"As the Ramayana seeks to extol Rama and Sita as ideals in every respect, we can from the descriptions of their forms reconstruct the ancient Indian view of personal beauty. Rama was dark and had red eyes, a round (moon-like) face, a broad chest, large arms, and shoulders similar to those of a bull, the broad chest is normally compared to that of a lion while the eyes were of the shape of lotus petals. The Ramayan shows that the concept of feminine beauty had been far subtler, and the numerous descriptions of beautiful women in the epic provides us with sufficient data on the subject. And Sita, of course is portrayed as the prettiest of them."