Śiva, The Goddess, and The Disguises of The Pā Avas and Draupadi

iva, the Goddess, and the Disguises of the Pavas and Draupadi
Author(s): Alf Hiltebeitel

Reviewed work(s):
Source: History of Religions, Vol. 20, No. 1/2, Twentieth Anniversary Issue (Aug. - Nov.,
1980), pp. 147-174
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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Alf
Hiltebeitel I V
A,
THE
GODDESS,
AND THE DISGUISES
OF THE PANDAVAS
AND DRAUPADI
After over
forty years
of
increasingly productive exploration
of
the
symbolism
of the
Mahabharata,1
it is
becoming
clear that the
"Great
Epic" possesses
a remarkable coherence. This coherence
results from its bards and
poets weaving
a fabric of
largely
con-
sistent
symbols
and themes to
convey
their fundamental concerns
through
a sustained narrative medium. Yet such a claim
requires
continuing substantiation,
as the tides of
epic
research are not
without their shifts. This
study
will thus seek to lend further
support
to the
argument
for coherence and will
require repeating
and
rephrasing
some of the
assumptions
that have sustained such
an
approach
methodologically,
particularly
as
they
have been
pre-
sented in a series of
essays
of which this one forms
part
of a se-
quence.2
But one
premise
should be declared at the outset. It is
here contended that the
poets go
to the
"deepest"
level of their
play
with symbols in the
epic's
fourth
book,
the
Virataparvan,
1
See Alf
Hiltebeitel, "Krsna in the Mahabharata: A
Bibliographical Study,"
Annals
of
the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 60
(1979): 83-107, on this
focus of
interpretation
since the 1930s.
2
Alf Hiltebeitel, "Draupadi's Garments," Indo-Iranian Journal 22
(1980):
98-112, "Draupadi's Hair," Purusdrtha, vol. 5
(1980), "Sexuality
and Sacrifice:
Convergent
Subcurrents in the
Firewalking
Cult of
Draupadi,"
in
Continuity
and
Change
in South Asian
Religion, ed. Fred W.
Clothey (New Delhi: Manohar, in
press).
?
1980
by
The
University
of
Chicago. 0018-2710/81/2012-0008$01.00
148
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
which describes the
period
that the Pandavas and
Draupadi spend
unrecognized
in
Upaplavya,
the
city
of
King
Virata. The
disguises
which
they adopt
show the
epic poets
as true
symbol-masters,
concealing
and
revealing
the
"deepest"
identities of their heroes
and much of the
purpose-primarily theological-of
the roles
they
play
in the
epic
narrative as a whole.
A brief review of the
scholarship
on the
Virataparvan
will show
that the
disguises
have
already
been
recognized
as
presenting
a
rich concentration of
symbolic
themes.
Stig
Wikander and
Georges
Dumezil
opened
the
interpretative
discussion
by observing
that
the
disguises
of the five brothers conserve
Indo-European
tri-
functional and Indian caste-related traits.3 J. A. B. van
Buitenen,
moving beyond
the identification of
isomorphic
structures
(relating
to trifunctionalism and
caste), opened
fresh
insights by stressing
narrative
continuity
and context. He demonstrates the
inadequacy
of
arguments
that the
Virataparvan
is "late" or
"interpolated,"
and while not
rejecting
that
possibility
for himself
(as
one
might
wish),4
he views the
disguises
as
"burlesque"
inversions of the
heroes' roles and status in the
epic
as a
whole,
a sort of bard's
version of Holi.5
Each of these
approaches
has
provided suggestive insights
and
grounds
for extension.6 But each affords
only
an
incomplete
tableau. Dumezil and Wikander stress connections
only
with the
3
Stig Wikander, "La
L6gende
des Pandava et la substructure
mythique
du
Mahdbhdrata,"
trans.
Georges Dumezil, in
Jupiter Mars Quirinus (Paris:
Presses
Universitaires de
France, 1948), 4:48-49; Georges Dum6zil, Mythe
et
epopee:
L'ideologie
des trois
fonctions
dans les
epopees des
peuples indo-europeens, 2d ed.
(Paris: Gallimard, 1974), pp. 62-63, 71-73, 79.
4
See J. A. B. van
Buitenen, trans. and ed., The
Mahdbhdrata, Book 4, The Book
of
Virata, Book 5, The Book
of
the
Effort
(Chicago: University
of
Chicago Press,
1978), 3:18-21, discounting
the
arguments
of E. W.
Hopkins, The Great
Epic of
India
(Calcutta: Punthi Pusak, 1969), pp. 382-83. Dum6zil also lends weight
to the
interpolation theory,
but not
convincingly;
see
Mythe
et
epopee, pp. 89, n. 2, and
93. See also Dieter
Schlingloff,
"The Oldest Extant Parvan List of the Maha-
bharata" Journal
of
the American Oriental Society 89
(1969): 334-38. This Kushana-
period parvan list is too defective to
yield
solid conclusions; also, if a
parvan
be-
ginning
with a or d occurs where one would
expect Virata, this could be
ajndta,
"incognito."
In
any case, the evidence of "continuities"
goes far beyond
that cited
by
van Buitenen and makes the
interpolation arguments untenable.
5
Van
Buitenen, Book
of Virata, pp. 3-10, 20-21. The
"amusing"
tone of the
Virataparvan
is
certain, despite
J. W. de
Jong's
review of van Buitenen's Mahab-
harata, vol. 3, in Indo-Iranian Journal 22
(1980): 58-62. But a connection
specifi-
cally
with
Holi, or with
Phalguna
month
(February-March), breaks down.
Arjuna's
disclosure at the
year's
end occurs
during grisma, the hot season
(May-July) (Mbh.
4.42.22; henceforth Mahabharata
citations, all from the Poona Critical Edition,
will not mention the
text).
6
Thus the
Indo-European perspective opens the
possibility of
comparing
dis-
tinctly epic themes: for
example,
one
suspects
a connection between the Virata-
parvan account and the
disguises
of Prince
Goshtasp
in Rum recounted in Iranian
epic traditions. Van Buitenen's notion of "inversions" has also been
extended;
see
Hiltebeitel,
"Draupadi's
Hair."
History of Religions
149
upper
three varnas. As we shall
see,
this misses much of what is
essential. And the
Indo-European mythological prototypes
include
no model for the
disguise
of
Draupadi,
a lack
which,
in
my opinion,
is not corrected
by
Daniel Dubuisson.7 And as van Buitenen him-
self
recognizes,
there are no
burlesque
inversions in the
"pedes-
trian"
disguises
of the twins.8
By way
of
working
toward a
comprehensive interpretation
of
the
disguises
as a
group,
and of
understanding
the indissoluble
connections between the
Virataparvan
and the
larger epic,
the
work of Madeleine Biardeau
proves
indispensible.
Moreover,
it is
but a short
step
from her multifaceted
analysis
to the solutions
proposed
here. Since I will make
frequent
reference to her
studies,
it will suffice for now to indicate
only
the main threads.
First, the thirteenth
year,
which the Pandavas
spend
"like
creatures
dwelling
in the womb
[garbhavdsa
iva
prajdh]" (4.66.10;
cf.
4.12.11, n.),9
has the character of a
diksd,
the "consecration"
through
which one is "reborn" in the "womb" of the diksd hut to
the status of "sacrificer"
(yajamdna).?10
She further
regards
the
diksd theme as "doubled" in the
person
of
Arjuna,
whose
wrestling
match with
Siva,
when the latter is
disguised
as a hunter
(kirdta),
involves a transformation of
Arjuna's
"offered"
body
into a divine
body, permitting
him to ascend to heaven and attain divine
weapons
to be used in the "sacrifice of battle."11 This diksd-like
latency during
the
period
of
disguise
is further reinforced
by
the
names associated with their
hiding place. Upaplavya,
"the
City
to
Be
Overflowed,"
evokes the
deluge.12
The name Virata calls to
mind the Vedic
quasi-feminine
cosmogonic
principle virdj.13
And
7
Daniel Dubuisson, "La Deesse chevelue et la reine coiffeuse: Recherches sur
un theme
6pique
de l'Inde
ancienne," Journal
asiatique
166
(1978): 291-310; for
discussion, see
Hiltebeitel, "Draupadi's Hair," n. 5.
8
Van Buitenen, Virata, p.
7.
9
On Mahabharata references, see n. 5 above.
10
See Madeleine
Biardeau, "Etudes de
mythologie
hindoue
[henceforth
referred
to as
EMH]
(IV),
Part II. Bhakti et
avatara," Bulletin de l'ecole
francaise d'Ex-
treme Orient 63
(1976): 207-8, "EMH
(V),
Part II. Bhakti et
avatara,
"
Bulletin de
l'ecole
frangaise
d'Extreme Orient 65
(1978): 149-57, 187-88
(n.
