Prahasta

In the epic tradition summarized in the sources, Prahasta is one of the rakshasa kin associated with Lanka and is described as a child of Sumali and Ketumati; he therefore belongs to the household and military cadre that serve Ravana. Some structured-data records and narrative summaries list him as a maternal uncle of Ravana (if Kaikashi, Ravana's mother, is counted among Sumali and Ketumati's children), while the later Ramcharitmanas presents a variant genealogy that makes him a son of Ravana and Mandodari. These differing accounts are preserved as variant genealogical traditions in the Ramayana cycle.

Sources characterize Prahasta primarily by rank and martial reputation rather than by precise bodily or iconographic detail: he is presented as a "powerful rakshasa warrior" and the appointed commander-in-chief of Ravana's armies, the senior martial figure who leads Lanka's forces in large-scale campaigns and in the defense of Lanka during Rama's invasion.

Prahasta's chief capacities, as attested in the Ramayana-related summaries, are military leadership, battlefield prowess, and effectiveness as a commander. He is repeatedly described as Ravana's chief commander who "led Ravana's army in the wars against Yama, Kubera and the Devas, and the Asuras and Daityas," and he is credited with killing several important warriors of Sugriva's (the Vanara) army. Narrative variants record him threatening Rama's forces until his death in the war (accounts differ as to whether Lakshmana or Nila killed him). In Ramcharitmanas he is alternatively portrayed as morally restrained: a son who withdraws and counsels Ravana to return Sita.