Surrendering to the Earth
Male Devotional Practices in the Bengali Dharma Cult
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v1i2.123Keywords:
Dharma cult, blood, piercing fleshAbstract
The essential traits of the Dharma cult are grounded in the folklore of the agricultural people of Rarh (West Bengal). The annual worship of Dharma, the gajan, is here examined on a gender basis. By considering fertility as the leitmotif of the cult and Dharma worship the masculinization of an ancestral female cult, I shall focus on the presence of blood as the discriminator in ritual acts. I argue that while female devotees foster and care for the deity by virtue of their own body, men are in a position of 'guiltiness' and they must ritually become women. Thus the two intruding acts par excellence (ploughing the soil and sexual intercourse) are ritually replaced by piercing men's flesh. Self-tortures and immolation will be discussed in order to examine the gajan as the dramatic representation of the hierogamy among Bengali agricultural people in contrast with the rules imposed by the Brahmanic culture.
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References
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Br ? haddharma Pura3n9a (ed. S.C. Banerji), 1915. Lucknow: S.C. Vandhyopadhyay.
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Buckley, T., and A. Gottlieb (eds.) 1988, Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation. London: University of California Press.
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—(ed.), 1999b, Managing distress: Possession and Therapeuthic Cults in South Asia. Delhi: Manohar.
Chakrabarti, K., 2001, Religious Process: The Pura3n9as and the Making of a Regional Tradition. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Chattopadhyay, G., 1935, ‘Carak Festival in a West Bengal Village’. In L.P. Vidyarthi (ed.), Aspects of Religion in Indian Society. Meerut: Munshiram Manoharlal: 151-65.
Das, R.P., 1987, ‘More Remarks on the Bengali Deity Dharma: Its Cult and Study’. Anthropos 82: 244-51.
Dev?3bhaga3vata Pura3n9a (ed. Swami Vijnanananda), 1977. New Delhi: Nag Publishers.
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Favazza, A.R., 1987, Bodies under Siege: Self-Mutilation in Culture and Psychiatry. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
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Hiltebeitel, A., 1991, The Cult of Draupad?3. II. On the Hindu Ritual and the Goddess. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Irwin, J.C., 1983, ‘The Ancient Pillar-Cult at Praya3ga (Allahabad): Its Pre-As 8 okan Origins’. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2: 253-80.
Jaiminibha3rata (trans. in Bengali by Rohinina3ndan Sarka3r), 1290 BS [1883]. Kolika3ta3: Maha3bha3rata Ka3ryyala3ya.
Kakar, S., 1981 [1978], The Inner World: A Psycho-analytical Study of Childhood and Society in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Ka3lika3 Pura3n[a, (3 vols.; ed. B. Shastry), 1991. Delhi: Nag Publishers.
Kinsley, D., 1998 (1986), Hindu Goddesses: Vision of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Kurtz, S.N., 1992, All the Mothers Are One: Hindu India and the Cultural Reshaping of Psychoanalysis. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lacan, J., 2002 (1966), Scritti (2 vols.). Torino: Einaudi.
Laws of Manu (ed. P. Olivelle), 2004. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.
Lincoln, B., 1991, Emerging from the Chrysalis: Rituals of Women’s Initiation. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
—1994, ‘A Lakota Sun Dance and the Problematic of Sociocosmic Reunion’. History of Religions 34(1): 1-14.
Lin[ga Pura3n[a, (5 vols.; ed. J.L. Sastri), 1973. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Maha3bhagava3ta Pura3n@a: An Ancient Treatise on S % akti Cult: S % aktasampradayikam (ed. P. Kumar), 1983. Delhi: Eastern Book Linkers.
McDaniel, J., 2004, Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Nabokov, I., 2000, Religion against the Self: An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Neumann, E., 1981, La Grande Madre: Fenomenologia delle configurazioni femminili dell’inconscio. Rome: Astrolabio.
Nicholas, R., 2003, Fruits of Worship: Practical Religion in Bengal. New Delhi: Chronicle Books.
