Surpanakha is attracted by Ram and wants to be intimate with him, and is surprised at being rejected

Illustration/Devdutt Pattanaik

The Vedic scriptures (1000 BC to 100 AD) were about ritual. They do not have intimate details about love. The first major Sanskrit work to speak of love, especially marital and extramarital love, is Valmiki’s Ramayana. It was put down in writing after the Mauryan Age, and sought to evoke the earlier Vedic Age before the rise of Buddhists.

Here is how the hero, Ram, of the Valmiki Ramayana is described when Surpanakha, the rakshasi woman, sees him for the first time. He resembled a celestial being, with his radiant countenance, his long arms, his large eyes like unto lotus petals, his majestic gait resembling an elephant’s, matted locks crowning his head; youthful, full of valour, bearing the marks of royalty, his........

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