Suketu was a Yaksha King in the epic Ramayana

Ramayana

The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...

, and the father of the demoness, Thataka

Thataka

Tadaka was a Yaksha princess-turned-demoness in the epic Ramayana. The daughter and only child of the Yaksha king Suketu, she was a beautiful princess that was wooed by and married Sumali, an Asura King...

. After being childless for many years, Suketu meditated upon the Creator Brahma

Brahma

Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...

 and was granted the gift of a beautiful daughter. News of the girl's beauty reached the Asura King, Sumali

Sumali

Sumali is the grandfather of Ravana, the principal antagonist of the Ramayana.He, his elder brother Malyavan and younger brother Mali were the sons of the daitya Sukesh....

, who wooed and successful wed her.

Thataka and Sumali had three children; two sons, Subahu

Subahu

Subahu is a rakshasa character in the Ramayana. He and his mother, Tataka, took immense pleasure in harassing the munis of the jungle, especially Vishvamitra, by disrupting their yajnas with rains of flesh and blood....

 and Mareecha, and a daughter, Kaikesi

Kaikesi

In Hinduism, Kaikesi was the mother of Ravana.The daughter of Sumali and Thataka and the sister of Maricha and Subahu, she schemed with her parents to seduce the Rishi Vishrava and through him, produce powerful, demonic offspring...

. Kaikesi would eventually become the second wife of Rishi

Rishi

Rishi denotes the composers of Vedic hymns. However, according to post-Vedic tradition, the rishi is a "seer" to whom the Vedas were "originally revealed" through states of higher consciousness. The rishis were prominent when Vedic Hinduism took shape, as far back as some three thousand years...

 Vishrava

Vishrava

Vishrava was the son of Pulastya and the grandson of Brahma, the Creator, and a powerful Rishi as described in a scripture epic of Ancient India. A scholar par excellence, he earned great powers through Tapasya, which in turn, earned him great name and fame amongst his fellow Rishis...

 and through him, the mother of Ravana

Ravana

' is the primary antagonist character of the Hindu legend, the Ramayana; who is the great king of Lanka. In the classic text, he is mainly depicted negatively, kidnapping Rama's wife Sita, to claim vengeance on Rama and his brother Lakshmana for having cut off the nose of his sister...

, the mighty demonic King of Lanka

Lanka

Sri Lanka is the name given in Hindu mythology to the island fortress capital of the legendary king Ravana in the great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata...

.

Suketu and Sumali were both cursed by Rishi Agastya

Agastya

Agastya was a Tamil/Vedic Siddhar or sage. Agastya and his clan are also generally credited with uncovering many mantras of the Rig Veda, the earliest and most revered Hindu scripture, in the sense of first having the mantras revealed in his mind by the Supreme Brahman...

 to death after they ridiculed the sage's short stature. Thataka's attempts to avenge the deaths of her father and husband, with Subahu's aid, resulted in the sage transforming both mother and son into ugly, demonic creatures. Mother and son would eventually be slain by Rama

Rama

Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...

, the 16-year-old Prince of Kosala, when they attempted to destroy one of Vishvamitra's many Yagnas with rains of human flesh and blood.