Religions of the East 9780754629221

Table of contents :
Cover......Page 1
Half Title......Page 2
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright Page......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgements......Page 8
Series Preface......Page 10
Introduction......Page 12
PART I: SEXUALITY AND CULTURAL EXPRESSION......Page 30
1 Concerning Kamasutras: Challenging Narratives of History and Sexuality......Page 32
2 The Cult of the Earth Goddess among the Magar of Nepal......Page 70
3 Women in Honglou meng: Prescriptions of Purity in the Femininity of Qing Dynasty China......Page 88
4 Contemporary Theravada and Zen Buddhist Attitudes to Human Sexuality: An Exercise in Comparative Ethics......Page 112
5 Sexuality: the Chinese and the Judeo-Christian Traditions in Hong Kong......Page 134
PART II: RENUNCIATION AND ASCETICISM......Page 144
6 Singing the Glory of Asceticism: Devotion of Asceticism in Jainism......Page 146
7 Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of Siva. Part II......Page 170
8 Temple Girls of Medieval Karnataka......Page 212
9 Kumari or "Virgin" Worship in Kathmandu Valley......Page 242
10 Social Consequences of Marrying Visnu Narayana: Primary Marriage among the Newars of Kathmandu Valley......Page 268
PART III: EASTERN RELIGION: SEXUALITY, GENDER AND PATRIARCHY......Page 286
11 'Abductions' and the Constellation of a Hindu Communal Bloc in Bengal of the 1920s'......Page 288
12 Women, Sexuality and Enlightenment: 'Kankyo no Tomo......Page 340
13 Re-Imagining the Divine in Sikhism......Page 372
14 The Power to Pollute and the Power to Preserve: Perceptions of Female Power in a Hindu Village......Page 390
15 Lustful Women, Elusive Lovers: Identifying Males as Objects of Female Desire......Page 402
PART IV: EASTERN RELIGION: SEXUAL VARIANTS......Page 430
16 Not This, Not That: The Hijras of India and the Cultural Politics of Sexuality......Page 432
17 "Like a City Ablaze": The Third Sex and the Creation of Sexuality in Jain Religious Literature......Page 454
18 A Comparative Analysis of Hijras and Drag Queens: The Subversive Possibilities and Limits of Parading Effeminacy and Negotiating Masculinity......Page 480
19 Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety in Traditional India......Page 494
20 Ambiguous Sexuality: Imagery and Interpretation in Tantric Buddhism......Page 522
Name Index......Page 538

Citation preview

Religions of the East

The Library of Essays on Sexuality and Religion Series Editor: Stephen Hunt Titles in the Series: Christianity Stephen Hunt Judaism and Islam Stephen Hunt Religions of the East Stephen Hunt New Religions and Spiritualities Stephen Hunt Indigenous Religions Stephen Hunt

Religions of the East

Edited by

Stephen Hunt University of the West of England, UK

O Routledge

Taylor & Francis Group AND

First published 2010 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Stephen Hunt 2010. For copyright of individual articles please refer to the Acknowledgements. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Wherever possible, these reprints are made from a copy of the original printing, but these can themselves be of very variable quality. Whilst the publisher has made every effort to ensure the quality of the reprint, some variability may inevitably remain. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Religions of the East. - (The library of essays on sexuality and religion) 1. Sex-Religious aspects. 2. Asia-Religious life and customs. I. Series II. Hunt, Stephen, 1954201.7095-dc22 Library of Congress Control Number: 2010931192 ISBN 9780754629221 (hbk)

Contents Acknowledgements Series Preface Introduction PART I 1 2 3 4

5

7 8 9 10

SEXUALITY AND CULTURAL EXPRESSION

Jyoti Puri (2002), 'Concerning Kamasutras: Challenging Narratives of History and Sexuality', Signs, 27, pp. 603-39. 3 Marie Lecomte-Tilouine (1996), 'The Cult of the Earth Goddess among the Magar of Nepal', Diogenes, 44, pp. 27^4. 41 Louise Edwards (1990), 'Women in Honglou meng: Prescriptions of Purity in the Femininity of Qing Dynasty China', Modern China, 16, pp. 407-29. 59 Michel Clasquin-Johnson (1992) 'Contemporary Theravada and Zen Buddhist Attitudes to Human Sexuality: An Exercise in Comparative Ethics', Religion, 22, pp. 63-83. 83 Adolf K.T. Tsang (1987), 'Sexuality: the Chinese and the Judeo-Christian Traditions in Hong Kong', Bulletin of the Hong Kong Psychological Society, 19/20, pp. 19-28. 105

PART II 6

vii ix xi

RENUNCIATION AND ASCETICISM

John E. Cort (2002), 'Singing the Glory of Asceticism: Devotion of Asceticism in Jainism', Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 70, pp. 719—42. 117 Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (1969), 'Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of Siva. Part IF, History of Religions, 9, pp. 1-41. 141 Aloka Parasher and Usha Naik (1986), 'Temple Girls of Medieval Karnataka', Indian Economic and Social History Review, 23, pp. 63-78. 183 M.R. Allen (1976), 'Kumari or "Virgin" Worship in Kathmandu Valley', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 10, pp. 293-316. 213 Anne Vergati (1982), 'Social Consequences of Marrying Visnu Narayana: Primary Marriage among the Newars of Kathmandu Valley', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 16, pp. 271-87. 239

PART III EASTERN RELIGION: SEXUALITY, GENDER AND PATRIARCHY 11 P.K. Dutta (1998), '"Abductions" and the Constellation of a Hindu Communal Bloc in Bengal of the 1920s', Studies in History, 14, pp. 37-88. 259 12 Rajyashree Pandey (1995), 'Women, Sexuality and Enlightenment: 'Kankyo no Tomo', Monumenta Nipponica, 50, pp. 325-56. 311

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13 Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh (2008), 'Re-Imagining the Divine in Sikhism', Feminist Theology, 16, pp. 332^9. 343 14 Catherine Thompson (1985), 'The Power to Pollute and the Power to Preserve: Perceptions of Female Power in a Hindu Village', Social Science and Medicine, 21, pp. 701-11. 361 15 Prem Chowdhry (2001), 'Lustful Women, Elusive Lovers: Identifying Males as Objects of Female Desire', Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 8, pp. 23-50. 373 PART IV EASTERN RELIGION: SEXUAL VARIANTS 16 Vinay Lai (1999), 'Not This, Not That: The Hijras of India and the Cultural Politics of Sexuality', Social Text, 61, pp. 119^0. 403 17 Leonard Zwilling and Michael J. Sweet (1996), '"Like a City Ablaze": The Third Sex and the Creation of Sexuality in Jain Religious Literature', Journal of the History of Sexuality, 6, pp. 359-84. 425 18 Sandeep Bakshi (2004), 'A Comparative Analysis of Hijras and Drag Queens: The Subversive Possibilities and Limits of Parading Effeminacy and Negotiating Masculinity', Journal of Homosexuality, 46, pp. 211-23. 451 19 Robert P. Goldman (1993), 'Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety in Traditional India', The Journal of the American Oriental Society, 113, pp. 374^01. 465 20 Roger R. Jackson (1992), 'Ambiguous Sexuality: Imagery and Interpretation in Tantric Buddhism', Religion, 22, pp. 85-100. 493 Name Index

509

Acknowledgements The editor and publishers wish to thank the following for permission to use copyright material. Duke University Press for the essay: Vinay Lai (1999), 'Not This, Not That: The Hijras of India and the Cultural Politics of Sexuality', Social Text, 61, pp. 119-40. Copyright © 1999 by Duke University Press. Elsevier for the essays: Michel Clasquin (1992) 'Contemporary Theravada and Zen Buddhist Attitudes to Human Sexuality: An Exercise in Comparative Ethics', Religion, 22, pp. 63-83. Copyright © 1992 Academic Press Ltd; Catherine Thompson (1985), 'The Power to Pollute and the Power to Preserve: Perceptions of Female Power in a Hindu Village', Social Science and Medicine, 21, pp. 701-11. Copyright © 1985 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved; Roger R. Jackson (1992), 'Ambiguous Sexuality: Imagery and Interpretation in Tantric Buddhism', Religion, 22, pp. 85-100. Copyright © 1992 Academic Press Limited. Hong Kong Psychological Society for the essay: Adolf K.T. Tsang (1987), 'Sexuality: the Chinese and the Judeo-Christian Traditions in Hong Kong', Bulletin of the Hong Kong Psychological Society, 19/20, pp. 19-28. Journal of the American Society for the essay: Robert P. Goldman (1993), 'Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety in Traditional India', The Journal of the American Oriental Society, 113, pp. 374-401. Oxford University Press for the essay: John E. Cort (2002), 'Singing the Glory of Asceticism: Devotion of Asceticism in Jainism', Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 70, pp. 719-42. Copyright © 2002 The American Academy of Religion. Sage Publications for the essays: Marie Lecomte-Tilouine (1996), 'The Cult of the Earth Goddess among the Magar of Nepal', Diogenes, 44, pp. 27^4; Louise Edwards (1990), ' Women in Honglou meng: Prescriptions of Purity in the Femininity of Qing Dynasty China', Modern China, 16, pp. 407-29. Copyright © 1990 Sage Publications, Inc.; Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh (2008), 'Re-Imagining the Divine in Sikhism', Feminist Theology, 16, pp. 33249. Copyright © 2008 Sage Publications; Prem Chowdhry (2001), 'Lustful Women, Elusive Lovers: Identifying Males as Objects of Female Desire', Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 8, pp. 23-50. Copyright © 2001 Centre for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi. All rights reserved. Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd for the essays: Aloka Parasher and Usha Naik (1986), 'Temple Girls of Medieval Karnataka', Indian Economic and Social History Review, 23, pp. 63-78. Copyright © 1986 The Indian Economic and Social History Association; M.R. Allen (1976), 'Kumari or "Virgin" Worship in Kathmandu Valley', Contributions to Indian

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Sociology, 10, pp. 293-316; Anne Vergati (1982), 'Social Consequences of Marrying Visnu Narayana: Primary Marriage among the Newars of Kathmandu Valley', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 16, pp. 271-87. Copyright © 1982 Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi; P.K. Dutta (1998), '"Abductions" and the Constellation of a Hindu Communal Bloc in Bengal of the 1920s', Studies in History, 14, pp. 37-88. Copyright © 1998 Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. All rights reserved. Taylor and Francis for the essay: Sandeep Bakshi (2004), 'A Comparative Analysis of Hijras and Drag Queens: The Subversive Possibilities and Limits of Parading Effeminacy and Negotiating Masculinity', Journal of Homosexuality, 46, pp. 211-23. Copyright © 2004 by the Haworth Press Inc. All rights reserved. The University of Chicago Press for the essays: Jyoti Puri (2002), 'Concerning Kamasutras: Challenging Narratives of History and Sexuality', Signs, 27, pp. 603-39. Copyright © 2002 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved; Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (1969), 'Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of Siva. Part IF, History of Religions, 9, pp. 1—41. University of Texas Press for the essay: Leonard Zwilling and Michael J. Sweet (1996), '"Like a City Ablaze": The Third Sex and the Creation of Sexuality in Jain Religious Literature', Journal of the History of Sexuality, 6, pp. 359-384. Copyright © 1996 by the University of Texas Press. All rights reserved. Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.

Series Preface For professional and personal reasons, I chose 'sexuality and religion' as my primary research area when I embarked on my postgraduate training and later academic career in Britain about two decades ago. For many years during this journey, I was often frustrated with - and intimidated by - a sense of professional loneliness, most acutely experienced when 'sexuality' scholars asked me why I bothered with 'religion'; and 'religion' researchers raised their eyebrows about my interest in the intersection of these two phenomena. Well, as many readers must have observed, a lot has changed since then - and for the better. There is no denying that, in recent years, the intersection between sexuality and religion has been mainstreamed into the agenda of theoretical and empirical research, thanks not only to the strenuous efforts of boundary-pushing scholars, but also increasing awareness of its importance among funders. This collection of essays is a landmark testament to - and celebration of- the achievement thus far. It also showcases the fertile ground on which more fruits of labour could be harvested. The breadth and depth of this collection - organised into five volumes, focusing respectively on Christianity; Judaism and Islam; Religions of the East; Indigenous Religions; and finally New Religions - is indeed breathtaking. As someone who often complains (primarily to my poor students, my captive audience) about the entrenched ethnocentric character of 'sociology of religion' - more accurately (and indeed more truthfully) - 'sociology of Western institutional Christianity', I am delighted with Stephen Hunt's open-mindedness and broad field of vision in the design of this collection and the selection of essays. Drawing on theoretical and empirical material from sociology, theology, anthropology, religious studies, cultural studies, and history (to name but a few), the collection demonstrates that the manifestations of the intersection between sexuality and religion are varied and multi-faceted, with enabling and constraining potentials, mediated through a variety of power structures. Therefore, their relationship should not be essentialised (e.g. religions are inherently sex-negative; sexuality can onlyflourishin secular - and assumed liberal and democratic - spaces). I congratulate Stephen Hunt and Ashgate for having had the vision and perseverance to produce this indispensible collection which will undoubtedly inspire scholars in this area for many years to come. This collection educates us about the complexity and diversity in the scholarly and everyday understandings of 'lived' sexuality and religion. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude. ANDREW KAM-TUCK YIP University of Nottingham, UK

Introduction Some Challenges The subject matter of this collection of reprinted essays is to explore, from both historical and contemporary perspectives, the discernible standpoints towards human sexuality embraced by the so-designated 'Religions of the East'. At first glance the enterprise may appear overambitious and even questionable on various counts. Perhaps most obviously, under this rubric are generally incorporated a considerable range of religiosities as diverse as Hinduism, Jainism, Shintoism, Sikhism, and a myriad of Chinese religio-philosophies. It is no great revelation, then, that a vast and varied assortment of stances pertaining to sexuality can be observed between and even within these traditions and others besides. Some Eastern religious systems display greater clarity of views on the subject of sexuality when compared with other traditions. A number appear to hold more positive views of sexuality, while the stances taken by several others are informed by rigid structures of sanction, prohibition and taboo. Moreover, there are divergent outlooks in respect of particular sexualities and sexual 'variants'. Such contrasts may point to the inherent nature of the primary belief systems of the religions under consideration. However, these beliefs are frequently tempered by a measure of cultural and socio-political adaptation, illuminating the composite and intricate nature of human sexuality as a social construct, not least of all in respect of providing mechanisms of control and regulation. Such initial observations point to challenging, even problematic aspects of academic analysis and these are fundamental to our enquiry. Certainly, an overarching and preliminary concern is that the entire prescribed remit of 'Religions of the East' or, alternatively, 'Eastern Religions', and the more antiquated notion of 'Religions of the Orient' are undoubtedly fraught with notable conceptual difficulties. Such terminology, as scholars continuingly signify, resonates with inherent post-colonial discourses which convey underlying assumptions shaped by the Western mindset, rendering the categorization as acutely inappropriate or woefully inadequate at best. Furthermore, given that even the term 'religion' itself is indicative of ethnocentric abstract demarcations, there are hindrances in designating Buddhism and numerous Chinese philosophies under such a rubric. Even those traditions which would seem to more readily conform to off-the-peg definitions of religiosity are not always easy to square with subjective cultural conceptions. This is perhaps exemplified by debates related to the conceptualization of'Hinduism'. The entire appearance of'religion' as a classification, permitting a considerable historical diversity of practices and beliefs found throughout the Indian subcontinent to be subsumed under 'Hinduism', dates only from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the emergence of European expansionism. On the other hand, good reasons have been advanced for retaining Hinduism as a distinct category of eclectic religiosity (Pennington, 2006), not least of all because the term is close to the broad meaning of the Sanskrit phase 'Sanatana Dhama' (or 'eternal and universal law/righteousness').

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There have been various attempts to justify the utilization of the category of 'Religions of the East'. One approach is to view them as major 'World Religions' presenting a contrast or even antithesis to the monotheistic Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, while at the same time marking a distinction from the minor 'indigenous religions' of subSaharan African, Latin America and elsewhere. This justification is typically developed in the classification of 'Religions of the East' as constituting a hotchpotch of polytheistic, nontheistic, henotheistic, pantheistic and even agnostic systems representing numerous 'Paths to Enlightenment'. Nonetheless, this wide classification is forced to include such monotheistic faiths as Sikhism and is further complicated by the complex nature of Hinduism. Due to such impediments, at least within the study of comparative religion, it has been conventional to subdivide systems of 'Eastern religions' in order to engender a clearer focus and working typological template. One such is the specification of 'East Asian religions' (also known as Far Eastern religions, Chinese religions, or Taoic religions) which form a subset of the Eastern religions which are not 'Indian religions' and even envelops relatively new forms of religiosity. This grouping is sufficiently broad as to include Caodaism, Chen and I-Kuan Tao, Chondogyo, Confucianism, Daoism, Jeungism, Shintoism, alongside components of Mahayana Buddhism. Such officious disputes regarding precise categorizations may appear to labour the concerns of this volume. Nevertheless, while the work attempts a comparative religiocultural approach to human sexuality through the contribution of twenty essays, it is clear that, given the variety of religious systems encompassed like is not easily compared with like. Already briefly acknowledged above is the obvious differing and relative emphasis placed on sexuality by religions that are typically subsumed under the heading of 'Eastern Religions'. For instance, while Hinduism articulates a rich and complex vein of orientations regarding sexuality, Buddhism, through most of its traditions, is noted for a relative quietude on the subject, consequently failing to offer clear moral proscriptions to its adherents concerning the activities of worldly existence, sexuality included. Details of accepted or unacceptable sexual conduct, or indeed sexual renunciation, are not specifically mentioned in any of its major religious texts. True, the third of the Five Precepts informs the broad Buddhist ethic 'to refrain from committing sexual misconduct'. Yet it remains an elusive edict not only refined through its various divergent schools and strands of mythology, but frequently subject to interpretation relative to the differing cultural norms to be found throughout the social environments within which it is entrenched. Therefore, the interpretation of what kinds of sexual activity are acceptable for a Buddhist layperson is not necessarily a question of moral principles. It follows that the topic of sexuality, as historically displayed through Buddhism, displays varied, even paradoxical attitudes. Several of the essays in this volume will engage with a number of the above problematic elements in the context of discussing the attitude of the Religions of the East (if such a concept is indeed permitted) towards sexuality as embedded spatially in differing cultures, as well as historically. The work will call upon a number of academic disciplines, including religious, cultural, literary and historical studies, alongside anthropological and sociological perspectives. This venture of permitting various approaches to project their voices is, of course, not without its own problems, perhaps not least because each is inevitably hampered by disciplinary 'blind spots'. Much is demonstrated by academic inroads into the area of Chinese religion since, as de Kloet (2008) contends, there has long been a tendency to avoid

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theoretical, conceptual and methodological cross-fertilizations between China studies and other disciplines in the investigation of sexuality, resulting in a portrayal of 'Chineseness' through the distorted lenses of either cultural essentialism on the one hand, or cultural relativism on the other. While acknowledging these challenging aspects, this collection embraces four key but overlapping themes by which to approach the subject of sexuality via a number of major Eastern religions. These themes have not been selected arbitrarily. Rather, a precursory survey of such religions identifies thematic concerns by way of executing a comparative endeavour. Part I presents five essays that take as their subject matter several religions in respect of how they construct sexuality through expressions of their holy writings and belief systems as applied in very different historical and cultural settings, often articulating power relationships and disparities between official and 'lay' beliefs which have produced varied interpretations and even contradictions in relation to sexuality. Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism and Hinduism are discussed here, providing various sources for comparative scrutiny. Part II takes as its focus sexual renunciation, an important ingredient of the ascetic life integral to a fair few Eastern religious traditions. This theme is explored through Hinduism and Jainism which provide a marked contrast to alternative systems including the eremiticism to be found in some forms of Chinese religion undergirded by their distinct philosophical and cultural foundations. Part III explores the relationship between gender, sexuality and patriarchy. While a number of contributions stress their interconnectedness through such religions as Confucianism and Hinduism, others deny the connectivity and even identify religion as a possible means for female sexual expression. The final part of this volume includes essays examining Eastern religions in their attitudes towards sexual 'variants' given the more tolerant (but by no means uncontested) stance expressed by a number of faiths. Homosexuality, transsexuality and other sexual categories are overviewed in relation to Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. Sexuality and Cultural Expression It is clearly evident that a good number of Eastern religions hold contrasting and sometimes contradictory attitudes towards sexuality even within their discrete belief systems. This is no more so than for Hinduism where views are neither simple nor static, varying considerably over time, forged by cultural-geographic complexities, bound up with caste boundary relationships, and frequently expressed through cultist formations. Hindu scriptures regarding sexuality may be plentiful but they are often vague, fostering incongruent interpretations of the meaning of various texts to which disparate cultural communities have historically given differing emphasis (Brockington, 1981). Nonetheless, a common feature of Hinduism is that sexuality is deemed a necessary part of human existence and where sexual love (kama) constitutes one of the four 'purposes' of life of this world (arthas), alongside wealth or power, righteousness, and salvation, throughout the myriad of timeless rebirths. However, sexual relations are ideally obliged to fall within the jurisdiction of righteous duty (dharma) and the confines of the institution of marriage. The prohibition against sex outside matrimony is largely related to the prescribed stages of a highly structured life-cycle (the Ashrama system) which Hindus are required to follow if they are to achieve moksha (enlightenment of the soul).

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These aspects of the faith acknowledged, Hinduism has deep ancient roots some of which exhibit an affirmative and even flamboyant attitude towards sexuality as displayed in an immeasurable range of art, architecture, literature, mythology and symbolic forms. Anthropomorphic terracotta figures pertaining to the Indus urban civilization (2600-1900 BCE) in the north-western Indian subcontinent reveal vivid portrayals of sex and sexuality, providing a window to a distinct and ancient cultural worldview (Clark, 2003). More recent are numerous medieval temples, including those at Ajanta, Ellora and, perhaps most famously, at Khajuraho, which explicitly depict diverse sexual acts. The familiar fertility phallic symbol of the Siva lingam (Shiva being the divine creator and sustainer of the universe and the lingam representing his power) further indicates the legitimate and often auspicious nature of sexual imagery. In the numerous myths connected with the god Krishna - generally accepted as an avatar (earthly incarnation) of Vishnu (the second God of the Hindu triumvirate) - he is portrayed as a youthful prince indulging in carnal escapades with numerous cow-herd girls (gopis) before marrying the human (although deified in some traditions) Radha. Here, the protocols of sexual behaviour are seemingly abandoned as a metaphor for spiritual devotion (bhakti). Examples in the vast array of Hindu literature include the drama Shakuntalam by Kalidasa (perhaps the greatest poet of Sanskrit literature) that articulates the sensual love narrative between the monarch Dushyanta and his consort Shakuntala, while the story of Rama purusartha constitutes an expedition fraught with great peril in which self-exploration extends into the realm of sexuality (Das Kama, 1981). Such explicit literary and mythological reference to sexuality in Hinduism, when focused through Western lenses and stripped of its original meaning and context, was often interpreted as 'obscene' in the British colonial period (Gupta, 2000a), thus highlighting the problematic matter of cultural-relative interpretation observed above. This has been no more so than with the famed Kama Sutra (Aphorisms of Love). The Kama Sutra constitutes the earliest extant and most notable work in the Kama Shastra (love/desire-texts) genre of Sanskrit literature derived from earlier texts by the philosopher Vatsyayana around the fourth century CE. In Chapter 1, Jyoti Puri reveals how the work is still interpreted in different ways by scholars derived from a variety of cultural backgrounds and details how, in the sexually repressive atmosphere of British rule, Hindu culture was relieved of much of its historical resonance. Thus interpretations of the Kama Sutra became devoid of a considerable component of its original meaning. Certainly, the work describes instruction for sexual postures throughout, as well as a range of sex/gender divergences. Yet it also deals more broadly with kama or desire of all kinds which in Hindu thought, as already discerned, is one of the four normative goals constitute the basis of ethical of life. In broadly addressing insights into societal norms and principles prevalent at the time of writing, the Kama Sutra communicates sexual mores, portraying lovemaking as a joint gender responsibility leading to mutual carnal satisfaction. Hindu deities are not uncommonly associated with aspects of sexuality, although the origins of those to be found in the vast Hindu pantheon, the rites of worship associated with them, alongside accompanying matters of purity, pollution and taboo, are extremely divergent and frequently unknown. The fact that a good number of deities are venerated by particular castes orjatis at least points to matters of established social status and power relationships, often expressed by way of sexual boundaries. In Chapter 2, Marie Lecomte-Tilouine explores the origins of the rites connected to one particular deity, the Earth Goddess Buhume, revered among the Magar of Nepal. It is evident that from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the

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Magar constructed a divine being on the foundations of Hindu concepts in order to preserve traditional association with their land and its significance for ancestrality in the face of foreign invasion. Lecomte-Tilouine emphasizes the implications of the passing of the plough in this context since it displayed vibrant sexual symbolisms. Sexual activity and impurity represented via agricultural activity - both ploughing and its fruits - separated the higher castes and Hindu ascetics at the echelon of the social hierarchy from the lowly labourer while, simultaneously, young women purified their menses and 'recovered' their virginity through rites identified with the sacredness of the soil. Such examples suggest that, while religio-sexual belief and symbolism frequently point to the connectivity between orthodox religiosity and sexual regulation, they may also be discerned as a consecutive part of and reaction to wider authoritative power relationships. This plausibly accounts as to why within a number of Eastern religions, along with other so-designated 'World Religions', there is often to be found a disparity between official religious teachings and heterodox 'lay' beliefs and attitudes. This includes religious tenets regarding sexuality. For instance, in China during the early Han empire (c. 200 BCE-9 CE) sexual mores and relations were orderly and regulated on the premise that sexual aberrations threatened the fragile unity of the empire and thus tantamount to insurrection. What Goldin (2006) views as an imperial sex ideology, is illustrated by the story of the first Emperor's paternity, alongside the use of castration and accusations of incest against political enemies of the dynasty. The Confucian system that dominated subsequent dynasties also offered an austere and regulated attitude towards sexuality. Goldin explains how the puritanism of later Han ritualists, supposedly based on pre-imperial texts, was actually a contrived concoction. Nonetheless, contrasting accounts of sexuality arose in ancient China in a complex cultural and religious milieu, a fact acknowledged even by the intelligentsia. In pre-imperial literature such as the Lyrics ofCh 'u copulation was employed as a metaphor for the relationship between worshipper and deity, or between ruler and adviser, while eating was utilized as a allegory for sexual intercourse which potentially involved the exchange ofching (or 'refined essence'). While puritan strands of thought continued, there existed others that stressed 'non-conformism', notably Daoism which offered an alternative and far more positive view of sexuality. In Chapter 3, Louise Edwards explores what is often interpreted as a further expression of resistance to sexual regulation by considering one of the most outstanding works by Cao Xuequin (d. 1763), the novel Honglou meng (The Story of the Stone), that has long been the subject of textual scholarly scrutiny. Claiming the Confucian 'Mandate of Heaven', the Qing dynasty (1644-1912 ce) brought literary inquisition and censorship. The novel had previously been alternatively interpreted as expressing Daoist-Buddhist enlightenment; constituting a social commentary; a narrative of the decomposition of an aristocratic family; or even a veiled attack on the Manchu regime. Edwards tenders a fresh elucidation through feminist literary criticism - seeking to investigate the narrative's representation of masculinity and femininity with the intension of disclosing the ambiguities and contradictions of sexual ideology and unearthing both purity and profanity, but concludes that in reality it was far from being antipatriarchal in sentiment. Differing visions of sexuality may also be found within the same faith, even in those not as eclectic as Hinduism. Buddhist views of sexuality do not so much offer different visions of sexuality but, as already briefly noted, advance attitudes that are often both ambiguous and ambivalent. The dialectics inherent in Mahayana Buddhism, particularly when touched by

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Tantric tradition, forges a highly complex and frequently misunderstood path within Buddhism (and Hinduism) which flouts the norms of society even further than the bhakti traditions, holding that all rules and laws are human, not divine constructs (Hatley and Inayatullah, 1999). Although such rules may underpin an orderly society, they also bind the soul to the material world. Tantra advocates abandoning all of these rules as spiritual impediments and often uses sexual images, if not actual sexual activities, as a means of transcending attachments including lust and desire of all kinds. The tradition lays out a more unmediated path that conquers such cravings by engaging in them. Rather than simply controlling sexual desires through rules or ascetic practices, followers of the tantric path attempt to conquer them. In other words, sexual longings are overcome by engaging in the very thing that leads to worldly attachments (Faure, 1998). Given that the Tantric and Chan/Zen traditions seem to allow for greater laxity of sexual mores and even encourage breaking of taboos compared to other schools, it might be conjectured that particular Buddhist teachings on sexuality have adapted themselves to specific cultural settings. This is evident in Chapter 4 where Michel Clasquin contrasts contemporary strands of Buddhism which seemingly vary considerably in their stances towards sexuality. In each case, the sexual ethic of the schools under consideration can be traced back to the fundamental presuppositions undergirding their philosophies. Given the more relaxed attitudes towards sexuality that has emerged in Western society in recent times, the Zen disposition is seemingly more attractive to Occidentals dissatisfied with the sexual mores of their own religious conventions. Also by way of comparative religio-cultural analysis, in Chapter 5, Adolf Tsang addresses the matter of sexuality in the Chinese and Judaic-Christian traditions in Hong Kong, thus providing a contrast between an enculturated monotheistic religion and the conventional Chinese ideal of heterosexual relationships. It is commonly understood in Hong Kong that heterosexual intimacy must consist of the three interrelated elements of sex, marriage and love. Tsang disputes the assumption that this ideal pattern is supported by either Christianity or the Chinese tradition informed by Confucianism and Daoism. Rather, Judaic-Christian standards have changed over time, while there is actually no basis for viewing existing patterns as derived from God-given moral dictates. Moreover, the Chinese community expresses a different discourse of sexuality where the idea of qing as the traditional Chinese ideal of heterosexual relationship is in marked contrast to the Western idea of love which in Chinese Buddhism is associated with avarice and obsession. Renunciation and Asceticism The tradition of asceticism, including the renunciation of sexual activity, is of course not limited to Eastern religions. However, it appears to be endemic in those which stress otherworldliness as an integral component of a path to enlightenment and may or not take the form of the eremitic life. This aspect is often contrasted with the monotheistic Abrahamic religions. Although not without their ascetic streams, the latter have historically largely embraced an affirmative stance on sexuality albeit within the strict confines of marriage. Neither are all Eastern religions characterized by the perceived virtues of asceticism. In the Chinese tradition, recourse to celibacy was rarely evident over the centuries, while the more common expression of monastic life did not necessarily mean austerity and chastity. As Jordon Paper (1999)

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recounts, the normative Western perception of eremitic retreatism is coloured by an emphasis on the evolution of Buddhist monasticism in South Asia with its concern for celibacy, poverty, mysticism and non-violence. The indigenous Chinese understanding of eremitism historically included none of these provisions and was founded on an entirely divergent understanding for the meaning of separation from society, being largely reflected through Confucianism and, as Max Weber (1964) famously explored at length, endorsed an unchanging worldliness and rationalized system of social order. Particularly abhorrent in Chinese culture was a dedication to celibacy given that it was considered perverse to human nature and its crucial consequence, not continuing the familial lineage, violated the foundation of religio-cultural life. Moreover, sexual relations did not connote evil, requiring the sacrament of marriage to purify it, as in the Abrahamic faiths, nor was it understood to impede spiritual progress as in Buddhism. Rather, sexuality was comprehended as the basis of procreation, in which humans paralleled the interaction between the cosmic forces of Sky and Earth, of Ying and Yang and where, especially through Daoism spiritual discipline, sexual practices were legitimated (Paper, 1999). Buddhism, by contrast, offers a distinct form of other-worldly mysticism. The most common formulation of ethics in several Buddhist schools, as already observed, places emphasis on ascetic ways of life detached from the emotional senses and the craving of sensual pleasure. These precepts take the form of voluntary, personal undertakings, rather than the response to divine mandates or prescriptions. In certain cultural environments, however, the ascetic endeavour is enhanced by the matter of boundaries: by attempts of the priesthood to regulate sexual behaviour both within and beyond the monastery. As Perera (1987) notes, the vinaya, the monastic code of Buddhist monks and nuns in India, indicates in part a response to the more accepting sexual attitudes of the Hindus around them. The monastic Buddhists coped historically with their sexual urges by developing their minds through suppressing, rather than repressing their natural instincts, via moral and ethical precepts (siild) for Buddhist clergy and laity alike. Equal to any religion, Jainism has a strong ascetic tradition given that the ultimate goal of the faith is the liberation of the self (jiva) from rebirth, an endeavour which is attained through the elimination of accumulated karma (the consequences of previous actions). This is aided by means of both the disciplined cultivation of spiritual knowledge and restraint of bodily passions - the 'instincts of appetite' (Ahara samjna) including fear, possessiveness and copulation. The lay version of chaste living, however, merely amounts to remaining loyal to a chosen companion and where the avoidance of sexual thoughts is a bulwark to pre-marital sex. The peak aspirations of traditional Jainism are represented by the ascetics: those who devote their entire existence to living the pertinent code of ethics in their strictest formations: renouncing worldly possessions, relationships, emotions and desire of all kinds. Although Jain monks and nuns are required to remain completely celibate in body and thought, they do not retreat to monastic enclosures as do their counterparts in other religions, but dwell among their communities in the exemplary role of spiritual teachers, providing sacrificial examples of the Jain way of life. In the first essay in Part II (Chapter 6), John E. Cort engages with the Jain tradition by offering important supplementary observations regarding asceticism, pointing out that the faith is commonly portrayed in scholarly literature as being focused on, if not obsessed with,

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various and frequently extreme forms of ascetic pathways. In the resulting portrait of Jainism, there is little if any recognition of religious devotion (bhakti). This scholarly separation of asceticism and devotion is unfounded. Thus Cort places Jain asceticism within a broader religious framework to show some of the ways in which asceticism interacts with, and is often interdependent of, devotion. Asceticism is generally performed in a devotional spirit and the object of devotion itself: a Jain may thus accomplish the spiritual goal of an enhanced karmic balance by performing asceticism, but can also accomplish this by connecting it with devotion. Indeed, asceticism and devotion are not so much alternative domains as mutually reinforcing exercises. While Hinduism employs more positive and expressive attitudes towards sexuality, it is also famed for its celibate tradition. In Chapter 7, O'Flaherty excavates both the asceticism and sexuality in the mythology of Shiva. Shiva is the eminent divine ascetic of Hinduism and often portrayed as the model for human ascetics, renouncing sexual behaviour in this manifestation. It is precisely the control of sexuality that is the font of his tremendous divine power and energy. Through the mastering of his sexual desires, Shiva generates ascetic heat (tapas) with his purifying and occasionally destructive power. However, displaying the eclectic nature and deep roots of Hinduism, Shiva also derives from Indra (the king of the gods, warfare, tempest and rainfall) his phallic and promiscuous attribute, while from Agni (god of fire and subject of sacrifices) he draws the intensity of his asceticism and passion. In Hinduism, the devotion to a particular god or gods may imply varying degrees of asceticism or even the denial of sexuality, as the veneration of Shiva in this manifestation suggests. Yet the complex nature of the faith ensures that this is not necessarily so. In Chapter 8, Aloka Parasher and Usha Naik detail the dedication of young temple girls (devaddasis) to the mother goddess Yellamma in medieval Karnataka. Countering the ideal image of the Indian woman based on the convention of fidelity to her husband there emerges the contrasting picture of a temple girl who was idolized as the 'courtesan of God' in the literary and historical traditions of India. Parasher and Naik suggest that the general scholarly understanding of devaddasis (or 'servants' of god) is misleading. In Karnataka between 700 CE and 1200 CE, the temple girls were singing and dancing courtesans of the divinity who, through provocative dancing, channelled expressions of their sexuality. In Chapter 9, also exploring the Hindu complexities regarding attitudes towards chastity as articulated through veneration of a deity, Michael Allen retraces Kumari or 'virgin' worship in Kathmandu valley. Kumari is a goddess who has been a recognized member of the Hindu pantheon for at least 2,500 years. During this period she displayed qualities that were profoundly ambiguous: she was both literally by name a 'chaste young girl' but simultaneously classed as one of a group of mother goddesses who are also the sexual partners of leading male deities. Sexual restraint and chastity is found embedded in the lay Hindu way of life through the first stage of the Ashrama system, that of the Brahmacarin (celibate student). Sexual activity is renounced because it is sexual desire, among other cravings, that leads to worldly attachments. Thus the celibate advances educationally and spiritually to prepare for a life that will further dimensions of both dharma and karma. Only on reaching the 'householder' stage (Grihastyd) can Hindus seek physical pleasure in the strict context of marriage, worldly achievement and material prosperity through their allotted vocations. However, it is the perceived dangers of young female sexuality that is perhaps of most concern before this stage is reached. In Chapter 10, Anne Vergati considers the control of female sexuality in Hinduism via the 'primary

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marriage' system of the Newars of Kathmandu Valley. Vergati shows that from the point of view of orthodox Hinduism, marriage must precede any manifestation of sexuality in the girl concerned, meaning that earlier indications of female sexuality is inevitably strictly controlled because of the very existence of this social institution. Sexuality, Gender and Patriarchy As with other major faiths, a good range of Eastern religions would appear to indicate a close affinity between matters of gender and patriarchy which the control of female sexuality more than implies. This establishes the link, once again, between religion and power structures in a variety of cultural contexts and is denoted by further historical examples. For centuries and throughout numerous Chinese dynasties women were at the bottom of the Confucian substructure and expected to display exemplary conduct and unchallenging obedience to men as akin to a master-slave relationship. By custom, aristocratic men and women dwelt separately, with women prevented from encountering men other than their husbands, close kin or the palace eunuchs, while, on the other hand, the male nobility possessed multiple wives and concubines. To a degree this reflected, as already noted, the prevailing fear of unregulated sexuality which pervaded the imperial system. Yet, even underneath the official veneer of Confucianism lurked common folk tales that gave expression to the perceived unrestrained and dangerous sexuality of women. This included the text known as Secret Instructions of the Jade Bedchamber which relates how the Spirit Mother of the West, originally an ordinary human being, devoured the life force of numerous young boys by copulating with them, and thereby transformed herself into a famed goddess (Goldin, 2006). In the Hindu tradition one of the most widely known of the Dharmashastras which pertains to religious and legal duty, the Manu Smirti (Laws of Manu), depicts the woman as being entirely subservient to men throughout her life: ruled by her father, governed by her husband and finally, as a widow, placed under the authority of her sons. In supplementary religious texts women are prohibited from hearing the Vedas, engaging in specific primary rituals, and occupying high status through religious leadership. Females are also portrayed in a number of texts as being impure due to their menses and often perceived to be inferior beings, sometimes relegated to the level of Shudras (menial labour), regardless of their ascribed caste affiliation. In some Hindu literature there is the dictate that even women of the higher castes cannot be considered twice-born (dvijas), needing to be reborn as men in order to make earnest spiritual progress (Gupta 2000b; Pati 1996). Reflecting a similar notion, extreme ascetic Digambar Jains (one of the two major Jain sects, the other being the Svetambar) subscribe to the belief that attaining salvation from a female body is impossible given the perception that it is inherently more volatile and disruptive. Fear of female sexuality within the Hindu tradition is explored in the first essay of Part III by P.K. Dutta through a paper entitled '"Abductions" and the Constellation of a Hindu Communal Bloc in Bengal of the 1920s' (Chapter 11). Here the Hindu male fear of excessive and 'uncontrollable' female sexuality, especially when detached from matrimonial requirements, was manifested during a politically sensitive era through accusations against Muslim men abducting young Hindu females which, in turn, reflected animosity and suspicion between the two religious communities. In a detailed paper, Dutta explores how Hindu campaigning groups of the period constructed a discourse of Muslims echoing the cultural view that only

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the Muslim community could produce sexually debauched males. The paper thus highlights not only Hindu disquiet around female sexuality, but how such anxieties formed part of the construct of boundaries between rival religio-cultural populations. In contrast to the above examples, Buddhism might appear to be more conducive to the lives of women in various respects, not least because Buddha himself affirmed the ability of women to attain complete spiritual fulfilment. Yet there is evidence of the fear displayed historically by male devotees regarding the understood unpredictability of female sexuality. Perera (1987) notes that Buddha utilized the metaphor of a dam built against worldly desires in the eight specific rules he imposed for the inauguration of spiritual journeying. However, Perera questions the implication this has for women's ordination, especially through later interpretations of Buddha's edict, where the presence of women in the male-dominated Buddhist sangha (monastery) represented grave and unavoidable threats to the dhamma (the way to enlightenment as taught by Buddha) and the discipline of the Buddhist monastery. In short, female sexuality has frequently been perceived as liable to flood, washing away the edifice of spiritual life. In Chapter 12, Rajyashree Pandey explores the ambiguity of Buddhism regarding female sexuality in the distinct cultural context of medieval Japan. Pandey overviews the Kaky no Tomo, one of the extensive collections of Buddhist texts (setsuwa) that relates stories connected to women and their search for enlightenment, thus offering a rare insight into the complex and often contradictory ways by which the concept of women and their sexuality was constructed. While largely negating the view that females must be reborn as men to achieve enlightenment, changing their sexuality rather than transcending it, women were nonetheless projected in the Kaky no Tomo as embodying seven 'grave vices' that obstructed the path to enlightenment. This included heterosexual attachments and relationships, offering sexual favours and unleashing the potent and negative force of sexual jealousy. The above illustrations suggest that not infrequently cultural layers, rather than the original tenets of the religion itself, have generated expressions of patriarchy. Sikhism provides a further example. It is a faith often noted for an egalitarian ethic that is also extended to women. The position of women in Sikhism, as stipulated in its holy texts, is complete equality between the sexes with the same rights to mature spiritually; the liberty to embrace the Akhand Path through the continuous recitation of the scriptures; to operate as a Granthi (the custodian and reader of scripture); and perform congregational singing of hymns (Kirtan). However, aspects of patriarchy can be discerned where, according to Jakobsh (2003), Sikh women have over the course of centuries been 'inadvertently depreciated' by the emergence of a cultural 'hypermasculinity'. As a counterpoint, in Chapter 13, Nikky Singh explores the 'Mother' image portrayed in Sikh scripture and interprets the image as the source of creation and wisdom. The essay permits the reimagining of the divine in Sikhism as the antithesis to prevailing contemporary androcentric attitudes and even interpretations of 'malestream' scholarship (p. 348). Singh sees a renewed emphasis on the 'Mother' image, already envisaged by the holy scriptures, as a step towards counteracting the contemporary sexism that she perceives as festering within Sikh families and the wider Sikh community. In specific relation to the perceived negative attributes of female sexuality are further counterpoints to be found throughout the Eastern religions, suggesting more positive appraisals and even liberating aspects. Copley (1981) argues that humanist values and patriarchal interpretations of Hinduism, and indeed other religions, have been unwilling to

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adopt more powerful images of the female. In Hindu tradition, in contrast to the archetypal consort goddesses of Parvati or Lakshmi, Kali and Durga are extraordinarily ferocious and cannot be controlled by any male god. The latter is born out of the combined tapas of the Hindu divine trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, in order to slaughter the malevolent buffalo demon Mahishasura. In dispatching the demon she restores order and stability. Yet, because Durga is created out of the amalgamated power of the gods, she is also understood to be potentially more powerful than them. Thus it would be wrong to think that the social order of patriarch perfectly and inevitably reflects the divine realm. In Chapter 14, Catherine Thompson also detects a certain ambiguity in Hindu attitudes towards female sexuality. Within the context of rural village beliefs, the polluting attributes of women would seem to legitimate the inferiority of status. These pollution beliefs concern natural processes such as menstruation and childbirth which, at first glance, appear to denigrate dimensions of female sexuality. Thompson's detailed study shows that female sexuality is only associated with pollution and negative forces when women become estranged from men through their biology. Women in states of pollution are understood as being in danger as well as endangering others. Given that when women converge their interests with those of men's they are not in danger and can exercise positively values including that of preserving life, the nexus of beliefs related to female pollution encourages them to subordinate their interests to those of men. In the concluding essay of Part III (Chapter 15), Prem Chowdhry discerns a far more affirming Hindu attitude towards women's sexuality, again highlighting the multifarious and eclectic nature of the religion, by showing how, in Bengal, female sexuality, in particular, is openly celebrated. One of the more popular self-projections of women in the oral tradition of rural north India is the image of a lustful woman, which directly contradicts the dominant and ideal image of the chaste female and offers an alternative moral perspective on kinship, gender, sexuality and norms of behaviour. The construction of the lustful woman is based exclusively upon women's songs produced collectively by women and sung by women for an audience consisting purely of women. The subversiveness of these songs finds its resonance in the manifest transgressive behaviour of women in caste/class and gender relationships which cut across several societal hierarchies. Sexual Variants The ambiguous and complex attitudes displayed toward female sexuality throughout many of the Eastern religions, is commonly matched by views of human sexual 'variants'. Indeed, a constellation of faiths display a more diverse, if not open and positive acceptance of nonheterosexualities, and certainly when compared to the monotheistic Abrahamic religions. However, the stance of some Eastern religious systems towards non-heterosexuality has discernibly changed over time, often reflecting wider cultural and political transformations. For instance, although rarely brought under academic scrutiny, in the unique environment of medieval Japan, Buddhist views of homosexuality were often simultaneously condemning and idealized, indicating that there is no straightforward collation between religion, gender, sexuality and patriarchy (Faure, 1998). Garry Leupp (1996) ranges further, suggesting there is ample evidence that Tokugawa Japan ranked with ancient Athens as a society which not only tolerated, but celebrated male

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homosexual behaviour as evidenced through popular fiction, law codes, religious works, medical treatises, biographical material and artistic treatments, as well as traditions among monks and samurai. Official strictures and regulations on sexuality (including, but not exclusively, male-male sexuality), were primarily concerned with possible disruptions to the social order, rather than sexuality (male-male or male-female) per se. However, this tolerance of male-male sexuality changed quite radically during the Meiji Period, when Japan embarked upon an ambitious state-driven project of 'modernization', 'civilization' and nation-building (Pflugfelder, 1999). This was a project that drew partly upon existing Confucian-inspired ideologies inherited from the preceding Tokugawa regime, and partly upon contemporary Euro-American socio-cultural, economic, and political institutions and discourses which brought a point of intersection between Confucian propriety and 'Victorian' morality that collectively gave birth to the 'deviant homosexual' individual. Acceptance of sexual variants is perhaps most discernible in several expressions of Hinduism especially in relation to homosexuality and transsexuality. Homosexuality in Hinduism has long been disapproved of but not always specifically denounced as a major social transgression. This more affirmative stance is indicated by numerous myths and religious texts, the ambiguous tones discernible throughout religious teachings, as well as numerous art forms. Regarding the latter, medieval Hindu temples such as those at Khajuraho portray acts entailing same-sex behaviour. The twelfth-century temple dedicated to Shiva in Bagali depicts a scene of fellatio between two males. That devoted to the same deity at Ambernath (constructed in 1060 CE) displays a fading relief that seemingly portrays two females embraced in lesbian activities, as does the Rhajarani Temple in Bhuveshvar, Orissa, dating from around the same period. In terms of religious texts, the Hindu Vedas do not overtly refer to homosexuality. Yet the Rigveda (one of the four principal works) makes mention of Vikruti Evam Prakriti - or that perversity and diversity can be discerned in the essence of nature and what is seemingly unnatural is, at its core, also natural, -perhaps implying the 'naturalness' of same-sex sexuality. Moreover, Hindu essential doctrines such as rebirth and the genderlessness of the soul may be interpreted to religiously legitimize socially disapproved relationships, including those that are same-sex (Vanita and Kidwai, 2000). More explicit is the famed Kama Sutra. While eulogized for its heterosexual positions of intercourse, the work also describes techniques by which masculine and feminine categories of the third sex (tritiya-prakriti\ as well as women, perform fellatio. Hindu philosophy has famously long embraced this category of a third sex, gender or 'nature'. This grouping seemingly comprises a broad range of sexualities: homosexuality, trans-genderism, transsexuality, bisexuality, and intersexuality among them. Many such variants are identified in the character of a variety of deities, while in the Hindu narrative tradition both gods and mortals are not infrequently transformed from one gender to another and engage in sexual activities of different genders. There are numerous examples including: Shiva - who is sometimes represented as Ardhanarivara, expressing a composite male and female disposition; Aravan - a heroic figure whom the god Krishna married following his metamorphosis into a woman; Ayyappa - a deity created from the consummation of Shiva and Mohini; Bahuchara-devi - a goddess associated with trans-sexuality and eunuchism; and Bhagavati-devi - a goddess connected with cross-gender dressing. There are also specific

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festivals connected to the worship of such gender-variant deities, some of which are renowned for their transvestite followers and homosexual connotations. Third-gender individuals are not considered fully male or female in traditional Hinduism, being a combination of the two by both birth and nature, and therefore not anticipated to behave or live the same prescribed existence of the majority of men and women. Not infrequently they adhere to one or other of the abundant third-gender sects of the hijra, of which the largest and best known is the aravani or all of Tamil Nadu in southern India (frequently estimated as having some 150,000 adherents). The aravanis are typically transgendered and their major festival, the popular Aravan (or Koovagam), is attended by crowds of thousands including many non-heterosexual males. A lesser-known third-gender sect is the jogappa of South India (Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh), a troupe similarly associated with crossdressing and homosexuality. This sect is affiliated with Yellamma-devi, the deity of Durga, and includes both feminine transgender individuals, as well as those approximating enculturated masculine gender categories. Both variants function as dancers and male prostitutes and are frequently overseers of the temple devadasis (maidservants of the goddess). Large carnivals are celebrated at these temples when hundreds of semi-naked devadasis and cross-dressing jogappas process through the streets. In Chapter 16, Vinay Lai points out that the hijra have been described in academic and popular literature in various ways including transvestites, homosexuals, bisexuals and hermaphrodites. However, the hijra themselves mostly distinguish between those born into hijra (those with ambiguous genitals) and those of a much larger category who have made themselves as such through castration and via other distinctions. Lai points out that scholarly accounts are frequently far removed from any understanding of the light that hijras themselves might cast on Indian civilization, human sexuality generally and the wider cultural politics of sexuality. While academic accounts of the Hindu hijras may have proved misleading, the matter of the third sex in other religions of India remains under recorded. In Chapter 17, however, Leonard Sweet and Michael Zwilling provide valuable insights by examining the tradition of the third sex through Jain religious literature that hitherto has largely been ignored or neglected by academic scrutiny. In Chapter 18, Sandeep Bakshi explores the lives of the hijras through a cultural comparison with Westernized constructs of the drag queen. Bakshi utilizes insights provided by gender studies in general and queer studies in particular to stress the notion of imitation, play, and performance to contrast both in terms of the shared and disparate subversive possibilities and limits of the gendered performances they undertake. Studying the hijra, alongside the drag queen, does not conflate the two categories but there are shared attributes of significance: cultural nuances, even ritualistic and other religious aspects. While the analysis relies heavily on previously written works related to hijras and drag queens, it also calls upon the experiences of hijras in New Delhi providing another dimension to the topic by way of subjective experiences. Despite the positive appraisal of homosexuality and trans sexuality, a measure of evidence suggests that homosexuality was not historically approved of for Hindu brahmanas or the twiceborn, but discernibly more acceptable among the lower castes. Today, a widespread rejection exists in Indian communities, largely resulting from the Hindu dharma requiring men and women to marry and produce progeny. Third-gender people in India are thus often obliged to adhere to the hijra, given that men who are deemed too effeminate or trans-gendered to marry

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women are frequently disregarded by their families. Not uncommonly they are compelled to subscribe to one sect or another, often restricted geographically to specific parts of town, and expected to perform particular and lowly jati vocations such as domestic servants, masseurs, flower-vendors, hairdressers and prostitutes. This suggests that a certain anxiety exists around the subject of transsexuality in Hindu India. Such a theme is explored through Chapter 19 by Robert P. Goldman via literary and historical texts, tracing an extraordinary complex set of attitudes towards sexuality generally which is related to hierarchy, deference and power relationships. These complexities are most pronounced in the theme of the transformation of a man into a woman found throughout the scriptures, although very few texts engage with the reverse metamorphosis. Among the observations made by Goldman is that anxieties around trans-genderism at least partially arise as a result of acculturated male dread of the autonomous power of women derived from their physiology and sexuality. A number of other religious systems hold ambiguous viewpoints towards nonheterosexuality and much is exemplified by Buddhism. This is largely because, once more, what advice there is on the subject of sex for lay persons is either vague or overdetermined by cultural context - perhaps explaining why sexual variations in Buddhist studies constitute a much neglected academic field (Cabezon, 1992). Even today lay practitioners of Buddhism, especially lesbian/gay/bisexual/trans-gender/queer persons, are given little guidance by traditional Dharmology (Buddhist theology) regarding their sexuality (Corless, 2004). In the final essay of this anthology (Chapter 20), Roger Jackson, takes up the theme of sexuality in relation to the Tantric tradition of Buddhism and considers the ambiguity and variants found throughout its texts. He exams the thesis that asceticism and celibacy are central to mysticism, pointing out that in the Buddhist tantras practices are often assumed to involve 'sex in the service of enlightenment' (p. 494). Jackson attempts to show that the issue is not nearly so straightforward, by demonstrating the ambiguity of sexual imagery in Tantric texts and the historical ambivalence of the tradition itself regarding the place and meaning of sexuality. In many ways then, this final contribution, highlights the nature of so many and varied expressions to be found in the troubled category of 'Eastern religions', not least of all their far-ranging, complex, ambiguous and even 'internal' contradictory orientations towards human sexuality. It is perhaps these characteristics that lend themselves to constructing a unique category of religiosity, permitting a measure of comparison between them, not to mention contrasts with other religious traditions. References Brockington, J.L. (1981), The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in its Continuity and Diversity, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Cabezon, J.L (ed.) (1992), Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Clark, S.R. (2003), 'Representing the Indus Body: Sex, Gender, Sexuality, and the Anthropomorphic Terracotta Figurines from Harappa', Asian Perspectives, 42, pp. 304-28. Copley, A. (1981), 'Some Reflections by an Historian on Attitudes toward Women in Indian Traditional Society', South Asia Research, 1, pp. 22-33. Corless, R. (2004), 'Towards A Queer Dharmology Of Sex', Culture and Religion, 5, pp. 229-43.

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Das Kama, V. (1981), 'Kama in the Scheme of Purusrathas: the Story of Rama', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 15, January, pp. 183-203. de Kloet, J. (2008), 'Gendering China Studies', China Information, 22, pp. 195-219. Faure, B. (1998), The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Goldin, P.R. (2006), 'The Cultural and Religious Background of Sexual Vampirism in Ancient China', Theology and Sexuality, 12, pp. 285-307. Gupta, C. (2000a), '"Dirty" Hindi Literature: Contests about Obscenity in Late Colonial North India', South Asia Research, 20, pp. 89-118. Gupta, C. (2000b), 'Hindu Women, Muslim Men: Cleavages in Shared Spaces of Everyday Life, United Provinces, c. 1890-1930', Indian Economic & Social History Review, 37, pp. 121-49. Hatley, S. and Inayatullah, S. (1999), 'Karma Samnyasa: Sarkar's Reconceptualization of Indian Asceticism', Journal of Asian and African Studies, 34, pp. 139-51. Jakobsh, D. (2003), Relocating Gender in Sikh History: Transformation, Meaning and Identity, New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Leupp, G.P. (1996), Male Colors: Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Paper, J. (1999), 'Eremitism in China', Journal of Asian and African Studies, 34(1), pp. 46-55. Pati, B. (1996), '"The 'High'-'Low'" Dialectic in Fakirmohana's ChamanaAthaguntha: Popular Culture, Literature and Society in Nineteenth-century Orissa', Studies in History, 12, pp. 83-103. Pennington, B.K. (2006), Was Hinduism Invented? Britons, Indians and Colonial Construction of Religion Hinduism, New York: Oxford University Press. Perera, L.P.N. (1987), 'The Faculties of Sex and Related Phenomena in Buddhist Sexual Theory', in D. Kalupahana and W.G. Weeratne (eds), Buddhist Philosophy and Culture: Essays in Honour ofN.A. Jayawickrama, Sri Lanka: N.A. Jayawickrama felicitation Volume Committee. Pflugfelder, G.M. (1999), Cartographies of Desire: Male-male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600— 1950, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Vanita, R. and Kidwai, S. (2000), Same-Sex Love in India, New York: St Martins Press. Weber, M. (1964) [1915], The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism, New York: McMillan.

Bibliography Anagol-McGinn, P. (1992), 'The Age of Consent Act (1891) Reconsidered: Women's Perspectives and Participation in the Child-Marriage Controversy in India', South Asia Research, 12, pp. 100-18. Assayag, J. and Ferguson, J. (1988), 'The Basket, Hair, the Goddess and the World: An Essay On South Indian Symbolism', Diogenes, 36, pp. 113-35. Bannerji, H. (2006), 'Making India Hindu and Male: Cultural Nationalism and the Emergence of the Ethnic Citizen in Contemporary India', Ethnicities, 6, pp. 362-90. Brosius, C. and Yazgi, N. (2007), "Ts there no place like home?": Contesting Cinematographic Constructions of Indian Diasporic Experiences', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 41, pp. 355-86. Cabezon, J.I. (1993), 'Homosexuality and Buddhism', in A. Swidler (ed.), Homosexuality and World Religions, Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International. Cabezon, J.I. and Anderson, C.S. (1994), 'Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender', Journal of the History of Sexuality, 4, pp. 469-72. Chawla, D. (2007), 'I Will Speak Out: Narratives of Resistance in Contemporary Indian Women's Discourse in Hindu Arranged Marriages', Women and Language, 39, pp. 5-19. Davis, C. (2005), '"Listen, Rama's Wife": Maithil Women's Perspectives and Practices in the Festival of Sama Cakeva', Asian Folklore Studies, 64, pp. 1-38.

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Denton, L.T. (2006), Female Ascetics in Hinduism, New York: State University of New York Press. Desai, M. and Bose, S. (1999), 'Gender in India: A Partial Review, Bandana Purkayastha, Mangala Subramaniam', Gender & Society, 17, pp. 503-24. Doniger, W. (2005), 'Bisexuality in the Mythology of Ancient India', Diogenes, 52, pp. 50-60. Dube, S. (1993), 'Idioms of Authority and Engendered Agendas: The Satnami Mahasabha, Chhattisgarh, 1925-1950', Indian Economic & Social History Review, 30, pp. 383-411. Froerer, P. (2005), 'Challenging Traditional Authority: The Role of the State, the Divine and the RSS', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 39, pp. 39-73. Gamble, J. (1985), 'Promiscuity and Homosexuality', World Fellowship of Buddhists Review 24, pp. 26-8. Goldin, PR. (2002), The Culture of Sex in Ancient China, Honolulu, HA: University of Hawaii Press. Guzder, J. and Krishna, M. (1991), 'Sita-Shakti: Cultural Paradigms for Indian Women', Transcultural Psychiatry, 28, pp. 257-301. Harvey, P. (2000), An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Issues, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hershman, P. (1974), 'Hair, Sex and Dirt', Man, 9, pp. 274-98. Khandelwal, M. (1997), 'Ungendered Atma, Masculine Virility and Feminine Compassion: Ambiguities in Renunciant Discourses on Gender', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 31, pp. 79-107. Laidlaw, J. (1995), Riches and Renunciation: Religion, Economy, and Society among the Jains, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Liechty, M. (2005), 'Carnal Economies: The Commodification of Food and Sex in Kathmandu', Cultural Anthropology, 20, pp. 1-38. Menon, D.M. (1993), 'The Moral Community of the Teyyattam: Popular Culture in Late Colonial Malabar', Studies in History, 9, pp. 187-217. Nuckolls, C.W. (1997), 'Fathers and Daughters in a South Indian Goddess Myth: Cultural Ambivalence and the Dynamics of Desire', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 31, pp. 51-77. Nanda, S. (1999), Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India, Stanford, CO: Wadsworth Publishing Co. O'Flaherty, W.D. (1980), Women, Androgynes, and Other Mystical Beasts, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Openshaw, J. (2007), 'Renunciation Feminised?: Joint Renunciation of female-male pairs in Bengali Vaishnavism', Religion, 37, pp. 319-32. Pattanaik, D. (2002), The Man Who Was a Woman and Other Queer Tales from Hindu Lore, Oxford: Harrington Park Press. Philips, A. (2005), 'The Kinship, Marriage and Gender Experiences of Tamil Women in Sri Lanka's Tea Plantations', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 39, pp. 107-42. Rao, N.S. (1996), 'Transformative Rituals among Hindu Women in the Telugu Region', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 30, pp. 69-88. Sarkar, S. (1997), 'Talking about Scandals: Religion, Law and Love in Late Nineteenth Century Bengal', Studies in History, 13, pp. 63-95. Sen, A. (2006), 'Reflecting on Resistance: Hindu Women "Soldiers" and the Birth of Female Militancy', Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 13, pp. 1-35. Sharma, A. (1993), Homosexuality and Hinduism (as part of Homosexuality and World Religions), Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International. Snehi, Y. (2006), 'Conjugality, Sexuality and Shastras: Debate on the Abolition of Reet in Colonial Himachal Pradesh', Indian Economic & Social History Review, 43, pp. 163-97. Sweet, M.J. and Zwilling, L. (1993), 'The First Medicalization: The Taxonomy and Etiology of Queerness in Classical Indian Medicine', Journal of the History of Sexuality, 3, pp. 590-607.

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Tapper, B. E. (1979), 'Widows and Goddesses: Female Roles in Deity Symbolism in a South Indian village', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 13, pp. 1—31. Thadani, G. (1996), Sakhiyani: Lesbian Desire in Ancient and Modern India, London: Cassell. Tomo, K. andPandey, R.(1995), 'Women, Sexuality, and Enlightenment: Kankyo no Tomo', Monumenta Nipponica, 50, pp. 325-56. Tsuneo, W and Jun'ichi Iwata (1989), The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality, trans. D.R. Roberts, London: GMP. Uberoi, P. (1998), 'The Diaspora Comes Home: Disciplining Desire in DDLJ', Contributions to Indian Sociology, 32, pp. 305-36. van der Veer, P. (1987), 'Taming the Ascetic: Devotionalism in a Hindu Monastic Order', Man, new series, 22, pp. 680-95. Vanita R. and Kidwai, S. (2001), Same-Sex Love In India: Readings from Literature and History, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. Wawrytko, S.A. (1993), 'Homosexuality and Chinese and Japanese Religions', in A. Swidler (ed.), Homosexuality and World Religions, Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International. Wilhelm, A.D. (2003), Tritiya-Prakriti: People of the Third Sex, Philadelphia, PA: Xlibris Corporation. Young, S. (2007), 'Female Mutability and Male Anxiety in an Early Buddhist Legend', Journal of the History of Sexuality, 16, pp. 14-39. Zaehner, C. (1997) 'Arya Samaj and the Making of Jat Identity, Nonica Datta', Studies in History, 13, pp. 97-119. Zwilling, L. (1992), 'Homosexuality as Seen in Indian Buddhist Texts', in J.I. Cabezon (ed.), Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Further Reading Chia, M. and Chia, M. (1989), Cultivating Female Sexual Energy, Healing Tao Center. Danielou, A. (1994), The Complete Kama Sutra, South Paris, ME: Park Street Press. MacPhillamy, R. (1982), 'Can Gay People Train in Buddhism?', The Journal of Shasta Abbey, 9, pp. 27-32. Subhuti, D. (1994), Sangharakshita: A New Voice in the Buddhist Tradition, Birmingham: Windhorse Publications.

Parti Sexuality and Cultural Expression

[1]

Concerning Kamasutras: Challenging Narratives of History and Sexuality J y ot i Puri

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History and colonialism arose together in India. As India was introduced to history, it was also stripped of a meaningful past; it became a historyless society brought into the age of History. The flawed nature of history's birth in India was not lost on the nationalists who pressed the nation-state's claim to the age of history. . . . Consequently, history, flawed at birth, has lived an embattled life in India. —Prakash 1992, 17

discovered the Kamasutm through the eyes of the West. The Kamasutm was not an integral part of the lives or the sexual development of adolescents like myself coming of age in India. As Moni Nag (1993) confirms, only a small section of the relatively small English-speaking population in contemporary India is familiar with the English translation of the Kamasutm, first published by Richard Burton in 1883 in colonial Britain. That until the 1980s the copy of the Kamasutm held by Delhi University Library was locked in a back room and a faculty member could access it only after receiving special permission illustrates the cultural ambivalence toward the text (Nag 1993, 253-54). Growing up in Bombay (now known as Mumbai), I recall the first time that I stumbled on a reference to the Kamasutm and learned about its existence. It was in the U.S. best-seller Audrey Rose (De Felitta 1975). That what felt like a sexually repressive culture had actually put out a handbook to enhance sexual pleasure was not only astonishing but also paradoxical. How is it that the author of a U.S. best-seller knew about it? Were others in India aware of this book? To say the least, I was intrigued. At present, multiple, competing representations of the KfrmfrSMtrvi prevail in India and across countries such as the United States. In the United I wish to thank Diane Raymond and Hyun Sook Kim for their insightful comments on drafts of this article. I also wish to acknowledge the careful readings undertaken by the anonymous Signs reviewers. Their thorough feedback was useful to the process of revision.

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States, popular culture is replete with casual and many detailed references to the Kamasutra that are grounded in hierarchical binaries of East and West, of past and present, suffused with imageries of sensualism, eroticism, and exoticism. Where some have indicted the Christian tradition for its deep-seated hostility toward sex, the Kamasutra is frequently appropriated as indisputable evidence of a non-Western and tolerant, indeed celebratory, view of sexuality.1 Glancing through the innumerable citations that are related to the Kamasutra, an article in Cosmopolitan (1995), for example, begins with the following challenge to the reader: "You keep a copy of the Kamasutra by your bed, consider yourself an expert in all things erotic. Still, even the most sophisticated sensualist may have missed out on new findings. Take our quiz." The remarkable aspect of this introduction is not simply that having a copy of the Kamasutra suggests "an expert in all things erotic" but also the banality of the reference. There appears to be nothing out of the ordinary about Cosmopolitan including an article on sexuality and making a passing reference to the Kamasutra. If the casualness of the reference underscores the cultural familiarity with this text as a signifier of the erotic expert or the "sophisticated sensualist," then another article more fully reveals how discourses of history and sexuality are tightly woven to enable representations of the Kamasutra. Appearing in a Kedbook (1995) article on male sexuality, the Kamasutra is thus summarized: "Although it was written centuries ago, there's still no better sex handbook, which details hundreds of positions, each offering a subtle variation in pleasure to men and women. Some require that you be a contortionist to pull them off, but many are twists on themes performed by inspired couples everywhere." In this account, the Kamasutra is represented through the juxtaposition of the ancient past, sex handbooks, pleasure, contortionists, and, elsewhere in the article, Eastern mystics and tantric yogis. Notably, this representation is generated in connection with a discussion on male sexuality within the United States. Promoted as a superior sex handbook, the Kamasutra promises pleasure and substance for inspiration. In effect, an unreflexive account of the Kamasutra reinscribes oppositions between the ancient East and the contemporary West, between contortionists and inspired couples, but also serves as a link between orientalist fantasy and female and male sexuality in the United States. To wit, the politics of historical, unequal relationships based on discursively constructed differences are elided. 1

See, e.g., Uta Ranke-Heinneman (1991) for her critique of sexuality in the Christian tradition over the past fifteen hundred years. Curiously, historians believe that the Kamasutm was also compiled roughly fifteen hundred years ago.

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In contrast, in contemporary India, not only is imagery associated with the Kamasutra comparatively less apparent in popular culture and far more visible in current academic debates on sexuality, but this imagery invokes a different kind of text. Although, anecdotally, representations of the Kamasutra are present in the popular consciousness of the English-speaking elites, by far the greater emphasis is on the Kamasutra as a matter of serious and, therefore, scholarly concern. For example, Indira Kapoor (1993), director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation at the South Asian Regional Bureau, legitimizes the Kamasutra as a treatise on human sexual behavior dating back to 400 C.E. Neither pornographic nor obscene, the Kamasutra is instead elevated as a scientific and serious study of sexual behavior. Kapoor also suggests that the Kamasutra is secured on an open and honest view of sexuality characteristic of the ancient Indian past, a reality that regrettably has since changed. She suggests, "Although the evidence of the Kamasutra and erotic temple carvings shows an open attitude to human sexuality in South Asia in the distant past, today ignorance and embarrassment cause much unhappiness. More knowledge and sympathy are needed to help young people improve their self-confidence and understanding of their bodies and feelings" (Kapoor 1993, 11). If the accounts from Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Kapoor show that there are multiple representations of the Kamasutm and, possibly, multiple Kamasutras, then it is also clear that discursive narratives of history and sexuality commonly reify it as a (trans)historical ancient text—a singular blast from the Indian/Eastern past. Even though the Redbook article represents the Kamasutra as an inspiring sex handbook, whereas Kapoor represents it as a scientific and serious study of sexuality, both accounts reproduce questionable narratives of ancient India to promise sexual liberation from degrees of extant sexual repression; put differently, narratives of a liberal Indian/Eastern past and repressive present support the discourse of sexual repression, with "the Kamasutra" as the mediating factor in these cases. Therefore, the Kedbook article can promise heightened sexual pleasure through an Eastern handbook, whereas Kapoor can challenge the contemporary cultural discomfort in matters of sexuality that hinders the adequate development of adolescents in India or South Asia. But, if the accounts of the Kamasutra in Cosmopolitan and Kedbook need to be challenged for the ways in which they rely on discursive categories of colonialism, then the conflation of "open" and "honest attitudes" with scientific rationality, ancient India, and the pitfalls of modernity in Kapoor's version are no less questionable or unrelated. Both the peculiarities

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and the commonalities of the various representations of the Kamasutra need to be investigated. Groups marginal to the dominant politics of sexuality in postcolonial, contemporary India also strategically appropriate the Kamasutra as a celebratory narrative of sexuality, rooted in a specific representation of the ancient Indian past. In this setting, where homosexuality is frequently attributed to the corrupting influence of the Moghul empire and Westernization, lesbians, gays, and bisexual women and men constantly encounter assumptions that same-sex sexual desire is foreign to the dominant Hindu-Indian ancient tradition. In response, the Kamasutra, along with other Vedic texts, post-Vedic texts, and temple carvings as exemplifications of the Hindu traditions of ancient India, are deployed to argue that past traditions recognized and permitted the expression of homosexuality or gay orientations.2 The exploration of an ancient precolonial history of sexuality in India becomes integral to the politics of resistance, and the KcimcisutTci becomes central to this project. More than ever, there seems to be a sense of urgency about claiming the past and the Kamasutra as ways out of forms of sexual repression. Precisely because of such widely circulating, competing representations and deployments of the Kamasutra(s), which are nonetheless underpinned by shared assumptions of history and sexuality, I am struck by the absence of critical feminist analyses in this area, with one exception (see Roy 1998). In her article, Kumkum Roy undertakes a critical and useful exploration of the Kamasutm from when it was believed to be compiled between the second and fourth centuries C.E. to the more recent translations. In so doing, Roy makes known not only the limits of the normative original but also the tensions between the original and its more modern translations. However, by not sufficiently problematizing the relationship between the original and the translation, Roy is unable to challenge the underlying narratives of the "golden past" and "sexual repression and 2

For example, in the definitive study A Citizen's Status Report on Homosexuality in India,, the authors analyze the Kamasutra for its discussion on "gay sex" (AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan 1991) in a section that is later reprinted in a groundbreaking collection on queer South Asian identities, Lotus of Another Color (Ratti 1993). This account serves to refute accusations that homosexuality or gay, lesbian, and bisexual identities are the products of the corruption of an otherwise untainted ancient Hindu tradition. As such, these authors are in a position to frame the oppression of, in general, Indian and, in particular, Hindu lesbian, gay, and bisexual women and men as the result of the degeneration of what is held to be an exhalted tradition. In the hands of these authors, a problematic vision of ancient Indian history is appropriated and reinscribed but, this time, as a narrative of resistance.

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sexual liberation" that are so central to the premise of the Kamasutra. Such an approach also obfuscates the ways in which, as Tejaswini Niranjana argues elsewhere, the translation precedes the "original" and that which is historical is made "natural" (1994, 126). By treating the translations as imperfect renditions of an original and using a Sanskrit (the language of Vedic and post-Vedic authoritative texts) version as synonymous with the original, Roy's approach does not allow us to question how discursive narratives of history and sexuality came to be intertwined in ways that sustain the seeming relevance of a fifteen-hundred-year-old, post-Vedic document across disparate social contexts; the analysis also obfuscates how the original and the translations continue to circulate under the guise of sexual liberation. In this article, my concern is with questionable narratives of history and sexuality that underpin contemporary representations of the Kamasutm(s).3 Insofar as romanticized accounts of "ancient India or East," intertwined with the binaries of sexual celebration and repression, riddle circulating versions of the Ka,ma,sMtra{s)^ I argue that these versions are flawed; these accounts rely on the elision of the politics of colonialism and dominant anticolonial nationalisms that are imbricated with hierarchies of gender, race, nation, and sexuality. For the purpose of this article, however, I focus on two Kamasutms: the first one is Burton's The Kamasutm ofVatsyayana (1883), which is considered the "original" translation and continues to circulate as the basis for more contemporary versions (e.g., as sex manuals for heterosexual couples). I then consider a second Kamasutm to explore how, despite the peculiarities of each text, specific narratives of history and sexuality remain consistent across these versions. For this, I explore S. C. Upadhyaya's Kamasutm of Vatsyayana: Complete Translation from the Original, which was first published in 1961 and is considered among the best-known scholarly English-language translations in postindependent India. By emphasizing it as an exploration of the "science of erotics" (Upadhyaya 1961, 1) in the Vedic and post-Vedic periods, Upadhyaya's Kamasutra provides a partial counterpoint to Burton's Kamasutra. Yet, the belief that the Kamasutm provides a trans-

3 For the purpose of this article, I restrict my analysis to English-language translations of the KamasutrO' since I am particularly interested in representations of the KamasuPra, within a transnational context. Thus, English seems to be an appropriate choice. Within India, the KamasuPras available in the bookstores are likely to be in English as well. Reportedly, other translations in regional languages that use photographic illustrations circulate underground.

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parent glimpse into the positive, even exalted, view of sexuality in what was subsequently defined as ancient India is common to these two texts. In order to challenge the dual narratives of the golden age of history and sexuality in ancient India, I attempt to contextualize each of these Kamasutms from a critical, feminist viewpoint. Rather than evaluating each of these texts against the "original" Kamasutm (for such an analysis, see Roy 1998), I aim to unravel the intersecting categories and ideologies of gender, nation, race, and social class embedded in and in turn producing the discourses of history and sexuality that underpin each of these texts. To this purpose, I draw on a variety of sources—Burton's biographies, feminist analyses of orientalist histories, critiques of science in colonial India, and textual analyses—to show that these texts are products of their times insofar as these Kamasutms (re)produce naturalized and glorified narratives of history and sexuality. My purpose is to hold up to scrutiny the discursive threads that organize and make coherent representations of history and sexuality—rooted in vectors of race, nationality, class, and gender. I locate this analysis within what has been called transnational feminist cultural studies, most prominently developed by scholars such as Inderpal Grewal and Car en Kaplan (Grewal and Kaplan 1994; Kaplan and Grewal 1994; Grewal 1996). Drawing heavily on the theorizations of Gayatri Spivak, these authors define such an approach as one that integrates the insights of Marxism, poststructuralism, and feminism to facilitate an understanding of postmodernity, global economic structures, nationalisms, issues of race and imperialism, critiques of global feminism, and emergent patriarchies. They reject a humanist approach in favor of mapping linkages across national boundaries that "acknowledge differentials of power and participation in cultural production but also can and must trace the connections between the seemingly disparate elements such as religious fundamentalisms, patriarchies, and nationalisms" (Kaplan and Grewal 1994, 440-41), what they also call "scattered hegemonies." As evident in the work of other feminists that could broadly be considered part of this approach, the aim is to analyze critically the class-, race-, sexuality-, and gender-based politics of cultural productions while resisting static binaries such as margin and center, colonizer and colonized, and dominant and dominated.4 For example, in her book, The Rhetoric of English India, Sara Suleri (1992) compellingly argues the importance of a feminist approach that sees cultural boundaries as precarious in the context of colonial 4

Viswanathan 1989; Suleri 1992; Joshi 1994; Niranjana 1994; McClintock 1995; Cooper and Stoler 1997.

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exchange and that recognizes the dialogic relationship between colonial and postcolonial narratives. Drawing on this approach, I consider the notion of the Kamasutra as a site of cultural production that is not only the effect of colonial and postcolonial hegemonic narratives of history and sexuality but also rests uneasily at the intersections of national cultural boundaries and of the past and the present. I argue that Burton's "discovery" of the Kamasutra cannot be considered outside these discourses of history, which were generated out of the encounter between colonialism and dominant anticolonial nationalisms during the last few decades of nineteenth-century India.5 Burton's KcimcisutTci foregrounds the question of a past predicated on the exigencies of the present. Under the guise of recovering positive, didactic writings on sexuality, Burton's translation promotes romanticized views of ancient India while effacing tensions of colonialism: discourses of nationalisms, race, sexuality, and gender that are the effects of colonial encounters. Left unchallenged, these discursive narratives of history reessentialize national, racial, sexual, and gendered categories in postindependent India; Upadhyaya's KamasMtra is the case in point. However, Gauri Viswanathan (1989) also cautions against collapsing the boundaries between different cultural and political contexts; in her analysis of the introduction of English literary education in colonial India, she suggests that it is more useful to consider the relation between colonial India and colonial England as one of complementarity and not one of sameness. Seen from this lens, by emphasizing the trope of nationhood, Upadhyaya's KfrmfrSMtrvi indicates the limits of colonial discourses on sexuality. Yet ironically, his impulse to reappropriate and legitimate the text through the scholarly, scientific lens only reinforces colonial categories of difference. Both translations collude to inscribe a past that effaces problems of gender inequality and the regulation of sexuality in the present and in so-called ancient India. In other words, the politics of these translated Kamasutms are more exactly rooted in the recent history of colonialism and versions of anticolonial nationalism. Indeed, all versions that continue to reproduce romanticized discourses of ancient India and the binaries of sexual repression and liberation, whether North American, European, or Indian, are part of that history. In this article, I also extend the transnational feminist cultural studies approach by arguing that it is necessary to go beyond unmasking the 5

Burton's biographer, Edward Rice, claims that Burton "discovered" the Ka,ma,suPra,} a position that is untenable. There is a well-known thirteenth-century commentary by Yashodhara on Vatsyayana, to which Burton also refers. For more on this commentary, see De 1959.

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politics of cultural productions and identifying the linkages between "scattered hegemonies." If, as Cyan Prakash suggests in the article's epigraph, history, colonialism, and nationalism are intricately linked in India, then it is not enough either to shift emphasis onto the politics of cultural productions or to show how dominant discourses of history and sexuality in colonial and postcolonial India are partly the effects of "Europe" and the "West." On the contrary, cultural productions such as the Kamasutra need to be more thoroughly criticized. As Dipesh Chakrabarty (1992) argues in his discussion of representations of history in postcolonial settings, critical analysis does not make metanarratives such as "Europe" disappear. Similarly, to show how Burton's and Upadhyaya's Kamasutms are less mere translations of an ancient original and more products of their times will probably not sufficiently disrupt pervasive notions of the celebratory original. Instead, postcolonial critics like Chakrabarty (1992, 1997) have persuasively argued the importance of disrupting these metanarratives of history by writing counterhistories; this literature suggests that there is a way to claim a position of postcolonial subjecthood that does not rewrite another history of its own colonial paralysis.6 In other words, there is a different way to rewrite the history of ancient India that thoroughly disputes any possibility of the Kamasutm as a celebratory text on sexuality. To more fully disrupt the narratives of history and sexuality that enable representations of the Kamasutra(s) (both as original and as translations), I turn to feminist historiographies of ancient India. I argue that these feminist historiographies belie the possibility of celebrating the Kamasutm as a sexually emancipatory text or as a text that is merely concerned with techniques of enhancing sexual pleasure. Michel Foucault's (1977, 1980, 1990) analysis of the matrices of power that enable the production and regulation of sexuality has been most influential in challenging assumptions about sexual repression and sexual liberation; indeed, I draw on his approach throughout this article. But, in this section, I also dispute his analysis that this positive economy of somato-power is evident in the West since the seventeenth century in contrast to what he calls ars erotica associated with the East—China, Japan, and India. I argue that, read against the grain of precolonial "Indian" history, the Kamasutms reveal that the positive economies of somato-power may not be peculiar to the 6

See, e.g., the discussion on the redefinition of the construct of the "third world" in Mohanty 1991. Also, see the discussion on the history of bourgeois domesticity in Chakrabarty 1992, 1997. For another useful discussion on feminist historiography that avoids writing another history of the "West," see Sangari and Vaid 1989.

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so-called West; rather, these strategies of power might be the effects of systems of social stratification. Put succinctly, this article challenges representations of the Kamasutra as an ancient Indian celebratory treatise on sexuality. It does so by problematizing notions of originals and translations and by reading two Kamasutms as transnational cultural productions that are enabled by and, in turn, become the mechanisms for reproducing questionable accounts of history and sexuality in ancient India. At issue in these texts is how representations of history and sexuality implicitly reinforce categories of gender, race, class, and nation as transhistorical and elide the power differentials thereof. To argue further against dominant representations of the Kamasutm, I critically examine the stratified social context of "classical" India, the period to which it is attributed. This reading suggests how the Kamasutms that rely on hegemonic narratives of history and sexuality associated with what orientalists called ancient India are less about sexual activity and more about the regulation and control of sexuality in a social context stratified by gender, class, and caste.

Of "translated" texts Burton's "discovery" of the Kamasutra In his biography of Burton, Edward Rice (1990) claims that Burton discovered the Kamasutm. More accurately, Burton is largely responsible for the first English edition issued in 1883, which perhaps explains why Burton's name remains strongly associated with the Kamasutm. This text was the first publication of the Kama Shastra Society, which was set up by Burton's collaborator, R R Arbuthnot; the society included himself, Burton, the printer, and a small circle of supporters (Brodie 1967; Rice 1990).7 The purpose of this society was to publish erotica from the East for the sexual liberation of Victorian society (Fowkes 1987; Rice 1990). The facade of the Kama Shastra Society was deemed necessary to protect the society members from the Obscene Publications Act that was passed in Britain in 1857 and the general puritanical ire prevailing in Victorian England at the time (Brodie 1967; Burne 1985; Rice 1990). The Kama Shastra Society published three major translations of erotic works: the most well-known, the Kamasutm (1883), which translates as Aphorisms on Love\ the Antinga Rantja, or The Stage of the Bodiless One., in 1885; 7

Rice suggests that one of the members of this society was the infamous Henry Spencer Ashbee who, under the pseudonym Pisanus Fraxi, compiled bibliographies of pornography. For an analysis of Ashbee's compilations, see Marcus 1964.

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and the Perfumed Garden of Sheikh Nefzaouim 1886. The Ananya Ranga was reportedly available in regional languages on the Indian subcontinent and is attributed to the sixteenth-century poet Kalyanamalla; the Perfumed Garden of Sheikh Nefzaoui is a fifteenth-century Tunisian work. From his biographies, Burton emerges as the quintessential European traveler whose desire for the exotic, for adventure and risk, was enabled by the colonial empire.8 One biographer describes him as the foremost orientalist of his time (Dearden 1937). Indeed, Edward Said (1978) considers Burton the first in a series of fiercely individualistic and rebellious orientalists who traveled to the East and among those orientalists who took seriously the assertion that one can know the Orient only personally, authentically, sympathetically, and humanistically. But, Said suggests, Burton was paradoxically able to rebel against the constraints of his culture only as a potential agent of authority in the East; not coincidentally, Burton identified the East as a place of freedom from Victorian moral authority. In effect, Burton cannot revel in the mysteries of the Orient outside the orientalist framework; whether an individual or a rebel, Burton is nonetheless implicated in the collection and cataloging of knowledge about the Orient in the Kamasutra, the Ananya Ranga, and the Arabian Nights. With regards to India, Burton was part of that second round of orientalists who shaped sympathetic but enduring discourses of Indian history for the benefit of Europe, particularly England. These orientalists, working in the second half of the nineteenth century, drew extensively on the legacy of predecessors such as William Jones and H. T. Colebrooke, who contributed to the notion of a "golden age" in their attempt to recuperate a national past for the colony (Chakravarti 1989; Niranjana 1994). While this orientalist framework initially presented the past as an undifferentiated whole, it was gradually stratified, with authority being invested in brahmanic texts. In an influential essay, Uma Chakravarti (1989) argues that the need to justify colonial domination over India tempered this orientalist history; the degeneration of the ancient civilization, the abject position of women in nineteenth-century India, and the inability of effeminate Indian men to rule themselves provided the necessary justification and impetus to this discourse of history. Nationalist Indian elites, writing under colonial domination in an attempt to provide themselves with a national, select tradition, wholeheartedly embraced this notion of a glorious ancient India and also attempted to recuperate, debate, and interpret it. Despite prevailing differences in interpretation, what 8

Dearden 1937; Farwell 1963; Brodie 1967; Rice 1990.

