Panchakanya

Panchakanya literally means five kanyas. Kanya may be translated as girl, daughter, maiden, or virgin. ==Hymn==

A well-known Sanskrit hymn that defines the Panchakanya runs as: Sanskrit transliteration English translation Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita, Tara and Mandodari One should forever remember the panchakanya who are the destroyers of great sins A variant from the of Brahma purana 3.7.229 by Vyasa replaces Sita with Kunti: Sanskrit transliteration Differences are underlined. Practising Hindus, especially Hindu wives, remember the Panchakanya in this daily morning prayer. Their names are extolled and the prayer is called a pratah-smaraniyah, prescribed to be recited in the early hours of the morning. ==From the Ramayana==

The kanyas of Ahalya, Tara, and Mandodari appear in the Hindu epic Ramayana. Sita, its female protagonist, is sometimes included in the panchakanya list. Ahalya Ahalya, also known as Ahilya, is the wife of the sage Gautama. Ahalya is described to be created by the creator-god Brahma as a flawless beauty, In all narratives, Ahalya and Indra are cursed by Gautama. She marries Vali and bears him a son named Angada. After Vali is presumed dead in a battle with an asura named Mayavi, his brother Sugriva becomes king and appropriates Tara. Mandodari Mandodari is the chief queen consort of Ravana, the rakshasa king of Lanka and the primary antagonist of the epic. The Hindu epics describe her as beautiful, pious, and righteous. She is the daughter of Mayasura, the king of the asuras, and the apsara (celestial nymph) Hema. Some tales narrate how an apsara called Madhura is cursed to become a frog and imprisoned in a well for twelve years, after which she regains her beauty, and blessed to become a beautiful maiden; in both cases, she is adopted by Mayasura as his daughter Mandodari. Ravana comes to the abode of Mayasura, falls in love with Mandodari, and then marries her. Mandodari bears him three sons: Meghanada (Indrajita), Atikaya, and Akshayakumara. Despite her husband's faults, Mandodari loves him and advises him to follow the path of righteousness. Mandodari repeatedly advises Ravana to return Sita to Rama, but her advice falls on deaf ears. Different versions of Ramayana record her ill-treatment at the hands of Rama's vanara generals. Hanuman tricks her into disclosing the location of a magical arrow, which Rama uses to kill Ravana. After Ravana's death, Vibhishana—Ravana's younger brother who joins forces with Rama —marries Mandodari on the advice of Rama. Sita is the adopted daughter of Janaka, king of Videha, found while he was furrowing the earth. The prince of Ayodhya, Rama wins Sita in her svayamvara. Later, when Rama is sentenced to a fourteen-year exile, Sita joins him and his brother Lakshmana, despite Rama's wish for her to remain in Ayodhya. In the Dandaka forest, she falls prey to Ravana's scheme and sends Rama away in the quest for a golden deer. She is kidnapped by Ravana, and imprisoned in the Ashoka Vatika grove of Lanka until she is rescued by Rama, who slays Ravana in war. Sita proves her chastity by undergoing a trial by fire, and both return with Lakshmana to Ayodhya, where Rama is crowned King. When a washerman casts doubts on her chastity, the pregnant Sita is left in the forest. Sita gives birth to twins Lava and Kusha in the hermitage of sage Valmiki, who protects her. Her sons grow and reunite with Rama; Sita is asked to prove her chastity before Rama can take her back. However, Sita chooses to return to the womb of her mother, Earth. ==From the Mahabharata==

