How many heads did Ravana have?

Ravana is traditionally described as having ten heads. This defining feature gives him the Sanskrit epithet Dashanana, meaning “ten-headed,” and is one of the most recognizable images in Ramayana art and festival traditions.

The heads symbolize Ravana’s extraordinary power and larger-than-human nature. Interpretations differ across retellings: they may represent his vast knowledge, competing qualities or mastery of multiple fields. Ravana is also portrayed as a learned scholar, powerful ruler, skilled musician and devoted worshipper of Shiva, so the ten heads are not merely a visual sign of physical monstrosity.

In the Ramayana, Ravana is the rakshasa king of Lanka who abducts Sita, leading Rama to gather an army and wage war against him. His defeat is commemorated during Vijayadashami, when large effigies of the ten-headed king are commonly burned.

Some later artistic traditions show Ravana with nine visible heads because one story says he cut off a head during his austerities to Shiva. That variation does not change the standard quiz answer: Ravana is conventionally known as the ten-headed king. Eight, nine and eleven are not the canonical answers to this question.