Syllables of Sky: Studies in South Indian civilization 0195635493, 9780195635492

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Studies in South Indian Civilization in Honour of Velchoru Narayana Rao

■i

This collection of essays by outstanding scholars of south India introduces the work of Velcheru Narayana Rao, who has revolutionized our understanding of the classical literary culture of that region. The essays span a wide range of fields — Telugu literature and religion, south Indian history, Indian folklore and mythol¬ ogy, classical literary theory, Dravidian linguistics, and temple architecture. Most of the essays offer an overview of recent innovative research in these areas of cultural history, following this up with original, exploratory ideas and hypoth¬ eses. The opening essay describes Narayana Rao's intellectual development and the nature of his impact on the world of south Indian scholarship. The essays which follow focus on the Andhra and Tamil regions. Indeed this is the first work which has Telugu culture as its primary concern, with a secondary concern being the boundary and interface between Telugu and Tamil. The volume includes a posthumous interpretive study of a Kannada folktale by A.K. Ramanujan. In brief, this is a book which reflects the importance of south Indian civilization as one of the great frontiers of contempo¬ rary south Indian studies.

Syllables of Sky Studies in South Indian Civilization

\

Syllables of Sky Studies in South Indian Civilization In honour ofVelcheru Narayana Rao

edited by

DAVID SHULMAN

DELHI OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS

— i Oxford University Pressy Walton Street, Oxford 0X2 6DP

Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok

Contents

Bombay

Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Taipei

Tokyo

Paris

Singapore

List of Figures

Toronto

Note on Contributors

and associates in

Berlin

Ibadan

vu

1

'x

Toward a New Indian Poetics: Velcheru Narayana Rao and the Structure of Literary Revolutions

.

1

DAVID SHULMAN

South Indian Folklore and Literary Theory ©

Oxford University Press 1995

2

A Flowering Tree: A Woman’s Tale

20

A.K. RAMANUJAN ISBN 0 19 563549 3

3

Coming Out of His Shell: Animal-Husband Tales from India

43

STUART BLACKBURN

4

Shift of Authority in Written and Oral Texts: The Case of Telugu

76

BH. KRISHNAMURTI

Classical Literature 5

The Criteria of Identity in a Telugu Myth of Sexual Masquerade

103

WENDY DONIGER

6

First Man, Forest Mother: Telugu Humanism in the Age of Krsnadevaraya

133

DAVID SHULMAN Typeset by Rastrixi, New Delhi 110070 Printed in India at Pauls Press, New Delhi 110020 and published by Neil O'Brien, Oxford University Press YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110001

7

Archetypes in Classical Indian Literature and Beyond GEORGE L. HART

1^5

Contents

VI

8

Moon Poetry in the Pillaittamilj Shared Poetic Conventions among Tamil Religious Communities

183

PAULA RICHMAN

List of Figures

Anthropology/Religion 9

Softening the Cruelty of God: Folklore, Ritual and the Planet Sani (Saturn) in Southeast India

206

DAVID M. KNIPE

10

‘The Vision was of Written Words': Negotiating Authority as a Female Muslim Healer in South India

Fig. 1: Fig. 2:

South Indian History and History of Art

An Eastern El Dorado: The Tirumala-Tirupati Temple Complex in Early European Views and Ambitions, 1540-1660

338

13

Rudrama-devi, the Female King: Gender and Political Authority in Medieval India

Courtesy: David Shulman

307

Perantalu Courtesy: Joyce B. Flueckiger

307

Chapter 14 Fig. 1:

SANJAY SUBRAHMANYAM

Palampet (Warangal Dt.), Ramappa Temple, vimana wall, Vesara mode (Author photo)

391

Fig. 2:

Palampet (Warangal Dt.), Ramappa Temple, (Author photo)

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya

Fig. 3:

Andhra: Towards a Theory of Decorum for Indian Temple Architecture PHILLIP B. WAGONER

Fig. 4:

446

Nidikonda (Warangal Dt.), Kummari-gudi, vimana wall, Bhumija mode (Author photo)

431

446

vimana and attached mandapa, Vesara mode

CYNTHIA TALBOT

14

306

The Big Goddess at Tallapaka (before dawn)

Ftg. 3: Fig. 4:

306

Sunnapukundalu (lime-pots) receiving worship Courtesy: Don Handelman

283

DON HANDELMAN

12

250

Golla guise emerging from the Kaikala house Courtesy: Don Handelman

The Guises of the Goddess and the Transformation of the Male: Gangamma’s Visit to Tirupati and the Continuum of Gender

Figs. 1-■2: Amma preparing faviz Courtesy: Joyce B. Flueckiger Chapter 11

249

JOYCE BURKHALTER FLUECKIGER

11

Chapter 10

447

Ghanpur (Warangal Dt.), Kota-gudi, vimana wall, Bhumija mode (Photo courtesy Andhra

Index ofSujects

473

Pradesh State Department ofArchaeology and Museums)

447

List ofFigures

viii Fig. 5:

Pillalamarri (Nalgonda Dt.), Erakeshvara temple, general view, Bhumija mode (Authorphoto)

Fig. 6:

Pillalamarri (Nalgonda Dt.), Erakeshvara temple, superstructure, Bhumija mode (Authorphoto)

Fig. 7:

448 448

Note on Contributors

Godishala (Karimnagar Dt.), North temple, vimana wall detail, Phamsana mode (Author photo)

Fig. 8:

449 Stuart Blackburn is Lecturer in Tamil and Folklore Studies at the

Vaddeman (Mahbubnagar Dt.), Triple shrine, vimana, Phamsana mode (Photo courtesy American Institute of Indian Studies)

Fig. 9:

Kondaparti (Warangal Dt.), Triple shrine, vimana. Composite Bhumija-Phamsana mode (Author photo)

Fig 10:

449

450

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and the author of Singing ofBirth and Death: Texts in Performance (1987). Together with Peter J. Claus, Joyce B. Flueckiger, and Susan S. Wadley, he has edited Oral Epics in India (1989). A monograph on the Rama story performed as shadow puppetry in Kerala is forthcoming.

Nagunur (Karimnagar Dt.) Temple 5, Composite Bhumija-Phamsana mode

Wendy Doniger is Mircea Eliade Professor of History of Religions

(Photo courtesy American Institute of Indian

at the University of Chicago and the author of Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva (1973), The Origins of Evil in

Studies)

450

Indian Mythology (1976), Other People’s Myths (1987), Dreamsy Illusion, and other Realities (1984) and an almost unimaginable number of other works. Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger is author of Play of Genres (1995),

an analysis of the genre ecology of Chattisgarh, and editor of Oral Epics of India and Boundaries of the Text. She is Professor of Religion at Emory University. At present she is engaged in study¬ ing the anthropology of healing in Hyderabad. Don Handelman is Professor of Anthropology at the Hebrew

University, Jerusalem. Among his publications: Models and Mir¬ rors: Towards an Anthropology of Public Events (1990). Together with David Shulman, he has completed a monograph on Siva's game of dice. George Hart is Professor of South Asian Studies at the University

of California, Berkeley. His books include: The Poems ofAncient Tamil (1975), The Relation between Tamil and Classical Sanskrit

xi

Syllables of Sky

Note on Contributors

Literature (1976), Poetsofthe Tamil Anthologies (1979), The Forest Book of the Rdmayana of Kampan (1988, together with Hank

publications: The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India.,

Heifetz). He is presently preparing a complete translation of Purananuru and Patirruppattu.

Settlement in the Bay of Bengal' 1500—1700 (1990), Merchants, Markets, and the State in Early Modem India (1990), Symbols of

X

David M. Knipe is Professor of South Asian Religions in the

Department of South Asian Studies at the University of Wiscon¬ sin, Madison, where he has been Chair as well as Director of the South Asian Area Center. His research interests include Vedic traditions and traditional medicine as well as contemporary Hindu ritualism and folklore. Among his publications: In the Image of

1500-1650 (1990), Improvising Empire: Portuguese Trade and

Substance: Court and State in Nayaka Period Tamil Nadu (with Velcheru Narayana Rao and David Shulman, 1992). He is cur¬ rently exploring Maratha-period Tanjavur and the exploits of the heroic Raja Tej Singh in early 18th-century Senji. Cynthia Talbot arrived at the University of Wisconsin fully in¬ tending to do her doctoral research on some aspect of North

Fire: Vedic Experiences of Heat (1975), Hinduism: Experiments in

Indian history but ended up focusing on medieval Andhra instead.

the Sacred(1991).

She is still uncertain quite how this metamorphosis occurred but strongly suspects that the catalyst was Velcheru Narayana Rao’s

Bh. Krishnamurti, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of

Hyderabad and one of the world’s foremost Dravidian linguists, is the author of Telugu Verbal Roots (1961, reprinted 1972), and (withJ.P.L. Gwynn), A Grammar ofModern Telugu (1985). A.K. Ramanujan was, until his untimely death in 1993, Professor

in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, an outstanding poet in Kannada and English, and the finest translator from classical Tamil in this generation. Paula Richman, Professor of South Asian Religions at Oberlin

College, is author of Women, Branch Stories, and Religious Rhetoric in a Tamil Buddhist Text (1988), editor of Many Ramayanas (1993), and co-editor of Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols (1986). Currently, she is completing a volume of translations and essays on the pillaittamil genre. David Shulman is Professor of Indian Studies and Comparative

Religion at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies there. He specializes in the study of South Indian literatures and religions and Dravidian philology. Sanjay Subrahmanyam is Professor in the Department of Eco¬

nomics in the Delhi School of Economics. Among his many

magnetism and powers of persuasion. She has published widely on the social and cultural history of middle-period Andhra and is currently Professor of History at Northern Arizona University; she is completing a book on Kakatlya-period history. Phillip B. Wagoner is Curator at the Mansfield Freeman Center

for East Asian Studies and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art History at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He studied Telugu with V. Narayana Rao, and is the author of Tidings of the King: A Translation and Ethnohistorical Analysis of the Rayavdcakamu (1993) and of several articles on the architecture and urban history of Vijayanagara. He is currently preparing a monograph on the transformation of the Vijayanagara site from a local pilgrimage centre into an imperial capital.

Chapter One

Toward a New Indian Poedcs: Velcheru Narayana Rao and the Structure of Literary Revolutions

DAVID SHULMAN

S

ura-vithl-likhitaksarambulu—‘syllables inscribed on the sky’

—form part of an eloquent series, which the sixteenthcentury Telugu poet, Dhurjati, cites in order to illustrate the mesmerizing yet evanescent qualities of wealth and happiness. Each of the items in this list is precious, beckoning, alive with movement: the ocean’s waves, leaves of the fig-tree quivering in the wind, burnished mirrors, the flickering flame of a village lamp, congealed wisps of moonlight, the subtle flashes of the firefly, life itself. . . siruf and’ ela madandhul' auduru janul srikalahastisvara Why, lord of Kalahasti, do people go blind with longing for ephemeral brilliance?1

But as is often the case with Dhurjati, the real energy of this verse seems to lie in a celebration of the impermanent, the subjective, sensory and personal that, on the surface, seem targeted for tran¬ scendence. In this sense, nothing could be more compelling than 1 Dhurjati, Srikalahasfisvarasatakamu, 23.

Syllables of Sky

Toward a New Indian Poetics

the transient syllables of sky—language in all its elusive, creative power—and this vision of the word would appear well suited to

paradigm, with revolutionary implications for its field of applica¬

2

3

tion? In the case of Narayana Rao, part of the answer to this

a master of spoken wisdom, a craftsman of spontaneous, poetic,

Kuhnian question would seem to lie in the initial depth of em¬

continuously disappearing speech. ‘Anything regarded as fact exists in many variants; fictions, on

beddedness, the organic internalization of pre-existing contexts. Born in Pithapuram in his maternal grandfather’s home, he grew up in the remote village of Ambakhandi in Srikakulam District,

the other hand, are definitive/ These words of Narayana Rao’s, which I heard him utter in the overwhelming heat of a Tirupati street in May as the goddess Gangamma passed before our eyes, surely apply equally to his own story.2 He has several birthdates, all of them possible and expressive, perhaps all correct in some sense

in the northernmost reaches of coastal Andhra. This, too—the strangely peripheral situation in a traditionally centred milieu—is an integral part of the story, which expands slowly through wider and wider circles, each endowed with its own peripheral centrality (Eluru, Madras, Waltair, Wisconsin, Jerusalem). Something of the integrity of the initial point of departure, when it is energized by

(one reflects a change engineered by his uncle so that the young scholar could be a proper sixteen years of age at the time of his highschool graduation); there are, however, certain reasons to pre¬ fer 1 February 1932. But the unremitting fluidity in narrative only

u-c iirrent marginality, may well be conducive to the formation of an extraordinary sensibility.

begins at this point. Clearly, a life of such fullness, and so many personae—poet, critic, cultural historian, translator, pauranika,, journalist, encyclopedist, folklorist, filmmaker, inspired teacher, iconoclast and enfant terrible (the latter informing all these guises),

Born into a family of Golconda Vyaparis, established for some generations in Ambakhandi, he was educated first in the village, at home and outside. His mother, Venkubayamma, suffered from a severe eye disease and spent long hours in darkened rooms. From

to name but a few—lends itself to multiple tellings and manifold visions. It is, above all, a life of vital insights of an originality and power entirely rare; and it is safe to say that these insights have restructured many of the regnant frameworks of understanding for

his father, Velceru Buccinarasinga Rao, he heard Telugu and Sanskrit verses, orally sung. His father, not a scholar, had a taste for poetry; Mahabhdrata, Ramdyana,, Dhurjati, and other texts resonated through the family space. A non-Brahmin farmer taught

Telugu literature, first, and then for Indian literature generally. I want to trace here something of the path that produced them in the context of an individual biography that beautifully combines the idiosyncratic with the emblematic—and which in this way also

him Amarakosa. From three Brahmin widows he learned songs, proverbs, the rich texture of story and taste that sustains any great

highlights certain of the central intellectual and artistic currents and conflicts of mid-twentieth-century Andhra, in a generation of

literary tradition. If one asks him today who influenced him first of all, he speaks of these figures from Ambakhandi—villagers,

radical change and, at times, surpassing richness. What is it that lifts a thinking person out of context, out of

peasants, widows, family presences—whose vision of the world he internalized. By the age of eleven, taught by his father, he was performing as a pauranika, reciting classical texts publicly in the village.

the conventionalized perceptions of habit, even out of the all-toopredictable and paradoxically normative patterns of rebellion and rejection, and allows him or her to articulate a new perceptual

At this same age of eleven, he travelled (his first train journey) to the town of Eluru in West Godavari District, where, secretly subsidized by his maternal aunt, he enrolled in Eluru High School.

2 See the paper by Don Handelman in this volume. For a different formula¬

of his parents, since he lacked the train fare back to Ambakhandi.

For five years, until his graduation in 1947, he would see neither tion of this maxim, see Narayana Rao (1986: 131-3).

It is worth noting that during this period the language of instruc-

4

Syllables of Sky

Toward a New Indian Poetics

tion in Eluru High School shifted from English to Telugu. These were heady days in Eluru, as in so many of the little towns in

including the famous 'Sri Sri, the outstanding figure among Telugu modernists, would cluster in the Marxist bookshop across from

south India; by the time Narayana Rao received his Secondary School Leaving Certificate (the first in his family to do so), he

Narayana Rao’s house; more traditionalist poets came to the home of the Bommakanti brothers, Singaracarya and Srlnivasacaryulu. Among them was the great Visvanatha Satyanarayana, whose work

was already a self-proclaimed Marxist, deeply engaged in literary movements and radical politics. A Marxist bookstore in front of his house became a centre for friendships, passionate arguments, dreams. Apart from a few important intervals, Eluru was to be home to Narayana Rao for a lengthy, critical period of inner maturation. After his graduation, the same kind aunt made the downpayment

5

was both recognizably continuous with the medieval tradition and experimentally open to newer forms such as novels and novellas. (Andhra is, in fact, unusual among Indian literatures in having produced one of its finest classical figures in the early part of the twentieth century.) Although Narayana Rao’s ideological sym¬

(some 200 rupees) for his first semester's tuition at Sir C. Ramalinga Reddy College (Eluru College), where he would eventually receive both his Intermediate and B.A. degrees. He supported

pathies were with the Marxists, he had great admiration for Satyanarayana’s achievement. These were also the years when Vcmparala Suryanarayana Sastri was working in Eluru on his exhaustive commentary to Peddana’s Manucaritramu, and when

himself by a range of odd jobs—tutoring in Telugu and English

Vedala Tiruvengalacaryulu was producing his Andhra Dhvanya-

(he would bicycle to the home of the Eluru Superintendent of Police, whose daughters were his pupils), reading proof and de¬ signing books at local printing presses, running a weekly news¬

loka there. At the same time, young intellectuals like Narayana Rao were reading Sartre, Hemingway, James Baldwin and the City Lights with a passion unequalled anywhere in the world.4 They

paper for the Congress Party during elections and serving as grocery clerk for the college hostel. Gradually, his areas of study changed from mathematics, chemistry and physics to history and advanced Telugu; his B.A. was in Politics and Economics. He

followed with intense interest—as if this were the most important thing in the world for us’—the court proceedings in England between Penguin Books and the Queen over the publication of

certainly never intended to become a Telugu pandit. Though he stood first in his B.A. examinations—after the Principal of the College, D.S. Subrahmanyam, personally paid the examination fees, since Narayana Rao could not afford to—his energies were primarily directed elsewhere, toward a domain where literature was politics, and politics meant revolution. Telugu poetry has never lost its public immediacy and active implication in the world. It is a little difficult, today, to convey a sense of the amazing volatility and intellectual elan that marked Eluru (like Mysore and Madras) in the middle of this century. It would hardly be an exaggeration to speak of an Eluru Renaissance. ‘Marxist’3 poets,

an unexpurgated edition of D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley's Lover. When Sartre refused to accept the Nobel Prize in 1964,

they sent him a congratulatory letter from Eluru. Existentialism was their proclaimed taste; Unamuno and Camus nourished their nights. The commitment to ideas was all-embracing, and these ideas percolated and fermented in an atmosphere dense with the formative presence of a great classical tradition, still generative and alive, rapidly expanding into modern forms. The resulting mix was intoxicating, and unique to that moment and place. Only many years later, on arriving in Wisconsin, would Narayana Rao develop a new perspective on the Eluru Existentialists, discovering through yet another movement of radical self-extrication from ^ Among other friends, mention should be made of Ponangi Ramakrsna

3 Note inverted commas.

Rao, Penmetsa Suryanarayana Raju and Veluri Venkatesvara Rao.

6

Syllables ofSky

Toward a New Indian Poetics

context that 'there was no true alienation in India*. Had he not come to America, he claims, he might have been lost forever in Hemingway and Sartre.

the College, with the lavish monthly salary of 115 rupees. He returned to Eluru and began to teach; by the end of the decade,

7

he had transferred his aging parents to Eluru. They lived in his home, under his constant care; he refused to marry, engaged a

These were years in which his perceptions were crystallizing in unexpected directions under the impact of the intense life of the mind in his immediate surroundings, but always with reference

t ook and eventually transferred many of his classes to his apart¬ ment, which had by this time become a centre for Telugu literary

to the classical Telugu corpus that was, in a real sense, his birth¬ right. There was conflict here as well, the self-evident clash be¬ tween the worlds of the Telugu puranas and the modern Marxist poets; and there were undoubtedly levels at which this tension was

circles. He arranged and underwrote the marriages of his two sisters and his brother. When his father died, about a year after his mother’s death, Narayana Rao—professed atheist and Marx¬ ist—performed the Brahminical death rites according to custom.

at once generative and obscure, another organic ripening that would eventually flower into theory. There was almost a year’s hiatus in Madras, after the completion of the B.A. The Bommakanti brothers had also moved to Madras, where they were publ¬

In general, these last years in Eluru were good ones. There was plenty of time to read and also to translate Heinrich Boll, Bertrand Russell and Thomas Jefferson into Telugu. A volume of short stories—Narayanaravu kathalu—appeared in 1965. But

ishing books, and Narayana Rao stayed in their house. He found work with the Telugu Encyclopedia, then being compiled under the editorship of Gidugu Sltapati. When Narayana Rao went to see the latter, he found him in the middle of writing an article

after his father’s death, there was nothing to keep Narayana Rao in the town. He had already completed, privately, a year of M.A.

about China; Sltapati looked up, asked if the young graduate wanted a job, and handed him the article to finish. In the course of that year, Narayana Rao filled in many of the gaps in the somewhat chaotic expanse of the encyclopedia, completing articles that were submitted in unsuitable form. Madras in the early 1950s was still the dominating centre of Telugu publishing and cultural life; powerful authors such as Sri Sri and Kotavatiganti Kutumba Rao were at their height, and the popular newspapers—Andhra

dissertation on the structure of literary revolutions. Suddenly,

Prabha, Andhra Patrika, and others—came out there; a young Telugu poet and critic could live a scintillating, entirely Telugu existence in Madras, almost without touching the Tamil world around him. It was in a certain, culturally specific sense also a

motion, in a circuit encompassing Waltair, Mysore and Hydera¬ bad. The notion of paradigm shifts, with structural implications, was beginning to form his vision of the history of Telugu poetry.

bohemian life—romantic, melodramatic and also personally frus¬ trating, unfolding largely in the boundary zone of passionate fantasy.

supervision of Tumati Donappa. The text was handwritten in Madison, Wisconsin, where Narayana Rao had begun teaching I clugu in 1971 (largely through the initiative and vision of Joseph

study in Telugu for Andhra University in Waltair. Now, at 36, he moved to Waltair, where he would eventually write his Ph.D. there was another new world to assimilate—the powerful ex¬ plosion of structuralist linguistics and its related anthropological ;md literary applications. Narayana Rao studied generative phon¬ ology with R.N. Srivatsava in Mysore, structural linguistics with Ashok Kelkar and Chomskian grammar with Chekuri Rama Rao;5 Ik took .i diploma in linguistics from Hyderabad in 1969; at the same time, he was reading Kuhn and Jakobson. He was often in

His dissertation was completed in 1975, under the formal

At the end of this period in Madras, Eluru College advertised a post for an English tutor with a B.A. qualification. Narayana Rao applied, and was given instead the job of a Telugu tutor in

5 He also had important discussions on linguistic problems with Bh. Krishnamurti.

9

Syllables of Sky

Toward a New Indian Poetics

Elder). Madison would now become home to him: here he would marry and become a father, and here the Wisconsin refraction of

and meaning of the transition from the earlier purdnic style in

8

Telugu to the prabandha compositions of the Vijayanagara golden

the structuralist heyday in North America would sustain his emerging perspectives on classical poetry, Telugu folklore and Indian literary history. The dissertation was written in the ‘new'

era, and the no less powerful transition from traditional or classical

literary language of modern standard Telugu, a radical departure

early twentieth centuries. He clarified the affinities the purana

from the pundits’ archaic prose-style still normative in university circles. Indeed, Narayana Rao triggered a general shift to modern standard Telugu as the language of Ph.D. dissertations in Andhra. But the linguistic/stylistic side of the dissertation, while expressive of a radical and perhaps threatening stance in its own right, was responsible for only a part of the anxiety attendant on its submis¬ sion: there was reason to fear that the innovative ideas it contained might cause it to be rejected by the conservative academic estab¬

poets show with oral poetry, as well as the distinctions between these two areas,7 and pointed to stories such as the following,

lishment. In the end, judged in part by Sri Sri (who declared that it was written in the best Telugu prose he had ever read, but who failed to understand its basic thesis), it was approved and published in 1978—a landmark in the history of the modern study of Telugu literature. This is not the place to attempt a restatement of the central theses of this work, Telugulo kavita viplavala svarupam (Vijayavada: Visalandhra Pracuranalayam, 1978; reprinted in Hyderabad: Hyderabad Book Trust, 1988), arguably the most original book on any topic in Indian literary history, in any language, published in this generation. Many of its insights have become deeply in¬ tegrated into the standard discourse and frames of reference in this

forms to the various stages, some of them incomplete, in the formation of modern Telugu literary forms in the nineteenth and

which actually embody a critical understanding of this compli¬ cated interface: Tikkana took an oath that he would improvise his Mahdbharata without pausing for even a moment; if ever the fow of verse came to a halt, he would cut off his tongue, while his amanuensis, Kummari Gurundtha, would cut off his head if his hand stopped writing At one point Tikkana became stuck in the middle of a verse. In despair, he cried out to his scribe, What can I say now, Gurundtha?!!emi ceppudun gurundtha?) The scribe continued writing, entering this phrase which, through the sandhi rules, fit the context perfectly as an address to Kurundtha!Dhrtardstra (k becomes g after the nasal)?

Just behind the purana poet lurks the folk-poet, given to formulaic utterance, but now committed to preserving a fixed text in writing; and it is the scribe recording this fixed text who actually saves the author’s voice. Yet this story is motivated by a legitimizing con¬ cern: Tikkana’s complex syntax clearly reveals a non-oral mode of composition; the legend then becomes necessary to establish that

field—although, ironically, this is certainly more the case in the

his text was precisely what it was not, i.e. improvised and oral. Full acceptance of a written genre as poetry had to await the

West than in Andhra, where the impact of the book has reflected the peculiarly oblique paths taken by transformative processes of

emergence of the kdvya court-poets, such as Peddana in the early

understanding, especially in the modern period.6 Suffice it to say

sixteenth century.9

that Narayana Rao characterized, for the first time, the real nature 7 Noting, for example, the effective existence of double authorship for the 6 The book was reviewed over six consecutive weeks in Andhra Jyoti, which praised it ‘for the wrong reasons’. In recent years its impact on younger scholars has become clearer, in part because of the ongoing Ford Foundation Seminars in Folkloristics at Hyderabad where Narayana Rao has taught together with other prominent folklorists and literary scholars.

puranas—since both the poet and the pauranika-performer necessarily fill this role in conjunction. See Narayana Rao (1978: 33). 8 Ibid. 30-1. 9 Similar processes of legendary legitimation could be established for the early Tamil bhakti poets, who are always said to have uttered spontaneous,

10

11

Syllables of Sky

Toward a New Indian Poetics

Literary revolutions, like any other kind of revolution, have a structure. They embody a process whose dynamic components

evolving ideologies and material and social configurations; this

can be isolated and defined; they express a changing semantic

ditioned, at once structurally elaborated and constitutive of struc¬

universe which emerges out of an altered social and political context; and they always give rise to metapoetic statements about

ture and context, again distinguishes this study from the mass of

attentiveness to texture and style as historical, expressive and con¬

themselves and their contexts, such as Peddana’s well-known verse

modern ‘criticism’ of Indian literature. Take an example. In the late fourteenth and early fifteenth

about the minimal conditions the prabandha court-poet needs in order to do his work:

centuries, the great poet, 'Srinatha, revolutionized the poetic world of Andhra. Srinatha created the conditions for a breakthrough in

Without a quiet place, without a betel nut flavoured with camphor sent by my lover through her dear friend as messenger, without a good meal that I find delicious, and a swinging cot,

a series of major indicators—the articulation of line, diction and syntax; the expressive use of Sanskrit, especially in strategically placed compounds, in terms of consciously deployed notions of propriety, intentionality and emphasis; the relation of fixed, el¬

is good from what is bad, and the best of

egant verses to the still vital oral poetics in Telugu; semantic concerns (e.g. the first kavyarvumon of puranic contents, with

scribes and performers who will understand the intent

concomitant transformations in the dominant conceptions of time

of my work—unless I have all of these—

and space); in short, everything that belongs to the elusive but all-important domain of ‘texture’. Largely by virtue of the long¬ term impact of these developments, Srinatha also came to tran¬

and men of sensibility who can tell what

can anyone possibly ask me to compose poetry?10

Such metapoetic statements speak not only to the changing exter¬ nal conditions of context but, even more forcefully, to the qualita¬ tive change in the nature of expression and the crystallization of a novel sensibility. Shifts of this magnitude never go unremarked by the literary tradition. A considerable folk literature, primarily oral, comments

scend his own biography, so that his image serves the folk-critical tradition in a range of versatile stories connecting and contrasting this poet with other salient figures in the medieval tradition. Without Srinatha’s achievement, the work of Peddana and the other Golden-Age poets would have been impossible. But what is

with often shocking precision on the major features of the classical poetry in its evolving modes, and on the interrelationships among the dominant types and figures of the tradition; these oral narra¬

less expected, yet perhaps even more to the point, in Narayana Rao’s analytical perspective, is the assertion that the political struc¬ tures of the Golden Age—the Vijayanagara ‘imperial’ expansion—

tives, which constitute a kind of'folk literary criticism/ first receive

would also have been inconceivable without this poetic precedent. 'Srinatha was the kavi-samrat or kavi-sarvabhauma,, the poet-

the serious attention they deserve in Narayana Rao’s studies. Here, in the chapters of his book on medieval Telugu poetry, stylistic change is studied with an Auerbachian sensitivity in the light of

improvised verse under the emotional impact of their experience in various shrines. 10 Translated with the assistance of Hank Heifetz, in H. Heifetz and V. Narayana Rao (1987: 153). For the Telugu original, see Narayana Rao (1978: 48-9).

emperor ruling over a universe largely of his own creation, com¬ bining Sanskrit kavya and poetics with a Telugu cultural ecology, no less geographical than literary; in substantial and effective ways, both conceptually and systemically, the imperial monarchs (samrat /sarvabhauma) at Vijayanagara in the sixteenth century were following in his footsteps. As we remarked earlier with ref¬ erence to the volatile Eluru concoction of literary politics, poetry in Andhra was never an isolated or impractical domain.

12

Syllables of Sky

Toward a New Indian Poetics

It is Narayana Rao’s great merit to have demonstrated a method to identify these constitutive correlations; and the result

the text and a signifier of its received meaning. The author does not

is literary history of a kind hitherto unknown in South Asian

it. To put it differently, the author does not ‘write’ the text; rather, it

studies. This is a history which finds room for typological and

is the text that ‘writes’ the author.16

13

precede the text, as we think he does in our ‘print-culture’, but follows

semantic distinctions rooted in structured contexts: the prabandha

This somewhat subversive standpoint allows for far more dynamic

court-poets stand clearly differentiated from their great rivals, the

and nuanced forms of interpretation: whenever a text is appropri¬

temple poets;11 the inner universe of the so-called left-hand castes (artisans, merchants and the like) is lucidly contrasted with that

ated by a new community, we find a reformulation of the ‘author’s’ biography in accordance with the values and needs of the changed

of the right-hand groups (peasant-farmers tied to the land), as seen in the very different types of folk-epic proper to each of these

social context; the text is, as it were, ‘reauthorized’. Sometimes we

divisions;12 expressive counter-traditions, such as women’s folk-

ample, of the great Sanskrit poet Kalidasa, who figures in the Sanskrit Bhojaprabandha in one (still medieval) guise, and in various Telugu and Tamil folk versions of his story in yet another.

poetic versions of Ramayana themes, are pitted against high-caste, Sanskritic, normative visions;13 alahkara-sty\e rationalizations of the biography and oeuvre of a poet such as Ksetrayya (mid-seventeeth century), writing devotional padamsm an erotic mode to be sung by courtesans to their patrons, can be disengaged from the later puritanical recast of Ksetrayya’s story that first allowed these popular songs to be published.14 This last example also illustrates another favourite theme of Narayana Rao’s, influenced here, in part, by Foucault’s seminal article on authorship:15 Nineteenth-century literary historical methods have confined literary critics to details related to chronology and the historical identity of authors. The name of an author with no known date or no reliable

find two or more competing biographies of this type—for ex¬

By the same token, the conceptualization of the literary text as bounded and controlled by the critic who ‘knows’ the identity of the author and, presumably, the latter’s intentions, has distorted almost beyond recognition the more vital and fluid dynamics of textual composition and transmission in pre-modern India. It is not the critic but the wider audience that ‘authorizes’ a new work: a new audience creates new forms, even as it rehears, and thus reconstructs, old works, re-creating them for itself. The crystal¬ lization of Telugu prabandha forms in the early sixteenth century is a splendid example of the way in which a new elite audience

concerns of this kind of scholarship—determining who wrote what and

takes part in the process of generating a revolutionary poetry. These are merely selected examples of what comprises, in

when, discarding everything historically undocumented as unreliable—

effect, a major revision of the very building-blocks of literary

have prevented a proper enquiry into the concepts of authorship in India.

theory in and about India. ‘In’ as well as ‘about’—because Narayana Rao’s project, by implication, is aimed no less at the classical canons of Sanskritic criticism than at its modern deriva¬

biographical information has caused enormous anxieties. The main

Authorship in India does not signify the physical producer of the text, but rather authorizes the status of the text and a specific meaning that is derived from it. From this point of view, the author is a function of 11 See Narayana Rao’s Afterword in For the Lord ofthe Animals (Heifetz and Narayana Rao 1987: 131-66); and Narayana Rao (1992). 12 Narayana Rao (1986: 131-64); idem. (1989: 105-22). 13 Narayana Rao (1991: 114-36). 14 See the Introduction to Narayana Rao, Ramanujan and Shulman (1994). 15 Foucault (1979: 141-60).

tives and European counterparts, often rather crudely applied to Indian literature. Neither the culminating synthesis of the rasadhvani theory in the Sanskrit discipline of poetics nor the various historical, structuralist and post-modernist viewpoints of Western literary historians, can take us deep into the generative aspects of 16 V. Narayana Rao (1983).

14

Syllables ofSky

Toward a New Indian Poetics

any powerful South Asian literary tradition. To reach down to those levels of metastructure and internal process, always formed

guage equipped with an implicit grammar; one can then evaluate given variants as grammatical or ungrammatical, on the analogy

in relation to context, nothing less than an alternative South Asian

of the native speaker’s certain knowledge of what is covered by

poetics and poetic history—is required. One can see something of the direction such an alternative poetics might take—indeed,

the linguistic norm. Similarly, breakthroughs in poetic form are seen to entail a re-organization of the set of active genres as a whole: the creative transformation of the Telugu poetic line

has already started to take, in Narayana Rao’s books and essays.

15

It is, to begin with, highly sensitive to context, and to the trans¬ formations dependent upon changing contexts. It attends to the semantics of social space. It generates highly specific concepts of literacy (primarily oral), textuality, creativity; and these concepts

by Srinatha inevitably produces parodic commentary and imita¬ tion, as we see from his contemporary Vallabharaya’s Kridabhiramamu. This interweaving and internal echoing of works and

are grounded in a metaphysics in which language and the poetic word are understood as imbued with divinity and transformative power. A peculiar synthesis of ‘magical’ and analytical attitudes toward grammar can be seen to formalize this metaphysics of

little sense when studied alone. This kind of structural ecology marks a new departure in the

language. Within the framework of this vision of poetic speech,

mapping their consistently altered placement and meanings within both the norm-bound and the antinomian currents of a vital and evolving literature, Narayana Rao has pointed the way to this alternative literary history of Andhra (or of India), which, we hope,

and its concomitant social components, there is room to analyse the ideological investment in individual forms (e.g. puranas, ‘func¬ tionally open but ideologically sealed’);17 at the same time, an ecology of genres, with their aligned structures of authority, natu¬ rally becomes apparent. A new theory of figuration, by nature non-representational (in stark contrast with all prevalent theories of figuration in Western poetics), begins to emerge, to be explored in the light of riddle-like theories of meaning.18 We can now distinguish patterns of assimilation or co-option of literary forms and modes by the domains of politics and social transformation. New definitions of genre take shape, rooted in this ‘other’ poetics

genres often elucidates the logic of literary creations that make

study of Indian literature. By listening carefully and repeatedly to the resonant poems he first heard as a child in Ambakhandi, and

he will someday bring to completion. Clearly, the full elaboration of this model also expresses a continuous process of internal movement and intellectual growth, which the last twenty years in Madison have fostered and en¬ hanced. Narayana Rao speaks of the crystallization in his thinking that took place only after his move to America, again largely as a result of the change in perspective that distance and otherness can effect. Once again we see the powerful interaction of a vital

(yet still endowed with potentially universal implications). Thus ‘myth’ is that genre of narrative that ‘creates the reality it purports to describe’.19 Or the Ramayana, distinctly set apart from the other

peripherality with deeply centred, self-conscious and reflective

major epic current identified with the Mahabharata by virtue of

Marxist literary criticism, structuralist theory (engagingly taught

its being ‘sung’ rather than ‘spoken,’ and attributed to a kavi-poet rather than an omniscient muni-sage, comes to be seen as a lan-

in Madison by Dr Richard Jacobson, who had an important influence on Narayana Rao), generative grammar, or, a little later,

intuitions. In a sense, Wisconsin has enabled a process of tran¬ scending earlier methods and ideologies, whether they be those of

Derrida and his school. In part, these changes also reflected the 17 See Narayana Rao (1993: 85-100). 18 See Narayana Rao (in press). 19 Private communication from V. Narayana Rao, Srisailam, February 1986.

impact of close and sustained friendships—and Narayana Rao is a gentle master of this art—with A.K. Ramanujan, Wendy Doniger, George Hart and David Knipe, to name but a few; and there was

16

Syllables ofSky

Toward a New Indian Poetics

also the impact of lively friendships and intellectual challenges that emerged naturally out of teaching, as gifted students (Cynthia

structural potential and expressivity of texture in the entire range

Talbot, Phil Wagoner, Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, Gene Roghair and others) turned into colleagues.

in America, Narayana Rao has maintained strong ties with the

As a teacher no less than as scholar and critic, Narayana Rao

17

of literary texts. We should also note that throughout these years volatile literary world of Andhra, to which he continues to provide a provocative, usually unsettling, occasionally even outrageous

has combined a quicksilver temperament, unpredictable ahd bril¬ liant, with a great gentleness of manner and richness of feeling. His lectures have extended into areas as yet untouched by his own

presence. It would be easy to go on—no doubt to the embarrassment

written words—Vedic understandings of language, for example, or the complex field of forces relating grammarians to poets in classical and medieval India. This gift of inspired teaching has by

offered by friends, students and admirers. Mention should cer¬ tainly be made of Narayana Rao’s model translation of Palkuriki

no means been limited to the classroom. In 1985 Narayana Rao conceived and brought to fruition at the University of Wisconsin an international conference on the puranas, the first of its kind,

metic of classical Telugu texts, and the first extended narrative source for the history and ideology of early Virasaivism;21 and of his recent contributions, together with Sanjay Subrahmanyam and

focusing on the conceptual dynamics of this genre and on its

myself, to the study of Nayaka-period cultural history in the far

typological and metaphysical aspects, which stand out clearly once the normative scheme of the pancalaksanas is cleared away. In his programmatic paper introducing the conference, Narayana Rao

south, when Telugu Icings ruled over a largely Tamil sphere. The range of topics in the present collection—perhaps the first to attempt an Andhra-centric vision of south India—is itself an

also included as a subject for analysis the eloquent silences of the puranas—since what they, like other genres, refrain from saying is no less interesting or expressive than what they choose to tell.20

indication of the fertilizing impact Narayana Rao’s work has had on various disciplines of South Asian studies, from literature and history to art-history, folkloristics, history of religion, linguistics

This notion of suggestive ellipsis becomes another innovative tool

and anthropology.23 In these and other areas, he has effectively

to be brought to bear, along with other defining and structurally

revealed Telugu and Andhra as being among the last great Indian frontiers, a tantalizing white space on the map that is now rapidly assuming discrete contours in his work and that of his students. The excitement that his ideas invariably generate also surely fits

compelling features of genre and literary ecology, on domains such as late-medieval Telugu historiography or Telugu folk-epic (the latter a major concern of Narayana Rao’s, which brought him to Andhra for a year s field-research on the Katamaraju katha in 1986). All these areas of research show the illuminating effects of a method sensitively combining certain key analytical predilections a contrastive, semantically informed typology serving to define structure and process, always seen in the nuanced light of the historical and social context. Within this finely tuned method, pai ticular originality attaches to his penetrating analyses of the

of the scholar in whose honour the following essays have been

Somanatha’s Basavapuranamu> one of the most baffling and her¬

with this notion of a richly beckoning frontier. Narayana Rao has always lived and worked somewhere beyond that boundary. Like most highly creative lives, his is in some sense wildly improbable. By his own admission, he has traversed, in a single lifetime, the distance from the sixteenth century to the edge

21 V. Narayana Rao with the assistance of Gene H. Roghair, (1990). 22 V. Narayana Rao, Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (1992).

20 The papers presented at the Purina Conference were subsequently edited by Wendy Doniger and published as Purana Perennis (see note 17).

23 Among his unpublished manuscripts there is a comprehensive and char¬ acteristically innovative grammar of modern Telugu.

18

Syllables of Sky

Toward a New Indian Poetics

of the twenty-first: from Ambakhandi to Madison, Wisconsin; from a world of oral learning and oral literacy, to one where

Bibliography

electionic mail and computerized Telugu fonts are part of daily routine. Of course, the oral foundational ethos is still very much in place and this fact sometimes has implications for those who think in terms of written drafts or, horribile dictu, ‘hard copy’. I have even heard Narayana Rao speak of presenting a learned

19

Foucault, M., 1979, ‘What is an Author?’ in Jose Harari (ed.), Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Post-Structuralist Criticism, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 141—60. Narayana Rao, Velcheru, 1978, Telugulo Kavifa Viplavala Svarupam, Vijayavada: Visalandhra pracuranalayam. - 1983, Texts Without Authors and Authors without Texts’, paper

audience with an oral handout’ to accompany his lecture. Those

presented at the South Asia Conference, Madison, Wisconsin.

who have heard him recite a verse recovered from the capacious depths of his astonishing memory, or who have witnessed the

_ 1986, ‘Epics and Ideologies: Six Telugu Folk Epics’ in Stuart Blackburn and A. K. Blackburn (eds), Another Harmony: New Essays

sudden movement of utterly unconventional illumination that he then invariably brings to such a verse, have known the magical, transforming presence of the poetic improviser, the modern rein¬ carnation of the asukavi. Nor has the somewhat chaotic and bohemian flavour of the Eluru gestation days diminished with time. I can attest from personal experience that travelling with Narayana Rao through Andhra is remarkably akin to the sense we have of the riotous progression through space of, let us say, 'Srlmtha. But perhaps nothing illustrates the improbability factor more clearly than the following vignette, which should resonate with our opening observations on the relative variability of ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’. In the course of the academic year 1988-1989, which Narayana Rao spent in Jerusalem, he flew to India for a visit. I accompanied him to the airport to help with the check-in. There the security man evinced an interest in this somewhat extraordi¬ nary, perhaps suspicious, apparition, and asked the traveller who he was. He answered, with perfect truthfulness: ‘My name is Velcheru Narayana Rao; I was born in Andhra Pradesh; I teach Telugu at the University of Wisconsin in Madison; and I am spending this year at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University as part of a group working on riddles and other enigmatic modes. ’ The security man looked at Narayana Rao, with his unruly wisps of white hair; looked at me; looked back at Narayana Rao, and said: ‘Now would you please tell me the real story?’

in Indian Folklore, Berkeley: University of California Press. _ 1989, Tricking the Goddess: Cowherd Katamaraju and Goddess Gaiiga in the Telugu Folk Epic’ in Alf Hiltebeitel (ed.), Criminal Gods and Demon Devotees: Essays on the Guardians of Popular Hin¬ duism, Albany: State University of New York Press. _ 1991, 4A Ramayana of their Own: Women’s Oral Tradition in Telugu’ in Paula Richman (ed.), Many Ramayanav. The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia, Berkeley: University of Califor¬ nia Press. - 1992, ‘Kings, Gods, and Poets: Ideologies of Patronage in Medieval Andhra’ in Barbara Stoller Miller (ed.), The Powers of Art: Patronage in Indian Culture, Delhi: Oxford University Press. - 1993, ‘Purana as Brahminic Ideology’ in Wendy Doniger (ed.), Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu andjaina Texts, Albany: State University of New York Press. -in press, Telugu Riddles and Enigmas’. To appear in a volume edited by Galit Hasan-Rokem and D. Shulman.

-with the assistance of Gene H. Roghair, 1990, Siva s Warriors: The Basava Purana of Palkuriki Somanatha, Princeton: Princeton University Press. -with Hank Heifetz, 1987, For the Lord of the Animals—Poems from the Telugu, The Kdlahastisvara Satakamu ofDhurjati, Berkeley: Uni¬ versity of California Press. -with David Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 1992, Symbols of Substance: Court and State in Nayaka-Period Tamil Nadu, Delhi: Oxford University Press. -with A. K. Ramanujan and David Shulman, 1994, When God is a Customer: Poems of the Telugu Courtesans by Ksetrayya and Others, Berkeley: University of California Press.

A Flowering Tree: A Woman s Tale

21

hero in his quest for the magic flower or in his deriing-do (getting

Chapter Two

the milk of a tigress or slaying the ogre, qualifying him to marry the princess and receive his half of the kingdom). These stories end in marriage—for they speak of the emancipation of the hero

A Flowering Tree: A Woman’s Tale

A.K. RAMANUJAN

from the parental yoke and the setting up of a new family, as he comes into his own. But in women-centred tales, the heroine is either already married or she is married early in the tale, and then the woman s troubles begin. In a tale called The Crab Prince or The Fish Prince (edikumara, minakumara) the young woman is often sold or married to a wild, murderous animal-bridegroom,

I

n this short paper, I shall present a story about a woman, told

by women in the Kannada-speaking areas of south India, hoping that you will hear even through my translation the voice of the woman-teller; then I shall offer a reading of it for discussion, and suggest in passing certain characteristics of the genre of women-centred tales. Indian folktales told around the house usually have animals, men, women and couples as central characters. There may be other secondary characters like supernatural beings, both divine and demonic, but they are not the focus of domestic oral tales. If the tales are comic, they invert and parody the values of the serious ones. In them, kings, tigers and demons, even gods and goddesses could be figures of fun and act as morons as they do not in the serious tales. King and clown change places. Thus the folktales of a culture have a number of contrastive genres that are in dialogue with each other. Each kind of tale has special characteristics, its own ‘chronotope’, if one wishes to invoke Bakhtin. For instance, animal tales tend to be political: about how the powerless, the small and the cunning sidestep or outwit the power¬ ful. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Pancatantra, a book of tales meant to educate princes on the ways of the world, should consist mostly of animal tales. Where men are protagonists, espe¬ cially in tales of quest, women are secondary: they are usually part

and the rest of the story tells you how she makes him human, handsome and gentle. In another, she marries a man fated to die soon, as Savitri does in the classic tale, vies with Yama, the God of Death, and tricks him into giving her husband a long life (among other things). In The Dead Prince and the Talking Doll, he is already dead, predicted by astrologers to lie as a dead man till a good woman serves him for twelve years (or pulls out the thousands of needles from his body), after which he comes to life. In such tales not only is the pattern of the tale different (not easily accommodated by Propp s schemes which work well for male-centred tales), but the same symbols that occur elsewhere may take on different meanings. For instance, a snake in a malecentred tale is usually something to be killed, a rival phallus, if you will. In women-centred tales, i.e. where women are the prot¬ agonists and also usually the tellers, snakes are lovers, husbands, uncles, donors and helpers.1 Thus, the meaning of the elements, the interpretation of the symbolism, depends on what kind of tale it is: a snake in an animal tale, in a male-centred tale and in a women-centred tale is not the same animal. Symbols, let alone being universal, do not even mean the same thing as you move from genre to genre. So the gender of the genre, if one may speak of such (and surely the gender of the teller, the listener and the interpreter) becomes important in interpretation. A woman s cul¬ turally constructed life-forms, her meaning-universe, is different

of the prize, along with half a kingdom; sometimes they help the 1 See Ramanujan (1991); Kakar (1989).

23

Syllables of Sky

A Flowering Tree: A Woman s Tale

from a man's, in such tales. This simple-minded essay is meant to further the exploration of this universe of women's discourse.2

The older sister listened to her carefully, swept and wiped and cleaned, took a bath, and brought two pitchers of water without

Other kinds of women's tales counter various constructs and stereotypes (held by both men and women) like the passive female victim, conceptions of karma or even chastity. As I have written

touching them with her fingernails.

of them elsewhere, I would like to focus here on a tale that speaks

and the younger one said: 'Sister, 111 sit under this tree and

of a woman’s creativity, her agency and the way it is bound up with her capacity for speech.

body. I’ll turn into a flowering tree. Then you pluck as many

The rest of this paper will speak in some detail of one story—A

llowers as you want, but do it without breaking a sprout or tearing

22

Flowering Tree—collected in several versions in Karnataka, over the last twenty years by me and fellow-folklorists. Here is the story: In a certain town, the Icing had two daughters and a son. The older daughter was married.

Right in front of their house stood a tall tree. The sister swept ,ind wiped the ground under it too. Both girls then went there,

meditate. Then you pour the water from this pitcher all over my

a leaf. When you’re done, pour the water from the other pitcher over me, and I’ll become a person again.

The younger sister sat down and thought of the Lord. The older one poured water from the first pitcher all over her sister. At once, her sister changed into a great big tree that seemed to

In the same town, there lived an old woman with her two daughters. She did menial jobs in order to feed and clothe and bring up her children. When the girls reached puberty, the younger sister said one day. ‘Sister, I’ve been thinking of something. It's

stretch from earth to heaven. The older sister plucked the flowers carefully, without hurting a stalk, or sprout, or leaf. After she had enough to fill a basket or two, she emptied the second pitcher of water over the tree—and the tree became a human being again,

hard on mother to work all day for our sakes. I want to help her. I will turn myself into a flowering tree. You can take the flowers and sell them for good money.' Amazed, the older sister asked: ‘How will you turn into a

and the younger sister stood in its place. She shook the water from her hair and stood up. They both gathered the flowers in baskets and brought them home. The flowers had a wonderful fragrance.

flowering tree?' ‘I'll explain later. You first sweep and wash the entire house. Then take a bath, go to the well and bring two pitchers full of water,’ said the younger sister. 2 This essay is part of a series which may be called Women’s Tales: They tell a Different Story. See Ramanujan (1982, 1989, 1991b, 1993). As suggested in these papers, different kinds of women’s materials are relevant in constructing this story: proverbs and riddles used by women, women saints’ lives and poems, tales and vratakathas told by women in women-only contexts, wedding songs, retellings of myths and epics of women, and so on. Folktales are part of this ‘female tradition’, yet need to be explored and seen as a whole in relation to

They wove them into garlands. ‘Where shall I sell them?’ asked the elder sister. ‘Sister, why not take all of them to the king’s palace? They will pay well. Mother is always doing such awful jobs for our sake. Let s pile up some money and surprise her,’ said the younger one. So the older sister took the basketful of garlands before the king’s palace and hawked her wares, crying: ‘Flowers, flowers, who wants flowers?’ The princess looked out and said:

Mother, mother, the

flowers smell wonderful. Buy me some.’ ‘All right, call the flower girl,’ said the queen. They both looked at the flowers, and they were lovely. The queen asked:

itself is in a dialogic relation to the more official mythologies of the culture—see

‘How much do you want for these?’ ‘We are poor people, give us whatever you wish,’ said the older

Ramanujan (1991b).

sister. They gave her a handful of coins and bought all the garlands.

other parts of the culture. The folk-tale universe (both men’s and women's tales)

24

Syllables of Sky

A Flowering Tree: A Womans Tale

When the older sister came home with the money, the younger one said: ‘Sister, sister, don’t tell mother. Hide it. Don’t tell anyone.’

she thought. She found her voice with difficulty and stammered: ‘All right, master. For a poor woman like me, giving a daughter

They sold flowers like this for five days, and they had five handfuls of coins. ‘Shall we show these to mother?’ asked one.

25

is not as great a thing, is it, as your asking for one?’ The Icing at once offered her betel leaf and betel nut (tambula:) ceremonially on a silver platter, as a symbolic offer of betrothal. She was afraid to touch it. But the king forced it on her

‘No, no, she 11 get angry and beat us/ said the other. The two girls were eager to make money.

and sent her home. Back home, she picked up a broom and beat her daughters.

One day the king’s son saw the flowers. They smelled wonder¬ ful. He had never seen such flowers anywhere. ‘What flowers are

She scolded them. ‘You bitches, where have you been? The king is asking after

these; where do they grow; on what kind of tree; who brings them to the palace?’ he wondered. He watched the girl who brought the flowers; one day he followed her home to the old woman’s house, but he couldn’t find a single flowering tree anywhere. He was

you. Where did you go?’ The poor girls didn’t understand what was happening. They stood there ciying: ‘Amma, why are you beating us? Why are you

quite intrigued. On his way home he tired himself out thinking, ‘Where on earth do they get such flowers?’ Early the next morning, while it was still dark, the king’s son went and hid himself in the tall tree in front of the old woman’s

scolding us?’ ‘Who else can I beat? Where did you go? How did the king hear about you?’ The old woman raged on. The terrified girls slowly confessed to what they had been doing—told her how the younger girl would

house. That day too, the girls swept and washed the space under the tree. As usual, the younger girl became the flowering tree, and after the older one had gently plucked all the flowers, the tree became the young woman again. The prince saw all this happen before his very eyes.

turn into a flowering tree, how they would sell the flowers and hoard the money, hoping to surprise their mother. They showed

He came straight home and lay on his bed, face down. His father and mother came to find out what the matter was. He didn’t speak a word. The minister’s son, his friend, came and asked him:

trees? Who’s ever heard of it? Telling lies, too. Show me how you

‘What happened? Did anyone say anything that hurt you? What do you want? You can tell me.’

her, the younger sister had to demonstrate it all: she became a tree and then returned to her normal human self, right before her

Then the prince told him, bit by bit, about the girl turning into a flowering tree. ‘Is that all?’ said the minister’s son, and

mother’s eyes. The next day, the king’s men came to the old woman’s house

reported it all to the king. The king called the minister and sent for the old woman. She arrived, shaking with fear. She was dressed

and asked her to appear before the king. The old woman went

in old clothes and stood near the door. After much persuasion, she sat down. The king calmed her and softly asked her: ‘You have two girls at your place. Will you give us one?’ The old woman’s fears got worse. ‘How does the king know about my daughters?’

her their five handfuls of coins. ‘How can you do such things, with an elder like me sitting in the house? What’s all this talk about human beings becoming become a tree.’ She screamed and beat them some more. Finally, to pacify

and said: ‘Your Highness, what do you want of me?’ The king answered: ‘Tell us when we should set the date for the wedding.’ ‘What can I say, your Highness? We’ll do as you wish,’ the old woman said, secretly glad by now.

27

Syllables of Sky

A Flowering Tree: A Woman's Tale

The wedding arrangements began. The family made ritual designs on the wedding floor as large as the sky and built a

plucked all the flowers he wanted, and then sprinkled water from the second pitcher all over the tree. It became his bride again. She

canopied ceremonial tent (pendai) as large as the earth. All the relatives arrived. At an auspicious moment, the girl who knew how to become a flowering tree was given in marriage to the prince. After the nuptial ceremony, the families left: the couple alone

shook her tresses and stood up smiling. They spread the flowers, covered themselves with them and

together in a separate house. But he was aloof, and so was she. Two nights passed. Let him talk to me, thought she. Ler her begin, thought he. So both the groom and the bride were silent. On the third night, the girl wondered: ‘He hasn't uttered a

window. The heap of flowers lay there like a hill. The king’s younger daughter saw the heap of withered flowers

26

word, why did he marry me?' She asked him, aloud: ‘Is it for this bliss you married me?’ He answered roughly: ‘I'll talk to you only if you do what I ask.' ‘Won't I do as my husband bids me? Tell me what you want.’ ‘You know how to turn into a flowering tree, don’t you? Let me see you do it. We can then sleep on flowers, and cover ourselves with them. That would be lovely,’ he said.

went to bed. They did this again and again for several days. Every morning the couple threw out all the withered flowers from their

one day and said to the queen: ‘Look mother, brother and sisterin-law wear and throw away a whole lot of flowers. The flowers they’ve thrown away are piled up like a hill. And they haven t given me even one.’ The queen consoled her: ‘Don’t be upset. We’ll get them to give you some.’ One day the prince had gone out somewhere. Then the king’s daughter (who had meanwhile spied and discovered the secret of the flowers) called all her friends and said: ‘Let’s go to the swings in the surahonne orchard. We’ll take my sister-in-law; she 11 turn

‘My lord, I’m not a demon, I’m not a goddess. I’m an ordinary mortal like everyone else. Can a human being ever become a tree?’ she said very humbly.

into a flowering tree. If you all come, I’ll give you flowers that

‘I don’t like all this lying and cheating. I saw you the other

course, do go. Who will say no to such things?’ The daughter then said: ‘But I can’t go alone. Send Sister-in-

day becoming a beautiful tree. I saw you with my own eyes. If you don’t become a tree for me, for whom will you do that?’ he chided her. The bride wiped a tear from her eyes with the end of her sari,

smell wonderful.’ Then she asked her mother’s permission. The queen said: ‘Of

law.’ ‘Then get your brother’s permission and take her.’ The prince came there just then and his sister asked him:

and said: ‘Don’t be angr^ with me. If you insist so much, I’ll do as you say. Bring two pitchers of water.’ He brought them. She uttered chants over them. Meanwhile, he shut all the doors and all the windows. She said: ‘Remember

‘Brother, brother! We’re all going to the surahonne orchard.’ ‘It’s not my wish that’s important. Everything depends on

pluck all the flowers you want, but take care not to break a twig

ask brother, he sends me to you. But you don’t really want to send her. So you are giving me excuses. Is your daughter-in-law more

or tear a leaf.’ Then she instructed him on how and when to pour water, while she sat in the middle of the room meditating on God. The prince poured one pitcherful of water over her. She turned into a flowering tree. The fragrance of the flowers filled the house. He

mother,’ he answered. So she went back to the queen and complained: ‘Mother, if I

important than your daughter?’ The queen rebuked her, saying: ‘Don’t be rude. All right, take your sister-in-law with you. Take care of her and bring her back safely by evening.’

28

Syllables of Sky

A Flowering Tree: A Womans Tale

Reluctantly, the queen sent her daughter-in-law with the girls. Everyone went to the surahonne orchard. They tied their swings to a big tree. Everyone was merrily playing on the swings.

The second one said: ‘Hey, let’s get going. It may be the wind, or it may be some ghost, who knows?’

Abruptly the king’s daughter stopped all the games, brought every¬ one down from the swings, and accosted her brother’s wife. ‘Sisterin-law, you can become a flowering tree, can’t you? Look, no one here has any flowers for her hair.’ The sister-in-law replied angrily: ‘Who told you such non¬ sense? Am I not another human being like you? Don’t talk such crazy stuff.’ The king’s daughter taunted her: ‘Oho, I know all about you. My friends have no flowers to wear. I ask my sister-in-law to become a tree and give us some flowers, and look how coy she acts. You don’t want to become a tree for us. Do you do that only for your lovers?’ Che> you’re awful. My coming here was a mistake,’ said the

sister-in-law sadly, and she agreed to become a tree. She sent for two pitchers of water, uttered chants over them, instructed the girls on how and when to pour the water, and sat down to meditate. The silly girls didn’t listen carefully. They poured the water on her indifferently, here and there. She turned into a tree, but only half a tree. It was already evening and it began to rain, with thunder and lightning. In their greed to get the flowers, they tore up the sprouts

29

But the last cart driver stopped his cart and took a look. There lay a shapeless mass, a body. Only the face was a beautiful woman’s face. She wasn’t wearing a thing. ‘Ayyo, some poor woman,’ he said in sorrow, and threw his turban cloth over her, and carried her to his cart, paying no heed to the dirty banter of his fellows. Soon they came to a town. They stopped their carts there and lowered this ‘thing’ on to a ruined pavilion. Before they drove on, the cart driver said: ‘Somebody may find you and feed you. You will survive.’ Then they drove on. When the king’s daughter came home alone, the queen asked her: ‘Where’s your sister-in-law? What will your brother say?’ The girl answered casually: ‘Who knows? Didn’t we all find our own way home? Who knows where she went?’ The queen panicked and tried to get the facts out of the girl. ‘Ayyo! You can’t say such things. Your brother will be angry. Tell me what happened.’ The girl said whatever came to her head. The queen found out nothing. She had a suspicion that her daughter had done something foolish. After waiting several hours, the prince talked to his mother. ‘Amma, amma.’ ‘What is it, son?’

and broke the branches. They were in a hurry to get home. So they poured the second pitcher of water at random and ran away.

‘What has happened to my wife? She went to the orchard to play on the swings, and never came back.’

When the princess changed from a tree to a person again, she had no hands and feet. She had only half a body. She was a wounded carcass.

‘O Rama, I thought she was in your bedroom all this time. Now you’re asking me!’ ‘Oh, something terrible has happened to her,’ thought the

Somehow in that flurry of rain-water, she crawled and floated

prince. He went and lay down in grief. Five days passed, six days

into a gutter. There she got stuck in a turning, a long way off from home.

passed, fifteen days passed, but there was no news of his wife. They couldn’t find her anywhere. ‘Did the stupid girls push her into a tank? Did they throw her

Next morning, seven or eight cotton wagons were coming that way and a driver spotted a half-human thing groaning in the

into a well? My sister never liked her. What did the foolish girls

gutter. The first cart driver said: ‘See what that noise is about.’

do?’ he asked his parents and the servants. What could they say?

30

31

Syllables of Sky

A Flowering Tree: A Woman's Tale

They, too, were worried and full of fear. In disgust and despair,

look remarkably like my brother. What’s happened to him? Has he become a wandering ascetic? Impossible,’ she thought. She sent

he changed into an ascetic’s long robe and went out into the world. He just walked and walked, not caring where he went. Meanwhile, the girl who was now a ‘thing’ somehow reached the town into which her husband’s elder sister had been given in marriage. Everytime the palace servants and maids passed that way to fetch water, they used to see her. They would say to each other: ‘She glows like a king’s daughter.’ Then one of them couldn’t stand it any longer and decided to tell the queen. ‘Amma, Amma, she looks very much like your younger brother’s wife. Look through the seeing-glass and see for yourself.’

her maids down to bring him in. They said to him: ‘The Queen wants to see you.’ He brushed them aside. ‘Why would she want to see me?’ he growled. ‘No, sir, she really wants to see you, please come,’ they insisted and finally persuaded him to come in. The queen took a good look at him and knew it was really her brother. She ordered the palace servants to heat up vats of oil and

One of the maids suggested: ‘Amma, can I bring her to the palace, shall I?’

organize great vessels of steaming water for his bath. She served him and nursed him, for she knew he was her brother. She served him new dishes each day, and brought him new styles of clothing. But whatever she did, he didn’t speak a word to his elder sister.

The queen poohpoohed it: ‘We’ll have to serve her and feed

He didn’t even ask: ‘Who are you? Where am I?’ By this time,

her. Forget it.* So the next day again the maids mumbled and moaned: ‘She’s very lovely. She’ll be like a lamp in the palace. Can’t we bring her

they both knew they were brother and sister. The queen wondered: ‘Why doesn’t he talk to me though I

here?’ ‘All right, all right, bring her if you wish. But you’ll have to take care of her without neglecting palace work,’ ordered the

witch’s or demon’s magic?’ After some days, she started sending one or another of her

queen.

in seven days. The maids held his hands and caressed his body,

They agreed and brought the Thing to the palace. They bathed her in oils, dressed her well and sat her down at the palace door. Every day they applied medicines to her wounds and made her

and tried to rouse him from his stupor. But he didn’t say a word

The queen looked and the face did seem strangely familiar.

well. But they could not make her whole. She had only half a body. Now the prince wandered through many lands and at last reached the gates of his sister’s palace. He looked like a crazy person. His beard and whiskers were wild. When the maids were fetching and carrying water, they saw him. They went back to the

treat him so royally? What could be the reason? Could it be some

beautiful maids into his bedroom every night. She sent seven maids

or do a thing. Finally, the servant maids got together and dressed up the Thing that sat at the palace door. With the permission of the disgusted queen, they left It on his bed. He neither looked up nor said anything. But this night, It pressed and massaged his legs with its stump of an arm. It moaned strangely. He got up once and looked at It. It was sitting at his feet. He stared at It for a few

queen in the palace and said: ‘Amma, someone is sitting outside the gate, and he looks very much like your brother. Look through

moments and then realized It was really his lost wife. Then he asked her what had happened. She who had been silent all these months suddenly broke into words. She told him whose daughter

the seeing-glass and see.’

she was, whose wife, and what had happened to her.

Grumbling indifferently, the queen went to the terrace and looked through the seeing-glass. She was surprised. ‘Yes, he does

‘What shall we do now?’ he asked.

32

Syllables of Sky

‘Nothing much. We can only try. Bring two pitchers of water, without touching them with your fingernails/ she replied. That night he brought her two pitchers of water without anyone’s knowledge. She uttered chants over them and instructed him: ‘Pour the water from this pitcher over me and I’ll become a tree. Wherever there is a broken branch, set it right. Wherever a

A Flowering Tree: A Woman s Tale

anything more than the flowers. Indeed, we were told by our mothers when we were children not to point to growing plants in the garden with our sharp fingernails, but only with our knuckles; our fingernails might scratch the growing ends. Poems like the following in classical Tamil speak of the sisterhood between a woman and a tree:

leaf is torn, put it together. Then pour the water of the second pitcher.’

What Her Girl Friend Said

Then she sat down and meditated. He poured the water on her from the first pitcher. She became a tree. But the branches had been broken, the leaves had been

to him (on her behalf when he came by daylight Playing with friends one time

torn. He carefully set each one right and bound them up and

we pressed a ripe seed

gently poured water from the second pitcher all over the tree. Now she became a whole human being again. She stood up shaking the

and forgot about it

into the white sand

water off her hair, and fell at her husband’s feet.

till it sprouted

She went and woke up the queen, her sister-in-law, and touched her feet also. She told the astonished queen the whole story. The queen wept and embraced her. Then she treated the

and when we nursed it tenderly

couple to all kinds of princely food and service, had them sit in the hall like a bride and bridegroom for a ritual celebration called base. She kept them in her palace for several weeks and then sent

pouring sweet milk with melted butter, Mother said, ‘It qualifies as a sister to you, and it's much better than you,’ praising this laurel tree.

them home to her father’s palace with cartloads of gifts. The king was overjoyed at the return of his long lost son and

So

daughter-in-law. He met them at the city gates, took them home

we’re embarrassed

on an elephant howdah in a grand ceremonial procession through

to laugh with you here

the city streets. In the palace they told the king and queen every¬

O man of the seashore

thing that had happened. Then the king had seven barrels of burning lime poured into a great pit and threw his youngest

with glittering waters

daughter into it. All the people who saw this, said to themselves: ‘After all, every wrong has its punishment.’3 One could say many things about this story. For instance, one of its themes resonates with our present concerns with ecology and conservation. Each time she becomes a tree, she begs the person who is with her to treat it/her gently and not to pluck

3 Beck, et al. (1987: 142-50).

33

where white conch shells, their spirals turning right, sound like the soft music of bards at a feast. Yet, if you wish, there’s plenty of shade elsewhere.4 4 Narrinai, 172, anonymous author, in Ramanujan (1985: 33).

34

Syllables of Sky

A Flotuering Tree: A Womans Tale

Or there is the Virasaiva poem that connects the gentle treat¬ ment of plants with other kinds of love, by Dasares'wara, a saint

woman’s biological and other kinds of creativity are symbolized

35

a form and a metaphor for a woman’s special creativity. Thus a

who wouldn’t even pluck flowers for his god but only pick the

by flowering. In this tale, as in a dream, the metaphor is literalized

ones that had dropped to the ground by themselves:

and extended. The heroine literally becomes a tree, produces flowers without number over and over again, as the occasion requires. It is her special gift, which she doesn’t wish to squander or even display.

Knowing one’s lowliness in every word; the spray of insects in the air in every gesture of the hand; things living, things moving come sprung from the earth under every footfall; and when holding a plant or joining it to another or in the letting it go to be all mercy to be light as a dusting brush of peacock feathers: such moving, such awareness is love that makes us one with the Lord Dasareswara.5

They say, in Kannada, that when a woman is beautiful, ‘One must wash one’s hands to touch her’ (kai tolakondu muttabeku). There is also the suggestion that a tree is vulnerable to careless handling, just as a woman is. A tree that has come to flower or fruit will not be cut down; it is treated as a mother, a woman who has given birth. Thus the metaphoric connections between a tree and a woman are many and varied in the culture. A relevant one here is that the words for ‘flowering’ and for ‘menstruation’ are the same in languages like Sanskrit and Tamil. In Sanskrit, a menstruating woman is called a puspavati (a woman in flower), and in Tamil puttal means ‘menstruation’. Menstruation itself is 5 Ramanujan (1973: 55).

She makes her secret known to her sister first only because they have no money and she wishes to save her mother some of the rigours of poverty. After that, her gift becomes known to others and she has to do it at their bidding. As described in the tale, out of the five times she becomes a tree, only the first and last times are voluntary acts. The second time, her mother orders her to show her how she earned her money because she suspects her of selling her body. Then the prince eavesdrops on one of these transformations and wants to have such a woman for himself. Once he gets her, he compels her to become a tree in his bedchamber on his wedding night, and on every night thereafter. It becomes almost a sexual ritual, a display of her spectacular talent to arouse him sexually, so that they can sleep together on the flowers from her body. Even before she gets used to it, thanks to the flowers that pile up outside her bedroom window, her young adolescent sister-in-law gets curious, puts her eye to a chink in their door and wants to show her off to her companions. She uses her clout as an in-law (and her mother’s) to coerce her to go with her alone to the orchard; she and the other pubescent teenage girls tease her (‘Will you do it only for your lovers?’), play on the sexual nature of her talent and force her to become a tree. And, despite her abject requests not to hurt her, they ravage the tree; when she is returned to her human state, she too is left ravaged and mutilated. It is a progressive series of violations till she finally ends up being a Thing. In a way people have begun to treat her as a thing, asking her ‘to make a spectacle of herself, displaying her secret gift. In a way, one might say, even the first time, she herself becomes a tree to sell her flowers, making herself a commodity. The fifth and last

37

Syllables of Sky

A Flowering Tree: A Woman's Tale

time she becomes a tree, she has to wait for the right person and the safe occasion, another bedchamber, in an older married sister-

law. She is safe only with a married sister-in-law (who is probably not threatened or envious), and lastly with a husband who,

in-law’s household, with a husband who has missed her and

through an experience of loss, has matured enough to care for her as a person. As I said earlier, she is most vulnerable when she is a tree. She can neither speak nor move. She is most open to injury when she

36

searched for her and thereby changed. These five occasions seem pointedly to ask the question: when is a woman safe in such a society? She is safe with her own sister,6 maybe her mother, but not quite with a newly-wedded husband who cares more for a display of her talent than for her safety, and most certainly not with a teenage sister-in-law or her mother-in6 In women’s tales, the true antagonist as well as the helper of a woman is another woman, just as in men’s tales the hero battles always with an older male, a father-figure, and often with brothers. Stepmothers, stepsisters, mothers-inlaw, sisters-in-law, rival women who usurp the heroine’s place, abound in these women’s tales. In the tale of Lampstand Woman, even Fate is Mother Fate. (In a man’s tale, Outwitting Fate, Fate is Brahma, a male.) Men in these tales are usually wimps, under the thumbs of their mothers or other wives; mostly they are absent. Sometimes they are even dead, waiting to be revived by their wives’ ministrations. Mother-in-law tales in south India have no fathers-in-law. The wife and the mother share a single male figure (who is both son and husband); the older and the younger woman are rivals for power over him. In other tales, where the central figure is an active heroine, she may battle with a man, usually her husband—sometimes she has to rescue him from his scrapes and often from bondage to another woman. In a tale called A Wager (an Indian oral tale, also found in the eleventh century Kathasarits~agara, it is also the story of Shake¬ speare’s All's Well that Ends Well which he gets from Italian novella-writers, who probably got it from India), she talks back or outriddles an arrogant, spoiled prince who vows that he will punish her for out-talking him by first marrying her and then abandoning her. She makes a wager with him that she will beget a son by him and get the son to capture the father and bring him to her. She wins the wager by disguising herself as an acrobat dancer, sleeps with him and gets herself with child by him. "1 hrough her son who is an expert in all the aits, including banditry, she triumphs over her husband who is now the king. Her son outwits all the father-figures in the realm, especially the police chief and the king. He finally captures the king, his father, in a humiliating laundry sack, smothered in the dirty linen of the whole town, and delivers him bound hand and foot to his mother. The father and the mother are reunited, if this could be called a reunion. The central bond in this case is between the mother and son, not between the husband and wife who are really in conflict.

is most attractive, when she is exercising her gift of flowering. Each time she becomes a tree, she begs the one who is pouring the water to be careful not to hurt her. Yet, paradoxically, when she is mutilated, she cannot be healed directly. She can be made whole only by becoming the tree again, becoming vulnerable again, and trusting her husband to graft and heal her broken branches. The recurrent unit of the story is ‘girl becoming tree becoming girl’. This is also the whole story; the recurrent unit encapsulates the career of this woman in the story. What are the differences between a woman and a tree? A woman can speak, can move, can be an agent in her own behalf, in ways that a tree cannot. Yet symbolically speaking, the tree isolates and gives form to her capacity to put forth flower and fragrance from within, a gift in which she can glory, as well as one that makes her vulnerable. It expresses a young woman’s desire to flower sexually and otherwise as well as the dread of being ravaged, a possibility that the very gift brings with it. In telling such a tale, older women could be reliving these early, complex and ambivalent feelings towards their own bodies—and projecting them for younger female listeners.7 If boys are part of the audience, as they often are, the male could imaginatively participate in them in ways which might change his sensitiveness towards women. The repetition of the unit, ‘girl becomes tree becomes girl’, marks the divisions of the story and gives it its narrative time, the chronos of the ‘chronotope’. In a typical male-centred story, this dimension is marked by the adventures of the prince, his failures and final success, often measured in threes. The spaces in the women-centred story are marked by alternations of Interior and I am indebted to a discussion with Sudhir Kakar for this formulation.

