POCHAMMA

 

 

Pochamma is the most popular of Dalitbahujan Goddesses in Andhra Pradesh (I am sure a Dalitbahujan Goddess with similar characteristics exists all over India). Near every village, there is a small Pochamma temple. The notion of temple itself is very different in the case of this Goddess. The temple is a place where the deity exists but not in order that regular pujas be conducted for her. Pochamma is not made the object of a daily puja by the priest. Once every year the masses (and this includes all castes except Brahmins and Baniyas) go to the temple with bonalu  (pots in which sweet rice is cooked), wash the small stone that represents the deity, and clean the temple and it surroundings. The people can approach the Goddess without the mediation of a priest. They talk to the Goddess as they talk among themselves: ‘Mother’ they say, ‘we have seeded the fields, now you must ensure that the crops grows well, one of our children is sick it is your bounden duty to cure her…’ If one listens to these prayers, it becomes clear that these are a very human affair. There is nothing extraordinary about them. The people put small quantities of the bonam food (which is known as padi) on a leaf in front of the deity. Finally the chicken or sheep they have brought there will be slaughtered. The Dalitbahujans beat the dappulu  (percussion instrument), while the young people dance and make merry.

 

                What is their notion of Pochamma? She is the person who protects people from all kinds of diseases; she is a person who cures the diseases. Unlike Sita, her gender role is not specified. Nobody knows about Pochamma’s husband. Nobody considers her inferior or useless because she does not have a husband. The contrast between Saraswathi and Lakshmi, on the one hand, and Pochamma on the other, is striking. Pochamma is independent. She does not pretend to serve any man. Her relationship to human beings is gender-neutral, caste-neutral and class-neutral. She is supposed to take care of everyone in the village. She herself relates to nature, production and procreation. The closeness of the relationship that exists between Pochamma and the people is evident in the belief that she understands all languages and all dialects. The people can speak with her in their own tongues; a Brahmin can go and talk to her in Sanskrit; an English person can go and talk to her in English.

 

                Before going to Pochamma everyone bathes, and puts on clean clothes. Those who can afford it, wear new clothes. While approaching Pochamma, one does not have to wear a pattuvastram (silk cloth), neither does one have to fast the whole day as one would be required to do when approaching the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. People can eat whatever is available in their houses, drink toddy or arrack. This does not mean Pochamma hates vegetarians (like the Hindu Gods hate non-vegetarians now, and hated vegetarians in ancient India). One can go to Pochamma with some vegetarian food and still approach her. As she is a Goddess of the people, she regards the habits of the people with sympathy. As there is no notion of a priesthood among Dalitbahujans, everybody prays to Pochamma in his/her own way. Can a Muslim or a Christian approach her? Yes. There are no restrictions of  religion in a Pochamma temple. People can, and do, go to her whatever their religious moorings. Pochamma does not specify what should be offered to her. The offering depends on the economic conditions of the family. The rich take a sari and blouse piece with the bonalu and then take them back to their respective houses. Those who cannot afford such offerings can go to the temple without anything.

 

                Pochamma’s temple is not centralized like Rama, Krishna, Venkateswara temples. She is available in every village and people do not have to travel long distances to visit her. All these things have implications for people’s social and economic lives, their time and their psychological satisfaction. In other words, the spirituality that emerges around Pochamma does not divide people; it does not create conditions of conflict; it does not make one person a friend and another an enemy.

 

                Pochamma is not a Goddess who believe in communal conflicts. Religious distinctions have no meaning for her. If a pig passes by a Pochamma temple, while there are people around, nobody takes objection; no animal, including a pig, is inauspicious in Dalitbahujan culture. There is not a single example of communal riots being intiaited from Pochamma temples. Such riots have been initiated from Rama temples, Krishna temples, Narasimha temples, just as riots have been initiated from mosques.

 

                Is Pochamma rooted in materialist culture or is she rooted in mantric  (magical, auspicious chants) cultures? There  are a number of mantrics in the villages. They too believe in the power of the other world like the Brahmins do. But the village mantrics do not relate to Pochamma. They are independent persons who claim that they can change the conditions of peoples’ lives  by calling spirits but certainly no mantric claims that he or she controls Pochamma. Nobody is given a mediating role between Pochamma and the people. The village mantrics jump, dance and untie their long hair and begin to spell out the names of powerful trees and leaves, and names of people who discovered them. All this is known as Shivamtuluta, and these mantrics are known as Shivasathulus. Sometimes they devote themselves to specific Goddesses. There are Shivasathulus who are devoted to Pochamma. They do not mislead people for the sake of money. They work throughout the day and in the evenings they go into a trance of shivam  (godliness). They never tell people that they can cure diseases. There are women, too, widows mostly, who believe in the power of the other world: After the day’s work is over, they too get into a trance of shivam, and become Shivasathis.  Then they dance and sing and chant the names of trees and plants and people. In fact, Shivasathi-hood is a social outlet for the widows. Is Pochamma literate or illiterate? Nobodys knows the answer to such a question but the fact remains that she is not spoken of in relation to education at all. As the village masses—particularly women—are illiterate, they never relate to her or think of her in connection with education or employment. The demands of the masses basically relate to production, procreation and sickness. In that sense she is more a materialist Goddess, concerned with human life and needs.

