Vishravas- Hindu FigureMortal"Son of Pulastya"
Also known as: विश्रवस् and Viśravas
Description
Sage and grandson of Brahma who fathered both the god of wealth and the demon king of Lanka. His first wife bore Kubera; his second, the Rakshasa princess Kaikesi who came to him at an inauspicious hour, bore Ravana. Vishravas had warned her what that hour would mean.
Mythology & Lore
Son of Pulastya
Vishravas was born from the sage Pulastya, one of the mind-born sons of Brahma. He established his hermitage in the wilderness and devoted himself to austerities and Vedic study. By his first wife Ilavida, a woman of Yaksha lineage, he fathered Kubera, who would become lord of the Yakshas and god of wealth.
Kaikesi at the Inauspicious Hour
Kaikesi was a Rakshasa princess, daughter of the demon chief Sumali. Sumali had witnessed Kubera's growing prosperity and divine favor, and sent Kaikesi to seek Vishravas as a husband, hoping the union would produce offspring mighty enough to rival Kubera and restore the Rakshasas to dominance. When Kaikesi arrived at his hermitage, Vishravas was performing his evening sandhya prayers, the twilight hour, inauspicious for union. He warned her that children conceived at such a time would be born with demonic natures. Kaikesi was impatient, and the union proceeded. From it came Ravana, Kumbhakarna, Surpanakha, and the youngest, Vibhishana, who alone among them would prove righteous.
Brother Against Brother
Vishravas lived to see his sons turn against each other. Kubera had established his kingdom in Lanka and possessed the celestial chariot Pushpaka, a gift from Brahma. But after Ravana performed terrible austerities and won devastating boons, he descended on Lanka and drove his half-brother out. Kubera fled northward to the slopes of Mount Kailash, and Ravana seized both the golden city and the Pushpaka for himself, building the demonic empire that would one day bring Rama to his gates.