Śūrpaṇakhā

Śūrpaṇakhā was a rākshasī, the sister of Rāvaṇa, the rākshasa king of Laṅkā. Khara and Dūshaṇa, who commanded the rākshasa forces at Janasthāna, were her brothers too. At Pañcavaṭī she fell in love with Rāma. Rāma sent her to Lakshmaṇa. She then attacked Sītā, and Lakshmaṇa cut off her nose and ears.

This led to the death of Khara’s whole army, to Rāvaṇa’s decision to take Sītā away, and in the end to the war between Rāma and Laṅkā.

Who she was

Śūrpaṇakhā was a rākshasī of great power. Like other rākshasas, she could take any form she wished. She was the sister of Rāvaṇa, one of the most dreaded rākshasas in the three worlds. Her brothers Khara and Dūshaṇa commanded the rākshasa stronghold at Janasthāna in Daṇḍakāraṇya. She belonged to the most powerful rākshasa family of her time.

The meeting at Pañcavaṭī

Śūrpaṇakhā met Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa at their āśrama (hermitage) in Pañcavaṭī. Rāma’s beauty and radiance drew her. She went to him openly in love and asked that she become his wife and that he leave Sītā for her.

Rāma was faithful to Sītā and answered her lightly. He sent her to Lakshmaṇa as a better match. Lakshmaṇa saw what she wanted, and he too turned her away with gentle mockery. Now fully rejected and furious, Śūrpaṇakhā dropped all pretence and rushed at Sītā. She meant to destroy the woman she blamed for Rāma’s refusals.

Rāma stepped in and told Lakshmaṇa to punish her. Lakshmaṇa drew his sword and cut off her nose and ears. She ran from the āśrama, screaming and disfigured.

The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, chapters 17–18, tells this meeting, and chapter 27 refers back to it.

She stirs up Khara

Śūrpaṇakhā fled to her brother Khara at Janasthāna. She showed him her bleeding face and her cut nose and ears, and said that such an outrage called for revenge at once. She described Rāma and Lakshmaṇa and praised their skill in battle. She warned Khara that they were no ordinary men. She urged him to destroy them and to bring Sītā to her as payment for her shame.

Khara first sent warriors, and Rāma destroyed them all. Then Khara marched himself, with 14,000 rākshasas, Dūshaṇa and Triśiras. All of them were slain. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, chapters 27–31)

She stirs up Rāvaṇa

After the army at Janasthāna was wiped out, Śūrpaṇakhā went to Laṅkā and faced Rāvaṇa. She found him in his court in royal splendour, with his ministers and wives around him. She held nothing back. She blamed him for his carelessness. She told him he did not know of the danger from Rāma. She told him that a human in exile had destroyed his whole army at Janasthāna: 14,000 rākshasas, Khara, Dūshaṇa and Triśiras, all gone.

She spoke of Sītā’s matchless beauty, and of her divine form and qualities. She said that if Rāvaṇa truly wanted a woman worthy of him, Sītā was that woman. She put the abduction as both revenge and reward, the fitting answer of a mighty king to the destruction of his forces.

Her words hit their mark. Rāvaṇa was already ready to do any act against dharma, and now he had a grievance and a desire as well. He decided to take Sītā. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, chapters 32–33)

The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa account

The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa adds a detail to the meeting. In its Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Śūrpaṇakhā came to Pañcavaṭī not in her own rākshasī form but in a Mohinī form, a shape of great feminine beauty taken to draw Rāma. She presented herself as a woman of charm and power beyond the human. Rāma saw through the pretence and answered her lightly and sent her to Lakshmaṇa. Lakshmaṇa also refused her, and she attacked Sītā. Then Lakshmaṇa cut off her nose and ears.

In the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, her complaint to Rāvaṇa rests mainly on her description of Sītā’s beauty. She described Sītā as Jagajjananī (the Mother of the world) herself in human form, a treasure beyond anything the rākshasas had won, and said that to gain her would be Rāvaṇa’s greatest glory. The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa gives this mixture of flattery and temptation fuller treatment.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 17–18, 27–33
• Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa