Criminal Culture (2) – Hurt that ‘Slut’

13.5x20.5 inches; Pen drawing on handmade paper with watercolour wash (Click on image to enlarge) 

Love is a good excuse. You see, in this region, men have a lot of heat and we are always ready to have sex with girls (Woman sounds very... it has a not-a-virgin ring to it! Though many a times due to lack of options many desperate men will go to the red light area or satisfy their hunger with a hot bhabi (i) in the colony. But those cases are rare and much uncultured! And no, in our culture men don’t bang other men or Chhakkas (ii)! Disgraceful! Better poke a goat than commit such a sin!), but we do not always get the opportunity because good girls save their virginity for their husbands. So, what should we men do? How long can we depend on our own hands to release our heat? And you can’t get married to every girl you fancy just for masti (iii). That’s when love comes handy.

“How?” you ask. Let me explain then. I am an able bodied, unmarried, virile man (For men age does not matter, what matters is whether we can get ‘it’ up!) and handsome (Won’t you agree?). So, first I select a girl. I set my eyes on this fair, young, curvaceous item number (Such big assets (iv)!), who comes to my shop regularly to buy supplies and often looks at me and smiles coyly. I get a feeling that she is ripe for plucking. I start to spin my web around her. Give her discounts, free gifts...you know the drill. Then one day, when she has a big load to carry back home, I offer to drop her home on my Yamaha. You understand right? It is like killing two birds with the same stone. I get to impress her with my motorbike and I get to feel her body press against my back during the ride! Clever, no? I can’t tell you how many times I shook my wand that night, just remembering the feeling of her melon like boobs pressing against my back! I already knew where she lived, the daughter of our old postmaster!

So, I start working my charm and it takes me five whole months to make her believe that I love her and I will marry her! That’s the magic promise. Then she does what I want, and dances to the tune of my flute like a drunk Nagin (v)! A virgin one that too! What a catch! For the next couple of months, my hands get time off from shaking my wand! She burns with every touch of mine and asks for it again and again. I still get hot thinking about it. So, mission accomplished.  I get to bang a virgin with just three magic words ‘I Love You!’ Now you understand?

What happened after that? Well, she started nagging me to marry her, every time we met. I made excuses. I never intended to marry her, right? That arrangement was working out fine for me. I always used a condom, so she can’t blackmail me with pregnancy! I am clever, I tell you.

It gets boring after that. How can I, an eligible bachelor with a profitable business and loads of money, marry a girl whose father lives on government salary? What dowry will she fetch? It would have been something if they owned any property, but they lived in a government quarter. And why marry just for masti when there were other flowers to pluck in the garden? And moreover she proved to be a ‘Slut’. I used and tasted her already. If she was a girl of virtue she would have protected her honour and virginity and insisted that I marry her before jumping into bed with me. But she was too easy! I want my wife to be a virgin on our wedding night, untouched by any man. It was a no deal!  So, I dumped her. Oh she did such drama, but then I reminded her that I have some of her ‘khul-ja-simsim’(vi) photos with me and if she acted too smart, I will make them public. That took her off my back! But what hot sex I had as long as it lasted. She could give Sunny Leone a run for her money, boss! Those photographs I have of her, serve their purpose well, even today (Wink!).

What became of her? Well, the ‘Slut’ got what she deserved (I can’t stand ‘Sluts’ you know!). She was married off in a hurry to a government clerk from the neighbouring district. On the wedding night Mister found out Missus was not a virgin! He beat the ‘Slut’ black and blue and two days later dumped her back at her father’s house. If you ask me, she got away easy! If I come to know my wife is a ‘Slut’, on my wedding night, I will hurt her so bad that I will kill her after I take all the pleasure from her. Soon, the entire family left this neighbourhood, quietly in the night, like thieves. No news after that.

What about me? I am still single, buzzing around drinking nectar from different flowers in the garden. If you know of a good, virgin, young girl, from a rich business family, fix her up with me. I will reward you with those photos of the ‘Slut’.

(i) Brother’s wife

(ii) Slang for Hijras/eunuchs

(iii) Sexual pleasure

(iv) Refers to the physical attributes of the girl, namely her breasts, hips and ass.

