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Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety in Traditional India

Author(s): Robert P. Goldman


Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 113, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1993), pp. 374-
401
Published by: American Oriental Society
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TRANSSEXUALISM, GENDER, AND ANXIETY IN TRADITIONAL INDIA
ROBERT P. GOLDMAN

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,BERKELEY

The virtually universal theme of transsexualism, the idea that a person can or should under cer-
tain circumstances change his or her original sex has had a particularly long, complex, and produc-
tive history in South Asia. From the time of the earliest known Sanskrit texts through the
biographies of medieval and modern religious and political leaders, to contemporary fiction this
theme has been closely connected with some of the region's most central theological, aesthetic, and
social ideologies. In this study I will survey and discuss a number of salient examples of transsexu-
alism drawn from the religious and mythological texts of ancient and medieval India. I will also dis-
cuss some signficant manifestations of the theme in cultic practices at various shrines in north and
south India, and in the lives and teachings of several important modern Indian religious figures and
members of organized religious communities. In doing so I will propose an analysis of the theme
and its role in the constructions of gender, power, and authority in a traditional patriarchalsociety.

In Memory of Bimal Krishna Matilal (1935-1991)

se dese e dese anek antar


janaye sakal loke I
se dese e dese misamisi ache
e katha koya na kake |I

"There is a vast difference between this world and the next."


Every one knows that.
This world and the next are really one and the same.
But that is something you should not tell to anyone.1

THE QUESTIONOF HOW A scholar "reads" or ought to such reading. Workers in anthropology, history, and lit-
"read" a text, whether it be oral, written, plastic, or per- erary criticism have sought to demonstrate that reading
formative-especially when the text is derived from a a text is, among other things, a political act, especially
culture other than that of the scholar-has become in- when the reader places himself (or herself) in a position
creasingly central to a number of academic fields in re- of dominance vis a vis the audience for which the text
cent years. Few disciplines have had to grapple with this was intended. Scholars such as Said, Clifford, Geertz,
issue more seriously than the cluster grouped uneasily Spivak, and others2 in their own ways have contributed
under such names as "Asian" or "Oriental" studies. The to the erosion of the old orientalists' philological author-
question has, in fact, grown more complex in the last ity and the notion that a text could be studied and inter-
several decades by virtue of the introduction of theoreti- preted in a social and political vacuum with nothing to
cal and methodological approaches in both the humani- intervene between the author and the translator/editor
ties and the social sciences that specifically problematize and no one to contest the latter's reading.

1
Sahajiya Vaisnava song attributedto Candidas recorded as
song number 84 in M. Bose, ed., Sahajiya Sdhitya. Cited in 2 Said
1978, Clifford 1986, Geertz 1973, and Guha and Spi-
Das Gupta 1969: 131-32. vak 1988.

374
GOLDMAN: Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety In Traditional India 375

But texts too, no less than our readings and construc- sented when we have, as in the case of much Indian lit-
tions of them, are themselves political in that they have erature, texts that are not merely ancient, but have
both prescriptive and descriptive value for the cultures continued to occupy a central role in the culture in a
of which they are artifacts. Yet certain texts, particu- variety of forms from antiquity right down to the
larly the religious, philosophical, and mythological present. One such opportunity is presented by the
texts-both written and performative-of traditional themes and characters of the Sanskrit epics and major
Asian cultures, have only occasionally been read for puranas which have fascinated the peoples of South
what they can tell us about the inner affect and power Asia from the time of the late vedic bards to that of the
relations associated with specific cultural and social modern television serial. A still greater opportunity is
configurations. This has been particularly true in the to be had when major recurrentthemes of these docu-
case of traditional India where textually based scholar- ments are internalized and acted out for popular con-
ship has tended to concentrate on philological, theo- sumption by highly visible and influential figures in the
logical, and philosophical analysis and has rarely religious, political, and artistic realms.
shown much interest in "reading" traditional Indian Themes and texts that have attained the kind of lon-
texts as vital elements in the social, political, and psy- gevity and diffusion as these have are of profound
chological matrix of South Asian cultures.3 Nonethe- significance to people among whom they are current,
less, to the extent that we fail to examine the cultural although it does not necessarily follow that the reasons
purposes served by specific texts and their recurrent for their significance are immediately apparent to or
themes, the ways in which they were intended to be easily articulated either by these people or by scholars.
"read" by their original audiences, and the ways in This distance between the significance of a mythic
which they have been read by successive indigenous theme in any given social or cultural context and the
audiences, we may-for all our philological skill and ability to account for it is especially great when these
hermeneutical wit-utterly misunderstand what they materials may speak, in some cases, to deeply and
are "about," either in some probably irrecoverable in- powerfully acculturated anxieties and fears which, by
tended meaning or in any of the other meanings con- their very nature, may be difficult to confront in undis-
structed by historically particular users and consumers guised form. In South Asia, as in other largely patri-
of these texts.4 archal societies, these fears, which these texts may
A particularly good opportunity for an integrated paradoxically both reinforce and partially alleviate,
study of textual materials in their social context is pre- frequently cluster around a deeply problematized com-
plex of issues involving the body, gender, sexuality,5
3 This has been power, hierarchy, and subordination.
trueof the majorityof scholars
particularly A commonplace in the social, performative,and liter-
workingon the vast corpusof textualmaterialsin Sanskrit.In ary representations of these anxieties in virtually all
recentyears, however,a few Sanskritistshave becomeinter-
patriarchalsocieties has been the expression of a highly
estedin reexaminingsomeimportantSanskrittextsin the light
charged and deeply ambivalent attitude towards women
of psychological,political,andfeministcritiques.See, for ex- and women's sexuality. In many texts women are idea-
ample, Masson 1974, 1976, 1980; Pollock 1985; Sutherland lized as pure, spiritual, and nurturantwhen they are
1989, 1991, 1992;andGoldman1978, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1991.
4 Before to issue a sortof
proceedingit may be appropriate
caveat on the subjectof the "meaning"or "meanings"of a transsexualismseem invariablyto derive their sense of the
particulartext, whetherwritten,oral or performative.In what phenomenonfrom the ancient sources which they use as
follows I shall be attemptingto extracta certainthreadof as- sources of inspirationand validation.I am indebtedto my
sociatedmeaningsfroma broadandcomplexfabricof myth, friend and colleague ProfessorSheldon I. Pollock for the
belief, practice,and interpretation. I do not meanto suggest probingintelligenceandgreatlearninghe has broughtto bear
thatall the materialswithwhichI shallbe dealinghavea sim- on this aspectof the study.
5
ple, single "meaning"thatdoes not varywith time,place,and Throughoutthis paperI have triedto maintaina distinc-
the shiftingbelief systems,symbolicuniverses,andpowerre- tion betweenthe conceptof "sex,"whichI use-as in current
lationsof theirauthors,purveyors,performers, andaudiences. practice-to refer to the biologicalor anatomicalaspectsof
It is, finally,difficultto know, for example,how ancientIn- one's sexualpersonaand "gender,"whichgenerallyrefersto
dian texts were originallyunderstoodby their variousaudi- the complexof constructions,attitudesand orientationsthat
ences. On the other hand,a certainstrandof hermeneutical defineone's social role as a genderedbeing. In manycases,
continuity is provided by the fact that the contemporary especiallyin the texts with which I will be dealing,this dis-
groupsandindividualswho articulateand/orperformtexts of tinctionis significantlyblurred.
376 Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993)

de-erotized and placed in clearly defined and sexually gion as has that of traditional India.'0 A study of Indian
tabooed blood relationships such as those of mother, sis- traditions of transsexualism will, I believe, provide ma-
ter, or daughter. In others, when emphasis is placed on terial both for a clearer understandingof the traditional
their sexuality, they are often vilified for this aspect of literature and culture of South Asia and for a better
their nature and condemned as temptress, seductress, or sense of the ways in which gender, sexuality, and
whore. Thus although women are objectified and com- power have been constructed in many patriarchalcul-
modified as desirable and coveted male possessions, the tures, including those of the contemporaryWest. In the
very sexuality for which they are so highly prized is, at following paper, then, I will present and discuss a num-
the same time, representedas dangerous and destructive ber of salient examples of transsexualism drawn from
to men. By such projective devices, male-dominated the religious and mythological texts of ancient and me-
cultures have been able to establish a univocal yet hege- dieval India, the cultic practices at various shrines in
monic ideology of gender. A central and defining tenet north and south India, and the lives and teachings of
of this ideology is that sexuality itself, especially when several important modern Indian religious figures and
viewed negatively, arises chiefly through the agency of members of organized religious communities.
women who are unregulated by the societally defined The great preponderanceof instances of transsexual-
constraints of kinship. This can be seen both in the re- ism in India, as in many other cultures, involve the
currentancient Indian mythic theme of the celibate male temporary or permanent transformation of men into
sage who has sex with an irresistible apsaras and then
curses her, and in the popular and even judicial attitude 10The
of the contemporary world that holds women respon- of associatingGodor his representatives
phenomenon
sible for sexual assaults visited upon them.6 with transsexualism is, however, not entirely unknown to other
One particular theme derived from this matrix of at- major world religions. In medieval Christianity, for example,
titudes and anxieties has occupied a special role in the certain abbots and other theologians expanded on references
literature and religious life of traditional India. This is foundin someof thepatristicwritersto developa specificform
the phenomenon of transsexualism, the internalized or of devotion to Jesus or God as Mother. In some cases abbots
acted-out fantasy or desire (and, with modern surgery, such as Bernard of Clairvaux spoke about not only God and
the fact) of changing the sex with which one was born. Jesus but of other normally patriarchalfigures such as Peter,
This phenomenon is well attested in most cultures, and, Paul, Moses, and even themselves in feminine terms. See
Cabussut 1949 and Bynum 1982: 110-69. A noteworthy differ-
along with the related phenomenon of transvestism, it
has been the subject of many historical, statistical, ence between this form of divine transsexualism and the much
more elaborate transformations associated with devotional
cross-cultural, and psychological studies.7 It has also
often been featured in the various media of popular Vaisnavism is the almost exclusive Christian focus on the ma-
ternal aspects of divine femininity as opposed to the often
journalism.8 In recent years this theme has even become
a staple of mainstream Hollywood movie comedy.9 heavily erotized characterization of the relationship between
Few cultures have accorded this phenomenon so Godandhis devoteein Hinduism.Inonecase,thefeminization
of a male God serves as a metaphorfor the unconditional qual-
prominent a place in the realms of mythology and reli-
ity of divine love. In the other, as we shall see, it is the (male)
devotee-not the divinity-who is feminized so as to enable
him to experience fully the erotized love of God. The metaphor
6 Brownmiller 1975.
here speaks to the intensity ratherthan the unconditionality of
7 For
example, Bullough 1973, Docter 1988, Vyas and Shin- the emotion. An interesting index to the differing attitudes of
gala 1987, Sharma 1989, and Nanda 1990: 128-43. the two cultures concerning sexuality and religion is to be
8 It turns
up frequently both in public television documenta- found in the fact that, while the Hindu form of worship became
ries and on the daytime talk shows that feature provocative the mainstream expression of devotionalism in a number of
topics, frequently associated with sexuality. Just recently, for Vaisnava sectarian traditions, even the de-erotized representa-
example, the American public television screened a documen- tion of God as mother in medieval Christianityhas been almost
tary on the life of an individual transsexual ("Metamorphosis: wholly suppressed and has been described by one scholar as a
Man Into Woman," June 26, 1991, KQED, San Francisco) "devotionthatmakestheologianswince"(Rayezcited in By-
while the BBC presented a film on the hijras of India entitled num 1982: 110). Other more erotized representations of the
"The Third Gender" (see Prasad 1991). loving relationship between the worshiper and God, so as in the
9 Examples of transvestism would be the films "Some Like so-called Brautmystik,the nuptial bond with God, the notion of
It Hot" and "Tootsie." Cinematic renderings of the theme of nuns being brides of Christ, and the highly erotized mysticism
transsexualism may be seen in the more recent films "All of of Santa Teresa, generally involve no shift of naturalor attrib-
Me" and "Switch." uted sex or gender.
GOLDMAN: Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety In Traditional India 377

women. Moreover, the whole phenomenon appears to autonomy;16Tulsi Das's famous verse grouping women
be deeply bound up with a patriarchal culture's am- with donkeys, drums, and low-caste Hindus as entities
bivalent construction of women and their sexuality. It requiringbeating;17and the anthologized verse in which
will, therefore, be useful to review briefly some of the sexual contact with a woman is said to undermine the
principal normative representationsof this construction mental, moral, and physical well-being of men'8 are but
as they are articulated by representatives of the various a few salient examples drawn from a vast, well-known,
indigenous South Asian religious traditions. and profoundly influential corpus of textual sources pro-
Expressions of a profoundly antipathetic attitude to- viding an elaborate and ponderous negative counter-
wards women, their strength, their intelligence, their weight to the equally well-buttressed construction of
fidelity, their chastity, their capacities for indepen- women as idealized lover, wife, and mother which the
dence and spiritual liberation, and their very anatomy tradition also articulates.19
are commonplace in many of the most influential docu- Such texts both reflect and reinforce a set of deeply
ments of the major indigenous Indian traditions, Hin- ingrained attitudes in the traditionalpatriarchalcultures
duism, Jainism, and Buddhism, from the time of the of South Asia and indeed the cultures of many, if not
very earliest texts of which we have knowledge. most, regions. As such they are of central importance to
The Rgveda's assertion of feminine inconstancy and our formation of a clear understandingof these cultures,
treachery; the early Buddhist literature'sdwelling upon their attitudes towards women and sexuality, and the
the Bodhisattva's revulsion at the sight of the unclothed very real consequences these attitudes continue to have
female body;'2 the Buddha's reluctance and pessimism for the societies that have adopted them in general, and
over admitting women to the sahgha;'3 the shrill misog- the women of these societies in particular. They have,
yny of Bhartrhari'ssubhasitas;'4 the prolonged and bit- however, already been discussed in a number of schol-
ter Jaina disputes over women's eligibility for spiritual arly contexts, both indological and feminist, and I do
liberation;'5 Manu's often-quoted rejection of female not intend to treat them in any detail here. Rather, I have
alluded to them in order to provide a context in which
the textual materials from ancient and modern India that
1" Rgveda 10.95.15 (hereafter cited as RV): na vai straindni I will be addressing in this paper may be situated.
sakhyani santi salavrkdna.mhrdaydny eta, "There can be no These well-known passages must be kept clearly in
friendships with women for theirs are the hearts of jackals." mind because the thrust of the materials upon which I
Cf. Satapathabrahmana 11.5.1.9. will focus may seem, in many respects, to be contra-
12 Warren 1896: 60-61.
13 dictory, even diametrically so, to the spirit that ani-
Goldman 1991: xv. A characteristic expression of the mates them. And, having presented the substance, or at
relative moral status of the two sexes as understood by the sra-
any rate the outline, of some less well known textual
mana traditions is to be found in an aside on the part of the
passages that may at first reading appear to project a
Buddha in the course of telling the story of the Thera Soreyya.
positive valuation of women and femininity, I shall
He explains that men who indulge in adultery must, after return to the better-known passages and attempt to
suffering in hell for hundreds of thousands of years, suffer the
resolve, or at the least illuminate, this seeming contra-
further indignity of a hundred successive rebirths as women. diction. In doing so, I hope to be able to shed some ad-
Women, on the other hand, who perform meritorious acts with ditional light upon one of the sources of traditional
the desire of escaping their feminine condition or who are India's characteristic configuration of attitudes con-
utterly devoted to their husbands can, he asserts, thereby be
cerning women, sexuality, and gender.
reborn as men. See notes 46 and 89 below.
14 stanau mamsagranthi kanakakalasav ity upamitau
mukhamslesmagdram tad api ca sasankena tulitam 16
Manusmrti 5.148.
sravanmitraklinnam karivarakaraspardhijaghanam 7 Rdmcaritmdnas5.58.6.
aho nindyam ruipamkavijanavisesair gurukrtam 8
Subhasitaratnabhdnddigdra,no. 9, p. 348.
Satakatrayam 3.21 darsanad dharate cittam sparsanad dharate dhrtim
Her breasts, two lumps of flesh, are likened to golden mithunad dharate viryam nari pratyaksaraksasi
pitchers. The sight of her carries off your mind, her touch your
Her face, abode of phlegm, is likened to the moon. fortitude.To have sex with her is to lose your man
Her thighs, damp with trickling urine, are said to rival hood.Truly,a womanis an ogressin the flesh!
the trunks of the finest elephants. 19 For a useful survey of the ambivalence of the traditional

