Deha Dhamma: King Ravana's Divine Body Care Medical Science

King Ravana, who lived over 5,000 years ago, is the founder of the Hela culture in Sri Lanka. It is send he is the descendant of the sun, king Suriya. He was skilled in ten different branches of learning: physician, music, astronomer, acupuncturist, acronaut, geodesit, statesman & architect. His studies in body balancing were one of his ten technologies. He had these methods,written down on palm leaf (Ola) scrolls and he wrote down the centuries of the original oral medicine traditions by other Rishi's before him, that pre-date the Egyptian civilization.

Ravan’s great-grandfather was Brahma…

His grandfather was Rishi Pulasthi …and his 
 father was Rishi Vishrava.

 Rishi Pulasthi (Pulastyas), is one of six son’s of Brahma. Rishi Pulasthi's wife Nikasha, daughter of the Rakshasa Sumali, had a son called Vishravas (Veshwashrawa), who became a great Brahman Rishi. And from Rishi Vishravas, with his second wife Kaikasi, a Rakshasa princess,  gave birth to Ravana.

Pulasthi is said to be the progenitor, not only of Ravana but the race of the Yaksha’s (Yucca/Yakka – king Kubera (kuvera of Yaksha’s – the half-brother of Ravana), and the race of the Rakshasas, which Ravana ruled this kingdom in southern & north east India and the south Asian  islands, from his ruling place in Sri Lanka.            

Rishi Vishravas: Veshwashrrawa - Also called “Visrawas, Wishrawas, Wishwath Muni, Wesa Muni and Waishravana.” Rishi Vishravas was the father of “Sri Ravana, Kubera, Kumbukkan (Kumbhakarna), Vibhishana, Kara, Dhushan” and he had his kingdom in an area called “Wessagiriya” in famous “Anuradhapura” today. He was one of the richest rulers in that time and also proficient in “Vedha, Martial arts, Meditation, Astrology and other extreme science”. 
In Buddhism there are four major gods who are honored as world controlling gods by “Lord Buddha”. Among these four “Waishravana” owes the first place. 

Who are the Hela People

Sri Lanka was called once as “heladiva,” which means the land of the Hela people in the past. In according to historical findings there were four tribes of the Hela people ruling the different parts of the country, They were named as, Naga, Asura, Yakshas and Rakshas. That is the reason why these four tribes are called as “siv hela” which means four helas, later this “Siv hala” becomes “Sinhala”.

It is widespread misunderstanding among Sinhalese, that we are originated from Vijaya who was banished from India. But it may be true that Vijaya came to Sri Lanka with his colleagues and mixed with Hela people who were there by that time, but our true origin is not from him but from the Hela people. They are our true ancestors. Further more as you know our greatest King called Ravana, belonged to one of these tribes called Rakshas. So the Sinhalese decedents are from King Ravana who was a great king who ruled the world in the past.

It is said there were 11 Ravanas found in Sinhalese history such as Nala Ravana, Manu Ravana, Punu Ravana and Dasis Ravana. The most famous Ravana is king Ravana who lived  5000 years ago in Sri Lanka. He is called Dasis Ravana which means the king with 10 great talents.  He was a descendant of Surya Wansha (Vishravas) and the Hela Raskshasa tribe.

Who is King Ravana

He propogated "Raksh Neeti" which meant equality for all. The other rulers were ought to get distressed who wanted the demarcation to be preserved.

He is said to be one of the greatest physicians who ever existed. Ravana was a master of 10 vidyas or 10 forms of knowledge, which is another symbolic representation of his infamous "10 heads". Ravana as a social refomer took this message deep down to other tribal areas albiet by force, which were at odds with the social fabric at the time. The Rakshas tribes believed in nature worship and universal identity, “your own divine connection and self existing – evolving self” without any bias for caste or creed and gender. The belief that God is within each of us and that there is no other temple or Gods to worship but yourself and take care of your own temple. The other tribes had deep caste divides and Gods they worshiped, which they wanted to keep their ways alive.  

Ravana and Shiva propagated the greatest theory of modern humanism which is their is no greater force than human will power.  "Atma so Paramatma" meaning soul is the the ultimate or what Jesus has said " father and son are one" was rendered by these two gentleman which ran odds with people who had commercialized, objectified and "branded" gods for self interest. 

Ravana:  Great Medical Doctor

In the Bisajjya Grantha and Nadi Shasthra, it mentions that King Ravana and his grandfather Pulasthi Muni (Pulastayas) had graced the world-famous medical conferences held in those ancient days, in Janasthan Pura near Pakistan.

