The demons are the most interesting people in Hindu myth and the tradition knows it. Ravana is learned, powerful, a musician, and a devotee whose worship of Shiva is exemplary — his defeat is a matter of one specific transgression, not of essential evil, and Rama performs penance for killing a brahmin afterwards. Some communities in Sri Lanka, in Madhya Pradesh, and among Tamil Dravidianist movements honour him and read the Ramayana as an account of northern conquest. Mahishasura goes further: since around 2011 at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and since then at events across eastern and central India, Adivasi and Bahujan groups have observed Mahishasur Martyrdom Day during Durga Puja, mourning him as an indigenous king killed by an invading deity. It reached the floor of the Indian Parliament in 2016 and produced a national row. Whatever one makes of the historical claim, the phenomenon is a reminder that a story of good defeating evil looks different depending on whose ancestor is under the foot.