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desire. Two sons--those foremost of Rakshasas named Kumvakarna and the
Ten-headed Ravana,--both unequaled on earth in prowess, were born to
Pushpotkata. And Malini had a son named Vibhishana, and Raka had twin
children named Khara and Surpanakha. And Vibhishana surpassed them all
in beauty. And that excellent person was very pious and assiduously
performed all religious rites. But that foremost of Rakshasas, with ten
heads, was the eldest to them all. And he was religious, and energetic
and possessed of great strength and prowess. And the Rakshasa Kumvakarna
was the most powerful in battle, for he was fierce and terrible and a
thorough master of the arts of illusion. And Khara was proficient in
archery, and hostile to the Brahmanas, subsisting as he did on flesh.
And the fierce Surpanakha was constant source of trouble to the
ascetics. And the warriors, learned in the Vedas and diligent in
ceremonial rites, all lived with their father in the Gandhamadana. And
there they beheld Vaisravana seated with their father, possessed of
riches and borne on the shoulders of men. And seized with jealousy, they
resolved upon performing penances. And with ascetic penances of the most
severe kind, they gratified Brahma. And the Ten-headed Ravana,
supporting life by means of air alone and surrounded by the five sacred
fires and absorbed in meditation, remained standing on one leg for a
thousand years. And Kumvakarna with head downwards, and with restricted
diet, was constant in austerities. And the wise and magnanimous
Vibhishana, observing fasts and subsisting only on dry leaves and
engaged in meditation, practised severe austerities for a long period.
And Khara and Surpanakha, with cheerful hearts, protected and attended
on them while they were performing those austerities. And at the close
of a thousand years, the invincible Ten-headed One, cutting off his own
heads, offered them as offering to the sacred fire. And at this act of
his, the Lord of the Universe was pleased with him. And then Brahma,
personally appearing to them, bade them desist from those austerities
and promised to grant boons unto every one of them. And the adorable
Brahma said, "I am pleased with you, my sons! Cease now from these
austerities and ask boons of me! Whatever your desires may be, they,
with the single exception of that of immortality, will be fulfilled! As
thou hast offered thy heads to the fire from great ambition, they will
again adorn thy body as b