Ravana Disrupts Marutta’s Sacrifice

Ravana Disrupts Marutta’s Sacrifice is an episode in the account of Ravana’s exploits. When Ravana interrupts a sacrifice performed by King Marutta, the assembled gods respond by changing their shapes to escape. Each then grants a boon to the animal whose form it assumed, turning the gods’ flight into an explanation for several animal traits and customs.

Setting and Participants

The account identifies Marutta as the king performing the sacrifice and describes the gods assembled there when Ravana disrupts it. Faced with the interruption, the gods do not remain in their divine forms: Indra becomes a peacock, Yáma a crow, Kuvera a lizard, and Varuṇ a swan. The passage gives no further detail about the sacrifice’s completion or the immediate outcome of Ravana’s intervention.

The Gods’ Transformations and Boons

After taking animal forms, the gods each bestow a boon on the animal they have chosen. Indra’s peacock retains a visible reminder of the god: its tail recalls Indra’s thousand eyes. Varuṇ’s association with the ocean is reflected in the swan’s whiteness, likened in the account to ocean foam, while Kuvera’s lizard is granted a golden colour.

Yáma’s boon to the crow concerns death and funeral offerings. A crow is not to die except through violent death, and the dead are to receive their funeral oblations when crows have eaten them. The episode thus connects the crow not only to Yáma but also to the treatment of offerings for the dead.

Narrative Significance

The scene presents Ravana’s assault on a royal sacrifice as the occasion for a chain of transformations and divine gifts. Its details give mythic explanations for animal appearance and for the crow’s role in relation to funeral oblations. Rather than describing the sacrifice’s eventual fate, the account dwells on what the gods’ escape leaves behind: lasting signs and customs attached to the forms they assumed.