Ravan was Sita's Father? Myth or True

On the occasion of Dussehra, lets brush up our knowledge, half cooked knowledge a little bit. The day is celebrated as the victory of good over evil... But...

But... Ramayana has more than 300 versions. And one of the version of ramayan suggests that Ravana and Mandorai's first born was a girl was Sita, but due to the astrological prediction that the first born would be the reason for his destruction and complete 'Asur' society, Ravana threw away the kid in a basket, unluckily for him the baby was celestial and didn't died.

The Jain version of Ramayan says that Sita was the daughter of Ravana. Sita was a reincarnation of Vedavati (an avatar of Lakshmi), an orphan lady. Legend has it that Vedavati, a pious woman, wanted to marry Vishnu. To marry Vishnu, she gave up worldly life and became a hermit and built an ashram on a riverbank.

Once Vedavati was meditating on the riverbank, when Ravana, happened to see her. He was enamored by her beauty and tried to violate her. To escape from Ravana she jumped into a fire pit created for yajna.

Before dying she cursed Ravan that in her next birth she will be responsible for his death. In her next birth, Vedavati was born as Ravana’s daughter. Soon after she was born, a voice from the sky warned that the baby will be responsible for his death.

To save his life, Ravana threw the little girl child into the sea. The child fell on the lap of sea-goddess Varuni. Goddess Varuni took the girl child to the shores and gave her to earth-goddess Pirthvi. Goddess Prithvi then gave her to King Janaka. As per Ramayana, Sita was found by King Janaka while ploughing a field.

Now this story could be hard to digest but as we know mythologies have many versions that sometimes do not suited us but they are there. According to some scripts Ravana have ten heads but they were not actual heads instead his ten heads symbolize his immense intelligence. One man with the power of ten brains.

Other things that one not probably know is that, Ravana was a very talented musician.

He created the Rudra Veena, an Indian classical instrument. There is many temples of Ravana in Kanpur, Jodhpur, Kakinada. Specially the Kanpur one which opens once a year, on the morning of Dussehra. Many people visit this temple on the occasion Dussehra and play in-front of the idol.

The good thing about Hindu mythologies is that there are many version to check and cross check the incident. In all the version one might not find Ravana as devil as it is portrayed in the Valmiki version. Well the fight is there in all the versions.

I tried to gather facts and claims from different sources. Hope you all find it interesting and amusing if not true. Happy Dussehra and Ram Naumi to all.

Mugdha