Obeyesekere, G., 1981, Medusa’s Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
—1990, The Work of Culture: Symbolic Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Anthropology. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Oddie, G.A., 1995, Popular Religion, Elites and Reform: Hook-Swinging and its Prohibition in Colonial India, 1800–1894. Delhi: Manohar.
Parson, A., 1969, ‘Is the Oedipus Complex Universal? The Jones-Malinowski Debate Revisited’. In A. Parson (ed.), Belief, Magic, and Anomie: Essays in Psychological Anthropology. New York: Free Press: 3-66.
Powell, J.H., 1914, ‘Hook-Swinging in India: A Description of the Ceremony, and an Enquiry into its Origin and Significance’, Folklore 25: 147-97.
Rigopoulos, A., 2000, ‘Il sangue e la dea nel contesto mitologico hindu4.’ In A. Amadi (ed.), Il sangue nel mito. Il sangue purificatore nel sacrificio del bufalo nell’Asia meridionale. Atti di convegno. Venice: VAIS (Venetian Academy of Indian Studies): 101-12.
Robinson, S., 1980, ‘The Dharmapu4ja3: A Study of Rites and Symbols Associated with the Bengali Deity Dharmara3j’. Chicago: PhD Thesis, University of Chicago.
Sen, R.C. 1833, ‘A Short Account of the Charak Pu4ja3 Ceremony and a Description of the Implements Used’. Journal of the Asiatic Society 24: 609-13.
Sen, S., 1971, An Etymological Dictionary of Bengali: c. 1000–1800 A.D. (2 vols.). Calcutta: Eastern Publishers.
Sinha, S., B.K. Dasgupta and H. Banerjee, 1961, ‘Rituals in Agriculture’. Bulletin of the Anthropological Survey of India 10(1): 29-35.
Stephens, W.N., 1962, The Oedipus Complex: Cross-Cultural Evidence. New York: Free Press.
S % u4nya Pura3n[a (ed. Nagendrana3th Basu), 1314 BS [1907]. Kalika3ta3: Ban?g?3ya Sa3hitya Paris[at.
Thornill, R., and C.T. Palmer, 2000, A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion. London: The MIT Press.
Thurston, E., 1907, Ethnographic Notes in Southern India. Madras: Superintendent Government Press.
Whitehead, H., 1976 [1921], The Village Gods of South India. Delhi: Sumit Publications.
Yule, H., and A.C. Burnell, 1903, Hobson-Jobson, a Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and Kindred Terms: Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive. London: John Murray.
Benz, E., 1969, ‘Ordeal by Fire’. In J.M. Kitagawa and C.H. Lang (eds.), Myths and Symbols: Studies in Honour of Mircea Eliade. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press: 241-64.
Bettelheim, B., 1968 [1954], Symbolic Wounds: Puberty Rites and the Envious Male. New York: Collier Books.
Bhattacharyya, A., 1952, ‘The Dharma Cult’. Bulletin of the Department of Anthropology, 1(1): 117-51.
—1977, The Sun and the Serpent Lore of Bengal. Calcutta: Firma KLM.
Bhattacharyya, N.N., 1968, Indian Puberty Rites. Calcutta: Indian Studies Past and Present.
—1996 (1975), Ancient Indian Rituals and their Social Contents. Delhi: Manohar.
—1999 (1970), The Indian Mother Goddess. Delhi: Manohar.
Bhowmick, P.K., 1964, ‘Gajan: A Regional Festival’. Folklore 5(9): 321-33.
Br ? haddharma Pura3n9a (ed. S.C. Banerji), 1915. Lucknow: S.C. Vandhyopadhyay.
Brighenti, F., 2003, ‘Shamanistic Echoes in Rituals of Hindu Devotional Ordeal’. http:// www.svabhinava.org/friends/FrancescoBrighenti/ShamanisticEchos-frame.html (last accessed 18/02/2006).
Buckley, T., and A. Gottlieb (eds.) 1988, Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation. London: University of California Press.