(v) Female snake

(vi) Refers to ‘Open sesame’ indicating revealing/naked pictures

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 Slut – meaning in slang

~ A dirty, slovenly woman (Rarely used nowadays)

~ A servant girl or a slave (Classist and racist origins)

~  An immoral woman

~ A female sex worker

~ A person who is sexually promiscuous (Mostly used for women but also used for homosexual/bisexual men and transgender persons)

~ A person with excessive desire to do or have something specific

Slut is a sexist/misogynist/classist/racist slur/insult used for

1.       Woman of colour (more often for black/brown women)

2.       Woman with multiple sexual partners

3.       Sex worker

4.       Homosexual/bisexual man and transgender person who is promiscuous

5.       Woman who is aware of her sexuality and sexual agency and uses it with confidence

6.        A woman who uses sex to get benefits, jobs or promotions (work place)

7.       Women/men as sex slaves

There is no equivalent derogatory term which can be used to describe a sexually promiscuous heterosexual man. The terms like stud, player and womanizer are used in a rather pompous manner to applaud male promiscuity as big achievement. This exposes the double standards of society’s moral codes set for men and women.

Feminists and LGBTQ rights movements have reclaimed the word ‘Slut’ and use it with pride, denoting that promiscuity is nothing to be ashamed of. Psychoanalyst and social critic Susie Orbach says, “The problem with the word slut is that it has cut women off because they have energy around their sexual desires and we are still so prejudiced about this. But if we reclaim the word, it simply becomes an issue of 'so what?'." The SlutWalk movement which has gained considerable ground also establishes this along with protest against the idea that a woman's appearance, often considered promiscuous, is a justification of inviting sexual assault and rape. The participants in these walks protest against individuals that excuse rape due to the woman's appearance, including victim blaming and slut shaming.

Popular misconception which is propagated in our society – A ‘Slut’ is not worthy of any dignity or human decency and hence can be dealt with in the basest ways. A ‘Slut’ promotes immorality through sexual abandon and hence destroys the virtuous family-centrist fabric of society. A ‘Slut’ needs to be policed, rehabilitated, restrained and punished. A ‘Slut’ deserves punishment in the form of physical, verbal and psychological abuse - Domestic violence, torture, rape, public shaming, invasion of privacy, dehumanizing, curtailing support system and taking life - each one a criminal act against humanity.

For further reading:

Links:

1.  https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-13333013

2.  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-019-01095-z

3. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-you-should-stop-using-the-word-slut-as-an-insult-the-story-of-emily-lindins-unslut-project_b_6715534

4. https://ling.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/alumni%20senior%20essays/Scruton_Eliza%20Senior%20Essay%20Final.pdf

Criminal Culture (1) – Tame that ‘Bitch’.

13.5x20.5 inches; Pen drawing on handmade paper with watercolour wash (Click on image to enlarge)

You look at me like I exist; because my body displaces the air of your quick appraisal around it and occupies the space of your slow verdict, of whether it is worth your while to humour this piece of meat enough, for a feather-in-the-cap fuck, in time. My chest, my hips, my ass, my legs and everything else in between, except my head (I don’t mean ‘giving head’, silly!), heart and soul, ignites your uncontrollable passion. Men will be men, won’t they? And they will be forever spiralling out of control, won’t they? Decision made, my body either scores high on your lust scale or falls short of it, and accordingly, so does my existence in your attention span. Should I call myself lucky if my body fails to excite you enough? But then, does it really matter? I, my body, may excite some other stranger and it will be the same routine. And then slowly you start your tiresome mating call. Do I appear excited too? Ah, pardon me! You were not instructed to pay attention to such things. Who cares if a piece of meat is interested to fill your appetite, you just grab it and consume it. Who dares deny you? And just because you find me fuck worthy, an automatic neon sign saying ‘Come On’ appears to be glowing all over me!  That’s exactly what happens; I get consumed even if I say, “NO!” You say, “Bitch! You led me on! Don’t play hard-to-get now. You want this badly and I am going to give it to you anyway!” and my aversion fuels your determination. Should I feel thankful, later, if my body does not end up in the morgue? Your crime may get buried under complicit cultural validations, but my scars will run deeper and cut through that safety net, in time.

