Ritual and "symbol" in the Indic context
This post discusses the
complexity of ritual, and how the term “symbol” does not do justice to ritual
in Indic cultures. I believe it is inappropriate to use the word symbol because
it radically separates the symbol from that which it stands for. No example demonstrates
simultaneity (rather than symbol) better than the idea that women and the earth
share “fertility” and are thus ‘dirty’. Woman is not a symbol of the earth, nor
is the earth a symbol of woman….but both share fertility. To illustrate this point
and explain the importance of cultural rituals around childbirth, I’ve compiled
examples of this phenomena throughout India.
Himachal— A complex phenomenon of this region is ‘ritual pollution’, which declares that women should not go into the kitchen nor temples, mosques etc. during the postpartum period because they are ‘polluted’ or jooth. (this is throughout India, not just HP)
Jeeva research in Himachal
Pradesh interviewed women postpartum in one village. Their explanation of
notions of ‘pollution’ show that it is not just an individual phenomenon but is
shared by the earth:
- In
our place we do not go to the fields to work after the prasoota (birth) was
done. We consider it as jooth. That is why we have to inform all the
villagers by announcing it to them.
(Rani Devi)
- After
the birth is done then we consider a jooth
of 3 days in the village. No one from the village goes
to the field to work. On the 3rd day after all the cleaning is done they go
back in the fields to work. (Sapna Devi)
Karnataka
Similarly in Belary
District we heard that Hole Puja is not just worship, but also is a prayer to
reduce the postpartum woman’s bleeding. (This is another reason women
postpartum and menstruating are ‘dirty’—what is normally inside the body is now
outside.) Women postpartum relate:
After delivery on the third day they do hole puje (they make a
puja to reduce her dirt or bleeding). Then they do Gangamma's puja. They put
chuttige (poking with the hot needle). They keep sickle, neem leaves and make
puja. They make mutton curry and share it. (Durgama)
On the third day, they do hole puje (to stop bleeding). On that
day, they keep kudugolu (sickle) and
neem leaves and do puja. (Shanta)
The sickle was once used to cut the umbillical cord and now is
used ritually along with neem leaves.
Maharashtra
In
this Pavra and Bhil adivasi (tribal)
area both female and male dais (huarki
and huarku) handle childbirths. Burdvu (traditional healers or
shamans) are specialists in casting the daana
(seeds, usually of jowar). This ritual is of major importance here,
both as an invocation to deities as well as to divine the source
and solution to any problem during labour, birth or afterwards. Postpartum
women reported putting the seeds or daana (used in the rite) in the river.
We did the baara (lifting of
pollution) ritual after 7 days.. My mother-in-law (a dai) put the daana
near the stand for drinking water and broke the nail of a little chick and put
a mark of blood on the baby’s forehead.
The huaarki (dai) kept the seeds of black gram, jowar,
small millets and okra. She wound a thread around a cow dung cake and kept it
near the water stand. Then she broke the nail of a little chick and put a mark with
its blood on the baby. She gave me the daane used in the puja and we
gave that chick to the huaarki. On the 9th day when they sent
me to the river to bathe, first I released those daane in the river and
then I took my bath.
Jharkhand
In this area of Jharkhand, as in
many other places, bathing is an intrinsic part of cleansing or purifying the
mother post-partum.
On naarato (9thday)
the Dai bathed me and my baby. The naai (barber) was called and he cut
everyone's nails. On the same day oil was given to villagers. Then on ekoosa
(21stday) she bathed both of us again and performed the soshthi
puja with us in front of the banyan tree.
On the 7thday
after prasov (birth) to purify the body they bathed me and the baby. On the 40th day we called the maulana to
perform the milaad and we kept the baby's name. All who had come were
given food.