3),
Compte-rendu,
Annuaire. Ecole
pratique
des hautes etudes
[henceforth
referred to as
EPHE], 5th
sec.,
Sciences
religieuses
82
(1973-74): 94; Madeleine Biardeau and Charles Mala-
moud,
Le
Sacrifice
dans l'Inde ancienne
(Paris:
Presses Universitaires de
France,
1976), p.
133.
11
Biardeau, EMH
(V), pp. 149-59, cf. EMH
(IV), pp. 227, 241, 245.
12
Oral communication from
Biardeau; see also
Jacques Scheuer, "?iva dans le
Mahabharata"
(doctoral diss., Universit6 de Paris, 3d
cycle, 1975), p.
333. I re-
ceived this excellent work-for which
grateful
thanks to the
author-only
after
completing
two drafts of this article. I therefore cite it almost
exclusively
in notes.
Many
similar
points
were reached
independently,
and our
arguments
often re-
inforce each other.
However, Scheuer
largely ignores
the
Virataparvan;
the main
thrust of this article thus must stand on its own.
13
Biardeau, EMH
(IV), p. 208, n. 1, EPHE 82
(1973-74): 90.
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
the name
Matsya,
"fish," for the
kingdom
has both
cosmogonic
overtones
(e.g.,
the
Matsyavatara)
and hints of chaos
(the matsya-
nydya:
"the
big
fish eat the little
fish"),
and also associations
with a recurrent fish
imagery
that runs
through
the
epic.14
As
regards
the
disguises themselves,
Biardeau notes the element
of
play (krida, lJld)15
in the
"sports"
of the three eldest
brothers,
though-like
van Buitenen-she sees
"nothing surprising"
in the
disguises
of the twins.16 She has also
caught sight
of socio-ritual
overtones of
impurity
and
"untouchability"
in the
disguises,
par-
ticularly
those of
Draupadi
and
Yudhisthira,17
thus
hinting
at
associations
extending beyond
the
upper
three varnas. But her
first concern is with
Arjuna.
In
Arjuna's disguise
as a
eunuch,
she
sees the theme of sexual
abstinence, brahmacarya,
in a form of
renunciation suitable to the
king
and essential to the exercise of
royalty, though
it
eventually
involves the renunciation of
royalty
itself when
Arjuna
refuses to
marry
his
pupil,
Virata's
daughter
Uttara.18 Insofar as Biardeau
regards
Arjuna
as the "ideal
king,"
in close
rapport
with the
avatdra, Krsna,
she also stresses the
manner in which
Arjuna
impersonates aspects
of the avatara ideal.19
This ideal she
presents
most
succinctly
as follows: the avatdra
displays
the
interplay
and
integration
of three
paired
formulations:
"destruction-creation,
rudraique-visnuique,
ksatriya-brahmane."20
The
point
of
departure
for this
essay
is the
suspicion
that in over-
stressing
Arjuna's
rapports
with
kingship,21
Biardeau has so far
14
See
Biardeau, EMH
(IV), pp. 166, EPHE 85
(1976-77):
165, EMH
(V),
pp.
92-99
(Yudhisthira
as Kanka, "Heron," "eater of
fish"),
EMH
(IV), pp. 218-19,
n.
1, EPHE 79
(1970-71), p.
143
(Satyavati, Uttara).
Vernacular traditions also
have
Arjuna
win
Draupadi by shooting
a fish.
15
Biardeau, EPHE 82
(1973-74):
91. See also her
important discussion of
Krsna's cowherd
disguise
in EMH
(V),
pp. 204-37, which is summarized with
minor extensions in Alf
Hiltebeitel, "Krsna at Mathura," to
appear
in Cultural
History
of
Ancient Mathurd: Seminar
Papers, ed. Doris Srinivasan
(in press).
16
Biardeau, EPHE 82
(1973-74):
92.
17
Biardeau, EMH
(IV), p. 207, n. 1, EMH
(V),
p. 187, n. 2
(Draupadi):
on
Yudhisthira, see
above, n. 14. See also her discussions of the
corpse-bearing Sami
tree where the Pandavas conceal their
weapons
on
entering Matsyadesa: EPHE
82
(1973-74):
93, "Mythe 6pique et hindouisme
d'aujourd'hui,"IndologicaTaurin-
ensia 5
(1977): 43-53; she also notes the
possibility
that
Arjuna's contact with
Siva the Hunter involves
impurity: EMH
(V),
p.
151.
18
Biardeau, EMH
(V), pp. 189-92; she seems to
imply
that
Arjuna
again
doubles for the Pandavas as a
group, whose name she derives from
panda/pandra,
"eunuch": EMH
(IV), p.
262.
19
Biardeau, EMH
(V), p.
177
(and passim):
"l'epop6e est la geste
d'Arjuna
et
non celle de Krsna."
20
Biardeau, EMH
(IV), pp. 182-84.
21
Not to
say
he is not an "ideal
king," but Biardeau's discussion often narrows
the
royal
role of
Yudhisthira; see Alf Hiltebeitel, The Ritual
of
Battle: Krishna in
the Mahabhdrata
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell
University Press,
1976),
pp.
192-296.
150
underestimated his
rapport
with Rudra-8iva
component
of her
most
important
avatara formulation.
DRAUPADI AND ARJUNA
Certain
methodological assumptions
that will
guide
the remainder
of this
essay
are best indicated at this
point. First,
I
regard
the
Mahabharata as a text which
attempts
a
great synthesis
of Indian
civilization in the name of Hinduism. By synthesis, however,
some-
thing
different is meant from the confluence of
"Epos"
and
"Rechtsbuch" stressed in the last
century by Joseph
Dahlmann.
The recent work
leading
to an
understanding
of this
synthesis
has
been carried out
by
scholars who have stressed the
"transpositions"
or "connections" worked out
by
the
epic poets
in
relating
the
story
to
para-Vedic (in
some cases
Indo-European), Vedic, Brahmanical,
and
Upanisadic symbols, myths,
and
rituals,
and also to the
mythic
material
fully developed
for the first time in the
"background
myths"
told in the course of the narrative itself. But it becomes
increasingly
clear that a full
understanding
of this
synthesis-and
thus of the
place
of the Mahabharata in the
history
of Hinduism-
requires
a
recognition
that the
epic
also
evokes, through
its
sym-
bolism,
certain cultural
themes, myths,
ritual
practices,
and social
norms that are not
fully
attested
historically
until
"post-epic"
times,
sometimes in later
texts,
sometimes even in
contemporary
folk cults and
practices.
For
example,
there can be little doubt that
the
epic poets
know of a disheveled Goddess of destruction akin to
and
probably
identical with Kali. We know
this, however,
not
because earlier texts or the
epic
itself tell us
myths
about
Kali,
or
even
give
us direct allusions to
her,
but because the
epic
alludes to
such themes
through
its
depiction
of
Draupadi.22 Similarly,
the
Ramayana incorporates
into its main narrative the scenario of a
buffalo
sacrifice, alluding
to
complex
ritual details that are intelli-
gible,
not
through myths
about the
goddess Durga's
conquest
of
the buffalo demon Mahisa
(myths probably slightly
later
textually
than the
Ramayana),
but
through "contemporary"
accounts of
village
buffalo sacrifices.23 This
essay
will observe another instance
of an
epic
theme that can
only
be understood from such "later"
sources. Nor are these isolated cases in either
epic.
One must thus
interpret
the Mahabharata not
only retrospectively but,
in a
sense,
prospectively. Possibly
the
epic simply anticipates
later forms.
22
This
argument
is
developed
in
Hiltebeitel, "Draupadi's
Hair."
23
See Alf
Hiltebeitel, "Rama and
Gilgamesh:
The Sacrifices of the Water
Buffalo and the Bull of Heaven," History
of
Religions 19 (1980): 187-211.
151
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
More
likely, however,
it evokes forms which we know of
only (or
largely)
from later
sources,
but which are earlier than is
commonly
thought.
One would thus need to
recognize
the
pliancy
and selec-
tivity
of an oral tradition in its
symbolic
articulation of some of
the fundamental continuities of Hindu
culture,
for which the
epic
is not
only
the first
great
effort at
synthesis
but a means to trans-
mit this
synthesis through
the
centuries,
in India and abroad.
It is thus
impossible
to
study
the
epic
as a
story
frozen in its
Sanskrit textual forms. For one
thing,
there are
good grounds
to
suspect
that certain features of the
story
descend from an Indo-
Iranian and
Indo-European past.
But more than
this,
one must
assume that the
epic poets
made selective use of oral traditions and
popular
cultural themes.
Preposterous
as it
sounds, considering
the
immensity
of the
text,
one can
pretty safely
assume that the
bards knew more about the main
story,
both in terms of variants
and
underlying symbolism,
than
they
told. It is thus worth investi-
gating
whether what
they
left untold but
implicit,
or what
they
alluded to
through symbols,
is not still echoed in the vast oral and
vernacular
epic
and
epic-related
traditions that
perpetuate
the
story
to Indian culture to this
day.
