Four The Mutilation of Surpanakha
I wish to thank V. Narayana Rao for introducing me to the richness of the Ramayana tradition, and Paula Richman for her generous attention and helpful comments on several drafts of this essay.
For the sake of consistency and readability I have, unless otherwise indicated, used the standard Sanskrit forms and transliteration system for all names, terms, and places in the Ramayana .
1. As Wendy O'Flaherty has pointed out, a myth can be interpreted on several levels: the narrative, the divine, the cosmic, and the human—the last concerned with problems of human society and with the search for meaning in human life. See her Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1973), 2. See also O'Flaherty, "Inside and Outside the Mouth of God" ( Daedalus 109, no. 2 [Spring 1980]: 103) for a discussion of myths as "social charters." In classifying the Rama story as a myth, I am defining a myth as a sacred story about supernatural beings and events that holds great significance for the members of a culture. [BACK]
2. J. Moussaieff Masson, "Fratricide among the Monkeys: Psychoanalytic Observations on an Episode in the Valmikiramayanam," Journal oft he American Oriental Society 95, no. 4 (October-December 1975), 672. [BACK]
3. David Shulman has discussed both these episodes from Kampan's Ramayana , the first in "Divine Order and Divine Evil in the Tamil Tale of Rama," Journal of Asian Studies 38, no. 4 (August 1979), 651-69; the second in his article for this volume. [BACK]
4. The name Surpanakha means literally "one who has nails ( nakha ) like a winnowing basket ( surpa )." In modern Indian languages such as Hindi, it is sometimes used as an epithet to describe an ugly, pug-nosed woman. [BACK]
5. In fact, the specter of Surpanakha so haunted my imagination that, as a respite from studying for doctoral prelims, I wrote my own version of the episode (now happily consigned to oblivion) in which Sita, recognizing her "submerged self" in Surpanakha, leaves Rama and flees with her to the Himalayas to join Kali, the Great Goddess. Such is the power of the Rama story, that it is able to transcend cultures and emerge in countless transformations. [BACK]
6. Claude Levi-Strauss, The Savage Mind (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966). [BACK]
7. I am following the Critical Edition of the Ramayana , ed. by G. H. Bhatt and U. P. Shah, vol. 3: Aranyakanda , ed. by P. C. Dinanji (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1963), sargas 16-17. I have also consulted two other Sanskrit editions: Srimadvalmikiramayana , with Amrtakataka of Madhavayogi, ed. by N. S. Venkatanathacarya (Mysore: University of Mysore, 1965) and Srimadvalmikiya Ramayana , with Hindi translation (Gorakhpur: Gita Press, [1960]). In these two, the episode occupies sargas 17-18. In English translation, I have consulted volume 2 of Hari Prasad Shastri, trans., The Ramayana of Valmiki , 3 vols. (London: Shanti Sadan, 1957); and Sheldon I. Pollock, trans., The Ramayana of Valmiki , vol. 3: Aranyakanda (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991). Translations are my own unless otherwise noted. [BACK]
8. Sheldon Pollock quotes the Southern recension as adding a line, which the Critical Edition omits: "For with your charming body you do not look like a raksasa woman to me." As he points out, the commentators find this remark difficult to explain, although it may be correct to view it as sarcastic (note on 16.16). [BACK]