-----------------------------

Bitch – meaning in slang

§  A woman (noun)

§  A despicable woman (noun)

§  A feminine or weak man (noun)

§  A sexually submissive person (noun) e.g. "someone's bitch"

§  something that is difficult or unpleasant (noun)

§  to complain (verb)

§  to inform (verb)

Source: The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

Bitch is a sexist/misogynist slur/insult used for

1. A woman who is mean/malicious/strongly opinionated/aggressive

2. A woman with a high sex drive, promiscuous woman e.g. ‘Bitch in heat’

3. A woman not conforming to societal propriety or expectations

4. A man who is considered weak and complaining

5. An androgynous man who is all or any of the above

6. A Transgender person who is all or any of the above

‘Bitch’ didn't really become popular as a universal female insult until the 1920s. Between 1915 and 1930, the use of "bitch" in newspapers and literature more than doubled. That is when women's suffrage happened and they got the right to vote, and men were not happy about it. The feminists have reclaimed and used the word bitch since then to denote strength, ferocity, edginess, authority, determination, willingness to fight it out and establishing sexual agency.

Popular misconception which is propagated in our society – A ‘bitch’ needs to be controlled, tamed and kept on the leash and taught a good lesson/severely punished if needed. The punishment is often meted out in the form of physical, verbal and psychological abuse - Domestic violence, torture, rape, public shaming, curtailing support system and taking life - each one a criminal act against humanity.

For further reading:

Links:

1. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ppmx3m/the-evolution-of-the-bitch-905

2. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-019-01095-z

3. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36627061

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitch_(slang)

5.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/post_4332_b_2526243?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAWtTGpvwY2Hc7SRarypa3S5B7Sb5PGqvlDcwOg6jjIsefvCYKOtkfakEQU4ZrcECcfRgBqZjZi7gQ_8nLUtvkbLqsZ1vjlT8rQD_BO5u6IM1RGCNjrnbCMOS49LeC3-RSNugQc0CwiK-FFvy0GSmvzGpfVWwmAjjf3gU3sDMFp_

Lilith

20.5x28.5 inches; Pen drawing on handmade paper with watercolour wash (Click on image to enlarge)
SOLD. In private collection

The name of Lilith conjures up diverse associations in the mind of those who are familiar with her myth. She is an enigmatic character from the Judeo-Christian stories of Genesis, shrouded in darkness and superstition, almost silenced and meticulously avoided. She earned a notorious reputation in the Jewish tradition as a demon of the night, harbouring a vicious grudge against all the children of Adam and Eve, a constant threat to the well-being of newborn babies and their mothers. She is believed to be the eternally lusty, unsatiated, voluptuous spirit who leads hapless young men astray with erotic dreams when they sleep alone in a house and plagues them with nocturnal emissions! She is the much debated first female companion of Adam, much before Eve was created. She is also the rebellious, free willed, untamed feminine force who will not submit to the domination of man made rules. No wonder she has been reinvented and reimagined as a torchbearer of feminism.

But long before she found her way into Jewish folklore, she is believed to have wandered around in the lores of Sumeria.  Some scholars believe that her origins can be traced back to the ancient Babylonian demonology, which makes her a staggering 4000 years old. Some believe that Lilith is another name of the Sumerian goddess known as ‘Ninlil’ (Meaning ‘Lady Air’. The Sumerian word of air is ‘Lil’.), ‘Ishtar’ or ‘Innana’. This Sumerian goddess is portrayed as a voluptuous woman with wings on her back and claws of an owl in place of her feet. She is always seen standing on two lions and flanked by a pair of owls. The best known example of this iconography is the famous ‘Burney Relief’, currently found on display in the British Museum.

Lilith has been explicitly mentioned in the ‘Alphabet of Ben Sira’, one of the earliest literary parodies in Hebrew literature. The story recorded in it goes like this:

“After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone.' He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top, for you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name (Name of god which is too holy to be pronounced) and flew away into the air.

Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to bring her back. "Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.' The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.'

'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.' When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers.”

This Story serves a dual purpose. On one hand it has surely been the source of defining and designating Lilith as the hateful demon in Jewish tradition and on the other she has been portrayed as the ‘equal’ of Adam, the woman who will not submit to the rules set down by man, an untamed entity and hence a dangerous challenge to the domination of patriarchy. A force that can’t be controlled is immediately maligned and marginalized as the unworthy or unwanted!

   

The idea that Adam had a companion prior to Eve has developed from an interpretation of the Book of Genesis.

Genesis 1: 27 reads- “And Elohim created Adam in His Image, in the Image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Genesis 2:18 and 22 read- “And Yahweh said, ‘It is not good for Adam to be alone. I will make a fitting helper for him.’ … And Yahweh fashioned the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman; and He brought her to the man.”

These two different creation stories leave a gap where Lilith fits in seamlessly.

But whatever the myth (You can read more in the reference sources I have provided below, if your inquisitiveness has been aroused!) this painting has grown from the soil of my imagination and exploration of the feminine energy/force within me and how Lilith is an embodiment of the same. For me Lilith is the eternal feminine, the unbridled force of nature, the scorching glow of sexuality, the darkness within us, the terror of the unknown, the limitless freedom we seek, the wilderness of lust and temptation, the tenderness of love and compassion, the languor of intoxication, and the power of knowledge and spiritual awakening (Kundalini).

Lilith for me is a metaphor for duality in nature. She is strength and vulnerability fused into one. She is the symbol for all that guides our natural (animal) instincts and rebels against artificiality and control and yet she is bound by her own limitations. She can be either liberating or self destructive. She may also lead us to liberation through destruction of the ‘Self’! She can guide us through self discovery or drown us in self doubt. All in all, she is a raw force we are scared to acknowledge but when embraced with humility she strengthens us with her nurturing. 

References:

Links:

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/lilith-lady-flying-in-darkness/

http://gnosis.org/lilith.htm

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lilith-Jewish-folklore

http://goddessschool.com/projects/willowrayne/l1fplilith.html

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/lilith/

https://occult-study.org/lilith-from-demoness-to-dark-goddess/

Books:

Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai ( New York: Doubleday, 1964)

The Hebrew Goddess, by Raphael Patai (Wayne State University Press, 3rd edition, 1978)

Chhinnamasta / Chinnamasta

20.5x28.5 inches; Pen drawing on handmade paper with watercolour wash (Click on image to enlarge)

SOLD. In private collection

Chhinnamasta / Chhinnamastika  / Chhinnamunda

Chhinnamasta is one of the most mysterious, misunderstood and feared Tantric goddesses. She has been shrouded with such enigma and she inspires so much dread in the heart of people because of her sexually explicit and violent iconography.

Traditionally Chinnamasta has been imagined as a young woman who has beheaded herself. This scene is mostly set in a wild and unfriendly landscape with a river flowing in the foreground, or in the midst of the cremation ground. The Devi is mostly represented in the nude with her genitals either covered or visible. She has blood red or dark blue skin but she has been described as glowing like a thousand suns! She has a scimitar / a pair of scissors / a sharp weapon in her right hand with which she has chopped off her own head, which she holds in her left hand. She is often represented with four hands instead of two. She has companions, the two Yoginis named Varnini and Dakini, who are also depicted without a shred of clothing, holding a weapon in one hand. From the wounded neck of the Devi, three streams of blood spurt out like a fountain. Two of these streams feed her companions and one stream feeds the Devi’s own decapitated head. Chhinnamasta wears ornaments of skulls and snakes and so does her companions. She is either depicted as standing or sitting on a copulating couple, mostly identified as the couple Kama and Rati, who symbolize erotic love and desire in Hindu mythology, with Rati on top. In some traditional representations, Krishna and Radha take their place. In certain variations of this iconography, Chhinnamasta is shown to be engaged in coitus sitting on Shiva’s phallus, while Shiva lies prone under her headless body. Depending on the surroundings of the scene, either this entire group is placed on a lotus or a cremation pyre.

