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सनातन धर्म भूमिका

Meaning of "Mandodari"

Word

Mandodari

Sanskrit

मंदोदरी

IAST

Mandodari

In General

1. Wife of Ravana. She was very beautiful, chaste, good natured and respected lady.

2. There is another Mandodari in Devibhagavatam, a virtuous princess, daughter of king Gandrasena of Sinhala Kingdom and his wife Gunavati. She yearned to have an ascetic life but by destiny married to a cruel husband Carudesna, King of Madra.

Purana

The Uttara Ramayana contains a story about the birth and early life of Mandodari.

Mayan, an Asura, was born to Kasyapa Prajapati of his wife Danu. Once, Mayan went to Devaloka to see the dances of the celestial maidens. There he fell in love with Hema, a beautiful Apsara. When Devas came to know about the Mayan’s wish they gave Hema in marriage to Mayan. Maya went to the southern part of Himalaya and constructed a city in a valley. He named the city as Hemapura and lived there happily with Hema. They got two sons Mayavi and Dundubhi. But they grieved over the lack of a daughter and thus started penance to propitiate Siva.

The couple were doing penance near a well which has an Apasara named Sulakshana living as a frog because of a curse by Parvati. After the period of curse was over the frog changed itself into a beautiful maiden and cried loudly from the well. Hearing the cry Mayan and Hema, who were doing penance nearby peeped into the well and saw the young girl. They considered her as a gift of god. They took the child home and brought up giving her the name Mandodari. Ravana once returning after a victory while passing through the area visited Mayan and seeing the girl fell in love with her and married her according to the tradition and took her to Lanka. Ravana got three sons of her, Meghanada, Atikaya and Aksakumara.

Mandodari was a very beautiful woman. Hanuman when he entered the bedroom of Ravana in search of Sita was dumb founded at the beauty of Mandodari and mistook her for a second for Sita.

Reference

R. ; Uttara Ramayana

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Word Sanskrit IAST In General Veda Purana