Panchakanya series : Ahalya redeemed, Updated Pg 3

I would like to take Mandodari first from the Panchakanyas(Psychological Virgins) since she has made her presence felt .. in the serial ofcourse.

Mandodari, the wife of Lankesh Ravan is the fifth among Kanyas that the ancient indian scriptures mention , the other four being: Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti and Tara (wife of Vali)

Though i havent watched how SKR has sketched Mandodari's character , somewhat I can guess gathering from posts of fellow member here and reading synopsis on hotstar I can say Mandodari's character sketch is largely based on folklores from south east asia and other variants of Ramayana

In classical version she doesn't make any attempt to make him immortal , whatever Ravana had achieved was his own hardwork and through blessings of Brahma, Shiva and his maternal grandfathers who were also his Guru, Sumali and Malyavan respectively. Also she isn't a wife who is blindly in love with her husband and the one who would go any length to appease him; She is a dutiful wife and criticises him when he goes wrong or doesn't heed to his elders and always advises to adhere to the duties of a king and protect the interests of family and of his citizens.

The birth stories of Mandodari are quite interesting , given her connection with frog!

The previous life: Madhura~Manduka~Mandara~Mandodari!

Mandodari was apsara Madhura in her previous life and was ardent devotee of Shiva ; she was also a part of the group who took care of Skanda- Kartikeya ..

Looking at the radiance of Skanda , she desired to have a son like him from Shiva himself , when she asks this wish Shiva has to relent since she is his devotee and had taken good care of Skanda , her wish is granted . This fact doesn't go well with Parvati and in her fury she curses Madhura to become a 'manduka' -frog and reside in a deep well , but by then the seed of Shiva had begun to take shape in Madhura's womb , so Shiva grants her immunity and lessens the effect of the curse saying it would limit only for 12 years and at the end of it , she would turn into a beautiful baby girl and his seed would freeze and she would give birth at the right time . That is why she is Mandodari-The slim waisted one who could digest secrets!!

The well where Madhura lands is frequented by Rishi Mandara and Shandilya , who bathe in the well and then pray and make offering to nearby Shivalinga, this was their routine. One day a snake poisons the offering of the rishis and this is watched by Madhura in form of the frog . When the rishis bathe and complete their prayer , dedicating their offering of milk to shiva , are about to drink it as the prasadam, suddenly the frog jumps in the container and gulps the whole milk in one go! The rishis are shocked and angered by this act and curse the frog to be born as a gluttonous creature in next life but since she is already blessed by Shiva and since her action was to save the rishis, both Yama and Vayu intervene and bless her to be able to control over gluttony and raise her soul to higher guna and immediately the frog dies and is reborn as a beautiful baby girl, whose cries are heard by Maya and his wife , who were coincidentally praying to Shiva for a daughter ; they see this baby and think this as a blessing of Shiva and rear the baby with great love and care.

Marriage:

Mandodari grows up to be a very virtuous and a beautiful woman and when Ravan , in his world conquering conquest is at the doorstep of Maya, the latter gets scared so instead of fighting chooses to strike a treaty by offering his daughter Mandodari's hand in marriage and Ravan is impressed by her beauty and virtues and accepts her as his wife and as time passes, the seed of Shiva in Mandodari's womb takes birth and the sound of baby's cries are like sound clouds striking each other thus the name - Meghnad!

The second story is Ravan asks Shiva that he be married to the most beautiful woman in the universe and Shiva says the the most beautiful woman was already his wife Uma- Parvati and so Shiva asks Parvati to create a shadow of hers , this woman is Mandodari , who equals Parvati in beauty and the giel given to Maya in adoption

In a slight variation of this story , when Shiva says Parvati was most beautiful woman, Ravan immediately quips that since he had asked the most beautiful one to be his wife, he should get Parvati as his wife! Parvati then panics and take a form of frog to hide from Ravan and is engaged in tapasya for 12 years and when she discards the frog form , a beautiful woman is born out of the frog's remaining part of soul and that is Mandodari.