Caldwell, S., 1999, ‘The Bloodthirsty Tongue and the Self-feeding Breast: Homosexual Fellatio Fantasy in a South Indian Ritual Tradition’. In T.G. Vaidyanath and J.J. Kripal (eds.), Vishnu on Freud’s Desk: A Reader in Psychoanalysys and Hinduism. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 339-66.
Carrin, Marine, 1999a, ‘The Sacrifice of Femininity: Female Sacredness at the Hindu/Tribal Frontier in Bengal’. In Harald Tambs-Lyche (ed.), The Feminine Sacred in South Asia. Delhi: Manohar: 114-133.
—(ed.), 1999b, Managing distress: Possession and Therapeuthic Cults in South Asia. Delhi: Manohar.
Chakrabarti, K., 2001, Religious Process: The Pura3n9as and the Making of a Regional Tradition. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Chattopadhyay, G., 1935, ‘Carak Festival in a West Bengal Village’. In L.P. Vidyarthi (ed.), Aspects of Religion in Indian Society. Meerut: Munshiram Manoharlal: 151-65.
Das, R.P., 1987, ‘More Remarks on the Bengali Deity Dharma: Its Cult and Study’. Anthropos 82: 244-51.
Dev?3bhaga3vata Pura3n9a (ed. Swami Vijnanananda), 1977. New Delhi: Nag Publishers.
Dharmapu4ja3 Vidha3na (ed. N. Bandyopa3dhya3ya), 1323 BS [1916]. Kalika3ta3: Ba?g?3ya Sa3hitya Paris[at.
Dharmasutras (ed. P. Olivelle), 1999. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Doniger, W., 1995, ‘ “Put a Bag over her Head”: Beheading Mythological Woman’. In H. EilbergSchwartzand W. Doniger (eds.), Off with her Head! The Denial of Women’s Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press: 15-31.
— 1998, The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth. New York: Columbia University Press.
Dubois, Abbe J.A., 2002 [1906], Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies. New Delhi: Rupa & Co.
Eliade, M., 1960, Myths, Dreams and Mysteries: The Encounter between Contemporary Faiths and Archaic Realities. London: Harvill Press.
—1963 [1958], Patterns in Comparative Religion. New York: Meridian.
Favazza, A.R., 1987, Bodies under Siege: Self-Mutilation in Culture and Psychiatry. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Filippi, G.G., (ed.) 2001, Dialogo di Naciketas con la morte: Taittir?3yabra3hman@a (III. 11.8) Kat[haupanis[ad. Venezia: Cafoscarina.
Freud, S., 1953 [1922], ‘Medusa’s Head’. In J. Strachey (ed.), Collected Papers, V. London: Hogart Press: 105-106.
Ghos[ B., 1362 BS [1955], Pas8cimban?ger sam[ skr ° ti. Kalika3ta3: Praka3s 8 Bha3ban.
Grossato, A. (ed.), 1994, Gianfranco Poggio Bracciolini. L’India di Nicolò de’Conti: un manoscritto del libro IV De Veritatis Fortunae. Padova: Editoriale Programma.
Harman, W.P., n.d., ‘Promises Made to Goddess: Women’s Boons and Men’s Fears’. http:// www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/indologie/kolam/kolam3/mariyamm.html (last accessed 18/02/2006).
Hiltebeitel, A., 1991, The Cult of Draupad?3. II. On the Hindu Ritual and the Goddess. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Irwin, J.C., 1983, ‘The Ancient Pillar-Cult at Praya3ga (Allahabad): Its Pre-As 8 okan Origins’. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2: 253-80.
Jaiminibha3rata (trans. in Bengali by Rohinina3ndan Sarka3r), 1290 BS [1883]. Kolika3ta3: Maha3bha3rata Ka3ryyala3ya.
Kakar, S., 1981 [1978], The Inner World: A Psycho-analytical Study of Childhood and Society in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Ka3lika3 Pura3n[a, (3 vols.; ed. B. Shastry), 1991. Delhi: Nag Publishers.
