The Assertion of Femininity in Indian Thought (4)

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7. DHUMAVATI, THE GODDESS WHO WIDOWS HERSELF

 

Dhumawati is ugly, unsteady, and angry. She is tall and wears dirty

clothes. Her ears are ugly and rough, she has long teeth, and her

breasts hang down. She has a long nose. She has the form of a widow.

She rides in a chariot decorated with the emblem of the crow. Her eyes

are fearsome, and her hands tremble. In one hand she holds a winnowing

basket, and with the other hand she makes the gesture of conferring

boons. Her nature is rude. She is always hungry and thirsty, and looks

unsatisfied. She likes to create strife, and she is always frightful

in appearance.

 

The legend behind Dhumawati's origin says that once, when Shiva's

spouse Sati was dwelling with him in the Himalayas, she became

extremely hungry and asked him for something to eat. When he refused

to give her food, she said, "Well, then I will just have to eat you."

Thereupon she swallowed Shiva, thus widowing herself. He persuaded her

to disgorge him, and when she did so he cursed her, condemning her to

assume the form of the widow Dhumawati. This myth underlines

Dhumawati's destructive bent. Her hunger is only satisfied when she

consumes Shiva, her husband and who contains within himself the whole

world. Ajit Mookerjee, commenting on her perpetual hunger and thirst,

which is mentioned in many places, says that she is the embodiment of

"unsatisfied desires." Her status as a widow itself is curious. She

makes herself one by swallowing Shiva, an act of self-assertion, and

perhaps independence.

 

The crow, which appears as her emblem atop her chariot, is a carrion

eater and symbol of death. Indeed, she herself is sometimes said to

resemble a crow. The Prapancasarasara-samgraha, for example, says that

her nose and throat resemble those of a crow.

 

The winnowing basket in her hand represents the need to discern the

inner essence from the illusory realities of outer forms. The dress

she wears has been taken from a corpse in the cremation ground. She is

said to be the embodiment of the tamas guna, the negative qualities

associated with lust and ignorance. She is believed to enjoy liquor

and meat, both of which are tamsic. Dhumawati is also interpreted by

some Tantra scholars as "the aspect of reality that is old, ugly, and

unappealing. This is further corroborated by the fact that she is

generally associated with all that is inauspicious and is believed to

dwell in desolate areas of the earth, such as deserts, in abandoned

houses, in quarrels, in mourning children, in hunger and thirst, and

most particularly in widows.

 

8. BAGALAMUKHI, THE GODDESS WHO SEIZES THE TONGUE

 

The legend behind the origin of goddess Bagalamukhi is as follows:

 

A demon named Madan undertook austerities and won the boon of vak

siddhi, according to which anything he said came about. He abused this

boon by harassing innocent people. Enraged by his mischief, the gods

worshipped Bagalamukhi. She stopped the demon's rampage by taking hold

of his tongue and stilling his speech. Before she could kill him,

however, he asked to be worshipped with her, and she relented, That is

why he is depicted with her. She is almost always portrayed in this

act, holding a club in one hand, with which she is about to strike her

enemy, and with the other hand pulling his tongue. In this myth, by

stopping the demon's tongue, she exercises her peculiar power over

speech and her power to freeze, stun, or paralyze.

 

The pulling of the demon's tongue by Bagalamukhi is both unique and

significant. Tongue, the organ of speech and taste, is often regarded

as a lying entity, concealing what is in the mind. The Bible

frequently mentions the tongue as an organ of mischief, vanity and

deceitfulness. The wrenching of the demon's tongue is therefore

symbolic of the Goddess removing what is in essentiality a perpetrator

of evil.