Oh, what a contemptible thing to be made such a fuss Indian attitude towards women as both nurturantand destruc-
over by the great poets. tive, as beneficent mother and devouring demoness, see Kakar
15 Jaini 1991. 1981: 79-112.
378 Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993)

The episodes with which I will be dealing here are Although tales of sexual transformation are attested
drawn from both ancient literary and religious docu- from the literatures, oral and written, of many cultures,
ments as well as from the biographies of modern spiri- South Asia appears for some reason to have provided
tual leaders and ethnographic descriptions of monastic unusually fertile ground for texts informed by this
communities; yet they have one common central theme.21 Indeed, in several forms and contexts, the
theme. Unlike many of the better known passages in theme may be discovered in a wide variety of traditional
which the issues of sex and normative gender role are and modern contexts of Indian cultural history. The
engaged, episodes such as the Savitri legend, the crisis question of such transformationand of complete or par-
between Dasaratha and Kaikeyi, the touching devotion tial sexual and gender ambiguity is readily observable
of Sita, Rama's fateful encounter with the raksasi in a number of widely familiar manifestations such as
Surpanakha, or Srikrsna's play among the gopikas of the ubiquity of the curious hijra phenomenon,22 the
Vraja, these texts rarely concern themselves chiefly common iconographic representationof Siva in the her-
with the transactions, positive or negative, between maphroditic form of Ardhanarisvara-a representation
members of the opposite sexes. Instead, the focal mo- treated quite playfully by some devotional poets,23the
ment in the materials upon which I will concentrate in-
volves the transformation of a person from one sex to
most comprehensive treatmentof the theme in India is that of
the other through the exercise of some supernatural
Brown 1927. Here the theme is catalogued-in keeping with
power or as the result of a powerful wish. the "motif typology" of folkloric and mythic themes popular in
I will not attempt to provide a comprehensive treat-
the 1920s-according to whether the change is from male to
ment of all references to transgenderism and trans-
female or female to male, whether the change is regarded as a
sexualism in the vast, diverse, and copious literary,
curse or a blessing, whether it is expected or not, and according
religious, and folkloric traditionsof India. I will not, for to the mechanism through which the transformationis effected.
example, be dealing with instances where, whether in a For another listing of examples of the "Change of Sex Motif"
single life or over the course of a person's transmigra- in Indian and other Oriental folklore and literature, see Penzer
tional history, a change of sex is merely an index of a
1927, 7:222-33. Like Brown's, Penzer's account is basically a
change in moral stature or degree of spiritual merit, nor theorisizing and
with those where such a transformationis deliberately catalog. With the exception of a few works, such as that of in indian texts.
undertaken on a temporary basis through the use of O'Flaherty on the related phenomenon of androgyny (O'Fla-
herty 1980), scholars have made little effort to understand or
spells or magical articles, usually for the purpose of
explain the significance of transsexualism in India. Brown pro-
deception in connection with a romantic involvement.
vides a perfunctory section, entitled "Origin of the Notion of
Rather, I will be concentrating on those religious, lit-
Sex Change," which, after a few sketchy allusions to hijras,
erary, and historical texts in which, I believe, this theme
most powerfully illuminates the complex set of attitudes cross-dressing to avoid superhuman malevolence, the reli-
gious practices of some Krsna cults, and the phenomenon of
concerning sexuality, hierarchy, deference, and power
relations characteristicof traditionalSouth Asian culture hermaphroditism,concludes, somewhat lamely, "We need not
and society. The majority of these episodes relate varia- press too far to find a source for the idea. From all these
tions on the theme of the transformationof a man into a spheres of thought and experience fiction has taken the notion
and then with a freedom that is of its very nature it has adapted
woman, although a few represent the reverse metamor-
the idea to its varying needs" (Brown 1927: 22-24).
phosis. And yet, although it is of frequent occurrence in
21 The phenomenon of transsexualism has taken on new
significant contexts in the mythological and religious lit-
eratures of South Asia and has not seldom been re- significance in the modern world with the advent of the tech-
marked upon by scholars, this motif has generated little niques of sex change surgery in Germany during the 1920s.
in the way of analytic or theoretical discussion to date.20 Popular and psychological interest, however, received its
greatest stimulus in the wake of the media coverage of the cel-
ebrated Christine Jorgensen case in 1952. For a brief discus-
20
The themeis an extremelycommonone in folkloric,reli- sion see Docter 1988: 7-8. Transvestism and transsexualism
gious, and literary texts from many parts of the world, and it have thus by now a considerable bibliography in the psycho-
occurs in a wide variety of such texts in South Asia. European logical, psychoanalytic, and general literature. See Bullough
legends and alleged case histories of sexual transformation 1976: 60-73, 150-60; Bullough 1977: 74-89; and Docter
tend to associate such change with a person's acting like or as- 1988: 39-71, 235-42.
22 Nanda 1990 and
sociating too intimately with members of the opposite sex or to Shetty 1990.
explain the change naturalistically. For a discussion with a 23 See, for
example,the charmingandplayfulliterarytreat-
number of examples, see Laqueur 1990: 124-29. Perhaps the ment of Siva's androgyny in verses 85 and 90 of Vidyakara's
GOLDMAN: Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety In Traditional India 379

complex and highly charged erotic devotionalism char- God to reverse this transformationbut is told that she
acteristic of the Bhagavata literature and the perfor- must propitiate the Goddess. She throws herself upon
mative traditions of the Krsna cult,24 and even the the Mother's mercy, and the Goddess grants that Ila will
Buddhist literature.25I will return to some aspects of be restored to manhood at the end of six months. It is
these figures later on, but to begin I should like to turn during his semester of femininity that s/he is wooed by
to some less well known but still widely disseminated King Budha by whom s/he is impregnatedand to whom
legends in which we see unambiguously articulated s/he bears a son, the prince Pururavas.
the notion of complete and literal transsexualism. In the first book of the Mahdbhdrata, there is a ge-
One of the oldest such legends of which we have a nealogy of the Candravamsa in which we find a terse
record and the one most frequently recounted in the tra- reference to the birth of Pururavas,of whom it is enig-
ditional literature is the tale of King Ila.26Variants of matically stated that he was born to Ila who was both his
this legend are found in both of the Sanskrit epics27and mother and his father.31The fact that such a startling
many puranas.28 It is closely bound up with the ancient statement goes unexplained in a text not noted for its
and widely disseminated cycle of tales centering on aversion to prolixity may perhaps be seen as an indica-
Ila's son Pururavas,ancestor of the Lunar dynasty, and tion that the poet assumed that the tale was quite familiar
his ill-fated love for the apsaras Urvagi.29This cycle is to his audience. A fairly elaborate version is related in
well established in the vedic literature,and although the the Uttarakanda of the Vilmiki Ramdyana32where the
episode involving Ila's transformation is not fully de- motif of the feminization of the masculine in the face of
veloped there, it is detailed in an account quoted at the Mother's sexuality is carried so far that, in order to
length by the commentator Sayana30as providing the please her, Siva turns not only all other male beings in
historical context for the birth of Pururavas. Accord- the vicinity into females but effects this regendering
ing to this version, the prince Ila, out hunting, inadvert- upon himself as well.33Here too, Ila is representedas be-
ently enters the trysting spot of the Goddess (devikrida) ing both distressed by her loss of manhood and is re-
at a moment when her husband, the Lord Siva, is mak- buffed by the God in her request for its restoration. She
ing love with her. In order to prevent any other male once more throws herself upon the mercy of the Goddess
from seeing his wife in his embrace, the God, through who grants her only half her wish, so that the king is
his divine power, had ordained that any male entering permitted to alternate between the two genders on a
this forbidden spot would be turned into a woman. The
king undergoes a transformationinto a woman, which is 3
the source of acute shame. The woman Ila implores the pururavds tato vidvdn ildydamsamapadyata
sa vai tasyabhavan mata pita ceti hi nah srutam
MBh 1.70.16
32 Ram 7.78-79.
anthology the Subhasitaratnakosa, translatedby Ingalls (1965:
89-90). 33 tasmims tu devadevegah sailardjasutam harah
24 Hein 1972 and
Hawley 1981. ramaydmdsadurdharsah sarvair anucaraih saha
25 For a discussion of some stories of sexual transformation krtvd stribhitam atmdnam umeso gopatidhvajah
in the Buddhist literatureof India and China, see Brown 1927: devydh priyacikirsuh sa tasmin parvatanirjhare
19-21. ye ca tatra vanoddese sattvdh purusavddinah
26 Hertel (1911: 153-86) provides an extensive treatmentof yac ca kimcana tat sarvam narisaamjiambabhiva ha
the story and its numerous variants in a paper which is, in Ram 7.78.11-13
turn, discussed by Keith (1913: 412-17). This is, so far as I know, the only instance in the mythological
27 Rdmayana 7.78-81 (hereafter cited as Ram), Maha- literaturein which a figure assumes the same sex as his or her
bharata 1.70.16 (hereafter, MBh), and Harivamsa 10.615-37. beloved in an explicitly erotic context. Normally, one assumes
Unless otherwise indicated, Ramdyana and Mahabharata ref- the opposite sex for sexual purposes or the same sex to elimi-
erences are to the critical editions. nate the suggestion of sexuality in proscribed circumstances.
28 Bhdgavatapurdna 9.1, Brahmapurdna 7.1-23, Lingapur- In the elaborate version of the tale found in the Gautamimd-
ana 1.65.19-32, Markan.deyapurdna111.8-18, Matsyapurana hatmya of the Brahmapurana (38.33-35), the Goddess, in re-
10.43-11.14, Vayupurdna85, and Visnupurana4.1.7-16. For questing Siva to set aside a forbidden woods, the Umavana, for
furtherdiscussion of the theme, see note 95 below and Brown their lovemaking, specifically exempts the males of her house-
1925: 13-14. hold, Ganesa, Karttikeya, Nandin, and Siva himself, from the
29 RV 10.95, Satapathabrahmana 11.5.1, and Kalidasa's effects of the spell. This, of course, mirrors the exclusion of
Vikramorvasiya. unrelated males from the inner apartments of the women's
30 RV 10.95
(vol. 4:639-40). quartersof a traditional South Asian upper-class household.
380 Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993)

