Women Sadhu

The Householder, the Ascetic and the Politician: women sadhus at the Kumbh Mela Author(s): Sheba Chhachhi
Source: India International Centre Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 3/4, India: A National Culture? (WINTER 2002-SPRING 2003), pp. 224-234 Published by: India International Centre Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23005828 . Accessed: 10/12/2013 14:46
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Sheba Chhachhi
The Householder; the Ascetic and the Politician: women sadhus at the Kumbh Mela
So free am I, so gloriously free Free from the three petty things From mortar, pestle and my twisted lord Freed from rebirth and death am I And all that has held me doum Is hurled away.
Mutta, from the
(Songs of the Nuns) from Pali by Uma Translated Women Writing in India Vol. I, Eds.
Therigatha
6th century B.C. Kumkum Roy,
and Chakravarthy Tharu & Lalitha
I of the thousands may or may not have recognised women sadhus gathered at the first Kumbh Mela of the new Mutta millenium, in Allahabad, have moved Like her, these women of the domestic. Whether January 2002. out of the narrow stepped confines
devotion, answering by a profound of a a spiritual call, simply attracted to the chastity and simplicity or mendicant's cast out by family, society life, or, obversely, the burdens the woman ascetic surrenders circumstance, pleasures, and markers into female existence. Unlike of ordinary Mutta, they are a complex social structured order, by ritual, parallel the politics of power. hierarchies and increasingly,
bound
patriarchal
Sheba
Chhachhi
/ 225
of her seeking initiation is systematically stripped secular identity. Shorn of hair, clothes, name, kith and kin, the elaborate in her performing her own death rites. Reborn a ritual culminates The woman called a mai) committed to a rigorous code of sadhvi, (more commonly she is to conduct and personal formally presented spiritual practice, In return she the rest of the akhada to which she now owes allegiance. from her guru, tenuous legitimacy, spiritual guidance and the of refuge. occasional material support possibility protection, on their ownautonomous, In essence, these are women though, receives and curiously highly mobile, structures within the narratives In the grand and part through of the spectacle trans-gender, they negotiate of their particular lives. power is constructed these
of the Kumbh, Performance
increasingly manifesting accepts
performance. culture of religion emerging as significant in the humble
by has always been an integral in India. But today women are
offerings for a year), or the to her vow of remaining (a testimony standing in mellifluous attractive mai on the huge television screens sermonising Hindi. Sanskritised Many photographs into sadhana. pomp beneath Mira Puri had years ago, Shri Shri Mahant of herself as a young initiate: shaven, austere, shown me withdrawn
in this arena, whether protagonists tent from which an ageing mai graciously swollen feet for the display of her young disciple's
has retreated behind the Today that fragile androgyny the now long hair concealed and circumstance of mahanthood,
a large, assertive turban. Mahant Mira's lila is rich and varied. She moves seamlessly from the warm, caring mother with the new to the 'master' with her closest to the initiates, disciples, playful powerful The curious, practice, ordinary between even meditator inward almost with awestruck drawn envious visitors. attracted the gaze of the yogi has always eyes of the lay person. In fact, the performance
of the trans-social social
self (nakedness, 'mad' behavior, and severe ascetic serves to underline the ascetic's freedom from for example) mores, eliciting both reverence and revenue. The of aberration, of the householder becomes paradoxically, and that of the ascetic. make offerings forbid interaction a bridge However, to chillum between
assertion/enactment the world obedient
daughters-in-law though smoking naga sadhus, the Dharma Shastras the 'good wife' and women ascetics!
226 / Women Sadhus at the Kumbh Mela II Mahant oldest, no means the Kumbh need Mira most is unusual mahants of the as one of only three women the but her akhada, juna akhada, position is by The maivada is thronged by hundreds of mais at briefly a sorority, they congregate ones. They may as well as pragmatic to secure, for instance, the much sought
respected a sinecure.
from all over
the country. Only for sacred purposes
help from the Mahant after sadhu identity card, but after that they will return to independent sacred sites and lives, linked through a huge network of ashrams, events. Could The Mahant's she is invited ever Vishva needed this community of women be moulded meet with a curious with Sadhvi A mixture
aspirations to share the dais Sadhvi Sammelan.
into a constituency? form of recognition Rithambara at the first and cajoling is Here the mais
of coercion
to persuade the women of the maivada to attend. as sadhvis, a term they do not are individually welcomed garlanded, the vituperative rant against the loss of use themselves. Indeed, cultural cow values, slaughter Shaivite non-literate issues closer are addressed, invoked, seem the dangers of westernisation to have little connection mais that finally such as domestic nod, hands flamboyance of the many to prevent with the largely rural, fill the space. However, when violence when and women's a mask seen alcoholism shakti is and the need
to their lives, heads
go up and response. cloaked roles
there is an enthusiastic
Her customary is this just another
behind
that I have
of sobriety, Mira Mahant
of the gentle play? Or will I have to bear witness to the transformation face mais into sadhvis of the ilk of Rithambaraher triumphant in the as she revelled consciousness engraved upon the nation's Will the long lineage of the bairagan, of the Babri Masjid? from both anger and desire, 'free from her expanded heart detached all that has held her down' vanish from sight in order to survive? destruction These on women images are excerpted ascetics. from an ongoing photographic project
MAI/MAHANT
Kumbh Mela 2002
PHOTO ESSAY by SHEBA CHHACHHI
Shri Shri Mahant
Mira Puri
Hlcil
ft ^
jNfcra?#'

Women Sadhu

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The Householder, the Ascetic and the Politician: women sadhus at the Kumbh Mela Author(s): Sheba Chhachhi

6th century B.C. Kumkum Roy,

and Chakravarthy Tharu & Lalitha

of the Kumbh, Performance

increasingly manifesting accepts

performance. culture of religion emerging as significant in the humble

by has always been an integral in India. But today women are

of the trans-social social

assertion/enactment the world obedient

from all over

the country. Only for sacred purposes

aspirations to share the dais Sadhvi Sammelan.

to their lives, heads

go up and response. cloaked roles

Her customary is this just another

of sobriety, Mira Mahant

Kumbh Mela 2002

PHOTO ESSAY by SHEBA CHHACHHI

Shri Shri Mahant

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