I have come to
suspect
that
living
traditions of and about the Mahabharata are often in close
touch with traditional
epic meanings
that have
escaped
the clas-
sically
based
literary
scholars.
Nowhere is this
point
more vital than in the matter at hand: the
Pandavas and
Draupadi's disguises.
For one
thing,
the
period
in
disguise
is
immensely popular throughout India,
as is evidenced
by
the fact that
"Viratanagar"-the
city
of their concealment-is
locally
identified in numerous and
far-flung
places.24
More than
this,
as will be
seen,
the theme of
past disguise
allows for a kind of
continued
symbolic presence. Specifically,
in the South Indian fire-
walking
cult of
Draupadi
(Tiraupatiamman),
which uses Tamil
versions of the
epic-principally
Villiputtiir
Alvar's Villi Pdratam
(ca.
A.D.
1400)
-as a cult
myth
and enacts the
epic
both as ritual
and as
night-long
street drama
(terukkuttu)
with
professional
itin-
erant
actors,
the recital and terukkittu enactment of the
period
in
disguise
are
popular
and
imaginatively
carried
out, and mark the
important
transition to themes of war and
revenge
for the festival
as a whole. One
point
must now be made about the
Draupadi cult,
which I
regard
as
presenting
a
perceptive
and coherent
interpre-
24
See
Hiltebeitel, "Draupadi's Garments," p. 105 and n. 36
(see n. 2
above).
The
"original" Viratanagar
is
thought
to have been at Raih, forty
miles west of
Jaipur.
152
tation of the
epic.
It is of course a Sakta cult,
with
Draupadi
as a
form of the Goddess. It was soon evident
during my study
of the
cult25 that much of its
symbolism
holds reference to Sakti and
8iva. But what
suddenly
struck me one
day,
after weeks of
noting
various
pairings
of icons in different ritual
contexts,
is that
Draupadi
is
usually paired
with one of her three eldest husbands
and
that,
whereas she is the Goddess,
Arjuna
is
inescapably
the fore-
most
representative
of 8iva. This
affinity
of
Arjuna
and
Draupadi
with 8iva and the Goddess is an
indispensible key
to
understanding
the
Draupadi
cult. Let it also invite us to a fresh look at their
por-
trayal
in the Sanskrit
epic.
Our first turn
is,
of
course,
to the
disguises.
As
suggested earlier,
it is in their
disguises
Draupadi
reveal their
"deepest" symbolism.
As
regards Draupadi,
I have
argued
else-
where that her Sairandhri
(chambermaid/hairdresser)
disguise
is
treated
similarly
both in her cult and in the
epic.
It involves
references to sudra and outcaste roles,
associations with extreme
impurity,
and evocations of the Goddess in her destructive forms:
Mrtyu, Kali, Kalaratri,
Durga.26
This last
point
is most
instructive,
because the
epic
identifies
Draupadi
as the
incarnation,
not of
one of these destructive
forms,
but of the
auspicious
Goddess sri-
Laksmi.27 It
may
thus be
urged
that her
disguise
reveals her to be
an embodiment, not
only
of
Sri-Laksmi,
but of the Hindu Goddess
in her
totality.28
If such is true of
Draupadi,
one must look more
closely
at
Arjuna.
In the
epic, although
8ri is
eternally
the wife of
Visnu,
she is
perennially
the wife of victorious
kings,
foremost of whom is
Indra.29 Does
Arjuna,
Indra's
son, Draupadi's
"self-chosen"
(1.179)
and "favorite"
(17.2.6) husband,
reveal in his
disguise
deeper
dimensions as a
representative
of
Siva, just
as
Draupadi
does of the Goddess? The terukkfttu drama leaves no doubt. There
the
disguised Arjuna
is an
androgyne
and a clear evocation of Siva
as
Ardhanarisvara,
"the Lord who is half woman." The actor's left
side has a
breast, light
rose-colored facial
coloring, long hair,
and
anklets;
his
right
side shows
winglike
epaulettes,
blue facial
25
Fieldwork was carried out in 1975 under an American Institute of Indian
Studies
grant
and in 1977 on a National Endowment for the Humanities summer
stipend.
26
See Hiltebeitel, "Draupadi's
Hair."
27
See Hiltebeitel, Ritual
of
Battle, pp. 62-68, 89-99, 144-91, 203-24.
28
See Scheuer, p.
75
(see
n. 12
above).
29
See Hiltebeitel, Ritual
of
Battle, pp. 96-98, 156-90.
153
Siva,
the
Goddess, and
Disguises
coloring,
and a
peacock
crown.30 As
already indicated,
this is but
one of
many
associations between
Arjuna
and Siva in this cult. Are
there similar correlations in the
epic?
Three features of
Arjuna's
disguise
are most
prominent:
his name
Brhannada/Brhannala,
his
occupation
as
dancing
and music in-
structor, and his
appearance
as a eunuch. With
regard
to the latter
the
epic descriptions
leave it
amusingly
imprecise
and
ambiguous
whether
Arjuna
is
physiologically
a
eunuch,
a
hermaphrodite,
or
simply
a transvestite. As we shall
see,
in effect he is described as
all three. In
any case,
it is not hard to show that
nearly every-
thing
about his
disguise
holds hints of identification with Siva. An
argument might
be raised
against
this that the Siva thus evoked is
post-epic.
But this can be countered on several
grounds. First,
as
already proposed
in connection with
Draupadi
and the
Goddess,
the
poets
evoke themes that
they may
never describe. But that
argument
is not as essential
here,
since the
poets
are less reticent
on Siva than the
Goddess,
and in most cases it is
easy
to demon-
strate that a rather full
image
of the classical Siva is detectable in
the
epic:
first
through
the narrative
itself,
and
secondarily
in the
"late
epic" Sivasahasrandmastotras, "Eulogies
of Siva's Thousand
Names." Three such stotras are found in the Sadnti and Anusdsana
Parvans.31
Though they cannot,
at least in their
present form,
be
accorded the
antiquity
of the material in or
adjacent
to the main
narrative, they provide
us with information about Siva that has
value. As a
style
of
literature,
such devotional lists of names have
their Vedic
precedent
in the
Satarudriya,
a recitation of 100
(actually more)
names of Siva. The "late
epic"
Sahasrandmastotras
may
thus be
regarded
as a
resurfacing
of a
genre
which
probably
continued to
undergo development
contemporaneously
with the
main
body
of the Mahabharata itself.
Thus, even if
they
are "late
epic," they
record
images
of Siva that were no doubt
long
in de-
veloping
and
provide complementary
material to the narrative.
There is also an occasional
affinity
in
language
between narrative
descriptions
of
Arjuna
and stotra
descriptions
of Siva.
Let us then take
up
the three main features of
Arjuna's
disguise.
30
Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, discussing
"Indian
Androgynes: Symbols of
Integration
and
Disintegration"
at the Ninth Annual
Workshop
of the Conference
on
Religion
in South India, showed two
paintings
in which the male side's skin
was blue and the female's either
pink
or
gold. Actually,
Arjuna
here also evokes
Krsna with his
peacock crown: thus not
only Siva and Parvati but Visnu-Krsna.
31
They
occur in the critical edition at 12, app. 1, no.
28;
13, app. 1, nos.
4-6;
and 13.17.30 ff. See
Eugen Rose, Die &ivasahasrandmastotra's in der
epischen und
purdnischen Literatur: Eine
religionsgeschichtltiche
und
kulturgeschichtliche
Unter-
suchung
(Bonn, 1934).
154
History
of
Religions
First,
Biardeau has
perceived
that
Arjuna's
"play"
as musician
and dancer echoes Siva
Nataraja, though
she also mentions Krsna
Kaliyadamana.32
I would
suggest
that the identification with the
dancing
Siva is the
primary
one. The Mahabharata
provides
at
least one reference to this
aspect
of Siva in its main
narrative,
when
it describes Bhima as
"dancing
like Samkara"
(6.58.56; compare
8.21.15).
And in the Sahasrandmastotras such references are num-
erous.
Thus,
"You are fond of
dancing, always dancing,
the dan-
cing master, delighting
in the universe
[nrtyapriyo nityanarto
nartakah
sarvaldlasah]"
(13.17.50);
or
again, "Homage
to the one
disposed
toward dancing,
producing
musical sounds with the in-
strument of the
mouth,
... conversant with
song
and musical
instruments
[namo nartanasildya
mukhavdditravddine...
gitdvd-
ditrasaline] (12,
app.
1,
no.
28,
lines
198-199).33 Clearly
the
epic
poets
must know Siva as master of music and dance. Now
compare
how
Arjuna
describes himself to Virata: "I
sing,
I
dance,
I also
play
musical instruments. I am
good
at dance and skilled at
song
[gdydmi
nrtydmyatha vddaydmi/bhadro
'smi nrtte kusalo 'smi
gite]"
(4.10.8; similarly,
see
4.2.24).
