The Family Tree of Ravana
Two lines — a sage’s and a rakshasa’s — meeting at Kaikasi
After the war is over, Rama asks Agastya how Ravana came to be what he was. The answer takes ten chapters, and its point is that Ravana is not simply a demon: on his father’s side he descends from Brahma through the sage Pulastya, and on his mother’s from the first of the rakshasas. Valmiki builds the two lines apart and then joins them in a single marriage.
The line of Pulastya
Uttara Kanda 2The father’s side: three steps from Brahma to Ravana’s father, entirely brahminical.
- Generation 1
- Generation 2Pulastyaपुलस्त्यSon of Prajapati, one of the great sages
- Generation 3Vishravaविश्रवाPaulastya — of the line of Pulastya
Born to Pulastya and the daughter of the rajarishi Trinabindu, who conceived while listening to him recite the Veda. The boy was named for it: Vishrava, from the root meaning to listen.
The first of the rakshasas
Uttara Kanda 4The mother’s side, running on its own count. Prajapati’s created beings were set to guard the waters; those who answered rakshami — "we will protect" — became the rakshasas.
- Generation 1HetiहेतिFirst named of the rakshasas
He and his brother Praheti were the earliest. Praheti turned to asceticism; Heti sought a marriage.
- Generation 2Vidyutkeshaविद्युत्केश
Born to Heti and Bhaya, the sister of Kala.
- Generation 3Sukeshaसुकेश
Born to Vidyutkesha and Salakatankata, daughter of Sandhya, on Mount Mandara. Shiva granted him an aerial car and immunity from death.
The three sons of Sukesha
Uttara Kanda 5These three take Lanka — built by Vishvakarma — and hold it for generations before Kubera and then Ravana.
By his wife Sundari: Vajramushti, Virupaksha, Durmukha, Suptaghna, Yajnakopa, Matta and Unmatta, and a daughter Anala.
By his wife Vasuda, a gandharvi: Anala, Anila, Hara and Sampati — the four who later serve Vibhishana as his ministers.
Uttara Kanda 5
The children of Sumali
Uttara Kanda 5Fourteen children, of whom one matters more than the rest: Kaikasi is the join between this line and the line of Pulastya. Several of her brothers appear again as Ravana’s commanders in the war.
Ravana’s commander-in-chief in the war.
Sumali sent her to Vishrava himself, judging no rakshasa a fit match.
Uttara Kanda 5
The house of Vishrava
Uttara Kanda 3, 9One father, two wives, two very different houses. Kubera and Ravana are half-brothers, and the quarrel over Lanka between them is a family quarrel.
The first of the family to hold Lanka, and the one Ravana later drives out of it.
Uttara Kanda 3
Valmiki gives the birth order exactly: Dashagriva, then Kumbhakarna, then a daughter, and Vibhishana last.
Uttara Kanda 9
The marriages in Lanka
Uttara Kanda 12All four matches are made outside the rakshasa line — into the danavas, the daityas and the gandharvas.
Maya, lord of the danavas, offered her himself. Their son was roaring before he was well born, and was named for it.
Uttara Kanda 12
Uttara Kanda 12
Born on the shore of Lake Manasa. In the Sundara Kanda it is Sarama who comforts Sita in the ashoka grove.
Uttara Kanda 12
Ravana killed him himself in the war against the Kalakeyas, and afterwards told his widowed sister she might range the three worlds and take any husband she chose. She is in the forest at Panchavati when she meets Rama.
Uttara Kanda
Notes on the sources
- This entire genealogy is in the Uttara Kanda, the seventh and last book — which many scholars regard as a later addition to the older core of books two through six. Nothing here comes from the war books, because the war books do not give it.
- Shurpanakha’s marriage is cited to the kanda without a sarga: Vidyujjihva is named in the Uttara Kanda and killed there by Ravana, but the exact sarga was not pinned against the text.
- Ravana had other wives and other sons in the wider tradition. Only what this text names is shown.