Rāvaṇa Lifts Kailāsa

The conqueror

Before he was Rāvaṇa, the ten-headed son of the sage Viśravas was called Daśagrīva. Through terrible austerities he had won boons from Brahmā that made him almost invincible. He drove his half-brother Kubera, the lord of wealth, out of Laṅkā, and then defeated him in battle and took his flying chariot, the Puṣpaka.

Flying home in triumph over the Himālaya, Daśagrīva found that the Puṣpaka suddenly would not go any further. It stopped in the air, as if it had struck an invisible wall.

Nandī's warning

Śiva's attendant Nandī appeared and told him: this is the mountain where Śiva and Pārvatī are at play. No one may pass over it. Turn back.

Daśagrīva looked at Nandī, who in this telling had the face of a monkey, and laughed at him. Nandī answered with a curse: one day, creatures with faces like mine — monkeys — will destroy you and your whole race. (And that, the Rāmāyaṇa suggests, is why the monkey army of Rāma would one day cross to Laṅkā.)

Lifting the mountain

Daśagrīva was not used to being told where he could go. If this mountain was in the way, he would move it. He got down from his chariot, pushed his twenty arms beneath Kailāsa, and began to lift.

The whole mountain shook. Rocks tumbled down its sides. Śiva's attendants scattered in fear, and Pārvatī, startled, clung to Śiva.

One toe

Śiva did not even stand up. Smiling, as if at play, he simply pressed down on the mountain with the big toe of his foot.

Kailāsa settled back into place — and Daśagrīva's twenty arms were pinned beneath it, crushed under the whole weight of the mountain. He let out a roar of pain so terrible that it shook the three worlds. Everyone who heard it was terrified.

A thousand years of praise

His ministers told him there was only one way out: to praise Śiva. So, trapped beneath the mountain, Daśagrīva began to sing Śiva's glory — and he sang, it is said, for a thousand years.

At last Śiva lifted his toe and freed him. He was pleased with the devotion that had come out of so much pride. “Because you made the worlds cry out with your roar,” Śiva said, “you will be known as Rāvaṇa — the one who made the worlds scream.” And he gave Rāvaṇa a gift: the divine sword Candrahāsa, the Moon's Laughter.

Pride and devotion

Rāvaṇa remained Śiva's devotee all his life. Yet the same pride that had made him try to lift Kailāsa would one day lead him to carry off Sītā — and to his death. The story holds both truths at once: Śiva does not refuse even the proudest devotee, but no strength can move what he holds still.