monthly basis. During her first month as a woman, she literature and one of the few significant accounts of
falls in love with Budha and conceives Pururavas.S/he female to male transsexualism37is the strange mini-
then shifts back and forth between the genders on a saga of Amba, the princess of Kasi, who, having be-
monthly basis alternatingaccordingly between the erotic come unmarriageableas a result of her abduction at the
dalliance of a woman and the manly exercise of kingly hands of the Bharata prince Bhisma, performs fear-
duty until, having performedthe Asvamedha rite, he per- some penances in order to be reborn as a man so that
manently reverts to the male sex and is thus restored to she may kill him in retaliation.38Here too, the god Siva
his previous state of happiness.34 intervenes, promising that Amba shall obtain the de-
An interesting variant of this motif may be found in sired transformation and be reborn as the warrior son
the widely known Mahabharata episode in which the of King Drupada. Accordingly she immolates herself
virile hero Arjuna, visiting the heavenly court of his with this as her final all-consuming wish.
father Indra, rejects the sexual advances of the apsaras Amba's metamorphosis into a man, however, is not
Urvagi precisely because her well-known liaison with to be so easily accomplished. Drupada, the tale con-
his ancestor Pururavas places her in the position of a tinues, was at this time performing austerities of his
"mother"to him.35The nymph is furious at being thus own for the more conventional purpose of obtaining a
spurned and curses Arjuna to lose his manhood and son and heir. Siva instead grants him a daughter, in
become a napumsaka, a feminized transvestite of am- whom Amba is reincarnated,promising that she will in
biguous sex and feminized gender. But, like the curse the end become a man. Thus the girl is raised as a boy
of his forefather Ila, this one too is modified so as to and the king, relying on the infallibility of the great
have its effect restricted to only a limited period. Indra god's promise, agrees to find a wife for her. The bride
intervenes on his son's behalf and sets the term of the is greatly astonished-not to say dismayed-when,
curse at one year. It is Urvagi's curse, thus modified by upon her wedding night, she discovers that her new
Indra, that provides the underlying explanation for the husband is also a woman.39The bride's father threatens
necessity of Arjuna's having to adopt the humiliating to kill his deceitful brother-in-law, and the girl-groom
guise of the feminized transvestite Brhannada during Sikhandini, in despair, sets out to kill herself yet again.
the Pandavas' year of enforced concealment at the
court of Virata.36
of regendering as a result of a sexual sin of commission or-
Without question the most complex and elaborate
in this case-omission, the tale of Arjuna and Urvagi is a
single instance of a case of sexual transformationin the multiform of the larger motif of castration as retribution for
Oedipal transgressions. For a detailed analysis of this theme in
34Ram7.79-81. Therearea numberof curiouselementsin the Indian epics, see Goldman 1978.
this versionaside fromSiva'sabandonment of his maleform. 37 But compare also the Bhdgavatapurdna's Sudyumna/Ila
Oneis its repetitionof thetheme-stated moreexplicitlyin the version of the Ila/Ila legend, discussed in note 95 below.
Mahabhdrata tale of BhafigfivanaandseveralJainatexts-of 38 MBh 5.170-93. Bhisma, of course, occupies a principal
womenas constitutionally predisposedto eroticactivityandin- role in a central thematic nexus of the epic that deals with the
capableof acts of fortitude.Anotheris the interestingapplica- desexualization of the son in deference to the father's sexual-
tion of the virtuallyall-purposeAgvamedharite to eliminate ity. Bhisma indeed derives his charisma, his power, and even
almostany undesiredconditioncausedby sometransgression. his defining epithet from his voluntary renunciation of sexual-
Forthe firstpoint,see Carstairs1961:156-60; for the second, ity, an act that, in the Jaina Pdndavapurana, is rendered as an
GoldmanandSutherland1984:298 (note 11.2). act of literal self-castration. See Jaini 1984: 111. This theme is
35MBh3, app. I, no. 6, 11.125-29. Also suggestedif not of enormous importance to the Mahabharata poets and is one
completely explicit here is a more immediate overdetermina- of the characteristic features of the epic narrative and of the
tion of the incesttaboo.ForUrvagi,as a celestialcourtesan,is dynasty whose history it records. Thus, in addition to Bhisma, would be useful for
alwaysavailableas a sexualpartnerof Indra,who is Arjuna's many of the most important Bhfrata dynasts and heroes in-
gendering the mh.
in my seminar.
biological(bijapati)as opposedto legal (ksetrapati)father. cluding Ila, Yayati, Puru, Pandu, and Arjuna are forced, either
36MBh3, app.I, no. 6, 11.132-35, 143-52=Citrashala Press through a curse or as an act of filial devotion, to lose or sup-
edition3.46. The ostensiblereason,adducedby Arjunain the press their virility temporarily or permanently.
Virdtaparvan, is that only this disguise-with its flamboyant 39 The
episode is, at least in this respect, an elaborate multi-
clothes and its multitude of wrist bangles-will enable him to form of a common tale-type in which one of a pair of newly-
conceal the bowstring scars that would otherwise reveal his weds is in fact secretly a member of the same sex as the other.
identity as the mighty and unique ambidextrous archer (sav- Several Indian literary and folkloric variants are discussed by
yasdcin) (MBh 4.2.25-26 [Citrashalaed.]). Like other legends Brown 1927: 10-12.
GOLDMAN: Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety In Traditional India 381

This time, however, she encounters a yaksa who, According to this story, the king who, like so many
through his superhumanpowers, effects an exchange of epic monarchs, is distraught over the lack of a son to
sexes with her.40 This is the origin of the "woman" succeed him, chooses, in an effort to procure an heir,
warrior Sikhandin who, true to the death vow of Prin- one of the several remedies the texts hold forth as op-
cess Amba, will be the cause of Bhisma's destruction. tions,45 in this case the performance of a ritual whose
For it is s/he who will serve as a shield from whose in- purpose is the propitiationof a specific divinity. He per-
violate shelter Arjuna will shoot down his unresisting forms the Agnistut rite to propitiate the god Agni. This
"grandfather."41This entire strange complex of epi- performance, although it is effective in producing no
sodes, a mere fragment of which I have mentioned fewer than a hundredsons for the king, has also the un-
here, has important implications for our understanding desired effect of antagonizing another powerful and
of the constitution of the primal triad of father, mother, vengeful patriarchalfigure, Indra, king of the gods. In
and son in traditional India, and I have discussed this his jealousy, Indra seeks some opportunity to punish
passage and its consequences in the Mahabhdrata Bhaigasvana and finds one when the king, again in
more fully elsewhere.42Interestingly, the story makes a keeping with a common epic schema, becomes sepa-
sort of detour, in keeping with the tenor of the Ila/Ila rated from his retainersand loses his way while hunting.
tale, to report on the fate of the yaksa/yaksi Sthu- Exhausted, hot, and thirsty, he refreshes himself in a
nakarna who, by virtue of his switch with Sikhandini, forest pool only to discover, to his shame and horror,
has become female. S/he is disgraced by what is re- upon emerging that he has become a woman.46In this so
garded as a form of degradation and is cursed by
his/her lord Kubera to remain female. This curse too is
sion is translatedin Caland1903a:21. Theroleof this version
modified, however, to permit the recovery of his origi-
as the sourcefor the Mahabhdratastory of Bhafgasvanais
nal male sex upon the death of Sikhandin.43
discussedin Caland 1903b: 351-55. For a synopsis of the
A somewhat more illuminating episode of sexual
vedic version,see Brown1927:6-7. Brown(1927:6) regards
transformation,one that focuses more directly upon the
the Rtuparna tale as "theearliestexampleof Indianliterature
question of sexuality than the Mahabhdrata tale of of a humanbeing experiencingchangeof sex." The two sto-
Sikhandin, is related in the Anusasanaparvan of the
ries are quitesimilarin substanceexceptthatthe muchmore
same poem. Bhisma, responding to Yudhisthira'sques-
concise vedic variantlacks the discussionof the intensityof
tion as to which sex, male or female, derives greater
the pleasure the different sexes take in intercourse that forms
pleasure from the act of sexual intercourse, narratesthe the frame for the epic narrative.
"ancient tale" of King Bhafigaivana.44
45 Other remedies include the practice of levirate (niyoga)
as in the case of Kalmasapada(MBh 1.113.20-25), the perfor-
40 Yaksas or sometimes
raiksasasare often represented in In- mance of a specific rite to address the lack of a son (Putraka-
dian legend and literatureas having the power to exchange mesti)-with or without the performance of a larger srauta
transexuality in theirsex withpeople.Brownincludesthetaleof Sikhandinun- rite, as in the case of the Asvamedha performed by Dagaratha
panchatantra. derhis heading"Exchanging Sex witha Yaksa"andcites simi- (Ram 1.13)-or the adoption of a specific expiatory procedure
lar stories from the Pancatantra and the Rose of Bakawali. See as in the case of Dilipa's govrata (Raghuvarmsa1.74-95).
Brown1927: 14-16. 46 By virtue of this detail, Brown (1927: 6-9) classifies the
41 MBh 6.103.75-79. The underlying "karmic" reason for tale under the heading "Bathing in EnchantedWater."He then
Bhisma's death in this peculiar fashion at the hands of his offers some variants found in ancient and modern Hindu and
"son"is to be tracedto his transgressionin facinganddefeat- Muslim texts. Allusions to this folkloric motif can be found
ing his own guru, Rfma Jamadagnya,in their battle
protracted even in contemporaryIndian fiction. Thus Rushdie (1981: 195,
over the fate of the sameAmbawho, as Sikhandin,will be his also cf. p. 424) describes one of his supernaturallyendowed
undoing.See MBh5.170-93. Arjuna,too, will pay thepriceof "Midnight'sChildren"as follows: "from Kashmir, there was a
killinghis guruwhenhe mustsufferdeathat the handsof his blue-eyed child of whose original sex I was never certain, since
own son Babhruvahana at MBh14.78-82. See Goldman1978: by immersing herself in water he (or she) could alter it as she
330-33. (or he) pleased. Some of us called this child Narada, others
42 Goldman 1978: 334. Markandeya, depending on which old fairy story of sexual
43 MBh 5.193.40-48. change we had heard."The transsexualismof the celestial seer
44 MBh 13.12. The episode is, in fact, ancient in that it is a Narada is well known to the puranas and indeed in most
better known epic variant of the vedic tale of Rtuparna versions his transformation into a woman and subsequent
Bhafigasvina, king of the Saphalas, that is tersely narrated at reversion to manhood is accomplished through successive im-
Baudhdyanasrautasitra 18.13 (pp. 357-58). The older ver- mersions in a body of water. At Ndradapurana 2.87 the seer,
382 Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993)

new and weaker form s/he is barely able to remount his so confers the unambiguously phallic rod (danda) of
horse and ride back to his capital, wondering what on sovereignty upon his one hundred sons collectively and
earth to tell his wives, courtiers, and subjects. Once retires to the forest to take up the life of a religious re-
there s/he realizes the unfitness of a woman to rule and cluse. But there, like the similarly transformedIla, s/he
meets a male ascetic to whom s/he bears a second set of
one hundred sons. S/he brings the second set of sons to
plunging into a pool, becomes a woman named Naradi who the capital and persuades their elder brothers to share
then experiences the bliss of erotic love with Krsna. At Devi-
power with them. At this, Indra, perceiving that he has
bhdgavatapurdna 6.28-30 she becomes the wife of the Tala- only increased the felicity of the man (now a woman)
jangha monarch, with whom she dwells for many years who had so provoked him, intervenes once more to stir
immersed in erotic joy and to whom she bears twenty sons. She
up a deadly feud between the two sets of sons so that
becomes a man again only after experiencing the joys and sor-
they annihilate each other. Then, taking the form of a
rows of a wife, mother, and mother-in-law. Sidheshwar Shastri venerable brahman, the god approaches the grieving
Chitrao (1964: s.v. Narada) refers to a version of this story at woman to savor his triumph. He gently inquires as to
Padmapurdna,Pdtalakhanda 75. He also summarizes a version the cause of her suffering and, when Bhaigasvana tells
at Brahmapurana 228 in which Narada, having been trans-
him, the god reveals himself and gloats over his enemy.
formed into a woman named SuSila through the power of The woman humbly begs Indra's pardon for an offense
Visnu, marries Sugarma, the king of Vidarbha. Brown fails to committed only to gain sons, and the god, relenting,
mention the Narada story either under his heading, "Bathing in
grants as a boon the restoration to life of whichever set
EnchantedWater,"or elsewhere in his article. Another interest- of sons s/he may choose. S/he chooses the younger
ing example of the immersion motif similarly overlooked by group and, in response to the astonished god's question,
Brown involves not only a change of sex but of species as well.
replies that she has done so because a mother feels
In the praksipta sargas, the interpolatedchaptersof the Uttara-
greater love for her children than does a father. Indra is
kdnda of the VdlmikiRdmdyana(crit. ed., vol. 7, appendix no.
delighted with her answer and is moved not only to re-
3, lines 1-114), Rama, saying that he knows that the monkey store both groups of sons to life but to let her choose the
Rksarajaswas the father of Valin and Sugriva, asks Agastya to sex in which she would like to remain. Without hesita-
tell him who their mother was. The sage tells him that the mon- tion she chooses to remain a woman. The god is again
key Rksarajas, who was born from the tears of Brahma, was astonished and demands an explanation. Bhangasvana
once afflicted with thirst while roaming on the northernmoun-
explains that she prefers being female because as a
tain Meru. Coming to a beautiful pool, he sees the reflection of woman she derives greater pleasure from sex. The god
his own face. In his monkey's foolishness, he thinks that he has is satisfied and departs. Bhangasvana's choice provides
seen an enemy and jumps into the water to fight. When he a unique empirically derived confirmation of the be-
emerges, he has been transformednot into a female monkey but lief-found in a variety of Indian sources-that a wom-
into an extraordinarilybeautiful woman. The gods Indra and
an's pleasure in the sexual act is greater (usually eight
Surya see her and are instantly infatuated.Indra,without touch- times greater) than that of a man.47
ing her, ejaculates on her head. Surya does so on her neck. Another illuminating story, and one that echoes the
Since great beings like the gods are supposed to have infallibly
Bhafigagvanasaga's empirical demonstration of the su-
productive semen (amogharetas), the woman bears two sons.
periority of maternal over paternal affection, is the tale
Because Indra'ssemen fell on her hair (valesu), his son is called
of Thera Soreyya, attributedto the Buddha in the com-
Valin; while Surya's, having fallen on the woman's neck (gri-
mentary to the Dhammapada.48As the story begins, a
vdydm), produces a son named Sugriva. When the sun rises on
prosperous young householder named Soreyya is on
the following morning, Rksarajasturns back into a male mon-
key. Brahmathen sends him and his sons to rule over the mon- tering on Visnu and his mayd is also, according to Dange
keys of Kiskindha. The narrativeconcludes by indicating that (1989: 1283), illustrated by the stories of the brahmansKam-
Rksarajas, in a somewhat different manner than Ila, Bhafiga- adamana (Brahmapurana 228.69) and Somasarman (Vard-
svana, and Soreyya, was both the father and mother of his sons. hapurana 125.57-88). I am unable to trace any puranictales of
Although Brahma'srole in this strange episode is implicit, the transsexualism involving the rsi Markandeya.
tale differs from most of the others I have seen in offering no 47 Garu.dapurana109.33, Schmidt 1911: 132, Bohtlingk 1868:
clear explanation-whether a spell, a curse, or a boon-to ex- 412, and Meyer 1930: 380.
plain either the central figure's transformationto femininity or 48 Norman 1909, Dhammatthakathd3.9 (on Dhammapada43).
his reversion to masculinity. It is interesting to note that al- The story is translated-with subtle bowdlerization-in Burlin-
though Rksarajasappearsto become physically a humanfemale game 1921: 23-28. Aside from this very interestingstory, with its
s/he seems to remain genetically a monkey, as evidenced by the striking affinities to the tale of Rtuparna/Bhafigasvana,
the Bud-
natureof his/her sons. The immersion motif in anothertale cen- dhist literaturemakes only scatteredreference to the change of
GOLDMAN:Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety In Traditional India 383

