Menstruation & Ritual Purity

[Guest guest]

I agree that the idea of menstrual impurity is foreign to Tantrik

worldview, in fact it would be easy to make a case that Tantriks

deliberately upended this with other orthodoxies, gender as well as

caste stereotypes and aversions. While not totally unique, the

Tantrik reverence for menstruation is pretty outstanding.

 

To me it looks like the modern institution of the Kumaris is a blend,

having undergone considerable modification over the centuries. The

original Kumari who is pointed to as the origin of the custom arose

as an oracle of goddess Taleju. She certainly had her feet on the

ground (the modern Kumaris are not supposed to touch earth directly):

she led and aroused people to social action to overthrow a tyrannical

king, at the behest of her goddess. Over time the incarnate goddesses

became hedged around by customary restraints, and their society

doesn't know quite what to do with them once their term of divinity

ends. Most men don't want to marry them, and it is even considered

bad luck to do so.

 

That her divinity ends when she sheds blood speaks to the idea that a

goddess is never wounded, but it conflicts with other traditions that

she does menstruate, Kamakhya being the most prominent example. I

think the real origin of the custom may be that the Kumari must be a

maiden, one who has not attained womanhood. Examples abound in India

of adorning and worshipping girls as various forms of Devi.

>The obvious and sensationalistic examples are Tantric Shakta

>scriptures such as the widely known Yoni Tantra, in which menstrual

>fluids are an object of veneration; or the Kamakhya Temple in Assam

 

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Max Dashu

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Global Women's Studies

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