9. In the Southern recension, upon which the Critical Edition relies heavily, the beauty of Rama and the ugliness of Surpanakha are given special emphasis, while t he Bengali recension (23.18-25) clearly states that Surpanakha takes on a beautiful form. The following versions specifically mention Surpanakha's ugliness: Bhagavata Purana (9.10.9); Garuda Purana (143); Padma Purana ( Patala Khanda 36 and Uttara Khanda 269), Devi Bhdgavata Purana (3.28). See also Camille Bulcke, Ramkatha: Utpatti aur Vikas (Prayag: Hindi Parisad Prakasan, 1950; in Hindi), 414. [BACK]
10. Pollock translates tan aham samatikranta as "But I am prepared to defy them" (note to 16.21). Surpanakha seems here to be boasting about her own power. In the Gita Press edition the following line reads aham prabhavasampanna svacchandabalagamini , "I am powerful and able to go where I please." [BACK]
11. See the note to 17.1 in Pollock. [BACK]
12. See, for example, Bulcke, Ramkatha , 14, and "The Ramayana: Its History and Character," Poona Orientalist 25, nos. 1-4 (January/October 1960), 41. [BACK]
13. P.S. Subramanya Sastri, A Critical Study of Valmiki Ramayana (Thiruvaiyaru: [P.S. Krishnan], 1968), 26-28. The verse in question (17.4) reads:
apurvi bharyay carthi tarunah priyadarsanah |
anurupas ca te bharta rupasyasya bhavis yati ||
Pollock translates this as: "He has never had a woman before and is in need of a wife. He is young and handsome and will make a good husband, one suited to such beauty as yours." [BACK]
14. Gita Press edition, 538; my translation from the Hindi. The verse in question is 17.11 in the Critical Edition:
etam virupam asatim karalam nirnatodarim |
bharyam vrddham parityajya tvam evaisa bhajisyati || [BACK]
15. K. Ramaswami Sastri, Studies in Ramayana (Baroda: State Department of Education, 1941), 100. [BACK]
16. Bulcke, "The Ramayana," 58; Swami Siddhanathananda, "Sri Rama— Dharma Personified," Prabuddha Bharata 77, no. 8 (September 1972), 395. [BACK]
17. C. Rajagopalachari, Ramayana (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1958), 133. In the epilogue, however, he seems to change his mind and decry the banishment of Sita, saying that Rama, unlike Krsna, was unaware of his incarnation and that his divinity must have ended when he returned to Ayodhya. He also suggests that the banishment scene may be the result of a corruption in the text and his "heart rebels against it" (295-96). [BACK]
18. Kampan is traditionally dated to the ninth century, although most scholars consider the twelfth century more probable. I have relied on the English translation of George L. Hart and Hank Heifetz, The Forest Book of the Ramayana of Kampan (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988), patalam 5, from which all quotations are taken. I have also consulted "Kamban's Soorpanakha" from C. Rajagopalachari's retelling, 134-36, and S. Shankar Raju Naidu, A Comparative Study of Kamban Ramayanam and Tulasi Ramayan (Madras: University of Madras, 1971), 186-89 and 507-8. [BACK]
19. Hart and Heifetz, The Forest Book of the Ramayana of Kampan 89. [BACK]
20. For a discussion of traditional notions of karpu , see George L. Hart, The Poems of Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and Their Sanskrit Counterparts (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975), 96-98. For discussions of contemporary contexts, see Susan S. Wadley, ed., The Powers of Tamil Women , Foreign and Comparative Studies, South Asia series no. 6 (Syracuse: Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, 1980). [BACK]
