Emperor Ravana lived nearly 5000 years ago in Sri Lanka. He was a descendant of ‘Surya Wansha’ of ‘Hela Yakka’ tribe (ancient Sinhala tribe). King Ravana was one of the best fighters in Angampora, the traditional martial arts of ancient Sinhale.
He was a great Scholar in Ayurvedic medicine. He was the person who invented “Arka Shastra”. 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. In one book he wrote “Eating beef cause to infect ninety eight new diseases to human beings”. The book “Kumara Tantraya” which reveals the treatments for infant diseases was written by him accepting the request of his pregnant queen Mandodari.
His eldest son was Indrajith also known as Meghanada who followed his father’s steps. There are some hints in Sri Lankan rock inscriptions about the daughter of king Dasis Ravana. King Ravana’s kingdom was Lankapura. The kingdom is almost disappeared today. But if you keen on Sri Lankan folklore and ola manuscripts there you can find some remaining sites of Lankapura today known as Seegiriya and Trincomalee.
King Ravana invented the bow of Violin. He also narrated very first Raagas, the musical compositions of Eastern classical music known as Lanka Dehena. “Siva thandawa” is one of the great devotional compositions done by him, which is still being in use in India. He was the first king flew over the world with his aero plane, known as Dandumonaraya, Vimaanaya or Ahasthara. Some evidence of Dandumonaraya the aeroplane is found in Rock inscriptions, Jataka Stories and Ola manuscripts. 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 practice yoga and follow Buddhism.
Today the time has changed and many of us do not know the real history of king Ravana and throw our folk tales away without considering any valuable parts of them. King Ravana was one of the best emperors found in Sri Lankan history. There are more than 300 Sinhala village names related to king Ravana era. In addition, there are some more places and remains in which the Rama Ravana war took place in Sri Lanka.