Kinsley, D., 1998 (1986), Hindu Goddesses: Vision of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Kurtz, S.N., 1992, All the Mothers Are One: Hindu India and the Cultural Reshaping of Psychoanalysis. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lacan, J., 2002 (1966), Scritti (2 vols.). Torino: Einaudi.
Laws of Manu (ed. P. Olivelle), 2004. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.
Lincoln, B., 1991, Emerging from the Chrysalis: Rituals of Women’s Initiation. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
—1994, ‘A Lakota Sun Dance and the Problematic of Sociocosmic Reunion’. History of Religions 34(1): 1-14.
Lin[ga Pura3n[a, (5 vols.; ed. J.L. Sastri), 1973. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Maha3bhagava3ta Pura3n@a: An Ancient Treatise on S % akti Cult: S % aktasampradayikam (ed. P. Kumar), 1983. Delhi: Eastern Book Linkers.
McDaniel, J., 2004, Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Nabokov, I., 2000, Religion against the Self: An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Neumann, E., 1981, La Grande Madre: Fenomenologia delle configurazioni femminili dell’inconscio. Rome: Astrolabio.
Nicholas, R., 2003, Fruits of Worship: Practical Religion in Bengal. New Delhi: Chronicle Books.
Obeyesekere, G., 1981, Medusa’s Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
—1990, The Work of Culture: Symbolic Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Anthropology. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Oddie, G.A., 1995, Popular Religion, Elites and Reform: Hook-Swinging and its Prohibition in Colonial India, 1800–1894. Delhi: Manohar.
Parson, A., 1969, ‘Is the Oedipus Complex Universal? The Jones-Malinowski Debate Revisited’. In A. Parson (ed.), Belief, Magic, and Anomie: Essays in Psychological Anthropology. New York: Free Press: 3-66.
Powell, J.H., 1914, ‘Hook-Swinging in India: A Description of the Ceremony, and an Enquiry into its Origin and Significance’, Folklore 25: 147-97.
Rigopoulos, A., 2000, ‘Il sangue e la dea nel contesto mitologico hindu4.’ In A. Amadi (ed.), Il sangue nel mito. Il sangue purificatore nel sacrificio del bufalo nell’Asia meridionale. Atti di convegno. Venice: VAIS (Venetian Academy of Indian Studies): 101-12.
Robinson, S., 1980, ‘The Dharmapu4ja3: A Study of Rites and Symbols Associated with the Bengali Deity Dharmara3j’. Chicago: PhD Thesis, University of Chicago.
Sen, R.C. 1833, ‘A Short Account of the Charak Pu4ja3 Ceremony and a Description of the Implements Used’. Journal of the Asiatic Society 24: 609-13.
Sen, S., 1971, An Etymological Dictionary of Bengali: c. 1000–1800 A.D. (2 vols.). Calcutta: Eastern Publishers.
Sinha, S., B.K. Dasgupta and H. Banerjee, 1961, ‘Rituals in Agriculture’. Bulletin of the Anthropological Survey of India 10(1): 29-35.
Stephens, W.N., 1962, The Oedipus Complex: Cross-Cultural Evidence. New York: Free Press.
S % u4nya Pura3n[a (ed. Nagendrana3th Basu), 1314 BS [1907]. Kalika3ta3: Ban?g?3ya Sa3hitya Paris[at.
Thornill, R., and C.T. Palmer, 2000, A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion. London: The MIT Press.
Thurston, E., 1907, Ethnographic Notes in Southern India. Madras: Superintendent Government Press.
Whitehead, H., 1976 [1921], The Village Gods of South India. Delhi: Sumit Publications.
Yule, H., and A.C. Burnell, 1903, Hobson-Jobson, a Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and Kindred Terms: Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive. London: John Murray.
Published
2005-09-01
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
M. Ferrari, F. (2005). Surrendering to the Earth: Male Devotional Practices in the Bengali Dharma Cult. Fieldwork in Religion, 1(2), 123-144. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v1i2.123