Second,
in
Arjuna's appearance
as a eunuch or
hermaphrodite
(usually kliba; also sandhaka
[4.2.21]; trtiydm prakrtim,
"third sex"
[4.59*,
Northern
variant])
dressed as a
woman,
it is hard to
imagine
that the
epic
is not
reminding
its audience of Siva's am-
biguous
or dual
sexuality.
In one of its core narrative
portions,
it
has Siva oversee the birth and careeer of the woman-man (stri-
pumdn
[5.189.5])
Sikhandini-ikhandin.34 And Siva seems to be
evoked in the
cryptic language
that describes
Arjuna's
condition.
When Virata has
Arjuna
checked to see if what the latter
says
about
being
a eunuch is
true,
he learns that
Arjuna's
"non-masculinity
was firm
[apumstvam
...
sthiram]" (4.10.11).
In
modifying
"non-
masculinity"
one cannot
help
but think that
sthira-"firm, hard,
solid, fixed,
calm"-is an
amusing
reference to the
lingam
and a
reminder of
Siva,
for whom Sthira is an occasional
epic
name.35
Indeed, Siva is the eunuch of the "firm"
phallus.
Says
one of the
32
Biardeau, EPHE 82
(1973-74): 91.
33
See also 12, app. 1, no. 28, line 299; 13, app.
1. no. 4, lines 56-57, 74; app. 5,
line 52.
34
See Biardeau, EMH
(IV), pp. 220-22; EPHE 84
(1975-76): 183-84, 85.
(1976-77): 136-40; Scheuer, pp.
118-37.
35
See Soren Sorensen, An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata
(Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass, 1963),
s.v. "Sthira." Sandha,
"Eunuch/Hermaphrodite,"
is also a
name for Siva
according
to "Lexicons" cited
by
Monier Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-
English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964).
155
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
Sahasrandmastotras: "The one whose
liiigam
is ever firm
[sthira]
is
therefore known as Sthanu
[Pillar,
Sacrificial
Stake]" (13.146.10).36
Further similarities in the
ambiguity
of
Arjuna
and Siva's sex-
uality
are
easily
demonstrable.
Arjuna
appears
as "a
great
man
[brhatpumdn]
wearing the adornments of a woman"
(4.10.1).
And
when he
appears
in his
disguise
to
help prevent
the Kauravas from
raiding
Virata's
cattle,
the Kauravas remark that "he has some-
thing
of a
man,
something
of a woman"
(4.36.30). Compare
the
following homages
to Siva: "To the one half smeared with
sandal,
half decked with
unguents
and
garlands" (13, app. 1,
no.
6, line
10);
"Who else has half his
body occupied by
his
wife; by
whom is
the bodiless one
[Kama]
conquered?" (13, app. 1,
no.
5,
line
50);
"Homage
to the one who is female and
male,
to the eunuch
[strz-
pumsaya napumsdya
namah]"
(13, app. 1,
no.
6,
line
35);
and most
interesting:
"You are the Purusa whose seed is
gold, you
are
woman, you
are
man,
and
you
are eunuch
[hiranyaretdh purusas-
tvam eva tvam stri
pumdmstvam
ca
napumsakam ca]" (12, app. 1,
no.
28, lines
339-40).37
When Virata
puzzles
over
Arjuna's
dis-
guise,
he
similarly
refers to him as a
purusa
in woman's
garb,
adorned with
conches, braid,
and
earrings (4.10.5).
These last two
citations, which
might
remind one that
already
in the Svetasvatara
Upanisad
Siva is identified as the
purusa
(3.8.20)
who is male and female
(tvam
stri tvam
pumdn
asi
[4.3]),
serves to
bring
us
finally
to the third main feature of
Arjuna's
disguise,
his name. Just as Siva is the male-female
purusa ("male")
who is a
napumsaka
("not-male," "eunuch"),
the "eunuch"
Arjuna,
as
already cited, appears
in Virata's court as a
"great
man
[brhatpumdn] wearing
the adornments of a woman." As Biardeau
has
seen,
brhatpumdn
substantiates the
etymology
which the com-
mentator Nilakantha
perceived
for
Arjuna's
cryptic
name:
Brhannala/Brhannada
derives from
Brhad-nara, "great man,"
and is further
equivalent
to
Mahapurusa.
As
already seen,
pums
and
purusa
are used
interchangeably
here to define the "male"
side of
Arjuna's
female-bedecked
appearance (4.10.1, 10.5, both
cited
above).
To be
sure,
we have here evocations of
Arjuna
as
36
The Mahabharata knows of Siva
detaching
his
lingam in
rage at Brahma's
inferior creation
(10.17.21). The "Pine Forest" castration
may
be alluded to in one
of the
&ivasahasrandmastotras
(13, app. 1, no. 4, line
64):
"
he
sports with the
daugh-
ters and wives of the rsis." Cf. also Svetasvatara
Upanisad 6.9: Siva is alinga,
usually translated "without marks."
37
See also
13, app. 1, no. 5, lines
69-70; 13,113* (after 13.14.102); 13, app. 1,
no.
6, line 16.
156
History
of
Religions
Nara in the latter's connection with
Visnu-Narayana.38
But there
is
probably
also a resonance of Siva. Brhannada, a name in the
feminine
gender meaning
the
"great man," implies
Arjuna's
com-
pleteness
and echoes the
homage
to Siva as the Purusa who is male,
female,
and eunuch.
The scene of Brhannada's
appearance
in Virata's court thus
amounts to a
theophany.
But it
hardly
stands without
preparation
or
consequence.
Associations of
Arjuna
with Siva follow a constant
thread
throughout
the Mahabharata. Let us look first at another
portion
of the
Virataparvan,
and then to the
epic
as a whole.
Still dressed as
Brhannada,
Arjuna
reveals his
identity
to the
Matsya prince
Uttara-Bhufmimjaya
when the two are left alone to
defend Virata's cattle from the Kaurava
raiding party.
With
Uttara at the
reins,
Arjuna
defeats the Kauravas first
singly
and
then
collectively
in a battle that
prefigures
his
triumph
at
Kuruksetra. It is here that the
symbolism
of the dance first moves
from the
seraglio
to the battlefield:
says
the
poet,
"it was as if
Arjuna
was dancing in battle
[pranrtyadiva samgrdme]" (4.57.9).39
This would seem a reminder of the destructive dance of Rudra-
Siva,
a
suggestion
reinforced
by
more direct allusions: "Thus
having
caused
[the
Kauravas]
to see his raudra
self,
he of the
might
of
Rudra,
held in check for thirteen
years, Partha,
the son
of
Pandu,
roamed about
releasing
the terrible fire of his
wrath on the sons of Dhrtarastra."
40
Arjuna's
raudra
("Rudra-
like") fire,
held in check for the
microcycle
of twelve
plus
one
years,41
can
only
evoke
Kalagnirudra,
Rudra-8iva as the Fire of
Time,
lord of the
pralaya
or "dissolution of the universe." One must
also wonder at the
following:
"While Partha was
releasing
his
arrows, shooting
with the
right
and left
hands, [his bow]
Gandiva
became,
0
king,
like a
whirling
wheel of fire
[agnicakramiva]"
(4.59.12).
How ancient are the sources for the
imagery
of the medi-
eval South Indian bronzes of Siva
Nataraja
dancing
in a circle of
38
Biardeau, EPHE 82
(1973-74): 91-92, EPHE 84
(1975-76): 176: EMH
(V),
p.
189. See Ramachandrashastri
Kinjawadekar,
ed., Shriman Mahdbhdratam
with Bharata
Bhawadeepa by
Nilakantha
(Pune: Chitrashala
Press, 1929-36),
3:4
(apud
4.2.27 =
critical ed.
4.2.22). Nilakantha
says,
"from the non-difference of
the consonants ra and
la, and da and la, one
gets Nara": and he
goes
on to connect
the name with Nara, Nar&yana,
and their
hermitage
at Badrinath. It is dubious
that the feminine form holds distinctive reminders of such forms of Visnu as
Mohini or
Yoganidra,
a
suggestion
of Biardesu, EPHE 82
(1973-74):
91.
39
See Biardeau, EMH
(V), pp. 185-86, 197, 200.
40
darsayitvd tathdtmdnam raudram rudrapardkramah
avaruddascaranpartho dasa var.sdni trini ca
krodhagnimutsrjadghoram
dhartardstresu
pa.ndavah.
[4.57.14; compare 8.32.14]
41
See van Buitenen, Virdta, p.
4
(see n. 4
above).
157
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
flames? Whatever one makes of
that,
there is one
unequivocal
passage connecting Arjuna's disguise
and self-disclosure with Siva.