Such explicit imagery surely provides enough fodder for speculation and centuries of speculation has given rise to awe and fear for this goddess who doesn’t think twice before cutting off her own head. The question is, ‘Why is such a violent and sexually explicit imagery required to depict the essence of this goddess?’ To find answers one has to delve deeper into the interpretation of the symbols that this iconography represents and how it challenges our understanding of life, death and sexuality.

Primarily, Chhinnamasta is part of the ten incarnations of Mahadevi (The great untamed goddess Aditi, the eternal feminine who, much like Visnu, is believed to maintain the cosmic order.) which forms the group known as Dasa Mahavidyas, which means the ‘ten great cosmic wisdoms’. She also appears in tantric Buddhism. She is known as Chhinnamunda, a form of Vajrayogini. Scholars believe she first appeared in Buddhism before entering the Hindu tradition. The iconography of this goddess in Buddhism is very similar, except she is not depicted as standing on top of a copulating couple.

Chhinnamasta’s origin has been related in the Pranatosini-tantra, Pancharatna Grantha and Svatantra Tantra. With minor variations all these books relate the tale of goddess Parvati, the reincarnation of Sati and the eternal feminine power (Shakti), who once went bathing with her two Yogini followers, Dakini and Varnini. While bathing Parvati was overcome by erotic desires, which made the colour of her skin to change to a darker hue. The two Yoginis were hungry and appealed to the goddess to provide them with nourishment. She suggested that they wait until they returned home to satisfy their hunger. But for some cosmic reason her companions were unable to delay their cravings for nourishment and begged the merciful goddess for immediate satiation. The goddess rose to the need of the moment and severed her own head with a sharp instrument and let her blood flow to nourish her companions. Her severed head attained a trance like state and she also drank of her own blood. Thus Chhinnamasta was revealed to the world. Once their hunger was satisfied, the goddess became whole again and returned to her previous form of Parvati.

Chhinnamasta embodies the age old wisdom of people who have been connected to nature. She reveals the intricate relationship between life, sexual energy and death. Life needs to end, die and decay to provide nourishment for new life to begin. Death nourishes new life and life harbours death. It is an eternal cycle of transformation. Chhinnamasta’s image shows contradicting forces working together. It shows giving and taking, creation and destruction, and life and death without making it obvious who is the receiver and who is the giver. Her image depicts the cyclical nature of the universe and how seemingly opposite forces work in unison to maintain the cosmic balance. The nudity and dishevelled hair associated with Chhinnamasta’s image reveal her sense of untamed freedom and rejection of societal values. She is seen both as the embodiment of sexual energy as well as the channel through which sexual desire can be transformed into spiritual energy. She is Kundalini uncoiled.

If we delve into the psychological impact of Chhinnamasta’s imagery, we come to understand why people fear and reject the concept of a headless deity. It is the suggestion of ‘lack of identity’, which people instantly associate with their own person and become defensive. This is symbolic of detaching the ego or existential identity from one’s body. A body without a head is just a bundle of meat.  In our mundane world where existence is everything, and our way of thinking is largely based on rationale and logic, losing one’s head is equated with insanity and losing touch with apparent reality. In such a world, Chhinnamasta poses a huge challenge to our perception of reality. In the path of spiritual awakening this self sacrifice, symbolized by the decapitation, suggests the separation of the mind from the body, which sets the consciousness free from the traps of the physical body. The ego has to be sacrificed to nourish spiritual hunger. Hunger itself is a metaphor in this tale of Chhinnamasta. It is physical, emotional and spiritual.

Most Hindu deities face their devotees, so that the devotees feel reassured by the fact that the deity is looking at them and hence listening to their prayers and blessing them. In case of Chhinnamasta, she faces her own body. She breaks the duality of external gaze and prods us to look inside our own mind. This is indicative that the answers we are looking for are within us. No external force can help us find spiritual enlightenment if we do not seek it within ourselves and the path of such spiritual awakening will only manifest once we have detached our mind from all form and thought and sacrificed our ego in the process.

References: 

Book - Chinnamasta: The Aweful Buddhist and Hindu Tantric Goddess, Author – Elisabeth Anne Benard.