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is particularly noteworthy about the narratives of ancient Indian history is that both orientalists and nationalists secured the link between history, nation, and gender—that the elevated status of women in ancient India was a crucial indicator of a once-civilized nation and that the colonization of India was a reflection of its present degeneration and on the dubious masculinity of Indian men. If the early orientalists produced notions of ancient Indian glory alongside the "woman question," then later orientalists such as Burton were influential in foregrounding categories of race and gender in the orientalist narrative of history. These orientalists strengthened the romanticized images of history by transforming ancient India to a glorious Aryan past framed by notions of race, vigor, and the gendered narratives of conquest and subjugation, and they reinforced ideas of the past as the heyday of Indian womanhood (Chakravarti 1989). Along with Burton, these latter orientalists, such as Max Miiller and two European women, Mrs. Speier and Clarisse Bader, also reinforced the links between nation and gender through the feminization of the East—as a source of civilization, culture, and spirituality that offered an antidote to the ills of a rapidly changing, seemingly material and superficial Western society (Jayawardena 1986; Chakravarti 1989). While there were some differences between and among these orientalist and nationalist accounts, in general these narratives of history were dominated by gendered and racialized notions of an early Aryan conquest, a glorious civilization, an exalted Vedic tradition, spirituality, and the high status of women. Yet, as many historians have pointed out, these orientalist and nationalist narratives of ancient Indian history had "Europe" as their subject. What is equally noteworthy is that orientalist discourses of Indian or Eastern sexuality that were generated through texts such as Burton's Kamasutm were also written from a colonial subject position inflected with tensions of categories of gender, race, and nation. Said suggests that, after 1800, "Oriental sex" (1978, 190) gradually came to be a commodity in Europe obtainable through mass culture. Indeed, according to Said, virtually no European traveler could travel to the Orient without writing about sex. This connection between the Orient and sex, specifically licentious sex, that was firmly established by orientalists working in the nineteenth century allowed Burton to assert his beliefs against the narrow confines of official Victorian sexual discourse while positing the East as a liberatory alternative. According to his biographers, it enabled him to translate such erotic literature out of concern with the lack of knowledge about sex in the Western world, and in England in particular, and its

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consequences in the lives of men and, especially, in the lives of women (Burne 1985; Rice 1990).9 As Rice (1990) indicates, he was intent on promoting the sexual emancipation of Victorian women. Indeed, Glen Burne (1985) suggests that Burton was writing this erotic literature at the height of the period in England when suppression, distortion, repression, and the lack of sexual desire in women dominated the English understanding of sexuality. Arguably, Burton's Kamasutra can be considered a handbook for the emancipation of middle-class English sexuality, and the exigencies of Victorian society are the real subject of a narrative of ancient sexual history in nineteenth-century India. Rice (1990) reports that Burton was involved first in the translation of the Ancingci Rantja, which was commissioned by his collaborator Arbuthnot, and later in the translation of the Kamasutm. Exemplifying the impossibility of translation as an apolitical and transparent process, it appears that Burton enthusiastically worked the draft of the Ancingci Rantja into "more acceptable and polished language" (Brodie 1967,294), greatly changing the nature of the original. This enabled Burton to express his deeply rooted notions that it was a man's duty to pleasure women sexually. Indeed, Rice states that many sections of the Ananga Ranga come from Burton's fertile brain, away from what Burton believed to be the "peculiarities of Hindu thought" and "verbosity of Hindu style" (1990, 428). In this colonial encounter, the English translation is held to be superior to the poorer and more pedantic original. The text and the culture are forced to submit to the trick of translation in order to produce and deploy desired knowledges. Burton and Arbuthnot came across the Kamasutm while pursuing the Ananga Ranga. Burton's biographer Brodie (1967) suggests that, although Arbuthnot tried to throw off the censors by arguing that the translation was done entirely by Indian pundits, the idiomatic English indicates that the two Englishmen were the ones responsible for the final product. Brodie believes that the translation of the Kamasutm has a boldness and vigor that is characteristic of Burton. W. G. Archer, who edited and wrote the introduction to the first publicly printed British edition of the Kamasutra, reportedly holds that, while Arbuthnot grappled with the original and molded the translation, Burton later improved the rhythm and style (Brodie 1967). Rice suggests that the "authoritative, witty, polished and thoroughly annotated" (1990, 446) tone of the Kamasutm makes it clear that Burton played a major role in editing the work. In 9

For further discussion of Burton's concern with the emancipation of Victorian women, see Burne 1985, 123.

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fact, Burton appears to have borrowed material concerning the functioning of the harem in Damascus in editing the Kamasutra. Although Rice appears somewhat more critical of the nature of Burton's translated Kamasutra, these biographers do not seem to be discomfited by the politics of empire that make this translation possible and Burton the man most closely associated with the Kamasutra. Indeed, this leads Rice to claim that Burton discovered the Kamasutml But the issue is not simply a matter of a poor translation, the result of a less-than-vigorous intellectual approach. Instead, Burton's Kamasutm destabilizes any convenient distinction between an original and its translation. In this case, the original quite literally came into being for the purpose of translation. Rice reports that, although the Ancingci Rantja was freely available in regional languages such as Marathi, the Sanskrit scholar Bhagvanlal Indraji, commissioned by Burton and Arbuthnot to translate the Kamasutm, had to collate manuscripts from libraries in Benares, Calcutta, and Jaipur. Undoubtedly, translations are contingent on the appearance of original texts, their authors, and their meanings. Yet the authorship of these ostensibly original texts must be carefully concealed precisely to preserve the legitimacy of the translation (Crapanzano 1986). In this way the names Burton (the translator) and Vatsyayana (held to be the author/compiler of the original) become interchangeable, while Arbuthnot becomes obscure. The belief that Burton's is merely the first English translation of the Kamasutm is untenable. Not only does this view neutralize the role of the English language in the history of the empire, but it also obfuscates the relations of power underlying Burton's Kamasutm. "Translations" and "originals" are part of a larger discourse of making and dispersing unequal histories within the colonial context. These narratives of histories are the effects of transnational discourses that effectively and complexly racialize, gender, and sexualize colonial relations. As Niranjana (1994) suggests, translations into English are part of the process of subjection and subjectification that shape and take shape within asymmetrical relations of power that operate under colonialism. Not only do these relations eventually shape Upadhyaya's quest to recover the "science of erotics" in ancient India, but, at the same time, the sexualization of the East ensures the circulation of Burton's Kamasutm. According to Rice, the first edition of the Kamasutm was prohibitively priced at £2 10s, and pirated copies quickly circulated within England and elsewhere in Europe. Print capitalism coupled with strong official Victorian normative codes on the issue of obscenity made the circulation of Eastern sex, new editions, and illegal copies more appealing.

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While little is known about the reception of the Kamasutra in colonial England, a reading of this text reveals the embedded tensions of gender, sexuality, social caste, and class.10 Unraveling these tensions not only challenges Burton's assertion in the "Concluding Remarks" of the text that the KcimcisutTci is a valuable treatise on men and women and their relationship and connections with each other, but it also indicates the hierarchical status of women of various class and caste groups and the regulation of their sexuality in the contexts of nineteenth-century colonial India and colonial England, and, as projected, in ancient India. Furthermore, uncovering these tensions also indicates why, despite its seeming foreignness, Burton would attempt to use this text to foreground issues of heterosexual relations and middle-class women's sexual pleasure in Victorian England. In the absence of a more thoroughgoing critique of gender, class, and caste hierarchies in the text, it was conceivable to introduce these issues without necessarily disrupting prevailing hierarchies of gender and social class in colonial England. Although the discussion on sexuality in Burton's Kamasutra is located in an entirely different cultural and historical context, the wealthy male citizen at the center of the text, the text's acknowledgment yet circumscription of women's sexuality, and the normalization of heterosexual relations provide a dubious framework for the sexual liberation of its readers in Victorian England. Burton's KfrmfrSMtrvi is organized into seven parts, which is fairly typical of many versions of the texts: "Index, and General Consideration of the Subject," "Of Sexual Union," "About the Acquisition of a Wife," "About a Wife," "About the Wives of Other People," "About Courtezans," and "On the Means of Attracting Others to One's Self." In contrast to some Sanskrit versions, this text includes and blurs the organization of the content into prose and verse.11 As Roy (1998) argues, this distinction is an important one because while the verses sometimes summarize the preceding, stylized, and jargon-filled prose, at other times the verses qualify or contradict the prose, leading to more complex interpretations. However, in Burton's text the format makes prose and verse less easily distinguishable and, thus, the tensions less distinct. In chapter 4 of part 1, Burton describes at length the life of the citizen who is being asked to consider the various aspects of sexual activity—including acquiring a wife, how a wife should conduct herself, and 10

As Roy (1998) also confirms, there is little by way of reception or circulation studies with regard to the Kamasutm in colonial England. 11 On the importance of the differences between prose and verse in the Kamasutm, see Roy 1998.

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how to attract others to oneself. The chapter encourages the wealthy, male citizen to marry and set up a household: "Having thus acquired learning, a man, with the wealth that he may have gained by gift, conquest, purchase, deposit, or inheritance from his ancestors, should become a householder, and pass the life of a citizen" (KamasutrO' 1883, 17). The ensuing detailed description of what this life should look like confirms that the discussion is primarily relevant to propertied male citizens only.12 It is especially notable, as Roy (1998) insightfully suggests with respect to another Sanskrit version of the Kamasutm, that, whereas men are consolidated into this almost homogenous category of citizens, women are carefully distinguished from one another and from men on the basis of their accessibility to men. In effect, according to Roy, this somewhat homogenized, undifferentiated citizen emerges at the center of the text and as the pivot of all sexual relations. In Burton's text, as well, the citizen's sexual relations with women are primarily expected for pleasure and progeny; and, remarkably, not only are women categorized accordingly but also in relation to the male subject. Chapter 5 of part 1 describes women as nayikas (Burton translates this in a footnote as a woman "fit to be enjoyed without sin" [Kamasutm 1883, 23]) and categorizes them as maids, twice-married women, and public women. Sexual relations with virgins of the same caste are encouraged as a means of acquiring progeny, but such relations with women of higher castes and women "previously enjoyed by others" (23), such as twice-married women, are forbidden. However, sexual relations with women of the lower castes, with women excommunicated from their castes, and with public and twice-married women are acceptable only for the purpose of pleasure. Relations with the wives of other men are specified for instrumental reasons on thirteen special occasions that do not involve "mere carnal desire" (25), such as relations with a wife who has gained the heart of a powerful enemy who is the enemy of the citizen, with a wife who can turn the mind of her powerful husband in favor of the citizen, and other such scenarios. Therefore, the desires for progeny, pleasure, and self-interest provide the incentives for sexual relations for the wealthy male subject, and women are relationally categorized within a system stratified by gender, caste, and class. Although, as I noted earlier, Burton's Kamasutm continues to be disseminated as a sex handbook, the part that details sexual techniques represents only forty out of approximately 175 pages. These pages permit 12 The exception to this privileging of the citizen in this text is the section that is addressed to courtesans.

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and speak to women's sexual pleasure in relation to the citizen, but the parts on the acquisition and the topic of wives are far more revealing about the ways in which the sexual pleasure of women as wives is managed and circumscribed. These parts clarify that, while female sexual activity and pleasure are important aspects of sexual relations with male citizens, these desires should be channeled according to social norms. Therefore, a desirable wife would come from a good family, would be three or more years younger than the citizen, and would be wealthy, beautiful, and healthy, among other qualities; if she is no longer a maiden—has had sexual relations with others—then she is unacceptable. The text details how the husband should approach and seduce his wife at marriage, but the description of what it means to be a virtuous wife is devoid of any consideration of her sexuality. Chapter 1 in part 4 is quite detailed about how a virtuous woman should conform to her husband's wishes, take care of and serve his family, keep house, plant seeds, prepare certain foods at home, and conduct herself in the absence of her husband. The section is remarkably thorough about the plants and flowers that should be planted but silent on her sexual desires. What comes across from a reading of Burton's text is not just that women's sexual pleasure is acknowledged but also that it is sought to be normatively managed and regulated. That heterosexual relations between citizens and their appropriate women partners are at the center of this text is clearly apparent. It is not that the text does not acknowledge possibilities of same-sex sexual relations, but these descriptions occupy a much more ancillary position. Overwhelmingly, the discussion presumes and focuses on sexual relations between women and men, and the clearest discussions on same-sex relations are included in the chapter on "Mouth Congress," which is in the part that describes sexual techniques, and in the chapter entitled "About the Women of the Royal Harem; and of the Keeping of One's Own Wife" in part 5. In the latter discussion, women are said to pleasure each other not out of mutual desire but because of the inadequacy of heterosexual relations—one husband is unable to keep several wives sexually satisfied. In contrast, the discussion on "mouth congress" seems to refer more directly to class and caste hierarchies since it primarily appears to be the preserve of unchaste, wanton women, female attendants and serving maids (those who are unmarried and live by "shampooing"), and courtesans. According to the text, eunuchs may be disguised as females, in which case the mouth is said to be the sexual orifice, or they may also be disguised as males and provide such services to citizens in their roles as "shampooers." Although Burton's text does not prescribe any negative sanctions, it also makes clear that this practice is prohibited in the case of

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married women. Nonetheless, toward the end of the section, the verses indicate that some citizens who know each other well and some women of the harem, when they are amorous, may practice this form of sex on each other. Despite this qualifier, the text finally suggests that there is no reason why this form of sex should be practiced except in particular cases. Therefore, for the most part, this discussion is elaborated within a dual sex/gender framework; finally, this form of sexual activity is accommodated rather than authorized. Thus far, I have tried to show how Burton's Kamasutra is both an effect and, in turn, a crucial marker of the colonial orientalist discourses of history and sexuality, which are rooted in binaries of gender, race, sexuality, and nation. I have also argued that the text is replete with the hierarchies of gender, (he tero) sexuality, and social caste-class. But gender is thoroughly implicated and the sexualization of the East is literally inscribed in Burton's KcimcisutTci in at least one more way. As noted above, Burton's biographers emphasize that he was particularly concerned with the sexual repression of Victorian women. The Kamasutra and the Ancingci Rantja were instrumental to Burton's attempt to redress the sexual ineptness of English men and the ignorance of English women. But Burton's Kamasutm, a potentially subversive work in Victorian England, was contingent on the marginalized positions of groups of women in colonial India, including the mistress and the courtesan. According to Rice (1990), Burton preferred brown- and black-skinned women to his countrywomen and believed in the "Bubu system," which was a common practice among English officers at a time when there were few white women. In the heavily racialized, sexualized, and classed context of British India, Burton defines the Bubu or the "black wife" as a temporary wife to English officers and administrators (Rice 1990). Burton specifies the advantages: "The 'walking dictionary' is all but indispensable to the Student, and she teaches him not only Hindostani grammar, but the syntaxes of native life. She keeps house for him, never allowing him to save money, or, if possible, to waste it. She keeps the servants in order. . . . She looks after him in sickness, and is one of the best nurses, and, as it is not good for a man to live alone, she makes him a manner of home" (quoted in Rice 1990, 50). Rice (1990) suggests that Burton's "walking dictionary" was not only an instructor of sexual techniques but also his introduction into native life because such a household consisted of a range of her women relatives and an attendant lifestyle, which included native food, music, religion, and customs as well as exposure to numerous educated women of the courtesan classes who provided a variety of entertainments. Indeed, Rice claims, the women Burton lived with in his seven-year stretch in India provided him with material that he worked into his books (including

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the Kamasutra and the Ananya Kanga) through introductions, footnotes, commentaries, and elucidation of passages in the original (Rice 1990, 43-53). In sum, the sexual objectification of socially and economically marginalized women in colonial India is the basis for the potential emancipation of sexually deprived middle- and upper-class women in Victorian England. Neither does a critical reading of the text support a celebratory reading of Burton's Kamasutra. Enabled by the existence of the colonial state and networks of capital, Burton's project to liberate Victorian society through the construction and appropriation of other cultural histories is a manifestation of the colonial regime of power. But this project cannot be viable without inadvertently destabilizing unequal, colonial categories of difference. In effect, not only is it impossible to isolate Burton's Kamasutra from its colonial conditions of production, but it is also necessary to situate it in a transnational context, across the metropole and the colony; Burton's Kamasutra is neither "Indian" nor "Victorian." Yet, if the oppositions of race, gender, nation, and class within a transnational, colonial context shape Burton's Kamasutra, then Upadhyaya's Kamasutra is no less immune from this enduring legacy of history and sexuality in postcolonial India. But just as the political contexts are not the same across the latter half of nineteenth-century colonial India and postindependent India, neither are the two texts. Postindependent nationalism and the ascendancy of the scientific tradition: Upadhyaya's Kamasutra Moti Chandra, then director of the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai, prefaces Upadhyaya's 1961 translation of the Kamasutra into English with a foreword. The first paragraph reads, Dr. S. C. Upadhyaya is an erudite scholar of Sanskrit and Indian art whose knowledge of ars amoris of the ancient Indians requires no commendation. It is, therefore, in the fitness of his ripe scholarship that he has produced an up-to-date and literal translation of Vatsyayana's Kamasutra, which without any doubt, is the most important treatise on love. Vatsyayana had not only incorporated various schools of thought on the science of love but also arranged his material in such a way that it was handy to poets, artists and above all to those lovers for whom the Kamasutra was the very life-breath of existence. The entire range of the topics of love has been laid bare with a cold scientific thoroughness unparalleled in Sanskrit literature. Vatsyayana's aphorisms are models of brevity. From his ob-

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servant eyes nothing seems to have escaped. The art of love-making, the psychology of sex, the courtesans and their victims, the routine of accomplished lovers, etc. have been treated with precision and scientific view-point. (Upadhyaya 1961, v) Chandra secures Upadhyaya's translation on two intertwined claims. First, he legitimizes this translation on the basis that it is a literal rendition of the original, that is, the Sanskrit version; contrary to Burton's enthusiastic finesses for the benefit of Victorian society, Chandra suggests that Upadhyaya's translation is faithful to an original. A testimony to Upadhyaya's erudite scholarship confirms the value of the translation; to wit, the value of the original needs to be confirmed as well. As a result, Chandra characterizes and endorses Vatsyayana's Kamasutra as an unparalleled Sanskrit treatise on love enabled through a (cold) scientific viewpoint. With this dual movement, Chandra establishes the legitimacy of Upadhyaya's Kamasutra for its literalness and the essentially scientific nature of the text(s) while reinscribing the chronology of the original and, subsequently, the translation. But the dual claims of translation and science are anachronistic. The discourse of science, linked with the expansion and consolidation of the colonial state, is used to claim the legitimacy of a text that is fixed in the past—defined as the so-called classical period of India. Unlike the nineteenth-century orientalists, who were clearly working within a scientific discourse as they laboriously accumulated and cataloged the Orient, Chandra is claiming a scientific tradition that is internal and integral to the period of so-called ancient India. The historicity of science is appropriated to characterize nationhood in the postindependent 1960s. In this view, science is no Western import but is characteristic of that which is ancient India, exemplified by Vatsyayana's Kamasutra. Indeed, for Chandra it is noteworthy that sexuality is the topic of scientific observation. As such, Chandra contextualizes Vatsyayana's Kamasutra as the most important treatise of the various schools on the "science of love" (Upadhyaya 1961). Science is imbricated with the Orient in Upadhyaya's KfrmfrSMtrvi. Upadhyaya's Kamasutra and its recourse to the authority of science rests securely within the framework of anticolonial androcentric nationalist impulses that sought to establish a compatibility between a select national tradition and Western, colonial modernity. The discourse of science was instrumental to the consolidation of the colonial state as well as to dominant anticolonial nationalists. Indeed, India was the first part of the British Empire where a conscious effort was made to introduce what may be appropriately described as Western science, and elite nationalists quickly

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appropriated it as a way to move colonial India into the period of modernity (Sangwan 1991; Prakash 1999). Although science was instrumental to the expansion of colonial forces, Claude Alvarez (1991) argues that the scientific method and its metaphysics are inherently expansionist as they are unable to coexist with oppositional forms of knowledge—which science defines as ignorance, insanity, and irrationality. In his analysis of science, colonialism, and modern India, Prakash (1999) argues that, paradoxically, the idiom of science and its claim to universality had to be translated and indigenized, and not merely adapted, in order to assert its authority. According to Prakash (1999), not only was the dissemination of science therefore contingent on the undoing of binaries (universal truth/untruth) and borders (self/other) that authorize its discourse, but this undoing also enabled Indian elites to challenge the contradictions of colonialism and shape an Indian modernity that was defined in predominantly Hindu and Sanskritic terms. Extending the discourse of science to recover ancient texts appears to be especially useful for the selective preservation of narratives of the glorious past that are employed for the purposes of an emergent, official national identity. Prakash (1999) suggests that, in an effort to counter the rationalizations of British rule over India and allegations of outdatedness, these elites argued that scientific knowledge had originated with the ancient Hindus; they sought to reinterpret the rationality of classical texts in light of the authority of science. Representing an essentialist, elitist precolonial tradition was deemed necessary to characterize an emergent nation and to project a past and a future free from colonial rule.13 Prakash (1999) argues, however, that this attempt to remake the Indian nation, lost to myth and superstition, in the image of Hindu science also ended up inscribing images of a universal and singular archaic Hinduism and of the nation as homogenous, whole, and Hindu. The claim to the scientific, rationalist nature of the Vedas, and of Vedic and post-Vedic tradition, was a means to establish the universality of Hindu culture against the colonial presence. Translating in postindependence India, Upadhyaya appears to frame his text within the history of the nationalist discourse of science, and the manner in which he organizes his Kamasutra supports Chandra's claims about the scientific nature of the text. By way of an introduction to his translation, Upadhyaya undertakes a sixty-four page exegesis entitled "Development of the Science of Erotics in the Vedic and Post-Vedic Periods" (1961, 1). His introductory sentence tellingly reads, "During the Vedic 13

Jayawardena 1986; Chakravarti 1989; Niranjana 1994; Prakash 1999.

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period, schools of different sciences developed." By placing what he alternatively calls the "science of erotics" and the "science of love" within this context, Upadhyaya attempts to set a tone for the ensuing translation. In the introduction, his primary aim seems to be to convince the reader that it is important to claim ancient Indian treatises of "erotic science" as a rich heritage. This is followed by six parts in which he carefully discusses subjects such as tumescence in Sanskrit literature; detumescence in Sanskrit literature; postures for congress, including the man supine and woman astride position for congress, cunnilingus, and fellatio; and the use of artificial devices for congress and autoeroticism. He liberally includes illustrations from sculptures and paintings across a wide temporal spectrum. Given the framework of science, this introduction not unexpectedly takes a taxonomic approach. Subjects such as cunnilingus and fellatio and postures for congress are carefully organized and thoroughly detailed. For example, Upadhyaya exhaustively cites Sanskrit sources on the issue of tumescence by addressing matters such as kissing, scratching, and courtship, among others, with mind-numbing technical and jargon-filled detail. What is especially interesting is that Upadhyaya arbitrarily includes references to the Western contexts and to the Muslim tradition in order to bolster his claims about the importance and scientific nature of the erotics. Not surprisingly, he also mentions modernists such as Havelock Ellis in his discussion. Furthermore, Upadhyaya does not hesitate to use tables to organize his discussion of male organs or postures of congress as detailed in other sources. There is no question: Upadhyaya's introduction to the translation of Vatsyayana's Kamasutm is a treatise by an expert who takes seriously the systematic classification of the "science of the erotics." Perhaps in keeping with scientific objectivity, when he briefly discusses the Kamasutm (pages 53-54 only) in the "Introduction," Upadhyaya notes that the date of Vatsyayana's Kamasutm cannot be conclusively decided and reconciles the multiple names associated with the Kamasutm as the various names of Vatsyayana. Notably, Upadhyaya raises doubts about the state of the present text.14 He notes discrepancies in successive references to the Kamasutm. For example, quotations cited from the Kamasutm by past authors and scholars are not to be found in the text of the Kamasutm, or, as in the case of Kalyanamalla, who is generally held to be the author of the Ananya Rantja, there is a discrepancy in the number and description of the qualities of fingernails cited therein and those to be found in the 14

Curiously, Burton also raises doubts about the state of the text.

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present text of the Kamasutra. Yet the source of the present state of Vatsyayana's Kamasutra remains unspecified. Recall that, according to Rice, Burton and his collaborator collated the manuscripts of the Kamasutra from various sources. It is unclear if this is the original text to which Upadhyaya refers. Instead, by recourse to the scientific method, Chandra's introduction serves to reinscribe postulates of the original and an "as far as possible" English rendition that formally attempts to preserve the scientific "spirit of the original" (Upadhyaya 1961). At first glance, the part that consists of Upadhyaya's translation of the Kamasutra is also organized according to the scientific method. Unlike Burton's text, this discussion is much more succinct and pithy. This pithiness and apparent lack of embellishment suggests a much more faithful translation of the original. The text is also divided into seven parts, and the prose assigns numbers to the aphorisms that are being translated. The verses are also clearly indicated and numbered. But, despite its more careful and cautious tone in comparison with Burton's text, this Kamasutra is no less problematic in terms of hierarchies of gender, social class, and caste. Whether produced within a colonial orientalist or scientific nationalist framework, both Kamasutms appear to reproduce the marginalization and regulation of women and their sexualities, the centrality of the wealthy male citizen, the codification of heterosexuality, and the accommodation of alternative sexual practices. Since the various parts and chapters in Upadhyaya's Kamasutm mirror the problems and limitations that I pointed out earlier with regard to Burton's text, I will not belabor the points here. But there are also significant differences between the two Kamasutms that belie the possibility that these are mere translations of the putative original. That these texts are not translations but interpretations that are shaped by their historical, cultural, and political contexts is clear when a closer comparison of the two Kamasutms is undertaken. Indeed, there are innumerable examples where the differences in wording show the differences in interpretations. For example, while Upadhyaya entitles chapter 5 in part 1 "The Different Types of Women, Fit and Unfit to Consort with, and about Messengers of Love," Burton calls it "About the Kinds of Women Resorted to by the Citizens, and Friends and Messengers of Love." Clearly, while Upadhyaya foregrounds the suitability and unsuitability of women, Burton highlights the subjectivity of the citizen in the title. Another example drawn from a chapter of each book reveals how these differences are present throughout the texts. In the chapter entitled "Mouth Congress," Burton writes, "The male servants of some men carry on the mouth congress with their masters. It is also practiced by some

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citizens who know each other well, among themselves. Some women of the harem, when they are amorous, do the acts of the mouth on the yonis (vaginas) of one another, and some men do the same thing with women" (Kamasutra 1883, 62). Compare this with the parallel chapter, "Oral Congress," in Upadhyaya's translation, which reads, Sutra 31 (verse). Young masseurs, usually wearing ear-ornaments, do allow some men to have oral congress with them. (Sometimes young actors or dandies allow undersexed, or old or inexperienced men to have oral congress with them). Sutra 32 (verse). It is also practised by some citizens who know each other well. (Sometimes citizens who are effeminate indulge in oral congress with each other simultaneously, by lying alongside one another inversely. Some women also do the same, specially in harems, where there is a dearth of virile men.) (1961, 131) Needless to say, it is difficult to reconcile Burton's male servants and amorous women with yonis with Upadhyaya's narratives about masseurs with ear-ornaments; young actors and dandies; undersexed, old, or inexperienced men; effeminate citizens; and a dearth of virile men. These are not two different versions of a translation but two significantly different narratives on same-sex sexual relations, gender, class, and sexuality. Furthermore, in contrast to Burton's text, if Upadhyaya's KfrmfrSMtrvi can be considered part of the counterhegemonic, nationalist legacy that sought to destabilize the hierarchies of colonial rule by foregrounding the discourse of science, then it is only partially subversive. Upadhyaya's rendering of the KamasMtra as simultaneously scientific and integral to a superior Vedic and post-Vedic tradition reinscribes an anticolonialist nationalist discourse of history that nonetheless has a European subject at its center. Secured on the ascendancy of science since the nineteenth century, Upadhyaya's KfrmfrSMtrvi cannot be reflexive about the ways in which this discourse privileges a history of enlightenment and masculinized rationality.15 In fact, this framework of science only lends credibility 15

For a discussion of the Enlightenment as androcentric, see Hawkesworth 1989; Harding 1990. Also, I do not suggest that the ascendancy of science within the dominant nationalist tradition was either uncomplicated or unchallenged. M. K. Gandhi provided the most popular and compelling critique of science and technology. But I do argue that this discourse deeply pervades the premise of the nation and later the nation-state. As Ashis Nandy (1991) argues, science and technology become not only the responsibility of the independent state marching the nation toward development but the reason of the state, which is perhaps best verbalized by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India.

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to the assertion that Upadhyaya's text is merely a (objective) translation of the original. Upadhyaya's emphasis on the scientific nature of the Vedic and post-Vedic erotic tradition also makes it less likely that he will write his text from a critical, questioning viewpoint; for example, Upadhyaya matter-of-factly discusses how class- and status-based hierarchies govern the sexual desires of women in his Ka,ma,SMtra,, a point to which I shall return in the next section. His text may be able to unsettle the grip between colonial power and hierarchies of knowledge, but it implicitly reinscribes the binaries of archaic past and present, glory and decline, East and West, sexually liberated and sexually repressed, the elevated status of Hindu women and the subjugation of Hindu women, feminine and masculine, spiritual and materialistic, and loss and recovery that underlie the orientalist narrative of history. This Kamasutra is also unable to avoid erasing multiplicity, difference, or subalternity insofar as it is predicated on a homogenous, Hindu, and elitist national history. What is clear, then, is that both of these Kamasutms are products of their times. Yet, insofar as these Kamasutms claim to recover the glorious past of ancient India that can produce emancipatory narratives of sexuality for the purpose of their present contexts, these texts need to be challenged. In both cases, representations of history and sexuality are based in the nineteenth-century collusions between orientalists and elite, anticolonial nationalists. In turn, these representations of history and sexuality are riven by the binaries of racial and national differences, of gender and class oppositions, that are produced and contested throughout this period. If the exigencies of the sexual liberation of Victorian women that involve the active production of a racialized, feminized, but glorious Indian past shape Burton's Kamasutm, then his perceptions of women at the margins of colonial Indian society also more concretely shape his text. Inasmuch as Upadhyaya draws on the intertwined, racialized, and exoticized discourses of history and sexuality under the guise of serious and scientific scholarship, his Kamasutm is neither just a translation nor free from the differentials of gender, race, imperialism, and nationalism. And, in both cases, a closer reading shows that, despite how the two texts mirror hierarchies of gender, sexuality, social class, and caste, they are not simply translations but narratives of history and sexuality that rely on the premise of the original. If writing the "original" Kamasutm that legitimizes the translations is less about ancient India and more about the relationality between colonial India and colonial Britain, then Burton's "translation" is a hybrid text at best. In a parallel vein, Upadhyaya's Kamasutm can be seen as a textual expression of a hybrid modernity—shaped by the imbrications of history,

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science, and anticolonial nationalisms in colonial India that are part of India's legacy as it transitions into an independent nation-state. However, if these two texts can be read as sites that rely on and, in turn, proliferate flawed discourses of history and sexuality, then they raise questions of alternative readings of history and sexuality as related to the notion of Kamasutrt^s). These questions are particularly important because the notion of the original Kamasutm is not so easily displaced; showing that the two Kamasutms are politicized sites of cultural production that are predicated on misleading distinctions between translations and the original nonetheless leaves open the question of how to interpret Vatsyayana's compilation as reflected through Burton's and Upadhyaya's texts. Neither does the transnational feminist cultural studies approach address alternatives to discourses of ancient Indian history that have Europe as their subject. As Chakrabarty succinctly argues, narratives of history produced at institutional sites—whether "Indian," "Chinese," or "Kenyan" (1992, 128)—are only instances of the master narrative of Europe. Alternatively, Chakrabarty suggests that the way out is to "write into the history of modernity the ambivalences, contradictions, the use of force, and the tragedies and the ironies that attend it" (1992, 148). By way of disruption, I wish to write a broad narrative of the social context of classical India, which is roughly the time period to which scholars attribute the Kamasutm. I seek to highlight the materiality of gender, class, and caste systems of stratification that generally organize what is to be reified as India by the nineteenth century. This is not to slip in a more authentic historical account that is unfettered by the complicated legacies of the nineteenth and twentieth century or to suggest there is an originary, recoverable text. On the contrary, I wish to suggest that there are profound inconsistencies between feminist understandings of the past and the celebratory view of sexuality that is at the heart of representations of the Kamasutms. To this purpose, I will contextualize the so-called classical period of India, with particular attention to its distribution of power and its socially entrenched systems of stratification. I rely heavily on broad feminist critical histories of this period in the next section not only to dispute representations of Kamasutms as emancipatory texts of sexuality but also as a result of the lack of specific information on the gender, class, caste, regional, and linguistic variations that informed the compilation and circulation of sections of what is later seen as "the" Kamasutm. I will also read Burton's and Upadhyaya's Kamasutms against the grain of that history. In the next section, I will suggest that these Kamasutms indicate not the celebration of sex but the regulation of sexuality through the mechanisms of pleasure in the unequal social setting

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of classical India. Here I both invoke and indicate the limits of Foucault's theory of sexuality to argue that the regulation of sexuality through the discourse of pleasure is more appropriately situated amid patterns of stratification than amid the positive economy of somato-power (power that takes hold of the body in a way that acts as a matrix of sexuality in which people at once recognize and lose themselves) in eighteenth-century Europe; seen in this way, "the" Kamasutra represented by Burton and Upadhyaya is possibly the most egregious example of these productive disciplinary strategies.

Postcolonial disruptions: Considering alternative readings

Social historian Romila Thappar places the Kamasutra in the middle of the "classical" pattern that evolved from 700 C.E. to 300 C.E., the period that was described as the "golden age" or "ancient India" by nineteenthand twentieth-century nationalists. This pattern evolved in what is later defined as northern India, which is also the site where Vatsyayana's Kamasutm is said to have been compiled.16 What appears incontrovertible is that this "classical" period was not only stratified but also undergoing social disruptions. These processes of stratification had started to develop earlier with the emergence of the state in the middle of the first millennium B.C.E. (Thappar 1980). More specifically, class-, caste-, and gender-based hierarchies emerged with the shift to an agricultural economy and urbanization between 800-600 B.C.E. (Chakravarti 1993). Characterizing this post-Vedic period of what gets constructed as early or ancient India by the nineteenth century, feminist historian Chakravarti (1993) suggests that it was stratified with the collapse of the tribal economy and polity; the establishment of private control over land; patrilineal systems; the preservation of caste purity, which entailed a strict monitoring of the sexual behavior of certain categories of women; and the dominance of husbands over wives. By the classical period, she argues, caste, class, and state structures were deeply entrenched and functioned together as the institutions within which gender relations were organized. What is striking is how difficult it is to reconcile the descriptions of the subordinate position of women in the classical period with the notion of the sexually egalitarian, sexually liberated woman that is central to the discourses of history and sexuality underpinning Burton's and Upadhyaya's Kamasutms. Thappar (1966) argues that by this period women 16 Roy (1998) also confirms northern India as the site attributed to the compilation of the Kamasutra,.

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may have been idealized in literature but had a distinctly subordinate position in society. A limited type of education was nominally available to upper-class women. Early and sometimes even prepubertal marriages were practiced for these women. Those women denned as socially marginal by the law books, such as Buddhist nuns, theater actresses, courtesans, and prostitutes, appear to have had more social freedom. Widows were encouraged to become sati by this period. The discursively created sexually liberated, egalitarian woman of ancient India, who served to project the pleasure of middle-class Victorian women in Burton's Kamasutra, may not have normatively existed. On the other hand, Thappar's analysis is somewhat easier to reconcile with Upadhyaya's Kamasutra, which emphasizes the role of the ndgdrdk^ the polished male citizen, whose daily life consists of adorning himself, bathing, eating, resting, teaching parrots to speak, gaming, music, dialogues on art and literature, and socializing, a point to which I shall shortly return. It is also remarkable that the classical period witnessed significant social disruptions as well as hegemonic attempts to contain these disruptions by encoding social regulation. Thappar (1966) suggests that the encoding of social law was necessary to counter the threat posed to the authority of the brahman and its source, the Vedas. The upholders of the law had to define social relationships more precisely against two destabilizing patterns, namely, the ascendancy of the mercantile classes and the creation of new subcastes. For example, throughout this period, the legal coding of social norms was emphasized with the Manava Dhammshastm, or the Law Code, written by the patriarch Manu sometime in the first two centuries and, since then, cited as the authority on social laws. Thappar (1966) argues that the rise and consolidation of the mercantile classes and their support of Buddhism and Jainism threatened to undermine brahmanic authority and the dominant, exclusionary form of Hinduism. As a result, not surprisingly, the most important of the law books strongly reiterate that the brahman is inherently superior in every way to other members of society, including the wealthy vaishyas, and is to be treated with the utmost respect. Thappar suggests that this period witnessed the preeminence of the brahman, who not only held sway over the officially sanctioned forms of knowledge but also consolidated wealth through land grants. In effect, collective memory was revised and inscribed through brahmanic reinterpretation, and the Vedas were established as the unimpeachable source of authority. Read against the grain of these descriptions of what is later labeled classical India, it is not clear how narratives of the Kamasutra as an unabashed exploration of sex in so-called ancient India can be easily sustained

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in U.S. popular culture, in scholarly considerations within contemporary India, or in Burton's or Upadhyaya's texts. On the contrary, the Kamasutra appears more as a form of knowledge production in a society undergoing tremendous social change and, possibly, disruption. In discussions about the process of state formation in "early India," Thappar (1966, 1980) and Chakravarti (1993) concur that the two epics, MakftbkftTcit and Ramayan, articulate the uneasy transition from kin-based societies to more stratified ones. If these epics may be considered ways of negotiating gradual but significant social disruptions, then the Kamasutm, which coincides with the Manava Dharmashastms^ may be also read as part of the brahmanic attempt at encoding and regulating social-sexual interaction. Arguably, then, the discourses embedded in the Kamasutm are about sexuality and its production and control and not about sex; ultimately, the Kamasutra is not concerned with sex as depoliticized activity but with the exercise of power in a stratified, dynamic context. The widely prevalent interpretation that the "original" Kamasutra is a brahmanic text that reflects ancient social perceptions of women's sexual pleasure being at par with social perceptions of male sexuality is particularly untenable. On the contrary, Chakravarti (1993), while not directly addressing the KfMnasutra,, argues that the upper-caste woman is the object of moral panic in brahmanic texts. For Chakravarti, the nonconformist woman appears threatening enough to the structure of Hindu orthodoxy that women's subordination is institutionalized in the brahmanic law codes and enforced by the power of the state. A variety of means ensuring women's conformity, including economic dependency on the male head of the family, class privileges and veneration bestowed on conforming and dependent women of the upper classes, and the use offeree, were central to the process. According to Chakravarti (1993), since women were regarded as the points of entrance to the caste system, the sexual control and subordination of women were key to maintaining caste purity, and these rules were encoded in brahmanic texts. Given the position of women at the time and the role of brahmanic texts, without direct evidence to the contrary, assumptions of the elevated status of women's sexuality in "the" Kamasutra are insupportable. Turning to Upadhyaya's text, for example, there are constant references to the rules of social and sexual interaction. Women are more conspicuous as courtesans and as wives learning the norms of social and sexual interaction. In this Kamasutm, a marital relationship with a woman of a higher caste who has already been married once is strictly forbidden, the position of the remarried widow is distinct from and subordinate to the legally married wives, and wives who may be unloved and sexually neglected by their hus-

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bands should nonetheless take the lead in religious ceremonies. Evidently, the detailed categorization of sexual behavior is inseparable from the specified parameters of permissible sexual interaction. In effect, against the grain of this gender-stratified context of classical India, Upadhyaya's Kamasutra emerges less as exemplification of a post-Vedic belief system, where sex is almost sacramental and essential to life, and more as the exemplification of a normative construction of sexuality within an unequal society. Contrary to Chandra's suggestion in the foreword, Vatsyayana's accomplishment may lie less in documenting the breadth of the sexual domain from a scientific point of view and more in establishing appropriate rules of social and sexual interaction. In his introduction to the Kamasutra, Upadhyaya (1961, 1) attests that "it aims at teaching a person the best method to control and properly guide the desires, particularly the sexual urge, so that the person may be an useful member of the family, society and his country and contribute his mite to their welfare by his way of life." Notwithstanding the question of how the unproductive life of the citizen contributes to the welfare of his society, Upadhyaya's analysis is somewhat useful. It implicitly situates the KamasMtra as an impulse to control the potentially disruptive nature of sexuality through its regulation and management. In Upadhyaya's KamasMtTa, the stated goal is mastery of sexual technique, which suggests that sexual desire is being textually channeled and managed through the production of sexual knowledge and the discourse of sexual pleasure. Rather than a celebratory treatise on sexuality that could provide an antidote to repression, Upadhyaya's Kfrmasutra,, then, could be read as an attempt to articulate and manage socially mandated sexual desires and sexual techniques. This reading also helps explain Burton's fascination with the text. It becomes possible to appropriate the Kfrmasutra, for the sexual liberation of Victorian women and men without a sustained critique of related structural gender inequalities either in Victorian societies or within colonial India, or of the role of the text in shaping structural inequalities across national contexts. Thus, for national cultures past and present faced with the discursive politics of sexual repression, the Kamasutra not so surprisingly appears to be an alternative. Colonial and independent India, Victorian and contemporary England, and the United States, each grappling with ideologies of sexual repression, become fascinated with the apparently liberal past of ancient India. This fascination with the sexual past of ancient India or the East is deeply pervasive and does not escape Foucault's analysis of the history of sexuality. In a challenge to the ideology of sexual repression in the so-

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called West, Foucault (1980,1990) suggests that the coding of all pleasure as sex necessitated its restriction and regulation and enabled its control first by the Stoics and later by the Christians; only since the seventeenth century has sexuality, as a social and historical phenomenon, been produced in the West through a positive economy of somatic power and through the scientific discourse about sex. In contrast, Foucault (1990) argues, there is a second way of producing the truth of sex, namely, ars erotica, which is evident in societies such as China, Japan, and India. For Foucault, the fundamental difference between the discourse of science in the contemporary West and a,rs erotica is that in the latter case truth is drawn directly from pleasure and accumulated as experience. Furthermore, pleasure is not considered in relation to absolute laws of social regulation or to utility (such as procreation) but primarily in relation to itself. In these cases, truth is experienced as pleasure and used to enhance the sexual practice itself. Indeed, according to Foucault, the knowledge must often be protected to retain its effectiveness. On the contrary, read against a feminist critical history of India's golden age, these Kamasutms indicate the regulation and control of sexuality not through a consideration of pleasure primarily in relation to itself but as a way of channeling sexual behavior in a hierarchical social setting. Reading these Kamasutms through the lens of a feminist critical history also highlights the orientalist legacies embedded in Foucault's history of sexuality in western Europe. As I have shown, in Burton's and Upadhyaya's Kamasutras^ truth is produced through its economy of sexual techniques and sexual pleasure related to, but independent of, utilitarian functions such as procreation as early as 700-300 C.E. In contrast to Foucault, it may be reasonably argued that pleasure is being valued only in relation to existing mechanisms of social control. In their specification of the social relationships of gender, caste, and class within which pleasure may be enhanced, Burton's and Upadhyaya's Kamasutms make it impossible to make a case for the valuation of pleasure in itself and not to see it as a mechanism for the social regulation of sexuality. Foucault has insightfully argued for the importance of revealing networks of positive, rather than repressive, somato-power, but these networks may be more typically characteristic of stratified settings, which are distinguished by the presence of complex, hierarchical social structures such as the state. Foucault (1980) argues that the notion of the state as the source of all articulations of power is not very useful historically. He is probably right. Yet I argue that with the process of state formation, as it is represented by feminist anthropologists, social stratification is intensified and sex is irrevocably riddled with power—a power channeled through the coding of all

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pleasure as sex and the discourse of sexual pleasure.17 Foucault suggests that this coding of all pleasure as sex compels writers such as St. Augustine to restrict sexual activity to procreation. More broadly, this coding of pleasure as sex is critical to emerging gender, class, and caste hierarchies—in effect, to the organization of power and to the construction of sexuality. In other words, contrary to Foucault's thesis, the positive economy of somato-power is perhaps not unique to post-Enlightenment Europe but, more appropriately, inherent to processes of social stratification. It is a reflection on the related, transnational histories of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that the Kamasutra is discovered during periods in which social contexts are riddled with the exigencies of power and stratification. The comparative contexts of the classical period of India, colonial India, Victorian England, and postindependence India are vastly different. But their differences should not be allowed to efface important parallels. Insofar as colonial and postcolonial constructions of sexuality in ancient India are able to elide a consideration of the social context and the prevailing forms of gender hierarchy, the Kamasutms appear Utopian. In these cases, the construct of the Kamasutm is celebrated as a treatise on sexual activity rather than a manifestation of sexuality. In the middle of colonial and nationalist discourses, in the tension between representations of the exotic, erotic East for the liberation of the West and the golden age of sex in Indian life, the social history of the Kamasutms remains neglected, and, thus, the social history of gender and sexuality is also neglected. The neglect is evident whether it is gender relations in the time period when the "original" Kamasutm is said to have been compiled or the politics of gender and sexuality under the colonial state when Burton "discovered" the Kamasutm. Postindependent constructions of the Kamasutm in India, such as Upadhyaya's version, remain entrapped within a discourse, the product of colonialism, that seeks to generate and preserve an untainted vision of the past. Ultimately both representations are riven with historical inequities of power.

Conclusion

Notions of the original and the translated Kamasutms are rooted in discourses of history and sexuality that were generated in the encounter between colonialism and official, anticolonial nationalisms. These representations are unevenly secured on a past borrowed by a colonial empire 17 See, e.g., the work of feminist anthropologists such as Leacock 1983; Gailey 1987; Ortner 1993; and Rapp 1993.

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coming to grips with its politics of sexuality. Burton's Kamasutra illustrates how, under the transnational conditions of empire, narratives of history normalize emergent categories of nation, race, and gender. Upadhyaya's Kamasutra also exposes the tensions of sexuality in a postcolonial society grappling with the legacies and politics of national identity constructed against the grain of colonialism. Today, it is thereby conceivable to think of the Kamasutra as a fifteen-hundred-year-old "Indian" compilation, "discovered" by the orientalist Burton and deployed by intellectuals in India to scientifically defend "ancient traditions" and argue for change in contemporary societal attitudes toward sexuality (or what is an implicit call for "modernization"). Read from a transnational feminist cultural studies perspective, the two Kamasutms illustrate that these discourses are hardly circumscribed by categories of past and present, of "India" and the "West," or tradition and modernization-Westernization; nor do these texts allow one to comfortably claim that each is a mere translation of the original. Indeed, the narratives of history and sexuality that enable and, in turn, are reinforced through each Kamasutm are profoundly limited by and riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions. The politics of gender, race, nationality, and class are differently influential but consistently suppressed in these texts. In effect, in contexts such as the United States, based on neocolonial projections of India or the so-called East, sexuality is discursively constructed. Therefore, the irony of the reference in Cosmopolitan, about the Kamasutm signifying a woman reader who is an erotic expert, is almost lost. Not only is a historicized understanding of the Kamasutm that uncovers the elision of gender- and class-based histories threatened, but, conversely, it is also projected for women readers as an implement of sexual liberation. Against the grain of feminist historiographies of ancient India, it is not possible to sustain with ease notions of the sexual emancipation of women through the so-called classical period; on the contrary, these historiographies indicate a greater likelihood of the control and regulation of sexuality in a stratified social context. These feminist historiographies also suggest the possibilities and limits of a transnational feminist cultural studies approach that reveals the tensions of class, race, sexuality, and gender that underlie cultural productions such as the two Kamasutms; however, without more thoroughgoing critiques and analytic strategies that go beyond the scope of the text, deeply pervasive assumptions about "the" Kamasutm might remain untouched. A multistrategy feminist analysis of the two Kamasutms and the cultural context of the precolonial northern part of the South Asian subcontinent is necessary to erode perceptions that either the "translations" or the

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"original" could be considered sexually celebratory or emancipatory, viewpoints that are varyingly inscribed in numerous, currently circulating Kamasutras. Corporate networks that cut across nation-states such as the United States and India circulate multiple such Kamasutras. Within this transnational, globalizing cultural arena, categories of the sexualized East, of monolithic ancient civilizations, of loss and recovery, of womanhood in the past and present, and of the contemporary Indian nation as deficiency are produced and reaffirmed. For example, the well-known French Indologist Alain Danielou (1994) recently translated another Kamasutra. Enabled by a transnational publishing and distribution network that is far more extensive compared with that of the second half of the nineteenth century, Danielou claims to base his Kamasutra on various other versions available in Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, and English. Danielou's defense of yet another translation of the Kamasutra is primarily based on three claims: that it is the first unabridged modern translation of the classic Indian text; that, unlike Burton's version, which failed to preserve the original division of the text into verses and to translate certain sections, his version seeks to gain a clear and full understanding of the philosophy and techniques of the Kamasutra; and that Danielou wants to demystify India and show how a period of great civilization, of high culture, is also perforce a period of great liberty. To that extent, Danielou's (1994) Kamasutra, much like its predecessors, remains trapped within an unexamined nexus of power. Yet another recent edition based on the works of the Kama Shastra Society preserves this vision of the erotic, exotic East for the consumption of the West, albeit differently. The Hamlyn Publishing Group produced a collection of the three works associated with Burton in one volume entitled The Illustrated Kamasutra., Ananga-Ranga, and Perfumed Garden: The Classic Eastern Love Texts by Sir Richard Burton and F. F. Arbuthnot (Fowkes 1987). A mere one thousand years separates the Kamasutra from the Anantja Rantja! The Perfumed Garden, in the same volume, is attributed to Sheikh Nefzawi writing in Tunisia in the fifteenth century. Each of these works is stripped of its context, as the introduction by Charles Fowkes admits. He alleges that the material on astrology, charms, folk medicine, and magic was deleted from this edition, and Kalyana Malla's boring tables and the racist, sexist remarks of Sheikh Nefzawi were eliminated. How are these irrelevant? Yet Fowkes, clearly aware that several centuries separate the Kamasutra and the Ananga Rantja, nonetheless unequivocally claims that they share the same cultural heritage. This claim once again reproduces an immutable, static "Indian past."

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Furthermore, how is it conceivable to use Indian paintings of the Mughal tradition to illustrate the Tunisian work, the Perfumed Garden? With a flourish, centuries of Indian history are collapsed as tradition, and India and Tunisia become part of the same cultural East. Within India, calls for the modernization of sexual attitudes in India, against the backdrop of the Kamasutm, at best present limited visions of social change and at worst exacerbate the problems by effacing deeper inequalities of gender, class, sexuality, and ethnicity. Invoking liberal and liberatory images of ancient India only serves to deflect attention from contemporary structural problems that beleaguer the realm of sexuality, especially among the young. The problem is less that sexuality is repressed and not openly discussed but that, for example, women of various social classes and groups are expected to embody sexual purity and that sexuality is implicitly and explicitly conflated with heterosexuality. This is not to suggest that there is no pressing need to dispel misconceptions surrounding sexuality, but this kind of education cannot be separated from critiques of the underlying hierarchies of gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, and nationalism. In the last instance, issues of sexuality in contemporary, postcolonial India are not challenged through tropes of modernization, Westernization, nationalism, and ancient tradition but through the analysis of persistent regional and transnational social inequalities. Department of Sociology Simmons College

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Claims of Truth." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 14(3): 533-57. Jayawardena, Kumari. 1986. Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. New Delhi: Kali for Women. Joshi, Svati. 1994. "Rethinking English: An Introduction." In RethinkingEnglish: Essays in Literature, Language, History, ed. Svati Joshi, 1-31. Delhi: Oxford University Press. The Kama Sutra ofVatsyayana. 1883-1925. Trans. Hindoo Kama Shastra Society. Benares: Society of the Friends of India. Kaplan, Caren, and Inderpal Grewal. 1994. "Transnational Feminist Cultural Studies: Beyond Marxism/Poststructuralism/Feminism Divides." positions: eastasia cultures critique 2 (2) :4 3 0-4 5. Kapoor, Indira. 1993. "Family Planning Encompasses Sexuality—an Asian Perspective." In Readings on Sexuality and Reproductive Health, comp. Mahendra Watsa, 11-13. Bombay: Family Planning Association of India. Leacock, Eleanor. 1983. "Interpreting the Origins of Gender Inequality: Conceptual and Historical Problems." Dialectical Anthropology 7(4):263-81. Marcus, Steven. 1964. The Other Victorians: A Study of Sexuality and Pornography in Mid-Nineteenth Century England. New York: Basic. McClintock, Anne. 1995. Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest. New York: Routledge. Mohanty, Chandra T. 1991. "Introduction: Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism." In Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, ed. Chandra T. Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres, 1-47. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Nag, Moni. 1993. "Sexual Behavior and AIDS in India: State of the Art." In Readings on Sexuality and Reproductive Health, comp. Mahendra Watsa, 253-78. Bombay: Family Planning Association of India. Nandy, Ashis. 1991. "Science as a Reason of State." In Science, Hegemony and Violence: A Requiem for Modernity, ed. Ashis Nandy, 1-23. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Niranjana, Tejaswini. 1994. "Translation, Colonialism and the Rise of English." In Rethinking English: Essays in Literature, Language, History, ed. Svati Joshi, 124-45. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Ortner, Sherry. 1993. "The Virgin and the State." In Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, ed. Caroline B. Brettell and Carolyn F. Sargent, 257-68. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Prakash, Gyan. 1992. "Postcolonial Criticism and Indian Historiography." Social Text 31-32:8-19. . 1999. Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Ranke-Heinneman, Uta. 1991. Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven. New York: Penguin. Rapp, Rayna. 1993. "Gender and Class: An Archaeology of Knowledge Concern-

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ing the Origin of the State." In Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, ed. Caroline B. Brettell and Carolyn F. Sargent, 250-57. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Ratti, Rakesh, ed. 1993. Lotus of Another Color: An Unfolding of the South Asian Guy and Lesbian Experience. Boston: Alyson. Rice, Edward. 1990. Captain Sir Kichard Erancis Burton. New York: Scribner's. Roy, Kumkum. 1998. "Unravelling the Kamasutra." In A Question of Silence? The Sexual Economies of Modern India, ed. Mary E. John and Janaki Nair, 52-76. New Delhi: Kali for Women. Said, Edward. 1978. Orientalism. New York: Vintage. Sangari, Kumkum, and Sudesh Vaid, eds. 1989. Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History. New Delhi: Kali for Women. Sangwan, Satpal. 1991. Science, Technology and Colonisation: An Indian Experience, 1757-1857. New Delhi: Anamika Prakashan. Schwartz, Judith D. 1995. "Do You Really Know Everything You've Always Wanted to Know about Sex?" Cosmopolitan, August, 186. Suleri, Sara. 1992. The Rhetoric of English India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Thappar, Romila. 1966. A History of India, Volume One. New Delhi: Penguin. . 1980. "State Formation in Early India." International Social Science Journal 32(4):655-69. Upadhyaya, S. C., trans. 1961. Kamasutra of Vatsyayana: Complete Translation from the Original, with a foreword by Mod Chandra. Bombay: Taraporevala; New York: Apt. Viswanathan, Gauri. 1989. Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

[2] The Cult of the Earth Goddess Among the Magar of Nepal Marie Lecomte-Tilouine

The military conquest of the Magarant, the Magar land, took place during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the Thakuri petty kings and their dependents (priests, artisans, soldiers) fled India to settle there. The Magar resistance appears to have been weak, due to their lack of unity and the alliances the conquerors formed with some of them. The Magar people quickly opted for assimilation into the royal caste of the Thakuri, adopting most of their cultural traits, notably their language and religion. Nevertheless they retained or developed particularisms in their relationship to the earth, as we can see in the rites they devote to Bhume. We should emphasize first and foremost that the name Bhume is itself Nepalese, derived from the Sanskrit bhu, bhumi. This goddess is neglected by the Hindi of high caste, whereas she is central to the Magar. This paradox has two possible sources: the Magar might have identified one of their principal goddesses with a minor Hindu deity by virtue of a common relation to the earth, conferring an unusual importance on the latter. Or they might have constructed a divine being on the basis of Hindu concepts, as the result of a new-found need to defend their rights to the earth in the face of the Hindu invaders. The second hypothesis seems more likely, since there is no trace of a Magar earth goddess before Bhume. Even in the regions where the Magar retained the use of their original language (such as in Palpa, Syangja, or in the Kham country) and where, consequently, some of the gods have Magar names, the earth goddess is called by Nepalese terms, such as Bhume, Bhuyar, or Bhayar. Furthermore, even if the Magar themselves once had an earth goddess of their own, the renaming of this deity would indicate a change of identity, given the importance of a divinity's name.

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There are other indications that tend to support the idea that the goddess Bhume was developed as a reaction to the conquest. For example, the Magar call themselves autochthonous and freely describe themselves as "elders by the earth/' an expression that was obviously created afterwards, and rests on the idea of linking ancestrality and power over the earth, two cental aspects of Magar identity. The precedence of their settlement of the land, as well as their martial character, in point of fact earned the Magar the relatively noble position of lower Kshatriyas in the new society created during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The precedence of their settlement is an indication of prestige among the Magar who never tire of flaunting it - as well as in a caste society that recognizes it. And in fact the Magar easily found a Hindu deity, Bhume, upon which to graft an ideology that equated rights to the earth with ancestrality, placing the people of high caste, the more recently installed Hindi, in a delicate position, analogous mutatis mutandis to that of the Aryans in tribal India. As the example of the Magar in Nepal demonstrates, the earth cults and the monopoly of the priesthood over the earth deities can reflect a reaction to an invasion rather than a set primitive tradition. Confronted by people who flaunted their superiority in terms of purity, the Magar responded with a faint echo that claimed themselves elders by the earth and thus deserving of respect. The link between power and ancestrality, on the other hand, which is clearly illustrated in the Magar sense of the word mijar, meaning both elder of the founding line and the head of the village, and which underlies the cult of Bhume, was not recognized by the people of higher caste.

Bhume in the Local Pantheon of Gulmi In a polytheism as richly developed as that of central Nepal, where Hindu and Magar cultures (to cite but the two cultures under examination here) are inextricably bound, the gods often lack distinct traits, and their functions are not clearly defined. Their nature can nevertheless be gleaned through their various associations, which are expressed verbally or made manifest in rites. This is why I consider Bhume a special case in their pan28

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theon; in some ways she is like an evil forest spirit, in others she shares certain characteristics with the great masters of the earth, the mountain ridge gods. Of the three levels that make up the world, the earth is the one shared between man, "the kings of cultivated lands," and the "petty deities/7 the "forest kings." This realm is ruled from on high by celestial gods residing on the mountain tops, the "Kailash" gods, who govern the whole earth (prtvi) as well as the great natural phenemona such as rain, hail, and epidemics. Associated with asceticism, these gods are nonetheless described as owners of the earth, such as Malika, whose name means "the owner/' Identified with extreme purity, their worship is reserved for the society's elite, the Indo-Nepalese high caste and, to a lesser extent, the Magar. They are inaccessible to low castes and to women. As we have mentioned, the men and their ruling deities share the earthly level with "forest" spirits. In this world the forest includes water, roads, and the underworld. The earth and the underground are part of the same level, and the gods found there are often described as evil spirits or forest deities. Bhume herself is conceived as such, but her position is unique; a wild goddess domesticated by man, she sides not with her own kind, but with the villagers who nurture and honor her. Her ties to the forest, where violent death prevails, are nevertheless emphasized by the fact that she is often described as the goddess of death. We cannot see this as a characteristic of an indigenous Magar earth goddess, dating from before the concept of Bhume, because relations between the deceased and Bhume are also found both among the caste peoples in central Nepal and in popular Indian Hinduism. Men and forest deities are competitive and malevolent to one another. The main difference between them is a knowledge of agriculture, possessed by man and unknown to all others. These forest divinities are much like hunter-gatherers, living on predation. In fact, the groups of hunter-gatherers on their way to extinction, such as the Raute or the Kusunda, are imagined as forest divinities in central Nepal, When they offer up a prayer to the forest divinities, the men begin by offering them precisely what they lack, such as small shelters, the replica of movable sheds, as well as a miniature technical panoply (bow and arrows, a drum, 29

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kitchen paddles, yeast), and, in particular, an ensemble of agricultural tools (hoe, swing-plough, beam, plane, etc.)

The Representation of Ploughing Of all these agricultural tools, the swing-plough is held in the highest regard. It is the only tool to which people offer a prayer before using it, and the one that represents the highest achievement of their culture.1 This is because the use of the plough not only distinguishes man from the spirits, it also defines a territory, and likewise a property. Thus up until the 1960s, non-cultivated private land was not considered the sole property of the owner. For example, in the village of Darling (Gulmi) where I stayed, anyone could gather fodder or firewood there. In similar fashion, itinerant farming did not correspond to ownership. It was only after three years of working the same spot that someone was expected to pay taxes, and in this way assumed ownership. In the many regions of Nepal, such as the Terai or the Mahabharata, the boundaries of the locality or properties are marked by ploughshares driven into the earth. While ploughing distinguishes man, as a peasant, from the errant spirits living by predation, which is to say from the spirits on this side of the divine, it also separates him from the other-worldy divine, those who inhabit the world of gods. Indeed, contact with the earth, of which ploughing is the most complete expression, is the lot of the ordinary man; the Hindu gods never touch the earth, and ascetics (or the crowned king) keep their distance from it by wearing wooden sandals. Furthermore, it is written in the Satapatha Brahmana 1.9.1.29 that the sacrificer may reach the heavens through sacrifice, but that if he does not return he risks going mad. To remain human, he must in fact touch the earth. The brahmins, who live on earth in spite of their divine pretensions, nonetheless do not till it; they have neither the right to work the land nor to enter it for its exploitation, such as entering a mine, for example. The passing of the plough has an important sexual symbolism. Valued for both its virile aspect and for the fact that this activity requires great skill - it is one of the only manual labors in which men are proud to be photographed - it also represents, in Hindu 30

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terms, an impure blot that might taint a man of high caste. Sexuality and impurity in fact characterize both ploughing and its fruits. People say that in order to avoid all contact with cultivating the land - but might this not rather be with sexuality? - ascetics traditionally do not eat the fruits of ploughing, while brahmins living in the world content themselves with avoiding the touch of the plough. Moreover, nubile women, in anticipation of the day of rsi pancami - a ritual during which they purify themselves of their menses and recover their virginity - turn up small plots with hoes and eat pure rice in the furrow. The homology between earth and woman, between ploughing and the resulting sexual relationships, is taken even further in certain regions of India such as Bengal, where men stop ploughing and having carnal relations with their wives during a ritual period of five days corresponding to the "earth's menstruations/' a taboo one also finds in Nepal, during a day set aside "to avoid the earth." Significantly, the virgin and wild goddesses of central Nepal, such as Malika, must not be offered products of the fields, while people must abstain from eating grains on the day of their worship. The sexual symbolism of the plow can again be found in a ritual practiced by the shamans of Gulmi. This consists of being rid of the spirit of a still-born child or a child who died young by sealing it into an earthenware pot, which symbolizes a womb, the opening of which stoppered by a swing-plough before it is buried at a crossroads. By the passing of the swing-plough, man thus enters into a special relationship with the earth. Here I am speaking of man with a small letter "m," since women are excluded from the cults pertaining to the fertility of the fields and the earth in general. She is not supposed to step over the swing-plough or even an ox harness. As we see, the swing-plough belongs to the realm of the masculine in the face of the feminine, to humanity and the cultivated world in the face of untamed spirits and gods.

The Earth The earth is ambivalent. It contains an intrinsic power that regenerates both men and demons. In the myth of the struggle between 31

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the first shaman and the nine witch sisters in the Gulmi region, the shaman is vanquished by the sorceresses, who rip out his heart and roast it. The shaman nonetheless succeeds in eating his own heart and falls into a transe, declaring that he will "entrust himself to the earth." He lies down flat on his stomach on the ground for seven days, at the end of which he is reborn in all his glory. The power recognized in the earth can also be found among the Kham Magar, who call the ceremony they devote to Bhume a "ritual of power/'2 Its principle of vital energy is quite often the trump of demons, who come back to life or multiply in contact with the earth, as does Raktabija. Although the earth contains a formidible energy, the passage of the plough is considered an extenuating activity, the only one for which in the end the laborers are for the most part compensated for their efforts. The ambivalence of the earth can also be found in the myth of Prthu. Usually depicted in Hindu mythology as a defenseless woman oppressed by too heavy a load, who begs the gods or the king to come to her assistance, the earth appears in this myth as a perfidious creature who swallows all the vegetation herself and causes the world to waste away. In short, the ambiguous nature of the earth is related to purity. As opposed to elements such as fire, which nothing can deprive of its pure character, the earth absorbs impurity, purifying it, while it is also capable of becoming tainted or contaminated. Hence women of high caste can be seen washing themselves with earth, then avoiding contact with it once purified by sitting on a banana leaf and not on the ground during the rite of rsi pancami. We can identify two different male attitudes toward these ambivalent aspects of the earth, which I would call "brahmin" and "royal" respectively. The former is respectful One finds this attitude among the brahmins of Gulmi, who make sure they do not plough so as not to "wound their mother/' the earth, or among the Maharastra, who excuse themselves each morning before beginning to plough. The second attitude is much more complicated, as the myth of Prthu, mentioned above, bears witness. The king, generally depicted as the protector of the earth, here appears to dominate it. Earth had swallowed the vegetation and allowed the world to waste away, until Prthu forced it to return its bounty, leveled it out, and founded agriculture. In the Mahabharata or the 32

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Bhagavata Purana / Prthu is thus described as the father of the earth, but this filiation is not so firmly established since the Laws of the Manou describe him as her husband. In fact, there are many indications that the king enters into a very intimate relationship with her, both protecting and dominating her, and that he is conceived of as her ploughman and husband. In classical mythology, the earth goddess Bhume is a young woman of great beauty, is in danger. She plunges into the depths of the ocean. He who will save her is in fact the prototype of the ploughman, a wild boar. Let us remember that the wild boar digs the earth with his tusks to hunt for roots and that in the myths of central Nepal, it is often on land dug up by a wild boar in this fashion that a hunter sows seed and founds a village. It is significant that the Hindu kings often identify themselves with the wild boar, saving, working, and loving the earth. The deep intimacy between the Hindu kings and the earth is expressed through the Nepalese royal consecration, marked by anointing the king's body with earth from the different parts of the kingdom, while this unction is compared to a union. Moreover, the king is frequently called Bhupati (in the national hymn for example), the master or husband of the earth. The privileged relationship that unites the sovereign with the earth can likewise be seen in the belief held among some of the Magar, according to which the king of Nepal would plough each year, followed by the queen, sowing the seeds. This ritual is thought to take place every year in the beginning of spring, opening the agricultural season. I was not able to verify this, although it seems improbable, since the custom has not lasted up to the present time. Whether or not the king of Nepal ploughs is of little importance, since this belief underlines the strict tie between the king and the earth's fertility in the eyes of the villagers. And the king radically distinguishes himself from his peers in this act (or in the belief of the existence of this act), which is forbidden to the brahmins and the Thakuri. We do have a famous example of royal labor in the Ramayana, when Sita is born from the earth when king Janaka makes a furrow with his swing-plow, and the custom has been verified at least in the ancient Indianized royal kingdom of Cambodia. Faced with the brahmin's respectful attitude toward 33

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the earth, imagined as a descending filiation, the king, her protector, demonstrates his dominination over her; he is either her father or husband, and not her son. The Mahabharata 13.8.21 clearly establishes the privileged relation between the earth and warriors, without, however, explaining why the brahmins are "absent": "In the case when the husband is absent (dead), the wife marries his younger brother. In this way, since the earth cannot have a brahmin, she takes a Kshatriya to wed/' Let us now examine the agrarian rites that punctuate the agricultural cycle in the Gulmi region, before examining the collective cults offered to the earth gods, who on this level are imagined as the protectors of a territory in connection with power.

Offerings to Bhume and the Earth Deities The three main crops cultivated in the district of Gulmi are rice, corn and eleusine. The oldest of the three crops is eleusine, but this grain for the poor is considered impure, and its first fruits are rarely offered to Bhume. To my knowledge, only the inhabitants of the village of Darling offer four liters of eleusine to the goddess after its harvest. The cultivation of corn probably dates back to the seventeenth century in Nepal, and its first fruits are offered in most of the villages and among all the groups. The ceremony is simple. The divinity is represented by a stone in the field and is usually accompanied by Nag and Nageni, a couple of divine snakes, and Jhankri, the shaman of irrigated lands, as well as Sikhari, the divine huntress. A chicken is often sacrificed, then a libation of milk and fumet of clarified butter mixed with artemisia are offered to the deities. Afterwards, a whole cornstalk is uprooted and the officiating priest, opening the husks, places it on Bhume's altar, "ready to be eaten." One ear is then grilled on the hearth, then a few kernels are mixed with butter and offered in three vessels intended, respectively, for Bhume, the divinities of the lineage and the '''divinities of the outside." More simply, the brahmins of the village of Musikot, for example, content themselves with alerting Bhume that they are going to harvest the field with this phrase: "Very well, now we are going to eat grains/ 34

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Aside from these widespread offerings of first fruits, the villagers from Darling offer four litres of corn in the name of Bhume after the harvest, but here again they are an exception. The offering of four liters is most often made when only rice is cultivated. The offering is presented to a young virgin girl in each household in the name of Bhume. The young girl disposes of it as she sees fit, eating it, selling it, or even making it into alcohol if her caste allows it and she desires to do so. This offering indicates that Bhume is conceived of as daughter of the head of the household. This is unusual, for it is not a question of food left over from an offering to the gods or a sacrificial wage; the young girl is substituted for the goddess herself, as recipient of the offering. The worship of Bhume also accompanies the cutting of paddy. It takes place on the threshing floor or in the field and usually includes the sacrifice of chickens. Aside from these agrarian rites, two similar ceremonies in which Bhume, Jhankri, Nag and Sikhari are worshiped take place in the months of November and December (mansir) and April and May (baisakh). During these times, both a compensation and a restitution are offered to the earth deities. Therefore the brahmins of the village of Asleva leave a little chicken in the fields so that it may go into the forest and become wild. In exchange for the fruits of cultivated earth, man gives nature a small domesticated animal, in order to maintain an equilibrium between the wild and the cultivated, as if to appease the wild side of Bhume. As we can see, it is mostly harvesting that prompts the worship of Bhume. This includes three other deities in the agricultural context. First of all is Sikhari, the forest deity presiding over wild animals and the hunt. The relationship between Sikhari and Bhume can be seen in the village of Neta, in the commune of Dibrung, where the Magar offer the heart, liver, and rissoles of meat of the slaughtered game to Bhume (in her dual guise of Sime-Bhume) in place of Sikhari. The second deity accompanying Bhume is Jhankri. Jhankri is a generic term that designates, in the region of Gulmi, the forest divinities related to shamanism. Bhume herself sometimes qualifies as such. Most often, Jhankri or the couple (Jkankri and Jhankreni) who accompany her in the rites preside over the muddy earth, such as irrigated fields, as well as the aquatic ele35

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ment in general. Just as Bhume appears to the Magar in dreams in the guise of a young and beautiful brahmin's daughter, decked out in finery and dark-complexioned, Jhankri is imagined as a rich man with black skin. More than Bhume, he is a lago, a god who sends calamities. A Magar once told me that after having ploughed his irrigated fields he saw two beautiful women with dark complexions walking in it. The next day he fell ill and concluded that he had seen Jhankri's wives, who had sent him his illness. An irrigated field is considered dangerous. The Dogmani Gharti Magar of Darling thus imagine that one of their ancestors died in his irrigated field when he tried to plough it, sinking into the mud with his oxen, where he remains to this day. Jhankri is the counterpart of Bhume, her complement. Bhume herself is often called SimeBhume, although Sime, whose name means "the one from muddy ground, from the source/7 never appears as an individual entity. Their inseparability serves as a reflection. Hence a Kami artisan from Darling explained to me one day that the Kami and the Magar were like Sime-Bhume, inseparable and complementary. Finally, the last divine figure associated with Bhume is Nag, the divine snake living in the underworld. Like Bhume and Jhankri, the Nags appear as bearers of wealth, and this trait should be considered characteristic of the earth and all those who inhabit it, particularly in the region where mineral lodes are plentiful. Here again there are strong ties between Bhume and the Nags. Their figures are, it appears, partially confused among the Kham Magar.3 Likewise, in the village of Darling, one day someone said to me that "they were making a snake of ashes for Bhume/' without it being clear whether the snake represented the divinity or was being offered to her. Nag plays a special role in the agricultural cycle. He is the object of a well-known cult in the Hindu world, the nag pancami, which falls on the fifth day of the somber two-week period of sawn, in June and July. On this occasion, all over Nepal and in the north of India, people paste drawings of Nag onto the doors of houses and temples. In Darling, people say this day is the day that Nag and all the other snakes emerge and rise out of the ground. For the villagers it is also the beginning of winter, which corresponds indeed to the "descending season'' (udauli), the season 36

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during which the sun begins its trajectory toward the north. The purpose of this ritual is made clearer through comparison with what takes place during its counterpart six months later, in sri pancami, in the beginning of spring and the rising season (ubhauli). People say sri pancami marks the beginning of cultivation. Each person must plough his field or have it ploughed. The first cut of the plough is ritualized. First the "snake is scaled/' then "split/7 and then "cut into pieces." The placing of this snake in the field is determined by an astrological computation, and the ploughman must take special care to scale the snake by beginning with the tail. With the snake thus cut into pieces, the field becomes "homogeneous." The presence of the snake in the earth is an obstacle to working the field and especially to the working of the swingplough; they compete. Once scattered, "there are Nags everywhere, in a continuous fashion," people say, and working the fields may begin. The snake regulates the solar and agricultural calendar. Killed for the rising season and working the fields, it is reborn in the descending season to protect the crops as they ripen. The main role the villagers attribute to the Nag is to protect the crops from thieves and evil spirits. The role of protecting the crops is also an attribute of Bhume. It is taken much further in the case of the latter, since she assures the protection of the men who cultivate the fields. Thus a young Magar, frightened to see me walking around the village at night, told me that if I encountered an evil spirit, I would be advised to jump off the road and into a field where Bhume would protect me. The protection is better, he added, if the field belongs to you, which underscores the contract that independently links each domestic group with the form of the goddess presiding over his lands. Akin to the forest deities and to those of the underground, Bhume appears as the daughter of the head of the household at the time of the offerings of the first fruits. This idea, which is linked to the "brahminic" attitude toward the earth, coexists with the idea that the chief, or mukhiya, can be substituted for the goddess. This is indicated, for example, in the symbolic purchase of a tomb site near Bhume, an act usually performed with the chief. In this the Magar chief is no different from the Hindu king, often described as akin to the earth. 37

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The Village Cults Dedicated to Bhume Intimately linked to the founding of a village, the cult of Bhume remains associated with the first settlers. Most often it is conferred through tribal lineage. In the village of Aglung, the inhabitants go so far as to hire an officiating priest from a neighboring locality, descendent from a group of Magar who once lived on their lands, and who had been pushed north at the time of the subsequent settlement. Four hundred houses join together for this cult and offer an enormous sacrificial payment to the Magar officiating priest from the village of Kahare Darling, who receives a half-liter of rice from each for his office. Should we see this as a ritual compensation, guaranteed by Bhume, for lost lands? The collective cults dedicated to Bhume are intimately tied to power and political units. Bhume is an omnipresent deity, defined by the sociological group that worships her. Hence in Darling one speaks of the "Bhume of each man's field/' who are the recipients of the agrarian rites I mentioned, as well as the "Bhume of the whole village/' One finds this distinction among the Magar of Sikha who recognize on the one hand a Mukhiya Bhume, the deity of the territory of the chief, or mukhiya, who is worshiped by the chief who "protects the people, the crops and prevents epidemics/' and, on the other hand, a "thum Bhume/' belonging to a vast political unit comprised of many territories of mukhiya. In Sikha, over and above individual and village cults, there exist territorial cults devoted to Bhume.4 Conversely, in the district of Gulmi, the cult of Bhume is often based on very small territorial units, such as the tol (quarters), or the ward, administrative divisions of the Panchayat. This can probably be explained by the fact that the Magar are less numerous there. Hence, in a Panchayat such as Badagaon, in Gulmi, where the population is largely made up of people in castes, only the Magar hamlet organizes a collective cult of Bhume. In many Magar villages, the officiant of the collective cult of Bhume was the chief, or mukhiya, up until the reform of the Panchayats in 1961. This cult, intimately tied to political organization, changes considerably with each political reform. Before examining its evo38

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lution, I will describe, as an example, the cult I was able to observe in 1990 in Syaulibang (the district of Pyuthan), where the former mukhiya continues to exercise his role of officiant as in the past. Some time before the offering, each household under the mukhiya''$ control sends him a half-liter of corn with which he makes beer. Then, three days before the offering, he presents himself to the Bhume's sanctuary, where he remains alone, day and night. The villagers take turns bringing him his meals there. These meals must include a fish, supposedly the first catch of the year. The offering takes place on the tenth day of the bright month of mansir (November and December), at the beginning of winter and the fishing season. Hence at one time it opened the season of hunting, since an animal killed in the forest was supposed to be brought to the mukhiya at the same time as the fish. In the sanctuary, the mukhiya may not speak during his close confinement; no one may even touch his house. When he returns home on the morning of the offering, he sprinkles his way with holy water in order to remain pure. He sits on a leaf on the veranda of his house, wearing a white turban on his head, still without speaking, All the villagers gather in his courtyard, bearing rice as well as kids and sheep offered as pledges of sacrifice to the deity. Damai musicians play their instruments, to which strips of cloth have been hung. A man from the mukhiya's lineage officiates as priest. He takes the twelve jars of beer from the chief's house and places them in the courtyard. Then he measures the rice brought by each person into a large cloth placed on the ground, verifying that each family has indeed brought a half-litre, and places it all in a basket. The chief gives orders with gestures of his hands and head. He designates the priests and the Damai, signalling for them to leave. They go straight to the sanctuary where the priest offers incense, milk and strips of cloth to Bhume. The chief then points to a man in the crowd who carries a bow and quiver. He comes to the center of the courtyard and executes a very beautiful dance, flourishing his drawn bow. Turning slowly, he removes an arrow from the quiver and pretends to shoot it in the four directions of the universe. With a wave of his hand the mukhiya dismisses him. This man is a Bhujel Magar, a wife-taker in the chief's lineage; he leaves to worship Sikhari near a spring. The priest then returns 39

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from the sanctuary and the chief orders him to leave again. Seizing the basket containing the rice, he goes back to the sanctuary. Finally the twelve jars of beer are seized by different men, at the mukhiya's command, and brought to the sanctuary (than). The chief and the priest then wash themselves in the river and afterwards all the villagers proceed to Bhume's than, bearing their sacrificial victims. Only the men have the right to approach the sanctuary, although they do not have the right to go inside. They prepare rice with milk in a large pot, while the mukhiya, alone and still silent, takes hold of a large sabre with a flared blade and decapitates the sacrificial victims one by one in a great slaughter, for the animals are not supposed to be attached and no one is allowed to help him. Next comes a banquet in which the entrails of the victims are eaten with milk, rice, and the corn beer offered by the community. Here again, the women do not take part in the feast, which nevertheless unites the men of all castes and notably the Damai, the very low caste of tailor-musicians. This rite is enacted primarily by the chief. Based on a script well-known to all, since it takes place wordlessly, it stages a pure chief of supreme authority: all the actors obey the slightest nod of his head. One sees clearly the role of the village priest, who is acknowledged as chief among the Magar. During the time of the cult, he enters into an exclusive relationship with the earth goddess, with whom he first spends three days and nights in private conversation, speaking to no one. He finds himself transformed by this intimate contact with the goddess into a state of purity that cuts him off from the rest of the world, since when he emerges from his asceticism he still may not speak to anyone and must particularly avoid contact with the earth, purifying his way with water and sitting on leaves. In short, he is the only one who may penetrate the goddess' sanctuary and offer her sacrifices. This exclusive relationship with the goddess is very unusual in central Nepal, and one can notice the quasi-matrimonial relationship between the mukhiya of Syaulibang and Bhume, whom the chief's brother described to me as "our wife" (since the chief himself could not speak to me). In fact, information from the village of Darling indicates that the "Bhume of the whole village" was once, long ago, merely the 40

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Bhume belonging to the chief. The ritual took place in the very courtyard of his house, where he sacrificed to the goddess, with his own hands, a pig whose flesh was eaten by all the village men, to the exclusion of the women. The purification of the Syaulibang chief no doubt embodies a collective dimension, as does the Darling chief's cult of Bhume. Elsewhere in fact, as in the Kham Magar village studied by A. de Sales,5 the whole village must be purified before worshipping Bhume, and all the villagers are confined. For the Magar, the concept of the village community is structured, in part, around the cult of Bhume, in which everyone particpates. In Sikha, where a certain number of people recently settled, the celebration of Bhume defines the "real villagers/'6 and those who do not participate are not really part of the community. The cult of the goddess combines an ancestral connection to the earth with a recognition of an inherited power over the earth, the power of the mukhiya. A Sikha villager thus defines thejagatko puja ("cult of territory") in the following, negative terms: "It is different from Bhume because the mukhiya does not participate in it; even if he participates, it is as an individual, not as the mukhiya" The strict link between the cult of Bhume and power is seen in the modifications it has undergone as a result of political changes. Thus in Sikha, the cult of the goddess was not carried out in 1960, a date that corresponds to the reform of the Panchayats. 7 J. Kawakita notes: "We stopped giving offerings to Bhume in 1960, because the mukhiya took the advice of the younger generation. Unfortunately, this resulted in epidemics, scant crops, and hailstorms in the village. Thus the offering was reinstated in I960." Similarly, in Darling the reform of the Panchayats had an impact on the Bhume puja. Bhume's sanctuary was transferred from the chief's courtyard to the top of the mountain. While it is still the man elected to office by the Panchayat who decides its precise date, he is no longer the officiant of the divinity, but rather a Magar priest. More significantly, the cult of Bhume has been to some extent supplanted by that of a new divine figure, Grama, "the villager," who seems to be for the Panchayat what Bhume was under the mukhiya's jurisdiction. 41

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People in Castes and the Divinity The attitude of the people in high caste toward the collective cults addressed to Bhume differs according to the context. J. Kawakita discovered that some people refused to participate in a collective cult organized in the territory where they live in the region of Sikha. This extreme attitude seems to belong to the people who have more recently migrated there. In the region of Gulmi, I did not encounter this attitude, and was, on the contrary, struck by the fact that the people of high caste participated in the collective cults of Bhurne organized by the Magar, accepting the subordinate role of cook. We must, however, note that this participation took place in contexts in which the Magar were in a majority; but I did discover an extreme case of the organization of a "tribal cult" by people in castes, where there was not a single Magar. The attitude of the high caste toward the Magar Bhume is thus no doubt tied to the conditions of their implantation in their territories. In the former zones of cohabitation, a modus vivendi took root, giving a certain prestige to the indigenous people, or allowing them to believe they still had a monopoly of power over the earth.8 Regardless of the apparent disinterest in Bhume in the high caste, the religious practices in the district of Gulmi demonstrate that the earth goddess is nevertheless represented in some sanctuaries and receives collective worship in the context the Dasehra festival, during the ten days dedicated to Durga, the warrior form of the goddess. In Dasikot, Rupakot and Juniya, Bhume in fact has a sanctuary in the kot (temple arsenal)/ next to Kadka, the divine sabre. The goddess is represented by a sacred rock driven into the earth. She must remain anchored, as the kot in Rupakot demonstrates, where she is situated on the ground floor, while the sanctuary containing the arsenal and the divine sabres is on the first floor. The cult of Bhume still retains an impure connotation in these cases. In Juniya, a Kami officiant (from the lower, artisan caste) offers her chickens, impure animals, that is. In Rupakot she receives chickens as well. The Dasehra, on the other hand, celebrates royal power above all else, through the mediation of the local chief. The very association of Bhume with Khanda, symbol of sovereignty, suggests that for the high caste the only truly 42

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divine relationship between a man and the earth is established by the king, of which the local chiefs are but the representatives. Through the cult of Bhume, a direct relation between the chief and the earth takes place among the Magar, while it is mediated by the king among the Indo-Nepalese high caste. Bhume is the wife of the Magar chief, as she is to the Hindu king. She is the mother (or the virgin daughter) of the IndoNepalese of high caste and the ordinary villagers. One might interpret the king's forbidding of brahmins and Thakuri to plough, and severely punishing infractions, as a way of distancing them from direct power over the earth. Nonetheless, while the Hindu king's power over the earth is limitless, except for the ocean, and rests on his military might, the Magar associate power with the first occupation of a territory thereby restricting it by definition.9 This idea is obviously bothersome for the high caste immigrants, who arrived after the tribes, seized power, and never ceased to extend it. Thus in the Gorka Vamshavali,10 the lack of enthusiasm for the territorial expansion of the Magar is invoked by two brahmins when they discourage the king, Narabhupal Shah, from taking ministers from this group. The supremacy of the Hindu king over the earth is nonetheless recognized by the Magar at the time of the Dasai festival. Up until the reform of the Panchayat, the Magar mukhiya was doubly legimitized: by a direct relationship to his ancestral land through the cult of Bhume and as a representative of the Hindu king at the time of the Dasai festival. This situation is different from that of the Tibeto-Burmese Limbu peoples from the eastern tip of Nepal, who preserved two concurrent forms of legitimacy after the conquest of their territories: the one delegated by the Hindu king to the Subba chiefs, affirmed by the Dasai festival, and the one conferred upon the former Hang chiefs by the power of the mountain.11 The concentration of these two types of power among the Magar probably goes back to their ancient contacts with the IndoNepalese and the alliances their chiefs formed with them. Knowing nothing of the specifically Magar forms of rule before their conquest, the particularisms they cultivate today during the cult of Bhume, in which the chief plays a large role, give us food for thought. Since they were a population of hunters and wandering 43

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clearers of the land at their origin, the importance the Magar grant to ploughing lies in contrast to the Limbu ideas of power based on a force of nature. One has the impression that the Magar made a royal Hindu model their own, by rooting it into the earth, in order not to be chased from it. On the other hand, if we refute the idea that the Magar created a later-day ritual in the case of Bhume, the ideas of power over the earth and the source of the chief's power expressed therein manifest great similarities to Hindu thought, which certainly helped in their Hinduization.

Notes 1. Quite often a new plough is put through a little ritual before its first use. Similarly, during the Tihar feast the plough is the only farm implement that is being venerated. It is decorated with a flower wreath and a tika good-luck tag; in the Sally an, Rolpa and Jajarkot regions the masters of the house take off the plough-share and fill the slade slot with rice. 2. A. de Sales, Je suis ne de vos jenx de tambours, Nanterre, 1991, p. 93. 3. See M. Oppitz, Fraufiir Fron, Frankfurt, 1988. 4. J. Kawakita, The Hills Magars and Their Neighbours, Tokyo, 1974, p. 345. To relativize this statement it should be noted that the thum comprise lands of very different sizes depending on the region. In Gulmi they are very large and correspond to those of the ancient kingdoms, and perhaps this explains why they do not have the same rituals. 5. A. de Sales (note 2 above). 6. J. Kawakita (note 4 above), p. 369. 7. At the village level, the reforms of the Panchayats involved a rearrangement of the ancient lands of the mukhiya chiefs into larger areas called Gaun Panchayat. Moreover, a person elected by means of the universal suffrage (the Prandhan) replaced the traditional village chiefs whose authority was hereditary. 8. M. Lecomte-Tilouine, "About Bhume. A Misunderstanding in the Himalayas/' in: G. Toffin (ed.), Nepal Past and Present, Paris, 1993, pp. 127-34. 9. If the authority of the king in the territories he controlled militarily was not being challenged, his possession of land put him among the Brahmins in Indian history. According to R.C.P. Singh (Kingship in Northern India, New Delhi, 1968, pp. 101-10), the Visvakarman Bhauvana myth offers a Brahmin representation of the land that stood opposite to the pretensions of the king. 10. Y. Naraharinath (ed.), Gorkha Vamshavali, Benares, p. 101. 11. Ph. Sagant, "Le double pouvoir chez les Yakhthumba," in: G. Krauskopff and M. Lecomte-Tilouine (eds.), Celebrer le pouvoir. Dasain, une fete royale an Nepal, Paris, 1996.

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[3] Women in Honglou meng Prescriptions of Purity in the Femininity of Qing Dynasty China LOUISE EDWARDS Griffith

University

One of China's most outstanding literary works, Cao Xueqin's Qing dynasty novel Honglou meng (The Story of the Stone), is imbued with a textual complexity that has elicited a wide variety of scholarly analyses. Indeed, such a polyphonic novel eludes a single, authoritative reading and rather invites a multiplicity of understandings. While allegorical, realistic, and structuralist 1 readings have been undertaken, Honglou meng has yet to be analyzed thoroughly using the methodology of feminist literary criticism. In an effort partially to redress this omission, this article discusses the novel and the greatness of Cao Xueqin 's artistry in terms of modern notions of sexual ideology. Thus, the article will contribute yet another understanding of the novel to the vast body of hongxue. From the outset it must be stated that feminist readings of literature do not adopt an asexual, impartial, or purely aesthetic critical practice. Rather a feminist analysis involves a politically motivated notion of criticism—one which seeks to explore the narrative's presentation of masculinity and femininity with the purpose of disclosing the ambiguities and contradictions in sexual ideologies. This article briefly presents the current scholarly perceptions of the novel's sexual ideology, which largely praise it as antipatriarchal, and then proceeds to reveal how these existing analyses are inadequate. The article's principal focus is the notions of purity and profanity that are created in Honglou meng. Both the complexity of the novel and the ambiguous nature of sexual ideology reject a single, definitive statement of the novel's antipatriarchal sentiment.