his way to bathe with a companion when he happens to sexual desire. The most productive source for this motif
catch sight of the Buddhist elder Mahakaccayana, who is, of course, the often repeated and embellished legend
is dressing at the bathing spot. When he sees the of Krsna Gopala, the adolescent lover of the gopis of
monk's exquisite golden body, the young man suddenly Vraja. In several versions of this story, one finds refer-
conceives the desire that the Thera might become his ences to the love-maddened gopis who, in their frenzy at
wife or that his actual wife might come to have a body being abandonedby the mischievous Krsna, project fan-
as splendid as that of the holy man. No sooner does tasized sexual transformations upon themselves and
this illicit fantasy cross Soreyya's mind, however, than engage in love play with one another.50Similarly, one
his genitalia vanish,49only to be replaced by those of a comes across references to the gopas' wish to become
woman. Like Ila and Bhangasvana, Soreyya is said to women so that they may directly experience the madhu-
be humiliated by this transformation,but unlike the lat- ryabhdva,or state of erotized bliss, generally regardedas
ter, does not return home but flees without a word. the highest expression of bhakti. An analogous phe-
Falling in with a caravan bound for Taksasila, So- nomenon related to this may be seen in the contemporary
reyya, now the beautiful young woman Soreyya, be- performanceof the Raslila in which the adolescent boys
comes the lover, or perhaps wife, of a man of that city. who play the roles of the gopis exaggerate the conven-
In the course of a few years, she bears him two sons. As tionally effeminate speech and gestures that their roles
Soreyya was already the father of two sons in the city of and assumed gender demand.51Even in the generally
Soreyya, he thus becomes, like Ila and Bhanigasvana, more straitlaced atmosphere of the Rama cult and the
both a mother and a father. One day Soreyya happens to general de-erotization of this avatdra of Visnu, com-
see his old friend from the city of Soreyya who, having pared with the paradoxical mixture of chastity and un-
heard the woman's strange tale, manages to bring Ma- bounded sexuality in the Krsnalegend,52this theme may
hakaccayanato her house for alms. The friend intercedes surface. Thus, for example, the learned Sri Vaisnava
for Soreyya, begging the monk to pardon the offense. commentator Govindaraja, treating the verse from
The Elder consents and Soreyya is instantly restored to Valmiki's Riamyana in which Rama is described as
his original sex. Taking leave of his sons, Soreyya de- "ravishingthe eyes and heartsof men throughhis virtues
clares his intent to quit the householder's life and is of beauty and generosity,"53explains this description as
initiated into the Buddhist order under Mahakaccayana. follows: "Or [it may refer to] the desire, on the part of
Now known as Thera Soreyya, he is questioned by cu- men who see him, which takes the form of the thought,
rious townsfolk as to which pair of his sons are dearest 'If I were to become a woman, I could enjoy him sexu-
to him and-just like Bhaiigiavana when questioned by ally.' This is similar to the thought expressed in the verse
Indra-he replies that he is fonder of those of whom he that runs, 'The women who watched lotus-eyed Draupadi
is the mother. Later, reflecting on the transience of ex- bathing her deep loins experienced the fantasy of becom-
istence, he attains true detachment. After that, whenever ing men.'"54This theme of a change in sex, actual as well
the question is repeated, he replies that he no longer re- as fantasized, resulting instantaneouslyor in anotherlife
tains any emotional attachment whatever.
Other traditional texts allude, sometimes elaborately, 50
to a change of sex that a person experiences either as a E.g., Bhigavatapurdna 10.30.
51 For an accountof the Raslila, see Hein 1972: 129-51
fantasy or full-fledged delusion through the power of
et passim.
52 Cf. the Hindi riddle about Krsna:solah sahasra ndri phir
sex motif. Some provocativeexamples are to be found in the Ma- bhi brahmacdri,"He has sixteenthousandwomenandyet he
hayanatext, Vimalakirtinirdesa.At one point a goddess, debating remains celibate."
with the venerable Sariputrathe possibility of changing her fe- 53 Ram 2.3.12 (=
Gujarati Printing Press edition 2.3.29):
male sex, actually exchanges sexes with him as partof a forensic rupauddryagunaihpumsam drsticittapahdrinam.
54
strategy to prove that in reality there is no such thing as gender Govindarajaon Ram 2.3.39 = Gujaratied.: yadva pumsdm
(Thurman 1976: 61-62). Later in the same text, Vimalakirtiin- api rimam pasyatdm stribhutvdham amum anubhaveyam ity
dicates that one of the many forms adoptedby bodhisattvasover abhildso bhavati yathdhuh:
the eons to help bring about the enlightenmentand liberationof pdacalydh padmapatrdksyih
beings is that of the female prostitutein which form they use the sndyantydjaghanam ghanam
lure of sexual desire to bring men to Buddhaknowledge: ydh striyo drstavatyas tdah
samcintya ganikam bhonte pumisamdkarsandyate pumbhdvammanasa yayu.hiti
ragdnkuramca samlobhya buddhajndnesthapayantite The association of a powerful homoerotic desire with the fan-
(Thurman1976: 71, 130 note 33). tasy of changing sex so as to reclassify the desire as heterosex-
49 Cf. the reference to Ramakrishnain note 59 below. ual finds an interesting illustration in the Dhammatthakatha,
384 Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993)

from powerful homoerotic desire, recurs in a number of a number of instances, some well known in the West,
interesting contexts in Vaisnava and Buddhist texts. in which this idea goes far beyond the mere suppres-
The theme of a man's turning into a woman or of sion of male sexuality and beyond even the biophysical
being both a mother and a father is not, however, re- changes reflective of this that are, for example, tradi-
stricted to myths and legends drawn from ancient tionally numbered among the characteristic signs of a
sources. It occurs widely in the biographies of several Buddha.56Two such well-known figures are Parama-
modern Indian spiritual figures and in the beliefs and hamsa Sri Ramakrishna, the great nineteenth-century
ritual practices of contemporary groups, ranging from spiritual master of Dakshineshvara in Bengal, and
the flamboyantly transsexual hijras to south Indian Paramahamsa Swami Yogananda, founder of the Self
cultic priests and established north Indian monastic Realization Fellowship and one of the first Hindu swa-
orders. Indeed there is also a body of evidence sug- mis to settle and establish a lasting movement in the
gesting that this fantasy is a particularly common one United States.
among Indian men, and one that is deeply implicated in One of the most noteworthy and often recurring
the attitudes and anxieties concerning women and sex- themes in the various accounts of the miraculous life of
uality that psychiatrists have found in the course of Ramakrishna57is that of his constant desire to dress,
their work with Indian patients.55I shall be referring to behave, and experience the world as a woman. From
his biographers' fond reminiscences of the young
Gadadhara'spranks, such as cross-dressing to infiltrate
where the author of the fantasy is punished by being actually
the women's quarters in the home of a prominent vil-
transformed into a woman (Norman 1909; Dhammatthakatha
lager, to their accounts of his later efforts to be alter-
3.9 on Dhammapada 43). The story is translatedin Burlingame
nately the mother and the "spiritual consort" of Lord
1921: 23-28. For furtherdiscussion of this episode, see Brown
Krsna, during which he would wear women's clothes
1927: 21. For a discussion of the theme as it is raised by Govin-
and mimic women's gestures for up to six months at a
daraja, see Sutherland 1989. time, the theme of becoming a woman assumes tremen-
55 In the course of a
correspondence with Freud concerning dous importance in these accounts. Great emphasis is
differences Bose had perceived in the anxieties of his Indian
placed on the Master's being able to assume both gen-
patients concerning castration compared to those reported in ders and especially on his periodic loss of male con-
the European psychoanalytic literature, Dr. Girindrashekhar
sciousness and the difficulty of recognizing him as a
Bose, the founder of Indian psychoanalysis, noted, "The de- man at such times even on the part of his most intimate
sire to be a female is more easily unearthed in Indian male
associates. Indeed, it is argued that it was not only the
patients than in European" (quoted in Kakar 1989: 129). This outer appearance, voice, and gestures of the Master
preoccupation is reported by Bose in a number of early case that changed when the "mood" came upon him. His
histories which appeared in the journal of the Indian Psycho-
biographers are fond of telling us that he underwent
analytic Society, Samiksa. In one of these case studies, as
genuine biophysical changes during those periods and
reported by Kakar, a patient, a middle-aged man, manifests that, for example, "drops of blood oozed out from his
shifting sexual fantasies towards his parents, sometimes as a skin from the pangs of separation from Krsna." In
man and sometimes as a woman, while in another a patient
some places it is even suggested that this phenomenon
frequently fantasizes the replacement of his genitals with
those of a woman and ties a handkerchief over his eyes while
represented a sort of menstruation.58There is also
considerable evidence that, although Ramakrishnafre-
engaged in sexual intercourse with his wife in order to make
himself feel like a veiled bride (Kakar 1989: 130-31). This
quently fantasized about being or becoming a woman
fantasy of being a bride is reminiscent of those reported in the
cases of Ramakrishna and Schreber which are discussed be- 56 Buddhacarita 1.60.
57A
low. An interesting aspect of the connection between transsex- good anddetailedexampleis SwamiSaradananda's
Sri
ualism and a heightened eroticism is pointed out by the Sri RdmakrsnaLild Prasanga, translated by Swami Jagadan-
recurrentclaim on the part of hijra prostitutes that men prefer anda (1952) as Sri Ramakrishna: The Great Master, of which,
them to female prostitutes. Thus Prasad quotes a marriedman according to McDaniel (1989: 305) the original English title
who also keeps a hijra "wife" as saying, "Once you have ex- was The Play of the Divine Mother as Sri Ramakrishna.Other
perienced a hijra, all women seem insipid" (Prasad 1991: 44), importantsources for the life of Ramakrishnaare Gupta 1980,
and a hijra who says, "We hijras are the most popular prosti- Rolland 1960, and Mueller 1974. See also Kakar 1981: 111-
tutes; we make a lot of money" (Prasad 1991: 49). This claim 12, Masson 1980: 33-50, and McDaniel 1989: 92-103.
is also supported by some of the hijras quoted by Nanda 58 Saradananda 1952: 233-34, Bose 1953: 206, and
(1990:64, 75-76). McDaniel 1989: 92.
Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety In Traditional India
GOLDMAN: 385

and often even appeared to lose himself in elaborate On the other hand, throughout his life Ramakrishna
fantasies of being reborn as one of the gopis of Vrinda- made every effort to identify himself with women in
van or a brahman child-widow of Vraja who would dress, attitude, and behavior. Gupta also records the
then know only Krsna as her lover,59he simultaneously following quote:
entertained a powerfully phobic attitude towards the
female body whenever it was represented as an object Howcan a manconquerpassion?He shouldassume
of male sexual interest. He is thought never to have the attitudeof a woman.I spentmanydaysas thehand-
had sexual relations with his wife, to whom he always maidof God.I dressedmyselfin women'sclothes,put
referred as the "Holy Mother," and on occasion even on ornaments,andcoveredthe upperpartof my body
the thought of touching her body was enough to cause witha scarf,just like a woman.Withthe scarfon I used
him to faint and lapse into a trancelike state.6? Once, to performthe evening worship before the image.
when a prostitute was sent to him in an effort to cure Otherwise,how couldI havekeptmy wife withme for
what was seen as an insanity caused by sexual conti- eight months?Both of us behavedas if we were the
nence, he said that he saw the Divine Mother in the handmaidsof the DivineMother.63
woman and that "his genitals became contracted and
entered completely into his body, like the limbs of a Ramakrishna'spowerfully ambivalent attitude towards
tortoise."61Indeed, he was quite explicit about his pho- women, expressed both in his phobic flight from them
bic reaction to women whom he viewed as threatening, and in his counterphobic desire to become one, at least
devouring, and-as this last incident suggests-cas- to the extent of a kind of protective mimicry, is in a
trating ogresses, the dread of whom could be allayed way paradigmatic of the interplay of desire and the
only by concentrating upon their maternal aspect. Ma- anxiety generated by that desire which underlies much
hendranathGupta quotes him as follows: of the mythic and cultic material under discussion.
Let me turn now to the case of Yogananda. The in-
I am very muchafraidof women.WhenI look at
formation we have of his life is, as in the case of
one, I feel as if a tigresswerecomingto devourme. Be-
Ramakrishna, largely derived from his own accounts
sides,I findthattheirbodies,theirlimbs,andeventheir and those of his disciples. But unlike Ramakrishna,
poresareverylarge.This makesme look uponthemas whose autobiographical anecdotes are invariably medi-
she-monsters.I usedto be muchmoreafraidof women
ated by the pen of a devotee, Yogananda's career is
thanI am at present.I wouldn'tallowone to come near
most fully reported in the form of an autobiography,
me. Now I persuademy mindin variousways to look
Autobiography of a Yogi, a remarkable and widely in-
uponwomenas formsof the BlissfulMother.62 fluential work. Since its first appearance in 1946, the
book has gone through numerous printings and may
have been the most widely read introduction to Indian
59 Saradananda1952:235-39 andMcDaniel1989:97. spiritualism among at least one generation of Ameri-
60 Saradananda cans. The book and the many strange and remarkable
1952:290, 209-10.
61 McDaniel 1989: events it purports to chronicle provide us with con-
96, quoting Saradananda1952: 172. siderable insight into both the formation of the spiritual
Given traditionalbeliefs valorizingsexual continenceas a
meansof avoidingwhatareperceivedas thedeleteriouseffects personality and some of the darker aspects of the guru-
of sexualintercourseuponthe healthof men, this notionthat disciple relationship. I will, however, confine myself to
those that bear directly on the question of sexual ambi-
Ramakrishna's "madness" is a resultof chastityandcanonlybe
curedthroughthe releaseof intercourseis interesting.If it has guity. From what Yogananda tells us of his childhood
as Mukundlal Ghosh, we can clearly perceive his pro-
a folkloricbasis,it maybe akinto the ancientmotifof the ne-
found and vital bond to his mother, a woman whom he
cessity of seducinga chasteasceticthroughthe use of prosti-
tutes in orderto releasethe pent-upwaterscausingdrought. depicts unambiguously, very much in the manner of
Ramakrishnaand his wife, as identical with the Divine
Thismotifis best andmostwidelyknownin the legendof the
Mother. Upon learning by means of telepathy at the
seductionof the virginsage Rsyasrnga.On this, see Goldman
andSutherland1984:75-77. The idea thatprofoundandper- age of ten of his mother's death, he began to think
about suicide and entered a state of profound depres-
fect sexual abstinenceitself can lead to the inversionof the
sion from which he emerged only upon seeing a vision
malegenitaliaor even theirconversionintobreasts,in thecase
of the Divine Mother who comforted him with the
of great yogis, is occasionallyencountered.On this, see the
interestingdiscussionat O'Flaherty1980:44.
62 McDaniel1989: 63 McDaniel1989:
99, quotingfromGupta1980, 2:595. 99, quotingfromGupta1980,2:595.
386 Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993)

