outside the norms--women ascetics in hindu society

8/9/2019 Outside the Norms--Women Ascetics in Hindu Society

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/outside-the-norms-women-ascetics-in-hindu-society 1/4

Outside the Norms: Women Ascetics in Hindu SocietyAuthor(s): Catherine Clementin-OjhaSource: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 23, No. 18 (Apr. 30, 1988), pp. WS34-WS36Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4378432 .

Accessed: 17/07/2013 14:23

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

Economic and Political Weekly.

http://www.jstor.org

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=epw

http://www.jstor.org/stable/4378432?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


http://www.jstor.org/stable/4378432?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=epw



Outs ide t h N o r m s

Wome n scetics

n

H i n d u Society

Catherine Clementin-Ojha

A Hindu monastic order

has the structure of a genealogical tree.

This

extremely loose

structure allows a con-

siderable freedom to spiritual masters

and it

explains

to some extent how

female

ascetics have

finally found

their

way into most of the monastic orders, even those traditionally

closed to them.

But

to be admitted into a lineage

does

not allow one

to transmit its

religious tradition,

that is to initiate and become a

guru.

It is

only

in

some

very rare cases

that there is an evidence

of self-sustained

series of women ascetics. More often, female ascetics

have to survive

within

the

framework

of systems

that are

essentially male-oriented

and have been

designed and

refined by

males

for

other males.

EACH of the

three main religions

which

originated

n India,Jainism,

Buddhismand

Hinduism,developed

an ascetic tradition

of

considerable mportance

in which women

also played

a part.' For several

centuries,

Buddhism and Jainism

had a leading role

on

the scene of Indian asceticism.

Their

religiousorders

established special

monas-

teries for women

which wereextremelywell

run institutions

organised accordingto the

rules

laid down

in the Buddhist and Jain

codes

of monastic

life. Buddhist nuns

flourished

in

this country

as

long

as Bud-

dhism was one

of its major religions. Jain

monastic

communities

are still active to this

day.

Hindu

feminine asceticism, by

con-

trast,

has

remained

largely

unstructured.

There has not developed

withinthe fold of

Hinduism a strictly

feminine version

of

monastic

organisation.

For these reasons t

is

a

phenomenon

difficult

to

grasp

and still

very

little known.

The information on which

this article is

basedwas collected n Benaresduring everal

periods

of researchbetween

December 1977

and

May

1982.2

As is well

known,

Benares

is, par

excellence,

he

holy city

of

Hinduism,

a traditional

centre of

cultural and

philo-

sophical life,

and as such one of the most

famousplace

of

pilgrimage tirtha)

n

India.

Benares

s the

seat of

many religious

nstitu-

tions

belonging

to the differentssects

(sam-

pradaya),

he

organisations

n

which ascetics

are

found;

it shelters

an

important

ascetic

population

among

whom

a number of

women are

also found.

However,

he female ascetics

are not to be

met

with

at

every

streetcorner

and the first

task

is to locate

them. One of

the

greatest

difficultiesof this work wasto establish he

first contacts.

In

the absence

of a list of

monasteries

nformation

had to be derived

from the

local inhabitants.

They

were

quite

co-operative

even

if

they

did not

always

understand

whom

I

was

looking

for.

People

often

thought

that

I

wanted o meet widows

and

once

they

took

me to a charitable nsti-

tution

caring

for

them. The confusion was

an information

in

itself;

it showed that for

the

average

Indian

the female ascetic

is

closely

connected

with this

particular

character

n

the

Indian

society:

the widow.

The Buddhist

and Jain

traditions have

each

a

precise

word to

designate

heirfemale

ascetics. respectively bhiksuni and jain-

sadhvi. But Hindi-speaking

Hindus (and, I

would expect

others as well) use a varietyof

termsfor theirs.