Syllables of Sky

A Flowering Tree: A Woman s Tale

Exterior (the akam and pur am of classical Tamil poetics), by

heard.8 After the first time, every time that she protests that she

alternations of domestic and public space in which the action takes

does not wish to become a tree, she is not heard; she is forced to

place. In this story, the given instances of the transformations

do so against her will. Many women’s tales end with this kind of

38

39

move from the girl's own yard to the prince’s bedchamber, then

self-story being told and being heard. Veiy often, as in the story

to the orchard where it is most dangerous, and back to a second

of The Dead Prince and the Talking Doll, it is told in an adjoining

bedchamber. Indeed, one of the oppositions between a woman

room, to a lamp or a talking doll, which says Hm Hm! as a human

and a tree is that the former is an interior (akam) being, both

listener would when he hears a story. And the husband overhears

living indoors and having an interior space, a heart (all of which

it and learns the truth about his wife. It moves her from being a

are meant by the South Dravidian term akam), and the latter lives

silent or unheard woman to a speaking person with a story to tell.

outdoors, in a public space (pur am). It is one of the ironies of this

Indeed, the whole tale tells the story of how this woman acquires

story that she is forced to become a tree in the wrong space, in

a story through experience, mostly suffering—till then she has no

the bedchamber. And when she becomes a tree in the orchard, the

story to tell. In some tales, as in The Lampstand Woman, this is

greatest harm comes to her. These transitions emphasize the special

explicit: she is usually a princess whose life is a blank at the

symbolic charge of the tree: it is not any old tree, but a phase in

beginning; she marries and her troubles begin. She becomes a

a human career; its past and future is human and female, capable

servant, usually in her own sister-in-law’s house, is accused of

of living both within and without. Such is the time-space, the

stealing a child’s necklace and is punished. Her head is shaved and

chronotope, of this woman’s tale. Other women’s tales also play

a lamp is placed on a cowdung patty and slapped on her shaved

with this balance and alternation of interiors and exteriors.

head. She becomes a living lampstand and has to light the path

In the orchard, with the wild pubescent girls, she becomes a

of visitors. But she hardly speaks till her suffering reaches its nadir;

tree, full of fears that are all too real, and she is unable to return

when her husband from whom she is separated arrives, she has to

to her whole human female being: she becomes a Thing, some¬

light the path to his bed. He does not recognize her and asks for

thing which has the face of a woman but the helplessness of the

a story. She tells her own story and as the story proceeds, it dawns

tree. She is neither woman nor tree, but both, betwixt and be¬

on the husband that he is in the presence of his own wife, who is

tween. The Thing cannot move by itself and does not speak. She

now a lampstand woman, to whom all these horrible things have

lives in the servants’ quarters, both within and without. It is only

happened, unbeknown to him. When the whole story is recapitu¬

when she speaks to a ‘significant other’, her husband in this tale,

lated in her own voice, he recognizes her and the tale ends in a

and tells him her story, that she is able to return to her original

reunion.

female body. She waits for recognition by him. She waits to tell

One may add that speech not only means an agency for the

her story in its entirety and give him instructions on how to heal her: he is to pour water on her, and when she becomes a tree to

8 In other tales, there are other ways of being an agent in her own behalf:

lovingly put back the broken leaves and branches in their place,

for instance, in tales of abandoned wives who have to travel, often to rescue

and pour the water on it—and she will be whole again. This is

their own dastardly husbands, they travel in male disguise—as women writers

also the time when she voluntarily, and for her own good, under¬

like George Eliot and Charlotte Bronte often wrote under male pseudonyms.

goes the transformation. She has recovered her agency. I would suggest that agency in these women s tales is con¬ nected with their being able to tell their own story and its being

I n some tales, they are not safe with their brothers or fathers who have incestuous designs on them, though the folk-tale universe, as it explores many different emotions and attitudes to the same situation, also presents protective brothers, (hough rarely protective fathers.

A Flowering Tree: A Womans Tale

41

Syllables of Sky

40

‘spoke’, as the latter is more forthright. Sprechen emphasizes the woman but also sexuality. In many Kannada tales, the phrase for sexual intimacy between a woman and a man is, they talked to each other’. In a tale about a husband who is not sleeping with his wife, the forlorn wife is asked by a caring old woman: Isn t your husband talking to you?’ When she hears that he is not, she proceeds to find ways of making the husband talk to the wife, even angrily: she asks the young woman to put pebbles in his yoghurt or rice, or pack salt into his curry so that he can get angry with her and they can exchange words. At the end of Dead Prince, the prince and the young woman are found talking to each othei all night’. Since writing about the transformation of the ‘dumb’ woman

act of speaking and sagen the content of an utterance.12 In his last version of Cinderella (1857), Cinderella, the good girl, speaks only once in direct speech; the bad women, the stepsisters and the stepmother, five and seven times; the prince in authority has eight direct speeches and the ineffectual father only three, two of which are mere thoughts. However, this feature may be different in different cultures: in Danish variants, where women have greater freedom and power, Cinderella is not gagged as in the German ones. It would be interesting to ask similar questions in the Indian context, especially of tales which are told by both men and women. It would also be revealing to see how men like myself interpret these tales and what biases we bring to them.

to a speaking person, and the relationship of speech to a woman s agency, I came across Ruth Bottigheimer’s pages on speech in Bibliography

Grimm’s household tales, especially in Cinderella.9 She points out how speech is an indication of power. Many recent sociolinguistic works have been concerned with the question of who speaks when, for discourse is a form of domination, and speech use is an index of social values and the distribution of power within a society’.10 In English, one speaks of ‘having a voice, having a say’; in

Beck, Brenda E.F., Peter Claus et al. (ed.), 1987, Folktales of India, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Bakhtin, Mikhail, 1987, The Dialogic Imagination, Michael Holquist (ed.), Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist (trans.), Austin: Univer¬ sity of Texas Press.

German mundig{from the word for ‘mouth’) means legal majority

Bottigheimer, Ruth B., 1987, Grimms' Bad Girls and Bold Boys: The

and legal personhood. The poor do not have it; they aie silent.

Moral and Social Vision of the Tales, New Haven and London: Yale

Women, like children, should be seen, not heard. The good

University Press.

woman has a soft low voice and says little; Cordelia in King Lear

Brown, Judith R., 1986, Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in

is praised for this. Eve’s sin begins with her speaking to Satan.

Renaissance Italy, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

‘Since the early days of the Church, women had been barred from

Kakar, Sudhir, 1989, Intimate Relations: Exploring Indian Sexuality,

speaking in the house of god, as well as preaching, teaching, or speaking in public.’11 There are many jokes about garrulous women: women, generally speaking, are generally speaking. In the later editions of the folktales that Wilhelm Grimm rewrote, as a male rewriting women’s tales, he gives women little direct speech; he also substitutes sagen or ‘said’ for sprechen or

Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Ramanujan, A.K., 1973, Speaking of Siva, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. - 1985, Poems of Love and War, New York: Columbia University Press. -1991a, Folktales from India, Oral Tales from Twenty Indian Lan¬

guages, New York: Pantheon Books. - 1991b, ‘Toward a Counter-system: Women’s Tales’ in Arjun

^ Bottigheimer (1987, ch. 6). 10 Ibid., p. 51. 11 Brown (1986: 59-60).

12 Bottigheimer (1987: 55).

42

Syllables of Sky Appadurai, Margaret Mills, Frank Korom (eds), Gender, Genre and

Power in South Asian Expressive Traditions, Philadelphia: University

Chapter Three

of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 33-55. Ramanujan, A.K., 1993, ‘On Folk Mythologies and Folk Puranas\ in Wendy Doniger (ed.), Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transforma¬

tion in Hindu and Jaina Texts, Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 101-20. -in press, A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from the Kannada.

Coming Out of His Shell: Animal-Husband Tales from India

Thorne, Barrie, Cheris Kramerae and Nancy Henley, 1983, Language,

Gender and Society, Cambridge, Mass.: Newbury House. STUART BLACKBURN

These stupendous transformations ... can reconcile them¬ selves only to an oriental imagination.

(W.R.S. Ralston, 1880: xii)

H

usbands come in various shapes and sizes, and very frequently in monstrous animal guises, especially in folk¬ tales. Bears, wolves, dogs, and frogs are common iden¬

tities for the ambiguous groom in European tales, although he also appears as an amorphous ‘beast’ or ‘ogre’, as half-man half¬ animal, or is invisible. Disenchantment is the desire of the bride, who, attempting to discover her mysterious husband’s true iden¬ tity, breaks a taboo and loses him, performs tasks and eventually transforms and regains him. We recognize this pattern in the stories of Cupid and Psyche, Beauty and the Beast, The Frog Prince and others centred on a marriage between an enchanted, supernatural, or animal-husband and a human wife (AT 425-49). Aggressive, snake-husbands who devour their wives-to-be also inhabit this category of wondertales, and they, too, are disen¬ chanted and saved from their own animality by a woman. A kiss in time, it seems, saves lives.

Syllables of Sky

Coming Out of His Shell

Folktale scholarship has shown a homing instinct for India, and these animal-husband stories, especially those with serpents,

Serpent-Prince in Indian tradition, literary or oral. Swahn, whose detailed search for Cupid and Psyche turned up more than a thousand texts but only three from India, posits no ‘Indian type’; Aarne-Thompson lists eight versions of AT 425 (all subtypes) for India, to which Thompson-Roberts add half a dozen more, in¬

44

are no exception.1 Emannuel Cosquin, influential French folk¬ lorist of the late nineteenth century, declared the essential motif of these tales, the transformation between animals and humans, to be ‘toute Indienne’, while his British counterpart, R.C. Temple,

45

cluding an Indian variant (AT 425D Ind.) about a snake-husband.

concluded that ‘metamorphosis has struck its roots deeply into the minds of the Indian folk’.2 More sober but equally unfounded assertions have staked out an Indian origin for major motifs in animal-husband tales (skin-burning motif and the look motif) and

Although Indian versions of The Serpent-Prince are only slightly

for entire tale-types. The Serpent-Prince (AT 433), in which a princess disenchants a snake to whom she is betrothed, is an example:3 one variant, a gentle tale of love between snake and maiden (AT 433C), rests exclusively on Indian sources, while

aginations that these serpent tales, with their phallic heroes, are ‘Indian’, an association that might prove a worthy topic to pursue elsewhere.6 For the present, I wish to point out that snakes and tigers are not the only animal-husbands in Indian folktales and

another, King Lindorm (AT 433B), in which the snake devours would-be-brides before a clever woman transforms him, is claimed for India by Alex Olrik, who ‘traces the “motif impregnation by eating/smelling a flower” through central and southeastern Europe

that a host of lesser animals, from turtles to caterpillars, also provide the repulsive skin that obscures a handsome prince inside. This little-known set of tales about unpromising, even disappoint¬ ing animal-husbands, are the subject of this essay. We all recognize

to India, a country known for its fondness of flowers’.4 No less a folklorist than Stith Thompson concurred with Olrik, and even Jan-Ojvind Swahn, who attempted to check the excesses of the Indian ‘school’, succumbed to the long historical reach of Indie

that the snake-husband presents one kind of problem, but what about the turtle-prince, whom unsuspecting girls learn they are to

texts, conceding that Cupid and Psyche ‘has been known in India in some form or other so long ago that this tale can hardly be

of the animal-husband? Afraid of the big bad wolf, Little Red Riding Hood might consider our turtle-prince a real catch, but

traced to European recent tradition’.5 Origins aside, the truly mistaken impression that this scholar¬

what would he think? The following analysis of Indian tales of the turtle-prince

ship creates is the prominence of either Cupid and Psyche or The

(tortoise, to be precise) and other diminished animal-husbands is based on eighteen versions, listed in the appendix. At the core of my sample are oral and written versions of The Turtle-Prince (,amai raja katai), a Tamil tale from south India: four versions

1 For a summaiy of scholarship on animal-husband tales, see Swahn (1955: 383 ff); Thompson (1977: 101). 2 Cosquin (Contes Populaires de Lorraine, 2, p. 229) as quoted in Swahn (1955: 232); Temple (1899: 410). 3 On AT 433B, see Swahn (1955: 400) and Holbek (1987: 477-480).

more numerous, their prominence in well-known texts (Pancatantra and the Mahabharata), as well as Victorian collections of Indian fairy tales, has persuaded both popular and scholarly im¬

marry in Tamil folktales? And what of the crab, caterpillar, and ‘half-a-son’, who also assume the hero’s role in other Indian tales

(T[=Tamil] 1, T2, T3, T8) are from my own collection of oral tales or from collections of generous colleagues in Tamil Nadu; close parallels are three oral versions collected in Tamil-speaking

4 As quoted in Holbek (1987: 478). 5 Swahn (1955: 387, 390, 413-14); Thompson (1977: 101); Ralston (1878:

6 Consider, for instance, Holbek’s description (1987: 477) of the Serpent-

1010) claimed that both Cupid and Psyche, and Beauty and the Beast were

Prince: ‘This simple, artless tale, which is so intimately associated with Indian

based on stories ‘of an apparently Oriental character’.

religious beliefs and practices, has wandered into the West . . . ’

46

Syllables of Sky

areas of Ceylon at the turn of the twentieth century (T4, T6, T7) and one from Karnataka (Ka).7 Two other versions (T5, T9) are taken from a Tamil text, The Story of Madanakama Raja, a col¬

Coming Out ofHis Shell

47

III Competition with Brothers/Brothers-in-law (a) The hero is despised (mistreated, killed) by his brothers, but (b) he prevails over them by displaying his prowess, as a prince

lection of twelve tales told on as many nights within a frame-story. This Tamil counterpart to the better-known Sanskrit and Arabic compilations is interesting not only because its literary tales follow

on a horse with a sword, in a hunt or a battle or in quest of a

the oral tales in many details but also because its frame-story might be considered a version (see below).8 Supplementing these south

IV. Revelation of Hero: Drama and Burnt Shell

Indian and Sri Lankan versions of The Turtle-Prince are oral tales about a crab-husband from tribal groups in central India (Gondi, Kuruk) and eastern India (Santal), northern Burma (Shan), and northern Laos (Mien), which supply details indispensable to my interpretation of the tale-type;9 two versions from north India (Hindi, Panjabi) complete my modest sample. From these versions, we get the following abstract of a taletype, which might be labelled The Despised Animal-Husband (AT 441 Bind.). L Birth and Marriage of Despised Animal-Husband (son) (a) (Pledge and refusal): Two pregnant women pledge to marry their future children, one gives birth to a girl, the other to a turtle; the first reneges on her pledge, citing disgrace brought by a turtle son-in-law, or (b) the animal-son is exiled, or (c) a childless woman gives birth to/adopts unwanted animal-son (crab, caterpillar)

bride (c) for their father

(a) The successful hero resumes an animal form, (b) returns home (c) with the new wives, but (d) is exiled by his father-in-law; (e) the marriage (with his first wife) is not consummated (f) until he appears as a prince, on a horse with a sword, at a public event (drama, dance, feast) where the women/his wife admire(s) him; (g) later his first wife sees him in human form (while bathing) and (h) destroys his shell; or (i) the hero’s identity is revealed by a token (animal tongues, clothing of his brothers) or (j) by public announcement and (k) the guilty brothers (in-law) are punished. The starting point for my analysis of these animal-husband tales from India is the initial distinction made by Swahn, in his monumental study of Cupid and Psyche; the Swedish folklorist distinguished female-centred animal-husband tales (among which he counted AT 425-28, AT 432) from male-centred tales (such as AT 433, AT 430 and AT 441).10 In female-centred tales, Swahn observed, the woman asserts herself, searches for her lost husband, performs tasks and restores him, whereas in the male-tales the animal-husband himself is the main actor. Variation in the func¬

II. Bride Quests ofAnimal-Husband

tion of a shared motif also neatly divides the two groups: burning

(a) The hero withdraws from wife and (b) assumes a princely form to gain the princess(es), (c) whom he wins by obtaining objects (special cock and necklaces from demons, or lotus flower) or (d) by

the husband’s skin occurs in the middle of the female-tales and causes the problem (broken taboo and lost husband), but in male-centred tales it occurs at the end and solves the problem by

curing the princess

restoring the husband. On this basis, then, most Indie animal-

7 I wish co thank Dr. R. Ramanathan and Dr. G. Stephen for sharing their

husband tales are male-centred.11

material with me. 8 See the English translations by Natesa Sastri (1886); V.A.K. Ayer (1962); Zvelebil (1987). 9 The tale-type appears to be Dravidian since most versions, including literary ones, are told in languages of that family (Tamil, Kannada, Kuruk, Kadar, Gondi).

10 Holbek makes the same gender distinction (1987:161), but unlike Swahn he considers King Lindorm (AT 433B) a female-centred tale (457 ff). 11 Note also that in some animal-husband tales from India the protagonist is an animal temporarily transformed into a human, rather than a human in

48

Syllables of Sky

Coming Out of His Shell

Among male-centred tales, Swahn noted another distinction, reckoned by the ‘way in which the incongruous marriage is

man’s anxieties and dreams about his adult identity and his role

brought about by the animal-bridegroom’:12 either the man kills his prospective bride before being tamed into marriage (AT 433B), or he fulfills certain tasks and marries (AT 433A, AT 441). Swahn

let us read one version of it (T2). The following is my translation

did not explore this distinction because he turned his attention to

49

as a husband.14 Before we consider the major motifs that define our tale-type, of a version told in 1978 in Kovalam, a tiny fishing village only two miles from the southern tip of India, known from Greek

female-centred tales, but it leads into my argument when articu¬ lated in terms of the animal-husband’s personality: in the first group, he is fearsome and powerful, including the European wol¬ ves and bears, and the Indie snakes and tigers that we know so

sources as Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari). The teller, forty-eight year-old Devasahayam Pillai, makes his living as a middleman in

well; in the second group, on the other hand, the hero is weak and despised, the unwanted hedgehog of the Grimms’ story, as well as the turtle-prince, crab-husband, caterpillar and other trun¬ cated figures in our Indian tales. This elaboration of Swahn’s initial

sends his fleet of bicyclists on a two-hour journey to the commer¬ cial markets. Like most people in the fishing villages along this southern coast of India, he is a Roman Catholic; the tall spires on the cathedrals, local names such as ‘Felix Rodrigez’ and the oc¬

distinction is significant because it allows us to see that although

casional Portuguese loan words remind one that missionaries first came to these shores in the early sixteenth century, and that they were not unsuccessful. The folklore of south Indian Christianity is complex, and we need only note that the tale-telling repertoire

the tales in our sample appear to resemble other Indie animal-hus¬ band tales, which are also male-centred, that impression rests primarily upon the well-known final motif of burning the skin, which restores the husband to his wife. A single motif, however, is a weak reed with which to tie tales together; more binding is a cluster of motifs, such as those in our abstract, which accumulate and point toward the psychology of the male protagonist. The formative factor in the tales is the hero’s humiliation at the hands of brides, fathers-in-law, and brothers-in-law, caused by his trun¬ cated body and incomplete self, which is painfully evident from the moment of his birth and determines his adventures throughout the story, including the final revelation and resolution achieved by burning his shell.13 What I suggest then is that these Indian animal-husband tales are not simply male-centred but reflect a

the fish trade; when the nets are hauled onto the beach early in the morning, he buys the best fish, packs them in ice crates, and

of Devasahayam and his community does not differ significantly from that of their Hindu neighbours. Indeed, the story The Turtle-Prince is often sung in the context of a local Hindu temple festival, to invoke the goddess Pecci Amman.15 With a small, informal audience of his family in his single-room home, Deva¬ sahayam Pillai begins his tale: Once there were two women named Ammaravathi and Puthu14 As supplementary evidence, seven of the eight identified tellers of our tales are (or by name appear to be) men. 15 Although I was unable to record the turtle-prince story as sung in a temple festival, singers described it as follows: As the story is sung, newly married couples walk together through the middle of a large crowd, men on one side, women on the other, and approach the goddess; after offering food to her, they retrace

the guise of an animal, which is the case in all our tales. See Mitra (1928) on this distinction. 12 Swahn (1955:19). 13 A similarly lifeless, truncated hero (‘wooden block’) gives his name to two tellings of Jataka tales that resemble Cupid and Psyche (Swahn 1955: 388—9).

their steps, part ways, and join their gender-group. I did collect this version in a six-hour recitation from a palm-leaf manuscript (Tl). This ritual text differs little from our translated text; around the narrative it places a frame-story set in Kailasa and adds philosophical flourishes (the turtle explains non-dualism, for instance).

50

Syllables of Sky

Coming Out of His Shell

val. They were both five months pregnant. One day they carried pots to the well, lowered their pots into the water, and took an

truth. You could not know what has happened, but call her mother and ask her if she made a pledge by the well. If the pledge is a lie,

oath: If you have a son, and I have a girl, or if you have a girl and I have a son, when they grow up, they shall marry/ So they made this promise at the well, and then they went to their separate homes. After ten months, Ammaravathi gave birth to a turtle and Puthuval gave birth to a girl:

then I have no right to this girl. But if it is true, then she must be married to me.’ When the girl’s mother was asked, she said: ‘It is true that I made that pledge, but he’s not a human! He’s a turtle and so he can’t marry my daughter.’ But the turtle responded:

To Ammaravathi’s house no one came and no one looked; To Puthuval’s house they never stopped coming and looking.

In the house where the girl was born everyone came to see the child during the seventh-month feeding ceremony, but no one went to the house with the turtle. This was the situation. The turtle grew up, but he lived in the gutter.16 He always stayed in that street drain. When he was hungry, he went to his mother, but when he had finished eating, he went back to the gutter to sleep. Then two men came from afar to Puthuvafs house and made arrangements for her [daughter’s] marriage. The turtle was ignored and when he learned about the marriage negotiations, he spoke to his mother: ‘You bore me for ten months, take me now to see the wedding. Carry me a little longer, carry me in a basket to the wedding.’ But his mother replied: ‘Oh, turtle! If you were born a man, they would not hesitate [to marry you to her]. They would honour that pledge. But you’re not a man and there will be a huge crowd there [at the marriage], which might crush you to death. No! You better not go to the wedding, you better not see the wedding. If you try to stop it, you will die.’ But the turtle said to his mother: ‘I’ll die if I have to, but you must take me and then you can return.’ Carrying her turtle—shell, tail, and all—she took him to the wedding hall where a prince was about to marry the girl. What did the turtle do? He crawled on the ground, up to the place where the bride and groom were seated, stopped at their feet, and then spoke to the man: ‘No one should marry without first hearing the 16 ‘Gutter’ translates tumpa matai, a dialect term in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu.

51

‘Are you going to honour your promise or not?’ Then the girl said: ‘Don’t fight. I’ll throw this garland and whosoever’s neck it falls on will be my husband.’ She threw the garland and it fell on the turtle’s neck. She threw it three times and three times it fell on his little neck. And so they were married, and after a few days they went to the turtle’s house. As soon as he arrived home, the turtle put his wife in the house and went back to his gutter. His mother scolded him: ‘You no-good! You bring home such a beautiful wife, leave her alone, and then you hide in your gutter! Don’t you like her beautiful form?’ She scolded him again and again, and after a while, the turtle said: ‘You say she’s a beautiful wife, but just wait, I’ll marry many beautiful wives!’ And so he got an idea. Selva Raja had two daughters who were ill with a disease, a fatal disease that no one could cure. He prayed to god, changed his form to that of a handsome man and rode off on a horse to the raja’s kingdom. There he took the form of an old man and encountered a man beating a message on the royal drum. ‘What’s the news?’ he asked, and the messenger told him about the raja’s daughters and that whoever cured them would marry them. ‘I’ll cure them,’ said the turtle, ‘but ask the raja if he will marry them to me.’ The messenger asked the raja, who promised to marry them to whoever cured them, but the turtle said: ‘Messenger, I’ve come all this way on foot and it’ll take 300 days to reach the raja, so ask him to send a chariot to fetch me.’ But the raja refused and sent a cart. Then the turtle said: ‘In a cart like this I’ll fall off and die. Give me a chariot!’ Finally the chariot came and took the old man [turtleprince] to the palace. There the old man said to the raja: ‘If I use my medicine, the disease will be cured in a minute, but you must agree to marry

53

Syllables of Sky

Coming Out ofHis Shell

your daughters to me/ And when the raja gave his word, the turtle rolled his body dirt into three balls, mixed them in hot water, and

met the daughter of Icakki, drying her hair after a bath.19 Warning

gave them to the princesses. And they were cured, but the raja cried out: ‘Oh, god, how can I marry my young girls to this old man teetering on his legs! He’s not fit to marry them. If I marry them to this old man, the other kings will laugh at me/ At this

asked: ‘Why did you come to this place?’ And the turtle answered: ‘I am looking for a pool, a box, a knife, a golden cock and two necklaces.’ ‘Listen,’ she said, ‘hide in the roots of this banyan tree and if my mother asks, I will keep quiet.’ So the daughter of Icakki

the turtle protested, ‘You promised that if I cured your daughters, I would many them. Your promise is written on this copper pot, so it’s fixed. A Palan, a Paraiyan, no matter who he is—you said whoever cured them could marry them/17 With no alternative,

hid him in the tree. Then the turtle put his finger in a pot and it turned to gold, so the daughter tore off a piece of her sari and wrapped it around his finger. Her mother came and said, ‘Girl, there’s a man here, I can smell him. Who is he?’ ‘If I tell you,’ the

the raja married his daughters to the old man, the turtle. The old man took his brides home, and again went back to

girl bargained, ‘you must help him complete his task and promise not to harm him.’ When the mother promised, her daughter

his gutter. Again, his mother looked and shouted: ‘Hey! What are you doing, avoiding your wives like this? You’ve gone off and

showed her the turtle-prince, and then the mother asked: ‘Hey, what happened to your finger?’ ‘Oh, I cut it on a knife just now,

married these princesses and still you live in that gutter! You may not like .them now, but in time you’ll learn to like your wives if you live with them.’ But the turtle simply said: ‘Mom, if you want to speak like this, go ahead, but don’t scold me for marrying these girls because I’m going to marry more.’ So he returned to his gutter, ate his food, and never spoke a word to his wives.18 That’s

he replied. ‘Let’s see, I’ll treat it with some medicine,’ said the mother. The turtle said he’d just applied medicine, but the mother insisted and when she removed the bandage she saw gold! The finger was pure gold! ‘Liar,’ she screamed and picked him up and threw him into the pot; and when he turned completely gold, the mother gave him the two necklaces. Then the turtle journeyed

how he lived. Later, the turtle heard that the Chola raja’s daughter was dying

back to the Chola raja and said: ‘Raja, are you going to give me your daughter, or shall I kill you?’ When the raja saw the two

of smallpox. So he took the form of a handsome man [teller repeats the earlier events: he goes to the raja] and cured his daughter. The raja said: ‘If you are to marry my daughter, you must go to a big pool; in the pool there’s* a box, in the box there’s a knife, and

necklaces, he was afraid for his life and agreed to the marriage. Then the turtle returned home, changed to his turtle form,

beneath that there’s a golden cock. If you sacrifice that cock, inside you’ll find two necklaces. If you bring them to me, I’ll marry my daughter to you.’ ‘All right,’ said the turtle, ‘but suppose I go there and risk my life only to find that you have married her to someone

to see it.’ But the raja said: ‘Son-in-law, a drama will cause a ruckus, fights will break out. I won’t do it.’ The turtle assured him that he would take care of any trouble, and the raja agreed to make the arrangements. The turtle went home, and spoke to his seven

else?’ ‘No, only to him who brings back the necklaces will I marry

wives: ‘Tonight there will be a drama, but if you go late, you won t get a good seat, so start early. Prepare the rice at four o’clock, finish all your work and go to the drama. I can’t go with you, so

52

my daughter. To no one else.’ And so the turtle left, assumed the guise of an ascetic, and

17 Palan and Paraiyan are two Untouchable castes in Tamil Nadu. 18 ‘Speaking’ is a Tamil euphemism for sexual contact.

him that when her mother returned, she would eat him, this girl

went to his father-in-law and said: ‘Arrange a drama to celebrate the marriage; let’s have seven nights of drama; let everyone come

19 Icakki is a powerful female goddess, who belongs to a class of harmful spirits called pey in local folklore.

54

Syllables of Sky

you go alone.’ The wives ate and went early, yet there was a huge crowd. They couldn’t get to the front; there was no space to move anywhere! So they stood by the side. The turtle sang: Muttu Kutti, my protector, In a turtle’s form I come and beg: Change my form, and give me a raja’s body; Yes, give me a horse from heaven, and a sword. Immediately a horse appeared, which the turtle mounted, and swinging a sword, he rode off to the drama. There was a huge crowd. The drama was about to begin but no one looked at the stage because they all stared at him. He saw his wives and, clearing a path through the crowd, led them up to the front and sat them down. There the seven wives thought to themselves: ‘Oh, he is very special, this man who has led us up front.’ They were really happy. Suddenly, just as the drama was to begin, a rock was thrown from the crowd; everyone ran, fought with hands and knives, and a river of blood flowed. The raja thought his son-in-law was probably killed in the crush, but he had gone home ahead of his seven wives, changed from human form to turtle form and greeted them: ‘Welcome, welcome, tell me about the drama you saw.’ And they told him about the young man on the horse who led them to the front of the crowd. ‘Oh, he protected you! Without him, you might have been hurt. Tomorrow you must go to see the second drama.’ Then the turtle went to his father-in-law, who said: ‘There was a fight, as I said, and tomorrow . . . ‘Don’t worry,’ the turtle said, ‘I’ll take care of everything.’ So a second drama was set up, and a second fight erupted. For seven nights there were dramas and there were seven fights. The raja fell at the feet of his son-in-law: ‘Forgive me. I did things without really knowing you; I won’t oppose you any more.’ Then the turtle said: ‘The seventh drama, we must have the seventh drama, no matter what happens.20 Don’t worry about the troubles,

20 Only six dramas, apparently, have taken place.

Coming Out of His Shell

55

I’ll take care of that.’ And the raja and his court drew back from the turtle.21 The turtle said to his wives: ‘Prepare hot water, I wish to take a bath.’ And the wives said to themselves: ‘Now is the time. Is he really a turtle? Or is he a human? We’ve got to find out.’ And so they heated the water, made a hole in the door to the room where he was bathing, and all seven peeped in. Then he, he took off his shell to bathe and they saw him! He stood there and they saw him, and they saw his shell. They quietly opened the door, stole the shell and ran off with it, the seven women. ‘Even if he kills us, we can’t give it back to him,’ they cried. ‘Let’s burn it right away!’ And they lit a haystack fire and reduced the shell to ashes, saying: ‘Even if our lives are threatened, we won’t tell anyone about this.’ When the turtle finished his bath and looked for his shell, it was gone! ‘Who took my shell?’ he screamed and ran off to his wives. ‘You took my shell! My life is finished! Give it back to me!’ ‘We haven’t seen any shell and we haven’t touched it,’ they said, ‘but since the day we were married, we have never been like husband and wife. You’ve never ‘spoken’ to us. Now we know you’re not a turtle. You’re a raja, a man, but we have nothing from our marriage. We have not lived a full life, and we have no children.’ Then his first wife spoke: ‘Besides, I think you’ll like our charms.* So the turtle-prince prayed to god and she became pregnant. With this particular telling in mind, let us consider the major episodes that constitute the ‘Turtle-Prince’ tales in India: (l) Hero’s Birth and Marriage; (il) Bride Quests; (ill) Competition with Brothers/Brothers-in-law; (IV) Revelation: Drama and Burnt Shell. In the following analysis, I distinguish two subtypes, which a glance at the chart of versions will clarify: one is defined by an elaborate series of bride quests, humiliation from the father-in-law, and a dashing appearance at a drama (or other public gathering); the second subtype, showing considerable literary influence and a 21 Here, it appears, the turtle-prince gains some recognition from his fatherin-law.

Syllables of Sky

Coming Out of His Shell

motley combination of elements from other tales, may include a bride quest (typically for the hero’s father), but it focuses on the

resolved—the bride throws a garland, which lands on the turtle, or she promises to marry whoever brings back a rare sunflower—

hero’s encounters with his cruel brothers or brothers-in-law in a hunt or war. Whereas the internal consistency of tales in the first subtype is high, the second subtype is less cohesive; in fact, the whole sample exhibits a shameless borrowing of motifs and ele¬

but the point has been made that the turtle-son is unwanted, a disgrace to any family. As our teller sings above: ‘To Ammaravathi’s house [mother of the turtle] no one came.’ This particular turtle-son lives in the gutter; others frequent a refuse heap, or are

ments from the other tale-types.

exiled from their natal home. In the less elaborate, non-turtle tales (most of which are ‘tribal’), the strange being is treated with cruelty by his adoptive parents: the crab, for example, is nearly killed twice, once by his mother and then by his father; the caterpillar is twice thrown away by his mother.

56

I. Hero’s Birth and Marriage: Pledge and Refusal The tale, as in our translation, opens when two pregnant women promise to marry their future children to one another, but when one woman gives birth to a turtle, the other, a mother of a beautiful daughter, balks. Although this initial motif, of a marriage pledge and refusal, also occurs in European tellings of Cupid and Psyche, the pledge is doubly charged in the Tamil tales because it is made by two women whose children are expected, in most castes in south India, to many each other because they are cross-cousins, or children of a brother and a sister.22 In the Tamil context, the pledge and refusal is thus a potent symbol of broken loyalties;23 the marriage pact in the Laotian Mien tale is similarly sealed by local custom when a king (unwittingly) drinks tea boiled from leaves brought by the turtle’s mother. However important these tests of truth may be, the tale, in my reading, is not primarily didactic; just as it faces outward to public morality, it faces inward to self-doubt and the despised nature of the hero, as established by the pledge and refusal motif. When the prospective motherin-law disavows her promise, she protests at the horror of a turtleson-in-law, and who can blame her? The dispute will be 22 Swahn (1955: 221) found that the pledge motif is ‘extremely rare and markedly oriental’ and notes its presence in Turkish, Greek, and Persian ver¬ sions. On this motif in Turkish romances, see also Ba§goz (1976: 12). 2^ In certain castes in southern Tamil Nadu, a violation of this traditional

57

In the absence of this pledge motif, the inferior nature of the hero is established either through a formula spoken by a childless woman (‘I want a son even if he is a dog’) or through his exile; once born, the animal-son is mocked by his father, his brothers, or his stepmother, who banishes him to the forest. With or without the marriage pledge, however, the rejection is often driven home hard by the words of his prospective bride: ‘Who would marry a turtle?’, jests one unfortunate girl; ‘I won’t marry a husband without arms and legs’, protests another. Even loving mothers doubt the manliness of their incomplete sons and warn them not to demand their rightful bride, not to hunt with their normal brothers, and not to attempt to graze cattle like other young men. Whatever its form, this initial rejection of the hero must be considered the psychological foundation of his story, which un¬ folds as a series of attempts to prove his worth, in competition with his brothers-in-law, in performing tasks to win princesses, and, finally, at the drama. As the caterpillar-husband says to his wife after his handsome, human form has been revealed to her parents: ‘They treat me very well now that they see I am a man, but what did they do before?’24 But why are these animal-husbands despised, and not feared like the snakes and tigers?25 The critical difference is physical, the

marriage agreement is compensated through a ritual called ‘blocking the thresh¬ old’ (vacalpati mariyal). I am indebted to G. Stephen, a Tamil folklorist, for

24 Bompass (1909: 229).

this point.

25 Not all snake-husbands in Indie tales are feared. A Pancatantra stoiy

58

Sylla bles of Sky

Coming Out of His Shell

shape in which the hero arrives; whether he is a turtle, crab, caterpillar, bodiless head, or ‘half-a-son’, his form is not only

inadequacy was drowned out by the voices speaking in the tales themselves. In the story of the crab-husband, for instance, we read:

unexpected but lacks proper appendages—and most of the new¬ borns withdraw into their shells. ‘Half-a-son’ is something of an

Every night she waited for him, but what could a crab do? Then

odd-man out, but he, too, possesses inadequate equipment; when he begs his mother to let him go hunting with his brothers, she weeps: 'You are only half a boy; how can you hold your crossbow [sic] ?’26 Likewise, when the bodiless head declares his intention to work in the field, his mother challenges him: ‘How can you, having no body or legs, look after cattle?' The caterpillar might appear to be blessed with more legs than is necessary, and Verrier El win declares that ‘though one hardly likes to think so . . . [he is] a phallic symbol.’27 The actual tale, however, suggests the opposite since he is a sexual figure only in his human form and

59

the girl thought, ‘I must find another man.’31 Even the turtle’s seven wives, in our translation, speak in transparent euphemisms: ‘We have never been like husband and wife; you’ve never “spoken” to us.’ Without access to tellers and audiences, I was finally convinced that the turtle-prince is perceived as a limbless hero by what can only be called a version-within-a-version: in one oral version, a raja tells the animal-suitor a story that he says is a precedent for the turtle’s story, and it, too, is a story about a man who was only a torso, a man without arms or legs, who wishes to marry a princess. Physical form is everything, and the contrast between our retiring heroes and the devouring snakes and tigers

as a caterpillar lacks requisite appendages: ‘He had no arms or legs and could not go [walk to the marriage]; so they sent a palki [palanquin] for him ... and when the palki was set on the ground, the caterpillar rolled out . . . ’28 Rolling, scuttling, crawling, these

of other male-centred, animal-husband tales in India could not be sharper. If one is a ‘young man transformed into a monster’,32 the other is a young man reduced to a mechanical failure. The phallic extension of the snake-husband is reversed in the withdrawal of

turtle-princes and their multiforms are despised because they are not full men; even the lowly donkey-prince in north Indian tales,

the turtle-husband, who retreats into the house, in the gutter, under the bed, or within his shell.

though despised like our turtle, at least lays claim to a degree of

Male sexuality also beats a retreat in the frame-story for The Story of Madanakama Raja,, which contains our two literary ver¬

male potency.29 Anatomically deficient, their uselessness is some¬ times implied by the mother’s questions (‘What can you do?’) and sometimes passively enacted, as by our turtle who sleeps in his gutter or by the Laotian turtle who ‘always stayed under the (marital) bed’.30 My own doubt that I might be forcing this issue of male sexual (Ryder 1972: 177ff)> for instance, begins with a despised snake-son, like our tales, but then moves into the Beauty and the Beast pattern, in which the hero must win his bride’s confidence. 26 Steel and Temple (1884: 292). 27 Elwin (1944: 130). 28 Bompass (1909: 229). 29 The donkey-prince tale is told as a background to the birth of Vikramaditya; see Gold (1992: 73-104); Ralston (1878: 1007-8). 30 ‘Tales of the Mien People of Laos’ (audio-cassette).

sions of the turtle-prince. As the frame-story begins, a prince and a minister’s son are great friends, but the prince is accused of unwanted sexual advances and escapes execution through the intervention of his friend. The two flee and eventually enter a kingdom where the minister’s son, in order to win two brides for his friend, pretends to marry them. When they expectantly enter the marital chamber at night, however, the minister, in a gender reversal of Shahrazad’s predicament, forestalls their sexual desires by telling stories, including those of the turtle-prince. In other words, the narrator of the framed stories, like the hero within them, squirms on the bridal bed and withdraws from the demands of married life. 31 Elwin (1944: 134). 32 Holbek (1987: 460).

60

61

Syllables of Sky

Coming Out of His Shell

IL Bride Quests; III. Competition with

as our quotations attest, and the brides destroy the animal covering in the end. In other words, can we say of our turtles what Holbek

Brothers / Brothers-in-law Innocent though he may be, the turtle-prince does not remain contracted and dormant forever, and his later actions reveal a double identity. His protean (fantasized?) sexuality we glimpse, briefly, even in the early scenes when he boasts that he will marry beautiful princesses, and his romantic excursions in the second part of the tale more than compensate for his initial sexual retreat since he marries many princesses and makes love to them as well. He also extends himself, in several versions, when his neck catches the garland thrown by a princess, an act repeated when he later seeks and gains a necklace for the princess.33 This dual-movement of the turtle, contraction and extension, as enacted in the two halves of our tale, is also a common metaphor of sensual with¬ drawal and projection (of nivrtti and pravrtti) in Hindu philos¬ ophy and mythology; in the Mahabharata,, for example, we read: ‘Just as a turtle extends and withdraws his limbs, the intellect sends forth its senses and then withdraws.’34 The turtle is thus a bivalent symbol, but the dominant movement in our tales is contraction, as it evidently was for the nineteenth-century Hindu saint, Ramakrishna, who explained that under threat from a prostitute ‘his genitals became contracted and entered completely into his body, like the limbs of a tortoise’.35 Given this theme of sexual retreat, is it possible that these tales project anxieties of young women who must marry men they do not know? After all, the brides express frustration and displeasure,

33 The symbolic equivalence of these motifs was pointed out by Alan Dundes, who made useful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

34 Mahabharata, 12.239.17; See also Bhagavadgita 2.58: ‘A man’s intellect is said to be firm when, like a turtle, drawing in his limbs, he withdraws his senses from the objects of sense.’ Bob Goldman hunted down and translated these passages for me, for which I am grateful. To David Shulman I owe the observation that the turtle is a symbol of pravrtti and nivrtti.

said of aggressive snake-husbands, that the woman ‘liberates him from his sexual immaturity, turns him into an adult lover?’36 Such an interpretation cannot be reconciled with the fact that our tales are male-centred. True, nobody wants to marry a turtle, but female anxiety motivates the plot only at the conclusion when the wife burns the shell; even in the initial scene, the bride does not always deride the turtle-groom and often accepts him either as her fate or out of fidelity to the pledge, although she may require that the unpromising youth perform a task. The destruction of the shell, likewise, I would interpret as the final act in a tale of male maturation, a change from turtle to human that begins much earlier when he discards his shell and becomes a prince in order to undertake adventures to win princesses or respect from other men. This is a very important point: only in his human guise, and never as a turtle, does the hero undertake these adventures at the heart of our tales. And if the turtle must become a prince outside the home, then, before any brides may be won, the hero must extricate himself from his mother, who in all but one version attempts to block his path or discourage his venturing forth. As in the translation above, she advises him not to contest the viola¬ tion of the marriage pledge and warns him that he might die if he does; and when the pledge motif is absent, she issues a similar warning about her turtle-son’s wishes to hunt with his brothers, graze cattle, or cut firewood. Each time, however, the diminished hero leaves her and enters the wider world in search of wives, especially the daughters of kings, and it is then, and only then, that he casts off his shell. Back home in his shell, the turtle is not so bold. In many versions, the mother lovingly feeds her anom¬ alous child, but his turtle-form prevents true intimacy; in one oral version, for example, the turtle-boy is cuddled by his mother but rolls off her lap; ‘well, he’s a turde, isn’t he’, the teller explains,

35 Saradananda (1952:172); my source is Goldman (1993). In north Indian folklore, too, the turtle is a symbol of asceticism (Gold 1992: 228, fn. 9).

36 Holbek (1987: 492).

62

Syllables of Sky

Coming Out ofHis Shell

so he s round, and spins right off her lap’. His relation with his mother, for whom he is a turtle and not a man, parallels that with

ceeds in marrying the girl to whom he is promised, his subsequent conquests are different because they depend not on the power of

his first bride. This conflation of female roles is explicit in one

the ‘truth test’ or the arbitraiy flight of a flower garland, but on his own actions. The most succinct statement of this theme is found in the tribal tales, whose crabs and caterpillars have limited marital ambitions; these versions omit the quests altogether and

version (T9), in which the mother acts as the bride does in other versions: the turtle hides his human identity from his protective mother, creeping out of his shell every night to eat forbidden food, until the mother discovers his nocturnal visits and burns his shell. For both the mother and first bride, the hero is a turtle, and from them both he must escape, leave his shell and become a handsome prince. The turtle-prince does stick out his neck, but only after he has left home.

63

reduce the story to a rejection of the hero, followed by his suc¬ cessful marriage (followed by the drama motif to be discussed shortly). Irrespective of repetitions and elaborations, our tales tell of the hero’s split-identity, his rejection and then recognition, his

His external adventures, although varied and complicated, pursue a single-minded attempt to win recognition from the world; and the means to achieve that recognition define the two

self-image inside and outside his shell. In the second subtype, defined by the absence of both multiple quests and the drama motif, the rejected animal-husband wins recognition by competing with other men rather than for wives.

subtypes of our tale. In the first, the turtle-prince vindicates him¬ self in the eyes of various rajas and their daughters through quests for brides and particular objects (cock, necklaces); in the second subtype, often confined to a single bride quest (for his father) and

On a hunt, on a battlefield, or in the pursuit of a bride for his father, the hero is mocked, but eventually demonstrates his supe¬ riority over his brothers or brothers-in-law and wins respect from his father or fathers-in-law. Borrowing incidents from other tale-

a different object (lotus), the hero is less romantic, more martial and proves himself in competition with other males (father, brothers, brothers-in-law). Tales in the first subtype may elaborate as many as four marriages, or contract the story to a single mar¬

types, the hero proves his prowess and exposes his imposter rivals by producing a token (AT 300), or he is vindicated when he brings back a bride for his father (AT 550);37 the tokens themselves— tongues, fingers and moustaches—suggest that the turtle is bat¬

riage, but each version presents the transformation from inept turtle to handsome prince. Typically, the turtle-prince begins his quests because his ficst attempt is rebuffed and the raja sets a condition: ‘You’re a turtle, yet you tell me you want to marry my

tling to establish his masculine identity. Certainly his male competitors deride him at every step he takes. His attempt to accompany his brothers-in-law on a hunt, for instance, provokes this insult: ‘A horse for a turtle! This turtle can hardly crawl along

daughter ... If you are truly fit and are able to bring back the

on the ground and now it wants to ride on horse-back against the enemy!’38 Sometimes the brothers taunt his wife: ‘Is that turtle of yours going to ride a horse with us?’ Symbols of inadequacy pile up when, finally, the poor turtle is given a rusty sword or a broken

diamond-producing cock and the diamond necklace, then I’ll marry her to you. Undaunted, the hero discards his shell and proceeds as a handsome young prince (or a beggar or an old man), in which form he is able to cure and marry a second raja’s daughter, perhaps a third, and, finally, gain the cock and two necklaces from a corpse-devouring demon, whose daughter he marries. Each mar¬ riage episode repeats the initial event (the pledge and refusal of marriage to an unpromising turtle-prince) with the all-important difference that now he is successful; and if the turtle-prince suc¬

bow and he is strapped—shell and all—on a lame horse so that These Indian versions of AT 550, however, shift the story to conform to the reverse Oedipal pattern identified by Ramanujan (1983): the hero obtains a bride for his father and, despite the clear desires of the princess for him, the younger man confers the bride on his father. 38 Zvelebil (1987:112).

64

Syllables of Sky

Coming Out of His Shell

he will not slip off. At times, this fraternal abuse turns cruel, even violent. On their way to win the princess for their father, for

his wife) as a handsome prince, with a sword, on a horse; he catches everyone’s eye, including many women’s who follow him back to

example, the turtle-prince assists his ungenerous brothers and asks for their protection: ‘Brothers! Protect me in the forest/ But his

the princess’s (his wife’s) chambers and circulate scandalous ru¬ mours that she has taken a lover (‘Why not?’, laughs one onlooker, ‘her husband’s a turtle.’). His disguise slowly unravelling, the animal-husband is soon transformed, usually when his wife spies

brothers reply: ‘We’re going too fast, turtle’, and leave him behind, tie him to a tree, or kill him. Against these unlikely odds, of course, the despised son and incomplete man prevails. His wicked brothers are chastised or imprisoned; and the turtle-prince confers the princess on his father or himself marries her and basks in the glow of the senior man’s approval.

65

him undisguised in the bathroom and his shell is burnt. These episodes of the ‘drama’ and burning are remarkably consistent; even the crab and caterpillar heroes appear at a dance or feast where they mesmerize the audience and eventually win their lover. The recognition won at the drama and completed through

IV. Revelation: Drama and Burnt Shell This desperate need for recognition, the consequence of the initial rejection, is the driving force of our tale and culminates in a

the destruction of the shell, in the first subtype, is the functional equivalent of that earned through male competition, in the second subtype.39 A hunt and a drama are both a public display of prowess,

revelation of the true nature of the hero. We know that he is capable of marrying, curing, hunting and rescuing objects and persons, but (typically) his family (brothers, father and first wife)

in which the turtle-prince cuts a romantic figure, waving a sword and riding a horse. The two subtypes thus tell the same tale. The suitor, once derided as unsuitable, who hid under the bed, who slipped off his wife’s lap, is now a champion, admired by men and

does not. Disclosure is achieved differently in our two subtypes.

women.

In the second subtype, the hero is vindicated in a public gathering, like a trial: sometimes a token proves that the lowly turtle killed the animals in the hunt; sometimes he (or the princess) declares the truth about who killed the animals or fetched the princess. Revelation is achieved as an extension of male competition, and the hero’s final transformation via the destruction of the shell is anti-climactic. In the first subtype, on the other hand, the hero’s revelation begins with what I term the ‘drama motif’ and is completed with the burning of his shell. It is also more subtle and directed toward women. In the complex versions, the many-wived turtle-prince returns home and claims his first bride, but her father only reluc¬ tantly concedes and often banishes his animal son-in-law to a separate palace. A successful prince outside the home, our hero is still known to his first wife as a turtle, and the unconsummated marriage continues. Relief finally arrives in the form of a series of nocturnal dramas at which the turtle appears (still unknown to

Conclusions Whether or not particular animal-husband tales and motifs derive from India, we know enough to conclude that these Indian stories of turtles and crabs belong to that widespread cluster of tales.40 From the basic elements of these tales—marriage to an animalgroom, recognition and revelation—Indian tellers have fashioned a story about a despised, withdrawn hero, often closely allied with his mother, who emerges from his shell of fear and doubt. This persistent drive for recognition by the despised animal-husband 39 Compare motifs H1561.1 (Test of valour: tournament) and R222 (Un¬ known knight: the three days' tournament). 40 The two motifs that our tales share with Swahn’s Cupid and Psyche cluster—marriage pledge (I. 19) and drama (IV. 2a)—occur most frequently in versions from Greece, Turkey, Persia, that is, on a possible conduit of transmis¬ sion between Europe and India.

66

Syllables ofSky

Coming Out of His Shell

marks our tales as male-centred, and the internalized, inadequate masculinity of the turtle and crab presents a sharp contrast with

of his quills and Hans has them burned. According to the Grimms and others, Hans’ birth as a hedgehog is a punishment to his

the externalized masculinity of the aggressive animal-husbands, particularly the snakes and tigers popularly associated with India. This Indian oicotype of the animal-husband tale, which I have

parents for ‘praying vehemently’ or rashly wishing for a child, but this reading does not place the strange birth within the full context of the tale, in which punishment is reserved not for Hans or his

labelled AT 44IB Ind., is illumined by its European parallels and,

family but for those who rejected him because of this lowly birth.42

in the reciprocal circle of comparative research, opens up new approaches to these stories, which we think we know so well.

From our perspective, the animal-birth is not punitive but indis¬ pensable to the theme of the despised hero.

Specifically, it suggests new interpretations of the key elements in

Second, our sample indicates that, contra Bruno Bettelheim’s influential analyses, animal-husband tales do not always represent

animal-husband tales: his birth, the man by night, animal by day' formula, his skin and its burning. First, our tales cast new light on the birth motif in its European analogue, the little-studied Grimms’ tale, Hans, My Hedgehog (AT 441).41 After a childless man declares that he will 'have a child if it be a hedgehog’, Hans is born half-hedgehog (upper body), half-human (lower half). His mother is angry and ‘terrified’ of him; Hans cannot be christened because his mother will not suckle him and he lies behind the stove for eight years, while his father wishes that ‘he [Hans] would but die’. Finally, Hans leaves, with his parents’ blessings, his bagpipes and cock, and takes up residence in a forest, where he raises pigs. Soon Hans exacts a promise from a king.that the latter will give him whatever he first sets eyes upon on arriving safely at his castle, but the king reneges on his promise when his daughter declares her unwilling¬ ness to wed a hedgehog. This episode is repeated with a second king, who, with his daughter’s consent, keeps his word. When

67

repressed female sexuality. Bettelheim’s unqualified assertion that ‘animal-groom stories convey that it is mainly the female who needs to change her attitude about sex’ is misleading, at best.43 The women in our tales, demure princesses though they may be, do not recoil from expressing or even enacting their amorous needs; on the contrary, immaturity and perceived self-inadequacy belong to our turtles. Others have noted the sexual immaturity of the animal-groom and its rectification in tales, but, again, this reformed husband is commonly the snake-husband (King Lindorm). Taggart, for instance, claims that the man ‘learns to replace phallic aggression with heterosexual love and thus no longer sees himself as repulsive to women’.44 As we know, however, the turtleprince has a different problem, squirming under the bridal bed, sleeping in the gutter or crawling off to the wedding pavilion. Appendage-challenged heroes, such as our turtles and crabs and bodiless heads, might even suggest an explanation for the pump¬

Hans’ pig herd multiplies marvellously, he rides out of the forest on his cock and shames his father with his success. Then he visits the first king and forces him to release his daughter, whom Hans

kin-husband, which Ralston, writing in 1878, confessed was ‘dif¬ ficult to account for’.45

punishes for rejecting him (as does the turtle-prince in T5); next

hood and married life, then we also need a reinterpretation of the ‘animal by day, husband by night’ pattern in these animal-husband

he visits the second king and marries his daughter, but she is afraid

If our tales express not female but male anxieties about adult¬

42 Bolte and Polivka (1913-31: II: 234, 482); Rohrich (1991: 79); Hunt 41 Thompson and Roberts (1960) classified many of the tales in our sample

(1884: 2: 409).

under AT 441, adding the qualification that ‘[although these stories do not

43 Bettelheim (1977: 286).

constitute a type, it may be useful to have these references together’. (Nothing

44 Taggart (1990: 146); Holbek (1987: 492).

could have been more useful for my purposes!)

45 Ralston (1878: 1001).

68

Syllables of Sky

Coming Out of His Shell

tales. From a female perspective, as Bettelheim observes, such an alternation makes little sense (animal by night, human by day

Kannada oral tale, for example, he changes form and makes love to his wife, who does not know the lover is her husband.48 Our

would more logically express female sexual fears), but he explains away this anomaly by interpreting the animal during the day as a projection of her inability to face reality on the morning after: ‘What seemed lovely by night', he writes, ‘looks different by day'.46

at night; the difference lies in the context and social roles. Disharmony between internal and external roles is also mani¬ fest in the hero’s strong emotional bond with, and then separation

Bettelheim does hint at a male perspective when, two pages earlier, he hypothesizes that the distinction between nocturnal and diurnal identities of the animal-husband represents a man’s wish to keep his sex life separate from everyday life. But it is curious that the

69

hero may thus appear as either or both an animal and a husband

from, his mother. The salience of this bond in our Indian tales is highlighted by a comparison with the Grimms’ story of Hans, My Hedgehog, summarized above. The German and Tamil tales show striking parallels. Both the hedgehog and turtle suffer humiliation

non-sexual identity is the animal form. (Is the man, too, overcome by morning-after guilt and denial?) A separation between sexual and ordinary experience exists in our tales, but it is maintained neither by a masculine need to isolate sex nor by a female fear of

when a marriage pact with a king is broken; both impress their

sex. Rather, I believe, the ‘turtle by day, prince by night’ pattern of our tales reflects a male fear of sexuality, at home, and a male wish fulfillment, outside the home. The distinction to be made, then, is not day/night, but internal/external, the domestic versus

coincidence in these tales of undervalued males. Such parallels, however, only intensify the central difference between the tales: whereas Hans is pitted against his father, the turtle’s father is either absent or passive (though in some versions he is replaced by the

the public.47 At home, in his first, arranged marriage, the hero is dormant, sexually inactive, often controlled by his mother; but when he leaves home, he takes on his role as a prince. Notice that the hero is a human lover, even in daylight, for example, on his

father-in-law), and the son must extricate himself from his protec¬ tive but doubting mother. One version, mentioned earlier, goes so far as to have the mother, not the bride, destroy the turtle’s shell. The shell (skin) and its demise is the final element of animalhusband stories that may be reinterpreted from the male perspec¬

expeditions to win objects, on the hunt or in battle; conversely, at home, even at night, he is a dysfunctional animal-husband, the sleepy turtle. By the same logic, the hero assumes his fantasized identity (as a prince) at the drama not because it occurs at night, but because it is a public event and beyond his domestic sphere; again, in another version, the husband, in his turtle form, leaves his wife’s bed at night, changes to a man, and enjoys love-making with his other wives outside his home. The domestic versus public may be perceptual as well as spatial. If he is believed to be an outsider (as in the drama), the location is inconsequential; in the

detractors by riding triumphantly (on a cock/horse), and both succeed in marrying the princess. Nor is the cock, the emblem of Hans and the object of the turtle’s quest, likely to be an arbitrary

tive of our tales. As Swahn observed, the destruction of this protective cover is common in Cupid and Psyche and The Ser¬ pent-Prince tales, but there it causes the husband to disappear and necessitates the woman’s search.49 If we assume that these tales are female-centred, as I believe they are, then the burning of the skin makes perfect sense as an act that expresses the transformative power of female love.50 But why does her act of love violate a 48 Ramanujan (1995).

46 Bettelheim (1977: 297). 47 On this relation between public and domestic in Indian folklore, see Ramanujan (1986).

49 Swahn believes that the motif of destroying the skin originated in AT 433, whence AT 425 borrowed it (1955: 238). 50 A curious Italian tale of a man cursed to be a ‘tortoise by day and a man

Syllables of Sky

Coming Oat ofHis Shell

taboo, the transgression of which results in the loss of her husband? An answer is possible when we entertain the possibility that this

intensify the pressure on young men. Weighing these factors, we understand why a tale about a hero who is rejected and retreats,

motif, even in AT 425, carries traces of male anxiety. My sugges¬ tion is that the turtle-prince hero views his shell with ambivalence, as both a protective covering and a sign of his inferiority; he wants it destroyed, and he does not want it destroyed.51 When it is burnt

but who wins recognition and comes out of his shell, is told all over south India, is ritually recited in at least one region and circulates in literary form. We understand that the story of the

or smashed in our tales, the wife is scolded but not punished because this motif falls at the end of the tale, where, having won recognition, the hero is ready to leave his shell. The covering that defines the animal-husband, then, is not a representation of a

imagination but because it inscribes a male identity whose lines are otherwise unclear.

70

woman’s incomplete acceptance of marriage, but the self-created closet of a man’s fears and doubts. Its destruction represents his final and full maturation, which explains why—a detail often overlooked by scholars—he sometimes destroys it himself. 52 If these Indian tales of turtles' and crabs and caterpillars do tell the story of a man’s uncertainty about his adult role, it should come as no surprise. As we are slowly learning, all over the world, the ambiguity of male maturation, the absence of clear physical and ritual markers and the unfortunate perceived necessity of sep¬ aration from the mother, produce confusion, not to mention misogyny and violence. Male identity, we have come to under¬ stand, is not conferred by blood but is achieved by public per¬ formance. And in the Indian context, the additional factors of submission to senior males and deep attachment to mothers

turtle-prince is popular not because it springs from an oriental

Chart of Versions (T= Tamil) Version Birth

Tl

pledge-refusal

T2

pledge-refusal

T3

pledge-refusal

T4

pledge-refusal

T5

pledge-refusal

Bride Quest!

Competition

Objects

with Brothers

T6

multiple/cock,

drama;

necklaces

shell burnt

»

single; lotus

hunt

pledge-refusal

single; lotus

hunt

Ka

pledge-refusal

single; lotus

hunt

son exiled;

hunt

token shell burnt

T8

exile

single

hunt

T9

mother burns

multiple

quest

51 This idea, as far as I can tell, was first suggested in 1880 by W.R.S. Ralston,

son's shell Hindi

monkey-son

Kadar

turtle-son

Kuruk crab born

single single/lotus wife leaves

contest

horse/dance;

for bride

skin burnt shell burnt dance; shell burnt

shell, a symbol of completion prior to birth, is the final resting place: expelled

That is, in Hans, My Hedgehog and in an oral tale in our sample (T8).

public declaration

that the animal-husband in one Indian tale explained his covering this way: ‘I

from it, we wish to re-enter it.

token; public

turde guise

(Calvino 1980: 12-14).

to await the return of the turtle (he begins his stoiy there in this version). The

token;

revelation

husband, she must maintain her chastity; while he travels around the world

shell: after its destruction, it is restored to full form and then lifted to Kailasa,

token;

shell burnt

ar night’ is told from a woman’s perspective: in order to transform her animal-

wear it as a protection’. The Tamil ritual text (Tl) is also ambivalent about the

Revelation

shell burnt

T7

who, despite his colourful comments about the ‘oriental imagination,’ noted

71

Gondi

crab adopted

princess loves

rides horse; shell burnt

72

Syllables of Sky

Version Birth

Santal

caterpillar

Bride Quest!

Competition

Objects

with Brothers

Coming Out of His Shell

Aarne, Antti and Stith Thompson, 1964, skin burnt

adopted Shan

bodiless head

feast

single; grows trees

Panjabi half-son

single; cures

turtle-son

The Types of the Folktale,

FFC184 (second rev.), Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia. Ayer, V.A.K., 1962, The Tales of King Madanakama, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Ba§goz, Ilhan, 1976, ‘The Structure of Turkish Romances’, in Linda

hunt

token

single/cock

Degh, Henry Glassie, Felix J. Oinas (eds), Folklore Today: A Fest¬

schrift for Richard M. Dorson, Bloomington: Indiana University

princess Mien

Bibliography

Revelation

dance;

princess loves

73

rides horse

Press, 11-23. Bettelheim, Bruno, 1977, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and

Sources of Versions in Chart: Tl, T2:

Oral tales, author’s collection, Kanyakumari Dt., Tamil Nadu, 1978

T3:

Oral tale collected by G. Stephen, Kanyakumari Dt., Tamil Nadu, 1983

T4:

Oral tale from Ceylon (Parker 1973, vol. 3, 113-19)

T5:

Literary version (Zvelebil 1987: 103-114; ‘Story of the 7 th Day’)

T6:

Oral tale from Ceylon (Parker 1973, vol. 2, 316—23)

Ka(nnada):

Oral tale (A.K. Ramanujan, 1995)

T7:

Oral tale from Ceylon (Parker 1973, vol. 3, 282-5)

Importance of Fairy Talesy New York: Random House. Boberg, Inger Margrethe, 1938,‘The Tale of Cupid and Psyche’, Classica

et Mediaevalia, 1: 177-216. Bolte, J. and G. Polivka, 1913-31. Anmerkungen zu den Kinder-und

Hausmdrchen der Briider Grimm} 5 vols, Leipzig. Bompass, C.H., 1909, Folklore of the Santal ParganaSy London: David Nutt. Calvino, Italo, 1980, Italian Folktales, George Martin (tr.), New York: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich. Elwin, Verrier, 1944, Folk-Tales of Mahakoshal Bombay: Oxford Uni¬ versity Press.

T8:

Oral tale collected by R. Ramanathan, Ramanathapuram Dt., Tamil Nadu, 1989

T9:

Literary version (Zvelebil 1987: 52-68; ‘Story of the 4th Day’)

Gold, Ann Grodzins, 1992, A Carnival of Parting: The Tales of King

Bharthari and King Gopi Chand as Sung and Told by Madhu Natisar Nath of Ghatiyaliy Rajasthan, Berkeley: University of California Press. Goldman, Robert, 1993, ‘Transsexualism: Gender and Anxiety in Tradi¬

Hindi:

Oral tale from north India (Stokes 1880: 41—50).

tional India’, Journal of the American Oriental Societyy

Kadar:

Oral (?) tale (Thundy 1983: 87-9; Kadar are a tribal group

pp. 374-401.

Kuruk:

Oral tale, central India (Elwin 1944: 134-5)

Gondi:

Oral tale, central India (Elwin 1944: 136-7)

Santal:

Oral tale, eastern India (Bompass 1909: 227-32)

European Perspective, FFC 239, Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedea¬

Shan:

Oral tale, northern Burma (Milne 1910: 254-7)

katemia.

Panjabi:

Oral tale (Steel and Temple 1884: 290-7)

Mien;

Oral tale, recorded in Berkeley, CA, 1989, audio-cassette

living in the mountains between Kerala and Tamil Nadu.)

113, 3,

Grimms*Household Talesy 1884, Margaret Hunt (tr.), 2 vols, London: George Bell. Holbek, Bengt, 1987, Interpretation of Fair)’ Tales: Danish Folklore in a

1 keda, Horiko, 1971, A Type and Motif Index of Japanese Folk-L iteratu re, FFC 209, Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.

from Laotian Handcrafts Center,

Milne, Leslie, 1910, Shans at Homey London: John Murray.

Berkeley, Ca

Mitra, Sarat Chandra, 1928, ‘The Caterpillar-Boy and the Caterpillar-

74

Syllables of Sky Husband in Santali and Lhota Naga Folk-Lore’, Journal of the Bihar

and Orissa Research Society, 14, 426-8. Olrik, Axel, 1904, ‘King Lindorm’, Danske Studier, 1-34. Parker, Henry, 1973, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, 3 vols., Colombo: Tisara Prakakayo Dehiwala (first edn, London: Luzac, 1910-14). Paton, W.R., 1899, ‘Folk-tales from the Aegean’, Folklore, 10, 500-2.

Coming Out of His Shell

75

Panjab’, Folklore, 10, 384-443 (also in R.C. Temple, The Legends

of the Panjab, vol. 3, 1900, London: Trubner; Bombay: Education Society’s Press). Thompson, Stith, 1977, The Folktale, Berkeley: University of California Press (first edn, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1946). Thompson, Stith and Warren E. Roberts, 1960, Types of Indian Oral

-1901, ‘Folk-tales of the Aegean’, Folklore, 12, 320-3.

Tales, India, Pakistan and Ceylon, FFC 180, Helsinki: Suomalainen

Ralston, W.R.S., 1878, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, The Nineteenth Century,

Tiedeakatemia.

IV (July-Dee.), 990-1012. - 1880, Introduction in M. Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, vii-xxx.

Thundy, Zacharias P., 1983, South Indian Folktales ofKadar, Meerut: Folklore Institute. Vogel, J. Ph., 1972, Indian Serpent-Lore, Varanasi: Prithvi Prakashan.

Calcutta. Ramanujan, A.K., 1983, ‘The Indian Oedipus’, in Alan Dundes and

Zvelebil, Kamil, 1987 (trans.), Two Tamil Folktales: The Story of King

Lowell Edmunds (eds), Oedipus: A Folklore Casebook, New York:

Matanakama; The Story of Peacock Ravana, Delhi: Motilal Banar-

Garland Press, 234-61.

sidass.

- 1986, ‘Two Realms of Kannada Folklore’, in Stuart Blackburn, A.K. Ramanujan (eds), Another Harmony: New Essays on the Folklore

ofIndia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 41-75. - 1995, Kannada Folktales (forthcoming). Rohrich,

Lutz,

1991,

Folktales and Reality, Peter Tokofsky (tr.),

Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Ryder, Arthur W. (tr.), 1972 (1925), The Panchatantra, Chicago: Uni¬ versity of Chicago Press. Saradananda, Swami, 1952, Sri Ramakrishna The Great Master, Swami Jagadananda (tr.), Mylapore: Sri Ramakrishna Math. Sastri, Natesa and S.M. Pandit, 1886, The Dravidian Nights Entertain¬

ments, Madras: Excelsior Press. Steel, Flora Annie and R.C. Temple, 1884, Wide-Awake Tales, London: Trubner. Stokes, Mauve (Mary), 1880, Indian Fairy Tales, Calcutta. 1955, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche (Aarne— Thompson, 425 dr 428), Lund: CWK Gleerup.

Swahn, Jan-Ojvind,

Taggart, James M.,

1990, Enchanted Maidens: Gender Relations in

Spanish Folktales of Courtship and Marriage, Princeton: Princeton University Press. ‘Tales of the Mien People of Laos’ (audio-cassette), 1989, Berkeley, California: Laotian Handcraft Center. Temple, Richard Carnac, 1899, ‘The Folklore in the Legends of the

Shift of Authority in Written and Oral Texts

77

others by threat or use of sanctions.’ A standard dictionary or a

Chapter Four

standard reference work has such authority devoid of power. The difference between authority and power is parallel to the difference between custom and law (Ibid: 13).

Shift of Authority in Written and Oral Texts: The Case ofTelugu

It appears that the ‘authority’ of a text is a feature ascribed to it by those who accept it out of ‘trust’. ‘Trust’ which underlies acceptance of ‘authority’ may be traced to socio-cultural and historical factors, such as customs, conventions, beliefs, etc. Thus, a shift of authority emanates from the weakening of trust and its

BH. KRISHNAMURTI

concomitant acceptance in any or all of the corollaries in which authority is vested. In literate and industrialized societies, the channel (oral or written) can be the sole basis of acceptance and

A

therefore, it is not culture-free. Authority of a Text n attempt is made here to propose a culture-free definition

Authority of Texts in Ancient India

of the ‘authority’ of a given text, oral or written. Such a .text has, at least, four corollaries: the author, the form of

The undeciphered Indus valley script (c. 2500 BC) is one of the

the text, the content of the text and the target audience (whom it

world’s oldest writing systems. After 2000 years or so, in the third

is intended for and/or addressed to). Authority can then be defined

century BC, Brahml and Kharosthi appeared in stone edicts of the

as the acceptance of a text (its form and/or its content) by a target

Mauryan emperor, Asoka. All Indian scripts have been derived

audience. Such an acceptance derives from ‘faith’ or ‘trust’ vested

from the Asokan Brahml. But there is evidence that a writing

in any or all of the three variables, viz. the author, the form and/or

system was in vogue even at the time of Panini (c. fourth century

the content of the text. According to the Hindu philosophers of

BC) and perhaps several centuries before him (for a discussion, see

language, knowledge derived from a verbal text (s'abdapramana)

Bright 1990: 130-46). Vedic texts were composed and transmitted

is independent of the other two sources of knowledge, viz. per¬

orally; it was presumed that ‘even the Brahmanas, the Pur anas, the

ception (pratyaksapramana) and inference (anumanapramana).

epics and Classic literature in general were composed and trans¬

For instance, when my father reports that his grandfather was six

mitted orally’ (Bright 1990: 137; Emeneau 1967: 270-2). The

feet tall, my father’s words coupled with my implicit trust in him

inadequacy inherent in the written representation of a spoken form

generate the required knowledge in me, although I have never seen

as well as the impermanence of the material used for writing must

my great-grandfather nor was there any basis for inferring the truth

have led to a greater value being attached to the recitation and

of the statement (Matilal 1990: 5-6).

memorization of texts in ancient India. Renou says:

Authority, insofar as it refers to a text, is independent of power.

But in India, the bearers of literature clung resolutely to the oral tradition

Authority is defined by Bertrand de Jouvenal as ‘the faculty of

for a long time . . . Dissemination by recitation was frequent, even for

gaining an other man’s assent’ (quoted from Morton H. Fried

secular or semisecular works, especially the Epic. Brahminical teachings,

1967:13, fn. 5). ‘Power is the ability to channel the behaviour of

including that of grammar, had been entirely oral at a previous date;

79

Syllables of Sky

Shift of Authority in Written and Oral Texts

Panini attests the existence of writing, but not its use in teaching; his

prabhusammita) and nothing can be changed in the text because

78

grammar, with its supplements, gives reason to believe in a purely oral

they are sabdapradhana (the structure of words is important).

tradition (Renou 1957: 32-4, cited from Bright 1990: 141).

Myths (puranas) and epics (itihasa) are message-oriented like the

Panini’s grammar was basically descriptive and not prescrip¬ tive. It described the usage of‘model speakers’, sistas who inhabited the aryavarta. He did not use the word samskrta for the language he described and even cited dialect variations (Cardona 1988: 644). The structure of the text of Panini’s Astadhyayi suggests that

persuasive words of a friend or a well-wisher (mitrasammitd)\ a poem suggests a message by its charm; like the words of a beautiful woman (kantasammita), in which a competent poet, by subor¬ dinating the ‘form and content’ of the text to dhvani (suggestion) suggests, with subtlety, what is good and what is evil.3

it was not orally composed; there is an absence of memory aids such as rhythm, mette and repetition. The rigour required in framing grammatical sutras without the superfluity of even a mora in their structure suggests their written composition.1 Traditional Telugu grammarians modelled their grammars after Panini and gave them prescriptive value. Oral transmission of Vedic hymns continues to the present day even though these texts are now available in print. Until recent times, owing to the value attached to the oral tradition, orality had a greater authority than had citing or quoting from a written text. An anonymous Sanskrit verse says: ‘Knowledge contained in a book and money in another person’s possession are worthless, because when a need arises to use them, that is no knowledge and that is no money.’2 This reflects the attitude of traditional scholars to the printed text. With technological advancement in the modes of text-preseivation, there is now a greater ‘trust’ in the authority of the printed text. In the world of Sanskrit literature there was a three-way distinction of authority. According to Mammata, a rhetorician of c. AD 1050, the Vedas, etc. are like the laws ordained by a king

Telugu Texts Telugu is a literary Dravidian language, spoken by about sixty million people (Paper 1 of Census of India 1991) mainly in the state of Andhra Pradesh in south India. Telugu, as an independent language, must have separated from the south central subgroup of Dravidian as early as about the tenth century BC (Krishnamurti 1981). The written medium has been known in the Teluguspoken area since the second century AD. The early written records were inscriptions in Prakrit and Sanskrit; full-fledged Telugu in¬ scriptions are available from c. AD 575 onwards (Radhakrishna 1971: xvi). Most of these are in prose and some are in verse, attesting to the establishment of a literary tradition several cen¬ turies before Nannaya’s Mahabharata (mid-eleventh century AD). Thus the literary tradition in Telugu stretches over twelve cen¬ turies. Most of the sound changes in Telugu took place before the writing tradition spread, i.e. before the seventh century, for ex¬ ample, *k- > c- before a front vowel, *-z- > d/r in complementary environments, *n, *1 > n, 1, *nt > nd, *tt > t, etc.; the writing system progressively replaced the homorganic nasals by the

1 A famous Sanskrit saying on this topic is: ‘ardhamatrakalaghavena, putrotsavam manyante vaiyakaranah’ [In sutra-formulation), a grammarian would rejoice over the saving of half a mora as he would over the birth of a male child] 2

pustakesu ca ya vidya

3 prabhusammita—sabdapradhana—vedasastrebhyah suhrtsammitarthatatparyavat puranadltihasebhyasca sabdarthayor gunabhavena rasangabhutavyaparapravanataya vilaksanam yatkavyam lokottaravarnananipunakavikarma tat

parahastagatam dhanam

kanteva sarasatapadanena abhimukhlkrtya ramadivad vartitavyam na ravana-

samaye tu pariprapte

divad ityupadesam ca yathayogam kaveh sahrdayasya ca karoti (Kavyaprakasa I

na sa vidya na taddhanam

ullasa: 2)

81

Syllables of Sky

Shift of Authority in Written and Oral Texts

anuswara [o]. The spread of literacy must have slowed down sound

verse or padya and ornate prose or gadya (Koravi inscription of Kusumayudha, c. AD 892; the Bejawada inscription of Yuddha-

80

changes after the seventh century

AD.

A broad classification of Telugu texts is given below: Oral texts: Orally composed and orally transmitted texts (both religious and secular) in the form of ballads, tales, etc. are as old

as the language. There are references to oral literature in the early literary works of Nannecoda and Palkuriki Somanatha (r. twelfth, thirteenth century AD) (P. Lakshmikantam 1974: 111; RVS Sundaram 1983: 49-50). The theme of Basavapuranam by Palkuriki Somanatha was taken from the oral traditions among militant Saivites (Narayana Rao 1990: Intro. 6). Palnativiracaritra, an oral ballad raised to a literary standard, was ascribed to a medieval poet, Srinatha (c. fifteenth century AD), but it still continues to be recited orally (Roghair 1982). Many of the epic songs sung by educated classes underwent change, being recomposed by literary persons in medieval and modern times. Even if many of the modern folk-songs are transforms of old songs, in the absence of an effort to 'freeze’ them in writing, we

malla, c. AD 989; see Radhakrishna 1971: 65-74) which became the standard form of writing from the eleventh century onwards. Inscriptions are available till the middle of the nineteenth century. Most stone inscriptions dealing with land grants to priests and temples used to carry imprecatory statements or verses at the end to ensure compliance and conformity by succeeding generations; for instance, ‘the violator’ would acquire sin equivalent to killing one thousand cows in Varanasi’, etc.4 In medieval inscriptions, even obscene abuses were directed at encroachers.5 This shows that the authority of these documents was to be respected by an appeal to the beliefs of the target audience and later by creating a sense of repulsion in them. Inscriptions are the major source of the socio-economic and political history of the Telugu people and their linguistic history. Epic and Parana texts (AD 1100 to 1550): The poetic trans¬ creation of the Sanskrit Mahabharata in Telugu by the three poets

cannot find any internal evidence to date them. To use Narayana

(,kavitraya), viz. Nannaya (eleventh century) Tikkana (thirteenth

Rao’s metaphor (1978: 28), 'the present river Godavari is the same as the one which existed at Nannaya’s time, but its flood is not the same’. Apparently the pure oral compositions of the illiterate

century) and Errapragada (fourteenth century) in the campu style (verse and rhythmic prose), set the standard for all subsequent literary compositions of the learned class. This tradition continued

masses did not enjoy ‘authority’ with the scholars who controlled the medium of writing due to the low status attached to both the composer and the language of the composition. The collection of folk-songs and tales started during the nineteenth century, and

into the early twentieth century also but with a progressive erosion of authority when popular genres developed. The compositions

they have been widely researched. Currently, political activists like Gaddar are exploiting folk-tunes and rhythms with technological aids (microphone, loudspeaker, radio, television) and these are becoming extremely popular—enjoying wide acceptance by both the literate and the illiterate. Early inscriptions in Prakrit and Sanskrit had Telugu place names and personal names from c. the second century AD. Inscriptions:

Full-fledged Telugu inscriptions in prose are available from c. AD 575. Some later inscriptions reflect the literary tradition in

were originally written on palm leaves but transmitted through both written and oral (recitation) channels to succeeding genera4 For example, Lakshmipuram Inscription, c. AD 675, lines 12—17 in I elugu (B. Radhakrishna 1971: 15-16); also Nellore District Inscriptions, vol. 1, Darsi 1 (AD 1972), lines 71—96. ^ Nellore District Inscriptions, vol. I, Gudur-52 (p. 426, AD 1712—1713). The inscription refers to the gift of one tumu (a measure) in a putti (quintal) of grain harvested in the village to be given for the maintenance of a tank. The im¬ precatory part is: ‘Whoever corrects it/Whoever destroys ir/He will be like one/Who killed a cow and a brahmin near Ganga/He will be born to a donkey/ Whoever acts in a way violative of this/An untouchable (Madiga) will cohabit with his wife.’

