Chhaupadi, where menstruating women are made to
live in sheds away from their homes, is a much-derided tradition in Western
Nepal. But most Hindu families, even urban ones, continue to follow some form
of menstrual segregation. Though most of these traditions are not as extreme as
Chhaupadi, they discomfit young women to a large degree.
Mina Paudel, 66, was raised in a tradition where
a girl was kept inside a closed room for 11 days during her first period, and
not even allowed to see the sun. She ate separately from the family, washed her
own dishes, slept on the ground, and took care to avoid being seen by elders
when they were eating because even the sight of a menstruating woman was
inauspicious. She raised her two daughters in a similar culture, though not as
extreme as her own times.
Such rituals which older generations consider to
be normal can shock or even scandalize young people.
“Once, my grandmother sprinkled water on herself
because my shadow fell on her,” remembers Kumuda, Mina’s granddaughter. When
she menstruates, Kumuda, 27, a teacher at British College, prefers to stay in
her room because she dislikes seeing women gather their sari around them and give
her a wide berth. Some other extreme practices include women not being allowed
to touch plants because they would wither and die. Mina asserts that she has seen
a Parijat tree dying after it was touched by a menstruating woman.
And most families do not allow menstruating
women to enter the kitchen.
“If I’m forced to ask someone else for water in
my own house, it makes me feel bad. It would definitely be better if I was able
to do it myself,” says Sushma Puri, 21, a student.
But despite the fact that it makes them feel
like strangers in their own home, most young women opt to stay out of the
kitchen so as not to offend the feelings of the older generation.
“Elderly people, once set in their ways, are
difficult to deal with,” says Saurav Satyal, 28, Kumuda’s husband, reflecting
the change in male members of the family.
While Mina’s husband Madhav, 76, would like
menstruating women to stay apart, Saurav believes these rituals have no meaning
today.
“It’s something that as men, we don’t
experience. We often don’t know what goes on, and if these rituals were
discontinued, it wouldn’t bother me,” he says. Often, it is the women of the
family who enforce these rules on their juniors while the other members may be
oblivious to the whole ritual if they are not observant.
Women who practice this segregation cite Hindu
Dharmashastras as the reason for their actions. Bharati Gautam, 70, a retired
teacher, has her own way of justifying it.
“Lord Indra was afflicted with the sin of
Brahmahatya. And since women are loving and nurturing, they could not bear to see
men suffer. They took a fourth of the sin upon themselves,” she explains.
Gautam believes our ancestors were scientific
people who introduced rational practices, including menstruations rituals. As justification
for segregation during menstruation, she claims that children conceived during
menstruation are born disabled. It is decidedly an unscientific belief,
considering that conception is not possible during menstruation. Even so, such
warnings had a deep impact on the minds of young girls when they had no other
source of knowledge about their reproductive functions.
When quizzed if a natural biological phenomenon
can be called a “sin” on the basis of an age-old story, Gautam answers that she
is from a transitional generation. Her faith is questioned by modern reason,
but she cannot bring herself to desert it.
In fact, the “transitional generation” spans
several age groups. Their beliefs are so pervasive and deep-rooted that younger
women have also internalized them. Many young women are suspended in the same
limbo as Bharati: they do not know exactly why they follow the tradition, but
stick to it because of an unnamed fear of breaking tradition. Even though she
dislikes these rituals, Sushma does not go and touch things in the kitchen when
she is menstruating. She is scared that something bad will happen. And even the
most modern women profess no desire to approach the pooja-room when
menstruating.
But increasingly, younger women, especially
those who have lived abroad and gotten used to cooking during menstruation, think
beyond these traditional frames and instead focus on how the rituals affect
them. Kumuda remembers the humiliation it inflicted on her. “I was once asked
to stay outside under a tree for an hour because there was a pooja going
on at home,” she recounts an incident.
Not only does it limit your mobility, but it
means that everyone in the vicinity knows that you are menstruating. At a time
when they are hypersensitive to what people think about them, such experiences
can be humiliating for teenagers struggling to come to terms with their
physical changes. The fact that they are going through pain, cramps, and mood
swings during menstruation makes it worse. Being barred from many areas of the
house, including the kitchen, they are often unable to help themselves through
the sickness, increasing their frustrations.
With time, the harsh effects these rituals have
on your emotions fade away, and women learn to work around these rules. Even though
she loves her grandparents, Kumuda would rather avoid their house when she is
menstruating. Not only is she made to eat outside of the kitchen in the
hallway, but she cannot enter the living room because setting her foot on the
carpet will “pollute” the entire room.
“I think I may be getting used to these rules,
which hurt me less than they used to,” says Kumuda, “which is not a good thing
to happen, because we should not get used to such unfair practices.”
