9 heads, 300 years of worship: Ravana gets police protection in this MP town

Bhopal: While police across the country oversee Dussehra celebrations that culminate in Ravana's effigy going up in flames, a police station in Madhya Pradesh's Satna district does something rather unusual, it protects the demon king who's worshipped here by devotees.Inside the premises of Kothi police station stands a 25-foot-tall, 22-foot-wide Ravana idol, believed to be at least 300 years old, where generations of a priest's family have performed rituals on Dussehra.Unlike the familiar 10-headed depiction, this Ravana has nine heads. Local belief has it that he offered one of his heads to Lord Shiva, earning the unusual form in which he is worshipped here. And while the idol predates the police station by centuries, it has remained within its compound since the new police station was built around 19 years ago."The idol was built by the local rulers around 300 years ago.