82

83

Syllables of Sky

Shift of Authority in Written and Oral Texts

tions. The literary usage was fixed by both descriptive and prescrip¬ tive grammars written in Sanskrit and Telugu. Textual variations

upper class. The aim of these texts was to please the patrons and hence they lost relevance for society at large. They ceased to be

were traceable to copying and to the vicissitudes of reciters (Appakavlyam 1656). The target audience was mostly the educated class but these works were also read out and interpreted to semi¬ literate people (Narayana Rao 1978: 28-49).

human documents (V. Narayana Rao 1978: 50-66). From the

Sanskritic metres (syllable-based), occasionally combined with indigenous ones {mora-based), were employed in these texts. Ex¬ tensive borrowing from Sanskrit (tatsama) marked the campu style. The spoken language of even the contemporary educated deviated widely from the classical standard, as is evident from the language of prose inscriptions (Krishnamurti 1974: 449) right from the eleventh century. Following the Sanskritic tradition, the oral transmission of versified literary texts must have been more frequent than copying. But the oral compositions of those not exposed to Sanskritic learning did not enjoy authority with the literate class. The authority of these literary texts is, therefore, attributed to five factors the channel (written), the usage (classical standard), the theme (traditional high culture), the style (campu) and talented authors (acknowledged poets). This tradition continued well into the medieval and early modern period (up to c. the nineteenth century AD). These are mostly medieval and pre-medieval campu texts from AD 1500 to 1900. They departed from the epic and puranic texts in several respects, viz. (1) the theme is taken Prabandha texts:

from the puranas but restricted to one or two episodes; (2) they conform to the rules of Sanskrit poetics; (3) importance is given to the srhgararasa (‘the erotic sentiment’); (4) they conform to the classical standard in usage; and (5) the narration is subordinate to the description and the two are not integrated.

standpoint of poetic quality, only a few made a mark, like the works attributed to two or three of the court-poets of Krsnadevaraya (sixteenth century AD), viz. Manucaritra, Vasucaritra, Parijatapaharanam, etc. The post-medieval works show evidence

of their non-conformity to the classical standard usage. The edu¬ cated spoken language found its way, though minimally, into their works. By the same token, grammarians refused to accept their usage as literary standard. Cult-based texts:

Palkuriki Somanatha’s (c. thirteenth century AD)

Basavapuranam (the epic of Basava) and Panditaradhyacaritra

(The Biography of Panditaradhya) are Saivite works which differ from the puranas and prabandhas in four respects: (1) The themes are non-traditional and are drawn from the oral tradition relating to the legends of heroic Saiva saints; (2) they are part of a mass religious cult which flourished in Andhra and Karnataka and are anti-brahminical, anti-caste and anti-vedic; (3) the target audience was the common people—semi-literate and illiterate; and (4) the author has chosen the indigenous dvipada metre close to the folk lyric style and has professed to use native idiom, devoid of overSanskritization. Somanatha claimed to have followed the desi (in¬ digenous) tradition as opposed to the marga (Sanskritic) tradition. The impact of these texts on the Brahminical social order did not last long (Narayana Rao 1990: Intro. 15-21). Somanatha wrote Vrsadhipasatakam in the Sanskritic vrtta metre to get acceptability

by the literati of his time. He also quoted extensively from Sanskrit scriptures to establish his authority in Sanskrit scholarship. It must be said that Somanatha deviated considerably from the classical

Narayana Rao says that there was a qualitative shift in the patronage and target audience of the epic texts and the prabandha texts. The target audience for the puranas was also the common

standard language of the kavitraya in grammar and word-com¬ pounding which were rejected by grammarians as non-standard. In succeeding generations of scholarship, the works of Somanatha did not enjoy authority with the learned class. The poetry of

people, but for the prabandhas it was only the pleasure-seeking

Somanatha, according to literary critics, lacked both craftsmanship

84

Syllables of Sky

Shift of Authority in Written and Oral Texts

and literary merit when compared with the works of campu poets

composition of the text (N. Gopi 1990: Intro.). A total of 361

(P. Lakshmikantam: 141-7). Since Basavapurana could not ac¬

verses have been compiled and printed. The oral text was corrected

quire ‘authority’ with the literati, in the fifteenth century, Pidupar-

by generations of readers and reciters applying classical grammati¬ cal standards. The verses are widely read and quoted by all classes of people even in modern times. They are written in simple,

ti Somana of the Saivite faith (related to a disciple of Somana’s) recomposed the above work in the campu style and dedicated it to Palkuriki Somanatha. But even that could not get the approba¬

85

intelligible, yet expressive Telugu, reflecting Vemana's deep wis¬

tion of scholars, either because of the ‘theme5 or its poor poetic quality (P. Lakshmikantam: 500). Panditaradhya (c. twelfth cen¬ tury AD), was said to be a prolific writer in Sanskrit, Kannada and Telugu but only one text—Sivatattvasaramu—is available

dom, derived from his personal observation and experience. Most verses are critical comments on contemporary beliefs about wealth,

(P. Lakshmikantam: 110). This follows the regular classical stand¬ ard in language and metre.

meaningless (R. Ananthakrishna Sarma 1945).

Satakas (thirteenth-nineteenth centuries):

These have a unique place in Telugu literature. Their features are that: (1) they are

Devotional compositions: Annamacarya (c. fifteenth century AD), Ramadasu (c. sixteenth century AD) and the musical colossus Tyagaraja (c. nineteenth century AD) composed devotional songs

composed in a written form but are frequently memorized and chanted by individuals; (2) each text has over a hundred verses composed in Sanskritic or indigenous metres; (3) a word or phrase referring to the addressee (generally an epithet of a deity) ends

of Vaisnava deities—Venkateswara and Rama; these were perhaps composed orally but recorded by their disciples on copper plates and palm leaves, reflecting the revival of the oral tradition by the

each verse; (4) the theme is varied but essentially embodies the subjective experience of the poet and is non-narrative; and (5) the usage, by and large, conforms to the classical standard but with a relaxation in later centuries (N. Venkatarao 1966: Intro, i-xxv).

was shunned; even illiterate persons could get liberated through bhakti, irrespective of their caste and creed. Almost all sections of people were drawn to these genres which enjoyed immense accept¬

Satakas are mostly devotional, while some are didactic, some erotic and one or two even abusive.

tradition still continued. The spoken idiom of these saint poets was considered outside the scope of the works on grammar and rhetoric. The main shifts are in the channel (song), the authorship (learned class), the theme (devotional) and the target audience.

Palkuriki Somanatha5 s Vrsadhipasatakam (c. twelfth-thir¬ teenth century AD) is the first work in this genre. Several works

religion, caste, chastity, ritual and superstition. He condemned all religious practices—Vedic, Saivite and Vaisnavite—as being

learned class and a change in the target audience. Royal patronage

ance, although the authority of the campu style of the kavya

were written in the post-medieval period and some even in the present century. Kalahastiswara Satakam by Dhurjati (c. sixteenth century AD) is one of the most widely respected among these (V. Narayana Rao and Heifetz 1987: Intro.).

describe the standard usage of classical poets and also prescribe what is sadhu (correct) and what is asadhu (incorrect) in literary

The didactic verses of the saint Vemana (c. seventeenth cen¬ tury AD) are also considered Satakas since each verse ends in a vocative and the text is non-narrative. The verses must have been

the first poet, Nannaya (c. eleventh century AD) but the authorship is still disputed; the second one, Atharvanakarikavali (c. sixteenth

orally composed by the author but recorded by his disciples

century

and followers. The enormity of textual variation reflects the oral

is also of disputed authorship and date; the third one is a Sanskrit

Texts on grammar and metre:

There are two kinds of texts which

usage. (1) Sanskrit texts: Andhrasabdacintamani is attributed to

AD)

by DvitintrinI Sltaramakavi (called Atharvanacarya)

commentary on the first work called Ahobalapanditiyam (c.. eight-

86

Syllables of Sky

Shift ofAuthority in Written and Oral Texts

eenth century AD). All these works were traditionally respected as standard grammars/commentaries. (2) Telugu texts: Starting with

domination in the south, the Hindu religion was threatened; there

Andhrabhasabhusanam by Ketana (c. AD 1250), there are several grammars down to the seventeenth century written in verse form;

poets. ‘Pure Telugu’ writings came in this period of decadence when some writers wanted to distinguish themselves by resorting to literary feats. Ponnikanti Telaganna’s Yayaticaritra (title in

some deal with metrics and also rhetorics. A poetic commentary

87

was political instability and a lack of patronage to respectable

on a part of Andhrasabdacintamani was Appakaviyam by Kaku-

Sanskrit!) is one such, dedicated to a Kutub Shahi chief (Arudra,

nuri Appakavi (c. AD 1656) and there was earlier a Telugu prose commentary on the same work by Balasaraswati (c. AD 1608).

vol. 8: 141-8). All but Sanskrit tatsamas(unassimilated loans) were

The division of marga (Sanskritic) and desi (indigenous) is also reflected in the grammatical texts. Based on these, Cinnaya-

words were also treated as ‘native’ words alongside the words of

suri (AD 1858) wrote a grammar of Telugu in Sanskrit sutras, imitating the Astadhyayi of Panini, and also one in Telugu sutras called Balavyakaranamu, which became the most formidable and comprehensive grammar to uphold and support the ‘purity' of

Telugu’ had hardly made any impact in Telugu. On the contrary,

classical standards (N. Venkatarao 1959-60: 1-2).

treated as accatenugu or ‘pure Telugu’; Prakrit and Perso-Arabic Dravidian origin. While maintaining the purity of native vocabu¬ lary has always been favoured in Tamil, the trend to write in ‘pure such works are condemned by literary critics as sub-standard (ibid). This shows the value attached to Sanskrit expressions in Telugu writing, whether in prose or poetry.

Classical literary texts have been corrected, allegedly, by suc¬ cessive generations of readers and copyists of palm leaf manuscripts following the ‘norms' of usage of the ‘kavitraya’. Even the oral texts of the Saiva poets and the verses of Vemana could not escape this mutilation. The authority of classical usage, reinforced by Cinnayasuri’s Balavyakaranamu (c. AD 1858) led to a great literary debate and conflict between the classicists and modernists in the early twen¬ tieth century, when it came to deciding the correct usage in textbooks meant for students with Telugu as their mother tongue. The modernists lost the battle in AD 1915, but a modern standard has gradually evolved since the forties and has come to stay in the last five decades (B. Radhakrishna 264-94 in Krishnamurti ed. 1974; Krishnamurti 1974: 388-417).

Prose texts: While gadya (ornate prose) has been known from the beginning in campu works, prose, as an independent genre, did not evolve until the nineteenth century as a vehicle of intellectual and social communication. There were a few texts of devotional vacanas (literary prose) addressed to deities from AD 1300 to 1600 but they strictly followed the gadya tradition and the classical standard usage. The vacana (religious lyric) genre did not develop in Telugu as a literary type as it did in Kannada (A.K. Ramanujan 1973). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a few prose works appeared, occasionally incorporating contemporary spoken forms, thus deviating from the classical standard. In the early part of the nineteenth century, Bible translations and textbooks by missionaries were in the contemporary spoken style of the edu¬ cated.

Verse texts in 'pure Telugu : A researcher has identified 57 writers

The tide turned in favour of classical usage by Cinnayasuri’s

and 91 texts of this type that belong to the sixteenth-nineteenth

prose rendering of a part of the Pahcatantra (.Mitralabhamu,

centuries AD (Radhakrishna 1981: 142-56); 50 of these are said to be versified lexicons of classified ‘pure’ Telugu synonyms. The golden age of Telugu literature declined after the fall of the Vijaya-

Mitrabhedamu). K. Viresalingam, who heralded the modern liter¬ ary movement in Telugu, used a simplified classical style in his

nagara empire in AD 1565. With the expansion of Mohammedan

.innnpted almost all genres in Telugu—the novel, the prahasana

I nci writings called saralagranthikam (simplified classical). He

Syllables of Sky

Shift ofAuthority in Written and Oral Texts

(comedy), the essay, criticism, news reporting, scientific works, etc. His literary works became the vehicle of a larger social reform

alike. His mission is to motivate and instigate the oppressed sections to take up arms and bring about a revolution against the

movement and his writings had a great impact on the entire social structure. Women’s education, abolition of child marriage, remar¬

established order of society, as part of the ideology of a radical (naxalite) political movement. When asked by a reporter how he had become a star attraction, Gaddar replied: ‘Maybe people want to look at me, or watch me sing and dance. I don’t think that all

88

riage of widows, religious superstition, corruption in public life, etc. constituted the major themes of his writings, which brought

89

those who witness my shows subscribe to my ideology.’ He at¬

about an intellectual ferment among the educated Telugus. (For an extensive survey of prose literature in Telugu, see N. Venkata

tained all-India fame when one of his recent shows in Delhi was

Rao 1954; G.V. Ramamurti 1933: Gadyacintamam.)

covered by the Observer Newstrack. This phenomenon reflects ‘authority’ given to orally transmitted folk-songs (composed in

Modern Period

writing) which focus on themes that expose the existing socio¬ economic and political order.

I have deliberately refrained from examining modern Telugu texts because of the large variation in text types and a total shift in the attitudes and value systems of manifold target audiences. Classical poetry, as a literary genre, has practically disap¬ peared; free verse is published and read moderately, mostly on themes of social concern. Fiction (the short story and the novel) enjoys the widest readership; the cinema, radio, television and video are the most popular mass media. Newspapers—dailies, weeklies and monthlies—and news magazines have gone up in circulation and readership. Folk-songs and folk-plays have declined even among the illiterate masses, because of the cinema and the video. Dance performances (Kucipudi and Bharatanatyam) are patronized by the elite class. The Telugu theatre has

A Typology of Texts A typology of Telugu texts is provided in terms of features, such as: Channel:

(+oral) = vocal medium; (-oral) = written medium;

these features are applied to the parameters of composition and transmission. Wherever possible, or where it is known that a text is transmitted both orally and through the written mode, the less frequent rendering is marked in parentheses, e.g. [(oral) (written)]. Form: A verse is recited; a song or lyric is sung; a tale is narrated;

lost its popular appeal. However, one spectacular movement in recent times needs

a prose text is recited or read. In Telugu there are two verbs— caduwUy ‘to read/recite’ and padu—‘to sing’, which refer to how literary texts, written and oral, are transmitted. These modes are

mention. A radical folk singer, Gaddar (pseudonym), has adapted folk tunes to compose many songs, exposing the exploitation of

captured by two features: [+sing] —» [-read/—recite]; [-sing] —> [+read/+recite]. It must be understood that in terms of Telugu

tribals and oppressed classes by politicians, liquor barons and unethical landlords. He has organized a folk repertoire called

(and the other literary south Dravidian languages), the verb ca-

Jananatyamandali and gives performances (singing in simple cos¬ tumes and acting to the beat of a folk-drum) which attract mam¬ moth audiences throughout the state. These audiences comprise all classes of people—the aristocracy, the middle class, intellectuals and oppressed sections—urban and rural, literate and illiterate,

duwu is taken to represent a single feature. Content/Theme: With respect to a given time-frame and target audience, the theme is classified as (+high) = (+traditional); (+high) refers to high culture or the marga tradition (epic, purana, etc.); (riow) = (-traditional, +local) which refers to a regional/local

Syllables of Sky

Shift ofAuthority in Written and Oral Texts

theme of the desi (indigenous) tradition not borrowed from any work of the marga tradition.

202-63 in Krishnamurti 1974). We can specify the following

Target audience: The status of a target audience is also indicated

(1)

90

broad varieties of style as follows:

by the feature (±high). This refers to the people understood to belong to the educated class; in old Telugu, those learned in Sanskrit belonged to this class; in the medieval period, those who were learned in Sanskrit and Telugu literature constituted the (+high) class; in modern times, those who are learned in the

(1)

(2)

(2) (3)

(+low) = (-high); the non-literate or illiterate class. (-high, —low) = the literate class belonging to the middle

(4)

level of education and social status. (±high, -low) = both the high and middle level literate class

the contemporary speech of the educated as evident in Saivite (3)

(4)

works, post-medieval prabandhas, etc. (-classical standard, —modern standard) = The liberalized classical style in the direction of modern standard but not quite like the latter, viz. saralagranthika. (-classical standard, ±modern standard) = The liberalized classical style with a greater admixture of the contemporary spoken forms of the high and middle classes.

(5)

(+modern standard) = The current written standard in vari¬ ous forms of literature and mass media.

but not (+low). (5)

century AD), etc. (±classical standard, -modern standard) = General conform¬ ity with the classical standard but with different degrees of departure from it and admixture with select expressions from

(+high) = (—low); the learned class with the highest social status.

(+classical standard) = The usage of the kavitraya and that of later poets which is cited by traditional grammarians as authentic, e.g. Srinatha (c. fourteenth-fifteenth century AD), and some prabandha poets like Peddana (early sixteenth

regional language and/or English are considered the educated class. The high class has members who enjoy social recognition and status and are perceived as such by the class of people who are (+low) or (-high). The following five social classes can be estab¬ lished with these features:

91

(-high, ±low) = the moderately literate and low class, ex¬

Time-frame: Again two features are used here—(±old) and

cluding the class (+high).

(dtmodern).

These features, therefore, capture five social levels in terms of a complex substructure involving social status as a function of education, caste and other factors of prestige within a given his¬ torical context. Language usage: Two features are employed here, viz. (±classical standard) and (±modern standard); the classical standard was the respected style of usage until about the middle of the present century; the other feature (+modern standard) has enjoyed author¬ ity during the last fifty years or so; where (±modern standard) is used in old and medieval periods, it refers to the spoken variety of the contemporary educated class, with which the classical liter¬ ary standard got progressively mixed (K. Mahadeva Sastry 1974:

(1)

(+old) = From the earliest historic period till about AD 1550.

(2)

(-old, -modern) = Medieval period, AD 1550-1900.

(3)

(+modern) = AD 1900 onwards. The features responsible for the authority enjoyed by a text

type are given below. In generative phonology, binary features are used to specify phon¬ emes or classes of phonemes, e.g. the features 'high’ and ‘low’ com¬ bined with V and ‘- values can specify three vowel phonemes, i.e. i = (+high), a = (+low), ae = (-high, -low). Note that •thigh —> -low; +low —» -high; = ‘is always’, but not the re¬ verse; the middle vowel is, therefore, specifiable, as (-high, -low).

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Syllables of Sky

92

94

Shift ofAuthority in Written and Oral Texts

Syllables of Sky

When the subclass i e has to be specified as a set, we may state

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w X V 4-' w^^/)/^rofManikkavacakar, 1972, Tiruppanantaj: Sri Kacimatam. Tiruvilaiyatarpuranam of Parancotimunivar, 1965, Madras: Kazhagam.

P

oets of Tamil Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities have all written praise poems in the pillaittamilgenre. The pillaittamiTs distinguishing feature is that the poet addresses

a deity or extraordinary human, lauding him or her in the form of a child. For example, Tamil poets have written pillaittamils to the child Murukan, child Mlnatci, child Muhammad and baby Jesus. Pillaittamils conventionally contain ten sections, one of which is composed of verses addressed to the moon. In this section the poet uses various rhetorical strategies in an attempt to persuade the moon that it should come and act as a playmate to the child. Although poets composing within the pillaittamil genre all accept the set of literary conventions prescribed for moon verses, they shape the verses in ways consistent with their own religious tradi¬ tions. Despite the fact that poets of pillaittamils within each of the three religious traditions clearly saw themselves as participants in a shared tradition of literary composition, much of the scholarly literature on pillaittamils—both by Indians and non-Indians— treats their poetry in three airtight compartments (Hindu, Muslim or Christian). The few monograph-length studies that have ap-

184

Syllables of Sky Moon Poetry in the Pillaittamil

185

peared on pillaittamils deal only with Hindu pillaittamils;1 surveys of Tamil literature tend to isolate Muslim pillaittamils and put

on a child. The name of the genre means ‘Tamil (poetry or

them in separate sections on Muslim literature so that their links

literature) for/to a child’. The male poet takes on the persona of

with Hindu pillaittamil poets are obscured;2 and there have been,

a female caregiver, usually assumed to be a mother, and expresses

to my knowledge, no substantial studies of Christian pillaittamils.

praise about or to the little girl or boy who is the subject of the

Instead of using this method of studying Hindu, Muslim and

poem. In addition to its special focus on the child, the pillaittamil

Christian pillaittamils, this paper presents evidence demonstrating

can also be recognized by its characteristic ten-part poetic struc¬

the shared use of the genre’s literary conventions and the links

ture. The first section asks for protection of the baby, the second

between poets of different religious persuasions. Pillaittamil con¬

section asks the infant to move gently back and forth, while the

ventions are used by poets from different religious communities

third is a lullaby. Next come three sections in which the verses ask

both to praise religious figures of importance and as contributions

the infant respectively to clap hands, give a kiss and come hither.

to the shared genre of poetic tradition. I begin with some back¬

In the seventh section, the poet requests that the moon come to

ground information about the pillaittamil genre. The remainder

play with the child. The last three sections differ according to the

of the paper examines the four conventional strategies for moon

sex of the child. If it is a boy the poet asks him to pull his toy

poems, analysing how they are treated by selected Hindu, Muslim

chariot, requests that he not knock down the sandcastles of the

and Christian poets.

little girls and requests that he beat his little drum. If it is a girl the poet asks her to play jacks, swing on her swing and bathe in the river.3 The remainder of this paper will analyse the seventh The Pillaittamil Genre

section, verses addressed to the moon.

The pillaittamil, the most significant genre among the ninety-six

The first major extant Hindu pillaittamil, Tiruccentur Pillait¬

cirrilakkiyam (or shorter poetic works) of Tamil literature, centres

tamil dates from the fifteenth century.4 Written by the poet Pakalikkuttan, it addresses Murukan as worshipped in his temple

1 For example, see Cirrilakkiyaccorpolivukal—Irantavatu Manatu (1959) for one of the earliest surveys of Hindu pijlaittamil. literature. This volume contains the proceedings of a Saiva Siddhanta Conference designed to foster an apprecia¬

pattern in scholarship on Islamic literature in south India is Fatima (1990),

tion of the jewels of Tamil poetry. A number of such conferences were held,

which compares certain literary features of pillaittamils to Muhammad with

among which this second one focused on pillaittamils. Similar volumes were

those of Hindu pillaittamils.

pioduced for other examples of T amil genres, always limited to Hindu examples.

3 There is some small variation among these last three sections for females.

Even a recent survey of pillaittamils, Mutturacan (1984), focuses on pillaittamils

I hey seem to have developed later and in less uniform ways than the last three

to Hindu gods, goddesses, saints and modern cultural and political heroes, and

sections for males.

excludes Muslim and Christian examples of the genre.

4 The very earliest extant pillaittamil. is Kutottuhkan Pillaittamil (written in

2 For example, see the well-known survey by Mu. Varadarajan (1980) which

a courtly milieu in praise of a Chola king). See the edition edited by

deals with all Islamic literature in a separate chapter and all Christian literature

T.S. Kaiikataran (1974). I do not deal with it in this article because it is seen

in yet another chapter. The chapter called ‘Religious Works’ does not include

primarily as a court pillaittamil. to a king, rather than a devotional pillaittamil.

Muslim or Christian religious works. Similarly, in most cases, when scholars

to a Hindu deity.

write about Muslim pillaittamils, they treat them separately rather than placing

One Jain pillaittamil. is also extant: Atinatar Pillaittamil (1956). Very little

them in the context of Hindu and Christian pillaittamils. See, for example, the

is known about this text, which has no explanatory commentary. Since there is

article on pillaittamils in Abdul Rahim (1979). A notable exception to this

only a single Jain pijlaittamil, rather than a stream of pillaittamils (as exist in the Hindu, Muslim and Christian literary traditions), I do not analyse it here.

Syllables of Sky

Moon Poetry in the Pillaittamil

at Tiruccentur.5 Subsequently, among Hindu poets the pillaittamil became a favourite learned genre used to praise many deities

eighteenth century, several Muslim writers who composed in Tamil (as opposed to Persian or Tamil-Arabic) began to write

—especially the Saivite goddesses and Murukan, the Youthful’ deity. Research indicates that over 200 pillaittamils have been

pillaittamils.10 The vast majority of Hindu pillaittamils were ad¬ dressed to gods and goddesses (although a few were written to

written to Hindu gods and goddesses.6 7 In this paper I analyse verses not only from Pakalikkiittan’s poem to Murukan just men¬

saints and gurus), but orthodox Islam prohibits anthropomorphiz¬ ing God. It is, therefore, not surprising that in their pillaittamils

tioned, but also from two poems by the seventeenth-century poet,

Muslim writers chose to address not the divine but the prophet

Kumarakurupara Cuvamikal, one to Murukan titled Muttukkumaracami Filialttamiland another to the goddess Mlnatci called Maturaiminatciyammai Pillaittamilf

Muhammad, his daughter Fatima, or the holy men whose tombs

Bhakti texts about the diverse ways of relating to one’s chosen deity enumerate a multiplicity of relationships.8 Among them, particularly significant remain: seeing the deity as one’s master

one of the most admired being Napikal Nayakam Pillaittamil

and oneself as a servant; seeing the deity as one’s beloved and

in this essay. More recently, several Tamils of the Christian persuasion also

186

oneself as a lover; and seeing the deity as a child and oneself as a parent. Within the Hindu poetic and religious worldview, thus, pillaittamil poetry plays a recognized theological role. As a genre, it may be said to provide a full-blown literary structure for the expression of devotion to a Hindu deity in the form of a child.9 Over time the pillaittamil genre was embraced by poets out¬ side the Hindu tradition, and they appropriated the genre for their

187

are located in the cities along the south-eastern seacoast in Tamilnadu. At least sixteen pillaittamils to Muhammad were composed, (.Pillaittamil to the Foremost of the Prophets) by Seyyitu Anapiyya Pulavar, published in 1883.11 Two of his moon verses are analysed

found the pillaittamil suited to their desire for poetic expression. No pillaittamils were written to God the Father, but at least two are addressed to Baby Jesus. In fact, the stories of the birth and childhood of Jesus fit particularly well with the genre’s emphasis on childhood. Two verses below are taken from Iyecupiran Pillaittamil (Pillaittamil to Lord Jesus), written by Arul Celia tturai

own religious purposes. Most significantly, beginning in the late

in 1985.12 ~ This paper explores the notion of religious pluralities in south

5 The Tamil text upon which I am basing my translation is found in an

India in a very specific poetic context. Because the pillaittamil is

anthology of Saiva pillaittamils called Pillaittamilkkottu> 2 vols. (1970 and

a multi-religious genre, it provides an intriguing case study of the

1979). This collection contains pillaittamils previously published separately, bound together in two volumes. Volume one contains 5 pillaittamils to Muru¬

ways in which poets from different traditions worked with some

kan, including Muttukumaracami Pillaittamil and Tiruccentur Pillaittamil. 6 For two overlapping lists of existing pillaittamils, see the appendix in Mutturacan (1984: 217-34) and Vf. Cokkalihkam’s introduction to Kamalalaya Amman Pillaittamil (1969: 3-18). 7 These two pillaittamils are found in volume 2 of the collection cited above. Volume two contains four piHaittamils to Saivite goddesses. 8 For a discussion of these relationships, as categorized, for example, by Sanskrit bhakti writers from the Bengali tradition, see Dimock (1966: 49). The emotion of treating God as a child is called vatsalya. 9 For a ground-breaking study of a Hindi example of bhakti poetry addressed to a child, see Bryant (1978).

of the same literary conventions. The genre originated, developed and flourished within the Hindu tradition for several hundred years, and hundreds of Hindu pillaittamils have been written. 10 See Fatima (1990), chapter 2, for an overview of the chronology of Muslim writing of pillaittamils. 11 Napikal Nayakam Pillaittamil (1975). For translations and analyses of a number of verses from this text and comparison with some Hindu pillaittamils, see Richman (1993). 12 For translations and analyses of some verses from this text, see Richman (1995).

Syllables of Sky

Moon Poetry in the Pillaittamil,

There are about twenty extant Muslim pillaittamils and at least four Christian pillaittamils. I have chosen my examples from the

make excellent playmates. The evidence upon which poets draw

most well-known and admired poems in each religious tradition. Since each piljaittamil_ contains one hundred verses, it would be

qualities. In addition, many similarity verses are built around a

188

189

in order to make their case range from heroic deeds to personal series of puns, enabling the poet to simultaneously show off his

difficult to do a comparative analysis on such a broad range of

semantic virtuosity and say appropriate things about two different

verses. I have, therefore, limited myself to the moon verses in this essay.

entities using the same word. Such a verse is called ciletai, ‘a

Tradition ascribes to the moon verses the title ‘tiger of the sections’, that is, the hardest to master among the ten sections.13 An aspiring poet shows his mettle by the degree to which he can

interpretation . The verse below, from Muttakkumaracami Pillaittamil com¬ posed by Kumarakurupara and addressed to Murukan, is a vir¬

write a moon verse that excels, according to the prescribed criteria

tuoso example of such punning. The first half of the verse can be

for moon verses. The speaker addresses the verse directly to the moon, attempting to cajole or intimidate him into becoming a

read in two different ways, one referring to Murukan and the other

rhetorical figure in which a word ora phrase is capable of a double •

.

•

>16

to the moon, as the double translation indicates:

playmate for the child.14 A poet displays his virtuosity by the creativity with which his verse attempts to convince the moon to agree to his request. Traditionally, poets writing moon verses may use four different upayams or strategies: camam (similarity/con¬ ciliation), petam (difference), tanam (the [promise of a] gift) or tantam ([threat of] punishment).15

Muttukkumaracami PillaittamU 62 (Reading 1: About the moon) Because, filled with ambrosia, you come as the full moon god in a form praised throughout the worlds Because you appear in the huge, surging ocean of bliss

Similarity

into which the sky river crashes

The notion of compatibility informs the similarity argument. The Because when the secretive lotus closes,

poet attempts to convince the moon that he and the child share

the waterlily opens

so many characteristics and/or accomplishments that they would

like the mouth of an uninhibited hillwoman Because you pour

13 Mutturacan (1984: 39) discusses this traditional description of the moon verses.

benevolent gracious coolness so that crops thrive

In this genre the moon is perceived as male and the stars are thought to

as life in all the worlds

be his wives who orbit around him. These four strategies seem to be adapted from the four classic strategies

Because you are one of the celestial eyes

of conflict set out in the Arthasastra. See Shamasastry (1961: 74), where the

of Siva, whose matted hair

strategies (upayam) are listed in a slightly different order as conciliation, bribery,

holds the crescent moon and the Ganges

causing dissension and open attack. In moon poems, in a sense the cosmos has now become a kind of arthasastric blueprint, with the moon taking on the role of enemy, the extraordinary child as the powerful agent and the political strategies as divine play.

16

Fabricius (1972: 398).

Syllables of Sky

190

(Reading 2: About Murukan) Because, filled with ambrosia,

Moon Poetry in the Pillaittamil

191

contains a ‘swing phrase’ upon which the dual interpretation rests. In the first stanza the swing phrase is mulu mati which can mean

he comes as the god of complete wisdom

either ‘full moon’, referring to a lunar phase or ‘complete wisdom’,

in a form praised throughout the worlds

referring to an attribute of Lord M^urukan. Some stanzas require a bit more decoding. For example, stanza three has as its swing

Because he appeared from the huge, surging ocean of bliss into which the sky river crashes

phrase karattamarai Tamarai means lotus and kora can mean either ‘hand’ or a form of the verb ‘to conceal’. In the case of the moon, this stanza alludes to the belief that the lotus closes to

Because when he joins his lotus hands in greeting,

conceal and protect its honey with its petals at night, while the

the mouth of the uninhibited hillwoman opens like a waterlily

waterlily opens up in the moonlight. In the case of Murukan,

Because he pours

seeing his beloved hillwoman, Valli, her mouth opens into a smile

beneficent cool grace

as beautiful as a blooming waterlily.

so that lives—the crops in all the worlds— thrive Because he is the spark from the eye of Siva whose matted hair holds the crescent moon and the Ganges

when he closes his lotus-like hand in a gesture of greeting upon

The verse combines familiar lore about the moon with al¬ lusions to myths particular to a specific religious tradition. The tradition that moonlight makes the lotus close and the waterlily open, for example, is one available to any Tamil poet. Conversely, the myth about Murukan’s love for Valli, the sensuous woman who belongs to a hill tribe, comes from the Hindu corpus, a pool

[Ending common to both readings]

of poetic imagery upon which a Hindu poet can draw and from which he can fashion imagery that his audience will understand.

This noble one resembles you, Moon. And there’s no other companion like him, you see.

Next comes a moon verse from the recently written pillaittamil to the baby Jesus. It also revolves around punning, but the puns

With this one who created the world of the gods

translate well into English, so a single translation of the verse

and all the other worlds as well,

suffices to convey its meaning. The first part of the verse applies

Moon, come to play.

to both the moon and to Jesus:

With Skanda who came to make gorgeous Kantapuri prosper, Moon, come to play. The overall structure of the verse falls into two sections: the first part, applying to both the moon and Murukan, and the

Iyecupiran Pillaittamil 61 Since you get light from another source Since you rise high in the sky, while people watch

remaining explication, in which the poet concludes that the two

Since you receive life again,

would make good companions. Each of the stanzas of the verse

even though your body dies

in the first half contains a verb whose semantic range is broad

Since you remove the darkness of the world

enough to apply both to the moon and to Murukan. Each also

with your light

Moon Poetry in the Pillaittamil,

193

Syllables of Sky

192

conscious statement about his goal makes it clear that he sees

Since you conceal your vast form in a round white shape Since you bear a blemish Since those who look at stars seek you

himself manoeuvring within the genre and in competition with previous writers of ‘tiger’ verses. Like Kumarakurupara’s verse to Murukan, written centuries before, Cellatturai’s verse also combines observations of the moon’s behaviour with allusion to religious story. His reference

Since you give light to everyone, caring for your supplicants17 Since the hero of my poem, the Lord born of a virgin who conceived through the Holy Spirit, is like you Moon in the beautiful sky, you should immediately agree to play joyously and happily.

to receiving life again after the body dies alludes to the moon’s phases of appearance and disappearance, while his comment that the moon bears a blemish refers to the mark on the moon that poets consider a flaw in its beauty. His use of Christian tradition and theology is crucial to the verse. The beginning describes Jesus as receiving his light from another source, namely the Father. His rising high and receiving life again alludes to the ascension and the resurrection. The con¬ cealment of Jesus in a round white form refers to the communion wafer. The reference to Jesus ‘removing the darkness of the world’

With the one who is entwined with Tamil poetry flowing like a waterfall. Moon, come to play.

and his birth from ‘a virgin conceived through the Holy Spirit’ are self-conscious allusions to language from the Christian liturgy that will resonate with Christian listeners.

With the son of God seated on the right side of the gracious Lord, Moon, come to play. In my conversations with the poet of this verse, Arid Cellat-

Difference Differences have inspired a number of clever verses, some quite

turai, he made it clear that not only was he aware of the long

humorous. In essence, the strategy of difference argues that the

tradition of similarity verses in Tamil poetry, but that he sought

child surpasses the moon in so many ways that the moon should

to live up to the challenge of writing in the ‘tiger’ verse by excelling

consider himself privileged to come and act as his or her playmate.

in some way, within the confines of literary convention. His

In the following verse, from a pillaittamil to the Goddess Mln-

strategy was to pack more comparisons between Jesus and the

atci in Madurai, the poet Kumarakurupara builds his verse around

moon into his verse than previous poets had done. While many

witty insults, based on astronomical and religious traditions about

previous poets had noted four or five similarities (as the first verse

the moon’s behaviour and mythology:

translated in this essay shows), in Cellatturai’s verse, he was proud to note that he had incorporated eight comparisons.18 His self-

This term means both supplicants and night blossoms . The moon gives light for flowers that open in the dark and Jesus gives salvation to all the members of his flock. 18 Interview with Arul Cellatturai, 23 July 1991, Tirucchirappalli.

Maturaiminatciyammai Pillaittamil 64 They say you are the by-product spit out after the gods and their families churned, poured, drank, and enjoyed the celestial ambrosia.

Syllables of Sky

194

They say you are the leftovers vomited by the black planet, which radiates fiery poison. They say you are a consumptive,

Moon Poetry in the Pillaittamil

195

polluted. The poet also refers to the myth of the moon’s origin as the cause of another distasteful aspect of its nature. According to puranic myth, the gods churned the ocean to secure the celestial nectar at the bottom of the sea. Since the moon also emerged from

full of blotches

the ocean during the churning, the poet denigrates it as a mere

and covered with shrinking skin.

by-product of the project.

They say people should not look at you on a certain day each month.

Kumarakurupara contrasts the moon’s polluting and inauspi¬ cious behaviour with the goddess Mlnatci, graceful as a young female elephant. He emphasizes her auspiciousness in the refrain,

The sea-girt earth utterly despises you.

by linking her with the abundant water in the Vaikai River. Poets

No refuge except this one, you see,

conventionally use hyperbole to praise a god or goddess in Indian

removes the terrible flaws of those like you,

poetry by indicating how the deity transforms the area around its

who try to flee with orbiting stars.

shrine into rich, fertile land. In this refrain, the poet emphasizes

With the young elephant cow

Minatci’s effect on her city by commenting that the Vaikai River

who bathes in the Vaikai River

rises as high as the heavens, filling the Karpaka Forest there with

which floods the Karpaka Forest

its life-giving waters. The moon’s qualities are dwarfed in com¬

with its high, surging waters,

parison to the greatness of the Goddess Mlnatci. He is so im¬

Moon, come to play. With the fair creeper, consort of the god with the pure golden bow, Moon, come to play.

poverished and impure that in order to gain the refuge she offers him, he must abandon his lofty home and come to Madurai, filled with purifying waters and protected by the powerful goddess. The same strategy of denigrating the moon in contrast with the subject of the poem, here Muhammad, occurs in this Muslim

The denigration in this verse comes partly from observations

example of a strategy of difference from Napikal Nayakam

about the moon—its disappearance during an eclipse, its waning

Pillaittamil by Seyyitu Anapiyya Pulavar, addressed to the moon:

and waxing, its mottled surface. Poets allude to these familiar features of the moon in many texts, but the humour of the verse comes from the incongruous ways in which the poet interprets the moon’s behaviour. For example, since the moon’s size de¬

Napikal Nayakam Pillaittamil 67 Look, you have a group of stars but he has a group of luminary saints.

creases, the poet accuses it of being diseased, afflicted with con¬ sumption and wasting away. Most of the insults the poet hurls at the moon only make

Look, you have a hare but he has persevered in living according to the word of God.

sense in the context of Hindu mythology. For example, in puranic tradition, the coming and going of the moon during an

Look, in the wide sky you are powerful

eclipse occurs because Rahu, a planet (or snake, in some versions),

but he’s powerful in earth and sky.

swallows and later vomits out the moon; food that has been tainted

Look, your light changes

by another’s saliva is impure, so after the eclipse, the moon is

196

Syllables of Sky but he uses the words of revelation to change the infidels.

Moon Poetry in the Pillaittamily

197

tinguished by his efforts to live according to the words of God. The fourth comparison implies that whereas the moon is inevitab¬

Look, you have the artful sixteen phases

ly changed by his cycle of growth and decline, the Prophet uses

but he knows all sixty-four arts.

the Quran to effect change in the minds of infidels and show them

Look, your space grows and then decreases

the truth. In both the Hindu and the Muslim verse, the poets

but he doesn’t have the misery of decreasing.

have drawn upon shared conventions as well as traditions from

Because he is the one longed for, with him, Moon, come to play.

their own religious texts in order to praise the goddess or Muham¬ mad respectively by contrasting her or him with the lowly moon.

With the Prophet from the Quraish lineage

Giving

praised by the whole world, Moon, come and play.

Verses based on the strategy of giving promise the moon that the

This verse once again exhibits an awareness of a shared poetic

child will save him from some peril or give him something he

set of conventions about the moon and greatness. The moon’s

dearly wants, or both. This strategy enables the poet to praise the

phases are divided into sixteen; the word for ‘phases’, kalai, also

subject of the poem by making reference to great deeds accom¬

means ‘the arts’. In pan-Indian literary tradition, a person who is

plished in his or her adult life, while simultaneously revealing

talented, intelligent, urbane and knowledgeable is said to possess

certain anxieties and fears attributed to the moon. In the following

the sixty-four arts. Thus the moon, with only his pitiful sixteen

verse, from the same pillaittamil praising Muhammad, Seyittu

arts, is outnumbered by the wise and talented Muhammad, who

Anapiyya Pulavar portrays Muhammad both according to shared

possesses sixty-four.

poetic moonlore and according to legendary accounts of the great

Islamic tradition is evoked in the verse as well. The first comparison in the verse is built upon the pivotal word kulu, ‘group’. Both the moon and the Prophet are surrounded by ad¬ mirers and followers; the moon dwells only among his stellar wives

deeds performed in his life, as preserved in Muslim tradition.

Napikal Nayakam Pillaittamil 69 He is the king who will end

but the Prophet has the company of the illustrious saints.19 In the

the suffering the cakravaka bird causes you,

second pair, the key word is muyal, meaning both ‘hare’ and ‘to

you see.

persevere’. In Indian moonlore, what Westerners call the ‘man in

He is the peacock with iridescent feathers

the moon’ is seen as a ‘hare’. The second meaning of muyal gives

who removes your trembling

the line a different interpretation, implying that although the

caused by long-bodied Rahu,

moon is blemished by the mark of the hare, the Prophet is dis-

you see. In Mecca, city of justice

19 This comparison refers to the hadlth, ‘My companions are like stars’. The

that appeared as a ruler

comparison also alludes to Prophet Muhammad’s role as ‘pole’ (rendered in

for the sea-girt world,

Tamil as kuttupu, a transliteration of the Arabic qutf). The Arabic term refers

he will stand before you.

to the mystical notion of the Prophet as the pole or axis of the universe, around which everything (including the stars) orbits.

For the sake of King Habib,

Moon Poetry in the Pillaittamik

Syllables of Sky

198

199

the sovereign of kings,

compassion towards the lowly moon, in this verse by Kumara-

he will command you to come

kurupara:

on the new moon day on the right path without delay.

Maturaiminatciyammai Pillaittamil 65

Before he does that,

The goddess overlooked that you ran away

come with your waxing beauty,

after robbing the holy beauty

and worship his lotus feet with love. With the precious Prophet, son of Amina,

flowing from her bright face when you rose as the full moon in your new white garb and poured streaming ambrosia

Moon, come to play. and that you stole the beauty With the greatest of prophets from the Quraish lineage, praised by the whole world,

of her radiant forehead, when you shed moonlight as the crescent moon

Moon, come to play. and that you sit there The first two stanzas of this verse gain their effect through the use of traditional poetic lore about the moon. According to tradi¬

while women with eyes wide as fish offer cowdung and worship you

tion, the cakravaka bird pecks at the moon and causes him pain, a pain that the speaker promises that Muhammad can end. In the second stanza the poet refers to the belief that during an eclipse the snake Rahu swallows the moon. Since the traditional enemy

and that you live on her husband's crown along with her co-wife. So she called you for play.

of the snake is the peacock, the poet likens Muhammad to a

Isn’t it, therefore, right to speak

peacock, who will save the moon from this horrible fate.

of the great compassion of this woman?

Then, the poet moves to a famous story from the life of

With the princess who gave kings their crowns,

Muhammad. According to legends of miraculous feats, the

so they could place the entire earth

Prophet caused the moon to come before him (and split it), at the

on their shoulders and comfort their subjects,

request of King Habib.20 The poet mentions this future action

Moon, come to play.

and suggests that the moon should get acquainted with the child Muhammad before this fateful day. The poet urges the moon to show his devotion to the Prophet by worshipping his feet. By

With the fair creeper, consort of the god with the pure golden bow, Moon, come to play.

coming to be the Prophet’s playmate in this way, the moon will gain the gift of freedom from physical harm caused by the bird

This verse builds upon the notion that the moon received all

and the snake. The Goddess Mlnatci’s gift, in contrast, is her tolerance and

his powers and beauty from the goddess. Because she is gracious, she ignores his thievery and arrogance in stealing her light. Because she takes pity on him, she will allow him to play with her, even

For a discussion of the significance of this incident in Islamic poetry, see Schimmel (1985: 69-70).

though he just sits stupidly in the sky while women offer him

Syllables of Sky

200

cowdung on the full moon day. A mark of her great generosity is

Moon Poetry in the Pillaittamil,

201

With the lord of the gods,

that this goddess, upon whom kings are dependent for prosperous

the one from Tiruccentur

rule, will accept the lowly moon as her playmate. The references

with the sharp spear,

here to her husband Siva and the Pandiyan kings, for whom she

Moon, come and play.

acts as a patroness, indicate the Hindu context of the verse.

With Murukan who comes riding a peacock, and makes the steep mountains tremble,

Punishment The punishment strategy is generally more popular among Hindu poets than among Muslim or Christian ones. Muslim poems seldom portray the moon as threatened with punishment from Muhammad, while Hindu poets delight in recalling divine con¬ quests of demons and implying that the moon might meet the same fate. The following verse, taken from Pakalikkuttan's pillait¬ tamil to Murukan, Tiruccentur Pillaittamil contains a carefully detailed threat beneath its seemingly polite invitation to the moon.

Moon, come and play.

This entire poem is based on the assumption that the listener will be familiar with the Hindu myth of the origin of the moon. Using Mount Mandara upside down as the churn and snakes wrapped around it as a churning rope, the gods churned the sea to get the celestial nectar. As a by-product of the churning, they also produced the moon. The speaker inquires, in a way that insinuates that he already knows the answer, whether all of the principle items and actors in the famous churning project are still available. Then she conveys how much little Murukan wants the moon to be his

Tiruccentur Pillaittamil 68 The ancient Mandara Mountains still exist so we can churn sweet ambrosia like in the old days, can’t we?

playmate, noting that the deity always gets what he wants. She implies that if this moon refuses her request, Murukan can surely churn out another one that will be more co-operative. In contrast to the general pattern, of which the previous verse is an example, the Christian punishment verse below locates the

The wide ocean—that deep moat—it didn’t turn to mud and dry up into a bed of sand, did it?

source of punishment not in Jesus, who is portrayed as kind and loving, but among poets, who will cease to write poems in praise of the moon if he does not become a playmate for the poem's hero.

Did Indra and his gods in the sky die? Did a huge darkness settle in?

Iyecupiran Pillaittamil 70

Did the seven outer worlds become empty? Poets whose life-breath is Pure Tamil, The huge snake Vasuki,

which flourished even before the ancient academies,

his long teeth flowing with poison,

have praised you in many ways

he didn’t split into pieces,

in the verses they composed.

did he? Incomparable Vali still has a tail,

So, with pride, you wander in the cloud-filled sky.

doesn’t he? Young Tamil poets drink in the beauty, Foolish moon,

from the front and the back,

what isn’t possible if this boy wants it?

of the Baby who comes here

202

Moon Poetry in the Pillaittamil,

Syllables of Sky

203

tottering with charming steps,

literary options. Its conventions provided a general literary frame¬

holding the hand of the woman

work for particular religious expression.

linked to precious Tamil of the Sangam.

Despite the fact that Muslim and Christian writers have adopted the pillaittami[ genre, they have not forfeited their re¬

If you don’t hurry to join him and play, right now,

ligious identity by doing so, nor have they violated their respective theological frameworks. For example, Muslims wrote to Muham¬

poets will exclude you from all their writings.

mad and other humans, rather than to God. Similarly, Cellatturai

That’s a loss you’d never accept.

wanted to portray Jesus as loving, rather than threatening, so he shifted the burden of threatening the moon from Jesus to Tamil

With the one who knows eternity and who is the raft that takes us to the other shore—

poets. Hindu pillaittamils are the ones to which scholars most often refer, but poets from minority traditions have consciously drawn

to the feet of God— Moon, without enmity come to play.

upon the conventions of a genre that was not originally theirs and made a space for themselves within the history of the genre. They

With the son of God

have not done so as a Hindu endeavour but a Tamil poetic one.

seated at the right side of precious God, Moon, come to play.

Mastering the pillaittamil conventions, they have become estab¬ lished poets in the genre and expanded its scope by bringing in

One thing that most Tamil poets share is a love for the Tamil

new content. The rules for pillaittamil_ composition may seem very

language and a pride in its long literary tradition. In this verse,

rigid; in a sense they have changed little in hundreds of years, and

Cellatturai melds that pride in Tamil with love for Jesus in a visual

yet the scope of the genre continually grows.21

image both very appropriate to the pillaittamil tradition and very

At some level—be it metaphysical or psychological—the

Christian. He portrays the charming little baby tottering along

moon verses have continued to attract Tamil poets over the cen¬

uncertainly while clasping the hand of Tamil Tay, Tamil poetry

turies. In the moon section the poet expresses a desire to bring the

conceived as a mother. This beloved child deserves the poet’s

moon to earth, thereby joining the celestial realm and the ter¬

attention, argues Cellatturai, but the moon will not, unless it

restrial realm. This bridging of a cosmic chasm takes place in a

comes to play with the baby Jesus.

particular direction; the moon must overcome a great barrier and come to play with the extraordinary child on his or her territory.

Conclusions

This desire to breach the apparent rigidity of domains seems to have attracted poets, regardless of their religious affiliation.

As we have seen, the Tamil moon verse has been used, adapted and transformed by poets from different religious traditions. The Hindu pillaittamil tradition was well-established previous to Mus¬ lim and Christian appropriation of the genre, but when Muslims and Christians adopted it, they did so as something Tamil, not Hindu. That is, they adopted the pillaittamil genre as a set of

21 In recent years the leading figures of the Tamil cultural movement have been the subject of a series of pillaittamils. They are, among others, Maraimalai Atikal, E.V. Ramasami, Bharatidasan, M.G.R. and Tamil Tay. For a discussion of this branch of the pillaittamil tradition, see Richman (in press).

204

Syllables of Sky

Moon Poetry in the Pillaittamil,

205

Schimmel, Annemarie, 1985, And Muhammad is his Messenger: The Bibliography Abdul Rahim, 1979, Isldmiyak Kalaikkalaficiyam, Madras: Universal Publishers. Arthasdstra of Kautilya, 1961, R. Shamasastry (trans.), Mysore: Mysore Printing and Publishing House. Atinatar Pillaittamil 1956, Mottur: Atinatar Publishers. Bryant, Kenneth, 1978, Poems to the Child-God: Structures and Strategies in the Poetry ofSurdas, Berkeley: University of California Press. Cellatturai, Arul, 1985, Iyecupirdn Pillaittamil, Tiruccirappalli: Arul Vakku Manram. Cirrilakkiyaccorpolivukal—Irantavatu Mdndtu, 1959, Tinnevelly: South Indian Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society. Dimock, Edward C., 1966, ‘Doctrine and Practice among the Vaisnavas of Bengal’, in Milton Singer (ed.), Krishna: Myths, Rites and At¬ titudes, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Fabricius, J.P., 1972, Tamil and English Dictionary, 4 th ed., Tranquebar: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Publishing House. Fatima, S., 1990, Napikal Ndyakam Pillaittamil: Or Ayvu, Madras: Amina Press. Kamaldlaya Amman Pillaittamil, 1969, Srlrahgam: Sri Vani Vilaca Accakam. Kulottuhkan Pillaittamil, 1974, T.S. Karikataran (ed.), Tanjore: Sarasvati Mahal Library. Mutturacan, Ku., 1984, Pillaittamd Ilakkiyam, Chidambaram: Manivacakar Patippakam. Napikal Ndyakam Pillaittamil, 1975, edited and commented on by Ci. Nayinar Mukammatu, Colombo: The Publication Committee of the Sea Street Meelad Committee. Pillaittamilkkottu, 1970 and 1979, Tinnevelly: SISSWPS. Richman, Paula, 1993, ‘Veneration of the Prophet Muhammad in an Islamic PillaittamiP, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 113, 1:57-73. ” - 1995, ‘Tamil Songs to God as a Child’, in Donald Lopez (ed.). Religions ofIndia in Practice, Princeton: Princeton University Press. -(forthcoming), Extraordinary Child: The Pillaittamd as a MultiReligious Genre.

Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Varadarajan, Mu., 1980, A History of Tamil Literature, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.

Softening the Cruelty of God

207

If questioned about ‘Sani’, the Telugu (and Sanskrit) name

Chapter Nine

for Saturn, an alert middle-school child in Rajahmundry, or in outlying villages in East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, will

Softening the Cruelty of God: Folklore, Ritual and the Planet Sani (Saturn) in Southeast India1

tell you that Sani gives his name to Sanivara, Saturday, the last day of the week. He is powerful, black, generally unpleasant looking, uncomfortable to talk about because he is a bringer of ‘bad times’ and all sorts of misfortunes—even catastrophic illness and death— that parents, relatives, and friends attribute frequently to ‘my Sani’. The student has never seen an actual telescope and has no idea of finding Sani in the night sky.

DAVID M. KNIPE

If adults are considered, few Americans will care to go beyond a newspaper horoscope, limited to the twelve signs of the zodiac,

I

to discover from an astrologer the ‘effects’ on their lives of Saturn or any other planet or asterism. By contrast, the majority of adults f questioned about ‘Saturn’, an alert American middle-school

in Rajahmundry and its neighbouring areas, as in the rest of south

child will inform you that Saturn is an outlying planet orbiting

India, have an occasional, a repeated, or even a constant concern

the sun, the one with the beautiful rings, and it is an unlikely

regarding the personal influence of the navagrahas, the celestial

place to support life as we know it. Recent photographs relayed

community of nine planets.2 Much of that concern focuses on the

to earth from a spacecraft have been shown on a video cassette in

dark and troublesome graha known as Sani.

class. If the student lives near an observatory or a good telescope,

Curiously, although South Asians readily speak of their con¬

a close-up look will be recounted, and perhaps even the event of

suming passion for astrology, and hundreds of books, articles and

locating the planet in the night sky with the naked eye. (Oc¬

bazaar tracts are published annually in every South Asian language,

casionally a student will say that ‘Saturn’ is home in the garage, a

Western scholarship has paid scant attention to the place of astro¬

parent’s new-age car.)

logical beliefs, rituals, customs and symbols in the social and religious framework of South Asian history, past and present. This essay is an introduction to a set of regional traditions regarding

1 This essay is affectionately dedicated to Narayana Rao, friend and colleague of two decades, superb mentor, indefatigable teacher, ground-breaking scholar, wise counsellor, one who marvellously spots the upbeat, creative aspect of any and every situation. May his Sani be £ubha.

one of the navagrahas. These traditions are in many ways typical of south India, and in some ways are representative of Hindu South Asia at large.

Field work was conducted in East Godavari District in 1987-88 and 1991— 92, the latter period with a senior research fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies. My gratitude for field assistance goes to Dr M.V. Krishnayya of Waltair and to Dr K.V.S.L. Narasamamba, Kaveri Sundaram and Ch. Hanumantha Rao of Rajahmundry. For insights on Sani, I thank my colleagues, V. Narayana Rao and Kirin Narayan, and for sharing her knowledge of astrology in the West, I thank Shelley Jordan Montei.

2 The religious vocabulary of Telugu is basically Sanskrit and the terms used in this essay are Sanskrit, unless otherwise noted. For standard recognition, however, final nasals have been dropped, or the final -a supplied (e.g., abhisekha rather than the correct Telugu form abhisekham, purohita rather than purohit).

208

209

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

1. Sani and the Navagrahas

visible planets were not so distinguished. Full lists of the five visible planets in the company of the Sun, the Moon and the two mythical

Vedic Naksatras and Vedic Grahas

planets, Rahu and Ketu, did not appear within the defined Vedic

Certain naksatras, or asterisms, were mentioned sporadically in

corpus. Maitrayani Upanisad 7.6 was perhaps the first text to

the Rgveda towards the close of the second millennium BCE. The

associate Sani, Rahu and Ketu.

full set of twenty-eight or twenty-seven was first recorded not long

Kane (1974: 561) briefly mentions a remarkable passage in

after 1000 BCE in Atharvaveda 19.7 and Taittiriya SamhitaAA. 10.

Taittiriya Brahmana 1.5.2-7, in which the cosmic form of Praja-

The habitual appearance of these constellations was eventually

pati is located in the heavens, spread out across the naksatras.

reckoned significant for determining the householder's ritual cal¬

‘Prajapati has Hasta as his hand, Citra as his head, Nistya (=SvatI)

endar, establishment of fires and the performance of samskaras

as his heart, the [two stars of] Vis'akha as thighs, Anuradhas as his

(life-cycle rites) and yajhas (sacrifices). Consequently, particular

pratistha, foundation. This is Prajapati as naksatras.’ The concept

naksatras came to be appraised either as punya,, ‘pure, auspicious’,

extends the Purusa-Prajapati cosmic correspondences into an as¬

or papa, ‘evil’, therefore inauspicious, and all of them were re¬

trological plane that is developed later in the notion of a Kala-

warded ritually. The naksatresti, an isti (vegetable offering) to the

purusa whose bodily parts, hosting particular planets, match those

asterisms, is a domestic ritual that is even today performed accord¬

of terrestrial humans.

ing to the Taittiriya texts by remnant pockets of Vedic Brahmins

- The last few centuries of the first millennium BCE provided

in the agraharas of East Godavari District.3 But the Vedic naksatra

considerably more information regarding astrology and religious

correlations did not include any set of planets, entities that may

life in texts generated as subsidiary to the Vedas, particularly in the

have been the Rgvedic poets’ allusions to five bulls or other pentads

VedahgaSy Dharmasutras and Grhyasutras. The six ahgas (limbs) of

in the heavens. Nor did they include any declared method of

the Veda included Jyotisa texts preserved according to particular

horoscopic astrology based on the consonance of a particular birth

Vedic samhitas,, possibly as early as the beginning of the fourth

and the appearance of the moon, sun or other planets in the path

century BCE. The lunar day (tithi) that till today determines the

of the naksatras. The closest approximation would be in the

ritual calendar was presented in Jyotisa Vedahga, and the portion

Grhyasutras attached to the various Vedic sakhas in a later period,

belonging to the Atharvan school generated an astrological pro¬

in which ritualists associated an infant’s namakarana, name-giving

gramme dependent upon a division of the twenty-seven naksatras

sarnskara, with offerings to the naksatra of the child’s birthday as

into nine triads. Positioned in relation to the janma (birth)

well as to the deity presiding over that naksatra. Earlier, Brhaspati

naksatra, each asterism of each triad was nine places from its two

(Jupiter), the purohita of the gods, may have been regarded as the

companions. Kane (1974: 532-3) points out the similarities in

deity ruling the naksatra Tisya, also known as Pusya (Taittiriya

name and function (conception, prosperity, misfortune, death and

Brahmana 3.1.1.5), but apart from the Sun and the Moon, other

so forth) between these nine groups of asterisms and the twelve bhavas that appear later in works known as Jatakas. Planets were

I11 nearby Vijayawada on rhe Krishna River, a Vedic naksatra yajha was

not significant in Jyotisa Vedahga astrology, but only a few cen¬

held from 22 November to 26 December 1991. In addition to R. Chandrasek¬

turies later, Baudhayana Dharma Sutra 2.5.9, twenty-three listed

hara Yajulu, an agnihotrinvAvo was thtyajamana, 13 qualified Vaidika Brahmins

the planets, including Sanaiscara or Sani, and so did some

officiated for the 36-day sacrifice that began on the first day of the dark half of Karttika masa. Krttikas (Pleiades) is the initial naksatra according to early Vedic lists.

Grhyasutras. The second or first century BCE Jaina text, Candraprajhapti, included Rahu and Ketu as well as Sani and the others.

210

Syllables ofSky

Softening the Cruelty of God

211

Although not specifically demarcated as a planet until the later

tions across the Mediterranean, West Asia and South Asia during

Upanisads (e.g. Maitrdyaniya Upanisad 6.16), the term graba,

the last half of the first millennium BCE. In the eclectic results of

‘seizer’,4 and related words that personify evil had a notorious

these exchanges that apparently included direct Babylonian con¬

Vedic past. The Atharvaveda alone is a rich source of details that

cepts, as well as Hellenistic Greek overlays on Babylonian planet¬

live on, as will be seen in this overview, in the planetary lore and

ary theories, authors of Sanskrit texts in India in the early centuries

Atharvaveda 19.9 (not in the

of the Common Era described the planets and their effects upon

Paippalada text) is a long prayer for santi, peace, for and from

humans. The Jyotisa Veddhga traditions largely constricted to

various deities and entities, including the grahas. (This hymn and

naksatra-vidya, the knowledge of asterisms, now gave way to

similar ones in the Atharvaveda served as models for the graha-

Jyotihsastra, a freewheeling science of astronomy and astrology

santisoi the Dharmasastratexxs which, as Kane notes [1962: 749],

incorporating multiple perspectives. Over five hundred years of

established the prakrti for later santihomas in Hindu ritualism.)

textual productivity6 culminated in the works of Varahamihira,

No explicitly named community is given, although the Sun

the mid-sixth-century author of the Brhajjataka, Brhatsamhita,

(Aditya), Moon and Rahu are declared in one verse, Brhaspati in

Yogayatra and other astrological treatises. That the new syntheses

another, and ketus, possibly ‘comets’, are included among the

were keyed to a broad range of micro—macro cosmic correspon¬

customs of contemporary India.

feared cosmic phenomena that afflict the territory. Atharvaveda

dences is apparent not only in Jyotihsastra but also in the contem¬

16.8 is a spell to cast upon an enemy the pasas, snares, that

porary medical traditions of Ayurveda that identified parts of the

encumber humans seized by evil influences: Grahi, a demonic

human body affected by the manifestation of grahas. During these

seizer, heads a list of twenty-seven that includes Brhaspati as well

centuries the great epic also incorporated in its manifold traditions

as various segments of time, and concludes with the feared pasas

the cults and mythologies of a variety of spirits, demons, gods and

of Varuna and Mrtyu or Death. Elsewhere in the Atharvaveda,

goddesses responsible for diseases and other misfortunes. As in the

Grahi is associated with yaksma as a form of disease linked with

Atharvaveda, chey are collectively known as grahas, some of which

various negative forces, and one hymn declares as santa (‘auspi¬

are heavenly bodies. In order to pinpoint the reasons for the

cious, pacifying’) against that demon the wood derived from ten

popular concerns for Sani it may be useful to delineate these several

trees. Many centuries later, the Jaiminlya Grhyasutra concisely

notions of graha active in the pre-classical and classical periods of

declared a propitiatory position on grahas, one that may fairly be

Hindu tradition.

extended to include many, if not all, Vedic deities: ‘Being revered [the grahas] revere; being disregarded, they torment.’5

Jyotihsastra

The Mahabha ra ta, Ayurveda and a Folklore of Disease Portions of the Mahabharata exhibited concern for the fiery male¬ volent graha or mahagraha that stands (tisthati) in a particular

Astronomical, astrological, mathematical and medical specula¬

naksatra and not only oppresses (pidayati, from pid- ‘squeeze,

tions were a large part of the energetic exchange of cultural tradi-

press, harm, injure’) that naksatra, but oppresses an individual or a whole nation as well.7 In these passages, pida thus replaced the

This graha is not to be confused with a specific Vedic soma cup, or the libation from such a round cup, also called graha. On the latter, see Sen (1978, 64). 5 Jaiminiya Grhyasutra 2.9, edited and translated by W. Caland (Lahore 1922; Delhi 1984: 62).

early Vedic upasarga, the affliction of a region by a graha, as for 6 See the summary list of authors preceding Varahamihira in Kane (1974: 591-4). 7 Kane (1974: 531-2) has collected sample references to grahas in both epics.

212

Syllables ofSky

Softening the Cruelty of God

example in Atharvaveda 19.9.9, and expanded the graha effect to

cure; death or permanent injury results if a child is set upon by

213

include personal as well as collective or universal suffering. Astro-

Skanda. Six of these grahas are female and five are the recipients

logically, plda remained an essential designation for individual

of meat, blood or fish offerings (bali) in propitiation. Nothing

misfortune, just as pidasthana referred to the position of a graha

connects them with celestial bodies, concepts of time or astrology

who literally has a standing place of pain opposite a region, a

save for the label graha and a few symbols of darkness and death

people or an individual. In other words, the astrological meaning

(the colour black, sesame offerings and the black sakunibird). The

of abode or ‘house’ was declared at some point in the long history

mythic background of Susruta s dreadful catalogue and the Vanaparvan book of the Mahabharata both point to Skanda, born from

of the epic. But this celestial tormentor was just one of a diffuse range of

the seed of Agni (later, Siva [O’Flaherty 1973: 93ff.j). The six

perpetrators known as grahas. Gail Sutherland (1991: 166-7) loc¬

demonesses in Susruta s list may be related to the six stars of the

ates a graha etiology of disease in the Mahabharata, the Visnu

naksatra Krttika (Pleiades), the ‘mothers’ who nursed Skanda

Purana and the Caraka Samhita of Ayurveda, in which ‘a demonic

(=Karttikeya, Sanmukha), but formerly were wives of the seven

spirit contained within any deity or particularly associated with the

sages in Ursa Major. Perhaps at some point there was an astro-

deity may possess humans, causing diverse physical effects’. She

mythology connecting Atharvan grahas to epic grahas in a Saivite

notes two types of grahas in the Mahabharata 3.219.25-60, one

framework centred on childhood diseases.

comprised^of matrs, ‘mothers’, who are various demonesses afflict¬

In any event, the notion of grahas, often female, frequently

ing the foetus and children up to sixteen years of age, and the other

birds of prey or composite beasts, responsible for a range of

type made up of yaksas, raksasas, gandharvas, pisacas and so forth

ailments occurring during the first sixteen or seventeen years of

that possess adult victims ‘with various sorts of insanity, according

life, continued in the Agni and other Puranas, and lives on in

to their speciality’. The vague notion of graha contained in the

contemporary folklore and folk medicine. Obeyesekere (1984:46)

Atharvaveda thus persists in the epics, puranas and foundational

discusses grahadosa in a Sri Lankan context, illustrating a blend of Jyotisa navagraha and puranic disease-graha traditions. 1. he cure

literature of Ayurveda. In these genres all ‘seizers’ afflict beings with diseases and other forms of suffering, but only some of them are

for an ‘unlucky planetary influence’ is a santi, as is the classical

understood to be celestial ‘planets’. In contrast, in Jyotihsastra, a

astrological advice, but that santi is a bali, the offering to a disease

graha is not a generic disease demon but a planet. Even today,

demon. Diehl (1956: 295ff) was perplexed by Filliozat’s 1937

however, popular Hinduism perpetuates notions of graha disease

translation of the Tamil palakirakatosam as ‘trouble des Saisisseurs

demons, particularly female ones, as somehow being ‘planets’

d’enfants’, and corrected it to ‘disease of children due to the malign

vaguely akin to the navagrahas.8

influence of the planets’, despite the fact that Filliozat’s text, a

The supplementary Uttaratantra of the Susruta Samhita,

booklet titled Noyillavalvu, 'Life without diseases’, had nothing do

with

planets.

Balagrahadosa

Cikitsa,

Chapters 27—37, compounds the confusion by describing exactly

to

‘Remedies

for

nine fierce grahas, beginning with Skanda, who strike children

Children’s Grahadosa’, is the title of a Telugu booklet published

with diseases. Affliction from any one of the nine is difficult to

in Rajahmundiy in 1984 and still in curbside circulation today. Except for the names of the grahas it is the counterpart of Diehl’s

8On p. Ixv of the introduction to his edition arid translation of The Susruta Samhita (Varanasi 1981), Kavrraj Kurijalal Bhishagratna remarks that ‘the influence of the planets as to the production of certain diseases such as smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, etc., is almost a proved fact’.

Tamil booklet of the same title, Palakirakatosam (Madras 1947), and proceeds through the awful diseases that strike on the first day of the first month of the first year, the second day of the

214

Syllables of Sky

second month of the second year, and so on to the sixteenth year, complete with the rituals of propitiation and prophylaxis for each. The confusion between disease grahas and planetary grahas, there¬ fore, was and remains a matter of popular etymology, not one of a different order of astrology.

215

of Rahu, the planets were recognized as a set of eight, and the sculptural company of nine was then fixed by adding Ketu early in the seventh century, many centuries after his appearance among the textual and inscriptional set of nine. Ketu was not included in sculptural representations of the navagrahas in Orissa, however, until the tenth century,10

From Grahas to Upagrahas To return now to the navagrahas of Jyotihsastra, although various lists of seven, eight, nine or more grahas appeared in texts of the final centuries BCE and the early centuries CE, the definitive event for planetary astrology and therefore predictive horoscopy was the introduction into India of a western calendar based upon a sevenday week coupled with a specific order of planets who ruled the days—Surya (Sun), Candra (Moon), and the five visible planets, Mangala (Mars), Budha (Mercury), Brhaspati (Jupiter), Sukra (Venus) and Sani (Saturn). The choice of names remained flexible, as it does today. 9 In the regional languages of South Asia the seven days of the week still take their names from this planetary list. The

Vrddhayavanajataka of Minaraja, dated c. 300-325 , may have been the first Sanskrit text to list the planets in what became the standard order, Surya to Sani (see Markel 1989: 104). Minaraja wrote about the time that Constantine, in 321, officially estab¬ lished the seven-day week as the calendar of the Roman empire. Early puranas such as the Visnu,

Softening the Cruelty of God

Vdyu, Matsya and Mdr-

kandeya provided mythic, iconographic and ritual details of the grahas. At some point, c. 200-400 CE the Matsya Parana (94.1-9) was the first text to provide anthropomorphic descriptions, ac¬ cording to Stephen Markel (1989: 213ff)> whereas the later Agni

Puranas portrayals were the closest to sculptural representations that began to appear mid-millennium. The oldest surviving rep¬ resentation of the planetary grahas is the row of seven standing figures on the chest of the boar Varaha at Eran, Madhya Pradesh, dated c. 500-505 CE (Markel 1989: 95, 112). With the addition 9 Among the most widely used alternatives are the following: Sun: Ravi; Moon: Soma; Mars: Kuja, Bhauma, Angarika; Jupiter: Guru; Saturn: 3anaiscara, Manda. Markel (1989, Appendix C) has a substantial list of alternate names.

As to their nature, the navagrahas were and are in every case a mixture of benevolence and malevolence, with the balance strik¬ ingly weighted in some astrological manuals towards the latter. None of the planets is entirely subha, auspicious, none is entirely

asubha, inauspicious, but the greatest popular concern for negative effects, and therefore remedies for damage control, points towards the pair already well established as a negative force in the matrix of planetary astrology, ancient Mesopotamia, that is, Saturn and Mars. India tripled the malefic resources of its astrologers by first adding to Sani and Mangala the two mythic figures, Rahu and Ketu, and then the two sons of Sani, Mandi and Gulika. Sani, the dark, cruel planet, appears to lead the inner circle of mahagrahas, those great seizers’ who, because they are dangerous, are most deserving of worship and concern. Again, it is important to note that all planets are liable to ‘torment’. Even Surya/Savitr, the Sun, object of morning brahminical prayers, especially in the gayatri

mantra,, is more liable to do harm than to aid, according to some astrological manuals, and he too is a mahagraha. The labyrinthine ways of Indian astrology were already com¬ promised by a reduplicative system of twelve rasis, signs, and twelve bhavas, houses—with nine planets roaming from room to room—fabricated side by side on top of the ancient twenty-seven or twenty-eight naksatra edifice. But nine planets were insufficient for

the

astrological

systems

designers

who

proposed

nine

10 Markel (1989:89); (1990:21). Even today in coastal Andhra a few educated l.iy people accept only seven planets, and the older septadic series—mothers, rivers, sages, grains, and so forth—has been thought appropriate for grahas as well. Rahu and Ketu, they say, are imaginary add-ons. Either these individuals represent an older stratum of Jyotisa, or quite possibly the newest stratum of global astrology.

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

upagrahasy minor planets. For clients, the functions of these upa-

graha shrines are important features of temple compounds in

216

217

grahas may have appeared to be no more than a reduplication of

Hinduism and Jainism, particularly in south and west India, where

the original set. For astrologers, however, nine additional factors

they engage the attention of temple visitors, and roadside shrines

were useful. With these new bodies stirred into calculations on

may also feature the nine, each image standing within a square so

the cakray predictive ambiguities multiplied exponentially and any

as not to face any other.

possibility of customer comprehension was totally eliminated. Not all astrologers accepted the upagraha theory, but those who did believed that each graha had an upagraha.11 Sani has either one or two, depending on whether an astrologer believes that Mandi (from Manda) and Gulika are the two sons of Sani (thereby expanding the upagraha list to ten), or declares Mandi and Gulika

Sani and Sanidosa In the middle of the second century CE, Yavana is said to have translated a Greek astrological work into Sanskrit. It is not extant, but a little more than a century after composition, it was rendered into Sanskrit verse by Sphujidhvaja as the Yavanajataka. From a

to be the two names of one son. Interestingly, Bhat, who argues

unique Nepalese manuscript, David Pingree (1965: 254-7; 1978)

for two sons (1988: 29), devotes far more attention to calculations

translated Yavanajataka 1.123-36 and compared descriptions of

and predictions regarding Mandi than all other upagrahas com¬

the seven planets with key terms in Greek and Latin astrological

bined, including Gulika. Fie agrees with Mantres'vara approvingly

texts from the first and later centuries CE. Verses 135-6 describe

in that ‘Mandi’s presence is needed for verifying the ascendant

Sanaiscara as being with

and longevity', and he uses different methods for calculating the

brown, inscrutable eyes. He is strong, but his head hangs down and his

‘rising periods’ of Mandi and Gulika. Bhat (1988: 103) sum¬

limbs tremble [?]. He is tall and has thick, black, rough and dreadful

marizes: ‘In the matter of effects Mandi is similar to Saturn. Mandi

hair, and nails and teeth which are discoloured and broken. He is mean

is the planet that has special capacity to bring about death.’ Since

and very irascible; his actions are evil. Accustomed to hatred, he is a

anjana

in many ways Sani is already an astrological reduplication ofYama,

malicious master. In his black garments and looking like

and Mandi and Gulika reduplications of Sani, the lay person can

lyrium], thin and lazy [Sanaiscara] has abandoned joy. His essence is of

[col-

only acknowledge that death arrives from every quarter.

sinew.