KATTAMAISAMMA

 

 

A Goddess, whose popularity is second only to Pochamma, is Kattamaisamma. Kattamaisamma is a Goddess of water, whose deity (a small stone) is kept on the bund of the village tank. She too does not require a big temple. People believe that Kattamaisamma is responsible for ensuring that the tank is filled. She regulates the water resources. The Dalitbahujans believe that right from the seeding stage to the cutting stage, Kattamaisamma protects the crop. The paddy fields below the tanks flourish because of her blessings. Today, that kind of belief is being slowly eroded. They now think that the quality of the crop depends on fertilizers, and pesticides and hence even an average illiterate peasant uses fertilizers. In that sense, the Dalitbahujan mind is a scientific mind and can easily absorb emerging technology and science. But in spite of this, Kattamaisamma continues to play an important role in their consciousness. A whole range of rituals takes place around Kattamaisamma.

 

                Once in five years a major festival focusing on Kattamaisamma is celebrated. In some villages, several sheep, goats and chickens are killed and a big feast is organized. Rice is cooked and soaked in animal blood and sprinkled the field as bali  (sacrifice). The belief here is that Kattamaisamma must see to it that the fields yield good crops and that the crops become socially useful. As we say in our language, it must have barkati  (prosperous utility).

 

                What is the social origin of Kattamaisamma? A primary investigation will indicate that she was a Dalitbahujan woman who discovered the technology of tank construction. She must have wandered around and studied patterns of land and water very carefully. Perhaps she is the one who found out where to locate a tank, what kind of a bund to construct, and how much water to store. Naturally the discovery of such a system would have boosted agricultural production.

POLIMERAMMA

 

                Yet another important Goddess that the Dalitbahujans have created and popularized among themselves is Polimeramma (the border Goddess). Polimeramma is supposed to guard the village from all the evils that come from outside, to stop them at the boundary of the village. The duty that people assign to her is the protection of the whole village, irrespective of caste or class. Once in five or ten years, a buffalo is killed at the Polimeramma temple and the blood is mixed with a huge quantity of cooked rice, while the meat is eaten by those who eat it—mainly Maalaas, Maadigaas and Muslims. The Muslims are not at all excluded from the ritual. The blooded rice is thrown to all the rooftops as bali. All the agrarian families demand such a bali, but the Brahmins and the Baniyas keep themselves apart. Even the Muslim families demand their own share of the bali, as they are part of the agrarian structure in the village.

 

                Muslim men and women do planting, weeding, cutting of crops along with Dalitbahujan men and women. They share the food that the Dalitbahujans take to the fields. They share their individual agrarian skills. The Peerla  (Moharram) festival is as much a Dalitbahujan festival as that of Muslims. Dalitbahujans lead the Peeri  procession. They too hold the peeri  (a large wooden frame with copper plates on top of it and decorated with colourful cloths called dattees) on their shoulders. On festive occasions the biriyani (a special food wherein mutton and rice are mixed and cooked) that Muslims cook is sent to Dalitbahujan homes. Thus, the taste of biryani in Dalitbahujan homes is a contribution of Muslims. In a situation of such close relationship between Dalitbahujans and Muslims all the agrarian festivals of Dalitbahujans are also Muslim festivals. The most popular notion of barkati in Telangana villages is taken from theUrdu  word barkat. In such a situation of close relationship between the Dalitbahujans and the Muslims, the Muslim demand for bali is an integrated process.

 

                After the bali is sprinkled on the houses, the village is closed for one week from other villages. The idea is that the diseases and evils from other villages must not enter this village. Similarly, for one week, the people belonging to this village cannot go to other villages because such a journey would take away the prosperity of the village. During that period, there are debates about prosperity, about good and evil, all centred around production, procreation and diseases.

