In this chapter, I will discuss issues relating to gender in a modest fashion by
using the S ́rı ̄vais.n.ava tradition – one of the well known communities in south
India and one which has a dominant influence in temple rituals in North
America – as a thread to lead us through literature and rituals, songs and dance.
Although the gender of the human being, soul, and the deity are all important,
I will spend more time talking about devotees and the soul. There will only be a
brief discussion on the all-important topic of gender and God in Hinduism, a
topic which is worthy of a monograph on its own; and regretfully, no discussion
at all of India’s “third sex.”^1 Since the Hindu traditions have transmitted their
lore over centuries through the performing arts, I will allude to them several
times. Even though it will not be possible to cover many areas in this chapter,
using one tradition as a “base camp,” I hope, will give us a vista point to look at
the expansive landscape.
The Gender of the Devotee
The mother says of her “daughter”:
Night and day, her eyes know no sleep.
She splashes her tears with her hands.
O conch, O wheel,she cries and folds her hand;
O Lotus eyesshe cries and grows faint.
How can I survive without you?
she asks, and searches the earth, groping with her hands.
O Lord of Tiruvarankam, where red kayalfish dart in the
waters, what are you doing with her?
(Tiruva ̄ymoli, 7.2.1)So sang the poet Namma ̄l
̄
va ̄r in the ninth century ce. This song, which is part
of a set of 11 verses, embedded in longer poem of 1,102 verses, is recited in some
Vis.n.u temples in south India every day and acted out in a ritual once a year. His
poem, the Tiruva ̄ymoli (“Sacred Utterance”) is addressed to Vis.n.u, whom he
addresses as a mother, father, support of all being, child, and lover. Although
Namma ̄l
̄
va ̄r was a male, like many other devotional poets, he frequently spoke
in the voice of a woman in his poems. His image, thought to be charged with his
presence, is enshrined in many temples including the sacred temple town of
S ́rı ̄ran.gam. During the ritual in which this particular verse is enacted, he is
dressed as a beautiful woman. Exquisitely clad in silk clothes, with an artificial
braid flowing from “his” head, and bejeweled, he is taken to meet “her” lover –
the Lord Vis.n.u. In song and ritual, Namma ̄l
̄
va ̄r, the male poet, is portrayed as
woman longing for “her” beloved.
Namma ̄l
̄
va ̄r’s stance as a woman in this poem and in the ritual, waiting for
the male God, is a trope that runs through the many Hindu samprada ̄yasor tra-
ditions. It comes up in literature, song and dance, and rituals, and we will use it
570 vasudha narayanan