Just as a reminder, we are switching to weekly episodes. Thanks to all of you who provided feedback!
In today’s episode, we’re back to the Ramayan. Kind of. I usually space out topics but I had a couple of listeners express interest in Shoorpankha and her family history after we covered the story of her encounter with Ram, Laxman, and Sita.
So we’ll learn a bit more about this Princess of Lanka who was a trigger for much of what happened later in the Ramayan.
A quick disclaimer – Shoorpanakha is a villain through and through. There is no ambiguity about any of her actions. Sure, Lakshman’s action of mutilating her seems a bit excessive to some, but Shoorpanakha is far from being a victim by any measure.
We’ll cover her family history a bit, and detail one incident in her life which made her resent her brother. But not enough to prevent causing the rest of the Ramayan.
Ravana, the villain of the Ramayan, and Shoorpanakha, his sister can trace their ancestry back to Brahma, the creator and a member of the Holy trinity along with Vishnu and Shiva.
Well in a way, since Brahma created the entire Universe you could argue that everyone traces their ancestry back to Brahma. Not so fast! You see Brahma created 17 children directly. Sure he created other people too, but these 17 children were more or less directly created from his mind.
I happen to be one of those lucky 17. Or unlucky, considering that my birthday wasn’t all that special if you think about it. One moment I wasn’t there, and the next I was. Clearly, family gatherings were less than normal, and sibling bonding was weaker than it is in normal families where kids are brought up together. So it was that though Pulastya was one of my brothers, I definitely did not have the kind of fraternal relationship portrayed in the Disney movie Onward.
Pulastya was scholarly and wise. Like some of our other brothers, he was in the greatest Hall of Fame of all – as one of the stars in the Saptarishi constellation.
Anyway, he had two sons. Agastya and Vishrava. Agastya is a major presence in many stories in Indian Mythology. We’ll definitely cover some stories of him in the future. For now, let’s focus on the other son – Vishrava.
Vishrava was wise and scholarly just like his father, and his brother. His reputation spread far and wide, and he married Ilavida, the daughter of the sage Bharadwaja. At this point in the family tree, there is less focus on academic knowledge and more focus on practical matters, like winning wars, taking over kingdoms, and such. That began with Vishrava and Ilavida’s son Kuber. Yes! This is the very same God of Wealth whom we have referenced in a couple of previous episodes. But Kuber had to acquire his godhood. And he did that much later.
This is the point in the family tree where people start deviating from a purely academic one to a more practical one, mostly involving violence.
If all these family relationships seem confusing, it’s because they are! So I’ve drawn a little family tree to illustrate
Let’s cut over to Lanka, where the Asur king Sumali ruled. He was with his wife Ketumati were discussing a very important problem.
“Why aren’t we finding anyone? Surely someone wants to marry our daughter?” asked Sumali.
“It’s because we have no equals among the Asurs. Everyone we know and socialize with are Asurs. They’re afraid of rejection. We should broaden our search”
“To whom? The Danavas?” he asked, referring to yet another family that had descended from yet another of Pulastya’s brother, and mine.
“We’re Asurs” he continued. “Everyone not an Asur hates us”
“Well what about an enlightened scholar like Vishrava?” asked Ketumati.
“You think he’ll suggest a solution,” asked Sumali, not very encouraged by this
“I’m saying he is the solution” replied Ketumati.
“But he’s so old. And he’s already married besides”
“Hello! Wake up! You’re in ancient India! As if being married has ever stopped anyone….”
There was truth to that, for example, Ram’s father, Dasharath himself had 3 wives.
Sumali, realizing this, facepalmed and agreed it was worth a shot.
Ketumati asked her husband “Now, can I trust you to arrange a happy union between our daughter and Vishrava?”
When Sumali nodded meekly, Ketumati continued “Remember! You have to be very subtle. We have to trick her into it. This calls for tact. Neither Kaikesi nor Vaishrava should suspect even for a moment that we’re setting them up.”
Sumali had a cunning plan. He set that in motion. Cleverly arranging for his daughter Kaikesi to accidentally bump into Vaishrava. He sent Kaikesi into the woods to fetch some water from a well, which is a weird thing for a King to ask a Princess to do, especially one with hundreds of helpers in the palace. Kaikesi, who was certainly smarter than Sumali gave her credit for, went straight to Vaishrava’s hut and caught him just as he was preparing to depart for the well as per his daily routine.