The Hindu

ascetic

tradition

is extremely ich

and diversified, t comprises

a multitude f

orders.Ascetics ead different

life-styles, depending on the order

to which

they belong,

and accordingly are known

under different

names such as

sannyasi,

bairgai, nath, yogi, naga,

etc. The substan-

tive sadhu is commonly used

today to speak

of any

of them

in a

generic

sense.

However

sadhu has no

feminine

equivalent

although

it accepts two feminine forms,

sadhvi and

sadhuni.

In

Hindi, the latter

form conveys

a

somewhat

pejorative

and

contemptuous

meaning.As for the former, ccording

o the

context,

it

means

either a female ascetic or

a virtuousmarriedwoman.

It is morereadily

accepted

in

this

second

meaning

and

generallygiven

as an

equivalent

of

sati,

the

ideal wife.

Thus there will be no mis-

understanding

if

you tell people

you are

looking for sadhus,

but unless

you

provide

some complementaryexplanations no one

will

take you to

a female ascetic

if

you ask

for a sadhvi.

This absence of

a

proper

ter-

minology points

to the ill-defined status of

the women

who have

adopted

he ascetic ife.

It illustrates

he fundamentalcharacteristic

of feminineasceticism:

ts

ambiguous posi-

tion

within Indian

society.

Hindu women

who have renounced the

worldarevery

few.Theyareclearlya minori-

ty

in

the ascetic movement

as a

whole.

S Sinha and

B

Saraswati,

wo

anthropolo-

gists who conducted

a

systematic

survey

of

the monasteries

of Benares

n the

seventies

found the total numberof their inmates to

be 1284, out

of which 97 were women.3

Though it is difficult to count ascetics for

they

are not known for their stability,

one

can

keep

in mind the

ratio

of one woman

for

every

ten to

twelve

men;

it is

suggestive

of the

proportions

of

feminine

asceticism

within

Hinduism.

Their small

number s one of the reasons

why femaleasceticsoften go unnoticed.

But

their

near-invisibility

has other causes

as

well. By his garb

the male ascetic is at all

times

easily distinguished

from the rest of

the male

population.

By contrast,

a

great

numberof female

ascetics,may

be mistaken

for

pious

widows. Like them they

do not

have the red sign of marriage (sindhur)

n

the partingof their hairnor wear any jewels

or bangles. Like them

they

are clad in

a

modest

whitesari. Only

a

very

smallnumber

of female ascetics

are

conspicuous

for

they

are the exact

repliqua

of their male

counter-

parts

in

the same

religious order;

the

san-

nyasiniwearthe ochre robe of the

sannyasi,

the

yogini may go about

half-naked,

and a

very few women

display

the same

imposing

ascetic

bun

(iata)

as some sadhus. But even

these women

keep

a low

profile.

Unlike the

male

ascetics, they

often

stay

within

the

limits

of a monastery

or

of

their

private

homes. It is not considered uitable or them

to move about too

much. As for

those who

have

adopted

he

roving

ife-style, hey

usual-

ly travel in

groups.

It is the whole

social

atmosphere

and

the

general

position

of

women in India that are the main

source of

such

a reserve.

According

to the most

orthodox section of

the Hindu

society,

a

woman s never

supposed o be left

aloneby

herself.4

A woman is not

supposed

to

attract

attention either.She who has walked

out of society tends to be suspected of

wanting

to misuse her freedom

and in

the

literature female

ascetics have often

been

depicted

as

loose

women.

PATTERN

OF LIFE

Female

ascetics follow

essentially two

modes of

life. One is

to keep

movingaround

the

country,

ravelling

rom

one

pilgrimage

centre o

another,

and

practisingbegging

or

one's

survival. The other

is to settle

for a

more or less

long period

in a

fixed

place.

This in turn

implies two

choices: either to

live

independently,with some

attendants,or

to

belong to a monastic

community.

While

life in a monastic community s regularand

follow a strict

schedule,the

solitary ascetic

enjoys

a

greater freedom

but

may have a

more

precarious existence. Both

styles of

asceticism

aresupported

by

the

lay

members

of the

society, who

as

the

disciples

of these

female

asceticsmake

donations

to them

and

look after

many

practical

aspects of their

daily life.

