Demonic and Demidivine Beauty in the Eyes of Demidivine and Demonic Beholders

Abstract

The Ramayana and Mahabharata highlight the demidivine simian Hanumat and the part-demon prince Duryodhana differently experiencing their political enemies’ assembling halls as aesthetic and theological objects alike. Hanumat is seduced figuratively by the sensual pleasures of the personal hall (sala) of unrighteous Ravana (the demon king of Lanka and abductor of Ramayana hero Rama’s wife, Sita), but remains devoted to righteous Rama, half of divine preserver Visnu reborn. Duryodhana, however, covets the imposing heights of the professional hall (sabha) of his paternal cousin Yudhisthira (the demidivine king of Indraprastha and biological son of righteousness-divinity Dharma), and deploys unrighteous dicing gambits to depose the Mahabharata hero temporarily, having identified with a fellow follower of divine destroyer Siva, Sisupala, slain by his estranged maternal cousin—fractional Visnu incarnation Krsna. The Visnu-preferring epic authors give to Hanumat and Duryodhana, for their disparate theological commitments, diverging deserts. Whereas Hanumat lives long until merging with his originary wind-divinity, Duryodhana dies prematurely in battle and cycles eternally among different realms—beginning briefly in heaven and continuing extendedly in hell. By applying to both epic assembling-hall observers aesthetic philosopher Kendall L. Walton’s mimetic theory, this study illuminates the striking sectarian distinctions between contrasting poetic architectural depictions.