The Lost Queen by Abhik Bhattacharya

OutlookIndia

Listen to excerpts from Outlook's All is Well issue by Pragya Vats  #Ramayana #Sita #Mahabharata #Women #Feminism #Sita #Ram #IndianEpics #Masculinity #WomenOfRamayana

Transcript

00:00 I am Pragya and I bring to you excerpts from the current issue of Outlook that looks at two cover

00:05 stories, two narratives of war, one mythical, one real. Ramayana and that between Israel and Hamas.

00:14 In the issue titled Epic Sisterhood, Outlook sketches out the women of Ramayana

00:20 in an epic full of dominant male characters.

00:23 The Lost Queen by Abhi Bhattacharya from Outlook. Ahilya, Draupadi, Kunti Tara, Mandodari Tatha,

00:32 Panchakanya Smaren, Nithyam Mahapathaka Nasam. Even though this Panchakanya shloka composed of

00:40 five women characters from popular Hindu mythologies, presumably evoked to dispel sin,

00:47 gives space to Mandodari. Little is written about the Queen of Lanka. While different Ramayans

00:53 across space and time refer to Mandodari as the wife of King Ravan, her agency as a queen

01:01 has always been denied. Who is Mandodari? Is she just a beautiful wife with a slanted waist

01:08 as the meaning of her name suggests? Or is she the moral fulcrum of a nation that was facing

01:15 an onslaught due to its rulers' masculine ego and ideological bank corrupcy?

01:22 Since the days of Valmiki Ramayan, the birth of Mandodari has been a contested instance.

01:27 According to Valmiki Ramayan, which has been echoed by several others in the following era,

01:34 her birth was connected to Madhura, an Apsara who fell in love with Lord Shiva and wanted to marry

01:41 him. Infuriated by this immoral transgression, Shiva's wife Parvati turned her into a frog.

01:49 Shiva, known as the most merciful, nullified the curse and told her that she would be reincarnated

01:57 as a beautiful woman and would get married to a valorous king. Consequently, the Asura king

02:05 Mayasura and his wife Hema found her in a well and Mandodari was born. However, some accounts

02:14 refer to her as a nymph who came down from heaven with the sole purpose of destroying Ravan.

02:19 Notably, a few mythologists even note that Ravan received Lanka as a dowry from Mandodari's father

02:28 Mayasura. So, the role of Mandodari in the Ramayan lies far beyond an objectified beautiful woman.

02:36 A deep dive into different representations unveil different shades of her characters,

02:41 sometimes virtuous and at other times, complicit in crime to safeguard the nation.

02:49 Varsha Adalja's Gujarati play, titled Mandodari, reworks the pativrata, the dutiful wife myth,

02:56 and brings out the queen who was well aware of the politics of the time. Here,

03:02 Mandodari is found in a different role.

03:05 For this and more, read the current issue of Outlook.

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