Most popular works on astrology published today summarize

Provided with this description, contemporary Indians would have

the same basic information, endorsing the canonical features es¬

no trouble identifying Sani from a malefics’ gallery. Over the

tablished by Varahamihira fourteen centuries ago, and embellish¬

centuries, Sani’s Sanskrit textual biography expanded consider¬

ing accounts with regional folk themes or tidbits from popular

ably, as did the biography of each of the navagrahas. A few details

Western astrologers. But their descriptions of methods employed

are as follows.

for calculations are as many and as varied as the stars themselves.

Varahamihira, writing in the middle of the sixth century, states

In popular Hinduism today all navagrahas have the status of

that Sani was born in Saurashtra. Stotras presenting the names of

devatasy deities, even though the behaviour of malefic planets may

Sanaiscara or Sani have different lists, most appellations being

appear to descend at times to the level of raksasas, demons. Nava-

variants of his genealogy as the ‘son of the sun’, Suryaputra,

11 Bhat (1988, 103-4) lists the pairings: Surya—Kala, Candra—Paridhi,

Arkaputra, Arkaja, Arkanandana, Saura, Patangi, Bhaskari and so

Sukra—

forth. Other names include Manda, Kena and Chayaputra. His

Kodanda or Indra-Dhanus, Sani—Mandi and/or Gulika, Rahu—Pata or Vyatl-

gotra is said to be Kasyapa, the name of his grandfather. His

Budha—Dhuma,

Mahgala—Ardhaprahara,

pata, Ketu—Upaketu.

Guru—Yamakantaka,

218

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

varna is either Sudra or lower, and he is scheduled in the hierarchy as a servant. He has no Veda. The other four visible planets, apart

Savarni Manu and Sani to the unsuspecting Vivasvat. Yet a third act of the drama has Samjna/Saranyu absconding once again as a

from Surya and Candra, are lords of the Rgveda (Guru), Yajurveda (Sukra), Samaveda (Mangala), and Atharvaveda(Budha). As noted

mare, only to be overtaken by Vivasvat in the form of a stallion,

219

above, Sani’s sons are Mandi and Gulika, the latter frequently associated with cults of the dead in Karnataka (Srinivas 1952:

resulting in the birth of the Asvin twins. In this intriguing myth, Samjna doubles herself as Shadow, but so too does Vivasvat, who doubles himself as the dark planet,

169-70) and with the graha Rahu in the folklore of Tamilnadu. Among the grahas, Sani’s friends are Budha and Sukra, while

Sani. Chaya, goddess-as-temporary-Shadow, is reminiscent of a

Surya, Candra, and sometimes Kuja, are his enemies. In the medi¬ eval period, his vahana, mount, is represented as the crow, known for his single-minded, penetrating gaze, and black like the bird

mythic nether world matrix of opposition, destruction and mal¬ evolence. The fact that Sani, alone among the grahas, is Chayaputra is suggestive in the context of Babylonian (Jastrow 1909)

associated with evil and death, at least from the time of the krsna'sakuni of Atharvaveda 7.64.1—2; 19.57.4.

and Mithraic (Beck 1988) mythic roles for Saturn as the nocturnal Sun, as well as the astrological position of Saturn/Sani as the ruler of Capricorn/Makara and the winter solstice. Much of the endur¬

As the brief verse from Yavanajataka noted, Sani’s essence is

ing ritual and folklore of Sani in south India still focuses on

sinew. In the lists of dhatus that are expanded beyond the original seven, sinew is the bodily part governed by Sani, and the humour or dosa in the Ayurvedic sense (Knipe 1989: 106-8) that he controls is vata, wind. Wind is indeed what he breaks, since he is

Pohkal, the southern counterpart of the winter solstice festival, Makara Samkranti. Sisira, winter, is Sani’s season. It is feasible to

known for flatulence. As is the case for Budha, and sometimes Rahu and Ketu as well, Sani’s gender is ambiguous. Varahamihira

modation in the ancient solar myth of Vivasvat and Saranyu. Interestingly, although Sani is known as Chayaputra, and most

labels him napumsaka, neither male nor female, a eunuch. Of the three gunas, tamas is his nature, and in concert his colour is nlla

names for the sun are included in his patronymics, Vaivasvata is

envision an exchange of astromythology at the turn of the Com¬ mon Era in which a nether world matrix for Sani found accom¬

(dark), especially black or blue. Iron is his metal, sapphire his

not among them. As a ‘thorny’, troublesome person (kantaka), Sani is feared for

gemstone, and of the navadhanyas, the nine grains assigned to the nine planets, tila, sesame, also known as gingelly, is Sani’s. He presides over the region of the west, but where divisions of the

his drsti, gaze. Sani, like other grahas, imprints his characteristics on those he sees and brands them with his physical features as well. But unlike other planets, the slightest glimpse can destroy

house are concerned, while Surya is in the household shrine room and Sukra in the sleeping quarters, Sani is banished to the garbage dump outside.

another being or a bodily part. A well-known puranic myth is one

Sani’s associations with death are biographic as well as sym¬

The myth illustrates two additional traits that are Sani’s. Mindful

bolic. His puranicgenealogy situates him as a younger half-brother of Yama. In a well-known myth with Rgvedic antecedents, the solar god Vivasvat unites with Samjna (or Saranyu) and produces

of the awesome power of his decapitating glance, Sani normally looks downward, a habit remarked in the third-century Yavana¬

of the beheading of Ganesa when he comes under Sani’s gaze, the gods then supplying Parvati’s son with the head of an elephant.12

jataka (Pingree 1965: 256-7). So powerful is Sani’s gaze that, to

Manu and the twins Yama and Yarn! When she can no longer tolerate the glare of the ‘brilliant one’, Samjna supplies her mate with a double or ‘Shadow’, Chaya, and flees. Chaya then bears

12 See Courtright (1985: 69-74) for an analysis of the Brahmavaivarta^nA Brhaddharma Purana versions.

220

221

Syllables ofSky

Softening the Cruelty of God

use the language of Indian astrologers, even one quarter of his aspect is considered to be full (Bhat 1988: 15). And Sani’s peculiar

dust storms, diseases and famine are continuous. In these chapters Sani is cosmic malevolence. Everything disgusting, debased or

limp, akin to that of Yama, is the result of a retaliatory curse from Parvatl, who rendered him khafija, lame.

inauspicious, from rivers and regions to plants and animals is ruled

the Ramayana he is blamed as the cause of Rama’s exile. On the

by Sani; 16.31-4 catalogues Sudras, rogues, the slovenly, the unrighteous, cowards, eunuchs, prisoners, the deformed and aged, boar-hunters, vow-breakers, widows, serpents, thieves, buffaloes

other hand, Nala, by propitiating Sani, is able to return home.

cows, donkeys, camels and pulses that cause flatulence, among the

Both displacement themes are well known in the popular media. For example, in 1991-92 a television series dramatizing the Nala

many worldly phenomena governed by him. Astrology in India, however, as in other parts of the world,

story resulted in increased popular awareness of Sanipuja, par¬

gained its mass following not from blanket predictions of natural

ticularly on the part of those suffering any kind of separation from

disasters but from personal horoscopes. Astrology appealed to the

homes and families. This familiarity was played upon by temple sermonizers in evening sessions, since panditas could count on audiences primed by continuing episodes.

simple, fundamental human desire to know how one corresponds

Another idiosyncrasy is that Sani is a displacer of persons. In

to the great scheme of things, to the movements of planets and stars in which Time is reckoned and personal fortune, destiny and

What does this black, lame, flatulent, rubbish-haunting out¬

death are named and formed. Hence the curiosity about horo¬

sider with the devastating glance accomplish? With the advent of

scopes. Within the horoscope are prefigurations of what Sani intends and transmits with his glance. There is plda, pain and suffering, and badhay affliction, but there is also something cryptic,

Varahamihira, afflictions feared by the Atharvan poet fifteen cen¬ turies earlier, or by the epic poet only a few centuries before, now gained the precision of a named planet on a known course. The tenth chapter of his Brhatsamhita detailed Sani’s transit {Sanaiscaracara) through asterisms one by one.13 It is a litany of mayhem and destruction as floods, drought, famine and warfare signal his

less easily defined. It is dosa, damage, that prevails. This harm is also a ‘fault’ suggesting deformity, an ontological disfigurement mirroring Sani’s physical one. The word bears theological am¬ biguities of evil and sin displayed as early as in the Atharvaveda

appearance in particular constellations. Sani destroys people, pro¬

in terms such aspapaund enas. This dosa is Sani’s stain that should

fession by profession, as he passes; horsemen (plus their horses), poets, physicians and ministers when in AsvinI; goldsmiths, black¬

be and can be removed from life. And for stain-removal, astrology, having divined the source, defers to ritualism for treatment. The astrologer is the one who locates a particular graha in a

smiths and army commanders when in Krttika. Periodically he

prostitutes, kings and drunkards are all vulnerable. Even the entire

rasi, sign, or bhava, house, who calculates the mahadasa and antardasa> the major and minor periods of his influence, and after determining the positions of all the planets in the cakra, including

gender of women is attacked when Sani is in Citra or Uttara-

all circumstances that either augment, neutralize or mitigate ef¬

bhadrapada. A description in 19.19-21 of the effect of Sani’s dominance over a year is similarly brutal: drought, crop failures,

fects, produces a gocara, an accounting of planetary trajectories, for the client. Therein lies the estimate of Sanidosa, its weight

targets whole tribes (Tanganas) or the inhabitants of whole regions (Magadha, Kas'mir) or cities (Tamralipti). Vedic sacrificers and

and duration. In India today a neighbourhood ritualist for non13 Edited and translated by M. Ramakrishna Bhat, 2 vols (Delhi 1981-82). Many of the translations of Varahamihira’s Sanskrit terms given here without further citation are those of Professor Bhat.

Brahmin communities is unlikely to have Sanskrit astrological texts or even a Telugu pahcahga, but he may have a rudimentary knowledge of the planets and their effects and take it from there.

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

An immeasurable but probably significant number of people have no idea of their birth day, month or even year. With no jataka,

certain protection against the life-threatening powers of Sani. And it is also true that Surya is first among the planets who rule the

birth record, as a guide, provision is made for those who can do

weekdays and Sani the last, but by way of reversal, where celestial power is concerned, popular belief as well as many Jyotih¬

222

so to substitute the namanaksatra,, the asterism of the name, for the janmarasi, the sign of birth.

223

sastra texts have long regarded Sani as foremost and Surya weakest. The decisive personal anxiety is annihilation, and more exact¬

2. Sani and Hindu Theodicy

ly, an untimely death by accident, disease or disappearance. Most planets, and many combinations of planets, are capable of placing

The fact that tens of millions of people believe that misfortune and suffering are connected with the movements of planets is remarkable only to those outside the belief system. Certain general

‘death’, ‘widowhood’ (i.e. death of the male spouse), ‘short life’, and so forth in a horoscope. For example, with nine planet times

truths regarding Sani and ‘bad times’ are widely accepted in the popular religion of East Godavari District today. These truths are not always in line with the tenets of Sanskrit Jyotihsastra on the

and as many as half of these may spell termination. But more than any other planet, where death is concerned, Sani is culpable and his lore is therefore permeated with connections with Yama and

one hand, and the popular traditions of Hindu astrology in its

a mythology of the black realm of extinction.

various south and north Indian guises on the other. It would appear that the number of astrologies in India today almost ap¬ proximates the number of dialects. But, as with samskaras (lifecycle rites), so with astrology: despite regional variations on the

twelve houses, 108 predictions may be more than half negative,

2. Misfortune brought by Sani is unavoidable.

In the course of

every being’s life Sani is said to govern with ill effect at least once. Since his orbit is a thirty-year cycle, in the full human lifespan of

Popular Beliefs ConcemingSani

‘a hundred years’14 he may appear three times. And there is no escape from dosa occasioned by Sani. Misfortune, evil, pain and suffering stalk every being. The law of karma is a cosmic reckoning

1. Every being fears Sani, even God. One or another variant of the story of Siva’s confrontation with Sani is usually the first thing

system that should keep beings ‘honest’ from birth to birth, since suffering can be chalked up as just deserts for prior misdeeds in this or any other life. But in the immediate frame of action in the

surface there is a remarkable pan-Indian homogeneity at the base.

related to a sympathetic listener when the dark planet is men¬ tioned. The great god Siva proclaimed boldly to the fierce black Sani: ‘Everyone fears you, but you can have no effect on me!’ Sani replied darkly: ‘And you cannot escape me!’ Siva went off and hid himself inside a hollow tree. But eventually Sani found him, peered into the hole in the trunk and announced with mock surprise: ‘See what an effect! What are you doing inside this dead tree?’

here and now, everyone perceives multiple sources of suffering. Demons, monsters, ghosts and disease goddesses lurk everywhere. Human agencies in sorcery, spell casting, evil glancing and disease switching are among the hazards of everyday existence. Most of these sources are not only difficult to avoid, but difficult to 14 Few know of anyone who honestly made it to 100, but the Vedic round number prevails. The reckonings of astrological systems are even more ex¬ travagant, 108 years for the Astottari system (108 is both 27 X 4 and 12x9),

Although much of Sani lore and ritual relates to Saiva traditions, the story and its frequent recital confesses that even Siva is no

120 years for the Vimsottari (see Kane 1974: 590). There is ample opportunity to feel cheated by Kala, Time, since the median age at death in India in 1992 was 37 years.

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

identify. One source of suffering, however, is traceable. There are experts who can declare exactly when this source is active and bent

seven-and-a-half-year {sardhasaptavarsikd) period is one of suffer¬ ing (plda) and concern. In coastal Andhra it is known as Elinati

on the violation of one’s person. An astrologer can name planets,

Sani and when discussed is often rounded off to just ‘seven years’.15 Although the adjective elinati designates an impersonal num¬ ber, this popular appellation is suggestive of an avatara of Sani, a descent from remoteness to imminence, from nondescript to exis¬

224

assign dates and predict the degree of benefit or harm. No expert can claim as much authority in counteracting sorcery, curses, the evil eye and disease switching, or in predicting precisely when or why one will be possessed by a ghost or demon. When it comes to planetary effects the trajectory of malevolence can be published. Evil and suffering may be thought to come from internal

225

tential. Concreteness is reflected in personal references to ‘my

sources. Parallel to the frequent complaint of‘body weakness’ there

Sani’, mine and no one else’s. When the cruel planet has entered a particular pidasthana, a place of pain, he has descended from Infinite time into My time, and a peculiar bond with a declared

can be a vague but bottomless sense of‘failure’. Nearly eveiyone experiences it, and many are burdened by an inexplicable and repeated lack of success in education, health, employment, friend¬ ship or marriage. If the diagnosis of an expert is a graha, however,

expiration date is created, as if the vaguely personified planet has suddenly taken on a fully divine form, as if he were an istadevata,, a personally chosen deity, out of all the divine possibilities. Sani has targeted one with a gaze, but the potential for him to

there may be relief that responsibility is actually external. ‘My life is star-crossed, it is not my fault,.’ What had seemed to be internal failure is actually attributable to a known and universally feared being. This dosa is not some innate defect pinpointed and ener¬

harm as a raksasa has been eliminated by his deification. And yet

gized, with pain as punishment, but almost an accretion, some¬

immediate attention-getter, commanding both the sympathy and

thing that can actually be divested.

the distancing that are common to the bereaved. Elinati Sani and the human potential sufferer are co-conspirators in a way directly appreciated by those who have already entertained him for seven

3. The number ofyears ruled by Sani in one's lifetime is nineteen. In popular belief the number nineteen is explained in two ways. One is that nineteen is the total number of years in which he produces effects, whether Sani appears once, twice, three or four * times in a given lifespan. The other concerns the Vimsottari calculation system that regards normal human longevity as 120 years, a lifespan in which the nine planets rule successively for stretches of seven to twenty years each, Sani’s period being nine¬ teen years, or almost one-sixth of the total. 4. The basic period ofSani’s rule is seven and a halfyears. Since Sani requires two and a half years to transit each of the twelve rasis, or thirty years for all of them in one cycle, he takes seven and a half years to cross three of them identified by the position (sthita) of Candra, the Moon. These three are Sani in the birth (=first) rasi and the two rasis that bracket it, the twelfth and second. Thus a

in this partnership the choosing is by Sani, not the devotee. One is now under the influence. Declaring that Elinati Sani governs one’s life at present is an

and a half years and survived. When hearing the Sani-revelations of others, those who suffer misfortunes without apparent reason and have had no astrological advice are often propelled to an astrologer and subsequently to a ritualist for relief. And the rare adult who has neither suffered nor sought advice often becomes curious about what lies ahead, what ambush this infamous Elinati Sani has in his mind as ‘my Sani’. 15 Regional terms for this phenomenon seem to carry special weight. Sanskrit is reflected in the Marathi sadesati (Kane 1962: 756), but interestingly, here Andhra abandons the usual Sanskrit technical vocabulary not for Telugu but for an elision of the Tamil phrase elarai ndttuc cani (elarai, seven and a half + nattu, region + Sani) to signify Sani’s term of rule. Although the time-reckoning base in Tamilnadu is a solar, saura, rather than a lunar, candra, one, as in Andhra, this segment of astrological time is common.

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

5. If Sani harms you in the beginning, he will do good things later on. The reverse is also heard: ‘If Sani does good things in the

for one hundred days and in the pelvis for two hundred days, bringing trouble and suffering in both periods. On the other hand,

226

beginning, he will harm you in the end.’ Individuals amiably supply full particulars about which came first during their most recent exposure to Sani. Again there are double meanings. Begin¬ ning and end can refer to a single period or to three discrete occasions when Sani’s drsti falls in a normal lifespan.

227

when he is in the heart for a longer stay of five hundred days, wealth increases. Specificity of ailment is lacking in most texts, but given this rationalization of disease, a person with a pain in the left shoulder, for example, may expect relief from Sani’s depar¬ ture rather than from medical treatment.

Astrologers in East Godavari speak of three different manifest¬

At this point such regional astrological texts as the Telugu

ations of Elinati Sani —Mahgu Sani, Pongu Sani and Mrtyu Sani. Eluri Sitaram (1987: 36), includes a disclaimer in the gocarasection

Sri Sanigraha Vijhdnam key not only to the sixth-century Brhatsamhita or Brhajjataka of Varahamihira but also to the much older

of his Telugu work, Sri Sanigraha Vijnanam. ‘Panditas and wise men say these three divisions are not scientific.' He also notes that although Siva, in his avatara as Pippalada assured a vara, boon, to protect devotees and children under sixteen years of age from

prefigured Varahamihira’s Kalapurusa concept by a thousand years. It remained for Varahamihira and other Jyotihsastrins, how¬ ever, to supply planetary deities to the older concept of a Prajapati

Mahgu Sani, people suffer nonetheless, a circumstance some at¬

spread out across the naksatras, to think of Time as a cosmic person

tribute to the Kali Yuga’s contrary time. While Mahgu Sani brings

(Kane 1974: 560) and to track the correspondences between the effect of a planet on a bodily part of a Kalapurusa and the effect in that bodily part of a human caught up in the same time zone,

numerous problems, including declining prosperity, the second appearance, Pongu Sani, can provide wealth, ‘like the overflowing of milk’. Those favoured by such a fortuitous visit of Pongu Sani may in balance be kindly disposed toward the graha. The third visit is of course Death Sani.16 6. During Elinati Sani his glance falls on certain parts of the body and Sani takes up residence there. Astrologers can relate the sched¬ ules according to which Sani's drsti takes effect in bodily parts, depending on his position in the three ras'is. For example, if he looks at the feet he stays there for two hundred days and the result is disorientation, wandering and hardship. He remains in the face 16 The verb mahgu is not given in C.P. Brown, Telugu-English Dictionary (1903; reprint Delhi 1986); in Tamil it means ‘fade, decline>, Telugu pongu and Tamil pohku have similar meanings, ‘effervesce, bubble up, overflow’, and the joyful symbol of the solstice festival Pongal (Porikal) is one of cooked rice overflowing the pot. 1 he personification of these two terms in the company of Sanskrit mrtyu invites further study, as do the astrological significance of the Telugu Pongal festival, the local mythology of diva’s three avataras, Gadhi, Kausikudu and Pippalada, and the significance of the asvattha/pippala and sami trees in the removal of Sanidosa.

strata of naksatravidya. As noted above, the Taittirlya Brahmana

7. Suffering occasioned by Sani cannot be avoided, but it can be reduced by a knowledge ofproper remedial actions and their systematic performance. Upon hearing that his gocara now hosts or is about to host Sani, a person seldom seeks a second opinion. What is in the stars is unavoidable, but the potential victim is not without resources. Confirmation of this comes from Sri Lanka where Obeyesekere (1984:46) notes that the prescribed bali ritual cannot cure grahadosa but it can minimize or at least ward off bad planetary influences'. This project of minimizing what the divine planets have already decreed is at the heart of the matter. It is human action, that is, prescribed ritualistic effort or karma in the Vedic Hindu sense, that counts when the astrological diagnosis is the influence of Sani. Cosmic karma is countered by individual karmas. Acts of devotion to Sani and also to mediating deities such as Hanuman, Siva and Venkatesvara, rituals {japa, puja, dana, abhiseka), deployment of copper yantras, wearing of charms (amulets or gemstone rings), with or without the advice of an

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

astrologer or healer, and with or without a purohita or other ritualist as a guide, are all accepted practice. Whether devotional

with good results a prescribed nine days of puja for Devi

228

or ritual, these acts are intensely private, the matter of an individual or a household, just as the effect—body weakness, impotence, business failure, pneumonia—goes unshared by any outsider, even one with body weakness and so forth. One informant brought Sanidosa into brilliant focus. ‘Suppose’, he suggested, ‘Sani intends to do harm to me. I cross the street and I am hit by a speeding lorry. I would be killed instantly if I paid no attention to Sani. But because I recite his names, wear his gemstone ring, regularly

229

(Durga) with red grams as dana. After being unemployed for some years a Golla (Sudra varna) man along with his younger brother, also burdened with personal problems, visited the village Brahmin astrologer. Their horoscopes revealed Sanidosa and Kujadosa for him and Rahudosa for the brother. Appropriate danas for the three malevolent planets were prescribed and carried out with positive and speedy results for both brothers. A Nayadu woman school teacher suffered constant failures in

give him sesame and other things he likes, I am injured but not

different areas. She was informed by a Brahmin temple pujari that

killed as my dosa.’

Elinati Sani, in her horoscope until March 1987, was the source of her problems. Along with a male relative she performed abhiseka at the Mandapalli temple. Subsequently three members of her

Some Believers and Their Troubles A Brahmin infant, four months old, female, had severe diarrhea and spent four weeks in hospitals, two weeks in Kakinada and two weeks in Rajahmundry. Her grandfather consulted the family astrologer and was told that her horoscope indicated frequent illnesses. ‘I believe in the influence of the supernatural,’ says the grandfather, a prominent lawyer. “If there are problems for me or my family, problems I am not able to handle, I go to the astrologer, a professional who can help me. I say, “Sir, I do not understand, perhaps you can advise me ...” I was reassured to have the astrologer consider my granddaughter. In our home we do regular Sanidanas and we send our family purohita to Mandapalli to do abhisekas* all day every Sani trayodasu The infant regained health shortly after consultation with the astrologer. A middle-aged Agnikula (Ksatriya varna) couple received ad¬ vice from their Brahmin purohita after the man experienced ‘failures’ in his professional and personal life. On the astrologer’s advice the couple went to Mandapalli on Sivaratri day, 1991, to do puja and abhiseka for Sani. Both come from families with strong beliefs in the navagrahas, Sani in particular. He and his father and brother all wear navaratna rings; she wears a pearl and an emerald for protection. Previously, she had been told she suffered from Kujadosa, the influence of Mars, and had performed

family came down with diseases—cholera, chickenpox and jaun¬ dice—and they believed that this was Sani’s way of testing them further. In 1988 she gained employment and had no further problems. A Devanga (Sudra varna) merchant advertised in the marriage sections of Telugu newspapers giving the essential data concerning his eligible daughter, including the fact that she had Sanidosa in the seventh (marriage) house of her birth chart (janmacakrd). Following the widespread belief that such a dosa is cancelled if both marriage partners suffer it, the search for a groom was thereby restricted. Alternatively, if a groom with a matching dosa could not be located, the family of one unintimidated by her burden might possibly reply. At the same time, because he worried about his own untimely death during his second thirty-year Sani orbit, the merchant requested that the astrologer prepare his death chart (mrtacakra:) so that he might prepare and protect himself. The Brahmin headmaster of a school believes that Sani moves people to their distress but restores them at the end. As illustration he provided details of his own horoscopic biography. He was sent to a remote forest region, away from his family and hometown friends, when his Sani mahadasa began; when it ended in 1972 he was able to return home. His Sani antardasa occurred in 1988,

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

secondary to a mitigating Budha mahadasa, but then his Elinati Sani appeared in December 1990 and troubles came in bunches.

lated load of karma makes them vulnerable . . . ’ Gananath Obeyesekere (1984: 47) observed that ‘irrevocable planetary

230

231

He suffered first from asthma and jaundice, and then his health

movements are indicators of a person’s karma . . . [and] thus

‘reached a life-threatening crisis’. He took the blame for a col¬ league’s misdeeds and suffered the consequences professionally.

planets merely chart a person’s karma ... [T] he immediate cause. of all illness and misfortunes may be physiological or due to the

Family members suffered on numerous counts. But he spent a

action of external spirits; the ultimate cause is simply . . . bad

great amount of time reciting Sani stotras and japas, performing Sanidanas, sending money to Mandapalli for abhiseka and, in his estimate most important of all, being a faithful devotee of and

karma . . . ’ Intellectually speaking, these constructions are almost satisfying, and few thinking Hindus would discount them. But a mechanistic and cosmically impersonal system that delivers praise and blame in the coinage of transmigratory merit and demerit is

ritualist for Ahjaneya (Hanuman). ‘I think of him all the time’, he says, and credits Ahjaneya with extending protection. In 1992, with several years of Elinati Sani still to run, he was appointed headmaster where he wished to be, and now feels kindly disposed towards a Sani who has already delivered his worst. Further examples could be cited, including those of Christians and Muslims who believe their misfortunes may be attributable to grahas and who may, in some cases, go among the great crowds to the Mandapalli temple to perform abhiseka or puja. They are far less likely, seen going to Believers also U.S.A. Some

however, to perform domestic japas or danas, or be temples and shrines in their own neighbourhoods. include Hindus who are settled in Europe and the of the people who have been in the U.S.A. for an

entire generation still send money regularly to the Mandapalli temple for abhiseka. Since no pras'ada from Sani is desired, kuhkuma (saffron powder) from the nearby Parvatl temple is sent by the pujaris in return, as an indication that indeed the money has

insufficient for many. It is a system devoid of impulse, one that has no space for a standard manoeuvre, an immediate tinkering with cause and effect by devotional or ritualistic means. Respect for the source of evil and malevolence demands respect in return. As the author of the Jaiminiya Grhyasutra phrase cited above expressed it two millennia ago: ‘being revered, they revere . . . With regard to shrinking the negative effects of Sani or any other graha, good works in the sense of punya (merit)-producing actions for the good of society are not stressed. The sphere of action is reduced to the personal, and ritualistic efforts become defensive, keyed to a private result. The containment of suffering. By means of astrology an attempt is made to limit and chronologically confine suffering. This is indeed an audacious enterprise, to shackle the stars to a human schedule. To be forewarned regarding misfortune, declares the

been received and an offering of sesame oil has been carried out.

astrologer, is to be forearmed. As one believer stated: ‘Mental preparation for the impending badha (affliction) serves a true

Strategies Concerning Evil and Malevolence

purpose.’ Suffering does not arrive unannounced. A time-frame is declared in the stars (seven and a half years, nineteen years) in

The religious and theological implications of navagraha beliefs and rituals are readily apparent. As noted earlier, the doctrine of karma should be an all-encompassing explanation for human suffering and misfortune that is otherwise inexplicable. As C.J. Fuller (1992: 249) noted: ‘all theories of karma are immune to contradiction by alternative explanations because . . . anyone who falls foul of another source of misfortune does so only because their accumu-

which misfortune is awaited. Evil is given parameters. It cannot be eliminated, but in this astrological system, as in others, it is limited to an exact period. And stories are legion concerning precision in the definitive transit of Sani. One that is typical concerns the righteous man (always a Brahmin if the teller of the tale is a Brahmin) who was almost executed for a crime he did

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

not commit. Just as the axe was about to fall, his Sani passed, he was discovered to be innocent and was released as a hero instead

cults of the dead. It is possible to imagine, on grounds of literary

of a headless corpse.

evidence and surviving ritual traditions, that his original cultic

232

The personification of evil: prerequisite for devotion.

By all rights,

Sani and his malevolent cohorts, Rahu and Ketu, plus the separate figure Kuja (Mars), should be raksasas, demons. But they are devatas, deities. Being planets and rulers of days, they are transcen¬ dent sources of evil. But more importantly, this is a religion that prizes devotion above all other avenues to salvation. Demons, even if worshipped, praised and adored, are still unpredictable. Gods and goddesses, on the other hand, are often amenable to devo¬ tional contracts and thrive on the hufnan advances from which demons shrink. Sani is malevolent, cruel, even harsh, but fair. ‘He is the same for everyone’, is a much used phrase in Telugu. The dark planet (as well as all the others) is endowed with a personality, physique and biography, and the status of devata allows him to be approached, albeit cautiously, worshipped, and in a few cases even elevated to a personal deity.17 Interestingly, having acceded to this personification of evil, the worshipper of Sani proceeds to reinforce his negative features, as if it were incumbent upon humans to valourize that which they fear. The prince of darkness, deified, is nourished by the essence of darkness, black. What is given to Sani is said to be something priya, dear to him, beloved by him, the colour black, his colour, things of iron, his metal,18 and above all the brown oil of sesame (taila) or the unhusked dark sesame seeds themselves (tila,, Telugu nuvvulu). Therefore gifts to this crude, recondite presence rein¬ force his interior qualities—darkness, slowness, tenacity, a sinewy strength—even as they remind devotees of the death they desire to postpone.

233

Like his half-brother, Yama, Sani hovers over the terrain of

representation may have been in the form of a single black iron nail. The principal offering to Sani, tila, is known in the Atharvaveda funerary verses (18.3.69) where it is scattered with grains for the deceased in the hope of Yama’s approval. From the time of the Grhyasutras, tila is the primary addition to cooked rice in the pinda that both represents and sustains deceased pip's, ances¬ tors, in sraddha rituals (Knipe 1977). Sani receives not only krsnatila (the black variety as opposed to the red or white-yellow) or the dark unhusked seeds, but also the pressed oil, a rare, although not unknown, offering in sraddha. The thick brown substance may represent not only the darkness and laziness of the slow planet (‘as slow as molasses in January’) but also a stickiness capable of carrying its burden of afflictions. The oil (as well as sesame leaves and roots) is known for its property of blackening hair (Mehra 1967: 101-2). The fact that Manu (4.75) prohibited the eating of anything containing tila at night hints at danger in its potent blackness. Sesame is one of the navadhanyas, nine grains, directly linked to the navagrahas, and also associated with the cult of the dead in coastal Andhra, where it is grown in a basket of earth during the ten-day period of the ritual construction of a temporary new body for the preta (deceased).19 Another common offering to Sani is masa, the pulse known as black gram, also a s'raddha offering and one sometimes combined with tila. The significance of release. To be instantly released from Sani’s effects at a precise point in time has significant religious connota¬ tions, for the event bears obvious resemblance to moksa as a kind of fivanmukta experience. In the case of one seized and released from mahadasa and antardas'a on multiple occasions it becomes a

17 ‘When the planets have been turned into gods, they can be negotiated with’, remarks Diehl (1956: 304). 18 On black as a colour, both auspicious and inauspicious, and on iron, see Abbot (1932: 276-9 and 213-30). His remark that ‘iron is inimical to all forms of power, be it good or evil’ applies in general to black as well.

19 On the association of navadhanyas and navagrahas in the Draupadi cult,

see Hiltebeitel (1991), chapter 4 ‘Offering sprouts’, including note 6 on the list of the nine grains. It may be noted here that Rahu and Ketu share much of the symbol system of Sani, including the colour black, iron danas, sesame and more.

234

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

235

series of preparations for ultimate release. Again it is the cult of

Sin ‘exists as an independent morbid substance or entity which may

the dead in Hinduism that provides a parallel experience. Carrying

fasten itself upon man without his conscious participation, or at least

one’s ‘Sani’ is similar to bearing through the years a rna, debt, and fulfilment of the Elinati Sani is analogous to paying off the debt owed to one’s parents in a once-in-a-lifetime s'raddha pilgrimage to Kasa, Gaya, Nasik, or another tirtha. Indeed, some who work at home on their dosas are so rigorous, systematic and longsuffering that the domestic ritual itself appears to take on the features of a solitary pilgrimage, a private journey through a burdened time. Devotion to divine mediators. Bhakti enters the picture not only in propitiatory advances to Sani but also in devotional attendance on powers of protection and mediation. Reliance upon a loyal and powerful guardian deity such as Hanuman, or the outsider god Siva, is significant. The choice is not the cosmopolitan heroes Rama or Krsna, but rather those familiar with the shadow world of evil, defilement and death. Neither Hanuman nor Siva can subdue Sani, nor change inevitable celestial movements, but devo¬ tion to them can win aid in softening the cruelty of the dark seizer. Ahjaneya (Hanuman), like Sani, is worshipped on Saturday and in Andhra, a puja to him can favourably alter this slowest of weekdays from that which is asubha, inauspicious, to subha, fortu¬ nate. Worship of the Sivalihga,, particularly one established for the propitiation of Sani, is another favoured technique. And puja for Vehkatesvara, Lord of the Seven Hills at Tirupati and the presiding deity of Andhra, is yet a third recourse, particularly on Saturdays. Transferral: an immediate reduction. The entire ritual apparatus of recitations, meditations, offerings and the wearing of prophylac¬ tic charms may not be sufficient to win the favours of Sani and prevail upon him. It may be necessary to bring about an immediate reduction of his effect by means of dosa transferral, that is an unloading of misfortune and affliction by ritual means. Almost a century ago Bloomfield recognized a process of substance trans¬ ferral in the AtharvavedavAutiz sin or evil (enas, papman, etc.) are concerned.

without his choice or sanction. In this sense sin or evil . . . assume the character of an almost physical deficiency or disease. Sin, too, is trans¬ ferable from man to man . . . (1899: 83).

Considering the importance of sesame seeds and oil in the cult of Sani, it is noteworthy that the plant apamarga has a central role in the Atharvaveda when it comes to the transfer of sin and evil. Consider Atharvaveda 7.65.2 (cf. Kausika Sutra 46.49): ‘The sin, the pollution, whatever we have done with evil, by you [apa¬ marga plant] we wipe that off’ (translated by O’Flaherty 1976: 144). The notion of unburdening sin, guilt, evil, defilement, inauspiciousness by ‘wiping off’ and other metaphoric actions has been well analysed by, among others, Rodhe (1946), O’Flaherty (1976, Chapter 6, ‘The Paradox of the Evil God: The Transfer of Sin’) and Raheja (1988, Chapters 3, 4). When it comes to transferring Sanidosa the target may be an iron nail or an iron image of Sani, a Siva linga established by Sani for the purpose of discharging dosa, or a Brahmin. It is the Brahmin who steps into the role of Sani in receiving the danas and therefore the dosa or plda in what becomes a striking de¬ monstration of the circularity of evil and malevolence. It is parallel to those danas for the deceased in funerary sraddhas when a Brahmin ritually becomes the preta, the disembodied dead, and accepts the food, clothing, household items and cash intended to see him or her through the year-long journey towards becoming a pitr (Knipe 1977). In fact, these Brahmins are the same in Sanidana and in apara funerals, for they are the so-called degraded Brahmins, lowest of their varna, despised in formulaic terms as ignorant and greedy, yet recognized thanklessly by all as essential in their ritual representations of Sani and the dead. Although discussed with great reluctance, they are referred to as krsna Brah¬ mins, danagrahitas, and faceless Brahmins. The first appellation pertains to the necessary dark skin colour. Donors do not trust a dana-recipient who is not black, since the dosa might rebound.

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

He should be the colour of Sani and the items that are given to him in the rite. The second designation, the taker or ‘seizer’ of

Circulated in bazaar tracts in Telugu, in addition to detailed calendars, pancahga digests and popular books on horoscopes

danas, is no neutral term, since it connotes the grasping for

that provide information on rituals for Sani, are such texts as the Balagrahadosa Cikitsa,, a pamphlet detailing cures for grahainspired diseases in children. One way to approach rituals in this

236

material goods said to be the habit of these Brahmins. And the last description refers to the fact that this ritualist should depart without looking back and never return. He should leave not even

237

brief overview is to divide them into the time-hallowed categories

the memory of his face behind. Finally, although no name betrays this feature, he is said in coastal Andhra as elsewhere in India to

of domestic and public, distinguishing those that take place in the home from those occurring in temple compounds, roadside

be ignorant, reminding us of both the avidvan, the ignorant Brahmin, of the Vedic srauta ritual, and of the nature of one born

shrines or on river banks.

under the influence of Sani. In the Vrddhayavana-jdtaka vs. 31,

Domestic Rituals

the latter is vidydvihina, without wisdom (Pingree 1965: 258). That Sani-occasioned effects are, like papa, transferable, is indicated also by the fact that no prasada is taken away from a

A number of routine domestic rituals such as the upanayana, sacred-thread ceremony, or vivaha, marriage, include navagraha puja as a standard component. In addition there are occasional rites. For example, there is an important ceremony before occupy¬

visit to a Sani shrine or temple. One man substantiated this when discussing the fact that the pujaris of the Mandapalli Sani temple send red powder consecrated by Parvatl as prasada in return for money posted to them for Sani abhiseka. 'People throw even the powder away, so as not to get the effect. I formerly did, but got the effect nevertheless! So now I mix the Parvatl prasada into my

ing a new residence, a ritual with roots in the Grhyasutras or possibly earlier that intends to make a house peaceful, auspicious, disease- and demon-free, in other words, sdntaft Various pad¬ dhatis in use today for vastusanti, vastupuja, vdstusamana and

[orange-red] colour for Anjaneya [Hanuman] and wear it as my

grhasanti include planetary propitiation. Another example is a man’s sixtieth-birthday ritual, known today as sastyabdapurti, first

bottu [Telugu, auspicious forehead mark]*.

documented in Baudhayana Grhyasesasutra 5.8 where it features the worship of a gold image of Mrtyu. In later texts the image of

3. Rituals for Sani: Devotion and Transferal A variety of rituals concerning Sani exist along a continuum from the simplest of momentary verbal pronouncements to elaborate

a mediating Markandeya replaces that of Death himself, but still the emphasis of this santi is on the avoidance of untimely demise and general misfortune, and so the propitiation of ugra, cruel beings, is important, as the older name for the rite, ugraratha-

japas and danas that require prolonged periods such as forty consecutive days, seven consecutive Saturdays, a year or longer.

santi, may indicate.21 Turning to the rites directed specifically to Sani, as noted

They are outlined in medieval and modern Sanskrit paddhatis and

above, there is a distinct privacy in his rituals. More restricted than death rites, to which wider kin and friends may be invited, Sani

prayogas under rubrics that date to the latest of the Grhyasutras, Yajnavalkya,, the Visnu and other puranas: graha- or navagrahasanti; graha- or navagrahayajncc, Sani-, navagraha-, or grahapujd', grahamakha; etc. There are also Sani stotras or suktas in Sanskrit published independently or as a brief part of larger anthologies, sometimes citing the Skanda or another purana as the origin.

rites are individual or immediate family performances. The invita20 Atharvaveda 19.9, cited above, was a santi hymn recommended in Atbarvaveda Parisista 4.5> probably to exorcise grahas from the king's residence. 2^ For example, see LJgrarathasantipruyoga, compiled by P.S. Tirtha (Poona, 1958).

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

tion of a danagrahlta to receive the 'Sanidana in one’s house is also

a year, and more frequently, even on other weekdays, if the effect

an occasion for circumspection, even secrecy, since the locus of

is severe. The danagrahlta should not come back and should not

dangerous forces is shifting. The numbers seven and nineteen are

even look back. ‘People say that if he does, the effect comes back!’

238

recurrent, corresponding to the years of Sanidosa. The simplest of actions in the home are mental recitation,

smarana, or recitation of a stotra aloud. The recitation of a

239

For this reason, as well as the fact that the danagrahlta must be from a different gotra but the same subcaste, there is the constant complaint that these Brahmins are hard to find.

mulamantra for Sani, however, can be prolonged. One prescrip¬

Another informant, the lawyer cited above, described his do¬

tion is for nineteen days. The Mandapalli head priest advocates a

mestic Sanidana in which he transfers the dosa of a family member

prophylactic japa in the home: 19,000 recitations within forty

to a danagrahlta in a bowl of sesame oil. ‘I am giving this to you,

days of the mulamantra, by himself if a Brahmin; by one or more

it is no longer mine’, accompanies the transfer. Since he knows

Brahmin priests if a non-Brahmin; a Vedic mantra if twice-born;

the mantras, he repeats them in Sanskrit after the family purohita

a substitute puranic one if a Sudra. Abhiseka can also be done to

has recited them, or he sometimes recites them without the puro¬

Siva as Mrtyumjaya, the conqueror of death. One Brahmin householder performs Sanipuja on the floor of his ritual corner, making an eight-petalled lotus of rice flour on a

hita being present. For those clients who cannot repeat in Sanskrit, whether Brahmin or non-Brahmin, only the Brahmin officiant recites the respective mantras.

turmeric base, with an iron spike nail (Telugu mekd) as Sani in

There are additional home-oriented procedures. One involves

the centre. An iron ladle holds a burning wick in oil. He does

the use of copper yantras, also known as cakras. Commonly seen

japa, and offers unhusked sesame seeds and bellam (raw sugar)

is a sheet-copper square with eight navagrahas in a circle around

until the wick burns out. He does this for seven weeks, assured

Siirya, to be used for navagrahapuja or for individual japas. Rarely

that ninety per cent of Sani’s effect will be reduced. Although he

seen now, but apparently common a generation or two ago, are

knows that the dosa is more assuredly reduced by self-recitations,

heavy square copper yantras for each of the navagrahas. These may

he recently did a Ketu japa for his son 7000 times with 700

be described in brief since they are disappearing. Each is 12.7 cm

tarpanas. When he does Sanidana in his house, he invites two

(five inches) to a side with four gates surrounding an eight-petalled

Brahmins, one for giving mantras and one for receiving danas. A

lotus which in turn surrounds a six-point star of two intersecting

puja is done for each. The danagrahlta, taker of dana, he says, 'we

triangles. In the centre of the locked triangles is a binduot turmeric

consider to be Sani\ After the mulamantra from the first Brahmin,

and sindura paste. Each of the nine is heavily inscribed in Telugu

his purohita, he pours unhusked sesame seeds out of his right hand

with the names of the graha, mulamantras, and stotras. For ex¬

into the hand of the danagrahlta, at the same time pouring water

ample, the mantra for Sani derives from Rgveda 10.9.4, sam no

from a pitcher held in his left hand onto the seeds. That is the

devir . . .

moment of transfer. Along with the obligatory sesame seeds (Tel¬

Navaratna amulets or rings worn to protect the wearer from

ugu nuvvulu), an iron nail, black grams (Telugu minumulu), a

grahadosa are common, particularly among the more affluent.

black cloth (usually a blouse-piece), horse grams (Telugu ulavalu)

Like the navadhanyas, nine grains, the navaratnas are nine gems

and fifteen or twenty rupees are given. Recently steel kitchen

associated with the navagrahas, sapphire being special to Sani in

implements, such as spoons, spatulas, ladles, even miniature steel

a tradition at least as old as Varahamihira. Again, like the single

stoves, have begun to take the place of iron, but as a traditionalist

copper yantra with all nine, rings are seen with Surya in the centre

he keeps to the iron nail. He does Sanidana at least seven Saturdays

and the other eight grahas located in their proper directions. More

241

Syllables of Sky

Softening the Cruelty of God

frequent is the habit of wearing one, two or three rings with gems

then wash him with water, apply turmeric to his face, and drop

of planets either feared or respected as guardians. The ratnas are

tila seeds onto his head. Devotees focused primarily on Sani limit

240

also used in folk healing.

themselves to the offerings of sesame seeds and oil to Sani and his crow. By late morning the small pavilion is awash in a sticky

Rituals at Shrines or in Temples

mixture of sesame oil, coconut milk and spilled lamp oil. Although

In the town of Rajahmundry, nearly every temple has in its front

no devotee takes prasada, the pujaris are not slow to secrete the

court a well-visited navagraha shrine meant for circumambulation

coconut halves in their shoulder bags/2

and offerings. Pujaris employed by temples take devotees indi¬

About 30 miles southeast of Rajahmundry is the small village

vidually or in families to one or another graha, or more frequently

of Mandapalli, famous throughout southeast India for its temple

to the entire set, and there recite mantras or stotras. But many

of Sani. Although a few others are reported, coastal Telugus proudly

individuals circumambulate and make offerings as part of their

claim it to be ‘the only one in India.23 The current head priest has

personal routine with no professional guidance. The prominent

a hereditary post, his great-grandfather, grandfather and father, all

temple of Markandeya on the Godavari River has a large navagraha

deceased, having served before him. Until I960, when a system of

interior shrine with the capacity to hold several worshippers at

nearby levees and canals was completed, the area was flooded

once. Recently, however, a small outdoor navagraha shrine was

annually, approach to the temple was by boat and pilgrims were

constructed directly across the road, only a metre from the flood-

few and far between. Now a stabilized system of dams and locks

wall of the river, as part of an attractive ritual pavilion. The nine metal images stand together in a square, with Sani the only one to have a row to himself. It is the favoured view looking west

22 Diehl (1956: 300) describes Sanipuja in the navagraha shrine of the Somasundara temple in Madurai. After performing astottiram (which Diehl equates to reciting the name of the god 108 times), a small burnt offering is

across the river, an overlook that Candra has from the back row.

made in a bowl 10 to 15 feet in front of Sani. ‘One buys a little packet of fat

Rahu, Ketu and Kuja (Mangala) face south; Guru and Budha

wrapped in an oil-drenched piece of cloth . . . and leaves it to burn in the bowl.

north; Surya and Sukra east towards the temple. On Saturday

Sometimes old rags are added, which means that the disease or evil of whatever

(Sanivara) mornings a constant parade of a dozen Markandeya

kind it may be, is handed over to the flames.’ Possibly the ‘oil was taila and

temple pujaris brings clients across the road to the new shrine where they can pocket what they earn by recitations and puja directives without losing a cut for the government temple Deva-

the ‘fat a bali of meat. Raheja (1988: 80-5) describes the 'vrafa) of Saturday’ in Pahansu village, northwestern Uttar Pradesh, a s'anti for Sani, Rahu or Ketu best done under a pipal tree on a Saturday morning in the bright half of Sravana. Iron or glass images of the three planets are worshipped with black substances,

sthanam. Worshippers circumambulate nine times, some reciting

the tree is circumambulated seven times, then bound with thread, and a bowl

before each of the nine deities with no special favouritism, but

of black substances presented as dana. If possible, seven black cows with black

most spending all or the largest portion of their time pouring

calves are included in the dana ‘to a Brahmin who is an appropriate receptacle’

unhusked tila seeds and taila oil slowly over the head of Sani while

for this. Raheja mentions a less frequently used procedure for transferring

the pujari recites a Sani stotra. The well-prepared devotees open newspaper packets of raw grains, different for each graha, and deposit these along with bananas, lighted incense and burning oil lamps at the feet of each graha, with sesame oil poured from a

hindrances (badha) caused by Sani: A south-facing image of Hanuman is circum¬ ambulated forty times for Hanuman to absorb the hindrances. 23 One is in Srikakulam, in northern Andhra, and others are reported to be in Tirunallam (Tamilnadu), Varanasi, Pune and elsewhere. Babb (1975: 113) reports a Sani temple in Raipur District Madhya Pradesh. Kane (1974: 684)

glass bottle over Sani. The last act is to smash a coconut, offer

mentions active ‘temples of Saturn and Rahu but cites only one (for Rahu) at

milk to each graha and the two broken halves to the feet of Sani,

Rahuri in Ahmednagar District.

Syllables ofSky

Softening the Cruelty of God

has curbed the summer floods, a new bridge over the Godavari has

dasi Saturdays. The primary acts are to bathe, and purchase a

expanded bus routes and great crowds of pilgrims are normal on

half-litre bottle of sesame oil and then an admission ticket before

Saturdays, especially on Sani trayodasi, the two or three times a

entering the temple compound. If it is a special Saturday the queue

242

243

year when Saturday falls on the thirteenth day of a lunar fortnight.

may require four or five hours to reach the point of delivery to a

Since Sani is a dark, inauspicious graha, the dark thirteenth preced¬

pujari who quickly empties the bottle, not directly onto the linga

ing amdvasya,, the new moon day, is the most ‘favourable’ time to

but into a steel trough with a drainpipe directed outside. Certainly

unload all Sani-sponsored problems and misfortunes.

the bottles, and probably the oil as well, are recycled. Pilgrims

Mandapalli, also known as Mandesvaram, is named after Sani

then leave by way of the village lanes and bathe in the canal, often

as Manda, the slow planet. Apart from its sizeable outer court, the

leaving all clothes, even sandals, on the banks for fear of taking

temple is really shrine-sized, with an interior of less than two

anything of Sani with them. Crossing the footbridge in clean

metres on each side, restricted to pujaris. Although known as ‘the

clothes, they wait again in queues for buses to different villages.

temple of Sani’, the Sthalapurana reveals another important

The crowds both ways are festive, boisterous, never solemn, but

dimension of the Saiva background of the fierce planet.

sometimes unruly. When hundreds of thousands arrived for a Sani

Several yugas ago this area was the dandakaranya, Dandaka Forest, in

trayodasi Saturday in 1986, people unable to breach the com¬

which the gods conducted yajhas, sacrifices. But two raksasas, Asvattha

pound hurled their glass bottles of oil over the walls and injured

and Pippala, disturbed them, so Sani killed them both in order to

scores inside. Brahmins, including the danagrahlta, come from all

maintain the world through yajna. The raksasas, however, were Brah¬

over the area on special Saturdays to serve families who wish to

mins, and Sani incurred the dosa of brahmahatya. To relieve himself of

remain after tailabhiseka and sit inside the temple compound to

this dosa, he established the Siva linga at the centre of what is now the

perform, with or without the family purohita, their extended

temple.

Sanidana rituals.

Apart from the feature of the two raksasas embodying names of the tree Ficus religiosa, and both in other contexts being

avataras of Siva, the striking feature of this account is that the temple is a house not for Sani but for Siva in the form of a linga. People going ‘to the temple of Sani’ intend therefore to unload Sanidosa via tailabhiseka onto Siva. The primordial ‘sin’ was Sani’s self-directed assassination of two Brahmins. The sins or faults that are now unburdened onto the linga are those delivered by Sani himself in the course of his role as a malevolent planet. Theologi¬ cally speaking, there are two rationales. Siva’s immortal linga is the right place for the disposal of dosas that are hazardous in any other locale and unacceptable to any other deity. And it is the grace of Siva that overcomes what even Sani deposits as personal destiny.

Rituals in Extremis The absolute effect of Sani is death/* The Mandapalli temple priest states baldly that the primary reason that Sani is propitiated is mrtyubhaya, the fear of death, particularly an untimely death. ‘If a person is possessed by Sani,’ he says, ‘his life is sure to be terminated.’ When a horoscope schedules dire consequences in the near future, some who fear for their lives resort to an ultimate dana, the unloading of death itself in a live potu, a black bull water buffalo, the vdhana of Yama and often of Sani himself. Several informants related recent performances of this dana by their rela¬ tives. In one case, in 1980, a Brahmin was found who would receive the dana at the riverside. A heap of rice paddy was made

Attendance at the temple is sparse on ordinary weekdays,

24 The absolute effect of Skanda is death for the child, whereas the other

crowded on ordinary Saturdays and utterly mobbed on Sani trayo-

eight children’s disease grahas, including the six beastly ‘mothers’, may be bought off with balis and mantras in the hope that the child will recover.

24 4

Syllables of Sky

and a silver image of a male buffalo placed on top. The rice, image,

Softening the Cruelty of God

245

Some of the mythology behind navagraha astrology, as well

money and a live bull buffalo became the principal danas to the

as disease grahas, was textually documented about 1000 BCE in

special Brahmin who, according to the informant, died within a

the Atharvaveda, but it was not until the first few centuries CE,

fortnight. In another example, the Brahmin who received such a

after Western Asian astrological traditions impressed themselves

dana continues to receive treatment today in a hospital for the

upon South Asia, that horoscopy expanded with systems of rasis,

resultant mental illness he contracted. A third report concerns a

bhavas, and gocaras involving the navagrahas as well as the twenty-

young novice apara Brahmin, a specialist in funeral rituals, who

seven or twenty-eight naksatra asterisms. The Babylonian/Hel¬

is said either not to have known or not to have believed in the

lenistic reliance upon two malevolent planets, Mars and Saturn,

danger of receiving the pdtudanay contracted such a ritual because

was doubled in India with the addition of Rahu and Ketu, then

of financial need and died as a consequence. According to ritual¬

more than tripled with a new theory of upagrahas, minor planets.

ists, this extreme dana continues today for two remarkable reasons.

Of the four malevolent grahas, Kuja, Sani, Rahu and Ketu, Sani

One they attribute to the ignorance and greed of the danagrahlta,

is the most feared and therefore most frequently propitiated.

the other to the mistaken belief that the gayatri or any other mantra

Rituals prescribed by specialists and widely believed to be ef¬

can successfully discharge the dreadful burden of another’s allotted

ficacious for believers include readings or recitations of the names

death.

of Sani, japas of particular mantras, and stotras concerning Sani. Pujas and abhisekas may be performed privately or with profes¬ Summary

sional help at home or at any of the many acolyte shrines in temple compounds or on riversides. Flood control programmes in the

There is nearly universal faith in astrological reckoning among the Hindus in East Godavari District today, although people have varying degrees of access to one or more of the standard systems of astrology, or varying inclinations to follow through on the advice of an astrologer or local ritualist. Folk belief recognizes

area and the recent renovation of the modest building have turned a centrally located Sani temple into a major tirtha for southeast India, thereby increasing the popularity of the graha and his cult. There are two principal actions in the cult of Sani. One is a simple tailabhiseka in which the individual suffering from the

many grahas who seize and possess humans, including beastly

malevolent effect of'Sani (Sanidosa) pours the oil (taila) of sesame

demonic grahas, often female, who inflict diseases upon children

seed (tila; Telugu nuwulu) over the head and body of an iron

and are vaguely thought to be connected with ‘planets’. The more

image of Sani, thereby transferring in the sticky substance as much

traditional set of nine planets (navagrahas), however, derives from

as possible of the dosa. The other is a somewhat more complicated

a post-Vedic classical period when Jyotihsastra generated a new

procedure requiring the services of a special Brahmin willing to

astrology from Vedic traditions, Jyotisa Vedahga, and an overlay

receive the dosa in a ritual dana to Sani. Sanidana involves offerings

of Babylonian and Greek planetary theories. These nine grahas

ol items loved by the graha, including iron nails, unhusked sesame

include the Sun, Moon, five visible planets, and a mythical pair,

seeds and oil, black grams, black cloth, black or blue flowers, and

Rahu and Ketu. Although not everyone is concerned with the

other items. The priest, usually one of the ‘faceless’ danagrahlta

effects of these grahas upon his or her life, a great many individuals

Brahmins who ritually represent the deceased and receive similarly

seek advice from astrologers, ritualists and healers, particularly

dangerous apara (funerary) danas, has his own private mantric

those suffering from unexplained misfortunes, failures, continuing

means of unloading the dosa received from his client.

illnesses or the fear of untimely death.

A consideration of Sani beliefs and practices adds an intriguing

Syllables of Sky

246

dimension to the study of Hindu theodicy. The attribution of

Softening the Cruelty of God

247

Kane, Pandurang Vaman, 1974, History of Dharmasastra, vol. 5, part 1

current misfortunes to the doctrine of karma and therefore to

(2nd ed.), Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1962;

actions of past lives is not, in the views of believers in astrology, compromised by astrological doctrines. But life and the observa¬

History of Dharmasastra, vol. 5, part 2, Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

tion of it do become more complicated. In a world of multiple

Knipe, David M., 1977, ‘Sapindikarana: The Hindu Rite of Entry into

dangerous forces, the cult of Sani turns up one prominent malevo¬

Heaven’, in Religious Encounters with Death, Insights from the History and Anthropology of Religions, Frank E. Reynolds and Earle H.

lent power and not only provides a means to predict his appearance and gauge the duration and weight of his maleficence, but also prescribes a variety of means by which his victim may soften divine cruelty. What theodicy could improve upon such finesse? Folk wisdom has the final word: the suffering brought periodically by Sani cannot be avoided, but it can be substantially reduced by a strategem of devotion, propitiation and transferal.

Bibliography Abbot, John, 1932, The Keys of Power., A Study of Indian Ritual and Belief London: Methuen & Co. Babb, Lawrence A., 1975, The Divine Hierarchy, Popular Hinduism in Central India, New York: Columbia University Press. Beck, Roger, 1988, Planetary Gods and Planetary Orders in the Mysteries ofMithras, Leiden: E.J. Brill. Bhat, M. Ramakrishna, 1988, Fundamentals of Astrology, 3rd ed., Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Bloomfield, Maurice, 1899, The Atharvaveda, Strassburg: Trubner. Courtright, Paul B., 1985, Ganesa, Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings, New York: Oxford University Press. Diehl, Carl Gustav, 1956, Instrument and Purpose, Lund: C.W.K.

Waugh (eds), University Park and London: Pennsylvania State University Press. - 1989, ‘Hinduism and the Tradition of Ayurveda’, in Healing and Restoring, Health and Medicine in the World’s Religious Traditions Lawrence E. Sullivan (ed.), New York and London: Macmillan. Markel, Stephen A., 1989, ‘The Origin and Early Development of the Nine Planetary Deities (navagraha)’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 1990, The Imagery and Iconographic Development of the Indian Planetary Deities Rahu and Ketu’, South Asian Studies 6: 9-26, London. Mehra, K.L., 1967, ‘History of Sesame in India and its Cultural Signi¬ ficance’, Vishveshvaranand IndologicalJournal, 5: 93-107. Obeyesekere, Gananath, 1984, The Cult of the Goddess Pattini, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. O’Flaherty and Wendy Doniger, 1973, Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva, London: Oxford University Press. - 1976, The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pingree, David, 1963, ‘Astronomy and Astrology in India and Iran’, Isis 54: 229-46. 1965, Representation of the Planets in Indian Astrology’, IndoIranian Journal, 8: 249-67.

Gleerup. Fuller, Christopher J., 1992, The Camphor Flame, Popular Hinduism

— 1978, The Yavanajataka ofSphujidhvaja, 2 vols, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

and Society in India, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Hein, Norvin, 1991, ‘A Triangular Copperplate Inscribed to a Certain Mangala’, unpublished manuscript. Hiltebeitel, Alf, 1991, The Cult of Draupadi, vol. 2, On Hindu Ritual and the Goddess, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Jastrow, Morris, 1909, ‘Sun and Saturn’, Revue dAssyriologie et dArcheologie Orientale, 7: 163—78.

- 1981, Jyotihsastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature, Wiesbaden:

Otto Harrassowitz. K.iheja, Gloria Goodwin, 1988, The Poison in the Gift: Ritual, Prestation, and the Dominant Caste in a North Indian Village, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Kodhe, Sten, 1946, Deliver Us from Evil: Studies on the Vedic Ideas of Salvation, Lund: C.W^.K. Gleerup.

Syllables of Sky

248

Sen, Chitrabhanu, 1978, A Dictionary of Vedic Rituals Based on the

Chapter Ten

Srauta and Grhya Sutras, Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. Sltaram, Eiuri, 1987, Sri Sanigraha Vijhanam, Kakinada: Devalayam Vidhi. Srinivas, M.N., 1952, The Coorgs of South India, Bombay: Asia Publishing House. Sutherland, Gail Hinich, 1991, The Disguises of the Demon: The Develop¬ ment ofthe Yaksa in Hinduism and Buddhism, Albany: State University of New York Press.

‘The Vision was of Written Words’: Negotiating Authority as a Female Muslim Healer in South India

Tapper, Bruce E., 1987, Rivalry and Tribute. Society and Ritual in a Telugu Village in South India, Delhi: Hindustan Publishing CorJOYCE BURKHALTER FLUECKIGER

poration.

^ f I

nce y°u come to me, it will be cured—there’s no ■ question of “failure”.’1 The words are spoken by a female Muslim folk healer called Piranima or Amma

by her patients, to a distressed mother whose teenage son has run away from home; they are repeated with variations throughout the day to patients with fevers, infertility and marital problems, failing businesses, or just general trouble Iparesarii) in the house. Amma is a fifty-five-year-old healer who lives and works in a lesidential neighbourhood on the campus of Osmania University, in the south Indian city of Hyderabad. The stream of patients to the small healing room attached to her house is evidence of her

I first met Amma in January 1989, when I conducted a three-week workshop with Margaret Mills on ‘Women and Folklore Fieldwork’ in Hydera¬ bad, Andhra Pradesh, sponsored by the Ford Foundation. I returned to Hydera¬ bad to work intensively with Amma for seven weeks from December 1990 through January 1991, under the auspices of the American Institute of Indian Studies. An earlier version of this paper was presented at an SSRC-sponsored conference titled ‘Authoritative Words: Strategies of Communication in South and Southeast Asia’, May 1991, Madison, Wisconsin. Words in double quota¬ tion marks indicate that the English word was used by the speaker in an otherwise l Jrdu or Telugu conversation or narrative.

Syllables of Sky

250

‘The Vision was of Written Words'

251

reputation as a successful healer. Amma proudly testifies, ‘Patients come by auto, foot and bus—from villages, Bombay and Pune. My fatita [paper wicks on which are written Qur’anic verses] are even taken to Dubai. ... *

Im

Amma s authoritative voice in a healing practice such as this, in which she meets both male and female, Muslim and Hindu patients, subverts traditional gender roles and hierarchy assumed by the male-dominated public discourse of the Muslim-Hindu community in which she lives. After sitting in her healing room for only a few hours, it becomes clear that both the healing power itself and the healer’s authority to dispense that power derive from her mastery over words, both written and oral. As a healer in a public domain for which there is no clear female model, however, Amma’s authority must be continually negotiated. These negotia¬ tions are the subject of this essay. Visually, the written word dominates Amma’s healing room particularly striking for someone familiar with Hindu folk¬ healing contexts. Amma asserts that her healing power is based solely on the Qur’an, and throughout the day she continually

writes: Qur’anic verses, numbers and symbolic geometric shapes on slips of paper to be folded into amulets (taviz) or rolled into wicks to be burned or immersed in drinking water (fallta), on saucers, unleavened breads, gourds and even pieces of uncured leather. Her table is lined with stacks of taviz and fallta, held down by glass paper weights; a pen is always in her hand. As Amma once exclaimed: ‘There would be no world without paper and pen!’ Amma’s healing rhetoric and vocabulary for ritual are also dominated by images of the written word. She uses the Urdu word

parnd, literally to read , to describe namaz (ritual prayer), inter¬ cessory prayer (dud), meditation and the interpretation of dreams

(sapnaparnd) and visions (nazar), as well as for the recitation of (he Qur an. Although the Qur’an is read from directly only infre¬ quently, it stands as the base from which Amma derives her healing authority and is the basis for her diagnosis and treatment of Figs. 1-2: Amma preparing taviz

patients. The healing setting is, in Shirley Heath’s words, a literacy

Courtesy: Joyce B. Flueckiger

event . . . [an] occasion in which a piece of writing is integral to

Syllables- of Sky

'The Vision was of Written Words'

the nature of the participants’ interactions and their interpretive

The Healing Setting

252

processes’ (1982: 100).

253

Patients are called5 to Amma s courtyard by the green ftag

But control over literal and figurative written words is not

above her courtyard, indicating that below is a site of Islamic ritual

enough to make Amma a successful healer. She herself says: ‘Even

activity. The walls of the courtyard are decorated with bright

a parrot can read. It’s understanding [that’s the thing].’ Patients

murals of a roaring tiger, a horse with the head of a woman (the

come to Amma over other healers who possess similar mastery

Buraq who carried the Prophet on his night journey and ascent

over the written word because of what several patients voiced as

to heaven) and a second horse carrying an open hand (symbolic

her unique muhabbat (love) and bhakti (devotion); and these

of the Prophet's family)—all images common to popular Islam in

qualities, as well as her understanding of the written word, are

India. Small groups of women (many of whom wear a black

expressed through ritual performance and the spoken word.

burqa), children and a few men are seated in the courtyard,

Amma’s is not the only voice of authority in the healing room.

exchanging news and gossip. Others are crowded around the

A unique dynamism is added to the room through the presence

doorway of the healing room as they await their turn, leaning over

of her husband, Abba, storekeeper of the small provisions store

each other to hear the voice inside.

that occupies one side of the room. He is a Sufi spiritual guide/ teacher, a mursid, whose calling is to ‘show and teach the right

Amma meets patients in her healing room six days a week, eight to ten hours a day. She says her calling is to serve the public

path’ to his disciples. He is able to fulfil some of the obligations

during the day and to remember Allah at night5. The room in

of this role while tending the store by giving oral teachings to the

which she sits is small and crowded with patients. When their

healing audience, some of whom are his own initiated disciples

number grows beyond five or six, they are given plastic, numbered

(as well as frequently taking it upon himself to answer the ques¬

discs indicating their position in the waiting line. Amma sits on

tions I was asking directly to Amma, a role she was usually content

a large chair behind a folding table, which is covered with the

to let him assume).2 Although learned in the popular Sufi tradition

tools of her trade: slips of paper on which are written Quranic

of which he is a part, Abba is not literate in the Arabic script, nor

verses and geometric shapes, scissors and a pen. Her voice often

does tradition require such literacy of its mursid. Amma’s position

competes with that of the screeching parrot sitting in a cage

as healer, in contrast, is directly dependent upon well-developed

hanging above the courtyard or the whirring of two dilapidated

skills in both reading and writing. Thus, the healing room becomes the focal point for negotiations between the authorities conferred

floor fans. Amma dresses in a simple nylon sari and a long-sleeved white

by oral and written traditions, between hereditary and innovative

blouse. Her graying hair is covered by the end of her sari when

religious roles, complicated by the non-traditional gender roles

she prays over a patient; her burqa hangs in another room to be

assumed and shared by Amma and Abba.

worn only when she leaves the neighbourhood. She takes pride in the fact that she does not 'need' jewellery to indicate her status

2 Outside the healing room, the authority of Abbas position as a murs'id is most visibly expressed in monthly sama (concerts’, for which qawwafrsingers are hired) held in his courtyard, attended by his murid (disciples) (see Qureshi

and wears only simple glass bangles; her ears are lined with empty holes which once had gold earrings in them.3 She puts on a pair

1986). The spiritual hierarchy of a mursid/murid is made apparent through the honoured seat occupied by Abba, gifts of flowers offered to him by the murid and the order in which disciples take turns dancing/twirling with him as they enter a trance state (hal).

3 She recently wore earrings gifted to her by her niece, but her heait told her: ‘No, take them out’, and she obeyed. Her lack of jewellery is particularly striking when compared to the piranima I met at a ‘women’s dargati, who was

255

Syllables of Sky

‘The Vision was of Written Words *

of horn-rimmed glasses whenever she writes prescriptions for her

disciples, while two of his sons assist Amma at the healing table

patients. Her rounded face carries a jovial expression; her laugh is

and are learning her skills. The gender roles in the second genera¬

254

frequent and vigorous. At least once in an hour, she stops all

tion reassert the normative model of male public healing in South

healing activity, relaxes and pulls out a motley assortment of small

Asian Islam. In this context, the continual negotiations between

tin boxes whose contents she uses to make herself pan (betel leaf),

Amma and Abba of healing/teaching roles, as well as gender roles

to which she admits an addiction.4 Abba frequently reprimands

and their accompanying authorities, are palpable.

Amma for taking time out to make pan when the room is filled with patients. However, these breaks from healing action are often

The Healing Practice

occasions for a story. The stories are not frivolous; as we shall see later in the essay, they are carefully chosen to reinforce Amma’s healing authority and to nurture her relationship with her patients. One-third of the healing room is taken up by the small provisions store in which Abba sits. Abba, a retired university office assistant, is a distinguished seventy-five year old. His face is framed by shoulder-length hair and a long beard; his deeply wise eyes are subtly outlined with kohl (kajal) and periodically framed with black-rimmed glasses. Seated on the ground, he is barely visible behind the veil of bags of cheap candy, snacks and biscuits hanging from the ceiling. Soap, matches, incense and cigarettes line the shelves on the wall behind him; clay pots, whose lids hold lemons and eggs, and small wooden drawers filled with spices surround him. Although Abba’s physical presence in the healing room is somewhat obscured, he does not sit there quietly; his expressive voice frequently interjects into Amma’s healing rhetoric, giving religious teachings or commentary relevant to the situation at hand. Interestingly, two of Amma and Abba’s daughters frequently

Amma’s healing practice is literally and figuratively based on the Qur’an. She asserts that everything she needs for her practice is found in what she calls the ‘Book of Service’ (kbidmatwali kitab).5 Abba calls the Qur’an ‘powerful magic’ {bara jadu). Amma and Abba both make clear, however, that Amma’s healing power and use of the Qur’an are effective only against spiritual illnesses and problems caused by the evil eye {usrai} or the devil {saltan), which frequently manifest themselves in the imbalance of the four elements of which the human body is made (earth, water, air, fire). These problems include infertility, miscarriage and stillbirth, fevers,

general

weakness

and wasting

away (particularly of

children), failing businesses, abusive and/or lazy husbands and disobedient children. Amma identifies cancer, typhoid and polio as examples of illnesses that are beyond her control, outside the spiritual domain. Many patients, especially babies and young children with fevers, are brought to Amma only after they have already received treatment by a doctor that has failed; and I heard frequent, bitter complaints about the money wasted on such treat-

substitute for him in the store, as well as one of his trusted male often dressed in a fancy, auspicious green sari and dupatta (scarf), who wore a dozen glitzy green bangles on each arm and a heavy necklace, and whose eyes were rimmed with heavy kohl. Amma’s pan-chewing addiction is a source of seemingly jovial contention between her husband and herself. He insists that she chews too much and spends too much money on the habit, reportedly up to Rs 400 per month. Her answer to this accusation was: ‘Allah provides’, to which he retorted, ‘If he provides, why do you ask me for money?’

5 See Rahman (1989: 150) for a discussion on the use of amulets in preIslamic Arabia and the Prophet’s reluctant allowance of the practice ‘with the proviso that writings on amulets consist only of verses from the Qur’an. He did this to safeguard against the possibility that some amulets might invoke powers to achieve healing other than the one unique God of Islam'. 6 Jadu in the Hindu context generally has negative connotations of black magic; however, used here by Abba, the word connotes ‘power’ in a more generalized sense.

256

257

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'The Vision was of Written Words'

ments.7 In a discussion of the differences between the illnesses

Amma’s disciples are able to aid her in carrying out the additions

which doctors are able to control and those which Amma cures,

and divisions of afjud, leaving only the final diagnosis to her.

Abba stated that the latter were all ‘troubles for which doctors’

Determining the treatment is less simple, however, particularly

medicines are useless. The medicine for these are this [pointing

deciding what should be written on specific tavlz (amulets). What

to Ammas table full of slips of paper]. We could say that they’re

distinguishes Amma from her disciples and others who may be

killed by the very letters of “Arabi”.’

able to make the appropriate calculations is the authority with

Amma calls her standard diagnostic procedure afjud(literally,

which she names the problem, determines its treatment and pro¬

‘adding’), in which she asks for the patient’s name and that of his or her mother. She writes the name of each in the Arabic script.

nounces its cure. Amma’s treatment and diagnostic procedure of afjud require

Each letter of the Arabic alphabet has been assigned a numerical

an active use of the Arabic script. Letters of and numerical symbols

value by the abjctd tradition;8 Amma adds up the values for each

for Qur’anic verses (surd) are written on the slips of paper that are

name, divides their individual totals by the day of the week or

folded into amulets (tavlz) to be worn around the neck or waist,

some other astrological number and then compares them. The

carried in a wallet, smashed by a rock, hung above a doorway to

numerical difference between the two indicates whether or not

flutter in the wind; or as stated earlier, they are rolled and burned

the patient’s composition is weighted too far in the direction of

as wicks or immersed in drinking water (fallta). Abba describes

any one of the four elements and determines the treatment.

the number/verse substitution as one equivalent to degrees on a

On the surface, the primary mathematical diagnostic proce¬

thermometer or kilometres in measuring distance. Words and

dure of afjud is relatively objective and straightforward. Several of

numbers are written on saucers from which a patient drinks; they are written on unleavened bread (capdii) fed to dogs as surrogates

7 Members of Amma’s own family frequently went to ‘modern’ medical practitioners for general flu symptoms such as fevers, coughs and colds, that

for errant husbands or disobedient children, on gourds that serve as substitutes for the weakened body of a child,

and on bits of

others brought to Amma for treatment. Ammas eldest daughter was awaiting

animal skin burned in the fire to close the mouth’ of an adversary.

heart surgery in January 1991; the surgery was unsuccessful and she died later

The written word reaches across distances and compels in ways

that summer. 8 See also Fahd (1971) on huruf. The standard Urdu term for this technique is called abjad, referred to by

that the oral word is unable to do, as Abba describes: [It’s] like if I write a letter to you and tell you to come; it’s urgent

a

Ja far Sharif in his Islam in India or Qanum-i-Islam (first published in 1921).

telegram. You can’t refuse. Like that, there’s a ‘mantra’. And on [your]

Sharif states that the numerical value ascertained by adding the values of the

name, like if we know the name of your mother. Reading that and

letters in the names is divided by twelve. The resulting number indicates which

reading your name, we make an “attack’.

astrological sign will dominate the life of the patient. Amma’s calculations appear to be somewhat different from this description. Nowhere in the author’s descrip¬

Although Amma repeatedly asserts that all she needs for her

tions of what the translator has rendered ‘magicians’ is mention made of female

practice is the Qur’an, there are several other books to which she

practitioners.

refers for specific treatments and from which she copies sample

The differences between Amma’s terminology and pronunciation and ‘stan¬

geometric diagrams for use in specialized amulets. She was not

dard’ Urdu terminology are frequent in her speech. One young, male Muslim M. Phil, graduate in Urdu literature, while listening to some tapes of Amma’s

9 The power of transference behind these treatments is: in the same way that

healing rhetoric, exclaimed: ‘This isn’t Urdu!’ [And, after listening for some

a dog is faithful to the person who feeds it, the husband or child will be faithful

time,] ‘This isn’t Islam!’

to the woman; as the gourd dries up, its life force will transfer to the weak child.