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REVERSING THE GENDER HIERARCHY

Many scholars have noted that Honglou meng is primarily a novel about the lives of women. Relating in minute detail daily life within the inner courtyards of an aristocratic Chinese family, the novel's central characters are, with the exception of Jia Baoyu, all women. In recent years some "redologists"2 from the People's Republic of China have claimed that Cao Xueqin is protesting the harsh treatment of women under the strict Confucian moral codes of the Qing dynasty through his portrayal of the fates of these female characters. For example, Zhao Rong wrote in 1982 that the novel is Cao's eulogy to equality of the sexes and a cry for freedom in marriage (Zhao, 1982: 55), and in 1988 Han Huiqiang described Cao as an advocate of a revolution in sexual morality (Han, 1988:17).3 A similar sentiment has been expressed by Western critics such as R. Keith McMahon, who suggested in 1988 that Honglou meng is a "critique of patriarchy" (McMahon, 1988: 47), and Moss Roberts, who described the novel as "deeply feminist" (Roberts, 1978: 63). On one level, the inclusion of sexual politics in Chinese literary criticism is to be applauded. On another level, there is a tendency, particularly in current studies from the People's Republic, to embrace uncritically any works which discuss women's problems as antifeudal, antipatriarchal pieces. The central issue is not the fact that women's subjugation is included in fictional works but rather how it is portrayed.4 From the outset Honglou meng draws the reader's attention to sexual ideology. Several sequences in the first few chapters alone dwell on comparisons between males and females and the masculine and the feminine. These sections of the text are often used to show that the author was sympathetic to the plight of women in the Qing dynasty. Two of the most commonly used examples reveal the overly simplistic nature of such conclusions. The novel does indeed invite a questioning of the sexual ideology of the mid-Qing through its emphasis on sexual difference, but the overt statements of textual "sympathy with the feminine" may not be as one dimensional as they first appear. It may well be that the unspoken text reveals more complexity than the spoken statements of apparent antipatriachal sentiment. 5

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In the first instance, the narrator says he is writing in an attempt to save from oblivion the talented women with whom he grew up. Cao Xueqin is quoted in the introduction to the first chapter as saying As I went over them [the female companions of my youth] one by one . . . it suddenly came to me that those slips of girls—which is all they were then—were in every way, both morally and intellectually, superior to the "grave and mustachioed signior" I am now supposed to have become. The realization brought with it an overpowering sense of shame and remorse . . . I resolved that, however unsightly my own shortcomings might be, I must not, for the sake of keeping them hid, allow those wonderful girls to pass into oblivion without a memorial [Cao, 1978:20-21].

However, as Lucien Miller wrote, "To assert that the theme of the novel is only life in the ladies' appartments is to contradict the author's own poignant complaint and painful lamentation" (Miller, 1975: 218). The avowed concern for the women in the novel is thereby a mirror for the chronicling of a male experience of life, as the reader traces Baoyu 's path to enlightenment and Baoyu 's painful lamentations through the women that are so subtly portrayed. As the novel so often suggests, "everything produces its opposite" (Miller, 1975: 86). Secondly, throughout the novel we read how young unmarried girls are far superior to their male counterparts in a host of different areas, including poetry writing, literary knowledge, musical talent, philosophical understanding, and morality. On the one hand, Baoyu is regarded by his teacher and other literary gentlemen as having a "certain meretricious talent for versification not undeserving of commendation" (Cao, 1978: 326).6 On the other hand, he is the object of the young girls' mirth during poetry club meetings for his clumsy poetic skills. Indeed, in almost all matters of scholarly or cultural knowledge, Baoyu shows less aptitude than his female peers. This sort of reversal leads critics to conclude that Cao was protesting against the patriarchal feudal system. Zhao Rong described this phenomenon as follows, "In the society where the notion of 'honouring men and disdaining women' was upheld Cao proposed 'honouring women and disdaining men' " (Zhao, 1982: 60).7 The novel thereby reverses the openly misogynist ideology expressed in the often-repeated maxims "A woman without talent is

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virtuous" and "A woman's hair is long but her vision and knowledge are short." However, patriarchal and misogynist ideologies need not assume obviously coherent forms to function successfully. Rather, they are fraught with internal contradictions and ambiguities which function simultaneously and seemingly abrasively to establish a patriarchal gender order. The greatness of Cao Xueqin's artistry lies in part in his ability to recreate such ambiguities and contradictions within his fictional text. The simple inversion of the gender order does not, therefore, necessarily imply that the novel is expressing antipatriarchal sentiment. Rather, mere reversal of the phallogocentric female/male, yin/ yang binary could reinforce the patriarchal foundation because "reversing the order only repeats the system" (Furman, 1986: 74-75). To accomplish a complete break with a patriarchal gender order the signifying systems which smooth over its inequalities and ambiguities must be deconstructed and not simply inverted. The ways in which a simple textual reversal reinforces patriarchal dominance are many; this article limits itself to one of the novel's major themes—the association of women with the binary sacred/profane and its concommitant invocation of notions of purity and pollution.8 SACRED WOMEN

In the first volume of the novel, the reader is told on a number of occasions how much Baoyu reveres his young female companions. Baoyu is said to prefer female company to that of males, as in his well-known declaration, "Girls are made of water and boys are made of mud. When I'm with girls I feel fresh and clean but when I'm with boys I feel stupid and nasty" (Cao, 1978: 76). Another example of how Baoyu sanctifies his young female friends appears in chapter 20: As a result of this upbringing [among girls], he [Baoyu] had come to the conclusion that the pure essence of humanity was concentrated in the female of the species and that the males were its mere dregs and offscourings. To him, therefore, all members of his own sex without

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distinction were mere brutes who might just as well not have existed [Cao, 1978:407-408].

One more example from the final volume of the novel allows us to see that the idealization of the feminine is a consistent theme even through the last 40 chapters written/edited by Gao E. The occasion is Baoyu's meeting with his look-a-like, Zhen Baoyu. Zhen flatters Jia by describing the latter as a person of "egregious purity, refinement and grace." Jia Baoyu's response is one of bewilderment: "But why does he flatter me almost as if I was a girl? We are both of us men, and therefore creatures of impurity" (Cao and Gao, 1986: 273-274). In her discussion of the novel, Angela Palandri said, quite incorrectly, that this sort of idealization "is against the traditional Chinese concept of women" (Palandri, 1968: 229). Rather, Jia Baoyu's worship of young girls throughout the novel develops from a well-established pattern in the traditional representation of women. This is made evident by Liao Zhongan's article, which traced the origins of the phrase considered representative of such veneration of the feminine: Baoyu's utterance that "the purest essences of the universe are concentrated in the female of the species." Liao followed the complex history of this phrase alone (in its various forms) back to the Southern Song dynasty in the Tan Sou by Pang Yuanying. 9 Here the phrase appears in a slightly different form in a discussion between a young scholar, Xie Ximeng, and his teacher Lu Xiangshan (Liao, 1977).10 The idealization does not necessarily challenge the "traditional Chinese concept of women," as Palandri suggested, but is, rather, one of the most common forms of fictional representation of the feminine. Such idealized representation can be interpreted alternatively as another form of abjection of the female, for veneration of the feminine is still a masculine privilege in which the feminine becomes the venerated "other" for the masculine self. Veneration becomes abjection through the undifferentiation of the sacred and the unclean (Douglas, 1966: 7-10). The idealization of the sacred and pure woman is merely one side of the phallogocentric coin; the flip side is the polluted whore/she-demon. This point is well-illustrated in the article by Liao Zhongan, albeit unwittingly. Xie Ximeng's proclamation that "the noble spirits of the brave departed

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are . . . concentrated in women" is made while discussing the morality of visiting brothels. Here the conflation of the venerated with the polluted is quite evident, as the goddess becomes the whore and the whore the goddess." The elevation of women to a divine position establishes them as the corporeal defenders of social morality. It may well be this very morality which subjugates them. Women thus become moral mirrors for their menfolk and are constrained within this divinity. Masculinity, on the other hand, can symbolically represent the possible supersession of these moral strictures to a position beyond the binary of the sacred and the profane. This potential masculine supersession of social norms is recreated in Honglou meng in both the mythic and mimetic realms. At the interface between the two realms men like Zhen Shiyin and Liu Xianglian, through suffering, achieve enlightment and see through the vanity of worldly ways. Their rejection of the Confucian path of social responsibility follows their embrace of the comparatively individualistic philosophies of Daoism and Buddhism. This is qualified by the important fact that on a worldly level those men, such as Jia Jing, who embrace a monastic and therefore more socially acceptable form of Daoism and Buddhism are also the objects of Cao's disdain. It is the ability to scorn social norms and become scabbyheaded wandering monks which is significantly and symbolically masculine. 12 Alternatively, on the mimetic level the men of the Ning and Rong mansions show complete disregard for the moral standards of their time and become more "degenerate from one generation to the next" (Cao, 1978: 74). In their decadent behavior these men flout the accepted rules of decorum upheld by society/women. It is the potential for conflict and rejection of social norms that distinguishes the masculine. In the Confucian scheme of virtue, the man who controls and limits his desire is the model of virtue; for the Daoist, it is the man who sees the folly of human emotions and desires altogether. Through the experience and suffering caused by the ability to supersede everyday morality, these realizations are achieved. This thereby takes the masculine above social morality as it is embodied in women through such ideological prescriptions on the sacred/profane nature of femininity.

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INTERACTION BETWEEN MYTHIC AND MIMETIC REALMS

In his portrayal of both other-worldly and worldly religious paths, Cao also reveals a sexual difference that illuminates our understanding of prescriptions of purity for women in Qing China. This section discusses those characters who, deliberately seeking enlightenment, fail to achieve their goal and how those who are successful in mediating between the "real and the unreal" realms achieve this muchsought-after status. Those characters, both male and female, who attempt to achieve enlightenment through a monastic order are treated rather ironically by Cao. The two main "conscious seekers of immortality" are the eccentric Jia Jing and the "over pure" Adamantina. While both the nun and the monk are treated ironically, there are important differences between their eventual fates. Jia Jing dies after swallowing a potion designed to grant immortality, and Adamantina is carried away from the convent by bandits to a fate generally assumed to be prostitution. The morality directed at Adamantina and not Jia Jing reveals in part how important ideologies of purity and their invocation of the goddess/ whore binary are to women in particular. The degrading conclusion created for Adamantina by Gao E fits an already established moral pattern, a pattern that reveals the primacy of the sexualized codes of judgment established for women. For the nun, the path to the brothel follows a route noted by Kathryn Tsai in her article on the Chinese Buddhist monastic order for women. If a nun is sufficiently sincere and sufficiently determined in her resolve to remain pure, then when she is confronted by a band of knife-wielding ruffians, the merciful Guanyin will step in and protect her. Adamantina, it appears, was insufficiently sincere in her resolve to remain chaste and humble when tested, and this causes her to "fall into the muck." Tsai suggested that "the point of these passages seems to be that cultic practice is effective if one is sufficiently sincere in faith and attitude" (Tsai, 1981: 14). The important feature remains that it is the formulaic ending which, centered on a nun's chastity, has been drawn into the fictional consciousness of Honglou meng. There is also a sexual difference in the manner of mediation between the two realms for those who successfully achieve this. Male

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characters like Zhen Shiyin and Liu Xianglian, who wander off to become monks and presumably immortals, do so after experiencing great suffering and shock. The male immortals wander freely between the two realms, appearing on earth and then in heaven with ease— readily assuming corporeal form and equally readily transforming it to ash. For women, the method of mediating the boundaries between the real and the unreal is primarily death, and in almost every case this is achieved through suicide. Of all the suicides in the novel, only one is carried out by a male, while drownings, hangings, head-dashing, and throat-slitting abound among the females. As women, their suffering and the cause of their suicide are primarily related to their chastity, while the source of the men's suffering is not as singular. You Sanjie slits her throat on hearing that Liu Xianglian wishes to cancel their betrothal. Golden throw herself down the well after being humiliated by Lady Wang and accused of leading Baoyu astray into sexual knowledge. Qin Keqing is generally assumed to have hung herself as a consequence of her incestuous relationship with her father-in-law, Jia Zhen. Chess kills herself after her illicit love affair with her cousin is discovered, and Faithful would rather hang than be forced into concubinage with the lecherous Jia She (although many in the mansions assume she acted out of devotion to the Old Matriarch who had just passed away). Zhao Rong wrote that Cao is praising the young women who would die rather than lose their honor, dignity and chastity, saying these women "thought of death as returning home" (Zhao, 1982: 61). In a discussion of Faithful's suicide, Zhao Jiaqi wrote that Faithful's spirit ofning si bu qu—rather die than give in—is an act of rebellion worthy of praise (Zhao, 1985: 68). The veneration of girls who kill themselves rather than compromise their purity is supported in the novel through comments like the following by Baoyu: "What a rare girl Faithful was to choose such a death! The purest essence of the universe is truly concentrated in her sex! She has found a fitting and noble death" (Cao and Gao, 1986:211). The sexual morality of those women who die of illness rather than suicide is highlighted as well. For instance, Skybright is sent home desperately ill under suspicion of being a fox fairy and polluting Baoyu

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with sexual knowledge. She later dies a lonely death in impoverished surroundings. Lin Daiyu's death fits uncomfortably into either the death-through-illness category or the death-through-suicide category. Daiyu's willingness to allow her recurring illness to take over can be interpreted as the ultimate passive suicide. She, too, has an exceptional reason for death. While she has neither been compromised sexually nor accused of this singularly feminine crime, her love has been compromised by Baoyu's marriage to Baochai. This emotion is not without its moral strictures. Zhen Shiyin tells us, "while women may not commit transgressions of bodily lust, yin, it is equally important that they do not become infected with romantic love, ch'ing" (Miller, 1975: 243). Crimson Pearl's debt of tears to Jade Boy is complete as Lin Daiyu dies and ascends to the Land of Illusion. The women who exist in "unreal" form appear to their worldly sisters only as ghosts or in dreams, unlike their male counterparts, who readily assume corporeal shapes in their wanderings. The fairies' movements under the Great Matriarch Disenchantment are as minimal as those of their earthly sisters. They dwell in the Land of Illusion and never assume corporeal forms. Through this discussion of the sexual differences in the form and manner of interaction between the real and the unreal, it is evident that the novel's approach to sexual ideology is not as one dimensional as it superficially appears. Young women are imprisoned in both realms by discourses of feminine purity, whereas men can exploit or transcend moral/immoral and mythic/mimetic boundaries. Honglou meng has revealed a pattern of sexual difference which reflects a preoccupation with feminine purity.

MARRIED/UNMARRIED:

THE POWER OF POLLUTION

The allocation of positions on each side of the polluted/pure moral register is determined with a specific, and not accidental, criterion in mind. In Honglou meng the unmarried women (both the never-married girls and the widow Li Wan) are eulogized for their virtue and purity. Placed opposite them are the married women, who are variously described as vicious, power hungry, and jealous. The symbolic split

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between married and unmarried women has several implications for a critique examining the text's sexual ideology. At the level of the real, a "girls' kingdom" in Grand View Garden is surrounded by the male world, within which dwell maternal figures like Ladies Wang and Xing and Aunt Xue. The maternal figures are indistinguishable from the men in the symbolic structure set up by Cao. At the head of the masculine world is the elderly and extremely influential Grandmother Jia in an imperfect and poorly managed "maternal patriarchy/' Lady Wang's harsh treatment of Skybright and Golden, resulting in their deaths, is a memorable example of the married woman's imperfection and inability to manage. Lady Xing's character is established as mindless, selfish and stupid. She foolishly supports the attempt of her husband, Jia She, to take Grandmother Jia's principal maid Faithful as concubine and fails to see the treachery behind Qiao Jie's betrothal arrangements. The foster mothers of the young actresses are also depicted as greedy and grasping in their relationships with their wards. The maternal figures are also responsible for spoiling the young boys Zhen Baoyu and Jia Baoyu. At the mythical level, there is a matriarchy without maternity—and, moreover, a matriarchy without marriage. Instead, a sisterhood exists in the Land of Illusion where the predominant position is that of the Fairy Disenchantment. Disenchantment holds the fate of each character's life in her registers and, to facilitate his speedy enlightenment, reveals these to Baoyu in a dream. Above her in the broader heavenly spectrum is Niiwa, whose responsibility it is to repair the roof of heaven. In refusing to insert the Stone into heaven, she forces him to compensate by engaging in a proto-sexual encounter with Crimson Pearl, watering the latter faithfully each day.13 Acting in this way, Niiwa plays the causal role which gives birth to the entire novel. In their causal and revealing roles, these two heavenly matriarchal figures are above human folly and are free of prescriptions of purity and pollution. At once they are the maternal originator of the novel and the avenue for Baoyu's sexual enlightment through Disenchantment's sister, Two-in-one. The merger of the sexual with the maternal in a realm free of social morality is perhaps the world idealized by Cao. Indeed, in the intermingling of the mythic and the

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mimetic, the novel points to human desire as one of the founding principles of a worldly patriarchy and addresses the need for the abandonment of desire. In Honglou meng's mythical Utopia free of human desire, Baoyu's veneration of young unmarried girls is also viewed as human folly. In discounting human desire, the novel makes its critique of patriarchy by providing the key to its own deconstruction. The comparison between the earthly matriarchy headed by Grandmother Jia and the other-worldly matriarchy provides some insight into the novel's presentation of sexual ideology and the supersession of codes of purity and pollution in heaven. To extend this examination further, let us focus on the earthly reality of sexual politics as centered on codes of purity and pollution. In chapter 77 Baoyu laments the change in the female nature that occurs when women get married, by saying after the raid on the garden, "Strange, the way they get like this when they marry! It must be something in the male that infects them. If anything they end up even worse than the men!" In reply, the gatekeepers say with a laugh, "In that case all girls must be good and all women must be bad. You don't really believe that, do you?" To which Baoyu answers, "That's precisely what I do believe" (Cao, 1980: 534). In his lament for young girls' loss of purity and virtue on marriage, Baoyu links the cause to infection and pollution by the male. By suggesting that the girls become polluted by the males he once again inverts commonly accepted notions of the ritually profane. It is women's bodies which are commonly thought of as the source of the most polluting substances—substances which would offend the gods or drain vital energy from men. Jiang Wenqin's 1985 critique of the novel concentrated on the problem of male infection of the "kingdom of girls" (Jiang, 1985: 41-43). One of the ways the novel describes this infection on the symbolic level is the discovery in the Grand View Garden of a purse embroidered with a pair of lovers embracing. The subsequent raid on the garden in chapter 74 is the metaphoric and literal purge of any trace of the infecting masculinity. Any item of clothing or jewelry belonging to a man is sought, to track down the carrier of the polluting masculine virus of sexual knowledge. Baoyu's belongings are notably exempt from this purge. In keeping with the Daoist notion that

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enlightenment is facilitated by an internal balancing of yin and yang, Baoyu's masculinity is from the outset complemented with a femininity that other men, including his father, regard as signifying lecherous and wanton ways. 14 The novel's notion of spoiling and corrupting the naturally pure and virtuous young woman, despite the reversal, invokes Confucian prescriptions of femininity. It supports the principle that ruled out sexual or even simple social contact between the sexes. Thus, the Qing dynasty social codes for the aristocracy demanded isolation of women from all contact with nonfamily males. To prevent infection from men, young girls were kept isolated from public affairs and thus dependent upon men. The effect of this isolation is made obvious in the novel by the case cf Qiao Jie, who is nearly sold into a harem by her male cousin and uncle. To deceive the elder women in the mansions—who in their isolation remain ignorant of the plot until almost too late—the men concoct a suitable tale to explain any unusual circumstances in the betrothal (Cao and Gao, 1986: 318-386). Baoyu's eulogies to the purity of his virginal unmarried cousins can thereby serve to reinforce elite interpretations of Confucian ideology. The purity idealized by Baoyu is not as beneficial to young women as it initially appears. Zhao Rong unwittingly supported this claim by stating that young girls gain access to power and family influence after marriage and thereby sink into the mire of the masculine world (Zhao, 1982: 60-61). This statement clearly reveals the founding principle of men's "protection" of unmarried or widowed women from male pollution—isolation from social power. It appears that within the Qing dynasty's signifying system, power is the most polluting substance that can infect a woman. Married women face an alternative but symmetrical ideological prescription in relation to their pollution/power. The married women in the novel have access to worldly influence beyond their husbands' control through their management of household affairs and their dominance in childbearing and rearing. The marriage bond establishes women as impure and evil because it simultaneously grants them a limited degree of power, which society counteracts with ideological prescriptions about women and power. Thus, Grandmother Jia, although a widow like Li Wan, is not idealized in the same manner

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because, as the oldest member of the mansions, she holds considerable power as matriarch and is thereby no longer pure. As a venerated elder member of the family, Grandmother Jia could also be perceived as having transcended, through her seniority, the binary of purity/pollution that oppresses younger women. The most polluting women are those who are married, because they exude polluting substances like blood and milk. Emily Ahern suggested that the most significant polluting substances issuing from women's bodies are menstrual or post-partum blood (Ahern, 1979: 170-171), while Charlotte Furth noted that even breast milk has the potential to pollute babies through a process called fetal poisoning (Furth, 1987; 8-9). Significantly, the most powerful women are also those who are married because their blood and milk enables them to establish a uterine family which can potentially undermine the patriarchal family. The elite families of Qing China were able to reduce the power of the daughter-in-law as a new mother by invoking stringent medical/moral knowledge, a process described in detail by Charlotte Furth.15 Because the ideal aristocratic marriage was virilocal, the daughterin-law's allegiance to the husband's family was already in doubt. Susan Mann explained, Like women in all male-centered family systems, Chinese women posed an implicit danger to the long-term stability of the family structure. They were liminal or marginal members who were constantly violating family boundaries: entering or exiting as brides [Mann, 1987:44].

To cope with this uncertainty of allegiance and access to family influence, a counterideology exists, whereby it is regarded as unnatural and unbalanced for women to exert power. This is clearly reflected in the novel's portrayal—and subsequent scholarly treatment—of the "too capable" daughter-in-law Wang Xifeng. The novel lends itself to a harsh interpretation of the powerful Xifeng. It describes how her unwillingness to relinquish control over household affairs results in the miscarriage of a male fetus. She continues to overwork herself through fear of losing her power and consequently continues to lose menstrual blood throughout the remainder of the novel. Wang Xifeng's impurity as a married woman is clearly reflected in the

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references to her uncontrolled flow of menstrual blood. Her power is simultaneously represented by the very same post-partum blood, and its uncontrolled loss effectively symbolizes her uncontrolled, unhealthy hold on power. Xifeng's power is uncontrolled just as her blood flows unceasingly— unstopped by male seed. Indeed, through her miscarriage she rejects the male seed (O'Brien, 1983: 151) and begins to bleed. It seems her lust for power upsets the "natural balance" of her position as a reproductive woman. The power of menstrual blood, then, can be seen as: a symbolic representation of the actual social power of young married women. The power attributed to menstrual blood may also be the culture's way of recognizing that social power which otherwise goes virtually unacknowledged in Chinese society [Ahern, 1979: 178].

In setting married women against unmarried women within the symbolic order of the polluted/pure woman, Honglou meng reveals many common assumptions about women in Qing China. It is on the body of Wang Xifeng that this ambiguity in ideological prescriptions is most clearly played out as she, as daughter-in-law, holds the most vulnerable and yet most powerful position.

THE WOMANLY VIRTUE OF CHASTITY

The social standards by which women are graded into good and bad center on the issues of chastity and fidelity, standards with historically changing implications, but never more rigid than during the Qing dynasty (Ropp, 1976: 5). The fear of having doubt cast upon one's virtue acted as a considerable constraint on women, for even to attract male attention suggested a lack of feminine virtue and modesty. Where Qing society judged men on a variety of criteria, for women the standard was based almost solely on sexual chastity. Female virtue meant chastity and purity. l6 Honglou meng draws this feature of Qing society out in a complex manner which can be clarified by analysis of the purity/pollution duality. The favored method of slandering women is through prescriptions of virtue and chastity. As a result, when women gain power, doubt is cast on their sexual morality and lewd innuendoes abound. In the

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character of Wang Xifeng, Honglou meng provides a provocative example of the sexual slurring of women who hold power. Xifeng is the object of Jia Rui's lust, and by actively refusing his attentions, she receives harsher judgment by critics than the aggressor himself. Wang Chaowen, for example, likened Xifeng to the Empress Lii, who was considered sexually loose and ruthlessly murderous (Wang, 1980: 456-457). It is "natural" for men to respond to their sexual needs by actively seeking partners and "unnatural," or rather immoral, for women to act at all. We learn from Patience in chapter 21 that Xifeng is, in fact, faithful to the adulterous Jia Lian, but she is all the same condemned by many critics for an assumed sexual transgression. The Wang Xifeng created by Cao is in actuality guilty not of adultery but rather of independence. Cao Xueqin's mastery draws these complex social relations out into an identifiable form. As a man, Jia Rui is guilty of daring to desire the wife of someone of higher social status, not of daring to seek a sexual partner. Assuming for himself the status of desiring subject, Jia Rui has simultaneously placed Xifeng into the desired object category, thus misreading the social codes where social status and sex interface. As Patience so accurately explains, this is "a case of 'the toad on the ground wanting to eat the goose in the sky' " (Cao, 1978: 242). Although Xifeng's female sex makes her suitable for objectification, her social rank above Jia Rui makes such a mediation repulsive and inconceivable. Her power may well be what makes Xifeng attractive to Jia Rui, and it is also the very reason why he should never have dared to flirt with her. When looking at notions of female chastity associated with the Qing neo-Confucian order, it is clear that chastity was not prescribed for all women. Indeed, the concern was with premarital and postmarital chastity and not lifelong sexual abstinence. It was considered rather unhealthy for women to abstain from sex; they were thought to need regular sexual relations for the correct functioning of their body rhythms. 17 Kathryn Tsai pointed out that there is a "general Chinese antipathy towards a deliberate celibate life" (Tsai, 1981: 3). However there are two groups for whom deliberate celibacy was a social preoccupation: unmarried girls and widows. The encouragement of celibacy among these two groups and the encouragement of regular sex among married women suggests that prescriptions of chastity were

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mechanisms that ensured purity and continuity of the natal line and had little to do with a holistic Confucian sexuality. The abundance of tales eulogizing chaste and virtuous girls and widows suggests that their unmarried status and sexual instability were perceived as threatening. Their unclaimed reproductive potential empowered the unmarried women, but ideologies of chaste widowhood and virginity simultaneously imprisoned them. Women who were unattached to a male, such as unmarried daughters or young widows, faced different and much stricter ideological controls than their married sisters. The model widow Li Wan is portrayed favorably in the novel, as are the maidens. The young pages describe Li Wan as a saint and nickname her Lady Guanyin for her gentle nature (Cao, 1980: 291). Jiang Wenqin suggests that Li Wan is placed in the "kingdom of girls" because, even though she has a young son, she was widowed early and therefore had very little male pollution (Jiang, 1985: 41). In fact, her place on the same divine level as her unmarried sisters-in-law and girl cousins does not develop from her freedom from polluting male contact. Rather, Li Wan, like the unmarried girls, is not under the direct control of a husband. Therefore, her potential to disrupt the sociosexual order must be contained by social conventions that make it improper for her to act independently of her husband's family. While the novel venerates the maidens and the widows through the ideology of feminine sexual purity and chastity, there is one unmarried woman in the novel for whom chastity is not idealized: the fastidious, "too pure," young novice Adamantina. Her exclusion from the ranks of pure virgins and chaste widows reinforces the conclusion that ensuring continuity and purity of the natal line is the fundamental rationale for prescriptions of purity in femininity. After the mansions are burgled, she is described by the faithful retainer Bao Yong as "the traitor in our midst" (Cao and Gao, 1986: 225). His assessment is quite accurate at a symbolic level (though unfaithful to the event as described in the novel): by joining a nunnery she has avoided marriage and, most importantly, shown through her vows of lifelong chastity that she renounces participation in a patrilineal society. Adamantina's ignominious end as a prostitute is directly juxtaposed with her life as a nun. Adamantina the prostitute, surrounded by dirt

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and pollution, is starkly contrasted with Adamantina the nun, who is portrayed as an unsurpassed snob preoccupied with maintaining her personal purity. In the character of Adamantina the novel provides yet another instructive display of the link between the pure and the polluted, the virgin and the whore. In chapter 41, after Admantina is visited by Grandmother Jia and Grannie Liu, the courtyard in which the latter sat is sluiced to wash away Liu's earthly pollution. Moreover, Adamantina asks that the cup used by Grannie Liu be left outside of her personal quarters because, as Baoyu explains, "Grannie Liu had drunk from it. In Adamantina's eyes the cup was now contaminated" (Cao, 1979: 313). Baoyu asks that the cup be given to Grannie Liu rather than thrown out. With Adamantina's agreement he arranges to hand it over personally, saying to the fastidious Adamantina, "No one would expect you to speak to her. That would be an even greater pollution" (Cao, 1979:315). The uncompromising young nun is, it seems, repulsed by the presence of an elderly peasant woman but not by that of the young man, Baoyu. Indeed, she even serves him tea herself within her private quarters. For Adamantina, the peasant woman's lowly social status is more polluting than the masculinity of a member of her own class. This mocking contradiction so deftly created is the seed of Adamantina's tragedy and becomes the cause of her transformation from the pure nun to the polluted whore. Each time Adamantina is subsequently mentioned, it is in relation to Baoyu. The reader quickly gains the impression that the young nun is becoming infatuated with him. She sends him birthday greetings while forgetting the birthday of her long-time friend Xing Xiuyan. She even grants him a branch of blossoms when he arrives to settle a debt incurred by losing yet another poetry competition. It is not long before her ability to meditate is hampered by the suppression of her feelings for Baoyu. She becomes delirious during meditation and imagines herself surrounded by young suitors and manhandled by ruffians. The young men around town soon gossip lewdly about the event, All that chastity and religion was bound to be too much for a girl of her age. Especially such an attractive, lively thing . . . Sooner or later she Ml get soft on some lucky fellow and run away [Cao and Gao, 1982: 176].

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Lewd fantasies about nuns were common in China, and established an often obvious connection between the symbolic place of purity and the symbolic place of pollution. Many are the tales where nuns use their cloisters as fronts for brothels. The novel Honglou meng provides several examples of sexual innuendo directed at nuns. We read the salacious jokes made by men around town about the young and beautiful nuns living under the care of the Jia family. When the nunnery is disbanded and word reaches town that the girls are to be sent off, "every young rake in town fancied the idea of getting hold of one of them for himself (Cao and Gao, 1982: 283). In chapter 111 the novel recounts the reaction of the burglars when they come upon Adamantina in the midst of her evening meditation: After the main part of their mission was accomplished, the thieves . . . . had been casually snooping around in Xichurfs courtyard, and had caught a glimpse there of a very attractive young nun, which had put all sorts of mischievous ideas into their heads [Cao and Gao, 1986: 219-220].

The seeking of spiritual purity through meditation becomes an act of sexual significance in the burglars' minds, and Adamantina, in her conscious attempt to release herself from worldly desire, becomes an object of desire. Adamantina is even more desired than her unmarried female peers, since by entering a nunnery, she has made herself more unobtainable. As a well-known homily of the time reveals, "stolen love" is better than "legitimate love": "A wife isn't as good as a concubine, a concubine isn't as good as a maid, a maid isn't as good as a prostitute, and a prostitute isn't as good as stealing" (McMahon, 1987: 235). Based on this notion—that the highest passion is reached only by the greatest violation of accepted morality—"the desirable woman is always unobtainable." In social notions of desirability, the nun approximates the widow in the degree to which she becomes an object of common lust. Indeed, the link between these two types of women is so close that in 1981 Liu Caonan wrote a controversial critique claiming that Adamantina is in fact a widow who retreated to a nunnery in order to preserve her chastity (Liu, 1981: 57-70). Entering a nunnery was sometimes viewed as an immoral act. When Jia Xichun decides to "leave home," her elders are horrified and try to

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dissuade her from such an unsavory step. Lady Wang says that it "is unthinkable for a girl from our family to enter a nunnery" (Cao and Gao, 1986: 318). Women who enter nunneries open themselves to intense sexual speculation. When one considers that during the midQing period attracting male attention was enough to invite ruin for a girl, it is clear that Xichun's willingness to place herself in such a precarious position would horrify her elders. Indeed, Xichun's membership in the "Temple of Thin Fate" is based on the perception that her decision to enter a nunnery is tragic. Adamantina's end does not bode well for Xichun, who equals Adamantina's arrogance when she declares that, unlike Adamantina, "she would never be tempted" by lust (Cao and Gao, 1982: 177). Xichun's vow almost amounts to a premonition of disaster.

CONCLUSION As a corrective to the often facile and misguided arguments that Honglou meng is antipatriarchal, this article points out the interplay between prescriptions of purity and pollution within the novel. Unraveling the textual conflation of the pure and the polluted, the whore and the goddess, provides an alternative way of understanding China's greatest fictional work. The novel's overt assertions of feminine superiority do not necessarily constitute Cao's probing questioning of the social structure of his time. His brilliance is perhaps most evident in his ability to intertwine the self and other in the production of opposites. The presentation of ambiguity is one of Cao's finest literary skills. In drawing on the dual notions of purity and pollution, this article shows how the textual silences within Honglou meng reveal the complexity of its impl icit sexual ideology and, of course, the intricacy of the novel itself. The sexual ideology within which such a significant text is produced at once smooths over ambiguity and provides the seeds of its own deconstruction. The liminal characters with ambiguous sociosexual positions, such as the nun Adamantina, the widow Li Wan, and the daughter-in-law Wang Xifeng, act in pivotal roles that embody the contradictory nature of the notions of purity implicit within ideologies of femininity.

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Miller's assertion that the novel allows readers to "realize a new orientation" that "human suffering results from the willful division of life into distinct categories" touched at the heart of the issue (Miller, 1975: 36). In the intermingling of the real and the unreal around a mythical realm free of the patriarchal dominance so striking in the mimetic realm, Cao casts doubt on the need for rigid sexual and moral distinctions. It is through posing this unspoken philosophical problem—and not simply through the reversal of gender orders or the veneration of women—that the novel undermines comfortable assumptions about sexual ideologies. Given the breadth of possible further analyses based on the significance of gender, many more aspects of the novel demand critical attention and indeed, as a contribution to hongxue, this article makes no attempt at final determination. The intent is to create discussion rather than stifle it. Critics who gloss over the complexities of the sexual ideology in Honglou meng with simplistic claims that the text is "feminist" are closing debate on a highly controversial question. This article reveals the complexity of the functioning of sexual ideology within the text of Honglou meng with the aim of reopening debate on important issues. NOTES 1. See Lucien Miller (1975) for the allegorical, Andrew Plaks (1976) for the structuralist, and much of the post-1949 criticism from the People's Republic of China for the realist. 2. "Redologists" is the accepted translation of the Chinese term Hongxue jia and refers to those scholars whose sole concern is researching Honglou meng. 3. Zhao and Han's arguments are typical of a large number of critiques, and I have chosen them for their comprehensive representativeness. 4. See my article "Gender Imperatives in Honglou meng: Baoyu's Bisexuality," forthcoming in Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles and Reviews, for a brief introduction to some of the theoretical methods employed in this article, particularly those of the French feminist canon. 5. Pierre Macherey has described these silences and gaps as the text's unconscious (Macherey, 1978:85-86). 6. All excerpts of the novel come from the translation in five volumes done by David Hawkes and John Minford. I have also followed their lead in the translation of characters' names. For example, Daiyu remains Daiyu while Siqi has been translated as Chess. I have, however, taken the liberty of removing the hyphen between syllables, as its use is not customary in Hanyu pinyin. For example, Bao-yu becomes Baoyu. For my own reference, I have used the fourvolume edition of Honglou meng published in Beijing by Renmin wenxue publishing house in 1973 (Cao and Gao, 1973).

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1, The phrases he is referring to are nanzun niibi and yangnan yinii. 8. Lucien Miller (1975: 173) has noted that female purity is one of the major symbols of the novel. 9. Pang Yuanying is recorded in the Ciyuan as having achieved the rank of prime minister (zaixiang); the Tan Sou was his best-known book. It is a single-volume account of the m iscellaneous affairs of the Ning (1195-1224) and Li (1225-1264) periods of the Southern Song. There appears to be confusion about when Pang lived. Two sources place him in the Northern Song around the Shen Zong period (1068-1085) (Weng, 1962; Yang, 1974). But this dating fails to account for the fact that the Tan Sou deals with events and personages that do not appear until a century later. It is possible that the Tan Sou to which Liao Zhongan refers was indeed from the Southern Song and was revised and edited version of the earlier Northern Song text. 10. Lu Xiangshan is a descendant of the founding fathers of the Li school of neo-Confucianism, which was revived in the Qing. This school is largely held responsible for the decline in the treatment of women during the Qing. That Jiao Baoyu's comment venerating women can be traced back to the comparatively morally conservative Song dynasty shows that Cao followed a lengthy and vibrant tradition of idealizing women. For a more detailed discussion of the implications of Cao's invocation of the "pure essences'5 and a fuller discussion of the particular excerpt from the TanSou, see my article "Jia Baoyu and Essential Feminine Purity," forthcoming in the Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia. ] 1. The conflation of the goddess and the whore within Chinese culture is also revealed in the word shennu, which the Cihai explains has long meant both goddess and prostitute. 12. The nuns who appear in the novel are portrayed in an equally skeptical and ironic light as they, too, are tied to a social system which is consciously seeking wisdom. In the view of the novel, the very act of seeking wisdom makes it impossible to achieve. 13. I am grateful to an anonymous reader from Modern China for drawing my attention to this aspect of the novel in particular and also to the concept of the "heavenly matriarchy" in general. 14. This point is drawn out in detail in my article, "Gender Imperatives in Honglou meng: Baoyu's Bisexuality," forthcoming in Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles and Reviews. 15. See Furth's article (1987) for more detail on the inter-relationship between medical knowledge and moral prescriptions. Take, for example, those which discouraged maternal breast-feeding and encourage wet-nursing. By breaking the close and exclusive bond between the breast-feeding mother and her child, the daughter-in-law's increased power is reduced. The paid wet-nurse is less of a threat to the family, as she usually comes from the working-class and therefore has little hope of overcoming both sexual and class domination (Furth, 1987: 21-22). 16. The predominant position of chastity in codes of female virtue was a phenomenon associated with the Qing dynasty in particular (Chiao, 1971: 206). 17. See, for example, the tale of Lady Han, who falls desperately ill due to the sexual neglect of her husband the Emperor—who is infatuated with his concubine An Fei. She blooms again only after having sex with an imposter/god (Hsia, 1980: 299-302).

REFERENCES AHERN, E. (1979) "The power and pollution of Chinese women," pp. 169-190 in Margery Wolf and Roxanne Witke (eds.) Women in Chinese Society. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press. CAO XUEQIN (1978) The Story of the Stone, Vol. 1: The Golden Days (tr. David Hawkes). Harmondsworth: Penguin.

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CAO XUEQIN (1979) The Story of the Stone, Vol. 2: The Crab-Flower Club (tr. David Hawkes). Harmondsworth: Pengin. CAO XUEQIN (1980) The Story of the Stone, Vol. 3: The Warning Voice (tr. David Hawkes). Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1980. CAO XUEQIN and GAO E (1973) Honglou meng. 4 vols. Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe. CAO XUEQIN and GAO E (1982) The Story of the Stone, Vol. 4: The Debt of Tears (tr. John Minford). Harmondsworth: Penguin. CAO XUEQIN and GAO E (1986) The Story of the Stone, Vol. 5: The Dreamer Wakes (tr. John Minford). Harmondsworth: Penguin. CHIAO, CHIEN (1971) "Female chastity in Chinese culture." Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology Academia Sinica 31 (Spring): 205-212. Taibei. DOUGLAS, MARY (1966) Purity and Danger. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. EDWARDS, LOUISE (1990) "Gender imperatives in Honglou meng: Baoyu's bisexuality," in Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles and Reviews 12 (December): 57-69. EDWARDS, LOUISE (forthcoming) "Jia Baoyu and Essential Feminine Purity." J. of the Oriental Soc. of Australia. FURMAN, N. (1986) "The politics of language: beyond the gender principle?" pp. 59-79 in Gayle Greene and Coppelia Kahn (eds.) Making A Difference: Feminist Literary Criticism. London: Methuen. FURTH, C. (1987) "Concepts of pregnancy, childbirth and infancy in Ch'ing dynasty China." J. of Asian Studies 46, 1 (February): 7-33. HAN HUIQIANG (1988) "'Honglou meng' zhong de xing guannian ji wenhua yiyi" (Sexual concepts and the cultural significance of "Honglou meng"). Beijing daxue yanjiusheng xuekan 1: 77-82 in Zhongguo renmin daxue shubao ziliao she (Compilers of Books and Materials, People's University), Fuyin baokan ziliao "Honglou meng" yanjiu (Copied Materials of Journals and Newspapers on "Honglou meng" Research) 2: 17-22. Beijing. HSIA, C. T. (1980) The Classic Chinese Novel: A Critical Introduction. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press. JIANG WENQIN (1985) "'Niier shijie' de liang ge cengci — l u n Daguan yuan yu Taixuhuan jing" ("Girls' World" at two levels: a discussion of Grand View Garden and the Land of Illusion). Wenzhou shizhuan xuebao 1: 15-24 in Zhongguo renmin daxue shubao ziliao she (Compilers of Books and Materials, People's University), Fuyin baokan ziliao "Honglou meng" yanjiu (Copied Materials of Journals and Newspapers on "Honglou meng" Research) 5: 41-43. Beijing. LIAO ZHONGAN (1977) "'Honglou meng' sixiang suyuan yi li —Tian di jian lingshu zhi qi zhi zhong yu niizi' yi yu de chuchu he yuanliu" (An example of the source of "Honglou meng's" thinking: "The purest essences of the universe are concentrated in the female of the species" the origin of one sentence). Guangming ribao (December 3). Beijing. LIU CAONAN (1981) "Shixi Miaoyu de shenshi" (An attempt to analyze Miaoyu's life experience). "Honglou meng" xuekan, 4: 57-70. Beijing. MACHEREY, PIERRE (1978) A Theory of Literary Production (tr. Geoffrey Wall). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. MANN, S. (1987) "Widows in the kinship, class, and community structures of Qing dynasty China." J. of Asian Studies 46, 1 (February): 37-55. MILLER, LUCIEN (1975) Masks of Fiction in Dream Of The Red Chamber: Myth, Mimesis, and Persona. Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press. McMAHON, R. K. (1987) "Eroticism in late Ming, early Qing fiction: the beauteous realm and the sexual battlefield." T'oung Pao 73: 217-264.

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McMAHON, R. K. (1988) "A case for Confucian sexuality: the eighteenth-century novel'Yesou puyan'." Late Imperial China 9, 2 (December): 32-55. O'BRIEN, MARY (1983) The Politics of Reproduction, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. PALANDRI, A. J. (1968) "Women in the Dream of the Red Chamber." Literature East and West 122,3,4:226-238. PLAKS, ANDREW H. (1976) Archetype and Allegory in the Dream of the Red Chamber. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ROBERTS, M. (1978) "Neo-Confucianism in the Dream of the Red Chamber: a critical note." Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 10, 1 (January-March): 63-66. ROPP, P. S. (1976) "The seeds of change: reflections on the condition of women in the early and mid Ch'ing." Signs (Autumn): 5-23. TSAI, K. A. (1981) "The Chinese Buddhist monastic order for women: the first two centuries." Historical Reflections 8, 3 (Fall): 1-20. WANG CHAOWEN (1980) Lun Fengjie (On Fengjie). Tianjin: Baihua wenyi chubanshe. WENG T'UNG-WEN (1962) Repertoire des Dates des Hommes celebres des Song (Index of the Dates of Famous Personages of the Song). Paris: Mouton. YANG JIALUO (1974) Zhongguo wenxuejia da cidian (Great Dictionary of Chinese Men of Letters). Taibei: Shijie shuju. ZHAO JIAQI (1985) "Funii beiju mingyun de xiangxiang lishi—tan 'Honglou meng' de zhongyao sixiang yinxiang" (Historical images of the tragic fate of women: talking about the major trends of thought in "Honglou meng"). Xinjiang shifan daxue xuebao: shekeban 1: 99-104, in Zhongguo renmin daxue shubaoziliaoshe (Compilers of Books and Materials, People's University), Fuyin baokan ziliao "Honglou meng" yanjiu (Copied Materials of Journals and Newspapers on "Honglou meng" Research) 3: 67-72. Beijing. ZHAO RONG(1982)"Hunyinziyou de nahan—nan-nil pingdeng de ouge" (A cry for freedom in marriage and a eulogy to equality of the sexes). Guiyang shiyuan xuebao 1: 58-69, in Zhongguo renmin daxue shubao ziliao she (Compilers of Books and Materials, People's University), Fuyin baokan ziliao "Honglou meng" yanjiu (Copied Materials of Journals and Newspapers on "Honglou meng" Research) 4: 55-65. Beijing.

Louise Edwards is a Ph.D. candidate in the Division of Asian and International Studies at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Her areas of research interest within Chinese studies are contemporary politics, literature, and the application of feminist theory to Chinese studies.

[4] CONTEMPORARY THERAVADA AND ZEN BUDDHIST ATTITUDES TO HUMAN SEXUALITY: AN EXERCISE IN COMPARATIVE ETHICS Michel Clasquin-Johnson As in many other religions, the issue of the correct attitude towards human sexual activity reflects the fundamental philosophical standpoints of the various branches of the Buddhist religion. In this article, the Theravada and Zen schools are examined, both in general terms and through an indepth examination of the opinions which some leading contemporary Buddhist spokesmen of both groups hold on the matter. The Theravadin stance is found to be that sexual activity is something to be ultimately transcended in the attainment of Nibbana. This tallies with its conception of Nibbana as fundamentally different from Samsara. As an interim measure, the Theravadins maintain that a harmonious sexual existence is best achieved by observing certain rules which define certain persons as inadmissible sexual partners, and stress the necessity of approaching those who transgress sexually in a compassionate manner. In the Zen tradition, the Mahayana non-dualistic concept of Nirvana as not intrinsically different from Samsara has led to the acceptance of sexuality as an integral aspect of the religious life, albeit one which needs to be practised within the context of the disciplined Zen life style.

INTRODUCTION Our purpose here is to examine the attitudes towards human sexuality held by two contemporary branches of the Buddhist religion, namely Theravada and Zen. The issue of what the religious attitude towards sexuality should be has proved to be a deeply divisive issue in many, if not all religious traditions,1 and Buddhism is no exception to this rule, This study will not primarily concern itself with the historical Buddhist sexual attitudes, though these will be initially described to serve as background information. Nor will it concern itself with related issues such as the place of women in Buddhist society and mythology, both of which subjects are extensively covered elsewhere.2 Rather will we concern ourselves here with the contemporary stance towards the sexual relationship. Attention will also be given to the various ways in which the spokesmen for the two traditions under consideration justify their positions, for, as we shall see, widely different methods of justification are used. This difference in justification largely follows

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sectarian lines, and some speculation as to the origin of this difference may well be called for. Our choice of Theravada and Zen for the two variations of Buddhism to be compared stems partly from pragmatic reasons and partly from the nature of the subject itself. One would have liked to include a much larger variety of Buddhist sects for comparison, but, despite the sparseness of available literature on this topic, limitations of space precluded such an approach, since it might too easily have led to a superficial examination of the subject. In particular, one would have liked to include Tibetan Buddhism, but its immense internal diversity and the Tan trie influence upon it justifies its having at least an article to itself.3 The two traditions which have been chosen, moreover, are not obscure sects which hold little relevance for the wider religious world, but are both vital faiths which have in recent years expanded their influence to the Western world. This alone makes it important for us to examine their attitudes to ethical matters even in a restricted area such as the one dealt with in this article, as such an examination will not only enable us to ascertain the ethical influence of these traditions on the inhabitants of those areas in which these two types of Buddhism have traditionally existed, but also to gauge possible future ethical developments arising from their spread into new territories. If one considers Luckmann's influential thesis that sexuality is one of the key factors in the new 'invisible religion',4 it becomes all the more vital to consider how this aspect of human existence could interact with an influence such as Buddhism. Furthermore, the traditionally Buddhist countries are themselves being influenced by events and developments in the outside world, presumably including changes in ethical and more specifically sexual attitudes,5 and their contemporary position on such matters may not necessarily be identical to that found in the primordial form of their faith. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Since its earliest beginnings, Buddhism has maintained a mainly negative stance towards sex, in fact: Sex was feared because it could be a rival to that calm and joy which the monk sought by his way of self-denial. A lover would find peace and fulfilment in the raptures of coition, which countered those of nirvana.6

For monks, of course, sex was completely inadmissible; sexual intercourse with either a human being or an animal is one of only four offences in the Patimokkha, the list of 227 rules which govern Buddhist monastic existence, for which the punishment is expulsion from the order, and in the next category of thirteen offences, no less than five deal with sex-related acts, such as 'acting as a go-between for any couple' .7

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Furthermore, the monastic rules contain many lesser maxims, such as the one which prevents the monk from sleeping under the same roof as a woman,8 which are clearly designed to minimize the possibility of sexual contact. Nor does the Rule apply only to association with women: 'The Bhikkhu's precepts do not allow him to sleep more than three nights with an unordained male . . . >9 Dhiravamsa,10 however, notes that: Physically (the monks) may be celibate due to the rule of refraining from sexuality, but psychologically their desires for sex could be suppressed and diverted to something else such as food or power, which is often found in those who live the monastic life. This is because in the monastic system there are hierarchies with rank and file so that any ordained man or woman may climb in order to become more important in that institution.11

It is interesting to note here the way in which the sublimation of sexual desires is linked to a rise in interest in social competition—an almost Freudian interpretation, one might say. Officially, a monk's standing in the monastic hierarchy is solely dependent on the time elapsed since he was ordained, so that a recently-ordained septuagenarian is junior to a teenager who was ordained one day before him. Here we can perhaps see an intimation that this neat and orderly scheme does not quite work out as it should, suggesting rich possibilities for empirical research. As the religion of renunciation, Buddhism had little to say about the ideal family structure, and monogamy, polygyny and polyandry may all be encountered in Buddhist countries as a result.12 The Buddha recommended chastity as the ideal, but was prepared to countenance marriage if fidelity within it was maintained.13 As we shall see, though, this precondition of fidelity was more rigidly applied to women than to men, if not by the Buddha himself, then by his followers. A NOTE ON METHOD In our discussion on the contemporary Buddhist attitude towards sexuality, we shall focus on those sources in which leading figures in the Buddhist world have commented on the subject in works the primary aims of which are the instruction of the laity. This implies that we are here concerned with the 'official5 Buddhist attitudes, rather than with the more diffuse stance which is no doubt entertained by the laity before, or even despite, receiving such instructions. Nor shall we directly deal with the fact, well-attested by research in social psychology, that the relationship between attitudes and behaviour is a complicated one, in which the specificity, strength and accessibility of attitudes, as well as the level of self-attention, influence the degree to which an attitude will direct actual behaviour.14 The aim of this study will primarily be an exploratory one, which attempts to present the data and show how they

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function in their appropriate contexts without having a particular theoretical axe to grind. PA UCITY OF SOURCES When we start to search for Buddhist pronouncements on sex, we soon come to realize that this is not a subject with which Buddhist writers have felt comfortable: the subject is generally dealt with only as a subdivision of ethics in general, rather than as a worthwhile topic in its own right. The result of this reticence is that very few sources dealing with the subject are available, as some Buddhist writers have themselves recognized.13 Campbell offers one possible explanation for this situation: Human emotion is not a subject dealt with at length in Zen. It was probably suppressed in the Asian cultures that gave rise to Confucianism and placed the greatest value on orderliness obtained through hierarchy. Sex and love are neglected too, although shit-sticks and privies are explored at length. Clearly there are still areas of human experience, taboo or unconscious to our Asian forefathers, where the Dharma eye may be opened more fully: the subject perhaps of new koans for our age.16

Here we may beg to differ from Campbell: Buddhist reticence on sex is not necessarily a product of Confucian influence, since not only is the Theravada literature on the subject equally as sparse as that of Zen, but the former also seems to lack the self-awareness of at least some of the latter's spokesmen that this is in fact the case. An explanation of the scarcity of writings on sexual topics in Buddhist literature must therefore be sought within the Buddhist ethos itself. Of those writers dealt with at length in this article who have written extensively on sexual or sex-related topics, it is noteworthy that two are born Westerners, while the remaining one, Dhiravamsa, has given much attention to the integration of Buddhist and Western psychological theories. This underscores the previously-mentioned assumption that sexual morality is a key issue in the currently fast-changing Western society to an extent that it is not in traditional Oriental culture. To summarize, then, Buddhist documents dealing specifically and exclusively with sex are extremely rare; the more usual treatment of the subject being to relegate it to a subsection of Ethics, which itself is not the major focus of Buddhist attention. It appears that Buddhists are really much more interested in writing books and articles on the minutiae of meditation, on which subject there exists a truly vast literature, than on a down-to-Earth matter such as sex. This need not dismay us, since it does allow us to conduct a more indepth study of those writings which have been produced than would otherwise have been possible.

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The Theravadin attitude towards sexuality is mainly a negative one, in which sex is regarded as a prime example of the craving which binds sentient beings in samsaric existence. Since sexuality is eventually to be transcended in the attainment of Nibbana, measures must be taken to prevent sexual activity in full-time religious specialists—these are the Patimokkha prohibitions already referred to. For both the layman and the monk, sexuality is not primarily to be eliminated by a frontal assault, but through the more subtle mechanism of a growing awareness of the dangers of sensual existence through increasing meditative experience. Even here there are differences in emphasis: the Theravada not being the monolithic institution it is sometimes made out to be. The Venerable Saddhatissa, for example, advises us that: To destroy abnormal sexuality17 at the root, it is imperative that an individual turns his mind from such thoughts the instant they present themselves . . . Those in whom sensual thoughts arise should learn to control them bv the practice of mindfulness.18

Ajahn Sumedho, abbot of Amaravati monastery in Britain, however, has his doubts about such a procedure; You can't say C I won't have any more of that kind of desire . . .' Well, you can say it but you still do! If you're a monk and you think you shouldn't have anything like that then you become a very frightened and repressed kind of monk . . . Don't make a problem out of it. We all have nasty thoughts going through our minds when we're in these robes, just like anybody else. But we train ourselves not to speak or act upon them . . . we accept these things, recognize them, are fully conscious of them, let them go—and they cease.19

This difference should be understood as a divergence of emphasis rather than a clear-cut dichotomy: both Saddhatissa and Sumedho hold to the desirability of mental control over sexual desires, but the latter tends to a more gentle, gradualistic approach. It is noteworthy that even the more liberal Ajahn Sumedho refers to sexual urges as 'nasty thoughts'. Clearly, the unspoken assumption here is that sexuality is something to be discarded, an unwanted intrusion into the equanimous tenor of monastic existence. Eventually, it is held, it will be transcended altogether, at least by the monastic individual. In the meanwhile, though, interim measures must be taken to facilitate the existence of a harmonious society conducive to Buddhist ideals, in sexual as well as in other terms. One of the most important of such measures in the Theravada is the restriction of sexual partners for the layman. Bhikkhu Bodhi, quoting the Majjhima Nikaya Atthakatha, enumerates the following types of women with which it is inadmissible for the Buddhist layman to have sexual relations:

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M. Clasquin-Johnson (1) A woman who is under the protection of elders or other authorities . . . (2) A woman who is prohibited by convention, that is, close relatives forbidden under family tradition, nuns and other women vowed to observe celibacy . . . and those forbidden as partners under the law of the land. (3) A woman who is married or engaged to another man, even one bound to another man only by a temporary agreement.20

It is noticeable that the permissible sexual partners are here only defined from a masculine perspective, but in a later publication, Bodhi, though admitting that the canonical literature uses this perspective only, uses later sources to extend the prohibition to include two types of men who are not permissible as sexual partners to women: (1) Any man other than her husband is out of bounds for a married woman. . . . (2) Any man forbidden by convention, such as close relatives and those under a vow of celibacy.21

Clearly, there is double standard at work here. Despite calls for marital fidelity from both partners,22 the restrictions on possible sexual partners, read quite literally, are more restrictive on women than on men—it is not, after all, explicitly stated that for the married man, no woman but his wife is permissible. Such a perspective would hardly be acceptable in a modern society where the equality of the sexes is accepted, if only in principle. The restrictions do not quite end here. Bodhi23 also mentions that sexual activity which is obtained through violent or coercive means is not permissible to the Buddhist. This is not merely an injunction against rape, although that is obviously one important aspect of such a prohibition: it is also a ban on the use of'psychological pressure' to obtain sexual favours. This would imply that sexual victimization or harassment of, for instance, employees by their employers is condemned by the Buddhist religion. M. O'C. WALSHE Walshe, in his booklet on 'Buddhism and Sex'24 closely follows the orthodox Theravadin approach to sexuality. After describing the monastic rules pertaining to sexual activity, which we have discussed above, he describes the ethical environment in the Buddha's time as one in which concubinage and polygamy were common, and in which 'it was not expected that young men would lead a life of much restraint. . ,'.25 He then reiterates the restrictions on possible sexual partners which we have observed above, noting that these restrictions could be seen as a realistic and even liberal injunction, given the prevailing sexual norms. What, exactly, is the position which the precept concerning 'abstinence from unlawful sensuality5 has in the larger scheme of Theravada ethics? According to Walshe:

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For the average lay person, the third Precept is on exactly the same footing as the other four. There is, in the Buddhist view, nothing uniquely wicked about sexual offences or failings. Those inclined to develop a guilt-complex about their sex-life should realise that failure in this respect is neither more, nor on the other hand less, serious than failure to live up to any other precept.26

After discussing his understanding of the traditional Western (and therefore Christian) attitude towards sex, which he typifies as being a grudging acceptance of sex within marriage, coupled with an implied denigration of sexuality in general, Walshe describes 'The inevitable reaction', which is an attitude of extreme permissiveness. He then states that neither attitude is satisfactory to the Buddhist: 'What we have to do—what Buddhism in fact teaches us to do— is to map out a sane course between the two (extreme views)*.27 The remainder of his booklet may be seen as an attempt to do just that. Walshe points out that the fundamental problem is not the brute fact of sexual activity, but rather the attachment to it.28 He freely admits that'. . . it is rather difficult . . . to experience pleasure of any sort without feeling attached to it'.29 Nevertheless, attachment is unskilful kamma, which will have an effect in the future, and this process must be counteracted. Returning to the dispute between the puritans and the permissivists, he suggests that his sympathies lie closer to the former: Sexual indulgence is not wicked, but it may be in some degree inadvisable. Most people will not feel able to refrain altogether (nor are they being urged to), but there is merit in moderation.30

Having pointed out that marriage is not a sacrament in Buddhism, at least not in its classical forms, and that no bhikkhu has the right to officiate as a marriage officer or to protest at a marriage's dissolution,31 Walshe proceeds to discuss extramarital sex: . . . quite obviously, this is something to be avoided. But the point should be made that Buddhism does not regard this, or any other sexual irregularities and deviations, as somehow uniquely wicked. In countries nominally Christian the special kind of horror with which such things are, or recently were, regarded can be pushed to grotesque extremes. Not many years ago a certain politician was solemnly declared by some to be unfit to become Prime Minister because he had been the innocent partner in a divorce case! More recently still, another politician was hounded from office because of acts of adultery for which his wife forgave him! Yet many politicians in all countries have got away with far worse things of a non-sexual character without a word being said. Buddhists should try to behave themselves sexually, as in other respects, to the best of their ability—but they should learn to exercise the maximum of charity towards the lapses of others.32

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Walshe does not give precise references as to which two politicians he has in mind here, but these anecdotes are hardly unbelievable. Since Walshe wrote this article, for instance, American presidential candidate Gary Hart was forced to renounce his candidature on very similar grounds. It is clear that Walshe is writing primarily for a Western Buddhist audience here, since his recurrent references to the prevailing Christian influence on sexual morality would hardly be necessary in a publication directed at members of a predominantly Buddhist culture. This makes his book valuable from the point of view of understanding the impact Buddhism might have on W'estern morality (and vice versa), rather than on furthering our anthropological knowledge of sexual morality in other societies. On the subject of premarital sex, Walshe takes the pragmatic attitude that this is not something that can be wished away. He acknowledges that: Nowadays there is pretty frank acceptance of what has always been the case, that a lot of people in fact have sexual intercourse without going through the formality of getting married. . . . This is a simple statement of fact, not of what ought or ought not to be the case. . . . In any case, we may as well accept the fact that . . . preaching by the older generation will.. . have precious little effect on the young.33

While he is not totally opposed to 'experimentation5, considering the high failure rate of early marriages,34 he does consider self-restraint to be a superior option, considering the dangers of venereal disease,35 the possible side-effects of contraceptives, and emotional disturbances.36 He does not name unwanted pregnancies as one of the disadvantages of unrestrained sexual activity. Clearly, his fundamental standpoint is one of refusing to condemn the faults of others, preferring rather to treat them empathetically. Although such a perspective has much to recommend it, it cannot be denied that Walshe supports the orthodox Theravadin view of sex as an evil which is only regarded as 'necessary' by the unenlightened, and which is to be transcended. The remainder of Walshe's booklet is concerned with explicating further the way in which sexuality is interpreted in the Theravada tradition as a form oftanha (craving). He points out that in the traditional Buddhist soteriological scheme, when one attains the stage of Andgdmin (Non-Returner), the desire for existence in the sensual world drops away completely. This, he maintains, is proof that it is possible to transcend sexuality in this life, although this is hardly a straightforward matter, necessitating deep meditative attainments.37 To the modern, scientific mentality this is doubtful; the question could well be asked whether the ancient systems of classification corresponded to empirical reality, especially if such a reality were viewed from within a Freudian perspective. From such a viewpoint, it could be countered that a monk might well have erased all sexual desires from the conscious mind, only to have them resurface from the unconscious level, possibly in an altered form. It is precisely

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such a process that we have already encountered above, where the possibility that sexual repression might lead to social competition within monastic circles was raised.38 Furthermore, it might be asked how completely the desire for sensual pleasure can be erased from one's mental make-up. This is not a new question in the Buddhist environment: precisely such a question was raised when the first known schism of the Sangha, that between the Mahasanghikas and the Sthaviras, occurred (approximately 340 B.C.E.), when one of the five points raised against the Arhat as representing the perfected human being was that 'They could, among other things, have seminal emissions in their sleep . . ,'39 To return to Walshe, he does accept the traditional scheme in which sexual desire disappears at a given stage in the yogi's meditative career. From this we can deduce that, in Walshe's view, all the advice given previously really has only the status of an interim measure; eventually, at the individual level, sexuality is something to be abandoned. Given that Buddhism is a religion which regards its message as being of universal import, this would logically imply that the ideal society, in which every member had attained enlightenment, would be a totally asexual one. Walshe's perspective, although advocating a maximum possible amount of compassion in its application, is true to the ultimately negative Theravadin attitude towards sexuality: in theory, if not in practice, precisely the stance for which he lambasts traditional Christianity. V. R. DHIRAVAMSA Dhiravamsa is another of the few Theravadin writers who has written an article dealing extensively with sex and marriage. He starts by giving us a two-fold definition of marriage, one being a 'marriage' of a person by 'surrendering himself to an IDEAL such as God . . . or the ideal of celibacy' the other the conventional form of marriage between a man and a woman.40 His article deals mainly with the second type, but, as we shall see, in a way that leads inexorably to the first. He continues by saying that the Buddha did not deny the worth of human relationships, but encouraged his monks to interact in a friendly and compassionate way both among themselves and in their contact with non-monastics. He then states that this principle applies equally well to the married life, in that it can create an opportunity for both partners to grow towards a greater maturity. The key question, though, is this: 'how is it possible for a husband and wife to be free from attachment if they have to love and be faithful to each other?'41 Dhiravamsa, like Walshe, is concerned with the Theravada understanding of all attachment as unskilful kamma. What he seems to be pointing towards is the paradox of a person attempting to eradicate all attachment from his or her life, as required by Theravada doctrine, while engaged in a relationship of which attachment is almost a defining characteristic.

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After dwelling further on the Buddhist conception of the ideal marriage, 42 Dhiravamsa discusses the issue of sexual relations between marriage partners: It is quite true to say that sex with love is the greatest pleasure and the sexual act can bring about ecstacy and self-abandonment, leading up to the experience of living fully in the present without the interference of thoughts . . ,43

Even allowing for poetic licence this is quite a startling statement coming from a Theravadin, as Dhiravamsa here uses terminology which would traditionally be used to describe advanced meditative states. Dhiravamsa therefore seems to concede that sexuality is a powerful force in human affairs, possibly for the good. In a sense, his words echo those of Parrinder, cited above, insofar as he corroborates the latter's opinion that sexual ecstasy might rival and perhaps even supplant the bliss of advanced meditative states.44 He continues: . . . we should consider the sexual relationship in married life and in the lives of unmarried people. . . . Generally speaking, it is quite open to a married couple to have sexual relations at any time they wish. . . . A ... problem concerns the freedom of having a sexual relation with someone while still married (to another person). As to this, I think we must ask ourselves whether we look for a new sensation, a longing for more satisfaction or more experience. If so, surely we are enslaved by desire and do not understand the meaning of marriage. We should think very carefully and objectively why we lay so strong an emphasis on sex. Do we just regard it as a physical need and not a psychological one? If we do there is no problem, but if we cannot, we should consider more deeply what is the real benefit we gain from sexuality. When this is recognized we can be content with our normal sexual relationship, because we understand that any sensation is never new but always old, and that any satisfaction will again become unsatisfactory according to its nature.45

The question to be asked here is why, if all sensations turn out to be old ones, one should bother with them at all, and this is precisely the point of Buddhist renunciation, to which Dhiravamsa is leading his readers in a quite subtle way. He appears to suggest an involvement in sexuality as a preliminary stage to its abandonment, since, although he employs this argument only when referring to extra-marital sexual activity, the same logic would of necessity apply to sex within marriage. Here too, the understanding of any experience as being 'never new but always old' would tend to lead to a rejection of the search for such experiences. The question that would then arise is how such a view could be reconciled with Dhiravamsa's previouslystated assertion that *. . . Buddhism regards the family life as sacred, holy in its true sense of wholeness. . . . It is the holy conduct that leads up to the completion of the Eightfold Path . . .'.66 The answer will become apparent only at the very end of his article.

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Another feature of the above quotation is Dhiravamsa's assertion that sexuality which is only the satisfaction of a physical need, rather than also of a psychological one, does not constitute a problem. Perhaps what he has in mind here is that an honest assessment of the situation would inevitably produce the answer that psychological needs would inevitably be involved in any situation containing human agents. If this is his intended interpretation, it is quite acceptable to orthodox Buddhism, which has never accepted a rigid division between the material and the psychological aspects of human existence. If, on the other hand, he does recognize the existence of a purely physical sexuality as an autonomous mode of behaviour, traditional Buddhism would be bound to point out that all sexual activity, apart from masturbation, involves another sentient being, and since most of us have no access to the abhinfias or 'higher knowledges', we cannot assert with any confidence that our sexual partner is experiencing the occasion as being an expression only of a 'physical need and not a psychological one'. Having dealt with sexuality within marriage, Dhiravamsa examines the issue of sexual relations by and between unmarried people: Of the five precepts the third one is concerned with misconduct in sexuality, which seems to be a taboo to freedom in sexual life. But in Mangalatthadipani, pages 211-212, the Venerable Sirimangalacarya made it clear that the banned persons for this are married women and women under protection. . . . But a grown-up woman free from any obligations and not under the legal protection of anybody . . . is free to go with any man who has no wife, because she is the master of her sex life. . . . More than that, a woman living with an unmarried man by her own wish is recognized as a wife and she is protected by the third precept. This category of wife is called in Pali 'Chandavasini5. So people who live together without making contracts according to conventional marriage are in complete harmony with the Buddhist teaching (see Mangalatthadipani pp. 361-4) ,47

Against this, one should consider that in the type of society in which Buddhism was to be found until quite recently, a woman not under the legal protection of some or other male was quite a rarity. Women were 'never fit for independence'.48 A girl would pass from the protection of her father to that of her husband, and in some societies might even end up subservient to her son.49 In such a society, only an exceptionally strong-willed woman, or one in an anomalous social situation such as a war-disrupted society, would be in a position to choose her own partner. Only by ignoring this historical context does Dhiravamsa manage to apply this category to modern women, who might never have been married before, living with the male companions of their choice without being formally and legally married. It is also notable that a masculine bias has crept into the analysis again; the unspoken assumption here seems to be" that a special justification for female sexuality is required, while male sexual activity is taken

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for granted. Needless to say, such presuppositions are untenable in the modern age. Furthermore, Parrinder, who also mentions this class of wife, finds her listed along with nine other categories, which include the likes of 'those who were bought for money'; 'those to be enjoyed or used occasionally'; and 'those who were prisoners of war'.50 One can hardly imagine that Dhiravamsa would care to offer a rationalization for the retention of these other categories as well. Still, what is the role of sex in the final analysis? Dhiravamsa, despite his liberal stance on specific sexual issues, reveals himself as agreeing with the generally negative Theravadin stance toward sexuality when he concludes his article by recommending celibacy, with the proviso that this should arise naturally, even within the married state.51 His endorsement of marriage, therefore, is primarily based on the companionship it provides, rather than on a sexual basis. Although he has admitted the immense power of sexual ecstasy, even likening it to the most advanced meditative attainments, in the end, he views it as an unskilful life-style which will have to be transcended. SUMMARY AND EVALUATION OF THERAVADIN ATTITUDES In the final analysis, the Theravadin attitude towards human sexuality is profoundly negative. Sexual desires are regarded as a prime example of the craving that binds sentient beings to incarnate existence. The goal, therefore, is to move towards the cessation of the sexual impulses. This does not imply that the Theravada advocates a severe repression of all things sexual. Rather do we see its spokesmen as coming out in favour of a moderate approach, in which the sexual impulses are allowed to cease of their own accord as meditative techniques lessen one's attachment to sensual pleasures. The Theravada goal, implicit though it may be, is a completely sexless society, although its adherents are sufficiently realistic to be aware that such a goal is not immediately within their grasp. As an interim measure, the main mechanism through which a harmonious socio-sexual environment may be brought about is the list of persons with whom one is not allowed to have sexual relations. This negative attitude, we may speculate, is attributable to the fundamental Theravadin philosophical presuppositions. Judged from the Mahayana perspective, Theravada Buddhism shows a dualistic streak, not in the usual Western sense of a dichotomy between mind and matter, but in what is in Mahayana Buddhist eyes perhaps an even more serious matter, namely in assuming a radical discontinuity between Nirvana and Samsara, respectively the enlightened and unenlightened states of existence.52 If one is to accept such a dichotomy, and furthermore to conclude that Nirvana is to be attained by rejecting all aspects of Samsara, then it stands to reason that sexuality, the process which more than any other exemplifies the cround-of-birth-and-death' through its close connections to childbirth, should come under special scrutiny

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and singled out for rejection to a greater degree than, say, the process of breathing. The surprise here is not so much that the Theravada attitude towards sex is ultimately negative, but rather that the practical effects of this stance have not been much more severe. The fact that leading Theravadins have expressed the need for a sensitive and compassionate approach to non-celibate life indicates the presence of counterbalancing factors within Theravadin philosophy. While space precludes a detailed examination of these factors, we could briefly mention some of the more likely candidates here; the importance of karuna (compassion) and the Brahma-viharas generally, the Buddha's characterization of his teachings as the 'Middle Way' between extremes, which in the Theravadin context might be taken to imply a tendency to refrain from excessively criticizing other life-styles for fear of lapsing into the opposite extreme, and lastly the stress placed on the process of samsaric rebirth itself, among the implications of which is the assurance that no action is ultimately irreversible, since the celibate life-style can be adopted in a future existence. One could also consider non-philosophical factors, such as the monks' dependence on the non-celibate laity for support, in this context. ZEN Generally speaking, the Zen approach to human sexuality is less legalistic than that of the Theravada. Nowhere in Zen do we encounter elaborate lists of people with whom sexual activity is proscribed—though it might well be argued that such lists are implicit in the social contexts in which Zen is practised. The Zen attitude tends towards a full acceptance of sex as an important aspect of human existence. Even in the monasteries, a less rigid adherence to celibacy seems to be upheld; in his autobiographical account of his residency in a Japanese Zen temple, Van de Wetering recounts the following conversation: Well, . . . here in the monastery we have no girls, so it can't be done. I suppose some of the monks may have homosexual relations—It's much more accepted here than in the West anyway. But with the training and continuous discipline, there isn't much time or opportunity for sex. . . . When I run into it, I won't shy away . . . but I haven't got much time to look for it either. . . . No, I have to wait till it comes my way; it has happened, and it will come again. I am always prepared for it.53

While it is difficult to judge how typical this monk's experiences were (he was in fact not Japanese, but a Western convert), the mere fact that he described the restrictions on sexual activity as being primarily attributable to logistical restrictions, rather than to behavioural proscriptions, shows that the Zen attitude to sexual behaviour is based on quite different criteria than that of the Theravada. If so, this should apply to an even greater extent to the laity.

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For instance, let us look at Christmas Humphrey's correspondence with the members of his Zen class: to a student upset over a classmate's promiscuity, he writes: Your remarks about (Sally) sound like a Victorian school-maam. Supposing she has 'boy-friends'. Surely that is her affair, not yours. I know about them and it does not worry me. Her sex-life is her own affair and not (thank Karma) any of mine. Or yours.54

On a more general level, he writes: If the act is mere self-indulgence, as excessive smoking, or even drinking, it may be lamentable from several points of view, but it does not immediately increase the sense of separation which is our basic illusion; the same may apply to fun and games on the sexual plane between those free to indulge. This is not 'right' in the sense that it is ideal or even the best we can do on the Way; but from the Zen point of view it is not actively harming another form of life.55

The phrase 'those who are free to indulge' is the last vague remnant of the Theravada list of persons disallowed as sexual partners, Clearly, the Zen attitude towards sex, at least as Humphreys sees it, is much less negative than the Theravadins'. This does not imply that Zeh favours the practice of indiscriminate promiscuity, but rather that sexuality, like any other aspect of human nature, should be experienced as a free, spontaneous expression within the context of the tightly self-controlled Zen life-style. Thus, the question 'what is correct sexuality?' cannot be answered merely by looking up the answer in a book, even a holy book, but by responding to the unique particularity of each situation and acting in concert with the prime directive of Mahayana Buddhism; compassion. The crux of any action is whether it involves . . . actively harming another form of life''. The directive to search for ethical directives within one's innate enlightenment is nowhere more clearly stated than in the following statement by the female Korean Zen master, Ji Kwang Dae Poep Sa Nim: Sex is beautiful and wonderful, but if you don't have true love sex is only wasting your energy. . . . Just perceive; cls this a correct situation? Is this a correct relationship? Is this correct function?' If these three things do not exist, it is only desire sex [sic] to please this bag of flesh. If your mind and your body are not clear and you have sex you are only giving negative energy to the person . . . But if you are clear and one with universal energy you are ready to give to others. You can share this energy through the body.56

Yamada Mumon Roshi, too, regards it as a necessary aspect of human nature and a certain expression of the essential unity of the world as seen through enlightened eyes. He writes:

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Loving affection between a man and a woman may be a passion, a foolish passion. But the extermination of this amorous passion would mean the simultaneous drying up of humanity. (Similarly, anger at injustice brings about social progress, and craving for 'truth, good and beauty' establishes human culture, MC.) These three 'poisonous passions' should be affirmed, be given aujkeben, and purified; they should not be negated or eradicated. On getting awakened, one realises passions are originally Awakening.57

ROBERT AITKEN ROSHI The context of Aitken's discussion of sexual matters is the difference between the traditional Japanese Zen temple, in which a strict separation of the sexes is observed, and the Western Zen centre, which is almost universally coeducational.58 He freely admits that both types of ecclesiastical organization cause tensions,59 in other words, he does not idealize the celibate state in quite the same way as do the Theravadins. He does not extensively discuss sexual situations outside the formal Zen atmosphere. Nevertheless, a close study of his comments can shed much light on the Zen attitude towards sexuality in general. Fundamentally, Aitken propagates an acceptance of sexuality as an integral part of human existence: Certainly we cannot justify rejecting sex and accepting the other human drives and emotions, such as anger, fear, hunger, and the need for sleep. . . . For all its ecstatic nature, for all its power, sex is just another human drive. If we avoid it just because it is more difficult to integrate than anger or fear, then we are simply saying that when the chips are down we cannot follow our own practice.60

This statement is quite closely related to Walshe's assertion that Buddhism does not regard sexual transgressions as being 'uniquely wicked'. Like Walshe, Aitken here establishes the status of sexual activity vis-a-vis other human activities and finds it to be an emotional and volitional activity which is not in principle qualitatively different from any other. Unlike Walshe, as we shall see, he does not advocate its ultimate rejection. He does, however, reject sexual activity that is not within an atmosphere of mutual affection. In another work he writes: Sex is sharing, but when it becomes using, it is perverted—a violation not only of this precept, but of the earlier two precepts ('no killing' & c no stealing', MC) as well, for it involves the brutalizing and taking things of others. . . . Another kind of casual sex rises from a lack of confidence in the self as agent of the Dharma; it is a kind of false sharing, a prostitution. 61

While stressing that celibacy is the preferred state for some Zen practitioners,62 Aitken does not imply that it is a required state for Zen practice at any stage along the path. For those who intend to have sex, the preferred context is

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'. . . freedom within a publicly expressed commitment, and of such expressions, marriage provides the safest environment. Without marriage, there still can be an agreement to establish a relationship and to work on it'.63 Aitken's acceptance of sexuality is therefore not a licence to promiscuity, but rather an exhortation to his students to behave in a responsible way in their sexual conduct. Viewed in the correct light, sexual activity is not necessarily a negative, un-Buddhist action: in keeping with the Zen principle that 'the ordinary mind is enlightenment', when that ordinary mind is directed towards dharma,64 Zen does not restrict religious activity to certain narrowly circumscribed circumstances, but attempts to sacralize all of human existence. Thus sex, when approached from the correct angle, can be a Bodhisattvic act: Saving all beings is our practice, and in the home this can be just the simple act of doing the dishes or helping with homework—or it can be having a party when the kids are in bed. The dance of sex, the dance of life in all circumstances requires forgetting the self and giving over to the dance. Sexual intercourse is the dancing nucleus of our homes, generating all beings at climax, bringing rest and renewal.

Like Dhiravamsa, Aitken regards sexual activity, in the right circumstances, as a form of meditation. The difference between them is that Aitken's fundamental philosophy makes it far easier for him to do so. In fact, as I shall argue below, the Mahayana principles underlying Zen makes it logically impossible for him not to take this attitude. SUMMARY AND EVALUATION OF ZEN ATTITUDES The Zen attitude towards human sexuality is a cautiously positive one. Certainly, celibacy is recommended as a device which may be helpful in spiritual growth for those who are naturally drawn to it, but it is not a sine qua non for spiritual progress, as it ultimately is for the Theravada. Sex, like any other human drive, is neither to be wildly indulged in nor denied and repressed. It can be misused, like any human action can, but at its best it can be an expression of the essential unity of creation, and therefore a form of 'meditation3.66 This positive evaluation of sexuality in Zen does not lead to the establishment of orgiastic religious rituals,67 precisely because Zen stresses the ultimacy of ordinary experience. As is well-known, the professed aim of Zen is 'when eating, just eat: when sleeping, just sleep' or as Yi-hsuan put it, 'Only do ordinary things with no special effort: relieve your bowels, pass water, wear your clothes, eat your food, and, when tired, lie down!'68 It is in the 'beginner's mind5 or 'ordinary mind', in the crdinariness of everyday life, that ultimate meaning is to be realized. Applying this principle to one's sex-life, the endresult is not all that different from that of the Theravadins: a 'Middle Way'

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between repressive denial (though celibacy is highly recommended to those for whom it comes easily) and irresponsible promiscuity. But, if the results are similar, the methods used for its justification differ considerably. Zen does not attempt to legislate sexual mores with precise rules as to whom one may or may not have intercourse with. Nor does it postulate a necessary spiritual progression towards celibacy. In its acceptance of sexuality as a normal expression of human nature (which, of course, is ultimately coterminous with Buddha-nature), Zen's attitude towards sex seems more integrated into its total theological (dharmological?) structure than that of the Theravada, whose pronouncements on the subject have something of the appearance of an afterthought. The implication of this is that no pre-defined list of'correct' and 'incorrect" sexual actions can ever do justice to the vast multiplicity of possible situations, nor to their essential unity. Only in the light of increasing spiritual sophistication can the correct response to a sexual situation be discerned. The Zen practitioner is thrown back on his own resources: he (or she) alone can decide what the suchness of the moment demands. As far as the sexual activity of others is concerned, Zen goes beyond the tolerant approach of the Theravada: not only does it refuse to judge and treat those who disagree with its sexual ethic harshly, as the Theravada likewise refuses to do, but it remains true to its own philosophical basis of non-duality by refusing to recognize a distinction between enlightened and ignorant action, Nirvana and Samsara, celibacy and sexuality. Here the Zen tradition seems to support the Mahayana tradition of two levels of truth; on the relative level, it can fairly be said that certain forms of sexuality are unskilful and not conducive to the attainment of enlightenment, but from the level of absolute truth, the all-encompassing nature of suchness (tathata) does not allow anyone to judge one action as 'evil' and another as 'good'. These two terms are human mental constructions like any other, and have no essential reality of their own apart from the total pattern of events leading up to their conception. It can be observed, therefore, that the Zen sexual ethic is directly attributable to the Mahayana metaphysic of non-dualism to which it subscribes. Given this metaphysic, in fact, it is hard to discern an alternative: it would be logically untenable for the Mahayanists to proclaim the innate purity of all existence on the one hand and then single out one particular activity as innately impure on the other. For this reason, sexuality is not regarded by Zen as intrinsically 'wrong5 any more than meditation is intrinsically 'right'. Both these actions are freely chosen expressions of the suchness of a given moment: either can lead one into greater delusion or toward greater clarity. Still, the more advanced practitioners can and do suggest the more productive avenues for channelling sexual energy. Marriage, constituting as it does '. . k freedom within a publicly expressed commitment . . . '369 is one such

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preferred avenue, and does appear to be highly regarded, but this remains a judgement on the relative level of truth and may be disregarded if the situation demands it. CONCLUSION As we have seen, the Theravada and Zen attitudes towards human sexualitydiffer considerably. The Theravadins have mostly retained the negative attitude that typified early Buddhism, while Zen has adopted a more positive stance. In each case, the sexual ethic of the school under consideration can be traced back to the fundamental presuppositions underlying its philosophy. Returning to one of the key issues raised at the beginning of this paper, considering the more relaxed attitude towards sexuality that has emerged in Western society in recent decades, the Zen attitude is more likely to appeal to Occidentals dissatisfied with the mores of their own traditional faiths. Space precludes a thorough examination of issues closely related to this one; issues such as homosexuality, contraception, abortion, prostitution etc. I hope to address these issues in either a series of follow-up articles or a full-scale monograph. A CKNO WLEDGEMENTS The author would like to thank the Dharma Centre, Somerset West and the Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo for the use of their library facilities, without which this article could not have been produced.

NOTES 1

2

3

Viz. P. M. Cooey, 'Eros and intimacy in Edwards', Journal of Religion 69:4 (October 1989), pp. 484-501, who, on p. 486, writes that 'Scholars across disciplines . . . debate whether religion represents a repression or a celebration of eros' (emphasis in original). For the social position of women in Buddhist societies, see A. Boer and S. Colijn, 'Bezetenheid: een Kwelling, een Gave', in D. Dijk, W. Haan, M. Meerburg and A. W. Westra (eds), Vrouw-Rdigie-Macht, Delft, Meinema 1985 and the relevant articles in N. A. Falk and R. M. Gross (eds), Unspoken Worlds: Women's Religious Lives in Non-Western Cultures, San Francisco, CA, Harper & Row 1980; D. L. Carmody, Women & World Religions, Nashville, TN, Abingdon 1979; and Y. Y. Haddad and E. B. Findly (eds), Women, Religion and Social Change, New York, State University of New York Press 1985. A comprehensive account of the way in which the feminine was portrayed in Buddhist Mythology can be found in D. Y. Paul, Women in Buddhism. Images of the Feminine in Mahay ana Tradition, London, University of Los Angeles Press 1985. Some preliminary indications of the tantric influence on the Vayrayana attitude towards sex may be obtained from A. J. Fasano, The Religious Structure of Tantric Buddhism, Ann Arbor, MI, University Microfilms International 1981; Kalu Rinpoche, The Dharma That Illuminates All Beings Impartially Like the Light of the Sun

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4 5

6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

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and the Moon, Albany, NY, State University of New York Press 1986, pp. 77-9; and G. Samuel, The body in Buddhist and Hindu tantra: some notes', Religion 19:3 (July 1989), pp. 197-210. T. Luckmann, The Invisible Religion, New York, Macmillan 1967, pp. 111-3. An example of such influence may be seen in the attendance of bhikkhus at weddings, which R. Gomrich and G. Obeyesekere, Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press 1988, p. 228, call a 'startling innovation' and of which they say that 'The gradual Buddhicization of the Sinhala wedding has come hard on the heels of its westernization, and indeed the two trends appeal to the same social strata'. As we shall see below, authors such as Walshe also deny that the Buddhist monk should be involved in marriage ceremonies, as these are considered a purely secular matter. G. Parrinder, Sex in the World's Religions, London, Sheldon 1980, p. 45. Spiro, pp. 292-3. Ibid., p. 298. Anonymous pamphlet (s.a.), AT Lay Buddhist's Guide to the Monk's Code of Conduct, Reading, Amaravati Monastery, p. 4. The term 'sleeping with' should here be understood quite literally, and not, as in the modern sense, as a euphemism for 'having sex with!. V. R. Dhiravamsa, The Place of Marriage in Buddhism', The Middle Way 48:3 (November 1973), pp. 123-7. Ibid., pp. 123-4. Gombrich & Obeyesekere, p, 256. cf. Parrinder, p. 55. S. Tachibana, The Ethics of Buddhism, London, Curzon 1981, pp. 155-7, however, believes that there is evidence that the Buddha did prefer monogamy. Parridner, pp. 55—6. R. A. Baron, and D. Byrne, Social Psychology: Understanding Human Interaction, Boston, MA, Allyn and Bacon 1987, pp. 140-4. R. Aitken, The Mind of Clover, San Francisco, CA, North Point 1984, pp. 37-8. L. Campbell, 'On cutting off your arm', Blind Donkey 10:3 & 4 (Summer/Fall 1988), pp. 57-9, this reference p. 58. It is noteworthy that Saddhatissa does not adequately define 'abnormal' sexuality here. H. Saddhatissa, Buddhist Ethics — The Path to Nirvana, London, Wisdom Publications 1987, pp. 91-2. Sumedho, pp. 25-6. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Goingfor Refuge/Taking the Precepts, Kandy, Buddhist Publication Society 1981, pp. 65-6. Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Noble Eightfold Path, Kandy, Buddhist Publication Society 1984, p. 63. Bodhi only makes a slight reference to this in Bodhi, 1981, p. 66. E.g. Bodhi, 1984, p. 64. Bodhi, 1984, p. 64; Bodhi, 1981, p. 66. M. O'C. Walshe, Buddhism and Sex, Kandy, Buddhist Publication Society 1975. Ibid., pp. 1-3. Ibid., p. 3. Ibid,, p. 5. Ibid., p. 7. Ibid., pp. 7-8. Ibid., p. 8. Ibid., p, 9. See also note 5.

