#surpanakha

[h0bg0blin-meat]

Calypso apologists 🤝Surpanakha apologists

God forbid a woman is morally ambiguous and has villainous tendencies 🥀

[i-like-to-eat-cotton]

"Surpanakha was wronged just because she wasn't afraid of showing her sexuality!"

Here are some verses from the Valmiki Ramayana,Surpanakha to Rama

Mind you,this is BEFORE either Rama or Lakshmana had rejected her.

[arwenkenobi48]

My thoughts after seeing Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama

Rama and Lakshman are the best brothers ever (also Rama literally killed multiple demons with divine weapons as a teenager and that’s honestly more than I accomplished at 15)

Sita has Disney Princess powers

“I will cleave your filthy brain in two!” is not a line I expected to hear from a PG rated movie

Bharata is underrated

Surpanakha needs therapy (and a nose job)

Why is Maricha kinda- 😏

Ravana seriously needs to keep it in his pants (I was mentally shaking his shoulders and yelling “when will you learn that your actions have consequences!?” at him the entire time)

Rama furiously declaring he’ll hunt Ravana to the ends of the universe and then Lakshman just casually telling him to calm down was way funnier than it had any right to be

RIP Jatayu

The sentient mountain turning out to be a demigod literally felt like an NPC side quest in a fantasy RPG

Hanuman is the GOAT

I love how Jambavan just randomly drops the bombshell on Hanuman that he has divine powers, also his voice is weirdly amusing

Hanuman gets swallowed by a sea serpent, then promptly chops the thing up into sushi

Ravana’s giving off vaguely yandere vibes and I’m all here for it

Hanuman introducing himself to Sita with a beautiful song legit warmed my heart so much, he’s so wholesome

Ravana filing his nails while listening to Hanuman’s speech only to be like “kill him” was darkly hilarious

“alright, but set fire to his tail first, then let him go home” Ravana WTH-

Then Hanuman subsequently commits arson and burns down half the city of Lanka (cue the theme from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia)

I have only known Vibhishana for a minute and a half but if anything happened to him I would kill everyone in this room and then myself /j

Bridge building montage woohooo

Why do all the rakshasas sound either animalistic or flamboyant?

Speaking of which, there’s no way Indrajit is straight, no man who wears indigo eyeshadow, a crop top, no trousers and knee high boots isn’t at least a little bit bent

“Oh, what a nuisance! This is bothering me!” Ah yes, just how I’d describe being in the middle of a battle between literal demons and very floofy monkeys

Rama’s speech about respecting life was genuinely one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard

Kumbhakarna is the best boi

Kumbhakarna is the best round sleepy boi in the history of everything

His sons were absolute badasses and their deaths made me sad (not at all helped by his heartbroken expression when he found out)

I love how it literally took being waterboarded to wake up this giant

Vibhishana just casually mentioning to Rama that Kumbhakarna would become immortal after sleeping for SIX WHOLE MONTHS

Literally everything about Kumbhakarna is immensely endearing to me in a way I cannot explain, I just wanna smoosh his cheeks and feed him strawberry mochi, also he so ROUND

Kumbhakarna, don’t eat the Vanaras ffs

Kumbhakarna getting increasingly frustrated by the flying demons buzzing around him like mosquitoes should become a meme/reaction gif, purely because of how he yells “yOu ArE aNnOyInG mE!” at them

*two strikes of a divine sword later* NUUUUU MY BABYYYYY 😭

“I wish I’d known him as a friend, Vibhishana” that’s it, happy AU where everybody lives and they’re all besties let’s gooooo *crying inside*

The way Ravana’s voice quakes when he hears he’s now sans a brother 🥺

Indrajit is horrible but I love him

HANUMAN JUST AIRLIFTED A FUCKING MOUNTAIN HOLY SMOKES-

Omgggg an aerial battle this is so cool- INDRAJIT NOOOOO

RAVANA WHERE DID YOU GET AN AEROPLANE???

Yikes, Ravana, you’re really laying on the body horror here 😳

Awww Rama and Sita are together again yayyyy

Yasssss happy ending we love to see it!

Why are they flying to the moon in a glittering gold helicopter???

Basically, I love this movie and everything about it, especially Kumbhakarna 💞

(Also for the record I mean absolutely no disrespect by any of this)

[ginazmemeoir]

ok so i realized i haven’t made a mythology post in a loooooooooooooooooong time, so here you go with a comparative analysis of the representation of Shurpanakha in modern Indian literature.

Now, Shurpanakha (lit. She who is as sharp as nails) was the sister of the Emperor of Lanka, Ravan. Originally born as the beautiful Meenakshi (lit. She with eyes shaped like fish), there have been many speculations as to why her named was thus changed. For this analysis, I will be comparing her character in four books : Asura by Ananda Neelkanthan, Lanka’s Princess by Kavita Kane, Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Raavan : Enemy of Aryavarta by Amish Tripathi.

