Devalok
Legend · 2 tellings · Pan-India

Ravana's boon at Gokarna

Who is in it

The story, beat by beat

  1. Ravana and his brothers Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana perform austerities at Gokarna for ten thousand years.
  2. Brahma appears and offers a boon.
  3. Ravana asks to be unbeatable by every being Brahma has made and names gods, demons, serpents and beasts, leaving out humans.
  4. Brahma grants it, with weapons, a chariot and the power to change shape.
  5. Vishnu promises the worried gods that he will be born as a human, Rama, and kill Ravana.

boon penance pride loophole

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Encyclopedia

Ramayana and Puranas (via Wikipedia)

Pan-India All traditions

The three sons of Vishrava go to Gokarna to win Brahma's favour and stay ten thousand years. When the creator comes, Ravana asks to be invincible against everything Brahma has made, and lists the gods, demons, spirits and animals; he does not list men. Brahma agrees and adds weapons, a chariot and the art of taking any shape. The gods, alarmed, turn to Vishnu, who sees the gap in the wording and promises to be born a human being, which is how Rama comes to be.

Ravana — Wikipedia; Brahma's boon — Wisdom Library concept index

Children's

Amar Chitra Katha, 'Ravana and Brahma'

Pan-India All traditions

The comic version heightens the penance: Ravana cuts off his own heads one after another and offers them to the fire, and Brahma appears before the last is gone. His omission of humans is explained as contempt, since he does not think them worth fearing, and the comic makes him Brahma's descendant through the sage Pulastya.

What is different here:

Adds the head-sacrifice and the pride motive; a children's retelling whose text and art may not be reused.

Ravana and Brahma — Amar Chitra Katha

Sources: Ravana — Wikipedia; Brahma's boon — Wisdom Library concept index; Ravana and Brahma — Amar Chitra Katha

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