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32 33 34 35

Ibid., p, 10. Emphasis in original. Ibid., pp. 11-2. Ibid., p. 14. It should be kept in mind that this booklet was written in the pre-AIDS era, and that this warning is doubly relevant today. Ibid., p. 15. Ibid., pp. 18-26. Viz. note 10. E. Conze, A Short History of Buddhism, Hernel Hempstead, Unwin Paperbacks 1982, pp. 33-4. Dhiravamsa, p. 123. Ibid., p. 124. On p. 127, he picks up this theme again and warns against any pretensions on the part of either partner that it owns the other, stressing that '. . . marriage is not ownership, but union and companionship brought into being through free agreement and understanding between the two partners'. Ibid., p. 125, cf. Parrinder, p. 45. Dhiravamsa is, in fact, a somewhat heterodox Theravadin, who has experimented with the integration of Theravada and Western psychotherapeutic techniques, see J. Snelling, The Buddhist Handbook, London, Century 1987, p. 311. His work on spontaneous physical expression in meditation, see The Dynamic Way ojMeditation, Wellingbo rough, Turnstone 1982, also reveals possible Tantric influences on his thought. Dhiravamsa, p. 125. Ibid., p. 124. One could also contrast this with Walshe's previously-cited statement that 'marriage is not a sacrament in Buddhism*. Ibid., p. 127; cf. Bodhi, 1984, p. 64. Parrinder, p. 55. Viz. C. F. Keyes, 'Ambiguous gender: male initiation in a northern Thai Buddhist society', in C. W. Bynum, S. Harrell and P. Richman, Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols, Boston, MA, Beacon 1986, pp. 71-2; Parrinder, 1980, pp. 53-5. See S. C. Crawford, The Evolution of Hindu Ethical Ideas, Honolulu, University Press of Hawaii 1982, pp. 12-3, 28-31, 44-6, 65-70, 1067,137, for the Indian background to the social position of Buddhist women. Tibet appears to have been an exception to the rule of male dominance in social affairs, according to B. D. Miller, 'Views of women's roles in Buddhist Tibet', in A. K. Narain (ed.), Studies in History of Buddhism, Delhi, BR Publishing Corporation 1980. Parrinder, p. 55. Dhiravamsa, p. 127. cf. Sumedho, p. 25. Viz. D. T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism. (First Series), London, Rider 1985, pp. 39ff. J.-W. Van de Wetering, The Empty Mirror, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul 1973, pp. 61-2. C. Humphreys, Zen Comes West, London, George Allen & Unwin i960, p. 60. Ibid., p. 114. Ji Kwang Dae Poep Sa Mm, One Dust Particle Swallows Heaven and Earth, Paris, Dharmah Sah Publications 1988, pp. 190-1. In G. Tokiwa, 'Yamada Mumon Roshi 1900-1988', Eastern Buddhist—New Series 22:2 (Autumn 1989), pp. 136-44. This quotation p. 142.

36 37 38 39 40 41 42

43 44

45 46 47 48 49

50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57

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67 68 69

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Aitken, 1984, pp. 39-40. Ibid., p. 4L Ibid., pp. 41-2. Aitken, Taking the Path of Zen, San Francisco, GA, North Point Press 1982, pp. 82-3. Aitken, 1984, p. 43. Ibid., p. 46. Viz. D. T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism. (Second Series), London, Rider 1980, p. 333. Aitken, R. 1984, p. 47. cf. Aitken, R. 1982, p. 83. This is by no means an uncontroversial interpretation: Master Seung Sahn writes: 'This Zen master said that during sex you lose your Small I. This may be true. But outside conditions are taking away the Small I. When the outside conditions change, you again become Small P. See S. Mitchell (ed.), Dropping Ashes on the Buddha— The Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn, New York, Grove 1976, p. 153. Here the objection seems to be that any possible spiritual effects of sexual activity, even if genuine, are too temporary to be considered of any importance. When he continues by saying that 'All these actions are attachment actions. They come from desire and end in suffering' (p. 154), he shows himself more closely allied to the Theravada position. . But cf. Van de Wetering, pp. 99-101, for a possibly apocryphal account of Boboroshi, a Zen monk who seems to have done precisely this, In Conze, p. 93. cf. Suzuki, 1985, pp. 24-5, 264-5. Aitken, 1984, p. 46.

MICHEL CLASQUIN teaches at .the Department of Science of Religion, University of South Africa. Among his previous publications on Buddhism is 'Paradoxical intention and Zen: new light on an old technique?' Journal for the Study of Religion 2:2 1989. Department of Science of Religion, University of South Africa, P.O. Box 392, 0001 Pretoria, South Africa.

[5] Sexuality: the Chinese and the Judeo-Christian traditions in Hong Kong Adolf K.T.Tsang ABSTRACT. It is popularly accepted in Hong Kong that the ideal pattern of heterosexual intimacy must consist of the three elements of love, marriage and sex. Moral judgements regarding sexual behaviour are always made in relation to whether the partners are engaged, in a life-long, heterosexual and monogamous marriage. The claim that such an ideal pattern is supported by the Christian religions or by the Chinese traditions is very often made. Such claims are assessed by reviewing Biblical and early church teachings as well as Chinese traditional literature. It was found within the Judeo-Christian tradition that standards do change over time and that there is actually no ground for taking the existing marriage pattern as a God-given prescription. A review of the two major Chinese traditions, Confucianism and Taoism, is also performed. A patriarchism similar to that found within the Judeo-Christian tradition is identified. It is however observed that the Chinese have a rather different language of sexuality. The idea of qing as the traditional Chinese ideal of heterosexual relationships is studied in contrast to the western idea of love. Finally, the import of the Western ideas of love and sex is considered within the context of socio-cultural development and the related political dimension.

Introduction Every society has its own mechanism of regulating the behaviour of its members. In the area of sex, contemporary society has the help of the human services professions. Doctors, social workers, counsellors, teachers, psychologists and many others are trying, in one way or another, to tell people how to behave sexually. Psychologists, as scientists and practitioners, are involved both in helping people to make sense of their sexual experiences and in modifying the ways in which people behave sexually through educational and clinical interventions. It is important for the scientist to recognize the fact that the very language used in the process must be examined within the cultural context within which meanings are generated. The practitioner, on the other hand, is operating within a value context with attending political interests. It is hoped that a short trip into the

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extensive landscape of cultural traditions in the area of sexuality will encourage psychologists to return for more thorough explorations.

The Trinity of Love, Marriage and Sex Many people in Hong Kong, including members of the human services professions, have taken for granted that the ideal pattern of heterosexual intimacy must consist of the three elements of love, marriage and sex, and in that order. The heterosexual, monogamous and life-long marriage is the ideal prototype and any deviation from it will be considered problematic. Terms like premarital sexual intercourse or extramarital sexual relations assume that marital sex is the norm while any sex outside this particular form of marriage is deviant. 'Sex without love' is used in the local context as a derogatory label. Sexual behaviours like masturbation or reading erotica or pornography are frowned upon by many. Building a sexual morality on a fervent faith in this trinity of love, marriage and sex makes it difficult for the believers to accept the reality that there is a large number of people who can enjoy a variety of sexual experiences beyond such confines. Some of the believers also find it necessary to exert political and legal control over the behaviour which they find disagreeable. A few years back we had a battle over the decriminalistion of homosexual acts between consenting adults in private and more recently we have witnessed strong advocacy to subject sexually explicit publications to more stringent legal control. One interesting observation is that among these eager advocates who wish to be our custos morum we find frequent references to two major cultural traditions, namely the Judeo-Christian and the Chinese. There is now a very visible group representation of the typical fundamentalist tradition and although they very seldom say so publicly they think that their opposition to homosexuality, premarital and extramarital sex, masturbation and pornography is based on God-given truth. There is of course another group who thinks that the Chinese are traditionally more conservative with regard to sex and that homosexuality is only popular among the gweilos (foreigners). It is therefore of interest for us to examine these two traditions and see how they relate to the current belief in this trinity of love, marriage and sex as the ideal pattern of heterosexual relationship.

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The Judeo-Christian Tradition The so-called Judeo-Christian tradition is not a unitary system. While the Christian religion in its most popular forms always recognises the significance of the Jewish history of the Old-Testament times, the strong Greek influence on the theological development of the early church must also be noted. Where sexuality is concerned, the Jewish tradition and the later Christian tradition do have some very basic differences.

The Jewish Tradition Going back to the biblical sources, it can be observed that patterns of sexual relations did change over the long period of time from the beginning of the Old-Testament days to the New-Testament era. The old Jewish tradition, developing through a nomadic civilisation to an agrarian one, was typically patriarchal. The economic and military needs for male helping hands were great and giving birth to a male offspring was of paramount significance. There are ample examples in the Old Testament that the social position of woman was a function of her reproductive capacity2. The ancient Jews also had a practice of fraternal succession called Levirate marriage requiring the brother of a deceased man to have sexual intercourse with the widowed sister-inlaw to guarnatee a male heir to the man even after his death. The famous story of Onan4, from whom the term onanism derives, is a clear illustration of the significance of this fraternal obligation. There is some evidence that this practice continued to the New-Testment era for Jesus was once confronted with the question of how the marital relationship should be settled in heaven if seven brothers had all married the sister-in-law5. Another expression of patriarchism can be fpund in the old Testament provisions governing premarital sexual intercourse6. The Old Testament law required the man who had seduced a virgin to give a marriage present for her, but if the father refused to give her to him, the man then had to pay money equivalent to the marriage present for virgins. What is significant here is that the unmarried woman is very much a possession of her father and the personal damage done to the woman can be compensated for, by a monetary transaction with her father. Apart from the emphasis on male heirs, the concept of women as possessions of men and the use of them as sex-objects or reproductive machines, patriarchism perpetuates a blatantly discriminatory code of

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sexual morality. Polygamy and the use of prostitutes were well tolerated in Old-Testament times. According to Mace7, only the use of cultprostitutes, but not the use of common prostitutes, was condemned as apostasy but not as a sexual offense. Sexual activities of women were however more severely restricted. Other than its distinctly patriarchal stand, the Jewish tradition did not consider sex as ontologically problematic, inferior, or profane. Sex was accepted as a natural part of life and considerable freedom was accorded to men as long as they did not infringe the rights of other men, i.e. defiling women in their possession. It should perhaps be noted that Jesus was not recorded as having made many alterations to the traditional Jewish code and that he was obviously more concerned about the motivations behind an act than about legalistic propriety.

The Christian Tradition It is quite clear that the Jewish tradition in its specific forms is rarely found in Hong Kong. It was the later Christian influences that are considered important shaping forces of the local scene. The early Christian leaders including St. Paul, St. Augustine and Aquinas were heavily influenced by the Greek metaphysical position which trichotomised the person into pneuma, psyche and soma. Within that tradition the soma or body was considered transient, perishable and less valuable while the pneuma and psyche, the spirit and the soul were considered eternal and more valuable. Assigning the person's sexual functions to the body rendered sex an object of devaluation, purge, and control. Such an attitude equates sex with bodily desire and lust. Sex is therefore something to be avoided whenever possible. It is only when the desire is too strong and makes a person vulnerable to temptation that its expression is tolerated, and only within the confines of marriage (St. Paul's 'it's better to marry than to burn'), and later on only for the purpose of procreation (Augustine). Celibacy and chastity then become 'the highest virtue. Contemporary Christians, especially the protestants, have become more accepting of sex and no longer regard it as something inherently sinful but the position that it could only occur within a life-long, heterosexual and monogamous marriage is still widely held. There has been established an ideal pattern of love in which individual rights and needs are given more consideration. It has also become the guiding principle for many contemporary Christians that love is a prerequisite for sexual intercourse . The significance of procreation in sexual rela-

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tions has gradually declined, probably related to socio-economic changes. While it is not possible to give a thorough treatment on the Christian theory of love here it can be seen through St. Paul's famous teaching that it represents a summation of Christian virtues. It requires a person to behave according to various principles like kindness and righteousness and to control negative attitudes and feelings such as jealousy and resentment. In this sense love is an objective standard which prescribes certain rules for thinking, feeling and behaving. It assumes a person's behaviour can be effectively put under conscious cognitive control. That this particular conception of love does not totally correspond to people's experience of the basically subjective and affectionate erotic love is sometimes neglected by local fundamentalist teachers who insist on the adherence to this ideal characterization of love. The local fundamentalist view has therefore absolutized both love and marriage and prescribe both as pre-conditions for sex. Any sexual behaviour which does not satisfy these conditions will be considered sinful. Masturbation and pornography cannot involve love, extramarital relations precludes love because one is not respecting one's spouse, premarital sex cannot be an expression of love because if one loves a person one should seek to marry him or her. Here it should be noted that when they talk about marriage they refer only to life-long mongamous marriage. An important point to be made here is that even within the JudeoChristian tradition, certain views and practices have changed over time and a historical perspective is therefore essential. It is a major argument in the present discussion that a review of the history of sexual attitudes and practices in Hong Kong will enhance a better understanding of the issue. While the Judeo-Christian tradition dominated the western world for centuries, it was only in the nineteenth century that it was widely propagated in the colonised or semi-colonised parts of China. The interesting phenomenon is that people in Hong Kong, after a few decades of exposure to this imported system, have taken it as their cultural heritage and subsequently resist the liberalised ideas from the west as foreign and corruptive. Now we will turn to look at the traditional Chinese views and see how little of it has been retained by the population at large in comparison to the rapid and large scale adoption of imported ideas from the West.

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The Chinese Tradition It is of course difficult to make very general statements about the historically extensive Chinese views. It will also be difficult to surpass such a monumental work as Gulik's10. It will however be quite safe to say that the ideological roots of the Chinese views are to be found mainly in Confucian and Taoist thinking.

The Taoist View An understanding of the Taoist view of human sexuality must be based on the Taoist cosmology. To the Taoist, the world is constituted of the two processes of yin and yang. A yin and a yang aspect are to be found in any phenomenon. The interaction or intercourse between these two processes is the source of creative power. Sexual intercourse between a male (yang) and a female (yin) is considered an enactment of this creative process. The Taoists therefore do not consider sexual activities as ontologically inferior or problematic. They are actually something to be cherished and, if practiced appropriately, beneficial to one's health. Some later schools of Taoism11 were particularly interested in the development of personal health, longevity and even attainment of fairyhood (chengxian fe£i& ) through special sexual practices. The most famous illustrations are of course to be found in the Classic of the 19 Plain Girl . These include the preservation of semen thro ugh the avoidance of ejaculation during intercourse for it is believed that this seminal essence is life-enhancing and it could be retained by the man's body to nourish his brain (husanjingbu nao M^nlH 18 )> the absorption of the yin essence from the woman through swallowing her saliva during kissing and taking her vaginal secretion, the adopting of various positions of intercourse to cure specific ailments, etc. It should however be pointed out that the whole approach is rather sexist for it is obviously more concerned with the well-being of the males than the females who are very often just being used. Such Taoist thinking and practice, though rather widely known in ancient China, were more the style of life for the scholar gentry than for the common folks. However, the general ideas of maintaining balance between yin and yang and that of the primacy of health and nourishing oneself can still be found among local Chinese.

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The Confucian View The Confusian school is more concerned about the social life of people but their basic attitude toward sexual intimacy is positive. In the Doctrine of the Mean it was written that, "The way of the superior man may be found, in its simple elements, in the intercourse of commonmen and women; but in its utmost reaches, it shines brightly through heaven and earth.' The interpersonal situation is the starting point of Confucian thinking and the husband-wife relationship is considered exemplary of the basic principle of ren ( t ) or benevolence. Sexual behaviour is not considered intrinsically good or bad but has to be regulated within the ethics of the five relations along which the whole community is hierarchically arranged14. Very similar to the Jewish but not the Christian tradition, sexual activities in themselves are seldom considered an offence but only those violating the rights of other men. Another aspect of Confucianism is that it is explicitly patriarchal. It accords very low status to women and correspondingly little autonomy and few rights. Women are considered the property of men and one could actually sell one's women in the old days.

The idea ofqing Apart from the ideological influences of Taoism and Confucianism, there is a very important Chinese concept in the understanding of heterosexual intimacy among Chinese people: the idea of qing ( fpf ). While there has not been any theoretical treatment on this idea within either the Taoist or the Confucian schools, qing had been the word for heterosexual intimacy up to the twentieth century when the idea of love came together with other western cultural products. The word qing is still frequently used in Hong Kong and popularly understood. Unlike the west where theories of love have been formulated, the Chinese take qing as something to be grasped intuitively and subjectively rather than described and analysed objectively. While trying to build a theory of qing may be self defeating, it is perhaps possible to outline some of its characteristics and contrast it with the western idea of love. The first important feature of this idea is related to the linguistic property of the word. The word qing, unlike love, cannot be used as a transitive verb. It is used as a noun to denote a state. It is not possible to say I qing you. In qing there is no subject-object relation. It

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is a state which the two participants jointly constitute. Another feature of qing is that it is subjectively determined and no third party can say anything like: you won't do this to him/her if you love him/her. Only the two parties concerned can be sure whether qing exists between them or not and there is no objective criterion. The third characteristic of qing is that, unlike the Christian idea of love, it does not emphasize the cognitive control of one's feeling and behaviour but values spontaneity and personal involvement. This however does not mean that one is inconsiderate of the benefits of the other party. It is rather expected that when qing is so intense and overwhelming and the two persons are so closely united in a world of their own that all acts are automatically directed towards their common interest. The fourth characteristics of qing is that it does not prescribe a pattern or require conformity to social norm. It can be deviant and defiant. Unlike the Christian idea of love, it does not necessarily point towards marriage which is more of a social arrangement emphasizing duties and obligations. It is also not expected that every married couple must experience qing. As a matter of fact many famous Chinese qing stories occur outside a proper or socially sanctioned marriage. The final important point about traditional Chinese heterosexual intimacy, described as qing, is that the sexual aspect is seldom a problem to be dealt with. It is taken for granted as an expression of qing and this sexual component is not considered in isolation. On the whole it can be said that the Chinese attitude toward sex is basically positive. It is very different from the Christian position devalues sex on the basis of a metaphysical dualism. It should however be noted that both the Judeo-Christian and the Chinese traditions have evolved and developed within patriarchal cultures and they do have some important similarities.

Sexuality in Hong Kong: Import of Western Ideas Within the span of a century, Hong Kong has developed from a small fishing village into a commercial and financial centre of international significance. The most rapid changes have taken place after the war and the communist revolution in China. Within about thirty years, what was originally a typical Chinese agrarian culture has evolved into a modern, pluralistic but much westernized community. Hong Kong has imported a wide range of cultural products from the west to replace, at least partially, the traditional ones. These include a governmental system, a legal system, a language used in all official and most

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of the important formal transactions, religions (mainly of JudeoChristian orgin), personal names, costume, medical and health practices, forms of entertainment, sports, and many other cultural values, ideas, and systems including the idea of love, the idea of sexuality, and a system of marriage. As pointed out above the idea of love in its current usage is an imported idea. The Chinese word for love, ai ( ^ ) originally meant a manner of walking, later it was used as to value, and later it was taken to mean an altruistic consideration. The Chinese Buddhists even use it in close relation to the idea of greed and obsession (tan ai H:H ). The concept of sexuality is also an imported one. Before the twentieth century there was no corresponding Chinese word for sex. The Chinese talked about the principle of husband and wife and the way of yin and yang or the world of sensory experience (se fe ). There are words for intercourse Qiao 5£ and he ^ ) but they are only used in the format of yin-yang intercourse and man-woman intercourse but not sexual intercourse. The present Chinese word for sex and sexuality, xing ( ft ), originally meant nature, particularly human nature. Some authoritative Chinese dictionaries still have not included the meaning of sex and sexuality under this word. Coming to the system of marriage now adopted in Hong Kong, it is very obvious that monogamous life-long marriages after a period of courtship and development of 'love' cannot be traditionally Chinese. The traditional Chinese marriage system, being patriarchal, was usually polygamous and arranged by parents. As a matter of fact, this system of marriage was legally accepted in Hong Kong up to 1971. Now it can be seen that the locally popular ideas of love, marriage and sex are not part of the Chinese cultural heritage but largely imported, most rapidly in the postwar decades. It seems that the local community is now in the process of consolidating this new cultural structure and is thus resistant to further drastic changes. There is however little support for the idea that the current attitudes represent either unchanging divine provisions or indigenous traditions but rather they are the result of social changes.

Conclusion Following on from a historical review, we can see that sexuality in Hong Kong has come under very strong western influence and the Chinese traditions are not well-preserved. People here have adopted a new language to talk about heterosexual intimacy and a new pattern for regulating it. While historically such influences have arrived to-

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gether with colonization we should now pay attention to the political dimension of the phenomenon of people trying to prescribe or preserve a certain idealized and standardized pattern of sexual behaviour for others, whether they claim that it is God-given truth or our cultural heritage. We should also be aware of the problems with the present system and be prepared to accept alternative arrangements. The possibility that we may need more than one pattern of interpersonal intimacy to take care of individual particularities in a pluralistic community has to be seriously considered.

Notes 1. The fundamentalists in Hong Kong are publicizing their views through regular publications and public seminars and forums operated by organizations like Breakthrough or through ad hoc "concern groups" such as the "Joint Committee of Concern for the Laws Governing Homosexual Conduct" formed in 1983. This group, for example, published a collection of papers in Chinese in 1983 titled "Homosexuality in Perspective" advocating continual criminalization of homosexual conduct. More recently, the "Concern Group on Pornographic Publications" was formed in 1985 to press for more stringent legal control over sexually explicit publications. 2. See the story of Rachel in Genesis, Chap. 30 and the story Hannah in Samuel I, Chap. 1, the Bible. 3. Deuteronomy, Chap. 25, v.5-10, the Bible. 4. Genesis, Chap. 38, the Bible. 5. Matthew, Chap. 22, v.23-33, the Bible. 6. Exodus, Chap. 22, v.16-17 and Deuteronomy, Chap. 22, v.28-29, the Bible. 7. Mace, D.R. The Christian Response to the Sexual Revolution, London: Lutterworth Press, 1970. 8. O'Neil, R.P. & Donovan, M.A., Premarital sexuality, in Taylor, M.J. (Ed.), Sex: Thoughts for Contemporary Christians, New York: Doubieday & Company, 197 2, p. 147. 9. Corinthians I. Chap. 13, the Bible. 10. Gulik, R.H.V. Sexual Life in Ancient China, Netherlands: Leiden, 1961. 11. The academic school of Taoist philosophy is less concerned about this issue than the popularised schools. 12. Tamba, Y. (Ed.) The Classic of the Plain Girl. Hong Kong: H.K. Medical Research Academic, (in Chinese), undated. 13. Legge, J. The Four Books, Shanghai: International Publication Society, 1949. 14. The five relations: emperor-minister, father-son, elderly brother-younger brother, husband-wife, friend-friend. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Hong Kong Psychological Society 1986.

Part II Renunciation and Asceticism

[6] Singing the Glory of Asceticism: Devotion of Asceticism in Jainism John E. Cort

The Jain tradition is commonly portrayed in scholarly literature as being focused on, if not obsessed with, various and oftentimes extreme forms of asceticism. In the resulting scholarly portrait of the Jains, there is little if any place for devotion (bhakti). This scholarly separation of asceticism and devotion, as constituting radically different spheres of religious activity, is not restricted to the Jains but, rather, is widespread in the comparative study of religion. This article places Jain asceticism within a larger Jain religious framework to show some of the ways in which asceticism interacts with, and is often interdependent with, devotion. Asceticism is often performed in a devotional spirit. It is also often the object of devotion. A Jain can accomplish the spiritual goal of an improved karmic balance by performing asceticism him- or herself. A Jain can also accomplish this by praising asceticism with enthusiasm and devotion. This article argues that asceticism and devotion are not so much alternative practices as they are mutually reinforcing practices in Jainism. It also indicates that Jains practice bhakti to abstract principles similarly to the way they practice bhakti to humans and deities, and so we need to expand our scholarly understanding of bhakti and devotion. John E. Cort is an associate professor of religion at Denison University, Granville, OH 43023. Much of the fieldwork research that underlies this article was conducted in Gujarat from August 1985 through May 1987 under the auspices of a Fulbright-Hays Research Abroad Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education. Further fieldwork was conducted from August through November 1995 and July through August 1996, under the auspices of a grant from the Asian Cultural Council, and from October 1999 through January 2000, under the auspices of a Senior Short-Term Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies. This article had its genesis in the context of a conference on ascetics and asceticism in India, organized by Vasudha Narayanan at the University of Florida in fall 1987. An intermediate version was presented at the Harvard University Religion in South Asia Colloquium, organized by Charles Hallisey, in March 1994.1 thank Alan Babb, Charlie Hallisey, and Vasudha Narayanan for their insightful comments on the earlier versions.

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1 HE JAIN TRADITION is commonly portrayed in scholarly literature as being focused on, if not obsessed with, various and oftentimes extreme forms of asceticism. An image that readily comes to mind for many when the Jains are mentioned is of a Digambar muni (male mendicant) walking naked through the countryside, with only a peacock-feather brush and water gourd in hand, or else rejecting all nourishment and consciously accepting death in the rite of sallekhana. P. S. Jaini, for example, starts out his excellent 1979 Thejaina Path of Purification with a description of the death by sallekhana in 1955 of Acarya Santisagara, arguably the most important Digambar muni of the twentieth century. This portrait has served as an emblem of the book and therefore of the Jain tradition. In the resulting scholarly portrait of the Jains, there is little if any place for devotion. Yet anyone who has spent any time at all in a Jain community will have noted the central place of devotion in the lives of Jains. Recently, for example, Glenn Yocum wrote of his fieldwork at Sravanabelagola, the Digambara pilgrimage center in South India, "Three weeks of climbing c holy hills' (Sravanabelagola has two), of attending pujas to yakshis, and of watching pilgrims dance before the big monolith of the Jain saint Bahubali changed my understanding of Jainism, challenging my rather bookish knowledge about what Jainism 'is mainly about'" (5). This scholarly separation of asceticism and devotion, as making up radically different spheres of religious activity, is not restricted to the Jains. In scholarship on South Asian religion, asceticism (tapas) is seen to involve the renunciation of desires and sensory inputs; often coupled with yoga and meditation, it is a technique "of altering consciousness or withdrawing consciousness from the world of the senses in order to experience total world transcendence" (Flood: 76). 1 Tapas is defined as "a severely disciplined self-mortification" (Knipe: 335). Jainism is often portrayed as the religion of tapas par excellence, in which "by degrees of fasting, chastity, silence, meditation, breath-control, and difficult postures, usually practiced in solitary vigil in forests and mountains, the yogin or tapasvin 'heats the three worlds'" (Knipe: 336). If tapas involves a renunciation of the body and the senses in order to attain a state of pure spirit, and so is a practice particularly appropriate to dualist traditions like Jainism (Kaelber: 444), bhakti in many ways is the very opposite of tapaSy for bhakti "emphasize[s] the expression of emotions, rather than their control through yoga, and emphasize [s] the body as a sacred locus of the Lord in the world" (Flood: 133). Bhakti is understood to 1

In my discussion here of tapas and bhakti, and of asceticism and devotion, I intentionally quote extensively from standard textbooks and encyclopedia articles to indicate that I am not setting up an academic straw person but, instead, am addressing widespread scholarly understandings.

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involve "a personal emotion felt toward a particular chosen deity" (Fuller: 156), and therefore bhakti "is a striking contrast to yoga and other ascetic paths to salvation that stress detachment and the overcoming of all passions" (Carman: 131).2 Bhakti is understood to involve the encouragement of desire for a relationship with God and the maximization of religiously oriented sensory experience. While bhakti can involve "less extreme forms of asceticism" (Carman: 131), on the whole the two are seen as contrasting opposites, not as intertwined components of a larger spirituality. This uncoupling of tapas and bhakti is symptomatic of a broader tendency in the study of religion, for these are seen as instances of the larger comparative categories of asceticism and devotion. These two are characterized in scholarship as ways of being religious that are for the most part opposed rather than combined. While asceticism is defined as "a voluntary, sustained, and at least partially systematic program of self-discipline and self-denial in which immediate, sensual, or profane gratifications are renounced in order to attain a higher spiritual state" (Kaelber: 441), devotion is defined in terms that make it seem almost the mirror opposite of asceticism: "Devotion is ardent affection, zealous attachment, piety, dedication, reverence, faithfulness, respect, awe, attentiveness, loyalty, fidelity, or love for or to some object, person, spirit, or deity" (Kinsley: 321-322).3 In this article I present material from the Jain tradition that places Jain tapas within a larger Jain religious framework, and I show some of the ways in which asceticism interacts with, and is often interdependent with, bhakti. This allows us to see some fruitful new ways in which tapas and bhakti in South Asian religion might be studied and further can provide a model for a different understanding of the categories of asceticism and devotion within the comparative study of religion.

ASCETICISM IN THE JAIN TRADITION Asceticism (Sanskrit tapas, also tapasya) has from the earliest days been central to the Jain self-understanding and the Jain definition of the path out of rebirth to liberation (moksa-mdrga).4 Although the path to liberation is defined in the opening verse of the Tattvdrtha Sutra, the most important of the early texts on Jain dogmatics, as consisting of correct faith,

2 This academic understanding of bhakti also assumes that it is always theistic (Carman: 130). I will return to the problems with this overly narrow definition of bhakti below. 3 Again, I will return below to the problems in limiting devotion to relationships with "some object, person, spirit, or deity." 4 This discussion of Jain asceticism summarizes material found in Cort 2001: 118-141. See also Laidlaw: 151-230.

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understanding, and conduct,5 we find in equally early texts such as the Svetambar Uttarddhyayana Sutra that these "three jewels" (ratna-traya) are expanded to four by the addition of correct asceticism: "Understanding and faith and conduct and asceticism: this is the path taught by the Jinas who have perfect knowledge. Understanding and faith and conduct and asceticism: those souls who follow this path go to liberation."6 This understanding is given visual expression through the siddhacakra (wheel of perfection), also known as the navapada (nine principles). This is frequently portrayed in Jain art and also is engraved or painted on small metal plaques used by Jain laity in their daily ritual devotions. In the center is the Jina (arhat). In the four cardinal directions (starting from the north) are the liberated soul (siddhd), the mendicant leader (acdryd), the mendicant preceptor (upadhyaya), and the mendicant (sddhu). In the four intermediate directions (starting from the northeast) are expressions of veneration to asceticism, worldview, knowledge, and conduct.7 A standard formula found in many texts is that tapas consists of six external and six internal practices. The six outer practices are complete fasting, eating limited amounts, eating only restricted items, abstaining from tasty foods, mortification of the flesh, and avoiding anything that can cause temptation. The six inner practices are confession and expiation, respecting mendicants, assisting mendicants, study, meditative trance, and abandoning the body by ignoring bodily wants.8 While all of these still find a place in contemporary Jain practice, most Jains identify tapas primarily with the six external practices, which, as R. Williams has noted in his study of the medieval prescriptive texts on lay Jain practice, are "virtually synonymous with fasting." Williams goes on to observe, "In fact asceticism for the Jaina lies first and foremost in depriving oneself of food" (238-239). Following the lead of Williams, let me now briefly discuss some of the dietary forms that asceticism takes among the Jains.9 In particular, I find it helpful 5 "The path to liberation (moksa-marga) consists of correct worldview (samyag-darsana)., understanding (jnana), and conduct (caritra)" (Tattvartha Sutra 1.1 [Umasvati]). 6 Uttarddhyayana Sutra 28.2-3.1 follow the standard Jain practice of giving the Sanskritized spellings of the titles of Prakrit texts. 7 For an illustration of a ritual siddhacakra^ see Cort 2001: fig. 5.1. The Digambara siddhacakra is slightly different. In place of the four venerations, it depicts a Jina image, a Jina temple, a wheel of the law (dharmacakrd), and a text. See Fischer and Jain: 2-4; Shah: 97-103. 8 This formula, first found in Uttarddhyayana Sutra 30.8-30, Aupapdtika Sutra 30, and Tattvartha Sutra 9.19-20 (Umasvati), is repeated in countless later sources. The Sanskrit terms for the six external practices are anasana, unaudarya, bhiksdcaryd, rasa-paritydga, kdya-klesa, and samlinata; and the terms for the six internal practices are prdyascitta., vinaya, vaiydvrttya^ svddhydya, dhyana., and vyutsarga. 9 In particular, this discussion pertains to the Svetambar Murtipujak Jains of Gujarat. Although asceticism is practiced by Jains everywhere, there are important regional and sectarian differences in its practice and expression. Because the discussion now shifts from a discussion of Sanskrit and Prakrit texts to the practices of contemporary Gujarati Jains, the orthography also shifts to reflect

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to distinguish not between external and internal forms of asceticism but, rather, between those ordinary, everyday dietary ascetic practices that go far toward defining Jains in the larger Indian society (where the truism that "you are what you eat"—or don't eat!—has far-reaching social ramifications) and extraordinary, occasional ascetic practices that distinguish the "staunch" (Gujarati cust) Jain from his or her fellow Jains.

ORDINARY ASCETICISM The dietary restrictions of the Jains constitute one of the hallmarks of the tradition for most Indians.10 The cultural logic underlying all the Jain food restrictions is quite simple: ahimsd, nonharm. The killing and harming of the myriads of visible and invisible living creatures that surround one is considered to be a chief cause of the influx of new binding karma, which in turn keeps one tied to the causal round of rebirth (samsar).11 All Jains recognize that one needs to be a mendicant to observe and practice ahimsa to the fullest. But the lay Jain is still expected to maintain extreme diligence in terms of diet, and the dietary rules for the laity are designed to minimize violence and killing in the preparation and consumption of food and drink. While some of the dietary rules are thus based on easily observable principles, such as not killing animals to provide meat, others, such as not eating root crops, are based on principles specific to Jain biology. At the core of the Jain dietary ideology is the concept that certain foods are "not to be eaten" (abhaksya). A standard list of twenty-two such items dates from at least as early as the eleventh-century Pravacanasaroddhara of Nemicandra.12 This list is an ideological, prescriptive framework. Most Jains know that there is such a category and avoid some of foods on the standard list. Very few, however, except for the mendicants, know all the items on the list, which includes such obvious foods as meat, honey, and alcohol; common foods such as butter, eggplant, and vegetables and fruits Gujarati rather than Sanskrit pronunciation. For example, Sanskrit tapas becomes Gujarati tap. Later, in discussing the Digambar Jains of North India, I will shift to Hindi orthography. 10 The best treatment of Jain foodways is Mahias's 1985 study of the Digambars of Delhi. 11 Joseph O'Connell observes that vegetarianism is also one of the cardinal ethical principles that shape the self-identity of diaspora Jains. For an example of the Jain modern defense of vegetarianism by diaspora Jains, see Sheth and Sheth. 12 Williams (110 n2) says the verses containing this list are probably older than Nemicandra's text. For details of the history of this list, and other textual discussions of food, see Williams: 3940, 50-54, 110-116. According to Nemicandra, the twenty-two foods not to be eaten are five types of fig, meat, alcohol, honey, butter, snow, poison, ice, clay or mud, food at night, food with many seeds, food containing an infinite number of embodied souls, pickles, non-oil-bearing pulses, eggplant, unknown fruits, fruits devoid of any sustenance, and food that has spoiled or undergone transformation.

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with many seeds; and unlikely items such as snow, poison, hailstones, and clay. Actual Jain dietary practice varies widely from individual to individual and from household to household and only in part overlaps with the list of what is not to be eaten. The list serves as an ideological frame for mendicant discourse on Jain foodways but does not serve as a prescription for actual dietary practice. In this it differs to some extent from lists of prohibited foods found in the Jewish and Muslim traditions. Many popular books and pamphlets explain why these various foods should not be eaten, and proper diet is frequently the subject of sermons that mendicants deliver to the laity. Meat and honey are forbidden because of the obvious killing involved.13 Some items are proscribed because, as R. Williams (52) notes, they are foods offered to the ancestors in the Brahmanical tradition. Most of the foods are forbidden because they contain innumerable tiny and invisible organisms. This is most obviously the case with eggplants and other foods with many seeds, as each seed is understood to contain a soul according to Jain metaphysics. A special class of food substances included among the foods not to be eaten is known as "infinite bodies" (anant-kay). According to Jain biology, plant life is of two kinds: individual (pratyek) and aggregate (sddharan). Individual plants contain only one soul, but aggregate plants contain innumerable souls. A list of thirty-two infinite-bodied foods is given by many authors;14 while there are some vines and sprouts, most of them are tubers and bulbs such as turmeric, ginger, garlic, radish, carrots, and potatoes. From the perspective of western biology, these are plants in which the edible portion contains the possibility of regenerating a new plant. This is not, however, the Jain cultural logic according to which they should not be eaten. From the Jain perspective, for example, eating a carrot results in the accrual of much more harmful karma than eating an apple, for one is destroying innumerable living beings. In the words of a contemporary mendicant, "When a man eats a root-crop, he destroys an infinite number of living beings. The bad karma that he eats is such that he suffers in his next life. O! So many living beings are sacrificed when one eats such food!" (Gunratnavijay: 82).15 The prohibition on eating infinite-bodied foods is translated into general practice through the concept of not eating root crops. In practical 13

One Digambar muni told Lawrence A. Babb that honey is the "blood of bees" (1993). For a standard list, see Williams: 114-115. 15 The word he uses for sacrifice, balidan, refers specifically to the ritual killing of an animal. According to this and many other Jain ideologues, eating a root crop is morally as bad as killing an animal. 14

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terms, the prohibition on root crops means that Jain cooking tends to be devoid of onions, potatoes, and garlic and thus is very distinctive in the broader cuisine of India. As with many dietary practices, this prohibition is observed most closely by women and more "orthoprax" men. Also found on the list of censured dietary practices is eating after sunset. The basic logic behind this prohibition is, again, fairly straightforward: in the dim light of pre-electric India, one could not adequately see what one was eating and therefore was quite likely to eat accidentally any insects that might land on the food. Given the attraction of night-flying insects for lights of any kind, the chances of insects landing on the food was much greater at night than in daylight. Closely related to the ideology of food not to be eaten, but not specifically given in the textual lists, is the concept of not eating green vegetables. Green, leafy vegetables are problematic for orthodox Jains because of the high likelihood that many tiny insects will be hidden in the leaves and therefore accidentally eaten. When preparing foods such as cabbage and cauliflower, extreme care is taken to ensure that no insects are accidentally cooked with the food. Almost all Jains avoid green vegetables on five (or ten in the case of the more orthoprax) days of the lunar month. Another category based on the same ideology as the foods not to be eaten, but not explicitly found on the list, is that of boiled water. The purity and acceptability of water are a major concern for most Jains. According to Jain biology, boiling water prevents the birth of infinite invisible organisms and therefore prevents much death. Mendicants can drink only water that has been recently boiled and so is still warm. Since mendicants cannot handle fire (which, obviously, causes much violence), they rely on laity living nearby to prepare the boiled water for them. Few laity drink only boiled water all the time, but most Jains drink only boiled water while on a pilgrimage, and it is a regular part of most formal religious observances.

EXTRAORDINARY ASCETICISM The practices described above are part and parcel of the everyday ethos of lay Jains and help to define them within the larger Indian society. Not all Jains observe all of these practices, and the degree of observance is determined by personal preference as well as family and regional tradition; nonetheless, they are practices with which all Jains are familiar. In addition to these ordinary dietary observances, some extraordinary fasts are performed only by those Jains with a stronger commitment to their practice.

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The basic word for any kind of fast in the Jain tradition is upvds. Svetambar Jains do not use the Hindu term vrat for fasts, for this term is restricted to its more technical sense of the five mahdvrats, the lifelong binding restrictions taken by all mendicants, as well as the lay counterpart of the twelve vrats.16 There are many kinds of upvds, distinguished by the length of time between meals and the severity of dietary restrictions. Standard durations for an upvds are one and a half, two, two and a half, eight, fifteen, thirty, and forty-five days, with the longer fasts increasingly more difficult and rare. Some fasts involve eating only once or twice a day. Shorter fasts can involve total abstinence from both food and water. Others involve abstinence from only food, and the person can drink boiled water during daylight hours. In addition to not eating green vegetables on certain days every month and the occasional fast of one, three, eight, or more days, there are many longer, more complicated fasts known simply as taps. These have a long history within the tradition, and some of the ones still performed today are first mentioned in the canonical Antakrddasdh. Taps are performed primarily by mendicants but also by some dedicated laity. Laypeople usually perform them under the direction of a mendicant, oftentimes in the context of a special camp where people gather to perform a fast together. The congregational spirit, accompanied by performance of lengthy rituals of image worship, listening to sermons, and singing devotional songs in the evening, helps maintain the morale among the fasters.17 A popular tap among the laity is the Yearlong Fast (VarsI Tap). It is performed in imitation of the fast performed by the Jina Rsabha (Adinatha). Because he was the first mendicant of this time period, no one knew the proper etiquette for offering food to him. He went thirteen and a half months without drinking or eating. He came to Hastinapur, where he met Prince Sreyamsa. Sreyamsa had been a companion of Rsabha in eight former lives. From his knowledge of these former lives Sreyamsa remembered the proper way to give food to a mendicant and so gave Rsabha some sugarcane juice. From this act Sreyamsa received an imperishable store of merit.18 16 This observation applies only to the Svetambar Jains; Digambar ritual culture involves many lay vows that are explicitly called vrats. Whereas the five mahdvrats are an integral and foundational part of mendicant praxis, the twelve lay vrats exist almost exclusively on the level of ideological prescription and are rarely translated into actual practice. 17 Josephine Reynell describes much more such congregational fasting in Jaipur than I observed in the medium-sized town of Patan in northern Gujarat. I suspect that congregational fasting is more of a big-city phenomenon, as one of the forms of "modern Jainism" in the metropolitan centers. 18 For a popular telling of this story, see Bhuvanvijay 1981a: 137-142.

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The Yearlong Fast is begun on the anniversary of the day Rsabha renounced the world. The faster commences with a two-day complete fast and then alternates days of water-only fasting with days of eating just twice. One observes a water-only fast on the eighth and fourteenth of each lunar fortnight. Every day the person performs a number of other rituals. These include activities such as confessing twice a day, many prostrations, drawing svastikas with rice grains on a low table in the temple, and reciting hymns and mantras. The Yearlong Fast is concluded after thirteen and a half months with a special first feeding. Ideally this is performed in Hastinapur, near Delhi, where Rsabha broke his fast. But given the distance of Hastinapur from Gujarat, among Gujarati Jains the popular place to go for the first feeding is Palitana in Saurashtra. David E. Sopher (417 n61) says that 12,000 people came to Palitana for the first feeding in 1966. The number of pilgrims to Palitana on this day is many times greater nowadays. The faster is fed sugarcane juice, ideally by his or her brother. Fasting manuals list over one hundred taps that can be done on special occasions.19 These usually have a logic based on numerology and Jain metaphysics. The observances in the forty-three-day Perfection Fast (Siddhi Tap), for example, revolve around the number eight and so are understood to be efficacious in the dissolution of the eight kinds of karma.20

ASCETICISM AND DEVOTION Special fasts are frequently closely connected with the defining cultic activity of the Svetambar Murtipujak (Image-Worshiping) Jains, the worship and veneration of Jina images in both neighborhood temples and regional or national pilgrimage shrines. Pasters often gather under the supervision of mendicants for retreats at important shrines, where they are freed from the distractions of daily life and so able to devote their time and energy to the full panoply of activities involved in a fast. Many of these activities are of a devotional character, focused on the Jinas as the exemplars of the fruits of true asceticism. The popularity of certain pilgrimage shrines is in part connected to the performance of asceticism. 19 See, for example, the Taporatna Mahodadhi ("Ocean of the Jewel of Tap") of Jinendravijaygani and the Tapah Parimal ("Fragrance of Tap") of Bhuvanvijay (1981b). The former gives detailed instructions for 162 taps, and the latter, for 119 taps. These modern manuals are based on medieval compilations. 20 In addition to the discussion of congregational fasts in Cort (2001: 136-138), for an extended discussion of the Updhan Tap, see Kelting forthcoming. She discusses how this long congregational fast has become popular among unmarried young women, for whom it serves as a public marker of a woman's religiosity as well as the moral virtues and financial prosperity of her family. As a result, performance of this fast can play an important role in a woman's entrance into the marriage market.

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One of the most popular of all Murtipujak shrines is Shankheshvar in northern Gujarat (Cort 1988). In particular, many people go to Shankhesvar to perform a three-day fast known as Aththam Tap. According to the Jain universal history, it was at Shankheshvar that Krishna, the cousin of Neminatha, the twenty-second Jina of this time period, fought his epic battle with the demon king Jarasandha. When Jarasandha cast a magic paralyzing spell on Krishna's army, Krishna performed a three-day fast to counter the magic spell and defeat Jarasandha. The principal attraction of the site is the charismatic, wonderworking image of Shankeshvar Parsvanath in the temple. According to the Jains, this eternal, uncreated image was revealed to Krishna by the god Dharanendra and the goddess PadmavatI at the conclusion of his fast, so devotion to the image of Parsvanath and performance of the three-day fast in imitation of Krishna are closely intertwined. Pilgrims express the belief that it is relatively easy to fast at Shankhesvar because of the grace of the image itself and the grace of the goddess PadmavatI, who is closely associated with the shrine. This sentiment is clearly expressed in a pilgrim pamphlet: "Men and women who have never fasted once in their lives can easily perform the three-day fast at this shrine due to the auspicious grace of Lord Shankeshvar Parsvanath" (Bhadraguptvijaygani: 34). Pilgrimage to a shrine like Shankhesvar involves the pilgrim engaging simultaneously in devotional and ascetic activities. The two discourses are inextricably intertwined. When, for example, a promoter of the shrine writes, "The pure desires of the devoted soul succeed due to the performance of the three-day fast" (Bhadraguptvijaygani: 35), we see that the performance of asceticism is itself expressed as a form of devotional activity. Asceticism is done in the spirit of devotion, and devotion is done in the spirit of asceticism. As part of the pilgrim's asceticism, he or she also performs devotional activities such as veneration and worship of Jina images, recitation of mantras to the Jinas, and singing of devotional hymns to the Jinas.

ASCETICISM AS THE OBJECT OF DEVOTION Asceticism is not only done in the spirit of devotion. Asceticism is also the object of devotional activity. Associated with almost any special Jain event, whether the initiation of a mendicant, the consecration of an image or temple, or an annual holiday, is the performance of an extended devotional ritual known as a puja or mahapuja. These rituals, which are performed frequently by Jains, are extended congregational versions of the daily temple worship performed individually by many Jains.21 The ex21 For recent scholarship on the daily puja, see Babb 1996, Cort 2001: 61-99, and Humphrey and Laidlaw.

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tension consists of an elaborate devotional text, sung by most of the participants, with the contents frequently keyed to the occasion itself. One of the most popular of these pujas is the "Worship of the Nine Principles" ("Navpad Puja"; on the nine principles, see above), precisely because its general dogmatic content makes it appropriate for all occasions. There are two Gujarati texts for the "Navpad Puja," one composed in the seventeenth century by Mahopadhyay Yasovijay and the other composed in 1782 by Pandit Padmavijay.22 The texts of these pujas are contained in puja manuals found in multiple copies in all Jain temples, much like hymnals or the Book of Common Prayer in a Christian church. Just as most Christians know many hymns by heart, so most Jains know many songs from the pujas by heart. Further, just as most Christians know their Christian dogmatics not through the study of theological treatises but, rather, through the singing of familiar hymns, so most Jains know their Jain dogmatics through devotional songs. The importance of the songs contained in the pujds, therefore, as well as devotional songs that are composed independent of this particular ritual form, cannot be overemphasized in terms of their impact on most Jains' understanding of their own tradition.23 Yasovijay's text for the "Navpad Puja" contains verses expounding a fairly traditional and orthodox understanding of asceticism. In the following verses we find expressed in the poetry of song a technical understanding of asceticism and karma theory that reflects the fact that Yasovijay was also one of the greatest intellectuals of the Jain tradition:24 One is bound and burnt by the karmas and passions of the three times [past, present, future], but tap removes them. It is said to be of two kinds, external and internal. When it is joined with the renunciation of ill intentions, it cuts off aimless bad thinking. One attains the attainments and perfections from its splendor and glory. The purity that stops karma is found in the lack of desire.25 One attains liberation by cutting the beginningless succession of karma. One ceases to consume new karma, and the emotions become stabilized by stopping the karmic vibrations.26 22

For biographical information on Yasovijay (1624-88), see Dundas; on Padmavijay (1735-1805), see Dev-vandan Mala: 38-39. 23 For an extended discussion of the songs composed and sung by lay Jain women, and what they reveal about Jain theology, see Kelting 2001. 24 I have translated these verses into prose; as I discuss below, this is rather insipid poetry. There is no point in trying to make it better poetry in English translation than it is in the Gujarati original. 25 Yasovijay, "Navpad Puja," 268-269. "Attainments and perfections" are special powers that arise naturally in the advanced spiritual practitioner. 26 Yasovijay, "Navpad Puja," 270. The karmic vibrations (yog) are those activities that actually cause karma to adhere to the soul. See Jaini: 112.

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O! Stop the influx of karma by ending all desires. By discipline one can pacify the transformations caused by karma. O! By means of this tap the soul enjoys its own virtues.27

This is all very straightforward Jain karma theory. Yasovijay explains how ascetic acts both wear away existing karma and stop the influx of new karma.28 These two processes together advance one on the path to liberation. But earlier, in the very first verse on asceticism in his text, Yasovijay indicates that asceticism is more than just something one does. Asceticism is also the object of devotion. Jain texts begin with a benediction in which the author devotionally praises a Jina and perhaps his or her own mendicant guru. Here, in the middle of the text, Yasovijay begins the section on asceticism by praising asceticism itself: "Praise, praise to fierce asceticism, which uproots karma like an elephant uproots a tree."29 This perspective on asceticism as an ideal is more clearly seen in the following song,30 which is sung while the chief officiant is performing the actual ritual of worshiping the Jina image: Wear away unripened karma by doing tap while renouncing ill intentions. O! Praise the shining glory of tap, for it is the zeal of the Jina's teachings. . .. The greatest fruit for gods and great men is the bliss of liberation. It is the flower of success. O! Venerate tap. It is like the tree of the gods, it is like the priceless honey of equanimity. The foremost holy of all holies—so it is described in the texts. O! Praise the principle of tap at the three times. It is the best aid on the path to liberation.31

Yasovijay here continues to describe the fruits of asceticism—it allows a person to scrub away the karma that is the source of spiritual bondage— in words that indicate that the person should perform asceticism. At the same time, he is also urging the person to praise asceticism, using the same language of praise (namas) and veneration (vandari) that is used to describe the praise and veneration of the Jinas, Jina images, and Jain mendicants. We see here the reflection of an ancient concept in the Jain tradition, that 27

Yasovijay, "Navpad Puja," 273. The technical terms for these two processes in Jain karma theory are nirjara and samvara. 29 Yasovijay, "Navpad Puja," 268. Whereas the songs of the pujd are composed in Gujarati, this prefatory verse is in the Jain scriptural language of Prakrit. 30 One might almost call this perspective a living ideal. Just as the Jinas are not "really present" in this world but nonetheless are present to the worshiper as living ideals (Babb 1996; Cort 2001: 87-99), so asceticism as one of the foundational principles of the Jain religion is "present" in the song. 31 Yasovijay, "Navpad Puja," 272-273. 28

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there are three ways to alter one's karmic balance: by one's own actions, by actions performed at one's instructions, and by one's attitudes toward the actions of others. The first of these is indicated by using active verbal forms; the second, by using causative verbal forms; and the third, by the term anumati or anumodan. This tripartite understanding of karmic causality is incorporated into the five great vows that mark a mendicant's initiation.32 The logic that underlies this understanding is straightforward: if approving a bad deed has a negative moral and karmic impact on a person's soul, then approving a good deed (and also the censure of a bad deed) should have a positive moral and karmic impact. A contemporary mendicant author, for example, says that by censuring bad deeds one is separated from bad karma, whereas anumodan of good deeds leads to correct faith, an increase in good karma, and a better rebirth (Hemcandravijay: 12-14, 71-79). Thus, one may accrue the positive karmic results of asceticism not only by performing asceticism oneself but also by praising the ascetic practices of others and even by praising asceticism itself. Laity and mendicants who perform extended fasts are usually publicly felicitated at the conclusion of the fast. These public events, which frequently include a puja such as the "Navpad Puja," provide an opportunity for all ordinary Jains to benefit from the asceticism of one or more extraordinary Jains. The people who perform the fast improve their karmic balance through their own asceticism, and the others also improve their karmic balance through anumodan of that asceticism. Similarly, Yasovijay in his "Navpad Puja" urges Jains to perform asceticism themselves, but he equally urges them to praise both those who perform asceticism and asceticism itself: "with a fixed mind, praise the virtuous and the virtues."33

ASCETICISM AS THE OBJECT OF DEVOTION IN DIGAMBAR JAINISM The treatment of asceticism as both a practice to be followed and a concept to be devotionally venerated is not unique to the Svetambar Jains. For example, a generation after Yasovijay, the North Indian Braj-language Digambar poet Pandit Dyanatray sang of (and to) the power and virtue of asceticism in his "Daslaksandharm Puja."34 This ritual text was composed for performance during the most important Digambar annual observance, the ten-day autumnal Daslaksan, during which one day is dedicated to reflection on and veneration of the ten (das) characteristics 32 33 34

See Acdrdnga Sutra 2.15.1-5 and Dasavaikdlika Sutra 4.11-15. Yasovijay, "Navpad Puja," 271. On Dyanatray (1676-1726), see Cort forthcoming.

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(laksan) of the Jain religion (dharm). These ten are forgiveness, humility, honesty, purity, truthfulness, equanimity, asceticism, renunciation, detachment, and celibacy.35 The observance combines listening to sermons by prominent intellectuals on the ten characteristics with image worship of the Jinas in the temples. The temples themselves, according to one author (Siddhantasastrl: 337), are "full of joy" on these days. These ten days are also an occasion of heightened fasting by Jain laity. During this observance Jains to the best of their ability perform asceticism themselves, listen to the virtues of asceticism, and perform rituals to venerate asceticism. As part of the observance, many Jains will perform Dyanatray's "Daslaksandharm Puja." The rite consists of a series of offerings before a Jina image. Before one of the offerings, the congregation sings the following song about tap: The Jina, Lord of gods, says: Tap is necessary. It is a thunderbolt that destroys the mountain-peak of karma. This twelve-fold rite results in happiness, so why not do it as best you can? The supreme tap is praised everywhere, for it is like a thunderbolt to raze the karma mountain. From beginningless time you have lived in a string of nigods. In animal bodies you've been dismembered in many worlds. Now you've been born in a human body, the most difficult thing to attain. You have a good family and are free of disease. Brother, study the content of the teachings of the blessed Jinas, for it consists of knowledge of the essential verities of the world. Renunciation of sensory objects is even harder to attain, so reverence tap, for it overcomes the passions. A human birth is the finest treasure in the house, so hold aloft the jewelled full pot of water.36

The language here is similar to that in Yasovijay's text, although it is highly unlikely that Dyanatray heard Yasovijay's hymns. The poet explains that tap destroys karma. He urges the listener to perform tap him- or herself in order to avoid the otherwise inevitable consequences of karma, a string of incarnations that are short, brutish, and full of suffering. But he recognizes that not everyone is able to follow the spiritually heroic path of supreme asceticism, and so he offers an alternative: if you cannot perform asceticism yourself, then at least you can reverence (ddar) it and 35

In Sanskrit these are ksama, mardava, arjava, sauca, satya, samyama, tapas, tyaga, akincanya, and brahmacarya. They are enumerated at Tattvartha Sutra 9.6 (Umasvati). 36 Dyanatray, "Daslaksandharm Puja," 107. The single-sensed and submicroscopic nigodas are the most primitive form of life. Padmanabh S. Jaini says of them, citing the Gommatasara-Jivakanda by the medieval Digambar philosopher Nemicandra, "They are so tiny and undifferentiated that they lack even individual bodies; large clusters of them are born together as colonies which die a fraction of a second later" (109). The last line refers to the water that is used to anoint the Jina image.

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thereby attain similar (if not the same—Dyanatray is not explicit on this point) spiritual results. This application of bhakti to abstract principles such as asceticism is not, however, a recent phenomenon among the Jains. The texts I have quoted date from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But the practice of the devotional veneration of key principles of Jainism dates back to the early years of Jainism. This is seen perhaps most clearly in a little-studied corpus of Digambar texts known as the "Ten Bhaktis" (Dasabhakti). These texts are recited on a wide variety of Digambar ritual occasions, such as worship of Jina images, veneration of living mendicants, publicly vowing to perform a fast, and annual festivals (Kulbhusanmatimatajl: 108-112). They exist in two versions, an earlier Prakrit text attributed to Kundakunda and a slightly later Sanskrit text attributed to Pujyapada. A. N. Upadhye in his comments on the text attributed to Kundakunda has pointed out that portions of the text "remind us of closely similar passages in Svetambara canonical texts" (xxviii). He is therefore led to conclude, "Here is a tract of literature which antedates the division of Jaina church [in the early centuries C.E.], and it has been inherited, with modifications here and there, independently by Digambaras as well as Svetambaras" (xxviii). Of the antiquity of this textual corpus, he merely says it "is as old as Jainism itself (xxviii).37 The actual number of the objects of devotion varies between eight and twelve in the different texts (Mehta and Kapariya: 293-296). The full list includes the following: the liberated souls, scripture, conduct, the homeless mendicant, the mendicant leader, the five levels of the mendicant hierarchy (Jinas, liberated souls, mendicant leaders, mendicant preceptors, and other mendicants), Jina, liberation, spiritual peace, meditative absorption, the holy continent of Nandlsvara, and Jina image and temple.38 We see here another way in which the Jains expand the concept of devotion beyond human and divine figures. While asceticism is not one of the separate topics of bhakti, it is included in the devotions to conduct and the homeless mendicant.

ASCETICISM AS THE OBJECT OF ENTHUSIASTIC DEVOTION If the devotional praising of asceticism can result in the benefits of asceticism itself, then one should engage in that devotional praising in a 37

I discuss Kundakunda and these early Jain expressions of bhakti at greater length in Cort 2002. On the holy continent, which plays an important role in Jain cosmography, iconography, and ritual, see Shah: 119-121. In the Sanskrit the list is as follows: siddha, sruta, cdritra, anagara or yogi, dcdrya, panca-guru or panca-paramesthin, tirthankara, nirvana, sdnti, samddhi, nandisvara, and caitya. 38

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zealous manner in order to destroy even more karma and accrue even more benefits. This is precisely the sentiment expressed by the Svetambar Padmavijay in his "Navpad Puja." Padmavijay's text, like that of Yasovijay, contains many verses that encourage Jains to engage in asceticism themselves, such as the following: Do tap, hold equanimity in your heart! (refrain) Take the sharp sword of tap in hand and do battle with the fierce warrior that is karma. Those who believe liberation comes from eating and drinking have stupidity as their captain. It's a wonder! By crossing against the stream one comes to the other shore of the ocean of rebirth. The soul is entwined in karma from beginningless time, and so is sunk in intrigue. Tap is the source of separation from all that. One will not have to wander on this shore of [the ocean of] rebirth. There is nothing like it [tap] for disassociation from that ancient karma. All karma is burnt in the tap of meditation, so choose liberation as your bride right now!39

Padmavijay also focuses on the need to perform asceticism in a spirit of enthusiasm (ujman) more characteristic of devotion. He calls on the Jain who is performing tap to "beat the drum loudly" and to "proclaim the glory of Jainism" by doing tap "in an enthusiastic manner," so that in the end one will destroy the bondage of karma in the "joy of heroism."40 The full impact of Padmavijay's mixture of asceticism and devotion, and his call for the devotion of asceticism, is lost when it is translated out of the musical realm of song into the unemotional genre of academic prose. But if one were inadvertently to enter a Jain temple where Padmavijay's "Navpad Puja" was being performed, without paying close attention to the lyrics one would be unlikely to guess that the energetic, ecstatic devotees were in fact singing paeans to the joys of asceticism. Let me conclude this discussion by quoting at length from my own field notes, written in the context of a performance of Padmavijay's "Navpad Puja" in December 1986:41 This afternoon, seated in a temple at a mahapuja in the context of an eightday celebration for an image installation, I was led to think of bhakti as 39

Padmavijay, "Navpad Puja," 300-301. Padmavijay, "Navpad Puja," 302. 41 I have edited these notes in the interest of clarity, for field notes rarely if ever are faithful to even the broadest notions of English grammar or style. 40

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style rather than content. Before each individual pujd offering there were several songs, led by a professional singer assisted by a small band—the singer on harmonium, along with tabld, dholak (both drums), and banjo (an electric keyed guitar, played quite loudly in a filmi style). Everyone else followed along in the pujdbooks and sang as mood and ability struck them. Several times men got up and danced before the Jina image with yak-tail fly-whisks. Half-a-dozen people in the audience accompanied the last verse of each song on hand-cymbals. All quite lively. The singer—a relatively good one today, as some of them are unintelligible—added vocal improvisational flourishes to some songs. If you didn't know the language, it would sound little different from a hymn-singing gathering at a Krishna temple.42

My notes continue: It is in the content that the point emerges. In this particular puja, the aim is the worship of the nine pads, or principles of the Jain dharma: the Jinas, the liberated souls, the mendicant leaders, the mendicant preceptors, the other mendicants, correct faith, correct understanding, correct conduct, and correct asceticism. Not the sort of stuff to inspire bhakti according to the standard academic understanding. And to my ear much of this is poetically third-rate at best. But set to a lively tune, and played with emotion, it works. Compare here the drivel which Henry Purcell used as the texts for some of the most moving western classical music, his "Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day," for example. A verse such as the following isn't any better in the original: Praise to knowledge, the seventh pad, by which one knows both the physical and the spiritual, O my dear! Knowing knowledge, the mind of one who does rituals isn't sluggish in darkness, O my dear!43

Finally, The point of it all struck me when the singer came to the last of the nine pads, that of tap, and suddenly picked up the beat and started singing quite fervently, the drummers playing energetically behind him, "O tapasyal O tapasyal" and "Do tap, hold equanimity in your heart!" and "There is nothing like it [tap] for disassociation from that ancient karma!" Here he was singing about equanimity, tranquillity, renunciation, dissolution of karma—all main-line moksa-marg (path to liberation) Jain ideology, all associated with the ascetic ideal of cessation of action and interaction— 42 Because the professional musicians were not Jains, most likely they did perform at Krishna temples. In this way bhakti can further be seen as a professional musical style that cuts across lines of religious affiliation and lyric content, in a similar way that a Jewish friend is a professional singer for a Catholic cathedral choir. 43 Padmavijay, "Navpad Puja," 296.

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in an energetic, excited, bhakti-purvak (full of devotion) style, everyone smiling, the singer raising his hand high on some of his flourishes. It didn't seem strange or contradictory to anyone present, for this is the proper bhdv (sentiment) for the worship of something as exalted and holy as tap. Jain ritual is full of this; my edition of the puja manual contains twentyeight such pujds covering 496 pages of dense type. If one were to read just the texts of these pujds, while sitting in an American library, one would understand very little of what actually goes on. It is important to put the texts squarely in their performative context, for all too often the texts have little meaning, if any at all, outside of that context—which is to say that in Jain bhakti, for example, while the content of the song is important, much of its "meaning" derives from the way it is performed. Here, that style is bhakti-purvak, "full of devotion," and bhakti is a style that can be applied to almost any content.44

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS In this article I have presented Jain asceticism within a broader context by showing how asceticism and devotion interpenetrate each other as practices. Asceticism is one of the classic means by which a Jain progresses along the path toward liberation by both reducing the influx of new karma and scrubbing off the accumulation of old karma. But asceticism within the Jain tradition is a multivalent phenomenon. In terms of diet, it is an attitude and a daily practice. It is also an activity, as exemplified by special fasts or taps. Third, in terms of bhakti, asceticism is the object of devotion. The individual can accomplish the spiritual goal of an improved karmic balance by performing asceticism him- or herself. But the individual can also accomplish this by praising with enthusiasm and devotion either those who have performed such asceticism or asceticism itself. Whether one performs asceticism oneself, praises asceticism as performed by someone else, or praises asceticism as a religious ideal, the results are the same. This Jain expression of devotion to abstract concepts such as asceticism (and, as we have seen above, scripture, conduct, liberation, spiritual peace, and meditative absorption) does not, however, fit easily into most scholarly discussions of bhakti. As we have seen above, bhakti is almost always described as theistic (Carman: 130). It involves a relationship between a person (or community) and the divine, although within the South Asian context the divine maybe an "object, person, spirit, or deity" (Kinsley: 322). Karen Pechilis Prentiss has observed that in some recent 44

2001.

For the centrality of bhav (sentiment) in Jain ritual, see Humphrey and Laidlaw, and Kelting

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scholarship the term participation is appearing in preference to devotion as a gloss for bhakti precisely because it better conveys the relational aspect of the South Asian term: "Participation signifies the bhaktas' relationship with God; it is a premise of their poetry that they can participate in God by singing of God, by saying God's name, and in other ways" (24). These relational understandings of bhakti as translated by "devotion" and "participation" fail to take account of the Jain understanding, however.45 Jains do use bhakti to express relationships with living gurus (Cort 2001: 111-117). They also use bhakti to express an attitude of veneration and devotion to the Jinas, even though according to Jain theology they are "absent lords" (Babb 1996; Cort 2001: 87-99). But, as we have seen, they also use bhakti to describe the veneration of abstract concepts. At the conclusion of Pandit Dyanatray's hymn to tap translated above, the leader of the ritual recites the following Sanskrit mantra (invocation), during which one, or more, of the worshipers makes an offering of water and other items before the Jina image: "Om hrim I make the offering to the limb of dharma that is the supreme tapas, svahd." The form of the mantra is identical to that of those used when making offerings to the other nine characteristics of Jain dharma, to Jina images, and to living Jain mendicants. In other words, the ritual liturgy does not distinguish among absent godlike holy teachers, present holy teachers, and abstract holy concepts. We should beware of making distinctions as scholars where neither the texts nor the rituals make them. The impossibility of a synchronically reciprocal relationship with the Jinas in this time and place poses some problems for the standard understanding of bhakti,46 although these are not insoluble and in certain aspects bear a resemblance to the problem of understanding the role of devotion in Theravada Buddhism (Hallisey 1988, n.d.). The Jain practice of devotion to abstract concepts, with which it is impossible to have an interactive bilateral relationship, however, does pose a problem for earlier theories of bhakti. Taking Jain bhakti into account when we consider the roles, meanings, and expressions of bhakti in the religious history of 45 One might argue that the Jain usage is merely a later borrowing of an earlier Hindu concept, as does John Carman when he writes, "Many features of Hindu bhakti are also found in the more popular aspects of Jainism" (133). The argument for borrowing, however, is not supported by the historical evidence; as I argue elsewhere (Cort 2002), the evidence for a Jain usage of bhakti is at least as early as the evidence in any other South Asian religious tradition. Nor does the argument hold that bhakti is merely a feature of "popular Jainism," for Kundakunda and Yasovijay are among the most intellectually challenging and elite of Jain philosophers. 46 According to Jain cosmography, it is not possible for there to be a Jina in this part of the universe in the current era. Jains assert that there are Jinas elsewhere in the universe at present and that the condition of time in this part of the universe will eventually improve so that there will again be Jinas here. But there is an effective absence of any Jina for Jains as we know them.

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the subcontinent means that as scholars of South Asia and of comparative religion we need to expand our definitions of bhakti and devotion. In my fieldwork notes above I hint that it might be more useful to conceive of bhakti as a style of religiosity, one that can be applied to almost any religious content. The term enthusiasm here might be helpful as an alternative gloss.47 There are interpretive problems with enthusiasm, in that it is often used in a pejorative sense as somewhat akin to zealot, and so I am not suggesting it as a single catchall translation for bhakti.48 But it does have the advantage that it does not assume an interactive relationship. I can be an enthusiast for a cause or an abstract concept as easily as I can be an enthusiast for a person or a deity. In the end, there is no single term that encompasses the range of expressions of bhakti in the South Asian religious traditions; but we need to beware lest our comparative categories serve to limit rather than facilitate understanding. The material from the Jain tradition presented in this article enables us to see both asceticism and devotion in South Asia within a broader perspective. We see that asceticism and devotion need not be alternative practices, for they can be mutually reinforcing practices. Further, we see that asceticism is important not only as a practice but also as an object of devotion and that the results of fervently praising asceticism are equal to those of performing asceticism. In the different context of devotional Hinduism, C. J. Fuller comes to a similar conclusion concerning the relationship between asceticism and devotion. He notes that most of the founders of devotional Hindu orders were renouncers and goes on to say, "Devotionalism ideally enables everyone to achieve closeness to god and liberation from rebirth without renouncing the world, so that householders within caste society, irrespective of their station, can aspire to the renouncers' goals. But rather than belittling the objective of the ascetic renouncer, devotionalism universalizes it" (165). While Fuller is discussing a theistic goal, we can see how in the Jain context bhakti "universalizes" the practice of asceticism by making the heroic asceticism of the few accessible to all. Finally, the Jain material allows us to see bhakti in South Asia in an enlarged perspective. Most Hindu bhakti involves a personalistic relationship with divinity. But that is not the only way to be devoted, to express bhakti. Bhakti need not be explicitly theistic. Jain bhakti involves a personal and enthusiastic attitude of devotion and loyalty on the part of Jains toward the ideological principles that define their religious tradition. 47

My thinking here has been influenced by David Lovejoy's 1985 book Religious Enthusiasm in the New World. 48 In addition to Lovejoy, for a discussion of some of the problems inherent in using enthusiasm as a category in the comparative study of religion, see also Dunn.

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Ed. by Hermann Jacobi. London: Pali Text Society. Ed. and trans, by M. C. Modi. Prakrit Granth Mala, 1. Ahmedabad: Gurjar Granth Ratna Karyalay. Ed. by Ernst Leumann. Leipzig: G. Kreysing. Letter to the author. 22 February.

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Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Bhadraguptvij aygani, Pannyas 1981

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Bhuvanvijay, Muni 1981a

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1981b

Tapah Parimal. Bhinmal: Sri Rajendra Bhavan Jain Upasray Samiti.

Carman, John B. 1987

"Bhakti." In The Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 2: 130134. Ed.-in-chiefMirceaEliade. New York: Macmillan.

Cort, John E. 1988

"Pilgrimage to Shankheshvar Parshvanath." Center for the Study of World Religions Bulletin 14/1: 63-72.

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Jains in the World: Religious Values and Ideology in India. New York: Oxford University Press.

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"Dyanatray: An Eighteenth Century Digambar Mystical Poet." In Proceedings of the International Seminar on Jainism: Aspects ofjainism. Ed. by Marek Mejor and Piotr Balcerowicz. Warsaw: Instytut Orientalistyczny Uniwersytet Warszawski; and Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

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"Bhakti in the Early Jain Tradition: Understanding Devotional Religion in South Asia." History of Religions 42: 59-86.

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Ed. by Ernst Leumann. Trans, by Walther Schubring. Ahmedabad: Anandji Kalianji.

Dev-vandan Mala N.d. Dundas, Paul 1991

Ahmedabad: Jain Prakasan Mandir Vati. "Yasovijaya." In Who's Who of World Religions, 447448. Ed. by John R. Hinnells. London: Macmillan.

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Dunn, James D. G. 1987

"Enthusiasm." In The Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 5: 118-124. Ed.-in-chief Mircea Eliade. New York: Macmillan.

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"Daslaksandharm Puja." In Jinvar-Arcana, 103-109. Ed by. Devendrakumar Sastrl. New Delhi: Bharatiya Jnanpith Prakasan.

Fischer, Eberhard, and Jyotindra Jain 1978

Jaina Iconography, part 2: Objects of Meditation and the Pantheon. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

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An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fuller, C. J. 1992

The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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Vidhi-ratna. Bombay: Adhyatmik Jnan Siksan Sanstha.

Hallisey, Charles 1988 N.d.

Hemcandravijay, Muni 1977

"Devotion in the Buddhist Literature of Medieval Sri Lanka." Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago. "Buddhist Devotion: Some Comments on Interpretive Habits in the Study of Indian Religions." Unpublished MS. Muktinu Mangal Dvar. Bombay: Bi. E. Sah.

Humphrey, Caroline, and James Laidlaw 1994

The Archetypal Actions of Ritual: A Theory of Ritual Illustrated by the Jain Rite of Worship. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Jaini, Padmanabh S. 1979

The Jaina Path of Purification. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Jinendravijaygani, Pannyas *1982

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Kelting, M. Whitney 2001

Singing to thejinas: Jain Laywomen, Mandal Singing, and the Negotiations of Jain Devotion. New York: Oxford University Press.

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"Negotiating Karma, Merit and Liberation: Vow-Taking in the Jain Tradition." In Dealing with Deities: The Ritual Vow in South Asia. Ed. by Selva Raj and William Harman.

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Kinsley, David 1987

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Knipe, David M. 1987

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Kulbhusanmatimatajl, Aryika, org. 1982

Humbuj Sraman Siddhdnt Pdthdvali. Jaipur: SrlDigambar Jain Kunthu Vijay Granthmala Samiti.

Laidlaw, James 1995

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Religious Enthusiasm in the New World: Heresy to Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

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Delivrance et convivialite: Le systeme culinaire desjaina. Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de rHomme.

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[7] ASCETICISM AND SEXUALITY IN THE M Y T H O L O G Y OF SIVA PART II Wendy Doniger 0'Flaherty

E. THE VEDIC ANTECEDENTS OF

Many of the characteristics which contribute to the apparently paradoxical nature of the Puranic Siva may be traced back to individual characteristics of gods of the Vedic pantheon. Both Siva and Brahma derive their creative attributes from the Vedic figure of the Prajapati, the primeval creator; from Indra, Siva inherits his phallic and adulterous character; from Agni, the heat of asceticism and passion; and from Rudra he takes a very common epithet as well as certain dark qualities. 1. EUDBA, GOD OF DESTBTJCTION

Although an overemphasis on the identity of Rudra and Siva has led to certain misleading generalizations, there is nevertheless a strong relationship between them. Siva's paradoxical nature in the Puranas is based in part upon the superficially ambiguous nature of Rudra as creator and destroyer, the god with a shining exterior and a dark interior,1 god of the storm and of healing herbs. Pri1 Ernst Arbmann, Rudra: Untersuchungen zum altindischen Glauben und Kultus (Uppsala: Appelbergs Boktryckeri Aktiebolog, 1922), p. 10.

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of Siva marily, however, it is the destructive aspect of Rudra which is bequeathed to $iva. In the Rg Veda, Rudra is invoked as a god of death: "Do not slaughter our father or our mother."2 In later metaphysical developments, death becomes less personal, and Siva destroys the universe by fire at the end of each eon, purifying it by sprinkling it with ashes.3 This cosmic role appears in the later mythology as a kind of necrophilia attributed to Siva, who frequents funeral grounds smeared with the ashes of corpses,4 and even becomes incarnate in a corpse.5 This significant aspect of Siva, together with the name of Rudra which is given to Siva throughout the Puranas, is derived almost entirely from the Vedic Rudra. 2. INDBA, PHALLIC GOD OF FEBTILITY

But the other aspect of Siva, the phallic god, the giver of seed, is not merely an arbitrary philosophical reversal of his destructive role. To a certain extent, his sexuality may be derived from his ancient connection with the ascetic cults and their sexual manifestations, but many of the myths of fertility and much of the phallic religion may be derived from Siva's close connection with Indra, the Vedic king of the gods.6 One tie between Indra and Siva is formed by the group of the Maruts or Rudras, storm gods. In the Rg Veda they are the companions of Indra. Later they are called Indra's brothers, and they are the sons of Rudra,7 who, according to one myth, adopted them when Indra tried to kill them in fraternal jealousy.8 The two gods share many characteristics: both are said to have three eyes 9 or a thousand eyes,10 and for the same reason: "Once the apsaras Tilottama was sent to seduce the demons Sunda and Upasunda 2 Rg Veda I. 114.7; cf. Taittirlya Samhitd of the Black Yajur Veda, with the commentary of Madhava, ed. E. Roer and E. B. Cowell (Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica, 1860), 4.5.6.6. 3 Brahmdnda 2.27.107-9. *Skanda 1.1.22.53; Siva 2.2.26.15 and 2.3.27.27. *6 Vdyu 1.23.208-9. Walter Ruben, Krsna: Konkordanz und Kommentar der Motive seines Heldenlebens ("Istanbuler Schriften No. 17" [Istanbul, 1944]), p. 103; Alain Danielou, Hindu Polytheism (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1964), p. 107; Allan Dahlquist, Megasthenes and Indian Religion (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1962), pp. 140-41; Horace Hayman Wilson (trans.), Rig Veda Sanhita (London; Tnibner, 1866), I, xxvi-xxvii. 7 Arthur Anthony Macdonell, Vedic Mythology (Encyclopedia of Indo-Aryan Research, ed. George Biihler, III, I, A [Strassburg: Triibner, 1897]), pp. 79-81. «9 Sayana on Rg Veda 1.114.6. Brhaisamhitd [Brihat Sanhita'] of Varaha-mihira, ed. H. Kern (Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica, New Series, 1865), 58.42-43. 10 For Rudra: Satapatha Brdhmana 9.1.1.6-7; for Indra, nn. 12 and 15 below. 2

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History of Religions from their tapas. While she danced before them, Siva and Indra wanted to see more of her, and for this purpose Siva became fourfaced and Indra thousand-eyed."11 In this, as in the myth of Brahma and his daughter,* the cause and purpose of the extra eyes is a sexual one.12 Both Indra and Siva here play the part of the seduced ascetic; both are fertility gods. Indra in the Mdhdbhdrata is the god of the seed who dissuades King Uparicara from his tapas and teaches him to erect "Indra-poles,"13 phallic emblems which are the antecedents of the Siva-Zingra. With these qualities goes a series of myths that are told about both gods. Like Siva, Indra is known as an adulterer, famed for the seduction of Ahalya, the wife of the sage Gautama,14 a crime for which he is sexually mutilated15 as Siva is.16 One version of the Pine Forest tale refers to the castration of Indra when describing the same fate as it befalls Siva.17 Indra is the traditional enemy of ascetics, as is Siva himself on occasion. The tapas of the ascetic threatens the kingdom of Indra, who is himself weakened by his lack of chastity, and Indra seduces the sage's wife or sends an apsaras or even his own wife or daughter to weaken the ascetic and turn him from his tapas,^ just as Siva uses his own sexual charms, or those of his wife, to dissuade the Pine Forest sages from their tapas.18 Both gods are associated with anti-Brahmanical, heterodox acts, and each loses his right to a share of the sacrifice.19 Indra once killed the Brahmin Namuci, and Namuci's head pur11 Krsna Dvaipayana Vyasa, Mahdbhdrata (hereafter MHB), ed. Vishnu S. Sukthankar et al. (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1933), 1.203.15-26. * See below, Section F2. !2 Indra: Brahmavaivarta 4.47.31-34; Siva: Skanda 5.3.150.18, 6.153.2-27. is MHB XII.214.16 and IX.8.21. ^Satapatha Brdhmana 3.3.4.18; MHB V.12.6, XII.329.4.1, XIII.41.12; Rdmdyana 1.47.15-32, L48.1-10; Siva, Dharmasamhita 11.1-13. ^Satdpatha 12.7.1.10-12, 5.2.3.8; Rdmdyana '1.47.26-27, 1.48.1-10; MHB XII.329.14.1; of. Rg Veda VI.46.3 and VIII.19'.32. 16 Siva, Dharmasamhita 10.187-93; Kurma 2.38.39-41; Skanda 6.1.48-52; Ydgisvaramdhdtmya 26a; Haracaritacintdmani 10.71—76. !7 Brahmdnda 2.27.23. t18 See Part I, Section B2, Indra sends Saci against Nahusa: MHB V. 15.2-25. He uses his daughter, Jayanti, against Sukra: Matsya 47.113-27, 47.170-213; Padma 5.13.257-313; Vdyu 2.35-6. Siva uses his "wife" against the Pine Forest sages\ Kurma 2.38.9-12; Saura 69: Siva, Dharmasamhita 10.108-10; he uses her against the demon Jalandhara: Padma 6.3-19,' 6.98-107; Skanda 2.4.14-22; Saura 37.1-32; Siva 2.5.13-26. 19 Indra: Visnu 4.9.18; Rudra: Bhdgavata 4.2.18; Siva 2.2.26.18. Indra: cf. Tandy a Mahdbrdhmana with the commentary of Sayana (Calcutta: Bibliotheca Ind'ica, 1869-74), 14.1*1.28.

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of Siva sued him until he was purified of his sin,20 just as Siva, having beheaded Brahma, was plagued by the skull of Brahma until he established the vow of expiation. J The two gods often impersonate one another, Indra taking the repulsive form of a Saiva heretic,21 Siva the handsome form of Indra himself.22 Thus each god increases that quality—tapas or kdma—which already exists within him in subordination to the complementary force. The commentator on the epic remarks that Siva may assume the epithet of Indra because there is no difference between them; 23 and Indra, trying to dissuade a householder from performing tapas for Siva, says, "Siva is no different from me."24 In this context, in this role, there is no difference; Indra and Siva were not identified with each other because they happened to amass similar characteristics. Rather, from the time of the late Vedas, Rudra and Indra were given similar attributes (e.g., the Maruts) because they served an identical function. 3. AGNI, THE EROTIC FIRE

The ascetic Siva of the Puranas frequently uses his tapas as a weapon against his enemies, particularly against Kama. In the Rg Veda, most of the verses in which tapas is used as heat against enemies are hymns to Agni, the god of fire,25 who blasts with his tapas those who are impious and who perform the ritual with an evil purpose,26 just as Siva burns the impious Pine Forest sages. The fiery power of tapas serves as a natural bridge between the two gods; and it is said, "All the various forms of fire are ascetics [tapasvin-s], all takers of vows, and all are known to be parts of Rudra himself."2? But most of the Saiva myths are derived from Agni personified not as the heat of tapas but as the opposite force, the heat of sexual desire. Many myths are based upon a combination of the 20 MHB IX.42.28-36; cf. MHB V.9-14, XII.273.26-54; Hdldsyamdhdtmya No. 1, p. 7; T. A. Gopinatha Rao, Elements of Hindu Iconography (2 vols.; Madras: Law Printing House, 1916), II, A, 295-309. J See below, Section F3. 21 Bhdgavata 4.19.12-20; Edward Washburn Hopkins, Epic Mythology (Encyclopedia of Indo-Aryan Research, III, I, B [Strassburg: Triibner, 1915]), p. 137; cf. MHB XIV.54.12-35. 22 MHB XIII.14.88 ff.; Ruben, op. cit.f p. 158. 23 Nilakantha on MHB XIII.17.45 (Bombay); XIII.17.44 (Poona). **£iva 3.15.39. 25 Chauncey Blair, Heat in the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda (American Oriental Society Publication No. 45 [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961]), p. 83. 26 Rg Veda VIII.60.16 and 19, III.18.2, X.87.14 and 20, VII.1.7. 27 Linga 1.6.4.

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History of Religions two. Springing from the natural physiological analogy, the tie between Agni and kdma was supported in Hindu thinking by the identification of ritual heat, tapas, with sexual heat, kdma.28 A hymn of the Atharva Veda invokes Agni to madden a man with love ; 29 another text states, "Agni is the cause of sexual union. . . . When a man and woman become heated, the seed flows, and birth takes place."30 As a personified deity, Agni is an unscrupulous seducer of women and an adulterer, qualities which cause him to be identified with Rudra.31 When Siva destroys the triple city of the demons, his weapon is fire, one of his eight forms, and the burning of the demon women is described in erotic terms: When Siva burnt the triple city with his fiery arrow, the women were burnt as they made love with their lovers in close embraces. One woman left her lover but could go nowhere else, and she died in front of him. One lotuseyed woman, weeping, cried, "Agni, I am another man's wife; you, who witness the virtue of the triple world, should not touch me. Go away, leaving this house and my husband who lies with me." . . . Some women were burnt as they ran from their husbands' embraces; others, asleep and intoxicated, exhausted after love-making, were half-burnt before they awoke and wandered about, stunned.32

Erotic death by fire is frequently associated with the suttee motif; the original''suttee" was Sati, who entered the fire when her husband, Siva, was dishonored. When Sati, reborn as Parvati, was about to marry Siva again, the women of Himalaya's city admired the bridegroom, who was the personification of death by fire: "They blamed their lovers and praised Siva, saying, 'What use have we for our lovers, and our nights of love-making ? We will not continue on the wheel of life, but we will enter the fire, and Siva will be our husband.' "33 4. AGNI AND THE PINE FOREST SAGES

Siva is more explicitly related to the erotic, destructive fire in the myth of the Pine Forest, which can be traced directly to the story of Agni and the wives of the Seven Sages, a text which is the source of much of the myth of the birth of Kumara as well.34 A late Vedic 28 Atharva Veda III.21.4; Taittirlya Samhitd 2.2.3.1. 29 Atharva Veda VI. 130.4. w&atapatha Brahmana 3.4.3.4-5 and 3.5.3.16. 81 F. D. K. Bosch, "Het Linga-Heiligdom van Dinaja," Tijdscrift voor Indische Tool-, Land- en Volkenkunde (Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences No. LXIV, 1924), p. 249. 32 Matsya 140.59-65; Siva 2.5.10.37-38; cf. Subhdsitaratnakosa Nos. 49, 61, and 67.33 Brahmavaivarta 4.39.16-21. 34 Bosch, op. tit., p. 249. 5

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of £iva text says, "The waters were the wives of Varuna [god of the waters]. Agni desired them and united with them. His seed fell and became the earth, the sky, and the plants that are eaten by fire."35 This statement foreshadows the role of fire and water in the Kumara story (in which the seed of fSiva is placed first in Agni and then in the Ganges); another version of this story concludes: "Agni's seed fell and became gold,"36 and the seed of Siva, the source of Kumara, is gold.§ All later versions describe the seduced women not as the wives of Varuna but as the wives of the Seven Sages : Originally, the Krttikas [the Pleiades] were the wives of the Bears [or Stars, the constellation Ursa Major], for the Seven Sages were in former times called the Bears. They were, however, prevented from intercourse [with their husbands], for the latter, the Seven Sages, rise in the North, and they [the Krttikas] in the East. Now, it is a misfortune for one to be prevented from intercourse [with his wife]. . . . But37in fact Agni is their mate, and it is with Agni that they have intercourse.

