BEAUTY IS ONLY SKIN DEEP
Beauty in the feminine form has fluttered the hearts of many a poet, artist, ruler, despot, and countless males who have transgressed through a slew of emotions. Throughout the course of history we have witnessed several beautiful women who just by their dazzling appearances, have made the world dance to their tunes.Cleopatra is put forward as a great beauty and her successive conquests of the world's most powerful men is taken to be proof of her aesthetic and sexual appeal. Julius Caesar and Mark Antony were at her feet- with her unprecedented beauty she ruled Egypt with a stature equal to that of Julius Caesar himself. It is said of Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed! Often quoted as the most beautiful woman in the world, queen Nefertiti's charms enabled her to have a status equal to that of the Pharaoh- in a male dominated society, such status was unheard of in 1400 BC. Helen of Troy had the face which "launched a thousand ships" and was the cause for the Trojan war.
Indian history and mythology is rife with stories involving beauty. Ravana pounced upon Sita devi allured by her beauty, and we have a great mythological tale in Ramayana. The ever famous Mahabharata war, was also a result of the alluring beauty of Draupadi. Born of fire, Draupadi became the flame of passion which engulfed the minds of men like Dushyasana, Keechaka and many others leading to the final conflict. In the nectar churning episode in the Kurma avatar, Lord himself came down as the dazzling Mohini to bewilder the asuras to deny their share of the divine nectar of immortality. Great kings like Nala and Dushyanta were literally brought down to their knees when they became enamoured with the enticing beauties of Damayanti and Shakunthala; and their stories replete with so many love tales. I can go on and on...
Beauty is a potent weapon, a major force which drives human thought and behaviour everyday. Beauty is attributed to the feminine gender as an unsettling force over the male ego as societies traditionally have been patriarchal all over the world. Flowers, full moon, rivers... nature itself has been linked to a woman's beauty since time immemorial. Poets have waxed eloquent in praise of beauty throughout history, and it continues in movies today. Ancient Arabic literature melds beauty with 7 levels of attraction- Hub (Attraction), Uns (Infatuation), Ishq (Love), Aquidat (Reverence), Ibaadat (Worship), Junoon (Obsession), and Maut (Death). This by the way is very brilliantly captured and delivered in the song "satrangi re" from the movie Dil Se.
Man's attraction to a woman have made many a ruler into doing strange things. The Taj Mahal stands testament to man's slavery to woman's charms- it was built by Shah Jahan to fulfill this wish of his beloved wife Mumtaz. King Vishnuvardhana of the Hoysala was drowned in his queen Shantala's beauty. Inspired by her beauty, king Vishnuvardhana built numerous divine dance forms of celestial female figures called "Madanikas" in the temple of Chennakeshava at Belur in Karnataka. Sri Shanta-leswara shrine at Shivaganga Bhetta was also constructed to commemorate her beauty. Tulsidas, who wrote the Ramcharitamanas (Ramayana in Hindi) is believed to be a very spiritual person who had several divine visions and the personal touch of God a few times. Even he was madly bewitched by his wife Ratnavali's beauty that he braved torrential rains, and swam across the mighty Ganga river in spate using a corpse as a float to visit her. Eventually he reached his wife's home in the dead of the night using a snake as a rope to climb to her room! Rumour has it that Pakistan was willing to exchange the whole of Kashmir for the bollywood beauty, Madhuri Dixit!Though feminine beauty is widely recognized as a mesmerizing charm, opinions are hugely divided among men to identify different facets of beauty. So what is in women that completely blinds men into the realm of illusion and delusion? Perhaps the most succinct definition of beauty is put forward by John Keats, who observed:
- "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," -that is all
- Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Picture copyright:
"Nefertiti", by Arkadiy Etumyan (License: GFDL)
"Aishwarya Rai at Taj", by www.graphicshunt.com
posted by SHAILENDRA at 6:45 PM
2 Comments:
No offense to your blog, writing style etc.
But your content in this blog makes me anything but frustrated.How about metnioning woman who achieved hieghts w/o being beautiful.
Have you read real history, all the women you mention who "had folks at their feet' was not due to their face value but mainly coz of their calibre in political dispositions.
You make it seem like women can rise only if they are beautiful as that's their only tool.Like we are dumb skull's otherwise.
Yes ,I appreciate beauty too.If someone/something is drop-dead gorgoeus its worth talking about.But calling it out as the only reason why a whole clan of generations would go ga-ga over women is over the top .
And just to clarify, my frustration is not because you prefer beauty over brain in woman and fail to appreciate her other side.Thats your personal call.
I get mad when you use stupid historical examples and try to convey one point throughout the blog that women have come this far,"made people dance to their tunes" is simply because they were ravishingly beautiful and nothing beyond that.
I don't believe folks still think that beauty is the only ticket for women to achieve world glory, global recognition,place in history et al.
Any yes, finally- Please Think Big! Trust me you can.
@ anonymous poster:
Your points are well taken! The main idea which I wanted to convey was how MEN were blinded by the beauty of women- it is the weakness of men which is the main idea of this article- and it is highlighted by the beauty of women.
If you look back again, the examples refer to how men reacted to women's charms. It is true that Cleopatra, Nefertiti, Helen etc. were in a position of power- but their beauty enhanced their stature. And this made a big difference in how men dealt with these queens. Just to give you an example, if you make a cursory research on these queens you would find an overwhelming majority of available data pointing only to their beauty, and only a few facts (if any) on how intelligent or how good an administrator they were.
I never talked about brains anywhere. Beauty of great women like Draupadi, Sita Devi, and others is not just physical. It is not brains either. It is their character, virtues, strength, and how they carry themselves in different situations- how they become role models. And men everywhere, are allured by such "beauty".
There are thousands of girls who look like Aishwarya Rai or Madhuri Dixit- but there is only one A-Rai and M-Dixit. Why? Because beauty goes much deeper than their looks. And that's why we know these women- and men, who reacted to their charms (not just physical appearances).
Thank you for your honest comments!
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