The

majority of

female ascetics

of

Benares ive in three

monastic

communities

which

were all

founded in the years

that

followed

the

independence

of

India.5

The

first

community has sprung from

the spiri-

tual

movement

which

developed

around

AnandamayiMa, a very saintlyand charis-

WS-34

Economic and

Political Weekly April 30.

199R

This content downloaded from 137.132.123.69 on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 14:23:54 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions






matic Bengali

woman,

in

the flrsthalf of the

century.

The two othercommunitiesare

also

to be

linkedwith

Bengal

since their

respec-

tive

female ounders,GangaMa and

Shobha

Ma, both initiated by the same

guru, the

famous vishnuite

ascetic Svami

Santadas

KathiyaBaba, were born and

raised

n

this

eastern province.

There s much

similarity n the patternof

life of these three

communities: Its main

featuresare the strongbond between each

femaleascetic and her

guru,

life

within the

limits of the monastery and

the obedience

to a strictcode of

behaviour et

by the guru.

Their

religious

beliefs,

their ritual

practises

as well as the

general

spirit underlying

heir

spiritual

discipline (sadhana)

are

also

very

similarwith those of the

independent

emale

ascetics. But

in

the communities the

daily

routine seems to be more

strict and the

women appear

to have hardly any time for

themselves.Their

daily

time-table s divided

between

worship,

in

the

private

temple

of

their

monastery, meditating

on the

philo-

sophical

and

theological principles

of their

respective doctrines,

recitation of

sacred

formulae (mantra) and listening to the

teachings

f their

guru.

Their

ife

is

spartian,

they get

little

sleep,

bathe

in

cold waterand

keep

a

strict vegetarian

diet,

but

only

a

very

few of

them follow ascetics

practises tapas).

As I could observe

closely

over

a

period

of

more

than

four

years,

the

inmates

of

these

three emininemonasteries o lead

a

genuine

monastic ife.

Theoretically

heir

pattern

of

life

is

also common to the

male Hindu

monastic

nstitutions.But

the femaleascetics

display

a

sense

of

discipline

generally

unknown

n most

male

monasteries

asrama)

of

contemporary

India.

WHAT Do THEY

RENOUNCE?

It is not

an

easy

task to understand

he

motivation of the womenwho have chosen

the ascetic life

style.

The

female

ascetics

themselves

usually put

forwards

religious

reasons.

They

have

renounced he world

to

obtain

their salvation. Often the

meetingof

the

guru

has

played

a

major

part

in

their

decision; hey

explain

hat

they

have

severed

all

their other

links in

order

to serve

him,

or

her,

better. However the

woman

who

'leaves he world

behind ,

s the

expression

goes

in

Hindi,

enters a

new

social life. She

acquires

a

new status and to understand

he

meaning

of this

change,

we

have to

examine

this 'world' that a female ascetic has left

behind.

From

the orthodox

point

of

view as it is

outlined

in

the

vast

corpus

of texts on

dharma,

known

collectively

as

the Dharma

Sastras,

there is no

possible

existence for a

woman outside

marriage.

The

practise

of

world

renunciation

s a

masculine

pattern

of

life, theoretically

estrictedo

the

twice-born.

A Hindu

woman

is

expected

to

lead her

religious

ife within the householder

stage.

She need not renounce

the world to

obtain

her

salvation for it is in this

very

world

that

she can purgeherselfof the

fruitsof heracts

by means of surrendering totally to

her

husband.Marriageand marital

ife are thus

viewed

as a road

to

salvation,

they

are a

sadhana,a method of

spiritualachievement.

The ideal

woman who

adopts

this

attitude

towards

her

marriage, and towards her

husband,

eceives he name of sadhvior

sati.

Such

a

woman does

not

renounce he

world,

but

the

highest

value

of

renunciation

permeatesher

daily life:

the

true

sadhvi is

devoid of

ego.