No causal relationship seems to be suggested here between the Krttikas' separation from their husbands and their connection with Agni. In many of the later versions, however, it is clearly stated that they were abandoned by their husbands because of their impregnation by Agni (or Siva),38 and in one version they are cursed to become constellations for this reason.39 Yet in the earliest full version of this story, in the Mahdbhdrata, they are given the reward of becoming constellations and dwelling forever in heaven as compensation for having been abandoned by their husbands: Once when Agni saw the beautiful wives of the great sages sleeping in their hermitage, he was overcome by desire for them. But he reflected, "It is not proper for me to be thus full of lust for the chaste wives of the Brahmins, who are not in love with me." Then he entered the household fire so that he could touch them, as it were, with his flames, but after a long time his desire became still greater, and he went into the forest, resolved to abandon his corporeal form. Then Svaha [the oblation], the daughter of Daksa, fell in love with him and watched him for a long time, seeking some weak point, but in vain. When she knew that he had gone into the forest, full of desire, the amorous goddess decided to take the forms of the wives of the Seven Sages and to seduce Agni; thus both of them would obtain their desire. Assuming the form of each of the wives in turn, she made love with Agni; she took his seed and threw it into a golden lake on the white mountain. »5 Taittirlya Samhita 5.5.4.1. 36 Taittirlya Brahmana 1.1.3.8. § See below, Section E5. 37 Satapatha Brahmana 2.1.2.4-5. 38 &iva 2.4.2.62-64; Skanda 1.2.29.122. ^Skanda 1.1.27.75.

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History of Religions The seed generated a son, Kumara; the sages' wives, who were abandoned by their husbands, came to Kumara and begged him to let them dwell forever in heaven. By his grace, they became the constellation of the Krttikas, considered the mothers of Kumara. Then Svaha married Agni.40

The elemental Agni, as well as the anthropomorphic, is very much in evidence here. He comes to the sages' wives in the form of the household fire, and, when spurned, he withdraws his elemental form as Siva does in the Pine Forest, causing darkness to spread throughout the universe.41 Agni's wife, Svaha, is merely the personification of the oblation, the natural partner of the sacrificial fire ; and she is the daughter of Daksa, like Sati, who makes herself an oblation, a suttee. Later versions of the Pine Forest myth simply transfer from Agni to Siva more and more of the attributes which they share, using the basic plot and characters to point new morals, maintaining even—or rather, especially—the ambiguous elements. Thus the (false?) ascetic (Agni-Siva) desires the wives of the great sages (Pine Forest sages or Seven Sages) but conquers his own desire. He enters the forest to find them (or to avoid them), and they (or their impersonators) fall in love with him. The question of their actual seduction is unresolved, as in the myth of Rsyasrnga. Upon this part of the myth the story of the castration of Siva and the origin of linga worship was grafted. The second half of the myth—the miraculous birth of Kumara from the golden seed placed in fire and water—was used as a sequel to the sacred wedding of Siva and Parvati ; and this part of the Agni myth is based in turn upon a much older tale, the Vedic myth of Prajapati's incestuous seed. 5. THE GOLDEN SEED OF FIRE

In the Vedas, Brahma the Prajapati is called Hiranyagarbha, "he of the womb of gold," to denote his creative powers.42 The cosmogonic myth then postulated a golden egg instead of a golden womb,43 and this symbol was replaced in turn by the image of the god of the golden seed, an epithet of Agni and of Siva.44 By the time of the Epic, Siva was also given the original Vedic epithet, "the golden womb,"45 together with the golden seed.46 The com41 42

111.213.41-52, 111.214.1-17, 111.219.1-15.

Brahmdnda 2.27.36-37; Haracarita 10.78; Siva, Dharmasamhita 10.195. Rg Veda X.121.1; Atharva Veda X.5.19; Taittirlya Samhitd 5.5.1.2; iSatapatha Brdhmana 6.2.2.5. 43 Satapatha 11.1.6.1 and 6.1.1.10; Manu 1.8-9. 44 Amarakosa (Bombay: Government Central Book Depot, 1896), 1.58. 4 * MHB I, Appendix 28, No. 1, 1. 188, and MHB XII.291.12 and 17. 4 * Linga 1.20.80-86.

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of &iva mentary on this epithet of $iva says, "First he created the waters, and released his seed in them, and that became the golden egg. In the form of Agni, he created the golden universal egg by shedding his seed."47 As the passage implies, the golden egg was the earlier concept, and the golden seed was transferred from Agni to Siva. But another text describes the situation in reverse, maintaining that when Agni bore Siva's seed for 5,000 years (before the birth of Kumara) his body became entirely golden, and so Agni became known as the bearer of the golden seed.48 In fact, both Siva and Agni derive this property from the Vedic Prajapati. F. £lVA AND BRAHMA : OPPOSITION AND IDENTITY

Siva has attracted to himself many of the roles and characteristics of Brahma, the creator, the giver of seed. In many of the later creation myths, Siva comes forth to help Brahma, usually in the form of an androgyne,49 but originally, Brahma himself was the androgyne.50 In many of the early creation myths, Brahma's sons, devoted to the performance of tapas for Siva refuse to participate in creation. || In a later reversal, Brahma himself plays the part of the ascetic son, to be replaced in turn by Siva, as the creative son: "Siva commanded Brahma to create, but Brahma did not; he meditated upon Siva for the sake of knowledge, and Siva was pleased by Brahma's tapas and gave him the Vedas. But Brahma still could not create, and so he again performed tapas, and Siva offered him a boon, and Brahma asked Siva to be his son."51 And in a still later layer of the mythology, Brahma again supplants the ascetic Rudra.$ The balance shifts constantly between the two. 1. BUDBA VERSUS PRAJAPATI

Although in several of the popular religious traditions of India Siva is himself associated with the incest typical of a primeval creator,52 in traditional Sanskrit literature he is famed primarily 4 7 48 4

MHB XIII.17.40 (Bombay); XIII.17.39 (Poona). Vdmana 57.9-10. 9 Vdyu 1.9.68-70; Lingo, 1.70.324-27; Visnu 1.7.12-13. ™&atapatha 14.4.2; Manu 1.32; Visnu 1.7.14.

|| See Part I, Section B9. si Skanda 5.1.2.8-19. # See below, Section F4. 52 Verrier Elwin, Tribal Myths of Orissa (Oxford: Cumberlege, 1954), pp. 422423; Verrier Elwin, The Muria and their Ghotul (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947), pp. 257-58; Dahlquist, op. cit., p. 75; Walter Ruben, Eisenschmiede und Ddmonen in Indien (Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographie, Vol. XXXVII, suppl. [Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1939J), p. 213; Pradyot Kumar Maity, Historical 8

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History of Religions as the chastiser of the incestuous Prajapati. The Vedic incest myth does not mention Rudra, but commentators have identified him with the avenger in the original myth, and he is specifically active as such in the later versions. The incest myth supplies much of the imagery of the Kumara birth story (in which Siva himself takes over the role of Prajapati) as well as the plot elements of the later addition to that story, the conflict between Siva and Kama (in which Siva maintains his role as opponent of Prajapati).** Thus the Puranic tradition rearranges elements of the Vedic myth in such a manner that Siva plays the role of the original sexual protagonist as well as the ascetic antagonist. The original myth is told in rather vague terms, like so much of the Rg Veda, and may in fact refer not to Brahma and his daughter but merely to heaven and the dawn: "When the father, bent upon impregnating his own daughter, united with her and discharged his seed on the earth, the benevolent gods generated prayer; they fashioned Vastospati, the protector of sacred rites."53 The father and the protector are not named, but the commentary elaborates : "R/udra Prajapati created Rudra Vastospati with a portion of himself," identifying Rudra even here with both the protector and the creator. Four other verses in the Rg Veda seem to refer to this myth and to connect it with Agni: "[As] he [Agni] made the seed for the great father, heaven . . . the hunter shot him as he embraced his own daughter. Heaven laid the bright seed aside and Agni brought forth a youth. The father, heaven, impregnated his own daughter. The sacrificer into the fire committed incest with his own daughter."54 The connection with Rudra is made explicit later in the Brahmanas, which retained all the essentials of the Rg Vedic story— the incest, the seed shed upon the earth or into fire, and the punishment—and applied the myth to Prajapati: "Prajapati desired his daughter. He went to her, and his seed fell. He shed it in her. Then he heated it so that it would not spoil. He made it into all the animals."55 This brief story is expanded in another Brahmana: Prajapati desired his daughter. . . . The gods said, "Prajapati is doing something that is not to be done." They assembled various dreadful forms Studies in the Cult of the Goddess Manasd (Calcutta, 1966), pp. 191-200; Edward C. Dimock, Jr., and A. K. Ramanujan, "Manasha: Goddess of Snakes," History of Religions, III (Winter, 1964), 304. ** See below, Section G2. 53 Rg Veda X.61.7, with the commentary of Sayana. 54 Rg Veda 1.71.5 and 8; 1.164.33; III.31.1. 55 Tdndya Mahdbrdhmana 8.2.10.

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of Siva and made a god to punish Prajapati. He pierced him, and Prajapati fled upwards. . . . The seed of Prajapati poured out, and became a lake. The gods said, "Let not the seed of Prajapati be ruined." They surrounded it with fire. The winds agitated it, and Agni made it move. The kindled seed became the sun; the blazing sparks became various sages, and the ashes various animals. Rudra claimed that what remained was his, but the gods deprived him of a claim.56

The Kumar a story is a further expansion upon these themes. The seed of Prajapati (Siva) falls in a woman who cannot bear it (the daughter, or Parvati). It forms a lake (or is placed in the Ganges) and is surrounded by fire (swallowed by Agni), whereupon it becomes productive. 2. BRAHMA VERSUS KAMA

In the creation myths composed at the time of the Epic, the "desire" which Brahma felt for his daughter was personified as Kama. Kama then took the responsibility for the incestuous act (which even at the time of the Brahmanas was hard for some to accept as the fault of Brahma himself)57 and was punished by Siva as Brahma Prajapati was punished by Rudra. The punishment of Kama by Siva is generally implied but not narrated in the Brahma-Kama story, and it is in fact a separate motif, one which was known at the time of the Epic but only incorporated into Brahma's story by the time of the Puranas.f f A typical version of this myth relates it to the theme of androgynous creation: Brahma, in order to create the worlds, meditated and prayed; he broke his body into two parts, half male and half female. When he saw the woman, who was Savitri, Brahma marvelled at her beauty and was excited by the arrows of Kama, the male half of the androgyne. His sons reviled Brahma, saying, "This is your daughter," but Brahma continued to gaze at her face and even sprouted five heads in order to see her better. All the tapas that Brahma had amassed for the sake of creation was destroyed by his desire for his daughter. Then Brahma said to his sons, "Create gods and demons and men," and when they had gone to create, Brahma made love to his daughter. After 100 years she gave birth to a son, Manu. . . . Then Brahma was ashamed of his excessive desire for his own daughter, and he cursed Kama, saying, "Since your arrows excited my heart, Rudra will soon reduce your body to ashes." Then Kama appeased Brahma, arguing that he had merely acted as Brahma had instructed him to do. Brahma promised Kama that he would become incarnate again, and Kama departed, in sorrow because of the curse and in joy because of the remission.58 56 57

Aitareya Brdhmana 13.9-10; cf. Satapatha Brdhmana 1.7.4.1-7. Brhaddevatd 4.110-11; Kausttaki Brdhmana 6.1-9; cf. Sylvain LeVi, La doctrine du sacrifice dans les Brahmanas ("Bibliotheque de Tficole des Hautes fitudes, Sciences Religieuses," Vol. LXXIII; 2d ed. [Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1966]), p. 21. ft See below, Section G. 58 Matsya 3.30-44 and 4.11-21. 10

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History of Religions Considerable rearrangement has been made in the filling of the original roles. The male half of the androgyne, who was originally Brahma, then Rudra, is now Kama.JJ And in keeping with his new character, he incites but does not participate in the act of incest. Kama here replaces Rudra in another sense as well; for just as Rudra pierces Prajapati with an arrow to punish him for his incestuous act, so Kama pierces Brahma with an arrow to cause that act. Brahma also fills several of the roles of Rudra; for he acts as chastiser (of Kama) as well as chastised, bringing upon Kama the curse of a punishment that Rudra (Siva) will later fulfil. Rudra then does not revile Brahma. This part of the role is played by Brahma's sons, who act on behalf of the ascetic, antierotic Siva as they often do. In many versions of the myth, Siva himself appears at the scene of the crime to laugh at Brahma and to mock him at great length.59 3. BRAHMA VERSUS 6lVA

The myth of the beheading of Brahma by Siva is very popular in India, primarily because it extols the virtue of the Kapalika ("skull bearer") cult and of Benares ("Kapalamocana," "the freeing of the skull") as a shrine of expiation. The particular basis of the conflict underlying the beheading is the lust of Brahma; this is not clear from later versions of the myth, but may be seen in certain early versions. The head that Siva removes is the fifth head of Brahma, which appeared in the first place because of Brahma's incestuous lust. It is due to lust that it is destroyed : Brahma was dwelling in a lotus, trying to create. From his mouth a beautiful woman appeared; Brahma was tortured by desire, grabbed her by force, and demanded that she relieve his agony by making love with him. In anger she said to him, "This fifth head is inauspicious on your neck. Four faces would be more suitable for you." Then she vanished, and the fire of Brahma's anger burnt all the water on earth. Rudra then appeared and attacked the fifth head of Brahma with his nails; he took up the severed head and became known as the Kapalin [skull bearer]; he wandered over all the sacred places on earth until he came to Kapalamocana in Benares, where the skull fell from his hand and he was purified. The gods praised him, and Siva the Kapalin created from his own mouth a part of himself, born without a woman, a man who was an ascetic and who wandered over the earth, teaching the Aghora [Kapalika] path.60

The woman in this myth, created by Brahma, must be his daughJ J See Part I, Section B9. "5wa 2.2.2.15-42, 2.2.3.1-78, 2.2.4.1-34; Kalika 1.24-65, 2.1-59, 3.1-49; Mahabhdgavata 21.35-45; Skanda 5.2.13.1-20. 60 Bhavisya 3.4.13.1-19. 11

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of &iva ter, though she is not explicitly mentioned as such. Rudra punishes Brahma for his incest, not for his impiety or pride as in the later versions. The framework of the story is that of the creation myth in which Brahma attempts to create, fails, and then is assisted by Rudra—who in this myth helps Brahma by cutting off the head that interfered with the process of creation. In another version, Brahma's incest is a direct cause of the severing of the fifth head: Brahma desired Sarasvati and went to her, asking her to stay with him. She, being his daughter, was furious at this and said, "Your mouth speaks inauspiciously and so you will always speak in a contrary way." From that day, Brahma's fifth head spoke evilly and coarsely. Therefore one day when Siva was wandering about with Parvati and came to see Brahma, Brahma's four heads praised Siva but his fifth head made an evil sound. Siva, displeased with the fifth head, cut it off. The skull remained stuck fast to Siva's hand, and though he was capable of burning it up, Siva wandered the earth with it for the sake of all people, until he came to Benares.61

The secondary cause of the beheading—the insult to 6iva—is here combined with the primary cause—the daughter's curse, and the pious storyteller justifies Siva's expiation by the argument from bhakti,§§ his willing submission "for the sake of all people." Here, as in the first version of the Kapalika myth, Siva's aggressive act is not only justified but considered a favor to Brahma, ridding him of an inauspicious head. The act of beheading, however, is antagonistic, as is obvious from the context as well as the background myth of incest. The Abbe Dubois records another version of the myth, which restores the sexual basis of the antagonism: "Brahma . . . was born with five heads, but he outraged Parvati, the wife of Siva, and Siva avenged himself by striking off one of the heads of the adulterous god in single combat."62 There does not seem to be any Sanskrit version of this myth, but the process of substituting Parvati for the original woman is neatly paralleled by the popular tradition which makes Parvati (instead of the sages' wives) the one with whom Agni commits adultery.63 As Brahma and Agni are often confused with Siva in the mythology, such a transference is not surprising. In fact, the confusion of Siva with Brahma is the 61

Siva, Jnanasamhita 49.65-80. §§ See Part I, Section Al. 62

Abbe" J. A. Dubois, Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, trans, and ed. H.63K. Beauchamp (3d ed.; Oxford, 1959), p. 613. Arthur Miles (Mrs. Paul Banner, Gerv^e Baronti), Land of the Lingam (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1933), pp. 219-20; Max-Pol Fouchet, The Erotic Sculpture of India (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1959), p. 8.

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History of Religions explicit cause of the beheading in a South Indian version of the myth: Long ago, Brahma and Siva both had five heads. One day Brahma came to Parvati and she, mistaking him for J§iva because he had five heads, fed him. Siva returned and criticized Parvati for feeding Brahma before his return; Parvati asked Siva to cut off one of Brahma's heads so that she could distinguish between them. He did so, and, holding the head in his hand, he became mad and roamed through the burning places. Then Parvati took the head in her own hand and became mad; she is revived by the sound of the temple drum.64

Siva is frequently called Pancavaktra ("having five heads"), and is so portrayed in the iconography, but it is unusual to see such an explicit reference to the coincidence of attributes between two different gods. The real basis of the beheading is retained as an undercurrent of the myth, however. Parvati's inability to distinguish between the two gods would give rise to a sexual conflict between them (here masked by the reference to her "feeding" Brahma) similar to the incestuous conflict which underlies the Sanskrit versions of the tale. 4. THE COMPETITION BETWEEN BRAHMA AND SIVA

The sexual basis of the competition between the two gods is revealed in a version of the creation myth which incorporates the great myth of their conflict—the myth of the flame linga: Brahma and Visnu asked Rudra to create. He said, "I will do it," and then he plunged into the water for a thousand years. Brahma and Visnu began to worry, and Visnu said, "There is not much time left. You must make an effort to create." Brahma then made all the gods and demons and the other beings. When Siva emerged from the water, about to begin creation, he saw that the universe was full. He thought, "What will I do? Creation has already been achieved by Brahma. Therefore I will destroy it and tear out my own seed." So saying, he released a flame from his mouth, setting the universe on fire. Eventually Brahma propitiated Siva, who agreed to place in the sun the dangerous fire that he had emitted. Then Siva broke off his linga, saying, "There is no use for this linga except to create creatures." He threw the linga upon the earth and it broke through the earth and went down to Hell and up to the heavens. Visnu and Brahma tried in vain to find the top and bottom of it, and they worshipped it.65

In this myth, Siva is castrated not in punishment for some sexual offense—as he is in the Pine Forest—but as evidence of the lack of that very sexuality. Death is necessitated by the fulness of the closed universe; when Siva discovers that he is not needed as a 64 Told by the temple drummer (Pombaikaran) of Dharanpuram, Kongu; personal communication from Brenda E. F. Beck. 65 £wa, Dharmasamhita 49.35-86; cf. Siva, Dharmasamhita 10.1-23, and MHB X.17.10-26. 13

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of Siva creator, he becomes a destroyer. Siva's refusal to create is symbolized by his castration, but this too is ambivalent, for it results in the fertility cult of linga worship. The basis of the feud between Siva and Brahma is not in this instance the conflict between the ascetic and the incestuous creator, but between the two different valid forms of creation: Siva opposes the Prajapati because he is himself a Prajapati. This is clear from yet another myth of their conflict. When, at the wedding of Siva and Sati, Brahma is overcome with lust for the bride and even spills his seed66 (as he does at the sight of his daughter in the incest myth, of which the wedding myth is a variant), Siva wishes to kill Brahma. Visnu, trying to restrain him, argues: ''Brahma was born to perform creation; if he is killed, there can be no other natural creator." But Siva replies, "I must kill this terrible sinner, but I myself will then create all beings, or by my own seed I will create another creator."67 This competition between creators, one of them ascetic and the other sexual, is reflected in Ruben's interpretation of the Kapalin myth: "Siva cut off the head of the Creator God, Brahma, in order to become the creator himself."68 This competition is clarified in another version of the creation myth: Brahma wished to create, but he did not know how to do it. He became angry, and Rudra was born from his anger. Brahma gave Rudra a beautiful maiden for his wife, named Gaurl [Parvati], and Rudra rejoiced when he received her. Then Brahma forbade Rudra to do tapas at the time of creation, saying, "Rudra, you must perform creation." But Rudra said, "I am unable," and he plunged into the water, for he thought, "One without tapas is not able to create creatures." Then Brahma took Gauri back; and, wishing to create, he made seven mind-born sons, Daksa and his brothers. He gave Gauri to Daksa for a daughter, though she had been formerly promised in marriage to Rudra. Daksa rejoiced and began a great sacrifice which all the gods attended. Then, after 10,000 years, Rudra arose from the water, and by the power of his tapas he saw all the world before him with its forests and men and beasts, and he heard the chanting of the priests in Daksa's sacrifice. Then he became furious and he said, "Brahma created me and instructed me to perform creation. Who is doing that work now ?" and flames issued forth from his ears and turned into ghosts and goblins and various weapons. Rudra destroyed Daksa's sacrifice, but he restored it again when the gods praised him. Daksa gave his daughter to Rudra as Brahma asked him to do, and Rudra took her with him to Kailasa mountain.69

Siva's position here is unambiguous: he rejects the wife he has **&iva 2.2.19.1-76; 2.2.20.1-25; 2.3.49.3-10; Siva, Jnansamhita 18.62-68; Skanda 1.1.26.15-22; 6.77.16-75; Saura 59.54-61; Vdmana 53.56-59; Brahma 72.18. 67 Swa 2.2.19.58-60. 68 Ruben, Eisenschmiede, p. 207, 69 Varaha 1,21.1-88. 14

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History of Religions been given (though he is said to have rejoiced upon obtaining her) and does tapas because he is unable, rather than unwilling, to create without it. In the shorter version of this myth, Brahma takes care to tell him, "Create creatures to fill the universe; you are able to do this/'70 but Rudra disobeys him even then, and he clearly disagrees with him. The rejection of the woman who is the daughter of Daksa is the link used by the storyteller to introduce the related myth of the destruction of the sacrifice of Daksa, yet another variation on the theme of the conflict between Siva and Brahma; for Daksa is a Prajapati who replaces Brahma in later mythology and who comes to represent sexual creation and incest vis-a-vis ascetic creation.71 Yet Siva does not reject the woman outright, nor does he reject creation—merely a particular aspect of it at a particular time. 5. THE COMPLEMENTABITY OF BRAHMA AND SIVA

Siva's statement that he will become the destroyer, since there is already a creator, is typical of the series of myths in which Siva, having been forbidden to create immortals, refuses to create mortals and henceforth refuses to create at all.72|| || A strong Saiva bias usually prevails in these myths, and Siva is not condemned for his passionlessness, as the ascetic sons of Brahma usually are. But this reversal is only possible because the second path—sexual creation—is understood to be practiced by someone else, in this case Brahma. The sons in the earlier myth are censured only when they are at that time the only possible source of creation. Thus, later Hinduism resolves the conflict with another division, not into cycles but into different persons, or rather different aspects of the one person who in the other context simply passes through different phases. Brahma accomplishes sexual creation and Siva devotes himself to asceticism; the universe is supplied with mortality and immortality. Moreover, by refusing to create mortals or creatures subject to sickness and old age, Siva indulges in a kind of preventative euthanasia, a reversal of the reversal, so that the net result of his action is creative after all. 70 Vardha 1.33.4. 71 Siva 2.2.19.56, 2.2.42.22-29; Linga 1.63.2; Bhdgavata 4.2.22-23, 4.7.3; Skanda 4.2.87-89, 7.2.9.42; Vdyu 1.30.61; Vardha 1.33.1-33; Dembhdgavata 7.30.27-37; Kurma 1.14.61; Harivamsa (Bombay: Laksmi-Venkatesvara Steam Press, 1833-76), 3.22.1-7. 72 MHB VII, Appendix 1, No. 8,11. 70-131; Matsya 4.30-32; Vdyu 1.10.42-59; Brahmdnda 2.9.68-92; Siva 7.14; Linga 1.6.10-22; Skanda 7.2.9.5-17; Kurma 1.10.17-40. || || See Part I, Section B9.

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of &iva The complementarity of the two creative methods is clear from this variation: Brahma created the mind-born sages, who remained celibate and refused to create. Brahma then created Rudra from his anger, and he gave him various wives and told him to become a Prajapati and to create progeny with the wives he had received. Rudra created creatures like himself who swallowed up the universe on all sides, burning up the skies with their blazing eyes. Prajapati was frightened and said, "No more of these creatures; do tapas for the sake of all creatures, and create the universe as it was before.'* Siva agreed, and he went to the forest to do tapas. Then Brahma created his mental sons and Kama.73

Here Siva's act of creation is directly connected with death. Only creation by tapas is acceptable from Rudra, and Brahma supplements this method with his sexual creation and with the creation of Kama, to preserve the balance. Thus Brahma and Siva participate in aspects of each other so deeply that they exchange roles almost at random. Siva often acts for or instead of Brahma, and his opposition to Brahma is often based upon similarity of purpose. In many of the later myths, sexual creation is personified as Kama. And just as Brahma opposes Kama and curses him, so Siva brings about the realization of that curse, partly as the ascetic in opposition to Brahma (resisting the attacks of Kama that Brahma has directed) and partly as an extension of Brahma (chastising Kama as Brahma cursed him to be chastised). Moreover, just as Brahma both curses Kama and restores him, so Siva too destroys Kama, but simultaneously participates in Kama's nature and increases his power. In this way, the complex identity-opposition relation between Brahma and the various aspects of Siva underlies much of what appears to be paradoxical in the later mythology of Siva. G. SIVA AND KAMA

The conflict between Siva and Kama is a central point of the Saiva Puranas. In the later texts, Kama is sent against Siva by Brahma, merely out of spite and in revenge against Siva for chastising Brahma's incestuous behavior, as well as against Kama for causing this behavior.74 In the earlier Puranas, however, Kama is sent by Indra to cause Siva to marry and beget the son needed by the gods. And in a still earlier era, before Siva became the ascetic par 73 Bhdgavata 3.12.1-26. 74 Brhaddharma 2.53.40-41; Mahdbhdgavata 12-28; Siva 2.2.8.12-22; Skanda 5.2.13. 16

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History of Religions excellence, Indra sent Kama (or his assistants, the apsaras-es) to seduce ascetics in order to reduce the threat of their powers. In the context of the Kumara story, where the Kama-Siva conflict takes place, this episode is late.75 The birth of Kumara resulted first from the incestuous seed of Prajapati, then from Agni's seduction of the sages' wives, and then from the gods' need for a general. Yet most of the Puranas include the episode of Kama, and it is highly significant for Saiva mythology. Moreover, though the episode itself is comparatively late, the interaction of the forces which Siva and Kama represent—namely tapas and kdma—is central to Indian culture from the time of the Vedas and even before. Due to the remarkable continuity of that culture, the more elaborate and explicit myths of the Puranas may in fact capture and explain, as they claim to do, the often obscure meaning of the ancient tales. 1. THE CHASTITY OF SIVA

AND ITS CONTRADICTION

Siva is the natural enemy of Kama because he is the epitome of chastity, the eternal brahmacdrin, his seed drawn up,76 the very incarnation of chastity.77 When Himalaya brings his daughter Parvati to Siva, Siva objects with the traditional argument of misogyny: "This girl with her magnificent buttocks must not come near me; I insist upon this. Wise men know that a woman is the very form of Enchantment, especially a young woman, the destruction of ascetics. I am an ascetic, a yogi; what use have I for a woman ? An ascetic must never have contact with women."78 Because of his chastity, Siva is considered the one man in the universe who can resist Kama. When Brahma plots to have Siva seduced, he says, "But what woman in the triple world could enter his heart, cause him to abandon yoga, and delude him? Even Kama will not be able to delude him, for Siva is a perfect yogi and cannot bear even to hear women mentioned."79 But each of these statements is merely a thesis to be answered with an antithesis: Siva's chastity is set against his lust, his invulnerability against his susceptibility. Many of the myths illustrating the chastity of 75 A comparatively early reference to the burning of Kama by £iva appears in an inscription of A.D. 473-74, cited in John Faithfull Fleet, Inscriptions of the Early Gupta Kings and Their Successors ("Corpus inscriptionum indicarum," Vol. Ill [Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, 1888]), No. 18, p. 81, pi. xi, 11. 21-23. 76 MHB_ XIII.17.45 and 72. 77 Kumdrasambhava 5.30. ™&iva 2.3.12.28-33. i*Swa 2.2.8.17-18; cf. Matsya 154.213-16 and Skanda 1.2.24.17-20. 17

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of &iva Siva appear in a mirror image as well, or contain within themselves implications of his lust. One Saiva tale apparently in praise of Siva's chastity is an elaboration upon the myth in which Siva enlightens Visnu and causes him to leave the form of the boar in which he has married the Earth.$$ In this version, the Earth is replaced by a group of demon women, but the troublesome sons remain : Once when Visnu had driven the demons back to Hell, he happened to see there a group of beautiful women; struck by the arrows of desire, he stayed there and made love to the women, engendering in them sons that troubled the world. To save the gods, Siva took the form of a bull; he entered Hell, bellowing, and killed Visnu's sons. Then he enlightened Visnu, saying, "You must not indulge yourself sexually here, a slave to desire, dependent upon women." The other gods wished to enter Hell to see the voluptuous women, but Siva pronounced a curse, saying, "Except for a perfectly controlled sage or a demon born of me, whoever enters this place will die." Thus Visnu the supreme womanizer was chastised by Siva, and the universe became happy.80

Siva's position in this myth is fairly unequivocal in its chastity, but even here he assumes the form of a bull, the emblem of sexuality, instead of the mythical sarabha beast of the boar myth, and he cleverly modifies the curse to allow himself ("the perfectly controlled sage") and his sons to enjoy the demon women. The second variant elaborates upon this aspect of Siva until the whole point of the myth is reversed. After repeating the above myth with some minor variations, it continues: After Siva had pronounced the curse and the gods had returned to heaven, some time passed. Then one day, when Siva was rapt in thought and ParvatI asked him what he was thinking about, Siva said, "I am thinking about the beauty of the women of Hell, the most beautiful women in the universe." ParvatI wanted to see them for herself; she went to Hell and said to the women there, "You are like poisonous vines, for your beauty is of no use. Prajapati created women for the sake of the sexual enjoyment of men, but Siva cursed your husbands, forbidding them to enter here. Now let my sons, Siva's hosts, wise ascetics, be your husbands. [The commentator adds: 'They are ascetics, and so Siva has not forbidden their entrance here']. Make love with them." Then she vanished. Thus Visnu the supreme womanizer sported with the demon women in Hell.81

The reversal of the myth is clear from the reversal of the final line, where Visnu's sport, rather than his chastisement, is remembered. Siva himself cannot help thinking about the women, and the ambivalence of his position is revealed in the variant provided by his sons—who are allowed to make love to the demon women be## See Part I, Section Bl. so Siva 3.22.45-55; 3.23.1-36. Sl £iva, Dharmasamhita 9.46-61.

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History of Religions cause of their status as ascetics and their supposed chastity. But this paradox is a description of the contradictory nature of Siva himself. Indeed, it is almost impossible to find a myth in which Siva remains chaste throughout, though many myths are based upon the initial premise of his chastity. Even in the Mahdbhdrata passage which describes him as the chaste brahmacdrin, Siva is praised as the god who ' 'sports with the daughters and the wives of the sages, with erect hair, a great penis, naked, with an excited look. . . . All the gods worship his linga"*2* 2. THE BURNING OF KAMA

AND THE REVIVAL

The destruction of the god of desire would seem to be an unequivocally antisexual act, and that is in fact its original significance. The Mahdbhdrata says: "The great brahmacdrin, Siva, did not devote himself to the pleasures of lust; the husband of Parvati extinguished Kama when Kama attacked him, making Kama bodiless."83 Yet even here, the chastiser of Kama is simultaneously called the husband of Parvati, the erotic aspect of Siva. Throughout the Puranas, the meaning of the conquest of Kama by Siva is undercut by qualifying episodes and even complete reversals: Siva burns Kama only to revive him in a more powerful form; Siva burns Kama but is nevertheless sexually aroused; Siva burns Kama and is therefore a desirable lover; Siva is himself burnt by Kama; and, the final Hindu complication, Siva is Kama. Rebirth from fire is a generally accepted theme in Hinduism,84 and ashes are a particularly potent form of seed.85 The ashes of Kama, when smeared upon Siva's body in place of the usual funeral ashes, arouse great desire in him.86 Thus Kama's rebirth from his ashes is not surprising; in the Hindu tradition, the burning itself implies the revival. Even in the simple context of the myth, Kama's power is not destroyed when Siva burns him. Kama remains "Anaiiga," bodiless, but is said to retain his sexual function.87 Later, he is actually revived and given a new body, a new incarnation. 8

2 MHB XIII, Appendix 1, No. 4,11. 66-67, and XIII. 14.101-2.

*4&atapatha Brdhmana 2.2.4.8. 85 Ibid., 6.8.2.1-2 and 6; Padma 4.103.1-26; Brahmdnda 2.27.112-13; Linga 1.34.1-3 and 7-8; Siva, Jnanasamhita 48.86-89; Dani&ou, op. cit., p. 218. «• Brhaddharma 2.53.45-46; Kdlikd 44.125-26, 45.117-18; Mahdbhdgavata 24.1-8. Cf. Brahmavaivarta 4.43.27, 4.38.12, 4.45.20; Siva 2.3.19.27, 2.5.23.51; Matsya 154.259; Kumdrasambhava 4.34, 4.27. 87 Brhaddharma 2.53.44.

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of £iva Often, Siva revives Kama at the request of Parvati.88 Even at the time of the original curse, it is said that Kama will be reborn when Siva marries, or when he becomes impassioned,89 that is, when Kama reasserts his power over Siva.90 Parvati participates still more directly in the revival of Kama. She herself is the essence of Kama even when Kama is destroyed; when Kama was burnt and became bodiless, his essence entered into her limbs.91 Usually, this reincarnation is merely a metaphor: "May the water of Siva's sweat, fresh from the embrace of Gauri, which Kama employs as his aqueous weapon because of his fear of the fire of Siva's eye, protect you."92 Parvati is of course a particularly apt form for Kama to assume, as it was for her sake that he was burnt and it was her lover who burnt him, but the poetic image is extended to other women as well,93 particularly to the wives of the Pine Forest sages: "One woman, strewing flowers before him, seemed to be the flower-bow of Kama, which had assumed her form when it was frightened by the eye in Siva's forehead. . . . Another woman teased Siva, saying, 'Did you open the fiery eye in your forehead and burn Kama?' to which he replied, 'I am indeed made a laughingstock when he is reborn in your gaze, lovely one.'"9 The revival of Kama for the sake of Siva's honeymoon already indicates that Siva has undergone a change of heart, so it is not surprising that the reborn Kama has powers over Siva that he did not have before Siva destroyed him.95 Siva reincarnates Kama with a half of Siva's embodied essence in him,96 or he makes Kama one of his own hosts.97 In one version of the myth, Siva revives Kama at the wedding and gives him permission to use his arrows even against Siva himself.98 When the goddess revives Kama, she promises him: "Siva will lose his control because of you, and though his hatred of passion will make him angry at you, he will not be able to burn you, and he will marry Parvati." When Kama **Saura 54.1-4 and 16-20, 55.1-6.

89 Skanda 5.1.34.36-37; Siva 2.3.24.18-28; Kdlikd 3.15, 4.16-17; Brahmavaivarta 4.39.57. 90 Haracarita 9.154. 91 Brhaddharma 2.53.44. 92 Kathdsaritsdgara 2.1.1; cf. 1.1.1., 3.1.2.; and cf. Kumdrasambhava 1.41. 93 Subhdsitaratnakosa No. 395. 94 Bhiksdtanakdvya 8.20, 9.6. 95 Pdrvatlparinaya of Banabhatta (Madras Sanskrit Series No. 1 [Madras, 1898]), 4.34 and*5.32.3. 9 * Bhavisya 3.4.14.80.

*f£wa 2.3.19.37-48. Kumdrasambhava 7.92-93; Kathdsaritsdgara 3.6.60-73. 98

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History of Religions then attacks Siva, Siva is so heated with desire that he cannot cure the fever of his body, even by lying in snowy waters. Unable to extinguish the flame of Kama, he decides to marry Parvati.99 3. THE EROTIC APPEAL OF THE CHASTISEB OF KAMA

Many texts imply that Siva was wounded by Kama at the time when he supposedly destroyed Kama.100 Siva himself often admits that he is in the power of Kama,101 and his supposed conquest of Kama is often cited satirically when Siva is erotically engaged :102 "So now this Sankara [Siva], whose asceticism is known through all the world, fearful of absence from his mistress, bears her in his very form. And they say that we were overcome by him!" Victory to Love, who with these words presses Priti's [Rati's] hand and falls to laughter.103

The basis of the satire is the same as that of the false ascetic; because of his reputation for chastity, Siva's seduction is all the more to the credit of Kama and to the seductress. In praising Parvati's beauty, Narada says, "She caused Siva, who is without passion and is the enemy of Kama, to wander like a minnow lost in the depths of her loveliness."104 This "lack of passion" makes Siva all the more desirable, as it does the conventional ascetic.*** The women of Himalaya's city marvel at Siva's beauty and say, "Kama's body was not burnt by Siva when his anger mounted, but I think that out of shame when he saw Siva, Kama himself burnt his body."10* It is his supposed invulnerability to desire that causes Parvati to desire Siva; she wants him for her husband because he has destroyed Kama. Although everyone cites the burning of Kama when trying to dissuade her from her love of Siva,106 Parvati merely laughs and replies, "This passionless Siva, who burnt Kama, will be won by my tapas, for he is loving to his devotees."107 But the bhakti argument is superfluous here, for the contradiction 99 Brahmdnda 4.30.58-61 and 71-84; cf. Skanda 7.1.200.9-30. 100 Siva 2.2.17.63-64; Kdlikd 10.54-55. Mahdbhdgavata 24.28, 25.25; Vdmana 6.36; Pdrvatlparinaya 4.7. 102 Swa 2.5.51.35-46. 103 Subhdsitaratnakosa No. 323. ™*Skanda 2.4.17.10'; cf. Padma 6.11.6. *** See Part I, Section B4. 105 Matsya 154.473; Kumdrasambhava 7.67; cf. Vdmana 53.30-31. 106 Siva 2.3.25.45, 2.3.23.5; Skanda 1.1.21.150, 1.2.25.67; Matsya 154.327-28. 107 Siva 2.3.23.12; Skanda 1.1.21.155. 21 101

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of feiva is inherently resolvable in psychological terms. Kalidasa expresses this resolution in metaphor: Though Kama's body was destroyed by Siva's eye, his arrow, unable to reach its goal and repelled by Siva's unbearable cry of defiance, wounded Parvati deeply in her heart.108

Thus Parvati desires Siva because he has destroyed Desire. And when she has won him, the poet describes her as "naively smiling when they say that he hates Love."109 In the midst of another erotic adventure, Siva remarks, "Kama is attacking me, remembering our former enmity."110 Thus Siva admits that his "destruction" of Kama has merely added to Kama's power over him. 4. THE LUST OF THE CHASTISES, OF KAMA

Even without the episodes of the revival of Kama or the eventually successful attack waged by him, the very act of burning Kama betrays Siva's vulnerability and innately erotic nature. Siva is highly aroused by Kama before he can regain control of himself.111 Siva himself muses upon this phenomenon: "How can I lust to make love to Parvati when she has not performed a vow of tapas ? And how is it that I wish to rape her ? How can I have been excited by desire when I do not wish it right now? For some reason I seem to be attracted to this girl and to wish to unite with her."112 When Kama uses various magical wiles to arouse Siva, entering his heart in the form of the humming of bees or shooting him with flower arrows, Siva regains his composure with great effort by various techniques of yoga.113 The subduing of lust is an important part of yoga philosophy, which emphasizes that the lust must be present in the first place for the yogi to work upon :ff f "Once the mind has stimulated the power of sex, the yogi cannot recover his mastery over himself, the brilliance of his inner light, until he has burned up lust by bringing the power of his seed up to the fifth center."114 Just as Kama's body is preserved in its essence in the ashes on the chest of the ascetic, so the power of lust within the 108 109

Kumdrasambhava 5.54. SubJidsitaratnakosa No. 65. no Kdlikd 52.112. 111 Siva, Jnanasamhita 9-18, 10.73; Siva 2.3.18; SJcanda 1.1.21, 5.2.13; Vdmana 6; 112 Matsya 154.237-38. Kdlikd 44.110-12. 113 Matsya 154.235-48; Haracarita 9.53-57; Skanda 5.2.13.27-35. f114 f t See Part I, Section D3. R. K. Narayan, Gods, Demons, and Others (New York: Viking Press, 1964), p. 94. 22

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History of Religions ascetic is not fully destroyed but is transmuted into ascetic power. The original presence of the emotion of lust is implied in Siva's violent reaction to Kama; were he totally impervious, he would not even have bothered to burn Kama.115 A Ceylonese version of the burning of Kama makes explicit this vulnerability of Siva: Maha Ishvara [Siva] is God. Uma his wife lives in his turban because from the turban it is very easy to have sexual intercourse. One day Uma saw a man of great beauty. She had sex relations with the man. When Maha Ishvara heard of this he was angry and gazed on the man with his third eye. The man was reduced to ashes. Uma craved Maha Ishvara's pardon and begged him to recreate the man. The man was recreated but he was without genitals.116

Here, Siva injures Kama not because Kama has tried to inspire lust in him, but because he has tried to interfere with it. The reversal of the usual roles is revealed by the nature of the punishment inflicted upon Kama: castration, which is the central motif of many of the myths of Siva. The significance of this punishment in this context, and its pertinence to both Siva and Kama, arises from the theme of the destruction (or castration) and resurrection of the fertility god, Siva or Kama. Meyer suggests that the myth of Siva's burning of Kama stems from the Indo-Germame rite of burning the tree that symbolizes the daemon of fertility (the ancient "Indra pole"), and that this burning was later replaced by the self-castration of the god.117 Thus, just as Siva's castration is procreative, releasing into the universe at large the power of his linga, so his burning of Kama is ultimately conducive to fertility. 5. THE PABTIAL IDENTITY OF SIVA AND KAMA

In a relationship similar to that which characterizes his conflict with Brahma, Siva opposes Kama in part due to their opposition as ascetic and erotic gods, but in part also because of their competition as fertility gods. The argument used to make Brahma retract his curse upon Kama is used to make Siva revive him: "Have mercy toward Kama. It was you who created him and who instructed him in the very action which he has performed, using the ability that you gave him."118 The South Indian tradition 115 Sitfohdsitaratnakosa 116

No. 4. Nur O. Yalman, personal communication based on field work undertaken in Ceylon (central) in 1954-55; cited by Edmund R. Leach, "Pulleyar and the Lord Buddha: An Example of Syncretism," Psychoanalysis and the Psychoanalytic Review (Summer, 1962), pp. 89-90. 117 Johann Jakob Meyer, Trilogie der Altindischer Mdchte und Feste der Vegetation (Zurich: Max Niehans Verlag, 1937), I, 206. us Kalika 44.121-22; Skanda 1.1.21.96.

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of &iva states that Siva created Kama and gave him the boon of exciting love among all creatures when Kama had adored the Siva-Zwgra.119 Siva, in his turn, partakes of the nature of Kama: he becomes Kama to seduce the Pine Forest women;120 he resembles Kama when seducing many apsaras-es and mortal women;121 he is a master of the Kdmasutra ;122 and he is "the Lord of Kama [Kamesvara]" when he marries.123 One passage links Siva with Kama in the seduction of a number of sages, including several who are aspects of Siva or the enemies of Siva: "Siva, assisted by Kama, deluded many heroes by his powers of magic, causing Visnu to rape the wives of other men, Indra to sin with Gautama's wife and to be cursed, Agni to be conquered by Kama, Daksa and his brothers to lust for their sister, Brahma to wish to make love to his daughter—and all of them were deluded by Siva."124 These myths, which involve Siva either as seduced or as seducer, are lumped together to glorify the erotic aspect of Siva. The complexity of the manner in which Kama, Siva, Brahma, and Agni—all representing different aspects of creation—assume one another's roles may be seen in a version of the burning of Kama which transposes almost every episode of the myth, beginning with what is usually the end: the gods beg Siva to marry and beget a son; Siva refuses to have anything to do with a woman, but he gives them his seed [tejas, fiery glory], placed in Agni, and returns to his meditation. Only at this point does Kama appear: The gods went with Siva's seed and told Brahma what had happened; Brahma laughed, and from his mouth Kama appeared, born from Brahma's creative heat [tejas]. Kama's power [tejas] caused men and women everywhere to unite, tortured by lust, but Siva created a great ascetic fire [tejas] from his third eye and assuaged that sickness. Kama became angry at this, and, taking up his arrows, he filled Siva with desire. Siva married Parvati, the yogini, and made love to her for a thousand years. The gods, afraid that the world would be destroyed, went there and praised Siva. Siva and Parvati were ashamed and angry, and a great heat arose from them. The gods fled, but Kama alone remained there, unafraid; the fire of Siva's anger burnt Kama to ashes, but Rati propitiated 125 Siva so that he promised to revive Kama with a half of his own essence.

Almost every element of the basic myth has been transposed: the 119 R. Dessigane, J. Filliozat, and P. Z. Pattabiramin, Les Ugendes fivaites de Kdftcipuram (Pondich^ry, 1964), No. 48, pp. 61-62. 120 Skanda 5.3.38.17. 121 Padma 5.53.6. 122 Siva 2.3.50.38. 123 Brahmdnfa 4.14.18-21. 124 &i;a 5.4.16-39. 125 Bhavisya 3.4.14.45. 24

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History of Religions giving of the seed comes first instead of last; Kama is created when Brahma laughs at the way in which Siva has shed his seed instead of when Siva laughs at the shedding of Brahma's seed; J J J Kama attacks Siva because Siva has burnt the essence of Kama instead of the usual situation in which Siva burns Kama because Kama has attacked him; and after the wedding, when Siva usually restores Kama, he finally burns him up—not for stimulating desire but for interrupting it, as Agni usually does. In fact, the burning of Kama replaces the "burning" of Agni (i.e., the cursing of Agni to bear the burning seed), which has already taken place at the beginning of the whole sequence. This exchange of roles evolves from the basic similarity and flexibility of the characters involved, all of whom epitomize some aspect of tejas, the fiery power to create or destroy: tejas is Agni; it is the burning seed of Siva, the creative laugh of Brahma, the power of Kama to inspire desire, the power generated by the love making of Siva and Parvati, and the fire of Siva's third eye. All of these are essential to the myth, no matter at what place in the myth they may occur. As Siva and Kama are both creators, their roles are closely intertwined in the creation myths, as are the roles of Siva and Brahma. In one version of the androgynous creation, Kama is the male half instead of Siva,126§§§ and Brahma creates Kama in order to proceed with eternal creation, just as he enlists the aid of Rudra when his ascetic sons fail him. Creation usually proceeds from a combination of the erotic and ascetic powers; so the ultimate power of Kama is derived from the force of his original essence strengthened by the contact with Siva: Siva reduced Kama to ashes, and the fire from his third eye then yawned wide to burn the universe. But then, for the sake of the world, Siva dispersed that fire among mangoes and the moon and flowers and bees and cuckoos—thus he divided the fire of Kama. That fire which had pierced Siva inside and outside, kindling passion and affection, serves to arouse people who are separated, reaching the hearts of lovers, and it blazes night and day, hard to cure.127

Kama's power is thus no longer concentrated in one anthropomorphic form but is diffused into the world, like the demons from Pandora's box. It is only by "destroying" Kama that Siva releases the full power of Kama, the more compelling as it is augmented by contact with Siva's own force. The interaction of the JJt See Part I, Section B2.

128

Brahmavaivarta 4.35.39. §§§ See Part I, Section B9, and above, Section F2. 127 Matsya 154.250-55.

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of ISiva two supposedly incompatible fires—the fire of desire and the fire of asceticism—is clear from the context. The phrase "the fire of Kama" is a pun, denoting the fire used by Kama and against him as well. The image of the intermingling fires (transmuted into the mango and cuckoo) appears in a classical verse: Within the wood the cuckoos charm the heart with warbling of their throats grown strong from eating of fresh mango buds. What here pretend to be their eyes, if but the truth were known, are sparks fanned by the flames of Siva's glance from the coals of burning Love.128

Yet, in spite of all the examples of the interchanging roles of the two gods and the intermingling of their powers, it is clear that whereas Kama is merely one aspect of Siva, the reverse is not true. Siva is Kama—but he is more as well, and it is this "more" that opposes Kama. Siva is the god of virility, Kama the god of sensuality.129 Siva burns Kama because of Kama's frivolous approach to a matter which for Siva involves the procreation of the cosmos rather than the titillation which is Kama's stock in trade. When Parvati accuses Siva of taking no pleasure in Desire, Siva replies: "Our love is more than Desire; how could it be born of mere Desire ? Formerly, I made the universe by giving birth to Desire, and I myself made Desire for the sexual pleasure of each person. How then can you reproach me for burning Desire ? Kama thought that I was just like the other gods, and he disturbed my mind, and so I burnt him to ashes."130 From this it appears that Siva objects not to Kama's essence, which he accepts as his own, but to Kama's particular way of manifesting it. Similarly, Brahma, who created Kama to excite creatures, cursed him not for doing so but for doing it at an inappropriate time and place. Both Siva and Kama are fertility gods, but Siva is ascetic and destructive as well; and Siva has not merely assimilated the character of Kama, for Kama is a comparative latecomer to the Indian scene, and Siva's creative aspect is taken from Indra and Agni and Brahma long before the advent of Kama. It is in Agni in particular that Siva and Kama merge, both being aspects of the erotic fire, while Siva also represents the ascetic fire. 128

Subhd$itaratnakosa No. 171. 129 p. Thomas, Kama Kalpa: The Hindu Ritual of Love (llth ed.; Bombay: D. B. Taraporevala, 1959), p. 114. 130 Siva 7.1.24.43-45. 26

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History of Religions H. ASCETICS, HOUSEHOLDERS, AND FOBEST-DWELLEBS IN &AIVA MYTHOLOGY

In some versions of the Pine Forest myth, Siva acts as an ascetic against the wives of the sages to make the sages devote themselves to more perfect tapas. In others he acts as an erotic god to shock the sages out of their tapas and back to their marital responsibilities. This confusion of purposes is strengthened by the ambiguity of Siva himself in this respect. Siva resolves these conflicts to a great extent within his own character, and the failure of the myth to come to a similar resolution with regard to his human counterparts, the forest-dwellers, is due to the innate character of the myth, which, although free to pursue certain solutions impossible in the world of reality, must ultimately falter in the attempt to resolve a true social contradiction. || || || Siva himself opposes the compromise attempted by the forest-dwellers, striving in different versions to correct flaws either of asceticism or of worldliness, so that one goal does not eclipse the other. 1. SIVA VERSUS THE FOREST-DWELLERS

Siva's opposition to the wives of the sages is based in part upon his character as the chaste, misogynist ascetic, but also upon the more generally held view that women can only cause trouble when they accompany their husbands to the forest, $$$ a theory which Siva proves by seducing them. Siva says, "Their wives are princesses proud of their beauty, and they befoul the sages' minds so that the sages curse whatever men enter the woods, in fear of the infidelity of their own wives. . . . Those 'ascetics' lust for their wives' lotus mouths."131 The sages themselves attribute their shortcomings to their marital status: "We have the wits of fools; the Self has not been revealed to the householder."132 Just as much evidence can be adduced for the opposite point of view—that Siva comes to the forest to teach the sages to give up their tapas and to devote themselves to their wives. Brahma says to the sages, "You live in a hermitage but you are overcome by anger and lust; yet the true hermitage of a wise man is his home, while for the man who is not a true yogi even the hermitage is merely a house."133 Agrawala sees in this myth the doctrine by See Part I, Section Al. See Part I, Section C2. 31 Haracarita 10.27-188; Yagl&varamahatmya 276.10. ™*Skanda 6.258.25-26. 133 Vdmana 43.87.

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of &iva which "one performs the ordained duties of the householder's life and thus obtains the objective of true renunciation,"134 that is, the traditional attempt to reconcile the two goals.**** This is Siva's familiar antiascetic role, the Dionysian aspect that he assumes in order to oppose the tapas of the sons of Brahma (who are the Pine Forest sages)135 and to send them back to the world of normal social involvement. In this way, both points of view are often expressed side by side in a single version, and almost all versions agree on a somewhat modified form of each extreme: Siva praises santi, calm self-control and lack of passion, even in versions which condemn violent tapas,136 and he teaches the value of linga worship even while criticizing excessive attachment to one's wife.137 He points out the insufficiency of mere tapas alone: "The sages are not free from emotions, though they have entered the forest and performed the rituals. . . . The smearing of ashes upon the body, the wearing of great matted locks, the bald head, garland of skulls, nakedness, the ochre robe—the whole vow is made vain by desire and anger. Being in such a state, they will not obtain Release by means of tapas, which merely dries up the body."138 Desire must be conquered, not denied; it is by means of linga worship that tapas becomes successful; once the sages with their wives have worshiped his linga, they succeed;139 yet they must honor the linga while maintaining true chastity and great tapas.14° Tapas—with true chastity—and devotion to their wives—with linga worship—each must be done in the proper way, and then they sustain rather than oppose each other. 2. DIVA'S FAILURE TO RECONCILE THE BOLES OF ASCETIC AND HOUSEHOLDER

The conflict within Siva's own character is more inescapable and yet ultimately more possible to resolve. The initial attempt at 134 Vasudeva Sarana Agrawala, Vdmana Purana: A Study (Benares: All-India Kashiraj Trust, 1964), p. 87. **** See Part I, Section Cl. 135 Kurma 2.39.39-40; Haracarita 10.7-8; Skanda 7.3.39.8; Vdmana 43.40-95, 44.1-39. 136 Brdhmdn$a 2.27; Vdmana 43-44; Kurma 2.39.43-67; Linga 1.29 and 31; Darpadalana 7. 13 ? Vdmana 6 and 43; Ydgisvaramdhdtmya; Siva, Dharmasamhita 10; Jnanasamhita 42; Linga 1.29 and 31; Skanda 5.2.11, 6.1.6, 7.1.187, 7.3.39; Brahmdrida 2.27. 138 Vdmana 43.52; Darpadalana 7.68. 189 Ydgisvaramdhdtmya 276. 140 Kurma 2.39.2-5, 2.38.60. 28

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History of Religions resolution may at first result not in a successful embodiment of both aspects but rather in the achievement of neither one. Mena, the mother of Parvati, scorns Siva because he is penniless and makes love to Parvati constantly141—that is, she sees him as a bad husband (poor) and a bad yogi (lascivious) rather than as a good husband (virile) and a good yogi (indifferent to material objects). Similarly, Daksa does not see Siva as one thing or another: "He is not primarily an ascetic, for how can an ascetic bear weapons as he does ? And he cannot be counted among the householders, for he lives in a burning-ground. He is not a brahmacdrin, since he has married, and how could he be a forest-dweller, since he is deluded with pride in his supreme lordship [and a forest-dweller must give up all material ties] ? He belongs to none of the four classes, and is neither male nor female [because he is an androgyne]; 142 and he certainly cannot be a eunuch, for his lingo, is an object of worship."

A similar objection to Siva's unique behavior in the Pine Forest is the basis of the sages' curse: "This is not the kind of behavior proper for householders like us; nor is it the manner of those who are fond of chastity, nor of those who dwell in the forest. It is not the dkarma for ascetics, either; it is not done anywhere."143 The problem underlies the statement made by the Seven Sages to test Parvati: There are two kinds of pleasures in the world, mental and physical. Siva, being a disgusting beggar, is of no use for pleasures of the body, and, being inauspicious because of his necrophilic associations, he cannot even satisfy the longings of the mind.144 It is frequently said against Siva in the myths that he is a bad, or even a false, ascetic because of his involvement with Parvati. The demon Jalandhara mocks Siva: "How can you live on alms and yet keep the beautiful Parvati ? Give her to me, and wander from house to house with your alms bowl. You have fallen from your vow. . . . You are a yogi; what need have you for the gem of wives? You live in the woods attended by goblins and ghosts; being a naked yogi, you should give your wife to one who will appreciate her better than you do."145 This sexual involvement makes Siva vulnerable to his enemies and reduces his ascetic powers. The combination of roles works against him in the opposite 141 42 1 143

Vdyu 2.30.32. Skanda 4.2.87.29-35. Brahmanda 2.27.28-29. 144 Matsya 154.330-39; Padma 5.40.322-33; Haracartta 9.96-100. 145 Padma 6.11.45-47, and 49, 6.11.25-26, 6.101.19-20; Skanda 2.4.17.18-19; £iva 2.5.19.8-9.

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of &iva way as well: a number of texts point out that, being an ascetic, Siva is a somewhat unsatisfactory husband.146 As Siva himself puts it: "I am the greatest of the eleven Rudras, the lord of yoga; how can I take a beautiful wife, a woman who is the very form of Illusion ? Any yogi ought to regard every woman as if she were his mother; I am a yogi; how can I marry a woman, my mother? "i4? In addition to the classical problems of the married yogi, Siva has certain other problems due to his immortality. This particularly complicates the knotty problem of the son of the ascetic: Parvati wished to have a natural son, but Siva said, "I am not a householder, and I have no use for a son. The wicked gods presented me with a wife, but a wife is the most useless thing for a man who is without passion. Offspring are a noose and I will have none. Householders have need of a son and wealth; for them, a wife is necessary for the sake of a son, and sons are necessary to give the oblations to the ancestors. But I never die, and so I have no need for a son; when there is no disease, what use is medicine?" Still Parvati insisted, "What you say is true, but nevertheless I wish to have a child. When you have begotten a child, you can return to your yoga. I will take care of the son and you can be a yogi as you wish. I have a great desire for the kiss of a son's mouth, and since you have made me your wife you should beget a child upon me. If you wish, your son 148 will be averse to marriage, so that you will not establish a whole lineage."

Thus a son is avoided by Siva for the very reason that mortals usually need one: for the sake of immortality through progeny.ftff The conflict cannot be resolved in cycles, as Parvati attempts to do in suggesting that the son will be chaste to make up for the sexual lapse of the father, because this involves the very chain of rebirth from which Siva, as the epitome of the yogi, has divorced himself and of which he, as a god, has no need. Nor can it be solved simply by the shorter phases of sex and yoga which alternate in the life of SivaJJJJ (as she suggests, after begetting the child he may return to yoga, as he does after the birth of Skanda), for, as a mythological and symbolic figure, Siva is simultaneously yogi and husband. In this particular instance, the solution is the creation of a magical, unnatural child for Parvati, as the mortal solution was often the birth of an illegitimate child from the unnaturally shed seed of the yogi. This conflict leads to many quarrels between Siva and Par146 Siva 2.2.16.41 and44, 2.3.36.12, 2.3.27.32; tffowda 1.1.35.27-34,1.1.22.67-81, 2.25.59-66. 147 Bhavisya 3.4.14.40-43. 148 Brhaddharma 2.60.7-51; cf. Haracarita 9.175-84. tttt See Part I, Section B8. See below, Section I. 30

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History of Religions vati149 in which she frequently berates him for his antierotic behavior. When she asks him why he has burnt Kama, he answers lamely that it was not he who burnt Kama, but merely his third eye.150 At other times she teases him: "You did tapas for a long time in order to obtain me as your wife; then why did you destroy Kama ? When Kama has been destroyed, what use have you for a wife ? This is an act of a yogi [not of a husband], to destroy Kama. . . . If you take no sexual pleasure in me, how have you managed to make love to me ? But sexual pleasure cannot make you happy, for you burnt Kama to ashes."151 She holds his asceticism responsible for the antierotic turn of mind that leads him to insult her sexual pride. Her resentment of his tapas is reflected in the belief that South Indian yogis, snake charmers, and scavengers "account for their condition as resulting from a curse that was imposed because of some slighting remarks made regarding Parvati's breasts."152 3. THE [RECONCILIATION OF SIVA AND PARVATI

The quarrels are an important part of the mythology of Siva and Parvati, in part because they demonstrate the conflict between the aspects of Siva, but also because, in the Hindu view, quarrels, violence, and separation enhance rather than mar a sexual relationship.153 The quarrels of Siva and Parvati bring about a hiatus in their sexual union that makes it possible for them to replenish their powers by means of £opas.§§§§ Then, reconciled, they can apply those powers to the process of procreation. In the cyclic view, therefore, the quarrel is ultimately a sexual stimulus. This is most graphically illustrated by the solution of one argument: "As Siva and Parvati quarreled, the uproar from that quarrel burst through the ground and became a linga. The gods named it the Linga of the Lord of Quarrels, and whoever worships it is for149 Edward J. Thompson and Arthur Marshman Spencer, Bengali Religious Lyrics, Sdkta (Calcutta: Association Press; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1923), Nos. XCII, C, XCVI, XCVII; Padma 4.110.248-69; Subhdsitaratnakosa Nos. 34 and 59; Kumdrasambhava 8.49-51; Hdldsyamahdtmya No. 57; Skanda 5.2.40.17-19; Dinesh Chandra, Sen, History of Bengali Language and Literature (Calcutta: Calcutta University Press, 1911), pp. 245, 248. 150 Saura 54.4. 151 Mahdbhdgavata 23.5-8; Siva 7.24.33-35. 152 Q. w. Briggs, Gorakhndth and the Kdnphati Yogis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1938), p. 57. 153 Subhdsitaratnakosa, part 22, vss. 700-751; Kdmasutra II.4-5; E. C. Dimock, Jr., The Place of the Hidden Moon; Erotic Mysticism in the Vaisnava Sdhajiyd Cult of Bengal (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966), p. 212. §§§§ See below, Section I.

2—H.O.B.

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of &iva ever free from quarrels in his house."154 The quarrel produces the symbol of sexual union which explicitly prevents quarrels, a most concise example of the workings of cyclic Saiva mythology. When Siva quarrels with Parvati in his ascetic aspect, he reunites with her in his erotic aspect.155 But the rapprochement may come about from the opposite direction as well: Siva may remain an ascetic and Parvati may come to accept him in this aspect. Though she often berates him for lacking a house during the rainy season,156 she consents to go with him above the clouds to avoid the rain;157 she comes to accept the clouds and mountains as a more wonderful kind of house than the conventional one. Her attachment to Siva is unconventional, and incomprehensible to her parents,158 but it is not without cause. Just as she desires him because he has destroyed Kama, so she loves him for the very reasons that are cited against him: "Bhola [the fool, a name of Siva] is ever laughing and weeping and knows no one save me. He is always eating hemp, and I must stay near him. I cannot keep from worrying . . . about this madman."159 The funeral ashes on his chest, the third eye in his forehead, the matted locks through which the river Ganges flows, the snakes which adorn him everywhere, the bloody elephant skin wrapped around his chest, or his nakedness—all may transcend their conventional and literal repulsiveness and exert a magical erotic power. When Siva, in disguise, reviles himself before her to test her,160 he means it ostensibly as a deterrent to her love for him, but there is in all the wine and wildness which he seems to censure the Dionysian quality of life that strengthens her love even as he speaks of horrible things. The ambiguous nature of Siva's appeal is illustrated by a benedictory poem in which desire masquerades as fear: "Whence comes this perspiration, love?" "From the fire of your eye." "Then why this trembling, fair-faced one?" "I fear the serpent prince." m Skanda 5.2.18.31-34. 155

Ethel Beswick, Tales of Hindu Gods and Heroes (Bombay: Jaico, 1959), pp. 106-7; Skanda 6.253.1-37, 6.254.1-104. 156 Brahma 38.23-40; Harivamsa 1.29.37; Brahmdnda 3.67.32-36; Vdyu 2.30.29-58; Siva, Jfianasarnhita 14.22.

w£iva 2.2.22.1-54; Kdlikd 15.1-53; Vdmana 1.11-31. iss Skanda 1.1.23.1-19, 1.2.23.1-59, 7.2.9.24; Siva 2.3.8.8-13, 2.3.9.5, 2.3.22.2023,2.3.31.1-52,2.3.32.1-65, 2.3.30.26-54, 2.3.43.1-65, Siva, Jnanasamhita 16-18; Bhdgavata 4.2.11-16; Brahmavaivarta 4.40.71-111; Haracarita 9.39 and 43. I" Thompson and Spencer, op. cit., No. XCVIII. leo Skanda 1.1.22.67-68; 1.2.25.59-66; Siva 2.3.27.32; Kumarasambhava 5.62-73. 32

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History of Religions "But still, the thrill that rises on your flesh?" "Is from the Ganges' spray, my lord." May Gaurfs hiding thus her161 heart for long be your protection.

Siva's horrible ornaments fascinate her, revealing the hidden desire in destruction, just as he shows, in the burning of Kama, the destruction that may pervade desire. 4. 6lVA AS HOUSEHOLDER AND ASCETIC

Thus the asceticism which seems at first to interfere with his life as a householder is seen to enhance it, and it is therefore not surprising that Siva appears often as the householder par excellence.162 He is said to have married Sati and become a householder,163 to have become incarnate as a householder,164 to have married with the conventional rituals and to have lived as a householder with Parvati,165 and to have envied Brahma and Visnu their married lives.166 Moreover, though Siva cannot have a conventional son, he is nevertheless capable of enjoying unconventional pleasures of paternity. Little Kumara plays with the cobra that serves Siva as a necklace, counting his hoods or fangs with childish inaccuracy—"one, three, ten, eight"—so that Siva and Parvati laugh.167 Kumara romps among all the ascetic accouterments: May Guha [Skanda] save you from misfortune, who rolls at will upon his father's chest until his limbs are whitened from the funeral ash; who from the headdress then dives deep into the Ganges at the coldness of whose stream he cries aloud, till trembling and with chattering teeth 168 he holds his hands before the blazing eye.

In another verse, the horrible ornaments are used as toys or "mistaken" for toys, in the Sanskrit convention, quite transcending the natural contrast between the hideous and charming aspects of the objects: He touches the garland made of skulls in hope that they are geese 161 Subhdsitaratnakosa 162

No. 75. G. S. Ghurye, Gods and Men (Bombay: Popular Book Depot, 1962), p. 31; Sen, op. cit., p. 67. "3 Siva 2.2.1.19. "4 Siva 3.13-15. 165 Mahdbhdgavata 12.17. 16 » Kdlikd 10.26-28. 167 Skanda 1.1.27.107-8; Subhdsitaratnakosa No. 95. 168 Subhdsitaratnakosa No. 92. 33

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of Siva and shakes the crescent moon with eagerness to grasp a lotus filament. Thinking the forehead-eye a lotus flower, he tries to pry it open. May Skanda thus intent on play within his father's arms protect you.169

In this manner, the ascetic and householder meet in Siva without contradiction or compromise, though not without a certain amount of conflict. This tension, expressed by the mythology in terms of marital discord and unnatural children, is ultimately obviated by the attitude of Parvati, as it is accepted in the mind of the worshiper, through bhakti, a deep love for the god, transcending all reason. The Puranas abound in explicit statements of Siva's reconciliation of the two roles: "When Siva became incarnate as the Rudra on Kailasa mountain, he was a yogi, free from any emotions; he then became a householder, marrying the best of women. Though he was an ascetic, he married her, herself an ascetic, at the importunity of Visnu."170 This importunity is described in detail: Krsna summoned Siva and said, "Marry the Goddess." Siva smiled and said, "I will not take a wife like any natural man. A woman is an obstacle to knowledge and salvation, an instrument of lust and delusion. I do not want a household wife; I wish to remain free of all enjoyments and sexual pleasures." Krsna said, "You are the greatest of ascetics and yogis; but now you must marry and enjoy erotic pleasures for a thousand years. You must not be merely an ascetic; in time you will be a householder and a man of tapas as you wish. And only an evil woman brings the misery that you see in union with a wife; not a chaste woman. Sati will be your171 wife, and men will worship your linga placed in the yoni of the Goddess."

Krsna here convinces Siva to avoid being "merely" an ascetic or a householder. The argument—that a virtuous wife is a boon and only a wicked woman a burden—is used against Siva by the Pine Forest sages, who try to convince him that his wife must be abandoned because she is unchaste, while they wish their own "chaste" wives to remain with them.172 Without any feeling of contradiction, the devotee sees in Siva the realization of all possibilities: he is an ascetic and a householder at once; of course he is the eternal brahmacdrin; and he is a forest-dweller in all those myths in which he performs tapas with Parvati. A passage similar to Daksa's diatribe against Siva appears in a hymn in praise of Siva: "You are not a god or a 169 170

Subhasitaratnakoaa No. 91. Siva 2.2.1.3-5. 171 Brahmavaivarta 1.6.1-40. «» Kurnia 2.38.25-32. 34

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History of Religions demon, nor a mortal, nor an animal; you are not a Brahmin nor a man nor a woman nor a eunuch."173 Even the accusations of Daksa and the sages are based not on the absence of any particular requirement for any particular stage, but rather on the presence of qualities from another stage which seem to conflict with the stage in question. He does not lack asceticism, but he has weapons as well; he does not lack a wife, but he lives in the burninggrounds (rather than in a house) as well. The stages of life meet in two ways in the mythology of Siva : Parvati herself brings elements of the householder ethic into the world of asceticism when she leaves her father's palace to marry Siva, and he introduces elements of tapas into the tradition of married life by accepting her. This mirrors the symbiotic relationship of conventional and ascetic thought in the actual social order. Both Siva and Parvati transgress the normal social order to unite the superficially opposed elements of tapas and kdma that are reconciled in the religious sphere and that, by implication, ought to be combined in ordinary life as well. The opposition on the mortal level is between the two goals: it is best to be a holy man, to give up all sensual pleasures, and it is best to beget sons, to fulfil one's duties to society. This is of course a problem known to other cultures as well, but in Hinduism it is exaggerated, because nowhere on earth are passionless sages more venerated and nowhere are the ties of family and progeny, strengthened by caste strictures and the importance of rituals for the dead, more compelling. Man himself must be both procreative and ascetic; so god must be the most ascetic of ascetics, the most erotic of lovers. He resolves the paradox in his own character by embodying a philosophy found throughout Hinduism: that chastity and sexuality are not opposed but symbiotic, that the chaste man is procreative by virtue of his chastity, and that the man who lives happily with his wife is performing a sacrament in his very life—if he but realizes it. I. CYCLES OF SEXUALITY AND ASCETICISM IN SIVA

The social phases embodied in the four-stage system appear on the cosmic level as a constant, cyclic readjustment in the forces of tapas and kama, a waning and waxing of powers that can never be "3 &m 2.2.15.61; cf. MHB XIII.17.56; Nilakantha on MHB XIII.17.58 (Bombay). 35

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of Siva dispersed or destroyed, but only transmuted into one another. This interplay begins with the basic Hindu belief that ascetic power is destroyed by any sexual influence.174|| || || | Siva himself is susceptible to this loss of his ascetic powers, and for this reason he destroys Kama. When he enters his procreative phase, he is not immediately reduced in any way, for his ascetic powers are sexual powers. But eventually his powers are drained, and he must pass on to the next phase of the cycle: After marrying Parvati, Siva made love to her for a thousand years, but then he lost all of his tejas and his virility. Seeing himself thus diminished, Siva resolved to perform tapas, and he undertook a great vow. . . . He said to Parvati, "My dear, the vow that I performed before gave me powers which I have now exhausted, for I lost my ascetic merit by making love 175 to you day and night. Now I must again enter the forest and perform tapas,"

Even without the specific tradition of asceticism, Siva must perform tapas in order to regain his lost powers in his role of vegetation god. As the representative of the powers of nature, he must, like nature itself, replenish from time to time the energies which he has spent.176 Siva exhausts his powers when he succumbs to Kama. He then returns to his tapas, but, as the cycle continues, the tapas that he performs gives him still greater sexual powers than he had before the confrontation, just as Kama himself is eventually magnified by his battle with Siva. 1. TAPAS AS EXPIATION

Tapas is able to restore not only sexual power but moral power as well; a part of the traditional expiation for sexual sins is the performance of vows of asceticism.177 When Siva wishes to seduce the wife of Bhadrayu and Bhadrayu protests that by so doing he will incur great evil, Siva replies, "I can scatter with my tapas the sin of the slaughter of a Brahmin or the drinking of wine; so what is the seduction of another man's wife to me ? Give me your wife."178 For this reason, the wanderings of Siva as a Kapalika, particularly i74Dubois, op. cit., p. 508; Manu 11.121-22; Matsya 3.39-40; 14.1-8. || || || jl See Part I, Section Bl-2. 175 &va, Dharmasamhita 4.126-29; Vdmana 60.1-6. 176 Jan Gonda, Veda und dlterer Hinduismus (Die Religionen Indiens, Vol. I [Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 1963]), p. 258. 177 Manu 11.123; Agni Purdna (Anandasrama Sanskrit Series No. 41 [Poona, 1957]), 169.18; cf. J. J. Meyer, Sexual Life in Ancient India (New York: E. P. Button & Co., 1930), p. 257n.; MHB XII.159.27 and .207.13; Manu 2.181-82, 11.106; Vdyu 1.18.7 and .14; commentaries cited by Georg Biihler (trans.), The Laws of Manu (Sacred Books of the East Vol. 25 [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1886]), p. 452. 3.27.39-41. 36

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History of Religions in the Pine Forest,179 may be considered expiations for his wellknown lustfulness, as well as for the acts of violence which are their ostensible cause,$$$$ and his violation of the sages' wives is a re-enactment of the original sin which forced Siva to undertake the expiation.180 The tradition of tapas as expiation thus contributes to the image of the erotic ascetic; the women of the Pine Forest find the Kapalika particularly attractive, almost as if the very performance of his ascetic vow bears witness to his erotic vulnerability. One text states that Siva must wander as a Kapalika with a skull in his right hand to replenish the powers lost by making love to Parvati.181 In the later texts, purification is automatic : "One who drinks wine or makes love to the wife of another man or kills a Brahmin or seduces his guru's wife is released from all sins by tapas."1*2 This is precisely the boast of Siva to Bhadrayu. The tapas which thus restores Siva also leads eventually into the next cycle of erotic activity; when Siva has married Parvati he carries her into the bedroom "with powers made great by his meditation,"183 powers specifically said to be "an abundance of the qualities to achieve sexual intercourse."184 Siva is said to make love to Parvati particularly well because of his tapas and to be able to continue to do so for hundreds of years.185***** 2. THE DANGEROUS EXTREMES OF CHASTITY AND SEXUALITY

As Siva embodies the extremes of each aspect, he explores each one to its fullest, even absurd, extension. Though the net result of the myth is a balance, before that is achieved it may approach dangerous extremes in either or even both of its components. Both Siva's sexuality and his chastity pose certain threats to the balance of the universe: his tapas generates great heat which menaces the world, like the tapas of any ascetic, until an apsaras (Parvati) is sent by Indra to disperse it.186 Moreover, as Siva embodies the 179 G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Iconographie (Vol. II, Arche'ologie du sud de Flnde, Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1914), p. 32. #### See above, Section F3. iso Samba 16.24-33; Skanda 5.2.8.1-5; cf. Kurma 1.16.117-29; Vamana 6.87. isi Vamana 60.6. "2 Siva 5.12.45. iss Kumdrasambhava 8.81. 18 4 Mallinatha's commentary on Kumdrasambhava 8.81. 185 Skanda 1.1.27.31. ***** See Part I, Section D4, and cf. Part I, Section B4 and 5. 18 6 Lieutenant Francis Wilford, "On Egypt and the Nile from the Ancient Books of the Hindus," Asiatick Researches, III (1792), 402, and "A Dissertation on Semiramus, the Origin of Mecca . . . from the Hindu Sacred Books," Asiatick Researches, IV (1795), 363 and 367. 37

177

178

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Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of &iva forces of nature, the universe ceases to function when he withdraws from worldly action. This is one of the implications of the Pine Forest myth, in which the universe is shattered when Siva's linga falls. Another danger is that, as long as Siva remains absorbed in meditation, he will be unable to undertake any functions such as creation or the killing of demons.187 For these reasons, the gods object to his chastity and beg him to marry. Yet the great majority of the Hindu myths depict Siva's sexual activity as dangerous and his chaste aspect as a refuge; where sexual activity is motion and fire, chastity is quiescence and cool water. His auspicious form is chaste, while his terrible form destroys the universe.188 His excessive sexual behavior weakens him so that he is unable to conquer demons, just as his excessive chastity places him hors de combat; his extreme devotion to his wife makes him a laughingstock.189 But the greatest danger arising from his sexuality is the actual friction or heat generated by the activity itself, like the dangerous tapas of chastity; the effect of the extreme form of either of the opposed aspects is the same. When Siva and Parvati make love, it is like a great, unwanted doomsday about to destroy the universe,190 shaking the earth and the universe.191 The love making of Siva and Parvati can also be dangerous for the opposite reason, like their chastity—not because it generates too much activity, but because it causes them to withdraw from all other activity, so that the universe is in danger of running down.192 While locked in Parvati's embrace, Siva performs no sacrifice or tapas,1^ does nothing at all,194 and deprives the gods of the sight of his person.195 Even when the gods succeed in interrupting this dangerous act, they are left with the still more serious problem of the offspring of Parvati and Siva, destined to be too powerful for the world to bear.196 For this reason, Siva's seed must be taken from him and used to generate a son elseis? Vdmana 21.10-18; Kdlikd 4.7, 9.30, 5.68, Siva 2.2.11.21-27, 2.2.16.8-19; V. S. Agrawala, Siva Mahddeva, the Or eat God: An Exposition of the Symbolism of Siva88(Benares: Veda Academy, 1966), p. 12. i MHB XIII.146.5-6; VII. 173.94-97. "9 Padma 6.11.7. ™Skanda 1.1.27.32. 191 Siva 2.4.1.44-46; Mahdbhdgavata 29.11; Kathdsaritsdgara 3.6.73. 192 From a tale current in the Punjab; personal communication from Dr. Chanchal Dhand of Jullundur. I** i&va 2.2.22.68. 194 Siva 2.4.1.24. 95 1 Matsya 158.29; Skanda 6.245.50-51, 6.246.1; Kumdrasambhava 9.8. »• Vdmana 54.35-36; Brahmdnja 3.10.23-24; Kdlikd 48.12-24; MHB XIII.83.45; Saura 60.1-27; Brhaddharma 2.53.48-62; Dessigane et al., op. tit., No. 25, p. 35. 38

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179

History of Religions where, diverting both the sexual heat of the couple and the martial heat of the son they would have had. Thus Diva's tapas or his kdma may prevent the birth of a needed son or threaten to produce a dangerous son. The forces of Siva's chastity and sexuality can never be destroyed or turned back to their sources; the fire is never quenched, but its destructive power may be channeled into the next creative phase. Chastity develops into desire, and the fulfilment of desire leads to chastity. In Hindu terms, chastity builds up powers of tapas which are dissipated by sexual activity and then must be restored. When Siva's chastity becomes extreme, he must be seduced by Parvati and Kama, only to become excessively sexual and forced by the gods and Agni to become chaste again. Siva himself varies his attributes in opposition to the qualities of other gods and sages, as if to set up a thermostatic control on their excesses, just as they do on his. Tapas and kdma, interchangeable forms of cosmic heat, replace and limit one another to maintain the balance of the universe. 3. PBAVBTTI AND NIVBTTI

In some myths, pravrtti (activity, worldly involvement) is contrasted with nivrtti (quiescence, withdrawal), the former identified with sexual activity and the latter with asceticism. When Siva ceases to create and becomes a pillar of chastity, he is said to have nivrtti as his essence.197 As an ascetic, he dwells in nivrtti and shuns a wife, pravrtti. His mind is quiescent (nivrttam) when, after making love for many years, he is satisfied.198 But, as both tapas and kdma are forces of energy, pravrtti, together they may be contrasted with their true opposite: quiescence, nivrtti. Although quiescence is what Siva usually teaches, for it is the favorite path of the ascetic schools which he represents, pravrtti is what he himself usually embodies, pure life energy. Thus, though he is said to go to the Pine Forest to teach the sages to leave pravrtti and devote themselves to nivrtti,igg he does this by dancing in wild, naked abandon with their wives. Although he refuses to marry, saying that he delights only in tapas and nivrtti, with no use for pravrtti and the ways of mistresses,200 he does 197 Kurma 1.10.39. ««5wo 2.2.16.31 and 35, 2.2.23.7. i" Linga 1.29.1-83, 1.31.21-45; Kurma 2.38.2-6 and 129-31; of. Rao, op. cit., II, I, 302. 200 Kdlikd 9.47; Siva 2.2.16.30-35.

39

180

Religions of the East

Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of £iva marry and even indulges in numerous adulteries.201 The famous dancing Siva, Nataraja, is the very embodiment of pravrtti. The cycles of his sexuality may to a certain extent be read in terms of Tantric philosophy. During the Tantric rite, the devotee exhausts the forces of pravrtti, the outgoing path, and begins to cultivate nivrtti.2®2^ tttt &va too must use both paths, must follow the outgoing path to prevent the accumulation of too great a power and then replenish that power by the path of nivrtti. At Siva's request, Brahma substitutes for universal death the process of periodical action and quiescence.203 Siva himself is said to be the source of both pravrtti and nivrtti,20* the force of life and perfect peace. Yet quiescence in Siva is not a negative force, an absence of power ; it is the ultimate solution to the problem of cycles. For Siva, unlike the mortal yogi, need not alternate phases of sexual activity and yogic restoration, but may exist in both states simultaneously. This is the meaning of the ithyphallic yogi : "In many of his icons, he [Siva] is ithyphallic ; often he appears with his consort. At the same time he is the patron deity of yogis, identified as such by his piled-up mass of uncut and uncombed hair, and by his nudity. This is not inconsistent with his sexual vitality. For the source of the yogi's power is his own divine sexuality, conserved and concentrated by asceticism."205 The ambiguous figure of the erotic ascetic is the only possible continuous manifestation of Siva which can hold in suspension the two extremes of chastity and sexuality. The moment at which the two phases cancel each other out is the moment of nivrtti in its broadest sense, the hiatus between the episodes of pravrtti— chaste or sexual— an apparent calm which is in fact a perfectly balanced tension. In many myths Siva is merely an erotic or merely ascetic, as a momentary view of one phase or another. But in the great myths, 1.1.22.52; Matsya 155.31; Brahma 74.8-22; 75.31-50; Brahmdnda 4.10.41-77; Bhdgavata 8.12.12-35; Agni 3.17-20; Kdlikd 52.105-22; Bhavisya 3.4.17.67-78; Siva 3.20.3-7; Siva, Dharmasamhita 10.32; Dessigane et al., op. cit., No. 59, pp. 76-77; Maity, op. cit., pp. 79, 115, 120; Briggs, op. cit., p. 183; Dimock and Ramanujan, op. cit., p. 304; Gustav Oppert, On the Original Inhabitants of Bharatavarsha or India (London: Westminster & Co., 1893), p. 508. 202 Tantra Rahdsya, cited by J. G. Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon), Sakti and Sdkta: Essays and Addresses on the Sdkta Tantrasdstras (Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1959), p. 150. ttftt See Part I, Section D4. 2 3 MHB VII, Appendix 1, No. 8, 11. 99-116. ™*£iva 3.8.14; MHB XIII.17.32. 205 Philip Rawson, Indian Sculpture (New York: E. P. Button & Co., 1966), p. 48. 40

Religions of the East

History of Religions transcending the limitations of mundane causality, he participates in cycles of cosmic dimensions which melt into a single image as they become ever more frequent, making an almost subliminal impression in their brief symbolic appearances, creating an infinitely complex mosaic which produces the ambivalent but not contradictory figure of the erotic ascetic. The conflict is resolved not into a static solution but rather into the constant motion of a pendulum, whose animating force is the eternal paradox of the myths.

181

[8] Temple Girls of Medieval Karnataka Aloka Parasher and Usha Naik University of Hyderabad Hyderabad The dedication of temple girls is still a rampant practice in some parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Today, in northern Karnataka they are almost exclusively dedicated to the temple of the mother goddess Yellamma at Saundatti, in Belgaum district.1 It is widely, though erroneously, accepted that this practice must have grown around the cult of the mother goddess.2 However, for the period under study we only have one instance of a girl dedicated to a Mother Goddess temple, which is also from Belgaum district. On the other hand, the majority of the earliest inscriptions that mention these girls tells us that they were dedicated to Saivite temples (Chart 4). This and some of the other generalizations regarding the 'religious' and therefore necessarily 'sacrosanct' nature of these dedications are not tenable in the light of the inscriptional evidence available for early medieval Karnataka. This paper brings to the forefront a much neglected aspect of research. In opposition to the image of the 'ideal' traditional Indian woman based on the idea of fidelity to one's husband there emerges the contrasting picture of a temple girl who was idolised as the 'courtesan of god' in the literary and historical traditions of India. Note: This article is based on research undertaken for an M.Phil dissertation accepted by the University of Hyderabad in 1984. The study is based on data ascribable to the period AD 700-AD1200. List of Abbreviations: BKI: Bombay Karnatak Inscriptions. El: Epigraphica Indica. KI: Karnatak Inscriptions. IESHR: Indian Economic and Social History Review. IHR: Indian Historical Review. SII: South Indian Inscriptions. 1

A. Sundara, 'Yellamma worship in Saundatti—a study', Journal of Archeological Studies, Vol. 5,1980, pp. S&-45. 2 Imran Qureshi, 'Yellamma's daughters of the night', Indian Express, 6 March 1983, pp. 1 and 6; Chakresh Jain,' "Married" to a Goddess, forsaken by god', Mid-day, 10 July 1983.

184

Religions of the East

64 / ALOKA PARASHER AND USHA NAIK Two crucial aspects of any study of temple girls, or devadasis as they have popularly come to be known, are the origin and nature of the dedication of girls to the temple. For lack of data and also basically because much of our information on these two aspects is available largely from religious texts, it is difficult to identify in historical specificity how this practice grew. Therefore, it is not our intention to trace its origin but, rather, to show how and why it came to be entrenched in the early medieval society of northern Karnataka. In the process of highlighting the so-called religious role of temple girls, the idea has hitherto been totally ignored, or deliberately underplayed, that they also necessarily performed certain economic functions in the temple, as did other professional groups employed there. In the course of this paper we hope to show how both these roles were seemingly integrated into the dominant ideology of the times. This paper studies the temple girls in northern Karnataka, particularly in the districts of Dharwar, Belgaum and Bijapur between the period AD 700 to AD 1200, within the broad framework of the socio-economic structure of the times. Temple girls are known to modern scholars and in Indian literature as devadasis. The generally accepted meaning of the term today is, (a) 'a female in the services of gods or a temple' and (b) 4a courtesan (employed as a dancer in a temple)'.3 Devadasi is a Sanskrit compound word from deva meaning 'god', 'deity' and dasi meaning 'female slave', 'servant'. Etymologically, deva is derived from the original etymon de (to protect) which then leads to the form dev (to sport, to play, to shine, etc.). Dasi comes from the root da (to give, to grant), which is the seminal form for innumerable other words as well.4 However, both the words also developed secondary connotations which are pertinent in the present context. For instance, deva also came to mean 'a divine man', that is, 'a brahmana\ 'a king', 'a ruler', 'a title' and so on. Similarly, dasi came to mean 'a wife ofasudra' or 'a harlot'.5 The earliest mention of the term devadasi is made in the Arthasastra of Kautilya6 and subsequently, in a post-Asokan cave inscription at Ramgarh (160 miles south of Varanasi).7 In some of the early literary texts which describe the practice of the dedication of girls to temples, the term devadasi is not used. Instead, they are described by the word vesya (prostitute). In fact, in the religious tradition of India, the temple girl is idolised as the 'courtesan of god'. The Bhavisya Parana notes that the individual who dedicated girls (vesya) to a Sun temple 3

V. Shivram Apte, The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Delhi, 1975, p. 510. The English rendering of the term is varied; for example, H.H. Wilson, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Calcutta, 1819, translates it as 'a courtesan or harlot' while M. Monier Williams, SanskritEnglish Dictionary (new edition), Oxford, 1960, uses the phrase 'female Ndch girl' to describe it. 4 Apte, op. cit., (1975), pp. 495 and509. 5 Ibid. 6 R. Shama Sastry, (tr.), Kautilya's Arthasastra, Bangalore, 1915, p. 142. 7 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1903-4, p. 122.