revelation that his earthly mother was but a manifesta- perceptible biophysical changes. Consider the way in
tion and that she had not abandoned him. It is also at which Yogananda's closest disciple and successor
this point that he resolved to abandon the world and Kriyananda, born Donald Walters, repeatedly refers to
become a yogi in the Himalayas.64 his master in feminine and maternal terms. Describing
Yogananda's relationship to his father was much less the scene as Yogananda's disciples view the body of
close. Bhagabaticaran Ghose's children regarded him their late Master immediately following his death in
with a "certain reverential distance" and not even Yo- Los Angeles in 1952, he remarks:
gananda's idealized and sentimental memoir quite suc-
ceeds in concealing the portrait of his father as a stern, They brought Master's body to Mt. Washington and
self-righteous, miserly, and pious disciplinarian. Given placed it lovingly on his bed. One by one we went in,
this austere, distant patriarch whose attitudes towards weeping, and knelt by his bedside. "Mother!"cried Jo-
human sexuality were such that they permitted him in- seph, "Oh, Mother!" Indeed Master had been a mother
tercourse only once a year and then only for the pur- to us all, and how much more than a mother.67

poses of procreation,65it is little wonder that young


That this maternal quality of the Master was thought
Mukundlal grew up, like Ramakrishna, obsessed with
to have an actual biophysical manifestation is clear
the notion of women as manifestations of the desexual-
from Kriyananda's caption to an undoubtedly some-
ized Mother, and of men as all-knowing and potentially
what androgynous photographic likeness of Yogananda
menacing gurus. It is also not surprising that all of this
was accompanied by an irresistible impulse to flee the reproduced in the book. In it he states:
world. Master exemplified the androgynous balance of the per-
It is interesting, too, in the present connection to note fect human being. He had the compassion and love of a
that, no doubt as a result of his particularconstellation mother, and the wisdom and will power of a father. In
of relationships and anxieties, the mature Yogananda this picture we see exemplified the mother aspect of his
and his disciples after him tended to resurrect and re- nature.68
valorize the fantasies of sexual transformation and the
androgynous parent that occur so frequently in Indian The notion that real, as opposed to mythological,
myth, legend, and theology. His own father, his guru, figures can actually or symbolically change their sex is
and he himself came to be characterized in his writings not restricted to these two purely spiritual masters.
and those of his disciples by a prevailing and cherished Powerful indications of it continually surface, for ex-
ambiguity regarding sex and gender: a belief that these ample, in the life and works of one of modern India's
men have or could somehow become women.66 most powerfully influential figures, Mahatma Gandhi,
To his own flock in Los Angeles, Yogananda, like and in those of his followers. Not only did Gandhi
his own widowed father, would become "both father share many of Ramakrishna's phobic attitudes about
and mother" not merely by virtue of a dual role nor women and his culturally normative anxiety about the
even through a metaphor derived from his tenderness
negative consequences for men of engaging in sexual
and compassion, which are frequently regarded as
activity,69 he clearly inspired in at least some of his
"womanly" characteristics. For, as in the case of Ra- followers something of the mother fixation that we see
makrishna, the femininization of the guru was some- in the case of Yogananda. This is perhaps best illus-
thing that, at least in the eyes of his disciples, entailed trated by a memoir of one of his disciples entitled
Bapu, My Mother.70
64 Yogananda1974: 17-18. Gandhi's lifelong struggle with his sexuality is ex-
65 tremely well documented in his autobiography, as well
Yogananda1974:4-8.
66Thus,for
example,Yogananda,writingof his fatherafter
the deathof his motherremarks,"I noticedthenthathis gaze 67
Kriyananda 1977: 539.
often metamorphosed into my mother's"(p. 16). Elsewherehe 68
Kriyananda 1977: 313.
69 Kakar 1989: 122-25. Carstairs
says of him, "outwardlythe grave father,inwardlyhe pos- (1961: 82-84) discusses
sessed the meltingheartof a mother"(p. 238). The firstthing the widespread South Asian anxiety regarding the allegedly
his guru Sri Yukteswar promises the young Mukundlal Ghose negative consequences, spiritual and physical, of the loss of
is the unconditional love of a mother (p. 94). In writing of his semen. For a more elaborate discussion of some common anx-
own role as the founder and head of a school in Ranchi, he ieties in India concerning the sexuality and sexual physiology
muses on the way in which he was the "father-mother"to his of women, see Kakar 1981: 92-96.
70 Manubehn Gandhi 1949.
charges (pp. 255-56).
GOLDMAN:Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety In Traditional India 387

as in his other copious writings and the numerous to the level of a religious-spiritual quest. In devotional
works of his biographers.71 This continuing conflict Vaishnavism, Lord Krishna alone is the male and all
culminated near the end of his life in his controversial devotees, irrespective of their sex, are female. Gandhi's
and public "brahmacaryapariksas," his experiments statement that he had mentally become a woman or that
with celibacy, and was, if we are to accept the testi- he envied women and that there is as much reason for a
mony of his personal secretary, Nirmal Kumar Bose, man to wish that he was born a woman, as for women
closely tied up with the spiritualized fantasy of becom- to do otherwise, thus struck many responsive chords in
ing a woman. Bose writes: his audience.74

In order to follow more fully the discipline known as Similarly, the transformations of sex that are associ-
brahmacarya,Gandhi adopted a curious mental attitude ated with the legendary companions and devotees of the
which, although rare, is one of the established modes of principal avataras of Visnu, particularly Krsna and to a
subordinationof sex among spiritual aspirants in India. lesser degree Rama, are widely known. Among the
It was by becoming a woman that he tried to circum- various emotive values (bhava) associated with the
vent one of the most powerful and disturbing elements worship of Krsna and analogous to the various types of
which belong to our biological existence.72 human affectual relationships, maternal, friendly, ser-
vile, etc., it is clear that the most powerful and heavily
Central to Gandhi's somewhat phobic attitude toward invested in the bhakta tradition is the so-called mddhu-
women when they were viewed as objects of male sex- ryabhdva, the emotive state of "sweetness," that is, of
uality are his complementary and overdetermined strug- passionate, all-consuming erotic love. Indeed this rasa-
gles to desexualize them by bringing them within the raja, or "king of emotive states" as it is sometimes
confines of the incest taboo and so to regender his male called, is unquestionably the driving force behind sev-
self as to obviate the possibility of heterosexual desire. eral of the various Krsna-oriented sampraddyas, mar-
Like Ramakrishna he regarded-and urged others to re- gas, and panths of the Vaisnava tradition. Given the
towards whom they might normally en-
gard-women preeminence of mddhurya and the unambiguousness of
tertain sexual feelings as their "mother." Thus he urged the heterosexual erotic imagery that drives it, it follows
those who would write literature praising women's that for a man to partake of it he must, in some sense
beauty and desirability: and to some degree, "transform"himself into a woman
to fully experience the love of God. Indeed, such trans-
I suggest that before you put your pens to paper think of
formation is in many cases textually mandated as nec-
women as your own mother, and I assure you the chast-
est of literature will flow from your pens.... Remem-
essary for the "properattitude of the worshiper towards
Krsna"which is that of the gopis. This transformation,
ber that a woman was your mother, before a woman
became your wife.73 according to Dimock, was accepted quite literally by
the followers of at least the Sahajiya tradition.75In at
In discussing Gandhi's attitude towards women and
sexuality, Kakar makes the following observation: 74 Kakar 1989: 126-27.
75 Dimock 189: 158-61. Dimock
Whereas desexualizing, idealizing, and perceiving only quotes a Sahajiya text, the
Vivartavildsa of Akiiicanadasa, as follows, "assume the Gopi-
the "milky" mother in the woman is one part of his de-
bhva ... and incessantly [let the mind] dwell upon the body
fensive bulwark which helped in preserving the illusion
of unity intact, the other part consists of efforts at re- of Krsna. Each in his own way will enjoy the pleasure of coi-
tion. The Gopi-bhdva does away with maleness in sexual rela-
nouncing the gift of sexual desire, abjuring his own
tionship" (pp. 158-59). He also briefly treats the Sahajiyas'
masculinity. Here we must note that the Hindu Vaish-
nava culture, in which Gandhi grew up and in which he theory of how such sexual transformationis possible in terms
of their sense that sexuality is determined by the relative bal-
remained deeply rooted, not only provides a sanction
for man's feminine strivings, but raises these strivings ance of purusa and prakrti in the individual human body
(pp. 159-61). For an excellent overview of the background
and doctrines of Sahajiya Vaisnavism, see Das Gupta 1969:
71 Gandhi 1957: 28-31, 71-72, 204-11; Bose 1953: 189- 113-46. The use of this notion to justify the indulgence of ho-
207; Erikson 1969: 120-23, 402-6; and Mehta 1976: 179-213. moerotic desire has been alleged of the controversial Anand
72 Bose 1953: 1.
Marg cult in India. In one rather propagandistic publication
73 Kakar (1989: 127) quoting from M. K. Gandhi, To the
put out by the Government of India, which has proscribed the
Women (Karachi: Hingorani, 1943: 102). organization, it is alleged that the tendency of homosexuality
388 Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993)

least one historical instance, a woman was able to rizing a few of these writers, Serena Nanda, in her
use such a theologically constructed sexual transforma- study of the hijras of India, notes:
tion to break down, at least temporarily, the socially
grounded taboo on certain male religious figures having Several esoteric Hindu ritual practices involve male
contact with women. The poet-saint and Rajput prin- transvestism as a form of devotion. Among the Sakhi-
cess Mira Bai, whose behavior was not infrequently bhava (a sect that worships Vishnu) Krishnamay not be
cause for scandal in her highly patriarchal society, is worshiped directly. The devotees in this sect worship
said to have once come to Vrindavan in order to meet Radha, Krishna's beloved, with the aim of becoming
Jiva Gosvami, one of the great Gaudiya Vaisnava acar- her attendant: It is through her, as Krishna's consort,
yas of Vrindavan. The acarya was scandalized and re- that Krishnais indirectly worshiped. The male devotees
fused her request for an audience saying that it would imitate feminine behavior, including simulated men-
be highly improper for him, as a man, to meet with her struation;they may also engage in sexual acts with men
as he had taken a vow never to set his eyes upon the as acts of devotion, and some devotees even castrate
face of a woman. Undaunted, Mira sent back a message themselves in order to more nearly approximate a fe-
stating that she had heard that Krsna was the only male male identification with Radha.77
in Vrindavan. Whence, she inquired, had this second
man come? The dcarya was shamed by this and thus That this desire on the part of a man to become
had no choice but either to assent to the interview or, in woman, in order to experience to the full the love of
essence, admit the fictive quality of the sexual and gen-
der transformation that lies at the heart of Gaudiya the-
77 Nanda 1990: 21. Nanda cites Bullough 1976: 267-68,
ology. The interview was granted.76
Kakar 1981: 102-3, and Spratt 1966: 315. In some cases
Indeed, according to some authors, the desire of the
male devotee to mask or eliminate his maleness as an transsexualism may play a significant role in quite public rit-
obstacle to union with Krsna may go beyond emotional ual performances. Thus, for example, Shetty provides a jour-
transformation to involve varying degrees of modifica- nalistic report of the annual thali festival performed on the
tion to both one's costume and even anatomy. Summa- full-moon night of Caitra at the temple of Aravan at Koova-
gam in Tamil Nadu. According to the local legend, the Panda-
vas were told by Sahadeva that they could insure victory over
on the part of its founder Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, or Ananda- the sons of Dhrtarastraonly through the immolation of a per-
murti, was "justified as being in accordance with secret 'Tan- fect male. Finding that the only three such men in their ranks
trik' practices which would spiritually elevate the disciple. were Arjuna, Krsna, and Aravan, a son of the former, and that
The doubting disciple himself was also satisfied with the ex- the first two were otherwise indispensable, they resolve to sac-
planation that the act of homosexuality was a result of the dis- rifice the third. Aravan accedes but asks that he first be mar-
ciple's wish in the past life to worship the 'ParamaPurusa' in ried. As no woman can be found who is willing to be widowed
the form of 'Radha'and that this unfulfilled desire was acting so soon, Krsna agrees to transform himself into a woman,
as a barrier to his ultimate liberation" (Kishore 1976: 16). marry Aravan, and spend a night of marital bliss with him.
V. S. Naipaul, who had evidently heard similar rumors about When Aravan is beheaded in the morning, Krsna spends a
the cult, has a somewhat different version. He claims that re- short time as a widow and then reverts to his male form. This
cruits to Ananda Marg desired by the leader "were persuaded festival is largely patronized by hijras who identify them-
that they had been girls in previous lives" (Naipaul 1976- selves with this female form of Krsna. They are marriedto the
1977: 62). If these charges are true, this would be a particu- deified Aravan on the eve of the festival when the priest in-
larly sinister exploitation of what would then have to be seen vests them with a yellow thread (the thali of the ritual's name,
as a widespread and deeply rooted cultural notion. Even if a kind of mahgalasutra). They spend a night of wild revelry
they are false, it is apparent that people would not contrive and sexual promiscuity until dawn when, being widowed
them unless they were sufficiently culturally syntonic to be through the sacrifice of Aravan, they dress in white and la-
deemed plausible. Compare the passage cited from the Pad- ment (Shetty 1990). Nanda, too, apparentlyrefers to this festi-
mapurana in note 76 where this is precisely the argument val when she describes the legend and events surroundingthe
stated to explain the gopis' amorous involvement with Krsna. ceremonial marriage of hijras in Tamil Nadu to the god
76 I am grateful to my colleague Professor Usha Nilsson, of Koothandavar, although her account appears to be somewhat
the University of Wisconsin, for having called this anecdote to garbled (Nanda 1990: 20-21). O'Flaherty (1980: 334) cites a
my attention. She informs me that the original reference is to passage from the Mahabhdgavatapurdna,a gdkta text of Ben-
be found in the Bhaktirasabodhinitikd on the Bhaktamdla of gal, in which Siva and Kali incarnate themselves as Radha and
Priyadasa. Reference to the story can also be found in Prabhat Krsna, respectively, and so enjoy sexuality from the perspec-
1965: 189 and in Hawley 1987: 59. tive of the opposite sex.
GOLDMAN: Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety In Traditional India 389

