File:Ravana Singing Shiva Tandava.PNG

Ravana Singing Shiva Tandava
Ravana beaneat Mount Kailasa Playing a Veena Made out of his head and hand and strings made out of his Tendons with Shiva Parvati sitting on top. Ravana once tried to lift Mount Kailash, but Shiva pushed the mountain into place and trapped Ravana beneath it.

For a thousand years, the imprisoned Ravana sang hymns (Shiva Tandava Stotra) in praise of Shiva, who finally blessed him and granted him an invincible sword and a powerful linga (Shiva's aniconic symbol, Atmalinga) to worship.

The stotra is in the Asthi Chanda. It has 16 syllables per line of the quatrain, with laghu (short syllable) and guru (long syllable) characters alternating; the poetic meter is iambic octameter by definition. There are 16 quatrains in total.