Religions of the East

Temple Girls of Medieval Karnataka / 65 would gain a place in Suryaloka* In the Matsya Purdna, on the other hand, the dedicated girls (vesya) could themselves obtain a place in Visnuloka, by serving in the temple.9 That the practice of dedicating girls had become widespread is evident from several secular texts as well, which describe this custom in varied ways.l° In addition, foreign accounts of travellers like Yuan Chwang (seventh century AD), Alberuni (eleventh century AD), and Abdur Razaak (fifteenth century AD) corroborate the existence of this practice. In the present study the bulk of the source material used is epigraphic. The main purpose of these inscriptions was to describe secular and religious land grants. This contrasts with the literary writings discussed above in that the inscriptions are relatively more specific in both content and form. More importantly, they highlight the specific regional tradition of the dedication of girls in the temples of northern Karnataka. The Sanskrit word devaddsi is never used to describe temple girls in the inscriptions of medieval Karnataka. This is striking, particularly so because we do not find a literal equivalent of devaddsi in Kannada inscriptions as we do in other South Indian inscriptions, like Tamil (devaratial, devadiyar) or Malyalam (tevadicci).11 However, the word devaddsi is a part of the modern Kannada vocabulary12 and Kannada dictionaries give its meaning as sule pdtrd, vesya and basavi.13 In the inscriptions the words sule and pdtrd are consistently used to indicate the presence of girls dedicated to the temple.14 These two terms are either used independently or, as in most cases, suffixed to other nouns (e.g., degulada sule, pdduvapdtrd). The generally accepted English rendering of the word sule is 'prostitute'.15 Its etymological origin is not very clear but it can be postulated that it is derived from the word su meaning 'pregnancy'.!6 The Dravidian Etymological Dictionary gives us the literal equivalents of sule in Konkani as cu.l and Tulu as sule, Malayalam as cula and Tamil as 8

Bhavisya Purdna, 1,93,67; cf., A.S. Altekar, The Position of Women in Hindu Civilization (second edition), Poona, 1969, p. 183. 9 Matsya Purdna, 70, pp. 209-13. 10 For instance the Kuttanimatam of Damodaragupta (eighth century AD) and the Manipravala Kavyas from Kerala (thirteenth century AD) almost exclusively deal with temple girls. While some others like the Mrchchkatikam of Sudraka (seventh century AD), the Rajatarangini of Kalhana (eleventh century AD), the Kathasaritasagara of Somadeva (tenth to twelfth centuries AD), etc., give detailed references about them. 11 K.K. Pillay, The Suchindram Temple, Madras, 1953, p. 277; M.G.S. Narayanan, Aspects of'Aryanimation in Kerala, Trivandrum, 1973, p. 46, 12 K. Shivram Karanth, Sirigannada Arthakosha (Kannada) (fourth edition) Dakshina Kannada, 1952, p. 532. By the end of the twelfth century AD the word devaddsi is used in the Vachana literature of the VIra Saivas. 13 Ibid. p. 264. The same dictionary elsewhere gives the meaning of sule as pdtrd and vesya indicating that these terms are used as synonyms. 14 The word basavi is used for the first time in inscriptions dated to the ninth century AD. Discussed below on p. 69. 15 M. Mariappa Bhat, Kittel's Kannada-English Dictionary, Vol. 4, University of Madras, 1971, p. 1662. 16 Ibid., pp. 1657 and 1661.

185

186

Religions of the East

66 / ALOKA PARASHER AND USHA NAIK culai. All these are supposed to be related to the Sanskrit suld, which means 'harlot 1 'prostitute'. l7 From the point of view of phonetic similarity another root word sul (meaning 'a loud sound', 'noise', 'a note in music', 'a tune')18 could be postulated as yet another etymological origin of the term sule. On the other hand, the word pdtrd is always used to describe only the dancing girls19 and singing girls and, therefore, unlike sule, is used in a more specific sense. Over a period of time pdtrd also developed a secondary connotation, i.e., 'harlot' or prostitute'.20 The origin and the meaning of the word pdtrd are less ambiguous. In the Kannada inscriptions it is used in an almost similar manner to its original use in Sanskrit where it means 'dramatic personae'. 21 This is interesting in the context of the fact thai pdtrd is used in only those inscriptions which are dated after 1000 AD while the usage of sule is more varied and found throughout the period from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries AD. The three earliest inscriptions which mention temple girls are dated prior to 1000 AD (between 730 AD and 975 AD)22 and they only use the term sule to describe them (Chart 1, S. nos. 1 and 2). The inscription dated 778 AD from the Virupaksha temple at Pattadakal, Bijapur district,23 gives the name of the temple girl (deguladasule) as Badipoddi. It is an interesting name in the sense that both Bddi and poddi means a 'prostitute' or a 'strumpet' in the Dravidian Etymological Dictionary ,24 However, these three instances neither give us any idea about the designations nor the duties performed by the temple girls, although the practice of having more than one girl serving in a temple had become common by 1000 AD. 25 With regard to the inscriptions dated between 1000 AD and 1200 AD, we find that the number of girls dedicated gradually increases.26 It is from these inscriptions that we not only get the maximum amount of data regarding the duties of the temple girls but also about the system as it functioned in the temples of medieval Karnataka. An inscription dated 1018 AD from the Kallesvara temple at Bagali in Bellary district,27 designates one group of girls as pannlrva suleyarggam (I, 3) meaning 'sules of the scented waters'. 17 T.N. Burrow and M.B. Emeneau, A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, (second edition) Oxford, 1984, No. 2741, p. 238. '* Bhat, op. dr., (1971), p. 1662. 19 Pandit Kavli, Sachitra Kannada-Kannada Kasturikosha, (Kannada), Dharwar, (1957), p, 563. 20 Karanth, op. dr., (1952), p. 532. -' Apte, op. cit., (1975), p. 610. 12 LA.,Vol. 10,no. 113,11,1-3,p. 169;Vol. 11,no. 122,11,1-2,p. 126;£./.,Vol. 16,no. 11, e, p. 88. 23 /.A, Vol. 11, no. 122, II. 1-2, p. 126. 24 Burrow and Emeneau, op. cit., (1984), No. 3869, p. 346. 25 £./.,Vol. 16, no. 11, e, p. 88. 2(5 Although in some instances the number of girls are not mentioned, they are refered to in the plural form as suleyarggam andpdtrakkam. 27 S.I.I., Vol. 9, Part 1,11.15-16, pp. 51 ff.

Religions of the East

Temple Girls of Medieval Karnataka/61 Another group of girls are described zspalekdlarfggam) patra(kkam) (1,12) meaning 'senior and experienced dancing girls'. In an inscription from the same temple, dated a few years later (1035 AD)28 the term pdduvapdtrd (I, 13), meaning 'singing girl', is used to describe a girl named Siriyave, which clearly emphasises the specialised nature of her duty. In the same context Siriyave is also described as the tottu, meaning a slave,29 of the god Kallesvara. By the mid-eleventh century AD, temple girls came to have specific duties assigned to them in the temple. It is also around this time that the temple as an institution had expanded not only in size30 but also in terms of the proliferation and complexity in the nature of the rituals performed in it.31 Since the temple girls were intimately involved with the performance of these rituals their duties not only increased but also became more varied, as several examples indicate. Of these, the two examples which best detail the many facets of the life of girls in the temples are the inscriptions from the Ramesvara temple dated 1048 AD at Holianveri in Dharwar district,32 and the Akkesvara temple dated 1054 AD at Sudi, Dharwar district.33 In the former, six girls are mentioned by their proper names. Of these, Kamatige is described as perggadevala sule (I, 4) meaning 'the sule of the perggade' of the temple. Yet another, Kalabbe, is described as chdmaram kambada sule (I, 5a) meaning 'the sule who waved the chowrie standing at a pillar' of the temple. Whereas perggade34 refered to an important functionary to whom Kamatige was attached, chdmaram kambada sule indicates the location in the temple at which Kalabbe performed her duty. In fact girls who waved the chowries (chdmarada sule) (I, 5b) and those that stood at pillars of the temple (kambada sule) (I, 6) are some of the most frequently mentioned temple girls. This is evident from the rather exhaustive inscription of the Akkesvara temple where thirteen girls are mentioned by their names. Among these, four are described variously as chdmarada sule (lines 28-30) and biffiya chdmarada sule (I, 5c), (lines 22 and 27). The latter designation seems to indicate a form of free (forced?) service (bitti) rendered by some temple girls. Four others are described as kambada sule (lines 23-27), Three dancing girls in this instance are described by a different phrase, i.e.,pdtram sule. One of these is designated by the phrase baladamddadapdtram sule (line 32) which literally means 'the pdtrd of the right side niche' (1,11). The rest of the girls are simply described as those living on the right side (balavakkada) and left side (edavakkada) streets (ken) of the temple. 28

Ibid., no. 89, p. 60. Burrow and Emeneau, op. c/f,, (1984), no. 3524, p. 309. The word also means 'a concubine' or 'a strumpet'. 30 R. Champaklakshmi, The Dravidian style of architecture: a historical perspective', Indian Horizons, Vol. 31, no. 2, 1982, p. 7. 29

31

32

R.N. Nzn&, Religious Institutions and Cults in the Deccan AD I « '« -« 2 •« -« ss • ^ § i « -| cs .« ^ ^^ |al 1 « i a S ^ a g l & l a l s ng * |J 11^2 | | 2S 1"\:3rli:2.^r « a g a a g «« S "1 " 2 ^

3

5i«1 ac! nI S'l Sl 5iiifl 5 o £ w «'f w-f «I

5 Ui5f §§li| i S s

s: •g

•& ^l

§ 9

Q S«

!••§• 8r-i §« Sw S5 is "^ 8 SSr « sJ ? S3 S S5 gH^ 3^ g Sl fc^r

^

§ § 3 r^

(

S'

S" a c^

4

Kadambesvara 1055 AD

10^

44 mattars of land: 6 got 4 mattars each 4 got 5 mattars each

Separate grants were made to the choultry, monastery, a kettisetti, a drummer and musicians.

5

Nagesvara 1060 AD

16"*"

203 mattars of land: 1 got 20 mattars 1 got 15 mattars 14 got 12 mattars each

(a) A suburb was also built for the temple girls. (b) Separate land grants were made for repairs of the temple, stipend to teachers, etc.

6

Somesvara 1068 AD

1+

12 mattars of land

Separate grants were made to a Pandit, to musicians and others

$ SPHi

B1 ^

INJ O

INJ

Chart II continued. S.No. Name of Temple, Date

Number of Girls Maintained

Nature, Amount of Endowment

Purposes of the Endowment

CATEGORY B~ 7

Kallesvara 1018 AD

8

Uddibasavanna 1045 AD

9

10

Number and names Maintained by a land grant made Temple girls, flutists, teachers, a steward of temple girls and others not mentioned to the temple for a variety of were all maintained by the same grant, purposes. — do -

Jatiriga Ramesvara 1064 AD Kesavesvara 1064 AD

- do -

1+

Maintained by a land grant made Temple girls, musicians, temple servants and a mason were all to the temple for a variety of maintained by this grant. purposes. Maintained from the revenues of Besides maintaining temple girls, this grant was also used for the a part of a village granted to the repairs of the temple, feeding the ascetics and so on. temple for a variety of purposes. Maintained from 4 mattars of land Besides maintaining the temple girl, this grant was also made to be donated to the temple for many used for maintaining the priests, drummers, flutists and so on. purposes.

11

Kallesvara 1071 AD

Number and names Maintained from a part of the not mentioned revenues of a village granted to the temple for many purposes.

The revenues of this village was divided into three parts for the maintenance of temple girls, feeding and clothing students, ascetics and other servants.

12

Kadambesvara 1086 AD

1+

Maintained from 30 mattars of land granted to the temple.

The grant was made for the payment of the musicians and their band which included a songstress, a drummer and others.

13

2 temples: Mahadeva Chandalesvara 1112 AD

24 ~*~

Maintained from 500 mattars of land granted to the temple.

(a) A house was also given to each temple girl. (b) Besides the temple girls., this grant also supported the teachers and the performance of ceremonies in the temple.

(

>3 r^

S'

S" a c^

$ SPHi

B1 ^

14

M uiasthana of Sindige 1129 AD

15

Trikutesvara End of twelfth century AD

Notes:

Number and names Maintained from gifts of gold not mentioned made to the temple. - do —

The same gold was also meant for the performance of ceremonies of the deity.

Maintained from the revenues of (a) Suburbs were also constructed for the temple girls. a village granted to the temple. (b) The revenues, besides maintaining temple girls also maintained, priests, brahmanas, ascetics and performance of ceremonies.

* All the temples mentioned are Saivite ones. -f In some cases the names and other details of the temple girls are not given. Only a general reference is made to them by the terms suleyar(ggam) andpdtra(kkam). * * The inscription is slightly damaged and therefore some figures are not legible. 1 In the case of all the independent grants h'sted in this category the temple girls invariably got less than the teachers and some of the musicians but got equal to or more than, the dancing master, the flutists and the hornblower. 2 Most of the recepients of the unspecified grants listed in this category arepa/ras (dancing and singing girls).

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8 Chart III A

Name and Status of Donors I Nature and Amount of Endowment Made to Temple Girls S.No. Name of Donor, Date

Temple/Place

Status

Nature, Amount Donated

Number of Girls Supported

Other Information (a) Builder of the temple (b) Grand mother of Ganga Prince Butayya.

1

Bujjabarasi 975 AD Bujjabesvara, Royal Family Hebbal (Dharwar). (Feudatory)

20 mattars of land

5*

2

Narasinghayya 1018 AD

Maintained by a land granted to the temple for various purposes.

Number and name A perggade under Ganga Udayaditya not specified

Gifts of land made for various purposes.

Number and name not specified

Kallesvara, Bagali (Bellary) Uddibasavanna, Morigeri (Bellary)

A temple official

Wealthy merchant (?) landlords (?)

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Chattiarasa Ghattiarasa and others 1045 AD

4

Chamundarayarasa, Ramesvara, Ketarasa 1048 AD Holianveri (Dharwar)

Petty Feudatories. 25 mattars of land (District Officials)

6 Mentioned by name

Administered Banavasi (12,000) .and Rattapalli (70), Ittage (130) respectively.

5

Akkadevi 1054 AD Akkesvara, Sudi (Dharwar)

Royal Family (Provincial administration)

149** mattars of land

13 mentioned by

(a) The builder of the temple (b) Sister of Chalukya king Someshvara-I (c) Administered Kisukad (70), Torugere (60),Masiyavadi(l40).

6

Nagadeva 1060 AD Nagesvara, Sudi (Dharwar)

Feudatory (Minister)

203 mattars of land

16*

(a) The builder of the temple. (b) Also constructed a suburb for them. (c) Mahasamantadhipati, Steward of the Royal Household and General of Chalukya king Someshvara-I

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Administered Banavasi (12,000) under Yuvaraja Vikramaditya-Vl.

10*

Parts of revenue from a village given to the temple for various purposes.

Number and names (a) SonofChalukyakingSomeshvara-1 not specified (b) Governed Nolambavadi (32,000) Province

Harikesarideva and Kadambesvara, wife Lachchladevi Bankapur 1055 AD (Dharwar)

8

Visnuvardhana Jatinga Ramesvara, Royal Family Vijayaditya 1064 AD Siddapur (Provincial (Chitradurga) Governor)

9

Joyiarasa 1064 AD Kesavesvara, Hottur (Dharwar)

Parts of 4 mattars of 1* Feudatory (A local governor) land given to the temple for various purposes.

Jayasimha 1068 AD Somesvara, Chinttumbalam (Bellary)

Royal Family (Provincial Governor)

KomarasvamiDevedibhatta and others 1071 AD

Rich landlords (?) A part of the revenue Number and name Mahajanas of Puvina Padarigile. of a village not specified and wealthy (Kotiganum) given residents (?) to the temple for various purposes.

Kallesvara, Huvina-Hadagalli (Bellary)

Royal Family (Feudal Chieftain)

44 mattars of land

7

12 mattars of land

1*

(a) Son of Mahamandalesvara Jamarasa. (b) Governed Pottiyur. (a) Brother of Chalukya king Someshvara-I. (b) Governed Nolambavadi (32,000) and Sindavadi (1,000).

Bennarasa 1086 AD Kadambesvara, Chinnatumbalam (Bellary)

Feudatory (A petty official).

Some portion of a land 1* given to the temple for various purposes.

Chief of Marata (300) under Mahamandalesvara Jamarasa

Mahadeva 1112 AD Mahadeva Ittagi (Dharwar)

Feudatory (A general of the army)

Some portion of 500 24* mattars land given to the temple for various purposes.

(a) Builder of the temple, (b) Also gave a house to each of them. (c) Mahasdmantadhipati. General under Chalukya king Vikramaditya-VI.

70 Mahajanas and some residents. 1121 AD

Rich landlords and Some land wealthy residents

Kesavesvara Kaginelli, (Dharwar)

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§

Chart III A continued.

S.No. Name of Donor, Date 15

16

17

Temple/Place

Vayijanathayya, Mulasthana of Sevarasa and Sindige-Bijapur Kalamarasa 1 129 AD (Bijapur)

Bajjajadeva End of twelfth century AD

Status

Nature, Amount Donated

Number of Girls Supported

Feudatories (local governors).

Some Gold

Number and names (a) The first one was a general, not specified . (b) The other two belonged to the Karass Manneyaand the Sindige (12), Kummasa (30) and Amkulagc (50) respectively.

Trikutesvara Royal Family Gaddak (Dharwar) (King)

Surappayya 1563 AD Madhava Religious Janardhana feudatory Kolivad (Dharwar)

Notes:

Revenues of a village (Hombaialu) given to the temple for various purposes.

- do -

Some corn at the rate of one man a Money-6 ghatti varahas per annum

1 mentioned by name

Other Information

(a) Builder of the temple. (b) Also constructed suburbs for them. (c) A Hoysala king.

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A brahamana of the agrahara of Kolivada

* In all cases where the temple girls are not mentioned by name they are referred to by the general terms suleyurtggani) and patni(kkam). + Probably indicates the number of villages. ** The inscription is slightly damaged and therefore some figures are not legible.

^

Chart IIIB

Name and Status of Donors / Nature and Amount of Endowments Made to Temples S. No. Name of Donor, Date

Name of Temple, Place

Status

Nature, Amount Endowed

Purpose of the Endowment

Other Information (a) Sinda Chieftain under Chalukya Vikramaditya-II . (b) Governed Kisukad (70)+ Bagadage (70), Kelavadi (300), Nareyangal (12).

1

Permadideva-I 950-5 I A D

Kalamesvara, Royal Family Naregal Ron Taluk (Feudal (Dharwar) Chieftain)

Some land

For the angabhoga* of the god.

2

Chenna 1080 AD

Galagesvara, Haven Taluk (Dharwar)

A village Pulleni

To provide for dance A Mahamandalesvara and music in the temple worship and offering of the god, .feeding of ascetics, visitors.

Feudatory

3

Nimbarasa Gatrigas (?) 1109 AD

Siddhesvara, .Haven Taluk (Dharwar)

An important person (?)

Tolls on betel leaves

For music and dance in the temple.

4

Anantamayya

Somesvara, Lakshmeshvar (Dharwar)

Feudatory A General of the Army

A gift of land

Maintenance of a (a) The quarter was constructed by him. quarters of the temple (b) Dandanaya under Chalukya girls (sulekeri). Vikramaditya-VI.

Chandalesvara, Ittagi (Dharwar)

Royal Family King.

A village Bennakallu

For the angabhoga and A Chalukyan king. rangabhoga** of the deity.

1112 AD

5

Vikramaditya-VI 1112 AD

6

Jayakesin-Il Mallikarjuna, Royal Family Some land Milaladevi 1125 AD- Narendra (Dharwar)(FeudalChieftain)

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XI

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Chart IIIB continued. S.No. Name of Donor, Date

Other Information

Name of Temple, Place

Status

Nature, Amount Endowed

Purpose of the Endowment

Royal Family (King)-

Some land

(a) The grant was made under the kings For performing the instruction, music and dance in the temple, ablutions and (b) A Kalachuri king. offering to the deity, feeding of ascetics and soon. For the angabhoga-and (a) Builder of the temple. the rangabhoga of the (b) A gavunda under Mahamandalesvara deity, repair and Ratta Sena, renovation of the temple.

1

Rayamurari Sovideva 1173 AD

Nagesvara, Annigeri Navalgund Taluk (Dharwar)

8

Nidhimagamanda 1112 AD

Jain temple, Konur Feudatory Gokak Taluk (Headman of a (Belgaum) village)

Some land

Demaladevi and Achideva-II mid twelfth century AD (Saka 1072)

Kalmesvara, Naregal Ron Taluk (Dharwar)

Royal Family Feudal (Chieftain)

300 m0ftars of land. For the angabhoga (a) Wife and son of Sinda Chief and rangabhoga of the Chavunda, god, feeding and (b) Governed Pattada-Kisuvolal as clothing priests. Viceroy.

10

Taila,Eraha. 1186 AD

Dakshina Kedaresvara, Banavasi (North Kanara)

Feudatories (Petty Chieftains)

Some land

For the angabhoga and rangabhoga repairs.

11

Merchants, traders, Hemmesvara, residents of .Halasi (Belgaum) Palasige. midtwelfth century AD

Well off sections of the province.

Some land

For the angabhoga of Temple was built by a dandanayaka the deity, oblations and Bavayya. feeding of ascetics.

12

Kartavirya-VI End of twelfth century AD (Saka 1127)

9

Santinatha, Kalholi Royal Family Gokak Taluk (King). (Belgaum)

A cultivable field For angabhoga ranga- (a) A Ratta king. (b) Independent ruler at this time. ol2(mkambas bhoga of the deity, repairs of the temple

I

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cine and instruction to holy men. 13

Kartavirya-lV Turn of the thirteenth century AD(Sakall41)

3 temples, Royal Family (King). (a) Habbesvara, (b) Manikesvara, (c) Siddhesvara, Nesarige Samgaum Taluk (Belgaum)

14

12 headmen of Sugandhavarti

Feudatories Mallinathadeva Saundatti Parasgod (Headmen of Taluk (Belgaum) villages)

15

2 grants (a) Purushottama 1223-24 AD

Panchalingadeva Munoti Parasgod Taluk (Belgaum)

-(b) Some individuals Panchalingadeva Munoti Parasgod 1223-24 AD Taluk (Belgaum)

600 kambas of land . For the angabhoga and Headmen under Ratta king rangabhoga of the deity, Lakshmanadeva. repairs and renovations.

Feudatory (General of the army)

Some land

?

A kandiga (3 bushels) of dried fruits, grains, etc.

For the angabhoga and A Dandanayaka rangabhoga of the deity, repair and renovations of the temple. For the rangabhoga of the deity.

I

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£ c^

Feudatory Minister WQQ Kambas of a For the angabhoga and field. rangabhoga of the deity

16

Mallisatti 1250-51 AD

Madhavadeva, Chikka Bagevadi Belgaum Taluk (Belgaum)

17

Some individuals. 1252-53 AD

Rich residents(?) Jagadlsvara, Saundatti Parasgod Taluk (Belgaum)

Notes:

1400 kambas of land: .For the angabhoga of the deity, chaitra (?) and (a) 800 kambas pavitra (?), to supply (b) 400 " (c) 300 " food to ascetics, repairs respectively and so on.

Some land

For angabhoga and rangabhoga of the deity and other purposes.

* The word angabhoga means 'Sensuous enjoyment' or 'personal enjoyment' of the deity. 4- Probably indicates the number of villages. ** The word rangabhoga means 'the entertainment and enjoyment' of the deity. INJ O

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Chart IV

Distribution of Inscriptions of Temple Girls by District and Religion Category

Dharwar

Bijapur

feelgaum

Bellary

North Kanara. Mysore

Total

Total number of inscriptions mentioning temple girls

21

9

10

9

3

52

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1 9

9

8

9

3

4 8

•S,

Jaina

—

—

1

—

—

1

2

—

—

—

—

2

—

—

1

—

—

1

Vaisnava Sakta

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Chart V

Political Patronage and Distribution of the Inscriptions on Temple Girls S.No. Name of (he Ruling Dynasty

Period Ruled

1

ChaJukyas of Badami

5 4 0 AD -753 A D

2

Rashtrakutas of Malkhed

753AD-973AD

3

Chalukyas of Kalyani and their Feudatories (a) Main ruling family

(b) Feudatories

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Kadambas of Banavasi Rattas of Saundatti and Beigaum Sindas Kadambas of Goa Kalachuris of Kalyani

973 AD -1164 AD

Dharwar Bijapur —

Beigaum Bellary

3

__

_

i

14

_

5

_ _

1

_ _

_

North Kanara, Total Mysore, etc. _

_

_

9

_ _

3 i

2

31

1183 AD- 1187 AD

543 AD- 1200 AD 875 AD -1250 AD 600AD-1200AD 980 AD -1250 AD 1128

AD- 1183 AD

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4

Hoyasalas of Dwarasamudra

1108AD-1346AD

!

5

Yadavas of Devagiri

1190 AD -1312 AD

—

'

— — —

— 4 — 1

—

— '

6

_

> —

_

— — 5 —

—) — —

—

_ 4

.

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12

1

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J _

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[9] Kumari or 'virgin' worship in Kathmandu valley* M.R. ALLEN University of Sydney

Kumari is a goddess who has been a recognized member of the Hindu pantheon for at least 2,500 years. Throughout the long history of her worship she has displayed qualities of a highly ambiguous1 kind: on the one hand, she is literally by name 'virgin' or 'chaste young girl9; on the other, she is classed as one of a group of mother goddesses who are also the sexual partners of leading male deities. For example, in the Taittiriya Aranyaka, a third or fourth century B. c. text, Rudra's spouse Ambika is addressed as Kanyakumari (Muir 1873, IV: 426-27 and Chattopadhyaya 1970: 153-55). Ambika literally means 'little mother' while kanya and kumari are both words that are used to refer to young unmarried girls. Kanya most commonly occurs in the phrase kanyadana (giving a girl in marriage), and hence necessarily refers to pre-menstrual, and for highcaste Hindus, young girls. Kumari is translated by Monier-Williams (1899: 292) as 'a young girl, one from ten to twelve years old, maiden, daughter; or [in the Tantras] any virgin up to the age of sixteen or before menstruation has commenced'.2 In the Mahabharata and other early texts Kumari *The research on which this paper is based was carried out in Kathmandu valley in 1973-74.1 am grateful to Sydney University, the Australian Research Grants Committee, the Myer Foundation, and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia for having financed the fieldwork. I am also much indebted to the Institute of Nepal and Asian Studies, Tribhuvan University for having assisted my research in many ways. 1 O*Flaherty (1973) has provided a most scholarly analysis of the pervasive interplay that occurs between asceticism and eroticism in the mythology of Siva, Leach (1962) has demonstrated a similar ambiguity in the qualities attributed to Ganesa, the elephant-headed son of Siva, who is also Kumaris' half-brother. 2 Sir Monier-Williams also noted that Kumari is the female form of kumara 'a child, boy, youth, son, [Rg Veda; Atharva Veda]; a prince, heir-apparent associated in the kingdom with the reigning monarch [especially in theatrical language]'. Just as

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is listed as one of the many epithets of Durga, the beautiful and mature destroyer of male demons (Sorenson 1904: 434). But by far her most common appearance is as Kumari, one of a set of seven or eight 'mothers' (matrka) who are the personified energies or consorts (sakti) of prominent gods. Despite her antiquity and her literary prominence Kumari has, at least within India, remained a relatively minor member of the pantheon. The only temples that I know of specifically dedicated to her are those of Kanyakumari at Cape Comorin in the south,3 and Kanya Devi in the Kangra valley in the north-east Punjab.4 Her worship, however, was and still is, of greater importance than the paucity of her shrines might suggest. In many parts of India, but most especially in Bengal and in the Punjab, kumaripuja acquired much popularity amongst the followers of the Tantra. In this ritual the aim is not so much to worship a goddess called Kumari as to utilize the power of young living virgins in order to invoke the spirit of the far from virginal Sakti, Durga or Kali. Little has been recorded of this most interesting ritual,5 though it seems likely that the Kumari is an epithet of Sakti or Durga so is Kumara identified with Skanda or Kartikeya. Skanda. 'the spurt of semen', is called Kumara because he remains forever young and single—he is the eternal and beautiful bachelor to whom young Newar girls are married in the ihi ceremony. Like Kumari, he is dressed in red and rides on a peacock. The ambiguous nature of both deities is apparent in the common appearance of Skanda (or Kumara) as the .male consort of Kumari in the various lists of the Sapta or Asta Matrka. Together, they combat demons with the power of youth. 3 A Greek sea captain noted in about 60 A.D. that 'Beyond this there is another place called Comari, at which are the Cape of Comari and a harbour; hither come those men who wish to consecrate themselves for the rest of their lives, and bathe and dwell in celibacy; and women also do the same; for it is told that a goddes once dwelt here and bathed' (Schoff 1912: 46). About 70 years later the geographer Ptolemy referred to the Cape as 'Comoria Akron'. Yule (1903: 382-83), writing in 1871, noted that 'the monthly bathing in her honour. . .is still continued, though now the pilgrims are few'. He also noted that at the beginning of the Portuguese era in India, there was a small kingdom in this area called Comari. Morris (1968: 194) noted that 'there, a little outside the town (Cape Comorin), is a temple of great antiquity dedicated to Kumari, the virginal aspect of Durga'. He also recorded that it has a Brahmin pujari, but is no longer an important place of pilgrimage. 4 Rose (1919, i: 320) noted that at Lagpata in the Kangra valley there is 'a temple to Kaniya Devi the virgin goddess, whose fair is held on 9th Har. Her Brahmin pujari is a Bhojki and bhog is only offered and a lamp lit in the evening'. 5 Bharati (1965: 160, fn 95) provided a brief description:'Kumari-Puja: a lovely and impressive ceremony current all over Bengal and in other parts of India, though with lesser frequency; a girl of twelve, of a Brahmin family, is installed on thspitha like an image of Sakti, and is worshipped accordingly after the pratistha or installation ceremony; in this particular puja9 the virgin represents the goddess Sarasvati. How-

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Kumari or 'virgin* worship in Kathmandu valley

215

295

normal procedure was to regard the girls as living goddesses solely for the duration of the puja. Rose (1919: i) made a number of references to the worship of young unmarried girls as Devi in the Kangra valley. Thus 'Devi is personified in a girl under ten years of age twice a year and offerings are made to her as if to the goddess on these occasions' (i, 327). The worship of Devi is always cropping up. Some years ago some enterprising people of the Kapurthala state got two or three young unmarried girls and gave out that they had the power of Devi. The ignorant accepted this belief and worshipped them as goddesses. They visited various parts of the Jullundur District and were looked up to with great reverence everywhere, but as good results did not follow, the worship died out' (i, 329). In Kathmandu Valley the Newars have developed a unique cult in which two- to three-year-old girls are formally installed in office as living Kumaris and then regularly worshipped as such until certain disqualifying signs appear—usually some six or seven years later. My aim in this paper is to demonstrate how even in this cult of quite explicitly virginal girls the basic ambiguity is still apparent. Though out of office as soon as they menstruate, they are nevertheless worshipped as living forms of such mature goddesses as Taleju Bhavani, Durga, Kali and even the Buddhist Vajradevi; though in theory disqualified as soon as they lose a milk tooth they are also said to possess a full set of adult teeth; though pure deities who should not have animal sacrifices made to them, they are also fearsome goddesses who thrive on the hot blood of dying buffalo and goat. I will argue that the ambiguous nature of the goddess, both in Nepal and India is paralleled by a similar ambiguity in the Hindu conception of the female role. In a society in which status is explicitly defined in terms of relative purity, high value has inevitably been accorded to the young girl as yet unsullied by blood, sex or childbirth. In orthodox Brahminical terms the virgin, especially if she is also pre-menstrual, is in a state of great natural ever, most Brahmins regard the presentation of their daughter for this ceremony as inauspicious (akusala)* Macdonald (1903: 41-42) made the following more detailed statement: 'The Kumari puja is well known in Calcutta. A house holder, intent on thus worshipping the Sakti, gets [from outside the membership of his own house] a girl, sets her up as a goddess on a small board or platform surrounded with nine or twelve other females [men not exclude^], places a plate under one of her feet, and to that foot makes the usual offerings of flowers, water, etc. A Brahmin gentleman who has himself been present at one or more of these Kumari Pujas, tells me that in Calcutta they are not uncommon.' For additional references to kumanpuja see Abbott (1932: 63) and Chakravarti (1963: 81).

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purity. It is for this reason that a living virgin is thought to constitute not only the perfect bride, but also an appropriate vessel or container for the spirit of a goddess. But other than in these two contexts virginity is not highly esteemed amongst Hindus. On the contrary, virgins are believed to be unable to obtain either spiritual enlightenment in this world or to reach the abode of the gods in the next (Walker 1968, ii: 571). It is only as her husband's sexual partner and mother of his sons that a woman is capable of fulfilling her dharma. Mary Douglas has convincingly argued that 'when the social system requires people to hold dangerously ambiguous roles, these persons are credited with uncontrolled, unconscious, dangerous, disapproved powerssuch as witchcraft and evil eye' (1966: 99). That such powers have for long been attributed to Indian virgins is evident in the following statement of Walker (1968 ii: 571-72): There seems to be an almost universal belief in ancient and medieval India in the perils attending the condition of virginity, and particularly in the dangers of initiatory intercourse with a girl. Hymenal blood was considered exteremely potent and its touch brought contamination. The shedding of blood, reprehensible at all times, became more so in the case of virgin blood. A man is particularly prone to its injury because the excitement of the sexual act finds him defenceless against the psychic dangers inherent in all contact with virgins. It was believed that a woman untouched by the male rod was liable on defloration to flash forth a devastating aura that would bring ruin to a man, blight to his cattle, and desolation to his home. The followers of the Tantra seek to gain control of powers such as these in the performance of kumaripuja; in the case of the right-handed practitioners by the use of conventional ritual procedures, and of the left-handed by either symbolic or real sexual intercourse. In other words, the virgin, who in other contexts is a threat to men and to their activities, is here used to positive effect in furthering their spiritual aspirations. The benefits that flow from the Tantric performance of kumaripuja are vividly described in the Yogini Tantra. Those gods ever desire a Brahman, a virgin, Sakti, fire, Sruti and a cow for worship on their sacrificial grounds. If one virgin be worshipped, it will be a second puja. The fruit of virgin worship cannot be told by me. All this [universe] movable and immovable belongs to Kumari [virgin] and Sakti. If one young damsel be worshipped, seen only in spirit, then

Religions of the East

Kumari or 'virgin* worship in Kathmandu valley

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actually all the high goddesses will be worshipped without doubt. . .in time, by Kumari-worship, the worshipper attains Sivahood. Where Kumari is worshipped, that country purifies the earth; the places all round for five crores will be most holy. There one should do Kumari Puja; there breaks forth great light manifest in the land of Bharata [India] (Macdonald 1902: 41-42). Yet despite such awesome powers all males of clean caste both were and still are required to face them when they confront their young virgin brides after marriage. For most, the wedding rites provide a sole and sufficient protection. But in some cases special precautions are taken to ensure that the husband does not himself face the dangers. In many parts of India the mother or some other close female relative ensures that the hymen is broken prior to marriage. Chakraberty (1945: 111,325), for example, recorded that 'the hymen of Hindu girls is generally torn in their early girlhood by the forefinger of their mother in daily washing the vulva with water'. Walker (1968, ii: 572) has noted the use of such ritually powerful males as Kings and priests for the defloration of virgins. But perhaps of greatest interest is the widespread occurrence of the mockmarriage of virgin girls to gods, Brahmins, trees, swords, snakes and other erotic and phallic objects. By far the most famous of these is the tali tying ceremony of the Nayars of Kerala. Gough (1955: 71-74) has argued that amongst these people, and indeed most probably throughout India, the power of the virgin derives from her association with a powerful and castrating mother figure. The mock-marriage is, she argued, performed to take the awesome mother out of the virgin so that ordinary men can safely copulate with her. In support of her argument she noted that during the rites the girls are brought into close association with Bhagavadi, the fearsome mother goddess who is also a pure virgin. As mother, Bhagavadi is Devi and hence equated with Durga, Kali and Bhadrakali, the fierce consorts of Siva who destroy male demons. As virgin goddess she is worshipped as Kanyakumari, the famous deity at Cape Comorin. Furthermore, the dead Nayar virgin can herself become a form of Bhagavadi to whom a shrine must be erected. Gough provided an orthodox Freudian explanation for the equation of virgin with mother by arguing that it is a product of unconscious incestuous desires. She wrote (1955:71): 'The virgin, then, in these castes is sacred: it is ritually dangerous to take her virginity. My hypothesis is that this is so because the virgin is unconsciously associated with the mother, as a woman whom it is desirable to approach sexually but who may not

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be approached, because of the threat of castration or murder by a male parental figure*. Gough's remarkable hypothesis has met with little favour, Yalman (1963:38), for example, rejected it on the grounds that 'the Oedipus Complex, as described by psycho-analysts, appears as a universal phenomenon and, therefore, loses its force in the "explanation" of local and particular ceremonies'. Surely the answer to this common anthropological criticism is that though the Oedipus Complex may well be universal it does not necessarily follow that it is of equal importance in all cultures. If it should contribute to the meaning of * local ceremonies' then it may be that in such cultures the complex is of unusual strength. I do not, however, wish to defend Gough's claim that the complex is indeed well-developed amongst the Nayars—her evidence, though suggestive, is far from conclusive. My aim is, rather, to confirm her empirical finding that amongst the Nayars, and most probably throughout the Hindu world, the virgin goddess is infused with the spirit of a sword-wield ing, blood-lusting and sexually desirable destroyer of male demons. Regardless of whether or not this fusion of female roles may be understood in Freudian terms, it seems highly likely that the tali tying and similar mock-marriages are performed in order to neutralize the dangerous power within the virgin. I find it a remarkable vindication of Gough's functional argument that the Newars of Kathmandu, a people who have clearly demonstrated their concern with virginity by developing a major cult of living goddesses, also attach great ritual significance to the mock-marriage of virgins and to the strict seclusion of girls at or just prior to their first menstruation. I will conclude the paper with a brief analysis of both ceremonies. THE NEWARS The Newars are a Tibeto-Burman speaking people who up to the Gorkha conquest of 1768 constituted the great majority of the population of Kathmandu valley. Today they account for approximately 50 per cent of a total population of just over half a million. They are the proud inheritors of an ancient urban civilization, and even now both Patan and Bhadgaon are almost 100 per cent Newar cities. Both Buddhism and Hinduism have ancient roots in Kathmandu valley. Hinduism, as in India, has a history that eventually merges into prehistory, while Buddhism most probably appeared not long after its origin in south Nepal in the fifth century B.C. The relative popularity of the two religions has varied from time to time, largely in accordance with changes in royal patronage (Allen 1973: 1-14). Orthodox monastic Buddhism was

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Taleju temple, Kathmandu

The royal Kumari of Kathmandu being lifted onto her chariot (ratha) for her annual festival, September 1974

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The Patan Kumari sitting on her throne in Hawbaha to receive worshippers on the ninth night (mahanavami] of Dasain in October 1974

The Ekanta Kumari of Bhadgaon during Dasain in October 1974

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the dominant form for a long period extending almost from the time of the Buddha up to about the tenth or eleventh century, when it began to give way to the growing popularity of Tantricism. In Hinduism this means the growth of cults such as Saktism and Saivism, while in Buddhism Vajrayana practices led to the collapse of the monasteries. Some commentators have interpreted this period as constituting the triumph of Hinduism over Buddhism—but a more accurate view must surely be that in both religions there was a switch from the pure, ascetic renunciatory pole to the greater ritualism and sensuality found both in Tantrayana and Vajrayana. It is true, however, that from about the early fourteenth century up to the present day, a succession of high-caste Hindu kings contributed to a steady decline in the strength and popularity of Buddhism. Today, the relative popularity of the two religions varies not only from city to city, but also from caste to caste and even individual to individual. Furthermore, as a number of previous observers have noted, the relationship between the two religions is one of synthesis rather than division and opposition. Though individuals and to a lesser extent castes may be classed as either Buddhist or Hindu by reference to the kind of priest employed for domestic ceremonies, in other contexts it is either difficult or meaningless to make any distinction. Most Newars attend both Buddhist and Hindu festivals, and many festivals are themselves an intermingling of deities, rituals and priests of both religions. This is most especially apparent in the Kumari cult for here we find a classic Hindu goddess who is not only worshipped by Buddhist priests, but incarnates herself in young girls of pure Buddhist caste. Though Newars like to refer to a remote period in which their society was without caste, it is today, and has been for many hundreds of years, internally divided into a large number of named hereditary groups, each of which is endogamous, associated with one or more traditional occupations, and hierarchically ranked on the basis of relative purity. This fundamental structural feature is, as Yalman has persuasively argued, for Ceylon and Malabar, crucial for an understanding of the relationship that obtains between the purity of castes and the purity of women. 'The preoccupation with caste purity narrows and focuses attention on a profound "danger" situation—the appearance of female sexuality' (Yalman 1963: 39). Mock-marriages, child-marriages and the ritual seclusion of girls during first menstruation must all be seen as institutionalized responses to the dangers associated with the end of virginal and premenstrual purity. I will argue that the Newar cult of living virgins is part of the same syndrome.

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There are at present ten Newar girls regularly worshipped as living Kumaris; three (four until recently) in Kathmandu, three in Bhadgaon, two in Patan and one each in Deopatan and Bungamati.6 There are major differences according to such variables as the girl's caste membership, who worships her and what attributes of what goddess are most stressed. Though there is a particularly close historical connection between Sakya caste, Taleju as presiding deity and royal patronage, it is not invariant for the ex-royal Kumari of Patan is selected from a Vajracharya community. The other four Vajracharya Kumaris have a more Tantric and Buddhist character than their Sakya counterparts, and are more closely associated with the Vajrayana deity Vajradevi than with the Hindu Taleju or Durga. The two Jyapu Kumaris are worshipped by the Pradhans and Deo-Brahmins, two high-ranking Newar Hindu castes. The full list of eleven is as follows: Kathmandu 1. The Raj (royal) or Lakhu (palace) Kumari. Sakya caste and worshipped by King and nation. 2. Mu (chief) Kumari. Gubhaju (Vajracharya) caste of Mubaha worshipped mostly by members of her own caste in central (Datu) Kathmandu. This position has been vacant for some years. 3. Kwabaha Kumari. Gubhaju caste of Kwabaha worshipped both by members of her own caste in north (Thane) Kathmandu and by the Pradhans of Bhagawan Baha in Thamel locality. 4. Kilgar Kumari. Jyapu caste and worshipped primarily by the Pradhans of Kilagar-Itumbaha area. Patan (Lalitpur) 5. The ex-royal Kumari of Hawbaha in Gahbaha locality. Gubhaju caste and worshipped by most Patan residents and also by a number of individuals, not exclusively Newar, from elsewhere. 6. Sonimha Kumari. Jyapu caste of Mikhabaha. Worshipped by DeoBrahmins of that locality.

6

See Allen (in press) for further details concerning each local Kurnari.

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Bhadgaon (Bhaktapur) 7. Ekanta Kumari. She can be chosen from any of the baha of Bhadgaon and may be of either Gubhaju or Sakya castes. Her official residence is in Dipankar Baha and in the past she was worshipped by the Malla Kings of Bhadgaon. Today she is publicly worshipped by most of the population of Bhadgaon during Dasain, and is available for private clients on request. 8. Wala Lakhu Kumari. Selection as with Ekanta Kumari but she is especially associated with Wala Lakhu, a baha~\\ke courtyard near Dattatreya temple where she has her agama. Worshipped only during Dasain. 9. Tebukche Kumari. As with the other Bhadgaon Kumaris she can be selected from any of the Gubhaju or Sakya families. She is worshipped only during Dasain and especially by the Jyapus of Tebuk locality. She is unique in that she must be an unweaned baby and hence replaced annually. Deopatan 10. Chabahi Kumari. She is chosen from the Sakya members of Chabahi (Suvarnapurnamahavihara), and is said to have once been worshipped by the Kings of Deopatan. Today her worship is mostly confined to the members of her baha. Bungamati 11. She is chosen from a single patrilineal extended family (kawa) of Gubhaju caste whose members are known as Panju, and who share in the important ritual duties associated with their famous god Matsyendranath. She is worshipped by the members of all clean Bungamati castes. The three most important Kumaris are those who prior to the Gorkha conquest were worshipped by the Malla Kings of the three capital cities of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhadgaon (i.e., numbers 1, 5 and 7). Through royal patronage they ranked amongst the foremost of popular divinities, and even today they can boast of many possessions, especially jewellery, donated by past monarchs. When the Gorkhas conquered the valley they made Kathmandu their capital, and Patan and Bhadgaon fell into relative obscurity. Though the Patan and Bhadgaon ex-royal Kumaris are still of local importance, they are virtually unknown outside their home cities. By contrast, the Kathmandu royal Kumaris has achieved an even greater eminence, for she has continued to receive the patronage of the new Shaha dynasty. She is now a divinity of national importance, and her

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annual chariot festival is a spectacular and colourful occasion attended by huge crowds. The remaining eight non-royal Kumaris, though they each present features of considerable interest, are all of local importance and for reasons of space will have to be ignored in this paper. I will, in fact, confine most of my comments to the principal royal Kumari of Kathmandu. The history of Kumari worship in Nepal is as yet shrouded in a great deal of legend and mystery. Though there is evidence that a goddess of this name has been worshipped for a very long time, certainly since at least as early as the 6th century A. D. (Hasrat 1970: 41-42 and Wright 1972: 125), no firm statement can be made as to the origin of the custom of worshipping living Kumaris. From various indirect sources it seems possible that it may have begun in the form of small local cults, possibly similar to those still found in the north-east Punjab (Rose 1919 i: 320,327, 329), shortly after the introduction of Vajrayana Buddhism during the eleventh century A. D. Indeed, one of the local chronicles (Wright:157), Vamshavali, records that even at this early date a Patan Kumari was worshipped by a King. Most of the chionicles and oral traditions, however, place the origin of the royal cults in the Malla period, some naming Trailokya Malla, a late sixteenth-century ruler of an undivided kingdom with his capital at Bhadgaon, others Siddhinarasingh, a seventeenth century king of Patan, and yet others Jayaprakasa Malla, the mid-eighteenth century Kathmandu monarch who lost his kingdom to the Gorkhas. (See Hasrat 1970: 59-60; Anderson 1971: 132; Moaven 1975: 169-71). An important feature of most of these tales is the appearance of Taleju or Tulaja Bhavani as the tutelary divinity of the relevant reigning monarch, a position which she has retained to the present day. Taleju is consistently represented as a beautiful goddess who once maintained an intimate relationship with her worshipping king. Then one day an event occurred which so offended her that she no longer appeared in physical form. In some versions the King himself committed the offence by breaking the rule that he must not see her when he came to visit her; in others the offenders were suspicious female members of his family, either his wife or his daughter. But whatever the version, there is always the implication, which is sometimes made explicit, that the King developed a strong desire to sexually possess the goddess. The following night Taleju appeared to the King in a dream and told him that though she could no longer meet him as before she would give him the opportunity to worship and consult with her by taking the form of a young girl whose family practised a debased or polluting occupation. In most versions the caste named was the Sakya, though in Patan it was the Gubhaju. The selection is of interest

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on two counts—though the Mallas were orthodox Hindu Kings and both Taleju and Kumari are unquestionably Hindu deities, the Sakya and Gubhaju are pure Buddhist castes of high repute. They are the sole occupants of the former Buddhist monasteries (baha and bahi), and even today, some six or seven hundred years after the collapse of monasticism, their boys are jointly initiated in a ceremony in which they become monks for four days. The Gubhaju alone have the right to practise as Buddhist domestic priests, and both in function and in status they are a close replica of the Hindu Brahmins (Greenwold 1974: 101-23). The Sakya, though they may not become household priests, are nevertheless 'pure' Buddhists; indeed, they claim direct descent from the Sakya clan that gave birth to Sakyamuni Buddha. But the traditional occupation of most Sakya and many Gubhaju, that of gold-smithing, involves a number of highly polluting activities in particular the melting of gold in order to separate it from other metals. The somewhat surprising equation between royal Taleju and Sakya Kumari may reflect a desire on the part of the Malia kings to give their imported lineage deity increased legitimacy through association with the long-established and much revered Kumari. All of the stories portray the king as having lost favour with his protecting deity, a fact which may reflect some weakness in his position. The reappearance of Taleju as Kumari in the form of a young Buddhist girl had the important political result of projecting the source of legitimacy outside the palace. This feature of the cult undoubtedly gained in importance when the Gorkhas conquered the Newars and they too found it desirable to acknowledge the legitimating function of the Sakya Kumari of Kathmandu. Virtually every history textbook in the country recounts how, when Prithwi Narayan Shaha, the conquering Gorkha king, entered Kathmandu during the annual Kumari festival, he first received prasad or blessing from the goddess and then decreed that the festival should continue. It is this event that above all else is represented as conferring legitimacy on the new dynasty—a symbolic act of great importance repeated annually during her festival when the King comes to her house to kiss her feet and to receive tika from her. The legitimating function of this exchange is evident in the many tales that are told of a change of ruler or even dynasty following some irregularity. For example—in 1955 the goddess, who seemed to be dozing, wrongly placed the tika on the forehead of the crown prince rather than the king, Eight months later the king died and Jiis son was crowned (Anderson 1971: 135). Since each of the principal Kumaris in the three capital cities is still regarded as, amongst other things, a living form of Taleju Bhavani, it is

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worth pausing a moment to consider the nature of this goddess. According to the chronicles she was first brought to Kathmandu valley by Harisingh Deva, a fourteenth-century Karnatic prince of Tirhut whose capital was at Simraongadh in what is now part of southern Nepal. The appearance of Harisingh in valley politics was a direct consequence of the collapse of Hindu kingdoms in north India due to the rapid expansion of Moslem power. Though historians are uncertain as to whether Harisingh actually ruled the country from Bhadgaon or simply exercised some kind of influence at court, it seems beyond doubt that it was during this period that Taleju Bhavani was established as the tutelary divinity of Nepalese monarchs. During the fourteenth century there was only one valley kingdom with its capital at Bhadgaon, and it was here that Harisingh reputedly built her temple in the palace compound. It was not until after Yaksha Malla made a tripartite division in the early fifteenth century that additional Taleju temples were built, first in Kathmandu in 1501 A. D. and then in Patan in 1620 A. D. In each of the three cities her temple stands in the old palace compound, and they are still the scene of massive sacrificial rites during Dasain. As I will shortly describe, new royal Kumaris are installed in office in courtyards immediately adjacent to the Taleju temples, and for her Hindu worshippers it is the spirit of this goddess who is invoked to enter the young girls. Bhavani, which literally means 'giver of existence', is one of the many epithets of Sakti or Devi, the consort of Siva. In those areas, such as the Deccan in central India, where she receives special veneration as an independent deity, her attributes are similar to those normally associated with Durga and Kali. Though Durga is commonly represented as beautiful and calm while Kali is ugly and frenzied, the two are alike in that they are both powerful blood-lusting destroyers of male demons and enemies. The fearsome Kali aspect of Bhavani is that which was most apparent in the notorious Thuggee cult, while that of beautiful protectress was stressed in her appearence as the tutelary divinity of leading Maratha families. By far the most famous of the many Indian Bhavani temples is that of Tuljapur, a small town in Hyderabad. Though an ancient place of pilgrimage, it was not until the Bhosle family began to worship her in the late sixteenth century that she acquired widespread fame. Sivaji, the most famous of the Maratha rulers regularly consulted with Taleju Bhavani prior to undertaking any important action, and in 1658 A. D. he built a new and most impressive temple for her at Pratapgad. As in Nepal, the goddess is represented as the main source of the ruler's strength and wisdom (Kincaid and Parasnis 1918: 113-15, 152,158-59, 210-11 and 53-78). The Kumari-Taleju equation is spelt out most vividly in two contexts:

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at the installation ceremony for new royal Kumaris, and during the annual sacrifice of hundreds of buffalloes and goats to Taleju during Dasain. The two are closely linked for the installation ceremony must take place immediately after the mass animal sacrifice. SELECTION AND INSTALLATION The selection of the new royal Kumari is a complex affair controlled by a formal committee of eight ritual specialists.7 Those eligible to be chosen are the daughters of all male Sakya who have membership of one of the 15 main ex-monasteries of Kathmandu. About a month prior to Dasain the candidates are examined by the selection committee in a room in Hanuman Dhoka, the old Malla palace. I understand that despite the high prestige and continuing popularity of the position, only about four or five girls reach this stage. The difficult selection criteria are widely known and only those obviously well qualified are submitted. The formal task of the committee is to find a girl who exhibits all the 32 perfections8 expected of a female deity. Some of these, for example, forty teeth (i.e., the lost milk teeth plus the full adult set), a chest like a lion's, thighs like a deer's and a body like a 7 The committee consists of the Bada Guruju (the chief Brahmin of the country who holds a palace appointment as the king's adviser on religious matters), the AchahJAi priest of Taleju temple, the Royal astrologer and the Pancha Buddha. The Pancha Buddha are five Newar Buddhist priests of Vajracharya caste who also officiate during the annual Kumari festival and have various other ceremonial duties in connection with the Goddess. They consist of two Raj Gubhajus, one from Sikhamu Baha and the other from Saval Baha and three other Gubhajus of Sikhamu. The Raj Gubhajus hold hereditary positions that date back to the Malla period, when they carried the authority of the king to settle disputes amongst the Newar Buddhists. 8 The following list was given to me by a Vajracharya informant:» (1) Feet well-proportioned. (2) Spiralling lines on the soles of the feet. (3) Nails well-proportioned. (4) Long and well-formed toes. (5) Feet and hands like those of a duck (with netlike lines). (6) Feet and hands soft and firm. (7) The body broad at the shoulders and narrow at the waist. (8) Thighs like those of a deer. (9) Small and well-recessed sexual organs. (10) Chest like that of a lion. (11) Well-spread shoulders. (12) Long arms. (13) Pure body. (14) Neck like a conch shell. (15) Cheeks like those of a lion. (16) Forty teeth (the first eight milk teeth and 32 second teeth). (17) Teeth white and nicely shaped. (18) No gaps between teeth. (19) Tongue small and sensitive. (20) Tongue moist. (21) Voice clear and soft like a duck's. (22) Eyes blue/black. (23) Eyelashes like those of a cow. (24) A beautiful complexion with white lustre. (25) A gold-coloured complexion. (26) Skin pores small and not too open. (27) Hair-whorls stiff and turning to the right. (28) Hair black. (29) Forehead large and well-proportioned. (30) Head round with cone-shaped top. (31) Body shaped like a banyan tree. (32) Robust body.

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banyan tree are not features one might expect to find in a three- or fouryears-old. In fact, a much shorter and simpler list is used in which the keynote is youthful purity. The first concern is that the child should be in perfect health and have avoided any serious illness, especially smallpox. Great stress is placed on skin with a good lustre and no blemish or scar, oval face with large black eyes and long lashes, nicely proportioned limbs, toes and fingers, no bad body smells and above all that she should have lost no teeth and be pre-menstrual. Some also say that she should be fully weaned and have learned how to talk—no doubt practical considerations in view of her immanent separation from her mother. In addition to the physical signs the committee is supposed to consider her personality — especially that she should show a fearless and calm disposition. They also carefully consider her family's genealogical background and general repute in order to be certain that she is of unblemished Sakya stock. A final and most important consideration is her horoscope—it must be examined not only in terms of her own auspiciousness, but also in order to ascertain that it does not in any way conflict with that of the King. This is to guaraantee that he will not place himself in jeopardy when he comes to worship her during her festival. The selected girl returns to her home where she stays until the final tests and rites of installation are performed. During this period the spirit of Kumari is believed to be already slowly entering into her so that if she should be in any way unsuitable then her body is certain to react negatively. Dasain is a ten day long festival on the first nine of which the Nava Durga, the nine separate forms of this powerful mother goddess, are worshipped at their various local shrines. On maha astami, the 'great eighth' day of Dasain, the slaying of the arch demon Mahisasura by Durga is celebrated throughout the country by the sacrifice of thousands of buffaloes, goats, sheep, chickens and ducks. It is most especially in Mulchowk, a small inner courtyard in Hanuman Dhoka that leads to the adjacent Taleju temple, that Durga's triumph is re-enacted. At nightfall eight buffaloes representing the demon are killed by having their throats slit so that the blood jets high towards the shrine that contains the Taleju icon. A few hours later at about midnight a further 54 buffaloes and 54 goats are killed in a similar manner. As may well be imagined, the small courtyard is by then awash with blood. Some of the heads are placed in and around the Taleju shrine and the entrance is turned into a truly gory sight with dripping blood, hanging entrails and nailed up skulls with attached horns. The remaining heads, with lighted wicks placed between the horns, are set out in rows across the courtyard. At this point, usually about 1.00 A. M. the small Kumari-elect is brought to the entrance. She is

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supposed to walk by herself, in a clockwise direction around the raised edge until she reaches the bloody Taleju shrine. She must enter it, still maintaining a perfectly calm demeanour, and if all is well she is then taken upstairs to a small room for the installation ceremony. The officiating lowcaste Acahju priests of Taleju maintain a strict rule of secrecy regarding subsequent events. There are, however, good reasons to believe that they must be similar to those that occur at the installation of a Patan Kumari. If so, then after the usual purificatory and other preliminary rites, the chief priest performs the main ceremony in which he removes from the girl's body all of her previous life's experience so that the spirit of Taleju may enter a perfectly pure being. The girl sits naked in front of the priest while he purifies each of her sensitive body areas in turn by reciting a mantra and by touching each area with a small bundle of such pure things as grass, tree bark and leaves. The six sensitive parts are her eyes, throat, breasts, navel, vagina and vulva. As he removes the impurities the girl is said to steadily become redder and redder as the spirit of the goddess enters into her. At this stage the girl is dressed and made up with Kumari hairstyle, red tika, third eye, jewellery, .etc., and then sits on her beautifully carved wooden throne on the seat of which the priest has painted the powerful sri ycintra mandala of Taleju. She also holds the sword of Taleju and it is at this point that the final and complete transformation takes place. It is worth noting that though from now until her disqualification some years later she will be continuously regarded as Kumari, it is also believed that it is only when fully made up and sitting on her throne that identification is complete. At other times, especially when casually playing with friends, she is partly herself and partly Kumari. From the Hindu point of view the rituals performed in Mulchowk complete the installation of Kumari, but for the Newar Buddhists, and it should be remembered that they constitute the majority of her worshippers, the serious part of proceedings has yet to come. Though they do not dispute the belief that Kumari is a virginal form of Taleju, she is for them more importantly identified with Vajradevi, the chief female divinity of Vajrayana Buddhism. After she returns to Kumari house from Mulchowk she is taken to the shrine on the second floor where two leading Gubhaju priests worship her as Vajradevi, the sexual partner of Cakrasamvara, a fearsome many-armed deity who also figures prominently in Tibetan Buddhism. I would at this point like to stress the marked contrast between the initial selection procedures in which the aim was to find a pure young virgin, one who above all else had not yet bled in any kind of way, and the

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installation rites in which the scene itself is one of extreme goriness and the goddesses invoked to possess the girl are both erotic and bloodthirsty, DISQUALIFICATION After the installation ceremony the girl remains as Kumari until she shows some clear sign that she is human rather than divine. The most certain indication is loss of blood, which may be provoked by loss of tooth, first menstruation, a wound, or internal haemorrhage. Serious illness, especially if, like smallpox, it results in body scarring, also causes disqualification. Girls mostly remain in office about six or seven years, the first menstruation being the most common disqualification. This clearly indicates that loss of tooth is not by itself taken too seriously. One ex-Kumari whom I interviewed, a fifty-six year old woman who has been in office for ten years from the age of four to fourteen, told me that in her case no negative sign had appeared and that she was falsely disqualified on the grounds of suspected menstruation. When I asked her about her teeth she admitted that she had lost most of her first ones, but that this had been considered acceptable because the new teeth had already broken through and were clearly visible. Her milk teeth, she explained, simply fell with neither loss of blood nor unseemly gap. I found evidence that despite the apparent strictness with which disqualifying signs are supposed to be observed, when, as occasionally happens, incumbents remain in office until well past puberty, this is regarded with at least as much awesome veneration as critical comment. The current Patan Kumari, who is the second most important in the country, is an outstanding example. She became Kumari when four and is now reputedly twenty-two. Most agree that she must not only have lost her first teeth, but also have had her first menstruation many years ago. Cynics, of whom there are certainly quite a few, assume that she remains in office simply because there are no willing successors. This could well be so for though she has great prestige in Patan, she has no national following and there is small material reward for the difficult life. Others, however, take great pride in such a remarkable Kumari and attribute to her unusual powers. For example, she is said to be able to drink six glasses of pure alcoholic spirit without adverse effect. Some even favour the theory that no disqualifying sign has appeared. LIFESTYLE AND WORSHIP The Kathmandu royal Kumari must, for as long as she remains in office,

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live apart from her family in a most imposing official residence located next to the old Malla palace. It is built in the style of one of the Buddhist ex-monasteries and with only one important exception—its resident deities and other sacra are Buddhist. The main downstairs shrine contains the Pancha (i e., five) or Dhyani Buddha, the first floor shrine the Tantric couple Vajradevi and Cakrasamvara, and in the courtyard there are a number of specifically Buddhist structures. The interesting exception is the presence of numerous wood carvings of Durga killing a demon on the tympanums over the courtyard doors—an unequivocal declaration to visitors that the resident deity is the powerful Hindu goddess. Kumari must remain in this building other than on those few occasions when she goes out to attend certain public festivals. She is looked after by a caretaker family of Gubhaju caste which currently consists of an old widow, her four married sons and their wives and 32 grandchildren. They share the daily tasks of washing, dressing, feeding and entertaining the young goddess. In theory she is wholly autonomous if she wishes to have certain playmates they must be found; if they annoy her they should be removed or punished; if she does not wish to be worshipped in a certain way or perhaps even not worshipped at all then her devotees must act in accordance with her wishes. In practice, if she should begin to act in an excessively capricious or disruptive manner someone would undoubtedly move to have her dismissed on the grounds of ungodlike behaviour. Kumari must always wear red clothes, have her hair drawn up on the top of her head in the distinctive Kumari style, have a third eye on her forehead, and wear a pair of gold bracelets. But on formal occasions, especially for her annual chariot festival, her appearance is truly grand. In addition to an impressive quantity of jewellery donated both by kings and by wealthy private admirers, she wears brilliant scarlet clothes, has a huge red tika on her forehead and striking black eye make-up. It is worth noting that the formal title of a princess (daughter of a King, both before and after marriage) is Adhiraj Kumari—Adhiraj simply meaning 'King'. Each morning, after she has been washed and dressed, she is taken to her throne where she is worshipped by tne Hindu priest of the Taleju temple. Later, during the day, members of the public come to worship her. She makes frequent appearances at a window for groups of tourists in the courtyard, has long play sessions with the grandchildren of her caretaker, and is given some formal tuition in school subjects from a private tutor. On an average day about ten to twenty people come to worship her. There are no formal requirements: some come with a simple bowl of offerings, usually sweets and flowers, in the normal manner of worshipping a temple deity; some make more elaborate offerings of cooked food, cloth and

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money, and perhaps recite a few texts; others bring their family priest to conduct a major ceremony. Devotees come from a very wide range of Nepalese society, include both Hindus and Buddhists and range from simple peasants to prominent government officials. Though most are Newar, many members of other ethnic groups also visit her. The only persons not permitted to approach her are untouchables and foreigners. Foremost amongst her worshippers are those who suffer from bleeding problems: women with menstrual difficulties, those with chronic haemorrhage, or who habitually cough blood. A second category consists of those who have recently participated in a ceremony in which it is regarded as desirable to conclude with kumaripuja. Though this is true of virtually all ritual occasions, for without kumaripuja all that went before would be rendered powerless or futile, only a very few of the participants actually worship a living Kumari—most simply perform the puja to some icon or image whichever is most convenient. Occasionally, public servants and even government ministers, especially those who are in fear either of loss of job or demotion, are to be iound amongst those who come to make offerings to the royal Kumari. A further category consists of those who believe that she has the power to foretell future events; especially whether or not a client's proposed action is likely to prosper. In each of the above contexts she is specifically worshipped as Kumari and hence the emphasis is primarily, though even here not without some ambiguity, on her overt role as pure young virgin. Quite the opposite holds for those who invite a living Kumari to attend either Hindu or Buddhist privately-organized Tantric rituals. On such occasions the young girl is used as a suitable vessel or container for the spirit of some other goddess, usually mature, beautiful and passionate. In Hindu Tantric rituals such goddesses are most commonly one of the forms of Sakti or Devi, while in Vajrayana rituals they are most likely to be one of the red and naked Yoginis or Dakinis, in particular Vajradevi. In such rites it is the full power of Kumari's delayed sexual and creative potential that is especially venerated. Though physically a pure young virgin, she is nevertheless charged with the power of erotic womanhood. When a Kathmandu royal Kumari has been declared unfit for office, she is expected to return to family life as an ordinary girl. After proceeding through the usual life-cycle rituals such as the twelve-day isolation for first menstruation, she is expected to advance to the rituals and exchanges that culminate in marriage. But inevitably there are difficulties both for others to accept her as an ordinary human and for her to adjust to the radically new role required of her. For a considerable number of formative years she has been treated as a powerful goddess and worshipped by everyone,

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even the King. She has come to expect that every whim will be satisfied —such as the desire for a new toy, the summoning of playmates or the removal of those who offend. It is important too ihat she has come to expect that all those who visit her will bear offerings of some kind or other, no matter how humble. Clearly, a prolonged period of this kind does not constitute the ideal socialization for a future Newar wife. Although the position of Newar women, whether as mothers, wives or sisters is distinctly better than that of most neighbouring Himalayan or north Indian women, it is still quite emphatically one in which service and obedience, especially to husbands, is the keynote. Almost immediately the haughty young goddess must suffer the indignity of menstrual isolation. Then as soon as she marries, she must enter that most difficult phase as the young girl who should serve and even worship her husband. Instead of having the King bow annually to her feet, she must now do so daily to her husband's. It is small wonder that there is a widespread belief that marriage to an ex-royal Kumari will prove disastrous for any but the strongest of men. In addition to a personality that is likely to differ markedly from that expected of the ideal humble wife, there is a strong belief that such girls retain something of their former, power. That this is so is evident in that all ex-Kumaris are addressed for the rest of their lives as dyo meiju—or 'deity female'. Some say that this continuing power is so strong that it may even kill a weak husband, and hence early widowhood is thought to be a common fate. Another common stereotype is that some ex-Kumaris have been obliged to marry men of lower caste than themselves. In actual fact, five of the last ten Kumaris have married men of their own caste, and thus far seem to have adjusted to their new status. Only two remained as spinsters until old age, while the two most recent are also single but thought not likely to remain so for long. The remaining ex-Kumari, who is now a woman of 56, has so far lived a life that gives some substance to the popular image. She reigned as Kumari for ten years from the age of four to fourteen, and though she eventually married a Sakya man, it was not until she was about 25. After five years, during which she had two daughters, the husband died of some mysterious disease, possibly cancer. She then lived for almost ten years as a widow, and by all accounts caused many raised eyebrows by runnings a grog shop in the centre of town. She dressed very gaily during this period and whether true or not was suspected of having many lovers. She finally married a man of merchant Shrestha caste, one rung lower than the Sakya but still both clean and respectable. She is still married to him, but has had no more children. When I interviewed her I was impressed by her forceful personality. She

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herself readily agrees that ex-Kumaris have great difficulty in adjusting to the life of an ordinary woman. Indeed, when she was approached some thirty years ago over the possibility of offering one of her own daughters for selection as Kumari she flatly refused, and just recently has discouraged the candidacy of her granddaughter. THE AMBIGUOUS AND DANGEROUS VIRGIN From the data thus far presented it is evident that there is a recurrent theme of dangerous sexuality associated with this overtly virginal and pure young goddess. According to her Hindu worshippers she is really Taleju Bhavani, a mysterious though immensely powerful goddess who destroys male demons and arouses the lust of kings. For her Buddhist worshippers she is Vajradevi, the beautiful blood-drinking sexual consort of Cakrasambara. Indeed, the term Kumari itself contains something of the goddess' central ambiguity for though it is most commonly understood to refer to a virgin girl in the sense of one as yet undefiled either by menstruation or by sexual intercourse, it also appears in many lists of terms for young girls as applying to the immediate post-menstrual stage. Walker (1968: 434), for example, provides a list in which Kumari is used to refer to a thirteen-year-old girl whose menses had begun two years earlier, while in most Tantric texts a sixteen-year-old girl is deemed most suitable for kumaripuja. Though the Newars formally insist on the pre-menstrual purity of their living Kumaris, they nevertheless display some ambivalence through their barely concealed admiration of such mature Kumaris as the present Patan incumbent. My argument is not, however, simply that the popularity of Kumari worship can be understood by reference to her dual nature as pure young virgin and erotic woman. The key is rather to be found in the ambiguous evaluation of virginity itself. The virgin girl, though highly rated for her natural purity, is nevertheless a threat to men and to male sexuality. As Walker has made clear, the basis for the male belief in the power of the virgin lies in the fear of pollution through contact with hymenal blood. Yet in Nepal, as throughout the Hindu world, blood is not only feared and avdided as a polluting substance, but venerated and embraced as a source of life. Both aspects of blood symbolism are of importance in interpreting the meaning of certain aspects of the Kumari cult. The first and most obvious point is that Kumari as a young pre-menstrual girl is classed as a *pure' goddess who must be kept free from any polluting contact with blood. That this is so is evident not only in the criteria of fitness for office, most of which focus on her personal freedom

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from any form of bleeding, but also in the prohibitions against either contact with menstruating women or the sacrifice of animals in her name. But there are other contexts that indicate a more positive identification with blood and its properties. For example, though she herself must not bleed she has the important ability to halt the flow in others when it threatens their well-being. It should also be noted that Kumari is classed as a redcoloured deity; in her installation ceremony she becomes redder and redder as the spirit of Taleju enters her, and she must subsequently wear red, scarlet, pink or purple clothes. Her favourite flower is the red hibiscus, she must wear a huge red tika on her forehead, and her toes are purified with red paint. But her ambiguous relationship with blood is perhaps best seen in the context of animal sacrifice. Though no sacrifice may be made direct to Kumari she is nevertheless possessed by the spirit of the bloodlusting Taleju. On her installation night she is surrounded by the bloody heads and entrails of the animals sacrificed to Taleju, and throughout her tenure of office she must annually revisit this gory scene in Mulchowk. The importance of blood symbolism ris by no means confined to the Kumari cult. This is apparent not only in the massive animal sacrifices that take place annually at Dasain, but also in the manner in which the animals are killed. Unlike all neighbouring peoples in the Himalayas, who remove their victims' heads with a single blow of a curved knife, the Newars kill their animals as slowly as possible by holding the neck back and giving the jugular vein a tiny nick. The aim is to ensure that a hot jet of blood can be so directed into the mouth of the deity that it can be drunk direct from a still living animal. The victim is then beheaded and the body dragged around the temple courtyard leaving a bloody trail behind it. The negative or polluting attributes of blood are most apparent in the beliefs and associated rituals concerning menstruation. All Newar girls of clean caste are required to undergo a ceremony called barha prior to marriage. The barha may be performed either as a group ritual (barha tayegu) in which several girls jointly participate prior to their first menstruation, or as an individual rite de passage held when the girl has her first menses. In both types of ceremony the girl is confined for eleven days in a dark room in her family home. Special care is taken to ensure that the sun does not enter and on the twelfth day when she emerges she is brought blindfolded to a place in full view of the sun where she offers it flowers and rice. The blindfold is then removed and she looks at the sun. It should be remembered that the sun, Surya, is a male god and that it is he, together with all of the men of her household, who are protected by the barha ritual from the dangers of the girl's menstrual blood. Greenwold (1974: 119)

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recently recorded the following most interesting statement made by a Vajracharya informant: A girl during her first menstrual period releases some poisons from her womb. If this is exposed to the sun, the sun itself would become impure. If this poison is exposed to her male kinsmen, her brothers or her father and uncles, they would become impure and also might suffer many misfortunes. . . .In the same way the Pore and Chyami (two Newar sweeper castes of unclean status) are full of poison and are unclean and polluted. The threatening power of a girl undergoing her seclusion is dramatically represented in the figure of the barha khya, a cotton effigy of a part-deity part-spirit which is believed to possess the girl and is hung on the wall of the seclusion room. The khya is a close bodyguard of Laksmi, the goddess of wealth and is commonly represented as a dwarfed and pudgy figure who is black in colour with curly hair and red-pouting lips. Some say that he actually possesses the girl and is therefore a grave danger to her wellbeing during the period of seclusion; others are of the opinion that he provides her with companionship and amusement, possibly of a sexual kind. Either way, he is essential for the success of the ritual and each day he must be offered food. An unusual feature of Newar menstrual taboos is that they are almost wholly confined to the first menses. Most orthodox Hindus, including the Parbatia Brahmin and Chetri peoples of Kathmandu valley, require the isolation of women throughout each bleeding period. It is not until after a purifying bath on the fourth day that Parbatia women can cook food and they must wait a day further before attending to religious duties. Amongst the Newars, by contrast, the only restriction placed on a menstruating woman is that she must have a bath before cooking and she should keep away from the household shrines. Though it is likely that most men refrain from sexual intercourse there is no formal taboo and little or no sense of danger. In other words, for the Newars the dangerous and polluting power associated with menstrual blood is almost wholly confined to its initial occurrence in virgin girls. The purifying effect of the barha tayagu is so efficacious that men need have little to fear from all future menses. The Newar men do not, however, rely so'ely on this ritual to make their women into safe sexual partners. Like the Nayars, they require all girls of clean caste to undergo a mock-marriage with a non-mortal spouse. The ihi is an elaborate two-day ceremony during which some 20 to 30 premenstrual girls are symbolically married to a bel fruit, a bitter quince

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that is throughout the Hindu world especially associated with Siva. There is no indigenous explanation for this remarkable ceremony other than to stress its necessity both for the good of the girl herself and the safety of her future husband. It is regarded as the girl's true marriage and hence enables her to obtain a divorce and to remarry as a widow whilst remaining eternally married to a divine spouse. As amongst the Nayars, and most probably wherever analogous mock-marriages are performed in India, girls enter into their secondary 'real' marriages at a post-menstrual stage. The average age for Newar girls at marriage is sixteen (Nepali, 201-3) and there is good reason to believe that this is not just a modern development. Furthermore, in both societies the de facto secondary unions are not the eternal and indissoluble bonds that they are amongst orthodox Hindus. Just as the barha first menstruation ceremony appears to have obviated the need for any subsequent menstrual precautions of a significant kind, so too has the ihi ceremony freed Newar men and women from the normal restrictions of an orthodox Hindu marriage. Like both Gough (1955) and Yalman (1963) I am arguing that the combined effect of the two ceremonies is to negate the powerful ritual dangers associated with pre-menstrual virgins. Whereas Gough contended that the danger arises through the identification of virgin girl with incestuously desired and castrating mother, I side rather with Yalman in attributing it to the polluting attributes of the pubescent girl's approaching sexual maturity. Gough supported her argument by noting that the chief Nayar deity, Bhagavati, is both 'mother' and 'virgin'. Even though the Newar Taleju is a form of Durga or Kali and hence closely related to Bhagavati, there is little that I can see of the truly maternal in any of these goddesses —Bhagavati included. On the. contrary, they are all normally depicted as beautiful young women of a sexually desirable kind. In other words, the danger that enters the young virgin at the Kumari installation rite and is finally removed at the barha ceremony is essentially the danger of sexual maturity in an unmarried girl. That such a danger should take a highly developed form in a caste-structured society is, as Yalman has persuasively argued, a logical consequence of hierarchy based on notions of relative purity.

REFERENCES ABBOTT, J. 1932. The keys of power: a study of Indian ritual and belief. London: Methuen & Co.

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ALLEN, M.R. 1973. Buddhism without monks: the Vajrayana religion of the Newars of Kathmandu valley. South Asia 3:1-14. . 1975. The cult of Kumari: virgin worship in Nepal Kathmandu: Tribhuvan University Press. ANDERSON, M. 1971. The Festivals of Nepal. London: G. Allen and Unwin. BHARATI, AGEHANANDA. 1965. The tantric tradition. London: Rider and Company. CHAKRABERTY, C. 1945. The cultural history of the Hindus. Calcutta: Vijaya Krishna Bros. CHAKRAVARTI, C. 1963. The tantras—studies on their religion and literature. Calcutta: KJU Mukhopadhyaya. CHATTOPADHYAYA, S. 1970. Evolution of Hindu sects. Delhi: Mun^hiram Manoharlal. DOUGLAS, MARY. 1966. Purity and danger. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. GOUGH, K, 1955. Female initiation rites on the Malabar coast. Jour, of roy. anthrop. instt. 85:45-80.. GREENWOLD, S.M. 1974. Buddhist Brahmans. Archiv. europ. social. 15: 101-23. HASRAT, B.J. 1970. History of Nepal. Hoshiarpur: Hasrat. KINCAID, C.A. and R.B.D.B. PARASNIS. 1918. A history of the Maratha people. Oxford: Oxford University Press. LEACH, E. 1962* Pulleyar and the Lord Buddha: an aspect of religious syncretism. Psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytical review 49, 2: 81 -102. MACDONALD, K.S. 1902. (?). The Sakta religion and the female sex. A pamphlet held by the Haddon Library, Cambridge, written. MOAVEN* N. 1974. Enquete les Kumari, Kailash 11, 3: 167-88. MoNlER-WiLLlAMS, SIR M. 1899. Sanskrit-English dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. MORRIS, J. 1968. Eating the Indian air. London: Hart Davis. O'FLAHERTY, W.D. 1973. Ascetism and eroticism in the mythology of Siva. London: Oxford University Press. ROSE, H-A. 1911-19. A glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province, 3 vols. Lahore: Government Printer. SCHOFF, W.H. 1912. Periplus of the Erythaean sea. Longmans & Co. SORENSEN, S. 1904. An index to names in the Mahabharaia. London: Williams and Norgate. WALKER, B. 1968. Hindu world: an encyclopaedic survey of Hinduism, 2 vols. New York and Washington: Frederick A. Praeger. WRIGHT, D. 1972. History of Nepal (reprint). Kathmandu: Nepal Antiquated Book Publishers. YALMAN, N.§ 1963. On the purity of women in the castes of Ceylon and Malabar. Jour, ofroy. anthrop. instt. 93; 25-58. YULE, SIR H., ed. 1903. The book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the east (3rd edition). London: John Murray.

[10] Social consequences of marrying Visnu Narayana: primary marriage among the Newars of Kathmandu valley ANNE VERGATI

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifiqus, Paris (Laboratorie d'Ethnologie)

The Newars (Newars) are the original inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. Their present population is about 400,000. Until 1768 they held political power which they lost when the Malla kingdoms were conquered by the Shah dynasty of Gorkha. The principal occupation of the Newars has always been agriculture, but trade also has been important as the Valley is situated on a commercial route between India, Tibet and China. Hinduism and Buddhism have co-existed in the Valley for 2000 years but the former has always been the state religion.1 The status of Newar women differs from that of other Hindu women such as the ChetrinI or Brahmins.2 Crucially, Newar widows may remarry and widowhood does not involve a loss of status in their society. Divorce too is allowed. A woman may have, successively, several husbands provided that they are of the same caste as her's. The status peculiar to Newar women as compared to women of other Nepalese ethnic groups3 is said to be the consequence of their having passed through the initiation ceremony for girls who have not yet reached puberty. This ceremony is a ritual marriage to Visnu Narayana. In Nepal Visnu is worshipped in the form of 1 My field work was done in Bhaktapur (or Bhatgaon), one of the main towns of the Valley with about 40,000 inhabitants. The field work was financed by the C.N.R.S., Laboratoire d'Ethnologie, LA 140. I wish to thank in particular Rama Patiraj Sharma and his wife, Durga Devi. For all his help in the understanding of Buddhist rituals my thanks go to Bhadri Guruju of Kathmandu. I wish to thank T.N. Madan, A.W. Macdonald, M.L. Reiniche and Ph. Saganl for their helpful criticisms of earlier drafts of this article. 2 I use 'status' here to refer to the relative position in the local social hierarchy of a person, a group or a form of marriage. 3 Good descriptions of the social organisation of the Indo-Nepalese castes are to be found in Gaborieau (1977) and von Furer-Haimendorf (1951, 1959).

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Narayana. In contrast to Siva and different manifestations of the Devi, he never receives bloody sacrifices but only vegetable offerings. It is Visnu who ensures order in the world: the kings of Nepal have always been considered as living symbols of Visnu. In Newari the ceremony is called ihi: the literal meaning of this word is marriage and it is synonymous with the Sanskrit word vivdha.* The ritual marriage is celebrated both by Hindus and Buddhists. Today the majority, 80 per cent, of the Kathmandu Valley Newars are Hindus. The rest (20 per cent) are Buddhists, concentrated mainly in the town of Patan, and conform to the Vajrayana form of Mahayana Buddhism. Both Hindu and Buddhist traditions are ancient in Nepal and it should not be supposed that hinduisation is of recent date. According to archaeological evidence Hinduism has always been dominant in the Valley, for since the fourth century A.D., it has been the state religion. Since the fourteenth century, Buddhists have been integrated into the local Hindu context: in adopting the caste system, they have continued to observe its injunctions concerning ritual purity and are likewise respectful of relative status positions in the social hierarchy. For whom is marriage to Visnu Narayana performed? It is their age which determines whether girls are to pass through the ritual marriage with Visnu Narayana: they must be between five and nine years of age. This ritual marriage is quite different from the bahra tayegu ceremony performed at the time of puberty. The latter must be performed by all castes. Ritual marriage (ihi) is, however, celebrated only by pure castes (ju pirn). This statement must be qualified by drawing attention to the fact that the castes situated at the two poles of the social hierarchy, namely the Rajopadhyaya Brahmins or Deo Baju, at the summit, and the Untouchables, at the base, do not celebrate it. The Rajopadhyaya Brahmins, domestic priests of the Hindu Newars, represent only approximately 1 per cent of the total Newar population of the Valley. According to oral tradition, they came into the Valley in the thirteenth century from the region of Mithila in north India. In former times they occupied the function of rajguru to the sovereigns of the Malla dynasty. Locally these Deo Baju, because of their consumption of meat and alcohol in the course of tantric rituals, are not considered equal to Parbatiya Brahmins. On the other hand, their lower relative ranking in the nineteenth century MulukI Ain is to be attributed to the fact that it was after the conquest of the Valley by the Gorkhas in the late eighteenth century that this legal code was promulgated. The Deo Baju, we must emphasise, consider themselves higher than the Parbatiya Brahmins. They constitute an endoga4

Unless otherwise stated, all the vernacular words or phrases in this article are from the Newari language as it is spoken today.

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mous group. In many respects they have remained different from the rest of Newar society. They themselves assert that their women are not entitled to remarry and that their men should not marry a widow as such—a man's social status would be lowered in consequence. However, it is these Deo Baju who officiate at the ritual marriage, ihi. Among the Hindu Newars, at a popular level, the Brahmin is regarded as Visnu Narayana: everyone touches their feet with his head. This may explain why the daughters of the Brahmins do not have to go through ihi. The Untouchables (ma ju pirn), butchers (nay or kasdi), tailor-musicians (kusle, previously yogi), fishermen-sweepers (pode), tanners (kuhi), sweepers (cyame or hdldhulu) live above all on the slopes on the outskirts of towns. They represent approximately 8 per cent of the Newar population of the Valley. The reason for their not celebrating ihi is that this ceremony requires a priest to officiate at it, and no priest, whether Hindu or Buddhist, would consent to play this role for the Untouchables.5 Socially speaking, ihi is very significant.6 It is the only Newar domestic ceremony of a collective nature: girls belonging to different castes, whose parents in normal circumstances do not have relations of commensality or intermarriage, celebrate the ritual together. Both Hindu and Buddhist informants emphasise the collective aspect of this ritual marriage. Its celebration usually involves between five and forty girls who are, in no way, linked by kinship. It is the domestic priest (purohita) who knows the local community very well, who draws up the lists of girls of the right age to undergo the ceremony. Ihi necessitates considerable expenditure and, according to my informants, that is one of the reasons for celebrating the ritual collectively. Generally it is financed by a man who has no kinship links with the girls involved but who wishes to acquire merit (punya) — a preoccupation very widespread among the Hindus and the Buddhists alike. Frequently an elderly person who goes through the ritual of Jya jhmko (Sk. bhima ratha) pays also for the celebration of ihi.1 Jya jhanko is a ritual of initiation carried out when 5 Toffin (1977: 38) writes that the inhabitants of the village of Pyangaon, who are considered true Newars and are low caste (ko jat) do not celebrate ihi. 6 C. von Furer-Haimendorf (1956) had briefly drawn attention to this aspect of Newar social organisation. A short description of the ritual marriage to Visnu Narayana as celebrated by Hindus has been given by Nepali (1965:106-12). 7 There is no ethnographic description of the jhanko (Sk. bh'ma ratha) ritual. Nepali writes:

A very notable feature in the ritual life cycle of the Newars is the observance of the attainment of old age, which is however, not to be found among other ethnic groups of Nepal. Th^y use the term hurha jhanko to designate thsir observance which is held thrice in the life-time of an individual. The first burha jhanko takes place at the age of seventy-seven years, seven months, seven days, seven ghadis

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a man or woman reaches the age of seven days, seven months or seventyseven years: it ensures the passage of the individual in question from the world of men to that of the gods. For instance, a Buddhist woman of my acquaintance, Gyana Maya of the village of Thimi, now 80 years of age, at the time of celebrating her jyd jhanko paid for the ihi ceremony of five young girls. Ihi can also be celebrated at the same time as the inauguration ceremony for a stupa or any other monument. It is staged between the months of Mdgh (January-February) and Baisak (April-May), a period of the year which is auspicious: pandits and purohitas celebrate at that time the marriage of Siva and ParvatT, and the Svasthani kathd is read. The auspicious day (bhingu khunu) is fixed either by the astrologer or by a Buddhist priest (vajracaryd) who, among the Newars, often plays the role of astrologer. The ritual marriage, which usually lasts three days, can take place either in the house of the person who finances it (the Newari kofl che, koji is synonymous with the Sanskrit word yajamdna; che means house) if the house is large enough or in the courtyard of a temple or a Buddhist monastery (bdhd, Sk. vihdrd). The ritual complex of ihi The first day of ihi is devoted to ritual purification of the bodies of the girls and those of their parents. This ritual is called nisi yaye and takes place early in the morning at the girls' houses. The purification is performed on the ground floor of the house: in all Newar houses the top floor is reserved for the divinities. As in all Newar domestic ceremonies of purification the barber's wife (nauni) plays an important role, for it is she who is responsible for purifying the girls' bodies—a process which is always symbolised by the cutting of the toe nails. On this day, the girl to be married must not take any food except milk and curd (dhau sagam) which are considered pure foods. After ritual purification, the girls, accompanied by their mothers, visit their maternal uncles (paju) who give them presents of new clothes. It is the second day which marks the real beginning of the ceremony. It is called doso khunu. Purification rites may be performed on this day also early in the morning. For both the Hindus and the Buddhists alike, it is compulsory for the ceremony to be performed under the guidance 'of a domestic priest: for those who are sivamargi he will be a Rajopadhyaya Brahmin who is helped by a karmdcdrya and for the Buddha mdrgl a Buddhist priest who

and seven palas according to the Hindu calendar. It is called Bhima Ratha Rohan. On the completion of this ceremony a person is believed to enter upon the first stage of divinity and he gives up taking active interest in family affairs. It is commonly believed that if such an initiated one pronounces a curse upon someone, it is sure to be effective (1965:122).

