CHENNAI: Seeing the fierce battle between Rama and Tataka, the grey-haired sage Vishwamitra, believed that it was impossible for anyone other than Rama to defeat this ‘demoness’. This belief has seeped on to pages of Rama (Amar Chitra Katha), too. It continues to portray the valour of Rama. The numerous retellings of epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata provide multiple perspectives stemming from various ideologies.
As Dr K Ayyappa Paniker suggests in Indian Narratology, “This flexibility of narrative details ensures the anonymity of the author. Anyone can produce his own version and fancy his own authorial privilege.” This ‘authorial privilege’ can, however extends to shades of discrimination.
Have you ever wondered why Rama is shown in a lighter blue shade? In the background, we see Tataka whose character design diverges from the protagonist. She has greenish-blue skin, messy, wild hair, and a muscular build — contradicting the portrayal of beauty and femininity — with loud expressions.
Exposure to stereotypes
“The Indian practice of communicating with colour, corresponding to the emotional state, gives white the properties of goodness, as it is described by a caste of priests (Brahmins). This has stayed the unchanged tradition for centuries”, writes Carl Olson in The Many Colors of Hinduism: A Thematic-historical Introduction. “The representation in animated movies like Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama, Ramayan — The King Of Kings, or cartoons like Chhota Bheem, the same stereotypes continue.”
Feminist historian, and writer, V Geetha, says, “Both the Ramayana and Mahabharata explicitly state that Rama and Krishna were not light-skinned. There is a celebration of this darkness as well. There is a certain marker that is deployed in these epics, possibly pointing to the kinds of different racial or colour mixes that were happening across parts of the northern Indian region.”
In Amar Chitra Katha, she adds that the darkness is exoticised and heroes are given green or sky blue tones. However, women in these narratives had to be fair to be attractive. Geetha says, “You won’t see a dark Draupadi anywhere.
Dark-skin is portrayed for asuras, lower-caste and ‘bad people’.Pootana or Soorpanaka are marked as seductresses or bad women. Either they are over-dressed or given loud makeup.” The depiction of Ravana, she says, is interesting because the character is a Brahmin king who abducted another man’s wife.
She says, “In the 1958, Sampoorna Ramayana, NTR, is a tall and well-built man and is painted blue. Ravana, however, is shown as a normal person in films; he’s not painted in an asura-like fashion. And people in Ravana’s courts will have funny clothes and head-gear of two horns, big mustaches.”
Writer and activist Shalin Maria Lawrence recalls her childhood when Tamil television dramas amplified these colour-coded messages. “There was a show called Naragasuren, where characters like Naragasuren and the asuras were always dark-skinned, with wild hair and fierce looks. In contrast, the gods who punished them were fair-skinned and calm,” she shares.
For years, with only one TV channel available, viewers were steeped in the same portrayal. Shalin adds that even in festive celebrations, the pattern continued. “Every Diwali, we’d see ads with fair-skinned people celebrating, none looked like the people of Tamil Nadu.”
“It is not just colourism when it comes to India. It is also casteism,” shares Bavya, a city-based software developer. Arthi Baskaran, a researcher on gender, caste, colour, and Tamil cinema and an assistant professor of history, shares, “The caste system, structured around ideas of ‘purity’ and ‘impurity’, became entrenched when Aryans gained control over the Indian socio-political landscape.
The power to represent deities, like other cultural symbols, has largely been controlled by the socially dominant castes. This allowed them to depict gods and goddesses in ways that reinforced their cultural dominance.” The choice of actors in these divine roles also reflects these biases.
“They are played by actors like Ramya Krishnan, Meena or Nayanthara,” shares Bavya. Arthi points out that in Tamil films, goddesses like Amman — deities rooted in indigenous folk traditions — with hues like darker green diluting the darker-skinned heritage of these deities and replacing it with a more sanitised, Brahminical portrayal.”
Impact of portrayals
The media’s role in shaping societal values is evident in how it portrays physical attributes. Irai shares, “Our mind cannot understand deeply until we start learning on our own, so media plays a powerful role in creating those initial impressions that last a long time.” These portrayals can have psychological impacts, especially on children.
Arthi adds, “Children absorb messages from their surroundings — family, media, and society — that shape their perception of themselves and others. This process, known as socialisation, plays a crucial role in how cultural norms, such as colourism, are internalised. Children who are exposed to these stereotypes can begin to associate their own self-worth with their skin colour.”
“The Ramayana in itself is a subtle text. It’s not so black and white as it’s made out to be. Unless you have a alternative retelling itself, something from the point of view of asuras, you won’t have an alternative representation,” shares Geetha.
Alternative portrayals of Ravana, in the south is visible. Geetha says, “In the stage play Elangeswaran and the movie Sampoorna Ramayana, we see a sympathetic portrayal of Ravana. In the novel Vanadheviyin Mainthargal, we see a radical rendering of Ramayana that speaks about the Adivasi culture of the forests.”
Alternative narratives within Tamil cinema and folk traditions indeed challenge dominant views on colour and caste, says Arthi. She adds, “Tamil subaltern groups have long championed forms like Therukoothu, a folk street theatre form staged in non-Brahmin Hindu temple festivals. This art form, despite being dismissed by upper-caste groups as “low culture,” has remained vital in expressing Tamil identity and social critique.”
Citing thinkers like Periyar, Irai emphasises that the focus should be on equitable representation, not just in religious celebrations but in public life, too. He says, “Everything is related — culture, politics, ideology — they influence how we view each other. Representation should dismantle these biases, not reinforce them.”