[Advaita-l] Was Ravana a devotee of Lord Shiva?

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

There are indirect references in the vAlmIki rAmAyaNa, but no direct details
of rAvaNa's bhakti towards Siva.
 
For example, when revealing his identity to sItA and trying to talk her into going
away to lankA with him, rAvANa says
 
madbhayArtaH parityajya svam adhishThAnamRddhimat |
kailAsam parvataSreshTham adhyAste naravAhanaH || (araNya kANDa, 48.5)
 
This is a reference to the story of how he forced kubera (naravAhana) to flee from
his home in Rddhimat and sent him into hiding in fear, on the kailAsa mountain.
There is an implication here that rAvaNa would not (or could not) attack kubera in
that best of mountains (parvataSreshTha). 
 
In the previous chapter, sItA had already obliquely referred to Siva in comparison
to rAvaNa.
 
mandaraM parvataSreshTham pANinA hartum ichhasi |
kAlakUTaM vishaM pItvA svastimAn gantum icchasi || (araNya kANDa, 47.40)
 
"You wish to take away the mandara mountain by hand? You wish to walk away
unharmed after consuming poison?" The reference here is to the kUrmAvatAra
when Siva drank the kAlakUTa poison while vishNu supported mandara.
 
And when rAvaNa is killed, his wife mandodarI laments,
 
trailokyavasubhoktAraM trailokyodvegadaM mahat |
jetAraM lokapAlAnAM ksheptAraM SaMkarasya ca || (yuddha kANDa, 111.50)
 
The reference here is obviously to the story of how rAvaNa tried to lift up kailAsa
with Siva on it. 
 
Regards,
Vidyasankar
 

> From: narayana_kl_71 at yahoo.com
> 
> Namaste, This is a question not related to Advaita. Does Valmiki Ramayana
> mention that Ravana was a devotee of Lord Shiva? Or is this a later
> interpolation? Learned members can please enlighten on this. 
> _______________________________________________