Ravana or Rabhana

Ravana or Rabhana 

भकार: कुम्भकर्णेस्ति

भकारोस्ति विभीषणे /

तस्मात् राक्षसराजोयम्

राभणो न तु रावण: //

bhakaaraH kumbhakarne asti 

Bhakaarosti vibheeshane 

tasmaat raakshasa rajo ayam

Raabhano na tu RavanaH..

there is Bha kaara in kumbhakarna

there is Bha Kaara in Vibheeshana 

therefore this king of Rakshasaas , who is the brother of the above two should be Raabhana and not Ravana..

That is the meaning of the above slokam..

However it should be notetd that it is only a sloka used by scholars just for fun.. in the genre of chaatusloka in Sanskrit.. 

It is just a joke.. 

Quoting it as if it were gospel truth or authority is concentrated ignorance...

Ignorance of trends in Sanskrit literature

There is a story too attached to this sloka connecting it with Kalidasa.

There was a very haughty but knowledgible princes in Ujjain.. and for marriage she imposed the condition that her suitor should defeat her in literary debate.. Many scholars tried and were defeated and insulted too. So they hatched a plan to wreak vengeance on her..

They found a confounded idiot of a cowherd in a nearby village. The fellow was given a wash, fine dresses and taken to the palace for the debate.. 

When he entered the palace, he saw the princes seated in a big hall which was decorated with pictures from Ramayanam..

He saw an imposing picture of Ravana with his ten heads and exclaimed.."Abbabbada abbada Raabhanaa.."

The princess ridiculted the cowherd saying that he did not know even to rightly identify and spell the name of Ravana..

But then those who accompanied the idiot argued that the correct etymology demanded that Ravana should be called Rabana.. 

After all there were three brothers, two younger brothers called Kumbhakarna and Vibheeshana and the elder was therefore wrongly called Ravana..

Since the younger brother both had " bha" as the second letter in their names, the elder also should have the exact pattern in his name and so the cowherd had called this Rabhana correctly..

The princess was speechless and she was deemed as defeated in the debate, and had to marry the idiot..

It is another story that, being prodded by the princes the cowherd worshipped Goddess Kali, and by Her sweet grace became the greatest poet of all ages in any languagae KALIDASA 

That story and slokam are nice.. but it is silly to claim that the name of the erstwhile king of Lanka was Rabhana for that reason..