Temples For Ravana In India: Befitting Tribute To A Scholarly Emperor

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Mentioning Ravana, one would shudder remembering his exploits, his ruthlessness, the cunningness and greed he showed in seethaparahan and kuber, his brother.

But delving a little deeper into history, as per the knowledge from scriptures, we understand that Rama himself had a great admiration for Ravana. He just said plainly after killing Ravana that it was no Ram who killed him, but it was Ravanas king sized ego that killed him. Such was the perfection of Ravana.

Rama and Ravana were born under the same star Punarvasu but the huge difference was in the way they responded to their situations. Rama was dharma incarnate where as Ravana thought everything was fair as long as he got what he wanted.

During his time, he had built 5 pushpak vimans, had built aerodrome in 5 places, developed Lanka in the most efficient manner using scientific approach, an administrator par excellence. ( Even Lakshman learnt a few lessons from Ravana while he lay dying).

An adept astrologer, an expert veena player, the original creator of Lal Kitab and an ayurvedic specialist, he had learnt all the vedas and Upanishads, and puranas when he was four years old and acquired powers of witch craft and occult powers after 10000 years of penance.

He really deserves to be worshipped in temples but it is equally true that he was not morally strong. That was the reason for his downfall. Here are five temples dedicated to Ravana

Dashanan Temple, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh: This 125-year-old Dashanan Mandir in Shivala area of Kanpur, built in 1890 by King Guru Prasad Shukla, opens its door for devotees only once in a year during Dussehra. People who built it did so because he was an erudite scholar and a big devotee of Lord Shiva.

This temple is constructed in the premises of Shiva temple. During Dussehra, Ravanas idol is decorated and aarti is done. People light clay lamps as well to Ravana.

Ravana Mandir, Bisrakh, (Greater Noida, UP): Bisrakh temple, the most well known of all Dashanan or Ravana temples, is considered to be the birthplace of Ravana.

The nine days of Navratri is treated as days of mourning and mourning is actually observed here. These devotees have faced opposition from Ram devotees but have managed to survive despite that.

Kakinada Ravana temple, Andhra Pradesh: This is a temple built by Ravana for Shiva. This is situated in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. This site has a huge shivling mural, which speaks for his devotion to Lord Shiva.

This temple has been declared as a tourist spot and is located close to the beach. Here Ravana is also worshipped. Kakinada is the only place to worship Ravana.

Ravangram Ravana Temple, Vidisha (Madhya Pradesh): This village was named as Ravana Gram by Ravana himself and here is a temple for Ravana that is most famous. Vidisha was actually the birthplace of mandodari.

A 10-foot-long statue of Ravana is installed here and there are several devotees that regularly visit this temple. People used to visit it just during important occasions. But off late, Dussehra worship of Ravana has taken a different colour and magnitude.

Mandsaur (Madhya Pradesh): Temple in Mandasur was where Ravana and Mandodaris marriage is believed to have occurred. It has female deities installed and is dated to the Harappan times.

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