Mandodari

Mandodari and Ravana. From a manuscript of the Ramayana , 1595–1605

Mandodari ( Sanskrit मंदोदरी Mandodarī , "soft-bellied") is in the Indian epic Ramayana the wife of Ravana , the king of Lanka . Mandodari embodies the traditional Indian role model of women to this day.

Mandodari in Ramayana

The Ramayana describes Mandodari as beautiful, pious and just. She is referred to as one of the Panchakanya ("five virgins") whose names invoke the forgiveness of sins. Along with Sita, Mandodari is one of the most important female figures who appear in Ramayana . Mandodari's image is drawn differently in different versions of the Ramayana .

In some versions of the Ramayana , their abuse by the monkey generals of Rama is reported. Some say that the generals disturbed a victim of Ravana, others that they robbed Mandodari of her innocence , who was the last protection of Ravana's life, in others Hanuman tricked Mandodari into naming the place where the magic arrow is, with which Rama can kill Ravana. After the death of Ravana, she married Vibhishana, the younger brother of Ravana, who is responsible for the death of Ravana, on the advice of Rama and allies with him.

When Sita was kidnapped by Ravana. Mandodari advised him to follow the path of righteousness. So Mandodari repeatedly advised Ravana to return Sita to Rama, but her advice fell on deaf ears. In the Ramayana, their love and loyalty to Ravana are extolled.

origin

Mandodari was the daughter of Mayasura, the king of the Asuras and the Apsara . Mandodari had two sons: Meghanada (Indrajit) and Akshayakumara.

birth

The Uttara Ramayana tells about the birth of Mandodari that Mayasura (Maya), the son of the wise Kashyapa, was married to the Apsara Hema. They had two sons, Mayavi and Dundubhi wanted a daughter, so she began penance to Shiva to vote gracious

At that time an apsara named Madhura came to Kailash , the seat of Shiva, to pay homage to him. While Parvati was absent, Madhura was associated with Shiva. Upon her return, Parvati discovered traces of ash from Shiva's body on Madhura's breasts.

Angry, Parvati curses Madhura and lets her live as a frog in a spring for twelve years. Shiva comforts Madhura and tells her that she will be a beautiful wife and have a great husband. After twelve years, Madhura became a beautiful girl again and shouted loudly from the spring. Mayasura and Hema, who were practicing penance nearby, heard Madhura and adopted her as a daughter, calling her Mandodari.

Mandodari and Ravana

Hanuman finds Sita. Relief on Prambanan .

When Ravana came to Mayasura, he fell in love with Mandodari and soon married her according to Vedic rites . Mandodari gave birth to Ravana three sons: Meghanada, Atikaya, and Akshayakumara.

In Valmiki's Ramayana , Mandodari is described as a beautiful woman. When Hanuman, the ambassador of Rama, came to Lanka in search of Sita and entered Ravana's bedroom, he was amazed at her beauty and took her for Sita. After Hanuman found Sita himself, Ravana threatened to kill her if she did not marry him. When Sita refused and Ravana wanted to behead her with the sword, Mandodari fell into his arms and saved Sita's life.

Mandodari and Sita's kidnapping

Mandodari told Ravana that it was a hideous sin to avoid killing women. He should have fun with other women and refrain from the idea of ​​marrying Sita. Ravana spares Sita's life, but without giving up his desire to marry her. Although Mandodari sees herself as superior to Sita in terms of beauty and origin, she appreciates her belonging to Rama and equates her to goddesses like Sachi and Rohini.

When all attempts to bring Sita back peacefully fail, Rama Lanka declares war. Before the final battle against Rama, Mandodari tries one last time to get her husband to give in, without success. In battle, Mandodari stands by her husband as a loyal and obedient wife. She instructs her son Meghanada, aka Indrajit ("He who defeated Indra, the golden king of heaven") not to fight against Rama.

Mandodari and Hanuman

Hanuman steals the magic arrow. Calcutta, around 1890

The Valmiki Ramayana relates: When all his sons and warriors fell, Ravana had a sacrificial fire ( yajna ) kindled in order to achieve victory. Rama dispatched a band of monkey warriors led by Hanuman and the Monkey Prince Angada to destroy the fire. Although the monkey warriors ravaged Ravana's palace, the latter continued the sacrificial ritual. When Angada tugs Mandodari by her hair in front of Ravana, the Ravana asks to save her. Angry, he abandons the ritual and hits Angada with his sword. Having achieved the intention of Angada to disturb the yajna , he lets go of Mandodari and flees. Mandodari asks Ravana again to return Sita to Rama, but Rama refuses.

Other versions of the Ramayana describe the event more cruelly. The Krittivasi Ramayana says that the monkey warriors stole their clothes from Mandodari. In Bicitra-Ramayana Hanuman humiliates itself Mandodari and Ramakian , the Thai version of the Ramayana, says that Hanuman wrong with Mandodari in the form of Ravana and so it its virtue robbed that protects Ravana's life.