As a Kanya, Mandodari is the presiding deity of Air ; remembering her will enable us to raise our soul from tamo guna to rajas and further up because she was blessed by both Yama and Vayu for the sacrifice she makes in the 1st story mentioned..

Source: Brahmavaivarta puran -Srishti khanda

Ramkatha and other essays by Camille buckle

Next part Why she's a Kanya?

Skr wrongly showed mandodari being responsible and in a way making her egoistic.

TBH, I cud not relate to the mandodari of SKR. I mean how can any lady in the name of satitatva can go beyond permissible limits for a human life and bring amrit just to ensure her husband does not die, no matter how cruel and evil that person is. Even if he does not know that he has got amrit, it does not lessen the deed of mandodari to make her husband immortal and the fact that he is gonna do heavy destruction to the human kind.

M glad to know from this post that Mandidari was a dutiful wife and at the same timre, she used to criticize her husband for all his wrong deeds. SKR mandodari sketch is like, 'no matter wat, d duty of a married woman is just to protect her husband'. Such chracter sketch for a wise and mature woman, a panchkanya like mandodari, was something I cud not relate to.

I am very much looking forward to your next update.

@ attubaby : There are women mentioned in purans, who, no matter what her husband does , still defend them and never are critical of the actions of their good for nothing husbands ; Mandodari certainly wasn't one of them , she was never shy of critising Ravan

Shilavati, the daughter in law of Atri, Anasuya and wife of Ugratapas is one such woman , she fulfils all whims and fancies of her husband and doesn't complain ! ; the outcome of events of this story shape up the life of another panchakanya -Ahalya ...More on this later

What makes Mandodari a Kanya ?

She gets this quality by birth , by the power of austerities ; reciting her name saves us from sin of gluttony and greed .

The stories like Mayasura, the father of Mandodari opposing the alliance with Ravana and threatening to cut off all relationships as shown by the serial are imaginary. Infact Mayasura gives his daughter in marriage to Ravana because , he is scared of Ravana's prowess so he makes a proposal of marriage , and Ravana accepts it. Maya is also Ravana's prime advisor in matters of politics. Similarly, Mandodari pouring elixir into Ravan's navel thus making him immortal are quite far stretched and actually demean the importance of hardwork , through which one achieves greatness.

Lanka under Ravana the intellect thrived and reached its zenith but the same Ravana who went corrupt, pervert took Lanka to its doom .

In all probability, the story of Mayasur opposing Ravan is actually the story of Sulochana, wife of Meghnad, and her father Sheshnaga . Sheshnaga the worshipper of Vishnu opposed Sulochana's marriage with Meghnad but Sulochana went against her father's wishes to marry Meghnad , she also empowers him with Nagpash and it makes a difference in the battle between Indra and Meghnad, whereby Meghnad defeats Indra and gets a title Indrajit

As a result of Sulochana's revolt , Sheshnaga curses her attaining widowhood.

Mandodari indeed loved her husband very much and stood by him even after he had committed heinous crimes but she also criticised him for his follies . Being the chief queen she had to protect her own interests and the interests of her grown up sons. Thanks to Sita's adamance that washed away Mandodari's insecurites .

Mandodari's lament on the dead body of Ravan is an eye opener on what her real self is. ( Yuddha kand chapt 111of VR)

She says , " Ravana was a coward to steal Sita away when her husband wasn't around and a fool to covet Sita , when Sita was no match to her in beauty and in birth!

Ravan had committed this mistake knowingly and what was it that he and his kingdom was short of that he resorted to do such a thing ? He was loved by his family, his citizens, didnt he think once about them , is her lament ..adding to this she says Ravan's greatest mistake was to humiliate and throwing his own brother Vibhishan out of Lanka and the result of sowing that seed was paid by him by losing his life.

How come he didn't recognize the prowess of Rama who was Vishnu himself and how did he think that by hurting Sita who was Lakshmi , he would survive?