“Hi,” she said
“Oh, it’s you! You’re the girl from my dreams” he said, but he was not smiling
“And why doesn’t that make you happy? Was it a nightmare?” she asked politely
“Kind of. What brings you here, anyway?” he asked her
“My parents. They’re trying to set us up. You and me. And I thought, great idea! So how about it?” she asked
“I wish I could, dear lady. But I can’t”
“And why not? Does the dream have anything to do with it?” she asked
“Indeed it does! Basically, the short version is that our child goes on to become a real terror. And not in the affectionate way some parents lovingly refer to their kids.”
“Tell me more!” she said getting out the popcorn.
Vaishrava explained everything. He basically narrated everything in the Ramayana, but when it had yet to happen. I’ll skip over those parts, because spoilers.
Her first question was not about the evil child. “I can’t help but think of Angulimala’s story. Sure there was a prophecy that he was going to be an absolute villain, but his parents chose to bring him into the world anyway. Back in Episode 74 – A New Despair. That worked out alright in the end. Why shouldn’t the same thing happen to our child? And you also said, our youngest child is going to be good. So isn’t that worth trying to work this out?”
That somehow convinced Vaishrava. So much so that he separated from his first wife Ilavida, and took up residence with Kaikesi.
Kaikesi soon had kids – several kids actually. Ravana, Kumbhakarna, Shoorpanakha, and Vibhishana. Ravana actually did great academically! He had gobbled up, figuratively, all the knowledge that he could. Kaikesi however provoked Ravana at every opportunity she got, constantly comparing him to his half-brother Kuber, who was talented, no doubt but not nearly as powerful as Ravana.
“He’s even got a flying chariot” she would say to Ravana.
“It’s pulled by birds, it’s not the chariot that flies, it’s the birds that pull it” he would point out, but as Kaikesi often said, that was just a technicality.
“I got 10 heads, Ma. Kuber only has one!” replied the little terror.
At which Kaikesi replied: “But there’s only one throne! And guess whose 10 heads are not in it”
The very pedantic Ravana began to object “Why would my heads sit on the throne? That doesn’t make any practical sense.”
But Kaikesi dismissed it as another technicality. Maybe she was driven by vengeance. After all, Kuber had taken over Lanka by force and was now its ruler. Her parents must be avenged she thought. And if it wasn’t her son who else could do it?
And that’s precisely what happened. Ravana soon defeated Kuber. He had some superpowers after all, that my father had given him. Seriously, if you’ve only recently started hearing this podcast you may not be aware of it – but my father, Brahma the creator of the Universe, has this terrible tendency to easily give in to any villain’s prayers and give them all kinds of superpowers. It’s caused so many problems for everyone, that you’d think we’d have learned from it.
Yet, it falls to other Gods and Goddesses to clean up the mess. And this time, with Ravana, it was Vishnu’s turn. But you can find out more about that specific bit in the earlier Ramayan Episode 7 – Kingdom by Horse.
Well, while Vishnu, as Ram and Lakshman was growing up in Ayodhya, Ravana was running a very tight ship. A control freak, if ever there was one.
His brothers and his sister couldn’t even sneeze without his permission.
So it was that when Shoorpanakha decided to marry the Danava warrior Vidhyujiva, Ravana pretty much lost it! He swore to destroy the groom, in what is probably the earliest example of honor killing. Ravana’s wife, Mandodari intervened, however.
“You can see, can’t you – that you have driven her to this? You made her lead a sheltered life in Lanka, what do you expect? And Vidhyujiva is not the most terrible choice. She could have married a human! Think about it”.
Ravana, with all of his ten heads, did think about it.
Ultimately if there’s one person that Ravana could listen to in his deranged freaky state, it was his wife.
So things began to change, after lots of little nudges from Mandodari. She had the cooks make his favorite dishes, had his ministers keep the most stressful problems away from him. She even had the palace decorated with childhood pictures of Ravana playing with Shoorpanakha. Shoorpanakha complaining about Ravana not closing all his eyes when playing the seeker during hide and seek. Shoorpankha complaining about Ravana using all the virtual reality headsets in the palace at the same time. Ah, pleasant childhood memories. Slowly, Ravana came around to the idea of accepting his sister’s decision.
