Rati
(“pleasure,” particularly sexual pleasure)
The wife of Kama, god of love. Rati is
both Kama’s wife and his ally, reflecting
the way that sexual pleasure can both
accompany and amplify desire.
Ratri
Name of the goddess of Night. See Night,
goddess of.
Ravana
In the Ramayana, the earlier of the two
great Indian epics, Ravana is the ten-
headed demonking of Lanka. To destroy
Ravana, the god Vishnuis born in his
incarnation as Rama. Ravana is a reincar-
nation of Vishnu’s gatekeeper Jaya, who
has been cursed by a sage to be reborn
three times as a demon and to be killed
by Vishnu each time. As a rakshasa, a
type of demon, Ravana possesses enor-
mous physical strength and various
magicpowers. He augments these natur-
al abilities by performing intense physi-
cal asceticism(tapas), which in Indian
culture is widely believed to generate
spiritual power and bring boons from the
gods. When the god Brahma finally
appears and directs Ravana to choose his
boon, Ravana requests that he be able to
be killed by no one but a human being.
This seems to make him practically
immortal, since his powers are such that
no ordinary human will be able to harm
him, much less kill him. Ravana then pro-
ceeds to terrorize the gods, secure in the
knowledge that they will not be able to
harm him. He begins with his half-broth-
er, the minor deity Kubera, who loses his
home and all his possessions to Ravana.
Ravana’s virtual invulnerability goes
to his head, and the powerful demon
begins to disregard all rules of decency
and morality. He is particularly guilty of
molesting and abducting women, acts
which result in various cursesbeing laid
upon him by his helpless victims, many
of them predicting his death. As a result
of one of these curses his sister
Shurpanakhais mutilated by Rama’s
brother Lakshmana. Ravana is deter-
mined to avenge this insult, and decides
that the best way will be to abductRati
Relief sculpture of the demon king Ravana from Angkor, Cambodia. As the antagonist of the Hindu epic,
the Ramayana, Ravana acquires great magical powers, which he abuses until Rama kills him in battle.