Unparalleled Revenge in Indian Epics

Part II: Surpanakha with a dagger in new incarnation

Surpanakha, though a princess of Lanka and King Ravana’s sister, has been portrayed as an ugly demoness in Ramayana. Her childhood name was Meenakshi (girl with fish like eyes). This, therefore, casts some doubt whether she was really that ugly as portrayed in the epic. Maharshi Valmiki has very explicitly narrated her as an appalling and obnoxious woman:

            सुमुखम् दुर्मुखी रामम् वृत्त मध्यम् महोदरी || ३-१७-९

                     विशालाक्षम् विरूपाक्षी सुकेशम् ताम्र मूर्धजा |

     प्रियरूपम् विरूपा सा सुस्वरम् भैरव स्वना || ३-१७-१०

                       तरुणम् दारुणा वृद्धा दक्षिणम् वाम भाषिणी |
                       न्याय वृत्तम् सुदुर्वृत्ता प्रियम् अप्रिय दर्शना || ३-१७-११
                      शरीरज समाविष्टा राक्षसी रामम् अब्रवीत् |

The poet has clearly described her with as many as eleven adjectives in negative connotations. He describes her as facially unpleasant, pot- bellied, wry-eyed, coppery-haired, ugly featured, brassy-voiced, deplorably oldish, crooked talker, ill-mannered, uncouth and abominable woman.

When she approached Rama in a forthright manner and expressed her desire for marriage, both Rama and Laxmana played a prank with her. As if this was a lesser insult, Laxmana ‘de-nosed’ her. She was now a living example of disgraced, mutilated and abandoned woman on earth with no one to show her face to! Her modesty was completely shattered. Look at her situation from her point of view. What was her fault? Being forthright? Being a demoness, she may not have known a civilized manner to propose, was that her fault? Falling in love at first sight, was that her fault? Even not being beautiful was not in her hands.

Let us now consider the same situation from a man’s point of view. A man, when forthright is not considered a disqualification or ill mannerism. A man can instantly fall in love and express straight away and this may be appreciated as his open-mindedness! Even the ugliest man on earth may want a most beautiful woman on earth. He may, at worst, be ridiculed. The price will never be as harsh as sacrificing his nose! Laxman, a prince of a large estate, may have known this, yet he indulged in a deplorable act of chopping off the nose of a woman! Oh, really a harshest of punishments! Even in a colloquial idiomatic sense, “chopped nose” is used for a socially disgraced person, who is looked upon so lowly in the society that one is ashamed of showing one’s face. It’s a synonym for an insult and self-degradation in the human psyche.

Here is Surpanakha. A disfigured, lifeless yet living! What was the option left with her other than taking revenge? It is said that revenge is a wild justice, but to be in her position, perhaps revenge was the only justice. She explored all the options for taking revenge at her disposal. Although this is a unique way of portrayal of revenge system by the poet, we may find a somewhat parallel in epics elsewhere. The rejection of the proposal of Ishtar for marriage by Gilgamesh in the great Sumerian Epic resulted in a horrible revenge by a woman, though the contexts were different.

The revenge of Surpanakha in Ramayana and that of Shakuni in Mahabharata bears a great commonality in the sense that the ultimate receiver of its implications were women. Gandhari lost all her sons in the epic Mahabharata while Sita was first eloped by Ravana, kept in isolation in the harshest possible environment and again was banished by none other than Rama himself. The womanhood was the ultimate victim of these acts of revenge.

Surpanakha risked everything she had to take revenge, first from Ravana for killing her husband Dushtabuddhi and then from Rama for disfiguring her. She not only failed in her mission but couldn’t even take away the peace from Sita. Her wishes remained unfulfilled and for this, she waited for her new incarnation in Kaliyug.

Be aware! The beautiful version of Shurpanakha is roaming in search of Laxman, with a dagger in her hand, to fulfill her unaccomplished wishes of the previous lives!

Ray Saheb Pandey

Disclaimer: The views expressed are only academic and not at all intended to hurt anyone’s feeling.