As I saw Ravana’s effigy burning amidst cheering and chanting, I almost pitied the miserable king for the ignominy of being burnt every year. So what did Ravana do that has condemned him to this curse ? His good qualities can be summarized as:
- A brilliant academic – well versed in the Vedas and other fields
- A great musician – well known for his expertise on Veena
- A benevolent and efficient ruler- poverty was non-existent in Lanka, his kingdom
- Brilliant tactician – conquers many kingdoms and has his sights fixed on the heavens too
- Very religious – was an ardent devotee of Shiva
- Wealthy – well not exactly a good quality, but it matters today does’nt it. Kubera (the God of Wealth) was his cousin
- Virility – machismo if you please. Since most depictions show him as dark, muscular moustachioed man, its difficult to comment on his looks 🙂 but hey, kissing with 10 mouths might be a trifle “heady” for some of his conquests…heh heh
- Vegetarian – not sure this is a good / bad quality
But all his good qualities were negated by one – lack of virtue. He was arrogant to the point of usurping what was not rightfully his – kingdoms, money and wives. Sita was just one of the women who suffered but was not violated by him unlike the others who were not so lucky.
Which brings us to the question – why do we like to hate Ravana – especially when there are many villains today which might make him look like a hero?
So some reasons I thought were:
- We hate the guts of a guy threatening our ‘manliness’ (not our women, big man)
- Arrogance stemming from wealth, power, strength, skills
- Foolishness – even the great sage Valmiki (author of Ramayana) called him a moorkha (fool) because he let idiots advise him and cloud his mind
- Greed – not satisfied with usurping his cousin’s kingdom (Lanka), he wanted more
- Its difficult to converse with 10 heads! Joking 🙂
Let me know your thoughts on this…