Mandodarī

Mandodarī was the chief queen of Rāvaṇa, the king of Laṅkā. She was the daughter of Maya, the great builder of the dānavas. The tradition counts her as one of the five great pativratās, wives who were devoted to their husbands. She urged Rāvaṇa to give Sītā back to Śrī Rāma. After Rāvaṇa fell, her lament at his body is one of the best known passages of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.

Birth and parentage

Mandodarī was the daughter of the dānava Maya. Maya was the great divine architect who built the cities and palaces of the devas, and who later built the grand Mayasabhā for the Pāṇḍavas. He was one of the hundred sons of Danu and Kaśyapa Prajāpati, and he was the master builder of the world of the asuras.

The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa places Mandodarī in the Dānava line as Danu, then Maya, then Mandodarī. Danu was a daughter of Daksha. (Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 7)

The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa gives her mother as the Apsarā Hema. In this account she came from a line that joined the power of the dānavas with the grace of the devas. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 114)

The five pativratās

The tradition names five great pativratās. They are Ahalyā, Draupadī, Sītā, Tārā and Mandodarī. Their names, recited in the morning, take away pāpa (sin).

Rāvaṇa’s chief queen

Mandodarī became the chief queen (mahishī, also called paṭṭarāṇī) of Rāvaṇa, the great rākshasa king of Laṅkā. She held the highest place among his many wives. She was devoted to her husband in spite of his wrong deeds. The Purāṇas and the Rāmāyaṇa celebrate her advice to Rāvaṇa to return Sītā to Rāma and so avoid war.

Her opposition to Rāvaṇa’s adharma

Mandodarī counselled Rāvaṇa many times to return Sītā and make peace with Śrī Rāma. When Rāvaṇa carried Sītā away, she urged him to set her free, because she understood how grave the wrong was. She stood with Vibhīshaṇa, Mālyavān, Mārīca, Kumbhakarṇa and her own father Maya in this advice. Rāvaṇa ignored all of them. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 114)

Rāvaṇa’s visits to the Aśoka Vāṭikā

In the Sundara Kāṇḍa, Rāvaṇa went to the Aśoka Vāṭikā night after night to press his suit with Sītā. He came with his full retinue of the women of his household. These chapters show how Rāvaṇa more and more turned away from the advice of his righteous counsellors. Mandodarī’s counsel to Rāvaṇa, to return Sītā and avoid the ruin that was coming, is one of the great threads of the Rāmāyaṇa. It shows that the voice of dharma was present even in Rāvaṇa’s innermost household, and that he chose to ignore it. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 20–22)

The lament on the battlefield

The women of Laṅkā ran out of the palace to mourn over Rāvaṇa’s body on the battlefield. Their hair was loose, they wore no ornaments, and they cried “Āryaputra! Nātha!” Mandodarī was the first among them. She lifted Rāvaṇa’s crowned head onto her lap and wiped his face with her tears. Then she spoke her great vilāpa (lament), which runs through many verses of Chapter 114.

Her lament has three parts.

Grief and wonder. She asks the question that a warrior’s wife asks. How could this man, who had defeated Indra, bound Kubera and made Yama tremble, and before whom the sun held back its heat from Laṅkā, fall to a mortal who lived in the forest? “Even the sun feared to warm Laṅkā without your permission. Today for the first time the sunlight falls on our city freely.” (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 114)

Reproach. She does not spare Rāvaṇa in his death. “You listened to no one. Vibhīshaṇa told you. Mālyavān told you. Kumbhakarṇa told you. Your own father Maya and I told you. You brought this ruin upon yourself by carrying Sītā away. The suffering of the pativratā women whose husbands you killed became a curse upon you. Their tears have not fallen in vain.” (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 114)

Declaration about Śrī Rāma. Here her lament rises highest. She says that Śrī Rāma is Śrī Mahāvishṇu. “This Rāma is mahāyogī, paramātmā, sanātana, anādi-madhya-nidhana, the great one beyond the mahat, beyond darkness (tamaḥ-para), the giver, bearing the Śaṅkha, Cakra and Gadā, with the Śrīvatsa mark on his chest, with Lakshmī always present in his heart, the imperishable, the unchanging. He is indeed Śrī Mahānārāyaṇa himself, who has come down in human form for the good of all creation. All the vānaras who go with him are aṃśas (parts) of the devas.” (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 114)

She ends by speaking of karma. “This is the ripening of your own deeds. ‘The good reap good fruit; the evil reap evil.’ So Vibhīshaṇa prospers and you have fallen.” (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 114)

Mandodarī had lived beside Rāvaṇa. She had seen his power, his learning and his tapas. Even so, her words say that all of it was overcome by the divine nature of the avatāra. Her declaration is both a lament for her husband and a statement of her faith.

