Vishrava was a brahmin who loved knowledge and the gods, but his wife, Kaikasi, was a rakshasi, a shape-shifting creature who loved gold and blood.

Their first child, a son, was dreadful to behold, having ten heads and ten pairs of arms. Vishrava gave his son the name Dashagriva, which means Ten-Necks. Later he would be called Ravana, He-Who-Roars.

The sky rained blood at Dashagriva's birth. Jackals howled, and other vicious beasts ran in ill-omened circles around the rakshasi mother and her child.

Vishrava and Kaikasi later had three more children: two boys, Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana, and a girl, Shurpanakha.

Seeking to become invincible, Dashagriva petitioned the god Brahma. He fasted and prayed for ten thousand years, chopping off one head every thousand years and casting it into the fire.

Dashagriva was about to cut off his last head when the deva appeared. "Ask any boon!" Brahma said.

"Protect me from devas and danavas, from nagas, from gandharvas, from..." Dashagriva's list went on and on, but he didn't include humans, as he considered them to be weaklings.

Brahma granted Dashagriva's petition, giving him a pot of immortal nectar which he hid in his navel.

Brahma also restored Dashagriva's lost heads.

Dashagriva's brothers Vibhishana and Kumbhakarna also prayed to the gods for boons.

Vibhishana was an unusual rakshasa: he revered dharma, righteousness. Vibhishana thus prayed that he always uphold dharma, and Brahma granted his prayer.

Kumbhakarna, however, was a monstrous giant, and the devas feared him. At their request, Saraswati, devi of wisdom, confused Kumbhakarna's tongue when he asked for his boon: instead of Nir-deva-tvam (death-to-devas), Kumbhakarna asked for Nidrava-tvam (sleepiness).

As a result, Kumbhakarna was awake only one day each year. If anyone dared disturb his sleep before the year had passed, Kumbhakarna was fated to die that same day.

Dashagriva was riding near Mount Kailasha when an invisible force stopped his chariot.

Before him he saw Nandi, Shiva's bull. "Turn back, Dashagriva!" Nandi shouted. "This is Shiva's home."

"No one can stop me!" replied Dashagriva. To demonstrate his power, Dashagriva extended his twenty giant arms and lifted up the mountain.

Shiva saw this and laughed, and then he pressed down on the mountain with his big toe, trapping Dashagriva underneath.

Dashagriva screamed, and the mighty roar impressed Shiva.

"What a fine voice!" Shiva declared. "I will free you from the mountain, and henceforth you will be called Ravana, He-Who-Roars."

Ravana became a devoted follower of Shiva. To honor the god he decided to make a musical instrument: a veena. Ravana cut off one of his heads and one of his arms and made them into a veena, and to string the veena he used his own guts.

Ravana then sang for Shiva as he played the veena made of his own body.

Impressed, Shiva appeared before Ravana. "Behold the indestructible Moon-sword, Chandrahasa," said Shiva, as he waved a sword that was crescent-shaped, like the moon. "I give it to you."

Ravana bowed in reverence, accepting the sword from Shiva.

Shiva offered Ravana another reward. "Tell me what you want," Shiva said.

"I want her!" said Ravana, pointing to the beautiful woman standing beside Shiva. She was the devi Parvati, Shiva's wife, but Ravana did not know that. He only knew that she was beautiful and that he wanted her.

Shiva had to grant his wish, but Parvati found a way out. She grabbed a frog and went to see Brahma. "Make this frog ["manduka"] into a double of me," she said.

Brahma did so, and that was the woman Ravana took to Lanka.

This was Mandodari, Ravana's chief wife.

Ravana and Mandodari's first-born son roared like thunder, so they named him Meghanada, "Cloud-Roar."

Meghanada became a warrior, and in his father's war against the gods, he used a spell of darkness to make himself invisible. That is how he ambushed Indra, King of the Devas, and captured him.

"Free Indra, and I'll grant you a boon," Brahma told Meghanada.

"Make me immortal!" Meghanada replied.

"I cannot do that," Brahma replied.

"Then give me invincible weapons. I will win my own immortality in battle!"

Brahma agreed, and Meghanada freed Indra. Brahma then gave Meghanada his new name: Indrajit, the Conqueror-of-Indra.

Ravana's wife Mandodari was a vegetarian; his sister Shurpanakha, however, was a carnivore.

One day Shurpanakha commanded Mandodari to serve meat for dinner, and Mandodari refused.

Shurpanakha was furious at Mandodari, and at Ravana too. She shouted to her husband Vidyutjiva, "Swallow Ravana! Swallow him NOW!"

Vidyutjiva obeyed. He extended his tongue, wrapped it around his brother-in-law, and swallowed him.

"Help me, Shurpanakha!" shouted Ravana from inside Vidyutjiva's stomach. "Your son will be my heir! I'll find you a new husband!"

So Shurpanakha carved open her husband to rescue Ravana. Vidyutjiva died, and Shurpanakha forever blamed Ravana for his death.

Ravana's father, Vishrava, was a brahmin; his father was Pulastya, mind-born son of Brahma.

Vishrava had another wife, and with her, another son: Vaishravana.

Vaishravana practiced austerities for a thousand years, living on water, then air, then nothing.

Brahma offered him a boon.

"Make me a guardian of the world!" Vaishravana said.

Brahma nodded. "Indra guards the east, Varuna the west, Yama the south; you will guard the north. You will be Kubera, lord of yakshas, protector of wealth!"

Kubera lived in Lanka, the golden city. The rakshasas had lived there long ago, but the devas had driven them away.

Ravana's maternal grandfather, Sumali, always hoped Ravana would reclaim the golden city of Lanka. "Take the city from Kubera!" Sumali urged. "Let it be a rakshasa city again as it was long ago."

Ravana's general, Prahasta, agreed. "The devas were wrong to drive the rakshasas from Lanka, and we are right to take it back."

Ravana sent Prahasta to Lanka as his emissary. "Give us back the city," Prahasta said to Kubera, "or we will fight you."

To Prahasta's surprise, Kubera yielded the city. "I will go to the Himalayas," he said. "Tell my brother that golden Lanka is his."