When The Folk Arts Spoke Menstruation

There바카라�s no trace of stigma in these cultures of holism that link human biology to nature. That바카라�s why women once felt no shame while dancing naked around trees, often in erotic postures, for Hudum바카라�an annual rain-inv­oking event one finds in an ethnic span between the Koch-Rajbongshi belt in north Bengal to Dhubri in Assam. The Raja Parba in Odisha, similarly, was about the earth being ready for sowing. (바카라�Raja바카라�, pronounced 바카라�rOjo바카라�, derives from the Sanskrit 바카라�rajaswala바카라� for menstruation). Ironically, it바카라�s the overlaying of mainstream cultures and modernity, trapped in its nature/culture divide, that brought on the shame. So the allusions to earth바카라�s menstruation now have to be teased out from the old Raja songs. The people have been largely wrenched away from 바카라�animism바카라�.

That last word, filtered through layers of modernist bias, greatly diminishes folk and adivasi cultures that saw everything as animated with a life-force, where the world is not a 바카라�detached mechanical object바카라�. The world isn바카라�t exactly alien to a display of blood, whether in war or just by a minor scrape바카라�but just try ascribing a positive buzz to the English word 바카라�bleed바카라� (despite 바카라�sanguine바카라� coming from the Latin for 바카라�blood바카라�). It바카라�s impossible. As a metaphor, the colour red itself raises a flag. And so, perhaps one of the most natural reasons for bloodshed in the world바카라�where women are shedding some of it every single month for a large part of their lives바카라�is swaddled in shame and stigma. Menstruation has warranted anything between panicked moral policing to complete denial of its existence. Or mass urban anger, as in Sabarimala. Through the colourful history of, new-age, 바카라�pop바카라� cultures across the world, a menstruating woman and her blood have been cameo artistes at best, and blue at worst.

The contrast with folk cultures, whose fertility goddesses birthed our religions, is stark. 바카라�Folk culture바카라�, of course, is an idea easy to essentialise as an exotic, immutable artefact of a silly past. A dance there, a daub of colour here, a curiosity to liven up an exhibition pavilion. But these are real, rational people who can still tap into a refreshingly clear-headed way of looking at things, even while drowned in suffocating patriarchy.

In 1987, Deorala in Rajasthan바카라�s Sikar district hit the national headlines with Roop Kanwar and a horrific return to the world of sati. But exactly at the same time, the seeds of a quieter revolution were being sown in the villages of nearby Ajmer, in the same state. Scores of village women were dipping into simple folk motifs to make sketches that had the most astonishingly frank and rational treatment of menstruation and allied themes, culminating in the educational book Shareer Ki Jaankaari (Knowing your Body). 바카라�The women actually came to us with their book. Over 70-75 village women from around Bhateri had made all the art,바카라� says Urvashi Butalia, co-founder of Kali for Women, which brought out the Hindi version in 1989. Translations to English and several Indian languages followed, though it바카라�s now out of print (the visuals on these pages are from the sole surviving Hindi copy).

Like societies, the State too can be schizoid: here, it was both progressive and authoritarian. The book was born out of a series of workshops conducted as part of a government initiative. 바카라�We were asked to talk about IUD (intrauterine device) as a form of birth control, which is a personal choice, as opposed to top-down population control. Hundreds of drawings came in through those workshops, where women had drawn on chart papers,바카라� says Malika Virdi, who was part of the three-women team heading the workshops. But the programme finally got stalled due to forced sterilisation and the inevitable backlash. 바카라�It바카라�s when the crisis peaked that we approached Kali for Women. A lot of people in the villages were initially upset and called the book 바카라�behuda바카라� (vulgar),바카라� Virdi recalls. But the final design, meticulously crafted with Virdi바카라�s help, was meant to create 바카라�aesthetics that don바카라�t overtly offend바카라�. So the book hides allegedly 바카라�pornographic바카라� anatomical diagrams and the menstrual cycle under paper flaps that double up as clothing for the pleasantly drawn stick figures. 바카라�The book is equally about sexuality and knowing your body. We were supposed to follow it up with Jaapa ki Jaankaari (Things to Know about Pregnancy), but that too was called off,바카라� Virdi rues.