This

stresses

a

remarkable

difference

between he

destiniesof

man andwoman n

orthodox Hinduism.

While the

twice-born

man has a

choice

between

two different

stages

of life

(asrama),

that of

the

householder

(grihasthasrama)

and that of

the

renunciant

(sannyasasrama), and is

actually encouraged

o

go from the

first to

the second,

there s a single

mode of

life for

the woman. A

female

ascetic is

thus seen as

a

person who has

adopted

a

behaviour

intended or

males and has

therefore

eft the

orthodox

norm behind.

According o B D

Tripathiwho

conducted

a

sociological

suirvey

of

500 sadhus from

Uttar

Pradesh, about

half

of

them were

bachelors.6

Unfortunately,

he did

not

include any women in his survey. My own

inquiry coveredtoo

small a

sample to con-

clude

in

terms of

statistics but

it

did

show

that

female ascetics

also

include a

good

number

of

celibates. Out of

the

thirty-eight

womenwho

disclosed

heircivil

status o me

twenty-nine

were

celibates, three

had been

married

and the

six others

were

widows.

Why

had the

two first kinds

of women

chosen

to

marry

or to

abandon

their

marriage?How

was it

made

possible

n

their

society?

As I

have

already

said

the female

ascetics

themselves

allege religious reasons

as their

main drive.

Yet,

nformal

exchanges

with them

also reveala

deep-setdisgust

with

family

life and

ties,

and more

specially

perhaps,with the chores

expected

rom hem

in

the

householder

stage. These

women are

no doubt a

minority

but

they may say aloud

what is in

the minds of

many silent

house-

wives.

One can

wonder

sometimes to

what

extent

their

renunciation has not

been

motivated by their

desire to

experience

another kind

of life.

But the

fact remains:

for the

woman

who

decides to

remain un-

married

or

walks out of

her

marriage),

he

religiouscareer

seems indeed to

be the

best

alternative n

the

traditional Hindu

social

context.

One

situation,

however, ppears

o plunge

a

woman

into

a

marginal

condition

despite

herself:widowhood.A widow(belonging o

a

highcaste)

is not

allowed to

remarry.

The

deathof her

husband

marksa

definitive

up-

ture

from her

former

ife-style,sheceases to

be

an

ordinary grihasthini,

householder's

wife.

But

only

two of

the six

widowed

female

ascetics I

met

in

Benares

made a

direct ink

between

hedeath of their

husband

and their

own

renunciation.Both

of

them, both

today

sannyasini

leading

a

solitary

life,

had

lost

their

husbands,

and

their cbildren,

during

the

bloody

exchange

of

population

at

the

moment

of independence n

1947. They

re-

nounced

the world in

order to

escape

the

otherwise

inevitablecondition

of

beggary.

Without doubt

these

two women

are

much

more

sereneand

self-confident

than the in-

numerable

widows who

depend

for

their

survival

on

charity and

may still be

seen

haunting the

back streetsof

Benares.

--

The

other four

of the six

widows

had been

child-widows;

hey

had

lost their

husbands

soon

after their

marriage,

hat

is

to

say at

a

very tender

age.

One of them

told

me

how

at

nine

years,

soon after the

demise of

her

husband,herparentshad put herifn hecare

of a

group

of

pious

widcws

who

were

go-

ing on a

pilgrimage. The child

had

grown

on the

roads,

walkingand

begging

and

shar-

ing

the lot

of

ascetics, and

there

she had

eventually met her

guru,

a

Ramanandi

sadhu,

who had

initiated her

into his

sect

and

taken her

at his

service. Unlike

the two

sannyasini

mentioned

above,

she

had

not ex-

perienced he

shock of

the

sudden

nterrup-

tion

of

normal

married ife.

She had

become

accustomed

to her

fate

much more

slowly

and it

is

therefore

not

surprising that she

should

attribute her

present

life-style to a

deep

sense of

detachmentand

not to

this

obscure and

old event

of

the death

of

her

husband.

