Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings: Heroes in the epics

January 28, 2007

Heroes in the epics

I have no idea why this thought suddenly came to mind today.

In the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha, the heroes, the ace archers, are invariably dark skinned: Rama, Arjuna and Krishna in particular. Karna can be seen as an exception. In any case, he wasn't one of the protagonists. I found this to be too much of a coincidence.

I'm making one assumption here - that the Aryan invasion theory is right, and that the Dravidians were a bunch of dark-skinned folks unlike the fair-skinned Aryans who came from Caucasia, and the Aryans pushed the Dravidians further down south.

I believe that the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha were nothing more than fantastic stories, the Mahabharatha in particular being a superbly complex story. They aren't for real. If someone (Valmiki or Vyasa, to give them names) did write these stories, why'd he/she pick dark skinned characters as the heroes? During their wanderings, did they come across supreme bowmen from parts of southern India and they just had to incorporate them as heroes in the stories that they were weaving?

Let's take a counter-view. Assuming that the two epics were in fact actual events which were chronicled by Valmiki and Vyasa, the whopping majority of the characters involved in the epics were Kshatriyas and the events predominantly occured north of the Vindhyas (peninsular India makes very few appearances in the Mahabharatha and would perhaps not even have featured in the Ramayana had Ravana's base been in modern-day Bangladesh).

This makes it even tougher to explain how dark-skinned chaps became heroes in the epics since most folks in northern/western India were fair skinned. The likes of Krishna, Arjuna and Rama are exceptions. Then again, maybe their skin was just a shade darker than the others and poetic license was liberally used to make them blue/blue-black in colour! But, if they were exceptions, isn't it still too much of a coincidence that all three major protagonists were dark coloured?

Your thoughts?

Labels: epics, hindu, mahabharatha, mythology, ramayana

Rambled @ 10:17 PM

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6 comment(s)

If thin you are over analyzing. Stereotype of good looking man is talk, dark, well built, handsome and so on. Our heros are of course, best of men, so they are beautiful and wise and brave all together.

And I think Ramayana and Mahabharata are not completely cooked up stories. They are historical fiction at worst. There is evidence for Dwarika in Gujarat, I heard. -Ashish

By Ashish Gupta (Feb 3, 2007, 3:00:00 AM)

Hope you do understand that Rama and Krishna are avataars of Lord Vishnu who is supposed to be blue in colour?And also Arjuna is also an avtaar of Nara ( another form of Vishnu)?
And before people suggest historical fiction at worst, well sir, 20000 years down the line, when someone tells you that the world did not have electricity once and people actually lived , would you believe it?

By Unknown (Feb 3, 2007, 4:52:00 PM)

ashish: Perhaps so. At the same time, Draupadi was dark complexioned too. I'm unsure if the stereotype of a beautiful woman in Aryavarta was a dark complexioned lady. That's why I reckon there's more to it than meets the eye.

subramanian: Interestingly enough, Shiva is dark complexioned too. Yet, Hanuman (who's reckoned to be an incarnation) isn't dark coloured. Vishnu's other avatars (Parashurama, Vamana, Balarama/Buddha) weren't dark coloured.

By Jagadish (Feb 6, 2007, 12:52:00 PM)

The dark complexion of the characters that you are talking about is undoubtedly
attributed to Vishnu.

Also, the color here is dark blue, and not black, or some typical shade of dark complpexion. Not that I have a problem with black, just that using black would

be inaccurate. The people you are talking about were dark blue. The color has mostly been described has the color of the rain clouds, or the color of the

blue lotus.

While it might not always hold the other way...i.e. all the avatars of Vishnu are not dark blue, the characters that we are talking about here are

undoubtedly incarnations of Vishnu, or related in blood to that incarnation of Vishnu in some way or the other. I think there are some prominent Vishnu

Bhaktas too who have the dark blue complexion, probably meaning that they have almost become Vishnu themselves or are portions of Vishnu.

Let me go through as many as I know:

Arjuna, Krishna, Raam, Ved Vyaasa: Are all incarnations of Vishnu and are dark blue. (Arjuna is an incarnation of Nara who is Vishnu incarnate)

Rishi ShukDeva:

Son of veda vyasa(who is vishnu incarnate). He again is dark blue complexioned. Also a great Vishnu Bhakta.

Pradyumna, Aniruddha:
son and grandson of Krishna...they are dark blue.

Udhhava:

One of the foremost friends and Bhaktas of Krishna. Is dark blue comlexioned. In fact he was very similar in appearance to Krishna.

Bharata(from Ramayan):
Brother of Raama, dark blue in complexion. One of the foremost Bhaktas of Raama. Also an incarnation of Vishnu according to the scriptures that consider all

4 brothers Vishnu.

Draupadi, Tulsi:

Are Shri(the consort or shakti of Vishnu) incarnate. Both have the dark blue complexion.

Balarama/Lakshman:

Are totally white complexioned because they are an
an incarnation of the form of Vishu that presides over Tamo Guna i.e. Sankarshar murti or Shesh Naag...This form is absolutely white complexioned..

Shiva:

By the way Shiva has a white complexion and not dark..He might come across as dark because his body is smeared with ashes, or might take up dark fierce forms like Veera Bhadra (I dont know if veera bhadra was dark though).He also presides over Tamo Guna..and infact appears from the forehead of Shesh Naag during dissolution.

Brahma:

Is red in his most popular form being the deity presiding over Rajo Guna...I am mentioning Brahma because his complexion, just like the Sankarshana Murti, has something to do with what he presides over.

So you can pretty much trace most of the dark blue people to Vishnu in some way or the other. The opposite of course might no be always be true..i,e, Vishnu

does not always incarnate as a dark blue presonality...OR like the other example of Hanuman that you gave.

While these deities may take colors
up colors and forms different from their popular forms, the color problem you are talking about undoubteldy has its answer in the deity of which has incarnated.

The complexion of all these dark blue personalities was not of a very typical kind. Their beauty has been described as being of a very mystical and divine kind...All these people were considered the most beautiful people of their times.

By Dhruv (Feb 8, 2007, 12:43:00 AM)

Visn (Vishn`u) is a pagan God of Latvia (Near Rega, Lithuania, Finland). Latvians use Svastik. There is also a Goddess Lakme Mate (Lakshmi Mata). Can somebody from Latvia or Lithuania can tell whether their Visn is blue? There is a Latvian language called "Latgalan" which is very near to Sanskrit.

My suggestion: Better not to draw hasty conclusions about color of Gods. We have to search more.

For things normally NOT covered by speakers/writers, in Ramayana, PL. HAVE A LOOK AT: www.ramayanayb.blogspot.com.
If you wish to fire me, pl. write a comment there.

By ybr (alias ybrao a donkey) (Mar 9, 2007, 6:09:00 PM)

Indians are so racial that they have made their favorite characters black skinned by whatever means... First of all Krishna was not black... he was born as white.... he turned blue due to effect of Posion of SheshNag when he jumped into Yamuna to kill the snake.... Secondly, Arjuna was white in color as his multiple names depicts... His color was white as Arjuna tree or milk.... The black people of India cannot digest this facts so they want to project all great warriors in their own skin color that is black.... Third whether its Aruna or Krishna or Rama, they were all Aryans who migrated to Indian Sub-continent from mid-europe.... so they can never born as black or dark-skinned people....

By VS (Aug 26, 2010, 9:24:00 PM)

I'd prefer if you posted comments with your real name to add more credibility to your opinions. Obviously comments containing offensive and unsuitable language will be deleted. The opinions in the comments are your own views. You are welcome to provide a URL to your own blog, especially if it discusses issues you find here.

Heroes in the epics

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