Online sources - https://vedicgoddess.weebly.com/goddess-vidya-blog/chinnamasta-by-yogi-ananda-saraswathi-httpswwwfacebookcomyogianandasaraswathi

http://www.sivasakti.com/tantra/dasa-maha-vidya/chinnamasta-5/

http://www.mahavidya.ca/2015/03/10/chinnamasta/

Oedipus

12x16 inches; Watercolor, Pen and ink on acid free textured paper (Click on image to enlarge)

Tragedy

Have you lost hope along with your eyes?

When you dug them out with your bare hands

Like cadavers from the depth of their graves

Rendering yourself blind, did you also dig up the guilt?

Had your eyes witnessed too much?

Had they...had you sinned?

Was it all your doing or was destiny your foe?

Or was it your father who set the ball rolling?

Were you not born to kill your own father and be the king?

The father, who driven by fear for his own life,

Had wanted to end yours by snatching you away

From your mother’s suckling breasts and tossing you out,

Out into the wilderness...

Years later, you killed him as a stranger

At the crossroads of your destiny and his.

Was it not poetic justice? Was it not sweet revenge?

Did he not want to cheat you of your destiny?

Did he not think he had erased the cause

And so, the effect?

Do you wish now that your father had not failed,

So long ago, to kill you as a babe?

Should we not compare moral codes and measure

How heavily it inspires guilt to torment our souls?

Take your mother for example.

Society would have her strangle you with your umbilical cord

Knowing that you will grow up to kill her husband

And sleep with her as a lover.

She did not. She could not!

Was that her sin? Did her love for you as a mother,

Stop the milk in her breasts from turning to poison?

Did she love your father any less?

Or did she just resign to her fate?

She did not know you when you came to marry her.

Was that her blame, the inability to identify her son?

Your father did not know the same.

Did she love you any less as her husband?

Why could you not recall her to be your mother?

Did you not know the smell of her breasts

While you kissed them? Could you not sense ‘déjà vu’?

Could you not remember being inside her once

When you were inside her again?

When you saw her hanging in death, did you call out to her?

‘My queen, dear wife, my love, darling... mom...mother...’

What appellation did you find proper to call her by?

For whom do you mourn the most – a mother, a wife or both?

Or do you mourn only for your own tragic life?

Don’t you wish now that the cunning Sphinx

Had riddled you with this instead – ‘Tell me gallant youth,

How does a son love his mother after he has taken her as his wife?’

You would not have known the answer clever one,

And she would have made a meal of you then.

But that was not to be your fate!

Is there any tragedy without the fall of the great?

- Rudra Kishore Mandal

Narcissus

12x16 inches; Watercolor, Pen and ink on acid free textured paper (Click on image to enlarge)
SOLD. In private collection

Narcissus

Reclining by the pool’s end,

You stay lost, gazing at your own face.

Your mind unable to spend

The reasons for such beauty to grace

This unworthy world around...

No, nothing is worthy of you,

No one is good enough for your love!

Trampled they lay like the dew,

Hurt and broken like the arrow shot dove,

Scalded by disdain in you they found.

A love sick sigh escapes, coral lips

Parted in a moist need to kiss the twin

Reflected in the dark pool which sips,

Licks and nibbles at your heart to ruin

And bleed vanity out aground.

Does remorse strike you now?

Remember Ameinias... Echo, you recall?

Feel the sweat gather on your brow

While you await the torment to befall,

Same as a stag cornered by the hound.

No matter how many times

The sword of Ameinias opens you up

Or your cries echo like the chimes,

Your love will not fill your empty cup

Or in your embrace be bound.

You slip into the watery bed

Imagining love waits there with open arms.

Tears of pain and rapture you shed

While being consumed by the siren’s charms,

A flower floats ashore and kisses the ground.

