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.
