Read an Excerpt
From the Introduction
According to another account, rakshasas are said to be the progeny of Rishi Pulastya, another of Brahma’s Manasaputras. The story goes that Pulastya, who is also considered the forefather of yakshas, vanaras and kinnaras (beings with human-like bodies and horse-like heads), had two sons— Agastya and Visravas. When he came of age, Visravas married Rishi Bharadwaj’s daughter Idvidaa and sired Kubera, the king of yakshas and God of Wealth. In the meantime, the daitya king Sumali was in search of a powerful being to marry his daughter Kaikeshi so that their descendants could become the undisputable rulers of the world. With Sumali already being the most powerful asura king, it was obvious that another asura would not qualify for the purpose, so he had to look elsewhere for his ideal son-in-law. But where could that be?
Even as Sumali was starting to get frustrated with his search, word reached him of Visravas’s superior intellectual and yogic powers. Sumali immediately arranged for a chance encounter between his beautiful daughter and the sage, hoping they would fall in love. His ploy paid off. Soon, Kaikeshi and Visravas were married and they gave birth to three sons— Dashagriva (or Ravana), Kumbhkarna and Vibheeshana—and a daughter Meenakshi (or Shurpanakha), who became the progenitors of all rakshasas to follow. Thus, akshasas were the descendants of a mixed race of daityas and rishis. The greatest of them all, Ravana, was a daitya brahmana.
Phew! Did I just hear you heave a sigh of relief assuming that the mystery of the origin of rakshasas has been solved? Then you might want to take that breath back, my friend, for there’s more to come.