- Rudra Kishore Mandal

Lajja Gauri

20.5x28.5 inches; Pen drawing on handmade paper with watercolour wash (Click on image to enlarge)

SOLD. In private collection

Lajja Gauri / Aditi Uttanpad

Aditi is the Primal Creatrix. The name Aditi means ‘boundlessness’ and ‘freedom’ and conveys the concept of liberty from suffering and bondage. In the Rig Veda, the name is mentioned Eighty times, denoting the importance given to this goddess in the early Vedic times. She is the divine mother of all the Vedic gods and thus the source of the entire evident reality: past, present and future, ‘all that has been and will be born’. She is born from what she gives birth to and is self procreative. Aditi’s womb is unambiguously identified with the centre of the earth and hence mother earth is another aspect of her cosmic presence.

She is considered to be a very ancient deity whose importance faded in the late Vedic period. As celestial mother of every existing form and being, she is associated with space (Vyom) and with mystic speech (Vāc). There is no hymn addressed exclusively to her, unlike other Vedic gods. She is perhaps not related to a particular natural phenomenon like other gods and hence unbound, unlimited and unfettered! Aditi challenges the modern idea that the early Vedic people were patriarchal. Aditi was regarded as both the sky goddess, and earth goddess, which is very rare for a prehistoric civilization. Most ancient civilizations regarded the sky as a male and the earth as female, which is not the case here.

This primal deity has been represented mostly in the form of the more popular ‘Lajja Gauri’ (also known as Aditi Uttanpad) in Indian goddess iconography. The image of a headless naked woman with her legs bent and opened wide to expose the female genitalia, is older than the Indus Valley Civilization. But in India the first example of such an image comes from an Indus Valley Seal. She is popularly associated with fertility rituals but such association must be a narrow interpretation of the original scope of this deity. The association might be directly related to the figurative representation of the deity. This enigmatic form of a woman with a blooming lotus for her head is usually portrayed with legs opened and raised in a manner ambiguously suggesting either childbirth or sexual receptivity. Hence, hinting at the creative and regenerative powers of a fertile womb.

Goddesses such as Durga hold symbolic objects to express their power in their multiple arms but Lajja Gauri’s elemental power of sexuality, fertility and creation is solely expressed through her body, the locus of her power. This body is devoid of any ornamentation except armlets and anklets formed of serpents which again are a symbol of regeneration, the eternal cycle of birth, death and rebirth. The lotus flower (in her hands and in place of her head) has been used through centuries, as symbolism of life, spiritual awakening, sexuality, mystic knowledge and enlightenment. Such a bold iconography of shakti (pure energy) which was not bound to any tradition or subservient to a male power was very threatening to the Hindu patriarchs of later ages because the popularity of this deity had not shrunk into oblivion and hence was ‘harnessed’ and appropriated to suit the changing moral codes of those ages.

Several myths exist concerning Lajja Gauri, but scholars consider them to be inauthentic, late attempts to replace the Goddess's original lore which was eclipsed by the rise of the power of male gods. Many of these tales involve a dominant Lord Shiva testing his wife's modesty by publicly disrobing her, whereupon her head either falls off or sinks into her body from shame, thereby proving her ‘purity’ and providing a Shiva-centric explanation of how such a boldly self-displaying Goddess got a name like "Lajja Gauri" (Gauri of modesty) which seems very far-fetched and forced. A typical tale concocted from the perspective of male domination, to bind this unruly feminine into the garb of a tamed wife acceptable by patriarchy.

If we want to search for her actual essence and get an inkling of her forgotten lore it might be useful to listen to folktales from the oral tradition of India that still circulate about her in rural India. Lajja Gauri /Aditi is often referred to as Maatangi in certain parts of Central and south India, who is the "Outcaste Goddess" form of shakti, known for ignoring and rejecting society's rules, hierarchies and conventions. She is also called Renuka, a low-caste woman beheaded by a high-caste man. Rather than dying, she grew a lotus in place of her head and became a Goddess, Gram Devi. These stories involving the deification of an outcaste/caste-less/low-caste woman seem to suggest the uncontainable Feminine Principle, its disregard of and ultimate superiority over any man-made social system that would attempt to contain or control its pure force.

Reference: 

http://shaktisadhana.50megs.com/Newhomepage/shakti/lajjahGauri.html

Book - Images of Indian Goddesses: Myths, Meanings, and Models by Madhu Bazaz Wangu