The Hindu religion, like the religions of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, is based on the worship of gods and goddesses.  One of these deities was Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, fortune, beauty and power.  Sita, the wife of Ram, was the goddess of wifely fidelity and chastity.  Durga was a goddess of war.  Then there were Parvati, Kali and others.  People who love mythology will delight in the tales of the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana, two great Sanskrit epic poems that are central to the Hindu religion.

However, as intriguing and curious as these ancient goddesses may be, they can hardly compare with today’s cinematic goddesses of the Indian subcontinent.  I devoted an earlier article to the famous actress and beauty queen, Aishwarya Rai, stating my agreement with the widespread appreciation of her as the world’s most beautiful woman.  But it was a very difficult decision for me to make in view of the existence of the equally gorgeous Priyanka Chopra, who was Miss India World and Miss World in the year 2000, at the age of 17.  She was the fifth Indian girl in seven years to be elected Miss World.  I personally have long entertained the notion that Indian women are the most beautiful of all, and Priyanka serves as an exhibit in evidence.

Priyanka was born in 1982 in Jamshedpur, a city in the Indian state of Jharkand.  She has lived also in Uttar Pradesh, another Indian state, as well as in Massachusetts and Iowa.  After winning the Miss World contest, in spite of the fact that beauty contests are illegal in Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka went on to become an actress in Bollywood, Bombay’s answer to Hollywood, and she has starred in a number of Indian films.  Though she claims to speak only Hindi and English, I see, in checking her films, that she has played also in movies in Tamil.  Hindi and Tamil are two Indian languages as different from each other as either is from English.  I don’t know how these intelligent Indians always manage to speak 3 or 4 languages. 

Perhaps because of the imitative nature of Bollywood, as it strives to compete with Hollywood, Priyanka and other Indian actresses are often photographed in Western apparel, and assuming poses that do not gibe with Indian notions of feminine modesty. as here and here and here.  Though Priyanka is magnificent in any case, I am partial to Indian attire.  However, finding pictures of her in traditional dress is not so easy.  Here is one picture.  Here’s another.  The traditional Indian look appeals to me for the very reason that it strikes me as more dignified and ladylike than Western stances and postures, which are often exaggerated, suggestive and immodest.

Priyanka is 5’-8” tall, weighs 117 pounds and measures 35”-24”-34”.  Her parents were both doctors, so I assume that she grew up in an atmosphere of refinement and dignity.  I don’t know how wealthy they were, but I suppose Priyanka is fairly well-off, even if her acting doesn’t command the fees that it would in the US.

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