The Hindu epic Mahabharata features Draupadi and Kunti, the latter of whom is sometimes included in the Panchakanya. Draupadi Draupadi is the female protagonist of the Mahabharata. She is the common wife of the five Pandava brothers and queen of Hastinapura, during the reign of the eldest Pandava, Yudhishthira. Born from a fire-sacrifice of the king of Panchala, Drupada, Draupadi is prophesied to lead to the end of Drona and the Kauravas. The Pandava Arjuna, disguised as a Brahmin, wins her in her svayamvara. In popular renditions, she refuses to marry Karna on account of his low-birth (this is excised in the Critical Edition of Mahabharata as later interpolation owing to the existence of older Sanskrit editions where Karna fails to string the bow.) Draupadi marries all five of the brothers on the inadvertent word of her mother-in-law, Kunti. The Pandavas agree to the plan that Draupadi would always be the chief consort of all the brothers, and would receive the title of empress. It is stipulated that Draupadi spend a year with each Pandava; any of the other four brothers who interrupts them during their private time within that year is to embark on a pilgrimage of twelve years. In a chapter of the epic, Duryodhana falls a into lake of crystal water after mistaking it for land during a rajasuya yajna, and is laughed at by Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva, and their servants. In modern adaptations, Draupadi is presented as the one who laughed. When the eldest Pandava Yudhishthira loses her to Kauravas in a game of dice, Dushasana tries to disrobe her in the royal court. Krishna intervenes to save her dignity, causing her garments to extend infinitely in length. After life in exile, the Kurukshetra War ensues between the Kauravas and Pandavas, in which the Kauravas are slain. The insult to Draupadi is avenged, but she also loses her father, brothers, and sons in battle. Yudhishthira became the emperor of Hastinapura, with Draupadi as his chief empress consort. By her service, she propitiates the sage Durvasa, who grants her a mantra by which she could summon a deity and have a child by him. She recklessly tests the boon and invokes the sun-god Surya. The deity grants her a son named Karna, whom she abandons. Pandu abdicates after being cursed by a sage that his sexual union with a woman would result in his death. At Pandu's behest, Kunti uses Durvasa's boon to mother Yudhishthira from the god Yama, Bhima from Vayu, and Arjuna from Indra. leading to their polygynous marriage with her. Kunti and Pandavas return to Hastinapura. When the Pandavas are sent to a 13-year exile when defeated in a game of dice by the Kauravas, Kunti stays with Vidura. Before the Kurukshetra War, Kunti reveals to Karna - now a Kaurava general - about her identity as his mother. She persuades him to promise her that he would not attempt to kill any of the Pandavas, with the exception of Arjuna. After the war, in which Kauravas and Karna were killed, Kunti, along with Dhritarashtra and Gandhari, retire to the forest to spend the rest of her life in prayer. She is killed in a forest-fire, and attains heaven. ==Common Features==

All kanyas lack mothers in their life. Ahalya, Tara, Mandodari, Sita and Draupadi have supernatural births while Kunti is adopted at birth and separated from her mother. Though all of the kanyas are described as mothers, except Draupadi, no kanyas' motherhood is emphasized in their tales. Another common element is the theme of loss in their legends. Ahalya is cursed and abandoned by her family. Tara lost her husband, Draupadi loses her 5 sons and Mandodari loses her husband, sons and kin in war. Each of them suffers a tragedy but battles on with life and society. Ahalya is punished for her infidelity. Draupadi, in spite of being dedicated and virtuous, has her dignity violated by men. Another defining feature is all the kanyas (barring Sita who is rarely included in the list) are associated with more than one man within socially acknowledged wedlock or consensual companionship. Ahalya with Gautama and Indra; Tara with Vali and Sugriva; Mandodari with Ravana and Vibhishana; Draupadi with her five husbands, and Kunti with Pandu and the three gods who fathered her sons. The Mahari dance tradition equates the panchakanya with the five elements. Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita, Tara and Mandodari represent water, fire, earth, wind and ether respectively. In a similar analogy, writer Vimla Patil associates Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita, Tara and Mandodari with the wind, fire, earth, sky and water respectively. ==In popular culture==

The Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore wrote a collection of poems titled Pancha Kanya with themes of episodes from mythology of Panchakanya. The tales of the Panchakanya remain popular motifs in the Mahari dance tradition of Odisha. Another view considers them exemplary chaste women or satis (chaste women) as per the Mahari dance tradition, and worthy as an ideal for "displaying some outstanding quality. Another view does not regard Panchakanya as ideal women who should be emulated. Bhattacharya, author of Panch-Kanya: The Five Virgins of Indian Epics contrasts Panchakanya with the five satis enlisted in another traditional prayer: Sati, Sita, Savitri, Damayanti, and Arundhati. He rhetorically asks, "Are then Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara and Mandodari not chaste wives because each has known a man or more than one, other than her husband?" ==References==