OTHER GODDESSES

 

 

There are several other village-specific, area-specific, caste-specific Goddesses. Yellamma, Mankalamma, Maremma, Uppalamma, Sammakka, Sarakka  are some of them. One important aspect of these Goddesses is that they do not have specific female roles. They are not known for controlling, exploiting or manipulating their husbands nor are they known for subordinating men. None of these Goddesses is said to represent delicate femininity. They are not shown sitting on lotus flowers, not shown traveling on peacocks, or on hamsas or other birds. Not a single Goddess is shown as a woman pressing the feet of her husband like Lakshmi and Saraswathi. Even Dalitbahujan men respect these Goddesses. They are powerful and independent women. The Bengali Kali is depicted as fierce and untamed, dancing over corpses, wearing garlands of skulls. But the Dalitbahujan Goddesses of South India do not represent that kind of violence. They are known as wise women who have discovered something for the well-being of the village; they are people who have saved the village from danger, or who constantly keep watch on the village crops and wealth.

 

                There are Goddesses who got involved in wars  to protect the whole area. Good examples are Sammakka and Sarakka, two tribal Goddesses very popular in the Telangana districts. The story of these Goddesses indicates that these militant tribal women opposed the invasion of the Kakatiya kings on the Mulugu tribal belt during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Sammaka organized the tribal masses to defend themselves. The mighty Kakatiya army defeated these tribal armies; Sammakka, Sarakka and Sammakka’s brother Jampanna were killed near Jampannavagu (near Mulugu, Warangal district). From that point on, Sammakka and Sarakka became the martyr heroines of the tribes. Gradually, the Dalitbahujans from the plains also began to celebrate the Jatara  (festival).

 

                Though Sammakka and Sarakka emerged as Goddesses from the battlefield, unlike the Hindu Gods, they are martyrs not victors and subduers. It is common for martyrs to be transformed into divine spirits. The story of Christ himself is one example. There is no Hindu God/Goddess who have martyred himself or herself in defence of the masses.  All are ultimate winners like the heroes in Hindi and other regional languages films. In any narrative in which the hero or heroine is ultimately victorious, violence gets justified and even glorified as a positive cultural ethos. This is the main difference between the Hindu cultural tradition and the Dalitbahujan cultural tradition. In the Dalitbahujan tradition, in no story is violence privileged as it is in Hindu narratives.

POTARAJU

 

This is true of the God narratives of the Dalitbahujans also. Take, for example, a common village God called Potaraju. Potaraju is very popular among the agrarian castes. Every peasant family keeps a stone painted white and spotted with turmeric in the field. This deity has no connection with a temple. It hardly occupies on square foot of land while the temples of the Hindu Gods occupy several acres of useful agrarian and housing land. There are very few rituals that are associated with him. The people believe that Potaraju protects the fields from thieves and marauding animals. It is in the security of this belief that no peasant keeps a watch on the crop. This belief works among everyone, so nobody steals a crop since it will invoke the wrath of Potaraju. When a thief sees the image of Potaraju in the field he hesitates to touch anything there. What Potarajua expects from the people in return is very simple. After the crop is harvested, a chicken is sacrificed at the Potaraju image. The people believe that Potaraju is satisfied byt his, and, of course, the chicken curry is relished by the people who do not have to place even a small quantity before the God.

 

                No village Goddess or God expects a yagna that involves priests.  No pulihoora, prasaad, daddoojanam,  ghee  or perugannam  are offered to them. No oil, fat or sweets are thrown into the fire to satisfy these Goddesses or Gods. Of late, because of the influence of Brahminism, the peasant do break coconuts (which in fact are a symbol of a clean shaven head with a scalp lock-pilakajuttu) to satisfy Gods and Goddesses. Sometimes the broken coconuts and cut limes are thrown on the street corners to get rid of evil spirits. But otherwise no Dalitbahujan celebration involves any wastage of food or other produce.

BEERAPPA

 

 

There are a number of caste-specific Gods and Goddesses such as Beerappa (a Yadava God), Katamaraju (A Goudaa God). The stories of such caste-specific Gods tell of the problems that these Gods and Goddesses encountered in building up that particular caste or profession. The narratives also show how these Gods and goddesses struggled to preserve the cultural tradition of those castes or professions. Take, for example, Beerappa who has a full-length narrative which is told to the people on every festive occasion by expert story-tellers. This story-telling is a ritual that has its own set of musical instruments-dolu, taalaalu. The story-tellers put on the costume that Beerappa himself was said to have worn. The narrative is accompanied by a dance done in an extremely pleasant rhythm and style. I have not come across a single Brahmin or a Baniya who knows the details of this famous story. But the story of Beerappa was part of our childhood. Many Kurumaa and Golla (Yadava) boys treat Beerappa as their ideal, and many Kurumaa and Gollaa girls regard his sister Akkamankali as the ideal woman.

 

                What is the story of Beerappa? Beerappa was an expert sheep-breeder who was not married, though he had reached his twenties. He had lost his mother and father in childhood itself. He was brought up by his sister Akkamankali who remains unmarried to be with her brother. Both Akkamankali and Beerappa are expert sheep-breeders. The family is depicted as under the overall supervision of Akkamankali, and that gives us a clue that the Yadava families were still under the influence of the matriarchal system.