We will first be approaching Asura, which was the first one released. The book is controversial enough on its own for portraying the villains of the epic Ramayana as the actual good guys (this is actually the author’s writing style). Now, the Shurpanakha here is shown as Meenakshi : the book describes how she flirted with Rama, but was instead raped by both Rama and Lakshamana. The metaphor of  “having one’s nose cut” has been taken both literally and figuratively, as Lakshamana then proposes to disfigure Shurpanakha by cutting off her nose and ears. This Shurpanakha, is polar to the one we know - innocent and “pure”, and thus much less believable.

The Shurpanakha in Forest of Enchantments is portayed as Kamarupini - she with a lustful form. Shurpanakha is shown as a free roaming forest spirit, who originally interacts with Sita frankly as a woman. Later she flirts with both the princes. When she realizes that they are toying with her by telling her to go to the other repeatedly, she rushes to kill Sita and is then disfigured by Lakshamana by having her nose and ears chopped off. This Shurpanakha, later, ridicules Sita in Lanka. Although she is scarcely mentioned, this Shurpanakha is much more relatable, however not entirely.

Amish in his book has portrayed Shurpanakha entirely as the monster the Ramayana depicts her as. This Shurpanakha however : IS A GREEK PRINCESS. That’s right, in this narrative Shurpanakha is the child Raavana’s father has with the Queen of Knossos along with Vibhishana. Both are originally Greek royalty. This Shurpanakha fits the physical appearance of the Ramayana : overtly sexualized and accentuated features. She is an active part of Ravana’s political ambitions, but craves power for herself too. An entirely different character, this Shurpanakha is intriguing, and relatable.

However, the Shurpanakha in Kane’s book, is human. Maybe because the book revolves entirely around her, Kane shows her transition : from Meenakshi to Shurpanakha. She is described as having a neglected, abusive childhood, wherein she learns to fend for herself at quite an early age with Ravana as her brother. The only two characters who she actually considers family are her brother Kumbhakarna and her maternal grandmother, the yaksha princess Taraka. As Meenakshi grows older, she finds herself more and more aloof from her family. She finds love and acceptance in her husband Vidyutjihva, the king of the Kalakeyas. She wilfully ignores all the rumours about her husband which actually turn out to be true : he was partly using her to gain access to his enemy Ravan, and he was also a notorious man whore. Shurpanakha refuses to believe all this, and gets insane after Ravan kills her husband. Kane here uses the version wherein Shurpanakha starts the war for her own revenge - and that’s what precisely happens. The narrative of the original Ramayana is followed with an additional element : Shurpanakha here sows a seed of doubt in Sita’s mind, stating that both her husband and her brother were attracted to her and were thus infuriated at themselves and at her. Shurpanakha is unable to let go of her revenge and then further reaches Ayodhya to ruin Sita’s life. It is only after she envisions her happily married life in Lakshamana and Urmila that she goes calm, and then commits suicide by drowning in the Lankan sea.

Overall, I prefer the representation given to Shurpanakha in Lanka’s Princess. Her character has completely been justified, and given the space that this complex character of one of the grandest epics of the world truly deserved.

P.S. - if you haven’t read any of these books : THEN GO READ THEM BITCH WHAT ARE YOU DOING??

tagging : @amandaanubis @wannabe-santiago @aadya-said-chal-be @psycho-mocha @kuuhakublank00 @dragonfairy1231

[arjuna-vallabha]

Surpanakha convinces Ravana to kidnap Sita by Monal Kohad

[arundhati-shah4]

In the end, all we are is the version of ourselves that others choose to remember.

Meenakshi, Aru Shah and the Song of Death by Roshani Choksi

[rheaitis]

sita/surpanakha; au d/trope b/prompt j or z ( also ram is long dead cause i loathe him)

sita/surpanakha; mafia!au + enemies to lovers + “sometimes, i sit in bed and wonder what would happen if things were different.” ( also ram is long dead cause i loathe him)

*

“Wasn’t sure what to think when they told me you were alive,” Surpanakha admits. “I remembered the prissy little thing from five years ago and I wondered how she survived a fire that killed her husband.”

Janaki smiles, a sunny little thing at odds with the crates and the gunmen. A society smile. “I haven’t been that girl in a long time.”

The skin on her clasped hands is marked with the miniscule scars of expert surgery. Surpanakha has them herself, around her nose, beneath her ears.

“No,” she allows. “So why’d you wanna meet, princess?”

“Just to talk.”

Liar.

*

Full list of prompts here; also accepting from this list. Toss a prompt to your ficcer, a woman in lockdown.

[i-like-to-eat-cotton]

Oh boyyy,this is gonna be another "feminist" surpanakha take

Ok,so far so good :]

"She realized the brothers were making fun of her"

Rama NEVER made fun of her

WHAT😭

She tried to attack Sita after being rejected,what was Lakshman supposed to do???? Not protect her????

"Had Rama calmly reasoned with her..."

HE DID,he told her that he was loyal to only one wife

I can't with this stuff