The Sage and the Two Houses
The Uttara Kāṇḍa tells the story backwards. Rāma has won; Rāvaṇa is ash; and only then does the sage Agastya sit with the victor and explain who it was that he killed. Vishravas was the son of Pulastya, one of the mind-born sons of Brahmā — which makes Rāvaṇa, in the epic's own reckoning, a brahmin by descent and a great-grandson of the creator. Vishravas took two wives. From Ilavida came Kubera, who grew into the lord of wealth and was given the golden city of Laṅkā to rule. From Kaikasi, daughter of the rākṣasa Sumali, came four children: Daśagrīva, whom the world would call Rāvaṇa; Kumbhakarṇa; Śūrpaṇakhā; and Vibhīṣaṇa. The seed of everything is planted in a single scene. Kaikasi watches Kubera pass overhead in the flying chariot Puṣpaka, blazing with attendants and gold, and she turns to her eldest son and says, in effect: look at your half-brother, and look at us. The Rāmāyaṇa does not soften this. Rāvaṇa's ambition begins as a mother's humiliation. He answers her with a promise — that he will equal Kubera, and then exceed him. Then he takes his brothers into the forest of Gokarṇa to make good on it.
✦ Visual cue — A rākṣasa mother on a rocky hermitage ledge at dusk pointing at a distant golden flying chariot crossing the sky; four young figures watching, firelight, ochre and violet tones.