258

Syllables of Sky

The Vision was of Written Words'

259

eager to show these to me or reveal their contents, perhaps realizing

Both the oral and written word protect in the ritual of house

the apparent contradiction between their use and her statement

exorcism, bandhis (possibly from bandhna, literally, to bind or tie

that the Qur an is all she needs. It was only on one of the last days

up), a treatment Amma prescribes for non-specific, but seemingly

I spent in her healing room that she reluctantly showed me two

localized, general trouble in the house. Amma performs two or

of these books and told me their names: Bangui Aur Cin Ke

three of these eveiy Friday, her ‘day off from the healing room.

Jadu (The Magic of Bengal and China) and Mohini Tantra (A

The exorcisms require lengthy preparations: writing sura and

Collection of Charms/Incantations). When I asked about their

number substitutions on lemons and preparing taviz to be impaled

contents, she answered: ‘First practise and fully embrace what I

on iron nails stuck through the lemon. The exorcism begins with

have taught you [oral recitation]; then read the books/10

lengthy readings from the Qur’an, before three lemons are buried

When Amma reads from the Qur’an as part of her healing

in every corner of the house (at a standard charge of Rs 25 per

practice, she recites to herself in barely a whisper; the words are

corner). The exorcism ends with the burial, beneath the front

inaudible to her patients. Even if they were heard, most of her

entrance to the home, of a live black chicken, wrapped in a white,

patients would not comprehend the Arabic, particularly the Hindu

scent-soaked, new white cloth.

patients who constitute nearly half of the healing community. The

There are aspects of Amma’s practice that rely less directly on

Qur anic words and number substitutes written on slips of paper

the written and oral word of the Qur’an and more directly on her

are also incomprehensible to Amma’s patients; not once did I see

oral commands and proclamations, the most dramatic of which

a patient try to read the words or ask what was written. The words

are her treatment of possessed patients. Two possession cases were

lose their semantic content even for those who are literate in Arabic

brought to Amma during the seven weeks I spent with her in

as they are spatially manipulated within various diagrams or writ¬

1991. The first case was that of a pubescent Muslim girl who had

ten in such haste as to be illegible. In this setting, their power lies

begun to ‘forget’; she had quit talking and was causing her family

in their actual physical manifestation. The words on the taviz

‘trouble’ by threatening to slit her throat with a knife. The moan¬

literally deflect the evil eye, fallta are burned and the smoke ‘of

ing, lethargic girl was brought into Amma’s healing room by her

the words inhaled by the patient, or they are immersed in water

maternal grandmother and mother. Amma asked the girl directly

and the ink which washes off is drunk by the patient.11 They

what had happened. When she received no answer, she began

become graphic representations of power. They are understood to

slapping her face, blowing dua over her, sprinkling water on her

be, quite literally, the very words of God.

face and finally reading from the Qur’an in front of her. Several

The discussion was occasioned by the arrival by mail of one of the above-mentioned books. It had been ordered by one of Amma’s disciples. When

times during the reading, Amma opened the girl’s mouth and poured water into it until the girl finally opened her eyes. Amma

I asked if I could see it, he handed me the wrapping paper on which was written

asked her again what had happened—what had she eaten to bring

the address and told me that I could buy one for myself in Delhi. Amma strongly

this evil eye (asrat) upon herself. The girl made an effort to speak,

objected, saying that I might be harmed or cause others harm if I read the wrong

but could not. Amma then opened the girl’s mouth, depressing

thing without appropriate training.

her tongue with her finger and blew inside. Again she demanded

An interesting distinction is made in the physical production of taviz and fallta. Amma xeroxes fallta, except those that have to be drunk, which must be written in ink that can wash off in water. The more powerful taviz must be handwritten each time, with the allowable convenience of carbon paper (so that six copies of a single taviz can be made at one time).

that the girl speak. The girl’s grandmother added: ‘Speak now or you’ll just cause us trouble when we get home.’ The girl finally whispered her name; only then did Amma blow a final healing prayer on her and let her go, saying: ‘Now, she won’t cause trouble.’

260

Syllables of Sky The second case was that of a Hindu man in his early twenties

'The Vision was of Written Words'

261

Amma was amused by my concern and assured me I was safe since

who was brought in by his two brothers from a village close to

I was under her protection, but avoided a direct answer. Generally,

Hyderabad. I arrived at Amma’s courtyard to find a large crowd

Amma prescribes the ingredients of the utara and the patients carry

gathered, watching Amma hit the mute man with a bamboo pole

out her instructions in their own neighbourhood; if the asrat

and slap his face, as she demanded: ‘Tell me your name! Tell me

is particularly powerful, Amma will ‘read’ over the patient and

your name!’ Members of the healing community assured me that

sprinkle the patient with water before the utara is carried out in

a possessed person feels no pain; other signs of his possession were

her healing room.

his not having spoken for two days, and his unusual physical

Every patient brings a story, a personal narrative of pain,

strength. Although Amma’s treatment of this possessed patient

suffering, general trouble; and much of Amma’s success as a healer

was considerably longer and more ‘violent’ than that of the girl’s,

is attributed by her patients to her skill and patience as a listener.

in both cases, restoration of the power of speech was indicative of

In contrast to her mursid son, who periodically assists her at the

the restoration of the healed/whole person. For it is speech and

healing table and wants only to hear the patient’s physical problem

the power to name all that is around us that is the unique power

in a sentence or two and his/her name and that of his/her mother,

Cqudrah) given to humans by Allah at creation, that distinguishes

Amma spends time listening to each fully elaborated story, even

them from other classes of beings (Ewing 1982: 76).12

when Abba reprimands her for taking too much time. In fact, when

The only treatment not directly dependent upon the written

the mother and son are working together, many patients give up

or oral word is called utara (from utama, literally ‘to remove’).

their place in the queue to wait for Amma. Complete healing is

Many orthodox Muslims in Hyderabad pointed to this seemingly

assured when Amma’s diagnosis gives reason to the story and her

1 un-Muslim’ practice as proof that this entire tradition of folk

prescriptions (if faithfully carried out) shift the course of its con¬

healing wras ‘really Hindu’. For utara, specific ingredients are put

clusion. Nearly every interaction with a patient ends with Amma’s

in a clay pot that is circled around the patient’s head three times

proclamation that a particular action/event will occur, such as:

and up and down the length of his/her body three times.13 In the

‘Your runaway son will return; he’s not hurt or in bad company’;

process, the ingredients absorb the evil eye (asrat) and are physi¬

‘Your fever will dissipate’; You will get a job’; and, to a woman

cally carried away in the pot, to be left at the crossroad. After

who had experienced repeated miscarriages and stillbirths: ‘Of

stumbling over one of these pots late one night when returning

course the treatment will be expensive [numerous utara, performed

home from Amma’s neighbourhood, I asked whether or not the

by Amma over a period of three to five months] but it is guaranteed;

evil eye could be transferred to someone else from the crossroad.

you will have a baby.’14 Most of Amma’s patients leave her healing

This concept is based on Sura 2: 21—32, which recounts the creation story

room with the confidence that her proclamations have already been

of Allah teaching Adam the names of all things. Setting these things before the

fulfilled, once they carry out their part.

angels, Allah asks them to name them; they have to admit they are unable to do so, since they have not been given this power. 13 Depending upon the diagnosis, the ingredients consist of white or yellow rice, one coconut, five, seven or nine white or coloured flowers, 100 grams of uncut raw mutton (frequently specified as the liver), an uneven number of nails (3, 7 or 9) on which are impaled the same number of lemons and a particular nut called bhilavan (whose black acidic juice is used for laundry marking as well as for medicinal purposes).

Negotiating Space as a Female Healer According to Amma, the minimum qualification for a woman to become a religious healer in the public domain (which implies 14 J.L. Austin identifies such statements as ‘performatives’, whose utterance is equivalent to the performance of the action (1962: 6-8).

Syllables of Sky

‘The Vision was of Written Words'

treating patients outside her family, men and women, Muslim and

memory, he does not control the written language. He told me

Hindu, and accepting payment for these services) is that she be a

that though he had had the opportunity to learn the Arabic script

piranima (feminization of pir). Piranima is a title of respect given

when he was young, he had lacked interest. He had only minimally

262

263

to a woman married to a murs'id or pir. Many pir are themselves

learned the ‘Roman’ script while serving in the British army. Abba

healers or incorporate healing in their teaching roles, using healing

has two younger brothers who did, however, take up the oppor¬

diagnostic methods and treatments similar to those of Amma.

tunity for Urdu-Arabic education, have become mursid and, be¬

Based on my own fieldwork in Hyderabad and the available

cause of their literacy, incorporate the healing practice into their

literature on popular Islam in India describing plr/mursid and

teaching.

worship at the shrines of Muslim saints (dargah), the position of

Amma’s own reading knowledge of the Arabic script is not

pir and public healing in South Asian Islam is traditionally limited

particularly unusual for Muslim women of her generation. Many

to men (Eaton 1984; Ewing 1984; Kakar 1982). Women rarely

were given a religious education at home (a few in secular schools)

practice in a public context such as Amma’s healing room, al¬

so that they could recite and read the Qur’an and ‘improve them¬

though they may practice limited forms of healing in their homes

selves’. As one of Amma’s female agemates told me: ‘Without

(which do not usually involve writing, a point to which we will

education [talim], we are just like animals’. What is less clear is

return shortly).15

how many of these women learned to write the Arabic script.

Abba himself does not and cannot completely fill the role of

When I asked an elderly Muslim female patient if other women

healer/mursid because he is not literate in the Arabic script—a

could do what Amma does, she answered: ‘Anyone can do this—

primary qualification for the healing practice of a mursid in this

man or woman. You only have to know how to read; it’s all in

tradition, one whose treatments are based on the written word of

the reading [and I would add, in the writing.

the Qur’an.16 While Abba is able to recite Qur’anic passages from

One of three other Muslim female religious specialists I met

15 At a 1991 conference on ‘Language, Gender and the Subaltern’ during

in Hyderabad in 1991, who had the power to communicate with

which I spoke of Amma’s healing practice, several South Asian conference

a jinn, told me that her guru had specifically forbidden her to

participants told me anecdotes of female Muslim healers they themselves had

write tavlz, although it was part of his own practice. She attributed

met or heard of in Lahore, Pakistan and northern India. However, they too

this to the fact that she was a woman. Another of these specialists

believed that these women were in a minority and were not certain as to their

was a piranima who resided in what was called a ‘women’s

‘professional’ status as I have defined it. Curfew was imposed in the old city of Hyderabad during most of the two months I lived there in 1990—91 and I was unable to carry out an extensive investigation of the presence of healing piranima in that more traditional section of the city. However, many of Amma’s patients came to her from the old city;

dargah’. She, too, worked as a healer, but saw only women, and her prescriptions did not involve writing. Rather, she recom¬ mended women to stay at the dargah for a period of several hours to months, or even years, depending upon their ‘trouble’. As

and they could not specifically identify for me similar individual female healers

mentioned earlier, lay woman may also practice healing in their

whom I could have visited. In 1992 I was able to meet a fairly well-known

homes, but their techniques usually rely on the recitation of the

piranima in the old city, but she treats only women, does not write tavlz and

names of God, the bismiltah, and particular sura, not on the

does not charge a set fee for her services (relying instead on donations).

writing of tavlz or fallta. The former was the level of healing

16 The requirement of this level of literacy stands in contrast to that required of Hindu male healers (baiga) whom I have met in central India. The authority for their healing tradition derives from possession by the goddess and has no orientation towards a written text.

practice Amma offered to me when she asked if I wanted to become her murid and gave me one of her prayer beads. When I protested that I did not know ‘Arabi’, which I had ascertained was

264

'The Vision was of Written Words’

Syllables of Sky

necessary for her healing practice, she smiled and said: ‘Of course, you must eventually learn it, but it's really a small decoration;

265

as piranima alone is not enough for her to practise, but that he had to give Amma his permission to heal:

there’s not much weight in it now [i.e. for the generalized teaching

Abba:

If I weren’t a mursid she couldn’t have become a piranima.

she was now offering via the oral word and taperecorder].’

JBF:

You mean Amma couldn’t have done this kind of work

Abba:

I gave her my permission (ijazat). If I tell her to stop, she

In the traditional gender and spiritual hierarchies of mursidpiranima, Amma is dependent upon, and has less status than,

if you weren’t a mursid.

Abba. But the fact that he does not have the minimum qualifica¬

will stop. That’s the way it is.

tion of literacy to practice this public healing, and Amma does, puts her on a more equal footing, at least within the setting of the healing room, and enables her to be economically self-sufficient. The traditional teacher/healer roles of the mursid and the accom¬ panying religious authority are thus shared between Amma and Abba in an innovative way. Abba is the teacher, Amma is the

One dramatization of the negotiations between Amma and Abba in the healing room took place when I presented Amma with the gift of two pairs of orange-handled Friskar scissors, one large and one small [she continually uses scissors in her practice to cut fallta and taviz.]

healer. They both share as well as have individual disciples.17

Abba:

What?! You’re only one woman and you need them both?!

Amma’s disciples frequently sit next to her at the healing table,

JBF:

If you sat in the big chair, you’d get the big ones. [Patients,

rolling fallta or making pan (a natural seat for the ethnographer as someone whose primary purpose is to learn from Amma).

Amma and Abba laugh] Abba:

Amma’s access to a professional healing practice is first dependent

The small ones are for her and the big ones for me; otherwise, there will be a fight {jhagara).

upon her husband’s ritual/religious position as mursid and her designation as piranima and then upon her own literacy in the Arabic script. But these qualifications are not enough, and few piranima build upon them in this way. Crucial to Amma’s position is the unusual symbiotic relationship between Amma and Abba, characterized by dialogue, argument, humour and mutual respect. Their own unique personalities further contribute to the atmos¬ phere of innovation and creativity. Abba’s awareness of the role his own openness and flexibility plays is evident when he maintains (in quite different terms than I have used) that Amma’s position

Abba frequently reminded me of the interdependent nature of their relationship in comments, such as: ‘If I didn’t learn, how did she learn? After I became a guru, I gave her my own devotion [bhakti]’, or ‘She sits with great devotion [bhakti]. But if I get angry, her bhakti decreases.’ There were numerous discussions between Amma and Abba about who was more important or greater, man or woman. Abba explained that man had been created first and woman was dependent upon his creation, but subsequent creations were dependent upon both; man was the doorway and woman the interior space: ‘When you drink your mother’s milk,

17 On one of the first days I spent with her, I asked Amma if the young man

you drink her blood. All creation sits at the feet of the mother.

sitting across the table from her was her disciple. She hesitated and said: ‘No,

She’s a woman, but she’s given birth to you.’ My fieldwork

not really.’ The young man quickly interjected: Tm a disciple of both Amma

associate asked, ‘Why do you say all creation sits at the feet of a

ancUsbbz' In my initial contacts with her, Amma appeared to be uncomfortable

mother?’

acknowledging that she had her own disciples, since this role traditionally belongs to a mursid rather than a piranima. However, by the end of my extended fieldwork with her, Amma asked me if I would like to become a murid, stating that the only obligation on me would be that I learn from her.

Abba:

Well, this is why. I’ll tell you why it is that all creation sits at the feet of the mother. I’ll tell you. Her blood, her

‘The Vision was of Written Words'

Syllables of Sky

266

liver, her blood. WeVe all drunk of her blood. But., if

267

was surprised when I asked if she was teaching her healing skills

there’s no father, then how would the mother have been

to her daughters or daughters-in-law, as she was to two of her

born, that’s also true. First came Adam, then Eve. There

sons. (One daughter-in-law holds the requisite position of piran¬

was Adam. The first creation was Adam.

ima, being married to Amma’s thirty-five- year-old son who is also a mursid.) In a surprised tone of voice, she answered: ‘No, they

Before entering her healing practice on a full-time, profes¬ sional basis, ‘meeting the public’ (which seems to have coincided with Abba’s retirement from university service), Amma was the primary caretaker of the store. She laughed as she told me that as her family had increased, child by child, so too had her store. Even

don’t have the heart \dil] for it. If a possessed patient came in front of my daughter-in-law, she would faint from fear. She has no strength/courage [himmat\\ I later asked Abba whether or not his daughter-in-law had Amma’s himmat:

now she continues to advise Abba regarding new products the

Abba:

No, No, she’s afraid!

store might carry and the quantity of orders. On one occasion,

JBF:

Afraid?

in Abba’s absence, Amma ordered from a salesman some ‘new’

Abba:

She’s afraid. If someone’s afraid, you can’t teach them. Because if she’s sitting here and someone comes who’s

chocolates whose price was fifty paisa. Upon his return, Abba was more than unhappy with her decision, exclaiming: ‘Who will buy

possessed [on whom there’s mujamat], then it could come

a fifty paisa candy!’ Amma did not verbally respond at that time,

right on top of her.

but I noticed that over a period of a couple of weeks, the new chocolates were sold out. Although the finances of the store and the healing practice are kept separate, Abba continually verbalizes his concern about the finances of Amma’s practice. He keeps track of the number of patients that are waiting and reprimands Amma for slowing down her pace if the crowd is growing too big. One morning, Amma started healing much later than usual because her married daughter had just arrived for a visit, and Amma was talking and drinking

When I initially asked Abba if he also healed, or could heal if he wanted to, he did not give his lack of knowledge of the Arabic script as the reason for not doing so. He maintained that he could heal (and does heal children, perhaps using similar techniques as those used by lay women in their homes), but since most of the patients were women, it was better that Amma, rather than he, touch their heads. He continued: Abba:

I can do children, but if you’re sitting over there, saying:

tea with her. Patients were lining up, making Abba nervous. He

‘I have trouble here; I have trouble there,’ I can’t put my

reprimanded Amma for keeping the patients waiting. Amma did

hands on you, right? More women come here. They can’t

not respond but took her own time—a pattern repeated in many

tell me things about the night; women can’t tell me certain

similar interactions. She lets him talk and issue orders, appropriate

things. ‘It’s like this, my husband’s done this; he’s done

to his position as a ‘guide’, but she decides how she will act.,

that.’ Mostly it’s women’s matters that go on here. There’s

appropriate to her position as the ritual specialist.

some benefit in that.

Amma’s position as piranima, her active literacy and Abba’s willingness to ‘let’ her heal provide the necessary framework within which Amma has found space as a female healer; but, finally her success is dependent upon her own confident, articulate and caring personality, as well as, she asserts, her spiritual sensitivity. Amma

(In actuality, at least one-third of Amma’s patients are men. Furthermore, Abba and other men are always in the room when female patients are confiding ‘female problems’ to Amma.) Abba continued that patients preferred Amma because she was more patient and loving than he was:

Syllables of Sky

268 Abba:

The Vision was of Written Words’

269

My rule [raj\ is one thing and hers is another. If you come

he says he is willing to ‘sit in the service’ of Amma, assisting her

to Hazur [Abba], I get angry and you say: ‘Don’t go to

by folding tavlz and fallta.

Hazur.’ If you go to Amma, she speaks with great love. [She says]: ‘Today your illness will go away’ [patients listening laugh and agree]. What did I tell you earlier?

Differentiated Speech Genres in the Healing Room

Love [muhabbat]. Love is the greatest thing. Her love is

Amma and Abba’s differentiated roles are reflected in the differen¬

greater. What do I have? One, two; I do the work and tell

tiated speech genres they employ in the healing room. These forms

them to go. What does she do? [She says]: ‘No, my son,

both reflect and help to maintain the authority attributed to their

it’s like this; it’s not like that.’ They come crying and go

respective positions. As a mursid, someone who ‘shows the way—

away laughing.

how one should live’, Abba takes his role as a teacher seriously.

A highly educated Hindu engineer explained that he had brought his wife to Amma rather than to a Hindu healer, after having already gone to a hospital doctor, because of her reputation of possessing great ‘muhabbat and sakti’ (love and spiritual power). While Abba seemed to feel that these qualities may have been enhanced by Amma’s gender, he made it clear that not all women had them. He had told me earlier that many women had come to Amma’s guru, but that few were taught, since many did not have the necessary quality of love.18 A mursid may also lack the quality of love; or perhaps more accurately for persons of their spiritual achievement, the word should be ‘accessibility or ‘personability’. Mursid or plr are often characterized as being either

jamali or jalati, ‘cool’ or ‘heated’, referring to two of the names of God that imply his beneficent and wrathful nature. Abba called himself jalall and told me that jalall mursid often do not make

Sitting in the store, he has time to give frequent lessons to those congregated in the room, both disciples and patients.20 Although he never used the term, the teachings focus on adab, a person’s moral conduct, frequently asserting that the most important thing in life was love or honesty or hard work.21 A standard opening for Abba’s teachings is: ‘How should we live? First we should do “research” on ourselves: [asking] what should we do [in this life]?’ His teachings are filled with folk-tales and religious narratives Cqissa), punctuated with humour that elicits gales of laughter from the patients as well as Amma. Abba, the jalall, meanwhile, always makes an effort to maintain a straight face, his enjoyment and sense of humour betrayed only by the sparkle in his eyes. An example of Abba’s integration of folk narratives into his teachings is found in the following elaboration on nafs (one’s lower nature) and gussa (anger), which ended a late-afternoon discussion on why humans had been put on earth:

good healers because people are afraid of them.19 Recognizing this, without expression. Abba also called himself a jalall to describe the heat of his 18 It was not clear in this conversation whether Abba was referring to Amma’s first guru, from whom she learned a generalized knowledge, or the second one who had taught her the specific healing skills of writing tavlz. 19 The difference between jalall and jamali mursid was dramatized during two qawwati performances I attended in Abba’s courtyard, to which one of his close friends, also a mursid, was invited. In a trance, the two twirled in an embrace. The latter was described as jamali—an ecstatic who punctuated the performance with wide smiles nearing a laugh, dramatic hand gestures and verbal articulations. Abba, the jalall, was always very reserved, eyes half-closed and face

quick temper. Abba’s characterizations of jalall/jamali differ slightly from those that scholars have found elsewhere in South Asia, where jamali is described as sober and self-controlled, while jalall is described as heated and intoxicated (see Ewing 1982; Kurin 1982). 20 When I was in the room, many of Abba’s narratives were directed at me and my tape-recorder; after all, I knew little of the path he was teaching. 21 See Metcalf 1984 for a discussion of the concept of adab as it is manifest in numerous ways in South Asian Islam.

Syllables of Sky

'The Vision was of Written Words'

What’s the biggest thing? Nafs. It’s the chief minister; it gives the orders.

Abba’s teachings and narrative performances articulate and sustain a worldview within which Amma’s healing techniques can

270

Understanding this, what should you do? Admonish it! If we’re talking about nafs, we’re talking about anger. We have to decrease our anger. You understand? If you kill anger, you’ll get whatever you want [desired spiritual ends]. So, what acts up the most? Anger! It’s like this: suppose someone does something [bad]. What do people say? ‘It must-be the devil [in him] that’s done it, brother.’ What is it? Has the devil come?

271

be effective. It is a world structured by Allah’s creation and the Revelation given to the Prophet, but one impinged upon by spiritual forces such as possession by the devil (saitan), the play of jinn, the destructive lower nature of humans (nafs), and the

Listen and I’ll tell you something. There’s always a little sweet syrup

withering evil eye (asrat). These forces manifest themselves as illness and trouble in the human physical and social body, but can only be truly combated on a spiritual plane; in this case, primarily by the power of the (written) word of God.

in a sweet shop, isn’t there? Some gets on the counter and all around,

When Amma sensed my fieldwork associate’s interest in

and flies gather. Seeing the flies, what happens? A house lizard comes.

Abba’s performed discrete tales, such as the nafs tale above, she assured us that she too knew such tales but had little time in her healing day for speech forms unrelated to the healing situation at

If someone kills someone else, it’s not the devil who’s done it, it’s nafs! If someone does something [bad] or says something, who does he blame it on? Look, what’s the devil going to say, that it’s my fault!?

And seeing the lizard, what happens? A cat comes. Seeing the cat, what happens? There’s a dog at the butcher shop across the street. The dog comes running to kill the cat. So, what does the cat do? It knocks over all the ‘dishes’ of sweets and runs out. Everything’s a big mess! So the owner of the sweet shop gets angry and says, ‘Now my sweets are all ruined!’ And he runs after the dog to beat it. The butcher gets angry and screams, ‘Why are you beating my dog?!’ He takes out a knife and, there, ten or twelve people are finished! And what does the devil say then? ‘Have I done anything wrong? I only caused some sweet syrup to spill. I didn’t call the cat, didn’t call the dog, didn’t tell [the shopkeeper] to hit it, didn’t tell [the butcher] to do that! It’s not my fault! It’s all the fault of nafs.’ If there’s a sweet shop, naturally there will be flies, and then the cat comes. If the shopkeeper had wiped the counter right away, then the flies wouldn’t have gathered. If he’d done that, there wouldn’t have been all this trouble, isn’t that right? You have to bring your nafs under control! So, what should you say? ‘I’m going to the bazaar today, and I’m not going to eat anything!’ Do you understand? It’s like that. You have to cut off its command [the command of the chief minister, nafs]. What happens if you cut it off? Victory will belong to you and nafs will be defeated! Now, let’s go on ... 22

hand. Her speech genres consisted of direct healing rhetoric such as prayers (dua), Qur’anic recitation, explanations of treatments and conversational interaction with patients, as well as personal narratives to remind her audience of the basis of her healing authority; further, she frequently performed what I have called ‘testimonials’ in an effort to maintain and broaden that authority and power. One of my early goals in fieldwork was to elicit Amma’s life history. I soon realized, however, that in the course of Amma’s healing day, time for extended reminiscing was a luxury. The narratives and commentary I taped regarding her life are, therefore, segments, which were either answers to what were intended to be open-ended questions or to more direct questions about her life and experience. Nevertheless, the segments begin to build up a shape and quality of a life story purposefully distinct from those of the personal narratives of other women in Amma’s neighbour¬ hood and of her patients. I spent many afternoons over leisurely cups of tea with one of Amma’s neighbours and agemates, who

22 I heard this folk narrative of flies/cat/lizard/dog/butcher performed by a

however, with chaos in the sweetshop, rather than with the death of the

Muslim male householder in the context of his noticing the large number of

onlookers; it was told as a joke, with none of the cosmic significance given to

flies gathered on a plate of sweets in his own sitting room. This version ended,

it in Abba’s teachings.

272

Syllables of Sky

filled the conversations with lively narratives constructed around personally drawn vignettes of a woman’s everyday life: the fear and dread of early marriage experienced as a young girl when visitors came to look at her’; the embarrassment of breastfeeding when her overflowing breasts drenched her sari, which resulted in her hiding under a mosquito net while feeding her baby; an old deaf grandmother-in-law being teased mercilessly by her ‘grand¬ children; the grief experienced in the death of a teenage son and the pilgrimages to dargah all over south India that followed. These and other narratives of suffering and trouble told by Amma’s patients are not idiosyncratic; many in the healing com¬ munity have lived, told or heard similar stories before. As Amma herself bemoaned many times: ‘The life of a woman is useless (ibekar)\ it is filled with troubles.’ She too shares parts of this troubled life story and speaks of them quite freely outside the healing room with friends and family, but these are not the narratives performed in the healing context. The latter serve a different purpose: to set her apart from other women, as a profes¬ sional healer, to establish and maintain her authority. The personal narratives that are a part of Amma’s broader healing rhetoric are carefully constructed to provide a context for her life as a healer, highlighting her unique qualifications for such a calling. For example, when I asked her about early childhood memories, she told me she had followed ‘Allah’s bhakti’ (devotion) from a young age; she would often sit for long periods of time and ‘remember Allah’. The first external recognition of her unique qualities came from a Hindu teacher (pandit) at the school she at¬ tended until sixth grade, at which time her parents withdrew her. He looked at her and said: ‘This girl will become famous.’ She was married at thirteen and the first of her eleven living children

‘The Vision was of Written Words’

273

as a healer. It is typical for its brevity and impersonal tone, being more of a report than a performance: I’ve followed Allah’s bhakti ever since I was small. Then I got married. Even after I got married, I kept on praying [literally, heading’] con¬ tinually. When I had children, I sat out for forty days; then I’d start up again. Then I started the store; since I started it, I’ve never left it. I worked in the house and raised the children—it’s a forty-year-old store. Then I met a guru and became a disciple. I became a disciple, then I, too, became a guru. I’m also making disciples. And I’m continuing on.

These personal narratives make frequent references to visions 0nazar), and it is evident that they are a key source of spiritual authority for Amma’s practice. They provide her with a special insight which enables her to interpret what she ‘reads’, beyond the rote reading of a parrot. She received her first vision soon after she got married, and this vision propelled her into what eventually became a public healing practice: ‘The vision was of written words across the sky; you know, like the credits at the end of a movie.’ When I asked her about the words of that vision, she said she had had many visions, but ‘my mouth is shut [on this one]’. The written words were the words of God himself, presumably more powerful than other non-verbal images received in visions, some of whose contents she was willing to reveal, such as: Amma: Do you know what happened once? When I was playing with my breath [meditating], I had a vision of my guru, a vision of light (rosani). From this, love was born. Love comes from light (bijati). When I’m talking to you, it’s not me talking, but my light. Everything is light (rosani)', without light, I wouldn’t exist, you wouldn’t exist. Allah is light (bijali); He is radiance (nur).

was born by the time she was fifteen. Even while raising a family, she says: ‘I remembered Allah. I had to take care of the house, the store, the children. I had to run everything. The children grew up. Then I took up this work. After taking this up, one more

Words across the sky’ is also how Amma articulates the Revelation as given to the prophets, from Adam to Muhammad.23 She says

daughter was born.’ A similar segment was narrated when I was trying to determine exactly when she had begun to meet the public

of the Quran, as recited or written speech. Amma, however, definitely concep¬

23 See Graham (1987: 88 ff.) for a discussion of the possible interpretations tualizes the Revelation as written words.

274

Syllables of Sky

‘The Vision was of Written Words'

275

the Revelation as given to Adam, when he opened his eyes upon creation, were the words bismi allah al-rahman al-rahim (In the

even in the last five years, along with the financial remuneration which accompanies such success. One indication of success is that

Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate) strewn across the full expanse of the sky. Thus, when she recounts her own vision of written words, Amma indirectly places herself in a line

within the last three years Amma has ‘moved up’ from sitting on the floor in front of a low wooden table to sitting on a chair with

of indisputable spiritual authority (not to be equated, however, with the authority of the prophets).24 Amma first went to a guru in Nizamuddin, secretly, and obtained teachings from him when she was about thirty years old.25 She claims to have had a dream in which the guru told her Various things’.26 On waking, she went to find the guru. She returned to Abba and told him with remorse that she had made a great mistake {gain) by visiting a guru without his knowledge. Instead of being angry, as she had expected, he said: ‘Take me to him. I, too, will learn.’ This guru initiated Abba first as a murid and, at the age of forty, as a mursid. This version of the story differs from the one recounted earlier by Abba, in which he claimed he had ‘learned first’. When Amma expressed her interest in obtaining the specific ‘mantras’ necessary for healing, the initial guru referred her to his own guru; and it is through the latter that Amma learned the specifics necessary to become a ‘public’ healer. Amma laughed when she thought about the implications of her receiving teaching from her guru’s guru: ‘My guru is my pir bhaiya [pirbrother]’. Amma first practised her healing among family members and friends, and began to ‘meet the public’ only within the last fifteen to twenty years. Her practice and renown have grown considerably

a folding table in front. Amma believes that her success angered the guru who taught her the healing practice and that he cast the evil eye (asrat) on her. However, she successfully deflected it back towards him. She has no contact with him anymore and considers her first guru her true guru.27

Amma’s Testimonial Tales Amma ‘breaks through into performance’28 most naturally when she recounts her ‘testimonials’—stories that tell of her success as a healer. I distinguish these stories from personal narratives because they are a more natural, frequent part of Amma’s healing rhetoric than the genre Western scholars have called ‘life history’, and they serve a distinct purpose. These testimonials serve as illustrations of her unique healing power and authority; they establish credib¬ ility among first-time patients and maintain her reputation within the healing community which has grown over a period of years. Since the occasion for most testimonials is a parallel patient-case in front of Amma at the time, they also serve to assure patients that their stories are not unique. The testimonials are evidence that she has brought similar stories to a successful completion. One testimonial I heard numerous times concerned Amma’s "7 Initially, the relationship between the two gurus was difficult for me to

24 An early tradition cites the Prophet Muhammad as assuring the people

ascertain. On the wall behind where Amma sits to heal, there are several framed

that ‘good tidings’ would continue to be given through the dreams of Muslims

pictures, among which are two of the first guru, who died six to eight years ago,

after ‘messengership and prophethood have ceased’ (Rippin and Knappert 1986:

and one of his dargah. When 1 asked Amma, Abba and various disciples if the

48,). I thank Sheryl Burkhalter for this reference. 25 Both Amma and Abba specifically used the word ‘guru’ f°r this teacher;

pictured guru was the one from whom Amma had learned, the answer was always in the affirmative. There was, however, periodic mention of a living guru

however, when I asked if he was a mursid or a pir, they said that the words

from whom she had also learned. It wasn’t until the last day that I spent with

were synonymous.

Amma in 1991 that the relationship between the two gurus was made clear, the

26 See Ewing (1980), chapter IV: ‘Dreams as a Mode of Communication between the Pir and His Disciples’. Amma distinguishes between dreams (sapna) and visions (nazar).

second of whom she has now repudiated. See Hymes (1975) for his discussion on ‘breakthrough into performance* in the course of ‘normal’ conversation.

276

'The Vision was of Written Words'

Syllables of Sky

power and authority over spiritual forces manifested through the induction of labour in her sister, whose baby had died at term in utero. Through repeated tellings, this testimonial was standardized and given artistic form. I provide the translation of one variant below:

111

[Patient to whom Amma is telling the story: So did she have the operation?] No. Do you know what happened after that? My brother-in-law came in, bringing the Book. It was two o’clock [in the morning of the day of the scheduled operation]. I told him: ‘Go to sleep.’ And I sat there eating pan, spitting, eating pan, spitting; I just sat there.

My sister’s labour wasn’t starting. Her child had died in her womb. It

Al-lah, Al-lah. The pains started. My sister’s pains started. They

died in the womb; the child had died. So what did they say? ‘The child

took her to the “theatre”. At twelve o’clock she delivered. “Normal”,

has died, so you will have to have an operation.’ My brother-in-law told

not in bits and pieces [na taka, na tukd\. Like her other two children,

this to my sister.

not in bits and pieces. The delivery was completed. The child was blue,

So I went [to the hospital]. I went there, and what had happened? My brother-in-law had already signed for the operation. He signed and

blue, blue. The hand was so white; you’ve never seen one so white. The face was like this [she puffs out her cheeks]. The smell was terrible.

then I arrived. I took the paper and went to Shankar Amma [the female

The doctor called me: ‘Look,’ she said. ‘Yes, I saw it. And you said

doctor]. I took it and tore it up. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked. 1 said:

an operation would be necessary, and now the delivery has happened

‘Give me until three o’clock tomorrow afternoon; do the operation then’

[naturally].’

[i.e., if labour hasn’t started by then]. They took a ‘T.V. X-ray’ and the baby was dead.

There was no fever, nothing, and she was “discharged” in three days.

I quickly went home, bathed, took my Book, and went back and

When I went back [to the hospital] for my second daughter’s

sat there [in the hospital room]. The baby had been dead in the womb

delivery, she [the doctor] said: ‘Amma, you go out and I’ll come in [into

for seven days . . . [indiscernible on tape]. I went in and sat down. I put

the room]. If I come in, what will the baby do? I’ll stay outside.’ I said:

water in a bucket and sat down.

‘No, come in Shankar Amma.’ She said: ‘No, Amma, you come out and

JBF: The Book is the Qur’an, right?

then I’ll come in. If you stay in there, I won’t come in.’ [Amma laughs

Amma: Yes.

vigorously].

I took it [the Book], read it and sat down. Then, do you know what kind of vision came to me? [It was] of those who had caused it to happen, who had killed the baby [presumably jinn or humans who had cast the evil eye]. And of Malamat and Amma Jan [names of two Muslim saints]. She was wearing a black blouse and sari. [The vision was of] MalamatAmma Jan, Malamat-Amma Jan, Malamat-Amma Jan, Malamat-Amma Jan, trees, stones andpala. I saw them as I was reading, and they saw me. They came and sat down. She sat down like a tiger. ‘Bring some water,’ she said. ‘It’s a beautiful child.’ I saw all this while I was reading. I saw the whole “scene”, like the “cinema”. So I brought the water and washed it. She said: ‘The child’s hand was causing it; now it’s clean.’ The Book was finished, and Malamat went and fell under a tree and Amma Jan went over there, and the three of them [who had caused the death] went over there, and my reading was finished. . . . [Her voice is competing with that of the screeching parrot outside, and a sentence is lost here.]

This narrative is not only a testimony of Amma’s healing power, but also reveals her response to and negotiation with the ‘new’ and increasingly pervasive genre of healing practice—modern me¬ dicine. Amma and her patients do not perceive the two genres to be in competition with each other but to be complementary; each has its own domain of power and efficacy. Other testimonials comprise only a few sentences, such as the one in which Amma recounts her power to ‘close a dog’s mouth’. She had been walking along when she encountered a barking dog. She said some words to close its mouth and it was silenced. The worried owner of the dog came out of the house to see what had caused the sudden change, but Amma told him not to worry—the dog was not harmed, only silenced. The owner remarked: ‘You

Syllables of Sky

'The Vision was of Written Words’

are full of Allah’s bhakti (devotion)’, and Amma continued on her

had told him to bring the baby to Amma. His advice had been ignored and the baby had died.

278

way. Amma is not alone in recounting her tales; her patients also recount such stories as they sit in the courtyard awaiting their turn to see Amma or at her healing table as they hear the problems of other patients. Amma sometimes elicits these stories from them

279

Negative testimonials about Amma’s own treatment are rarely heard in her presence. Out of approximately two hundred patients whom I observed in Amma’s room, I heard the story of failed treatment only three times. One was the case of a Hindu man

by asking patients to come back when their problem is cured so that she and the other patients can hear about and see the results of her treatment. One young Muslim mother brought in a healthy

with a trembling hand who came back to Amma after three weeks of treatment had produced no signs of improvement. On this visit

two-month-old baby girl, who she said had been conceived and

lack of improvement meant that stronger, more expensive treat¬

lived until term as the result of intense treatment given by Amma

ment would be required. Another man returned to say that he had

(at a cost of Rs 500). Another dramatized testimonial involved a young Hindu

been three-quarters healed (literally, ‘twelve anas better’; sixteen anas equalling one rupee) and had come back for the last quarter. The last case was that of a young woman whose husband had run

mother whose husband had been drinking too much, had mis¬

his sceptical father accompanied him. Amma told them that the

healing room with her own mother to testify to the success of Amma’s treatment. She was dressed in a new, brightly coloured sari, new bangles, and her face was beaming as she told her story

off with another woman. She complained to Amma that even after burning all the fafita she had been given, he had not come back. Amma defended her treatment by saying that it had failed because she had not known the other woman’s name the first time. She

numerous times to patients both in the courtyard and in the room. She and her mother had brought sweets to offer as fatiha (religious offering) at the flag-pole, the offering of which was officiated by Abba. The sweets were then distributed first to Amma’s family,

wrote out another set of fallta, this time with the name of the other woman written on them. The woman complained: ‘How long am I going to have to keep doing this?’ to which Amma replied emphatically: ‘He will return!’

my fieldwork associate and myself, and then to several other

The form and content of these testimonials are similar to the tales told at the tombs of Muslim saints. When visiting various

treated her and had quit going to work. She returned to Amma’s

patients. One of Amma’s male disciples (murid) is particularly fond of dramatically performing testimonial tales. He is thirty-five to forty years old, a railway worker who comes to sit across the table from Amma and assist her whenever he is not travelling on work. One of his tales is an example of what may be called a ‘negative testimonial’. A patient had come to ask Amma to diagnose why her baby had died. Amma used the name-number technique of diagnosis and proclaimed that the cause of death had been the evil eye. The murid immediately reprimanded the mother for not

dargah in Hyderabad, I rarely heard the full story of the saint’s life, but rather a story of his or her miracles (karamai)—the deeds of the saint. Frequently, such miracles begin only after a saint’s death and, therefore, the facts of his or her life are not well known, or may not be known at all.29 Amma structures her own story on 2) Abba described the following as the process by which a saint is identified and his or her dargah comes into existence: someone dies; people ofFer fatiha (offerings for the dead) at the gravesite and experience miracles; more and more people begin to come and experience similar miracles; finally a dargah is built.

having come sooner and then told the testimonial of his own

Between 1980 and 1987, in Raipur, M.P., I witnessed the unravelling of

brother’s child who had died a similar death. When the brother

such a process. An unknown man appeared in the city and took up residence

had brought the child to the murid and asked for advice, the latter

on the steps of a store. People thought he may have come from Afghanistan,

280

Syllables of Sky

*The Vision was of Written Words'

281

a similar model. She most frequently chooses to tell about her deeds, her healing ‘miracles’, rather than the details of her personal

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T

elugu Tuesdays are uncertain times. On the fourth Tues¬ day after the Tamil New Year the Goddess Gangamma visits Tirupati, a small city in the Cittoor District of

Andhra Pradesh. Tirupati spreads beneath the ridge on which Venkatesvara (Visnu as the Lord of Venkatam Mountain) has his ancient and wealthy temple. Gangamma is spoken of as his sister (e.g. Cox 1881: 323). The most prominent temple in Tirupati itself is that of Govinda Raja (also Visnu, e.g. Champakalakshmi 1981: 264), the elder brother of Venkatesvara, to whom he has lent money for his dowry. The founding of the Govinda Raja Temple in the twelfth century is often attributed to the sage Ramanuja; the town of Tirupati grew around the Temple pre¬ cincts (Reddy and Reddy 1990: 145). This area of the modern city, with its narrow gullies and caste-named streets, is sometimes referred to as ‘Old Tirupati’. 1 My thanks to the Tirupati collective—A. Anand, Joyce Flueckiger, V. Narayana Rao and David Shulman—for their encouragement, warmth and spirit; and to David Shulman for his sustenance and for a close reading of this essay. Living with Lea Shamgar-Handelman has awakened me over the years to the manifold weaves and textures of gender.

Syllables of Sky

284

The Guises of the Goddess

285

Gangamma’s presence swells in Tirupati during the month of

gender—between gender conceived as a continuum and its abrupt

Vaisakha (May-June), a period of dry, searing heat, wind and

rupture into sharp difference in accordance with cultural roles. I

dust, in the past of raging epidemics, yet also the moment when

will address these issues in the concluding section in which I argue

transplanted rice shoots in the paddy fields are about to sprout in

that the vision of gender in the Gangamma Jatra contests those

anticipation of the monsoon rains. Her visit is explicitly related

usually offered for south Indian women, goddesses and others, but

to human fertility, the fertility of the soil, bringing rain, protection

that such alternatives (in this instance imagined through ritual)

against disease and general well-being. Gangamma moves in with

are not available in social life. I contend further that processes of

a family of weavers (.Kaikala) whom she has enjoined to enact the

gender and cosmos in this Jatra may have particular relevance for

story of her sojourn in Tirupati. Her myth is outlined in this essay.

castes of the left-hand. In the concluding section my interpretation

During the next week these weavers, with the aid of other

depends on taking the Goddess’s point of view, with all the hubris

castes, embody the story of the Goddess’s chase, destruction and

this entails. In this regard, Margaret Egnor’s (1984: 24) comment

transformation of the male. Just as the Goddess concealed herself

is to the point: ‘Hindu deities are not only symbols or tools which

in a sequence of guises to seek out the lusting lord who sexually

are manipulated by human beings to express certain ideas—such

despoiled all virgins, all ‘flowering blossoms’ (pushpavatis), so too

deities are actors, with a will of their own.’ Despite the supposed

the weavers take on these guises of the Goddess in her search for

fluorescence in anthropology of the native’s point of view, south

vengeance. Embodied in her guises the Goddess comes into in¬

Indian goddesses in particular have had a poor, overly selective

creasingly close contact with human beings. Gangamma’s quest

representation from their interlocutors.

for the lascivious lord brings her into direct, unmediated contact

Gangamma’s visit to Tirupati ignites other domains of ritual

with numerous households in Old Tirupati, and especially with

activity at temples, within homes, and through the practice of

their women. The entire cycle of guises is primarily a form of

personal vows to the Goddess. At the close of the Jatra the sequence

domestic ritual that brings the Goddess and families increasingly

of guises intersects powerfully with rituals at temples. Therefore

closer to each other. In terms that are not native to Tirupati, the progression of

the general rhythms of temple-related rituals are noted briefly in the body of this essay.

guises constitutes a causal sequence of ritual action (Handelman 1990: 22-62) that makes Gangamma increasingly present and active. Moreover, the Goddess’s relentless pursuit of the male

Gangamma in Tirupati

corresponds with her emergence into full self-awareness in the

Gangamma has two major temples in Tirupati (a third that comes

world of human beings. As the male is destroyed the cosmos of

into prominence during the Jatra is discussed later). The character

the Jatra is feminized, and this female cosmos is one of bounty

of the Goddess of each shrine and the linkage between them

for all.2 The guises of the Goddess generate the transformation of

delineate the patterning of Gangamma’s relationship to Tirupati

the male. The Gangamma Jatra raises contradictions and ambi¬

and to her worshippers. These goddesses are Gangamma of Tal-

guities between the metaphysics and social norms of south Indian

lapaka (a town some distance to the southwest of the city, from

2 The commonest English translation of Jatra is ‘festival*. This translation is misguided and misleading. The signal connotation of Jatra is ‘movement’, and

where, according to one myth, the Goddess was brought to Tiru¬ pati by the Telugu poet-sage, Annamacharya), and Gangamma of

this is crucial to the rites of Gangamma. Therefore I use the term Jatra through¬

Tatayyagunta (a periphery of the city). For the moment I dis¬

out this work.

cuss them in conjunction, but shortly each will be highlighted

286

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

separately. Within each shrine the true form of the goddess is a dark, stone head. Each goddess has her stone feet pointing out¬

Tirupati should ideally make and worship a clay Middle-of-the-

ward, in the courtyard outside the temple. The feet of each pair meet at heel and toe, with an open, oval slit mid-length between them. During the Jatra each austere stone head with her darkly

287

mid-December at the end of harvest, when every street in Old Street Gangamma. Tallapaka’s middle-of-the-street epistemology fuses axiality and guardianship with innerness and the domestic

etched features is given a face of lighter, brownish clay carefully

domain.3 Tatayyagunta lives in the largest goddess temple in Tirupati,

made up, her fangs hidden beneath vermilion lips that verge on a satisfied smile. Tallapaka and Tatayyagunta are described respec¬ tively as the older and younger sister. Tallapaka has her own

with a courtyard precinct of corresponding size. She is on the periphery of the city (Reddy 1976), brings epidemic disease as

children, Tatayyagunta is barren. Pressed by Tatayyagunta for

well as protects people against diseases. In location and ethos, she may appear closer to numerous other south Indian goddesses who

children, Tallapaka hid hers under a winnowing basket, but even¬ tually relinquished half her offspring to her younger sister. The stone children of each surround them in their respective shrines.

violators of territorial boundaries (Beck 1981; Bradford 1983;

are angry, violent mothers of disease, and both protectors and

The modest temple of Tallapaka—a tiny one-room shrine

Good 1983: 239; Moffatt 1979: 252-81; Reiniche 1987; Van Der Hoek 1979). Yet Tatayyagunta does not seem to inspire emotions

forefronted by a narrow courtyard—is located in the very middle of a busy thoroughfare next to a major intersection of three bustling city streets. Tallapaka is a ‘middle-of-the-street’ Gangamma. She has her own children and does not bring disease. Her

of dread—for example the deep fear and euphemistic use of ‘mother’—that violent south Indian goddesses are said to evoke.4 Descriptions of angry Indian goddesses attribute their violence to the absence of a consort (e.g. Babb 1970). Many of these

‘middle’ status is significant. Streets, and especially intersections in south India, are perceived as loci of movement between cosmic desired intrusions. The ‘middle’ also connotes a cosmic axis (e.g.

goddesses are ferocious conqueresses until tamed, married, and made docile and passive in relation to their husbands (e.g. Fuller 1980; Shulman 1980; Ramanujan 1986). By contrast, the marital status of Gangamma (in whichever of her forms) is not an issue

Mount Meru), an earth navel (e.g. the Saiva lingam) or thtgarbha-

of any import. The Gangammas wear talisy but there is no ritual

grhay the ‘womb house’ or innermost sanctum of a deity within its temple home (Lannoy 1971: 40) or, one may well add, within itself. The innermost depth is also the most transcendent of cosmic

contrast, see Beck 1981; Moreno and Marriott 1989: 158-64).5 Undoubtedly the Gangammas are potentially dangerous in their

levels, so that ‘deep within’ (indeed, deep within one’s self) and

active, hungry presence. Yet they (especially Tallapaka) are in¬

‘up high’ are homologous. David Shulman (personal com¬ munication) comments that the ‘centre’ in Hinduism is a locus

timately and even prosaically domestic beings. Thus their wearing

planes, and therefore require special guardianship against un¬

of movement, ambiguity and transformation, the place where doubts about reality arise. At the same time, Tallapaka’s ‘middle’ qualities also connote the innerness of domestic space and family intimacy. Domestic rituals within the household to this Goddess call her ‘Middle-ofthe-House Gangamma’; while the last public rite for Gangamma during her annual, solar cycle is in the month of Karttik, in

act in the Jatra that explicates or implicates their marriage (in

3 See also Elmore’s (1984: 40) brief reference to a ‘middle street sakti’ (nadividhi Sakti) who ‘is not quite so terrible as some of the other [village] saktis’. 4 Generally, south Indian Goddesses who protect territory and who bring disease are distant in conception from north Indian disease Goddesses (e.g. Wadley 1980; Kolenda 1981; and to a degree, Hershman 1977). 5 The tali is the wedding badge tied by the groom around the neck of the bride, signifying his superordination over her and the extension of his protection to her.

288

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

the tali may be linked first and foremost to their domesticity, rather than to the issue of marital status. As a woman worshipper

was forcing every virgin to sleep with him the night before her wedding. He terrified everyone. Spying Gangamma drying her

of Tallapaka said: 'It’s seemly for a woman with children to wear a tali.’ And if anything, 'husbands’ become increasingly con¬ spicuous by their absence during the progression of the Jatra. Especially for women, Gangamma has something of the status of

hair, he lusted for her. She decided to teach him the lesson of his life. But first she needed to discover where he lived. Each day she and her sister took another guise and went through Tirupati searching for him. The day before Gangamma killed the Palegadu

a good and valued friend, loved and admired (Egnor 1984: 28).

she took the guise of an untouchable sweeper (Toti) and went from house to house assuring everyone that they would not be

The location and ethos of these Gangamma temples show the same goddess in the middle or centre and at the periphery. The differences between the two are of degree, of locations on a con¬ tinuum of female being and power with perhaps a certain division of labour amongst them. The same pattern is reproduced within the Gangamma Jatra. This pattern also highlights that whatever her form or aspect, Gangamma is a powerful, independent female in her own right. Without a consort, she is Very much the mistress of her own feelings and actions’ (Hanchett 1988: 187). Through its sequential progression her Jatra increasingly brings into focus a cosmos that exfoliates her being.

Gangamma’s Story The narrative that empowers Gangamma’s annual visit to Tirupati tells of her as a ferocious female power (,sakti) driven by hunger, swallowing people who answer her knock in the middle of the night. Tamed by Ramanuja, she turned into a ten-year-old whom he took to Tirupati and left on a streetcorner. Later a pavilion (■mandapam) announcing her entry was built on that spot, and she lives there in the form of an oval stone called Catu (announce¬ ment) Gangamma. Gangamma also looked for a home with shepherds (Gollas) and fishermen (Palli), but could not stand the smell of their food. She decided that only the weavers could bear her, and one night she accosted the great-grandfather of today’s weavers. He refused out of modesty to admit her—a young, beautiful, unattached virgin—into his home. Not to be denied, she formally announced her intention in court and moved in. At that time a Palegadu, a local warrior lord and landowner,

289

harmed. On the day of the killing she took the guise of a foreign ruler, a prince from another place’ (Dora), and went to the Palegadu’s palace, where he was playing dice with friends. He came forth to fight the Dora, and Gangamma beheaded him. She revived him for a few moments to show him her true form (visvarupa:), telling him: ‘This is what a woman really is.’ He pleaded for his life, vowing his devotion to her. Gangamma refused, saying he would be just the way he was before, and killed him again.6 After this she pierced her tongue with a needle to demonstrate her power. Gangamma instructed the weavers how to re-enact her story, the guises to take and how to dress and embody them so that she would return to Tirupati. Then she turned herself into a stone at the Tallapaka shrine. On its surface the story of Gangamma is a charter for the embodiment of her guises, and gives some explanation to three of these (sweeper, foreign prince and visvarupa). The story conveys progression and transformation as the Goddess drops the guise of the prince and reveals herself as the totality of female power, utterly eliminating her male enemy. But the story is concerned solely with Gangamma’s origins and her connection with Tirupati, ending with the emergence of the fullness of her being in the world of 6 During the Jatra, drummer bards chant the myth of Adi-Sakti, the supreme female power who creates the cosmos. Feeling lust, she creates sons (Brahma, Visnu) in order to have sex with them. Morally outraged, they refuse and she destroys them. In shaping Siva she meets her match, as he tricks her powers (including the third eye) from her, thereby taming her. There are various versions of this myth in the area of Tirupati and elsewhere (e.g. see Oppert 1978: 472—4, for a version in which Visnu is triumphant).

290

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The Guises of the Goddess

people. The story refers neither to the additional characters that appear in this ritual sequence following the vis'varupa, nor to other

household image, a silver-coloured, fanged, symmetrically propor¬ tioned head of Gangamma. Soon after, the steel swords of the

actions during the Jatra by and for the Goddess. These are crucial

foreign prince and his minister {mantriri) that will be used to kill the Palegadu are placed on either side of the visiting Gangamma. These goddesses, like all the Tirupati deities discussed in this essay, face the east, the auspicious, beneficial direction of the rising sun

to the performance of this sequence and to the well-being of Old Tirupati. In this regard the ritual specialists provide little exegesis, stating that they follow the instructions of Gangamma. Nonethe¬ less the practice of this sequence swells with causal, transformative

291

moments that are profound in their metaphysical consequences.7

(Beck 1976: 215). During Gangamma’s stay, members of the household observe certain restrictions, refraining from sex, not pounding spices, eating calming foods and going barefoot out¬

Gangamma Comes Home

side—and of course, inside—the home. Gangamma eats the food

On that fourth Tuesday the weavers bring home Gangamma from

of the household. She is not calmed, as an inert object would be. Rather, she takes in the substances offered her, thereby soothing herself. She is perceived always as an autonomous, causal agent.

the 1 allapaka Gangamma Temple. Accompanying her is the redpainted wooden head of the mustachioed Palegadu. Four families of weavers, living close to one another, have hereditary rights in the Jatra. According to the account of their origin they once were a single family (in their great-grandfather’s time, when he met Gangamma) that split into the families of two brothers, and then four. Each family hosts the Goddess and enacts her guises during two consecutive Jatras, and then passes this right to the next family. The keys to the main gate of the Govinda Raja Temple also pass with the Jatra from one host family to the next. Thus during a given two-year period, one weaver family hosts Gangamma, its men enact her guises, and are responsible for the opening and closing of the Govinda Raja Temple. The weavers, one may say, embody their caste namesake in shaping the texture of Gangamma’s presence in Tirupati, the weave that interlaces the Goddess and her devotees. The portable, wooden image of Gangamma that enters the weaver home is some two feet in height, red-coloured, angular and fierce, leaning to the left and holding a lemon-tipped sword in her right hand. Her white corneas and black irises are eye-catch¬ ing, as are her two white fangs. Her shrine is established next to one wall of the dwelling, where she is joined by the permanent 7 On rhe significance of sequential ordering in ritual, see Handelman (1990: 22-62); and on guising and self-identity, Handelman (1984, 1990: 138-59).

The Goddess who moves into the centre of the weaver home is Middle-of-the-Street Gangamma. Though the Goddess is in her Tallapaka shrine, from the perspective of the participants, the force of her power shifts into the weaver household. Gangamma herself has returned home. Worshipped and respected, she is seen as a loved member of the family, not someone to fear. In shifting from the temple to the home, she goes directly into intimate, domestic space, with its connotations of fertility and growth. As she moves into the midst of human beings, so begins the recall of how she previously became intimate with them—finding shelter in Tiru¬ pati, protecting women against the depredations of the Palegadu. Wednesday morning, weavers and washermen (Cakali) ac¬ companied by drummers (Pombala) make a mandala to enclose space that is referred to as Old Tirupati. Their ritual acts are sometimes described as ‘fixing the circle’ {cakrabandhanarn). The enclosed space of the mandala is called an uru, a village. But the Telugu term has connotations of the Tamil term ur (e.g. Daniels 1984: 61-79)—of ancestral soil or ancestral place, with which persons born there have a special relationship of mutual affinity. The sequence of guises dominated by the weavers is enacted within this enclosed space. They say that during the Jatra the Goddess does not like her children, the people of the uru, to leave this space. From this perspective Gangamma is indeed the goddess of

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

the Tirupati uru. But the mandala has an additional purpose—to ensure that during the Jatra, Gangamma does not stray from the

and one of the periphery is reproduced. During the Jatra interac¬

uru. She and her children should stay within this ancestral land where they are woven into one another through affinity, and through acts of reciprocity and mutual benefice.

is much more intense than is interaction between Tallapaka and Tatayyagunta during the everyday.

The implications of this formulation penetrate what will be

Tallapaka who has moved into the weaver home. The Gangamma

done through the ritual sequence of guises. Gangamma gave the weavers instructions on how to make her present in the uru by taking her guises. Her intention, her desire, is to be in the uru with her children. But then, once in the weaver home, why should

of the periphery is Veshalamma, the Mother of Guises (vesharri). Her temple is a kilometer's distance west of the weaver home.

292

293

tion between these goddesses of mandalic middle and periphery

The middle Gangamma of mandalic space is the visiting

Veshalamma is also, one may say, the mother of borders, since guise itself is the border of perception between exterior and inte¬

she leave, why wander away out of the uru? Thus if she should

rior, and the movement between them. Veshalamma too is Gan¬

depart, this would not be intentional. In question therefore is

gamma. The only image in her shrine is full-bodied. Yet her true

whether at the outset of the Jatra she is fully self-aware of being present in the world of human beings. The implicit agenda of the

form is also a head, lost when thrown down a deep well by a crazed eunuch (e.g. a male feminized in his loss but not made female,

sequence of guises is to transform Gangamma's sense of self for the benefit of her worshippers, enticing her out of her own centre, her ‘middle', into her full presence among human beings. This is also her devolvement from cosmic encompassment to the earthly

female). Most of the guises begin their circuit at Veshalamma, moving inward from the edge, into the uru, seeming on the surface to invert the progression of guises that leads towards the revelation

plane. Though the mandala fixes her, as it were, in space, this by itself neither makes her present nor prevents her from disappearing deep into her self, again distant from the human plane. She must

of the Goddess from beneath the guise, from within. Yet there is no contradiction here. In spatial terms, the movement of the circuit, from the outside inwards, is one that comes closer to the

be persuaded continuously to emerge from within herself, seduced

inner sociality of human beings, their domesticity and intimacy.

into her self so that she remains among people during the Jatra,8 During the Jatra, numerous rites are performed at the Gan¬

In existential terms, the movement of the Goddess from within her being outwards, comes closer to others and penetrates their

gamma temples of Tallapaka and Tatayyagunta, especially at the latter. In outline, the rhythms of these rites parallel those of the

other. The movement inward in space is outward in self, then

sequence of guising enacted by the weavers. However these shrines

moving inward again towards others. The transformation within

remain apart from this sequence. Nonetheless, within mandalic space the same relationship between a Gangamma of the middle

the Goddess through the progression of guises, her emergence from within herself, is mapped and reproduced in space through

and therefore in disjunction, rather than in harmony, with the

being. Thus the spatial and the existential complement one an¬

the movement of guises from Veshalamma into the uru. I discuss 8 There are implications here for daily temple rituals that wake, wash, dress and feed the deity. Rather than merely preparing the deity as royalty, the more

this in the concluding section.

profound metaphysical connotations of these rites are of persuading the deity to come out of herself or himself, nearing the human plane. Thus the act of

The Goddess Disguised

closing this enticement into embodiment by showing the deity to herself or himself in a mirror suggests the conscious self-recognition by the deity of cosmic

The circuits of the guises begin on Wednesday morning following

encompassment and therefore the desire to act deliberately in this world.

the making of the mandala, and continue into daybreak of the

294

Syllables of Sky

following Wednesday. This period divides into two segments of guising, that of the Goddess disguised (Wednesday to Friday) and that of the Goddess revealed (Sunday to Wednesday), linked by an interstitial guise (Saturday) that turns disguise into revelation. In temporal terms, this transformation is done in the middle of the Jatra. The division into two segments corresponds to Tirupati’s understanding regarding the presence of the Goddess. It also enables attending to subtle shifts in the Goddess’s progressive perception of self and the intensification of emotions surrounding her (the sequence of guises is summarized in Table 1). The first guise on Wednesday morning is that of a single Bairagi, a male Saiva ascetic, enacted by a washerman. The Bairagi announces the Jatra in major locations within Old Tirupati. From then on through Friday, each guise appears as a married pair— the female enacted by an unmarried weaver male, and the male enacted by an unmarried washerman. Each pair is understood as the God¬ dess (disguised as the female of the pair) and her sister (disguised as the male of the pair) going from dwelling to dwelling in search of the Palegadu. The Goddess (or Goddesses) Tomes on’ (possesses) those who embody her. The Goddess is, one may say, within the weaver and washerman who wear the disguise she takes on.9 On Saturday both partners are male—the foreign prince and his min¬ ister—enacted now by a weaver and washerman who are both married. This pair behead the Palegadu at daybreak on Sunday. It is in the moment of the killing that the Goddess reveals her unitary self, the shells of her disguises tossed aside. Though these goddesses are a pair, from the outset, it is the disguises as women (embodied by weavers) that are closer to the female core of the Goddess, and that become progressively more central. Parallel to this the male disguises (embodied by washermen) are discarded. The weavers then become the sole embodiments of the Goddess. All guises are attired in the weaver home. On Thursday and ; The washermen enacting the male guises probably have an important purificatory function at the interface between the Goddess and her worshippers. It should be noted that none of the ritualists who perform in the sequence of guises are full-time specialists.

The Guises of the Goddess

295

Friday, one pair leaves at daybreak and another in the afternoon. The males of the pair, the washermen, are dressed simply in headcloth, shoulder cloth, dhoti or pantaloons, carrying artefacts (baskets, scales, necklace of vegetables, axe, cowbells) that identify the caste or tribal group of the guise. Stripes or patches of colour and other decorations are applied to their faces and upper bodies. Special care is given to the details of attiring the woman, the Weaver of the pair, to her sari, upper cloth, necklet, necklaces, bangles, anklets and flowers. Fler hair is covered by a black cloth covered in turn with gold-coloured ornaments that also hide her ears. Kohl is applied delicately to her eyes and eyelids, beauty spots to her cheeks, and a vermilion stripe to her forehead. Some item of her apparel or accessories (for example, ankle bells) are put for some time before Gangamma, purified over a brazier of incense and, in a transference of identity and power, added to the attire. Attention is given to the calming of the female guise: turmeric is rubbed into her cheeks, giving her skin a yellowish cast, and jasmine and other flowers are twined intricately around her head ornaments and down her back. Before departing, fire from Gangamma’s altar is waved (arati) before the couple, and the woman covers her head with a white cloth. The two walk briskly to the Veshalamma Temple, ten minutes or so in a westerly direction, accompanied by one or more drum¬ mers, their drums silent. The full embodiment of most guises re¬ quires the joining of Gangamma as a middle goddess (Tallapaka in the weaver home, her embodiment in the guiser) and Gangamma of the periphery. As noted, the latter is Veshalamma, the border between the outside and the inside of the guise. At Veshalamma, the pair greet the Goddess, the woman removes her headcovering, the drummers sound their instruments, and the couple returns at a speedy pace in an easterly direction, moving into the ritual space of the uru, and focusing attention on the interior of the guise. The pair stop on the pavement outside particular dwellings where family members, mainly women and girls, wait to worship them. The basic form of worship is to wash the couple’s feet and to lap ihe water towards one’s face; or to touch the feet and then one’s

Syllables ofSky

The Guises of the Goddess

lips. Others also decorate the feet with turmeric and vermilion, and offer bananas, coconuts and the fire of camphor flames. Oc¬

indicates the need to calm the slowly swelling emergence of the

296

297

Following on the ruffianess, the apparel of the merchant’s wife

casionally the head of a small child is touched to the couple’s feet.

Goddess. She is the first to wear a garland of neem leaves (margosa,

On Wednesday afternoon the first couple—snake-charmers— do their circuit through Old Tirupati. They are followed on Thursday morning by shepherds (Gollas, e.g. Sontheimer 1989:

a powerful calming agent) and jasmine (also calming). But the general disinterest in the disguised Goddess as she walks the streets changes dramatically with the appearance of the sweepers (Totis).

102, 105) and in the afternoon by ruffians (Banda and Bandati). On Friday morning the pair are merchants (Chettis) and in the

The male sweeper carries a naked, raised sword tipped with a calming lemon, the first weapon to appear among the guises and

afternoon, untouchable sweepers (Totis, e.g. scavengers). The cir¬

probably indicative of the Goddess’s increasing self-awareness of

cuits of these first guises take some five to seven hours each. Apart

her pursuit and purpose. The female sweeper’s face and body are

from the devout acts of worship by people awaiting them at set stops outside homes, the sight of these disguised Goddesses walk¬ ing the narrow streets accompanied by drummers does not arouse any particular curiosity or enthusiasm.

blackened, and she too has a garland of neem and jasmine around her neck. Following the sweeper, all guises wear this garland. A

The ruffian disguise intimates that the presence of the self of the Goddess in these early guises is still limited. The male ruffian’s

winnowing basket with five points of vermilion (signifying the five cosmic directions) is placed before Gangamma and purified with incense. The winnowing basket is a gift to Gangamma from

apparel stresses his masculinity. He wears red and gold striped pants with a white cloth wrapped intricately between buttocks and

her brother, Venkatesvara. At the temple of Veshalamma (who wears the same garland as the female sweeper) the cosmic power of the winnowing basket

genitals to shape a codpiece-like protrusion. The weavers say that

is highlighted. The basket is worshipped separately—a camphor

the woman, Gangamma in the ruffian guise, took a fisherman lover. The lover and husband fought over her, the lover cutting

flame placed before it, a coconut broken—and then taken up by

off the husband’s left hand and the husband slicing off his wife’s

the female sweeper. Of the disguises so far, the sweeper has the most intense relationship with Veshalamma. According to Gang-

nose to disfigure her beauty. Near the Street of the Fishermen

amma’s myth, it was in the sweeper’s disguise that she went from

(close to Veshalamma Temple) a winnowing basket is attached to the ruffian’s arm, simulating a covered stump, and a strip of plaster stuck lengthwise on his wife’s nose. In this disguise Gangamma

house to house assuring people they would not be harmed when

suffers severe facial damage. Given the care with which she always

basket. For that matter everyone in the street is clamouring for a

dresses, the Goddess is very sensitive to her own appearance. Her beauty is integral to her sense of completion. In this altercation

head tap. An ambulance stops, its crew getting out for claps. A bus stops, its passengers leaning out of windows for taps. The female sweeper is surrounded by small, shifting crowds. People

violence is done to her, she is made ugly by a male and this

she killed the Palegadu. Along the circuit of house stops, people ask the female to clap them on the head with the winnowing

civious pursuit of the Palegadu), behaving as a passive, docile wife punished for her sexual misdeed. Where then is the Goddess in

are smiling, grinning, having fun, in a good mood, as they rush about her, tugging at her arms to attract attention. At the mouth of an alley the crowd hems her in, shoving her back, young and old, women carrying infants, children and teenagers, not giving

these early guises? Not only is she disguised, but her embodied presence is still distant.

way until they receive her taps. The female sweeper is tall, a black head and arm above the crowd, clapping, tapping. Breaking out

undoubtedly injures her sense of self. Nonetheless she does not react to this insult (one that likely equals in magnitude the las¬

298

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

of the alley she shoulders a teenager, loping to escape the crowds and get on with the stops outside homes. During all this the male

claps of the fan in return for acts of formal worship. The Goddess’s benefice is available at this moment to anyone who recognizes her

sweeper is ignored. He waits by himself, holding his phallic weapon upright. The focus is wholly on the female and the blows of her basket.

within the disguise. The Untouchable Sweeper at the bottom of

The Goddess blesses with her winnowing basket.10 Yet she has

benefice of the Goddess ultimately intended for everyone. Gang¬

been around for the past three days without attracting great at¬ tention. Now there is a vibrant desire for interaction with Gang-

amma is now very close to the surface of her disguise and to the world of human beings. In the progression of guises the interaction between sweepers and people establishes the reality of cosmic

amma. The people recognize a change in her. She is no longer the wife of the snake-charmer, the shepherd, the merchant. She is no more the meek woman whose nose is cut off by her ruffian husband. As a sweeper, a scavenger of others’ leftovers, she is very close to the realities of the human world. She is becoming aware of herself as an independent force with something to give that people really want. People are entering into an emotional, recipro¬

299

the caste hierarchy is no respector of categorical, hierarchical differences—she tosses everyone’s leavings together. So too is the

power as female, not male. There is no guise on Saturday morning. Saturday is a time of transformation in the Jatra, the temporal mid-point of the se¬ quence of guising, as its momentum accelerates from concealment to revelation. Three days of the disguised Goddess precede this

cal relationship with the female, virtually disregarding the male

day of the killing of the male, and three days of the revealed Goddess will follow. By Saturday the Goddess is through disguis¬

presence of her companion. The female sweeper is the first disguise to give the extraordinary benefice of the Goddess to anyone who

ing herself as a female. She is just that. From now until the end of the Jatra the Goddess is embodied

requests it.11 Moreover, apart from those awaiting her at set stops, the numerous beneficiaries along the way are not receiving these

only in married males.12 On Saturday afternoon two males appear: the foreign prince and his minister. Within the cosmos created by

10 In the rites and myths of Gangamma, the motif of the winnowing basket

these rituals, these two figures are the apex of male power. Within them the Goddess has emerged fully. Thus, though the surface of

has a tacit significance. In the hands of a man, the basket conceals damage to

this guise is entirely male, its reality is entirely female. Unlike the

the masculine (e.g. the ruffian twists the winnowing basket into concealing absence and loss, e.g. the stump of an arm). In the hands of a woman, the basket

12 In the myth of Gangamma, only the weavers could bear her power. As

reveals the holism of female power. Tallapaka Gangamma protected her children

her presence in Tirupati swells, only married weavers can bear her. There is here

from her sister under a winnowing basket. The female sweeper who mixes

some intimation of control through marriage. From the Goddess’s point of

everyone’s leavings together probably uses the basket to dispense blessings of

view, during the initial three days of the Jatra, her first embodiment is a male

fertility. Its shape may also be likened to a vagina, or perhaps a womb. The

ascetic distant from marriage, followed by two females (Goddesses) embodying

winnowing basket is the gift of Venkatesvara who in popular myth was a female

two unmarried males enacting a married couple, the female controlled by the

turned into a male by Ramanuja. Thus the winnowing basket may also signify

male. During this period, marriage is initially absent and is then entirely on the

the movement of female power from one Goddess to another, and so the

surface of the guise and the Goddess most distant from this. On Satuiday the

protection of its holism. It is worth mentioning here that the earliest poetic

two Goddesses embody two married males enacting two other males. The subject

references to Venkatesvara describe him as half Visnu, half Siva. The Goddesses

of marriage is now beneath the surface of the guise, closer to the Goddess.

of Tirupati have Saiva connections that cannot be gone into here.

During the last three days the Goddess is wholly on the surface, embodied by

11 Previous guises distribute benefice at pre-set stops in keeping with the

married males. In one sense, these men are within her; in another she is within

characters of these guises. Thus the shepherdess pours milk, and the female

them. To some degree her self has moved into closer conjunction with a

merchant (the male sells vegetables) distributes rice.

condition of marriage in the human world.

300

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

previous guises who wander with their uncertain identities, this pair sets out with the vividly declared purpose of beheading the

and stuff his head into his belly. The prince and his minister are greeted royally. Often chairs are put out for them and they are

Palegadu, the male. They will be on their way through the streets

worshipped while seated. Scarves are placed on their shoulders and garlands around their necks. Their feet are washed and touched,

for some nineteen hours—a further intensification of the presence of the Goddess—killing the Palegadu at daybreak on Sunday morning. The Palegadu will see only the male surface of the guise, and not the female reality beneath. The prince and his minister are dressed in the colours of Visnu, their clothing white with red sashes at the waist, the prince with a blue sash across the right shoulder. Each has the Vaisnava trident painted in white and red on his forehead. There is a feminine cast to the prince’s make-up, especially in his eyes lengthened by kohl. Their steel swords were on either side of Gangamma since she came home, and their hats were also before her for a while. They have the largest entourage of any disguise, three drummers, two standard bearers and another to hold the Palegadu’s wooden head that had accompanied Gangamma to the weaver’s home.

301

and turmeric and vermilion applied. Coconuts are broken before them, and they are offered camphor flames, buttermilk, soft drinks, bananas, coconuts and money. In return the two cut garlands into segments with their swords, and return these to householders. Although they are received outside homes, at times there is an intimacy between these visitors and their hosts, as they chat and banter with one another. The prince and his minister travel throughout the night. By daybreak they near Veshalamma, but continue straight on past the temple for several hundred metres and around a bend in the street.13 The Palegadu’s wooden head, garlanded with jasmine, is held high. Keeping the head to their right, the prince and his minister circumambulate the head three times and then touch it with their raised swords, accompanied by heightened drumming

The drums accompanying previous guises were sounded only on leaving Veshalamma. Now the drums are beaten as soon as the pair leaves the weavers’ home. Their swords upright in their fists, the pair set out at a martial pace in the direction of Veshalamma, but do not visit her. Instead, they stop in the street at a point

head reappears later in the day next to Tallapaka Gangamma. There are no spectators to the killing, apart from the entourage

directly in line with her temple. At this boundary the pair are

and some youngsters. The important thing is that the ritual is

worshipped apart from Veshalamma. They become the analogue

correctly performed. In the myth of Gangamma, the Palegadu is playing dice when she comes for him.14 He sees two foreign lords, warriors, and

of Veshalamma, keying the border between the interior and ex¬ terior of ritual space and of the inside and outside of disguise.

and ululation. A washerman quickly hides the severed head inside a cloth and departs on the run to Tallapaka Temple, where the

They consciously control these boundaries that are now open to them. This is a clear index that Gangamma is actively present, just within the surface of the disguise. The Palegadu’s palace lies beyond, down the same street. For the present, the pair turn about

comes out to fight. His perception occluded by his extreme male¬ ness, he fails to see beneath the surface of the male and dies at the

and head into the uru to begin their circuit of stops outside homes.

homes of families who once lived in Old Tirupati.

Unlike the tumultuous reception accorded the sweeper the day before, there are few people on the street this Saturday. Nonetheless the stops are lengthy and movement slow. At each

received more than a little scholarly attention. Much of this is incorrect in its

stop the Palegadu’s head is held aloft while the minister recites his wicked ways, declaring that the prince will behead the Palegadu

13 The prince and minister also march beyond the ritual periphery, to the

14 The role of dice and analogous games in South Asian myth and epic has

insistence on the homology of the game and the cosmos, such that the player outside and inside the game is considered to have the same level of perception. It is more likely that entering the game lowers consciousness, occludes perception and restricts knowledge. David Shulman and I are working on this subject.