The tendency to censorship pervades even private spaces, so menstruation is spoken of only in uncomfortable whispers and euphemisms even in homes. Any public hint of it naturally brings on an equation with pornography. But again and again, one finds the folk idiom capable of transcending that. In Lavani, a popular Maharashtrian genre where women perform to songs talking about their everyday lives, menstruation is far from being a taboo. 바카라�Still, we never perform these specific songs anywhere other than private baithaks,바카라� says Shakuntala Bai Nagarkar, a 60-year-old Pune-based Lavani dancer. Nagarkar was nurtured in an Ahmednagar family of female Lavani performers: it바카라�s a way of life for her. 바카라�Lavani is very erotic in nat­ure. These songs have been performed for generations but we know they would never get the state censor board바카라�s approval,바카라� she says.

바카라�Shivu naka durun majsee bola/ Majha shalu nirieet laal zhala바카라� goes one song, where the woman asks men to not touch her or come close to her as her sari is stained red with period blood. Another asks people to not step into her house for those few days바카라�바카라�Zhale durshee/ Sakhya mala shivu naka/ Don-chaar divasha mahali yeuu naka바카라�. Anticipating rejection from the state바카라�s theatre and performance censor board (set up in 1954), the community of Lavani performers chose not to take the risk in the first place. 바카라�It was also to maintain the sanctity and the nature of intimate understanding of such sensitive subjects바카라�. A kind of self-censorship was exercised, those songs were never performed in front of large audiences,바카라� says Lavani scholar Bhushan Korgaonkar.

The thumb rule to ridding menstruation of its layers of stigma would be to simply recognise it for what it is바카라�a physiological process as natural as breathing or blinking. And doing that comes naturally to 바카라�native바카라� philosophies. 바카라�It바카라�s the reason the world exists, how is it even possible to turn it into a taboo?바카라� asks Parvathy Baul, an exponent of a tradition of minstrelsy that sprung from the hinterlands of old Bengal. A heterogeneous community of mystics, the Baul-Fakirs are music worshippers from the Vaishnavite and Sufi streams, with antecedents in Tantrism. Parvathy, almost reflexively, starts humming a song in her lilting, rapturous voice, 바카라�Shey phool phote baaro bochhor pore/ Maashe maashe ekbaar jhore바카라� (바카라�It takes twelve years for the flower to sprout/ Then the plant sheds its blossoms once a month바카라�)바카라�verses that beautifully capture the essence of menstruation by relating it to the life of a flower. The artiste, who became the first female Baul to be conferred with the Sangeet Natak Akademi award earlier this year, refuses to call her art 바카라�folk바카라�. 바카라�It바카라�s a spiritual tradition. Our gurus have told us that in order to rid ourselves of shame, fear and disgust, we need to first know our bodies well. So there are a lot of Baul songs that metaphorically refer to the menstruation process,바카라� she says before breaking into one more, spontaneously. 바카라�Meyer maashe maashe ashe juwaar/ Tribeni shongoti / Mey Ganga Jamuna Saraswati/ Mey jokhon hoy utola/ Teen deen boy leelakhela/ Ek din kaala, ek din shada, ek din laalmoti/ Shei nodi te snaan korile, hobe tomaar gouranga muroti바카라� (바카라�Every month a woman has her 바카라�high tide바카라�/ As you witness in the conjoined three/ Daughters Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati/ When a woman bursts in excitement/ The river flows with contentment/ One day she바카라�s black, the next she바카라�s white, she then flows as pearls reddened / If you take a dip in this gushing river/ You become the one that바카라�s golden바카라�). The words are rather telling, as they almost blatantly refer to a woman바카라�s pent-up sexual energies peaking during her periods every month.

The art and ritual culture emerging from the nooks and crevices of India helps map the nation바카라�s alternative voices on this hot-button issue. While one end of the spectrum sees angry, modernised rejection at Sabarimala, the other celebrates a fierce, menstruating goddess. The sheer ubiquity of Bhagavathy/Mariamman temples in the South gives notice to an underlying Shaktism, a legacy of old fertility goddesses, a branch of Hinduism where this is a recurrent metaphor. The most striking example: the temple of Kamakhya on the outskirts of Guwahati바카라�one of the 108 peeths where Goddess Shakti바카라�s severed body parts fell, as per myth. The temple venerates the goddess바카라�s yoni or genitalia. Legend has it that a curse-ridden Kamadeva, the god of eros, sought out Shakti바카라�s womb to regain his virility, which he did. As a yearly celebration of the bleeding goddess, the four-day-long Ambubachi Mela, hosted across Assam and Bengal in June, marks Shakti바카라�s menstrual cycle. Odisha바카라�s Raja Parba falls in the same month. 바카라�Till today, young girls can be seen on swings during Raja, mostly in the interiors,바카라� says Rita Ray, former professor of sociology at Utkal University. 바카라�They바카라�re pampered with new clothes, shoes and fed sweetmeat for those three days.바카라�

Old Raja parables are laden with metaphors of female sexuality and verses that allude to her attaining puberty, according to the sociologist. 바카라�Rasiru chadila chopa...Doli ta laguchi eka eka lo, kaha bina eka eka...Bana podigale duniya jaane lo, mana katha kiye jaane?바카라� (바카라�The skin peels off the sesame...But now the swing looks empty and deserted...Everyone knows when the forest catches fire, but who knows when my heart is burning?바카라�) The skin peeling off the sesame is an obvious allusion to menarche, the first time the thick uterus lining is shed for menstruation. 바카라�But now people refuse to talk about it or even associate such a popular song to menstruation or sexuality,바카라� says Ray. Swinging itself, she says, is symbolic of an 바카라�act of sexual pleasure바카라�: the second verse implies a woman becoming ready for a 바카라�partner바카라�.

Back in Assam, Kamakhya isn바카라�t the only one whose menstrual celebrations you might witness . 바카라�Tuloni Biya is celebrated when a girl att­ains menarche, now mostly restricted to the poorer castes and the rural parts. The caste elite look down upon it as an 바카라�advertisement바카라� of their daughters becoming 바카라�eligible for marriage바카라�. But for tribals and other castes, it바카라�s a celebration and nothing to be ashamed of,바카라� says Prof Shashwati Goswami of IIMC, Delhi. 바카라�Horina dehkile najaba khedi/ Puruxor kaxoloi najaba saapi/ Puruxe najane naarir mul/ Naari je epaahi dhuniya phul바카라� (바카라�Don바카라�t go running after a deer/ Don바카라�t go near men/ Men don바카라�t know the worth of women/ That women are beautiful flowers바카라�), goes a song sung during the week-long carnival. This biya, or marriage, is nothing but a proxy wedding of a young girl (now capable of bearing a child) to a banana sapling, an old symbol of fertility. The verses clearly allude to Sita chasing a golden deer, a metaphor for the pursuit of an elusive happiness, embodied in men. An ironic bivalence is contained here: a celebration of the true nature of women, but also its eventual embedment in patriarchal cultures and the still-prevalent practice of child marriage.

One could perhaps still take a chance, though, and believe that art mostly emancipates. Gunduraju, a veteran leather puppeteer from Hassan, has travelled across Karnataka educating villagers about menstruation.

바카라�Nearly ten years back, the state government asked me to educate the Gopala (cattle-rearing) community through my puppet shows. I바카라�ve travelled to some 80-100 villages, talking to people about menstruation using tales from the Mahabharata and Ramayana,바카라� says the practitioner of Togalu Gombeyatta (leather puppetry, whose Draupadi puppet is shown here). He received both appreciation and brickbats. 바카라�A few women resisted my shows바카라�they said that if I tell the men that women should be allowed to function ­normally on their periods, they would lose out on their few days of rest!바카라� the puppeteer laughs.

The sources of possible red­emption seem buried under these same cultures, which now exhibit a tragic top layer of patriarchy. In Tamil Nadu바카라�s recent cyclone, the chilling story of menstrual taboo claiming the life of a 12-year-old made nat­ional headlines. While irony died a slow death knowing the child belonged to the same state as the legendary 바카라�Padman바카라�, little Vijaya lost her life to a tree crashing down on the thatched roof she was made to live under. Only three days into her puberty, the Thanjavur girl had already been deemed 바카라�impure바카라� and unfit to live in her own house.

Unbeknownst to us, many untold stories from the silent interiors of India may still continue to traverse the same old trajectory of blood for blood. So perhaps now, more than ever, it바카라�s time we painted our fields and forests and towns a lasting shade of red.