King Ravana (Dasa Ravana - Dasagriva )– was a great Scholar in Ayurvedic medicine. He was the person who invented Arka Shastra, which he has compiled every herb its usage and dosage revealing cures to some complex diseases.

King Ravana is the author of Arka-prakasa, a work on tinctures and extracts. ‘Arka’ is the Sanskritized form of the Persian ‘Arruck’ meaning “essence.’ It is one of the five medicinal preparations (dravyakalpa), the other four being kalka (paste), churna (powder), rasa (epressed juice) and taila (oil).

There are other works ascribed to Ravana like Kumara-tantra (incomplete poetical work in 201 verses, dealing with metals and their calcinations), and Nadi-pariksha (a short work in 96 verses giving the details of pulse-examination).

In one book he wrote "Eating beef cause to infect ninety eight new diseases to human beings".  The book Arka Prakshaya reveals this truth to the present world. As his willing to research in Ayurvedic medicine he wrote several books revealing the cures for many diseases. One of his works deals with opium and prescribes a preparation of mercury with sankha-dravaka for curing syphillis (phirangs roga) In another book he wrote "Eating beef became the cause to infect ninety eight new diseases to human beings.”  In the book "Kumara Tantraya" (Gynecology and Peadetric Medicine), he reveals also the treatments for infant diseases he wrote accepting the request, in the form of a dialogue between him and his pregnant, queen Mandodari.

He was such an eloquent master that he controlled Navagrahas (the nine "grahas" aspects of human astro system). I can go on and on his scholarly pursuits. Meanwhile the Ravana having 10 heads is nonsense, he was a master in tantra and had created an optical  illusion of  thoughts while fighting his enemies. In fact in the famous Book "ravana samhita" an excellent compilation of his scholarly works is given.

Ravana: Great Social Reformer

Ravana is our first social reformer.. an example, he taught vedas to the so called 
"downtrodden" in society, socially and in the caste system, which was a pevilige of the few. He banned animal sacrifice, and established a just rule.

 Ravan was a hero allegedly turned into villain because he disagreed. He disagreed to norms and practices of  the Sun-worshiping Aryan tribes. He developed enmity because he was not a diplomat. Ravan was a laureate, a warrior, a fighter and above all a social reformer. Ravan collected Aryans and Non-Aryans (the real Indians) together and formed “Raksha Vansh” (Raksha means PROTECTING people). He gave downtrodden and discriminated a single voice, “Vyam Rakshamah” (the book in which Ravana is described as a true hero). Ravan gave the modern India’s concept of SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.

So Ravana was an educated rebel. He asked questions and the right questions. And he had guts to argue and fight until the truth was revealed. So, sometimes he went out of his way too search answers and this shook the ego of people single handedly running the world at that time. Ravana questioned too much. Ravana had a mixed blood.

His father was a Brahmin, while his mother was from lineage of Rakshas. So, he got the privilege to live in both the cultures. He could not find any difference between the two cultures except for the fact that the priest, kings and a caste system, exploited and down trodden its people, by the Gods (people who read or wrote Vedas). He questioned the morality of Brahmin priest. 

The only King of Sri Lanka who managed to wipe out all the divisions among the Sri Lankan people was the Great King Ravana. Under his leadership, King Ravana managed to unite all the Sri Lankan tribes. Sri Lanka became a secular country not subject to or bound by any religious dogma, with no official religion, language or official yes men. Not only ruling Sri Lanka, he governed a vast kingdom with boundaries extending over South Asia – and was hence named Chakravarthi. In chronological records about Ravana, it is almost impossible to find a single battle fought against another community of people in order to invade their land or usurp their throne.

Not a single ‘racial’ conflict is mentioned in any of those records written during his reign, though the chronicle of the Ramayana ,by Valmiki stereotyped him as the most evil human to have ever existed, providing an erroneous and biased interpretation of the Rama-Ravana war.

If King Ravana was such a great scholar, why was he wronged in most history books ? Well for this the first nonsense has to be cleared, which is  that Rama and Ravana did-not fight the wars because of Sita, it was a political war, which predated Rama. As mentioned, Ravana's maternal side (Raksha Tribes) were driven out of their own  land by Devtas tribes.  Rama believed in a doctrine of worshipping a creator god/Gods. Another is " The entire earth belongs to Raghu Vansh, " which Raghu was the ancestor of Rama. That sounds more like a racist quote of British  Rudyard Kipling, in which he called colonization or imperialism as a "white man's burden". Anyways, Ravana won back Lanka from Kuber (his step brother) & turned it into riches. Lanka was an object of envy.