In the last duel between Ravana and Rama, the latter cannot kill him with ordinary arrows. He only succeeds in doing this with a magic arrow. While the Valmiki Ramayana reports that Rama received the magic arrow from Indra, other versions say that the magic arrow was hidden under the bed of Mandodari in their bedchamber. While Mandodari prays to the goddess Parvati for Ravana , Hanuman comes to her in the disguise of a brahmin , wins her trust, coaxes the hiding place of the arrow from her and steals it. He gives the arrow to Rama, who uses it to kill Ravana. So Mandodari loses her husband, her sons and her relatives.

Mandodari and Vibhishana

Vibhishana as King of Lanka. Folio from the Ramayana by Valmiki, 1597–1605.

Sita's trial by fire. Mughal period , around 1600

After Ravana's death, Rama advised Vibhishana to take Mandodari as his wife, even though he already had a wife. It is assumed that the matrilineal succession was valid in Ravana's people and that this was necessary in order to get the right to rule in the kingdom of Lanka after the death of Ravana

Another theory is that it might have been a custom for non-Aryan peoples to marry the ruling queen. The marriage of Mandodari and Vibhishana was only an element of rulership. Other possible reasons for marrying her younger brother-in-law were that this would bring stability and success to Lanka in the alliance with Ramas Ayodhya and that she could have a say in the rule. Rama also averted Mandodari's widow suicide .

Sita and Mandodari

Some versions of the Ramayana say that Sita is a daughter of Ravana from a relationship with Mandodari. In contrast to the original Ramayana by Valmiki, later versions of the Ramayana describe Sita as the daughter of Mandodari. This question is discussed several times.

The Adbhuta-Ramayana , also ascribed to Valmiki, tells that Ravana collected the blood of the wise men he killed in a large pot. The sage Gritsamada, a rishi and poet of Vedic hymns, made penance exercises to win Lakshmi as a daughter. To do this, he collected milk from darbhagras and purified it with mantras so that Lakshmi might live in it. Ravana poured this milk into his blood pot. Mandodari, seeing the atrocities of Ravana, decided to kill himself by drinking the contents of the blood pot, the contents of which are described as more toxic than poison. Instead of dying, Mandodari becomes pregnant with the incarnation of Lakshmi because of gritsamada's milk . Mandodari buries the fetus in Kurukshetra , where Janaka found him and named her Sita.

The Vasudevahindi , the Uttara-purana and other Jain versions of the Ramayana say that Sita was the daughter of Ravana and Mandodari and was abandoned when it was prophesied that she would be the cause of the end of Ravana and his family.

The Seri Rama in Malaysia and the Rama Keling in Indonesia , both versions of the Ramayana in Malay, say that Ravana Mandodari, the mother of Rama, wanted to own Rama, but instead married a sham Mandodari that resembled the real Mandodari. A union of Rama's father and Mandodari resulted in Sita, who was considered to be Ravana's daughter.

According to the Ananda-Ramayana , which is also attributed to Valmiki, King Padmaksha had a daughter named Padma who was an incarnation of the goddess Lakshmi. During the preparations for their marriage, the Rakshasas kill the king. His daughter Padma jumps into a fire in grief. Ravana finds her body, transformed into five jewels, and takes it with her to Lanka in a box. There Mandodari opens the box and finds Padma in it. Mandodari advises Ravana to throw away the box that was the unfortunate Padma who caused her father's downfall. When the lid of the box is closed, Padma curses Ravana and announces that he will return to Lanka and bring about his downfall. Ravana buries the casket in the city of Janakas, who finds it and lets her grow up as Sita.

Adoration

Representation of the mourning of Mandodari, from a temple dedicated to Brahma in Prambanan . Relief from the 9th century, Tropical Museum .

In the daily prayer of devout Hindus, the Panchakanya are invoked, to which Mandodari belong to Ahalya and Tara, which are also mentioned in the Ramayana, and from the Mahabharata Draupadi and Kunti .

The worship of Mandodari is also evident in temple depictions such as the Prambanan temple complex in Indonesia.

The Shri Mandodari Temple in the village of Betaki, about 5 kilometers from Marcel in Goa , is not dedicated to the Mandodari des Ramayanas, but to a local deity .

Mythologist and Geography

The assignment of the mythological figure Mandodaris to geography can be found in Mayarashtra, today Meerut , which was the capital of the kingdom Mayasura of Mandodari's father and Ravana's father-in-law, with Jodhpur being given as the place of birth , which was the capital of the Rathore family.

See also

• Tholpavakuthu
• List of characters in Indian mythology

literature

• Scharf, Peter M., Malcolm D. Hyman .: Linguistic issues in encoding . Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi 2012, ISBN 978-81-208-3539-9 .
• Philip Lutgendorf: Hanuman's tale: the messages of a divine monkey . Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-530922-5 .