Astonished but convinced that his effeminate
companion
is none
other than
Arjuna-Pandava,
Prince Uttara overcomes his
paraly-
sis at the
prospect
of battle with the Kauravas
by exclaiming:
"I
regard you,
in the
disguise
of a
eunuch,
as the
roaming
Holder of
the Trident
[Siva], equal
to the
king
of the Gandharvas
[Citrasena]
or the God of a Hundred Sacrifices
[Indra]" (4.40.11).42
Uttara thus sees in
Arjuna's
disguise something
of the
identity
of each of these three
figures.43
This
triple
connection is a
precise
one, directing
us to the links between
Arjuna's
disguise
and the
rest of the
epic.
For it is
precisely
these three who "initiate"
Arjuna
in three successive
episodes
in the
Aranyakaparvan: Siva the
kirdta
("hunter") teaching
Arjuna
the
Pasupata weapon
and mak-
ing
it
possible by
his touch for
Arjuna
to enter Indra's
heaven;
Indra
bestowing
further
weapons
and
yielding
to
Arjuna
his own
throne;
and Citrasena
teaching
Arjuna
music, dance,
and the
Gandharva Veda
(3.81.14)
which involves the use of
maya.44
These three initiations are further reinforced
by
two successive
"confirmatory"
battles
against
asuras.
First,
to
satisfy
Indra's
request
for a daksind
("guru's fee"),
Arjuna
must
fight
the Niva-
takavacas.
Setting
out with Indra's charioteer
Matali, the
gods,
says Arjuna, "thought
I was Indra"
(3.165.16).
He
finally destroys
these foes with Indra's
vajra
(169.12-19). Then,
on return to Indra's
abode,
Arjuna
and Matali see another asura
city
called
Hiranyapura,
identical in name with one of the three cities which Siva
destroys
in his
conquest
of
Tripura.
Endangered by
this
enemy,
Arjuna
bows to "the
god
of
gods
Rudra"
(170.38)
and fixes the Raudra
weapon
on his bow. He
perceives
the
weapon
as a
"three-headed,
nine-eyed
man
[purusa]
with three mouths and six
arms, hair
alight
with
blazing flames, his head surrounded
by serpents
dart-
ing
their
tongues" (170.39).
Before
releasing it,
he bows
again
to
the
"three-eyed
Sarva"
(170.41)-a
name
evoking
Rudra-Siva as
hunter
(from saru, "arrow"),
and
finally
bows a third time "to the
god
who
destroyed Tripura" (170.50).
42
manye tvdm klibavesena carantam sulapdninam
gandharvarajapratimam devam
cdpi satakratum.
[4.40.11]
43
Indra also has feminine forms, once cursed to have a thousand
vaginas (see
Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty,
Hindu
Myths [Baltimore: Penguin Books,
1975],
pp.
94-96) and once born as Mena, daughter
of a
king (see Rg Veda
1.51.13);
but it
would
clearly
be difficult to connect these forms with his son
Arjuna's
disguise.
44
Biardeau
presents
an
illuminating analysis
of this
sequence; see EMH (V),
pp.
149-61
(with Aiva), 175-83
(with Indra and
Citrasena).
158
History
of
Religions
There can be no doubt that this
pair
of battles reinforces the
dual identification of
Arjuna
with Indra and Siva.45
Arjuna
com-
pletes
his novitiate with them
by achieving
a
pair
of
conquests
that allow him to show his
mastery
of the two
gods' typical
modes
of
triumph.
It is not
merely
that he uses their
weapons,
the
vajra
and the raudra
(the
latter
probably
identical with the
Pasupata46).
In the first instance the
gods
cannot
distinguish
him from Indra.
And in the
second,
he bows to Siva as a
hunter-recalling
his recent
intimate
wrestling
with Siva the Kirata-and as the
destroyer
of
Tripura,
the Three
Cities,
a
duplicate
of one of which
Arjuna
has
just
effaced.
Concerning
these
sequences,
the
wrestling
match with Siva is
the most crucial for our
purposes.
With the
foregoing analysis
in
mind,
let us reflect further on the
interpretation
of Biardeau
(see
above,
n.
11). If,
as she has
convincingly argued,
the
wrestling
match with Siva constitutes
Arjuna's personal
diksd
through
which
he is "reborn"
directly
into Indra's
heaven,
it is but a short
step
to
recognizing
that it is
precisely through
this diksd that
Arjuna
attains the
identity
with Siva that is "revealed and concealed" in
the
Virataparvan.
Biardeau has
proposed
that this diksd is a form
of
dtma-yajna,
the
offering
of oneself as oblation.47 But in
offering
himself, Arjuna
also becomes "one" with Siva. This is
implicit
in
the sacrificial
identity
of
offerer, victim,
and
recipient. Moreover,
Siva shows
Arjuna
that as sacrificer and
agent
of
destruction,
the
two of them are one: their arrows strike the boar Muika at the same
time. As Biardeau has
perceived,48 killing
Muika
simultaneously
prefigures
the scene where
Arjuna
asks about a
lance-bearing
figure
whom he has seen before him in
battle,
the actual
slayer
of
his
foes,
and
Vyasa
tells him it is Siva
(7.173).
There
again
Arjuna
is one with Siva in his destructive role. It will not do to
regard
such
episodes
as isolated or dismiss them as
interpolations.
Arjuna
can defeat Bhisma
only
because he is
preceded by Sikhandin,
a
personification
of the Goddess but also connected with Siva. When
Arjuna
has
only
until the next sunset to fulfill his vow to kill
Jayadratha,
Krsna
appears
to him while
Arjuna
is
meditating
in a
dream and leads him to Siva to
guarantee
that
Arjuna
will recollect
45
See Scheuer, p.
220: "Dans la lutte contre les
Nivatakavaca,
Arjuna
etait
constamment identifi6 a Indra. I1 est ici, dans un certain mesure, assimil6 a ~iva."
Cf. also Thomas C. Parkhill, "The Forest Threshold: Princes, Sages,
and Demons
in the Hindu
Epics" (doctoral diss., McMaster
University, 1980), pp.
136-37.
46
See Scheuer, pp. 219-20, who notes that it is so identified
by
an
interpolation
(3.858*).
47
See Biardeau, EMH
(V), pp.
156-57.
48
Ibid., p. 158.
159
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
the
Pasupata
in this time of need
(7.52.2 ff.).
And
finally
there is
the contest of the
doomsday weapons
between
Arjuna
and Siva's
other main
protege
Asvatthaman,
which concludes the hostilities
at Kuruksetra,49
again showing
a
parity
between
Arjuna
and Siva.
Once this
pervasive
identification of
Arjuna
with Siva is
appreci-
ated,
it sheds
light
on a number of other matters.
Arjuna's prepa-
rations for his destructive
capacity
include another scene. In the
only
major
epic
narrative
concerning
his
identity
as
Nara,
com-
panion
of
Narayana
at their Badrinath
hermitage,
the two ascetics
are
challenged by
the battle-crazed
tyrant
Dambhodbhava. While
Narayana
remains
inactive,
Nara humbles the
king
with his
"terrible reed
weapon
[ghoram-aisikam]" (5.94.28).
The scene is in
a sense
prophetic:
Narayana-Krsna will be a noncombatant at
Kuruksetra,
while
Nara-Arjuna
will
employ
the
weapons
of des-
truction. But Nara's "terrible reed
weapon" may
be related to
Arjuna's
disguise.
A
straightforward etymology
of the name
Brhannada is
"large
reed" or
"having
a
large
reed"
(nada,
nala:
"reed")50 Moreover,
Krsna's
noncombatancy,
countered
by
Siva's
preceding
of
Arjuna
in battle as the actual
slayer
of his
foes, calls
to mind the
culminating passage
of the
Bhagavad
Gitd.
Having
just
told
Arjuna
that
"among
Paindavas I am
Dhanamjaya
[Arjuna]"
(Gitd 10.37)
and
"among
Rudras I am Samkara
[Siva]"
(10.23), having
made
Arjuna
witness to his
pralaya-like
theo-
phany,51
Krsna
says:
"I am
Time,
cause of the destruction of
the
worlds;
. . . Even without
you, they
will all
cease;
... Be the
mere instrument
[of destruction] [nimittamdtram]"
(11.32-33).
From the
overriding
Visnuite
theological standpoint
of the
epic,
Arjuna
is but the
nimitta, the "occasion" or "instrument" of
destruction, just
as Siva is in
overseeing
the destruction of the
"occasional"
(naimittika) pralaya.52
It is also evident that the dual identities of
Arjuna
with Indra
and
Siva, and
Draupadi
with Sri and
Mrtyu, etc., have their
widening implications.
Insofar as
royal sovereignty
has
temporar-
ily
been
usurped by Duryodhana,
the "crowned"
Arjuna
(kir.tin)
49
See
Hiltebeitel, Ritual
of
Battle, pp. 312-35
(see
n. 21
above). Cf.
Scheuer,
335-43, a worthwhile
critique,
his most instructive
point being that the battle
cannot be said to occur till this finale under the
sign
of
Krsna, exclusive of that
of Siva.
