Mucho macho God

In the ancient world where there was a clear distinction between right and wrong, good and bad, pious and devilish and there were periodic duels (like tugs-of-war really) between the inhabitants of Devaloka (the realm of the Gods) and Asuras of Asuraloka (the realm of the Non-Godly). The Gods and their spousal goddesses were powerful, pious and pure while 'hell' or naraka was associated with the underworld, where power-seeking Asuras lived with their fat, dark, fertile women and often fought over them. Between the two lay the world of men. Yes, men- who spun these fantastic tales of Devas and Asuras. Of powerful beautiful charming blue-skinned or lighter-toned Gods with matching attractive, powerful and charming consorts. Of large ugly demons and their female-folk who were menacing.

While the feminity of goddesses was the acceptable benign 'norm', that of the female asuras was deviant- to be feared, curbed and over-powered by all the Gods and Men. In the major battle between the Devas and the Asuras over the churning of the nectar of immortality from the poison in the ocean of milk, the Devas realised soon enough that it was the end which justified the means. They appealed to the triumvirate of Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Shiva (the destroyer of evil) to intercede on their behalf. Being sensible sort of beings, they resorted to all manner of ruses to ensure that they would be loading all dice in their favour, even the most basic ruse of alluring the Asuras to be bewitched so that they would forego their claim of the nectar. Vishnu assumed the form of the most bewitching seductress Mohini as His part of fixing the match in favour of the devas. However, an unforeseen effect of Vishnu assuming the female form of Mohini was that 'She' caught the eye of the macho male Shiva. The product of this 'same-sex' union was Ayyappa.

There are many stories of Ayyappa but let us not dwell on that here. It is His avatar as the ascetic at Sabarimala which brings most of His devout followers. It is in this form that Ayyappa is said to so pure, so pious, so male, so powerful that the temple invokes and stretches the first and most primal taboo to its limit. While Hinduism, like all ancient cultures, fears females most for their fertility. As the ultimate symbol of this fertility, a menstruating woman, is bound by a strict code of what she can do and how. While a menstruating woman is considered impure and is forbidden from entering any sacred space without a ritual cleansing bath, in Sabarimala, no fertile female is ever to be allowed in the temple. Technically, only non-females (that is girls before menarche or women post-menopause) may ever perform the hard and arduous trek up the hill at Sabarimala.

The ascetic lord demands absolute devotion and allows no scope for error or lapse. It is to directly reign in the priests and to regulate the affairs of the temple that the Lord Himself would appear in the form of the divine oracle like Ashtamangala Devaprasana to be revealed through a chosen priest. So it was to be conducted this year in the highest tradition of the temple. It is against this backdrop that the current controversy of a woman, a famous actress at that, has to be seen. While there are claims that the entire temple now needs to be ritually cleansed after a woman has entered the sanctum sanctorum, there are counter claims that deny that any of this could have actually ever happened.

Is this for real, one is tempted to ask. But this has even become a political matter between the neighbouring States of Kerala (where the temple is and whose official member is part of the temple trust) and Karnataka, where Jaimala belongs to as well as one for some marginal women's groups to raise as a platform for them to promote themsleves and their cause.

In short - a lot of to do!

***

Karaikkal Ammaiyar was a devotee of Siva who lived between the 5th and 6th centuries. Hers is an amazing story. When the young Ammaiyar (then known as Punitavati) was stopped by her youth and good looks from dedicating her life to her love for Siva, she prayed to her lord to divest her of that burden, so she could get bliss in watching His eternal dance. Thus, a young and attractive woman transformed herself into an emaciated prune of a hag - as is celebrated in those austere sculptures of her. She took upon herself the title of 'ghoul of Karaikal' who exchanged her youth and beauty for the calm and inner bliss of her spirituality. Tamil literature, especially in the Sangam era, had quite a tradition of women writers.
Then there is Andal who was so overcome by her love for her Lord, that at the ripe age of fifteen, she 'married' Vishnu in His form of Rangantha at Srirangam. The paeans she sang him, the Tiruppavaii and the Nacciyar Thirumozhi are still sung widely in Tamil households and communally on the streets during the period between mid-December to mid-January. As popular perhaps as the simple and profound verses of a formerly distraught and uncared for daughter-in-law, Laleshwari in distant northern Kashmir, which are said to reverberate in that ravaged valley even to this day. Mirabai, the Rajput princess, entered into a similar nup- agreement with her Krishna eventhough she was formally married to a prince. Different spatio-temporal frameworks, but though they were set apart in time and in geographical location, they all shared a common socio-cultural ethos.

All these women attained icon-hood and are widely revered as the ultimate lovers and devotees of their preferred Gods - Siva, Ranganatha or Krishna. Yet none of this came easy to any of these women. Their lives were full of a never-ending series of trials, privations, tests and tribulations. They were forced to make tough choices in their own lives. They were not always feted or accepted wherever they went. But they charted their course and did not stray from it. They did not let their feminity or the gender role deter them from their path. If Karraikal Ammaiyar traded her youthful good looks for the freedom to love her Siva, Andal chose to go meet her God as part of her nuptial tie when she ran to him and embraced his idol in such adoration that she was said to have been absorbed into the very idol. Mira, according to legend, carried her image of her Krishna wherever she went till she too finally found salvation in merging herself in an idol of her Lord.

So what was the price they paid? Was it the breaking of those rigid patriarchal societal conventions? Why is it that I feel it is more than that- significant though that was? Why is it that I believe that what they sacrificed was far more intrinsic, greater than any mere trapping of feminity? That it was their very essence of feminity- their fertitlity which they had laid at stake in an bizarre (reminiscent of the un-Godly faustian arrangements) pact with their God.

Why is it that each religion has to make a statement on female fertility? Why is it that even in the 'most powerful' country in the world, men can become leaders or not on the basis of the stand they take on fertility? That the choice of a woman to exercise her fertility or not is a matter to be debated and discussed at every forum and each person HAS to take a stand on the subject.

Can one be a woman and be religious in these male religions?