Salutation to the Aspirations of Fecundity
As the summer recedes and the elite tradition observes four months of inaction
(Chaturmasya), putting even gods to sleep, the folk stream of various regions gushes
forth to rejuvenate the stakeholders in an agrarian society. It is especially so for the
Dalitbahujans, who herald the new phase of hard work with veneration for the various symbols of fertility. The foremost among them is perhaps the festival of divine menstruation celebrated with particular fervour in Eastern India . Be it the Raja Parba of Orissa or the Ambubachi of Bengal and Assam
Recognising the positive linkage of menstrual phenomenon to fertility, the folk honour the earth for at least three days by not touching it with uncovered feet. They even avoid the lighting of the hearth, living on uncooked food. But with a high degree of Sanskritisation, the taboo attached to menstruation has seeped into this festival as well, bringing out the conflicting attitudes to it. At the more textual level, the left-handed Shakta Agamas express this folk-elite divide best when despite their palpable bias towards Sanskritic tradition, they discuss the offering of the menstrual blood or the Kha-pushpa. It is often mentioned that the best such offerings come from the either the young virgins (whose coming of age heralds new hope of fertility) or females of the Dalitbahujan communities. Explaining the recognition of the latter in the Sanskritic Tantra texts, Prof. NN Bhattacharya points out, “…all women belonging to the so-called lower castes are regarded in the Tantras as naturally initiated.” But as we move to the more patriarchal upper caste milieu, the ideas of taboo (which to some extent can be seen in the concept of avoidance of the earth even in the folk traditions) subsume those of fertility.
The contrasting influence due to the caste factor is conspicuous when we look at such celebrations in two major Shakthi peethams that claim to house the Mahamudra of Sati-the Kamakhya temple in Assam
At Kamakhya, the festival coincides with the general celebrations of Ambubachi around the seventh of Ashadha as per the Bengali/Assamese calendar. As a great seat of Agamic learning and worship, the festival here retains its high regard for its fertility aspect. People avidly wait for the end of the three days of the Goddess’ periods when the temple doors are closed, and once they are re-opened, they rush to worship the divine symbol of fertility with several kinds of offerings. Special offerings are also made to the Kumaris and the blessing of the Goddess comes in the form of red cloth.
At Chengannur, the phenomenon of thripooth or menstruation of the Bhagavathi idol is not confined to once a year but the biggest draw is the one that falls first time in the year as per the Malayalam calendar. Here, with the temple’s allegiance to the Travencore Devaswom Trust and the presence of a Nampoothiri priest, the vestiges of the folk aspect are found more in the role of special ritual experts (including women) in confirming the Goddess’ periods and the role of the washerwoman in the ritual cleansing of the clothes. But most of the rituals relate to the ritual cleansing and restoration of the Sanskritic sanctity of the idol. Yet the fact remains that for the worshippers, the Goddess’ divine prowess emanates from this phenomenon itself. Like most such traditions, the traditional elitist disdain for menstruation as symbol of impurity has once again failed to discourage the people’s faith in its divine occurrence even in a largely Sanskritised cultural milieu.
Thanks for the interesting read! It's the first time I saw someone other than Kancha Ilaiah using the term dalitbahujan, but then I am not up in this area.
ReplyDeleteSome remarks or reactions:
Ambabochi (= mother + blood flow) is the way I remember it being pronounced back home, (not Ambubachi) a ritual performed by shakti followers of all castes in eastern India.
Your line "the blessing of the Goddess comes in the form of red cloth". It's a white cloth stained with a rusty liquid, said to be the menstrual cloth of the goddess, which collects fluid leaking out of some cracks in the rocks at Kamakhyasundari's temple in Assam. The devout say that the colour today is faint, not as rich as it used to be and sadly shake their heads to say "Everything today is adulterated".
Rationalists say that the rust-coloured stain is due to the ferrous nature of the rock and the rain water seeping through the crack. It is venerated. As soon as the priest brings it out, it is immediately torn to strips and tucked inside amulets which are worn on the arms or hung around the neck or the waist.
Incidentally the matasundari's name is kaam+akshya = lust-reddened eyes (the reddening is due to the high blood pressure created by the sexual charge to the system, that shows as bloodshot eyes).
My great grandmother had six miscarriages and then she went to Kamakshya for the Ambabochi celebrations in 1904 with a request for a child. She went on foot and by boat from Rangpur (now in Bangladesh) eschewing the use of a palanquin to demonstrate devotion. 1905 onwards she had three healthy children who lived into their late 80s and they had about a dozen children and she even saw six of us of the next generation by the time she died in 1962. She repeatedly told all of us that we were wonderful children, who had come to her lap due to the blessings of Kamakhyasundari, without whose intervention there would have been no-one after her and her husband.
Ambabochi puja was big in that family until my parents' generation, who saw it as something embarassing and even depraved, you can guess why. They succeeded in suppressing it by the 1980s. I doubt that 100 years later, the current lot of great-great-grandchildren aged 7 to 23 know anything of the arduous pilgrimage of our Bodo Ma who is otherwise revered as a phenomenal person, photo kept in the puja corner.
Enjoyed exercising a part of the imagination and memory that lies dormant in the usual course. Hope this wasn't too much about me but about all our families and the profound self-censorship and denial that comes with the conformity demanded by modernism.
Thank you, Confused Conformist, please keep rambling!