Ravana's ‘descendants’ in Jodhpur gather to mourn him
A community of Shrimali Brahmins in Jodhpur, India, observes a day of mourning for Ravana on Dussehra instead of participating in the traditional effigy burnings. They revere Ravana as a learned scholar and ancestor, maintaining a unique cultural tradition rooted in local legend.
Why it matters
It highlights the diversity of religious and cultural interpretations within Hinduism, challenging the monolithic narrative of Ravana as purely an embodiment of evil.
JODHPUR: As Ravana’s towering effigies go up in flames across India on Dussehra, a small community in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur does something that sets it apart from the celebrations around it.Its members wait for the fires to die down, bathe, change their sacred threads and gather at a temple to offer prayers to the very king whose death the festival commemorates.For the Dave Godha community, a gotra of Shrimali Brahmins who consider themselves descendants of Ravana, Dussehra is not a celebration of his defeat but a day of mourning and remembrance.“We worship Ravana and try to imbibe his good qualities,” says Kamlesh Kumar Dave, chief priest of the community’s temple near Mehrangarh Fort. For the families who follow this tradition, Ravana is not merely the ten-headed king cast as the embodiment of evil in popular retellings of the Ramayana.
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