the Lord, arises from a powerfully homoerotic impulse rasik tradition it is the divine couple, Ram and Sita,
is strongly suggested in many episodes, not the least of what they call the yugal sarkdr, 'the royal couple.' The
which is the Vaisnava legend that the original gopis, worship of Ram and Sita together creates a problem.
the cowherd girls of Vraja, were female reincarnations Male sadhus cannot serve Sita; they cannot, for ex-
of the male sages of the Dandaka Forest who, ages be- ample, bathe her. Therefore when serving Sita they
fore, had experienced sexual desire for the exquisite must think of themselves as women who are female
body of Rama, himself an earlier manifestation of friends (sakhis) of Sita.79
Visnu. This connection is explained as follows in a
puranic text: This practice is regarded as having had its precedent
in the actual story of Rama and Sita.
When the cowherd women saw Acuyta (Krsna) who
surpassed in beauty the curved tip of the Love God's According to the rasiks this idea originated when Ram
bow, they were all smitten by the arrow of the god of and Sita returned from their exile to Ayodhya. Hanu-
desire. For long ago when the great sages dwelling in man, among others, had asked to be allowed to serve
the Dandaka Forest had seen Rama, who is Hari, with not only Ram, but also Sita. They became the first
his splendid body, they desired to enjoy him sexually. sakhis of Sita. As sakhis they also got new names as
And later, having all been born as women in Gokula, follows:
they at last made love with Hari and thus were released
from the ocean of existence.78 [Male] [Female]
Hanuman Charushila
This assumption on the part of a man of the sexuality Lakshman Lakshmana
and gender role of a woman, either to intensify the love Vibhishan Padmaganda[sic]
of a male God through the metaphor or emotional Sugriv Vararoha
equivalent of heterosexual longing and passion or to de- Bharat Subhaga
fuse or deny any such suggestion of sexuality in the case Jambavan Sulocana
of the female divinity, is not only undertaken by indi- Shatrughna Hema
viduals but may be a group phenomenon as well. An in- Angada Kshema80
teresting example of the latter has been observed in the
activities of the subgroup of the Ramanandi monastic The provision of these very feminine names to the
order of Ayodhya whose members refer to themselves heroic brothers and allies of Rama suggests that, as in
as rasiks. This group, also known as sakhts or "female the other mythological episodes discussed above, the
companions," organizes its communal life around a spe- transformation from male to female is not thought to
cial form of temple worship and devotion to both Sita be merely a change of mental attitude but a genuine-
and Rama known as madhuropdsand, or "sweet wor- if not necessarily permanent-biophysical metamor-
ship." But the intimate physical operations involved in phosis. This is, I think, both confirmed and replicated,
the daily routine of serving the female divinity present in some of the more esoteric practices of the rasiks as
certain problems to these monks. The social anthropol- reported by van der Veer. The sddhus, like Rama-
ogist Peter van der Veer, in his elaborate study of the krishna, are not averse to dressing as women and even
Ramanandis, describes the situation as follows: associate themselves with the processes of the female
reproductive cycle. According to van der Veer:
In the common seva of the Ramanandis it is Ram, the
Ultimate Being, who is served by the worshiper. In the Nevertheless, rasik practices do take things rather far.
The female identification of the male devotees is very
78 strong. During the temple worship the sadhu puts on a
avadhiritakandarpakotilavanyamacyutam female dress (sdri) and female ornaments. Some of the
sarvd gopastriyo drstvd manmathdstrenapiditdh
rasiks even wear these dresses and ornaments in public
purd maharsayah sarve dan.dakdranyavdsinah like transvestites. There are personal differences among
drstvd rdmam harim tatra bhoktumaicchan
the rasiks as to the extent of their identification as well
suvigraham
as to the openness with which they behave. An esoteric
te sarve stritvam dpanndh samudbhdtds tu gokule
feature of their life as females is that they sometimes
harim samprdpya kdmena tato muktdbhavdrnavdt
Padmapurdna 6.272.165-67.
Compare the alleged exploitation of this notion on the part of 79 Van der Veer 1988: 162.
the leader of the Ananda Marg, as discussed in note 73 above. 80 Van der Veer 1988: 162.
390 Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993)

observe the Hindu taboos of the menstruation period. This kind of ritualized transsexualism on the part of
These things are never openly discussed with outsiders, male devotees and officiants of a divinity is not confined
so that it is hard to go deeply into these matters. The to the Vaisnava movements of north India82 but occurs
relationship between sakhis and Ram is also a matterof in a variety of ritual contexts in the south as well. Aside
esoteric secrecy. Although the rasiks emphasize that from the interesting ceremony surrounding the group
they are acting as unmarriedinnocent girls (mugdha), I marriage of hijras along with Krsna to the hero Aravan
found that in at least some temples a part of the Hindu in Tamil Nadu described by Shetty and Nanda,83 there
marriage ceremony (karagrahan) was performed as a are examples involving a variety of cults centering on
rasik initiation. In this way the sadhu was symbolically shrines in various other regions of the south.
"taken by the hand"by Ram who was subsequently not A particularly interesting cultic worship involving
officially married with "her," but could enjoy "her" transsexualism in Karnataka has been described by
body. In this initiation the devotee identifies with one Nicholas J. Bradford.84 This is the cult of the goddess
of the sakhis and enters into an erotic parakiya relation Yellamma, identified with the epic-puranic figure of
with Ram. These practices are, however, kept "back Renuka as well as with other representations of the
stage" and could only be found out with considerable goddess, as she is worshiped at her shrine near the
difficulty. The common "front stage" view is that Ra- town of Saundatti in Belgaum district of northern
manandi rasiks do not enjoy real erotic love for Ram, Karnataka. According to Bradford, many men who are
but help the divine couple to enjoy it.81 possessed by the goddess are thereby changed into
"sacred female men" or jogappa. These transgendered

81 Van der Veer 1988: 169. These episodes do not by any acolytes adopt female names, hairs'tyles, and dress and
take on feminine occupations and modes of ornamenta-
means exhaust the legends and practices involving transsexu-
tion.85 Unlike ordinary women, but like hijras, they
alism and transvestism that are associated with Visnu and his
flaunt an exaggerated "female" sexuality. They also
principal incarnations. There are, for example, the well-known
engage in both flirtation and sexual intercourse with
versions of the legend of the churning of the primal ocean in
men.86 Like the transsexuals who participate in the
which Visnu, in order to distract the asuras from their quest for
Aravan cult of Tamil Nadu, the jogappa of Karnataka
the amrta, assumes the guise of the temptress Mohini, "the
are also ritually married and "widowed" at the same
Infatuator." Cf. MBh 1.16.40-1.17.10 and Visnupurana 1.9.
time as these events befall their indwelling divinity.87
Visnu, both in propria persona and as Krsna, is also closely in- Another example of such a cult, for which I am
volved in the tales of the transsexualism of the rsi Naradadis-
indebted to J. Richardson Freeman of Harvard Uni-
cussed in note 44 above. Even Krsna'sson Samba has a curious
versity, occurs in Kerala. According to Freeman, in a
association with transvestism and mock transsexualism. Thus it
recent unpublished conference paper,88 and in personal
is Samba who, at the beginning of the eerie and chilling Mus-
correspondence, a class of low-caste priests of the tey-
alaparvan of the Mahabhdrata, dresses as a pregnant woman
yam cult, who are said in Malayalam to be veliccappatu
in a bizarre effort to mock itinerantholy men. The resulting in-
or "illumined," must, before entering the shrines to
evitable curse not only insures the destruction of the Vrsnis and
which they are attached, take a ritual bath and receive a
the Andhakas, but does so in a way that furtherambiguates the
ritually purified waistcloth from a low-caste washer-
question of biological sex and social gender. For as a conse- woman." Freeman notes that the same bath and change
quence of his affront, Samba is made-like a real woman-to of waistcloth was traditionally required to purify mid-
undergo an actual pregnancy and birth. Yet the product of this
weird gestation is not a child but a phallic club that will be the
82
instrument of the destruction of the Yadava clans (MBh 16.2- For a suggestive, if not very penetrating,discussion of the
8). In an episode of the Lingapurana (1.65.19-24), as cited at use of transvestites in temple ritual in Orissa and its connection
Dange 1989: 1282-83, such imposture results in a less ambig- with the role of the hijra, see Marglin 1985: 49, 51-53.
uous change of sex. There it is related that two friends, brah- 83 See note 75.

mans, attempt to take advantage of the hospitality of the 84 Bradford 1983: 307-22.
Nisadha queen Simantini, whose practice it was to feed a brah- 85 Bradford 1983: 311.
man couple each day as a mode of worship of the divine couple 86
Bradford 1983: 311.
Siva and Parvati. As a consequence of this deception, the man 87 Bradford 1983: 312-14.

impersonating the wife is actually transformed into a woman 88 Freeman, "Sex, Death, and Social Identity in the Goddess
who then in reality marries her companion. A number of addi- Worship of Northern Kerala," presented at the Fifth Annual
tional instances of sectarian divinities changing sex for one South Asian Studies Conference at the University of Califor-
purpose or another are adduced in O'Flaherty 1980. nia at Berkeley, February24, 1991.
GOLDMAN: Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety In Traditional India 391

dle- and high-caste women after their periods of men- treated at length elsewhere, the pattern in which a real
strual seclusion. Indeed, he notes, the term for the or surrogate son is punished, typically by castration or
change of garments in both cases, marru, is most gener- impotence, for intruding upon the sexual life of his
ally understood to refer to the ritual of purificationafter "father."90In all of these cases, however, the victims
menstruation. Moreover, he adds, local people recog- actually become biological females and can legiti-
nize that during these ceremonies the priests' dress is mately enjoy sexual intercourse with and even be im-
"more like a woman's than a man's." The priests, it pregnated by the kind of powerful forest sage that
should be noted, resist their identification with menstru- functions, in the more typical legends, as a standard
ous women, but Freeman notes that the fact of the cere- father-surrogate.91
monies for the priest being carried out monthly on the The saga of Amba-Sikhandin, the major instance of
Tuesdays sacred to the goddesses further suggests a female to male transsexualism, appears to be more
convergence. complex in its formulation and signification than the
These beliefs and practices, some of which repre- others. For one thing, the process of transsexual meta-
sent what van der Veer and others have called the morphosis it describes is far more complicated, grad-
"Krishnaization of Rambhakti," like the ancient leg- ual, and overdetermined than those recounted in the
ends and beliefs of some modern "saints" and mystics, others, taking place, as it does, over the course of two
clearly speak to the same underlying and evidently lifetimes and functioning as a significant element in
powerful fantasy. In most cases, whether mythical or three complex and interconnected narratives. More-
associated with historical personages, transsexualism, over, the object and quality of the transformationseem
which overwhelmingly occurs in the direction of male somewhat different. For although Amba's ultimate sex-
to female, takes place as the consequence of a desire to ual transformation,like those involving religious devo-
avoid or defuse a potential sexual liaison with a pro- tees, is volitional on the part of the central figure, it has
hibited female seen as the property of a powerful and as its purpose neither the avoidance nor the facilitation
revered male and/or the desire to be passively enjoyed of an erotic relationship. Instead, its goal is vengeance.
sexually by such a male. Thus Ila is made female be-
cause of the sages' visual transgression in casting their 90 Goldman 1978.
erotized male gaze upon the Mother Goddess engaged 91The
in the sexual act with the powerful phallic divinity storyof Soreyyais interestingin severalrespects.It
Siva. Sri Ramakrishna began playing at being female clearlyshows thatsuchfantasiesare not restrictedto the col-
and dressing as a woman in his youth as a way of gain- orfulworldof the Hinduepics andpurdnaswherethe miracu-
lous and extraordinaryare the norm but can be found in-and
ing sexually unthreateningaccess to the women's quar-
made to serve the ends of-the canonical literatureof the sra-
ters of a wealthy and powerful neighbor's house. Later
in life he appears to have often "become" a woman in manic traditions as well. Then too, the tale presents a curious
variant of the theme. Here, the young man's homoerotic desire
order to indulge in romantic fantasy about Krsna and
to engage in intimate but de-erotized, and therefore not is unambiguously and directly focused upon a father figure, in
this case the powerful monk Mahakaccayana,not on the "gu-
anxiety generating, contact with the Mother Goddess
both in her proper representations and in the form of ru's wife," a figure who could hardly appear in this particular
his own wife. A similar dual purpose can be clearly tale. Nonetheless, the ambiguation of both gender and sexual
seen in the adoption of the personae of sakhis on the roles is signaled by the compound nature of Soreyya's fantasy,
according to which either the monk can become his wife or
part of the rasik sadhus of the Ramanandi order. Even
the feeling on the part of the disciples of Yogananda his wife the monk. In any case, the outcome is the same: the
and Gandhi that their masters were in some sense their effective castration of the Oedipal youth and his transforma-
"mothers"may be viewed, in part, as a consequence of tion into a woman who can be possessed sexually and even
an attempt to deny the element of passive homoeroti- impregnated by the father figure or his surrogate. Noteworthy
cism that informs many manifestations of the guru- here is the text's explicit statement that it is sexuality improp-

disciple relationship.89 erly directed toward an elder-here the effort to turn the guru
In those mythic instances in which the change of sex into a woman-that results in the swiftness of Soreyya's pun-
is the result of a curse, as in the tales of Ila, Bhaingag- ishment. For the Buddha observes that ordinary sexual trans-
vana, and Soreyya, it appears that we have a multiform gression, for example the unlawful possession of an ordinary
of the sort of Indian "Oedipal" pattern that I have man's wife, results in feminization only in the distant future
through reincarnation. One is reminded of the special stric-
tures and punishments the Hindu law texts enjoin for guru-
89 Goldman 1978 and 1982.
talpagamana as distinguished from ordinary adultery.
392 Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993)

