We all know Ravi Varma has brought most of the religious and Indian mythological characters to life. For instance this character, Tilottama. Her story starts from an episode of Mahabharata.
Once Rishi Narada was invited to “Indraprastha” to witness the Pandavas newly built city and palace in the Khandava forest on the banks of Yamuna. Pandava brothers greeted Rishi Narada with due respect and Draupadi their wife served him delicious food. During this visit, Draupadi’s enchanting beauty caught the attention of the great Rishi and he also noticed how the five brothers were crazily in love with their common wife Draupadi. Seeing all this Naratha had a thought and to convey it to everyone, he decides to tell them a story.
And the story goes like this.. Once upon a time… there lived 2 asura brothers called Sunda and Upasunda sons of Nishumbha. They were the descendants of the powerful Hiranyakashyap. We all know his story. They loved each other so much and they were inseparable siblings who shared everything: the kingdom, the palace, the bed, the food, even a seat. Together the brothers decided to conquer the three worlds (Heaven, Earth and the hell) they planed to perform hard tapas and purification rituals. So the two brothers started performing tapas on the Vindhya mountain with the object of conquering the three worlds. Do you think the devas would sit and enjoy watching their tapas? They tried everything to stop them but all attempts failed. The result of their long tapas, Brahma was pleased and appeared before them. They asked for great power and immortality to capture the three worlds, brahma denied saying to win over the three world I cannot make you immortal pls ask for something else he said. The brothers said, in that case give us a boon that nobody or nothing would be able to kill us. We could only die at the hands of each other and Brahma agreed and granted them the boon. Swollen-headed by the boon the brothers conquered the three worlds and none could kill them.
They just went wild and went and captured everything that came in their way and nothing could stop them and the helpless Devas ran to Brahma for help. They asked Bhrama to do something for granting them such boon. Then Bhrama calls his best architect Vishwakarma and asks him to make the most beautiful woman. So vishwakarma goes around picked up the essence of beauty from each and every best thing in the Universe and made the most beautiful woman and they named her Tilottama.
let’s get in to the etymology of her name Tilottamā. This Sanskrit word Tilottama is made of two words, til and Uttama. Till meaning sesame which denoted small or tiny particles and uttama meaning perfection. Like I said, Since Vishwakarma the greatest architect of Indra made Tilottama, he made her with every beautiful particle in the universe and not one tiny particle in her was imperfect. Everything about her was sooo perfect, she was composed of the finest and highest qualities.
And Then She was then sent to earth to accomplish her mission. As predicted Sunda- Upasunda were in the Vindhya mountains, when they saw Tilottama they lusted after her. They fell in love with her the moment they saw her. Sunda held her right arm and pulled her to his side and upasunda held her left arm and pulled her to his side. But she agreed to give herself to only one. They started fighting for her. Sunda said “Upasunda, she is going to be your sister in law treat her with respect. Upasunda growled and said Nooo you treat her with respect she is your sister in law.. They fought for Tilottama and ended up killing each other.
After this story Rishi Narada tuned towards the 5 brothers and said, that they have also married one of the most beautiful maiden on the earth so he advised them to setup a rule among themselves regarding the companionship of Draupadi among the husbands. Because he thought that Draupadi would become a reason to divide the brothers. Just like Tilottama was created to bring a disruption in the bond between the brothers Sunda and Upasunda. And after this Rishi Narada said goodbye and left.
But the Tilottama’s story does not end here. Tilottama was hidden forever in the shadow of Suryadev, so that no one else fights over her. So that is the story of Tilottama and Ravi Varma has chosen to paint this beautiful image to represent her beauty. Also do visit our website www.purathanam.com to order this product.
Click the below link to checkout the oleograph print of Tilottama: