Mahalaya Amavasya

Today is Mahalaya Amavasya, also known as Mahalaya, the last day of the Pitru Paksha (the fortnight for the ancestors) and also the final day to offer oblations to ones ancestors.  According to Hindu religion, the souls of the three preceding generations reside in ‘pitru-loka’ a realm between the earth and the heavens and governed by the Lord of Death, Yama. However, during the pitru-paksha, the souls come down to earth and hover around the homes of their descendants and it becomes imperative for the descendants to feed their hungry souls. One of the ways to feed them is to feed the poor, though feeding the crows (also considered to be harbingers of death) or cows is a ritual many follow during the fortnight.

Details and significance of the day can be read in my article “Mahalaya” dated 7/10/2010 in the link - http://utkarshspeak.blogspot.com/2010/10/mahalaya.html

However, I would like to delve into another aspect of Mahalaya which is very important. This day is also marked as an important day for daan or charity which is considered to be a virtue. Many offer food, grains, clothes, etc. however, the most important of charities is donating food to the poor. This aspect of donation has its significance in an episode from the epic Mahabharata.

Karna, in Mahabharata was a well-known philanthropist and was also referred to as ‘daanveer’ – the hero of charities. All his life he had donated great wealth in the form of gold and jewels and at a crucial moment, he even donated his kavach, armour and kundal, gold earrings, (both of which he was born with and made him invincible) to Lord Indra who asks for it as alms in the guise of a Brahmin. Though Karna was well aware that he would need then during the forthcoming war and could be the only saviour, and the fact that the Brahmin was none other than Lord Indra, he gave them up as they were asked for in the form of alms and he could never deny anybody, not in the least a Brahmin, alms as long as he could.

After his death when his wounded and tired soul reaches the heavens, the way to heavens is strewn all around with the riches of the world. When in heaven, there was no food for him, just gold and silver. When he asks Yama, as to why was he not given any food, he was told that all he ever donated was gold and silver and never offered any food and water, especially to his ancestors. Karna went on to say that he did not offer anything to his ancestors, because he didn’t know who his ancestors were. He then requested Yama to grant him permission to go back to earth and feed his ancestors, so that their souls could seek salvation. Since his sons had all died during the war and there was none to do the same for him, the least he could do was seek salvation for his ancestors. Yama agreed to his request and Karna is supposed to have visited the earth for a fortnight where he fed the poor and offered water to his ancestors. It is this fortnight which is now known as ‘pitru-paksha’ and Lord Yama is supposed to have decreed that anybody who offered charities during this period would be rewarded hundred-fold in his afterlife!

The day ends with heralding of autumn and the Devi-paksha, from when the nine days of Durga Puja or Navratri starts. The inauspicious period is over and from tomorrow starts the celebrations!

Sati Savitri Naari (Woman)

Indian or Hindu Mythology is replete with examples of virtuous and devotional wives. Wives whose devotion was wholly and completely towards their husbands and their families and their entire existence was centered around the lives of their husbands. Wives who did not cater to their husband’s wishes or who expressed their individuality were generally depicted as negative characters. Let us begin with the good and virtuous.

Savitri

The first example that comes to my mind is the myth of Savitri-Satyavan, which also gave us the phrase ‘Sati-Savitri. In the entire myth, Satyavan is a dead-body, but his name still finds a mention in the myth. I won’t discuss the myth in details, but what is important here is the character of Savitri. The entire myth is seen as a woman’s devotion towards her husband and how she pursues the god of Death, Yama, to get her husband back from death. The fact that Savitri was an extremely intelligent woman and gets the better of the powerful, unmovable god of Death through sheer determination and the gift of gab, has been totally missed by one and all.

Sita's Agnipariksha

The second character that comes to my mind is that of Sita. Here too, she is seen as a devoted wife, who does not question any act of her husband or in-laws. She does not even protest the charges leveled against her of probable infidelity and that too in public and finally leaves the comfort of the palace to raise two children in the forest all by herself, without even a word of complaint. In spite of such virtuosity, the modern man does not forget to comment on her naari-hath (womanly-tantrum), a reference to her insistence on Ram fetching the golden deer for her! Nor does one forget to mention her using her own mind of crossing the Laxman-rekha, which is what supposedly led to the entire battle! Wasn’t the battle between Ram and Ravan pre-destined?

This takes us the third character, that of Sati Ahalya (the entire myth and its symbolism can be found in the link http://utkarshspeak.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html ). Sati Ahalya was cursed by her husband for having sex with Lord Indra, who had come in the disguise of her husband. The accusation was that a woman who did not distinguish between the touch of her husband and another man (irrespective of the guise) is no better than a stone! Modern-day feminists have written tons on this male-chauvinistic act, but that is it.

Besides the above, there are many women who have stood by their husbands, irrespective of their stand, be it Mandodari (Ravan’s wife) or Kaushalya (Dasharatha’s wife) or Urmila (Lakshman’s wife), all from Ramayana, like many other such women.

So what is behind these symbols of devotion and sacrifice? Was it a male conspiracy to send subtle (though some of them were hardly subtle!) messages to the women folk? Was this setting of social expectations from the women in terms of their roles and duties? Or was this again a statement that woman was just an aspect of man’s existence and everything around a woman was related to the man in her life, depending on the stage of her life, which was either a father, brother, husband or a son? A woman was what the man in her life expected her to be.

In spite of such qualities being ingrained in the modern woman, through rituals and katha’s, how much has such devotional aspects being imbibed?

The modern woman is no Savitri. Not that she would allow her husband to die, but if dead she would pick up the threads and move on in life, which is a sign of modern-day practicality. She is no Sita – in that she would not take a banishment lying down and nor would she stand wrong charges of infidelity and definitely not leave the husband and fend for herself. She would do all this, only after extracting a heavy price in the form of a legal suit, a probable out-of-court settlement and a fat alimony of course! Finally she is not an Ahalya too as she would not fall short of expressing herself sexually and would definitely press charges of impersonation and rape on Lord Indra and mental and marital torture on her husband. To take the myth of Ahalya further, she would even press charges of trespassing and ill-treatment on Lord Ram.

So which one is better, the archaic image of a devotional, suffering-in-silence woman or the woman with a mind of her own expressing every aspect of her individual self?

Your call!

A Poem

I have never taken contributions from anybody in my Blog till date.....
But this one I couldn't say no to....

Given below is a poem written by Mallica Patel, my 13 year old daughter; this has been written from the perspective of a man who is talking about his love......Read on........

I love thee do thy?

No, came the answer.
She left me alone standing under the sun
I ran and ran, but for miles my eyes could not savour her
My heart still throbbing with pain
I wanted to feel her presence one last time

But she had gone leaving me broken
My hands reached my coats pocket
Out came a ring, waiting to be worn.
But alas! The bearer had gone and so was my love

A tear trickled through my face which brightened up each time I saw her
My eyes were red, and heart full of sorrow
My ears craved to hear that giggle.
My hands for that Midas touch
My eyes for her lovely smile, which

was never going to come back
I wept for hours in my room, wondering  what went wrong?
Why did I lose her?

The next day, I saw, her  marriage procession from the doorway
She looked like the moon on the earth
Her glimpse was not cheerful  like before

I lay there the whole day,
But never opened my eyes again
I wanted not to see a world without my love

Homosexuality and Mythology - Concluding Part

In our entire series, we have discussed the references of same-sex relationships in other mythologies. We will now see the treatment of the same in Hindu mythology.

Though there are no direct references of same-sex relationships, but change of sex or taking new forms to facilitate a union is not uncommon. This has heavenly sanction but has also been looked down upon at times. One of the most cited myths here is Shiva’s infatuation with Vishnu’s woman form, Mohini. The subject is under discussion, especially since Shiva is supposed to have known the fact that Mohini was none other than Vishnu himself and the Brahmanda Purana, has a reference to Parvati being ashamed of her husband’s act of pursuing Mohini. The sexual union leads to Mohini (rather Vishnu) getting pregnant and how ‘she’ gives birth to Ayyappa who is also known as Harihar-putra (son of Vishnu and Shiva). There is also a mention of Vishnu abandoning the child Ayappa in shame; this could imply that same-sex relationships were looked down upon, but the act cannot be denied.

One very important reference of same-sex relationship is mentioned in the Bengali version of Ramayana, better known as Krittibash Ramayan. According to this version when a well-known king of the Solar dynasty dies without leaving an heir, then Lord Shiva is supposed to have appeared to the two widows of the king and asks the two to make love, the union of which would bear a son who would then be the heir to the famous Solar dynasty. The widows do as told and one of the queens bear a son, who was boneless (according to some religious texts, in a child, the father’s contribution is bones and mother’s contribution is flesh and blood). Later with the blessing of the sage Ashtavakra (one who was bent from eight sides), the child was normalized and he goes on to name the child Bhagiratha, the one who was born from two bhaga (vulva). This is the same Bhagiratha who later on was responsible for bringing the river Ganga from the heavens after convincing Lord Shiva to bear the force of the river! There are many versions to this myth, but whichever version one refers to the basic crux of the myth remains same – a child by two women.  This can be seen as one of the many rare occurrences of same-sex relationship between two women.

An interesting variation of such relationships can be seen in the form of devotion in a certain sect of Vaishnavism. According to this, there is only one male, and that is god himself and all others are females. Love for god was the ultimate truth and thus many male devotees would profess their love and devotion to god in the form of Radha, the romantic consort of Krishna (or Vishnu). Many a suggestive couplet or bhajans have been written by men, professing their love to god in the form of Radha. Many modern day scholars see this as a form of homo-erotic expression of love, seeking religious sanction.

Examples of same-sex relationships are relatively rare in the Hindu mythology, because there are references of changing sex for the need of the moment and later regaining the original form. This could be to avoid depiction of same-sex relationships to ensure a single thought process to percolate down to the masses. This however, does not mean that such concept did not exist. This could be a subsequent interpretation by the later thinkers – which is a matter of debate. Temple architecture has detailed depiction of same-sex love and so does Vatsayana’s Kama Sutra. Was it looked down upon? Probably yes, but was it because it was same-sex? One can’t be too sure – and the reason could be, that sex according to Hindu texts, was only for procreation which was a duty, and any sex for enjoyment and pleasure was looked down upon. Looking down upon same-sex relationship could just be so, as it didn’t lead to any progeny and was more of giving vent to carnal pleasures. This is a major difference of opinion with the Greek mythology – there is no reference of a progeny in the Greek relationships and many of them existed out of pure physical attraction or pleasure, but the in the case of both the examples of same-sex relationship shown above in Hindu mythology, there is a child-birth.

To conclude, many have seen the series as being supportive of  homosexuality (the numerous comments written to me directly more than hinted at this). My support or opposition to the subject is immaterial and probably has no relevance either. The objective of the series was definitely not to be judgmental or be opinionated. My endeavour on the subject was only to highlight the various references in the mythologies of world, of a much (supposedly) ‘modern’ and at times a taboo subject. Mythology is seen by many as a ‘belief system’ of a culture. We understand any culture by studying their mythology which gives us an insight into their faith, believes and motivations of life. All I have tried to do is unearth references of such relationships, the way they were and the way they were seen, then. As my readers would have realized it, there is no explicit comment on the subject and no aspect of the same-sex relationship has been judged or brought under the scanner with any specific perspective.

With this I conclude the series.

Homosexuality and Mythology - Part 4

Till now we have seen the references of same-sex relationships in different mythologies like the Greek and other mythologies, besides the Biblical overtones of the same. Closer home, many of the Asian communities had references to homosexual relationships.

The Chinese mythology is replete with references to same-sex relationships among many gods and characters. It was also common to find dragons have sex with males in the myths. Chinese folklores too have many stories which openly discuss same-sex relationships and their history too has mention of such relationships, till the concept suffered in the hands of Western moralistic influence to the extent that today such relationships are looked down upon and is actually seen as a Western import!

According to the Japanese mythology, same-sex relationships were introduced by two gods, Shinu and Ama, who were the servants of Amaterasu, the Sun goddess. According to the myth, when one died, the other committed suicide and the two were buried in the same grave. The myth goes on that the Sun did not shine the next day, till the bodies of the lovers were exhumed and buried separately. However, there is no explicit material to prove that the homosexual overtones were the reason of the offence, if at all. Besides this, there are a number of references of same-sex relationships or changing of sex for any reason, like having relationship with certain characters or animals, is mentioned in the Japanese mythology.

This brings us to Hindu Mythology. Next time we will discuss references of same-sex relationships from Hindu Mythology. Keep reading …….