50
See van
Buitenen, Virata, p. 9; Biardeau, EPHE 84
(1975-76):
176.
51
See
Biardeau, EMH
(III), Bulletin de l'ecole
fran9aise d'Extreme Orient 58
(1971): 19-37; Hiltebeitel, Ritual
of
Battle, pp. 114-40.
52
Cf.
Scheuer, pp. 278-80, n. 11, on similar uses of nimitta to those in Gitd
11.33,
especially 3.199.3, used with reference to the
dharmavyadha, "just slayer"
(con-
cerning
a
hunter); notes Scheuer: "on n'oubliera pas
que
Rudra-Siva est chasseur
et
invoqu6
sous le vocable de
vyddha
(7.57.51.52)."
160
and
Draupadi, Royal Prosperity (rdjasri) incarnate,
cannot
appear
together.
In the
kingdom
of
Matsya,
each
goes
their
separate way.
Speculatively,
I have elsewhere
suggested
that the disheveled
Draupadi-Sairandhri
evokes the unraveled
prakrti
of the "disso-
lution"
(pralaya).
In that
connection,
it would be
fitting
that
Arjuna
should
represent
the asexual
purusa
in isolation from her.53
In
any case, during
their
period
in
disguise they
have
only
one
exchange, accentuating
their alienation.
Draupadi
castigates
Arjuna
for not
being
attentive to her
suffering,
to which
Arjuna
replies: "Brhannada,
0 blessed
one,
also obtains
suffering
un-
surpassed.
She has
gone
to an animal womb
[tiryagyonigatd],
0
girl,
but
you
do not understand this"
(4.23.24).
These harsh words
not
only
stress their dissociation form each other.
Tiryagyonigatd,
"gone
to an animal womb," is but another reference to his-and all
the
Pandavas'-painful
rebirth in the "womb" of
Matsya,
the Fish.
THE EUNUCH IN MEDIAS RES
It is now
apparent
that there are numerous links between
Arjuna
and
Siva,
and that it is
through Arjuna's disguise
that
they
are
brought
most
sharply
into focus. But one
aspect
of the
disguise
requires
more
thorough
discussion. From the moment at the dice
match when Duhsasana taunts the defeated Pandavas
by calling
them "barren
(or eunuch)
sesame seeds
[sandhatildh]" (2.68.8
and
13-14, also 10: klibdh,
"eunuchs"),
the theme of eunuch-hood
resonates
through
the Mahabharata. Thus,
for
example,
Yudhi-
sthira,
anticipating
Karna's death, will
say:
"Those who were barren
sesame seeds
[sandhatildh]
there will now be sesame seeds
[tildh]!"
(8.52.16).
But it is
Arjuna
as eunuch-transvestite who
brings
this
theme to central
stage.
The
subject
of Indian eunuchs and transvestites is shrouded in
considerable
obscurity.
There has been little
research, though
what I have found is of
good quality.54
The
scholarship
covers
data from
essentially
three
provinces: portrayals
of eunuchs and
53
See Hiltebeitel, "Draupadi's
Hair"
(n.
2
above)
on the dishevelment theme;
and Svet&svatara
Upanisad
5.10 on the soul: "it is not female, not male, nor
yet
emasculate
[naiva
stri na
pumdn
esa na
caivyayam napumsaka]."
54
Louis H.
Gray, "Eunuch," in
Encyclopaedia
of
Religion
and Ethics, ed. James
Hastings (New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912), 5:579-85; N. M. Penzer,
"Indian Eunuchs," in The Ocean
of
Story, Being C. H.
Tawney's
Translation
of
Somadeva's Kathd Sarit
Sagara,
ed. N. M. Penzer, trans. C. H.
Tawney (Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass, 1968), 3:319-29; George
T. Artola, "The Transvestite in
Sanskrit
Story
and
Drama," Annals
of
Oriental Research (Madras)
(1975), pp.
57-68; Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, Women, Androgynes,
and Other
Mythical
Beasts
(Chicago: University
of
Chicago Press, 1980),
pp.
283-342.
Surprisingly,
only O'Flaherty
mentions
Arjuna.
See also Mircea Eliade, Mephistopheles and the
Androgyne:
Studies in
Religious Myth
and
Symbol,
trans. J. M. Cohen
(New
York:
Sheed & Ward, 1965).
161
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
transvestites in Sanskrit drama and other classical
"courtly"
literature; classical
legal
and ritual
prescriptions;
and folk
prac-
tices. These three
types
of material are
arguably
reconcilable.
From
studying
them
synoptically,
a
composite picture
of the
eunuch-transvestite
emerges
that sheds a most
surprising light
on
the
significance
of
Arjuna's
epic disguise.
Some features of this
composite,
and its relation to
Arjuna,
are
relatively
obvious. Eunuchs serve as trusted members of the
seraglio,
the
antahpura-a
role which Virata bestows
upon
Arjuna-
Brhannada.
They
have the
reputation
of
being homosexuals,
with
a
penchant
for oral
sex,55
and are looked
upon
as the
very dregs
of
society.56
One would stretch the
epic
evidence to insist that
Arjuna's
disguise
carries such
specific
sexual
connotations, but
the social
opprobrium
is evident in
Draupadi's
disgust
at
seeing
him "in a
disguise despised by
the world
[lokaparibhutena vesena]"
(4.18.11).
The most
important
details in the
composite, however,
come
primarily
from the "modern" folk
practices. Though
the
evidence is
scattered,
there seems to be
throughout
India a well-
known class of
eunuchs, appearing
under different
names,
but with
certain common and
persistent
roles. These
include,
in addition to
the
opprobria already
mentioned
and,
until
recently,
associations
with the harem
(both
Hindu and
Muslim),57
three
key
features:
appearance
at
(1)
festivals and
temples, especially
of the
goddess;
(2) births;
and
(3) weddings.
Concerning
the
first, enough
has been written about eunuch
priesthoods
to the
goddess
and the
possible connections between
such orders in Asia Minor as the
Galli, eunuch-transvestite servi-
tors of
Cybele,58
and various Indian
counterparts.59
The similari-
55
See
Artola, "Transvestite," pp. 66-68, citing Vararuci, Ubhaydbhisarikd, ed.
A. K.
Warder, trans. T.
Venkatacharya (Madras: Sambamurthy, 1967), pp.70-71;
and Kamasftra 2.9
(on oral
sex).
56
Thus Mbh. 9.30.70-71: "Mlecchas
[barbarians] are the dirt of
mankind;
rogues [maustikdh] are the dirt of Miecchas: eunuchs
[sandhdh]
are the dirt of
rogues; those whose sacrificial
priests are warriors are the dirt of eunuchs." See
Hiltebeitel, Ritual
of
Battle, p.
277. See also Morris
Carstairs, The Twice-Born: A
Study
of
a
Community
of
High-Caste Hindus
(Bloomington: Indiana
University
Press, 1961), pp. 59-61, 307, 323; eunuchs are also
frequently regarded as de-
graded
in the law books.
57
One sometimes hears Hindus claim that the
practice was introduced
by
Muslims, who recruited
by abducting
Hindu
boys, but
clearly eunuchs served in
the
seraglio before the
coming
of Islam. There are, however, reports
of
terrifyingly
nefarious
recruitments; see
Penzer,
pp.
322-25.
58 In addition to the articles of
Gray
and Penzer
(see above, n.
54), see Sir James
George Frazer, Adonis Attis
Osiris, 2 vols.
(= The Golden
Bough, vol.
5),
3d ed.
(New York: Macmillan Co., 1935), pp. 263-76, especially p. 270, n. 1; Peter
Tompkins, The Eunuch and the Virgin: A
Study in Curious Customs
(New York:
Clarkson N.
Potter, Inc., 1962).
59
Such as the eunuch
priests
of the
goddess Huligamma
in
Bellary
and
Dharwar districts of
Karnataka, reported by Fred W. Fawcett, "On Basivis:
162
ties are sufficient to
suggest,
at least
minimally,
that both the
Indian and near Eastern cults involve "extreme"
interpretations
of a more
widely
held
practice
of ritual transvestitism in service to
the
Goddess, something
which at least in India is far more common
and
general60
than actual eunuch
priesthoods.
Our concern with
eunuch
priests
must be more
restricted,
as it is
unlikely
that the
epic poets
have such a
specific
order in mind in their
depiction
of
Arjuna.
But we are still faced with the "festival
atmosphere"
of
the
Virataparvan,
first noticed
by
van
Buitenen,
but
involving
more
complex
ritual-indeed
sacrificial-patterns
than he saw.
Not
only
does
Arjuna
play
the
eunuch-transvestite,
but Bhima
pretends
that he is
Draupadi (in
vernacular
traditions, dressing
in
her
clothes)
to
slay
the latter's tormentor.61 It is thus not at all
inappropriate
to
suggest
that
Arjuna's
disguise
is
part
of a wider
set of themes evocative of "festival" and "sacrificial" activities.