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is helped by a sakya. Important household ceremonies such as marriages and funerals can be celebrated only by Brahmins or by Buddhist priests. In the case of ihi the ceremony cannot be celebrated by a karmacarya or a sakya for the ritual of the sacrificial fire (homo) cannot be accomplished by them.8 The ceremony starts very early in the morning. Before the sun rises the priest must arrange the duso mandala and fix the seat (svastika asana) of each girl. It is not my purpose here to give the details of the entire ritual: it should be sufficient to emphasise that, on the whole, the important moments of the ritual are the same for the Buddhists and the Hindus alike and that the social consequences also are identical. One difference must be noted, however, which differentiates Hindu from Buddhist practices. Early on this day, for Hindus, but not for Buddhists, there is a sraddha for the ancestors of the girls on both sides. As in the celebration of all Hindu marriages in Nepal there is a sraddha which in this instance is officiated by a Deo Baju. In Hindu marriage, an auspicious sraddha is a kind of insurance and protection against impurity (sutaka) which might intervene in the case of the death of a member of the lineage.9 Before the Sraddha starts, the karmacarya, who is in fact a kulacarya, goes to the open shrine of the goddess (pithd) in the locality where the girl in question resides and sacrifices a male goat (dugu). Informants maintain that in former days he had to go and render homage at all the eight open shrines of the goddess which encircles the town. When the karmacarya comes back from the shrine, the sraddha for the dead is celebrated by the Deo Baju at the local Ganesa temple.10 I may 8

Cf. Greenwold (1981:87): 'The Vajracarya and the Brahman alone have access to the function associated with guardianship of the fire, and they alone are thereby empowered to serve as domestic priests (purohita)9. »Cf. Stevenson (1971:62): The auspicious sraddha (vrddhi sraddha) is a sort of insurance. The difficulty is that if some distant relative were to die, it would not only cause grief to his remote cousins, but also reduce their house to a state of such ceremonial impurity (sutaka) that no one would be able to drink or eat in it. But if once this auspicious sraddha has been performed, no sutaka can attach itself to the house (unless the person so inconsiderably dying were a very near relative indeed) and so without any harm people can feast there. i°Cf. Pandey (1969:210): The ceremonies preceding the marriage day are the following: In the beginning the most auspicious god Ganesa is worshipped and his symbol is installed in the nuptial canopy erected according to the rules laid down in the scriptures. The sacrificial altar for the vaivdhika horn2 is also built under the canopy. Then the father of the bride with his wife, in the first half of the day, having bathed, puts an auspicious robe. Next having seated himself he sips water and restrains his breaths. After this he prays to place and time, and makes up his mind (sankalpa) to perform (svastivachand) Mandapa pratisthl, Matr pujana, Vasoidharapujana, Ayusyajapa and Nandi Sraddha as ancillary to marriage.

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quote the case of a Deo Baju from Bhaktapur, Ramapatiraj, one of my main informants, who in 1977, officiated as the priest at the srdddha at the temple of Jyestha Ganesa in the potters' quarters (Kumale tol). While the girls stay in the house, the karamdcdrya and the koji che (or the thakuli) go to the Ganesa temple. The Deo Baju call this ceremony Nandi mukh srdddha whereas the farmers (jydpu) call it Yamalok Sraddha. The divinity invoked is Mahadev. He is invoked in the form of Alin Dyo, represented by a clay pot made the previous day by the potters. The ancestors invoked at this moment are from both sides, maternal (paju) and paternal (phuki). They are invoked upto three generations for each of the girls: mam (mother), ajl (grandmother), and tdpd aji (great grandmother); bwd (father), djd (grandfather), and tdpd djd (great grandfather). Beyond three generations the names of the ancestors are not mentioned: but the group is invoked together. This seems important as, for marriages, the middle caste Newars particularly take into account three generations. Distinctions concerning marriage prohibitions at Bhaktapur concern, in the first instance, high and low castes, the high castes respecting prohibitions concerning five generations while the low castes take account of only three generations.11 While the srdddha is taking place, the girls who remain in the house of the koji che must take their places as indicated by the thakuli nakind, who in the case of the ritual celebrated by the Deo Baju Ramapatiraj was his wife, Durga Devi. In other cases, a senior woman, often called gurumd by the Buddhists, must watch over the correct conduct of the ceremony. The previous evening, a painter would have drawn on the ground the places where each girl should sit (svastika dsana) throughout the ritual marriage. For the Tantrics the intersecting lines of the svastika represent the union of the male and female principles. Generally speaking, it is the mother who assists her daughter throughout the ceremony; in her absence, it is the maternal aunt. Five girls are chosen by the patron (koji che) according to his preferences and they are seated apart from the others. According to the Deo Baju Ramapatiraj, they symbolise five ideal 'wives' (panca kanyd) in Hindu mythology: Ahalya, DraupadI, Tara, KuntI, and Mandodharl (see Stevenson 1971: 62). The most important moment of the first day is called sat brindika. This is the moment when the measurement of each girl is taken by the thakali nakind or the guruma. The measurement of each girl is taken with a yellow thread. She stands upright, arms stretched wide on either side at the level of her shoulders. The thread is passed upwards from under her feet, round the tip of her outstretched fingers of one hand, over her 13

Cf. Nepali (1971:205): 'People have started marrying a woman from the third generation or the fourth generation if the relationship is traced through the female links only. Thus the Jyapu of Panga say that they have started marrying into the families of father's sister's daughter's daughter; and mother's brother's daughter's daughter'.

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head and then downwards, over fingertips of the other hand, once more leading to the soles of her feet. The way of measurement is always the same but it can be done 21, 84 or 108 times. Afterwards, on the same day, yellow thread in the form of a necklace (kumosoka) will be placed in an unbaked clay dish (solapari) in front of each girl. In the Newar context the red colour symbolises marriage and women, whereas yellow is appropriate to men. This yellow 'necklace' will be given to the girl's human bridegroom on the occasion of her second marriage and will constitute the proof that the girl had already accomplished the ihi ceremony. Next, the girls take their first meal of the day from a large copper platter (thai bhii) containing items of 84 different savours: flattened rice, meat from different parts of the animal, fish, eggs, five different varieties of sweetmeats, curd, different cooked vegetables, fruit, etc. Each girl must partake of this meal, thai bhu, in a ritualistic manner. She uses successively her thumb and each of the fingers of the right hand, then her thumb and each of the fingers of the left hand when taking mouthfuls. The eating of this food marks the end of the period of abstinence. This dish contains all the types of food the consumption of which is prohibited during the periods of impurity following the death of a relative. It is called khaye sagam and,* according to the pandits, corresponds to the panca makdra of Tantrism. The latter, according to them, consists of cooked meat, a special kind of fish, fried bean-cake, alcohol and eggs. Offerings of panca makdra are made only to the Tantric divinities. The khaye sagam is to be distinguished from pure food, pancamrita or dhau sagam offered to all non-tantric divinities such as Narayana or Krsna. In Newari two other words are used: ame or "prohibited food' such as meat, fish, eggs, ground lentils, liquor, and alaa which means holy, sacred, unpolluted food usually prepared by Brahmins. What is called pancamrita is consumed during periods of impurity and fasts. The platter called thai bhu is served on four occasions: (1) when a child takes its first solid food (the ceremony is called jhanko)\ (2) at the ritual marriage (//?/); (3) during the celebration of marriage to human bridegrooms; and (4) during the celebration of the ritual accomplished when an individual reaches the age of seventy-seven years, seven months, seven days (jyajhanko). The third day is the day of the ritual marriage. It is called kanyadan khunu, the day of the gift of a daughter. Early on that day, alongside the duso mandala, the site for the sacrificial fire is made ready by the priest. The sacrificial fire (yajnj) is lit on the altar constructed in theory of 108 unbaked bricks. The girls must remain seated in the places allotted to them on the previous day; and, before the start of the ceremony, they must again purify themselves. The senior woman (thakuli nakina) makes a parting in the hair of each girl in turn. In this parting she puts vermilion (sinco phdyegu). This is the most notable sign of a married woman. Next she touches the head of each girl with a mirror (jolam). The mother or maternal

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uncle then takes the yellow necklace, which is of the same length as the girl's body measurements, and puts it around her neck. Then a piece of paper on which is painted an image of Visnu Narayana is placed on each girl's forehead. If a girl's parents can afford it, a golden ornament may be used to represent Visnu. Orthodox Buddhists, who wish to distinguish themselves from the SivamargT, will use instead a piece of paper on which an image of a holy vessel (kalasa) is drawn. In the clay plate in front of each girl a bel fruit (bya, Sk. bilva), is deposited. The purohita then puts a red thread ~about 50 centimeters long, in each girl's plate. The father intervenes for the first time at this stage and ties this red thread round the chest of his daughter. He then takes the bel fruit and puts it in her hand along with flower petals, rice and betel-nuts. The girls remain seated in their fathers' laps, the father holding his daughter's hand in his. The symbolic gestures made by the girls fathers clearly indicate that they are giving their daughters away to the divinity. If the father is absent, his role will be played by the girl's paternal uncle. All parents on the paternal side (phuki) must then sprinkle water, which has been brought from a tirtha, on to the girl's head. The moment in the ritual, well known in Hindu marriage as kanyd dan, consists in the father giving his daughter away without receiving anything in exchange. It is the essential phase which sums up all Hindu ideology concerning marriage. The next vital part of Hindu marriage ritual is the walk around the sacred fire. The purohita purifies the girls by sprinkling on them the "five products of the cow' (panca gavya): milk, curd, ghee, cow-dung and urine. The fathers lift their daughters in their arms and carry them three times around the sacrificial fire in a clockwise direction. Once back in their places, the red threads tied around the girls' torsos are taken off by their fathers. The bel fruit is rolled in the palms of the fathers' hands, and then placed in the earthen platters in front of the daughters, along with the red threads. The vajracarya or the Deo Baju who conducts the ceremony, as well as the karmacdrya who helps the Deo Baju, must remain seated in front of the sacrificial fire. The text read by the Deo Baju during the ceremony is the Suvarna Kumara vivdha. I have seen several such manuscripts which often date from the seventeenth or eighteenth century and contain instructions for conducting the ritual. They are written in a mixture of Newari and Sanskrit and are illustrated with drawings ofmandala which serve as models for those erected on the first day next to the altar. During the ceremony, an image of gilt metal is placed close to the sacrificial fire. It is well known that in Hindu mythology Suvarna Kumara is one of the bachelor sons of Siva. However, participants, in ihi, as well as the purohita, always maintain that it is to Visnu Narayana that the girls are married and that the bel fruit represents Siva as witness to the marriage. According to certain Buddhist priests 'the girl is considered to be united to a personification of

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the bodhicitta represented by the bel fruit'.12 What seems particularly significant in the Buddhist rituals is the making of a new statue representing a Buddhist divinity of the Mahayana pantheon, such as Tara, Avalokitesvara or the Buddha, which is consecrated on the first day of ihi. This statue is called numha dyo, 'new divinity': the divinity in question will henceforth be the protective deity of the girls who have been married ritually. All around the mandala are placed earthen pots, painted the previous day by a professional painter. Their number can vary from 12 to 32; each pot is the temporary seat of a divinity. On each pot there are different symbolic drawings made the previous day by a citrakar, which indicate the divinity it will shelter. Hindu Newars place in the centre of the other pots a large earthenware pot representing Brahma. After the kanyd dan, the girls are sprinkled by the purohita with water from this pot. During the ceremony the thakali nakind must prepare in the sacrificial fire ritual food consisting of rice cooked in milk and this is then consumed by all the participants. During the annual celebration of the lineage festival (digu dyo puja) girls who have celebrated ihi, in the course of the past year must offer the bel fruit to the lineage divinity. I saw this ceremony at Bhaktapur in 1975 when it was celebrated by the potters during their lineage festival. The girls, clad in red, and wearing traditional jewellery as during the ritual marriage to Visnu, offered the bel fruit to the lineage divinity and they were accompanied by their fathers (see Vergati Stahl 1979: 125). It was interesting to note that the ceremony was supervised by a Brahmin, a Deo Baju, and by a Buddhist priest and that it was to the latter that the girls gave the bel fruit. According to informants, the girls are then introduced to the divinity as their marriage and their new status must be made known to him. It is from this moment onwards that a girl becomes a full-fledged member of the father's lineage. At this lineage festival only those girls who belong to the patrilineage participate and not all the girls who had taken part in the ihi. 12

When reconsecrating a statue in the temple of Seto Avalokitesvara (Jana baha) at Kathmandu, part of the ritual is devoted to panigraha or the marriage rite: After these preparatory rites, the priest places a flower on the bel fruit and mediates: 'Consider this to be the form of bodhicitta in which there is no difference between the void and compassion. Consider that the seed letter residing in your own heart is flowering in the different lokadhdtus', then it goes up to be in the okanistha heaven. From there attract it so that it disappears into the bel fruit'. Then after performing a pancopacara puja^ the priest wraps the bel fruit in a leaf and recitates the following: 'This (i.e., holding the bel in the hand- panigraha) is the mudra of the tathagatas. It makes bright the light of knowledge; it is the act of Buddha. Oh, Lord, you are a being who realizes the mandala ofprajna and upaya: may you fulfil my wish'. Then the bel fruit is placed in front of the deity and sprinkled with pancamrita from the conch-shell and the 'hands' of the bel and the deity are symbolically bound. This is the moment of the panigraha (Locke 1979:216).

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What distinguishes the ritual marriage to Visnu Narayana from the rituals carried out at puberty (bahra taayegu) is that the latter are accomplished individually.13 A girl is at that time sequestered for 12 days in a dark room; during that time it is forbidden to her to see the light of the sun, Surya, who is of course a male god, as well as the men of her household. The latter are protected by the bahra ritual from the dangers of the girl's menstrual blood.14 Tf other girls are present in the darkened room at that time, they are only to help her to dress, eat, etc. as she herself cannot leave the room. This ritual of puberty is considered by the Newars as a samskara which all members of all castes, pure or impure, must perform. The ritual does not require the presence of a priest on the last day. Some Newar women told me that the human spouse is really the third husband, the second being, in their view, the god Surya, to whom they are married on the twelfth day of the puberty celebration. The Pandits and vajracarya, however, deny that there is a real marriage to Surya on that day. The ritual marriage to Visnu Narayana is the only domestic ceremony in which members of different castes mingle. The initiation ritual carried out for boys between three and seven years of age (Kayeta puja) is done for each boy individually. Exceptionally, it may be done for two brothers at the same time, if there is no great difference in their ages. The Kayeta puja does not require the presence of a priest. The sacrifice, which takes place at the open shrine of the goddess of the town quarters, is carried out by the boy's father or by another member of his patrilineage. It is the lineage aspect of this initiation ritual which is the most important. This is in no way surprising in a patrilineal and patrilocal society. Comparison between Nayar and Newar ritual marriages The Newar ritual marriage to Visnu brings to mind the accounts of ritual marriage among the Nayars of Kerala, which has been studied by several authors.35 Louis Dumont was the first to draw a parallel in 1961 in this very journal (original series), between Nayar and Newar marriages and the social status of women.16 At that time not much was known about the ritual marriage practised by the Newars. Dumont used the materials made available till then by Christoph von Purer-Haimendorf, whose article (1964) 13 My findings do not concord with those of Nepali who writes: klt is generally held in groups in a dark room and several girls are huddled up together' (1971:112). All the women I questioned said that the bahra tayegu ritual must be done for one girl at a time. J4 Allen (1976 and MS) mentions the fact that the second husband is Surya. 15 For a good summary of the many descriptive and interpretative accounts of Nayars see Fuller (1976). I have used in particular Gough (1959). 16 Cf. Dumont (1964), particularly the section 'Nepal compared to India: the Newars and others', pp. 90-97.

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was a general description of Newar social organisation and the information on marriage which it contained was rather brief. On the other hand, the materials available on the Nayars were much more detailed. Nayar girls before puberty, aged from seven to eleven, are married ritually (tali ketlukalyanam) to men of a linked lineage. Kathleen Gough tells us that 'the ritual bridegrooms were selected in advance on the advice of the village astrologer at a meeting of the neighbourhood assembly on the day fixed, they came in procession to the oldest ancestral house of the host lineage. There, after various ceremonies, each tied a gold ornament (tall) round the neck of his ritual bride. The girls had for three days previously been secluded in an inner room of the house and caused to observe taboos as if they had menstruated. After the tali tying, each couple was secluded in private for three days. I was told that traditionally, if the girl was nearing puberty, sexual relations might take place' (1959: 25). As I have already stated, the only factor taken into account in the case of the Newar girls is their age. In the Indian context this is in no way surprising, for from the point of view of orthodox Hinduism, marriage, properly speaking, must precede any manifestation of sexuality in the girl concerned: this is one of the reasons often put forward to explain the custom of child marriage. In Brahmin ideology a girl is considered to be pure only before puberty—whence the necessity of celebrating the primary marriage before she reaches puberty. *7 There is however one difference between the Newar ihi and the Nayar ritual marriage which should be emphasised at the outset: in the case of the former there is no human, ritual, husband. According to customary law, Newar girls are not entitled to have sexual relations or to cohabit with a man before their second marriage, which is to a human being. When one thinks of the importance attached in general in primary Northern India marriages to establishing alliances, it is noteworthy that this aspect is totally absent in the Newar case. In both the Nayar and the Newar instances, we are dealing with a collective ceremony, the ritual marriage being celebrated for a group of girls and not for one individual. However, here again a distinction should be made: the Nayar girls involved all belong to the same caste whereas the Newar girls belong to pure but different castes which normally are not linked by commensality or marriage. It should be stressed that the differences between Nayar and Newar social organisation are considerable. The former are matrilineal, practice matrilocal residence, and inheritance takes place along the maternal line: the latter practise Indian caste rules, patrilineal filiation, 17 While describing marriage among the Brahmins of Kashmir, Ma dan writes: 'Only a virgin may be given in marriage because a woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man is unchaste and unworthy of being given as a ritual gift. The Pandits say that, in olden times, the bride used to be absolutely chaste because girls were married before menarche' (1965:120).

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patrilocal residence and inheritance takes place along the paternal line. In consequence of the ritual marriage the social status of the girls in both the cases changes: besides becoming full-fledged members of their caste, they acquire the social status of an adult woman. 'The tali rite marked various changes in the social position of a girl. First, it brought her to social maturity. She was now thought to be at least ritually endowed with sexual and procreative functions and was thenceforward accorded the status of a woman. After the rite the people addressed her in public by the respectful title amma meaning "mother"; and she might take part in the rites of adult women. Second, after the tali rite a girl must observe all the rules of etiquette associated with incest prohibitions in relation to men of her lineage. She might not touch them, might not sit in their presence; might not speak first to them and might not be alone in a room with one of them. Third, after the tali rite, as soon as she became old enough (i.e., shortly before or after puberty) a girl received as visiting husbands a number of men of her subcaste from outside her lineage, usually but not necessarily from her neighbourhood' (Gough 1959: 25). The Newar women emphasise that, prior to The celebration of fhi, a girl does not wear a woman's clothes and can play or eat with any other child of her locality, no account being taken of caste. After the ihi, in her general behaviour towards the men of her own lineage, she must, of course, observe the prohibitions inherent to the condition of a married woman. Dumont has established for Hindu castes an important difference between primary and secondary marriages. This difference has multiple facets, which vary from one group to another, but cin all groups, an ideal type of marriage is recognised, the marriage par excellence, which is, in general, more rule bound, more solemn, more costly, and which enjoys the maximum possible prestige in the given group and constitutes most frequently the necessary preliminary to marriages or unions considered as inferior' (1961:

ID.

A detailed analysis of secondary marriages in Central India (the State of Gwalior) is to be found in Chambard (1961). Describing the primary marriages among the Kirar of Piparsod, he emphasises that such marriages are celebrated when the future partners are between six and twelve years of age, usually at the age of seven or eight. Generally, however, the wife comes to live in her husband's house between three and six years after the marriage ceremony. He stresses that the secondary marriage of a woman is only possible on the condition that she has already been united with a partner in a primary marriage. However, for the woman concerned, it really is a secondary marriage whereas this is not the case for men who can contract secondary marriages without having earlier gone through a primary marriage. It seems to me that the Newar ritual marriage to the God Vis$u Nara-

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yana constitutes a perfect example of this type of primary marriage. From the point of view of Newar women, the only type of marriage which cannot be dissolved is that with Visnu Narayana: the latter is, according to the local expression, 'an eternal husband'. Newar women therefore never suffer from the stigma of widowhood in their society. The human spouse is only a second husband. Woman attach less importance to this second marriage: it is less complex than the former; and the two most important rites in Hindu marriages—the kanydddn and the walk around the sacrificial fire— are absent in this case. The link between the primary marriage, /A/, and the secondary marriage with a human husband is, as reported earlier, the yellow necklace (kumosokd) which will be given to the human husband at the time of marriage. In ideal terms, if a Newar woman leaves her mortal husband, she must take as second husband a man of her own status, of her own caste, or of higher caste. Higher caste women affirm that divorce does not exist and that it is current only among women of the farmer (jyapu) caste. They do, however, stress the necessity of accomplishing ihi which protects girls from becoming widows and assures the maintenance of their social status. In the Indian tradition, marriage to Visnu in order to avoid widowhood is not unknown. Several authoritative texts mention it. Thus: Certain peculiar ceremonies relating to marriage may now be described very briefly. In order to avert early widowhood (which was judged from her horoscope) for the girl to be married a ceremony called kumbha vivaha was performed. . . . On the day previous to the marriage a jar of water, in which a golden image of Visnu is dipped, is decked with flowers and the girl is surrounded in a network of threads. Varuna and Visnu are worshipped and prayed to give long life to the intended bridegroom. Then the jar is taken out and broken in a pool of water and then sprinkled over the girl with five twigs and to the accompaniment of Rg Veda, VII, 49 and the brahmanas are fed (Kane 1974:546). This text describes the marriage of an individual to Visnu and not a collective ceremony. Another source mentions that a man must marry a fruit before marrying a third wife if he has already lost his two previous wives (Thurston 1970: 41, 44). For Nepal of the Indo-Nepalese castes, we note that the middle and lower castes have always allowed remarriage of widows: but with each successive marriage a woman's status tends to diminish. Sharma, citing the case of the Hill Chetris, writes: the common belief is that the full restoration to the Chetri caste of the offspring born of the Brahmin and the Chetri fathers from their hyper-

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gamous marriages is completed in three generations. Then an offspring is accepted as a full status caste member. This process puts faith in the process of gradual purification which results from a Hindu fathering of them. Despite this diversity of the origin of the Chetris it (sic!) has preserved an almost tribal feeling of homogeneity and solidarity throughout Nepal (1977: 288). For marriages with human husbands Newar women strictly respect caste rules. The future bridegroom must be of the same caste but of a different lineage. As a general rule, marriages are arranged by the respective parents of the prospective couple. Traditionally, the marriage age for girls is between 14 and 16.38 The Newars practise a marked form of territorial endogamy. One marries someone from one's own locality. This may be due, in part, to status differences in the social hierarchy varying from one locality to another. Thus a Jyapu (farmer) from Kathmandu will not marry a Jyapu girl from Bhaktapur for in Kathmandu such girls are considered as inferior. We hasten to add that the caste of the farmers does not constitute a single endogamous group but is composed of several subcastes, each of these being an endogamous group and all being strictly hierarchised. For instance, let us quote the case of the Suwal Jyapu who are at the top of the hierarchy and have the ritual role of cooking rice for the deity Taleju: they could never marry a girl of the potter subcaste. If descent is traced formally through the paternal line, it is noteworthy that hierarchised status depends not only on paternal links but that account is also taken of the maternal side. Women of inferior status to that of their husbands will be excluded from the annual ritual celebration of the lineage divinity which is an instrument of social control. As a general rule a man will not eat rice cooked by his wife if she is of a status inferior to his. The status of Newar women, different from that of other Nepalese women, does not preclude polygamy. A man may frequently have two or three wives who cohabit with him, respecting at the same time the rules of ritual purity. What is particular to Newar women of middle ranking castes is that a woman can raise the status of her husband, i.e. anagamy. The affirmation of Dumont (1964: 96) that anagamy is confined to certain levels within a group is thus confirmed by the Newar case. Rosser (1966) gives a long lg

Cf. Bennett (1979:69):

The National Code of 1963 came out against the custom of child marriage by stipulating that no girl could be married before the age of fourteen and no boy before the age of eighteen, even with the consent of their guardians. The sixth amendment, enacted during International Women's Year, raised the minimum age of marriage for a girl to sixteen with her guardian's consent and is now eighteen and twenty-one for a boy.

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description of how a Jyapu can climb up into the position of a Shrestha, one of the necessary conditions being to marry a Shrestha woman. The Shrestha are particularly distrustful of the origins of each other's status: they do not practise commensality as other castes do. My personal observations suggest that if a man marries a woman of higher caste, he will have to change his residence if he also wants to change his status. Concluding remarks One may well ask what is the main significance of this Newar form of primary marriage to Visnu Narayana. If age is taken into consideration and the fact that the marriage takes place prior to puberty, it is evident that the same rules are followed for child-marriages as in India. In north Indian child-marriages, the main aims are finding husbands and establishing allies. In the Newar case, the search for allies finds expression only in the secondary marriages with human husbands. In northern India, marriages of the devaddsi io Visnu are, of course, known (see Marglin 1982): but in Nepal the devadasis are unknown.19 Theoretically, in India if a girl becomes a devaddsi and the wife of a god she can in no case take a human husband.19 However, in the Newar case, marriage to Visnu allows her to take a human husband. This is an inversion of the devaddsi case. In my opinion, the main objectives in the Newar primary marriage are to maintain the hierarchical status of the woman and to confer on her the full status of a lineage and caste membership. This primary marriage ensures that she will never suffer a loss or a decline in status because of the death of her husband or following divorce from him. In Newar society, for both the Hindus and the Buddhists, the preoccupation with maintaining ritual purity is constant. Allen (1976: 26) has rightly observed that the higher a group is placed in the caste hierarchy the greater is the concern of its members with maintaining the rules of ritual purity in general and with controlling female sexuality. Among the Nayars, girls who marry Nambudiri Brahmans as first ritual bridegrooms, before taking other husbands, likewise conserve thereby their status and their purity. In both cases, one might argue that we are in the presence of a form of hypergamy. However, ihi determines the purity and the status of the girl who goes through the ritual: it does not determine the purity or the impurity of her progeny. The purity and the social status acquired through ihi can be lost or squandered through a 'bad' human marriage. With regard to the differ«Cf. Marglin (1982:162): The devaddsi are locally referred to by other words also such as vesya and don which mean prostitute. They are also called the "auspicious women" (mangala nart). One readily given explanation of their auspicious status is that they are married to the deity. They are always "women whose husband is alive" (ahya or sudabha).

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ence between women and men, the ihi 'by linking women to the divinity frees them for life in this world whereas the male samskaras imprison men in the social life of this world with the promise of freedom in the next' (Macdonald and Vergati Stahl 1979: 54).

REFERENCES ALLEN, M. 1976. Kumari or virgin worship in Kathmandu Valley. Contributions to Indian Sociology 10, 2: 293-317. . Ms. Girls' pre-puberty rites amongst the Newars of Kathmandu Valley. Unpublished Manuscript. BENNETT, L. 1979. The status of women in Nepal. Vol. I, part 2, Kathmandu: Tribhuvan University. CHAMBARD, J.L. 1961. Marriage secondaires et foires aux femmes en Inde Centrale. VHomme 1, 2: 52-88. DUMONT, Louis. 1969. Marriage in India: the present state of the question. Contributions to Indian Sociology 7, 3: 90-77. FULLER, C.J. 1976. The Nayars today. London: Cambridge University Press. GABORIEAU, M. 1977. Les gens de caste ou FInde omnipresente. Le Nepal et ses populations. Bruxelles: Editions Complexe. GOUGH, E.K. 1959. The Nayars and the definition of marriage. Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute 89: 23-34. GREENWOLD, S.M. 1981. Caste: a moral structure and a social system of control. In A.C. Mayer, ed., Culture and morality: essays in honour of C. von Furer-Haimendorf. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. 84-106. KANE, P.V. 1974. History of Dharmasastra. Vol. II, Pt. I. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. LOCKE, J.K. 1979. Karunamaya. The cult of Avalokitesvara Matsyendranath in the valley of Nepal. Kathmandu: Sahayogi Prakashan. MACDONALD, A.W. and A. VERGATI STAHL. 1979. Newar Art. Nepalese art during the Malta period. Warminister: Aris and Philips. MAD AN, T.N. 1965. Family and kinship. A study of the Pandits of rural Kashmir. Bombay: Asia Publishing House. MARGLIN, F.A. 1982. Kings and wives: the separation of status and power. In T.N. Madan, ed., Way of life: king, householder, renouncer. Essays in honour of Louis Dumont. New Delhi: Vikas. Pp. 155-81. NEPALI, G.S. 1965. The Newars. An ethno-sociological study of a Himalayan Community. Bombay: United Asia Publications. PANDEY, R.B. 1965. Hindu samskaras. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. ROSSER, C. 1966. Social mobility in the Newar caste system. In C. von Furer-Haimendorf, ed., Caste and kin in Nepal, India and Ceylon. London: Asia Publishing House. Pp. 68-139. SHARMA, M. 1977. Through the valley of gods. New Delhi: Vision Books. SHARMA, P.R. 1977. Caste, social mobility and sanskritization: a study of Nepal's old legal code. Kailash 5, 4. STEVENSON, S. 1971. The rites of the twice born. New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation.

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THURSTON, E. 1907. Ethnographic notes. Madras: Government Press. TOFFIN, G. 1977. Pyangaon, communaute newar de la vallee de Kathmandu. La vie matrielle. Paris: Editions du C.N.R.S. VERGATI STAHL, A. 1979. Une divinite lignagere des Newar. Bulletin de VEcole Francaise d* Extreme Orient 65: 125. VON FURER-HAMENDORF, CHRISTOPH. 1956. Elements of Newar social structure. Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute 86. . 1957. The interrelations of castes and ethnic groups in Nepal. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 20: 245-53. -. 1959. Status difference in a high Hindu caste of Nepal. Eastern Anthropologist 12, 4: 223-33.

Part III Eastern Religion: Sexuality, Gender and Patriarchy

[11]

'Abductions' and the Constellation of a Hindu Communal Bloc in Bengal of the 1920s P.K. Dutta Sri Venkateswara College Delhi

I From roughly the second half of 1923, stories—disseminated mainly by newspapers—began to be circulated about the oppression of Hindu women by Muslim goondas located principally in eastern Bengal. This happened barely a year after the ebbing away of the Non-Cooperation/Khilafat movement and broadly coincided with the formulation of the Bengal Pact. These reports quickly became a commonsensical point of mobilization for Hindu communalists. So widespread did these become that a contemporary like Waliullah held this issue to be the most important factor in spreading communal ill-will in the mofussil.1 Acknowledgements: I am indebted to Indrani Chatterji, whose paper on the same subject (as part of her M. Phil dissertation for the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), 'The Bengali Bhadramahila, 193O-1934', unpublished M. Phil dissertation. Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 1986, stimulated my thinking. Her argument, best summed up in her own words, claims that the Women's Protection League (WPL) campaign was 'connected with violence within household structures [thus also reinterpreting] the Mussalman spokesmens' claims about these women being "immoral widows'". Personal communication to me. Samita Sen's 'Honour and Resistance: Gender, Community and Class in Bengal, 1920-40', in Sekhar Bandopadhyaya, Abhijit Dasgupta, William van Schendel, eds, Bengal: Communities, Development and States, New Delhi, 1994, is a perceptive traversal of grounds shared with the present essay. A major difference I have with her article is that instead of placing the communalized preoccupation with abductions in the late 1920s, I position it in the middle of the decade. This is not a matter of chronological nitpicking, but accounts for a large difference in the meanings of this preoccupation itself. While Sen sees the abductions theme as a response to the Sarda Bill, I argue that it has a far more ambitious range of significations which can only be understood if it is located in its right context. Urvashi Butalia, Kami a Bhasin, Ritu Menon, Veena Das and lately Gyanendra Pandey, have been working on the same subject, but in the context of the Partition (1947) riots. I also take this opportunity to thank Dr Kanai Chattopadhyaya for allowing me access to his collection of WPL literal are, and Dr Swaraj Basu for allowing me to consult his thesis. 1 Mohammad Waliullah, Yuga Bichitra, Dhaka, 1967, p. 211.

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38/P.K. DUTTA Paradoxically, however, the magnitude of its effects seemed to be inversely related to its organizational power. Although some of the most prominent members of Bengali Hindu society got together in early 1924 to form the Women's Protection League, the campaign did not acquire a powerful organization; at the height of its popularity, in 1925, a press release on the organization stated that it had a mere forty-eight volunteers— of which ten had been expelled.2 Nor did it throw up any remarkable instances of physical mobilization. The climactic point of its career in this regard occurred in 1929, when fiery speeches were delivered and physical confrontation threatened in a meeting held at Albert Hall, Calcutta. However, even this gathering was composed of about one thousand people only.3 The asymmetry between organization and spread can only be explained by the power of orchestrated common sense, which 1 have elaborated elsewhere.4 The impact of this stemmed not only from the particular structure of its discursivity, but also from the fact that two of the most influential segments of the Bengali Hindu bhadralok, that is, journalists and lawyers, sponsored the concern. One of the two founders of the Women's Protection League was S.R. Das, the Advocate-General, while the other was K.K. Mitra, the editor of the prestigious Sanjibani. Both lawyers and journalists, it should be added here, were highly vulnerable to communal influence in this period. The mofussil lawyers, who were a prime target for mobilization by the Women's Protection League, were remembered as being a particularly communalized body in the pre-independence period by Shantimoy Roy.5 The lawyers were related to the zamindars (who would in any case form their more valued clientele),6 the class most threatened by the self-assertions of Muslim ryots. It was not surprising, therefore, that the lawyers of Rangpur were the first group of people who were mobilized by the Women's Protection League. The first major rallying together around the abduction question—apart from acts of founding Women's Protection League units—occurred in a Rangpur court, 2

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 9 August, 1925. 'Abduction of Hindu Women: Press comments and resolutions of the Albert Hall meeting on the Subject', 535/29, Serial Nos 1-2, Government of Bengal (hereafter GOB): Political, 1930, West Bengal State Archives (hereafter WBSA), Calcutta. 4 '"Dying Hindus 1 ': Production of Hindu Communal Commonsense in Early Twentieth Century Bengal', Economic and Political Weekly (hereafter EPW), Vol. 28:44, 1993. 5 Interview, 4 April 1988. Corroborative evidence is provided by O.M. Martin, a district official in the 1920s. He testifies that 'the dominant group of pleaders and vakils were bitterly anti-Muslim'. Martin Papers, p. 186, Cambridge South Asian Centre (hereafter CSAC). ft Abul Mansur Ahmed, Atmakatha^ Dhaka, 1974, p. 419. According to Tanika Sarkar's findings, 89.13 per cent of the lawyers of Bengal were Hindus; apparently an overwhelming number of them supported the zamindari system before the Floud Commission. National Movement-and Popular Protest in Bengal, 1928-1934, Ph.D thesis, Department of History, Delhi University, September 1980. 3

Religions of the East "Abductions' in Bengal of 1920s IW

which had met to decide the guilt of those who had abducted Suhasini. the sixteen-year-old daughter of a pleader of Rangpur. The court was filled with pleaders, muktears and local dignitaries. Lawyers also played a crucial role in relaying the concern. Roy recalls that the kacchari was a place where rural litigants picked up news and ideas and disseminated them in their villages. Print was now used to extend this reach. The pleaders of Rangpur collected copies of judgements passed in the Sessions Court and published them as a book.7 If law provided the stage where this preoccupation could be dramatized publicly, newspapers elaborated its compass and generalized it into an everyday concern. Atul Sur and his friends would scan the legal columns of newspapers for stories of Hindu girls abducted by Muslims.8 In fact, the founding of the Women's Protection League was preceded by a meeting of the Indian Journalists Association, presided over by K.K. Mitra; speakers included P.K. Sarkar of the newly established Ananda Bazar Patrika, and tributes were paid to that paper as well as Amrita Bazar Patrika and Basumati for assisting in the campaign against abductions.9 Newspapers were the most important source for the spread of this concern, for what they possessed was a monopoly over the representation of the everyday. Besides the selection of news and the terms of their reportage, newspapers effectively generated a typical, homogeneous paradigm of different abduction cases through their headlines. Being the first item in the sequential chain of a full report, the headline obviously predisposed the reader, a power which was reinforced by the authority of its bold type. Its repetitiveness provided continuity between the different and often dissimilar cases of abduction, the heterogeneous details of which would be far too numerous for the reader to remember. Headlines were powerful enough to attempt to override even judicial pronouncements: an item that dealt with the acquittal of a Muslim for abduction, was headlined, 'WOEFUL STORY OF A GIRL'.10 Abductions also produced a large number of autonomous initiatives from correspondents of mofussil areas to report instances of abduction to metropolitan newspapers. This created a vast, interactive, discursive field that, to some extent, generated 7

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 24 May 1924. * Atul Sur, Satabdir Pratiddhani, Calcutta, 1986, p. 159. Sur was a journalist who wrote a history of the Stock Exchange. 9 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 30 April 1924. 10 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 24 August 1929. Waliullah blames a great deal of the communal antagonism on the newspapers, with their headlines in bold superscript, which, along with its communal content, were often belied by the main report and incited communal antagonism. Waliullah, Yuga Bichitra, p. 208. Hindu-Musalman, a journal promoting communal unity, remarked sarcastically that just as kirtan could not be sung without mentioning Krishna, newspapers could not communicate their news without using headlines that would fuel communal antagonism, 25 August 1926.

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its own life by motivating the act of reporting to become a more participative affair than what the newspapers normally allowed on their own. Above all, the massive impact of abductions stemmed from its particular structure. Like the 'dying Hindu', the oppression of Hindu women by Muslim goondas in the eastern parts of Bengal was a micro narrative that could be inserted into several discourses and circulate as a commonsensical point of reference. But while the power of the 'dying Hindu' was generated mainly by its malleability, that is, by allowing itself to be detached from its original narrative and converted into a sign for diverse preoccupations, the real power of the abductions story lay in its ability to compact into itself, elements that were imbricated in diverse social narratives. The common sense of abductions was structured by a chain of specific referents that were located in diverse social processes affecting separate social groups. In the 1920s the abductions common sense orchestrated a simultaneous range of anxieties and projects. While harbouring the question of gender at its fulcrum, it interlocked with problems of caste, class, political institutions and movements. Moreover, the theme of abductions related in a variety of ways with these concerns; in some cases it displaced them, and, at times it directly instigated mobilization. The result was a web-like structure of communal cognition that highlighted different points of antagonism with the Muslims. This ability to constellate a diversity within itself allowed it to assert the comprehensiveness of Hindu-Muslim antagonism, even as it produced a communal common sense consensus that underpinned a bloc of different social groups. Let me clarify here that I do not wish to confine myself solely to an explication of the power of communal common sense ideology, for to do that means running the risk of becoming its prisoner. As a matter of fact, 'abductions' provides a methodological challenge that runs counter to single-minded elaborations of its power. It is one of disaggregation. At the more obvious level, this is evident in that it allows for the reconstruction of several social narratives that are coded into it. More significantly, the very production and circulation of the abductions common sense was one that was co-extensive with social processes. The campaign against abductions was mobilized for by selectively emphasizing elements of the multiple social processes it operated in, processes that included different discursive fields. This means that the ideological bloc produced by abductions far from exhausted the meaning and range of these social processes. It is this discrepancy, the excess of the social over the ideological, that allows an attempt to trace the internal tensions within this ideological formation, and map the limits of its explanatory and corresponding mobilization power. For reasons of space, only some of these processes will be discussed.11 I will begin with the immediate provocation for this concern. 11

A fuller discussion is available in P.K. Datta, Carving Blocs (forthcoming).

Religions of the East 'Abductions' in Bengal of 1920s!41 II

Although the Women's Protection League took care to stigmatize only Muslim 'goondas', and not all Muslims, as perpetrators of abductions, the communal import was obvious; it was only the Muslims who could produce sexually depraved people, while at its more extreme, the discourse could charge the Muslim community with nurturing such criminals. A less obviously explicable feature, given the emergence of this issue elsewhere in the subcontinent, was the emphasis on Bengal. In the Benares session of the Hindu Mahasabha (hereafter HMS) in 1923, Malaviya had included the defence of women as a pressing imperative for Hindus, and referred to increasing cases of abduction reported from eastern Bengal. This question needs to be considered alongside another: why was a separate organization set up for abductions, when the newly established Bengal Provincial Hindu Mahasabha (hereafter BPHS) could have taken it up. As a matter of fact, the BPHS appears to have played it down. Lajpat Rai's presidential speech at the All India Hindu Mahasabha Conference in Calcutta the following year (1924), did not feature the subject.12 Even the Hindu Sabha of Rangpur, a district that had pioneered this concern, kept silent.13 To understand this we need to begin with the Bengal Pact. The main feature of the Pact—which was initiated by the Swarajist Party led by C.R. Das—consisted of an agreement between Hindus and Muslims to reserve a significant percentage of seats for Muslims in the Calcutta Corporation and the administration. However, the Coconada session of the Congress refused to endorse this Pact, thereby confining it to Bengal. C.R. Das sought to offset this circumscription by valorizing it. He told Congress members that they had insulted Bengal by voting against the Pact.14 Regional appeal was consolidated in the campaign that followed. In a mass pro-Pact meeting, C.R. Das defined Bengali identity as posited on and transcending, a federative principle: 'Bengal is the common home of the Bangalees—be he a Hindu, be he a Musalman'.15 The notion of a shared place was extended in the course of the campaign. An article by Motilal Roy defended the Pact by stating that it expressed the 'forwardness' of Bengal. The latter had 'developed a distinct consciousness . . . which . . . [was] far ahead of the other provinces of India1. Bengalis, he even claimed, were not Aryans.16 12

This was surprising since Rai dwelt on other gender-related issues, such as the problems of purdah, child-marriage and widows. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 12 April 1925. 13 The Secretary Rangpur District Hindu Sabha, in 'An Appeal to Bengali Hindus', talked about saving the 'once great but now dying Hindu race\ dwelling on malaria, Hindu poverty, and the problems of the caste system, but omitting references to abductions. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 9 April 1924. 14 Letter from T. Mukherjee, The Statesman, 4 January 1924. 15 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 13 January 1924. 16 'The Lessons of the Pact: Provincial Individuality versus All-India Consciousness', Amrita Bazar Patrika, 6 January 1924.

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42/P.K. DUTTA This discourse could not be fought from the HMS platform. The reason was the general image of the BPHS as dominated by non-Bengali *upcountrymen'. The creation of the Protection League however allowed the possibility of communalizing and thereby disintegrating the transcendental idea of Bengal. In appealing for the defence of Bengali women apropos the Baroda Sundari case, Chittaranjan Guhathakurta stated that, 'the tears of those victims would be prejudicial to the welfare of Bengal . . .V7 The leaders of the Women's Protection League were all Bengali; only in 1926 was the Marwari leader Padamraj Jain temporarily activated on this issue. Moreover, the Bengali identity of the abducted women was always forefronted. This was reinforced by the specification of the abductions-prone regions—which, initially, denoted the north Bengal districts, but by 1929 spread to include five eastern Bengal districts.18 The orchestration of emphasis on the Bengali character of abductions undermined the rationale of the Pact. In the Legislative Council, Sanat Raychowdhury pointedly asked for clarification on the extent of involvement of Muslims and Hindus. He enquired whether it was increasing "specifically in the East Bengal districts . . .?'; and, 'if it was assuming the proportions of a class war?' The connection insinuated between Muslim majority areas (and hence power in those districts), and the growth of communalism could not have been clearer.19 Simultaneously, the charge against Muslim goondas—in a natural metonymic extension—began to cover all Muslims. In his 1926 speech, Sarat Chattopadhyaya alleged that Islamic culture was supportive of abductions, and observed that those Muslims who did not express the desire to abduct Hindu women, merely lacked the courage to do so.20 The Pact had acquired a great deal of opposition from the Bengali professional bhadralok who saw in it a general symbol of Muslim domination in a future Swaraj. It had crystallized a nervousness about Muslims, whose mass participation in the Khilafat movement had been all too visible. The growing exclusivity about the preoccupation with Muslims marked a change from the earlier phase of Hindu communal discourse which had been equally concerned with caste questions. This general transition was marked by a change in the discursive preoccupation with the 'dying Hindu' to gender-based issues.21 The continuing weaknesses of low castes 17

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 25 April 1925. A centre-page advertisement in the Amrita Bazar Patrika, for a meeting on the abductions issue in 1929, read in big letters, 'Abduction in Bengal: Meeting at Albert Hall*. 20 August 1929. It was at this meeting that the five districts were specified. w Amrita Bazar Patrika, 20 August 1929. 20 Saratchandra Chattopadhyaya, 'Bartaman Hindu-Mussalman Samashya', in Sukumar Sen (ed.), Saratsahityasamagra, Calcutta, 1990. 21 See Datta, * "Dying Hindus"'. All references to the commonsense of the dying Hindu are drawn from this article. 18

Religions of the East 'Abductions' in Bengal of 1920s!43

in either launching big mass movements, or of unity among themselves obviously deflected attention from them. A less evident cause was provided by the abductions issue itself, for it was generated from within the low castes, specifically from a sizeable segment called the Rajbansis, who were located in Rangpur district of north Bengal. The abductions issue facilitated a serendipitous conjuncture of caste and abductions for Hindu communalism just during the declaration of the Bengal Pact and the outbreak of communal antagonism in the rest of the country. Ill

'We find that lawlessness is becoming the order of the day at Rangpur, where oppression on helpless women is very often being perpetuated without there being a remedy',22 declaimed the Ananda Bazar Patrika. Although abduction cases were reported from places other than Rangpur, the Women's Protection League concentrated its attention there. The reason for this was that this district provided the locale for effecting a network between low caste organisations and the Hindu reformers/communalists. The low caste organization involved here was the Kshatriya Samiti. It represented the Rajbansis, a caste which proliferated in Rangpur and who were treated as antyaj (those prohibited from entering the kitchen or a temple of the high castes). The influence of the Kshatriya Samiti was distributed over the districts of Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Rangpur as well as the princely state of Cooch Behar. The Samiti was powerful; it reached down into villages, where it developed a substantial number of basic units called mandalis* What gave it spectacular significance was that, after the Namasudras, the Rajbansis formed the most populous caste in Bengal.24 The mention of Namasudras raises a question. From about the second decade of this century, the Namasudras had engaged in fairly regular riots with Muslims. And yet, despite the best efforts of Hindu communalism, the Namasudras never joined with them on a common ideological platform. Possibly the most spectacular entente between the two was struck in 1929; but this did not involve Muslims. The local Hindu Sabha—led in this instance by Swami Satyananda—only extended assistance to Namasudras 2:

26 December 1925, Report on Native Newspapers (hereafter RNP) Bengal, No. 1 of 1925, National Archives of India (hereafter NAI), New Delhi. 2 * The Kshatriya Samiti organized mandal samitis in villages which would function as village governments, spread education, preach ritual reform and function as cooperatives. By 1926, there were 300 such mandalis, Sekhar Bandopadhyaya, Social Mobility in Bengal in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries, Ph.D thesis,Calcutta University, 1985, p. 228. 24 The total population of Namasudtas in 1921 was 2,004,911 persons, while the Rajbansis consisted of 1,663,948 persons. Census of India, cited in Swaraj Basu, The Rajbansis of North Bengal: A Study of a Caste Movement 1910-1947, Ph.D thesis,Calcutta University, 1992. My indebtedness to his thesis will become apparent in the course of this section.

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in their drive to enter a Kali temple in Dhaka.25 On the other hand, there was no commensurate history of communal violence between the Kshatriyas and the Muslims. According to the District Gazetteer, 'Hindus and Muhammadans of the cultivating classes regard each other with the most complete toleration'.26 Which brings us to the question I had promised to raise: why then, did the Kshatriya Rajbansis turn to communal mobilization? I wish to answer this through a little detour. Rangpur had already been associated with abductions in the upper caste imagination. Bankim Chattopadhyaya's popular romance, Debi Chaudhurani, located in Rangpur, features an abduction at a decisive point. Debi Chaudhurani's low caste companion participates in the abduction of Debi for the benefit of her lecherous upper caste lover. The abduction fails, while Debi acquires the friendship of a powerful dacoit who makes her the leader of his gang. Even earlier, an origin myth of Rangpur made an association with—not abduction—but what is affiliated to it in Bankings story, that is, the idea of 'loose' moral standards among lower castes.27 Possibly the most subtle testimony of this composite bias of abductions and (im)morality is provided by Piyush Ghosh. He wrote insinuatingly, 'We have also to see whether the outrages in the Mofussil are due to low morality among the masses or they are due to the hatred of the Mahomedans towards the Hindus or vice versa'.28 25 The immediate context for this agitation was the resolution initiated by Swami Satyananda in the Bengal Provincial Hindu Conference to permit everyone to enter temples. At the same time, a Namasudra had entered a Kali temple in Dhaka (where the Conference was being held) and asked for the water with which the Goddesses' feet had been washed. Tension between the Namasudras and Brahmans had been brewing for some time in that city, and it was only in the logical course of things that the impertinent Namasudra was beaten up. In response, Satyananda led a satyagraha for temple entry, fully supported by the Hindu Maha Sabha (hereafter HMS). The police forced them back, and there was violence. After this, the movement died suddenly. Behind this rapid demise was the fact that no Namasudra leader or organization had supported this satyagraha, possibly because they were preparing for a confrontationist position against the upper castes the following year, which was expressed through their opposition to the Civil Disobedience movement and possibility of Dominion status. Sekhar Bandopadhyaya, Social Mobility, pp. 523-27. 26 J.A. Vas, Eastern Bengal and Assam District Gazetteers: Rangpur, Allahabad, 1911, p. 48. 27 Vas says that a story of how Rangpur derived its name, related it to rang (jest). The piece of humour was contained in the reply of a Prince of that area to the King of Benares, describing his land in a Sanskrit shloka, well-known to Brahmin pandits of North Bengal. It said, 'I come from a land in which widow and wife/In popular view are but one and the same;/Where no garment is worn save the mekhola gown/Which is bare above breast and bare below knee.' Ibid. p. 2. The dress referred to, was worn by Rajbansi women, which defines the ambiguous morals of the place alluded to in the first two lines. 28 The article was entitled The Bengal Provincial Conference', and obviously represented an attempt to influence its agenda for the Serajgunj conference. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 30 April 1924.

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Much of the visceral repulsion29 was possibly the consequence of the marital customs of Rajbansis. These have been detailed by Swaraj Basu. Bride price was customary, and the initiative for a match had to come from the groom's side. There were four basic kinds of marriages. The two 'regular' ones were called *phulbibaha' in which the marriage of a boy to a virgin was solemnized formally by a priest or his equivalent in authority, and 'Ghor-dzia Biha' by which an orphan or poor boy who could not pay the bride-price, was kept in the brides' house for a probationary period pending a permanent marriage. The less formal ones included 'panichita' in which a poor male, unable to pay the bride-price, approached the girls' elders to sprinkle some water with mango twigs on the the heads of the tobe couple, and 4chotrodani' which involved the marriage of a married woman even when her husband was alive. Widow remarriage was called 'gagoch', while, if a widow got the consent of a man to live with her as protector, it was called 4 dangua\ Divorce was a simple matter and no maintenance allowance was required.30 In keeping with the general pattern of Sanskritization, the Rajbansis sought to remove the flexibility of their marital customs. The upwardly mobile Rajbansi jotedars sought to privilege 'phulbibaha1 as the only valid form of marriage, no doubt because it most closely approximated the upper caste ideal of chastity.31 A reason for this shift to enforced monogamy for women is the preoccupation with genealogical purity, the creation of a pure, unalloyed past, which finds its other expression in the preoccupation with the writing of histories, that seek to trace caste ancestry to the high texts of Brahmanical Hinduism.32 In this connection, it is significant that the Rajbansis repudiated all connection with their tribal past as Koches;

29 Vas comments that Muslims resorted to abductions because of 'the low standard of morality among the mass of Muhammadans, the prevalence of polygamy and the numerical inferiority of females among them'. Vas, Eastern Bengal, p. 123. It is a testament to the exclusivism of these elite representational systems that they could locate similar characteristics in two neighbouring social systems, without perceiving their complementarity. At another point in his Gazette, he observes that the sexual customs of the low castes and the Muslims were similar, as was the phenomenon of abductions. 30 Basu, The Rajbansis, pp. 51-52. It can be argued, of course, that while the marital customs of the Rajbansis show a decided preference for polyandry, the Muslims tended towards polygamy. However, Basu also states that Rajbansi males married more than once. Ibid.* p, 4. On the other hand, the explanation that Vas offers for the difficulties of tracking down abduction cases amongst Muslims, puts the onus on the women, since they entered into multiple relationships—clearly indicating that polyandrous practices were not uncommon among Muslims. Vas, Eastern Bengal, p. 123. 31 Basu, The Rajbansis, p. 62. 32 Basu characterizes the primary aim of the journal, Kshatriya, as the invention and propagation of imagined caste history. Ibid., p. 112.

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when their Muslim neighbours wished to insult them, they would address them by that (tribal) name.33 The change in identity sought through the process of Sanskritization involved the identification of women as physical repositories of Hminality, who, in their person, dramatized the thinness of boundaries that lay between the purity and contamination of descent. The countervailing strategy was to remove women from the common social spaces that could allow this liminality any possibility of expression. The Chandals prohibited their women from visiting the marketplace, even before they redesignated themselves as Namasudras.M Another manifestation of this urge to make women subservient to genealogical determination was the attempt to stop widow remarriage. Chadreswar Ray, a publicist of the Rajbansis, passed strictures against their women from visiting the market, as well as against widow remarriage.35 The widow remarriage question was so important for the Namasudras that it contributed to a split amongst them in 1922.36 The Namasudra experience again recalls problems regarding the Rajbansis. Swaraj Basu sensibly observes that the Rajbansi spectre of Muslim abductions of their women was inspired by their strategy of confining women. Taking the Namasudra experience into account, however, this raises the problem as to why the Muslim was required for this purpose in the first place. The question of inter-communal sexual relations had created tension between low castes and Muslims. In 1924, a riot nearly erupted between Pods and Muslims, when a Muslim married a Pod widow and claimed her property. Accused of theft, he was forced to parade the village with the head of a dead pig hung from his neck.37 Similarly, in 1929, the abduction of a Namasudra widow by a Mulism nearly led to a riot in some villages in Barisal.3* Yet, in contrast to the Rajbansis, neither instance produced sustained communal mobilization. We have returned to our initial question, albeit with greater knowledge and a more manageable focus. One could attempt an answer through a comparison with the Namasudras. The Namasudra movement started in the nineteenth century, before the Census of 1901 began to stimulate claims to upward mobility from low castes. It evolved as, and remained, a 13

Vas, Eastern Bengal, p. 40. Bandopadhyaya, Social Mobility, p. 131. The other demand was to urge the government to discontinue the practice of employing chandal convicts as scavengers in jails. 35 Cited in Basu, The Rajbansis, p. 100. 36 At the Bengal Namasudra conference held at Ferozepur in June 1922, the other issue of debate was whether to join the Boycott movement, Sekhar Bandopadhyaya, Social Mobility, p. 481. 37 The Muslims retaliated by smearing the face of a Hindu with the blood of a bullock! Fortnightly Reports, NAI, Home Poll, File No. 25, May, First-Half, 1924. 38 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 20 August 1929. 34

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popular protest against upper caste arrogance.39 On the other hand, the Kshatriya Samiti was founded in 1910, in the aftermath of the Gait Circular. The latter had brought together many upper caste activists and platforms which included U.N. Mukherji, Surendranath Bannerjee and K.K. Mitra's Sanjibani.™ In other words, the Kshatriya movement originated at a point when the upper castes were making a special effort to woo their lower orders. This neutralized much of the provocativeness that the Namasudras had aroused. Moreover, Guruchand, the Namasudra leader, was an organic intellectual, belonging to the village where he started his movement (and maintaining it as the headquarters). In contrast, Panchanan Barma, the leader of the Kshatriya movement, was an outsider to Rangpur, the centre of the movement. The talented son of a rich farmer in Cooch Behar, he made-his way to Calcutta where, in addition to a degree in Law, he also acquired one in Sanskrit—an early pointer to his inclinations towards High Hinduism. He settled in Rangpur because he could not find a job in his native district.41 Barma was the first Rajbansi lawyer, a fact which betokens a necessary social and professional dependence on upper caste members of the Bar; this must have somewhat offset the harshness of caste discrimination and non-acceptance on caste grounds, the story of which we will narrate later. It is, therefore, not surprising that we find him networking with upper caste reformers like U.N, Mukherji and Digindranarayan Bhattacharya, while playing an inspirational role in the founding of the Bangiya Jana Sangha, a low caste organization that dedicated itself to inter-caste alliance. But what is a little unexpected is the language in which Barma supported the Bangiya Jana Sangha. In contrast to other caste leaders who referred to their frustrating experiences as low caste organizers, Barma gave unqualified praise for a venture in a way that effaced its distinctive low caste character. He declared that it was imperative to bring about unity of different sections of Hindus, and benefit the nation.42 Barma represented the right wing of the organization. As such, he can be easily fitted into the straitjacket of a camp follower of the upper castes, except for two reasons. One was the fact that the Rajbansis, amongst others, petitioned the government for communal representation in local and self-governing bodies in 1918;43 the other is that the Kshatriya Samiti supported the Non-Cooperation 39 The Chandal movement of 1872-73 in Faridpur and Bakarganj included social boycott of upper castes as protest against their refusal (led by the Kayasthas) to dine in the house of a Namasudra headman. Bandopadhyaya, Social Mobility, p. 131. 40 The Sanjibani declared, 'a reduction in the number of Hindus by excluding the Depressed Classes from it will tell very severely on their political status in their country'. Cited in Papia Chakravarty, Hindu Responses in Nationalist Ferment, Calcutta, 1992, p. 46. 41 Basu, The Rajbansis, p, 138. 42 Manindranath Mandal, Bangiya Jana Sangha, Midnapore, 1923, p. 25. 43 Basu, The Rajbansis, p. 150.

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48/P.K. DUTTA movement in 1921 to express their disappointment at not being enumerated in the census according to their wishes.44 Obviously, the failure of the Non-Cooperation movement contributed to the turn to Hindu Mahasabha. The groundwork for this development had already been laid. Sitanath Goswami, a functionary of the Hindu Sabha movement, appears to have been present in Rangpur from around 1922. He was introduced in the founding session of the Women's Protection League as a kind of a native informant on Rangpur abductions; he had apparently worked for fourteen months in villages there.45 However, the decisive year for this coalition was 1923 when the HMS started charting a separate political course from the Congress, hardening its Hindu appeal and adopting a more cooperative stance towards the government. Alliance with the HMS at this stage could give the Kshatriya movement access to the government, while also keeping alive the possibilities of securing a recognition of their Sanskritized status from an upper caste, national party.** But there is another fact that is more significant for the point I am making about the independence of Rajbansi motivations. The Kshatriya Samiti campaign against abductions predated the Women's Protection League's efforts. It was Panchanan Barma who first publicized the issue by raising it in the Legislative Council. By 1924, the pages of the Kshatriya were filled with reports of abductions;47 even in the latter half of 1925, Panchanan Barma continued to report abductions by Muslims, which were translated and published by the Patrika* In fact, the HMS trailed the Kshatriya Samiti on this question. It was on the grounds of this pre-existing campaign that Malaviya was able to link up cases of violations of women that were associated with riots, located mainly in the Punjab, with those of abductions in East Bengal.49 The local campaign by the Rajbansis was thereby nationalized. 44 Ibid,, p. 199. Only a year earlier, Kshatriya, the journal of the Kshatriya Samiti wrote apropos of the Raj; 'God has dispensed even-handed justice by placing the Indians for their proper education in the hands of a noble nation from far-off Britain', rendering impossible the "jealous rule of the Rajas'. Cited in Bandopadhyaya, Social Mobility, p. 238. 45 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 1 May 1924. 46 Bandopadhyaya suggests that a section of Sahas attempted to secure a superior status by participating in the upper caste-led swadeshi movement. Bandopadhyaya, Social Mobility, p. 238. 47 Basu, The Rajbansis, p. 17. 48 For instance, see 20 September 1925. 49 In the Benares conference of the HMS in 1924, Malaviya talked about the critical condition in East Bengal, where a few Muslim rowdies openly insulted Hindu ladies, who had to hide in tanks to save their honour. Apparently these rowdies would stand in front of bathing ghats to insult ladies. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 25 August 1923, cited in 'Newspaper Extracts Regarding Hindu Mahasabha Proceedings', NAI, Home Poll, Progs. No. 198, 1924. Clearly, elements of the abduction narrative of Jamalpur, 1907, when bathing Hindu ladies were allegedly dishonoured, entered into this report, which was implied to be relevant for a laJer period.

Religions of the East 'Abductions' in Bengal of 1920s!49

It is this effect of simultaneity—which is actually the consequence of the weaving of separate sets of events into a single narrative by ajiational-level organization—that deflects attention from the separateness of local motivations. The segregation of narratives provides an opportunity to explore the internal tensions that prompted the Rajbansfs designation of Muslims as abductors of their women. A minor fact about the Non-Cooperation movement might give us a clue to begin with. It concerns incidents of protests against hat-tola (levy charged on sellers by the owners of hats) that appeared to have erupted without the consent of any authoritative organization in Rangpur.50 The hat-tola would be specially unpopular with the adhiars whose sole resource was the share of the crop they received as sharecroppers, and who would be disproportionately dependent on the profits they made in the hats. Incidentally, the anti-hat-tola campaign was a crucial mobilizing point of the Tebhaga movement in Rangpur, which broke out less than two decades later.51 If one reads back from the Tebhaga agitation, then it is significant that the Rajbansi middle class jotedar (the backbone of the Kshatriya Samiti) joined with the big zamindars at that point in opposing the adhiars, a fact, which, when placed against the important role that zamindars played in the abduction issue, raises the suspicion whether the Kshatriya Samiti leadership was not uninfluenced by similar assertions of adhiar initiative. 52 Retrospectively, the Tebhaga points to the narrative of class identity. In fact, as early as 1908, a Rajbansi tract warned of internal class divisions.53 This schism resisted comprehensive hegemonization by a Kshatriya identity. There was, of course, the particularity of the conjuncture, in which the authorization of protest by the momentum of Non-Cooperation combined with a downswing in jute prices between 1920-22.54 But this only emphasized the economic and cultural gulf within the Rajbansis. In contrast, the issues dividing the Namasudras in 1922 were less traceable to internal, class-like divisions. To a great extent, the difference was a matter of location. The Namasudras inhabited the heartland of East Bengal, which, following Sugata Bose's characterization, was dominated by the small peasant economy, in contrast to the jotedar-adhiar divide in the northern districts, which included Rangpur. The jotes were of different sizes, but what united them was the 50

Swaraj Basu refers to poor ryots who, without outside help, 'sporadically' protested by refusing to pay rent, chaukidari tax, and hat-tola. The Rajbansis, p. 199. 51 Ibid., p. 213. 52 Vas refers to an existing tradition of independent protest action by ryots in Rangpur. Eastern Bengal, p. 83. 53 Harakishore Adhikari, Rajbansi Kulpradip, Calcutta, 1908.1 owe this reference to Sumit Sarkar. 54 See Sugata Bose, Agrarian Bengal: Economy, Social Structure and Politics, 1919-1947, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 1-14. Prices picked up again to hit a minor boom in 1925.

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50/P.K. DUTTA contractual power the jotedars wielded over their undertenants. In many cases, this reduced the status of adhiars to nearly that of serfs.55 By itself, this may not have mattered much: rents were still comparatively low, the land-man ratio not too high for intensifying class tensions, and the zamindars not unmindful of paternalist functions.56 Unfortunately for the Rajbansi elite, the very nature of their marital customs could be resistant to the suddenness of changes required by their drive for a better selfimage. The ideal of chastity which they sought to impose ort their poorer brethren had to reckon with stubborn difficulties. The first was that the existing scheme of marriages was flexible in economic terms, catering as it did to a variety of social and economic eventualities. Second, it would be equally difficult to restrain women from visiting the marketplace. While Rangpur had the lowest proportion of women working in the fields, they provided about two-fifths of the total number of traders.57 Obviously, household economies would be correspondingly dependent on such earnings. Nor was there much opportunity for the economic improvement of the lower orders which could have produced a supportive section amongst them. It may be observed that cultural distancing can lead to a schism within castes, as it did with the Kaibarttas after the growth of an educated class amongst them.58 The Rajbansi elite's new lifestyle was not part of a collective programme as it had been with the Namasudras in 1872-73. Nor did they, as the Namasudra movement had done through the Matua cult, evolve an ideology that could provide them a shared commitment to their distinctiveness. Such efforts had also to reckon with the objects of reform, the women. Bride price may not, by itself, be indicative of the ability of women to 55 According to Bose, the smallest jotedars worked as adhiars. However, this did not mean that there was no tangible difference between the two categories. Normally, adhiars were men with plough, cattle and possibly a little land with raiyati rights. But they were regarded more as servants of jotedars, the latter financing them in lean months, in addition to taking the decisions regarding production. In this situation, the poorer adhiars were not much better than serfs. See his Agrarian Bengal: Economy, Social Structure and Politics, 1919-1947', Cambridge, 1986, pp. 1-13. 56 Vas, Eastern Bengal, claims that most cultivators were 'eminently prosperous' (p. 83), and that the rise in rents had not overtaken increase in prices of agricultural goods; nor was population in excess of cultivated land (p. 84). Written rent receipts were given throughout the district, and in 1874 as well as in 1908-09, both periods of scarcity, the zamindars had donated liberally (p. 116). 57 Amongst the Rajbansis in the four important administrative units in 1911, there were 3,009 male, and 1,863 female traders. In contrast, while there were 414,812 males in cultivation, there were only 9,110 females similarly engaged. Census of India, 1911, cited in Basu, The Rajbansis, p. 77a. It should be added that these figures should be treated as indicators only, since Census statistics on these subjects tended to be unreliable due to the problem of categorization. 58 The Chasi Kaibarttas who had one in three males literate, divorced themselves from the Jelia Kaibarttas. Bandopadhyaya, Social Mobility, p. 182.

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consent or refuse prospective offers, although a comparison with the institution of dowry suggests greater freedom for women to choose their partners. What provides more conclusive evidence is that widows were both permitted to remarry and approach men they trusted, as well as the even more remarkable custom of allowing married women to marry again. Women were also allowed a greater level of social mobility than conventional upper caste women, together with more freedom to choose their public Vices', such as smoking!59 Possibly the most significant comment on the relative freedom of women is the fact that so many played a prominent role in the Tebhaga movement.60 And this, it goes without saying, was equally, evidence of their success in resisting the definitions involved in the 'abducted woman'. In effect, the Kshatriya Samiti offered its authority and resources to mount a drive for repression within households. It offered a vision of male equality, an opportunity to stamp out growing class differences by ganging up against an entity who was present in all classes. In turn, this would ensure that the past could be wiped out, and the Rajbansi elite could rise immaculate in the image of high texts. However, the invocation of the sexually threatening Muslim male by the Kshatriya Samiti expressed a lack of confidence in accomplishing this project by caste appeal alone. The vehemence of the campaign betrays an uncertainty. This conies out even in translation. The floridity of Panchanan's verse counterposed Muslim lust against idealized women figures, in order to incite male pride: 'Shame, shame, the dead men, shame./The hooligans are taking away your mother and sisters, still you remain cooi?/Look at our women, they are great./Let the lumpen neres [Muslims] come, we will teach them a lesson./We will save our religion, we will protect the pride of our fathers and brothers.'61 If there were negative, internal reasons for the invocation of Muslim lust, it also opened up an expansive prospect. While allowing them to become internal to a broad nationwide movement, the nomenclature 'Hindu* also permitted the Kshatriya Samiti to appeal to socially inferior groups. The Kshatriya Samiti reports on abductions which it sent to the press in 1924, indicate a large number of cases concerning poor and socially inferior castes, mainly the Bairagis. In a political environment which privileged numbers, the Rajbansis formed about two-thirds of the Hindu population of the district.62 As a proportion of the total population this was not very much,63 but it certainly counted for more if politics was to be communally 59

Basu, Social Mobility p. 51. According to Nikhil Chakravarty, then reporting the movement, in Dinajpur, Rajbansi women fought the police and rescued their men from them. Cited in Basu, The Rajbansis, p. 224. 61 Translated and cited in Basu, The Rajbansis, pp. 117-18. 62 Vas, Eastern Bengal, p. 38. 63 In 1921 there were 791,143 Hindus, and 1,706,177 Muslims. Rangpur District Gazetteer: B Volume, Rangpur District Statistics, 1911-12 to 1920-21, Calcutta, 1923. 60

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52/P.K. DUTTA consolidated. In such an eventuality, the Kshatriya Samiti's hegemonizatkm of subordinate groups would reinforce its authority within the more general category of 'Hindu'. In effect, the Rajbansi elite was acting as a relay of the method of domination that belonged properly to the upper castes. 'Properly', because the Rajbansi elite could not aspire to general social domination. They suffered both from internal vulnerabilities and from their success. Their two major sources of mobilization were an effective reportage network linked to their newspaper, the Kshatriya, and court cases, such as the one conducted in Kurigram in 1924, concerning a Rajbansi woman64 (remember Barma was a lawyer); but, paradoxically, also because they had hit upon a successful campaign. In short, it was the same sort of mobilization that was sought by the Women's Protection League. And this meant that there could not be room for two such organizations. As the day for founding the Women's Protection League approached, the Kshatriya Samiti reports grew less frequent in metropolitan newspapers. Subsequently, the reportage was dominated by the Sishusahay Matrimangal Samiti, a Calcutta-based organization (whose secretary B.K. Mukherji, was upper caste) which rapidly concentrated its resources in Rangpur.65 The more decisive contribution was made by Amrita Bazar Patrika correspondents themselves. This was a prelude to the effacement of the Kshatriya Samiti's role by the Women's Protection League. Immediately after the founding of the Women's Protection League in April 1924, K.K. Mitra undertook a successful tour of Rangpur. Undoubtedly aided by cases of abductions that took place even while he was there, he established branches of the Women's Protection League in Rangpur town, Gaibanda, Kurigram and Kakina within a fortnight.66 What was remarkable was the enthusiasm he inspired. Much of it was due to the abduction of Suhasini, the daughter of a Brahman muktear of Gaibanda who was also a Raychaudhury (a title), which indicated proximity to the Raychaudhurys who preponderated amongst the powerful landlords of the district. The case—which was among the first which the Women's Protection League took up, and in which their lawyers offered their services to the Government—attracted swarming crowds to the court.67 The Women's Protection League's swiftness in establishing itself as the centre of attention suggested a general preference amongst the mofussil bhadralok for it. This process would be obviously facilitated by upper caste domination of the legal profession. The Women's Protection League was also better connected—being led by not only a reputed editor with a host of 64

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 2 May 1924. See, for instance, Amrita Bazar Patrika, 9 May 1924. Its report was given prominence in the inaugural meeting of the WPL. Ibid., 1 May 1924. 66 Amrita,Bazar Patrika, 10-17 May 1924. 67 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 27 May 1924. 65

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journalistic contacts, but also supported by the Advocate-General, backed up by powerful leaders and organizations. Not surprisingly, it was dominated by prominent upper caste figures; the president of the Rangpur Bar Association himself presided over the founding of a Women's Protection League branch.68 Abductions provided a lucky break for Rangpur's upper castes. While there had been an old stock of Brahmans who traced their ancestry to the thirteenth century, a more significant phenomenon was the wave of upper caste migrants who came to dominate the professions in Rangpur from the late nineteenth century.69 They were obviously upstarts in a Rajbansi dominated area. Nor could the prospect of upthrusting Rajbansis dominating Hindu mobilization add to the comfort of these new migrants. Clearly, the entente could not last; in 1926 it broke. Two things happened. The first was Panchanan Barma's defeat in the Legislative Council elections that year to a Brahman candidate, which indicated the importance that property-based franchise gave to the upper castes (which may have, ironically, contributed in the earlier election, to Barma's Hindu turn). More decisive was the formation of the Depressed Classes Association and Federation which effectively realized Mandal's ambition of bringing low caste organizations together. It was in this context that the Rajbansis petitioned the authorities, to provide them with the same facilities that had been extended to Muslims. The fact that these events took place in the year 1926 is ironic since it saw the most successful effort at communal mobilization. It was also difficult to remain segregated from the Muslims. After all, they shared too many common customs, even gods, and these could not be suddenly swept away by the surge of communal mobilization.70 This solidarity crept into their discourse, creating fissures within it. In one of his writings, Panchanan Barma stated that Muslims and Rajbansis hailed from the same stock. Conversely, upper caste non-acceptance also had its effects. The hierarchical distance between castes in Rangpur was extraordinarily high since the gap between the Brahmans and Shudras was only filled in by a shrinking number of Kayasthas.71 Resentment of upper castes was sharp. Panchanan Barma never forgot the way his colleague's cap, which he had mistakenly worn, was thrown away by its owner because it had been 68

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 10 May 1924. The early Brahmin settlers came from Mithila, Kannauj and Oudh from between the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. The new upper caste migration started from the late nineteenth century, and they quickly occupied employment in government and kutcherry, railway and commercial jobs, as well as dominated the liberal professions. Vas, Eastern Bengal, pp. 45-46. 70 See ibid., pp. 40-44, and Basu, The Rajbansis, p. 176. 71 The number of Kayasthas were 8,500 and they were decreasing, while the Brahmins amounted to 11,000. Vas, Eastern Bengal, p. 47. 69

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54/P.K. DUTTA contaminated by a low caste.72 The resentment was comparable to that felt by the new Muslim middle class who experienced discrimination more bitterly since it contrasted so strongly with the notion of equality, assured by professional norms and the law. Nevertheless, the campaign against the Muslims left its bitter legacies. It stimulated corresponding activity from Muslim communal groups, for instance, the Bakr establishment's communal campaign against the syncretist Bauls in Rangpur.73 The broad appeal of this campaign among Muslims can be understood better by considering the embattled psychological state of the Muslims produced by the anti-abductions movement. It would intensify suspicion of Baul syncretism. Maulvi Reazudin blamed them for a HinduMuslim confrontation in which 50-60,000 persons were involved.74 The Kshatriya Samiti reported that Muslims had felt that the Bauls had been inspired by the Rajbansis.75 If nothing else, such a divide of suspicion made it impossible for the Rajbansi elite to unite ever with the Muslims as Kshatriya Hindus. When inter-communal unity did take place in the Tebhaga movement, it was on the basis of a different identity altogether. But the abductions mobilization did more than produce communal antagonism in areas where little or none had previously existed. It also explained communal animosities that derived from other sources, and by doing so, gave to them a greater intensity and more directed mobilizational focus. The importance of what happened at Rangpur was also due to the fact that it provided a motif through which a more general situation in the mofussil could be confronted. This concerned the communal distrust that was building up in the mofussil as an effect of the Montford Reforms. The expansion in the powers and representation of Local and District Boards resulted in a situation where increasingly assertive Muslims who controlled these Boards and were looking for a platform of opposition to the Swarajist hegemony of province-wide politics, resorted to communal reservations of election seats and local educational facilities. In this context, 'abductions' provided a platform of counter-mobilization to the mofussil Hindu bhadralok whose powers of patronage and control were being attenuated by the changed contours of local politics. It palpably dramatized the need for collective Hindu action by detailing Muslim control as a threat to Hindu male identity itself. Equally significant was its forefronting of the zamindar as the initiator of counter-mobilization. In a Women's Protection League 73

Basu, The Rajbansis, pp. 88-90. In this period, the campaign was centred in a sub-division called Nilphamari, a highly prosperous, densely populated area, which contained three of the six towns that Rangpur possessed. There was a large population of Bauls, who were vegetarian and cited Islamic texts to campaign against cow-slaughter. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 14 January 1925. 74 Maulvi Reazudin Ahmed, Phakiri Dhoka Rod, Bangalipur, P.O. Sayyidpur, Rangpur, 1333 [1926], pp. 1-3. 75 This is what was reported by the Kshatriya Samiti in its 1927 conference. Basu, The Rajbansis, p. 177. 73

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meeting held in the shadow of Suhasini's abduction, Shyamlal Goswami called upon zamindars to return to their villages and protect poor and helpless tenants.76 The rescue party for Baroda Sundari was got together with the support of the zamindar of Amlagachi village, and, accordingly, he received a special mention along with Sitanath Goswami, in the newspapers.77 The zamindar came to embody the heart of Hindu defence against Muslim depredation. In this incarnation, as a guardian, the zamindar figure dramatized the need to preserve the social status quo, even as it removed from itself the negative images of zamindari oppression that had become firmly entrenched as a stereotype. IV

The elements of the 'abductions' common sense that I have discussed till now concern male activity. However, a success of this mobilization was its ability to involve women and communalize relations among them. This obviously required the suppression of many questions relating to gender. To understand this process I will begin by exploring the significations of the determining element of this discourse, that is, the 'abducted woman' herself. As mentioned earlier, the combination of newspapers with court proceedings produced a stable flow of news regarding abducted women. Many cases stretched on for years, prolonged by retrials. Two of these that played a crucial part in the foundation of the League, demonstrates just this. While Baroda Sundari was abducted in the middle of April, 1922, her case was still being reported three years later. Suhasini's case took more than two years to settle and occupied a corresponding length of newstime. In turn, newspapers imparted a dramatic power to the proceedings in court and, what is more important, generated the discursive field of this preoccupation. Newspapers did not give equal newspace to all attempts at, and allegations of, abductions. On the other hand, drawing upon the novelistic ability of giving certain narratives an emblematic status, newspapers tended to focus on a handful of cases, which, by that token, were made to typify the general phenomenon. In fact, it was these typicalized cases that tended to directly generate organizational action. K.K. Mitra declared that the motivating impulse behind the Women's Protection League was the widely publicized abduction of Baroda Sundari. I will deal with five such cases. Keshab was the second husband of the seventeen- or eighteen-year-old widowed Baroda Sundari. It seems to have been an union of convenience, for Keshab already had an invalid wife along with two sons and a daughter 76 77

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 28 July 1925. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 25 April 1925.

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56/P.K. DUTTA from her. In her deposition to the Court of the Additional District and Sessions Judge at Rangpur, Baroda recalled that it was 10.00 p.m. on the sixth of Chaitra (around the third week of March), 1329 [1922] when the incident occurred. 'I was then preparing betels, recliningly seated on the bedstead of our bedroom', she reported. Hari Sundari, the first wife, lay unconscious in an epileptic fit, while Keshab fulfilled the duties of a male by relaxing with his hookah. *A lamp was burning in the room', as Baroda Sundari suddenly heard knocking on the door, and then saw it being rapidly broken down. Three men rushed in and began to beat up her husband. They then turned their attention to her. They dragged her out and, draping her over their shoulders, took off. Their numbers increased to between fifteen and twenty men; many of them had made purchases at her husband's grocery shop. They then took her to about five different houses where regular attempts were made to sexually assault her. One day she gathered that the police were on their way. Possibly sensing the end of their escapade, three of them gangraped her. 'I did', she said when asked if she had resisted, 'but I was too weak from continuous fasting (she was only given chira and khai, both byproducts of rice) and removal from place to place, to offer any resistance. Several of the accused had knives in their hands which they held close to my throat and threatened to kill me.' After being continuously shifted, she heard voices calling out her name one day. She managed to rush out and find a rescue party headed by the zamindar of Amlagachi village, which included her husband. Soon she received a summons from Hem Chandra Sen, the Inspector of Gaibanda. After they had reached the Thana, her husband was asked to leave. The Daroga then propositioned her on behalf of the Inspector. When she refused, he caned her. At this point, the Inspector intervened, stopped the caning and ordered his two subordinates to leave. He then raped her. The Inspector did little to arrest the gang. It was rumoured that he had been bribed by the accused. Baroda refused to heed his summons any more, declaring that even if it spoiled her case, she would not become a 'bazaar woman'.78 Suhasini was the sixteen-year-old, married daughter of Banamali Raychaudhury, a muktear of Gaibanda. A Brahman, he was possibly related to one of the Raychaudhurys who supplied most of the zamindars of Rangpur. As she was returning from a neighbour's house one day in Falgun, 1329 [1922], Suhasini was forcibly taken, dragged and beaten all the way to Khizruddin's house. After three failures at escape, she finally reached her father's house only to be told by him to go away to an ashram. Upon 78 All quotations from Baroda Sundari, and most of the details are taken from Amrita Bazar Patrika, 21 April 1925.

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reaching the railway station she was arrested by a police party led by Kamarzama, the sub-inspector of Gaibanda. He confined her in his apartment and then turned her over to Khizruddin. Finally the sub-divisional officer (SDO) ordered a search,79 and if the first report on this case is to be believed, the police were accompanied by a party of 60 lathials led by Bejoy Kumar Raychaudhury, the zamindar of Tulshighata. She implicated her father in the 'nefarious transaction'.80 The judgement at the retrial also stated that her father was a co-conspirator.81 But her ordeal was far from over. It was to end only when she took her own life. Just before that happened, she sent a letter to the Women's Protection League expressing her gratitude. She wrote that although she had managed to come back to her own people through the League's mediation, social retribution had been swift and cruel. Her father-in-law had lost his job. She had no way of being accepted by society again. 'They [her family] . . . don't touch food from my hands . . . . I have not the slightest peace in my sansaar. Now I wish to spend the rest of my days in an ashram', she wrote, asking the Women's Protection League to help her get there, wryly observing that she did not think her husband would have any objection to such a plan. It is difficult to speak in the face of such horror. Yet much was written and spoken, and the anguish went to service a structure of discourse and feelings that, in turn, had specific institutional and political consequences. An analysis of this is obviously my prime interest, but before I begin, a note of methodological warning. The cases I am analyzing had already been chosen by the newspapers, and their choice was obviously ideological. However, as I will elaborate later, these are close, stage by stage, representations of events. Often the course of events went against the grain of the discourse; sometimes the very terms of representation allow us to glimpse a condition outside its boundaries, and to that extent allows us to map its appropriations. In short, I will not attempt to employ a rigorous and rigid grammar of representation, precisely because this preoccupation exists in continuous and unstable tension with itself. What stands out in the reports is the extreme brutality of these incidents. This concerns not simply the volume of male violence, but its collective character. In sharing these features, the Baroda Sundari and Suhasini cases are not exceptional, although they mark their extremities. Bistoo Dasi, a Rajbansi cultivator, recalled her oppression as an itinerary: T was made over to the latter [which included a gang whose members had names like Krito, Mangal, Haridas, Gendla] after Abdul, Mait, Tamiz, Hafeez, and Kabil ravished me in a bamboo grove. The Bajra men [i.e., the other group] took me to Krito's house and thence to Gendla's . . . . All of them ravished me 79 80 81

The details regarding Suhasini are taken from the Amrita Bazar Patrika, 27 April 1924. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 20 April 1924. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 25 February 1925.

