Ravana’s in-laws : Mandsaur District Madhya Pradesh.

The villain of Valmiki‘s Ramayanam is the awful Ravana रावण, and on the 10th day of Dasara, people from Uttar Pradesh set fire to his effigy.

(Of course, the Uttar Pradeshis think this is is how all Indians and all Hindus celebrate Dussera but that is not true. In South India and Nepal, Vijaya Dasimi marks Devi’s victory over Mahishasura, and in Karnataka, Mahanavami marks Arjuna’s victory over Kauravas at Matsya Desa).

In Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh, the locals hold that Ravana’s wife Mandodari is their daughter and that Ravana is their son-in-law and think it is a sin to view the effigy burning.

Mandsaur Mandodari Ravana

The lovely Mandodari was the daughter of the Apsarasa Hema and was found by Maya Danava (Maya Asura) raised and given in marriage to Ravana, because he wanted a powerful ally. (Vali, the Vanara, had killed Maya’s sons Mayavi and Dundhubhi.) It is also interesting that Maya Asura, the author of the Surya Siddhantam, lived so close to Ujjain, the original home (or close to it) of the Iron Pillar as well as an ancient astronomical centre.

Ravana’s maternal great grandmother was a gandharva lady called Narmada.

http://www.oktatabyebye.com/Travel-Ideas/rivers-of-india/Narmada.aspx

Even as we recall the connection between Human Evolution and the Narmada valley (The 600,000 years old skull of a 30-year old woman was found in the western Narmada region of Madhya Pradesh).,

Even as we consider the role of the Gonds in the very Ancient Indian History, we find that Gond tribals of Chhattisgarh also have a tradition of worshipping ‘Lankapati (King of Lanka) .

There is a Pasupatinath temple in Mandsaur that is worth seeing.

As per India TV‘s OM program, Ravana had some caves dug in Mandsaur which he used for performing penance on Siva.

In the videoclip below from the movie pataala bhairavi.. take a look at the bit that starts at 04:17. In that Sakthi gives directions to the Nepala Mantrikudu (played by the master actor S.V. Ranga Rao), abou the location of Patala Bhairavi. “Ujjainiki uttaraana (to the north of Ujjain), yojanagiri simalona, mantraala marri chettu kinda.. bhU garbhamlo yaksha nikshiptamayinadi).

If Ravana had some caves dug in Maya’s kingdom that creator of the Maya Sabha for the Pandavas could have easily created the sort of tricky place where Patala Bhairavi is hidden in the story. It makes one’s respect for the writer Pingali Nagendra Rao go up by leaps and bounds.