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

hands of the female, who then shows him ‘what a woman really

Bairagi ascetics, Ruffians and Sweepers. The Bairagi bodies are

is’. The Palegadu not only embodies maleness, but maleness at its

ash-coloured; those of the Ruffians split, with one side of the body

302

303

extremity of uncontrolled desire that destroys the power of female

red and the other green or black; while the Sweepers are blackish

virginity. He is a threat to order, especially that of the domestic

and carry little bottles of green ‘liquor’. They flow raucously and

domain. To eliminate this maleness, the Goddess raises the status

full of fun through the streets and alleys in and around Old

of her disguise to that of the prince, analogous in hierarchy to the

Tirupati, darting this way and that like schools of fish, ragging

Palegadu. The pretense of maleness destroys the male, revealing

passersby, especially women.

the cosmic power of the female. In terms of this ritual cosmos

They also go in droves to the courtyard of Tatayyagunta

more generally, maleness as a total identity is a disguise for a more

Temple to beat the stone feet of the Goddess. They say that they

complex self combining male and female attributes.

are ‘fucking Gangamma’ or ‘fucking her cunt’. Groups of young¬

Although there is a demonic cast to the Palegadu’s unbridled

sters chant as they rhythmically beat her feet: ‘Your cunt is as big

lust, he is an ordinary man. He is neither a demon whom the

as a winnowing basket, and the penis that doesn’t fuck it is as

Goddess marries and kills, nor is he a deity who marries the

small as an ant.’ Mothers hold little sticks for their very small sons

Goddess and controls her. He is a male unable to perceive the

and together they beat the feet, while other women worship.

reality of the female. The death of the Palegadu, Gangamma’s

Others spill salt and pepper on the feet. Coconuts are broken, the

refusal to let him live as her devotee, turns the ritual-cosmos female

milk spilled over the feet; and here and there a rooster is beheaded

and shows the epistemological superficiality of the male who is

and offered to the feet. Still other women adorn with turmeric

only that. The surface appearance of maleness (the prince and his

and vermilion a high stone post embedded in the ground between

minister) cancels maleness (the Palegadu) that perceives only the

Gangamma’s feet and the entrance to her shrine. Of the beating

surface, and the Goddess emerges wholly from within her male

and chanting, men say that Gangamma is full of desire (kama)

guise, consciously and deliberately showing her true form as the

and they are giving her the sexual satisfaction she wants. Women

dominant principle of this ritual cosmos. No longer are there males

say that after beheading the Palegadu, Gangamma turned into the

of any significance. The true self of the female has risen through

stone head within the Tatayyagunta shrine. The abuse is intended

maleness, incorporating this into herself. Meanwhile, as the prince

to call her, entice her, out of her temple so that she will aid people.

is killing the Palegadu, the true form of the Goddess, the Matangi,

The general atmosphere is of good-humoured exuberance. Similar emotions and rhythms of activity also predominate on

is visiting Veshalamma.

Thursday. On Friday floods of little Sweepers swirl through Tatay¬ yagunta. However, older teenagers also move through the temple Gan gamma’s Feet

courtyard, often in groups, beating Gangamma’s feet and chanting

On Wednesday as the first guises enacted by washermen and

abuse. But now the beating is done not with bare sticks but with

weavers start their circuits through Old Tirupati, other activities

branches of calming neem, and these branches are heaped on the

begin at the Gangamma temples of Tallapaka and Tatayyagunta.

feet and on every other ritual object in the vicinity. It is no

Generally, donning guises during the Jatra is popular in Tirupati

coincidence that this attention to Gangamma’s feet, though still

to fulfil a vow to Gangamma, to ask for protection, or as a pastime.

calling her closer, is more modulated and calming on the day the

During the first three days of the Jatra most of these guising

female Sweeper appears in the streets with her winnowing basket,

participants are youngsters, mainly boys turned out especially as

a clear sign that the Goddess is nearing the world of human beings.

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

On Saturday the temples and their courtyards are quite empty of

through them as the visvarupa uniting all of them.15 The interior

people. Gangamma’s devotees await the killing of the Palegadu.

and exterior are identical, indistinguishable. A striking indication

304

305

of this self-union is that on this day the Matangi, Veshalamma and The Goddess Revealed

Tallapaka Gangamma all wear the same sari of red-and-white checks. When the visiting middle-of-the-street Gangamma returns

Before daybreak on Sunday the soon-to-be-revealed Goddess, her

to the weavers’ home, she too is offered a sari of the same pattern.16

head covered, slips from the weavers’ home into the night accom¬

This union is made explicit both by ritual specialists and devotees.

panied by a drummer and washerman. On his head the washerman

Thus on the first day of the Jatra a woman possessed by Gangamma

carries the visiting middle-of-the-street Tallapaka Gangamma.

at the Tallapaka shrine exclaimed: ‘The two sisters will come

They are on their way to Veshalamma.

together and I’ll have a good Jatra.’ In this instance the reference

The true form (visvarupa) of Gangamma is a single figure, the

to self is to both the Goddess and the devotee.

Matangi. She wears a sari of small red-and-white checks resem¬

These goddesses fuse on the border between the exterior and

bling a gingham pattern. Her entire head is wreathed with jasmine.

interior, between the self and the other, as the prince and his

Her garland is again half neem, half jasmine. Around the waist

minister are lulling the Palegadu further up the road. At this

outside her sari is a folded cloth pouch filled with neem leaves

moment all the significant males of this ritual cosmos are beyond

and ‘lap-rice’ (odibahi)y especially beneficial for fertility. The Mat¬

its border, the Palegadu dead, the Prince and his minister cast

angi holds a small mirror attached to a handle, cushioned with

aside, the male detritus of disguise and ritual action. The holistic

neem leaves, both taken from Gangamma’s shrine in the weaver’s

Goddess, her head uncovered, begins her circuit from the ritual

home.

boundary, moving into Old Tirupati. As noted, much of the ritual

On reaching their destination, middle-of-the-street Tallapaka

movement in space is from the boundary to the middle, from

is placed before and to the side of the image of Veshalamma. The

outside to inside. This also maps the identity transformation of

Matangi faces both. The images of middle-of-the-street Gang¬

the Goddess from outside (the disguise of maleness) to inside (the

amma and Veshalamma are reflected in the Matangi’s mirror.

revelation of the Goddess emerging from within). In the conclud¬

Looking at the Matangi from their perspective, their images are

ing section I will argue that this pattern of movement is linear,

contained within her. The Matangi then performs the first arati

processual and progressive.

of the morning before the two, an act of worship normally done

In writings on south Indian goddesses the mythic Matangi is

by the priest, but here emphasizing the unmediated contact among

described as an Untouchable (as is the Sweeper), the daughter of

the goddesses.

a sage and an Untouchable woman. She is married but never loses

There is here a profound moment of self-recognition in which these goddesses—middle and periphery, interior and exterior—fuse

15 Here the mirror is a medium of reflexive holism and encompassment. See,

together within the Matangi. They see themselves within her, as

for example, Beck’s (1976: 241) reference to the use of the mirror in renewing

she sees herself within them. As they recognize themselves within her, so does she within them. This is the ultimate self-union of the

the powers of a divine image. Among Newar, mirrors may be implicated in the representation of holism (Levy 1990: 682, 769). In other instances the mirror may be a medium of transitory transference (e.g. Bentor, n.d.). Also see note 8.

Goddess, of her coming into full self-awareness within the ritual

16 On this day Tatayyagunta Gangamma wears a sari of reddish pink. Beck

cosmos of the Jatra. The Goddess is fully revealed to herself through

(1969: 558) considers the colour combination in south India of red and white

their recognition of themselves in her. She receives her sense of self

to have auspicious, life-giving qualities.

306

The Guises of the Goddess

Syllables of Sky

Fig. 1:

Golla guise emerging from the Kaikala bouse Courtesy: Don Handelman

Fig. 2:

Sunnapukundalu (lime-pots) receiving worship Courtesy: Don Handelman

Fig. 3:

The Big Goddess at Tallapaka (before dawn) Courtesy: David Shulman

Fig. 4:

Perantalu

Courtesy: Joyce B. Flueckiger

307

308

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

309

the power of her virginity. As a married virgin, she is a living

is closer to a goddess of the middle. And on Sunday afternoon the

goddess (e.g. Hershman 1977: 273, on Bengal). In various village

now fully self-aware Matangi returns to the weaver household,

rituals her role was described as absorbing impurities through

once more face-to-face with the visiting Tallapaka Gangamma.

sexual relations or the touch of her buttocks. In village rituals,

Before Tallapaka is a new sari of red-and-white checks. The

liquids spurting from her mouth purified persons of higher castes,

Matangi sits opposite her in the narrow courtyard of the weavers’

including Brahmins (Elmore 1984: 25-6).

home. This small area is packed with people. Still seated, wreathed

The Matangi’s circuit takes over twenty-four hours. She is full

in garlands, her eyelids heavy, the Matangi’s reddish body sways

of interior movement and energy, often guided by the elbow as if

with energy, her bare feet stamping continuously to the drum beat.

in danger of falling over. She moves with a sense of purpose,

Suddenly she is up, approaching Gangamma, and sits again. The

walking briskly, accompanied by a drummer and during the night

rhythm of the drum, the movements of her body and feet, are

by a sweeper carrying an oil lamp to light the way. She is given

quicker. She is up once more, bouncing speedily forward towards

vermilion continuously. Her hands, arms and sari turn red. Her

Tallapaka with a jerky, hopping gait, tongue extended in fierce¬

lap-rice pouch, her womb, is turned from calming white to active

ness. The Matangi falls on her side, is helped up, her tongue

red by the vermilion pressed on her. Am ambivalent colour, red,

quickly pierced, given neem leaves to chew, and sits again. There

in this context, most likely effuses health and vitality (Beck 1969:

should be no bleeding. Neem leaves are held in front of her lap,

558). In exchange, she blesses her worshippers by distributing

water poured over them and collected in containers on the floor.

lap-rice for fertility from her waist pouch and placing her hand

Those assembled now worship the Matangi continuously, and

on the heads of devotees.

children are placed in her lap. The Matangi’s tongue is pierced

The Matangi, the Goddess revealed, is the first of the sequence to enter within the domestic space of homes (including that of the weavers), in order to be worshipped there. The more the

three more times during her circuit, once within the home of a Brahmin family (see also, Thurston 1909: 42). Tongue-piercing without blood-letting is a demonstration of

Goddess emerges from within herself, the more she enters the

Gangamma’s power, but it also seems to calm her. For that matter

interior, intimate, ‘middle’ space of her devotees. She does not

it may well be both since she is the cosmic encompassment of the

enter all homes, but stays within some for up to half an hour. The

ritual cosmos, and therefore the source of benefice and self-control.

Goddess revealed is distant from the unmarried, violent goddesses

Worshippers enhance her power with redness, and modulate it

described in south India who enter living areas of communities to

with water and neem. So, too, when she rushes towards the visiting

be worshipped, but whose presence is feared (e.g. Good 1983;

Tallapaka Gangamma, tongue extended, her fierceness is modu¬

Reiniche 1987; Van den Hoek 1979; Moffat 1979: 261). Like the

lated by the piercing. Immediately afterwards she is worshipped

visiting Tallapaka Gangamma, the Matangi of Tirupati is more a

intensively, and she responds by distributing the rice of fertility

middle-of-the-street Goddess, an intimate of inner domestic mat¬

and well-being. Without doubt the causal shaping of the Matangi’s

ters, a friend of the family. In a folk play published in Tirupati in

emergence from within the guises accomplishes one of the major

1915, Gangamma is described as coming to earth, as coming

goals of this ritual cycle—the bringing of goodness by the Goddess

towards people, ;n order to protect them against fevers that do

directly to devotees, without any external mediation.

not originate from her (Kirusnapillai 1915).17 Again her depiction

The role of priestly mediation between the deity and worship¬ pers is normative practice within temples and when deities emerge

17 I am indebted to David Shulman for a summary of this work.

from their shrines and are processed through living areas. Whoever

310

Syllables of Sky

fills the priestly role accepts offerings on behalf of the deity, takes a portion for the latter and returns the remainder, the deity's leftovers, to be consumed or used otherwise by the worshipper. But as Gangamma’s living presence swells day by day within Tirupati, she enters into direct relationships with her children, accepting their devotion and reciprocating with benefice. Yet the presence of the holistic Goddess is difficult (and perhaps dangerous) for people to bear. Her next form is intended to leaven the powerful impact of the Matangi on worshippers. On Sunday afternoon the two lime pots (sunnapukundalu) appear. Once more these are the sisters Gangamma. Their facial markings are those of the Matangi. One's sari is saffron coloured, the other’s saffron and maroon. In the left hand each holds a mirror like the Matangi's, and also vermilion that is spread on a bed of neem leaves. Attached to the hair of each is a white lime pot. The five cosmic directions are marked in vermilion on each pot. The pots have stood before the visiting Tallapaka Gangamma for some days, absorbing her power. A latticework of sticks extends from the mouth of each pot. The pot itself is covered with tan-coloured cloth and tied in place on the head of the Goddess by cloth cords of the same colour. Strands of flowers—especially jasmine—are woven around the latticework. The pots are attached to the hair of the Goddesses as they sit in the courtyard of Veshalamma Temple, the crowd worshipping them. As they move, their flowered headdresses sway above the heads of those around, looking like miniature temple towers. Their circuit takes some forty-eight hours, with brief stops

The Guises of the Goddess

311

However, the oneness, the totality of the Matangi, is frag¬ mented into twoness, and this devolution from holism diminishes the power of the Goddess. The weavers say that the power of the Lime Pots lessens as they move through space and time because Gangamma is about to leave Tirupati. Whereas the holistic fusion of the Matangi erased divisions of the horizontal (those of the middle and periphery) and the vertical (those of transcendence and presence) within the ritual cosmos, the devolution of the Lime Pots reopens the horizontal division, since the sisters are Tallapaka (middle) and Tatayyagunta (periphery). The reappearance of di¬ visions prepares ritual space for the disappearance of the Goddess from the city. The entire composition of the Lime Pots emphasizes the modulation of power. Their flowers and the colour of their saris are calming. The Lime Pots themselves are calming since they are thought to absorb impurities, just as lime absorbs heat.18 To their worshippers the Goddesses distribute the life-giving redness of vermilion. Previously devotees had enhanced the power of the Matangi by giving her the vital redness of vermilion—now the Lime Pots divest themselves of some of this vitality, returning vermilion to worshippers.19 The Lime Pots are the last form of the Goddess to focus on the ordering and renewal of the domestic domain. The final appearance of the Goddess, the close of the Jatra, joins the domes¬ tic, ritual sequence of the weavers to rites at the Gangamma temples of Tatayyagunta and Tallapaka. After Saturday’s lull, from Sunday to Tuesday, the kind and intensity of activity at the temples change, as they do in the city streets and in homes.

to empty monies offered by worshippers from the pots. During this period the Lime Pots are fed only fluids, especially buttermilk. In contrast to previous circuits that followed preset stops, the Lime

18 At the end of the circuit the pots are broken at the spot that the Palegadu

Pots are accessible to any family along the route that desires their

was killed. The pieces are divided among the weavers and drummers, and in

presence. Stops, however, are on the pavement outside the home.

water are thought good for fertility.

Their movement is slow. In some neighbourhoods, women from almost every home worship them. In contrast to the Matangi, the Lime Pots expand the penumbra of the worship of the revealed Goddess and the distribution of her benefice.

19 The weavers have dropped one form of the Goddess—the female ascetic Jangamma

who had followed the Matangi. Jangamma's purpose was to modu¬

late the impact of the Matangi s power. This function is now given over entirely to the Lime Pots. Their circuit is now lengthier, longer in time and more remunerative.

Syllables ofSky

312

Multitudes of Gangamma

The Guises of the Goddess

313

‘eyes’ (Beck 1969: 572); and in a myth of the goddess Mariyam-

During the days of the revealed Goddess, children in guise disap¬

man, she herself equates a thousand pox sores with her thousand

pear from the temple courtyards and the beating of Gangamma’s

eyes (Beck 1981: 131). An older family member circumambulates

feet ceases. Guising by teenagers and adults increases sharply;

the temple clockwise, holding the pot against the head of the child.

women perform rituals for Gangamma in their homes; parents

At the very rear of the temple, facing the auspicious, life-giving

perform rituals in temples to protect their children against disease;

east, the pot is hurled to the ground and smashed. Thus the child’s

and an increasing number of families make blood offerings in the

head is offered to the Goddess in the hope that she will reciprocate

Tatayyagunta temple courtyard. Activity is frenetic, and numerous

with a whole, renewed head.

actors in different acts criss-cross one another in ongoing move¬

Youngsters embody the Matangi in a modulated condition in

ment, occupying the same physical space with near simultaneity.

order to worship the Goddess for protection against epidemic

The common focus is the presence of Gangamma and the hopes

diseases, or to fulfil vows of thanksgiving for having survived such

and desires that people have of her. Embodiments, reflections and

illnesses. Their heads are covered with calming yellow cloths heaped

echoes of Gangamma are seen and heard throughout Old Tirupati

with braided jasmine; their garlands are mainly jasmine; and their

and beyond.

clothes are in calming whites and yellows or fruitful greens. Cover¬

In many households, women dressed in their best saris worship

ing their entire faces and sometimes their feet, over a base of

Gangamma, often on Sunday, the time of the Matangi, and on

soothing sandal paste, are the sores of the pox, painted in red, black

Tuesday, that of the final appearance of the Goddess. In general,

and white. They travel in rickshaws or walk (sometimes preceded

these are rituals to modulate Gangamma in relation to the home.

by a drummer to announce their passage) to Gangamma temples

Thus the Goddess may be consecrated as middle-of-the-house

to show themselves to be in harmony with the Goddess.

Gangamma (nada inti Gangamma) in a pot containing a calming

Young men show themselves to be devotees of Gangamma by

mixture of fermented rice water and millet covered with neem

smearing their faces and upper bodies with sandal paste and,

leaves, a flower for her hair on top, the pot placed on a yantra.

preceded by drummers, marching militantly in groups through

After the women ingest Gangamma, the mixture is put outside

the city and temple courtyards. Not a few adult men embody the

and fed to passersby, thereby spreading the modulating effects

Matangi by dressing as lovely, perfectly groomed and ornamented

from within the home. Gangamma is also consecrated by women

women in beautiful saris. The embodiments of many are utterly

in the home as a mound of clay with a flower on top, surrounded

feminine and alluring. Others fulfil vows to the Goddess by taking

by neem leaves, placed on a new sari and fed a variety of modulat¬

on her various disguises or by dressing as characters from the epics.

ing foods, some of which is again given to passersby.20 Family members take children to Tatayyagunta Temple to break ‘thousand-eye’ pots.21 The reference to ‘eyes’ in the name

Through numerous embodiments by males the emergence of the female from within is shown on the surface of the self—the male qiade female by the female rising through the male.

of the pot may refer to the sores of the pox disease. Gangamma

Especially on Tuesdays a profusion of family groups comes to

sometimes is said to have a thousand eyes; such sores may be called

the Tatayyagunta courtyard to behead chickens and offer their blood to the Goddess. The earth is smothered by layers of feathers

20 I am indebted to Joyce Flueckiger for summaries of these rites.

as the chickens are plucked and cooked. And the lines of people

21 The contents of these pots commonly contain a camphor flame, two metal

waiting to be seen by (and to see) the Goddess in her shrine

eyes, a black bangle and coins.

lengthen. In contrast to the raucous good humour around the

314

Syllables of Sky

temples during the three days of the Goddess disguised, the last three days of the Goddess revealed are permeated by seriousness and solemnity, as numerous individuals and family groups seek their own ways of harmoniously aligning themselves and their needs with the presence of the Goddess. As Tuesday's late after¬ noon turns into night, knots of people swell into crowds that settle down to await the final appearance of the Goddess, early Wed¬ nesday morning.

Gangamma Meets Gangamma and Transcends Herself

The Guises of the Goddess

315

According to her myth, Gangamma destroyed the threat (the Palegadu) to her own virginity and has remained a virgin. She is perceived as such even with children; and she wears the tali, the wedding badge, though no one bothers about her marital status. For that matter, she has eliminated maleness as a power from her ritual cosmos. During her visit to Tirupati she has come closer to and is more intimate with human beings. Now she will take precisely the Perantalu trajectory from deified woman to transcen¬ dent cosmic encompassment—in departing from this world to a high, distant plane. She will leave in place the horizontal division between Goddesses reopened by the lime pots, and will expand

By Tuesday evening a platform covered by a canopy is erected on the stone post between the entrance to Tatayyagunta’s temple and her stone feet. This is also done at Tallapaka. Clay, mud and straw are piled to the side. After midnight the straw is twisted into rough rope and wound round the post above the platform. The making of the Big Goddesses has begun at each temple. The final form of the revealed Goddess is called the Perantalu. Her name in Telugu seems to mean a ‘big’ or ‘full’ woman. Perhaps the gloss of‘complete’ or ‘whole’ is appropriate. She leaves the weaver’s home a couple of hours after midnight and reaches the finished Big Goddess at Tatayyagunta at daybreak, moving on quickly to the Big Goddess at Tallapaka. The figure of the Peran¬ talu refers to a married woman whose husband is unable to consummate their marriage because he dies, and whose virginity is threatened by another male. Since only her husband should take her virginity, and since she is married, still a virgin but without a husband, she is a married virgin who also refuses to surrender her virginity to the alien aggressor. She retains her female wholeness, her power increases tremendously (e.g. Egnor 1980) and she becomes a deified virgin, a powerful Goddess transcending the human world (Narayana Rao 1986: 158-60; see also Hershman 1977: 273).22

this into the vertical separation between her ascendance into cos¬ mic holism and her self-fragmentation through the Big Goddesses. However, the epistemological premises that existed prior to her arrival will not be exactly extant once more. The ritual causes a crucial shift in these premises that will be discussed in the con¬ cluding section. The Perantalu’s facial markings, adornment and dress are virtually indistinguishable from those of the Matangi. Her head decorations were used by previous forms of the revealed Goddess. She wears the red-and-white checked sari of the Matangi, and the lap-rice pouch at her waist is already stained red by the vermilion pressed on the Matangi. She is the direct continuation of the Matangi, but her trajectory is exactly the opposite. Instead of relating herself wholly to this world as did the Matangi, the Perantalu is about to cut her intimate connection with it and separate herself. In the process she takes apart the ritual structuring of her own Jatra. With covered head, the Perantalu leaves in the direction of Veshalamma at about the time that the making of the Big God¬ desses begins in earnest. She stops at the ritual border across from the Veshalamma temple. In the process of separating herself, she is not to come face-to-face with a part of herself (e.g. Veshalamma)

22 This a non-Brahminical version. The Brahminical Perantalu refers to an auspicious woman with a living husband. ‘Perantum’ refers to a gathering of

comments that the deified Perantalu is an auspicious woman who has died

such women for ritual purposes. In keeping with this, Elmore (1984: 26)

before her husband. See also Thurston (1909: 42).

316

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

who will remain in place in this world. The Perantaki removes her head cloth and performs a rite that dismantles the mandala

is overheard telling the small son in her arms to look directly into the eyes of the Goddess and not to take his eyes off her for a

made to keep her within the space of the uru when her self-aware¬ ness there was minimal. Now she frees her own movement and then starts on her short circuit of stops, breaking off before day¬ break to go to the Tatayyagunta and Tallapaka temples.

moment, hardly the inculcation of fear. Within her shrine the Goddess’s head faces east, as do her feet in the courtyard. In the form of the Big Goddess, Gangamma’s head emerges in direct alignment with, and coming closer to her

At these two temples, curtains are raised between the platforms and the assembled crowds. Behind each screen, clay mud is thrown

stone feet. The height and depth (head and feet) of the Goddess are thereby embodied outside the shrine. Emerging from within

317

at the straw base and smoothed and shaped into the form of a

her temple, she comes from deep within, from the ‘middle’ space

great female head over two metres in height. Features and or¬

that is also the height of the axis mundi. In so doing she moves

namentation are added: silvered metal eyes, nose, ears, balls of hair, an open mouth and upper forehead both coloured deep red by vermilion, crown, forehead mark, nose ring, earrings, tali and garland. Her skin is coloured a deep purplish-black.23 By 4 a.m.

in the directional axis of west to east, from a ‘higher’ positioning (west) to a ‘lower’ one (east) (Beck 1976: 215—16). Her movement towards her worshippers and her embodiment there is a descent from her shrine in an auspicious direction (east). Appropriately,

the Big Goddess at Tatayyagunta is completed, the curtain dropped and worshippers are offered vermilion from her mouth. The Big Goddess is Gangamma, although the weavers deny that she is the Gangamma within the shrine. Nonetheless (echoing

by worshipping her feet her devotees will receive her head. All await the coming of the Perantalu together with the first rays of the rising sun. The Perantalu is said to tear out the eye and cheek of the Big Goddess (destroying the power of the fierce eye).

the women cited earlier in connection with th€ beating of Gang-

On her arrival, the Perantalu stretches up to touch the mouth of the Big Goddess and the crowd immediately tears apart her mas¬

amma’s feet), worshippers have worked to entice the Goddess to come out of her temple, closer to them and their needs. During the past few days they have attracted her attention through sexual

sive head, distributing bits of clay mud amongst themselves. Within two or three minutes nothing remains of the Big Goddess

play (beating her feet and verbal abuse), worshipped and fed her continuously as her hunger increases, decorated all signs of her

apart from the straw core. Drunk in water or put in the earth, the clay is good for fertility.

presence with colours, scents, textures and designs that please her, offered her heads and blood, and taken her forms to show her to

The Perantalu departs swiftly to fragment the Big Goddess at Tallapaka. In facing this Big Goddess, the Perantalu once again

herself. Like the visiting Tallapaka in the weaver’s home, Gang-

points roughly west, the direction of height or superiority in the

amma’s presence at these temples swells; and for a brief period on this last night she emerges from her shrine towards her devotees, just as the Perantalu is about to leave Tirupati. These great heads

east-west axis of cosmic force (Beck 1976: 215). From Tallapaka she continues in a westerly direction, the direction of rain (Beck

of the Goddess are talked about as very fierce (ugra). Their eyes will burn all before them if they are not modulated. Yet a mother

23 The heads differ in some details. Tallapakas head is somewhat smaller;

she rests from her labours for some minutes at a pavilion that faces west and disappears from there into the waters beyond the seven seas. The Perantalu’s circuit takes her round the periphery of the ritual space that she is taking apart—past Veshalamma and the

her mouth is less protuberant and her crown is higher. Wooden fangs are stuck

fragmentation of the Big Goddesses—transcending all these forms

into Tatayyagunta’s mouth, but not in Tallapaka’s.

1976: 233), spiralling inwards within the mandala. Near its centre

318

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

of herself, and ascending from the mandala’s middle.24 Two days later rain should fall, cleansing the impurities generated by the

self-fragmentation she gives herself in small bits to the multitude of her devotees, entering into them, their homes, their soil, just

mixing together of castes during the Jatra. A few weeks later the

as they have given themselves to her in myriad ways during the past days. At the same moment she disappears and ascends. Mo¬ mentarily, as she stretches herself, her force is diffused, and perhaps her devotees experience her separation from the human plane as

vital monsoon season should start in earnest, proof that Gangamma indeed was fully present in Tirupati. Through the Perantalu the Goddess eliminates herself from the earthly plane. In this cosmos made female by the Goddess, female cancels out female to end the ritual cycles of the Jatra—that of Tallapaka Gangamma’s visit to the weavers’ home and those of

319

the opening of space suddenly revealed within the confining con¬ nectivities of cosmos, as a spaciousness for new beginnings (e.g. Halbfass 1992: 30-2).

rites at Gangamma temples and in homes. In the moment of separating herself from her full presence of self on the earthly

Table 1

plane, the Perantalu comes face-to-face with her self made earthly, the Big Goddess. In terms of the sequencing of revealed forms of the Goddess, the Big Goddesses are similar to the lime pots. There

The Days of the Gangamma jatra and the Sequence of Guises

are two of them; they re-establish the division of the middle (Tallapaka) and periphery (Tatayyagunta), but they also bind this division to particular places, the temples; and they are fully present among their worshippers. Thus the Big Goddesses are akin to a revealed form of the Goddess that appeared earlier in the sequence, that the Perantalu has superseded. The Perantalu is, as one Weaver put it, equal to and greater than the Big Goddesses. I interpret this in terms of the temporal progression of the Goddess’s revealed forms. The Big Goddesses are equal to the Perantalu, but at a time that has already progressed beyond itself, towards the separation from Tirupati of the revealed Gangamma. Therefore in the present time of their face-to-face encounter, the Perantalu is later and greater, moving once more towards transcendence and the holism of cosmic encompassment. The Goddess stretches herself cosmically: simultaneously she fragments and devolves her self (the Big Goddess) and transcends

Tuesday:

Middle-of-the-street Tallapaka Gangamma comes to the weavers’ home.

Wednesday morning: The ritual mandala is made to keep Gangamma within the uru. The Goddess Disguised Day

Guise

Enacted by

Comments

Wednesday Male Bairagi

Unmarried

Announces the Jatra

morning

washerman

ascetic

Wednesday Female and

Unmarried

Worshipped in street at

afternoon

male snake-

weaver and

set homes

charmers

washerman

Thursday

Female

Unmarried

Worshipped in street at

morning

and male

weaver and

set homes

shepherds

washerman

Thursday

Female and

Unmarried

afternoon

male ruffians

weaver and

female's nose is cut off

washerman

and she is unreflexive to

and evolves her self. The process is highly transactional, in keeping with the ontic maxim of Hinduism that, to give is to get. In her

24 One is reminded here of the three strides of the Vedic Visnu, in which the third is the highest, ascending through the cosmic centre to the cosmic height (Kuiper 1962: 146-8).

Worshipped as above;

this disfigurement Friday

Female

Unmarried

Worshipped in street at

morning

and male

weaver and

set homes

merchants

washerman

The Guises of the Goddess

320

321

Syllables of Sky The Goddess Disguised

through studies of myth and ritual, but on the whole the results are disappointing, reproducing over and again the distinction

Day

Guise

Enacted by

Comments

between unattached, violent women associated with peripheries

Friday

Female and

Unmarried

Worshipped as above;

afternoon

male sweepers weaver and

clamourings for female’s

like ritual boundaries, pacific women domesticated by their hus¬ bands, and the conditions under which one is turned into the

blessings with winnow¬

other. This may well reflect a prominent, male south Indian

ing basket; female

perspective on goddesses, perhaps one held by women as well. Yet this ideology certainly does not preclude significant counter-for¬

washerman

prominent; Goddess more self-aware

mations of gender identity that are no less embedded in and

Worshipped as above

Saturday

Male prince

afternoon

and male

weaver and

but more intensively; do

empowered by tradition. Where should one go to for these contesting conceptions of

minister

washerman

not go to Veshalamma;

gender? Ritual is one useful possibility, since in traditional societies

breach ritual border; kill

its logics often do not reflect in simple ways the organization of

Married

Palegadu and eliminate maleness The Goddess Revealed Sunday

Matangi

Married weaver

Self-revelation and self¬ recognition of Goddess; union of Goddesses at Veshalamma; gives laprice; worshipped as

Lime pots

1990: 1-20). Contrary to commonsensical scholarship (e.g. Bloch 1989), numerous rituals are stores of cultural imaginings and help in modelling and re-ordering social life. Performing rituals is the practice of these imaginings. In India this has probably been prevalent since Vedic times. Rites of south Indian goddesses are no exception. They probably have their own cosmic metaphysics of gender formation and identity that is latent, yet present (and

homes

therefore active), in the world of human beings. The Gangamma Jatra is dominated by men embodying the

above but also enters Monday

social life, as so many scholars continue to maintain (Handelman

Married

Modulating impact of

Goddess in public places. The bulk of the devotees are women.

afternoon

weavers

Matangi

Wednesday Perantalu morning

Married

Opens mandala and ends

From this perspective it appears that at the core of the Goddess there is the ideology of male perception and male control that is

ritual cycle; distributes

worshipped by females. If so, then this is one more study that

herself by fragmenting Big Goddesses and

reproduces this ideology. Nevertheless I believe that the epistemology of gender in this Jatra is more complex, and that this is related

holistically transcends earthly plane

directly to the land of cosmos that Gangamma engenders. The

weaver

Gender, Cosmos, Caste I commented at the outset-that the Gangamma Jatra raises ques¬ tions about the formation of identity among south Indian god¬ desses. A good many scholars have attended to these women

metaphysics of goddess identity may well evoke cultural imagin¬ ings of gender that are shut down in social life. Discussions of the metaphysics of Indian gender should acknowledge first and fore¬ most the premises of lability, fluidity, and processuality that per¬ vade Indian cosmological imaginings (Handelman 1987, 1992a). Hindu cosmology is organized through transformations that are

322

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

continuous and flowing, and not through discrete, sharp-edged separations that are akin to, for example, binary oppositions.

is an index too, not of stasis, but of the simultaneity of movement that is total knowledge, and that on the human plane may appear

In their temples, the models of their cosmos, south Indian deities of black stone live deep in the interior, in the dimly lit cavelike centre, the middle that is simultaneously the height of the axis mundi. Regardless of temple size and wealth, or the popularity

as a kind of ‘frozen* motion, the interior movement of rock that

of the deity, each Goddess and God in principle encompasses the cosmos. Each is therefore the cosmic whole, existing simultaneously in the middle (the whole) and high up (the whole), and further out and lower down (as parts of that cosmic whole, and therefore as parts of itself). Moreover, the relationship between the whole and part is in continuous movement and flux (e.g. Handeiman 1987), the deity moving out and down, in and up. This too is the movement of the deity in relation to the worshipper, moving down and out to come closer, in and up to go further away. This kind of cosmos is integrated systemically by connections (bandhu) between everything and everything else. The further in, the higher up the deity moves, the closer it comes to self-realization as the cosmic encompassment, the more its self loses otherness ancTself-awareness. The epistemology of holistic encompassment at the highest plane of the cosmos suggests that the deity simul¬ taneously exists everywhere and everywhen. Thus the deity knows everything, because everything is connected. And at this highest level, everything is connected simultaneously. The cosmic self of the deity is then the cosmos. There is no other. This level of encompassment, of total knowledge, is constituted through the extreme density of its connections. Given the simultaneity of knowledge and consciousness, there is no space, no place and no time, since each of these is premised on separations and gaps in the fabric of connectivity. Therefore the further in and higher up the deity moves, the denser the connectivity of the cosmos, and the more dense the deity becomes. The thickness, solidity, impermeability and seamlessness of stone approximates this density of the cosmos. The cosmos im¬ plodes. The deity’s turning into a rock on the human plane is an index of this great interiority and distance from human beings. It

323

has nowhere but everywhere to move, so long as all movement is simultaneous and not sequential. This density of holistic en¬ compassment is the epistemic index of cosmic hierarchy. Con¬ comitantly, the descending, devolving movement of the deity opens tears and separations in the connectivity of self, cosmos and knowledge, introducing the godhead to time and space, and les¬ sening the density of the cosmos and deity on lower planes. This emphasis on the significance of thickness and multiplexity in the constitution of the cosmos echoes the importance of density and quality in human relationships of the everyday (e.g. Daniels 1984; Trawick 1990). How does this formulation of the cosmos shape the self of godhood? At the plane of total encompassment there is self, but no other. Therefore there is no self-awareness. People and deities share the profound transactionalism of the Indian world (e.g. Marriott 1989). Thus self-recognition exists through the perspec¬ tive of otherness. In the Rg Veda the first moment of self-re¬ cognition by the Cosmic Self (Brahman) that has no Other is profoundly paradoxical (Handeiman 1992a: 7). It is also the begin¬ ning of the differentiation and evolution of the cosmos (Miller 1985: 53-8). In Hindu mythology the impulse to self-awareness on the part of the deity often requires an external stimulus, almost a deus ex machina (as in the instance of drawing forth a separate Siva and Parvati from the androgynous Siva, the Ardhanarisvara). The cosmic process is the movement of the self. The first motions of self-awareness by the deity (that look to us like movement because they are through time, linear and sequential) begin centristically, within and high up. These movements generate gaps in the cosmic fabric of connectivity, and therefore doubts about the nature of reality and its ambiguities. As David Shulman comments: ‘In any Hindu context, movement along the axis mundi is also an internal process within consciousness’ (n.d.a : 31). The shaping of the deity’s self, of increasingly reflexive self-

324

Syllables of Sky

awareness, is integral to self-identity, and for that matter to the conscious empowerment of self. The deity acquires self-awareness by coming out and down towards devotees. The deity is simul¬ taneously the cosmic encompassment and a part of itself, a frag¬ ment. This part is the active deity who as a lower, less dense form of itself synchronizes with worshippers and shares with them ex¬ periences of time and space. Time and space exist because of the separation between the cosmic encompassment and its part, the opening of gaps in the density of the cosmos on its lower planes. The problem for the worshipper on the human plane is how to induce or seduce the deity into her embodied self and therefore into otherness, thereby paradoxically parting with herself as she moves into conscious selfhood and empowering self-awareness. These formulations speak of the emergence of the self and the shaping of identity in the disguise and revelation of Gangamma. Every disguised and revealed female form of the Goddess is em¬ powered within the weavers' home by Middle-of-the-Street Gang¬ amma, but most show themselves by removing their head cover¬ ings at Veshalamma's peripherality. The exceptions are the prince and his minister who are addressed further on, and the Perantalu

The Guises of the Goddess

325

that will tell her who she is and how she is different from others. When she goes from her self-centredness (Middle-of-the-Street Tallapaka Gangamma temple) to the weavers' home, she is far away, unaware of who she is. The mandala keeps her within the uru of Tirupati since she might wander away accidentally—as yet she is without self-knowledge of her purpose there. Yet as noted, even the mandala cannot keep her from remaining deep within herself, or for that matter from returning there. Therefore she must be seduced out of and into herself. To do this, her embodi¬ ment in time and space is crucial. She is embodied in an active, fierce, red-coloured form who carries a sword (the visiting Tal¬ lapaka) and has a male head (the Palegadu) next to her. But despite the transposition from her shrine, this new locus is still one of ‘middle', within the interiority of the weavers’ home. In epis¬ temological terms, to know herself she will have to leave the interiority of middleness (her own, the weavers’ home) in order to return to the interiority of others (her devotees) with the self-awareness to recognize the reciprocity between her self and theirs, and therefore the benefice she has for them.

who takes apart the ritual structure. Each form emerges from deep within the middle (of the Goddess, the home) but is externalized

Therefore she is embodied further in a guise and given a self (someone who she is not), given a husband (who is not), taken to the border of herself (Veshalamma, the Mother of Guises, the

at the border (of the Goddess) and (with changes in form) moves progressively deeper within the living space and being of others, her worshippers. This movement has a linear, processual character: from within the Goddess (herself as her own middle) outwards to

interface of interior and exterior), exteriorized (she removes her head covering) as who she is not (the surface self of the guise) and put on the street. Dressing her as a snake-charmer, her devotees tacitly put the question: ‘Is this really you?’ She wanders from

the interface of her self with others (herself as her own border),

place to place as a snake-charmer with a snake-charmer husband,

and then further out, into the lives of those others. This movement is also progressive: on successive appearances the self of the God¬

passing the exteriors of homes. Within this prosaic, prosthetic self she comes into direct, unmediated contact with others. Yet they do not treat her as a snake-charmer. Coming as a snake-charmer

dess is a little more shaped, a little more present in this world. Before the Jatra begins the Goddess is elevated deep within herself, far away in the stony density of cosmic encompassment. In this condition she has little awareness of herself and others, and

she is received as the Goddess. People wash, decorate and touch her feet, and offer her fire and food. They worship her, they love her, the lowly snake-charmer, as the Goddess. Who then is she?

so no perspective towards herself. In other words, as the cosmic

These householders deny the authenticity of her exterior self and

encompassment she neither knows nor has any need to know who

show her who she really is in the human world. Each guise given

she is. To acquire self-knowledge she needs an external perspective

her—shepherdess, ruffianess, merchant—is denied publicly as her

326

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

true self. The ruffianess disguise—her meek acceptance of dis¬ figurement by her husband—shows that she* is still far away,

plored, blocked, pushed and pulled into clapping heads with her

unaware of her true self. Nonetheless, each guise is responded to in the same way. Regardless of her changing self-presentations, she

insist on receiving her blessings. Their mood is joyful and demand¬

327

basket. Everyone on the street, householders and passersby alike,

evokes the identical response of respectful, devotional worship. The external perspective towards her is inherently stable, telling

ing. Her pseudo-husband is almost ignored. The importance of the female Goddess swelling within the female guise is now ap¬ parent. This is the last appearance in which the female is paired

her over and again that she is not her exterior. Then who indeed is she? This external perspective insists consistently that she is the Goddess. Is she attracted enough, curious enough, to come out

with a male. Males have a significant place in this ritual cosmos only as long as disguise does. Males, one may say, are a part of the disguise of the Goddess as a meekly married woman. As the absence of her self-awareness gives way to self-revelation, so male¬ ness dissolves into superfluity.

and find out? Worshippers expect little in return from the Goddess in these early disguises. Instead they labour to give her appreciation and love, to attract her attention and awaken her emotions. They introduce the Goddess to female embodiment, itself intimate and

Sweeper) marks the violent eruption of the Goddess into a recog¬ nition of self. She knows who she is but cannot exfoliate her self

full of feeling. Through the sequencing of guises, they take her from the simultaneity of infinity and synchronize her with human time, divisive, fragmenting, limiting. As she moves through the streets she experiences the separations of space and place. Her

fully. At each stop outside a home her minister enunciates explicit¬ ly what the Goddess will do to the Palegadu. The full self-aware¬ ness of the female is blocked by the male, by a male-dominated social order, perhaps by the male self insisting that there is nothing

worshippers are persuading her to fragment, to externalize, to come to her own surface of self, to shatter exterior forms that are superficial and transitory, to recognize how very attractive to them she is, and so should they be to her. From the Goddess's point of

of the female within him. She has done away with the disguise of husband-wife pairs that normatively subordinates woman to man. She is now the male for the first time, the Prince at the pinnacle of male power, superior to his companion, the minister. Yet full

view, these guises are journeys of self-discovery. The closer she comes to the surface of the human world and the more she embodies human attributes, the more attractive these are. The embodiment of the female sweeper with the winnowing

self-awareness, the ability to take an external perspective on herself, requires that she externalize herself into the human world. To do this she must recognize that as a female in this world she is constrained by maleness that she must break through. The remain¬

basket signals to worshippers that the process of making the Goddess self-aware is working.25 This is the first time in the sequence that she is treated as someone with a consciousness of self, and therefore with the power to deliberately choose to give

ing block to her full self-recognition is the epistemological male whose own self-awareness depends upon his normative control and dominance over the female, upon rigid gender divisions, and upon his monopoly over power and authority.

benefices of serious value. As one who is aware of herself, she is asked to reciprocate what she is receiving. She is entreated, im-

The Palegadu perceives the surface as reality, seeing only himself in the warrior prince. His maleness blocks the Goddess's

25 The cultural logic of guising in this ritual sequence is systemic and causal. The appearance of the female sweeper works as a feedback loop to show the

emergence into the human world because he refuses to recognize the female within himself, and therefore the resonance that he too

participants that the cosmos is responding to the design of the rites by producing

lias with her on a deeper, interior level of being. He sees a male-

the correct effects (See Handelman 1990).

dominated cosmos, and is closed to any external perspective to-

The disguise of the Prince (following immediately on the

328

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

329

wards himself that is not empowered by maleness. The Goddess uses the appearance of maleness to eliminate the male who per¬

Yet what manner of cosmic density is this? Is it once again the stony density of connectivity from which Gangamma emerged

ceives only appearance. To do this, the Jatra creates a ritual cosmos

and took shape? Not likely. The Jatra effects an epistemic shift in

that on its surface subordinates women to men, wives to husbands, and that has only males at the apex of the hierarchy—the Prince, his Minister, the Palegadu. Then everyone is shown that she is

disappears into the waters beyond the seven seas. The highest plane

fully conscious of herself, as she deliberately and violently tears this fabrication to shreds. The Prince and Minister are Goddesses; the Palegadu is dead, not to be revived since he will be just as he was; the female has embodied the male and made him part of herself, and the cosmos is female. The revealed Goddess is perhaps the female in everyone. She unites with other significant females of these rites—the visiting Tallapaka Gangamma and Veshalamma—and deliberately reci¬ procates worshippers for their efforts to awaken her hunger to their devotion in this world. Emerging from deep within herself, surfacing through the exterior of the guise, she leaves exterior public space to enter deep within domestic intimacy where her true form is worshipped. In a sense she holds everything together in its interiority, just as the mother holds everything together at the hearth. The Matangi is the culmination of the causal design of the Jatra, intended to make Gangamma descend and emerge, active and energizing in the Tirupati uru. Analogous processes at the temples of Tallapaka and Tatayyagunta crest there in the emergence of the Big Goddesses. As the Perantalu leaves Tirupati she fragments her lower self (the Big Goddesses) that makes its way in bits and pieces of labile mud into the bodies, homes and soil of her devotees, while she ascends into the density of cosmic encompassment, of no-time and no-space.26

the nature of cosmic encompassment and its detritus. Gangamma of her cosmos is now water. How is water different from stone? Water is no less dense than stone in its inner connectivity and simultaneity of time and space. Nonetheless water is, one may say, a different medium of cosmic density, one that flows and that changes shape and positioning within itself. The fluidity of Gang¬ amma s epistemic shift is something akin to the stretching of connectivity without changing its density—thereby creating a sense of roominess. The movement from the inner density of stone to that of water loosens internal shape to generate spaciousness within the intense connectivities of no-time and no-space. Gangamma returns within herself together with, at least mo¬ mentarily, the holistic fullness of self-awareness that is also her encompassment of and relation to the other, her devotees. This self-recognition that fully encompasses and relates to the other, this spaciousness within extreme density, is akin to love and compassion for the self and the other. Of interest here is the comment that among Tamils, rain and coolness are associated with ideas and feelings of love and compassion (Egnor 1984: 26). The epistemic shift from stone to water is one from encompass¬ ment without awareness of self to encompassment with that recog¬ nition. In the latter instance the self-consciousness of the cosmos extends to the plane of human beings. The fluidity of water profoundly generative sense—as the female (Gangamma) incorporates the male on the human plane, the male who is said to have been female (Venkatesvara)

26 David Shulman’s essay on the myths of Venkatesvara (n.d.b:l4) de¬ monstrates that in the broader cosmology of Tirupati, ‘male and female are inside-out images of one another’. Venkatesvara too is given to guises of self. Yet, whereas Gangamma emerges from her stony self-encompassment, incor¬ porating maleness on the way, Venkatesvara’s guises lead him deeper into

encompasses the female on the cosmic plane. One would expect that as the female (Gangamma) returns deep within herself, encompassing maleness, the male will emerge from deep within himself into the human plane. Though speculative for now, one should note that Govinda Raja (Visnu) ritually emerges from his temple into the world at the end of June, following Gangamma’s return

himself, losing himself within the density of stone and incorporating femaleness

into herself, and coinciding with the emergence and descent of her benefice,

on the way. Thus the female and male are cosmic complementarities in a

the monsoon rains. Venkatesvara’s emergence follows a couple of months later.

331

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

signifies this fullness, and so too the conscious penetration of

the causal course of the Jatra, these premises are transformed. The female (Gangamma) emerges into herself through the male (the

330

cosmic benefice into this world. The descent of water fills the momentary spaciousness within density with the flowing compas¬ sion of Gangamma, with the fall of rain. Earlier I suggested that there are deep fractures between meta¬ physical formations of gender and its social construction. Engenderment in Hindu cosmology is frequently flexible, flowing, paradoxical and self-transformative. Gender in Indian social life is often hierarchical, divisive and rigid. The metaphysics of gender identity open cultural imaginings that are shut down in the gender of social roles. The Gangamma Jatra explores contradictions of this sort, and shows that they too are disguises, concealing the deeper unity, or perhaps the unified flow of gender. At issue is whether the metaphysics of gender in south India point to a

weavers) disguised as a female (the guise). In layers, the qualities of both the male and the female are shown to be more superficial than the deeper character of the female, the Goddess who encom¬ passes maleness. The emergence of the female from within herself moves her through a boundary that is both male and female. The male as a boundary is of two kinds—the male (weavers) through whom the Goddess moves towards her own exterior, and the male (Palegadu) who blocks her movement because he sees nothing but the homogeneity of maleness. She destroys completely the male who blocks her movement towards self-awareness. She incorporates into her femaleness the male through whom she moves towards herself. The crucial moment is when the Matangi revives the Palegadu and shows him what a woman really is. What

continuum of gender identities or to their hard-and-fast division. The Gangamma Jatra implies that ontologically, gender is a con¬ tinuum; but that epistemologically, the experiencing of gender as a continuous flow surfaces only in specialized contexts.27

indeed does she show him? My guess is that she reveals to him what he adamantly refuses to see—the female in every male, and therefore the male within her self. She shows him gender as a

The premises of gender at the outset of the Jatra are the following: the source of benefice is female; the female (Gang¬

continuum of cultural imaginings. In the meantime the Goddess has enabled the male she moves through (the weavers) to ex¬

amma) does not know herself; the male (Palegadu) perceives his own nature as utterly masculine and as absolutely superior to the

perience the female in his interior. The creation of a female cosmos does not eliminate the male perspective—but demands the blend¬

inferior female; and so the male forces from the female what is of value to her (her virginity, her inner state of wholeness). During

ing of perceptions of gender in cultural imaginings. The female as a boundary is herself—Veshalamma, the Mother of Guises, the border between the interior and exterior of self. As Gangamma surfaces into full self-awareness, she unites with

27 On steps, however hesitant, towards the metaphysical imagining of gender as continuum, see Belo (1949: 14-17) on Java; Trawick (1990: 73, 252-3) on south India; Bynum (1991) on medieval Europe, and especially Strathern (1988) on Melanesia. In this regard, useful contrasts may be established with, for example, ancient Greek imaginings of gender. See Tyrrell (1984: 88-112),

Veshalamma, erasing the border between interior and exterior, middle and boundary, female and male. During this time the social division of gender moves closer towards the metaphysical unity of

duBois (1982: 110-28) and Detienne (1989). On imaginings of gender in one

gender. And males throughout the city who appear in public as

Western locale of the fantastic, see Handelman (1991, 1992b). Though in this

well-groomed, beautiful women are experiencing the continuous, metaphysical unity of gender, the female within their being.

essay I conceptualize gender as a continuum, a more accurate metaphysical depiction would be spheroid. On the surface of the sphere, aspects of gender meet in their numerous differences and combinations. As the layers of the sphere peel off, onion-like, the differences of gender become less and less distinct. At the ‘core’ of the sphere, its middle and apex, there are no gender differences, no distinction between self and other.

If gender is a continuum, then this has implications for the design of ritual and cosmos. In India each gender is often linked to different powers that are made manifest and causal through specialized contexts of ritual. A signal problem of ritual design,

332

333

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

therefore, is to construct the kind of cosmos that will draw forth from the gender continuum that gender (or aspects of this) whose

worship in Tirupati generally, and particularly in the Jatra, shows a pattern of goddess organization that is distinct from that pre¬

powers are needed. In this section I argued that through ritual the self of the deity is made and shaped. Now I should add that from the perspective of ritual design, rite makes gender, and remakes it

valent among right-hand castes. Gangamma worship posits the

continuously from rite to rite, in accordance with its goals and intentions. As cosmic selves are made, so is gender. The Gangamma Jatra makes and shapes femaleness to tap its powers, keeping the male out of this cosmic construction. The engenderment of

same goddess at the centre and periphery, with both sharing numerous attributes. In the centre is the domestic (but not domes¬ ticated) middle-of-the-street goddess whose presence in the midst of the community is desired, who has children but whose marital status is of no especial consequence, and who is a source of benefice. At the periphery is the unattached goddess who has

this cosmic self is an especially powerful mode of being and

children (if by force), who is more threatening but who also

ideological integration for the peoples of castes termed left-hand.

among neighbouring Tamils (Beck 1973* Mines 1984: 146-7).

protects against disease, and whose marital status again is not an issue. Both are guardian figures. Both collaborate in defending the uru against the incursions of the threatening, alien male, and both together kill him. Moreover these Goddesses unequivocally unite

Much of the discussion on south Indian goddesses locates them

into one, rather than substituting for, or alternating with, one

among right-hand agriculturalist and landowning castes. Nara¬ yana Rao argues that in the epics of these castes the men ‘aspire to heroic warrior status and keep their women under strict control’

another. The united Goddess is then the source of benefice, of fertility and protection. In rituals of left-hand castes, as in their epics, the position of women jointly as agents of domestic well¬

(Narayana Rao 1986: 147). So too in narratives of these castes, women turn their men into heroes, sending them to defend the borders, while they themselves fade into domestic obscurity. How¬ ever these also are the social groups who often worship unattached,

being and territorial guardianship seems distinct from that of women in right-hand castes. Nonetheless the role of goddess rites

The division of castes into right-hand and left-hand has been integral to Telugu society (Narayana Rao 1986: 142); as it has

disease-bringing goddesses of the peripheries whose ethos is dis¬ tinct from goddesses of the centre. Thus the right-hand configura¬ tion of goddess worship contrasts clearly between the meekness and placidity of the woman under her warrior husband’s control and the violence of the peripheral woman.

and their cosmologies in the integration of left-hand castes has hardly been broached. The weavers of Tirupati say that Gangamma’s sakti (her fe¬ male force) split into four: one married Visnu, one married Siva, one married Brahma and one fragmented into 365 parts, each of which became an uru. Tirupati is one of these. Cosmologicaliy, the urus of Gangamma fill the calendrical solar year and are spread correspondingly through space. Metaphysically the integrity of the

The epics of left-hand, trading and artisan castes are womancentred: the female heroically defends the integrity of the social

Tirupati uru is woven into the role of the female as protectress

group against an alien, aggressive power (Narayana Rao 1989:

both of the domestic domain and of the entire social unit. Epis¬

114). Among these castes, contends Narayana Rao, ‘women rep¬ resent an inner strength and men remain largely passive’ (1986:

temologically this agency of the female may depend on male recognition in ritual of the fluidity of gender that enables men not simply to impersonate female protectresses, but to become them. The idea of gender as a continuum may have especial resonance

147). In Tirupati all the castes that have some formal role in the Gangamma Jatra are of the left-hand. Moreover all the disguises of the concealed Goddess are either of left-hand castes or of tribal peoples with a leftish ethos (e.g. mobility in space). Gangamma

with left-hand caste integration.

334

Syllables of Sky

The Guises of the Goddess

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of the Great Chain of Being, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Daniels, E., Valentine, 1984, Fluid Signs: Being a Person the Tamil Way, Berkeley: University of California Press.

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A.K. Ramanujan (eds), Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 41-75. Reddy, K. Viswanadha, 1976, ‘Ganga Jathara—A Folk Festival in a Small City—Tirupati and the Neighboring Villages in Andhra Pradesh’, Folklore, 17: 237-42. Reddy, V. Narayana and A. Munirathnam Reddy, 1991, ‘History and Patronage of Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanam: An Anthropological Study of the Temples ofTirumala and Tirupati’, in SocialAnthropol¬ ogy of Pilgrimage, Makhan Jha (ed.), New Delhi: Inter-India Pub¬ lications, pp. 141-76. Reiniche,M.L., 1987, ‘Worship of Kaliyamman in Some Tamil Villages: The Sacrifice of the Warrior-Weavers’, in Religion and Society in South India, V. Sudarsen, J. Prakash Reddy and M. Suryanarayana (eds), Delhi: B.R. Publishing Company, pp. 89-105. Shulman, David D., 1980, Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Shulman, David, n.d.a, ‘Ambivalence and Longing for the Sacred Space: Vyasa’s Curse on Kasi’. Shulman, David, n.d.b, ‘On Being a Stone: A Reading of the Tirupati Puranas’, Ms. Sontheimer, Giinther-Dietz, 1989, Pastoral Deities in Western India, New York: Oxford University Press. Thurston, E., 1909, Castes and Tribes ofSouthern India, vol. Ill, Madras: Government Press. Trawick, Margaret, 1990, Notes on Love in a Tamil Family, Berkeley: University of California Press. Tyrrell, W. Blake, 1984, Amazons: A Study in Athenian Myth Making, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Van Den Hoek, A.W., 1979, ‘The Goddess of the Northern Gate: Cellattamman as the “Divine Warrior” of Madurai’, in Asie du Sud: Traditions et Changements, Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Wadley, Susan S., 1980, ‘Sitala: the Cool One’, Asian Folklore Studies, 39: 33-62.

Chapter Twelve

L

An Eastern El Dorado

339

ocated in no-man’s land at the edge of the Telugu country, a cultural and linguistic frontier zone where Tamil and Telugu vie for pride of place, the great Tirumala-Tirupati

An Eastern El Dorado: The Tirumala-Tirupati Temple Complex in Early European Views and Ambitions, 1540—1660* SANJAY SUBRAHMANYAM

temple complex (termed by more than one Portuguese observer as the ‘Rome of the Gentiles’) is nevertheless central to the cultural, political and economic history of medieval southern India. Who, after all, can write of medieval southern Indian bhakti, and its musical manifestations, without reference to the prolific Tallapaka Annamacarya (c.. 1424-1503), the poet who—as Velcheru Narayana Rao reminds us—with his family made Tirumala his home and Sri Vehkatesvara the focus of his devotion, composing the Vehkatesvara Satakamuluy among many other texts?2 Or discuss the Vijayanagara dynasties of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seven¬ teenth centuries, without noting their attempts to seek legitimacy from the Vehkatesvara temple, and even—on more than one occasion in the sixteenth century—to hold their coronation (pat-

Although profound and enlightened moralists are convinced that true happiness consists in the acquisition of virtue and recognize no other temple of God but a pure heart, nevertheless the physicians of the spiritual order, from their knowledge of the pulsation of human feeling, have bestowed on certain places a reputation for sanctity and thus rousing the slumberers in forgetfulness and instilling in them the enthusiastic desire of seeking God, have made these shrines instruments for their reverencing of the just, and the toils of the pilgrimage a means of facilitating the attainment of their aim. Abu’l Fazl ibn Mubarak, Ain-iAkbari (1595)1

tabhisheka) ceremonies there?3 Or speak of the economy of the southern Andhra region without due reference to this major landholding enterprise, which was at the same time a periodic market and fair, and a substantial source of revenue from its pilgrim tax (perayam) ?4 Let us make no mistake then, Tirupati is not one of India's best-kept secrets, which has had to be unveiled by some intrepid explorer or social anthropologist hacking away at the undergrowth with his machete like Klaus Kinski playing the title role in Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God, It is, if anything, all too well known and its echoes may by found everywhere, from the ubiq-

This paper is, in part, the belated and serendipitous product of conversations with Friedhelm Hardy in 1985 and 1988. David Shulman revived my interest in Tirupati with his own ‘pilgrimages’ there. I am also grateful to Thomas Trautmann for encouraging comments on a half-finished draft and for sharing his thoughts on early British ethnologies of India. Abu-1-Fazl Allami (1989: 332), ch. IX, ‘Sacred Places of Pilgrimage’. Interestingly, Tirupati is excluded from Abu’l Fazl’s list of sacred centres, which includes Banaras, Ayodhya, Ujjain, KancI, Mathura, Dwaraka, Hardwar, Allahabad and even Nagarkot. It features though in the mid-seventeenth century

account of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (published 1677), together with Jagannath (Puri), Banaras and Mathura, as one of the four most celebrated pagodas in India; cf. Tavernier (1989, ii: 175-89). 2 Narayana Rao (1992: 153-5). 3 An instance of this was Acyutadevaraya [c. 1529-1542]; cf. Rajanatha Dindima’s Acyutarayabhyndayam., Canto III, excerpted in Krishnaswami Ayyangar (1919: 158-62). 4 Soma Reddy (1987: 104-09). For a discussion, also see Krishnasvami Aiyangar (1940-41). The main source of data for these studies is the TTDES series.

Syllables of Sky

340

An Eastern El Dorado

341

uitous Balaji Tours and Travels that dot (some would say blot) the

The Pagoda in which this famous Idol is placed must no doubt be of

south Indian urban landscape, to M.S. Subbulakshmi’s version of

great antiquity but not being allowed to visit it, the only information I

Sri Vehkatesvara Suprabhatam, originally intended to awake the

have derived on this subject appears in some degree fabulous, the Brah¬

sleeping god of Tirumala before dawn, but which may at times do the same for the unwaiy passenger on the Tamilnadu Express. The fame ofTirupati—and more specifically the VeiikatesVara

mencement of the Caliyug or the Age of Contention and baseness of

temple atop Tiruvengadam hill at Tirumala, some kilometres from Tirupati, which lies at its foot—was however, not always a bless¬ ing. It attracted not only the pilgrim and the devout, often pledged to come away shaven-headed in pursuance of a vow, with a scalp tingling with cooling sandal-paste; it also drew (and surely still draws) the business-minded, the greedy as well as the simply curious. This paper is devoted to the price of such fame and to exploring the image of Tirupati as a sort of eastern El Dorado,

mins of the Pagoda asserting that its erection took place at the com¬ which 4,903 Years have elapsed, it being generally understood as written in the Bhavee Sheotarum Poorana that the worship of Vishnoo will cease at the completion of 5000 Years from the Commencement of the Caliyug, should that prophecy be fulfilled we may in about a century more expect a material decrease in the Revenue of the Tripetty Pagoda.5

We can dispose of the prophecy summarily: Tirupati had over a million visitors annually between 1961 and 1964, 4.6 million

the object of a myth created in the course of early European explorations in peninsular India in the sixteenth and seventeenth

visitors in 1976 and 7.9 million pilgrims in 1981.6 Some of these visitors were historians who, unlike the unfortunate Stratton, were permitted to enter the temple, and who have elaborated on the bare bones of his description to advance our historical knowledge.

centuries. The mundane consequences of such an image and myth will also be dealt with in the course of the discussion.

two thousand years; references to it may certainly be found at least

The Land of the Pagodas

It is now claimed that the temple has existed in some form for in the Cilappatikaram, the post-Sangam epic attributed to Prince Ilankovatikal from around the mid-fifth century AD. Further, there are early inscriptions to be found there dating to Pallava times (9 th century AD), even if the bulk of the inscriptional corpus dates

The origins of the Vehkatesvara temple, as with most Hindu shrines, are shrouded in legend masquerading as history. An early

to a later period. Nevertheless, the importance given to Tirumala-

would-be historian, George Stratton, the British Collector of Chit-

Tirupati as not merely another Vaishnava shrine but as a great

toor District in 1803, managed to collect the following informa¬

centre, dates largely to Vijayanagara times, from the fourteenth century onward. The image of Tirumala as a sort of axis mundi>

tion on the temple: The Idol there worshipped is an erect Stone Figure about 7 feet in height with four Arms and being a Personification of Vishnoo has its attributes in two of its hands—one of the right hands containing the Chuckrum or Mace of War and one of the left hands containing the Shunkum or Holy Shell—the other Right Hand points to earth in allusion to the sacred origin of the Hill on which the Idol stands and the other left

a Mount Meru, with Vehkatesvara as the Lord of the Seven Hills, gained force in this period. The legend of the twelfth and/or early thirteenth century Vaishnava reformer and scholar, Ramanuja, associates him with Tirupati, but also with other sites such as Kanclpuram, his supposed place of birth Sriperumbudur, and above all, Srirangam; in the case of Tirupati, Ramanuja is most

hand holds the Lotus. 5IOLR, Mackenzie Collection, General, vol. 45, ‘Papers Relating to Hindoo

He went on to add, with what we may take as a dry sense of

Financial Administration’, pp. 261—2, George Stratton at Chittoor to the Presi¬

humour:

dent and Members of the Board of Revenue, Fort St. George, 21 January 1803. 6 Subramanyam Naidu (1990: 132).

342

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

343

closely linked with the Govindaraja shrine, reported in the

made use of the political power of the East India Company to

Sthalapurdnas of the area to have been organized by him around

make quick private fortunes, their activities were picturesquely

the utsavamurti that had earlier been moved there from Cidam-

termed as ‘shaking the pagoda tree’.

baram, purportedly to escape the depredations of the fiercely Saivite Cola king, Kulottuhga I (r. 1070-1120)7

We may note that Europe, by which one means for the most part Italy, France and Iberia, was not wholly ignorant of Indian

Tirupati’s fame and Tirupati’s prosperity fed on each other.

religious practices on the eve of Vasco da Gama’s voyage in

From the mid-fifteenth century, lavish gifts of land and money

1497—99. The celebrated, collective gaffe committed by that ex¬

began to pour into the shrine, with one particularly generous

plorer and his companions in identifying Hindu temples at Calicut

donor being the Vijayanagara ruler, Saluva Narasirhha, acting in

as some deviant eastern form of Christian churches was an aber¬

part through his agent, the Vaishnava sectarian leader, Kandadai

ration, the result of the fact that the Portuguese were momentarily

Ramanuja Aiyangar.7 8 It has been estimated that by the end of the

convinced that large Christian kingdoms awaited them in Asia

reign of the third (Tuluva) dynasty of Vijayanagara in the early

and could be used as allies against the Mamluks and other Middle

1570s, the Tirumala shrine had some form of fiscal and proprietary

Eastern Muslim rivals.11 Gama’s confusion was later confounded

rights over 150 villages, the bulk of them in the neighbourhood,

by the unreliable, and perhaps even deliberately misleading, in¬

but others spreading over a vast span from Addanki, on the banks

formation fed to him by a Jewish merchant whom he captured

of the Gundalakamma, to villages like Kulaiyapattam on the banks

off the Kanara coast and baptized (after one of the Magi, the three

of the Tamraparni in the Tirunelveli region.9 Saluva Narasimha’s

wise Kings of the Orient who followed the star to Bethlehem) as

example was followed and even surpassed by Krishnadevaraya

Gaspar da Gama.12 Gaspar painted a rosy picture of an Asia ruled

(r. 1509-1529) who also issued gold coins—pratapa, varaha or

largely by Christian kings, with the suggestion that this was even

honnu—bearing the image of Venkatesvara on one side and his

true of the area later designated Narsinga or Bisnaga, and which

own name on the other. It was probably from this association of

we know today as Vijayanagara.

the temple with coins that the European term pagoda, initially

By the time of the return to Lisbon of the second Portuguese

used for Hindu gods and goddesses, then for temples and Buddhist

voyage of Pedro Alvares Cabral (1500-1501), matters had been

shrines, was transferred to the gold coin, gradually substituting

clarified to a large extent, and the knowledge already possessed

the Indo-Portuguese usage—pardao, derived from the pratapa.10

from fifteenth-century descriptions such as that of Niccolo di

Thus, when in the late eighteenth century, British entrepreneurs

Conti had been reconsolidated: the term ‘gentile’ {gentio) was now used to designate Hindus and Buddhists alike, and to distinguish

7 Cf. the account in Ramachandran (1978); also Snvehkateswara Mahatmyam, Rajahmundry, 1975. Secondary literature that draws on this legendary

them from Christians and Moors.

It was reported, for example,

by one of Cabral’s crew on his return that there was ‘a great and

corpus includes Sitapati (1968) and Srinivasa Rao (1949). 8 Viraraghavacharya (1954: 557-601). The discussion is given a more sophis¬ ticated form in Appadurai (1981: 94-8). 9 Stein (1960: 163-76); Subrahmanyam (1990a: 86-8). ^ The Portuguese term pagode is, we note, derived etymologically from the Sanskrit bhagavati, through its Tamil-ization pakavati. For a convincing demon¬ stration of this, see Vermeer and Morath (1982: xx—xxiii); the text in question is the mid-sixteenth century Tamil grammar of the Jesuit, Henrique Henriques.

11 Ravenstein (1898); the context is discussed in Subrahmanyam (199356-60). 12 Lipiner (1987: 77-107); Bouchon (1988: 75-6). Bouchon’s paper is an excellent general survey of European materials of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. For Conti and other fifteenth-century Italian travellers, see Longhena (1962); English translations of some excerpts may be found in Major (1857).

Syllables of Sky

344

powerful King, with the title of the King of Narsinga, whose people are idolators’.14 Conti’s description of temple-car festivals in southern India where people threw themselves below the wheels, for example, found echoes in quite a number of Portuguese texts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—and eventually crys¬ tallized around the great myth of Juggernaut. The reader of the great intellectual enterprise, the Decadas da

Asia of Joao de Barros (c. 1496-1570), written in the middle decades of the sixteenth century, is hence left in no doubt that the bits and pieces of a composite picture concerning Hindu religious practice are in the process of being brought together. Barros was keen to combine the concrete knowledge of geography that Por¬ tuguese explorations had brought, with his reformulations of the abstract principles that underlay the ‘Gentile’ religion. Thus, the sacred character of the Ganga for ‘every Oriental Gentile’, for example, is noted and explained as follows: So that, just as amongst us, in order to save our souls, at the time that

An Eastern El Dorado

345

to a lesser extent, Nunes helped fill the empty space of interior peninsular India for writers like Barros with place-names from a secular geography, derived in particular from the course of the campaigns and movements of Krishnadevaraya and his successor and half-brother Acyutadevaraya in those years. Thus, great fron¬ tier fortresses like Raicur and Belgaum, and other centres like Penugonda, Udayagiri, Bhuvanagiri, Kondavldu and Siddhavatam may be found in their writings, to supplement the detailed cartographic information on both the Kanara and the Coromandel coasts and their ports—of which Barros knew a great deal. In Barros’s Decada Primeira (published in 1552), one may find, for example, an elaborate list of Coromandel ports: from south to north after Point Calimere, they include Nagapattinam, Naguru, Tirumalapatnam,

Tarangambadi,

Tirumullaivasal,

Puducceri,

Kunjimedu, Sadrangapatnam and Mylapur (or Sao Tome), and then once the great centre of Pulicat (or Palaverkadu) has been crossed, Armagon, Karedu, Peddapalli, Masulipatnam and Point

we are ill, we take confession, and the other Holy Sacraments, which

Godavari. This knowledge of the coast was acquired for the most

give remission for sins, thus they [the Gentiles] have themselves carried

part in the 1520s, as we see from a comparison of the Lopo

to the currents of this river Ganges, where they make a thatched hut (ichoupana), and die there with their feet in the water, believing that by being washed in these flowing sacred waters of this Ganges, they wash away their sins, and are saved, or at least if they cannot do so while alive, on their deaths they have the ashes of their bodies, once burnt, thrown in there.15

Homem-Reineis atlas of 1519, where the east coast of India has practically no place-names marked, and the Diogo Ribeiro atlas of 1529, where a good number of locations between Point Cali¬ mere and Peddapalli appear clearly.17 Had these cartographers been less concerned with the coast and more with the interior, they would surely have been able by the 1530s to mark another

Barros, a true armchair intellectual, requested information on such

crucial site: ‘the pagode of Tremelle’.

matters from Portuguese ‘in the field’, and two of the texts pro¬ duced for his use provide detailed information on Vijayanagara in the years between 1518 and the early 1530s: these are the cel¬

17 Cf. PortugaliaeMonumenta Cartographica (Maps), reprint, Lisbon, 1987.

ebrated accounts of Domingo Paes and Fernao Nunes.16 Paes and,

The Lopo Homem-Reineis atlas (1519) appears on Plate 19 and may be compared successively with Plate 37, the Anonimo-Diogo Ribeiro (1525), which

14 ‘Navigazion del capitano Pedro Alvares scritta per un piloto Portu¬ guese . . . *, in Ramusio (1978). 15 Barros (1973, i/2: 300-01). ^ These were first edited and published by David Lopes in 1897. An English translation may be found in an appendix to Sewell (1970). For a general discussion of Barros, the historian, and his methods, see Boxer (1981).

has a few east coast locations, and then with Plate 39, Diogo Ribeiro (1529), with a far larger number. These may be compared finally with Plate 27, Lopo Homem (1554), which represents very nearly the full panoply of names that appear later in the Anonimo-Livro de Marinharia (c. 1560), in Plate 96, or even in Dourado 1991, Map 11, fls. 26-7. In none of these are centres in the interior of peninsular India marked.

346

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

347

Vijayanagara and the Portuguese

volved. Affairs eased somewhat after Albuquerque’s death in 1515,

In 1503, the Franciscan cleric Frei Luis do Salvador, the first

writing in around 1515, is thus by and large friendly with respect

Portuguese to visit the city of Vijayanagara was quite well-received

to Vijayanagara. The Portuguese Crown seems to have intermit¬

and the tenor of the account of Paes, as also that of Barbosa,

by the powerful Immadi Narasirhha Nayaka, who dominated the

tently maintained a factor in the capital city, to trade in jewels, of

court in these years. The encouragement of the ‘regent’, as Immadi

which the first example is that of Pero Fernandes Tinoco as far

Narasirhha is termed by the Portuguese, led Frei Lufs to return

back as in 1508; the Portuguese also sold horses in quantities to

once more in 1504, this time accompanied by his nephew.18 The

Krishnadevaraya, some thirteen thousand a year, largely from

Portuguese viceroy Dom Francisco de Almeida, for his part, on

Hurmuz, if Paes is to be believed.

arriving in India in 1505, brought with him instructions from

A significant, and so far neglected testimony, is to be found

King Dom Manuel to better relations with Vijayanagara, but in

in a letter to Dom Joao III of 1527, written by a certain Nuno

fact showed little enthusiasm when an embassy, apparently from

Alvares, who had served in Asia from about 1510. Writing from

Vlra Narasirhha Raya (r. 1505-1509), arrived in Cannanore with

Goa, Alvares states that at the time there were in the ‘kingdom of

the proposal, according to one Portuguese source, of a marriage

Nasymga’ between 350 and 400 Portuguese (preferring the latter

alliance between Vijayanagara’s fledgeling Tuluva dynasty and the

number to the former), mostly mercenaries, who claimed that they

Portuguese House of Avis. Frei Luis was nevertheless sent to

were not adequately paid in the Portuguese establishments.20 A

Lisbon in 1506 to report on what had developed and returned

good number of these Portuguese came into the region from the

the next year; but it was only with the governorship of Afonso de

east coast (or the ‘coast of Sao Tome’); Alvares suggested that the

Albuquerque (1509-1515) that relations with Vijayanagara be¬

Portuguese king write to Krishnadevaraya, asking him to hand

came a matter of greater urgency for the Portuguese. As Albuquer¬

over any Portuguese mercenary found in his territories to the Goan

que decided, on the advice of the Honawar-based corsair-admiral Timmayya, to acquire the port of Goa as a means of gaining a

authorities. It was of course seen as preferable that these men pass to

foothold in the Deccan, it was of course inevitable for him to

Vijayanagara service as mercenaries (in Portuguese chatis> from

come into conflict with the ‘Add Shahs of Bijapur and thus appear

cettil) than to Bijapur service as renegades converted to Islam.

a natural ally to the Vijayanagara rulers.19

Such men, who unlike Paes, Barbosa or Nunes, may not have left

The relationship, however, remained ambivalent. For one,

behind written testimonies, were nevertheless sources of oral in¬

Albuquerque’s designs after Goa was taken by him in 1510 left

formation for the authorities in Goa, and even perhaps, indirectly,

little place for independent trade in the Vijayanagara-controlled

for writers like Barros, who actually celebrates the exploits of some

ports of the west coast, like Honawar, Basrur and especially the

of them, in particular a certain Cristovao de Figueiredo, as ar-

major port—Bhatkal. In Vijayanagara itself, there were mixed

quebusiers (espingardeiros) in the siege of Raichur by Krishna¬

feelings about the Portuguese; Frei Lufs do Salvador, on yet an¬

devaraya in 1520. In view of their often peripatetic lives, they

other mission there in 1510, died somewhat mysteriously, and a

passed in and out of the official settlements of Portuguese Asia,

few Portuguese suspected that the court was not wholly unin-

now as mercenaries, now as corsairs, and even from time to time

18 Cf. Alves (1993). A more general survey may be found in Lima Cruz (1989). 19 Bouchon (1992: 136-62).

20 ANTT, CC, 1/38/1, letter dated Goa, 15'November 1527, reproduced in Albuquerque and Pereira da Costa (1990: 313—17).

348

Syllables of Sky

as traders. The exaggerated archetype of this sort of life is provided

An Eastern El Dorado No. 29:

in the celebrated Peregrinagao of Fernao Mendes Pinto, who spent some twenty-one years in Asia between 1537 and 1558; but many

349

‘Below this boulder (penedo) they throw many Gentiles, who sacrifice themselves to their gods in a pagoda called Tremel.’

