Panaji: Taking a swipe at late DMK stalwart M Karunanidhi, BJP Member of Parliament Subramanian Swamy said on Sunday that demon king Ravana was born in Noida and was also not a Dravidian as the former Tamil Nadu chief minister thought.

The BJP Rajya Sabha MP said this while speaking at an event in South Goa on a topic “Indian Culture Heritage and it’s Importance”.

Swamy claimed that contrary to popular notions, Ravana - the chief villain in Indian epic Ramayana - was born in the Bisrakh village in Noida, located in the National Capital Region.

"And Rama was a hate figure for these people because he was from the north and he killed Ravana who was from Lanka and therefore Dravidian. Well, Ravana was not from Lanka. He was born in a village near Delhi, it is called Bisrakh. You can still go and see it. There are big billboards. The area is called Noida...," Swamy said.

Shedding more light on the mythological character, Swamy said that Ravana performed a rigorous penance at Manasarovar, after which Lord Shiva bestowed a boon upon him, following which Ravana went to Lanka and defeated his cousin Kuber to eventually become the `Lanka Naresh`.

"And he was a Brahmin, incidentally... He practiced, he was a scholar of Sama Veda and Karunanidhi thought he is like him. And so, Karunanidhi was against anything I did which didn't suit the Dravidian concocted notions," Swamy said.

The BJP Rajya Sabha MP added that the 'divide' between northern India as an Aryan domain and the Dravidian south was a notion implanted in the Indian sub-conscience by the British Colonists.

"Therefore, I say to you that first of all, recognise that we all are one people. We did not come from some faraway place, as the British wrote in their history books...," he stressed.

"It was taught to us through schools, through Bishops, the Christian clergy and soon enough it became an accepted gospel."

(With IANS inputs)