Śúrpaṇakhá

Also known as: Súrpanakhá / Śúrpaṇakhí · Family: Rákshases · Role: giantess · First appears: Book I, Canto 1 · Nárad

In Nárad’s summary of the poem, Ráma cuts Śúrpaṇakhá’s face with his sword. In Book III, Canto 17, she falls in love with Ráma and asks him to marry her, but threatens to eat Sítá and Lakshmaṇ when her advances are rejected. She names Rávaṇ, Kumbhakarṇa, Vibhishaṇ, Dúshaṇ and Khara as her brothers.

In Book III, Canto 18, Ráma turns her toward Lakshmaṇ, who also refuses her and directs her back to Ráma. Śúrpaṇakhá then rushes at Sítá, threatening, “This aged crone this very hour / Before thy face will I devour”; Lakshmaṇ cuts off her nose and ears. In Book III, Cantos 19–20, Khara orders his giants to kill Ráma, Lakshmaṇ and Sítá, and the wounded Śúrpaṇakhá flees to Khara, telling him that her champions have fallen. In Cantos 32 and 34 she goes to Lanká and tells Rávaṇ her tale, saying that Lakshmaṇ wounded her and that Ráma spared her. Book VI, Canto 128, recalls her flight “repulsed, with rage and tears, / Reft of her nose and severed ears.”

Relationship record

Book I, Canto 1 · Nárad

admired: Ráma “A hideous giantess who came Burning for him with lawless flame.”
enemies with Ráma “And Ráma’s falchion left its trace Deep cut on Śúrpaṇakhá’s face:”

Book I, Canto 3 · The Argument

enemies with Ráma “How Śúrpaṇakhá underwent The mockery and disfigurement.”

Book III, Canto 17 · Súrpanakhá

admired: Ráma “But when, O best of men, I cast These fond eyes on thy form, I see My chosen love and lord in thee.”
enemies with Sítá “I’ll eat that ill-formed woman there: Thy brother too her fate shall share.”
enemies with Lakshmaṇ “I’ll eat that ill-formed woman there: Thy brother too her fate shall share.”
siblings with Rávaṇ “King Rávaṇ is my brother: fame Has taught perchance his dreaded name,”
siblings with Kumbhakarṇa “King Rávaṇ is my brother: fame Has taught perchance his dreaded name, Strong Kumbhakarṇa slumbering deep In chains of never-ending sleep:”
siblings with Vibhishaṇ “King Rávaṇ is my brother: fame Has taught perchance his dreaded name, Strong Kumbhakarṇa slumbering deep In chains of never-ending sleep: Vibhíshaṇ of the duteous mind,”
siblings with Dúshaṇ “Vibhíshaṇ of the duteous mind, In needs unlike his giant kind: Dúshaṇ and Khara, brave and bold”
siblings with Khara “Vibhíshaṇ of the duteous mind, In needs unlike his giant kind: Dúshaṇ and Khara, brave and bold”

Book III, Canto 18 · The Mutilation

admired: Lakshmaṇ “Come, for thy bride take me who shine In fairest grace that suits with thine.”
admired: Ráma “And to the mighty victor cried: “What, Ráma, canst thou blindly cling To this old false misshapen thing?”
enemies with Ráma “He drew that sword which none could stay, And cleft her nose and ears away.”
enemies with Lakshmaṇ “He drew that sword which none could stay, And cleft her nose and ears away.”
enemies with Sítá “She spoke, and with a glance of flame Rushed on the fawn-eyed Maithil dame:”

Book III, Canto 19 · The Rousing Of Khara

siblings with Khara “When Khara saw his sister lie With blood-stained limbs and troubled eye,”
enemies with Ráma “Perfidious wretch! my soul is fain Her foaming blood and theirs to drain.”
enemies with Lakshmaṇ “Perfidious wretch! my soul is fain Her foaming blood and theirs to drain.”

Book III, Canto 20 · The Giants’ Death

siblings with Khara “With drying wounds that scarcely bled Back to her brother’s home she fled.”
enemies with Ráma “Fierce Śúrpaṇakhá with her train To Ráma’s dwelling came again, And to the eager giants showed Where Sítá and the youths abode.”

Book III, Canto 21 · The Rousing Of Khara

siblings with Khara “Her weeping eyes she slowly dried And to her brother thus replied:”
enemies with Ráma “Those twice seven giants, brave and strong, Thou sentest to avenge the wrong, To lay the savage Ráma low,”
enemies with Lakshmaṇ “To lay the savage Ráma low, And Lakshmaṇ who misused me so.”

Book III, Canto 32 · Rávan Roused

enemies with Ráma “Then Śúrpaṇakhá bearing yet Each deeply printed trace Where the great-hearted chief had set A mark upon her face,”

Book III, Canto 34 · Súrpanakhá’s Speech

siblings with Rávaṇ “Tell all, my sister, and declare”
enemies with Ráma “Me of his grace the victor spared, Or I the giants’ fate had shared.”
enemies with Lakshmaṇ “Each wound upon my face I owe To cruel Lakshmaṇ’s savage blow.”

Book III, Canto 36 · Rávan’s Speech

siblings with Rávaṇ “But his false hand my sister left Mangled, of nose and ears bereft.”

Book VI, Canto 128 · Hanumán’s Story

admired: Ráma “He told how Śúrpaṇakhí came, Her soul aglow with amorous flame, And fled repulsed, with rage and tears, Reft of her nose and severed ears.”
enemies with Ráma “He told how Śúrpaṇakhí came, Her soul aglow with amorous flame, And fled repulsed, with rage and tears, Reft of her nose and severed ears.”

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Extracted from the original text of The Rámáyan of Válmíki. Made with Rho MD.