Mandodari: the wife of Ravana
by Gloria Arieira
(Vedanta Intensive 2025)
All of us humans have much of both Rama and Ravana within us! What makes the difference is the capacity for viveka and vairagya—perceiving one's own impulses and blind spots and having the decision and strength to act appropriately according to one's highest values of respect and non-aggression.
Rama is known as Dharma-purusha—the human embodiment of Dharma, of righteousness; he is perfection on Earth. All his actions, words, and thoughts reflect his commitment to Dharma. He is described as the ideal son, the ideal husband, the ideal brother, the ideal friend, and the ideal king.
Due to his commitment to Dharma, he is sent to the forest for 14 years, obeying his father's command. He is the perfect yogi in dealing with the same serene attitude toward situations of pain, suffering, and joy.
In the Ramayana, we see Rama dealing with respect, attention, and affection with each person who comes in contact with him. He exemplifies Dharma in every moment.
Sita is his beloved wife, who always accompanies him in life and in understanding Dharma, in clarity of values, in right action, in steadfastness at every step.
Ravana is grand, powerful, accomplished, a great devotee of Lord Shiva. He is characterized as possessing 10 heads, which represent his many blind desires that govern his life, creating internal conflicts and desires so strong that they obscure his knowledge of Dharma.His father is the rishi Vishravas and his mother is Kaikashi, a rakshasa princess. Ravana performed austerities for many, many years, performing many rituals, learning the Vedas, playing the veena. His mind is firm and focused, his capacity for meditation is incomparable. He is always focused on achieving power and recognition; great is his pride; his ambition is blind; his selfishness and contempt for those who might hinder his plans for success are immense. He desires devotion and to be obeyed by all, and everything he considers beautiful and grand must be under his domain.
Mandodari is the queen, Ravana's wife. She is the daughter of the Apsara Hema, a beautiful celestial woman, and the great architect of the asuras, Mayasura. Mandodari was extremely beautiful, impressing everyone with her beauty. She had clarity about what is just and right—Dharma—despite having Ravana, an asura, as her husband. When he met her, Ravana was enchanted by Mandodari for her incomparable beauty and elegance.She had always spoken with Ravana about Dharma.
When Sita was kidnapped and held captive, Mandodari told Ravana several times that it was a great mistake, for Rama was not just anyone, he was a divine incarnation, and it would not be prudent to threaten him.
Mandodari has great respect and love for her husband Ravana, despite knowing of his weakness regarding women.
When Rama was about to be crowned king of Ayodhya, he was banished to the forest for 14 years. Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana live in the forest for 13 years and, with 1 year remaining until the end of exile, Sita is kidnapped by the asura king of Lanka—Ravana.
Despite being advised by his brothers, his ministers, and his wife, Mandodari, to return Sita to her husband, Ravana hopes that Sita will surrender to him. Ravana was enchanted, infatuated, blind with desire for Sita, but he could not seize her by force, as he had already done with thousands of women. Among these many women was the apsara Rambha. He had seized her forcefully, but despite her resistance, Ravana prevails. Upon learning of this, Rambha's husband curses him: Ravana could not do the same with another woman without her consent; if he dared insist, his head would explode into many pieces!
Unable to find Sita anywhere, Rama seeks help from Hanuman, son of Vayu, the wind. Considering that Sita might be in Lanka, Hanuman leaps from South India to the island of Lanka. Hanuman searched for Sita but did not know what she looked like. Rama had only described her as possessing great beauty and elegance.
When Hanuman enters Lanka, flying in search of Sita, he sees King Ravana in his quarters embracing a very beautiful woman. Due to the woman's beauty and radiance, Hanuman thinks it is Sita but soon realizes it could not be Rama's wife Sita. It had to be Mandodari!
Next, Hanuman discovers the beautiful and sad Sita, sitting under a tree singing softly: Rama Rama Rama Rama... and he returns to inform Rama about Sita.Thus, to rescue Sita, Rama, Lakshmana, and the army of monkeys led by Hanuman arrive in Lanka, having built a bridge, Rama-setu, between the Indian continent and the island of Lanka.
There is then a war between Ravana's warriors, including his brother Kumbhakarna and his sons, which lasted several days until, finally, Ravana fights Rama.
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Ravana is powerful and blessed by Shiva Mahadeva. The fight between Ravana and Rama is tremendous! Hanuman later says he had never seen anything like it! Finally, Ravana is destroyed, his body lies inert on the battlefield, like a common soldier. What had seemed almost impossible happened: Rama defeated Ravana and would soon be reunited with his Sita!
Ravana's queen, Mandodari, arrives at the battlefield. She cannot believe her husband is dead.
Greater than her sadness was her anger! Not directed at the one who killed her husband, but the anger was directed at Ravana himself!
She remains for some time looking at her lord's beloved face; everything seemed to burn inside her. After a few moments, she says with great pain in her voice:
"How can this happen, my lord?! Never did anyone have the audacity to stand before you when you were angry. Indra trembled upon hearing your name. All the Devas and Rishis were afraid of you. I was told that a Rama, a mere human being, was able to kill you! How was this possible?