Prudence s

required n

evaluating he im-

pact of

widowhood

on the

decision to re-

nounce

the world. Left

to

herself, often ex-

cluded from

her

family

for

financialreasons

and

having

to

depend

on

public

charity

for

her

survival,

a widow

may

find

in

the ser-

vice

of a

guru a

new

hope

of

life.

More

im-

portantly

he

vaidhava-dharma,

he

section

of

stri-dharma

oncerning

widows,

sets

very

harsh rules

prescribing

a kind

of

renuncia-

tion

within

the

world

which

is

very similar

to the

life-style

of

the

ascetic.She

may prefer

this kind

of

existence

outside the

world.

But

until

she has

actually made this

choice,

she

is

not an

ascetic.The

similaritybetween

heir

two life patternsshould not makeus forget

that

while the female

ascetic has

renounced

her

stri-dharma,

hat is

marriage, he widow

still

observes

hers

by

continuing to be

faithful

and

dedicated to

her

husband. A

Hindu

widow is not an

ascetic,

she

is still

married

even

if

to

a dead

man.

Nevertheless,

the

conditions

prior to

renunciation are

different

in

the

cases of

celibate and

married

women on

one

hand,

andin

the case of

widows

on the

other.The

former

have

renounced

marriage, widows

have

indeed

renounced

widowhood.

But

what is

the real

mpact

of

widowhood

on

feminine

renunciation s a

whole?

Clear-

ly, widowsareonlya minorityamongfemale

ascetics.

Despite

their often

unbearable

on-

dition of

life,

the

majority

of

widowsdo

not

become

ascetics.

The lot of

the

female

ascetic s

certainly

much

more

enviable

han

that of

the widow

for it

grants

her

a

higher

status in

the

community.

Yet

this

choice

demands

other

qualities

than

mere

widow-

hood. It is

by

no

means

sufficient

to

be a

widow n

order to

become an

ascetic

despite

the

opposite

opinion

generally

prevailing

n

India

REBELS

BUT NOT

REvOLUTIONARIES

In effect

female

a\cetics

have not

chosen

the solution

of facility

Their

mode of

life

Economic

and Political

Weekly April 30, 1988

WS-35







puts

them

unaer tne constant fire

of

criticism.

They

have

to

impose themselves,

it

is a struggle all

,he

harder since

nothing

in theirupbringing

has prepared

hem for it.

Not to liveaccording

o one's own

dharma

(svadhanna)

s the

mainoffense n

Hinduism.

The women

who renounce

he world adopt

an 'adharmice

ehaviour.They

can be con-

sidered as rebels for their

renunciation

amounts

to an attempt

to conquer

their in-

dividual freedom,

and to walk out

of the

system

of surveillance

which the orthodoxy

has

prescribed or

them. Yetthese

rebelsdo

not use their

influence as a platform

from

which to criticise

any fundamental

aspects

of Hindu society. They participate

n

public

life

to encourage

people to respect

their

svadharma. The

great concern of

the

majority

of female ascetics

is to defend the

caste system

and the exclusive types

of at-

titudes which it implies.

They also dis-

courage

other women

from attempting o do

what themselves

have done.

By supporting

the most

orthodox

valuesthey

maintain he

good

reputation

that is essential

for their

own

survival. But

it

would

be unfair

to

ex-

plain the apparent contradiction of their

position

by

such selfish or shortsighted

motives.According o them,

their s no con-

tradictionat all between

what

they do and

what

theypreach.

Wemust keep nmind that

like

most

Hindu ascetics the expressed

aim

of theirteaching

s not

social

but

essentially

religious.

n

fact they arenot at all

different

from the

majority

of male sadhus

who

although

they

themselves

have

opted

out of

society play

the role of dharma-rakshaka,

protectors

of the socio-religious norms.

What they proposed

to transform

are the

mental attitudes

of

people

who

have to live

in

society

as

it

is,

not

society

itself.