Ravana also debunked the caste system as in Vedas and Upanishads (original ones, if you want to see original Vedas, go to Germany not India.. what a pity ) as nowhere caste has been mentioned.

Ravana: Music and Wisdom

King Ravana invented the Bow of Violin. He also narrated very first Ragas, the musical compositions of Eastern classical music known as Lanka Dehena and Sinhala. esp in Sama Veda , in the 4th veda , Siva thandawa is one of the great devotional compositions done by him, which is still being in use in India.

The Sinhalese folk stories are enriched with Ravana Stories. 
King Ravana was continuing a vegan oriented life style and was a real nature lover. According to Lankavatara sutta he was Buddhist and worshipped Kashyapa Buddha. Once he invited Kashyapa Buddha to visit Lanka and deliver his sermon to Sri Lankan citizens who practiced yoga and followed Buddhism. King Ravana was one of the best emperors found in Sri Lankan History.

He was the first  king who flew over the world with his aero plane, known as Dandumonaraya or Vimanaya, Kashtawahana.

Ravana: History into Clarity

Fast forwarding to famous Shurpanka's episode, Shurpanka was appointed as the "Governor" of the region where Rama, Lakshman and Sita had entered.  As the present norm states, an unauthorized entry amounted to aggression, unfortunately, which was taken up by Shurpanaka. The famous "enticement" which again has been demonized by popular folk lore and TV serials is silent on this issue.

In "vayam rakshamah" its beautifully argued that Shurpanka was unjustly manhandled. Imagine a girl (who happens to be a queen), in all fairness assuming asked for marriage is manhandled, beaten and  had her nose cut, its so unbecoming of a man. This from any man is inhuman treatment. Firstly you enter a territory which is not yours, then you manhandle the chieftan,  and that too when she is a women, where is the culture?

Ravana avenged Rama and his brother action by taking away Sita not just for this but as a political move, and remember that he never ill-treated Sita. Where was the curse when he could lift her and take her on his "Vimana" ? Another big interpetitition was that he wanted to marry her. Nonsense, not true, he actually had gone to the Swayamvar of Sita to ask her for his son "Indrajit" not for himself. He kept her with dignity in  AshokVatika. 

Rama wanted to construct the famous "sethu" and needed a pandit to do the commencement puja or ritual.  The only pandit nearby was Ravana, the best amongst all. Ravana came and performed Puja for his "enemy" dutifully and blessed him. If this arrogance, be it..

Rama wanted to pick an auspicious time to start the battle. Rama needed an astrologer. Everyone unanimously suggested none other than Ravana. Heeding to the suggestion, Rama went to Ravana to ask him a good time. Ravana as a great professional gave him the best muhurtha which (9 navaratris) and blessed him with "Vijaya Bhava".

In Sri Lankan folk tales, it is said that king Ravana treated both Rama and Lakshmana with his own hand when they were badly injured on the battlefield.

Finally Rama tired of all weaponry, picked up his Brahmaastra , equivalent of nuclear weapon in modern age. This weapon technically was never supposed to be used in war as it was more of a deterrance. Ravana had this weapon as well.

But seeing Rama open this weapon, Ravana did not open his Brahmastra because he knew that if he had and used it in war, the entire humanity and ecology would have been finished, imagine 2 hydrogen bombs colliding. He opted out and gladly accepted death and defeat for the larger purpose. In fact before his death, Ravana makes a request to Rama to protect the future humanity and ecology to its fullest !

One of thing that I have observed in human sociology, a person who questions beliefs , assumptions and values and explores truth impartially is always painted black .. Ravana was just one of them.

King Ravana … would become a future Buddha

This magnificent stone standing statue located in a famous historical place in Sri Lanka called “Maligawilla”. The Statue represents a royal or divine personality with jewelleries and crown but more suits to a great king, a “Sakvithi”* king. There are some special features in this sculpture including a dragon mark in waist chain, a “Buddha’s” picture in the crown symbolises some special personality.

 With a Archaeological approach. With strong clues and facts we declare that this statue stands for “Sri Ravana” and here it demonstrates one of “Sri Ravana’s images- “Avalokitheshwara”. Since “Sri Ravana” expecting to become a “Buddha” in future, he is considered as a “Bodhisathva” in Buddhism, and “Avalokitheshwara” is the name he has been given when he started devoting for that great purpose.

