Kubera- Hindu GodDeity"Lord of Wealth"

Half-Brother of Ravana

Kubera was born to the sage Vishravas and a Yaksha woman named Ilavida. He became king of the Yakshas, nature spirits who guard hidden treasures throughout the earth, and established himself in Lanka, ruling from the Pushpaka Vimana, a flying palace that moved according to its owner's will.

His father Vishravas later took a second wife, the Rakshasi Kaikesi, who bore Ravana, Kumbhakarna, and Vibhishana. Ravana performed austerities of such severity that Brahma granted him power over gods and demons. He turned that power on his own half-brother first. The Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana tells how Ravana drove Kubera from Lanka and seized the Pushpaka Vimana for himself. Kubera fled north.

The City of Alaka

Near Mount Kailash, where Shiva dwells, Kubera built Alaka. Kalidasa's Meghaduta describes the city: crystal palaces and gardens that flower without season, the Yakshas living in perpetual abundance. Kubera sits among them, stout and pot-bellied, a pot of gold in one hand and a mongoose in the other, guardian of the north among the eight directional protectors of the cosmos.

The Pushpaka Vimana returned to him only after Rama killed Ravana and the great war for Lanka was won. The flying palace that Kubera had lost to his half-brother's ambition came home by another road entirely.