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58/P.K. DUTTA on the way from one place to another. Next night, at midnight, Gendla of Bajra and Tokrai brought me back to our village and left me in the "bil" [pool of water]'.82 Once violated, the woman becomes common property. As such, her relationship with men is analogous to that of a 'bazaar woman'. But the difference with the latter is more revealing, for it shows that sexual relations with married women were inextricable from violence. Many of the abductors were wealthy enough to give rise to allegations that they had bribed the police, or even bought over the kin; they could obviously afford sexworkers. What departed from the experience with a sex-worker was that the women resisted, providing the occasion for asserting male mastery. The very physical stature of the abducted was contracted. Bistoo Dasi was dragged like a sack of rice across the ground. Many years later, a widow who had been abducted by fifty men was actually discovered inside a wooden box.83 It was as if the implied analogy with a caged curiosity was meant to demonstrate that the raison d'etre of women was to be used at will. In inverse proportion to the utter isolation and dimunition of the violated woman, such acts of violence bred a male bonding, different from the individualized exchange with the sex-worker. There seems a collective exhilaration involved in the manner of abduction. Baroda Sundari's abduction was so open that her abductors even stopped to rest in an open field; when some people nearby, attracted by Baroda's cries, approached, they were simply warned off. This was a general condition: as many as 522 gangrapes were committed between 1926-31. Further, while a total of 4,362 women were abducted, the total number of culprits stood at 7,547, that is, almost double the number of victims.84 The character of the abductions yields two diametrically different narratives. The first is, of course, the communal. The other, that traces a different path, is one I will delineate later. Collective abduction ratifies a basic stereotype of the communal condition that had been elaborated by U.N. Mukherji in A Dying Hindu. On the one hand, it shows the collective and organized nature of Muslim society. The force of this image makes the individual complications of a communal narrative appear as insignificant exceptions. The sheer excess of Muslim activity could submerge the role played by the Hindu police officer, just as it could blanket out, in the Kushtea case (which I will describe later), the role of a Muslim in sheltering the violated women. In contrast to the corporate character of Muslim 82

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 3 May 1924. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 30 August 1929. 84 Annual Report of the Women's Protection League for the Year 1938 (publication details destroyed): This aroused a general outrage in the WPL in the 1930s: 'rapes and outrages on women are not probably uncommon in other parts of the world, but rape on a helpless girl by a number of scoundrels one after another till the girl becomes unconscious or is almost bled to death is a thing peculiar to the soil of Bengal'. Ibid. 83

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enterprise, the condition of women could act as testimony to the powerlessness of the Hindu male (without which the abduction could not have presumably occurred) and, through that route, provide an emblem of the general Hindu condition. A crucial underpinning of the motif of Hindu powerlessness—which Mukherji recalls again—is their poverty. Although Suhasini is a bit exceptional (her father was a 'leading muktear'),85 her case nevertheless could be blanketed under the poverty theme, as its variant. In the inaugural meeting of the Women's Protection League, a speaker talked of combating conditions which 'make it impossible for poor middle class people to live in the mofussil with their families'. The majority of cases, however, pointed to a more established concern, that is, the poverty of the low castes. Baroda Sundarfs husband seemed poor, given the fact that all of them cramped themselves into a single room at night; Jashoda Sundari, whose case I will take up later, was the wife of a day-labourer; Bistoo Dasi was herself a cultivator, while Surabala Baisnabi was a beggar, who was told by her abductor that she had been taken because her brother could no longer support her.86 The Secretary of the Sishusahay Matrimangal Samiti stated that 'the weakness and poverty of the Hindus, the majority of Mahomedans contrasted with the minority of Hindus, and the extremely isolated character of the Hindu society, materially helped the occurrences of abduction'.87 It is another reminder of the enduring flexibility of the 'dying Hindu' that it can provide a meta-text for concerns not directly derived from it. The 'abductions' preoccupation can refer to the 'dying Hindu', even as it marginalizes what is crucial to the former, that is, the concern with caste tension. The fact that women are at the centre of this discourse not only means that a bloc can be produced between the upper and lower castes, but also, that two very different kinds of vulnerabilities can be elided: the middle class condition can be equated with the poverty of the low castes by the simple expedient of demonstrating that the women of both are defenceless. In the first place, of course, the woman can be loaded with such general significations, because she is also an attribute of male honour.88 Honour is, in fact, one of those general categories of patriarchal societies by which the oppression on women is classified as an affront to the male. Honour, however, operates through several registers, being differentiated by social position and time. For the Hindu bhadralok public, it was associated with autonomy. To recall Tanika Sarkar's argument, the home in the 85

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 27 May 1924. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 22 April 1924. 87 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 1 May 1924. 88 Sen, 'Honour and Resistance', has an extensive discussion on honour. However, her assumption of honour as a fixed idea that can be used in various contexts without changing its inherent meaning, does not lend it to an understanding of its specificities and the malleability of the discourse. 86

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60/P.K. DUTTA nineteenth century Hindu imagination was seen as a site for asserting the freedom of male Hindu control they had lost in the public domain.89 Not surprisingly, the 'abducted woman' became a sign of the threat to male dominion: The householder will not be able to live in peace with his family in his own house—how is this?' rhetorically asked the Sanjibani.™ If the structure of the 'dying Hindu' inspired communal energies indirectly (the Muslims proliferated/Hindus died, on the basis of their own social dynamics), the 'abducted women' introduced a candid, no:holds-barred antagonism between Hindus and Muslims. The latter acquired its power from the contrast between the complete powerlessness of the Hindu condition on the one hand, and the gravity of an immediate stake (honour/ autonomy/control), on the other. While this particular ideological structure did not discourage attempts at Hindu reform, an enterprise that had been a long-standing aspect of the formation of a Hindu collective identity (including its communal variants), it also limited such a project. After the Kushtea outrage, Hindu zamindars allowed the lower castes entry into a Kali temple.91 This was preceded by a campaign to reform the popular custom of boycotting women abducted by Muslims, in which Suhasini's tragedy played an important part. Besides the dramatic impact of her trials, the fact that she was upper caste drove home the terrors of her situation to the bhadralok public. Matters were compounded by the boycott of her husband by fellow villagers, after he had accepted Suhasini. The resultant fear was articulated succinctly by the professor of a Mymensingh college: 'What will they [the villagers] do with the so-called "purity" of their society', he queried, 'if the society itself goes out of existence?'92 It was a fear which reinforced those associated with the dying Hindu. Moreover, while Suhasini may have chosen suicide, others could convert, which was, as I will show later, an ever-present possibility. Not surprisingly, letters poured in to express sympathy with Suhasini's husband and even to offer him employment.93 Earlier, the orthodox pandits of Rangpur declared that there was no bar to Suhasini taking her 'rightful place' beside her husband after performing the prescribed penances.94 In the following year, the forum for orthodox Brahman opinion, the Bangiya Brahman Sabha 89 Tanika Sarkar, 'Rhetoric Against Age of Consent: Resisting Colonial Reason and the Death of a Child-Wife', EPW, Vol. 28:36, 4 September 1993. 90 3 June 1926, RNP No. 24 of 1926, NAI. 91 The Namasudras, Helemalis and Sutradhars, amongst others, had demanded the right to enter the Kali temple of the Narail zamindars. On 12 July, barely two weeks after the Kushtea incident, the Babus of Narail allowed them entry into all their temples. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 18 July 1926 92 Letter from Jnanendra Nath Chawdhury, Amrita Bazar Patrika, 5 March 1925. 93 The letter of an 'esteemed gentleman1 was published which offered a post in the 24 Parganas District Board to Suhasini's husband, if he was an undergraduate. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 12 March 1925. 94 Ibid.

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gave its approval; not the least important aspect of their resolution was that it simplified the complicated prayaschitta (penance rituals) to a simple dip in the Ganga.95 While the concern with reform remained, it can be seen as only an attempt to reform the margins of the general structure of purity-pollution. This is in contrast to the sweep of Mukherji's recommendations, which was solidly critical of the general practice of untouchability. Clearly, the direct confrontation of Muslims that was motivated by the abductions concern, involved an attenuation of a long-standing imperative of reform. In fact, that a reformist component remained at all, was primarily a consequence of attempting to neutralize the drastic actions of the women themselves. The question of consent and choices of women threatened to rip open the very structure of the abductions discourse. However, the characteristic strategy to confront this problem was not a reformist one. It was another kind of move that combined discursive appropriation with political mobilization.

Jashoda Sundari belonged to a village under Fatikchari Police Station in Chittagong. The first report on the affair appeared nearly a month after her alleged abduction.96 The case went to court and the Magistrate's judgement was delivered on 14 November the same year. Jashoda was sixteen- eighteen years of age and had been married to Rajani Kanta Nath for the last eight-ten years. The prosecution argued that she had been taken away by a few Muslims from the side of the tank where she had gone with her husband. Eight days later, when her abductors went to the hat, she escaped. But the next morning, fifty-sixty men came to Rajani's house and dragged Jashoda away. When the brothers went to the police, the latter refused to register the case without payment, demanding an amount which the family could not afford. Meanwhile, the Defence claimed that Rajani was too poor to maintain her and had ill-treated her. She often visited Muslim houses for meals. On two successive Fridays, it was claimed, she had visited the maulvi of the Hanafia mosque and implored him to convert her, which he did, but only after she threatened suicide. Subsequently, she lived in a few Muslim houses. Later, she appeared before the president of the Union Board to declare her conversion, and to complain that her husband's folks had threatened to beat her up. She then disappeared. The Magistrate held the Defence story to be "utterly improbable', since "one would not expect this woman' to go alone to the mosque. He dismissed the Defence plea that the maulvi had informed the husband after the first 95 96

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 29 July 1926. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 3 July 1926.

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62/P.K. DUTTA time Jashoda had visited him and their version of what followed. He found it unnatural that the husband should 'try to reason with his wife instead of employing arguments that were far more forcible'. Moreover, since Jashoda was the mother of a little boy, 'it would have been most unnatural for the mother to stay away on her own accord'.97 The basic elements of this narrative seem almost tailor-made for satisfying the belligerence of all sides to the dispute. For the Hindu communalists, besides confirming the ability of the Muslims to act collectively, it also offered the involvement of traditional Islamic authority (the maulvi), with the threateningly new (the Union Board president). For their Muslim counterparts, it drew upon a self-justificatory rhetoric—which I will examine—of the ensnaring Hindu female, and/or the triumph of the truth of Islam. This mutually confirmatory antagonism was complemented by the frank male bias of the magistrate's judgement. Being based on the crude speculations of patriarchy, it provided, for that very reason, the consensus needed to accept the judgement. These assumptions included the naturalness of utterly subjecting the female will to the demands of motherhood, the impossibility of female initiative, the public ratification of wifebeating, and, finally, an open display of the interplay of male desire and violence.48 The only unsettling aspect of this story was the fact that Jashoda was seen in both Hindu and Muslim 'camps'. The absence of stable affiliations in this young girl was a warning signal. Less than a month later, Jashoda submitted an application asking her husband to either convert to Islam or dissolve the marriage. A few days later, she refused to leave the jail." When the case came up for hearing, Rajani Nath's counsel invoked the Queen's Proclamation for Religious Toleration, to the effect that equity should prevail 'when there is a conflict of law of the parties of different religions'. He argued that neither the Court nor Islamic law (since it was not the state religion) could override Rajani's religion (which granted him the indissolubility of marriage). Undoubtedly, Jashoda's action delivered a blow to the pompous patriarchalism of the judge, but he got his revenge. Although his judgement flowed from colonial policies, it held 'that woman' in a pincer grip. On the one hand, he ruled that if Jashoda had become a Muslim, then the taking away of her by co-religionists was not an offence. On the other, he satisfied the Hindu side by stating that both Hindu and Islamic laws dictated that the marital status 47

Amrita Bazar Patrika. 14 November 1926. Corresponding to the act of reducing the stature of the woman by the abductors, the Judge devalues Jashoda by the linguistic address of 'this/the woman', while the accompanying desire is underlined by his salivating gaze; twice, apropos of nothing germane to the weighing of evidence, he remarked: 'the woman is admittedly good-looking'; and again, before he concluded: 'the parties are neighbours and the woman is decent looking". Amrita Bazar Patrika, 14 November 1926. w The Mussulman. 9-16 December 1926. w

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and rights of the spouse were not affected by conversion. He prohibited the dissolution of the marriage on this ground.100 The day this judgement was reported, another story appeared with a triumphant headline: "Good Sense at Last! Jashoda Ready to Follow her Husband'. It said that Jashoda had decided to return to Rajani on surety provided by Rai Kamini Kumar Das Bahadur, a local, landed notable. Wearing a red sari with conch shell bangles and vermillion on her forehead, she appeared in a police car, followed by a big crowd. The many conflicting positions of Jashoda testify to the sheer isolation of her condition, which made her incapable of following her desires. This was not something unique. In 1924, Surabala Baisnabi had first declared in court that she had gone willingly to her alleged abductor's place. Later, after shifting to the local zamindar's house, she withdrew her earlier statement, declaring it had been delivered under duress.101 At every point, the woman's will was overwritten by mobilizations for 'larger' religious causes. While the orthodox clamoured about the indissolubility of Hindu marriage,102 in Jashoda's case the Amrita Bazar Patrika churned out two editorials criticizing the judgement, which left out any consideration of her choices.1"3 AH the resources of Hindu communalism, seized by the paranoia of shrinking numbers, was concentrated on preventing her choice from setting an example to other women. She stood alone. Flanking her were those whom she had regarded as her saviours, and who behaved towards her as if she were a collective possession of local Muslims. Their arguments in court, that had emphasized their own authority to determine her basic affiliations, went against the grain of what her conduct had expressed. And, at the end of it, the court followed the colonial position on the equal treatment of religions, and divided up her body between the two religious communities: her body belonged to the Muslims by virtue of her conversion, and to her husband by marriage. Once , however, she exerted her initiative. This was when she refused to move from jail. This was a zone where there was no husband and no stifling demands of religion. Where laws of morality did not apply, for it was the habitation of the immoral. Where there was no worry about the future, for there was no future. If the jail was used for protecting society from its misfits, then Jashoda wanted to use the jail to ward off the terrible demands of communalized society. Conversely, Jashoda's 'return' and 'remarriage' reveals more than the attempt to reform the practice of boycotting abducted women. It also indicates an imaginative way of dealing with the problem of choice that women posed. It may be noted that the most obvious feature of Jashoda's 100 101 102 103

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 19 December 1926. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 22 April 1924. Telegram from K.K. Das to Padamraj Jain, Amrita Bazar Patrika, 19 December 1926. These editorials appeared in Amrita Bazar Patrika, 21 and 22 December 1926.

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64/P.K. DUTTA 'remarriage' is its public character. For instance, the narrative privileges not the husband but the zamindar. He is beheld in his multiple glories: his generosity extends to both the assistance of his wealth and hospitality, as well as his liberality in providing social recognition to Jashoda—an evocation that drives home his crucial position in the revivified Hindu order. In short, the remarriage is a ceremony of integration in which the woman is not so much married to the husband, as to the whole of Hindu society. Involved here is a move towards making the relationship between the woman and Hindu society a more direct and unmediated one. It is this shift in relationship between the woman and the demands of Hindu society that provides the precondition for appropriating the woman's choices to Hindu communalism, a strategy which I will elaborate in the next section. But Hindu communalism succeeded at a price. The second marriage is no simple restoration of Hindu male hegemony. It also bears the imprint of Jashoda's struggles. She compelled the local zamindar to underwrite her marriage by making him stand surety for her husband's good behaviour.104 In practice, therefore, she challenged the conception of the wife as a part of the husband's being, which is so integrally structured into the rituals and justifications of Hindu marriage. Compared to the scope of her desire, this was a small space that she got for herself. The whole structure of Hindu communalism, from its defence of the indissolubility of marriage ties and paranoia about Muslim designs, to the forefrenting of the zamindar, all of which her reintegration upheld, could not fulfil the freedom she demanded for her choices. Yet, it is the very massiveness of this oppressive structure that, by contrast, shows the grandeur of the concession she wrought. Moreover, the importance of Jashoda's assertion is extended by the context. The Calcutta riots had already taken place in April that year. More importantly, the after-effects of the Pabna riots that broke out a few weeks later, cast their shadow over the entire period in which Jashoda's case was fought. At no time in the previous history of Bengal had things got so comprehensively communalized. A pertinent development was that abductions had begun to mime key elements of riots. This was evident in the Kushtea outrage which followed the Jashoda incident. Let me recall its story. The incidents in Kushtea occurred in the middle of 1926. A party of twenty women, seven men and four children was returning from a visit to the Selaidah Snanjatra Fair at Kushtea, some time in the middle of 1926. As they approached the boats which would take them home, they were set upon by about ten Muslims armed with lathis. The visiting party fled, leaving three women and two men who also ran away subsequently. The visitors found shelter in Madhu Shaikh's house and, with the help of their 104

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 12 December 1926.

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host, formed a rescue party. In three hours, when it was about 3.30 a.m. in the night, they reached the place of crime. The abductors fled, leaving the three women in a distressing condition amid the paddy fields. Two had been raped, while the third had managed to keep her aggressors at bay.105 Like a riot, the Kushtea affair involved collective confrontation in a public circumstance. In contrast to similar cases, it could not be seen as the bullying of an isolated Hindu home under the cover of darkness. Moreover, the fact that the women were returning from a bathing fair, soaked the incident in the colours of religious violation, thereby driving home the fear that Hindu religion was endangered. The Kushtea affair recalled the motifs of the Jamalpur riots of 1907, a major one of which was the alleged violation of Hindu women after they had similarly returned from a bathing fair. The effect was to insert the Kushtea outrage into a narrative of the repetitious unavoidability of communal estrangement. Further, this outrage was also aligned to the motifs of Muslim boycott of common festivities as well as the desecration of images.106 Both of these had become staple items of riot situations.107 Precisely because of this abductions-riots interface, neither the role played by Madhu Sheikh in rescuing the Kushtea victims, nor a meeting of Muslims (the Hindus had refused to participate) that condemned the incident,108 could materially change the propaganda of Hindu communalism. On the contrary, the Amrita Bazar Patrika attacked those who were attempting to discount the existence of communal motivations as double-faced.109 Jashoda's case embarrassed this conjuncture of abductions and riots with the question of female consent. Her actions interrogated the difference 105

This report draws mainly on the findings of the Bengal Provincial Congress Council (hereafter BPCC) Enquiry Committee, Amrita Bazar Patrika, 9 July 1926. Some details are taken from the report of the Secretary, Hindu Relief Committee, ibid., \ July 1926. 106 The Hindu Relief Committee report drew a continuous line between those other acts of antagonism and the Kushtea outrage. It said that the first thing that had broken the 'amicable relation' was the boycott by Muslims of two important Hindu festivals in which they had been participating 'from time immemorial', one of which was the 'Snan-Jatra festival at Khorshedpur or Selaidah as the place is variously called'. Apparently, a rival fair was held on the opposite banks of the river, and according to the report, 400 Muslims participated in lathiplay. The report alleged that the Muslims who outraged the women were from these players at the rival fair. It also detailed instances of image desecration and other abductions. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 3 July 1926. 107 See Datta, Carving Blocs, Chapter 5 (forthcoming). 108 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 5 July 1926. 109 The Patrika expressed disappointment with the government report for not acknowledging the presence of general communal tension (as noted in the Relief Committee report), as the explanatory factor. July 6, 1926. Later it published a letter from Truth' which stated that Shamsuddin Ahmed, a vakil who had been visibly attempting to defuse the communal antagonism arising from this incident, was the neighbour of a Muslim ex - non-cooperator who had initiated the boycott campaign and that he had not raised his voice against previous antiHindu acts. 16 July 1926.

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66/P.K. DUTTA between Hindu and Muslim males, and raised the agenda of freedom in a situation where the pressures of communal violence had privileged immaculate authoritarian control. In fact, Jashoda problematized the whole edifice of communal division sustained by communal rivalry and underwritten by the 'toleration' of colonial legality. The question of female consent was to come up again in 1929, although, unlike Jashoda, the girl in this case had run away. Sovana was the daughter of Babu Charu Chandra Ray, a pleader. They were neighbours of Maulvi Panaulla, a Deputy Magistrate of Barisal. *I was on a very friendly term [sic] with Charu babu', declared the maulvi in his deposition. Mohiuddin, his wife's first cousin, who stayed with them, fell in love with Sovana, Apparently, the two guardians knew of this affair and had tried to break it up. Finally, Mohiuddin was sent away by Panaulla and a few weeks later, Sovana eloped with her lover. This was a nice story belonging to the genre of a 'Laila-Majnu-tale-inreal-life', with the guardians doing their duty and the romantic pair successfully decamping. There were no outrages, no violence, nothing to justify the headline, 'Sovana Abduction Case'; except for the fact that it involved the profound problem of inter-communal marriage. The implication of this had made even Gandhi quail before its implications,110 and, according to Muzaffar Ahmed, led to the boycott of Nazrul's poetry by apparently cosmopolitan literary circles including the Prabashi, when he married a Hindu girl.111 What was remarkable in the Sovana case was the way a question of choice was converted into a situation of compulsion. This rhetorical alchemy was enabled by the issue of neighbourliness. An *abduction\in Calcutta was written up as a case of betrayal and insidious design: *It appears that Isshaq [the 'abductor'] rented a house at Tollygunje and the girl used to live with her father nearby. The accused, having an eye on the handsome girl, made himself very thick and thin as a worthy neighbour with the father'." 2 The inclusion of the act of hiring a house next to a Hindu-with-adaughter within the narrative, makes it appear a part of a long, stereotypical 1111 In his letter to Manilal Gandhi (dt. 3 April 1926), he wrote, 'What you desire is contrary to dharma If you stick to Hinduism and Fatima follows Islam, it will be like putting two swords in one sheath; or both may lose your faith . . . . It is ... only adharma if Fatima agrees to conversion just for the sake of marrying you'. He concluded his letter with some practical observations, that did not quite succeed in suppressing concern for his own reputation: 'Nor is it in the interests of our society to form this relationship. Your marriage will have a powerful impact on the Hindu-Muslim question. Intercommunal marriages is no solution to this problem. You cannot forget, nor will society forget, that you are my son.' Possibly Gandhi's response had something to do with the fact that it was 1926, and the paranoia that accompanies nationwide communal upsurges was a new experience. Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. XXX (February-June, 1926), Ahmedabad, 1968. 111 Muzaffar Ahmed, Kazi Nazrul Islam: Smritikatha, Calcutta, 1965, p. 180. 112 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 2 April 1925. A similar tale from Tollygunge, was said to have involved a 'breach of confidence', since Ishad Ali alias Esaque Molla, the 'abductor', was a neighbour. Ibid., 30 May 1925.

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conspiracy by the treacherous Muslim. At stake in such narratives was the notion that occupying the same social space allowed the Muslim to deploy his natural advantages over the Hindu. Such an unfair competition between the two sets of males made redundant the question of woman's choices: she either belonged or was abducted. Although the Sovana case used an important riot motif, 1929 was not a year distinguished for rioting.113 The wave of violent communal antagonism appears to have subsided by 1927. What filled the sphere of popular agitation was working class action, while Subhash Rose's re-entry into Congress politics gave a fresh impetus to non-communal nationalism. Even reports of abductions in 1928 tended to be non-communal in nature: one case had ageist overtones, being headlined, 'Brutal Lust of a Sexagenarian: Alleged Rape on Eleven-Year-old Girl'. Another, headlined 'Hindu Lady Attacked', related the story of a servant who attacked his mistress while robbing her.114 Although a new space for mobilization was opened up for the Hindu Mahasabha with the landlord opposition to the Tenancy Amendment Bill, there was no mistaking the severity of the challenge to Hindu communalism. 1929 was a year that was spent in visible preparation for the Civil Disobedience movement which was launched the following year, and to that extent deflected from the communal agenda that had dominated the mid-1920s. But above all, it was the Nehru Report and Jinnah's initiative that had preceded it, that created apprehensions in the Mahasabha and its sympathizers. Not surprisingly, the theme of abductions was stirred up to mobilize for the coming Hindu Conference in Dhaka held in August 1929. The Nehru Report was not only criticized in its nitty-gritties (and rejected by the more extreme sections, such as B.S. Moonje),115 but its very rationale was questioned through abductions. After criticizing the Nehru Report at the Dacca conference, Kelkar declared, 'Breathes there a man who will say "I will pay the price of the honour of my wife or daughter even for purchasing Self-Government of India?'"116 In effect, the Nehru Report was elided with abductions. More profoundly, abductions were deemed to be so important that it could be used to openly override the imperative of freedom. At the All India Hindu Mahasabha Conference held at Surat in 1929, the President 113 'Although the after-effects of the communal riots of 1926 are still apparent, the year under report was generally peaceful . . .'. C.A. Tegart, Annual Report on the Police Administration of the Town of Calcutta and its Suburbs for the Year 1929. The corresponding report for 1928 also reported that no communal riots had taken place. Tegart Papers, Box IV, CSAC. 114 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 27 October 1928. 115 This, despite the concessions that the Nehru Report gave to the Mahasabha, after its campaign against Jinnah's compromise plan in 1927. Sumit Sarkar, Modern India, 1885-1947, Madras, 1983, rpt. 1992, pp. 262-63. 116 His basic perspective on nationalism was set out by his warning that 'National patriotism' ought not to be 'allowed to operate on our psychology like an opiate'. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 27 August 1929.

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of the Conference, Ramananda Chatter]ee had declared, 'If I were asked which I would have, freedom from foreign domination, or security of the honour, persons and lives of our women . . . if I were compelled to choose only one of the two, I would choose the latter'.117 This political campaign had too much at stake in abductions to allow Sovana any freedom in choosing her life. In fact, the Sovana case was central to the campaign. That Sovana's guardian-in-law was a Deputy Magistrate was used as a palpable indicator of what could happen if power was shared with the Muslims. In this schema, the 'betrayal' of a shared social space functioned as a trope for the outcome of the power distribution that the Nehru Report had envisaged. Nevertheless, despite its advantages, the blatantly blanketing character of the category of 'abductions' was nowhere more unambiguously interrogated as it was in this case. The romance elements were too discernible, since the substance of this story, as I have hinted, was (and still is) too popularly disseminated to be symmetrically aligned to the definition of 'abduction' and the lack of women's consent that the word implied. More than any other case, that of Sovana's is an appropriate one to begin an enquiry into what the term 'abductions' implied and concealed. VI

The existing preoccupation with abductions had largely been located in anxieties around the widow. In an early declaration on the women's reform question, Mahesh Deb propagated widow remarriage on the grounds that their privations produced a situation where '[inability] to subdue nature g[a]ve way to temptations which beset them on every side'.118 This idea of the widow as a mere zone of desire,119 was powerful enough to make her a consensual sign of sexual vulnerability. Muslim-owned newspapers, and individuals defended their community on the grounds that Hindu widows initiated these 'abductions'. Ironically, Arya Samaj propaganda confirmed this impression: a contemporary pamphlet issued by them stated that the proliferation of widows was an important reason for the degeneration of Hindus, especially because the latter could not prevent them from falling 117

Prabashi, Part 29, Vol. 1: 7, Baisakh, 1336 [1929], p. 169. Mahesh Chandra Deb, 'A Sketch of The Condition of the Hindoo Women'; speech delivered at a meeting of the Society for the Acquisition of General Knowledge, January 1839. G. Chattopadhyaya (ed.), Awakening in Bengal in Early Nineteenth Century (Selected Documents), Vol. I, Calcutta, 1965, pp. 103-4. 119 Two observations made by Dagmar Engels, Beyond Purdah?: Women in Bengal 1890-1939, Delhi, 1996, is pertinent here. First, that there was a long-standing Bengali Hindu male fear of excessive female sexuality (pp. 100-9); second, that the proportion of Hindu widows greatly outnumbered those of the Muslims (p. 41). Both factors would intensify the communal sexual anxiety. 118

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into the hands of the irreligious.120 The anxiety around the widow was intensified by property considerations. A Wesleyan missionary complained that a widow was frightened off from conversion, because of the loss of property that it would entail.121 We may recall the incident in which the Muslim husband of a Namasudra widow was grossly insulted when he came to claim her property.122 We have seen, in the instance of Arya Samaj discourse, how a fear of the consequences of a widows* desire could be resolved by translating her into a victim of Muslim lust. But there were problems with making the widow the central object of abductions. The discourse of widow reform was so firmly premised on a critique of Hindu society, that it did not allow abductions to be seen as a consequence of Muslim compulsion alone; this critique would inescapably act as a subtext. Even more germane was a practical problem. The fact was that most of the abducted women were not widows, but married. The pattern of abductions analysed by the Sanjibani showed that, out of a total of 1,033 abductions, 45.2 per cent were married (of whom 70 per cent were Hindus), while only 12.7 per cent and 9.8 per cent were widows and unmarried, respectively.123 Such cases, unlike the ones concerning widows, could not be attributed to the compulsions of biological necessity. On the other hand, it was indicative of the woman's consent, precisely because her removal from marital protection clashed so completely with the accepted ideal of the subjection of the woman to her husband's being. The consternation that was hidden behind the rhetoric of abductions sometimes revealed itself. A Prabashi article declared that abductions could only cease if oppression within the household was put to an end, thereby withdrawing the 'temptation' for women to run away.124 120 Arya Samaj Kahake Bale?, trans. Rameshchandra Bandopadhyaya, Calcutta, 1333 [1926], p. 6. This pamphlet was a translation of the Hindi, Arya Samaj Kya Hai? written by Narayan Svami, the all-India head of the Samaj. 121 In a letter to a fellow missionary dated 12 November 1919, the Bengal Chairman referred to the case of 'a poor Hindu widow, who wished for baptism but was prevented by the fact that any little property she had would be entirely lost to her and her living taken away should she profess the Christian faith. How common', the correspondent concluded, 'these cases are in a missonary's experience*. Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society (London) Archive, Correspondence, Bengal Chairman 1919-20, Box No. 848, School of Oriental and African Studies, London. 122 Interestingly enough, another 'serious fracas' occurred between Muslims and Namasudras in some villages in Barisal, on account of the abduction of a Namasudra widow, Amrita Bazar Patrika, 20 August 1929. 123 Cited in Prabashi, Ashwin 1336 [1929], Part 29, Vol. 1: 6. The WPL in the 1938 report, which was based on more credible government figures than those supplied in the 1920s, confirmed this statistical trend. It stated that 53.4 per cent of women abducted were married (with the second largest number falling under the 'unclassified' category), Annual Report of the Women's Protection League for the Year 1938 (in English), publication details absent, pagination absent due to damage. 124 'Nariraksha', Sraban, 1334 [1927], Part 27, Vol. 1: 4.

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70/P.K. DUTTA The necessity of blanketing all cases under the rubric of 'abduction' became more intense, because of the larger doubts raised by married women. Recently, Miranda Chaytor has argued that while the designation of the sexual violation of women as rape was a consequence of the shift to a concern with consent in seventeenth century law, 'abduction' was an earlier term that implied the theft of another's (male) belongings.125 In modern Bengal however, as I have suggested, there was a larger space provided for the consideration of women's consent. Thus, the 'problem' of widows took into account—via the sexist fear of a woman's 'uncontrollable sexuality* when detached from the matrimonial safety valve—a woman's desires, and built a corresponding reformist project. In the present case, the value of the term 'abductions' lay in not simply blanketing the question of women's consent—as it did with Baroda Sundari and Sovana—but equally, in allowing it to be revealed counterfactually. It did this by highlighting the multiple ways in which a woman was abused. Unlike a case of theft proper, the woman does not disappear. On the contrary, her fate is dramatized in order to underline the utter repudiation of her choices and personhood. This second, less overt, preoccupation with consent is an important one in the discourse on abductions in twentieth century Bengal, for it is precisely this generalization of the belittling consequences of abductions through which Hindu communalism attempts to acquire the woman's consent to its own project. The fear of abductions does more than this. The invocation of the oppressive Muslim Other transposes the transcendental claims of the community and its largely patriarchal values, into a celebration of the Hindu woman's control over her body. An early indication of this was the appeal made to the idealized role of the woman, in order to mobilize against abductions by Muslims. This can be seen in the invocation of satitva. The commentary provided by Prabashi on Suhasini's last letter, begins by exclaiming: 'Despite hitting her, binding her hands with rope and hanging her, trying to break her teeth, her oppressors attempted to deprive her of her satitva and purity; but with extraordinary patience, courage, mental strength and devotion to satitva, this girl saved the purity of her body, mind and soul'.126 This is a remarkable image; the sexual violation of Suhasini is replaced completely by an incantatory rehearsal of the violence done to her, the rhythms of which appropriate the pleasurable repetitiveness of the sexual act into its own coinage. Equally significant is that the rhythm of the sentence also sensualizes, by the continuation of its repetitive, staccato structure, her act of resistance. Women's agency is given an erotic charge even as it is sublimated. It can be argued that the reference to satitva gives to Suhasini a transcendental and iconic significance. But the 125

Miranda Chaytor, 'Husband(ry): Narratives of Rape in the Seventeenth Century', Gender and History, Vol. 7: 3, November 1995, 126 Transition mine. Pous, 1332 [1925], Part 25, Vol. II: 3.

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point of this discourse is missed if we see it as merely striving to create goddess-images. On the contrary, it seeks to make the exceptional activity of 'normal' women an exemplary phenomenon that would persuade other 4 normaF women to realize their own potentialities. But if this is the point where the discourse of Hindu communalism breaches tradition, at the same time its celebration of women's agency is done in terms that follow the contours of the male gaze. The latter gives a regulative orientation to the break. Obviously, the normalizing role of the erotic can be fulfilled only if it works as a subtext. More generally, idealizing images of the assertive woman emphasized desexualized roles. The abductions discourse stuck to this pattern, but what is surprising is its appeal to the Sisters. 'How can a nation hope to preserve the honour of their mothers and sisters from the hands of beastly ruffians . . .?' asked the Nayak after the Kushtea incident.127 This is a little unexpected, since the exaltation of the Mother was an established and effective symbol to represent Bengali nationhood, and by extension, would have served the purpose of Hindu communalism equally well. Conversely, its coupling with the Sister would reduce its ideal, immaculate stature, and hence its appeal. The addition can be explained in two interrelated ways. In the numerous poems written by nationalists, especially those with extremist persuasions, the Mother was one who has already fulfilled her role through giving birth and distributing nurture. Consequently, the Mother could not but be a passive figure. And this gave supreme importance to men's (that is, the son's) agency, for it was up to them to do their duty to their motherland which had fulfilled its side of the bargain by spawning and nurturing them. The Sister, on the other hand, was one who had yet to actualize her potentialities^; She still had a contribution to make. In other words, she opened up the prospect of her agency. The effect of this was reinforced by the other implication of 'Sister' which gestured at a more participatory history of relationship; there was a connotation of co-activity with the Brother, which was very different from the crucible of dependencies resting on the logic of nurture and demand that specified the relationship with the Mother. The figure of the Sister was ideally suited to a project in which the woman's choice was transferred from her personal desires to the defence of her community. In other words, a woman's public agency was privileged over her individual choices. Woman's public activism was made to subsume the area of choices which impinged on gender relations. The woman was given a new sphere of activity by- Hindu communalism. Admittedly, in many respects, this reformulated the traditional web of relationships in which the woman was located. But it did so by avoiding any questioning of 127

7 July 1926, RNP No. 28 of 1926, NAI.

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the basis of her relationships or expanding the area of her choices as a person. The emphasis was on action. And the new activity was the physical training of women. As early as 1923, in the annual session of the HMS, M.M. Malaviya included women in his appeal for physical self-strengthening.128 While the inaugural session of the Women's Protection League did not feature this as an objective, by the end of the decade, the Bengal Hindu Conference at Dhaka resolved to train 'Hindu women . . . in the use of proper weapons'.129 This had been preceded by a major campaign in print. Prabashi reprinted an exemplary story that had occurred in Budge Budge. It related how Girish Chandra Adak's wife, in his absence, defended her children and herself from dacoits and inflicted an injury that helped to identify one of them.130 It also featured Shyammohini Debi, who recommended making physical training compulsory in women's educational institutions. She exhorted well-educated, urban women to spread this pedagogy among rural women.131 Sometimes the drive went so far as to marginalize the role of the husband as protector.132 The President of the Bogra Hindu Sabha presented a newly-wedded bride with a dagger, so that she could defend her honour.1" On its part, HMS sessions provided ample encouragement. In its provincial meeting at Mymensingh in 1926, girls joined their male compatriots in exhibiting their skills at dagger play, providing a novel source of attraction and inspiration.134 128 He said: 'I have come to the only conclusion on the question of Hindu-Muslim unity. It is that each should feel the other is strong to ward off successfully an unjust attack by the other, and thus alone will [sic] harmony be maintained. I want Indian manhood and womanhood to realise its duty of defending itself. Reported by Servant, Calcutta, dt. 4 January 1923, 'Newspaper Extracts regarding Hindu Mahasabha Proceedings*, Home Poll., Progs. No. 198, 1924, NAI. 129 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 29 August 1929. 130 Kartick, 132 [1926], Part 25, Vol. II: 1. 131 'Nariganer Atmaraksher Upay* [Methods of self-defence for women], Bhadra, 1333 [1926], Part 26, Vol. I: 5. 132 The importance of this can be realized by placing it against the orthodox rhetoric around the Sarda and Age of Consent Bills that were up for consideration in the 1920s. Krishna Vedantachintamani, who was the most articulate and energetic representative of the orthodox Brahmanical position in this period, argued that the wife ought to be merged into the personality of the husband, whereas the Gaur Bill would make women citizens and'thereby weaken the hold of the community over her ('The Consent Bill in the Council', Amrita Bazar Patrika, 6 October 1925). The persistence of such rhetoric was a legacy of the first Consent Bill agitation. See Sarkar, 'Rhetoric'. 133 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 19 August 1926. Obviously this produced feelings of insufficiency. Waliullah recollects with some amusement, the travails of a Hindu Gandhian Congressman, who motivated his wife to get training in weights, lathis and wielding gadas (a traditional weapon with a long handle and a big round ball of weight on the top), Mohammed Waliullah, Yuga Bichitra, Dhaka, 1957, p. 211. 134 Fortnightly Reports, April Second-Half, File No. 1/1928, NAI.

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By doing this, the HMS was plugging into a parallel political circuit, that of the Terrorists. It was only in the 1920s that some individual (and for that reason spectacular) women graduated from being supporters and ancillaries of the revolutionary terrorist movement, to becoming initiators of actions. Of interest is the fact that, in some renowned cases, womens' terrorist activism was inspired by communal imperatives. One of the formative influences on Preetilata Waddadar, the first woman to lead a male group of terrorists into action, was when, as a student, communal riots broke out and 'Muslim rowdies threatened to attack Eden Hostel [of which she was a resident, in Dhaka] and "loot" the resident Hindu girls', while the District Magistrate refused to interfere.135 Further, after Kushtea, a 'local Ladies association' of Dhaka called the Deepali Association turned agitational. They criticized government apathy and their leaders, and called upon women's organizations to take the initiative on the abductions issue.136 This organization had been founded by Lila Nag, regarded as the pioneer in linking women with revolutionary activity in 1923, The Prabashi reported that the Deepali Association was starting a programme for training women in lathi play.137 A significant feature was that it combined these activities with the more acceptably gendered one of social service, especially that of education.138 This allowed the Association a more extensive impact among middle class women. Solidarity amongst them received an impetus via communal paranoia; 150 ladies attended a Women's Protection League meeting held in the Mymensingh City School, and after a 'stirring speech' which detailed outrages on women, some became members of the organization and decided to hold a meeting themselves; among the names of five members given, one was a doctor, while all the others had graduate degrees.139 A mofussil network of women's societies, initiated by Brahmo Samajists, was extant from the 1890s.140 These became very active in the 1920s when they provided the foci for mobilization by the Bangiya Nari Samaj in its campaign for 135

Tirtha Mandal, The Women Revolutionaries of Bengal, 2905-1939, Calcutta, 1991, p. 41. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 21 July 1926. 137 Prabashi, Magh, 1333 [1926], Part 26, Vol. 2: 4. This was possibly the same Deepali Association of Dhaka, reported in the pages of the Patrika, which discussed outrages on women after the Kushtea incident, calling upon women's organizations to take the initiative in stopping them. 21 July 1926. 138 This organization established 12 primary schools, 3 high schools for girls, classes to prepare girls for matriculation, industrial training centres, a female students association, and a women's hostel in Calcutta, in addition to training and physical fitness. Deepali Sangha was used for a revolutionary purpose after Nag joined the Sri Sangha, a male terrorist organization. Mandal, Women Revolutionaries, p. 67, 139 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 27 October 1926. 140 Barbara Southard, The Women's Movement and Colonial Politics in Bengal: The Quest for Political Rights, Education and Social Reform Legislation, 1921-1925, New Delhi, 1995, p. 60. 136

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74/P.K. DUTTA women's franchise.141 A report on one of the ladies' associations founded in 1925, says that it was encouraged by local pleaders and muktears:142 a conjuncture of time and social composition that makes it not unreasonable to speculate on the motivating force of abductions. In fact, women emerged as a separate constituency for Hindu communal propaganda.143 The entry of women into the male preserve of physical culture would give her an attendant confidence and also ensure a sense of public participation with the male. It would mark out a new sphere of public co-activity, which would be a departure from earlier role models. At the same time, it should be remembered that the preserve of non-mechanical, body-to-body violence, is one in which the claim of male superiority was seen to possess the closest ratification from biology. The sphere of body culture was so dominated by males, that the model for it was 'manliness'. Within such a scheme, the woman could only hope to emulate the male. Or worse, like Sarala Debi, who influenced Pulin Das, the terrorist leader of the Andhuilan Samiti in Dhaka, they could aspire to instigate an interest in physical culture amongst males; in order to resist everyday humiliation by the British, she recommended playing football.144 Ultimately, the Sister could only hope to follow in the footsteps of her Brother in such matters. No doubt this added to the attractiveness of this project. *Abductions' set the agenda for the mobilization of women in the mid19205. Sometime in 1926, during the frenzied aftermath of the Pabna riots, Gandhi received a letter from Mrs A. Sen and Miss P. Bose in Dhaka District, presumably eliciting advice on the question of physical training for women. His reply was embarrassed, equivocating, declining to have 'a public discussion of a delicate question'. He justified his objection to such training on pragmatic grounds, not on moral ones: * ... because in the vast majority of cases such self-defence proves worse than useless and because it will take generations before our women take to the dagger or the pistol in any appreciable numbers'.145 Gandhi's awkwardness reveals the 141 142

Ibid., p. 83.

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 17 August 1926. 143 Pt. Mokshada Charan Samadhaya, a Hindu Relief Committee propagandist who went on a tour of lectures on Hindu Sabhas and Sangathans, gave a special lecture for ladies in Rangpur. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 26 August 1926. 144 Phulin Bihari Das, Amar Jiban Kahini, ed. Amalendu De, Calcutta, 1987, p. 46. She remained as active on the same issue in the mid-1920s. In presenting the Deshbandhu Challenge Shield to the Rajbati Football Association, she stated that the Shield, imported from England, bore the traditions of loyalty, devotion and bravery in the cause of women, and declared that the football-playing generation of Bengal should make the cries of dishonoured women of Bengal a thing of the past. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 12 September 1925. 143 Ramananda Chatterjee had publicly questioned Gandhi's silence on this issue. The latter had written an article in Young India on 29 July 1926, asking for addresses of Bengali ladies who could furnish concrete evidence of outrages in villages. The letter from these two ladies was in answer to his article. Apparently the reports given by these ladies were based on hearsay, which is why Gandhi reiterated the important questions at the end of his reply: 'Is the disease general? How many cases of real violence have happened, say, during the past six months?' Letter dt. 12 August 1926, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. XXXI.

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vulnerability of the Congress to the power of abductions. This minor encounter defines the large political significance abductions could yield in making Hindu communalism a competitor to the Congress for the allegiance of women. The extension of franchise gave women a new political significance. The reformed constitution of the Calcutta Corporation referred to earlier, allowed women to vote for the first time. In 1925, women were included in the franchise for the Legislative Council elections. Equally important was the new level of self-activity produced by the franchise question. Southard describes the 1921 campaign on the vote as 'the first political campaign in Bengal on women's issues organised by women themselves'.146 They were emerging as a political constituency whose political choices had to be respected.147 Hindu communalism, however, had lagged behind the Congress in mobilizing women. As is well known, women were pulled into the political arena during the Non-Cooperation movement, due mainly to the influence of Gandhi. In Bengal, women were mobilized for the first time during the demonstration against the visit of the Prince of Wales in Calcutta in 1921.148 Even so, Congress mobilization extended rather than disturbed gender roles. Women were included in the procession so that they would become a potent rallying point if hurt by the police. Although this entailed costs to women (including jail sentences), public space was inscribed by gender divisions, and by becoming signs of potential violation alone, they were confirmed in their inability to participate in areas defined as male preserves. Hindu communalism, too, accepted the basic premise of gender divisions, but went beyond the Congress in reformulating its limits. But it took back with one hand what it gave with the other. The rhetoric of the abducted woman may have instigated women into physical activity, but this venture was based—as so much of communalism always is—on making the woman's body a source of fear to herself. It reinforced the traditional insecurities imposed by the male-dominated society. If the effect of communal mobilization was to expand the reach of women's political activity, allowing it to permeate the household itself, it was at the same time a feeling that militated against any talk of gender liberation. Fear produces obedience, not questions. Equally, such fear tended to circumscribe the political interests of women to self-protection alone. Nationalists had mobilized women for causes other than ones that concerned themselves. This may have generated its own strategy of suppressions, but, at least, it also provided a broader vision 146

Southard, The Women's Movement, p. 65. The Patrika obviously remarked on its novelty in its coverage of the 1926 elections. Although the numbers of women were not stupendous, they were not completely insignificant; in some polling stations women voters numbered more than forty, on 17 November 1926. 148 Rajat Ray, Social Conflict and Political Unrest in Bengal 7557-7927, Delhi, 1984, p. 293. 147

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76/P.K. DUTTA of women's identity. Correspondingly, it delivered a more extensive base for questioning the latter—when this occurred. Nationalist mobilization had the potentiality of bringing the woman into tension with her household, and raising questions about gender oppression. On the other hand, by locating women in a tight dialectic between their sexual vulnerability and physical self-protection, they were discouraged from situating themselves in the context of other political issues, that is, from seeing themselves in relationship to roles other than their simple sexual being. Via abductions, Hindu communalism strictly bounded the whole question of gender by sexuality. The fact that it was able to do so, rested, of course, on the contribution made by the figure of the Muslim antagonist. However, once this disappeared, the structure of their mobilization around abductions appears to have folded up like a pack of cards, allowing a new range of questions to be asked. Another narrative of abductions was generated. VII

Since the nineteenth century there had been a strong reformist element in the relationship between Hindu communalism and the women's question. Radical elements like Swami Shraddhanand had implicitly realized the necessity of acquiring female consent in the context of resisting conversion. It led Shraddhanand to mobilize for the cause of female education and advocate both equal rights and companionability as the basis of marriage.149 But this radical reformism was a tradition that—especially after the isolation of Shraddhanand in the 1920s—was on the wane. * Abductions' represented the new attitude of Hindu communalism. However, it did not possess a firm anchor. In fact, the Women's Protection League was skating on thin ice. The discourse of abductions gave to the woman her body as her empire, but only as a guardian for the 'higher' demands of her religion to which that body rightfully belonged. But that demand could only exist by denying women their experience of abductions. And the possibility of recognizing that experience was ever present, since, as human beings, women participated in the course of changing their history. The silence over the role of males in oppressing women was not an easy one to maintain. Unlike the cow or 'music before mosques', the woman was far too meshed in day to day relationships of social hierarchies to provide a stable sign of communal differentiation. Beyond a point, differentiation could not be made on communal lines because patriarchalism was far too general to allow that. The immediate cause for the collapse of the communal structure of abductions was the League's break with communal mobilization. Although the League report states that this took place in 1938 with a speech by 149

J.F.T. Jordens, Swami Shraddhanand, Delhi, 1981, pp. 25-54.

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Subhash Bose at one of their conferences, the turn became palpable after K.K. Mitra's demise in 1936,150 when the League began to focus on gender questions. It thereby offered an alternate analysis of abductions, drawing on a more comprehensive range of factors with lesser suppressions. At the heart of this change was the attitude to consent. The distinctive feature of the pamphlets of the 1930s lay in their unambiguous recognition of the consent of the abducted in leaving their homes. And this concern, in turn, provided the occasion for critically examining the structure of familial relations. Traces of parental involvement had, it may be recalled, crept into the initial reporting of the Suhasini case, although they were quickly edited out.151 Case histories of the late 1930s indicate that this was not abnormal. 'Bireswar's wife Asalata Dasi was enticed away and kept concealed by her parents . . . in the month of January 1938, for immoral purposes', reads the first line of the part on case histories, in the 1938 report in English.152 More crucial was the encouragement by those close to the family (if not a part of it) who typically prepared the girl by contrasting her present terrible state with what could be an attractive future with him. He would then persuade her to run away with him, inviting his friends meanwhile to partake of the spoils.153 From revealing the complicity of family authority in 'abductions' to an indictment of conjugal relations, is but a step away. When the annual report for 1938 observes that the husband could leave the wife, but that the latter had no such privilege, it defined marriage as a sphere of rights rather than as an affective relationship which Shraddhanand's reformulation had assumed. Consequently, it talked about things that were suppressed in the narratives of the 1920s. Raju Bala, a fourteen-year-old wife in a Khulna village, was given over to 'Sayed and Jabbar for disposal as they liked and to this effect the accused got the signature of Sambhu [the husband] on a plain paper and one Gour became a witness to it'.154 Equally important are case histories including those concerning marital relations; Abala Bala 150 The League had proclaimed itself as non-communal earlier. What was new now was that its programme also took a corresponding turn to non-communal objectives. The invocation of Bose's speech appears to have had a purely commemorative appeal since the Report for 1935-37, which was written as a single tract after Mitra's death, seems to mark the decisive change. The 1938 Report does not depart substantially from its framework. It should be added here that what I am asserting in the following argument must be qualified by the fact that I was unable to get any WPL literature of the 1920s—although all other indicators bear out my assertion. 151 There were other stray instances of the involvement of Hindu guardians. I have already mentioned the allegation against Baroda Sundari's brother. It was reported in the Jorabagan Court, that the aunt-in-law of a minor girl in Nimtolla conspired with another woman, to deliver the girl to Fakir Mohammed. Amrita Bazar Patrika, 6 August 1925. 152 Ibid. 133 Nariraksha Samiti: 1938 Shaler Karyabibarani, publication details destroyed, p. 4. 154 The Women's Protection League: Report of the Year 1935-37, publication details absent, p. 16.

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78/P.K. DUTTA Majumdar was married while the first wife was lying invalid; when the latter recovered, Abala was 'tortured' and 'removed and confined from place to place* by her husband.155 The League now gave priority to cases of abandonment. A semantic expansion was involved: "women's oppression' which had been an euphemism for abductions, now also began to denote marital oppressions. Thus, besides dowry cases, the report talks of the abandonment of women because they lacked physical charms, or inability to bear the sheer physical burden of domestic duties; or more simply, due to an inability to endure the sexual demands of the husband.156 Obviously, all this implied the complicity of larger social values that legitimized these actions. Interestingly, however, instead of merely appealing to the good sense of the 'Public', the Women's Protection League put forward a programme of making the woman economically self-sufficient. It demanded: that the Dayabhaga law of inheritance ought to be made applicable to all widows; a change in the laws relating to the personal property of married women; that the wife got a share of her husband's earnings in cases of marital incompatibility; the possibility of terminating marriage in case of continued oppression or abandonment by the husband; and finally, new laws for widow-remarriage.157 Significantly, the forefronting of gender and economic identities seems inversely related to communal identification. A conscious effort appears to have been made in this direction. The period covered by 1937-38 was one of nationalist optimism, when preparations for elections to the first experiment in self-government took place and the wings of the two communal parties, the Muslim League and the HMS, appeared to have been clipped by the election results; and when, in Bengal, despite the failure of the Congress, the victory of the Krishak Praja Party ensured that a largely non-communal formation which placed a major emphasis on economic issues, would set the agenda. Equally important was the rise of the Left and Women's movements. The change was best represented in the Women's Protection League's invocation of Ameer Ali as a pioneer in the fight against abductions—despite his activity in the formative period of communalism in Bengal and involvement in an early, communalized case of abduction. 15S This was because, as Magistrate, he had sentenced abductors to whipping. The election of Ali as an emblem was a sign of immense confidence, for it represented an attempt at reorienting a symbol of communalism itself. Less iconic, but possibly more effective, 155

Ibid., p. 10.

'* Nariraksha Samiti* p. 7. Interestingly, the Bengali report is more frank than the English equivalent. 157 Nariraksha Samiti, p. 9. 15 * The incident was a grisly forerunner of the Jashoda case. For details see 'Family Traditions', Syed Razi Wasti, ed., Memoirs and Other Writings of Syed Ameer Ali, Lahore, 1968, pp. 56-58.

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was the kind of statistical readings of abduction that the Women's Protection League brought out in this period, which showed that more Muslim women had been abducted between 1926 and 1938 than Hindu women, and that Hindu and Muslim males preferred to abduct women from their own religious communities—although such divisions did not prove an insuperable bar.159 The revised League programme came close to naming patriarchy as the real enemy. Nearly. But not quite. The personnel remained much the same as in the 1920s, indicating profounder continuities.160 It was still addressed mainly to the bhadralok even if it was not merely directed to their conscience. Further, the preoccupation with legalism implied that the agency for initiating the changes would be primarily male (because of the gender composition of the legal profession). It ruled out both the more adventurous path of realizing women's solidarity, and the more acceptable alternative of giving a separate importance, within the overall campaign, to educating women. A more insidious survival was the transposition of consent into something akin to seduction. Obviously, given the fact that so many minors were involved, this generalization would be pertinent. The danger lay in also declaring that if these abducted women were not saved, then the alternatives that faced them would be either prostitution or conversion. The classification of prostitution with conversion indicates an intense fear of the other religion. Looking back from here, we can define our discomfort with this notion of consent: it does not allow for a conscious, intellectual or emotional change to another religion, in the absence of 159 The first set of figures have been extrapolated from two tables. The report of 1935-37 states that between 1926-31, the number of Hindus abducted amounted to 3,499, and Muslims to 3,513 (The Women's Protection League: Report of the Year 1935-37, p. 10; the second table is given in the 1938 (English) Report which states that between 1934-38 the number of abducted Hindu and Muslim women amounted to 2,072 nd 2,290 respectively. I have extrapolated the same trend for the intervening years for which figures have not been given. For the second part of the assertion, I have drawn from the 1935-37 report, which states: 'Total number of outrages committed by Hindus on Hindu women: 1,260 Do on Mahomedan women: 30 Total Number of outrages committed by Mahomedans on Hindu women: 686 Do on Mahomedan women: 3,299.' Ibid., p. 10. 160 Two important activists of the 1920s were present in the panel of Vice-Presidents: Ramananda Chatterjee and Hirendranath Datta. The important change is marked by the appointment of a woman, Banalata Das as President. Kumudini Basu continued to play her important role: she was one of the two Joint Secretaries in 1938, but her contribution was probably greater than what her post suggests. It may also be observed that women were being inducted into local provincial level committees: the Secretary of the Bolepur branch was one Sudhamoyee Mukharji. Nevertheless, despite the growing importance of women in the organization, their roles appear to have been overwritten by their roles vis-a-vis their males; thus the 1938 (Bengali) report introduced Banalata Das and Kumudini Basu as the widow and daughter of S.R. Das and K.K. Mitra respectively, making it appear as if they were merely surrogates (Nariraksha Samiti: 1938 Shaler Karyabibaran, p. 2). Kumudini Basu was a poet, journalist, social and political worker, who was elected as an independent municipal councillor in 1932.

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80/P.K. DUTTA which the paradigm of the woman as a religious possession and her choices as based on sexual desires alone, is not quite transgressed. Obviously I am making these points in the spirit of qualification, which, I may add, also suggest the difficulty of gender identity replacing the communal one quite completely—at least on such a platform. However, there is another matter. This concerns a retrospective speculation that the Women's Protection League of the 1930s can have'on this study. If, as the Women's Protection League reports suggest, it was family intimates who were most likely to be abductors, then it stood to reason, that in cases where Muslims were involved, the affected 'Hindu' family would most likely be low caste. The story of a rural, upper caste family, that of K.K. Mitra's, indicates that although there was contact between Hindu women and Muslims through popular religious practices, they were stringently separated in social life.161 On the other hand, the data from Rangpur suggests the closer social proximity between Muslims and low castes, possibly deriving from the fact that it was mainly the low castes who had converted to Islam. Given the increase in male bonding and pride, and the emphasis on monogamous marriages as a result of Sanskritization, the chances of finding more than one male partner within one's own caste would diminish. Within such a scenario, relations with a Muslim intimate could be decisive. In general, what is clear from the male fraternity created by the dehumanizing violence on the women, is a general increase of patriarchal consciousness accompanied by a subterranean intensification of gender antagonism. This is true not only for the lower social orders of Rangpur, but also for those not directly connected with abductions, that is, Muslim women. The mobilization of Hindu communalism around the issue of Muslim abductions provided Muslim communalists an ideal opportunity to drum up popular support for suppressing the first stirrings of women's resistance to the authority vested in Muslim males. In turn, Muslim communal mobilization intensified bonding among Hindu women around the defence of Hinduism and the fear of Islam. It thereby helped to stabilize the 'Hindu' identity at the cost of the 'woman'. In order to understand this process, I will conclude with a brief consideration of the way gender questions were tackled in the Muslim middle class response to the charge of abductions.

161 Mitra recollects that sometimes his mother would acquire the blessings of the madar bamboo, which was worshipped by Muslims (Mansur Ahmed's forefathers were mean's), for her son. However, while only a bath would do in the case of Hindu upper caste males who were touched by Muslims, the Hindu womenfolk of those castes would have to wash the path trod by a Muslim with cowdung water, before they could proceed on it! Atmacharit, pp. 41-43.

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vra The abductions campaign would naturally yield immense dividends to Bakr and his ilk.162 The criminalization of Muslims by Hindus would reinforce and expand an exclusivist Muslim constituency. Less obvious, but possibly more revealing, was the effect of 'abductions* on liberal Muslim opinion. The group of liberal reformers included, as with their Hindu counterparts, both men and women. But, whereas among the latter, gender reforms were a subset of other religio-social concerns that were formulated and initiated by male reformers, among Muslims of Bengal it was women who led the way. Although they received considerable support from males, it was, above all, the activity of Begum Rokeya Hossein which sketched out the intellectual and practical horizons of the movement. While founding and running a school for girls, Rokeya dealt with ideas ranging from questions of naming and reworking governing mythologies to property rights and the allocation of household resources. Moreover, her work defined the breadth of the movement itself, clustering around her a wide spectrum of liberal opinion. The responses to her death ranged from those who believed that she exemplified the spirit of compromise, to those who conceived her to be an insurrectionary figure.163 A possible reason for the initiative of women was that the Islamic reform movements of the nineteenth century, far from expanding feminine spaces, were shaped by orthodox forms of male self-empowerment. This was evident in the discursive intensification of the desire for gender segregation and control. The drive towards clear and minute regulation of women's behaviour was already initiated by texts produced in north India, notably the Behesti Zeevar,164 In Bengal the Nasihat Namas did not hesitate to mobilize ideas that were unabashedly 'impure', in order to strengthen segregation. For instance, one of them advised, 4 A woman has no rest as long as she is alive. She has to serve her husband and thus worship Allah'.165 This view of gender relations was not very different from an assumption of shirk, that is, the substitution of the object of worship. This suggests a fresh insight into the basis of the purificatory movements of the last century. A profound male narcissism is at work here, which appears to 162 The impact of Pir Abu Bakr and his establishment has been detailed in Datta, Carving Blocs (forthcoming). 163 See Kazi Abdul Wadud, 'Mrs Rokeya Hossein', and Mrs M. Rahman, 'Motichur', respectively; Abdul Qadir, ed. t Begum Rokeya Rachanabali, Dhaka, 193, rpt. 1993, pp. 552 and 557. 164 See Barbara D. Metcalfe, 'Maulana'Ashraf Ali Thanavi and Urdu Literature*, in Christopher Shackle, ed., Urdu and Muslim South Asia: Studies in Honour of Ralph Russell, Delhi, 1991. 165 Cited in Rafiuddin Ahmed, The Bengal Muslims, 1871-1906: A Quest for Identity, Delhi, 1981, p. 87.

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82/P.K. DUTTA compensate for the loss of intimate spiritual communities based on individual charisma. The site of charisma is transferred to the individual male. The compulsive nature of this move is highlighted by its intimate proximity to the Hindu notions of pativrata and satitva. Being a major source of male self-empowerment, the ideal of satitva is not unsurprisingly taken over by the Improvement texts.166 When Garib Sayer warns women against returning from village ponds in a wet condition, he asserts that otherwise they would be violating satitva. More ironical is the deployment of satitva by the purist Abu Bakr establishment. While arguing for the superiority of pure Islamic practices over Hindu ones, Ruhul Amin, the doyen of the Bakr establishment, recommends satitva as an ideal for Muslim women, even asserting that the best thing for them is to become a sadhvil167 That he suffers from no sense of incongruity in invoking a Hindu ideal indicates the profound degree to which satitva had been internalized; but this unselfconsciousness in turn, indicates the possibility that the project of Islamization itself was overdetermined by the principle of segregation as a way of recovering both purity and power. The instinctive appeal to satitva is explicable only by the importance it has for the structure of segregation. If separation from the Hindu requires antagonism, then the intensification of gender segregation is needed to underwrite this act. The structure of double-segregation stimulated a countervailing response that stressed the importance of communal unity as a precondition for gender reform. In fact, Rokeya's thought is insistent on an affinity between women and communal unity. What other implication can there be when she says—in an essay written on the domestic tasks of women—that it was the womenfolk who must see that riots do not break out during strikes.168 But Rokeya does not simply celebrate communal unity. In the face of a syncretizing conservatism, this could even seem an unhappy irony. On the other hand, the invocation of a central Hindu idea such as satitva finds its counter-move in Rokeya's identification of the problem of gender as a universal one. Like most of those committed to communal unity in this period, Rokeya subscribes to a federative idea of religious communities. But for her, it is founded on a common struggle against gender discrimination. Her strategy of confirming communal unity through the critique of gender relations is shown in the way she tackles the question of abductions. It is an important intervention because the abductions issue threatened to reverse some of the key orientations of the liberal reformers. There are just two places where she refers to abductions. In an essay called 'Subeh Sadak' where she interprets the azaan as a call to women to shake away the torpor of confinement and slavishness, she refers sardonically to the growth of 166 167 168

I have elaborated the Improvement ethos in Datta, Carving Blocs (forthcoming). Ruhul Amin, Nafaol Mocchelemin ba Mashayal Tattva, Khulna, 1925, p. 30. 'Sugrihini', Motichur I (1905), Qadir, ed., Rachanabali, p. 45.

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Nari Raksha Samitis. She characterizes them as an outgrowth of men's attitude to women as something to be guarded: like jewels or pets. Her comments here recall her essay 'Ardhangi', where she criticizes the continuing degradation of women in non-Muslim communities—the Parsis, Hindus and Christians—which had apparently liberated their women from purdah. Regarding the Hindus, Rokeya asserts that their paradigm of gender relations was formulated in the Ram-Sita relationship, in which Ram preserved the privileges of a husband by treating his wife as a boy treats his plaything. While talking of the abductions issue, Rokeya does not even mention the question of communalization. Instead, she reframes the whole enterprise by locating it in relationship to the social definitions of womanhood. The consequence is a silent and strong indictment of the inequities communalism seeks to perpetrate. Equally important is the federative framework that is an essential part of her critical apparatus. This is best seen in her novel, Padmarag. It features Tarini Bhaban, a woman's institution founded and run by a Brahmo widow. A crucial juncture of the story concerns a scene where the leading inmates gather together to tell one another about their experiences which forced them to come to the Bhaban. The group is a representative one: besides Hindus, there are Muslims and a Christian. Usha, a Brahman girl relates her experience of abduction, focusing on the social boycott that followed upon her return. This, as we have seen, is a typical tale that was used by the Hindu campaigners against Muslim abductions. What makes it different is the context. It is seen as just one of the many instances of typicalized discriminations that characterize different religions in their treatment of women. For instance, while Rafiya is suddenly given a divorce, by post, from her husband, for whom she had been faithfully waiting for years to finish his studies in law in England, Helen cannot get a divorce from a husband who is in a jail for criminal lunatics. If abductions is just one of the many kinds of social oppression that women face, conversely, it also provides the point where an alternative is demanded. Usha's story swiftly dissolves into Rafiya's declaration of war against society. Their alternative world is present in the scene where, structured by a gender-based religious federation, the women set up a common circuit of narrative exchange. Their sufferings, which have to be privately endured by virtue of the isolation they face through social discrimination, become mutually substitutable here. While.Rafiya relates Helen's story, it is Sakina who tells us about Helen's tribulations. This is a Utopian moment when federation smudges its boundaries in a common connection. The overwhelming longing for such an existence is signalled throughout the story by the double identity of the heroine, Padmarag. The latter is both Siddika, a Muslim girl who has been made a victim of property disputes because of the segregation of women, as well as Padmarag, a person resurrected by the solidarity of womens' experiences

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84/P.K. DUTTA and work exemplified in Tarini Bhaban. But this Utopian moment is split again to allow the* ideal to become a practical force. Padmarag elects to leave Tarini Bhaban, the place she often describes as a heaven. Risking suffering and isolation, she has to reintegrate herself back within Muslim society in order to begin the task of reforming it, that is, to affirm her solidarity with women of the larger society. Rokeya's consideration of abductions opens out her vision of a genderbased federation that is rooted in the principle of cross-cultural critique which in turn rests on a process of exchange through a shared circuitry of feelings, ideas and work. Significantly, there is a remarkable intransigence in Rokeya's attitude to communalization, Padmarag was written in 1902 (although published in 1924), while 'Subeh Sadak' was published in 1930. The continuity in her attitudes through three decades—especially its survival of the bloody 1920s—is a refreshing contrast to a person like Akram Khan, for whom the abductions campaign motivated a turn towards communal antagonism. There was, to some extent, a supportive context for Rokeya. Besides the anti-communal activity of women like Sarojini Naidu, there were other initiatives, such as those of Mrs Rahman who indicted satitva in the Sahachar by enquiring, 'What is the value of the satitvd that makes slaves of us? Why can only males marry women, why cannot women marry males?'169 Moreover, cooperation on women's issues extended across the lines of religion. Rokeya herself got the support of Mrs P.K. Ray and Mrs Rajkumari Das who helped her to study the structure and experiences of Bethune and Gokhale Memorial schools, in order to begin her own project of the Sakhawat Memorial Girls School.170 Southard has shown how the excitement of reform in the 1920s had outweighed the lacerations of communal antagonism.171 A small incident vividly shows the general context. During the most intense period of communal antagonism in 1926, a three member womens' delegation consisting of two Hindus and one Muslim met Mrs Bajrabhima Debi, the lady editor of a magazine called Dharmadhwaj and, on behalf of an organization called Bangiya Ramani Samaj, released a statement protesting against the publication of advertisements for sexual vitality.172 The equally nourishing, but more problematic support, came from Muslim male reformers. This liberal intelligentsia was centred in the Saogat, which published a steady volume of articles arguing for a many-sided reform of 169 Translation mine. Cited in Chandiprosad Sarkar, 'Bengali Muslim Politics, Society and Culture During the Khilafat-N on -Cooperation Movement', Bengal Past and Present, Vol. CHI, Parts I-II, Nos 196-97, January-December 1984. 170 Mohtar Hossein Sufi, Begum Rokeya: Jiban O Sahitya, Dhaka, 1986. Mr P.K. Ray founded.the Bethune Memorial Girls School. 171 Example: women campaigners kept out of the communal imbroglio over the Education Bill in the early 1930s. Barbara Southard, The Women's Movement, p. 199. 172 Hindu-Musalman, 1 September 1926.

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women's condition. Although the Saogat resumed publication in 1926 after a gap of five years, it quickly mobilized the left wing of the Muslim intelligentsia which went on to establish the Anti-Molla League in 1929, an organization that campaigned against the orthodoxy. The radical possibilities of this group can be seen in a collection of poems called Nari Tirtha, which was written by Ahmader Rahman, who was close to Nazrul Islam.173 Following the latter, Rahman transgresses religious boundaries. His first poem, written in 1928, submerges itself in the discourse of Hindu reform: it is on the subject of child-widows, and the references to the girl's sindur and shakha places it firmly within the Hindu world. The poem makes a spirited indictment of patriarchal norms, rhetorically asking how long would men ignore the sorrow of women and inflict the oppression of their Law. It concludes by warning men of the rebellious resources of women. From the specific and limited instance of a particular abuse, the poem goes on to indict gender oppression, which, in the same move, prevents him • from making Hinduism alone seem responsible for gender tyranny. This generalized vantage point allows the poet to directly criticize Islamic patriarchy. In the poem called 'Abhishap', he indicts the discouragement of the education of girls in pathshalas where they could learn Bengali and English.174 The inclusion of a specifically Muslim target drives home the hybridity of Rahman's volume. However, there is a specific syncretist strategy at work here. Rahman does not thread together plural identities into a single weave of language, but produces a double-move that recalls Rokeya. Plural identities are made to refer to the general reference point of gender oppression, producing thereby the possibility of solidarity between them. Without repudiating their differences, it opens up the possibility of exchange, collaboration, and internal change. However, male liberalism suffered from contradictions. These contributed to the failure in generating a Muslim counter-initiative against the communal campaign on abductions. The relationship of Mansur Ahmed— a liberal reformer who was active in the Anti-Molla League—with his wife, is illuminating. Although he had no compunctions in marrying a ten-yearold girl, he opposed purdah and cherished new values in her such as 'independence*, 'individuality' and 'self-respect'. His father-in-law, a Mohammadi preacher, was equally self-contradictory. He preached the importance of higher education for Muslim girls, but neglected to extend its opportunities to his own offspring. Mansur's self-division is expressed 173

A. Rahman, Nari Tirtha, Calcutta, 1931. An interesting aspect of this poem is that the villain of the piece is the village pir. He leads the-orthodox drive against the father of a girl who allows her to study in a pathshala by a clever sleight of hand, the poet takes up a figure who is a recognized villain of purificatory discourse, and makes him embody orthodoxy, which, by this association, is defined as irrational and impure. The connection appears credible, precisely because so manypirs like Bakr and Ruhul Amin, were actually conservative. Ibid., pp. 48-50. 174

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86/P.K. DUTTA by a constant guilt; he regrets having induced early conceptions in his wife, feels sorry for making her bear the burden of looking after the innumerable guests who frequented his house. At the same time, he records the fact that his wife started to take crucial decisions which even related to his career; later, she became a district-level Congress worker.175 Ahmad does not tell us what his wife felt about Hindu women, but his own view emerges as a complicated one. Hindu women provided a role model. Ahmad's first encounter with a woman outside his family occurred while attending the meetings of the Brahmo Samaj:l76 he was introduced to a Brahmo woman. It was an event which probably presaged support for his wife's entry into public life. His contemporary, Waliullah, felt pride in being Bengali while accompanying Congress woman campaigners. According to him, they provided a lead to the rest of the country by addressing 15-20,000-strong male audiences and by doing constructive work and visiting houses.177 Nevertheless, while the public role of Hindu women seemed attractive for men who were against purdah, it also appears to have reinforced a pride in the chastity of Islam, whose women could not be offered for the public gaze, even at the price of hypocrisy. Ahmad's frank catalogue of the disabilities of Muslim prostitutes may be recalled. The latter could not give the impression of being Muslim for fear of being refused lucrative locations in red light areas. This disability gave his friends and himself the pleasure of thinking that the world would believe Muslim women were more moral than Hindu!178 Another revealing incident concerns his encounter with a woman in public. Upon treading on her foot, he immediately turned around to apologize by putting his hands together to do a namaskar. Later his friends laughed at him, saying she was just a prostitute.179 The easy recourse to pride, when faced with Hindu discrimination, in gender-conservative Islam, was clearly facilitated by interned contradictions regarding relationships with women. The spontaneous characterization of a woman in public as a Hindu, the recurrent association of Hindu women with prostitution,180 betokens a submerged desire that flowed from the Hindu woman's conceptual monopoly of female public space. Somewhere at the back of all this is the shadow of the temptress figure. This complex 75

Abul Mansur Ahmed, Atmakatha, Dhaka, 1974, pp. 389^412. Ibid., p. 176. Waliullah, Yuga Bichitra, p. 160. 78 Ahmed, Atmakatha, p. 213-15. 79 Abul Mansur Ahmed, Amar Dekha Rajnitir panchas Baccher, Dhaka, 1975, p. 42. 80 This seems part of a larger understanding at a time when women were demanding rights for themselves. A major objection to granting women the vote was that only prostitutes would avail of the opportunity. Barbara Southard, The Women's Movement and Colonial Politics in Bengal: The Quest for Political Rights, Education and Social Reforms Legislation, 1921-1925, New Delhi, 1995, pp. 103—4. Respectability for women was compromised by any public participation. 76 77

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weave of motifs was simplified by the communal antagonism that exploded around the abductions issue, the dialectic of the temptress and the celebration of Islamic chastity came together in a single figure, that of the Hindu widow. It was the seductiveness of the Hindu widow that was widely seen to motivate the abductions of Hindu women. Faced with insinuations of criminal lust, Muslim males pointed to the social disabilities of the Hindu widow to prove the superiority of Islam. The widow allowed Muslim communal discourse to tap an admitted weakness of Hindus.181 So convincing was the lust of widows as an explanation for abductions, that the weekly Hindu-Musalman, which had been established solely for the purpose of communal unity, also advanced it as an explanation.182 The Dainik Soltan insinuatingly and intelligently gloated, 'How is it that no sensation is created over the kidnapping or outraging of a Hindu girl by a Hindu male, while a hue and cry is raised whenever a Hindu widow embraces Islam out of her own accord and marries a Muhammadan male?'183 Widowhood also provided an explanation by its fearsome prospect. In an incident mentioned earlier, Waliullah recalled a discussion between Fazlul Huq and Khairul Aman which concluded that the reason why a particular Hindu girl had converted and married a Muslim, was that she wished to avoid widowhood.184 What is most painful was the way the Hindu widow provided a pretext for counter-insinuation against Hindu society amongst those who had been committed to communal cooperation. The liberal Mohammadi argued that abductions was nothing new in Bengal, and that Hindus had been as guilty in the matter as Muslims. 'But', it went on to add, 'since Hindu society contains a very great number of youthful and pretty widows, it is the Hindu women who are being principally kidnapped.'185 The idea of the Hindu widow produced its own metonymic logic. In a Muslim meeting held to protest against charges of abduction, no less a figure than Akram Khan claimed that it was the women who were responsible for their abduction, the facts being misrepresented to cast a slur on Muslim youth. He combined 181

A letter from one I.B. Roy in 1924, who described himself as a 'non-sentimental Hindu' concurred with the view that the 'abductions' were the result of Hindu widows running away. This letter was written in 1924, before the issue had become virulently communalized. The Mussalman, 25 April 1924. 182 Ibid., 25 August 1926. 183 11 August 1926, RNP N.o. 34 of 1926, NAI. 184 Yuga Bichitra, pp. 86-88. 145 4 June 1926, RNP No. 24 of 1926, NAI. Naturally, this view can lead to a feeling that Muslim youths were being victimized. A letter to The Mussalman dated 27 June 1924, condemned the WPL as an organization that set out to 'punish Mussalman youths with whom Hindu girls and widows, after enormous social pinpricks and suffering, chose to elope and have illicit connection.' The display of sympathy for Hindu women, however, disappears in the example he gives of a Muslim youth charged with rape in Jessore. According to his version, the youth had merely accepted the favours of a Hindu woman renowned for her generosity in this respect.

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88/P.K. DUTTA this assertion with the issue of imposing puritanical controls on women, by stating that Hindu women were more likely to be morally corrupt since they frequented theatres and read novels!186 I have tried to indicate the extent of the Muslim communal counterresponse to the abduction campaign, by examining the failure of the reformers. What was at stake can be judged by trends that showed themselves in the middle of 1926. Abductions did not feature as a major issue during the April riots in Calcutta. It did, however, become an important motif of the Pabna riots. It was then that Muslims began to level charges of rape against Hindus for the first time. Reports came in after the riots in Pabna, that—emboldened by the prosecutions of the Law which led to widescale desertions of villages by Muslim males fearing arrest—Hindu men were roaming the villages, threatening, if not actually molesting, Muslim women. Specific allegations were made against a party of Hindu volunteers led by S.S. Chakravarty.187 These reports were followed by those of the Dhaka riots, which featured allegations of the physical mishandling of Muslim women by Hindu sankharis and police officers.188 A more horrible development was to occur. Possibly in response to the riots, first in neighbouring Pabna and then in Dhaka, as well as to the antagonism of Hindus within the town, Muslim communalists of Kushtea boycotted the immersion of Durga which they had traditionally attended. They organized a rival mela on the opposite bank, at the very spot 'where the female Hindu pilgrims were outraged by Mahomedan goondas a few months back'.189 The "outraging* of women became respectabilized as a weapon of communal antagonism, and by extension, could lend itself to the purposes of 'self-strengthening'. Muslim communalism was finally accepting the definitions of Hindu counterparts, while the latter did not forego this invitation to display the creature they had created. It is in this perverse process that we can sense the outrage of women that was to happen two decades later in Noakhali. Not the least saddening aspect was that sections of Muslim women also got communalized. The first annual meeting of the Muslim Mohila Samiti alleged outrages on Muslim women in Pabna,190 little realizing that they were helping to seal the fate of so many who were yet to be sucked into the celebrations of communal hatred, as well as confirm their Hindu sisters in their Hinduness, without allowing the identity of the Sister to impinge on issues raised by the collective problems of Sisterhood. 186 'Abduction of Hindu women (Press comments and resolutions of the Albert Hall meeting on the subject)', 535/29, Serial Nos 1-2, GOB: Political, 1930, WBSA. 187 The Mussalman, 17 July 1926. 188 The Mussalman, 23 September 1926. 189 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 20 October 1926. 190 The Mussalman, 24 August 1926.

[12] Women, Sexuality, and Enlightenment Kankyo no Tomo RAJYASHREE PANDEY

A

MONG the many collections of Buddhist setsuwa iftfg, medieval tales or anecdotes, is a scarcely studied text titled Kankyo no Tomo PBSS, 'A Companion in Solitude', a work believed to have been written by Priest Keisei ftjgc, 1189-1268, in 1222. A striking feature of this collection is that many of its stories concern women and their search for religious enlightenment. There are few representations of women and conceptions of their redemptive potential in the popular medieval religious texts of Japan. Keisei's work therefore offers a rare insight into the complex and often contradictory ways in which women, their bodies, their sexuality, and their social and domestic functions were constructed in medieval writing. The Buddhist attitude to the status of women was by no means monolithic and unchanging. The early Indian Buddhist texts are marked by 'a tension between certain attitudes that seem unusually positive in their assessment of women and the feminine, on the one hand, and attitudes that are much more blatantly negative, on the other.'1 In Mahayana canonical literature there are several contesting representations of women and the soteriological path open to them. One widely found assertion in the scriptures is that women cannot become bodhisattvas and eventual buddhas without first being reborn as men. Another motif that appears in the canon is the theme of sexual transformation. The wisdom of women on the path to enlightenment can be identified owing to a sexual change in which they lose their female characteristics and acquire a male body. While the avowed Buddhist goal is to transcend sexuality altogether, it is female sexuality that becomes a major impediment, while 'maleness' is the prerequisite for enlightenment.

THE AUTHOR is a lecturer in the School of Asian Studies, La Trobe University. She would like to thank Professor Mizuhara Hajime TfcUP^ for his guidance and generosity. 1 Alan Sponberg, 'Attitudes toward Women and the Feminine in Early Buddhism*, in Jose Ignacio Cabezon, ed., Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender, State University of New York Press, 1985, p. 3.

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In the Devadatta chapter of the Lotus Sutra, one of the most influential canonical texts in Japan, Sariputra, a disciple of the Buddha, expresses doubts about the eight-year-old daughter of the Dragon King possessing the prerequisites for buddhahood. In response, the girl offers Shakyamuni a precious gem and, at this, she turns into a man and is then enthroned as a buddha in her own buddha world.2 In the Pure Land Sutra, rebirth in the Pure Land is promised to all those who have faith in Amida Buddha. But in reference to salvation for women, Amida's thirty-fourth vow suggests that women can realize such a rebirth only after first being reborn as men in their next lives.3 One of the major reasons for the inferior place assigned to women in canonical writing was the identification of woman as the site of impurity and the bearer of particular vices and sins. In his Tsuma Kagami $M, 1300, for example, Muju Ichien $$&—R quotes Tao-hsiian 3t5JL, the founder of the Disciplinary Sect in China, to elaborate on the seven grave vices of women. First and foremost women have no compunction about arousing sexual desire in men. They are particularly given to jealousy. They are deceitful. They focus purely on themselves and expend their energies in self-adornment in order to seduce men. They are trapped in the sin of attachment. Uncontrolled desire leads them to shamelessness and delusion. Finally, 'their bodies are forever unclean, with frequent menstrual discharges . . . pregnancy and child-birth are both foul.'4 It is perhaps because of these seven vices that are seen to reside innately within women that 'woman' in medieval writing is often associated with the phrase itsutsu no sawari SOW 0, or the fivefold obstruction. This refers to the exclusion of women from five forms of rebirth—the female body 'cannot become first a Brahma god king, second the god Sakra, third king Mara, fourth a sage-king turning the Wheel, fifth a Buddha body. How can the body of a woman speedily achieve Buddhahood?'5 The very specificity of the numbers five and seven lends authenticity to the Buddhist claim that women by their very nature are sinful and impure. Within the scriptural texts, however, there is another position that attempts a more radical displacement of sexuality, arguing that, viewed from within the Buddhist doctrine of non-duality, neither maleness nor femaleness can be seen as innate characteristics. All phenomena being empty and illusory, the very 2

Leon Hurvitz, tr., Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma (The Lotus Sutra), Columbia U.P., 1976, pp. 201-02. 3 The Pure Land Sutra (Amidakyo (frTWBS, T. 366), one of the basic canons of Pure Land Buddhism, was translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva. See Diana Y. Paul, Women in Buddhism: Images of the Feminine in the Mahay ana Tradition, University of California Press, 1985, pp. 169-70. 4 See Robert E. Morrell, 'Mirror for Women: Muju Ichien's Tsuma Kagami\ in MN 35:1 (Spring 1980), pp. 67-68. 5 Hurvitz, p. 201. For an analysis of the use of the itsutsu no sawari topos in waka, see Edward Kamens, 'Dragon-Girl, Maidenflower, Buddha: The Transformation of a Waka Topos, "The Five Obstructions" ', in HJAS 53:2 (December 1993).

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categories male and female are rendered arbitrary and transient. In the Vimalakirti Sutra, for example, a goddess who resides in the layman Vimalakirti's house challenges Sariputra, and in a battle of verbal play she establishes that there are no fixed identities and hence no category called 'woman'. Vimalakirti then explains that the goddess is an aspirant to the bodhisattva path engaged in teaching all human beings.6 Kankyo no Tomo does not enter this debate directly, nor does it engage in theological argument in order either to assert the possibility of women attaining enlightenment within their female bodies, or to insist that sexual transformation is a prerequisite for their enlightenment. Although all the stories in Volume 2 are about women, nowhere in Kankyo no Tomo does Keisei suggest that he wrote the work for the religious education of women in general. This is in contrast, for example, to Muju Ichien's TsumaKagami, in which the author explains the title of his work thus: '. . . should a woman make these precepts her constant companion [as she would a mirror], she will show herself to be a person of sensibility, a follower of the Way. And so I give this work the title, Mirror for Women.'1 In the comments following each anecdote in Kankyo no Tomo, Keisei does indeed utilize the general category 'woman' in order to reiterate certain essentialist and unchanging propositions about female nature. But this category is constantly rendered unstable because of the intrusion of the anecdotes themselves, which are about specific women who, precisely because of the particularity of their own experiences, resist conventional readings of themselves. One of the central religious tropes around which some of the stories in Volume 2 of Kankyo no Tomo are organized is the notion of woman as the embodiment of the seven grave vices. Among these vices the sin of deluded attachment to a loved one occupies a central place. 2:1, for instance, is an exemplary tale about a woman who, after the death of her beloved husband, is able to stop clinging to his memory and succeeds in becoming a nun, leading the life of a recluse. She is particularly noteworthy, we are told, because 'a woman's nature is such that whether of high rank or of low birth, she pins her hopes on all sorts of things, but in the end is unable to realize her expectations.' There is a tension between the moral of the tale that strains to declare that relationships between lovers are at once 'pitiable and shamelessly unmindful of the Buddha's Dharma' and the bulk of the narrative, which is a moving evocation of a world from the past in which lovers express through poetry the pain of the loss of loved ones. We see at work here two competing traditions—the courtly Heian writings, on the one hand, in which lovers are the epitome of sensitivity, refinement, and feeling, and who express their love through poetry that is deeply moving, and, on the other, the Buddhist ideal of detachment and renunciation. By turning to poetic precedent the story also has the effect of 6 Robert A. F. Thurman, tr.} The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti, a Mahay ana Scripture, Pennsylvania State U.P., 1976, pp. 56-63. 7 Morrell, p. 75.

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recasting the condition of deluded attachment as one that afflicts all humankind, not only women but also men, thus removing it from its received positioning as an exclusively female failing. The strategy of using the theme of amorous love, sanctified by the courtly literary tradition, and the radical displacement of it by locating it, not as a site of pleasure and fulfillment, but as a sinful practice that brings pain and suffering, is employed in a wide range of Buddhist writings in India, China, and Japan. In the sixth-century Tamil epic Manimekalai, a tale about a courtesan's daughter who becomes a nun, the author Cattanar draws upon contemporary literary conventions of love poetry, only to use them 'to undercut the entire concept of sexual love.'8 In a similar vein, in his Hosshinshu ^t>^, *A Collection of Tales of Religious Awakening', the medieval poet and recluse Kamo no Chomei IfhRBS uses the literary conventions of the Heian romances to describe amorous love. But it is by subverting the courtly tradition and by presenting the failure of love that he allows the experience of amorous engagement to become a means to transcend the sinfulness of such attachment.9 In Kankyo no Tomo, 2:2, a courtesan who is abandoned by her lover accepts her fate without rancor and receives the tonsure after performing her filial duties. While her abandonment of worldly life is praised as a rare and remarkable occurrence, Keisei seems reluctant to grant the courtesan her own agency in effecting this major change of life. He ends by claiming that it is her lover Akimoto $CTC (who is praised in the famous biographies of people who have attained rebirth in the Pure Land) who abandons her precisely in order to lead her to enlightenment. Through the tale, however, we are presented with a portrayal of the courtesan who, after being sent back home by Akimoto, refuses to continue her work as a prostitute despite pressure from her mother. She offers her sexual favors one final time to a provincial officer, who works for Akimoto, when he comes by boat to her hometown. Even when the officer hesitates, asking her to take into account the fact that he is employed by her former patron, she defiantly asserts that it is of no consequence at all. She reverts to being a prostitute one last time to pay for the memorial services for her deceased mother. Before leaving the boat, she cuts her hair (a culturally coded symbol of renunciation laden with pathos) and leaves it in Akimoto's boat. Is this to be read as a statement of her resentment toward him? Keisei may deny the courtesan her subjectivity, yet the account itself does invite us to read her life in more complex and subtle ways. The sin of jealousy, ranked second on the list of women's seven grave vices, was, according to both Buddhist and Confucian notions, a quintessentially 8 See Paula Richman, * Gender and Persuasion: The Portrayal of Beauty, Anguish, and Nurturance in an Account of a Tamil Nun', in Cabezon, p. 130. 9 For a fuller discussion of this point, see Rajyashree Pandey, lSuki and Religious Awakening: Kamo no Chomei's Hosshinshu\ in MN 47:3, 1992, pp. 303-08.

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feminine failing.10 The courtesan in 2:2 is remarkable precisely because she does not fall prey to jealousy when abandoned by her patron. In a wide range of writings, from Heian monogatari to setsuwa collections, we find examples of women who are overcome by jealousy and turn into evil spirits that haunt their rivals and often destroy them, or who become demons and devour the men who have betrayed them. Or again jealousy transforms them into snakes. Thus the jealous female is seen as potentially dangerous and destructive. Story 2:3 follows on neatly from 2:2, turning as it does to a young woman who, owing to uncontrolled jealousy, becomes a demon (pni fa) upon being abandoned by her lover. A female oni goes against the nurturing and subservient role generally associated with women, and her malevolence in this instance takes the form of eating not only her husband but also young children. Story 2:9 takes as its theme another grave sin, supposedly inherent in all women, the sin of impurity. Within Buddhist doctrine there is a strong emphasis on the notion of the essential foulness of the human body (fujokan ^ftMH). Within Buddhist practice this became a standard object of meditation as a means of understanding the true nature of the body. Buddhaghosa's Visuddimagga spells out at great length the various attributes of foulness—the swollen, the discolored, the festering, the fissured, the mangled, the dismembered, the bloody, the worm-eaten, and so on.11 Part of a monk's training involved spending time at the charnel fields to observe, in every minute detail, the putrefaction of the human body. Buddhaghosa's text goes on to say that both men and women who do not know the true nature of the body lust after each other without recognizing that in reality no aspect of the body is fit to lust after.12 There is an interesting slide in popular medieval accounts in Japan from a discourse on impurity, such as Buddhaghosa's, which is not bound by gender and which is aimed at teaching the ephemerality of all human existence, to one where women alone become the prime site of the impure. There is, clearly, a problem in reconciling, on the one hand, the notion of woman whose outer form is the site of beauty and sensuality and, on the other, an invisible inner essence that is impure, defiling, and likely to lead men astray. It is this paradox of the dissembling woman that becomes the ideal trope for all the transformation tales in setsuwa, where beautiful women suddenly reveal themselves to be deceitful foxes, snakes, tengu,13 and so on. On occasion, their transformation 10

For an informed discussion on the gendered rendition of the category 'jealousy' in Konjaku Monogatari 4*1=r^Ip, see Hitomi Tonomura, 'Black Hair and Red Trousers: Gendering the Flesh in Medieval Japan', in The American Historical Review, 99 (February 1994), pp. 138-40. 11 Pe Maung Tin, tr., The Path of Purity, Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga, Pali Text Society, Luzac, London, 1971, p. 205. 12 Pe Maung Tin, p. 224. 13 In ancient times in China, the tengu 5c