But these must be left somewhat
imprecise.
The
epic
itself indi-
cates that the
slaying
of Kicaka follows from a train of incidents
that occur on a
"holiday"
(parvani:
4.14.5).
One can
only guess,
what with the transformations of Bhima and
Arjuna (the
latter
stands aside until the end of this
episode,
but his eunuchhood is a
"negative"
factor
throughout),
whether this
"holiday"
was im-
plicitly
one that would
highlight
the
goddess.
If
so,
it would
pro-
vide one more link between
Arjuna
and
Siva,
for it
is,
of
course,
finally
Siva-or Siva in union with the Goddess-whom males
impersonate
as transvestite or eunuch
priests.
The second and third
appearances
of eunuchs in the Indian con-
text,
at birth and
marriage ceremonies,
can be discussed
together.
These
practices
are
widespread.62
There is room to
suspect
that
Women Who, through
Dedication to a
Diety,
Assume Masculine
Privileges,"
Journal
of
the
Anthropological Society of Bombay
2
(1891): 343-44; the eunuchs who
still
appear
at the
temple
of the
goddess Catuhsrnigi
outside Pune, particularly
at
Dussera: see J. H.
Hutton, Caste in India: Its
Nature, Functions, and
Origins
(London:
Oxford
University Press, 1961), p. 165; the Alis
("eunuchs")
who come
to festivals
(especially Pongal)
in Tamilnadu
(oral communication from C. T.
Rajan);
the
Hinjras (hijadd)
of much of northern and western India, many
of
whom
worship
the Goddess
(see Penzer, pp. 321-25, with citations from the various
compendia
on castes and tribes; Carstairs, pp. 59-61); and others of various names.
60
Henry Whitehead, The
Village
Gods
of
South India
(Calcutta: Association
Press, 1921),
cites numerous
examples;
see also discussion in Alf Hiltebeitel, "The
Indus
Valley 'Proto-Siva,' Reexamined
through
Reflections on the Goddess, the
Buffalo, and the
Symbolism
of
vdhanas," Anthropos 73 (1978): 791, "Sexuality
and Sacrifice"
(see
n. 2
above);
and Marie-Louise Reiniche, Les Dieux et les hommes:
Etude des cultes d'un
village
du Tirunelveli Inde du Sud
(Paris: Mouton, 1979), p.
245.
61
On this scene and its sacrificial connotations, see Biardeau, EMH
(V), p. 173,
EPHE 84
(1975-76):
176.
62
See
Carstairs, pp. 60, 307,
323
(at both birth and
marriage,
in
Rajasthan);
Penzer, pp.
324-25
(Gujarat:
at births of sons, particularly
of
formerly
barren or
sonless
women); among
Alis in
Tamilnadu,
Hinjras
in Pune and Delhi, at both
births and
marriages (various personal communications).
163
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
their
appearances
include an
auspicious function, though
in a
highly ambiguous setting.
At
marriage
rites
among
the Bharvads
in
Gujarat,
for
instance,
a eunuch
flings
balls of wheat flour toward
the four
quarters
to ward off evil
spirits.63
And when
they appear
at births and
marriages, they
hold the
power
to bless as well as
curse.64 But for the most
part
their
presence
is
regarded
as a nui-
sance.
They
dance and
sing (often abusively)
until
they
are
paid
to
leave,
and are
usually
not seen
differently
from
beggars.
Aus-
picious functions,
if
they exist,
are not
readily acknowledged,
and
an
inauspicious potential
is also
recognized,
as in the
complaint
of
the cowherd
Ganga,
in the
Panjabi
epic
Puran
Bhagat:
"When I
was in
my
mother's womb eunuchs danced at the door. And so I
am born
lame,
and have no hair on
my
head."
65
It would be
admittedly arbitrary
to connect these
practices
with
the Mahabharata were
they reported only
for recent centuries.
But there is clear evidence that
they
are much older than even the
Mahabharata,
at least as
regards
birth ceremonies. Atharvaveda
8.6 is a
hymn sung
to
guard pregnant
women
against
demons. It
would
presumably
have been well known in later
times,
such as
those which cover the
period
of the
epic's
composition,
because it
was
"employed
in the simanta rite in the
eighth
month of a woman's
pregnancy
with
binding
on an amulet."
66
The
hymn
mentions a
herbal
charm, baja, and, apparently different,
a
yellowish talisman,
pingd,67
which are invoked to ward off a vast
array
of birth-
threatening demons, many
of whose
names,
as
Whitney remarks,
"are in
good part
unknown elsewhere and untranslatable."
68
What
is evident and
consistent,
as if it were a leitmotif
throughout
the
hymn,
is the connection of such demons with eunuchs. Verses 10
and
11, read
together,
show that the host of demons is said to
"dance around the
dwellings
in the
evening, making donkey-
noises,
dancing
like
impotent
men
[or
eunuchs; klivai 'va]." Other
verses add slurs and curses of the
despised
eunuchs and their com-
panions:
"thrusters forth of women's
hips" (8.13); "pot-testacled,
63
William
Crooke, "Indian Charms and
Amulets," in
Hastings Encyclopaedia
of
Religion and
Ethics, 3:446-47.
64
Personal communication from
Balaji Gopal.
65
R. C.
Temple, Legends
of
the
Punjab,
2 vols.
(Bombay: Education
Society's
Press
Byculla, 1884-1900), 2:396.
66
William
Dwight Whitney, trans., Atharva-Veda Samhita, 2 vols.
(Delhi:
Motilal
Banarsidass, 1962), 2:493.
67
Turmeric, according
to "Lexicons" mentioned
by Monier-Williams, Dictionary.
Whitney
mentions that "the Ath. Paddh.
[Atharvaveda Paddhati?] seems to
pre-
scribe a talisman in the form of a doll made of red and
yellow mustard
plants"
(Atharva-Veda, p. 494).
68
Whitney,
ibid.
164
ayuuts [impotent?]" (8.15);
"Womenless be the eunuchs"
(8.16);
"Gandharvas,
women-seekers"
(8.19);
"the
hairy
ones
[that]
devour
embryos" (8.23).
The charms are directed
against
two main
ends.
First,
several verses seek to counteract stillbirth: "Whoever
makes this woman one
having
a dead
child,
or a
miscarriage, him,
0
herb,
do thou make
disappear" (8.9; similarly, 8.18-20, 26).
And
the next to last
verse,
as a sort of
finale,
calls for the male child to
remain male:
"Pigda,
defend thou
[the child]
in the
process
of
birth;
let them not make the male female"
(8.25).
It would seem
that the eunuchs are
perceived
as a threat to the sexual
identity
of the male
embryo.
We have now neared the
point
to consider the relation between
the
epic's depiction
of
Arjuna
and these
century-spanning
associa-
tions of the eunuch. But
first,
one last verse from this Atharvaveda
hymn may impose
the issue
upon us,
and in most
intriguing
terms:
"He who lies with thee
[the pregnant woman]
in
sleep, having
become like a brother and like a
father-them, eunuch-formed,
tiara-decked,
let the
baja
force from here"
(8.7).
The
phrase
"eunuch-formed,
tiara-decked" is
klibarupam
tiritin.
Whitney
notes that the Kashmirian
Paippalada
Recension reads instead
klibarupam
kiritinam. This accords with the
well-accepted
view
that the
hapax
tiritin "in this
passage
is doubtless identical with
the later
kiritin,
and
again
refers to some feminine mode of
dressing
the head."
69
Now of course
Arjuna
is
precisely
klzbarupa
kiritin,
the "diademed one in the form of a
eunuch,"
in the Vira-
taparvan.70
Moreover,
to the Princess Uttara he becomes, in the
Atharvaveda's words, "like a brother and a father," or, in his own
words to
Virata,
when offered Uttara in
marriage,
"I dwelt in the
seraglio always seeing your daughter, secretly
and in the
open,
and
she trusted me like a father
[visvastd pitrvdnmayi]"
(4.67.2).
It is
evident, minimally,
that Atharvaveda 8.6.7 and the
Virataparvan
rely
on similar
images
of the
eunuch,
and not
impossible
that the
epic poets depict
Arjuna
with this
paradoxical Atharvanic verse
in mind.
In
any case,
Arjuna-Brhannada1,
in the
Virataparvan,
is a
69
Maurice
Bloomfield, trans.,
Hymns from
the Atharva- Veda, Sacred Books of the
East, vol. 42
(Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass, 1967), p. 538, n. 2; Manfred
Mayrhofer,
Kurzgefasstes etymologisches
W6rterbuch des Altindischen
(Heidelburg:
Carl Winter
Universitatsverlag, 1956),
s.v. tiritah: he relates both kiritah and tiritah to
Ardhamagadhi tirida, "a coronet with three crests."
70
Klibarfupa (4.10.7; 36.30).
