Divine Beings
Virupa
विरूप
Desire in Human Shape
Who was Virupa?
Virupa (विरूप): Desire in Human Shape, one of the divine beings in the Mahabharata. The louder of the two ungainly strangers who forced their quarrel on a king, insisting that he owed his companion Vikrita the merit of the gift of a cow and demanding to be allowed to repay it.
Quick Facts
| Sanskrit name | विरूप |
|---|---|
| Title / Epithet | Desire in Human Shape |
| Faction | Divine Beings |
| Key traits | insistent, cunning, disguised, revealing |
| Notable relationships | Companion: Vikrita, Counterpart: Kama, Fellow Examiner: Yama |
| Featured in | 1 story |
About Virupa
The louder of the two ungainly strangers who forced their quarrel on a king, insisting that he owed his companion Vikrita the merit of the gift of a cow and demanding to be allowed to repay it. When the king and a Brahmana devoted to the Gayatri had each been made to press his own merit on the other, Virupa announced that he and Vikrita were Desire and Wrath, and that Time, Dharma and Death had examined them both through this manufactured friction.
In Their Words
Know, O king, that we two are Desire and Wrath. We appealed to thee for thy own sake.
Virupa
Traits
- insistent
- cunning
- disguised
- revealing
Story Appearances
Character Arc
- The Debt Nobody Is OwedHe demands the right to repay what his friend denies lending
- The Friction AppliedKing and reciter each try to push their merit on the other
- The VerdictHe grants them equality in the regions of felicity and vanishes
Key Relationships
Places in Virupa's Story
Drawn from the story Virupa appears in.
Related Characters
Others counted among the Divine Beings.