No. 43:

‘Gentiles. A car of the people of Canara which goes with many

suggestive remarks can also be found in Gaspar Correia’s Lendas

people and great celebration in a procession to a pagoda. Men

da India,, on which more later.21

who throw themselves below the wheels of the car to sacrifice themselves to the pagoda.’

The upshot of these reports and rumours was to create in Goa a gradually emerging image of interior south India as a land of

No. 44:

rich towns, lush rice agriculture based on extensive irrigation works, and of women immolating themselves in endless numbers on the pyres of their husbands (or being buried alive, as with the Lihgayats); all these images, today stereotypes, were already in the

No. 46: No. 47:

‘Sacrifice which the Gentiles do of themselves to their gods, killing themselves with their own hands. This one is a Bramene, who is the sacerdote of the pagoda; he takes the head

of these, the key feature of this Gentile (but by no means genteel)

placed in a basin full of blood and offers it to the pagoda.

culture was the pagode,, the repository of immense wealth, where temple-car festivals and ritual self-dismemberments.

‘Jogues, Gentiles. Calandares, Gentiles. These are what pil¬ grims are called here.’

process of crystallizing in the 1520s and 1530s. And central to all

blood was spilt ceaselessly in sacrifices, hook-swinging rituals,

‘Sacrifice of Gentiles who kill themselves before their pagoda. Church (sic) of the pagoda.’

Bramene.’ No. 48:

‘Manner of sacrifice which the Gentiles do to their gods, placing their ribs on certain iron hooks, which are in this

The reader who finds this portrayal exaggerated does not need

wood, and they cut their own flesh with a knife and place it

to read Portuguese; he has only to look at a vivid pictorial portrayal

at the point of these arrows; and fire them into the air, and

from the mid-sixteenth century (perhaps between 1545 and 1550)

thus end their own lives. The people who see this take the

by an anonymous Portuguese artist, depicting life in Asia, but

flesh, which he by himself throws, and keep it as relics. Bramene.’

particularly on the Indian subcontinent.2" Here, besides stylized portrayals of typical couples from different parts of East Africa

It was this sort of perception that helped lay the ground, after

and Asia, one finds details of Gujarati and Kohkani peasants

1540, for the vigorous Counter-Reformation campaign of the

ploughing their fields, of baniyawomen fetching water and splash¬

Society of Jesus, for Hindu religious practice was already being

ing about in a tank, of Kohkani washermen, ironsmiths and

portrayed as bizarre, bloody and characterized by the surrender of

goldsmiths from Goa and of a caravan of oxen carrying wheat to

the individual to that monstrous institution—the pagoda. There

Goa from the interior. But there are also other; portrayals, of which

were, of course, other voices raised in dissent, even within the

I translate below the legends written in the anonymous artist’s own hand:

Society of Jesus itself. This tradition finds expression above all in the intellectualizing and philosophical approach, which saw Hindu religion less in terms of popular practice (bhakti in its more

Pinto (c. 1510-1583) has been much written about and his text, first published in 1614, has been recently fully translated into English by Catz (1989). Pinto and Correia share several features, including a relative tolerance for Gentiles (Hindus, Buddhists, Jainas, etc.) and a penchant for the pic¬ turesque and picaresque. Matos (1985). This text and body of drawings was first discussed by Georg Schurhammer. It has been published on many occasions.

violent forms and expressions) and more as a system of thought, derived from the Greeks perhaps or from sound principles of natural philosophy. From this line of approach derived the samnyasi vesam adopted by Roberto de* Nobili (1577-1656) in the early seventeenth century at Madurai; to be seen as a Chris¬ tian Brahmin—and particularly a renouncer—was acceptable to

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

him.23 The tradition, I note, is one that has survived into twen¬ tieth-century Orientalism to an extent! But many in Portuguese

return to Portugal, he was well-received in the court of Dom Joao III, partly through the good offices of his cousin, the powerful

Asia of the 1540s and 1550s had little time for this latter approach,

Dom Antonio de Ataide, Count of Castanheira. In 1531, he was sent on an expedition to Brazil, in the very year that Francisco

350

which they doubtless saw as a fundamental compromise with idolatry; and among these despisers of the cult of the pagoda was

351

the governor Martim Afonso de Sousa (1542—1545) who pro¬

Pizarro set out from Panama for Cuzco—the Inca capital. Martim Afonso, for his part, discovered and named the site of Rio de

posed with his famous ‘pagoda voyage’ (viagem do pagode) to do in Tirupati what Cortes and Pizarro had done not so long ago at

Janeiro in January 1532; a few years later, when the system of donatory-captaincies was instituted in Brazil, he was given those

the temples of other idolators.

of Sao Vicente and Rio de Janeiro. But Brazil scarcely interested him as it did his brothers, two

The Great Pagoda Voyage of 1543 Some words of introduction on Martim Afonso de Sousa may be in order here, though he may appear to some as the frustrated villain of the piece.21 Born in 1500 in the southern Portuguese town of Vila Vi^osa in the Alentejo, his family, and more par¬ ticularly his father, was in fact from the traditional north-eastern region of Tras-os-Montes, and closely associated with the Dukes of Bragan^a, the most powerful noble family in Portugal, which was often at loggerheads with the Crown. Martim Afonso is reputed to have been influenced in his youth by the figure of Don Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba, el Gran Capitan, who undertook the modernization of the Spanish infantry at Naples and else¬ where, and who is said to have presented Martim Afonso his sword. In general, it is evident that he was something of a Hispanophile. After serving Dom Jaime, the Duke of Bragan9a, and then the heir-apparent, Dom Joao, Martim Afonso left for Spain in the late 1510s, where he spent some time at Salamanca. He fought for the Spaniards in France under the Duke of Alba and was highly regarded by Charles V; he also married a Spanish noblewoman. Dona Ana Pimental, the daughter of Anias Maldonado. On his 23 Cf. Cronin (1959). 24 For a brief study of Sousa and a reproduction of documentation concerning

of whom (Pero Lopes de Sousa and Tome de Sousa) made careers there. Instead, in 1534, he embarked for Asia, to serve there for nearly five years as Captain-Major of the seas, with a fleet of five ships and 2000 soldiers, under the governor Nuno da Cunha. In this sojourn, Martim Afonso showed himself to be a remarkable and ruthless warrior; on arriving in Asia, he defeated an Ottoman sortie at Div in Gujarat and helped install a Portuguese fortress there, with the reluctant agreement of Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat. Later, he fought a major engagement near Calicut with the ruler of that city; then, at Vedalai, on the Fishery Coast of Tamilnadu, he defeated and killed the Mappila leader, Pate Marikkar. Mobile and ferocious, he appears among the Portuguese leaders of the period to evoke most of all the spirit of the Spanish conquistadores of the New World, with whom he may have had some contact while in Brazil or even before.25 Named governor of Portuguese Asia in 1541, to succeed Dom Estevao da Gama, Martim Afonso embarked with the first mem¬ bers of the Society of Jesus, including Francis Xavier himself, on his fleet. Between the ferocious Counter-Reformation Christianity of the latter, and the buccaneering tendencies of the former, the scene was set for a series of confrontations in Asia, of which the first victim was—ironically enough—his predecessor as governor, Dom Estevao da Gama, son of Vasco da Gama. Dom Estevao,

him, see Albuquerque and Caeiro (1989). This includes his autobiography, Brevissima, e summdria relagao, que fez da sua vida e obras o grande Martim Affonso de Sousa.

25 For an important collection of his letters from this period, see Schurhammer (1963: 185-205).

An Eastern El Dorado

352

353

Syllables of Sky

Reformation. A letter to Dom Joao III from the captain of Goa, who was resting on his laurels after an arduous expedition to the Red Sea and the Suez (going as far as Mount Sinai), was rudely

Dom Garcia de Castro, written in December 1543, provides an

awakened at midnight by Martim Afonso’s henchmen (who fired a salvo over his house) and given to understand that his personal financial affairs and public fiscal management would both be closely scrutinized by the incoming governor.

had heard rumours when he arrived in Goa that the Ottomans were planning to send a fleet to India. He thus kept everything

Ironically, Martim Afonso’s arrival in Goa in early May 1542

in this land’. By late August 1543 he had the galleys and oared

coincided with a period of great uncertainty in Vijayanagara pol¬ itics. The death in that very year of Acyutadevaraya, who had

ships ready, and put over two thousand five hundred men and two hundred of the best cavalry and horsemen on board. The most

reigned with some difficulty from 1529-1530, opened the way

astonishing thing, writes Castro, was the enthusiasm with which

for a renewed struggle between the Aravldu clan led by Aliya Rama Raya, the son-in-law of Krishnadevaraya, and Acyutadeva’s own

even the usually reluctant casados (the married burgher-settlers) of

interesting perspective on the times.27 The governor, he writes,

in a state of readiness, and when they did not arrive ‘decided to enter into another business like a man who does not want to rest

Goa entered the enterprise, fitting out ships at their own cost.

young son* Venkataraya, supported by his powerful maternal rela¬ tives, the Salakarajus.26 Goa was of course aware of this, and one

Afonso] took them’. Garcia de Castro himself states that he im¬

of Martim Afonso’s first actions, in September 1542, was to mount

portuned the governor to let him come along, but was told he

a raid on the Kanara port of Bhatkal, which was closely linked to the capital city of Vijayanagara by way of trade. This was appar¬ ently to test the waters and to gauge the extent of political turmoil

could not abandon his post. The same letter goes on to state that the fleet set sail in early

This despite the fact that ‘they did not know where he [Martim

and indecision in the interior. He had judged his moment cor-

September, but while making its way down the Indian west coast faced terrible storms and contrary winds of a kind ‘never before

recdy, for meanwhile, Salakaraju Cinna Tirumala, who had

seen in this land’. Finally, they arrived at the shallows of Chilaw,

emerged as a major political figure in the mid-1530s, declared himself the ruler of Vijayanagara in early 1543, precipitating a war

in the narrow straits between India and Sri Lanka, and could not

with Aliya Rama Raya, who used Sadasiva Raya, the nephew of

without any losses, and effected a landing near Kollam in southern Kerala. Penetrating four leagues into the interior, they forced their

Acyutadeva, as a prop. Thus news from Vijayanagara continued to suggest a promising occasion to launch a sortie on one of the great pagodas—perhaps Tirupati. There are indications, as we shall see shortly, that Martim

proceed further. Instead, after a mysterious wait, they turned back

way into a pagoda (in fact, the Tevalakara temple), but found nothing there of much worth. Nevertheless, writes Castro, the landing of the Portuguese with a cavalry force caused great aston-

Afonso had received the approval of Dom Joao III for his planned pagoda-shaking before he left Portugal. Both contemporary letters and later documents suggest as much, though some other accounts

27 ANTT, CC, 1/74/32, letter dated 3 December 1543, reproduced in

that are plainly hostile to the governor suggest he acted from personal greed and desire for glory as a warrior of the Counter-

Albuquerque and Pereira da Costa (1990: 344—6); also see another letter by the same writer, dated 29 December 1543, ANTT, CC, 1/74/46. The most com¬ prehensive discussion to date of the source-materials for the 1543 expedition is in Schurhammer (1977: 360-80), chapter entitled The Voyage to the Pagodas

26 Cf. the accounts of Rama Raya’s exploits in the Vasucaritramu of Ramarajabhushana (or Bhattu Murti), in Krishnaswami Ayyangar (1919: 216-21); also Venkataramanayya (1984: 486-92).

(September-November 1543)’. Schurhammer, as was his wont, naturally found himself unable to tell the wood from the trees in this instance.

354

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

ishment in the land, for it was widely believed that the Portuguese

on the other hand, is richer in ethnographic (or pseudo-eth¬

were men with one foot in the water (com huU pee nagoaf •

nographic) details, and he even claims to have visited Tirupati

Other letters of these years to the King by writers demanding

355

rewards for their loyal services also mention the Pagoda affair. One

himself. Writing in the late sixteenth century, Couto is careful in his

of these, dating from 1544, by Cristovao de Castro, notes that the

Decada Quinta da Asia to preface his remarks on the Gentiles with

writer was in Asia with four of his brothers, but that they had not

a passage ‘giving thanks to God, Our Lord, for the mercy that he

done as much as they wanted to for the Crown: ‘the wars may be

did us, in giving us knowledge of Himself [and] seeing the ugly,

few, but it is no fault of ours’ (‘que as gueras sejao pouquas nao

nefarious, and brute rites of these blind Gentiles ; the teeth of the

avemos nyso culpa )!28 Besides accompanying Dom Estevao da

Counter-Reformation and its censorship were thus pulled.30 Sig¬

Gama to Massawa as part of the celebrated expedition to the Red

nificantly, he then goes on to take a principally textual view of

Sea, Castro also notes that he went with the governor Martim

the Gentile religion:

Affonso to Batecalaa and to the pagoda in a foist at my own cost, with two horses, and I found myself with him in Coulao’. A letter dated the same year by Castro’s brother, confusingly called Vasco da Cunha, states that he too went on the pagoda trip {yda do paguode)' in a caravel, despite the fact that he had just returned

It should be known that among all the Gentility of the Orient there is maintained and sustained but one opinion on the knowledge of God, creation, and corruption of creatures, which is a lesson that is to be read in their schools by their Bragmanes, who are the Masters of their religion. Of this they have many books in their Latin, which they call Geredao

from Bengal. Cunha, however, was separated from the main fleet

[Grantham], which contain all that they are to believe, and all the

and put in at Cannanore, where he freighted three small vessels

ceremonies they are to do. These books are divided into bodies, mem¬

and managed with his soldiers and horses to reach Chilaw and

bers, and articles, whose originals are ones which they call Vedaos, which

Martim Afonso, who either because the weather did not permit

are divided in four parts, and these in another fifty-two in this way. Six

it, or from piety returned to Coulao’.29

are called Xastra, which are the bodies; eighteen are called Parana, which

The conclusion one draws from these letters, if read together,

are the members; twenty-eight called Agamon, which are the ar¬

is that Martim Afonso managed to create considerable enthusiasm

ticles ... 31

among the battle-hardened Portuguese of Goa for his anti-pagoda

There follows a discussion of each of these categories of veda,

campaign; their disappointment that the expedition fizzled out in

sastra, purana and agama^ as also a discussion of the sacredness of

a minor skirmish in southern Kerala is patent in these letters. The

the cow (with a graphic description of how in Gujarat, vanias take

reader of the great Portuguese chronicles of the era, especially those

the fresh urine of the animal and put it on their heads, as we do

by Gaspar Correia and Diogo do Couto, is given a somewhat

with holy water’). Couto also produces a simple version of the

different view. We may begin with Couto, the later of the two,

Gentile cosmology, with svarga (‘Xorvago’) above, and naraka

who is also the more interested in viewing the pagoda in a larger

(‘Naranca’) below. This brings him to sin and absolution; the four

perspective covering ‘the opinions, rites and ceremonies of all the Gentiles who lie between the Indus and Ganges’; Correia’s work,

30 The Decada Quinta was finished by Couto in 1596—97 and published in 1612, a decade after the publication of the Decada Quarta; cf. Coimbra Martins

ANTT, CC, 1/75/96, letter dated Goa, 12 November 1544, in Albuquer¬ que and Pereira da Costa (1990: 349). ANTT, CC, 1/75/88, letter dated Goa, 6 November 1544, reproduced in Albuquerque and Pereira da Costa (1990: 346-9).

(1971:272-355). 31 Couto (1974, v/2: 23-4). Another, reputedly somewhat superior, edition exists of this Decada by Marcus de Jong (Coimbra 1937); however, I have been unable to consult it.

356

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

357

sins for Gentiles are, he writes: ‘The first, to kill; the second to

in advance of those of Barros. Couto may be the first European

steal though this does not include usury (onzenar) and to gain by

to write, for example, of the Tirukkural^ which he describes in the

falsification, for these they hold as their religion; the third to drink

following terms:

wine; the fourth to take someone else’s woman.’32

There is a book among them by a man who is held by them to have

In contrast, the first and most important way of gaining

been very wise, called Valuver, native of the City of Meliapor, who lived

absolution is a pilgrimage to pagodas (romagens apagodes), where

at the same time as the Apostle St. Thomas, which contains one thousand

the devotees sacrifice themselves, cut and cauterize themselves, and

three hundred and thirty verses, in which he treats of the knowledge of

dedicate their children to the perpetual service of the idols. The

one sole Creator, of the reverence that is due to Him, of the praise of

greatest of these pagodas are RamesVaram, Cidambaram, Tiru-

penitence, humility, abstinence, and of the disdain for idols; and for

vannamalai, Kahcipuram, Tirupati and Tirumala—which he dis¬

these reasons, and for others that are written there, it is presumed that

tinguishes from Tirupati, mentioning its enormous treasure

he was taught by the Apostle St. Thomas himself.33

(grossissimo thesouro): he moves further afield to Jagannath in Orissa and finally to Kasl Visvanatha (Vixanate) in Benares, wrongly identified by him as being in Bengal. Couto mentions the great annual festival there in February (almost certainly 'Sivaratri) and the fact that some persons have themselves weighed in silver and gold there; the Visvanatha temple is, he notes, ‘the head of all, and of the greatest pilgrimage (Este he cabega de todos, e de maior romagem)’. The second mode of gaining absolution, writes Couto, is by

It is thus clear that he drew much of his information from southern India, a fact that becomes clearer in the discussion on astrology and almanacs, and even more so when he describes the four castes in ‘all the Orient’ as Rayas, Bragmanes, Chatins and Balalas! Now Couto in the same Decada gives us a succinct and clear, even if somewhat inaccurate, version of the Great Pagoda Voyage, and we may consider it no coincidence that the background information summarized above appears before his discussion of the anti-pagoda wave of the 1540s and 1550s. His chapter on the

giving alms and public charities (and here his examples are, inter¬

question is entitled ‘Of the great Armada with which the Governor

estingly, largely taken from the Jainas of Gujarat); the third is

Martim Affonso de Sousa left for the Pagoda of Tremel: and of

austerity and fasting; and the fourth brings him back to the

the storm that there was, on account of which he could not pass:

pagoda, for it is here that ‘sacrifices are made*. One of the major

and how he disembarked in Calecoulao, where he was defeated

occasions, he writes, is the new moon of October, to celebrate ‘the

by the people of the land’, and is relatively brief, but opens with

victories that their idols had here in the World’; he accuses the

a significant discussion of the motives.

kings of secretly patronizing human sacrifices at these times. The usual mention is also made of hook-swinging, falling under the wheels of temple-cars and other activities, and most surprisingly (in view of Couto’s own earlier discussion), also of a sacrifice called Choom (‘the most effective of all’), when a cow is killed; ‘but only

The King had been informed by many letters from some men in India of how in the pagoda of Tremel (which is in the kingdom of Bisnaga) there was an infinite treasure of houses full of gold, and with very few guards, which a Governor of India could easily take, were he to go there in person with an Armada, by which act the Estado would become so

the Kings can do it, and only once in their lives’. We should pause a moment to consider the curious, and in some ways remarkable character of Couto’s formulations, so much

33 Couto (1974, v/2: 39-40). A collective project is currently under way, headed by Maria Augusta Lima Cruz, to re-edit all the Decadas with extensive notes and separate introductions. This may well be an opportunity to rediscover

32

Couto (1974, v/2: 30-1).

Couto, the ‘Orientalist’.

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

rich and prosperous that one could proceed in all the conquests one

back in manuscript form to Portugal in the early 1580s, did not

wished, and enrich both India and the kingdom of Portugal. This matter

come into print until the second half of the nineteenth century.

was urged on the King so many times that he decided to order such a

Evidently, there was much to censor in these ‘legends’, and many

voyage, for he was poor from the many expenses that had been incurred

skeletons which the nobility of Portugal preferred to keep con¬

358

359

in the great Armadas, which had been sent to India by way of aid.34

cealed. Correia writes, for example, that there were dissenting

Couto does not speak then of noble motives (the destruction of

voices in certain circles to the Pagoda Voyage but that the Gover¬

the temples of the blind Gentiles, and such), but the action in his

nor over-ruled these; he also makes it amply clear that Martim

view did not need any particular justification in a large sense: the

Afonso intended not merely to attack and plunder Tirupati, but

pagoda was a perfectly legitimate target. He then describes the

to move the relics of St. Thomas away from the Coromandel coast,

great secrecy with which the fleet was made ready ‘so that the news

and destroy the Portuguese settlement at Sao Tome. Naturally

would not spread, and reach Bisnaga’, and its departure on the

then, one part of the repercussions of the voyage was to be borne

12th of August (this date is inaccurate) with the intention of

by the Portuguese private traders of Coromandel, and it is they,

‘disembarking in the City of S. Thome, and from there to make

in Correia’s account, who dissuaded Martim Afonso from ap¬

their way into the inland twelve leagues (for such was the distance

proaching the coast by informing him that a force was in readiness

from there to that pagoda)’. Significantly, the list of captains given

at Tirupati to repulse the Portuguese.

by him includes a large number of the governor’s own relatives:

Correia is not always reliable, as we shall see below, but this

Bernaldim de Sousa, Fernao de Sousa de Tavora, Fernao Gomes

section of his account is plausible for two reasons. First we are

de Sousa, Dom Martinho de Sousa, Belchior de Sousa, and the

aware that by mid-1543, Aravidu Rama Raya had consolidated

governor’s brother Pero Lopes de Sousa. Couto then writes briefly

his position over Vijayanagara city, and that Salakaraju Cinna

of the inclement weather on the Indian west coast and the eventual

Tirumala had been defeated and killed. Free to dispose of his

halt of the fleet at Neduntivu Island between India and Sri Lanka

forces, Rama Raya naturally looked eastwards, and we may note

(the so-called Cow Island, ilha das vacas, of the Portuguese). Here,

that he had for long had a close association with Candragiri and

after several days of waiting for favourable winds, Martim Afonso

Pulicat (Palaverkadu), provinces over which he held the title of

became ‘sad and melancholy’, called together his captains to tell

mahamandalesvara, so that Correia refers to him in explicit terms

them of the purpose of the expedition, (which none of them knew

as the ‘lord of Paleacate’. Rama Raya is thus known in mid-1543

officially till then), and after a consultation, decided to abandon

to have sent a large army under his cousins Cinna Timma and

the journey. The return journy and Tevalekara temple attack are

Vitthala to Candragiri and Tirupati, and thence to Bhuvanagiri,

then described, as are rumours that even in the latter attack Martim

Pudukkottai, Madurai and Tirunelveli.35 Had Martim Afonso’s

Afonso personally gathered a great deal of loot (which, however,

fleet dropped anchor in the river of Pulicat, as Correia suggests

he concealed from the king).

was the intention, they would most certainly have had a fight on

Couto’s account, while not wholly complimentary to Martim

their hands. The second reason for giving credence to Correia on

Afonso, whose incompetence is implied if not stated outright, is

this occasion is the mention in an anonymous account of 1544

exceeded by far by the acid pen of Gaspar Correia, an unofficial

(which is a vicious ad hominem attack on Martim Afonso) that

chronicler whose Lendas da India (‘Legends of India’), while taken

the Governor was met at Neduntivu by a certain Miguel Ferreira

34 Couto (1974, v/2: 344-5).

35 Cf. Schurhammer (1963a: 263-87).

Syllables of Sky

360

An Eastern El Dorado

361

from Sao Tome who persuaded him to desist from his plans.36 Now we know a good deal about Ferreira, who was a major figure among the Coromandel Portuguese, and rather well-connected politically in Goa and Portugal; it is thus highly plgusible that if

that all the things in the world, nay in the universe, can be found, and of each thing as much as one is searching for. I will write of only one thing here as the greatest achievement that I can relate, and it is this. When these peoples go to do their adoration at the pagode, they go

he advised Martim Afonso not to go ahead, the Governor would

washed and perfumed with sandal, dressed in their fine clothes, and

have had to desist. The unfavourable winds and missed monsoon

arrayed with their gold jewellery, and the men shave their heads with a

may thus be taken as a convenient excuse in the face of a military

razor, leaving no more than a long, thin, tuft {guedelba) of hair on the

balance which, all of a sudden, looked rather different from

crown (moleyra:), which they plait and tie up out of politeness; and they

Mexico or Peru.

also say it is for their honour, for if they fight, and are killed, and their

But there is more to Correia's account than merely his discus¬

heads are carried off, they have that tuft so that the head can be carried

sion of the expedition. He uses the Pagoda Voyage as a device to

hanging from it, and not hanging by the ears, or by the nose, or by the

launch into a detailed account of Tirupati, which he claims to

beard, which would be a great dishonour to it; and for this reason they

have visited (perhaps in 1534, while at Sao Tome), and of the relations of the Vijayanagara rulers with the temple-complex. There are enormous exaggerations throughout, of course, as well as some inaccuracies of detail. It is believed that Martim Afonso

thus leave that tuft on the crown of the head. And since there are so many people, as I have said, there are enough barbers to suffice for them, who are all set apart below some large trees, and they shave one head for only one copper coin which is called caixa; and the amount of hair that they amass is such that they fill up the space below the trees and

wished to take advantage of a particular festival at Tirupati, when

on top of them. An amazing thing! There is a man who buys up this

cash would be more freely available, and given his departure from

hair from the barbers, and they begin to buy when they begin to shave,

Goa in early September, this festival was almost certainly the

and they pay a thousand pardaosznA at times even more; the buyer then

purattasi brabmotsavam?1 Correia, who like Couto, insists that

has this hair plaited and made into cords, gross and fine, and wigs for

Martim Afonso left Goa in August, insists that the festival was

women, and other things, in which he makes much money, and all of

hence the August full moon (dvani avattam, in certain years).

it is sold there in the fair.38

Taken with a pinch of salt then, here is his account, in a chapter of the Fourth Book of his Lendas, entitled ‘Of the Richness of the Pagode of Tremelle, and of the Pomp with which the King of Bisnega Visits it’.

Correia goes on to describe the wells and tanks at which water is sold to the pilgrims, others being dug by rich men whose virtue is enhanced by this act of public service to the pilgrims; this is apparently a reference to the so-called tannir pantal The whole

I have seen this festival (of the full moon of August) and the fair that is

area, with its ‘eight leagues of open field filled with people', seemed

held on that day, this pagode-house being located in a large field, where

to him a true marvel on account of its unthinkable magnitude

people begin to gather with their bundles of goods (fardagem) fifteen

from a contemporary European perspective and also because of

days in advance, where three or four million people assemble, amongst

certain odd commercial aspects. Thus, according to Correia, any¬

whom there would be three hundred or four hundred thousand on

one found stealing at the fair could be killed summarily, with no

horse, where one can find all the nations of people in the world, and as many goods as one can name from people’s mouths, in which I affirm

questions asked. Further, the Vijayanagara rulers freed all mer¬ chants and goods which were on their way there from paying taxes or tolls, and this gave a further incentive to those who came there.

36 Anon. (1544: 206-7). 37 Cf. Subrahmanya Sastri (1930: 44, passim).

38

Correia (1975, iv: 301-2).

Syllables of Sky

362

An Eastern El Dorado

363

But the religious aspect does not escape his attention either.

which he can be properly welcomed in keeping with his status and with

After all, the main reason for the fair was the pagode and the

his family; these houses are made of walls of clay, covered with tiles, and

offerings made to it. Thus, he writes:

are made and finished with such perfection, with such paintings, and overlaid and carved, with tanks in them, and gardens with perfumed

The eve and the day of the pagode that these people present themselves

trees, and such niceties, that even a great King of Spain would be content

[for dar'sana\, and all night long, no one, be he great or small, can present

to rest there for a great deal of time. And the food is kept ready for the

himself without leaving a coin in offering, and each one gives according

King and all his entourage, and all the great lords who accompany the

to his means, and there are some who put down a thousand pardaos,

King, an affair of uncountable abundance and satiety, so that there are

and two thousand and five thousand, for very great lords come there:

some lords who in this one night of hospitality for the King alone spend

where in front of the pagode, they make a great pile of gold coins, as

more than fifty thousand pardaos in gold. And they make these houses

large as one can make with ten measures (moios) of wheat. They de¬

slowly, to have them finished and wholly perfect for this day when the

capitate before the pagode-house, goats, sheep, and lambs, and kids,

King will lodge in them; and when the King moves on, this lord who

more than a million of livestock, and once that blood has been spilt and

has hosted him accompanies him, and the houses are at once torn down,

offered to the pagode, they give the bodies to the poor for love of God,

for no one can lodge where the King has lodged. And for the next year,

who sell them to the butchers; so that at the fair there is a great abundance

they make others anew, if the King decides to halt there the next year,

of meat of every sort. At this fair, all the moneys of the world are current.

and each year that he comes, they make new houses for him, and this

It should be noted that for Correia, the term pagode does not usually mean the temple but the idol within; the temple for him is the pagode-house (casa do pagode). It remains for him to turn

is done by all the lords with whom the King halts; in which matter they have great envies and competitions amongst themselves to see who can outdo the others, and gain an advantage in the perfections and abun¬ dances; and the one whom the King praises as having looked after him

in the second part of the same chapter to the Vijayanagara con¬

the best is much enhanced in honour. And each year they do better and

nection, which he had referred to briefly in the preceding chapter.

improve on the previous year, and if the King does not find his lodgings

Thus: The King of Bisnega also comes to this festival, and he comes as unencumbered (afforado) as he can, and he brings along ten thousand horse, and two hundred thousand infantry, and hundred to two hundred women of his own, who come in palanquins and litters, locked up with a key, so that no one can see them, and they can see everything through a very small silver netting, and the litter is all gilded and rich on the inside, where they can do what they want, and sleep, or remain sitting. The King travels in very small stages (jomadas), so that there is no need to open the litters of these women of the King. And if I were to recount their customs, and the richness of their jewellery, and food, and pleas¬ ures, it would make for very long reading, and they would be most incredible things. From Bisnega to this pagode the King travels in many

in keeping with his status, with all these luxuries, in keeping with the position of that lord of the land, he does not have him punished beyond ordering that he be given two thousand lashes naked, with the belly to the ground, bound to four stakes; and when this is done he is sent back to his estate as he was before. The reader of Correia then is overwhelmed with superlatives: everything it seems is overflowing with abundance—be it goods, hair, lashes or food. Correia, whose attitude and mentality were largely untouched by the Counter-Reformation, also has a some¬ what uncomplicated view of Hinduism, to which he is largely sympathetic, seeking parallels between it and popular Christian¬ ity.39 The conclusion with respect to Martim Afonso’s expedition

stages, always through his lands and those of his vassals, who as they come to know that the King is going to pass through their lands, and sleep there or stay for a day, construct new houses for his pleasure, in

39 Correia [c. 1492—1567] is, in many respects, the most obscure of the sixteenth-century chroniclers after Fernao Lopes de Castanheda, and far less is

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

is a foregone one: with his force of four hundred horse, two

Candragiri and Tirupati

364

thousand arquebusiers and two thousand slaves ‘to carry the

365

All this changed, almost inevitably, with Rama Raya’s death in

money from the pagode’ (the numbers are all Correia’s), he would

battle in early 1565 and the changed balance of power in penin¬

be simply overwhelmed. This is the opinion that Correia puts in

sular India.42 The official Portuguese attitude towards Vijaya¬

the form of letters, sent to Martim Afonso at the ilha das vacas,

nagara underwent a gradual transformation: the visceral hostility

by the captain and other settlers at Pulicat (or Sao Tome):

towards the idolatrous Gentile, which is very obvious in the 1540s

[T]hey told him that under no circumstances should he go there [Pulicat]

and 1550s (culminating in the viceroy Dom Constantino de

to proceed from there by land to the pagode of Tremelle, as it was said

Bragan^as systematic campaign against Hindu temples in Goa

he was determined to do, because already in that land it was said that

and the northern Portuguese territories), now gave way to a more

he was going to rob it, and the whole land was in tumult, and the news

complex approach, as is reflected in the letters of the Jesuits

had gone as far as Bisnega, so that there were in the pagode many people

themselves, who were to describe the Vijayanagara ruler in 1600

who were ready to defend it; and if he went there with two or even three

as ‘one of the gentile kings who is most affectionate to our Com¬

thousand people, not even a trace of them would survive, even if they

pany, of all of those of this Orient’.

were protected and with ten thousand arquebusiers, given the multitude

The circumstances were, by this time, substantially different.

of people that there was on land, which was so large that with handfuls

For one, the Vijayanagara rulers practically ceased to be a force

of earth alone, they would bury them all . . . 40

in western and south-western India once Aravidu Vehkatapatiraya A suitably picturesque metaphor, then, from this most picturesque

(c. 1586-1614) moved his capital eastward to the border of the

of Portuguese chroniclers, a vision of the Portuguese expedition

Telugu and Tamil countries, from Penugonda to the hilltop fort

buried under millions of clods of earth at the great fair of Tirupati.

of Candragiri on the Tirupati hills themselves. An early nine¬

Perhaps he would have considered his view of the balance of power

teenth-century account by Krishnaraja Pillai, sthalakarnam of

vindicated, in 1559, when Aravidu Rama Raya, possibly annoyed

Candragiri, translated from Telugu into English (via Marathi),

at reports of how the Jesuits of Sao Tome had torn down Hindu

describes this shift as follows (in the year 1514 Saka or AD 1592):

temples in the vicinity, attacked the settlement and took a number Venkataputty Deva Maha Rayel from Shaka 1509 Year Vaya and the

of its leading Portuguese citizens, as well as a part of the relics of

Month of Margully till the Year Anunda and the Month of Bhadrapada

the Apostle, back with him to Vijayanagara. Eventually they were

the 30th of Amavasha, ruled the Rajjum for 28 Years 10 months. When

released for a ransom, but the might of the land power was

this Venkataputty Deva Maha Rayel ruled the Kingdom at Veejianug-

revealed, together with the weakness of the Portuguese settlement,

gur, he then proceeded thence to Pennagonda Droog and in the Year

precariously perched on the coast.41

Nundana on the 25th of the month Auvanee he came to the mountain Sree Teroomala to visit the Teroovangada Swamy, and after he had worshipped the God he fixed and granted the Arra-Padeetarum (of

known of his life than that of Barros, Gois or Couto. An overview of these 42 It is interesting to note that Diogo do Couto believed that after the battle

writers, serviceable if not inspired, may be found in Harrison (1961). A more recent biographical sketch of Correia may also be found in M. Lopes de Almeida,

of January 1565, the nephews of Rama Raya carried off treasure and elephants,

‘Introdu^ao’, in Correia (1975, i: v—xxxvi).

fled from the city of Vijayanagara, and ‘gathered themselves to the pagode of

40 Correia (1975, iv: 324). 41 See the discussion in Subrahmanyam (1990: 57-9).

Tremel, which is on top of an impregnable mountain ten leagues from the city ~

of Bisnaga’; cf. Lima Cruz (1993: 187).

366

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

367

Half-Allowances) to the God of Teroomulla-Terooputty; he also took

from Chandegri, very beautiful and large, and like another Rome for

up his residence on the Hill Fort of Chundrageery in order to visit daily

this Gentility, on account of a greatly venerated pagode that is there,

the Mountain of Sree Teroomala; then considering that that Fort which

where from this entire Orient there gather innumerable people, who

was built in ancient times by the 11th Yadavaloo was small, and did not

come with great devotion and offerings to visit this demon which they

contain sufficient room for him and all his followers, he therefrom took

call Permal, the King wished to receive our ambassador here, and had

in the extent and measurement of 12000 Guz round the ancient fort

him sent for with much apparatus and4 majesty through a particular

and after having assigned places to his Gooroo Tata-Chari and to all his

intimate of his. The King awaited him in the interior of a majestic patio,

Relations and Followers and servants he enlarged the Fort and added

where he was, dressed not in rich clothes, for such is not the custom

Gates to it ... 43

here, but covered from head to foot in jewels, bracelets and strands of pearls, amongst which were two jewels of extreme beauty, which is to

The account then goes on to describe the gates of the fort, the

say one an emerald surrounded by great pearls and fine diamonds, and

inevitable 72 bastions (burj), the troops and guns that were placed

the other a ruby of great price and notable size.45

in each, the building of palaces, the digging of a moat and the founding of twelve pettais in the town {shahr). Reinforced thus,

Interestingly then, the picture of royal ostentation and the richness

Candragiri became a political centre that attracted visiting ambas¬

of the temple have begun to meld into one: Tirupati remains a

sadors (including a little-remarked emissary from the Mughal

place of magical and unheard-of riches, but these are now as much

ruler, Akbar) as well as missionaries. Tirupati, not far from

associated with the court as with the Pagoda. The Jesuits, we note,

Candragiri, thus finds mention from time to time in the mission¬

were inclined by and large to be friendly to Vehkatapati, but they

ary letters of the late 1590s and early 1600s, when Vehkatapati

could not extend this affection to the Pagoda itself nor to all that

resided under the benevolent shadow of his namesake, before

it stood for: whatever the philosophical leanings of their Com¬

shifting residence in 1604 to Velur.44 In the exchange of ambas¬

panion in Jesus further south, Roberto de’ Nobili, and however

sadors between Goa and the Vijayanagara Raya too, Tirupati had

one might view tactical devices, the veneration of the Pagoda was

an occasional role to play. In 1602, for example, an ambassador

simply unacceptable.46

from the viceroy Aires de Saldanha was received at Tirupati by

It is thus instructive to seek a contemporary view that comes

Venkatapatiraya, as we gather from the following Jesuit account:

more from the laity, and we are fortunate to have a singularly detailed one from the early seventeenth century. This is the auto-

For, on his [the ambassador] arriving at the city of Chandegri, one of

biography-cum-travel account in Spanish of a certain Jacques de

the principal men of the Royal Council went out to receive him with

Coutre, born in about 1575 in Bruges (in what is today Belgium),

elephants, camels, horses, kettledrums, and other instruments of joy and

who arrived in Goa in 1592 at the beginning of an Asian career

festivity, and had him rest in one of the best palaces in the city. And since at this time, the King was in Trepeti which is a city two leagues

45 Guerreiro (1932-42, i: 315-16). A slightly different version in Heras 43 IOLR, Mackenzie Collection, General, vol. 25, ‘Historical Memoir of

(1927: 592); the translation by Heras on page 436 censors the uncomplimentary

Chundrageery’: 124—5.

reference to Perumal.

44 For a general summing up of missionary relations with Venkatapati at

46 For the Madurai mission and its attitudes towards Hinduism, see, besides

Candragiri, see Heras (1927: 464-85). The ambassador from Akbar is men¬

Heras (1927: 363-96), the introduction to Wicki (1973) which concerns one

tioned in a document in Appendix C, in Heras (1927: 586-7), which is the

of Nobili’s opponents; also the useful and little-known testimony from the early

annual letter from Nicolao Pimenta of 1602. However, the ambassador seems

seventeenth century travel account of Santo Antonio (1988: 104—112) on

to have been at Candragiri in 1600; cf. Hosten (1927: 80-1).

~

Madurai and the Tamil country.

368

An Eastern El Dorado

Syllables of Sky

that lasted almost thirty-five years. Initially based in Southeast Asia, he returned to Goa in 1603, and in the decades that followed made several forays as a jewel-trader into peninsular India (besides returning overland to Portugal on more than one occasion). In

369

their disproportionate monsters is clearly one of impatience but tempered with the man-of-affairs’ grudging respect for the great forts and cities. He goes on: And the city had great suburbs, and it was teeming with people. I was

1611, on his return after a trip to Europe, Coutre set out to explore

there for five days: and I went alone from there to the diamond mine

the possibilities of purchasing diamonds in interior Andhra and

in a palanquin, for my companion Francisco de Silvera did not wish to

Karnataka and decided to approach the region from the south

go on ahead on account of fear for the thieves who were there, and the

instead of the west, as was usual. Making his way by boat from

great duties that had to be paid along the routes at the customs-houses

Goa to Cochin, he proceeded overland to Madurai, Tiruccirappalli and Srirangam (which he predictably compared to the Jerusalem of the Gentiles); then, heading due north, he made his way via SehjI, Arm and Velur (where he claims to have had an audience with Vehkatapati) to Gurramkonda, the Andhra fort that

by persons, even if they did not carry goods. Thus I went on, and promised to advise him of the route so that he could pass with greater security. I left the walls of the city and made my way more than two leagues through its suburbs (arrabales) till Tripiti, the city of the pagode which is so called, and it seemed that it was all one city. There I saw an extremely large edifice: it was called the pagode of Tripiti, considered

served as a provincial court for the powerful Gobburi Obba Raya,

in all the Orient to be the principal and the head of all the pagodes. It

brother-in-law to Vehkatapati. Distrustful of Obba Raya, whom

had very great revenues which the kings and emperors of the Orient

he accuses in his account of being in league with local highwaymen

gave it. Besides the revenues, the riches in terms of money and jewels

to rob unwary travellers, Coutre made his way somewhat nervously

that it has are such, that when the emperor has need of money, he asks

first to Candragiri and then Tirupati, as we see below:

for a loan from the pagode with great ceremonies. Then, the chief and head of the Brahmins, who are the sacerdotes who administer that

And from there [Gurramkonda] we left for the city of Chandreguiri,

pagode, lend it to him.

where the emperor had his court after the rebellion [1563]. We arrived at this place, which was very lovely and walled just like Belur. It had a

This last is an insistent theme in the seventeenth century, one that

castle atop a very high hill, and at its foot was the palace of the emperor;

we shall see repeated later and eventually carried over into the early

it was a large and sumptuous edifice. At the entry of the door of the

British administrative accounts from after 1800. But Coutre still

city there was a very large statue in stone, a figure of a negro—like those

had his jewel-trader’s curiosity to satisfy.

in Angola—which had four arms. The Gentiles call it Primala. He is one of the gods that they adore, and he had a sword in his hand and

I saw inside the edifice an idol made of metal. It had two eyes of silver

three women around him. And inside the city, there was another statue,

with some glass inside that reflects like a mirror. It was very richly dressed

no smaller in size, of an ape: they call him Nanaando, concerning whom

with many jewels, amongst which I saw a girdle with diamonds and

they tell great stories made up by these barbarians. He is also adored as

rubies; and in the middle I saw a diamond which was worth, and which

one of the gods. He had a very large tail which went entirely around his

had cost according to what the Brahmins told me, a hundred and twenty

body, and he was smeared with oil. There was another statue, a large

thousand pagodas, which is in our coin a little less than two hundred and

and disproportionate thing, in the shape of a man; only it had the head

forty thousand ducats. Besides this idol, I saw many others in the city.

of an elephant. This one is called by the Gentiles Ganaso. These three

And I saw many other offerings which all the idolatrous kings of

monsters: Primala, Nanocato and Ganaso are adored and held to be gods by the Gentiles of all the Orient.

the Orient had presented, and they gave many alms, and it was of great pilgrimage (romeria). They came there in such numbers that when I was travelling by the roads, I came across over a hundred thousand souls

Thus far, Coutre’s attitude towards the barbarous Gentiles and

370

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371

together who came in pilgrimage, each of the families bringing along a

Hinduism is mild compared to that of some of his contemporaries.

small idol: some of silver, others of gold, others made of brass, depending

Consider the view of the seventeenth-century chronicler Antonio

on what they could offer. With many drums, they came with flags, some

Bocarro, whose condemnation is made stronger by the fact that

on horse, others on foot, others sitting on oxen as if they were mules. They had their horns covered with brass, and with many tassels (borlas) on the neck. These came from the kingdom of the Deccan alone. When I saw them from afar, I thought it was an army on the march. I remained two days in the city of Tripiti solely to see the barbarous festivities that they did every day, and at night with many fireworks. And there was a great number of whores and dancers who danced perpetually before the

by the time he wrote, in 1635, the Vijayanagara ruler had begun to have commercial dealings with the Dutch at Pulicat. Bocarro, after noting how the Vijayanagara ruler, ‘once king of all of Indostao’, was now ‘much reduced’ in status, goes on to speak of Tirupati in the following terms: The Gentiles are in their element here, for they worship all the abomina¬

idol with rare dishonesty, the final purpose of all of which was directed

tions of figures of dogs, cats, monkeys and these are the most common,

at luxury. And all the riches in the city of Tripiti consisted in nothing

and of elephants and of cow, and of every type of animal, and the pagodas

save the pagode, for even the residents were rich on account of the great

of all these are so many that there is a very large city, which is Rome to

commerce that there was here in pearls, and in all the precious stones.

them, only for pagodas, which the Gentiles of this whole Orient arrange

I went on my way, with not a little peril from the thieves and high¬

to have made as large as possible, and whoever does so is regarded as

waymen.47

Coutre’s account has been reproduced at length here, not for the

the more devout and powerful, and however sumptuous they may be they are still dismal and subterranean houses, which shows very well that they are dedicated to the Devil. ... 48

penetration (or lack thereof) with which he approaches Indian religious life, but for the thoroughly materialistic gaze that he casts

The state chronicler was thus anxious to denigrate the pagoda in

on the temple. For him, Tirupati was no longer an object of

the strongest possible terms, reviving the rhetoric of the mid¬

conquest; indeed given Coutre’s own precarious and marginal

sixteenth century. Others too had not altogether forgotten their

position in Portuguese Asia, such warlike thoughts must have been

dreams of pagoda-shaking. Official relations between Portugal and

far from his mind. Rather, it is wasteful luxury that is stressed here

Vijayanagara were cordial, we note, until about 1610, and there

(in a way redolent of Correia’s description of houses and palaces

is even a brief letter written to the ‘Most Noble King of Bisnaga’

torn down after a single night’s use) and an economy where

by Philip III from Madrid in January 1607, thanking him for his

consumption thematically dominates production. For Coutre, the

co-operation and graciousness in matters of religion.49 But another

paradox is that ‘all the riches in the city of Tripiti consisted in

slightly later letter, written once more in the name of Philip III

nothing save the pagode’; and the fascination lies in the enormous

of Spain to the Viceroy at Goa, Rui Louren^o de Tavora, in

numbers that the magnetism of this centre attracts, of veritable

February 1610, is a significant throwback to an earlier epoch:

armies on the march. And yet Coutre’s expression of disdain for the iconography of the temple and the whole religious complex later designated

I have information that the king of Bisnaga is very old, and that on his death divisions are expected, as there are three pretenders to the king¬ dom; and that, in view of this, you should secretly order that, as soon

47 Coutre (1991: 249-51). The notes and critical apparatus in this edition

48 Antonio Bocarro, ‘Livro das plantas de todas as cidades, fortalezas, e

are to be used with extreme caution in view of the editors’ innocence where

povoa^oes do Estado da India Oriental’ (1635), translated in Subrahmanyam

matters Indian are concerned. The introduction contains an adequate biographi¬

(1990: 259-60).

cal sketch of Coutre.

49 The text is reproduced in Heras (1927: 571-2), from the Goa archives.

372

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

as he is dead, they should add to this Estado the lands that are three or

was the accession of Aravldu Ramadeva, who ruled with growing

four leagues around the city of Sao Thome and adjacent to it, which can be accomplished with a few more people than those who are already there [Sao Tome], for those by whom they are inhabited are weak and unused to war, and will rejoice at being freed from the tyrannies of the said King and his ministers; and that once they have been mastered and

373

confidence until his sudden demise in 1629. Another complicated succession then ensued, which finally saw Aravldu Pedda Venkata, the grandson of Aliya Rama Raya, emerge as the ruler at Candragiri in the 1630s.

divided up, there will be no alteration, and without spending a great deal of capital I can thus become lord of the whole Concao, and my

Tirupati as Milch Cow?

treasury will have therefrom greater revenues than in all the Estado da India, while spending every year no more than twenty thousand pardaos

The 1630s saw the emergence of a slightly different perspective

in conserving what has been acquired; and that at the death of the said

on Tirupati in contemporary European writings. For one, these

king, one can hope to get hold of the treasure of the pagode of Tripiti,

writings increasingly came from different sources—the Dutch

which is six leagues from Sao Thome, which is said to be of the greatest

and the English East India Companies, rather than Portuguese,

importance, as it supported from all the parts of the Orient, and what

Spanish or Hispanicized writers. The Dutch had an interest in

enters therein never goes out again (sem o que n’elle entra sair mais)\

Tirupati as a commercial centre as much as a centre of religion;

concerning which it seemed to me that I should order you, as I do, to

one of the earliest references to the temple-town in the Company’s

send me the information you have.50

These dreams or expectations that Philip hoped would fructify at

letters thus informs us: As a greater return is to be obtained from Masulipatnam pagodas, it is

the death of Venkatapati, did not do so—as we well know. Instead,

the intention to obtain a good quantity of the same in exchange at the

by a curious coincidence, the years 1611-1612 saw a protracted

coming festival at Tripety, in order to be able to send it in place of gold

and inconclusive siege of the Portuguese settlement of Sao Tome

to Masulipatan, to which end we have sent four thousand pagodas in

by Vijayanagara forces, apparently acting at the behest of the

gold as a test (tot een pruve) with Sasadre, cousin of Maleije, to Tripeti;

Gobburi family, the in-laws of Venkatapati (concerning whom

we were given hopes that a great quantity [of pagodas] would be available

Coutre had had such harsh comments to make). It is amusing to

at this festival.52

note (in the light of Philip’s letter above) that the main cause of this siege is alleged by Jesuit writers of the epoch to have been the natives’ ‘pecuniary cupidity’ (causa flit cupiditas pecuniarurri) f On Venkata’s death in late 1614, a civil war did indeed take place between a claimant supported by the Gobburi family and another supported by Raghunatha Nayaka of Tanjavur and the Velugoti family of Telugu warriors. The outcome of this protracted conflict

But there is more to be examined here than merely a shift in the nationality of the observer or commentator leading to a shift in preoccupation with issues of‘profit’ rather than power’. Rather, there is a new orientation that emerges, as it were, from empirical materials: an insistent theme from this time on is the exploitative relationship between the indigenous state and the temple, with the latter playing the role of a milch cow for the former. The basic elements of this vision existed already, perhaps in

50 Letter reproduced in Bulhao Pato (1880: 359). Significantly, the letter is

Coutre, with his talk of loans taken by the Vijayanagara rulers

signed ‘Rey-O Conde Almirante’, suggesting that it was drafted at the behest

from Tirupati. But a far more explicit discussion comes in a Dutch

of the ex-viceroy of the Estado, the Conde da Vidigueira. On Vidigueira, and his view of Asian politics, see Subrahmanyam (forthcoming). 51 Heras (1927: 447-9, 572-3, 631-3).

52 ARA, OB, VOC, 1119, fl. 1123, Carel Reyniersen at Pulicat to Antonio van Diemen at Batavia, 8 October 1636.

374

Syllables of Sky

text entitled De Open-Deure tot het Verborgen Heydendom (The

An Eastern El Dorado

375

Kings now do not do the same. But the King Weincatapeti, giving out

Open Door to the Concealed Heathendom’), authored by a Dutch

that he had a great need for money, had taken money out of the treasury

Protestant minister, Abraham Rogerius (d. 1649), resident at Puli-

of the Pagode, and since he did not wish to appear to do harm, or to

cat in the 1630s and early 1640s as an employee of the Dutch

rob the Holy, he passed a promissory note (een Obligatie) to the Pagode

East India Company. Rogerius derived much of his information

for the money he had taken, taking it upon himself to return it, when

from a Smarta Brahmin called Padmanabha, apparently employed

the Kingdom would come to be in a better state. After him came the

in a scribal capacity by the Company, and his views are thus

King Rama Dewello, who, as the Bramine told it, being extremely avid

flavoured with prejudices—his own and those of his informant.

for money, goods, and preciosities, not only wished to follow in the

Having listed the most famous pagodas in the Carnatica kingdom, including Madurai, 'Sriraiigam, VishnukancI, Tiruvalur, Sivakanci, Tiruvannamalai, Kalahasti and Cidambaram, he enters into a detailed discussion on Tirupati in the tenth chapter of the second part of his work. It runs as follows:

footsteps of his predecessor, but had decided to take the costly jewels of the Pagode, and to enrich himself thereby, and among others, to take from there a costly golden Crown, inlaid with Rubies and Diamonds, which was on the head of the Idol (Afgodi). But the Bramine said, that the person who had advised him to do so was to die at the foot of the mountain, on which the Pagode Tripeti stands; and that the King too

Some days’ journey from Paliacatta is the very famous Pagode Tripeti,

followed him shortly thereafter. Which he held was a just punishment

which has three festivals yearly. One is in September; at which time

that this King had received. And he believed that such persons could

there is a great confluence therewards from all directions, particularly

not remain unpunished, but that they would receive their wages in a

of the Soudraes, or common folk; who all come with gifts. The second

short time.53

is in December. At which time one finds for the most part Bramines with their gifts. The time of the third festival I have been unable to ascertain. So that since Tripeti has so many visits, it must necessarily have many incomes. It is also said that this Pagode yearly would have an income of 60, 70, 80, thousand Pagodas, all of which results from

This was written, we have already noted, in the reign of Ramadeva’s successor, Pedda Venkata (d. 1642), who presided over the gradual disintegration of the Candragiri kingdom in the late 1630s and early 1640s. It was not internal politics that undermined him

the gifts, and offerings, that are brought there. Since these Heathens do

though, despite the struggles that he had to wage against a rival

not come there with empty hands, but to discharge by means of gifts

claimant, Timma Raya, in the early 1630s, and then later against

the promises they have made to the Pagode, on the occasion of recovering

the Nayakas of the Tamil region. Rather, it was the inexorable

their good health, or to give thanks for some other benefit received, so

southward march, from the late 1630s onwards, of the forces of

that this Pagode has become extremely powerful and rich.

the Sultanates of BIjapur and Golkonda into his domains. This

Rogerius now continues, arriving as it were at the heart of the matter:

process, which began with the incursions of BIjapur forces into northern Karnataka (the states of Ikkeri and Mysore) in the 1630s, accelerated from 1642, with the defeat of Venkata and his aux¬

The Bramine Padmanaba said, nevertheless, that this Pagode Tripeti was

iliaries (Velugoti Timma Nayaka and Damarla Venkata Nayaka)

much richer earlier than it now is, which has come about, as he told it:

at Dandaluru in April 1642, by a Golkonda force of 4000 horse

because the Kings who were now there are not as religious as those who were there in olden times. For they do not make such generous gifts, which had so enriched the Pagode earlier, but where the Kings used to allow the Pagodes to keep these, and nothing was taken out of the treasury (Schat-kiste), unless it were needed for the upkeep of the Pagode, the

53 Caland (1915: 123-4). The text was first published in Dutch in 1651 by Fran^oys Hackes at Leyden, and then in German and French translations (the first dated Nuremberg, 1663, the latter Amsterdam, 1670). For a summary in English of the text’s contents, see Lach and Van Kley (1993, ii: 1029-57).

376

Syllables of Sky

and 40,000 infantry under Mir Muhammad Sayyid Ardistanl.

An Eastern El Dorado

377

Sriranga thus began to figure from the mid-1650s as an actor

Venkata died shortly thereafter, in October 1642, and his nephew

in Aurangzeb’s own calculations, as we see from the Mughal

and successor, Sriranga, continued alternately to wage war and

prince’s letters and instructions of the epoch, including some

negotiate for another two decades at least in the region, alternately

relating to the Mughal emissaries-at-large in the region, Muham¬

using Candragiri and Velur as his centre of activities*54

mad Mu’min and Khwaja ‘Arab. The transactions of the period

In principle, by mid-1643, the battle was already a lost one

are tangled. We hear, for example, of Srinivasa, a Brahmin envoy

with the definitive capture by Golkonda forces of the forts of

of Sriranga to Aurangzeb and Shahjahan who carried an offer

Udayagiri and Siddhavatam. By April 1646, Candragiri andTiru-

from the Vijayanagara ruler to embrace Islam in return for a

pati too were in the hands of the Golkonda Sultan—or at least in

farman from Delhi to put a stop to ‘Adil Shahl and Qutb Shahl

those of his powerful representative, Muhammad Sayyid.55 What

aggression. A later envoy to Aurangzeb is said to have offered a

enabled Sriranga to continue to resist, or at least survive, were the

tribute of 50 lakh buns, two hundred elephants and large quan¬

differences, first between the BIjapur and Golkonda forces (who

tities of jewels, and an annual tribute that would be double

found it difficult to agree on a modus vivendi and a division of

anything Golkonda and BIjapur could offer the Mughals.5/ By

spoils), and second, between these Sultans and their northern and

January 1657, Tuppaki Krishnappa had grown restive at being

imperialistic neighbours, the Mughals. The re-appointment of the

unable to wrest control of Candragiri from Sriranga, and in the

aggressively inclined Mughal prince Aurangzeb as governor of the

absence of reinforcements from Muhammad Sayyid was even

Deccan in 1652, and the continuing disputes between BIjapur

willing to settle for a power-sharing arrangement with the

and Golkonda for the control of key fortresses like Gutti and

Vijayanagara ruler. The latter, now encouraged by ‘Abdullah

Gandikota, enabled Sriranga gradually to attempt a revival in the

Qutb Shah of Golkonda (who wished to settle scores with his

region. The defection of Mir Muhammad Sayyid to Aurangzeb

ex-minister Muhammad Sayyid)

in early 1656 further emboldened him, and he actually managed to

palegadu chiefs, resisted such a settlement and preferred to con¬

and the support of several

regain control of Candragiri by October that year, in the face of

tinue to deal directly with Shahjahan and Aurangzeb.58

opposition from Tuppaki Krishnappa Nayaka, a powerful mem¬

Not only this: it is reported that the fame of Tirupati reached

ber of the defunct SenjT Nayaka family who acted at the time as

even the Deccan Subahdars ears, and even the court at Delhi. An

Muhammad Sayyid’s representative in the region.56

anonymous report addressed to the Dutch Governor at Pulicat, Laurens Pit, from the camp of Tuppaki Krishnappa Nayaka in

54 Cf., for example, ARA, OB, VOC, 1151, As. 725—5v, Arent Gardenijs at Pulicat to Batavia, 14 January 1643, where Sriranga is reported to be engaged

early January 1657, notes, for example, that Muhammad Sayyid’s

in conflict with the Damarla clan from a base at Tripity’; also VOC, 1151, fls. 782-3, 785-6, Laurens Pit at Pulicat to Batavia, 9 July and 15 July 1643, which reports Sriranga at Velur, negotiating aid from the BIjapur Sultan against the Golkonda forces after the fall of Udayagiri. 55 Sherwani (1974: 456-9); also Sarkar (1979: 41). Confirmation of Srirahga’s hopeless position may be found in ARA, OB, VOC, 1161, fls. 807-07v, letter from Arnold Heussen at Pulicat to Batavia, 2 April 1646. 56 ARA, OB, VOC, 1215, fls. 1026-26v, letter from Kistapaneijck to Laurens Pit, dated 5 January 1657: ‘[I]ck aen mijn broeder Lingemaneijck en den zoon van Zeijd Ibrahim hebbe geschreven haer bij mij met redelijck macht

te vervoegen, met welckers verschijningen zulien trachten den Coninck van Carnatica tot redelijckheijt te brengen, of anders de zake trachten te remedieren... .* 57 For Aurangzeb’s letters and papers on the witayat-i Karnatak from 1655— 57, see Qabil Khin (1971, i: 168-73, 269-71, 305-8, 346-7), among other references; I am particularly grateful to Muzaffar Alam for a summary and discussion of the relevant letters in this collection. For a discussion in this context of 3rirahga’s position, see also Rama Sharma (1978-80, ii: 288-94). 58 ARA, OB, VOC, 1215, fls. 1031— 3 lv, ‘Directelijck uijt Zindrigire door een ander courantier in dato als voren (14 January 1657) geschreven’.

378

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

son, Mir Muhammad Amin, had arrived in Delhi with a present

of the letter-writer: the Tirupati treasury was for him a negotiating

for Shahjahan that included a wrought gold chest, with many

point in respect of the Mughals, from whom he hoped to obtain

379

costly stones inlaid, including two outstanding emeralds, large and

recognition as a sort of autonomous chieftain, with Candragiri

very clear, which earlier used to belong to ‘Wencketesije’ at

and a few lands around it as his watan jagir. But the negotiation

Tirupati, and whose light shone green on the bystanders; besides,

bore no fruit, as the struggle between Aurangzeb and his brothers

there were many other beautiful diamonds, rubies, sapphires and

grew more intense in late 1657 and attention was diverted to

pearls of great worth’.59 Further treasures from the temple also

matters of far greater urgency than the Carnatic. Sriranga thus

find mention in the letters of the epoch. One of these, from the

seems to have lingered on intermittently in Candragiri till 1665,

same newsletter writer (courantiert) dated 12th January 1657, re¬

with the last inscription at Tirupati that bears his name being a

ports the following (the ‘Nawab’ referred to being Muhammad

Telugu epigraph in that year.61 By 1668, it was the Golkonda

Sayyid, now titled Muazzam Khan):

general, Raza Qull Beg, titled Neknam Khan, who maintained a

The ambassador of the Great Mogol, and that of Kistapaneijck and his servant, appearing before the King of Carnatica, have said that if His

representative at Tirupati and oversaw the temple. A little over a decade later, things had changed once more; in 1681, when the

Majesty would give over all the stolen jewels (geroofde juwelen) from

Golkonda minister, Akkanna Pandit, spent seven days there, it

Trippetij into their hands, they could reach a good agreement with him,

was as a worshipper, en route from Hyderabad to the southern

to which the King gave as an answer that everything that his ancestors,

territories (termed tara/Karnatak), under the government of his

as well as he when he was in state, had presented the same pagoda

relative, Poddeli Lirigappa.6" Tirupati, it seemed, had tamed the

(pagool) had been taken away by the Lord Nabab along Yvuth himself,

northern invaders; Telugu Brahmins had taken over the Gol¬

and that he [Sriranga] had come by very little, which he intended to send to the Great Mogol as a present . . .

konda Sultanate, where earlier it was the Sultanate that had ap¬

Srirariga’s intentions seem to have been clear enough in the eyes

In the eighteenth century, Tirupati remained an object of

peared to threaten the Brahmins’ stronghold.63 fascination and dispute, so much so that one recent historian of

ARA, OB, VOC, 1215, fls. 1026v—27, ‘Nieus uijt ’t leger van d’heer

the period has even spoken of ‘south India’s most sought after

Kistapaneyck etc door onsen courantier aen d’hr Gouvr Laurens Pit. . . gesch-

prize, the Tirupati temple complex’.64 Aiiyone of any political

reven en becomen . Compare the rather confused, later account by Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri (in India in 1695) who reports how ‘Emir Gemla’

61 TTDES (1931-38, v: 389), Inscription No. 143. This inscription, wrong¬

had stolen jewels and gold vessels from a temple in ‘Bisnaga’; cf. Sen (1949:

ly located in this volume, is thought to be the first of the Vijayanagara rulers

262—3). Jean deThevenot, who visited India in 1666—67, is even more confused

after one of Venkata in Tamil, dated 15 June 1638. It is dated on the ‘10th

and reports in Sen (1949:128) that Tirupati ‘depends on the Naique of Madura’.

solar day of the dark fortnight of the Jyeshtha month in the year Visvavasu’ and

60 ARA, OB, VOC, 1215, fls. 1030-3lv, ‘Nieus uijt ’t leger van d’heer Kistapaneijck door onse courantier alder onthoudende in datos 12 en 14 Januarij 1657 becomen den Den daeraen volgende’. Compare Inayat Khan (1990: 534),

reports simply that ‘Sri Vlra Srlrangaraja Maharaja visited Tirumalai temple and worshipped Sri Tiruvengalanathadeva’. 62 Viraraghavacharya (1954: 871, 882).

for a reference to the diamonds, rubies and precious stones taken by Muazzam

63 Cf. in this context the rather curious remark by Niccolo Manucci to the

Khan (Muhammad Sayyid) from the 1 zuuriindar of the Carnatic’. Earlier (on

effect that even Aurangzeb did not attack the temple after 1687 because he

page 530), it is reported that on arriving at the Mughal court on 17 July 1656,

feared a widespread popular reaction if he did so: Manucci (1990, iii: 135—9).

Muhammad Sayyid ‘presented a nazar offering of 1000 gold mohurs and a

Note too, that Manucci had no particular sympathy for the temple and that he,

peshkash of some gems, amongst which were several diamonds dug out of the

in his usual fashion, gives us a salacious account of Brahminical lechery there.

mines of the Carnatic territory’.

64 Bayly (1989: 166).

380

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

significance in the Carnatic seems to have had dealings with the

brother, Najlbullah Khan, the qiCaddroi Nellore, allied with the

temple-complex in one fashion or another: Lala Todar Mai, the

French captain, Charles de Bussy; a subsidiary role was played by

381

Khatri adviser to Sa‘adatullah Khan of Arcot, installed his own

‘Abd

statue there in the early eighteenth century, with that of his wife

Maratha chieftains like Balwant Rao. Briefly, in the late 1750s

(in conscious or unconscious imitation of Krishnadevaraya, two

and early 1760s, Tirupati’s revenues seem to have passed out of

centuries before); the Peshwa Baji Rao visited Tirupati as a devotee

the English Company’s hands into those of Najlbullah and his

al-Wahhab

Khan,

the

governor

at

Candragiri,

and

in May 1740 but also collected a part of the revenues, from which

French allies, but were recovered by 1762.67 Thus, in 1803, when

he went on to distribute Rs 20,000 as alms. In 1743, it was the

Stratton wrote his detailed memoir on Tirupati, the English Com¬

turn of the Nizam ul-mulk, Asaf Jah, to halt at Tirupati on his

pany had a good half-century of close fiscal dealings with Tirupati

way south, even if he did not climb the hill to Vehkateswara.65

behind it; but proximity did not help, as the reader of his account

Clive and Dupleix, to so many historians the Pat Garrett and Billy

can see, to generate a particularly detailed composite picture.

the Kid of eighteenth-century south India, both sought to draw

Indeed, the most interesting parts of Stratton’s report are the

upon the temple’s resources, through the Bukkahjis and Tarwadis,

materials he collected himself from observation and conversation,

the bankers who seem from the early eighteenth century to have

rather than those that were the accumulated result of a period of

masterminded the temple’s finances. The devout Anandarangap-

continuous contact.

pillai (1709-1761) mentions Tirupati profusely in his celebrated mid-eighteenth century diary;66 as for the East India Company’s Closing Reflections

Country Correspondence of the 1750s, it is full of references to the machinations around the temple’s revenues.

It is time now, perhaps, to draw together material spanning nearly

These machinations came to a head in the 1750s. Early in

three centuries of European dealings with Tirupati, to arrive at a

that decade, the ruler of Arcot, Muhammad ‘All Walajah, who

set of observations of a somewhat general nature. This essay has

had triumphed in a war of succession with the aid of the English

been deliberately cumulative and chronological: the materials have

East India Company, laid claim to the Tirupati pilgrim taxes as

so far been allowed to speak in good measure for themselves.

part of his revenues; however, he had to assign them away directly

Nevertheless, they do call for some reflections on a set of linked

to the Company to pay for the troops they had sent in his aid.

questions concerning the changing nature of European knowledge

The 50,000 pagodas that Tirupati yielded annually on an average

of India, with stress on a relatively concrete object—a temple-site,

thus came under English control, but were collected through the

pilgrimage to it, its wealth, its political significance—rather than

mediation of revenue-farmers, Vaishnava Brahmins like the un¬

on the concomitant large and abstract constructs such as the nature

reliable Srmivasacari (who absconded with unpaid debts), or later

of kingship, social organization or the like. I shall limit myself

the more dependable Vasudevacari. But rivals of the Axcot ruler

here to four observations.

had their eye on Tirupati too: the opposition centred on his 1. 65 Viraraghavacharya (1954: 899-907), for an account of this period.

The materials dealt with here can be read as part of the

pre-history of‘Orientalism’ in the Indian context, if we take the

66 It is in fact significant that one of Anandarariga’s panegyrists claimed that he was born as a result of the pilgrimage of his father, Tiruvengadam, to Tirupati,

67 Cf. the correspondence in Joshi (1956: 210-11, 222-4), letters dated

and that he was even an amsavafara of Vishnu at Tirumala; cf. Srinivasa Kavi

21 December 1758 and 9 February 1760. Bayly (1989: 166-8) provides a brief

(1948: 40-9).

account of the period.

382

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

383

‘Orientalist’ enterprise as beginning with British colonial rule in

3.

the latter half of the eighteenth century, the foundation of the

we have examined were often treated as no more than constructs

Asiatic Society in 1784, and the activities of Jones, Wilkins,

of the Imagined Other, that there was a significant dialectic be¬

Halhed, Colebrooke and their successors.68 But it is a ‘pre-history’

tween empirical observation and lived experience of some form,

It is also salutary to recall, in an age where the writings that

that we can ill afford to ignore, if we wish to make any argument

and the generation of these texts.' ° Correia, who resided for nearly

on the long-term relationship between politics, power and Euro¬

half a century in different parts of Asia, may or may not have

pean perceptions of India. For unless we can demonstrate how

visited Tirupati, but he certainly had access to materials on it (and

changes in any one of these are related to changes in any other,

perhaps even knew others who had visited it). Couto’s reading of

we cannot even begin to credibly establish any causal links, let

the hierarchy of temples in India was surely not his own alone,

alone assert that this or that aspect of nineteenth-century Orien¬

but created in dialogue with ‘native informants’ whom he had

talism is the result of this or that political phenomenon.

dealings with, once more over the course of nearly half a century

2. My second point is related more to the treatment of missionary and Christian materials.69 Two opposed, and somewhat gross, myths exist concerning the contrast between Catholic and Protest¬ ant views of Hinduism and Hindu institutions. One of these seeks to assert that Catholicism was inherently more sympathetic to Hinduism than was Protestantism, perhaps because of a common adherence to religious emotionalism or because of Catholicism’s inherently more flexible character. This is a generalization based

in Asia and especially India. Most obvious is the case of Rogerius, who often seems to allow Padmanabha to speak: who is the author, and who the amanuensis, is unclear at various points in his text. To jettison these writings as ‘Orientalist fantasies’, and to seek a return to a history based solely on the ‘authentic, native, sources’ in Sanskrit, Persian, Tamil or Telugu is not only myopic but reflects the historian’s failure to come to grips with the complex process that created these materials in the first place.71

on a combination of naive anthropological observations of popular

4.

Hinduism and Catholicism (typically in a south Indian context),

knowledge in relation to the materials we have discussed. While

and of a selective reading of Nobili and some writers of the Jesuit

some of the texts mentioned above were published quite early and

Finally, a reflection may be in order on the ‘accumulation’ of

Madurai Mission. The second myth posits Protestantism as con¬ cerned with rationality, knowledge and—eventually—administra¬

70 The ‘canonical’ work that comes to mind is that of Todorov (1982). The

tion, and thus more tolerant (albeit distantly so) than ‘engaged’

Portuguese historian, Luis Filipe Barreto (1983), addresses a similar set of

Catholicism in respect of other religions. Our reading of the

questions but distinguishes broad categories among Portuguese writers of the

sources here appears to authorize neither view. It seems to me

period, largely from their political affiliation and education. However, his

impossible to speak of two streams, or simply of ‘Catholic’ and ‘Protestant’ discourse, in the materials we have examined.

simplistic binary formulations and unfamiliarity with the context of ‘the dis¬ coveries’—namely sixteenth-century Asia, for the most part—rarely permit him to go beyond distinctions such as ‘mercantilist’ versus ‘liberal’. 71 Cf. in this context Narayana Rao, Shulman and Subrahmanyam (1992).

68 Cf. Marshall (1970) for an introduction to the British texts and their writers; Inden (1990) for a theoretical formulation.

The crude authenticism I refer to here is, fortunately, rejected by many of the leading scholars today in early modern history, from Jean Aubin to Cornell

69 Of relevance here is the cautious discussion in Halbfass (1988: 36-53),

Fleischer. Cf., for example, Aubin (1993: 33-52) for a careful analysis of the

section entitled ‘The Missionary Approach to Indian Thought’. Halbfass con¬

early sixteenth-century travel-account of Ludovico di Varthema; the forthcom¬

centrates though on Nobili, Rogerius, and the French missionaries of the

ing work of Fleischer, A Mediterranean Apocalypse, argues this point forcefully

eighteenth century.

with respect to Italian materials on the Ottomans in the sixteenth century.

384

Syllables of Sky

An Eastern El Dorado

enjoyed a fairly wide circulation (such as Couto’s Decadas, or

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385

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abstract as Hinduism. Thus, in 1803, George Stratton’s know¬ ledge was not the sum of all previous bodies of knowledge, re¬ organized to suit the imperial ideology of the moment. It was not even a careful selection of such knowledge. His ‘discourse’, like that of Correia, Couto or Coutre, did not exist in isolation from a structure imposed by a brute and shifting empirical reality, manifested not least of all in the loss, mutilation and censoring of texts and voices from the past.

72 Cf. the debate between Caland and the German Orientalist, Theodor Zachariae (1851-1934), who wrote a series of critical reviews of Caland’s publications in the Gottingische Gelehrte Anzeigen. Zachariae’s reviews may be found in his collected works; cf. Zachariae (1977, ii: 660-715, 766-83); also see Caland and Fokker (1915) for a partial response.

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Chapter Thirteen

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Rudrama-devi, the Female King: Gender and Political Authority in Medieval India

Zachariae, Theodor, 1977, Opera Minora: Zur Indischen Wortforschung, zur Geschichte der Indischen Literatur und Kultur, zur Geschichte der

CYNTHfA TALBOT

Sanskritphilologie, 2 vols, Claus Vogel (ed.), Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.

The country where a woman, a child, or a gambler rules sinks helplessly as a stone raft in a river.

T

hus does the Mahdbharata (5.40; van Buitenen [1978: 129]) dismiss the possibility of female rulership, a state of

affairs to be avoided at all costs. The notion that women are unfit for political leadership is an attitude found far beyond ancient South Asia. Throughout the complex societies of ‘tradi¬ tional’ Eurasia, we observe a similar official prohibition of female participation in political affairs. In attempting to explain the widespread restrictions placed on the political activity of women, historians and anthropologists have relied heavily over the past * An earlier version of this essay was presented at the 1992 Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies in Washington D.C. Thanks are due to members of the audience who offered suggestions for improvement. I am also indebted to the following individuals for helpful comments on previous drafts and bibliographic assistance: Gloria G. Raheja, William S. Sax, Pamela Price, Leslie C. Orr, Curtis M. Hinsley, Susan M. Deeds and James Heitzman. Any remaining flaws are, of course, my responsibility.

