Soorpanaka

Shurpanakha
The humiliation of Shurpanakha by Warwick Goble, 1913

Shurpanakha (IAST: Śūrpaṇakhā; lit. "sharp, long nails") or Surpanakha is a character in Valmiki's epic, the Ramayana, and is the sister of the main antagonist, Ravana, King of Lanka. She is known as Soorpanagai in Tamil, Sarpakanaka in Indonesian, Surpanakhar in Khmer, Surapandaki in Malay, and Sammanakkha in Thai.

Valmiki describes Shurpanakha by the time of the Ramayana's events as generally ugly (gora mukhi):

The youngest child of Rishi Vishrava and his second wife, Kaikesi, Shurpanakha (the one with lethal and long nails) was given the name of Minakshi "Diksha" at birth, and some also called her Chandranakha (the one with nails like the moon). As beautiful as her mother Kaikesi and her grandmother Tataka had been before her, Shurpanakha grew up and secretly married the Danava prince of the Kalkeya Danava clan, Vidyutjihva. Ravana became enraged with Shurpanakha for marrying a Danava. The Danavas were the mortal enemies of Rakshasas, and he was about to punish her, but Mandodari convinced him to respect the wishes of his sister. Thus Ravana accepted Shupanakha, her husband and Danavas as relatives officially.

At the time of conquering Rasatala (the underworld), her brother, Ravana decided to visit his newly married sister, where he discovered Vidyutjihva's true motive to marry Shurpanakha – to kill Ravana. In Shurpanakha's absence, Vidyutjihva attacked Ravana, who in self-defense killed his brother-in-law. This earned Ravana his hurt and miserable sister's great displeasure, and the widowed Shurpanakha then split her time between Lanka and the woods of Southern India, sometimes living with her forest-dwelling Asura relatives, Khara and Dushana, on Ravana's orders. She also had conceived a son by Vidyutjihva known as Shambhri who was accidentally killed by Lakshmana.