Then too, while the cases of male to female transsexu- either a virgin or a wife. She has, therefore, no socially
alism may involve only temporary or periodic transfor- viable alternative to the death she chooses. It is this that
mation, the transformations themselves appear to be gives rise to her strange vow to inflict upon the author
thoroughgoing and accepted as such by the associates of her dilemma the consequences of his theft of her
of the central figure. In the case of Sikhandin, however, womanhood.
the desired acquisition of a male body is achieved, de- But the result of this episode, the death that Bhisma
spite the ruined princess' penances and dying wish must himself suffer, cannot come simply at the hands
(nidana), the ritual acts of her father, and the promise of the woman-become-warrior.Instead, it must be situ-
of Siva, only through the intercession of a sort of deus ated in the context of the Mahabhdrata's ubiquitous
ex machina in the form of the yaksa Sthunakama and, concern with the central but often disguised triangle of
even then, only through an exchange of genders that father, mother, and son. As the immediate consequence
balances her shift to maleness with his more typical of his rejection of Amba, Bhisma is forced to fight his
shift to femininity. The transformation is, moreover, own guru, the dreaded brahman martial arts master
not accepted as fully genuine; for after all, the entire Rama Jamadagnya, in an odd reconfiguration of the
narrativerationale for the episode in the central story of Oedipal triangle in which the young girl, whose name
the Mahabharata is that Bhisma, the great patriarchof means 'mother,' takes the mother's role. Although he is
the Kurus, will not fight with a woman and so submits victorious here in the role of the defiant son, he must
to death at the hands of his surrogate son Arjuna rather still pay the price. In a later reconfigurationof the pri-
than take up arms against Sikhandin. mal triad he will assume the role of the father and will
Still, the issues and relationships underlying this be slain by his "son" Arjuna hiding, as it were, behind
carefully hedged and evidently more problematic fe- the skirts of his "mother"Amba in her sexually ambig-
male-to-male transsexualism are not entirely different uous form of Sikhandin. Arjuna, as noted above, the
from those involved with the variants of the more com- victim of another case of degendering in his feminized
mon type of transsexualism. At the heart of the whole form as the transvestite Brhannada, will later suffer a
elaborate episode is the traditional culture's powerful similar death at the hands of his own son Babhruva-
investment in the rigorous definition of gender- hana only to be resurrected through the intervention of
appropriate roles and its profound disquiet when such the boy's mothers, Citrafigadaand UlUpi.95Throughout
roles are questioned. In essence it is Bhisma, the arche- this complex episode and the events that both lead up
typal renouncer of his own male sexuality in deference to and follow from it, the themes of degendering, re-
to that of his father,92who prevents Amba from fulfill- gendering, and the powerful tensions underlying the
ing her culturally determined roles as wife and mother. Oedipal triad are clearly foremost in the minds of the
Only when he has abducted the princess to make her the authors.
bride of the Kaurava dynast does Bhisma realize that From its prevalence and broad distribution in the
she has already been betrothed to, and so become the other epic and puranic episodes and accounts of the
"used property" of, another man. Her suitability for lives and practices of spiritual masters and religious
marriagethus destroyed, he attempts to returnher to her communities discussed above, the fantasy of a man's
originally intended husband. But he too is forced by the becoming a woman thus appears to be of considerable
patriarchal code of honor to reject her, for from his significance to traditional Indian culture. In some con-
standpoint she has now been sexually "used" by the fact texts this transformation is regarded as a demeaning
of her abduction. Caught in this impossible bind, the punishment for some kind of Oedipal transgression
princess attempts to compel Bhisma himself to marry against a powerful and dreaded male figure, while in
her.93But Bhisma too is constrained. For having made others it is represented as a deeply longed for meta-
his famous vow of celibacy in deference to his father's morphosis that makes possible an erotic liaison with a
sexuality, he is no longer able to function as a sexual powerful and desired male. In a few cases, such as that
being. Bhisma's own act of self-degendering,94 then, of the legendary king Bhahgas'vana,elements of both
leads inevitably to a corresponding functional degend- situations may be found.
ering of Amba that is merely actualized through her What are we to make of this powerful and recurrent
transaction with the yaksa. Amba can now no longer be theme? What, if anything, links the vedic and epic leg-
ends of transsexual metamorphosis with the deep con-
92 Goldman1978:338-40. cern with transsexualism expressed by modern Indian
93 MBh 5.170-77.
94Jaini 1984: 111. 95 MBh 14.78-82 and Goldman 1978: 330-33.
GOLDMAN: Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety In Traditional India 393

monks and mystics? How are we to explain this end-


the goddess naked. She leaps up from Siva's lap to cover her-
less fascination with the idea of a man's turning into a
self with her garment. The seers retire, after witnessing the di-
woman in a profoundly patriarchal culture where both
vine couple's love play, to the ashram of Narfyana, but to
literary and religious documents, as well as deeply please his wife the Lord places the sexually transformative
ingrained social usage, so frequently reflect the most spell upon the woods which men then tend to avoid. Ila falls in
radical misogyny? In order to begin to answer these
love with Budha and bears him the son Pururavas.Finally, she
questions, it will be helpful to recapitulate briefly. remembers her family priest, Vasistha, who takes pity on her
Clearly a number of powerful and closely interrelated
plight and intercedes with Siva on her behalf. The god, once
concerns run through much of this material. One is the
propitiated,restores Sudyumna'smanhood on the familiar con-
frequent portrayal, in plain or disguised form, of a man dition that it shall alternate with womanhood on a monthly
confronted with the sexual activity of a powerful couple
basis. The Gautamimdhatmyaof the Brahmapuraina(38), in
and/or the looming presence of a dominant and poten-
providing the origin of the Ilatirtha, gives a lengthy and com-
tially malevolent male. In one of the oldest surviving and
plex version of the saga of Ila/Ila. According to this version the
most widely distributed complexes of tales animated by
hapless king is deliberately led into the Umavana by a yaksini
this theme, the story of Ila/Ila, there are repeated and
who has taken the form of a deer in order to rid her husband of
sometimes quite explicit references to the most primal of
the powerful monarch who has been occupying his forest cave.
primal scenes, the lovemaking of the parents of the en- After bearing Pururavasto Budha, Ila unburdensherself of her
tire universe.96 As indicated above, the king inadvert-
secret sorrow (her loss of manhood) to her son who, along with
ently stumbles into the trysting spot of Siva and Parvati his father, intercedes with Siva and Pfrvati. When the divine
and therefore must be punished by his "father," the
couple is duly worshiped and propitiated, Siva tells Ila that she
rightful "owner" of the mother's body.97 The nature of
may recover her lost manhood by bathing in the Gaiga. She
does so and thus is permanently restored to her original sex.
96 The portrayalof the divine couple, Siva and Parvati, as the This version is interesting in that it combines the three most
parents of the whole world is well established in the Indian tra- common narrative motifs involving changes of sex in Indian
dition, as may be seen, for example, in Kalidfsa's homage to literature:the enchanted grove, the intercession of a yaksa, and
them in the opening stanza of his Raghuvamsa, as jagatah pit- the immersion in a sacred pool. Compare also the version of
arau, parents of the universe. The potential of this characteriza- this story at Matsyapurana 10.43-11.14. A quite different and
tion for a universal involvement in a genuinely primal scene somewhat enigmatic account of the transgenderism of Ila is
was not perceived by the authors of the ancient legends alone. found at Brahmapurdna7.1-23. There Manu, having as yet not
Medieval authors on literary criticism, for example, raise this fathered his nine sons and being desirous of obtaining one, per-
question in the context of their discussion of the propriety of forms an isti, making the offering to a portion of Mitravaruna.
Kalidasa'selaborate description of the lovemaking of the divine As in the Gautamimdhatmyaversion (Brahmapurdna108), the
pair in the eighth sarga of his Kumarasambhava.I have known rite somehow produces a daughter instead of a son. Manu
contemporarypandits who would refuse to read this sarga with names the splendid woman Ila and bids her follow him. Un-
students on the grounds that it would be tantamountto watching willing to contemplate such a violation of dharma, Ila goes to
the loveplay of one's own parents. For a discussion of the rhet- the dual divinity from whose portion she was created. The gods
oricians' treatmentof this matter, see Masson 1971: 199-202. praise her for her virtue and promise her that she will become
97 In one version of the tale, which traces the sexually trans- a son of Manu's named Sudyumna who will carry on the lin-
formative power of the grove to an earlier intrusion by a group eage. She then bears Pururavasto Budha, subsequently turns
of rsis, there is explicit reference to the sight of the goddess' into Sudyumna, and fathers three sons. Sudyumna does not in-
naked body. It is to prevent a recurrence of such an event that herit his father's kingdom, because he had been a woman, but
Siva endows the forest with this power. In this version (Bhaga- does carry out the duties of a king in Pratisthana.He goes to
vatapurdna 9.1.13-40), as a result of an error on the part of a heaven, praised as one who had borne the characteristics of
priest, Manu has a daughter instead of a son. The girl is called both a woman and a man (stripumsor laksanair yutah). This
Ila. Through a boon of Visnu, she is transformedinto the prince version makes no reference to the enchanted grove of Uma and
Sudyumna. One day the virile young man goes hunting and has none of the repeated alternation between sexes found in
strays into the trysting grove of Siva and Parvati where he is many of the other versions. The historical point of this episode,
transformedinto a woman and his horse, a stallion, into a mare. like the others, is that this enigmatic bi-gendered figure is the
The puranic narrator,Sri Suka, when asked the reason for this common ancestor of both the Solar Line (as the son of Manu
miraculous change, explains that once some rsis, desirous of Vaivasvata) and the LunarLine (as the wife of Budha) of kings.
having the darsana of Lord Siva, came to that forest where they A variant of this version which is largely identical in wording
surprise the divine couple in the midst of making love and see occurs at Vayupurdna85.
394 Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993)

the crime can be judged from the form of the punish- thereby identifying wholly with the Mother, one can
ment.98Thus we can see that the visual transgression of fulfill a powerful fantasy of sexual possession by the
Ila is regarded as the equivalent of actual Oedipal inter- very father the fear of whom lies at the root of the focal
course from the fact that his punishment, literal or func- anxiety centering on one's own maleness. Bhaigag-
tional castration, is very much the same as that meted out vana's decision to remain a woman and his assertion of
to Indra when he seduces the venerable Brahman sage a heightened erotic pleasure in a female body can be
Gautama's wife or to Pandu when he unwittingly as- seen-like Ramakrishna's elaborate fantasy of being
saults a powerful holy man engaged in the sexual pos- the bride of Krsna or the rasiks' semisecret tradition of
session of his wife.99 In other words, the transgression being sexually enjoyed by Rama-as a form of dis-
in word, thought, gaze, or deed upon the sexual property placed homoerotic desire for a figure that is at once
of the father is inevitably punished with the destruction beloved and terrifying. Certainly this set of deeply
of that which makes the transgression possible, the conflicted emotions can be seen at work in Yogananda's
transgressor'smaleness. reminiscences of his parents. This theme represents, I
But what we have here in the tales of Ila, Bhanga- believe, an effort to master a powerful complex of anx-
svana, Thera Soreyya, and other figures from ancient ieties that is generated by specific features of traditional
mythology and, I would argue, in the biographies of South Asian family and social life and is heavily rein-
Ramakrishna, Gandhi, and Yogananda and in the be- forced through the use of literary and religious texts
havior of the Ramanandirasiks, represents a more fully whose contents, in the form of myths and legends struc-
realized and somewhat less menacing response to tured as cautionary or exemplary tales, deeply inform
the negative Oedipal castration anxiety that I have the consciousness of the cultures of the region.101
discussed at length in another paper.'1? Here-most Such fantasies do not, I believe, represent either a
clearly in the tale of Bhafigasvanaand also in the teach- contradiction or a genuine counterforce to the prevail-
ings of some Vaisnava groups-we see an extension of ing misogynistic tenor of the traditional literature of
the theme. For in actually becoming a woman, and the indigenous patriarchal cultures, Hindu, Buddhist,
and Jaina, of India to which I alluded at the beginning
98 For a discussion of the of this paper. Rather, I would suggest, they are on one
relationship between Oedipal level reflexes of a carefully acculturated male dread of
crimes and the specific forms of punishments administered by
the autonomous power of women, especially as it is
curse, see Goldman 1985 and Hopkins 1932.
99 Indra's punishment varies in the different versions of this
seen as a consequence of their physiology and sexu-
ality. For along with the professed desire to be a
widely distributed cautionary tale. In one, Ram 1.47.26-27, he woman and to be treated sexually as a woman comes
is literally castrated by the enraged brahman; in others, he is
the clearly expressed fear of erotized contact with the
subjected to what can only be seen as a highly exaggerated female body. Whether it is expressed in the cliches
version of forced sexual transformation,in that he is given not
about the loss of physical, spiritual, and mental powers
just one set of female genitalia-like Ila or Bhafigasvana-but that men are said to suffer through sexual intercourse
a full one thousand of them all over his body. It is these or-
with women,102the legends about loss of manhood on
gans that, in some versions, are turned into eyes after Indra's the part of those who intrude upon or witness the sex-
horrified protest and so provide an explanation for his com-
ual life of their elders, or the lapsing into a transic state
mon epithet sahasrdksa, "thousand-eyed" (MBh 13.41). In
Pandu's case, as in that of Yayati, the castration or degender-
ing is functional, the imposition of either impotence or a curse 101The
epics, Ramayana and Mahabhdrata, are undoubtedly
of death as a consequence of sex. Cf. MBh 1.109.25 and the most importantand widely pervasive of the traditionalper-
1.78.30-41. The significance of this can be seen from the fact formance media to diffuse such seminal psycho-social mes-
that this punishment is not merely to be adduced from myths sages. The importance of these texts to the culture is to be seen
and legends but is in fact part of the prescribed retributionfor in the constant adaptation of the tales to the regional, subcul-
the Oedipal sin of gurutalpagamana, or adultery with the tural, and linguistic diversity of the Indian subcontinent. That
guru's wife, as set forth in the traditional law texts (dhar- they have not lost their power to fascinate and deeply move all
masastra). This sin, which is held to be as serious as killing a sectors of South Asian society has recently been dramatically
brahman (brahmahatyd), constitutes with that crime one of demonstratedby the reception of the serialized television ver-
only four transgressions (mahdpataka) regarded as virtually sions of the epic stories. In some question, however, are the im-
inexpiable. On this, see Manusmrti 11.54 and Goldman 1978: plications of the incapacity of the fixed videotaped versions for
328-29. further adaptation.
100Goldman 1978. 102Carstairs 1961:
83-87, 225-26.
GOLDMAN:Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety In Traditional India 395