The fact

remains

that their

influence on

the socialconditionssurroundinghem s far

frombeing negligible.

Better educated

than

the

majority

of

other

women,

they

can

ap-

preciate

what a

major

asset a

good

educa-

tion

can

provide

in life.

Accordingly,many

female ascetics

endeavour to

share their

knowledge

with

their

lay

sisters.

In

Benares,

the

inmates

of the three

monastic

communities

dedicate

an

impor-

tant

part

of

their time to

teaching.

While

he

disciples

of Shobha

Ma work

in

a small

primnary

chool attached o

their

monastery,

which

is hardly

different

from the other

private

schools

of the

town,

the two other

asrama,

founded

by Ganga

Ma

and Anan-

damayi

Ma,

include

boarding

schools

of a

rather

special

nature.There one

finds

girl

inmates

receiving

a

traditional

form

of

education

whose

curriculum

is

highly

reminiscent

of that

of the brahmacharin

depicted

in

the

Upanishads.

These

girls,

usually belonging

to

poor

high

caste

families,

are entrusted

to these

boarding

schools

for

eight

to ten

years.

Most

of them

leave

heinstitution

o

get

married

but

some

remain

here

to

adopt

the

life of

an

ascetic

and

to become

the teachers

of

a

younger

generation

of

pupils.

The

medium of

teaching

adopted n both institutions

s

San-

skrit (whichthe elder

girls speak

fluently)

andthe subjects

aughthave a religious

and

philosophiical haracter.The

headmistresses

of

both

schools,

who are of course female

ascetics,

see

themselvesas the true nheritors

qf

the

brahmavadinisof

yore,

such as the

famous Gargi

of

the Brihadaranyaka

Upanishad,

who had

dedicated heir ives to

the pursuit of

knowledge and were apt to

understand eligious truth. They look for

i

model in the

remotest past of their culture

and speak

essentially a religious language

yet, at the same time, their attemptto

break

away from

centuries of prejudices, which

had

deprivedwomen of the right to

religious

knowledge, is a necessary step

towards a

greater

equality

of

chances between Indian

women and men.

Though in a much more informal

way,

some

independant female ascetics also

transmit

their

knowledge by reading

and

interpreting the sacred texts for

their

disciples.The culturaland

religiousactivities

around

all these womenare altogether trik-

ing. This appearsto me in keeping with

the

traditional notion that the Hindu

woman

has

to dedicate herself to the service

of

others:

seva

is her main

duty.

Even

though

theyhaverejected ts central nstitution, e,

marriage, these female ascetics

remain

faithful in

their

own

fashion to the

spirit

of

their

stri-dharma.

Female

asceticsremainmarginal n society

largelybecause they are kept on the

margins

of the

ascetic

movement as a whole. There

are

two main

positions of Hindu asceticism

with regard to

its female members. One

which has

adopted the orthodox point of

view, as exposed in the Dharma

Sastras, is

strictly opposed

to any idea of women re-

nouncing the world. An interesting

llustra-

tion of

this

tendancywas

provide4

o

me by

the

late

Svami Karapatri, he famous

Dandi

sanyasi of Benares who as a staunch

upholder of orthodoxy

(varna-asrama-

dharma) was an important leader of

the

traditionalists,both

lay

and

ascetic. He did

not

deny

that

women could obtain a

higher

state of

consciousness and also

recognised

that

they

could act

as

spiritual, uides. But

he

refused hem the right to join his

ascetic

order.

Despite

of

all

the evidence

I had

gathered

to

prove the contrary, he

assured

me

seriously that there had never

been a

single

real

sannyasini

in

India.

But there has

always

been

a

great

variety

of

positions

within

what

is

called

Hinduism

and

these have coexisted

with its

orthodoxy.

Spiritual

eaders

have

not

been

wanting

to

challenge heauthorityof the brahmans nd

to call for

allowing

low castes

and women

to become

ascetics,

t is a

remarkableeature

of

Hinduism hat

womenhave

ypically

been

favoured

y

religious

movements

ntent

upon

bringing

welfare

to the

lower

strata

of

society.

