Heroes & villains

The death of a villain comes as a defining moment in the life of a hero. In this, some villains are more equal than others. Notice the noble treatment accorded to his demonic opponent's corpse by Sri Rama. After killing Ravana outside Lanka's ramparts, the magnanimous hero of Ramayana gives the rakshasa a funeral worthy of a royal enemy.

Here is an avatar setting up a role model of chivalrous conduct. If Ravana epitomised 'might is right' principle of jungle raj, Rama stood for the diametrically opposite moral of 'right is might', which was the foundation of Ram Rajya.

Contrast this with the gruesome treatment that the archetypal strongman of the Mahabharata, Bhima, hands out to the mortal remains of his enemy, Kichaka, the commander-in-chief of King Virata's armies.

The manner in which Bhima turns Kichaka into a limbless ball of flesh is cited as an example of Bibhatsa or the horrific element ( rasa) in Indian poetics. The killing of the villainous Duhshasana is as macabre. Bhima goes berserk after ripping off his adversary's arm from the socket. Then he smashes open the ribcage, gorges on the blood only to dress up his wife Draupadi's hair with his blood-drenched hands.

More frightful examples to deter wannabe rapists would be hard to find. As Gurcharan Das writes in The Difficulty of Being Good, despite such dark, chaotic themes, the epic snatches a victory on behalf of its 'un-hero', Yudhishthira: He shows that it's possible for good to triumph even in times of cosmic destruction unleashed on the killing fields of Kurukshetra.