(samddhi) at the very thought of touching the female ture has, at least since the epic period, allowed that
body, the fear is the same. there are three genders analogous to and homonymous
But what, after all, is the source of this fear? Much with the three grammatical genders of Sanskrit,106these
of the evidence of the texts we have been considering facts alone do not provide a very penetrating analysis,
suggests that the fear of women and their sexuality is whether in the terms of the traditional culture itself, or
at least in part a kind of screen. No doubt the manifest in those of modern students of that culture, of the per-
content of this screen is very significant and male- vasive and deeply invested phenomenon of transsexual-
dominated cultures have not scrupled to exploit it fully ism that we have been examining.
at the expense of women. And yet a careful study of Writers with a psychological or psychoanalytic bent
the relevant documents of traditional Indian culture such as Lannoy, Spratt, Carstairs, Kaker, O'Flaherty,
suggest that underlying the fantasized fear of harm de- and Nanda have been aware of traditional India's fasci-
riving from women and sexual intercourse with them is nation with transsexualism and the shifting of gender
a more deeply rooted but far less explicitly stated anx- roles and have tended to see it-no doubt correctly-
iety derived from the coercive and potentially castra- as an artifact of powerful unconscious forces at work
tive power of dominant males such as fathers, older in the individual psyche. These forces, it is argued, are
brothers, gods, gurus, and sages. It is on this point that greatly strengthened by the patterns of mother-son in-
I would wish to extend the prevailing explanations of teraction typical of the traditional Indian family.'07The
myths, fantasies, and acts intended to extirpate a per- argument, most elaborately articulated by Kakar, is
son's maleness and assume-to a greater or lesser de- that the traditional family, in discouraging the overt
gree and for a greater or lesser period of time-the expression of erotic love between a man and wife and
emotions and the physiology of a woman. in enforcing the cultural premium on bearing a son,
Aside from the spiritually oriented explanations of creates a situation in which a mother's affectual and
the phenomenon of transsexualism such as we have erotic energies are concentrated disproportionately
seen in the writings by and about figures like Rama- upon very young male children. The powerful emo-
krishna, Yogananda, and Gandhi, there have been a tional and physical bond that this forges, it is further
number of efforts to provide explanations of the phe- argued, is abruptly shattered when the child reaches the
nomenon in South Asia. These range from modem
Hindu apologia which essentially reformulate tradi- 106 The
tionalist hermeneutics through attempts to validate grammatical genders are pumlinga (masculine),
what is represented as a specifically Hindu ability to strilinga (feminine), and napumsakalinga (neuter). The prob-
lem is how to understand the sense of napumsakaas it is ap-
tolerate ambiguities and even outright contradiction to
plied to humanbeings. In the Mahabharata,Arjuna,in his
psychoanalytic studies.103Thus Nanda, in her quite in-
guise as the transvestiteBrhannada, is saidto be experiencing
teresting study of the hijra community in contemporary the "thirdnature"(trtiyaprakrti)MBh4.2.59* (Citrashala ed.
India, puts great store in traditional India's recognition
of a "third gender" as evidenced by her title, Neither 4.2.27). But this is in any case an imposturewhichappearsto
Man Nor Woman. Thus she argues, "where Western approximatethe state of what Nanda'shijra informantscall
culture strenuously attempts to resolve sexual contra- zanana,literally"women,"whichin theirparlancedenotesan-
dictions and ambiguities, by denial or segregation, atomicallynormalmaleswhodressas womenandact as hijras
Hinduism appears to allow opposites to confront each (Nanda 1990: 11-12). Vatsyayana uses the term napumsaka in
other without resolution."104In this she follows the his Kamasutraapparentlyto referto a typeof maleprostitute,
lead of O'Flaherty, whose 1973 work on the polar con- but he says little aboutthe napumsaka'sdress and anatomy.
tradictions built into the representation of Siva as both Participantsin the millennium-long
Jainadebateover the eli-
gibility of women for spiritual liberation introduce an interest-
terrifyingly ascetic and boundlessly erotic similarly
ing and quite modern construction of gender and sexuality,
argues for the nonexclusivity of traditional Indian
according to which people of any of the three sexes may pos-
thought.105
Yet while it may be true that traditional Hindu myth- sess any one of three libidinal orientations or "genders," which
they designate by the term veda. But here too, it is not clear
ological texts appear to be more tolerant of ambiguity
than their Western counterparts and, although the cul- whether by the term napumsaka, which appears to refer to a
malehomosexual,also suggestsemasculation, transvestism,or
both.Fora discussionof the Jainaconstructionof gender,see
103 An
example is Kakar 1989: 129-40. Jaini 1991: 11-13, 162-64.
104Nanda1990:23. 107Carstairs1961: 163; Kakar1981: 79-112, 158; Nanda
105 1990:34-36; O'Flaherty1980:280; andSutherland1991.
O'Flaherty 1973: 318.
396 Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993)

age of six or seven. The child's response to what is rep- other texts of the culture that deal with the matter of
resented as the sudden deprivation of a devouring and actual, symbolic, or functional emasculation. I have
erotized mother-love is, it is urged, a self-protective dealt with many of these texts elsewhere;109in them, as
withdrawal reinforced by the psychic construction of in many of the texts addressed in this paper, the princi-
women as insatiable, devouring mother figures, contact pal anxiety expressed by the central figures is directed
with whom drains a man of his physical and spiritual not principally at women at all, but rather at the men-
resources.108One resolution to the tension thus created acing, implacable, and punitive representations of the
between incestuous desire and fear of abandonment, father that so heavily populate the myths, legends, and
this line of argument concludes, is the culturally rein- literatures of traditional India. In the majority of those
forced shift, in fantasy or reality, from the male to the texts the woman, in the role of actual or symbolic
female or "third"genders. mother and the focus of the possessive erotic energies
This line of reasoning is doubtless based upon both of both father and son, becomes objectified as the prize
observation of the acculturative and child-rearing prac- in an endlessly repeated contest that the son can win
tices of the Indian family and analysis of the relevant only at the price of his sexuality."?0The only alterna-
literary, mythological, religious, and sociological ma- tive the traditional culture holds out in such cases to
terials. Indeed it may well explain at least some aspects castration at the hands of the father is a kind of volun-
of the powerfully ambivalent attitude towards women tary preemptive castration or renunciation of sexuality,
expressed in the traditional literatures of India and in such as is represented in the well-known Mahabhdrata
iconic form in such representations as the antipodal legends of Bhisma and Puru." This act of degendering
renderings of the Goddess as sometimes nurturant, serves to eliminate the sexual conflict inherent in the
beneficent, and maternal and at other times as wrathful, Oedipal drama by removing the mother/woman as an
bloodthirsty, and terrifying. It does not however, in my object of sexual desire while pacifying the father. In
opinion, fully explicate either this attitude or the fasci- this way one is able to retain the de-erotized love of
nation with and even yearning for the extirpation of the former and the newly re-erotized love of the latter.
maleness that we have seen expressed in the mytho- One strategy for accomplishing this is to renounce
logical literature and in the writings, teachings, and ac- sexuality entirely, a project facilitated by a carefully
tions of some Indian religious figures. For one thing, cultivated gynophobia with its negative obsessive fo-
the case studies of Bose and Kakar are, after all, case cus on the female body and its reproductive functions.
studies. That is to say that they represent in most in- Another is to cultivate a familial regard for all women,
stances the fantasies and behavior of people who feel to view them all as sisters and mothers, and so invoke
themselves to be sufficiently out of harmony with their the aid of the powerful incest taboo. A third strategy
social and cultural milieux and are sufficiently West- is to abandon male sexuality and gender entirely and
ernized in their thinking to present themselves to a "become" a woman either in emotional/libidinal terms
psychoanalyst for treatment. It is risky, perhaps, to alone or more completely through the outward appear-
generalize from such cases, as they probably tend to ance of a transvestite or the more profound physical
represent the extremes rather than any norm of the so- metamorphosis of a hijra or true transsexual. With this
ciety. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the fan- last strategy, the emotional resolution of the conflict
tasies these patients report are wholly syntonic with would appear to be most thorough, for along with the
those that can be adduced from the traditional literature retention of the mother's love, the transsexual can now
and the lives of several of the outstanding religious become, in fantasy or reality, the passive recipient of
figures discussed above. In my opinion, it is the omni- the now heavily erotized love of the "father."1"2
present examples represented by the popular mythol-
ogy and the very visible and widely known lives of 109Goldman 1978.
saints, mystics, and others, that serve-for the vast 10
Paradigmatichere would be the frequently occurring cau-
majority of people-as the means of reinforcing the
acculturation carried out in the normal, as opposed to tionarytaleof thecastrationof Indra,kingof thegods,through
the pathogenic, family. the curse of a cuckoldedfatherfigure,the rsi Gautama.See
It seems to me that these texts, if they are to be more Goldman1978:360-61 andRam1.49.19-34.
111Goldman 1978:
338-39; MBh 1.94.86-88, 90; and MBh
fully understood, must be read in the context of the
1.79.27-29.
112It is thus thatwe may understand the powerfulfantasy,
108Kakar1981:79-90 andCarstairs1961:158-61. See also so frequentlyelaboratedin the variousVaisnavacontextsdis-
note 112 below. cussed above, of the devotee being "enjoyed" by the God.
GOLDMAN: Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety In Traditional India 397

In short, I believe that much of the fascination with from a thoughtful reading of the tales and practices of
becoming a woman that we find in the Indian tradition, transsexualism that I have discussed above. Many of
as well as the seemingly contradictory misogyny that is these texts-the legends of the popular epics and the
another of its recurrent features, proceeds not from a word and actions of monks and spiritual masters-pro-
primary anxiety about women but rather from a deep vide importantkeys to an understandingof the cultural,
and, in many cases, well-founded anxiety about men in psychological, social, and ultimately political transac-
the form of culturally validated authority figures. Al- tions that lie at the heart of all forms of human inter-
though it is abundantly clear that a variety of voices course, in India as elsewhere.
from the "great"and "little" traditions genuinely incul- The kinds of myths, legends, and fantasies cited in
cate and seek to bolster the phobic attitude towards this paper, and the social, psychological, and political
women as sexual beings and towards heterosexual in- realities of which they are expressions are by no means
tercourse in general,'13 it would appear that here, as restricted to South Asia. The simultaneous disempow-
elsewhere, both the indigenous tradition and contempo- erment of women and the construction of them as
rary psychoanalytic scholarship have tended to "blame agents rather than victims of such disempowerment is
the victim" in portraying women-whether constructed an unpleasant feature of most of the societies and cul-
as the sexually voracious apasaras/raksasi or the "de- tures-ancient and modern-of which we have knowl-
vouring mother"-as somehow responsible for what edge. Innumerable examples of this can be adduced
Kakar has so aptly termed a "vicious circle" that leads from European, East Asian, Islamic, and other tradi-
eventually to "adult men who fear the sexuality of ma- tions. Let me offer, however, only one instructive par-
ture women.""4 In a real sense, South Asian women allel from the literatureof modern Europe in which the
have been casualties, caught in the middle of a male overwhelming anxieties generated by a truly terrifying
power struggle, a struggle whose real issues are only father led his son to the creation of powerful myths and
rarely fully articulated and are generally camouflaged fantasies centering around his being transformed into a
by a screen made up of profuse and varied pronounce- woman for the sexual use of God.
ments and "speculations" on the biological, intellec- The bizarre,fantasy-filled memoirs of the GermanJu-
tual, moral, and spiritual capacities of women.'15 rist Dr. Paul Daniel Schreber,"6analyzed by Freudin his
It is in this sense that women often function as "A Case of Dementia Paranoides,""7presents a strange
pawns in an occult male game that in the end emerges and moving example of a combinationof transsexualfan-
tasy and religious fervor strongly reminiscent of the case
of Ramakrishna.Dr. Schreber,whose centralfantasy was
113Carstairs 1961: 72-74, 83-88, 117, 167-68, 237, and
that he was, as part of the divine plan, being turned into
a woman by and for the enjoyment of God, can now be
314.
14 Kakar 1981: 95.
more clearly analyzed in the light of informationthat has
15 become known since the publication of Freud's paper.
Examplesof the tendencyto blamethevictimof thismale For it is now clear that Schreber's paranoid delusions
powerstruggleor to use womenas a coverforit arenotdifficult were rooted in at least two elements of reality. First, we
to findin the literatures
of India.Theclassicformulationof the
now know that Schreber's father, the great nineteenth-
themewouldbe, of course,theheartlesstreatment of bothDrau-
century authority on child pedagogy, had subjected his
padiandSiti in the nationalepics andtheirinnumerable reren-
son to an especially oppressive version of the cruel and
derings.Morespecificwouldbe the recurrent themein whicha
obsessive discipline he preached.18 Second, it has been
woman,oftenanapsaras,orderedby Indrato seducea holyman
revealed that Schreber'spsychiatrist, Dr. P. E. Flechsig,
andso preventhimfromacquiringthroughhis asceticismpower
who was in charge of his treatmentand of the asylum in
greaterthanthatof thegodhimself,is cursedby thesage.Cf. the which he was confined, the very person whom Schreber,
storyof theapsarasRambhaas toldat Ram1.62-63.Theuseof in his delusion, regardedas the agent whereby his trans-
womenas a screenfora powerstrugglebetweenmalesis perhaps
formation into a woman was to be effected, was among
best illustratedby the bitter and prolonged dispute between the
those medical authorities of his era who advocated and
two majorJaina sects over the capacity of women to attainspiri-
tualliberation.Althoughthe impassioned rhetoricof thisdebate
focusesupontheallegedcapacitiesandincapacities of women,it
wouldappear,as I have suggestedelsewhere(Goldman1991: 116 Schreber 1955.
xx), that what is really at stake is the Digambaraclaim that 117 Freud
1958.
Svetimbara monks, who like Digambara "nuns" must remain 118 Masson (unpublished) "Schreber and Freud," Schatzman
clothed, are for that very reason ineligible for spiritualliberation. 1973, and Israels 1989.
398 Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.3 (1993)

even practiced both castration and extirpation of the ova- memoir of his delusional illness-an all but unique op-
ries on those patients-male and female respectively- portunity to see how the unmanageable anxieties gener-
whose sexuality and general behavior they saw as trans- ated by the unhappy combination of two repressive and
gressing societal norms.119 Here we have-through the tyrannical patriarchal figures, a disempowering father
unusual coincidence of the father's systematization and and a literally castrative doctor-keeper, are partially al-
publication of his rigid and obsessional beliefs about leviated through the creation of an elaborate system of
child rearing and the son's insistence on publishing the myth and religion whose focus is the transformation of
the subject into a woman who will then be sexually en-
joyed by the supreme patriarch, God.
119That
Flechsig actually advocated and even practiced what Whether in the East or the West, there can be few
he called "castration,"at least in the case of female patients, is paranoid fantasies that are not grounded in some real
clear from one of his own articles, "Zur gynaekologischen Be- and painful reality to the identification of which they
handlung der Hysterie" (On the gynecological treatment of are the occult signposts. The myth or fantasy of a
hysteria), published in Neurologisches Centralblatt 1884, man's being turned into a woman for the sexual enjoy-
3:457-69 and quoted in Niederland 1968. Further,in an auto- ment of some more powerful male which has persisted
biographical essay (P. Flechsig, Meine myelogenetische Hirn- in many forms for at least two-and-a-half millennia is
lehre [mit biographischer Einleitung] [Berlin: Verlag von unlikely to be an exception. The investigation of the
Julius Springer, 1927]) quoted in Masson's unpublished piece, complex nature of the reality that has animated this
Flechsig returns to a discussion of the outcomes of this proce- particular fantasy for so long both in literature and in
dure in various kinds of cases. For all references concerning the lives of historical figures of unusual prominence
Schreber and his father, I am indebted to the scholarship and unquestionably merits the collaborative attention of
unstinting generosity of Dr. Jeffrey Masson. scholars in both the social sciences and the humanities.

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