In the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa: her counsel in the Sundara Kāṇḍa

In the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, the burning of Laṅkā by Hanumān shook the whole city. The fear among the rākshasas reached even Rāvaṇa’s inner palace (antaḥpura). Mandodarī went to her husband in private. She spoke from deep distress and from a recognition that went beyond a wife’s worry.

Her words in this telling are clear about who Rāma is. “Nātha! You take Śrī Rāma for a mere mortal. This is a grave mistake. That very Śrīmannārāyaṇa who creates, sustains and dissolves the worlds has appeared as Rāma. Ādi Lakshmī herself has been born as Sītā. To make enemies of these two is not for our good. To keep the daughter of Janaka as a captive here is not good for this kingdom. As a winter night destroys a lotus grove, Sītā’s captivity will destroy the rākshasa dynasty completely. Even now, return Sītā to Rāma and make peace.” (Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa)

Rāvaṇa waved her away with mild scorn. He said that women are afraid by nature, praised his own power, stroked her head with affection, and left the inner palace without a worry. Mandodarī was left to think about the omens and to grieve over what she saw as her husband’s ruin. She remembered the teaching of the wise, that those whose end is near cannot smell the scent of a dying lamp, cannot hear the advice of well-wishers, and cannot read the signs around them.

In this telling her advice before the war goes with Vibhīshaṇa’s public hitabodha (good counsel) in the assembly and comes before it. It shows Mandodarī as one who knew Rāma’s divine nature while there was still time to act on it.

In the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa: her lament after Rāvaṇa’s death

In the Laṅkā Kāṇḍa of Tulasīdāsa’s Rāmacaritamānas, Rāvaṇa died on Caitraśuddha Daśamī. Mandodarī’s attendants brought her to the battlefield, where his huge body lay broken. She was overcome with grief, fell down and struck her chest.

Her lament moves through grief, through praise of Rāvaṇa’s greatness, and through a clear view of the cause. She spoke of his cosmic power. Bhūdevī trembled at his footstep, Sūrya and Candra grew dim before him, and Vāyu, Varuṇa, Indra and Kubera fled from him. Then she said:

Nāthā! Kāla-vaśuḍavai nā prārthanamu mannimṃpaka pōtivi. Jagannāthuḍu Śrīpattitō vairamapiṃkshiṃci iṭṭi durdaśaku oḍigativi

“My lord! You came under the power of Kāla and did not heed my prayer. By seeking enmity with Śrīpati, you came to this state.”

What makes this lament so deep is its end. When her grief had spent itself, Mandodarī did not end in bitterness. She raised her hands toward Rāma and said:

Prāṇēśvarā! Jānakī vallabuḍu dayāmayuḍu. Nī dōsamulanu lekkiṃpaka nīku tana divyadhāmamu prasādiṃcina ā karuṇāmūrti Sākēta patiniki idē caṭrētti mrōkkuliḍu cuṃṭiṃi

“My lord! The husband of Jānakī is full of mercy. Without counting your faults, he has given you his divine abode. To that merciful lord of Sāketa, I bow with folded hands.”

The suras, munis and siddhas who had gathered there, with Brahmā and Maheśvara, saw this and marvelled at Mandodarī’s paramātma-cintana, her constant thought of Paramātmā, which stayed firm even in her darkest hour.

After the lament, Mandodarī and the rākshasa women were led back into Laṅkā. Vibhīshaṇa performed the antyeshṭi (the last rites) for Rāvaṇa, and Mandodarī was the chief mourner.

Sources

• Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 7
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 20–22
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapters 113–114
• Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa
• Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Laṅkā Kāṇḍa