Was Ravana a Tamil King?

Did Ravanan speak Tamil? Where was he born? Was he Evil? — An analysis of claims

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869. We knew he was able to speak Gujarati, Hindi and English. Now, you might wonder why am I even speaking about Gandhi here. The point is —not even 200 years have passed since he was born, today we do not know what is a fact vs. opinion on him, because of limited documentation. If you go back to historical characters from a few more centuries ago, it will be even hard to know for a fact how they looked or what they spoke!

Now to the point — Valmiki is said to have written Ramayana in the 4th century BCE (2400 years ago!) However, Valmiki did not see the events of Ramayana happen, but Brahma is said to have “visioned” to him the story, but the actual Ramayana is believed to have happened in Treta Yuga (7000 BC to 3000 BC) which was about NINE THOUSAND YEARS AGO!! Now you want to know where Ravana was born and what language he spoke day-to-day? Give me a break!

1. There are claims that Ravana was born in today’s Uttar Pradesh and some say he was originally from Sri Lanka and that he just usurped Kubera’s kingdom in Lanka and moved there later.
2. Some say he wrote Shiv Tandava stotra and Ravana Samhita in Sanskrit, some say he originally wrote these in Tamil which got translated into Sanskrit later.

Ravana’s Lineage (Family Tree with grandfather, parents and siblings)