Mandodarī

In the story

Mandodarī appears rarely in the core poem and decisively at the end. The seventh book makes her the daughter of Maya, the architect of the dānavas, by the apsaras Hemā. She is Rāvaṇa's principal queen and the mother of Indrajit.

Her first appearance is oblique. When Hanumān is searching Laṅkā at night he comes into Rāvaṇa's inner apartments and sees a woman of such beauty asleep that for a moment he believes he has found Sītā and rejoices — before reasoning that Sītā, grieving for her husband, could not possibly be sleeping like this. The mistake is one of the most humane touches in the fifth book.

Her second appearance is her lament. Standing over Rāvaṇa's body she recalls what he was — the conqueror of gods, the master of every science, the king before whom Indra gave way — and then says why he is dead. He took a woman who would not have him. He was told, by his brothers and by her, and he could not hear it. She calls Sītā greater than herself in every respect and says that Rāma is no ordinary man. It is the only speech in the epic in which the case against Rāvaṇa is made by someone who loved him.

What she represents

Mandodarī is the epic's study of clear sight without power. She knows exactly what her husband is doing and exactly where it leads, and she has no means of stopping him; her position gives her every kind of standing except the ability to be heard. The poem gives her the last word on him precisely because she has had no earlier ones.

The tradition counts her among the five women — with Ahalyā, Draupadī, Tārā and Sītā or Kuntī, depending on the version of the verse — whose names are said to be recited daily to remove sin, a grouping that includes women whose sexual history was irregular and whose merit the tradition insisted on anyway.

Later versions marry her to Vibhīṣaṇa after the war, or have her burn herself on Rāvaṇa's pyre. Neither is in Vālmīki, who records nothing of her afterwards. In parts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh she is remembered as a local daughter married out to Laṅkā, and in a few places Rāvaṇa is honoured on that account.

The lament

Mandodarī's speech over Rāvaṇa's body is the last full statement of the case against the war, and the epic gives it to a widow standing on a battlefield. She recalls what he was — the conqueror of gods, master of every science, the king before whom Indra gave way — and then says what killed him: he took a woman who would not have him, and he could not be told.

She says two further things that matter. She judges Sītā to be greater than herself in every respect, which no one else in the poem concedes. And she says that Rāma is no ordinary man — a recognition offered by the enemy's chief mourner rather than by a devotee.

The mistake in the bedroom

Her one earlier appearance is oblique and quietly devastating. Hanumān, searching Laṅkā at night, comes into Rāvaṇa's inner apartments, sees a woman of extraordinary beauty asleep, and for a moment believes he has found Sītā and is delighted with himself.

He then reasons it out: a woman grieving for Rāma could not possibly be sleeping like this, in this room, adorned. The correction tells the reader as much about Sītā's condition as any description of the grove does.