World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

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making the women metaphorically superfluous. This "symbolic androgyny" opens men up to freedom and power. "It is this very freedom to become female,' so easily available to men, that locks Tamil women even more securely into their marginalized role because the freedom to 'be male' is never allowed to them in any ritual situation." Kapadia examines this in light of the pan Indian pattern that says women's inherent shakti needs to be controlled by men. Rather then saying men have "authority" she uses "wisdom," they have the wisdom to guide female power. In the Siva/Shakti model it is this wisdom, like Siva seated in unflinching meditation for millennia, which is steadfast, while Shakti is erratic and always moving. Masculine "wisdom" can harness this vast and vibrant feminine "power," and possessed men join the two attributes within themselves Possessed men become 'androgynous" and "complete," while women are prohibited from any ritual expression that would enable them to join their power with wisdom.
Of course, nothing is cut and dry. When Kapadia switched her vantage point she went on to find a solution for female disempowerment in the lower caste understanding of Mariyamman. Brahmins may stick to seeing Mariyamman as a ferocious goddess who needs to be cooled by a male deity, but the non-Brahmins see her as "complete" without need of a male consort to balance her even if she might have one. She may become enraged under certain circumstances, but she also exudes sweetness, is wise, and beneficent. Kapadia's hermeneutics as such, stem from her understanding of the supreme divinity within the Hindu context as being the "androgynous Diety." From this perspective she views the Brahminical discourse to be one that emphasizes the male half of the divine, while the lower castes emphasize the female half. "God/Mariyamman is female in her powers but also male in her infinite wisdom." In a sense Mariyamman's roots as the ground of the village/civilization makes her second to none, she is the womb and the seed.
Western Conversation
Of course, female empowerment does not, and should not come at the expense of men. Mariyamman is the great goddess, but her worshipers are often devotees of Murugan as well. It is one of the lovely hallmarks of Hinduism, whether of the upper or lower castes, where worship fluidly moves from one group of gods to another. This is something that can be rife with confusion for the Westerners who study it. How could Shaivites worship. Laksmi? How could Vaisnanva Brahmins come to the Mariyamman temple? How could feminist Shaktas include male deities? I think this coursing through different perspectives and differing deities is a key to both understanding the intricacies of female and male Hindu identity, as well paving the way for variant hermeneutical methodologies.
My interest in Mariyamman is very recent. I could not remember her name after I first read Kinsley's book about five years ago. The village god
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