You did not pay heed to the timely advises of your elders, your brothers , my father and mine, for this reason you lay here mangled with arrows , you have breathed your last leaving me alone "

The remarkable part of this lament is that she doesn't blame Sita for the destruction of Lanka, she blames Ravana . "The tears of women who were humiliated by Ravana, the tears of widows had manifested and devoured him"

Even the Rakshasis who had been widowed, while lamenting on the dead body of their soldier husbands never blame Sita , for she, by her behaviour had won esteem from them .

The war takes away everything from Mandodari, Her husband and her sons all gone, there's no mention of any grandchildren ..she was literally empty but she had a life to live and still she being a queen had to take care of the kingdom so accepting Vibhishan as a husband was quite a practical decision by which , she would still be the reigning queen and have a say in matters of politics and be the prime advisor to the new king but not necessarily the conjugal partner of her new husband.

So she's a kanya in literal sense as well , ready to embrace a new life.

The definition of Kanya:

Being a Kanya is a state of mind , being dynamic like nature thus its the constant evolution of the mind . In modern terms it means " Coming out of comfort zone " and challenging one's own capabilities.

Mary Esther Harding in her book 'Women's mysteries has made a path breaking research on what goes on into the minds of women and what it means to be a psychological virgin /Kanya . Given below is an exerpt from her book:

Woman's Mysteries [ 1971,ed pg. 125- 126] The woman who is psychologically virgin is what she is . She is one-in-herself and does what she does not because of any desire to please, not to be liked or to be approved even by herself but because what she does is true. Her actions may, indeed, be unconventional "

Kanya definition as given by Surya to Kunti in Mbh :

Kanya comes from the the root Kama ,which means desire and Kanya is one who is wished /desired for

Section CCCV Vana parva

Surya to Kunti: " Therefore, O thou of excellent hips and the fairest complexion, a virgin is, by nature, free in this world. "

Virgin here should not be taken as a physical condition

The state of being Kanya will be understood in its correct essence only when one experiences it , else whatever written here seems so superficial ; it gets limited to words only.

That is why we have the panchkanya shloka , which facilitates us to a better understanding of the concept

' Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara, Mandodari tatha|

Panchakanyam smare nityam sarva pataka nashanam '

Remembering the above given five Kanyas will enable us to destroy sins.

What is meant by sins- pataka ?

Sin means increase of certain tatva/reality/action leading to change in Guna/innate nature

Guna also is the flow of energy which attributes to pancha mahabhuta / five elements of nature of which a human body is made of

There are three Gunas Tamo, Rajas and Satva. We must strike a balance between these three gunas but

When tamoguna rises within us , it makes us lethargic, indifferent and ignorant and this attributes as a Sin

How will the shloka help us destroy the sins a person accumulates?

The recitation of the shloka ensures , we don't commit sins consciously in future . For sins committed in past we have to purify our soul through tapasya

Tapa means heat , this tapa will purify our souls and thus we're rejuvinated..

So basically the panchakanya shloka helps us break the chain of tamoguna ; breaking bad habits and lethargy .

Brahmanda puran states that panchakanya shloka has to be recited in morning so as to raise our chitta/ consciousness, intelligence .

Actually the main intention of this shloka is give ode to womanhood through these five great women , whose life was a learning in itself . These five women represent five elements of nature and thus are a part of that primordial shakti -Uma Parvati

Ahalya is the deity for earth

Draupadi -fire

Kunti-Ether

Tara- Water

Mandodari - Air

These women have perfect balance of all three Gunas in them.

Brahmand puran apart from paying tribute to these five women also lists

Lakshmi, Saraswati, Parvati, Ganga , Arundhati, Damayanti, Devavati, Vedavati, Savitri as great women whose blessings are required to destroy sins.

It also mentions Sita as the one who was Satva Guna personified.

Before we're done with Mandodari

An interesting story in Ananda Ramayan is that , Mandodari is made of sandal paste which was smeared by Vishnu on his body ; a very beautiful woman emerges from the sandal paste.. she is so created to hood wink Ravana to make him believe , this woman was Parvati ..

Thus Mandodari was like a daughter to Vishnu .

Next in the series Ahalya

and the way she has been portrayed in SKR.

Kanya / Virgin is a misunderstood term.

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You have any more information on Sulochana and Indrajeet ?