‘Ravana shows power and education do not make one wise’
AUTHOR and mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik’s latest audiobook explores the story of Ravana as he said looking at the demon king as a father, son, brother, husband will enable listeners to appreciate the Ramayana, Lord Rama and the Vedic thought better.
Lanka king Ravana kidnapped Sita, the wife of Rama, who then fought to bring her back home to Ayodhya – in the Ramayana.
Pattanaik said, “All characters in Hindu mythology help us understand humanity better. Ravana is no exception. Being larger than life, I always wonder why the great epic Ramayana chose an educated and a rich powerful man as its villain. This makes Ravana 360 Degrees on Audible an exciting part of analysis.”
He added that “360 degrees” refers to the Hindu practice of pradakshina or circumambulating a particular deity and seeing it from different points of view. “Of course, Ravana is not a deity, but an idea, and every idea is divine, when you start approaching it from all angles and see how a particular idea reveals something about Hinduism in particular and humanity in general. Ravana is no exception,” Pattanaik said.
In the Ramayana, each character helps us understand the other character better, the author said.
“In order to understand Rama you must understand how different he is from Lakshmana, from Sita, from Hanuman, from Ravana. And this kind of analysis enables us to get a refined idea of the great epic, which takes us deeper into Vedic thought.
“By approaching Ravana from a 360-degree angle, we see him as a father, son, brother, husband and we are able to appreciate the Ramayana and therefore Rama and Vedic thought better.”
Pattanaik said a story needs many characters to bring alive an idea and the Ramayana is no exception. “The Ramayana has the added burden of presenting the thought to the common man and this means it has to be far more refined and structured in composition, so that we can appreciate the finer nuances of the Vedas,” he said.
Ravana, according to the author, embodies an educated, powerful, privileged elite, who does not respect other people.
“And that’s what he embodies. He doesn’t show respect, despite all his education; he doesn’t respect the consent of a woman and believes that locking up a woman is an expression of his love.
“Even today, we find such bullies everywhere, who genuinely believe that stalking a woman is an expression of love. Such ideas are amplified in many Bollywood stories,” he added.
There are some important lessons to be learnt from Ravana’s story, Pattanaik said. “The most important is that education, knowledge and power do not necessarily make you a wise man.”
“We must not forget that Ravana speaks Sanskrit, but so does Hanuman. When people talk about Ravana, they refer to him as Brahmin. How should we refer to Hanuman who is as educated as Ravana, but never seen? He is more popular for his strength than his wisdom. This tells us so much more about us than about Ravana or Ramayana,” he added.