Ravana is well known as the villain of the epic Ramayana …his depiction as the demon king of Lanka who abducts Rama’s wife is well known….however this is an interesting episode which is a prequel to the events of the Ramayana…Ravana as the great shiva devotee and excellent Veena player….. Ravana is humbled four times…once by Vaali, then by KaarthaVeera Arjuna ( not the Arjuna from Mahabharat), then by Rama….and prior to all that by Shiva. This sculpture is called Ravana anugrahamurthy – was sung to great glory by the Saint Appar and finds depiction in many places. But this interesting work is from Cambodia… you can see ravana in all his glory…ten heads, twenty hands 645651653 As Ravana was passing around in his flying chariot..he comes across the abode of shiva and the chariot refuses to go over the mount out of respect for shiva. Ravana is furious and drunk on his ego tries to uproot the entire mountain and hurl it out of his path….as he does so…the lions and other animals run helter skelter….Parvati is scared and leaps on to the lap of shiva…you can see Ganesha in one of the rows along with other ganas ( assistants of shiva) 659655657649 when shiva calmly presses down the mountain with his big toe….and ravana is trapped…what happened next…well thats the plot for a new post by itself… So we see how an interesting lesson in being humble was taught to Ravana …and the greatness of the cambodian sculptor who brought this into stone in such a lively manner