Your eyes should be shooting fire, your lips should be trembling with fury, and your fingers should be reaching for an arrow in your quiver to kill your opponent. But instead, you lie motionless, and anger has no place on your face! This silence does not suit you, my lord! I cannot believe what I see! It is not possible that a man could have killed my lord.This Rama is not a human being. He is someone divine. When we learned that he, in the forest, killed, alone, Khara, Dushana and Trishiras and our immense army of 14,000 men, that should have been enough for us to be certain he is not an ordinary human being.
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When Hanuman entered the city of Lanka, which is inaccessible even to the lord of wind, you should have known that Rama was not just any man.
When I heard that a bridge had been built by the monkeys commanded by Rama, crossing the ocean, I knew at that moment Rama was not an ordinary human being. Perhaps he is Lord Mahadeva who created Maya in the form of Sita and himself assumed the form of the human being called Rama for this sole purpose of killing you!
I know who Rama is. He is the lord of lords, Narayana. The greatest of yogis, the Paramatma, the most ancient, the truth that has no beginning, no end, no middle. He is eternal. He is the greatest among the great. He exists beyond the darkness called Avidya, ignorance. He is the creator of the universe. He is the lord with his conch, chakra and gada (his staff) and with Shrivatsa (the Devi) on his chest. He is always accompanied by Shri, Lakshmi. He is eternal and immutable, lord of the three worlds.
I have no doubt: he is Lord Narayana himself who, to do good for humans and devas, assumed the form of a human being and these vanaras, these monkeys, are gods who came to Earth in this form! My lord! Narayana killed you; it was not a man. Once, you performed tapas, austerities, maintaining control perfectly over all your senses and now – surprisingly – these same senses were the instruments of your destruction. Your kingdom, your wealth, all your subjects had to be destroyed because you desired Sita. She who is pativrata, totally devoted to her husband. She should have been honored by you but instead she was insulted by you. You should have honored her but instead you asked for her love. It is because of her tears of sadness that you were killed.
There is truth in the saying that a papi, one who acts wrongly, will most certainly receive the result of his wrong actions, of his papa. At the right time, destiny will make this happen.
There were so many of us in your palace and yet your mind was focused on making Sita respond positively to your desires.
By birth, I have the same status as Sita, I am a princess. In beauty, she is not superior to me. And yet, due to the blindness of passion, you could not see the future. Death comes in one form or another and, for you, it came in the form of Sita. You brought death with your own hands when you brought Sita to Lanka. Sita will now be united with Rama and will live happily from this day forward. Unfortunate woman that I am, destiny has plunged me into an ocean of suffering!
My lord, my much beloved lord, how can I live without you?! Your beautiful face has lost all its grandeur. Your eyes, which were like the Sun and Moon, are now closed. Now I can no longer see the loving gaze you always had for me. Where has that gaze gone, my lord?! And your beautiful smile?! Your face is now covered with dust from the battlefield, and your eyes are closed. I cannot bear all this.
I have always been a proud woman. I was certain that nothing could affect my lord. My father is the king of the Danavas! My husband is the great Ravana! My son is Indrajit, the hero who made Indra, the lord of the heavens, become humble before him. Thinking of these three, I was always very secure. How could I imagine such a calamity that deprived me of my son and my lord?
Your entire body, your entire beautiful chest is fully covered with arrows. I cannot even embrace you! Is all this true, or is it a terrible nightmare that will end when I wake up? No! No! It is heart wrenchingly true! Yama, god of death, had always been afraid of you. How did he manage the courage to come near you and bind you in his noose? My death was announced when my son Indrajit was killed; I remained alive because of you; but now that you are gone, there is nothing more for me in this life. Evidently you did not love me enough, otherwise you would not have left, abandoned me! Perhaps I offended you in some way and to punish me you abandoned me. It can only be the curse of so many good women who lost their husbands because of you. In the past you killed so many good men and their wives cried tears of blood. It is said that the tears shed by a pativrata, a good wife, have the power to punish the death of her husband. Thinking about what happened, your act of kidnapping Sita was inappropriate. You separated Rama from Sita and then kidnapped her. How strange that you had done this. It is something you had never done before. This cowardly act is unworthy of your bravery; it does not suit your courage.
You were not defeated by Rama in battle: it was your own papam, your wrong action, that killed you. How can it be that you are lying on the battlefield while all the enemies and also the devas observe in triumph?!
You have fallen in love with the Earth and delight in its embrace and no longer in mine!"
Mandodari faints and remains lying beside Ravana. The other women revive and comfort her.
Mandodari and the other women knew they would no longer see Ravana's face and, therefore, their hearts were broken. With eyes soaked with tears, voices hoarse from so much crying and screams of pain, they return to Ravana's antahpura.
Rama and Sita are reunited, return to Ayodhya, where Rama with Sita at his side governs the kingdom for thousands of years -- the kingdom of Dharma, of justice, of respect, of what is just for all.
||OM TAT SAT||