Editing Ravana (section)

=== Birth ===
[[File:Ravi Varma-Ravana Sita Jathayu.jpg|thumb|Painting depicting Ravana cutting off [[Jatayu]]'s wing while abducting [[Sita]], by [[Raja Ravi Varma]]]]
Ravana was born to the [[Brahmin]] sage [[Vishrava]] and the [[Rakshasa]] princess [[Kaikesi|Kaikasi]] in [[Treta Yuga]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0VoXEQAAQBAJ&dq=vishrava+brahmin&pg=PT19 | title=The Brahmin | isbn=978-93-5776-137-6 | last1=Etteth | first1=Ravi Shankar | date=4 March 2024 | publisher=Westland }}</ref> Villagers from [[Bisrakh]] in [[Uttar Pradesh]] claim that Bisrakh was named after Vishrava, and that Ravana was born there.<ref>{{Cite magazine |author=Dutta, Prabhash K. |date=10 October 2016 |title=Did you know? Ravana was born in Greater Noida West |magazine=India Today |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/ravana-greater-noida-demon-king-delhi-ncr-bishrakh-dussehra-345906-2016-10-10 |access-date=2 July 2020 |lang=en}}</ref>

Ravana's paternal grandfather, the sage [[Pulastya]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rajarajan|first=R.K.K.|year=2018|title=Woven Threads of the Rāmāyaṇa The Early Āḻvārs on Brahmā and Rāvaṇa|url=https://www.academia.edu/37599459|journal=Romanian Journal of Indian Studies|volume=2|pages=9–45}}</ref> was one of the ten [[Prajapati]]s, or mind-born sons of [[Brahma]], and one of the [[Saptarishi]] (seven great sages) in the first [[Manvantara]] (age of [[Manu (Hinduism)|Manu]]). His maternal grandfather was [[Sumali]] (or Sumalaya), the king of the Rakshasas and the son of Sukesha. Sumali had ten sons and four daughters. Sumali wished for Kaikasi to marry the most powerful being in the mortal world, so as to produce an exceptional heir. He rejected the kings of the world, as they were less powerful than him. Kaikasi searched among the sages and finally chose Vishrava, the father of Kubera. Ravana and his siblings were born to the couple and they completed their education from their father, with Ravana being a great scholar of the Vedas.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}