21. Hart and Heifetz, The Forest Book of the Ramayana of Kampan , 90.
22. Ibid., 101.
23. Ibid., 102.
24. Ibid., 109. [BACK]
21. Hart and Heifetz, The Forest Book of the Ramayana of Kampan , 90.
22. Ibid., 101.
23. Ibid., 102.
24. Ibid., 109. [BACK]
21. Hart and Heifetz, The Forest Book of the Ramayana of Kampan , 90.
22. Ibid., 101.
23. Ibid., 102.
24. Ibid., 109. [BACK]
21. Hart and Heifetz, The Forest Book of the Ramayana of Kampan , 90.
22. Ibid., 101.
23. Ibid., 102.
24. Ibid., 109. [BACK]
25. Voluntary sacrifice of a breast can also have powerful effects. In the Tamil classic Cilappatikaram , the main character, Kannaki, tears off her own breast and throws it into the city of Madurai, bringing about the city's destruction. In another tale from Madurai, Minaksi, the patron goddess of the city, loses her third breast when she first sets eyes on her future husband, Siva. See the various articles in Wadley, ed., Powers of Tamil Women , for further discussion of the significance of breasts in Tamil culture. [BACK]
26. See Frank Whaling, The Rise of the Religious Significance of Rama (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980), 105; Rai Bahadur Lala Baij Nath, trans., The Adhyatma Ramayana (Allahabad: The Panini Office, 1913; reprinted as extra volume I in the Sacred Books of the Hindus , New York: AMS Press, 1974). [BACK]
27. I have used the Gita Press edition, Sri Ramcaritmanas , which contains the Hindi text and an English translation (Gorakhpur: Gita Press, 1968). The Surpanakha episode is on pp. 535-38. [BACK]
28. Sri Ramcaritmanas , 535. [BACK]
29. A discussion of Tulsidas's treatment of women is given by Geeta Patel, "Women, Untouchables, and Other Beasts in Tulsi Das' Ramayana " (paper presented at the 17th annual conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin, November 1988). [BACK]
33. Quoted in Arvind Kumar, A Study in the Ethics of the Banishment of Sita (New Delhi: Sarita Magazine, n.d. [1975?]), 28. [BACK]
34. Pandit Radhesyam Kathavacak, Sriram-katha ( Radhesyam Ramayan ) (Bareli: Sri Radhesyam Pustakalay, 1960), 18-24: Aranyakanda , sankhya 10 ( Pancavati ). The book has been reprinted many times, often in pirated editions, but was probably written shortly before or after Indian independence in 1947. [BACK]
35. Madan Mohanlal Sarma, Uttar Ramcarit , ed. by Pandit Radhesyam Kathavacak (Bareli: Sri Radhesyam Pustakalay, 1960), 25-26. [BACK]
36. See note 33. [BACK]
37. Kumar, A Study in the Ethics of the Banishment of Sita , 59.
38. Ibid., 61. [BACK]
37. Kumar, A Study in the Ethics of the Banishment of Sita , 59.
38. Ibid., 61. [BACK]
39. Bulcke, Ramkatha , 415, gives an extensive list of which body parts are cut off in which versions. [BACK]
40. Sasanka Sekher Parui, "Punishment of Women in Ancient India," Journal of the Oriental Institute of Baroda 26, no. 4 (June 1977), 362-68. [BACK]
41. Parui ("Punishment of Women," 366-67) gives examples from various texts,
especially the Kathasaritsgara . For other sources of the "cut-off nose" motif, see Stith Thompson and Jonas Balys, The Oral Tales of India (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1958), 327, 386, and 401. [BACK]
42. For example, a Bhutanese dance troupe which recently toured the United States performed a comic interlude in which husbands cut off their wives' noses at; a punishment for infidelity. [BACK]
43. In the Rim Lila of Banaras, this episode, called the Nakkatayya, is one of the most elaborate, lasting all night and featuring a procession headed by a hijra (hermaphrodite) playing the role of Surpanakha. See Nits Kumar, "Popular Culture in Urban India: The Artisans of Banaras, c. 1884-1984" (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1984), 261-94. [BACK]
44. The phrase is Wendy O'Flaherty's, in Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva . [BACK]
45. Abhinavagupta, Dhvanyaloka, karika 5. The story itself is found in Valmiki Ramayana , 1.2.8-18. See J. Masson, "Who Killed Cock Kraunca Abhinavagupta's Reflections on the Origin of Aesthetic Experience," Journal of the Oriental Institute of Baroda 18, no. 3 (March 1969): 207-24. [BACK]
46. O'Flaherty, Asceticism and Eroticism , 302-10. [BACK]
47. Two of Dasaratha's wives, Kausalya and Kaikeyi, are similarly dichotomized: Kausalya is virtuous, whereas Kaikeyi is sexually attractive. See Robert P. Goldman, trans., The Ramayana of Valmiki , vol. 1: Balakanda (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 54. [BACK]
48. An exception is the unique account of Surpanakha in the Brahmavaivarta Purana (Krsnajanmakhanda 62), in which after her disfigurement she goes to the sacred lake Puskara to perform austerities: see Bulcke, Ramkatha , 417. Receiving a boon from Brahma to get Rama as her husband in her next life, she is reborn as Kubja, the hunchbacked woman who becomes one of the wives of Krsna, as whom Rama is reborn. [BACK]
49. For an excellent discussion in this vein, see Cornelia Dimmitt, "Sita: Fertility Goddess and Sakti ," in The Divine Consort: Radha and the Goddesses of India , ed. John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff (Berkeley: Berkeley Religious Studies Series, 1982), 210-23. [BACK]
50. Even female ascetics are suspect, as are unmarried women generally, since they are not under the control of a husband. [BACK]
51. David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986), 34. [BACK]