In India, and many countries across the world, it can be discerned that a fair complexion is considered beautiful, and a dark complexion is considered unattractive. The signs are visible in the media and society. It is no surprise that many people spend a lot of time and money on cosmetics that claim to lighten the skin tone. Dark-complexioned people face hurdles in many aspects of life, like matrimony and employment. Was this so in the ancient days too? What do the epics say about this?
Notably, most major Hindu male deities like Sri Ram, Sri Krishna and Lord Shiva are dark-skinned. They were not considered ugly. Sri Krishna’s name derives from the Sanskrit word krishna which means ‘dark.’ Krishna is said to be so attractive that he had the gopis of Gokula and Vrindavana in thrall. Most idols of Sri Krishna in temples across India show him as black.
In folk stories and songs, he is sometimes referred to as Ghana Shyama (as dark as the clouds), Shyama Sundara (the dark and beautiful), or simply as Shyama or Sanwara (meaning dark). All these names were given to Krishna in love, so we can say that people loved his dark complexion. Another person named Krishna was Vedavyasa, the creator of Mahabharata, whose real name was Krishna Dvaipayana which means the dark one born on an island.
You might think that this may hold only for males; after all, even today there is the concept of ‘dark and handsome’ for male beauty. What about females? One of the forms of Goddess Durga is Kali, where she is represented as pitch black in complexion. This form is widely worshipped in eastern and southern India. The Mahabharata states that King Shantanu fell for the dark and beautiful daughter of a fisherman, Satyavati. His attraction towards her was so strong that it led to his son Bhishma taking a vow to remain unmarried to facilitate their marriage.
The heroine of Mahabharata, Draupadi, was dark in complexion but was renowned for her beauty which is described thus: ‘The fire-born woman was extremely beautiful. Her eyes were black and large as lotus petals, her complexion was dark, and her locks were blue and curly.’ Today, most matrimonial ads may ask for a fair complexion but in the ancient days, the dark Draupadi had not one but five husbands!
The present-day prejudice against dark complexion has developed in the recent centuries and did not exist earlier. In ancient times, white colour stood for purity and black for evil, but this representation was not commonly applied to people’s complexions. Once we drop our glasses of colour prejudice, we will be able to see clearly that people of every complexion can be, and are, beautiful.