 

                Beerappa had a maternal uncle who had a young daughter Kamarathi. Beerappa loved Kamarathi and wanted to marry her, but his uncle did not intend to give his daughter to Beerappa because he was a poor orphan. Beerappa’s family ad only a few sheep whereas his uncle had a big herd of sheep. However, Beerappa was firm in the resolve that he would marry his mardalu  (uncle’s daughter), Kamarathi. He waited till his herd grew and he himself acquired the strength to defeat his uncle and marry Kamarathi. His sister kept on requesting him to give up the idea because their uncle was a wicked man and it would be difficult to win him over. But Beerappa was adamant.

 

                One day Beerappa convinced his sister, took her permission and went to his uncle’s village. There he met Kamarathi and they planned to elope. On learning of this, his uncle mobilized his forces and confronted Beerappa. But Beerappa defeated his uncle and reached his home along with his beloved. Akkamankali performed their marriage with the involvement of the people in his caste and also the other villagers.

 

                The story has several scenes that pertain separately to Akkamankali, Beerappa and Kamarathi. We see Akkamankali dealing with the problems of feeding the sheep, shearing the wool and milking them in the absence of her brother. The narrative indicates that Mankali was capable of handling all the activities related to sheep-and goat-rearing. In the story, the male and female domains are not treated as separate. The unmarried Akkamankali’s place in Beerappa’s house is the exact opposite of the Brahmin widow Buchamma’s place in the Brahmin household in Gurjada Appa Rao’s novel Kanyashulkam;  it is also the opposite of Lakshmi, Sita or Saraswathi’s place in the Hindu brahminical narratives. Nowhere in the story does Beerappa insult or chide his sister simply because she remained unmarried, nor does she live as a dependent, helpless woman. At every key turns of the narratives, Akkamankali plays an important role. At every major step Beerappa consults his sister. The entire story revolves around preserving the idea of marriage based on love, reinforcing man-woman equality and developing sheep-breeding as an occupation.

 

                What do all these Dalitbahujan Goddess/God images, roles, narratives signify? The cultural, economic and political ethos of these Goddesses/Gods is entirely different from Hindu hegemonic Gods and Goddesses. The Dalitbahujan Goddesses/Gods are culturally rooted in production, protection and procreation. They do not distinguish between one section of society and the other, one caste and the other. In these stories there is no scope for creation of an enemy image. War and violence are not at all central to the philosophical notions of the people. Ritualism is a simple activity which does not involve economic waste. Despite there being such a strong sense of the sacred, Dalitbahujan society never allowed the emergence of a priestly class/caste that is alienated from production and alienates the Goddesses and Gods from the people. There is little or no distance between the Gods and Goddesses and the people. In fact the people hardly depend on these Goddesses/Gods. To whatever extent it exists, and contact is needed, the route between the deity and people is direct. Barriers like language, sloka or mantra are not erected.

 

                How do Hindu Gods and Goddesses compare with Dalitbahujan’s Goddesses/Gods? The Hindu Gods are basically war heroes and mostly from wars conducted against Dalitbahujans in order to create a society where exploitation and inequality are part of the very structure that creates and maintains the caste system. The Hindus have a male-centered mythology and women are restricted to gender-specific roles and rendered sexual objects. Though the brahminical Hindus claim that their tradition is rooted in non-violence, the truth is the other way round. All the Hindu Gods were propagators of violent wars. Their dharma is a caste dharma and their living styles, rich and exploitative. Production is made their first enemy. The fact that these Gods are approachable only through a priest and can understand only Sanskrit is enough indication that their alienation from the people is total.

 

                The Dalitbahujans’ Goddesses/Gods tradition is the exact opposite in every respect. It is time that we confront these differences and understand them. It is important that scholars from the Dalitbahujan tradition enter into a debate with brahminical scholars in a big way. These brahminical scholars and leaders who talk about Hindutva being the religion of all castes must realize that the Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes, and Scheduled Tribes of this country have nothing in common with the Hindus. For centuries, even when Dalitbahujans tried to unite all castes, the Brahmins, the Baniyas and the Kshatriyas opposed the effort. Even today, no Brahmin adopts the names of our Goddesses/Gods; even today,t hey do not understand that the Dalitbahujans have a much more humane and egalitarian tradition and culture than the Hindu tradition and culture. Even today, our cultural traditioin is being treated as meritless. If the Brahmins, the Baniyas, the Kshatriyas and the neo-Kshatriyas of this country want unity among diversity, they should join us and look at Dalitization, not Hinduization.