 

9. MATANGI, THE GODDESS WHO LOVES POLLUTION

 

Once Parvati, seated on Shiva's lap, said to him that he always gave

her anything she wanted and that now she had a desire to visit her

father. Would he consent to her visiting her father, Himalaya, she

asked? Shiva was not happy about granting her this wish but eventually

complied, saying that if she did not come back in a few days, he would

go there himself to ask for her return. Parvati's mother sent a crane

to carry Parvati back to her family home. When she did not return for

some days, Shiva disguised himself as an ornament maker and went to

her father's house. He sold shell ornaments to Parvati and then,

seeking to test her faithfulness, asked that she have sex with him as

his payment. Parvati was outraged at the merchant's request and was

ready to curse him, but then she discerned with her yogic intuition

that the ornament vendor was really her husband, Shiva. Concealing her

knowledge of his true identity, she replied: "Yes, fine, I agree. But

not just now."

 

Sometime later, Parvati disguised herself as a huntress and went to

Shiva's home, where he was preparing to do evening prayer. She danced

there, wearing red clothes. Her body was lean, her eyes wide, and her

breasts large. Admiring her, Shiva asked: "Who are you?" She replied:

"I am the daughter of a Chandala. I've come here to do penance." Then

Shiva said: "I am the one who gives fruits to those who do penance."

Saying this, he took her hand, kissed her, and prepared to make love

to her. While they made love, Shiva himself was changed into a

Chandala. At this Point he recognized the Chandala woman as his wife

Parvati. After they had made love, Parvati asked Shiva for a boon,

which he granted. Her request was this: "As you [shiva] made love to

me in the form of a Chandalini [Chandala woman], this form should last

forever and be known as Uccishtha-matangini (now popularly known as

Matangi)."

 

The key to this legend is the essence of the word 'Chandala.' The

Chandalas are believed to constitute the lowest strata of the caste

hierarchy in orthodox Hindu belief. Associated with death and impurity

they have always survived on the fringes of mainstream society.

Derogatory in the extreme sense, The label chandala itself has become

the worst kind of slur. Thus by disguising herself as a Chandalini,

Parvati assumes the identity of a very low-caste person, and by being

attracted, Shiva allows himself to be identified with her. Both

deities self-consciously and willingly associate themselves with the

periphery of Hindu society and culture. The Chandala identity is

sacralized therefore, in the establishment of Goddess Matangi. This

goddess summarizes in herself the polluted and the forbidden.

 

Another myth related to Matangi reinforces this belief. Once upon a

time, Vishnu and Lakshmi went to visit Shiva and Parvati. They gifted

Shiva and Parvati fine foods, and some pieces dropped to the ground.

>From these remains arose a maiden endowed with fair qualities. She

asked for leftover food (uccishtha). The four deities offered her

their leftovers as prasada (food made sacred by having been tasted by

deities). Shiva then said to the attractive maiden: "Those who repeat

your mantra and worship you, their activities will be fruitful. They

will be able to control their enemies and obtain the objects of their

desires." From then on this maiden became known as

Uccishtha-matangini. She is the bestower of all boons.

 

This legend stresses Matangi's association with leftover food, which

is normally considered highly polluting. Indeed, she herself actually

arises or emerges from Shiva and Parvati's table scraps. And the first

thing she asks for is sustenance in the form of leftover food

(uccishtha). Texts describing her worship specify that devotees should

offer her uccishtha with their hands and mouths stained with leftover

food; that is, worshippers should be in a state of pollution, having

eaten and not washed. This is a dramatic reversal of the usual

protocols for the worship of deities. Normally, devotees are careful

to offer particularly pure food or food that the deity especially

likes. After the deity has eaten it, the food is thought of as blessed

and returned to the worshipper to partake, and is believed to contain

the grace of the deity. The ritual give-and-take in this case

emphasizes the inferior position of the devotee, who serves the deity

and accepts the deity's leftover food as something to be cherished. In

the case of Matangi however, worshippers present her with their own

highly polluted leftover food and are themselves in a state of

pollution while doing so.

 

In some rituals she is known to have been offered a piece of clothing

stained with the menstrual blood in order to win the boon of being

able to attract someone. Menstrual blood is regarded as taboo in the

performance of religious functions, but in the case of Matangi these

strict taboos are disregarded, indeed, are flaunted.

 

(Continued ...)