Māli, Sumāli and Mālyavān

Māli, Sumāli and Mālyavān were three rākshasa brothers (beings of the night) of great power. Through hard tapas (austerity) they won vara (boons) from Brahmā. They took the splendid city of Laṅkā from the yakshas and built a rākshasa empire that struck fear into all three worlds.

In the Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Bhagavān Vishṇu rode on Garuḍa into the battle and killed Māli with the Sudarśana cakra. Sumāli and Mālyavān fled to pātāla (the world below) and went underground. Bhagavān Vishṇu then gave Laṅkā to Kubera. Sumāli’s line, through his daughter Kaikasī, gave birth to Rāvaṇa, who in a later generation took Laṅkā back from Kubera.

The three brothers

Māli (also written Mālī), Sumāli and Mālyavān came from the rākshasa line. They were among the strongest rākshasa warriors of their age. By very hard tapas to Brahmā they won vara that made them nearly impossible to harm and gave them great strength.

With these powers they marched on Laṅkā. This was the divine city built by the architect Viśvakarma. At that time it was the seat of the yakshas, under an ancestor of Kubera. The brothers seized it.

Laṅkā became their base and capital. From there the three brothers built a rākshasa empire that came to rule all three worlds. Yajñas (fire rituals) were broken up, brāhmaṇas were devoured, and the order of creation was disturbed everywhere.

This is from the Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Poorvārdha, Chapters 216–218.

The death of Māli

The devas could not overcome the three brothers. They begged Bhagavān Vishṇu for help. Bhagavān Vishṇu mounted his divine carrier (vāhana) Garuḍa and went down into battle. The army of the devas faced the army of the rākshasas (Chapters 216–217). In the middle of the general fight, Bhagavān Vishṇu faced Māli directly.

From the back of Garuḍa, Bhagavān Vishṇu loosed the Sudarśana cakra. The blazing disc struck Māli and killed him on the spot. Their foremost champion had fallen. Sumāli and Mālyavān saw that Bhagavān Vishṇu himself was fighting against them. They fled into the depths of pātāla, went underground and withdrew from the surface world altogether.

This is from the Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Poorvārdha, Chapter 217.

Sumāli’s line and Rāvaṇa

Sumāli’s flight to pātāla did not end his line. His daughter Kaikasī later came to the great ṛshi Viśravas, the son of Pulastya, who was the son of Brahmā. She bore him Rāvaṇa, the most powerful rākshasa of a later age.

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa says that Viśravas had four wives, and that their children made up the whole leadership of the later Laṅkā.

So the generals of Laṅkā under Rāvaṇa, Prahasta, Khara, Triśira and Dūshaṇa, were Rāvaṇa’s half-brothers. All were descended from Viśravas, with different mothers from the rākshasa line.

This is from the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 8.

Rāvaṇa takes back Laṅkā

In a later age Rāvaṇa, the grandson of Sumāli through Kaikasī, performed hard tapas at Gokarṇa. He won Brahmā’s vara of invulnerability. Then he marched on Laṅkā. By then Laṅkā had been given to Kubera, who was Rāvaṇa’s own half-brother through Viśravas. Rāvaṇa drove Kubera out of the city. A rākshasa thus took back from a yaksha the city that his grandfather’s generation had lost to Bhagavān Vishṇu. Rāvaṇa also took from Kubera the Pushpakavimāna, the divine flying vehicle.

This is from the Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Poorvārdha, Chapters 219–220, and the Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 11.

Sources

• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Poorvārdha, Chapters 216–220
• Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 11
• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 8