This

may

be related

o the

fact that

theirritual

status

has been

equated

with

that

of

the

fourth

varna ever since

they

came to

be

barred from

the

religious

culture of the

three wice-bornorders.

Prypical

xamples

of

this

openness

to

all, irrespective

of caste or

sex, are

provided by all monastic orders

attached to the sectarian

movements in-

fluenced by devotional

religion (bhakti).

CONCWSION

The main

difficulty n dealingwith

Hindu

asceticism s

its

absence

of

homogeneity.

It

is

characterisedby a great

variety of beliefs

and

practices or

it has no central

organisa-

tion and

is

constituted

by

a multitudeof in-

dependantmonastic communities attached

to or

another of the numerous sects

(sam-

pradaya). No statementmade about one of

its

traditionscan be valid for the rest. This

holds good for

female ascetics as well

since

it

is within the monastic

orders affiliated to

the differentsects that

they are

to be

found.

They do not form

a coherent group, but

rather coexist in

quasi-ignorance of each

other.

One

may speak

of

Hindu

'feminine

asceticism'but

only

in

a

very generalsense.

A

Hindu monastic order

has the structure

of a

genealogical tree.

It

start

as

a

lineage,

that

s as a regular

uccessionof asceticswho

are

unitedone to the

otherby

the ritualbond

which s createdat the time of

initiationbet-

ween a guru

and his disciple. But since

a

guru

may have several

disciples,

who

in

their

turn

may initiate

several others, each

monastic

ordertends to divide into a great

numberof spiritual branches(parampara).

This extremely

oose structureallows a con-

siderablefreedom to

spiritual masters

and

it

explains

to

some extent

how

female

ascetics have finally found their

way into

most

of the monastic

orders,

even those

traditionallyclosed

to them. But to

be

ad-

mitted into a

lineage

does

not

allow

one to

transmit its

religious

tradition,

that is to

initiateand

become

a

guru. It is

only

in

some

very rarecases that

there is an evidence of

self-sustained eriesof womenascetics.More

often,

femaleascetics have o survive

within

the framework

f

systems

hat are

essentially

male-orientedand have

been

designed

and

refined

by

males for

other males.

Notes

1

I

would like to

express my thanks

to Alice

Thorner for the

pains she took

in polishing

the English of this article.

2 Among

the people who

helped me during the

years

of

my inquiry

in Benares, I am par-

ticularly grateful

to my husband

Sharad

Chandra Ojha, to Jaya

Devi

and Krishna

Devi

of the Sant Asrama

(Shobha Ma),

to

Gauri and Kalyani of

the

communities

of

Anandamayi

Ma

and

Ganga

Ma

respectively.

Some of the

information

collected

during

this period has

alreadyappeared

n an article

entitled 'Feminine

Asceticism

in

Hinduism:

Its Traditionand Present

Condition',

Man in

India, 61-3 (September 1981), cf also note 5.

3 Sinha S and Saraswati

B, Ascetics of

Kasi:

An

Anthropological

Exploration,

N

K Bose

Memorial

Foundation,

Varanasi 1978.

4 A

woman must

neverbe independent

and can

never

do

anything

on her

own, Manu, V,

147-148 et IX,

2-3 et 5.

5

I

gave

a

thorough

description

of

their life

style

and beliefs

in

Condition feminine

et re-

nouncement

au monde

dans l'hindouisme:

less communaut6's

monastiques de

femmes

d

Bernares,

Bulletin de l'Ecole Francaise

d'Extreme Orient,

LXXIII

(1984).

6 Tripathi B

D, Sadhus of

India: The

Sociological View,

Bombay Popular

Prakashan,

Bombay,

1979.

WS-36

Economic and Political

Weekly April 30,

1988





outside the norms--women ascetics in hindu society

Documents