Web links

Commons : Mandodari  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ According to Valmiki's Ramayana 4.58.20 it is 100 Yojanas (about 1300 km) away, so it would not be Sri Lanka, which is said in the Mahavamsa from the 5th century, a text from Sri Lanka .
2. ↑ In Hindu Shastras, Shiva is bare and covered with ashes.
3. ↑ Mandore , a city 9 km north of Jodhpur, is assumed to be the birthplace of Mandodari .
4. ↑ Ravana is considered the son-in-law of a Brahmin in Mandore. He has a temple there dedicated to him
5. ↑ Besides the relationship of Ramas, who had only one wife, Sita, polygamous relationships are described in the Ramayana ( Ramayana Polygamy and Monogamy )
6. ↑ Ananda (skt. For absence of unhappiness, pronounced: happiness)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter M. Scharf: Rāmopākhyāna: The Story of Rama in the Mahabharata: an independent study Reader in Sanskrit . Routledge Shorton, 2003, ISBN 0-7007-1390-5 , pp. 429 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Sita and Mandodari: A character study . hinduismnow. October 6, 2016 .: "in every Hindu household as an example of the ideal Hindu wife"
3. ↑ Mandakranta Bose, Sarika Priyadarshini Bose: A Woman's Ramayana: Candrāvatī's Bengali Epic . Routledge, 2013, ISBN 1-135-07126-8 , pp. 90 (English).
4. ↑ James G. Lochtefeld: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: AM . Ed .: The Rosen Publishing Group. 2002, ISBN 978-0-8239-3179-8 , pp. 69 (English, google.com ).
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Vettam Mani: Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary With Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature . Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1975, ISBN 0-8426-0822-2 , pp. 476 (English).
6. ↑ Why Lord Shiva puts ash on his body? .: "Ash is the primary wear of Lord Shiva as his body is entirely covered with it. Ash is also a part of the clothing of saints. Aghori's, sadhus and sanyasi's put ashes on their bodies. "
7. ↑ Shailvee Sharda: Saluting the virtues of Ravan. Times Of India, Lucknow, October 14, 2015, accessed October 14, 2015 . 
8. ↑ James Talboys Wheeler: The History of India from the Earliest Ages: The Rámáyana and the Brahmanic period . tape II . N. Trübner, London 1869, p. 338 (English, google.com ).
9. ↑ Prabhati Mukherjee: Hindu Women: Normative Models . Orient Blackswan, Calcutta 1999, ISBN 81-250-1699-6 (English).
10. ↑ James Talboys Wheeler: The History of India from the Earliest Ages: The Rámáyana and the Brahmanic period . tape II . N. Trübner, London 1869, p. 365 (English, google.com ).
11. ↑ James Talboys Wheeler: The History of India from the Earliest Ages: The Rámáyana and the Brahmanic period . tape II . N. Trübner, London 1869, p. 370 (English, google.com ).
12. ↑ James Talboys Wheeler: The History of India from the Earliest Ages: The Rámáyana and the Brahmanic period . tape II . N. Trübner, London 1869, p. 373-374 (English).
13. ^ S. S Shashi: Encyclopaedia Indica: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh . In: Anmol Publications PVT (Ed.): Encyclopaedia Indica . tape 21-35 , 1998, pp. 222 (English).
14. ↑ Pradip Bhattacharya: Panchkanya: Women of Substance. (No longer available online.) Boloji Media Inc, 2010, archived from the original on January 14, 2010 ; accessed on June 15, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
15. ↑ Who is sita's mother (Janka's wife) in Ramayan? Retrieved October 21, 2018 . 
16. ↑ L. Renganathan: Darbha 'grass, a natural preservative .: "Darbha (Desmotachya bipinnata) is a tropical grass considered a sacred material in Vedic scriptures and is said to purify the offerings during such rituals."
17. ↑ Mani, Vettam: Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary With Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature . Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1975, ISBN 0-8426-0822-2 , p. 721.
18. ^ SS Shashi: Encyclopaedia Indica: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh  (= Encyclopaedia Indica), Vol. 21-35. Anmol Publications PVT., 1998, pp. 14-15, Sarga VIII of Adbhuta Ramayana.
19. ↑ SS Shashi: Encyclopaedia Indica: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh . In: Anmol Publications PVT (Ed.): Encyclopaedia Indica . tape 21-35 , 1998, pp. 237 .
20. ↑ SS Shashi: Encyclopaedia Indica: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh . In: Anmol Publications PVT (Ed.): Encyclopaedia Indica . tape 21-35 , 1998, pp. 243 .
21. ↑ Mani, Vettam: Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary With Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature . Ed .: Motilal Banarsidass. Delhi 1975, ISBN 0-8426-0822-2 , pp. 721 (English).
22. ↑ Meerut. Accessed August 7, 2018 (English).  
23. ^ Mandore Gardens. Accessed August 7, 2018 (English).