Young Ravana

The rakshasa chief Sumali saw Kubera, chief of the yakshas, flying in his chariot, the Pushaka Vimana. Kubera was wealthy and powerful, and Sumali longed to have that chariot and all that Kubera possessed.

Kubera's mother was a yaksha, but his father was a brahmin, Vishrava, so Sumali sent his own daughter, Kaikesi, to Vishrava, and together they had a child: Ravana.

Vishrava himself trained Ravana to be a brahmin. Ravana possessed both great intelligence and great strength, and he learned quickly.

He grew ten heads to hold all his knowledge.

He grew twenty arms to embody all his strength.

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Inspired by: Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana by Devdutt Pattanaik
Notes: This story is on p. 49 of the book. Different storytellers have different ways of explaining Ravana's ten heads and his twenty arms. Pattanaik notes that in the Jain version of the Ramayana by Vimalasuri, Ravana's mother hung ten mirrors around his head on a necklace, and she called him Dasanan (Ten-Headed), and the nickname stayed with him.