“Alright, send her a card,” said Ravana finally to his wife. “Wish her a happy married life and all that sort of thing”
“I already sent one this morning, along with a bottle of wine. I’m really glad you came around” she replied.
Things were okay for a while after that in Lanka, Ravana thought. There was no chance his half-brother Kuber would come back. Ravana had defeated him in battle, but the weasel had sneaked off to Swarg, to Indra’s place, and bought himself Godhood. “Sure, I could go right in and pluck him out of there,” thought Ravana. “But I won’t. He is not worth the effort. Besides, I’ve got bigger places to capture, I have grand plans for conquest and expansion.”
Over in Vidhyujivha’s house, the atmosphere was different. Shoorpanakha was happy at dinner time, but Vidhyjivha looked worried.
“Why the long face?” she asked him finally.
He was about to answer, but then he spotted how she was eating her food. “Oh my god, your nails – that’s disgusting. I know your nails are as long as forks, and sharp as knives. But please please use a fork and knife!” he said
“No skin off my nose. Now answer my question” she replied
“It will be skin off your nose. Especially if you scratch your nose,” he replied. Then, when she glared at him menacingly, he quickly decided to answer her question. She was known to have quite the temper. “The fact is” he began “I’m not sure whether or not I should be worried. Your brother wrote a letter.”
“Which brother? Khar? Dushan? Vibhishan? Ravana? Or my half-brother Kuber. Be specific and don’t mumble” she told him.
“Ravana. He needs my help”
“He needs your help? Don’t make me laugh” Shoorpankaha said.
“Well, maybe he doesn’t need it. But he’s certainly asking for it. All he’s doing is conquering the underworld or Hell or Patalalok or whatever you want to call it. And I’m not sure whether I should oblige” said Vidhyujivha
“You should. Listen. Let me nail this down for you”. She ignored her husband wincing at the bad pun and continued “I understand Ravana’s personality better than most people. All 10 of his personalities in fact. If he is asking for your help, it’s not your help he’s after. He wants your company. This is a sign that he has accepted you as his brother in law. He’s simply trying to bond. I bet the whole military campaign thing is a sham. While your armies are fighting the real battles, you two will probably be sitting at a card table, sipping beer, playing poker, and so on.”
That explanation resonated with Vidhyujivha. And he dusted off his best clothes, picked up a cartload of beer and pretzels, and made for Ravana’s palace.
Shoorpankha had not been wrong. Ravana had been trying to view his brother in law with something less than animosity. So the attack on the underworld had just been an excuse. It was a done deal for Ravana, he might as well have conquered Patala Lok without Vidhyujivha’s help. But it was for the sake of his societal obligations that he was going through the motions.
The whole situation was unpleasant. But that all changed when Vidhujivha pulled out a pack of cards and suggested a game of Poker. Ravana was all in. He was one good poker player. It’s not that he had a poker face. Quite the opposite. He could maintain 10 different expressions on his 10 heads. That made it incredibly hard for his opponents to read him.
Like the rash people they were, they bet using real money, soldiers, and those kinds of resources. Well, it turned out that Vidhyujivha was an even better player than Ravana. And pretty quickly Vidhyujivha had accumulated a nice pile of gold.
If Ravana had been a sport about it everything would have been okay. And actually, in the grand scheme of things, Ravana was a sport or at least 9/10ths of him. One of Ravana’s heads, probably head number 7, was a sore loser. So as Vidhyujivha was shuffling the cards, head number 7 spoke up: “Vidhyujivha – you must be one fine card player! I know because I’m one fine card player. And I can’t even spot how you’re cheating”
Immediately Vidhyujivha stopped shuffling the cards. The wide grin dropped from his face entirely and a look of rage crossed his face. Brother-in-law or not, Ravana would have to pay for that comment. He unsheathed his sword and asked, “care to say that again?”
But now, all ten Ravana heads unanimously glowered in anger at Vidhyujivha for his threatening action. In a contest between Vidhyujivha with sword and Ravana with no weapons and no armor, there could only be one outcome. Ravana casually flicked his finger in the direction of Vidhyujivha. That sent the Danava warrior crashing through the wall as if he’d been punched by Superman or something. He landed far out in the Sea, where some sea monsters would finish him off if by any chance Vidhyujivha had managed to stay alive. “Who cares? I don’t” thought Ravana.