Therefore, she tries in her own quiet way to
bring about changes in her house. Even though she is well provided for during
menstruation with ample food and drink, through her constant efforts more areas
of the house are now open to her during menstruation than before.
Tussles between older and younger generations
turn urban homes into constant battlefields, but change is slowly creeping in. The
pooja-room is a strict no-no, but other areas can be negotiated. Sushma started
out with sleeping on the floor during menstruation, but her two younger sisters
have slept in their own beds since their first menarche. Most homes function on
a sort of a midway where a compromise is sought to appease both the faith of
the older generation and the logic of the younger generation.
Menstruation
in myths
After
Karna’s death, Krishna tells Arjuna: You have slain your Vritra. Now people
will talk of this battle in the same breath as Indra’s defeat of Vritra.
Today
we remember Arjun but Vritra is just one of the many half-remembered characters
in our mythological jungle. But at one point, every hero was compared to Indra
and every villain to Vritra.
Vritra occurs first in the Rig Veda, of which
Indra is the central hero. Here the story is not linear and has to be pieced
together from different verses praising Indra’s deeds. It
then occurs as a coherent narrative in Mahabharata, where we are told that
Indra acquired his exalted status by killing Vritra. But Vritra happened to be
a Brahmin, and by his murder, Indra acquired the sin of Brahmahatya.
To free himself from the sin, Indra divided his
sin into four parts and gave them to trees, water, fire and women. Women’s monthly
periods is a manifestation of that sin, which is why she is considered impure
during her menstruation.
This
story defines menstruation as a sin, but does not lay out the rules for
menstruating women that are practiced today. This was done by latter
dharmashastras and Puranas. Manusmriti, the foremost law of Hindus, instructed
that women would be “clean” when they bathed after menstruation. A Brahmin was
not to eat any food touched by a menstruating woman. According to Vashishta
Dharmashastra, menstruating women are not to be allowed to touch the fire, and
even essentials like ointment are not to be accepted from them.
“After
that, almost every Purana has prescribed rules for menstruating women,” says
Pundit Ram Prasad Pokharel Acharya. “Our scriptures say that menstruating women
are not even human. On the first day, they are Chandalini, on the second day,
Brahmaghatini, and on the third day, Dhobini.” In Bhavishya Puran, Krishna
informs Yudhishthira that women can cleanse themselves of the sins incurred during
menstruation through the Rishi Panchami vrat.
Modern
interpretations assume that menstruating women are segregated for reasons of
hygiene, but in scriptures women are actually encouraged to be just the
opposite. According to Vashistha Dharmashastra, these women should not bathe,
should not anoint themselves with collyrium, and should not clean their teeth.
The labeling of menstruating women as “impure” seems
to have little to do with their physical condition and is more important as a
symbol. Manusmriti says that a Brahmin should not even look at a
menstruating woman when he is eating, and “the
wisdom, the energy, the strength, the sight, and the vitality of a man who
approaches a woman covered with menstrual excretions, utterly perish.” A
simple conversation with a menstruating woman is considered inauspicious, and
hygiene is not a consideration.
The key to understanding the shaming of
menstruating women lies in the story of Indra’s conquest of Vritra, which is
referenced by all latter scriptures to validate women’s impurity. Vritra is identified
as Ahi (snake/lizard/dragon). In many cultures across Europe and South Asia,
snakes are identified with women. Conquest of snakes forms an integral part of
early myths.
One of the more famous stories occurs in the
Bible where Eve listens to a snake and bites an apple. For her sin, she is
punished with the pain of menstruation and childbirth. Similar stories can be
found in many Middle Eastern religions, now extinct. Perseus who kills the
serpent-head Medusa (which means divine feminine wisdom) is heralded as the
founder of a new order in Greek myths.
Merlin Stone writes in her book When God was
a Woman that these stories are proof of matriarchal civilizations that
preceded the present patriarchal tradition. For example, while the latter
characters in Hindu scriptures are known by their father’s name, Vritra, a
Danav, is named after his mother Danu. The subjugation of such civilizations is
represented by parallel stories which associate female reproductive functions
with sin.
Archana Thapa, a feminist scholar, agrees that the
rituals of menstruation are a means of regulating women’s behavior. “A virgin
goddess is worshipped, and so is a mother. But during her fertile period, a
woman is impure. This is a moral disciplinary act to suit the logic of men who
made the rules,” says she. Indeed, the label of impurity restricts women from
taking part in rituals, invalidates their worship, and generally reduces them
to a non-entity when it comes to religious authority.
Since our earliest texts begin where matriarchal
civilizations ended, they give the impression that patriarchal traditions have
been with us since the dawn of time. But in fact, these texts are built on the
ashes of an older one, and set up a new order: one where the power, mobility,
and authority of women were systematically circumscribed by labeling their
fertility “impure”.
Published in Republica on August 29
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