rin-spuns-pa Tibetan Ramayana, it is prophesied that Ravana will return as the Buddha incarnation of Vishnu in Kali Yuga.

The Arunachal Pradesh Tai Khamti Ramayana (Phra Chow Lamang) shows Rama as a Bodhisattva who was reborn so Ravana could torture him.

[citation needed] In the Cambodian Buddhist text Preah Ream, Buddha is an incarnation of Rama and Ravana is a rakshasa.

[citation needed] In the Thai Buddhist text Ramakien, Ravana is a rakshasa[44] known as "Thotsakan" (ทศกัณฐ์, from Sanskrit दशकण्ठ, Daśakaṇṭha, "ten necks"), and is depicted with green skin.

[citation needed] In the Karandavyuha Sutra, Yama asks if the visitor in hell (Avalokitesvara), whom he hasn't seen yet, is a god or a demon, and whether he is Vishnu, Mahesvara, or the rakshasa Ravana.

The Tamil film Raavanan (2010) and its Hindi counterpart Raavan (2010) narrate the epic from Ravana's perspective in a modern setting.

Author Amish Tripathi's 2019 novel Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta chronicles the life of Ravana until the time he kidnaps Sita.