Turns out, Shoorpanakha cared. A lot! She was upset, and just like one of the main characters in the movie Godfather, she was completely convinced that it was her brother who had engineered her husband’s demise. Ravana had told her that he had no choice but to act in self-defense, otherwise, Vidhyujivha would have killed him instead.
“I swear by your wolverine claws, Shoorpanakha. He was such a sore loser. After he kept losing game after game, he wanted me to give him his money back. I gladly did, just to show my goodwill. It was just a game after all. But he wouldn’t listen. He wanted me to authorize an announcement in the news tomorrow that he beat me in poker. Now I know I’m a grade-A villain, but I don’t want to lie to anyone, and certainly not my own subjects. So I refused and he charged. Then I had no choice but to protect myself”. It was head number 3 that was speaking, but all others were nodding in agreement
Shoorpankha knew for sure that it was all a lie. Long association with Ravana had taught her that her brother was the sore loser. Her childhood memories of him using his extra heads to an unfair advantage in soccer and rugby, and complaining about the results even after he had won. In one instance he had complained that he had won a soccer match by a difference of 58 to 0 if you penalize all the illegal goals the other side had scored. And what’s more, he had believed it himself.
So it was in this case that despite his apparent sympathies at her widowhood, he sent out a tweet that said “Vidhyujivha was a terrible commander, and I, your beloved King, had appointed him out of pity. He did not resign, and he was begging not to be fired. But I decided to fire him because I love the Kingdom. What a pathetic loser, he couldn’t even play his cards right”
Well, that’s one problem solved thought Ravana. But his thoughts soon took a turn for the worse when he saw Shoorpanakha sharpening her nails. They were as sharp as knives! Maybe it might be a good idea to keep her away from him. She was not easily fooled, and Ravana knew the longer she was around, the greater the risk to himself.
She needed to cool off. So he announced that she should go away.
“Don’t you think it’s time for you to find a new husband?” he asked her tactlessly.
“It’s only been a day since Vidhyujivha’s gone!” She glowered and said “You told me you still had search parties looking for him in the sea”
“Can’t believe how slowly time passes when you’re grieving. Yeah, the search parties are done already. They found an airplane in the sea, it said Malaysian Airlines on it, but no sign of your husband. My scientists tell me he probably evaporated before he hit the water, or he dissolved in it, so no point in continuing the search”
“People don’t evaporate and don’t dissolve in water,” she said exasperated. “That’s terrible advice from your scientists.”
“Hey, you’re the one who keeps asking me to follow the science. Now you’re criticizing me for it! I don’t like your tone. I’m your King, and you should give me some respect. All I’m trying to do is to help. I just wanted to say – go to India, a part of it is still part of our Kingdom. Our brothers Khar and Dushan are there in the Dandaka forest. Go stay with them – it’s a nice holiday location and they can help you find another husband. Someone more to our tastes.”
Shoorpankha refused but when Ravana rephrased that as a command, she had no choice except to obey. She took along with her – her newborn baby son – Shambri.
So that’s what she was doing in India when she ran into Ram, Lakshman, and Sita a couple of episodes ago.
Coincidentally, her son Shambhri had been killed by Lakshman accidentally. All because Shoorpanakha’s boy had assumed the form of a tree and Lakshman needed wood for the cabin he was building. But that story is for another day.
That’s all for now
Some notes on the show
Like I said before, Shoorpanakha was a villain through and through. You may be tempted to think that Shoorpanakha had had a hard life. Being upset with her brother? Sure, that was okay. Wandering away from home? Perfectly acceptable! Trying to marry again, absolutely reasonable. But trying to eat Sita? That’s where Lakshman drew the line. And drew first blood.
The Saptarishi constellation is the one known in the Western world as Ursa Major or the Great Bear. We’ve talked about this before in the context of other Rishis and in one case about Arundhati in Mini-Episode 42.5 – Arundhati
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’re doing a folk tale from Gujrat. It’s about a Princess who can magically summon her husband just by switching on the fan!
And just as a reminder, our next episode is next Sunday. We will not have a Thursday episode from now on! Thanks to all who provided their feedback on the format changes