 Our clue is in his crown, there is a picture of “Lord Buddha". In our statue sculpturing culture, when a “Buddha” image is carved on a crown, the person who is baring that is accepted as a “Bodhisathva”. And here also it is shown that the “Maligawilla” statue is identified as “Avalokitheshwara bodhisathva”.

“Sri Ravana” was the pioneer to bring dragon “thorana” to the temple, and dragon concept was closely related with “Sri Ravana”. And a dragon symbol is seen in the temple.

His gesture matches with other “Avalokitheshwara” statues in Sri Lanka.

The Rishi are seers who know, and by their knowledge are the makers of shastra and "see" all mantras. The word comes from the root rish Rishati-prapnoti sarvvang mantrang jnanena pashyati sangsaraparangva, etc. The seven great Rishi or saptarshi of the first manvantara are Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulaha, Kratu, Pulastya, and Vashishtha. In other manvantara there are other sapta-rshi.

In the present manvantara the seven are Kashyapa, Atri, Vashishtha, Vishvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, Bharadvaja. To the Rishi the Vedas were revealed.

The words of the Śākyamuni Buddha (Gautama) addressed to Mahākāśyapa are described below:

I possess the true Dharma eye, the marvelous mind of Nirvana, the true form of the formless, the subtle dharma gate that does not rest on words or letters but is a special transmission outside of the scriptures. This I entrust to Mahākāśyapa.

In the Song of Enlightenment, of Yǒngjiā Xuánjué i, it is written that Bodhidharma was the 28th patriarch in a line of descent from Mahākāśyapa, a disciple of Śākyamuni Buddha (Gautama Buddha), and the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism:

"Our teacher, Sakyamuni Buddha, is one among the thousand Buddha’s of this aeon. These Buddha’s were not Buddha’s from the beginning, but were once sentient beings like ourselves.

'I am not the first Buddha to come upon this earth; nor shall I be the last. Previously, there were many Buddha’s who appeared in this world. In due time, another Buddha will arise in this world, within this world cycle.'

Buddha is a word that means "awakened one." A Buddha is someone who has realized the enlightenment that ends the cycle of birth and death and which brings liberation from suffering.

Students of Gautama Healing Buddha

One of Buddha’s disciples, King Ashok is credited to having established charitable hospitals for both men and animals.

Buddhism was fully introduced into Sri Lanka in the third century B.C. from India, where it had been established by Siddartha Gautama three centuries earlier. The powerful Indian monarch, Asoka, nurtured the new comprehensive religio-philosophical system in the third century B.C. Asoka's conversion to Buddhism marks one of the turning points in religious history because at that time, Buddhism was elevated from a minor sect to an official religion enjoying all the advantages of royal patronage. Asoka's empire, which extended over most of India, supported one of the most vigorous missionary enterprises in history.

The Buddhist tradition of chronicling events has aided the verification of historical figures. One of most important of these figures was King Devanampiya Tissa (250-c. 207 B.C.). According to the Mahavamsa, Asoka's son and emissary to Sri Lanka, Mahinda, introduced the monarch to Buddhism. Devanampiya Tissa became a powerful patron of Buddhism and established the monastery of Mahavihara, which became the historic center of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

Present Healing Buddha Teachings

Lord Gautama Buddha (565-483 BC) is said to have attended regularly to all the sick disciples in his camps. His teachings which said “to be born is to suffer, to die is to suffer, and to fall sick is to suffer” motivated his followers to look after the sick. Buddhist hospitals in India existed before the invasion of Alexander the Great. “It is to Gautama and his followers that we owe, apparently the hospital idea.” The same authority states that “Lord Buddha in his day enunciated the vinaya or disciplinary rules for the monks.


 These rules touched all aspects of their life and included guidelines on healthy living.” Buddha laid down five essential qualities that a person attending to the sick, should viz:

i. be able to prescribe,

ii. know what is good from what is not good for the patient,

iii. attend to the sick out of love and not greed,

iv. not revolt at removing excreta, saliva or vomit,

v. administer religious consolation to the patient from time to time.

Subsequent events also contributed to Sri Lanka's prestige in the Buddhist world. It was on the island, for example, that the oral teachings of the Buddha --the Tripitaka-- were committed to writing for the first time.

Dosthora Mudalihamy Warnasuriya 

...and thank you ... 'Sri Ravana'