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two decades on the concept of gendered public and private do¬ mains. As far back in time as classical Greece, elements of Western

1985). The public and private were interconnected in these cir¬ cumstances and women could wield public power through the

393

thought have differentiated a private sphere of activity restricted

family (Peirce 1992). The impact of post-structuralism can again

to the family from a public sphere that encompasses larger societal concerns including politics (Saxonhouse 1992). According to this paradigm, power resided in the public arena reserved for men,

be detected in the growing awareness that the separate spheres ideology is itself a social construction. While its antecedents can

whereas women were at home only in the limited domestic realm. It was the exclusion of women from the possession of public

private dichotomy was articulated most forcefully in the nine¬ teenth-century West, as is the case with so many aspects of modern

political power that led to the almost universal devaluation of women, in the view of many feminist scholars.

social theory. Earlier views that women were largely powerless have thus

As the field of women’s studies has matured, however, weak¬ nesses in the model of divided spheres have become increasingly apparent. One of the major criticisms in recent years concerns the narrow definition of power as a property manifest exclusively in

been revised in the light of new interpretations and evidence. Yet we are still left with the empirical reality that women in ‘tradi¬ tional’ Eurasian societies were seldom able to assume official posi¬ tions of leadership. Possession of power was clearly not a sufficient

the public and the political. The post-structuralist analysis of power as implicated in all arenas of human life has led to the recognition that there are multiple forms of power, besides the possession of formal political office. An expanded definition of

condition for the right to rule. Hence power, defined as informal

female power would include the ‘ability to act effectively, to influence people or decisions, and to achieve goals’ (Erler and

be traced back to antiquity, the paradigm of a gendered public/

influence, must be differentiated from the socially sanctioned and legitimized authority to make decisions. As Judith M. Bennett put it succinctly for medieval England, ‘women, in short, were often

Kowaleski 1988: 2). By these measures, many women in the

powerful, but they were never authoritative’ (Bennett 1988: 29). In India, as elsewhere in Eurasia, female power did not and could not be translated into formal political authority. This is the reason

Eurasian past can be deemed powerful (Rogers 1975). As the

for the Mahabharata's blanket condemnation of women, thought

daughters or wives of privileged men, high-born women enjoyed considerable social prestige. They also often had control over

to be as incapable of ruling as children or gamblers. In praxis, however, the ideological barrier against ruling

significant economic resources, either in their own right or as agents for their children. Because of their socio-economic impor¬

queens was breached on several occasions. One of the best-known

tance, aristocratic women could greatly influence the course of ‘political’ decision-making, in the limited sense of the term. If women were actually able to shape public political out¬ comes, albeit through the indirect exercise of power, is it still

against British takeover of her princely state in the uprising of 1857—58. A similarly singular woman was Sultana Raziya of the thirteenth century Delhi Sultanate, one of the rare instances in

meaningful to speak of divided spheres? The public/private model has also been criticized recently for its acceptance of this simplistic dichotomy as a universal given (Reverby and Helly 1992). In many

a throne. More recently, we have the case of Indira Gandhi, who can also be regarded as a woman who inherited her father’s political

historical contexts, such a distinction simply does not hold. This is particularly true of societies lacking the abstract notion of a state, where the royal household was the seat of political power (Bay

examples is the Rani of Jhansi, the widow who fought heroically

South Asian history of a daughter selected by her father as heir to

position. Biographical details of these female leaders’ lives have been compiled and disseminated, but there has been remarkably little speculation on how they attained such authoritative posi¬ tions, given the normative prohibitions in South Asia. In this essay,

395

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Rudrama-devi, the Female King

I rescue another daughter chosen as her father’s successor from

elder brother to younger brother. After the reign of Rudra-deva

394

the historical oblivion in which her memory now languishes. This

(r. AD 1163-1195), the first Kakatiya ruler to claim independence,

is the queen Rudrama-devi, the fourth independent ruler in the

the throne went to his brother Mahadeva for three years. Although

Kakatiya dynasty of thirteenth century Andhra. Using her story as a point of entry, I examine how female rulership in medieval

the dharmasastra legal literature presumes primogeniture to be the rule of royal succession, numerous examples of such lateral suc¬

India could be reconciled with an ideology that excluded women

cession can be found in South Asian history, often necessitated by

from political authority and analyse the specific social conditions that enabled certain queens to obtain power.

the absence-of male offspring (Trautmann 1981: 361, 428-31). Mahadeva was followed by his son Ganapati who had a long reign

Rudrama-devi, the Queen who Ruled The Kakatiyas began as one of many Andhra chiefly lineages subordinate to an imperial power based outside the boundaries of the modern state. The earliest reliable evidence pertaining to the lineage comes from the late eleventh century, at which time they were firmly entrenched in the Warangal area of Telangana (the northern portion of interior Andhra). As was the case with other Telangana chiefs, the Kakatiyas acknowledged the overlordship of the Western Calukyas of Kalyani in modern Karnataka state, in contrast to the chiefs of coastal Andhra who paid subservience to the imperial Colas of the Tamil country. By the mid-twelfth century both the Western Calukya and Cola empires were declin¬ ing, leaving a political vacuum in Andhra. Kakatiya inscriptions

of sixty years, from AD 1199 to 1261. Kakatiya Ganapati had no sons and may have outlived any brothers. In any case, according to epigraphic evidence, Ganapati appointed his elder daughter Rudrama-devi as heir to the throne and ruled jointly with her for several years (Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma I960: 615 and 621). Rudrama-devi ascended the throne in AD 1262 under difficult circumstances.2 The kingdom had been invaded from the south by the Pandyas of southern Tamil Nadu and soon thereafter was attacked from the north by the Eastern Ganga dynasty of Kalinga. Even the western sector proved hostile when within a few years Mahadeva, the Seuna king of Devagiri, laid siege to Warangal, the Kakatiya capital. All these external threats were eventually repulsed and the core areas of Telangana (northern interior Andhra) and Vengi (coastal Andhra between the Godavari and Krishna rivers)

barked on an ambitious programme of expansion. Over the next one hundred and sixty years, the Kakatiyas gradually extended

brought back under Kakatiya control. Although she was successful against these outside powers, Rudrama-devi had less luck dealing with forces inside her own realm. Ambadeva of the Kayastha

their political network outside Telangana to encompass much of

family, the most powerful of all the Kakatiya subordinates, rebelled

the coastal and southern regions of the Andhra country. Their rule and the lineage itself were abruptly terminated in AD 1323,

in AD 1272, defeated a Kakatiya army, and by AD 1287 had conquered much of southwestern Andhra as well as portions of

when the capital city of Warangal and the person of the last king were seized by an army of the Sultanate of Delhi.1

Guntur district on the coast. The manifold challenges to her

stop mentioning the Calukyas by AD 1163 and the lineage em¬

Before Rudrama-devi, succession to rulership in the Kakatiya dynasty had devolved in two ways: from father to son and from 1 For details on political history and chronology, I rely primarily on the chronological and political framework established by the noted epigraphist, P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, in his book The Kakatiyas (1978).

authority faced by Rudrama-devi explain why records from her

2 Since Rudrama-devi first ruled jointly with her father, there is actually an overlap in their reigns. I am using the date AD 1262 as the beginning point of her reign here because almost all inscriptions from that date onward identify Rudrama-devi as the ruling sovereign.

396

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Rudrama-devi, the Female King

reign are found mostly in central Andhra. The geographical extent of Kakatiya influence was less during her time, encompassing fewer

lative obscurity of Andhra history may be one reason why she has

areas both north of the Krishna river and in southwestern Andhra,

397

secondary accounts of ancient Indian women or rulers.4 The re¬

than it was in the latter part of her father Ganapati’s reign.

been overlooked by scholars. Recognition of Rudrama-devi’s sig¬ nificance as a female ruler may also have been delayed due to the

Modern historians have blamed Rudrama’s internal troubles on the reluctance of subordinates to accept a female as their

curious practice in contemporary documents whereby she was frequently referred to as a male. Rather than designating her as

overlord (e.g. Parabrahma Sastry 1978: 118). Given the hostile

Rudrama-devi, 84 per cent of the inscriptions from her period (52

external situation which had begun developing even before

records out of a total of 62) use the masculine version of her name,

Rudrama-devi succeeded to the throne, however, it is not surpris¬

Rudra-deva, and address her as king {maharaja)? Because these records are dated and we know the dates of Rudrama-devi’s reign,

ing that subordinate chiefs and princes would attempt to assert their independence. While it is certainly credible that being a woman posed difficulties in gaining acceptance, there is no con¬ crete evidence that the problems she faced derived mainly from that fact.3 At any rate, Rudrama-devi retained her position as ruler

a male was made by her father, the Kakatiya king Ganapati, as

for roughly a quarter century until her death in AD 1289. One factor in her ability to both obtain- and retain the throne was

was the decision to call her Rudra rather than Rudrama. The Prataparudriya itself generally uses masculine terms—raja, maha¬

undoubtedly the absence of any male siblings who would have been legitimate contenders for kingship. Sultana Raziya, in con¬

raja, and Rudra-deva—when referring to her (Raghavan 1979:

trast, had to spend much of her short reign of three and a half years combating the intrigues of her brothers (Brijbhushan 1990: 13-21). Rudrama-devi also deserves credit for at least one major political innovation—the introduction of the ndyahkara system which was later adopted by the Vijayanagara empire. Epigraphic references to these military service tenures begin about midway through her reign and continue until the end of the dynasty. Despite her long reign, Rudrama-devi scarcely figures in any

we can establish with certainty that it is indeed Rudrama-devi who is being signified.6 The Prataparudriya, early fourteenth-century text, tells us that the initial decision to represent Rudrama-devi as

5, 105). Rudrama-devi evidently carried out her role as the king’s son faithfully. She allegedly wore male dress and took active part in 4 Rudrama does receive two pages of treatment in the compilation Great

Women of India (Madhavananda and Majumdar 1953: 16-17), but is not mentioned in any other article or monograph on Indian women that I have seen. 5 Feminine forms of her name (Rudrama-devi, Rudramamba, Rudrambika) appear in APAS 31.21; CPIHM 1.11; HAS 13.25; HAS 6; NDI 0.70; SIE 1.9; SII 6.603; SII 10.395, 422 and 459. Most of these are Sanskrit inscriptions

3 The traditions of the Velugoti lineage assert that an early family member, Prasaditya, raised Ganapati’s daughter to the throne against all opposition and

in which the Kakatiya genealogy is narrated at length. The name Rudrama-devi also appears in SII 10.360, an inscription from Ganapati’s reign.

acted as her regent (Rama Row 1875: 11). The family history of the Induluri

6 The most common way in which the Kakatiyas figure in these documents

chiefs also mentions a period of turmoil following Rudrama-devi’s accession to

is through the formula, ‘while the MahamandalesVara Kakatiya X was ruling

the throne, during which time she was assisted by the Induluris (Venkata-

the earth enjoying the pleasure of agreeable conversations’, typically inserted

ramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma 1960: 635). Her gender is not specified in

immediately after the date given in the Saka era. The donors of the gifts recorded

either case as the reason for the disturbances. It should be noted, however, that

in the inscriptions also often identify themselves in relation to a particular

the traditional accounts of her reign found in the Prataparudra Caritramu and

Kakatiya ruler, as a minister, for example. Lastly, the religious merit (dharma

the Siddhesvara Caritramu describe a succession dispute involving two of Gana¬

or punya) accruing from the gift to a brahmin or temple is quite frequently

pati’s sons born of a lesser queen.

transferred by the actual donor to the Kakatiya ruler who is thus named.

398

Syllables of Sky

Rudrama-devi, the Female King

military campaigns, like her better-known Indian counterparts

persona are not unknown elsewhere. What is striking, however, is the degree to which Rudrama-devi combined all these aspects

Sultana Raziya and the Rani of Jhansi (Brijbhushan 1990: 19-20; Lebra-Chapman 1986: 70, 74). The best-documented armed con¬ flict of Rudrama-devi’s reign occurred shortly after she ascended the throne, when Seuna armies from Devagiri attacked the Kakatiya capital Warangal. Rudrama not only repulsed the enemy

399

of being an ‘honorary’ male.8 Rudrama-devi had a male name, possessed the title of king, wore masculine clothing and acted like a warrior to the extent of dying in battle—she was, indeed, an exemplary female king.

forces but pursued them into the Seuna territory and was even¬ tually able to exact tribute (Parabrahma Sastry 1974: 46). Al¬ though the Seuna court poet Hemadri later attempted to gloss over Rudrama’s martial abilities, excusing the Seuna king Maha-

Eastern Calukya dynasty and must have married Rudrama-devi

deva’s losses on ‘his reluctance to kill a woman’ (Venkataraman-

decades before her assumption of rulership.9 Virabhadra left be¬

ayya and Somasekhara Sarma 1960: 625), inscriptions left behind

hind no records of his own and figures in only three inscriptions

in Karnataka bear testimony to Rudrama-devi’s military-victories (APAS 31: 61-2). Recent scholarship even asserts that Rudrama-

—two issued by his subordinates and one by his mother (HAS 13.25, SII 5.122 and SII 10.360). The fact that Rudrama and

devi perished in battle, a fate shared with Raziya and Rani Lakshmibai.7

Virabhadra had only female progeny may also explain his lack of

The insistence on Rudrama-devi’s maleness, both in name and in attributes, probably explains why there is so little mention of her husband, Virabhadra. He was a scion of the once mighty

Rudrama-devi clearly falls within the broad category of a warrior queen that Antonia Fraser defines as ‘one who combined

importance, since the couple did not produce a direct heir. Instead, their daughter Mummamma’s son, called Prataparudra, became the next (and last) Kakatiya ruler.10 It is noteworthy that once

both elements of rule and martial leadership’ (Fraser 1990: 8). It was not unheard of for regnant queens in various countries and

again succession to the Kakatiya throne was transmitted through a female.

periods to at least make an appearance at the battlefield, although they often did not actually participate in fighting (e.g. Matilda of

Despite the widespread portrayal of Rudrama-devi as a male, it is clear that there was no real attempt to deceive the public. Not

Tuscany, Maud of England and Isabella of Castile). The majority of queens discussed by Fraser became rulers in their capacity as widows of deceased kings (e.g. the Celtic Boadicea, Zenobia of Palmyra and Catherine the Great). On the few occasions when

only do several longer, more elaborate inscriptions identify her as a woman, but Rudrama-devi depicted herself in female form on

daughters did inherit the throne, however, they too, like Rudramadevi, bore the title of king (e.g. Tamara of Georgia, Isabella of Castile and Maria Theresa of Hungary). Except for her use of a male name, the other masculine features of Rudrama-devi’s public 7 Aii inscription from AD 1289 discovered several years ago in Nalgonda district records gifts made by the warrior Mummadi Nayaka, to ensure that his lords Kakatiya Rudra-deva and Mallikarjuna Nayaka would reach Siva-loka (i.e. heaven). This is interpreted by Parabrahma Sastry as evidence that Rudrama-devi died in a battle along with her general, Mallikarjuna Nayaka (Parabrahma Sastiy

1974: 45).

8 The ‘honorary’ male syndrome was not limited to the complex societies of Eurasia. In an article on female headmen in Polynesia, Neil Gunson reports that women acting as chiefs there were consistently described as accomplished warriors, large in size and masculine in appearance (Gunson 1987: 141-2). 7 Rudrama-devi’s sister, Kota Ganapama-devi (discussed later in this essay), is already said to have been widowed in her Mogalutla grant of AD 1219 (EA

4.11). Parabrahma Sastry believes that Rudrama-devi’s marriage followed Ganapati’s conquest in about AD 1240 of the Vengi region where Virabhadra’s lineage was prominent (1978: 112). 10 Rudrama-devi’s long reign may be connected to her lack of a male heir. Had she produced a son while her father was still alive, she might have just ruled for a short time as her son’s regent. Instead, she had to wait for a grandson to be born and reach adulthood.

400

Syllables ofSky

Rudrama-deviy the Female King

401

the pillar brackets of a temple she had constructed. These brackets,

as a male in name, appearance and action. A text composed during

which illustrate Rudrama-devi’s royal epithet raya-gaja-kesari

the reign of Rudrama-devi’s successor, the Prataparudriyay attempts

(lion to the elephant-like [enemy] kings’), portray the queen as a

to justify a woman’s possession of political authority by equating Rudrama’s mother Somamba with the goddess Uma and her father

woman warrior mounted on a lion and holding a dagger and shield (Parabrahma Sastry 1978: 122). The image of the fierce goddess Durga was obviously being evoked here. Andhra historical tradi¬ tions from later periods also uniformly remember her as a woman.

Gender and Kingship

Ganapati with the god Siva. How else, says the text, could inde¬ pendent rulership reside in a feminine form unless with divine sanction? The next passage explains that: ‘Since she was equivalent to a son in the greatness of her experience and the depths of her soul, she was treated thus by King Ganapati, a Siva in mortal form, and accordingly called by the name Rudra.’11

In a recent essay, anthropologist Shelly Errington presented a

Rudrama-devi’s ability to successfully enact the role of a king

penetrating analysis of current American gender conceptions

by retaining the throne and defending the kingdom earned her the right, so to speak, to be regarded as a king. The distinction between Rudrama-devi as a female biological¬

which she labels Sex . In the ideology of Sex’, all biological sexual identity is reduced to the strict dualism of male versus female, with no allowance for any intermediary gradations. Moreover, this cultural construct maintains that there is a direct and invariable correspondence between biological maleness and femaleness and the attributes of masculinity and femininity. Errington states that other ways of conceptualizing gender can and do exist (1990: 18): A rhetoric of gender could be used to describe or characterize male’ and female cosmic energies without a presumption that they either reflect

ly and a male socially is clearly drawn in one inscription from her period. Many Sanskrit inscriptions contain an eulogistic com¬ ponent known as theprasasti (literally, ‘praise’ or ‘eulogy’) wherein an individual’s ancestry and accomplishments are acclaimed, as well as those of her/his overlord. In this particular copper-plate grant issued by the prince Yellana-deva, successive verses switch back and forth between the feminine and masculine versions of

or are anchored in physical differences between men and women, or

Rudrama-devi’s name:

that the sexed bodies of individual men and women are required to fulfill or enact those activities or roles.

Then Rudrama-devi was born, more generous than the celestial cow of

In other words, a particular social identity could be envisioned as

the heavenly coral tree.

plenty, more radiant than an ocean of moonlit water, more bashful than While Rudra-deva, the leader of men, was carrying the weight of

masculine or feminine in nature regardless of the biological iden¬ tity of the individual occupying that position. Many cultures, says Errington, place far more emphasis on the enactment of a social role in classifying a person than they do on the hereditary or physical basis of such a classification (1990: 34).

devi.12

Certain incongruities in the representation of Rudrama-devi can be better understood if we keep Errington’s analysis in mind. Despite the fact that she was widely known to be a woman,

When describing her genealogical status as the daughter of Gana¬ pati and the mother of Yellana-deva’s wife, the composer has to

Rudrama-devi was a ruler, and Hindu gender ideology associated political authority with maleness; hence the many references to her

[governing] king Ganapati’s kingdom, the wonder is that the bent down heads were those of the enemy kings (and not Rudra-deva’s). By the grace of that Rudrama-devi, Yellana-deva obtained a country [to rule] and his own wife, the second daughter of Kakati Rudrama-

11 Raghavan (1979: 104-5), my translation. 12 CPIHM 1.11, w. 18-20; my translation.

402

Syllables of Sky

Rudrama-devi, the Female King

use the name Rudrama-devi. Equally compelling is the need to use the masculine form Rudra-deva while describing her might as a king.

whose families are also extolled. The primary activity for which women were admired, however, was the performance of pious

The ideal of kingship was so strongly correlated with the notion of manliness that even inscriptions referring to Rudramadevi as a woman could praise her only in distinctly masculine ways. That is, Rudrama’s greatness as a ruler could be expressed only by lauding her heroic acts. We see this in a second grant issued by a subordinate that begins with the Kakatiya genealogy.

403

works such as having temples built, granting villages to Brahmins, going on pilgrimages and observing vratas or vows. A good ex¬ ample of this stress on pious works is found in a record dated AD 1277, from Bothpur in Mahbubnagar district: Kuppambika, the daughter of the greatest of the Gona dynasty known as Buddhaya, was born—pure in conduct, overflowing with countless virtues, the embodiment of love’s essence, and expert at discerning

Images of Rudrama-devi as the daughter of Ganapati and as a

duty—and became his [Malyala Gunda’s] wife.

mighty monarch are combined in one verse here, requiring the use of the feminine name:

family performed the vows known as Lakshmi-Narayana, Jala-sayana,

Hail! Prosperity! The lord of the Kakatis was king Ganapati. To him the daughter Rudramamba was born, an unparalleled hero, and like the crescent of the moon she was without blemish. While she held the earth within the fierce blaze of her valour, which overcame enemy warriors with fear, the greatest of the virtuous [the donor Viryala Sura] founded a brahmin village.13

That jewel who adorned the world of virtuous women of noble Asunya-sayya, and Ananta-Arundhatiya, the vows of the twelfth days of the dark and the bright fortnights, and several other rituals mentioned in the texts, as well as establishing wells, cattle-troughs, tanks, and other water reservoirs, gardens, and [images of] Siva and Vishnu. Kuppamba, the all-bestowing celestial creeper, again and again gave away lands, gold, chariots, horses, food, cows, houses, all kinds of excellent clothes, water, jeweled umbrellas, superior bedding, and all the

Depictions of men as champions or as warriors whose fierceness struck terror in the hearts of enemies were widespread in this period. Indeed, it would appear from a survey of male prasastis that the main claim to legitimacy and prestige was success in battle. Illustrious ancestry, beauty of form, religious beneficence and the upholding of social order are other attributes that merited praise. But the possession of heroic qualities was lauded most extensively in the records of kings, lords, chiefs and other male leaders. Martial ability was ^quintessential male virtue, as apparent in the mean¬ ings of viryam,, the Sanskrit word for heroic prowess or power and, by extension, semen (Hansen 1992: 1). Power and strength are not qualities associated with women in prasastis, although women are praised in some of the same terms as men, notably for their beauty and ancestry. In addition, of course, women are often portrayed as good wives to their husbands

other great gifts mandated by religious law.1

The similes of the celestial creeper (kalpa-valli) and the wish-yield¬ ing tree (kalpa-druma) are widespread in prasastis, especially in connection with female donors (cf. APAS 31: 58, 1.88). To be sure, when men were lavish religious patrons, that virtue was mentioned in their records, but their pious works were never accorded the same degree of prominence as in the case of women. Religious beneficence was considered desirable in a man but not essential to his fame, whereas women had few other avenues through which they could enhance their reputations. Piety was also thought to lead to tangible benefits for a woman’s family. For example, by consecrating twenty-one Siva lihgas Viryala Mailama is said to have led an equivalent number of her clan members to reside in Siva’s abode (IAP-K.29,11. 150-2). It is precisely because the performance of pious works was the only socially sanctioned

13 HAS 6, v.3; based on the translation of Hanumant Rao and Krishna Sastri (1925).

14 HAS 13.50, w.3—5; based on the translation of P. Sreenivasachar.

404

Syllables of Sky

Rudrama-devi, the Female King

public activity open to women that we find so many ‘royal* gifts to temples being made by queens.15 While the most famous temple

Ganapama-devi’s inscriptions. For one thing, numerous references

complexes may have been constructed on the order of Icings, it was their wives, daughters and sisters who typically donated the resources required for worship.16 The practices considered most praiseworthy in kings and queens are considerably different—success in the fighting arena for kings versus generosity in religious gift-giving for queens. The examples cited above are characteristic of thirteenth-century prasastis for these two social types. Rudrama-devi stands at one end of the spectrum, as a female king, while Kuppambika is her polar opposite, the queen consort.17 A third woman from this period, Kota Ganapama-devi, can be placed somewhere in the middle. Ganapama-devi was Rudrama-devi’s younger sister and, like her sister, held supreme political authority in a kingdom. Although Ganapama-devi’s territory was smaller and in a tributary status to the Kakatiyas, she bears the distinction of ruling for'over four decades, from AD 1219 to 1261. Unlike Rudrama-devi, however, Ganapama-devi did not become the sovereign in her own right but upon the death of her husband.18 She was thus a widowed queen who was in effect ruling as an extension of her husband.

15 Female patronage figures prominently in other religious traditions as well,

405

The tenuousness of a widow queen’s position is apparent in are made to her deceased husband, as the following verses demon¬ strate: When the excellent king Beta, after ruling with her the great kingdom and acquiring everlasting merit, departed to the court of the king of gods [Indra], she had golden pinnacles duly placed on top of the illustrious lord Amaresvara’s holy shrine at Sri Dhanyakapura. Her husband obtained the joy of an everlasting and pleasurable residence in the world of Siva, after she had a temple of the lord [Siva] named after the king Beta built in this city [Yenamadala].19 This record highlights appropriate feminine behaviour on the part of Ganapama-devi for it focuses on her pious works while men¬ tioning only in passing her participation in ruling the kingdom with her husband while he was alive. Only one reference to her being the present ruler occurs in the inscription and it too em¬ phasizes her piety more than her royal qualifications: She, whose hands are exclusively engaged in worshipping Siva, whose eyes and ears are always attached to the delightful festivals and concerts she orders performed daily in Siva’s honour, who thus happily passes her days though standing at the head of a great kingdom, and who is, therefore, no less than the mountain-daughter [Parvati, Siva’s wife]— who is able to praise that Ganapambika sufficiently?20

of course. As one example, see Clark (1990), which deals with religious patronage

16 See Heitzman (1987: 41—2) and Spencer (1983) for a discussion of

Even Ganapama-devi’s patronage of religion did not entail true independence in action, since most of her gift-giving was intended

religious gifts made by women of the Cola royal family. Leslie C. Orr suggests

to provide religious merit for either her husband or father. She

by women in late Roman society.

that women were the paradigmatic donors to religious institutions while kings

therefore complied with patriarchal norms of subservience by

were the prime donors to brahmins (1992: 16).

offering the fruits of her activities to others.21

17 Kuppambika might be more accurately classified as a chieftain’s wife since her husband was the head of a chiefly lineage that was subordinate to the Kaka¬

a religious gift is dedicated to her in two other inscriptions, ARIE No. 533 of

tiyas by this time. Her father’s lineage was somewhat more independent and

1913 and No. 304 of 1932-33.

princely, however, and Kuppambika’s Sanskrit inscription reveals aspirations to

19 El 3.16, w. 16 & 17, translation based on that of E. Hultzsch (1897).

a pan-Indic royal status. As a type, therefore, she can be considered a queen.

20 El 3.16, v.25, translation based on that of E. Hultzsch (1897).

18 The records issued by Kota Ganapama-devi are ARIE No. 303 of 1932-33f

21 In contemporary India, one of the most common religious practices is the

El 3.16; EA 4.11; SII 4.933 & 939; SII 10.381. The earliest of these is EA

observance of vratas or vows. These are almost always performed by women,

4.11, from AD 1219, and the latest is SII 4.939, dated AD 1261. The merit

who usually transfer the religious benefits arising from the act to family members.

406

407

Syllables of Sky

Rudrama-devi, the Female King

But Ganapama-devi was not simply a good wife and queen consort. She was simultaneously the acting head of a lineage of

the throne for their sons. Because their masculine attributes (i.e.

tributary princes. It was therefore her privilege and right to use the Kota lineage name prefaced by the title kuta-stambha), often framed by a makara-torana archway sup¬

dating to about the middle of the eleventh century (the Someshvara temple at

ported on corner pilasters, offers a further accent to this scheme.

Kolanupaka and two partially preserved towers from the Paccala Someshvara

To the face of the bhadra, however, is often applied a fully func¬ tional miniature shrine, its garbha-grha recessed into the bhadra

temple at Pangal; both in Nalgonda District). There are also several examples of vesara towers in the nineteen subsidiary shrines surrounding the Kotagudi at Ghanpur (Warangal Dt.). In comparison to the mature Vesara towers known from Karnataka, where the original development of the form was localized, all

8 See, for example, the pillars of the royal pavilion in the paintings of the Vishvantara Jataka in Cave 17 at Ajanta. 9 For the origin of this decorative feature, see Dhaky (1977: 6).

the documented examples from Telangana exhibit a more conservative protovesara form in which the original dravida matrix is still clearly apparent. See Wagoner 1986: 87-95.

440

Syllables of Sky

antecedents include: compression of the vertical elements of the elevation (especially the ‘wall* sections of the hara shrines); a complementary accentuation of horizontals through the interposi¬ tion of deep, shadowy recesses between adjacent horizontal ele¬ ments, as well as by aligning of the tops of the s'alas with the kapota of the harantara; and the matrix of vertical lines running con¬ tinuously up the tower, produced through the pronounced projec¬ tion of bhadras, upabhadras, and prati-bhadras in each storey. Above the last hara, the final elements of the superstructure consist of a vedika with a pronounced, upturned padma; a narrow, re¬ cessed necking (griva) and, finally, a square-sectioned cupola

{sikhard) with a widely flaring lower edge.

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

441

kapotapalika). In the Manthani example, the broad rectilinear band at the base corresponds to the khura, and is followed by a complicated assortment of moldings that can only represent the kumbha. Unlike the case of true north Indian vedibandhas, in which the kumbha inevitably takes the form of a perpendicular face with a quarter-round shoulder, here this element displays a concave profile beneath the shoulder.12 The kumbha is followed by a rounded torus molding (vrtta-kumuda) representing the kalasa, and the whole is capped by a kapotapalika. In all other instances of the Vedibandha type of adhistJhana, one or more of these basic elements are elided. The Bhumija mode, like the Vesara, also employs pilasters to articulate the wall, but here both the forms of the pilasters and

Bhumija The Bhumija mode is similar in many respects to the Vesara mode, starting with the fact that it too is inevitably based on a multiplemembered plan, which is—with just one exception—inevitably of the tri-anga type (Fig. 3).11 The adhisthana is subject to more variation in this mode, with the Kapotapalika and the somewhat anomalous Vedibandha types almost equally represented. The peculiar form of this latter type must be seen as the result of a transferral of moldings that, properly speaking, belong to the

vedibandha or lower wall in the north Indian tradition of architec¬ ture, from their original place at the base of the wall to the adhisthana or base of the temple as a whole. In the course of this adaptation there was apparently as little regard for the integrity of

the principles governing their application differ sharply (Figs. 3 and 4). Instead of a pair of narrow pilasters framing each projecting member of the plan, we see here a single wide pilaster covering the entire face of each ahga section. Moreover, the form of the pilaster in the Bhumija mode is an accurate reflection of the

citrakhanda type employed in the actual load-bearing columns of the temple’s interior. Thus, it sits on a complex base and features a shaft which is divided into upper and lower block-like segments by a central recess with a median projecting band. Each of these elements is decorated with various horizontal grooves and bands of geometric or floral ornament. Further, the pilaster is generally of the bhadraka form, that is, square in section with a central bhadra or projection from each face, as opposed to the simple

the vedibandha as an organic entity as there was for the appropriate forms of its constituent units, which are often transformed almost beyond recognition. Only one example of a Vedibandha type of adhisthana—that of the eastern shrine of the Gautameshvara

12 The peculiarity of its concave profile notwithstanding, the kumbha of this example exhibits a number of features which would seem to connect it with the traditions of Malwa and Maharashtra, including the knife-edged karnika on its side face, the band just below its shoulder and the shrine models repeated in

temple at Manthani (Warangal Dt.)—preserves the full sequence

the centre of each of its horizontal segments. See, for example, in Malwa, the

of moldings proper to this element (khura, kumbha, kalasa, and

Udayeshvara temple at Udayapur (Vidisha Dt., Madhya Pradesh), begun in 1059 and completed in 1080 C.E. (Chandra 1975: plate 6), and in Maharashtra,

11 The exception is the Thousand Pillar Temple at Hanamkonda (Warangal Dt.)—where the plan is catur-ahga (‘four-membered’) and features an additional member, the nandika, interposed between karnas and prati-bhadras.

the Siddheshvara temple at Hottul (Nanded Dt.), datable to c. 1120 C.E. (Deglurkar 1974: plate I, b), and the Kankaleshvara temple at Bid (Bid Dt.; Deglurkar 1974: plate XXVIII, b).

442

Syllables of Sky

square section characteristic in the Vesara’s slender pilasters. The top of the shaft is formed as a lasuna (literally ‘garlic’), tapering inward and then flaring out at the top like a vase. The shaft carries a succession of three (sometimes four) different forms correspond¬ ing to the capitals of actual columns: a cushion capital (kumbha), usually of mushroom or lenticular profile, an (optional) upturned lotus (padma) with distinctly carved petals, a dish-shaped element

(mandi) carrying an abacus (phalaka), and finally, a bracket capital (potika) with four arms. In many cases, the forms of these capital elements continue as moldings running across the top of the salilantara recesses between adjacent angas, so as to form a con¬ tinuous, projecting and receding frieze at the top of the wall. As

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

443

Pillalamarri (Nalgonda Dt.) is the best preserved example from a primary shrine, four bhumis rising over a tri-anga base would appear to have been the most common disposition. The manjaris, which start in the first bhumi, are interrupted by a blind chaitya window (surasenaka) and rise again continuously from a secondary base of pilasters in the second bhumi. Although the top of the Erakeshvara temple s tower is lost beyond the fourth bhumi, the probable form of the crowning elements is suggested by the com¬ pletely intact miniature shrines surrounding the Kotagudi at Ghanpur (Warangal Dt.), where the tower ends in a ghanta or ‘bell’, the lower rim of which has the cog-wheel form associated with the amalaka.

in the Vesara mode, here too the lower part of each salilantara generally bears a kuta-stambha. The formal organization of the bhumija superstructure is re¬ lated to that of the curvilinear nagara tower characteristic of north Indian architecture (Figs. 5 and 6).13 The body of the superstruc¬ ture is decorated with miniature nagara towers on colonnettes (kuta-stambhas), arranged in a strict grid pattern determined by the number of angas in the temple’s plan and the number of

bhumis or tiers in the tower’s elevation. In the majority of bhumija structures, there are no kuta-stambhas on the bhadra faces of the tower inasmuch as these are occupied instead by vertical spines (mahjaris) like the lata of the nagara tower. To judge from surviving towers, of which that of the Erakeshvara temple at

Phamsana The Phamsana mode differs decisively from both the previous modes. Phamsana structures of the Kakatiya period are inevitably based on the simpler rhythm of a faintly articulated dvi-ahga plan, in which the bhadra projects only very slightly from the plane of the karnas, and in which the two angas are never divided by salilantara recesses (Fig. 7). The resultant massing of the plan is thus much more compact than in either the Vesara or Bhumija modes. There is considerable variation in the adhisthana types em¬ ployed in the Phamsana mode, but all three of the characteristic variants represent distinctive types that never appear in either the Vesara or Bhumija modes.14 In the simplest form, which may be

13 The bhumija tower type originated in Malwa during the second half of the tenth century, originally as a sub-type of the anekandaka (multispired) class of nagara sikhara\ but as its unique system of formal organization crystallized, it soon came to be classified as an independent type in Sanskrit architectural treatises. Its diffusion from the land of its origin was both rapid and wide, with examples of the type appearing from Gujarat in the west and Maharashtra in the south all the way up to Dakshinakoshala (the modern Raipur area) in the east within less than a century of the date of the earliest known example (Krishna Deva 1975). The earliest example in Telangana is the Ramalingeshvara temple at Nandikandi (Medak Dt.), datable to the first quarter of the eleventh century (Rajendra Prasad 1975).

termed ‘Mancaka’, the plinth consists of just two (sometimes three) austerely rectilinear members. A short upana serves as a base, and is followed by a taller jagati, and optionally, a second re14 In addition to these three types, which together account for ten of the fourteen Kakatiya-period Phamsana structures surveyed, there are four examples in which the Kapotapalika type adhisthana is used. Since this adhisthana type is not found in earlier structures from this region, it seems appropriate to consider it a feature borrowed from the Bhumija mode and thus anticipating the formation of the Composite Bhumija-Phamsana mode.

444

Syllables of Sky

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

duplication of this element, proportionately somewhat shorter

series of receding tiers or levels, each of the same height as the one

than the first. The Padma type repeats this same sequence, al¬

below it, and receding in nearly all cases at a constant rate so that

though there is rarely a reduplicated jagati, and instead we find,

the batter thus produced is pyramidal and straight in outline. Each

as the final element, a padma molding in the form of an upturned

level is extremely simple in composition, consisting of no more

cyma recta with projecting curved bosses, above a separate fillet

than a plain recessed necking (kandhara) surmounted by a project¬

molding (pattika). Finally, the ‘Pltha’ type of adhisthana consists

ing kapotapalika course with a series of bosses on its upper face.

of an upper part, which is perfectly symmetrical around its median

The kandhara is always unornamented and lacks the abbreviated

kumuda molding and reflects the form of a simple variety of

and simplified pilaster motif seen running along its side in some

pitha or linga pedestal used jn these temples, placed above the

earlier examples from neighbouring parts of Karnataka.16 The total

usual basal sequence of upana and jagati. The upper part consists

number of levels in phamsana superstuctures varies between four

of three major moldings: a bossed padma, a kumuda (invariably

and ten, but is generally even. Atop the last level rests the capping

of karnika form), and a second, inverted bossed padma reflecting

slab (pidhana-phalaka), its outer edge carved in the form of a vedi

the form of the one below.

molding. Upon this platform rests the crowning element, a square-

445

In striking contrast with its treatment in the Vesara and

sectioned sikhara above a short grlva. A stupi or finial would

Bhumija modes, the wall in Phamsana structures is not articulated

originally have been attached to the sikharas crown, but no stupi

in any way. The entire expanse of the wall, from the adhisthana

survives intact in its original position in the known examples from

all the way up to the entablature, is left unadorned so as to preserve

this region and period.

the smoothly dressed surface of the ashlar blocks from which it is constructed. Although the slight change of plane between the bhadra and karna sections does produce a faint vertical line, the

of a Kadamba origin (whether in a dynastic or even regional sense) which is

bhadra’s projection is not sufficiently pronounced to cast shadows

implicit in the latter two terms.

that would otherwise divide the walks blank expanse (Figs. 7 and 8).

may have been referred to in the Karnata countiy as ‘Kalinga’ (1977: 36-7).

The phamsana superstructure is equally distinctive, presenting the aspect of a stepped pyramid (Fig. 8).15 The tower rises in a

In another context, Dhaky tentatively suggested that the type in question

Mary Linda, however, has recently drawn a distinction between phamsana towers with a height and curvature comparable to the nagara form, and those of squatter proportions and straight profile (such as the Telangana examples), and argues convincingly that it was the former type which would have been signified by

For the term phamsana and the forms of the superstructural types to which it refers, see Nanavati and Dhaky (1969: 27ff.) and Meister (1976:

the term Kalinga, since it was in fact a well-established regional type in the Kalinga country of northern, coastal Andhra (1990).

167-88). In the works of other authors, temples of the medieval Deccan bearing

In any case, the phamsana type discussed here is clearly not an importation

superstructures of phamsana type have generally been termed ‘Kadamba’ (this

from any other region but is rather the product of a local development within

designation appears to have gained currency through the influential essay of

the Andhra country of a pan-Indic type. The earliest Andhra examples date

Gravely and Ramachandran [1934], who had in turn borrowed it from

from the eighth century and are localized in the middle reaches of the Krishna

G. Moraes [1931]) or Kadamba-Nagara (which was popularized by Soundara

valley (Rajendra Prasad 1980: 135-41). By the tenth century, phamsana had

Rajan; see, for example, his report on the Temple Survey’s work in Mahbubnagar

become the predominant type of tower in the area (see Dagens 1984 for

and Kurnool Districts as part of the larger ‘Shrishailam Project’, IAR 1967-8

documentation of numerous examples).

(section VII, para. 2). Phamsana is certainly preferable to Kadamba or Kadam¬ ba-Nagara as a term for designating the type in as much as it avoids the suggestion

16 See, for example, the Mallikarjuna and Galaganatha temples at Aihole (Meister and Dhaky 1988), text volume, Figs. 119 and 121.

446

Fig. 1:

Syllables of Sky

Palampet (Warangal Dt.)} Ramappa Temple, vim~ana wall,

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

Fig. 3:

Nidikonda (Warangal Dt.), Kummari-gudi, vimana wall, Bhumija mode (Author photo)

Vesara mode (Author photo)

Fig. 4: Fig. 2:

Palampet (Warangal Dt.), Ramappa Temple, vimana and attached mandapa, Vesara mode (Author photo)

447

Ghanpur (Warangal Dt.), Kota-gudi, vimana wall,

Bhumija mode (Photo courtesy Andhra Pradesh State Department of Archaeology and Museums)

448

Syllables of Sky

Fig. 5.

Pillalamarri (Nalgonda Dt.), Erakeshvara temple,

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

Fig. 7:

Pillalamarri (Nalgonda Dt.)y Erakeshvara temple, superstruc¬ ture, Bhumija mode (Author photo)

Godishala (Karimnagar Dt.), North temple, vimana wall detail Phamsana mode (Author photo)

general view., Bhumija mode (Author photo)

Fig. 6:

449

Fig 8:

Vaddeman (Mahbubnagar Dt.), Triple shrine, vimana,

Phamsana mode (Photo courtesy American Institute of Indian Studies)

450

Syllables of Sky

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

451

Composite Bhumija-Phamsana The final mode, represented in just three of the examples docu¬ mented from the Kakatiya period in Telangana, can be understood as a composite form, resulting from the limited introduction of Bhumija traits into a predominantly Phamsana formal matrix. Like the Phamsana, the Composite mode is also based on a dvi-anga plan, in which there is only a slight projection of the bhadra and no use of salilantaras (Fig. 9). Two of the three documented examples display adhisthana types characterstic of the Phamsana mode (one Mancaka, one Pitha), while the third ex¬ ample has a Kapotapalika type adhisthana, which in this context should most likely be considered an imported Bhumija trait. The walls in all three examples exhibit the same, unusual form, which is the result of applying the wide-pilastered treatment of the Bhumija to the unarticulated dvi-ahga matrix provided by the Fig. 9:

Kondaparti (Warangal Dt.), Triple shrine, vimana.

Composite Bhumija-Phamsana mode (Authorphoto)

Phamsana. Thus, the moldings characteristic of the citrakhanda pilaster form are applied as a continuous frieze running across the entire, broad surface of each anga. Because there are no plain salilantaras to interrupt these moldings, the result is a form with an uncompromising horizontality, in which the only vertical ar¬ ticulation is the faint line produced at the unaccentuated and shallow change of plane betwen angas. Finally, the superstructure in all three examples is of the phamsana form (Fig. 10).

17 The definition of a Composite Bhumija-Phamsana mode was not an isolated phenomenon restricted to the Telangana region. A similar and concur¬ rent development also occurred in the Konkan region in western Karnataka, where both Bhumija and Phamsana modes were prevalent. An especially well preserved example of the composite mode in this region is the Kamala Basadi in the fort at Belgaum, datable to the first quarter of the thirteenth century (see Burgess 1874).

Fig. 10:

Nagunur (Karimnagar Dt.) Temple 5,

Composite Bhumija-Phamsana mode (Photo courtesy American Institute of Indian Studies)

18 In one example (Nagunur, Temple 5), the superstructure is of a stone fabric contemporaneous with the rest of the structure, while in the other two examples (Kondaparti, Triple Shrine; and Vilasagar, Sangamesvara Temple) it is in brick and stucco and appears to represent a later rebuilding.

452

Syllables of Sky

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

Public and Private Temples: The Typology of Triple Shrines

either the Vesara or Bhumija mode, but never in the Phamsana

In Vitruvius’s example, the principle of decorum linked the selec¬ tion of the orders to the identity of the god enshrined in the temple. In Kakatiya Telangana, however, the choice of mode was clearly not based on the identity or personality of the deity, as an examination of the table will demonstrate. In this table, the thirtythree temples surveyed are grouped by mode,19 and for each, the plan type (whether single shrined or triple shrined) and the iden¬ tity of the deity or deities enshrined (whether Siva, Visnu or Surya) are indicated. In the first place, we may note that in the case of the two modes (Bhumija and Phamsana) for which a significant number of single-shrined temples is documented, independent temples both of Siva and of Visnu are found in each mode (Surya is not found as an independent deity in single shrines). In the second place, we may note that in the case of triple-shrine temples

453

or Composite Bhumija-Phamsana mode; while the remaining two types, one housing three separate lihgas of Siva (hereafter referred to as the Trilinga type)21 and the other two lihgas of Siva together with an image of Visnu, are both built almost exclusively in either the Phamsana or the Composite Bhumija-Phamsana mode, but not—with just one exception—in either the Vesara or Bhumija mode.22 This pattern suggests two important points. First, we may deduce on the one hand that the cults of the Trilinga and the Siva-Visnu-Siva type temples are comparable enough—despite their iconic focus on differendy defined triads—to warrant using member of the grouping differentiates the Telangana Tripurusa temples from those of the Kuntala region (where the cult first developed in the tenth and eleventh centuries) which generally included Brahma instead. Commenting on

housing two or more distinct deities (i.e. the types dedicated to

the fact that the early Kuntala examples are generally found within agrahara

Siva, Visnu and 'Siva, and to Siva, Visnu and Surya), the mode

villages, Sundara suggests that the cult was originally formed within the brah-

does not vary from shrine to shrine in accordance with the deity’s

minical milieu of these settlements, and may be regarded as yet another example

identity, but rather remains constant and uniform throughout the

of the non-sectarian, syncretistic orientation often associated with the (Smarta)

temple. (There is in fact not a single documented case of a multishrined temple in which the constituent shrines show different modes.) Clearly, if there is any principle or system guiding the choice of mode, it must be based on some factor other than the identity of the individual deities enshrined.

Brahmin tradition (1985: 206). Surya is known to replace Brahma in one type of Tripurusa temple that appears in Kuntala as early as in the late tenth century, as at Madinur in Raichur Dt. (Katti 1985: 235). 21 Cynthia Talbot has called my attention to a damaged inscription from Kaleshvaram (IAP Karimnagar: #32) that mentions the term Trilinga. Although the inscription refers to ‘worship of three lingas’ (trilimgarccanam, first side, line

A clue as to what that factor may be is provided by the

23), the precise context of the expression is unclear due to the damaged condition

observation that, in the case of triple shrines, there is a clear

of the epigraph. While it would seem likely that it refers to the worship of three

correlation between variance in mode and the differing composi¬ tion of the groups of deities enshrined in these temples. One type of triple shrine, housing the deities Siva, Visnu, and SQrya (hereaftei lefened to as the Tripurusa type),20 is found constructed in

lihgas established together within the confines of a triple-shrine, it is also possible—given the findspot—that it refers to the worship of the ‘three lihgas’, i.e. the temples at the three Saiva pilgrimage centres of Kaleshvaram, Shrishailam, and Draksharamam, which according to a popular tradition dating from the Kakatiya period, define the boundaries of Telangana (see Iswara Dutt 1963: 165-6; 171-4). (The name Telangana, alternatively, Teluganam, Telihgana, or

Of the thirty-six temples surveyed for this study, three were too badly preserved to allow determination of the mode. 20 The term Tripurusa (or its variants, Traipurusa, Traipursulu, etc.) occurs in several lelangana inscriptions in apparent reference to this particular triad of deities (see, for example, CITD II: #56, 1.99). Surya’s presence as the third

Telengana, is itself derived, according to popular etymology, from tri-lihgade'sa, literally, ‘land of the three lihgas’.) In any case, I will provisionally use the term ‘Trilinga’ as a convenient designation for this type of triple-shrine. 22 The sole exception is Temple 1 at Nagunur, housing three lihgas and built in the Bhumija mode.

454

Syllables of Sky Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

455

the same set of modes to articulate the exteriors of their temples, and on the other hand, that the differences between these two cults and the cult of the Tripurusas are significant enough to necessitate employing a different set of modes to distinguish Tri¬ purusa temples from the other two types. The second point that may be deduced from this patterning is that for the purposes of this modal marking, the Vesara and Bhumija modes were treated as synonymous and interchangeable, as were the Phamsana and Composite Bhumija-Phamsana modes. Thus, instead of featuring four completely distinct modes, the architecture of Kakatiya Telangana appears to have been characterized by the existence of two distinct modal ‘families’—Vesara/Bhumija and Phamsana/ Composite—and the two modes within each family were freely interchangeable within the range of contexts appropriate for that family. We will return to this second point in the final section, but first let us consider what the architectural and epigraphic data suggest about the nature of cultic differentiation between these triple-shrine types. Since the triple shrines dedicated respectively to Siva, Visnu and Surya and to three lingas of Siva constitute the most clearly defined types, we shall focus on them for the sake of our analysis. In the abstract, the temples of both groups share the same plan type (known in contemporary inscriptions as trikuta),23 in which three identical vimana units open onto three sides of a shared, nine-bayed mandapa, with a pillared porch providing the sole point of entry on the fourth side. As actual built monuments, however, the temples of these two classes are rigorously distin¬ guished by several factors, beginning with their different orienta¬ tions. Without exception, Tripurusa temples are oriented to the south (i.e. the entrance porch is on the south side of the mandapa), while Trilihga temples are oriented—with just a single exception

—to the east.24 We may also note that in Tripurusa temples, the situation of the three deities relative to one another is constant, further attesting that these four temples are examples of a single, fixed liturgical type. Thus, the Sivalihga is inevitably situated in the western vimana, oriented east; Visnu in the northern vimana, facing south; and Surya in the eastern shrine, facing west. The two types are further differentiated by certain secondary architectural features. In the case of the Tripurusa temples, all four examples are raised on an elevated masonry terrace or jagati, which extends beyond the width of the temple itself and thus provides a smooth and spacious pathway upon which ritual circumambulation (pradaksind) may be performed. In contrast, temples of the Trilihga type do not generally possess this feature. Of the eight examples documented, only two stand on a jagati; one of these is Nagunur Temple 1, which has already been noted as anomalous with respect to other factors. What this differentiation suggests is not that circumambulation was never performed in the Trilihga temples, but rather that it was not ritually formalized to the same degree here as in the Tripurusa temples. To the extent that the jagati may be considered a monumental precipitate of this ritual action, the presence of jagatis in these latter temples suggests either that pradaksina would have filled a more important role in the liturgy of the Tripurusa, or simply that the designers of these temples anticipated and provided for a greater number of votaries who would be performing the act. A second factor differentiating the two types is the fact that subsidiary structures, including large, detached mandapas on axis with the temple proper, are found in two of the four Tripurusa temples, while no such secondary struc¬ ture is present in any of the Trilihga examples. Again, the implica¬ tion seems to be that the liturgy at the Tripurusa temples could be more complex than at Trilihga shrines, necessitating the con¬ struction of large, secondary mandapas to house the performance

25 See, for example, IAP-Warangal #57, side 3, line 10, where the Tripurusa

of more specialized ritual activities and to accommodate greater

temple at Nidikonda is referred to as ‘best of trikutas’ (trikutottame), and CITD II: #31, lines 5-6, where grants for the Trilihga temple at Nagulapadu are referred to as ‘for this trikuta (J trikutanake).

24 Nagunur, Temple 1, already noted as exceptional with regard to its mode, is oriented to the north.

456

Syllables of Sky

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

457

numbers of participants on these occasions. Other than the form

temples preserve the respective orientations preferred for the two

of these structures themselves, however, there is little to suggest

deities-in their independent temples in the region suggests at least

the identity and nature of such rituals as would have been per¬

that the mode of combination is in fact genuinely syncretistic

formed in these ancillary pavilions, but there is a general similarity

rather than appropriative.26 In contrast to this inclusive, incor-

in plan between some of these mandapas and the later kalyana-

porative mode of grouping characterizing the Tripurusa paradigm,

mandapascharacteristic ofVijayanagara-period temple complexes,

the Trilihga temple manifests a restrictive exclusivity, permitting

which were generally used for the performance of large-scale pe¬

only identical iconic forms of a single deity in its three sancta.

riodic festivals (utsavas), such as the annual kalyanotsava, a ritual

Even more tellingly, inscriptions demonstrate that the ‘familial’

re-enactment celebrating the wedding of the god and his goddess-

relationship between the lingas in temples of this type was not just

consort. In any case, on the basis of these two architectural dif¬

one of iconographic form, but was equally (and quite literally)

ferences, we may reasonably infer that the Tripurusa cult would

manifest in the specific commemorative names given to these

have been liturgically more complex and varied, and that its rituals

lingas. Inscriptions recording the proper names of the enshrined

would likely have involved a greater number of participants than

lingas are preserved in the case of three of the eight surveyed

was the case in the contemporary Trilihga cult. The differing nature of the divine triads housed in the two

temples belonging to this class, and in each case, the lingas were consecrated under names derived by appending the suffix- isvara

types of temples further suggests that it was not just simple num¬

(literally, ‘lord’, one of the most common epithets of Siva) to the

bers of participants that distinguished the two cults, but more

personal names of the founder of the temple, his father and his

significantly, the relative degree of diversity in the social composi¬

mother.27 Use of the resulting commemorative names, literally

tion of the cults. On the most obvious level, we may observe that the Tripurusa temples would have offered a single ritual arena in

26 There is only one Kakatiya-period single shrine in the documented corpus

which the otherwise competing cults of Siva and Visnu,23 appeal¬

that is definitely Vaisnava (Bejjamki, Lakshminarasimha), and it is oriented

ing to different segments of society, could be simultaneously

south. The early twelfth century Visnu temple at Punnolu (Warangal Dt.),

accommodated and possibly even ritually integrated. Although we

although from the pre-Kakatiya phase, provides a second documented example

know next to nothing about the actual modes of worship in these temples, the fact that the layout and orientation of Tripurusa

of the southern orientation which was apparently preferred for Visnu in this region. I have suggested a Vaisnava affiliation for the south-oriented Temple 5 at Palampet (which lacks any iconographic or epigraphic indication of its cultic status) since there are no documented examples of independent shrines dedicated

23 Whether the Surya shrines in these temples represent a third, independent

to other deities that are oriented south. That the south was the favoured

cult dedicated to this deity is unclear on the basis of data presently available.

orientation for Visnu is further suggested by the fact that in the three triple

No documented temples dedicated solely to this deity are known during the

shrines containing two lingas and Visnu, the shrine of Visnu is consistently

Pei i°d in Telangana, and the fact that there are examples of Saiva temples from

oriented south whether the temple as a whole is oriented south or east. The one

the neighbouring Kuntala region which include subordinate shrines to Surya

possible exception to this southern orientation may be Nagunur Temple 8,

suggests that the Surya enshrined in Telangana Tripurusa temples may have

which is oriented east. Although the image is missing from its sanctum, it would

been understood as Saiva in character. A number of Agama and Paddhati texts

appear to have been Vaisnava on the basis of the presence of a stone tongue

enjoin that the daily worship of Siva (in the parartha temple cult as well as in

projecting from the middle of the rear wall of the sanctum, designed to support

the personal cult) is to be preceded by Suryapujci, in which the sun is worshipped

a standing icon. All but one of the documented Saiva single shrines are oriented

as a sakala aspect of Siva before the lingo, which represents the niskala aspect

east; the exception is Palampet Temple 4 which is oriented west.

(see Bhatt [1961: 195-208]).

27 The practice of commemorative naming was of widespread occurrence

458

Syllables of Sky

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

meaning ‘(Siva, the) lord of (so-and-so)’, would have served not only to increase the individual’s fame, but also to ‘mark’ the linga

tioned individually as a personal, commemorative shrine, what is more important is the fact that three such shrines commemorating

so as to channel at least part of the merit accruing from its worship to its ‘owner’ rather than to the individual performing the act. To

related individuals are united in a single edifice, thereby producing an architectural form that spatially reinforces the genealogical

take one example, the foundation inscription of the triple-shrine

relationships recorded in the inscription, and serves as monumen¬ tal testimony of the solidarity of the family unit.

at Nagulapadu (Nalgonda Dt.) records that the temple was estab¬ lished in 1234

CE

by Recerla Kata Reddi, a subordinate of the

459

Kakatiyas and chief of the locality, and that the three lingas were named Namesvara (after his father Nama Reddi), Ayte^vara (after his mother Ayta Ambika) and Katesvara (after himself) (CITD II:

Simply on the basis of architectural and iconographic evid¬ ence, then, we may conclude that the two Telangana triple-shrine types were in fact cultically distinct. Even though both Tripurusa and Trilinga temples are alike in using the same trikuta plan to

27).28 While each vimana unit in these temples would have func-

unite three equivalent spatial units within a larger, encompassing

throughout the medieval Deccan, as in other parts of India and Southeast Asia

whole, the differing nature both of the divinities enshrined and of the secondary architectural features in each instance makes the two types quite dissimilar in final effect. By uniting functionally

(see Mabbett [1969: 213—15], and Filliozat [1981: 62—4]). The practice was by no means restricted either to triple shrines or to Siva-lingas: the images in single-shrine temples—iconic sculptures ofVisnu as well as lingas of Siva—were often similarly named. (In the case of named images ofVisnu, however, the

and cultically distinct deities, the Tripurusa temple provides an iconic metaphor for the social processes of inclusion and incor¬

prehensive study of donative inscriptions of the Kakatiya period, Talbot reports

poration, the very idioms that are suggested by the circumambulatory terrace, secondary mandapas, and the ultimately more

that commemorative naming occurred in fifty-five per cent of the new temple

open, public mode of worship posited for this temple type. The

foundations that are epigraphically documented (1991: 333).

Trilinga temple, on the other hand, with its three lingas that are identical in form and related through their names, presents an iconic form that bespeaks the opposing processes of exclusion and

suffix -svamin is generally used in lieu of -tsvara.) On the basis of her com¬

28 As for the other two documented examples, the foundation inscription of the Mukkantishvara temple at Pillalamarri (Nalgonda Dt.) records that the temple was established in 1195 CE by Recerla Nama Reddi (the father of Kata Reddi of the Nagulapadu temple), and that its three lingas were consecrated as Kamesvara (named after Naina’s father Kama Reddi), Kacesvara (after his mother Kaca Ambika), and Namesvara (after himself) (CITD II: 38). In the case of Temple 3 at Palampet, there is no preserved foundation inscription, but

differentiation; and here, too, these idioms are fully congruent with the image of the smaller scale, essentially more restrictive and private mode of worship suggested by the characteristic lack of jagati and secondary mandapas in temples of this type.

CE) mentions a gift made by Rudra to the deities Katesvara, Kamesvara and

I would emphasize that this interpretation of the two types of triple shrines is based exclusively on the material evidence provided

Rudresvara (Yazdani 1977: 181-5, verses 53—4). (This Rudra belongs to another

by the temples I have personally documented in the field. Ideally,

the Ramappa temple inscription of Recerla Rudra from this same site (1213

branch of the Recerla family that is distinct from that represented in the previous two inscriptions.) Since it is known from the genealogy of Rudra given earlier in the inscription that his father and mother were respectively named Kata and

the period of Rudra’s activity.)

Kamambika, the reference is clearly to a triple shrine established by Rudra with

It should be pointed out that there are ten other instances of commemorative

dedications according to the familiar Father-Mother-Ego pattern; the temple

naming attested from undocumented Trilinga type temples; although only two

referred to must be Temple 3 at the site, which is datable on stylistic grounds

of these cases feature the Father—Mother—Ego pattern seen here, the majority

to the latter part of the twelfth century. (A second Trilinga temple at the

of remaining examples do commemorate three individuals who are related

site—Temple 2—is datable to the middle of the thirteenth century, long after

(sometimes fictively). For further details, see Wagoner (1986: 175-6).

460

Syllables of Sky

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

461

Ideally, of course, it should be tested against additional architec¬

Shrishailam (IAP Warangal, #80) W This inscription is also un¬

tural data as well as the evidence provided by epigraphical sources.

dated, but given the probable dates of Gauraya’s master, Mal¬

A study of epigraphically recorded patterns of donative and other

likarjuna Panditaradhya (c. 1100—1185),30 must fall within the

activity at specific temples subsequent to their foundations would

twenty or twenty-five year period following the temple’s founda¬

be desirable, although one suspects that even a study of this nature

tion. While the three individuals whose activities are revealed in

may be inconclusive, given the generally low ratio of epigraphs

these inscriptions obviously represent only a minute fraction of

1991: 312—

the presumably thousands of people who would have been in¬

18). In fact, of the triple shrines documented in the present study,

volved with this major, metropolitan temple during its lifetime,

per temple in the inland districts of Andhra (Talbot

there are only two which possess more than a single epigraphic

the diversity of their social identities—including the king of the

record. The Thousand Pillar Temple at Hanamkonda, a Tripurusa

realm, a footsoldier and a religious wanderer—is yet strongly

temple, has two epigraphs in addition to its foundation inscrip¬

suggestive of the incorporative nature of the cult in Tripurusa temples.31

tion, and the Nagulapadu triple shrine, a Trilinga temple, has two additional epigraphs recording three separate donative acts. I cer¬ tainly do not intend to generalize on the basis of such limited

Gauraya travelled widely throughout Telangana and Rayalaseema, and

evidence, but I would point out that the widely divergent patterns

has left his graffiti at a number of other temples as well, including the Kota-gudi

of activity revealed by these two sets of epigraphs are such that

at Ghanpur (IAP Warangal, #82), the Ramappa temple at Palampet (IAP

they are at least in accordance with the interpretation of the

Warangal, #79), and temples at Gundala (IAP Warangal, #78) and Parkal (IAP

architectural record that I have offered. The three inscriptions preserved from the Thousand Pillar Temple attest quite clearly to the fact that unrelated individuals,

Warangal, #81). Further graffiti inscriptions of Vibhuti Gauraya are reported in the Annual Reports of Epigraphy as follows: ARE #76 for 1929-30 (from Terala, Palnad Tk„ Guntur Dt.), ARE #315 for 1930-31 (Satrasala, Palnad Tk., Guntur Dt.), ARE #36b for 1942—43 (Sangamesvara, Nandikotkur Tk.,

belonging, moreover, to different occupational classes and social

Kurnool Dt.), ARE #32 for 1961-62 (Kalavakolanu, Kollapur Tk., Mahbub-

levels, came together in the activities of this temple. The first

nagar Dt.) and ARE #157 of 1962-63 (Gadigarevula, Nandyal Tk., Kurnool

inscription, dated to

1163 CE,

documents the temple’s foundation

Dt.). See Talbot (1988: 29). In the Hanamkonda inscription, which is frag¬

through the royal patronage of Kakatiya Rudradeva, whose status

mentary , Gauraya s actual name is not preserved but his identity is inferable

as king and paramount ruler is poetically proclaimed in a long

from the fact that the formula with which he describes himself is identical with

panegyric composed by the brahmin-ascetic author of the inscrip¬ tion (CITD II:

#3).

The second inscription (which is undated)

records the donation of additional religious icons and their place¬ ment within the temple’s Siva shrine (‘Rudresvara’) by Gosagi

that used in his other inscriptions. 30 See Lalitamba (1981: 25-9). 31 The sole documented example of the type in Telangana from before the Kakatiya period—the Chaya Someshvara temple at Pangal (Nalgonda Dt.)_ offers the only other instance of a Tripurusa type temple from which more than

Isvara-deva, a common footsoldier {bantu) who describes himself

one inscription has survived; here too the epigraphic testimony corroborates the

as under the command of the Kakatiya kings (tamnelina sri-

pattern suggested by the inscriptions at Hanamkonda. There is no foundation

kakatiya rajulaku\ CITD II: #4). Finally, the third inscription

inscription for the Chaya Someshvara, but the temple appears on stylistic

records not a donation, but a visit to the temple by the peripatetic

grounds to have been built during the last quarter of the eleventh century. At

religious pilgrim, Vibhuti Gauraya, who describes himself as a native of Macirajupalll within the fort at Warangal and a disciple of the eminent Virashaiva teacher, Mallikarjuna Panditaradhya of

some point during the reign of Rudradeva (either Rudradeva or Rudramadevi; the inscription is undated), Tamtrapalu Malli-nayaka, a general or advisor in the service of the Kakatiya king, granted four marturus of wet-land and twenty marturus of dry-land to the temple (CITD II: 33). In 1266 CE, Yadava

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

462

463

Syllables of Sky such a principle operating not only in the case of triple-shrine In stark contrast, the inscriptions from Nagulapadu reveal a

pattern in which only individuals related to the founder are in¬ volved in the activities of the temple. Thus, in 1264 CE, thirty years after the temple’s construction by Recerla Kata-Reddi, KataReddi’s sons, Kamaya, Namaya and Mallaya, collectively made a grant of four marturus of wet-land to their father’s triple-shrine (CITDII: 31,11.1-5). Then, three years later, in 1267 CE, Kamaya alone granted four marturus of wet-land to the triple-shrine (CITD II: 31,11.5-12). On this same occasion, Namaya also made an independent grant of two marturus to the temple (CITD II: 31, 11. 13—21). At the Nagulapadu trikuta, not only are all sub¬ sequent donors members of the founder’s family, but they draw .attention to this fact by explicitly defining the nature of their relationship in each record. Although limited, this epigraphic evidence lends further support to the interpretation of Trilihga temples as private, family shrines, where participation in the cult was restricted to the family of the founder and its closest associates. If we accept this interpretation of the differences between the two main types of triple shrines, may we then hypothesize that it was cultic orientation that determined the choice of mode? Might there have been a principle of decorum holding that temples dedicated to public cults—such as that of the Tripurusas—were appropriately decorated when built according to the Vesara or Bhumija modes, while temples housing private cults—such as those of the Trilihga type—were appropriately decorated when given the forms of the Phamsana or Composite modes? If this hypothesis is correct, then we should expect to find evidence of

temples but also for single shrines. Put another way, is there evidence* to suggest that the single-shrine temples built in the Vesara or Bhumija modes likewise housed cults of a public nature, while those built in the Phamsana and Composite modes were dedicated to private cults? Although the cults in the two modally defined classes of single-shrines cannot be differentiated iconically—in that the temples of Siva and Visnu are found in both modal families—there are architectural differences between the types which parallel those seen in the case of the triple shrines and which seem in like manner to signal a distinction between public and private cults. Of the eight single shrines built in either the Vesara or Bhumija modes, all but one stand on a jagati, while none of the nine Phamsana or Composite examples possess this feature. Two of the eight Vesara/ Bhumija examples are additionally surrounded by a host of sub¬ sidiary structures, including secondary shrines and various special¬ ized mandapas, but none of the Phamsana/Composite examples are so augmented. Finally, in all nine of the Vesara/Bhumija examples, the mandapa is of a cruciform plan, with an entrance porch projecting from the middle of each of the three sides not connected to the vimana unit. This provision of multiple points of access to the interior is yet another feature—not seen, for obvious reasons, in the public triple shrines—which bespeaks a more open and larger scale cult in these temples. Although four of the nine Phamsana/Composite examples do likewise possess multiple entrances, the fact that four others have only a single entrance porch reinforces the image of these temples—suggested by their lack of jagatis and subsidiary structures—as being more

Sarngapani-deva, a prince belonging to the Yadava line of Devagiri who had

restrictive in cult. The evidence for single shrines thus corroborates

taken up service with the Kakatiyas and was ruling as lord of Pangal, gave a gift'

the pattern seen in the case of triple shrines and allows us to

of wet-land amounting to twelve marturus to the temple (CITD II: 34). Possibly on this same occasion, the village accountant (karanamu), Dimdima-raju made the small grant of one field to maintain a lamp in the temple (CITD II: 34, lines 93-9; the record of this grant is appended to the text of the preceding

hypothesize that, in the architectural practice of Kakatiya Telangana, the Vesara and Bhumija modes bore connotations that made them appropriate for use in publicly oriented temples, while the

inscription). Finally, in 1290 CE, Immadi-Mallikarjuna-nayamka, a subordinate

associative values of Phamsana and Composite were such that

of the Kakatiya king, granted five marturus of wet land to the temple (CITD

these modes were deemed suitable only for private temples.

II: 35).

464

Syllables of Sky Public Modes, Private Modes: Pillared and Masonic Traditions

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

465

conception is equally evident in the forms of the Bhumija mode, although here they are more symbolic and correspond less directly

What, then, were the specific values that were carried by these

to an actual post and beam structure. In the Bhumija articulation

modes in Telangana, which helped determine the specific opera¬

of the wall, the pair of pillars defining each bay of an actual post

tion of the principle of decorum? In other words, what qualities

and beam structure have coalesced into the single pillar that

do the Vesara and Bhumija modes have in common that might

occupies the full width of each ahga, but the salilantara recess

account for their forms being coloured with a range of ‘public’

intervening between each pair of adjacent angas effectively reads

associations, and what do the Phamsana and Composite modes

as the void space of an intercolumniation.33

share that would charge them with ‘private’ associations? The key

Since, historically speaking, the pillared tradition had been

to this final question lies, I believe, in recognizing the opposition

associated pre-eminently with the architecture of the palace,

between fundamentally distinct conceptions of structure that un¬

monuments built in accordance with this structural conception

derlie the forms of the modes in each of the two families.

would have been strongly charged with the full range of values

The Vesara and Bhumija modes both represent a ‘pillared’

and qualities associated with this most public of built environ¬

conception of architecture, in that the forms used to articulate the

ments in classical and medieval India. From Bana in the seventh

exterior refer historically to an earlier, primarily wooden tradition

century through the royal authors of the Vijayanagara and Nayaka

of building based on a post and beam structure with flexible,

periods, courtly literature in Sanskrit and the vernacular languages

non-load-bearing partition walls.32 This pillared conception is

is filled with descriptions of kings in their palaces, attended by

especially clear in the forms of the Vesara mode, with its paired

hosts of courtiers representing every possible class and occupation,

pilasters framing each ahga and ‘supporting’ the beam-like ele¬

and hailing from every corner of the earth. Prataparudra, for

ments of the entablature at the top of the wall. Even though these

example, the last ruler of the Kakatiya dynasty, is described in the

forms are parts of a decorative skin applied to a masonry wall, and

sixteenth

as such are completely non-functional, the decorative intent is

caritramu as waited upon by the lords of other realms and by

clearly to evoke and suggest the appearance of a wooden post and

courtiers of various callings, including Brahmin scholars, jesters,

beam structure, and, in effect, to dematerialize the stone fabric of

kshatriyas, courtesans, poets, purohits,, bards and panegyrists:

century Telugu historiographic text

Prataparudra-

the intervening matrix, causing it to be read either as a void, or

‘With all these people of various skills serving him, and surrounded

as a light, screening partition fitted into the bay. This same pillared

by five thousand attendants who showered him with gold and riches and sprinkled him with scented water from golden bottles,

32 I am indebted to Meister for the notions of ‘pillared’ and ‘masonic traditions of architecture, although my interpretation of the significance of these traditions in the context of medieval Telangana differs considerably from Meister s, which is specific to early medieval architecture in western India.

Prataparudra sat in the great assembly and ruled the kingdom, considering the petitions of the local lords and entertaining the requests of ambassadors.’34 Since in their public manifestations,

Meister draws an important and productive distinction between a building’s structural conception and its actual structure: The contrast [is] between a pillared, primarily wooden tradition and a masonic tradition, with stone enclos¬ ing an inner cell. I use “masonic” to refer to a stone conception and “masonry” to refer to the structural material. (A masomy structure can reflect either a pillared or a ‘masonic’ tradition.)’ (Meister 1985: 129).

33 This transformation represents yet another instance of the process of ‘compaction’ or ‘symbolic substitution’ described by Meister in the context of the development of the temple superstructure. See Meister 1973 & 1986. 34 Ramachandra Rao 1984: 46 (translation mine). The original passage quoted reads:

nana-vidyalavaru koluvu ceyaga baidi-vittambulu baraveyucu

pasidi-kuppela jallulavaru 5000 lum goluva berdlagambuna gurcundunu desadhi-

466

Syllables of Sky

Modal Marking of Temple Types in Kakatiya Andhra

467

gods too were conceived in terms of this same royal paradigm, it

near-total metamorphosis, turning a form which was originally

was wholly appropriate that the pillared forms of royal architecture

palatial and pillared in conception into one that is almost com¬

should be applied to their temples—or ‘palaces’ (prasada), as they

pletely masonic and would appear to result from the process of

are in fact frequently termed in Sanskrit.35

piling up slabs to produce a corbelled vault.

The Phamsana and Composite modes, on the other hand,

Dolmens and other megaliths of a similar nature are of such

represent a ‘masonic’ architectural conception, in which the prim¬

widespread occurrence throughout the Deccan and south India

ary historical reference of the modal forms is to a quite different

in the period immediately preceding the rise of historic cultures

structural tradition. The masonic tradition has its original locus

in the region, that the dominant culture of the protohistoric phase

in the megalithic architecture of dolmenoid tombs and memorials,

in peninsular India is customarily described as ‘Megalithic’, or

in which massive slabs of stone are erected to produce solid,

designated under the rubric of the ‘Pandukal Complex’ by those

load-bearing walls supporting monolithic capstones. Although

who prefer an equivalent Tamil term (Leshnick 1974). Moreover,

there are many formal components of both Phamsana and Com¬

it has recently been argued that there was a direct continuity of

posite Bhumija-Phamsana modes that bear no apparent connec¬

development between the cultures of the Megalithic and historic

tion with the megalithic tradition (such as the phamsana tower

phases in Andhra, with the horizon of transition beginning as early

with its articulation in storeys, or the molded forms of the adhi-

as in the third century BCE in the fertile zones of the middle

sthana), the stark masonic conception of the walls in the two

Krishna river basin (Galla 1982), and continuing up to as late as

modes is clearly related to the masonic structural tradition em¬

the tenth and eleventh centuries in the drier upland tracts of the

bodied in megaliths. We can easily recognize the masonic nature

Telangana interior (Wagoner 1986: 35-48). Given this general

of the walls in the Phamsana mode, with their ashlar faces un¬

continuity of development and, more particularly, the likelihood

adorned and unarticulated so as to produce a continuous and

that the chiefly families who patronized temple construction were

rigidly orthogonal surface suggesting the form of a single, mono¬

descended from local Megalithic clans that had only recently

lithic slab; but even in the Composite mode, with its molded walls

sedentarized, it seems quite probable that the masonic conception

referring obliquely to Bhumija convention, the underlying struc¬

manifested in Phamsana and Composite buildings would have

tural conception is still masonic, without any suggestion of either

been deeply resonant with the funereal and memorial connotations

a pillared structure or a division of the wall into bays. Finally, we

borne by the earlier monuments.36 While these associations would

may note that in the case of both modes, the extreme compression of the storeys in the phamsana superstructure, together with the total elimination of the vestigial pilasters that articulated the sur¬ face of the kandharas in earlier phamsana forms, has produced a

36 I intend to focus on this issue in a separate study, which will examine the full array of archaeological, architectural and historical evidence and address certain theoretical aspects of the problem. At this juncture, I would only like to call attention to K.R. Srinivasan’s interpretation of the significance and

patula vinnapambu vilokimcunu rayabarula manuvul alakimcunu. Comparable

repercussions of the introduction of stone as a material for temples under Pallava

descriptions of Vijayanagara kings in their courts are found in the Telugu

Mahendravarman. The Mandagapattu inscription praises the inventive-minded-

Kayavhcakamu, where a full assembly of the court is said to include repre¬

ness (vicitra-citta) of Mahendravarman in having a cave-temple built at this site,

sentatives of seventy-two ‘offices* (Wagoner 1993: 79 & 159-60).

which is described as brickless {anistakarri), timberless (adrumam), metalless

35 The homologous nature of kings and gods and the historical impact of

(aloharri), and mortarless (