The
kirita, apparently
a diademed hair
setting,
is
of course absent from his
disguise, but
Draupadi deplores the fact that a veni
("braid") has replaced his kirita
(18.13);
and when he reveals his
identity to prince
Uttara, Arjuna explains Kiritin as one of his ten names
(39.15).
165
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
eunuch who
presides
over both a
marriage
and a birth. As
just
indicated,
it is he who
arranges
the
marriage
between his son
Abhimanyu
and the
Matsya
Princess Uttara.
Indeed,
more than
this,
it is
through
his
disguise
that he is able to
prepare
the
bride,
through
a
year
of asexual
intimacy
and instruction in
song, dance,
and
music,
for her
marriage
into the Pandava-Kaurava line. And
it is in the context of
preparing
Uttara for
marriage
that
Arjuna
also
oversees,
as a
eunuch,
the
preconditions
for the birth of his
grandson Pariksit,
who
will,
after the battle of
Kuruksetra,
be the
sole male heir of the line and thus the last
hope
of its
"renaissance."
One
might object
that Krsna oversees the actual re-birth of
Pariksit, reviving
him after he is stillborn
(a
reminder of the verses
in Atharvaveda 8.6 that concern
preventing
eunuchs and other
demons from
causing stillbirth);
thus Krsna
actually
effects this
"renaissance. "71 But it is
Arjuna-Brhannada
who
prepares
his
future
daughter-in-law
for her role as mother-to-be. When Brhan-
nada and Prince Uttara
(Uttara's brother)
are about to set off to
defend Virata's cattle
against
the Kaurava
raiding party,
Uttara
requests
Brhannada to
bring
back the Kauravas'
garments
for her
to dress her "dolls"
(4.35.23).
Arjuna
achieves this
end, enabling
her thus to dress her dolls with the
"heavenly resplendent [divydni
rucirdni]"
(35.25)
white robes of Drona and
Krpa,
the
resplendent
yellow
robes of
Karna,
and the blue robes of Asvatthaman and
Duryodhana (61.13). Clearly,
in
dressing
her dolls with these
very
garments,
Uttara
prefigures
her role as mother of a Kuru
king.72
And,
as
pointed
out
elsewhere,73
her use of the term
pancdlikd
for
"dolls"
suggests
that she will in effect
replace Draupadi
Pfaicali
as the woman
through
whom the
continuity
of the line will be
assured. She thus asks for
garments
not
only
for her
"dolls," but,
more
literally,
"for the sake of she who comes from Panicala
[pdncdaikdrtham]" (4.35.22-23).
Arjuna
the eunuch thus
prepares
Uttara for both
marriage
and
childbirth. But in
doing so,
as Biardeau has seen in connection
with the
marriage,
where he refuses to wed Uttara
himself,
Arjuna,
the "ideal
king," symbolizes thereby
his
personal
renunciation of
sovereignty (see above,
n.
18).
Such renunciation also
applies
to
the issue of an heir. To be
sure,
Arjuna's
"impotence"
is
temporary
71
See
Hiltebeitel, Ritual
of
Battle, pp. 349-51.
72
One wonders whether to connect these "dolls" with the talisman,
pingd,
mentioned in Atharvaveda 8.6, especially
as the talisman
may have taken "doll"
form
(see above, n.
67).
73
See
Hiltebeitel, "Draupadi's Garments" and
"Draupadi's
Hair"
(n.
2
above);
and
Biardeau, EMH
(V), pp. 197-99.
166
History of
Religions
but it is consonant with other
matters-particularly
Asvattha-
man's curse of the wombs of the Pindava women-that
prevent
the Pandavas and
Draupadi (and
other Pandava
wives)
from hav-
ing
further
offspring.
In this
respect,
there is a
fitting regulation
found in the lawbooks. For
example, according
to
Yajnavalkya
Samhiti
2.143-44;
"A eunuch
[kliba],
an outcaste and his
son,
one
who is
lame,
a
madman,
an
idiot,
one born
blind,
a
person
afflicted
with an incurable disease and such
others,
must be maintained
without
any
allotment of shares
[nirams8akah].
But sons of such
persons,
whether born of their own loins or on the soil
[the wife],
being
free from similar
defects,
shall obtain their father's shares
of the inheritance
[bhdgahdrinah]."74
As a
eunuch, then,
Arjuna
relinquishes
his inheritance of
sovereignty (among
other
things,
as
son of
Indra)
for
himself,
but the inheritance
passes through
his
slain son
Abhimanyu
to his
grandson
Pariksit.75
Furthermore,
in
the
Vajapeya
sacrifice,
a eunuch
(a
long-haired
purusa
who is
neither man
[pums]
nor woman
[strz])
is
required during
the Soma
purchase
to sell an
intoxicating beverage
called the
parisrut
that
is "neither Soma nor surd
[liquor]" (8atapatha
Brahmana
5.1.2.14).
These two latter drinks are associated in the text with
light
and
the
gods (Soma)
and darkness and asuras
(surd).
The eunuch's
ambiguous
role in this soma
purchase,
which in the
Vdjapeya
is
oriented toward
attaining sovereignty, may
remind us that
Arjuna
acts as a eunuch
specifically
for the
perpetuation
of the Soma
("Lunar") Dynasty,
whose essence is embodied in the
persons
of
Abhimanyu (the
incarnation of Soma's
"splendor" [varcas])
and
Pariksit.76
Given such a
variety
of
converging themes,
it will be well to
summarize their lessons for
interpreting
Arjuna's
disguise.
As a
dancer-musician and eunuch-transvestite he evokes Siva. In the
former case his
ostensibly auspicious
role carries with it the destruc-
tive overtones of the dance and music of battle and the cosmic
dissolution. In the latter
case, his
ostensibly inauspicious
role
74
See also Laws
of
Manu
9.201-3, and Buhler's notes in
Georg Buhler, trans.,
The Laws
of Manu,
Sacred Books of the East, vol. 25
(New York: Dover Publica-
tions, 1969),
pp.
372-73. Cf.
Carstairs,
pp.
59-61: the
hinjras
are but a "half"
community,
there
being
twelve and a half in all
(twelve being
a traditional number
for those
obtaining
shares in a sacrifice:
e.g.,
the twelve ratnins in the
Rajasfya,
and twelve communities in the South Indian buffalo
sacrifice, on which see Hilte-
beitel, "Rama and
Gilgamesh" [n. 23
above], p. 196).
75
On the
surprising
matter of eunuchs
siring offspring,
and on different
types
of
eunuchs, some with such
capacity,
see Ndrada Smrti 12.8018, discussing
four-
teen
types
of eunuchs: Julius
Jolly, trans., The Minor
Law-Books, pt. 1,
Ndrada,
Brhaspati, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 33
(Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,
1969),
pp. 166-69. Reference thanks to Richard Lariviere.
76
See
Hiltebeitel, Ritual
of
Battle, pp. 336-54.
167
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
carries with it the
promise
of the rebirth of the
Kuru/Soma dynasty.
Perhaps
we
may speculate, by way
of
conclusion,
that when eunuchs
dance and
sing
at births and
weddings, they
mark
by
their
presence
the
ambiguity
of those moments where the nondifferentiation of
the male and female is most filled with
promise
and
uncertainty:
in the
mystery
that surrounds the sexual
identity
of the still unborn
child
("Let
them not make the male female"
[Atharvaveda 8.6.25])
and in that which
anticipates
the re-union of the male and female
in marital sex.
THE PANDAVAS ALTOGETHER
As we saw
earlier,
the various
scholarly interpretations
of the
Pandavas and
Draupadi's disguises
have all been
partial.
Common
denominators for the six
disguises
have not
emerged.
Our examina-
tion of
Draupadi
and
Arjuna, however, has laid bare two under-
lying
strands: associations with
impurity,
and
representation
of
Siva and the Goddess. Let us take
up
these two
topics separately,
in each case
testing
their
applicability
to the
disguises separately
and as a
group.
As
regards impurity,
there is the
notion,
known at least to
Nilakantha,
that
putting
on
disguises
is itself
impure.
In a line that
occurs twice in the
epic,
parvakaras
are included
along
with sooth-
sayers, friend-harmers, and men involved with others' wives
(parvakdras
ca sucz ca
mitradhrukpdraddrikah
[5.35.39cd, 13.90.9ab])
as
being
in one instance
"equal
to brahmin killers"
(5.35.42)
and
in the other "inadmissable to
society, ejected
from caste"
(apdnk-
teya
[13.90.5]). Curiously,
Nilakantha
glosses
the first
appearance
of
parvakdra by 8arakrt, "arrow-makers," and the second
by
ve.sdn-
taradhdri, "those who wear another's
dress/disguise."
77
But we
have other indications of
impurity
that bear more
directly
on the
Pandavas'
disguses
as a
group.
In Bhatta
Narayana's Venisam-
hara, Bhima
says
Draupadi
were "con-
cealed
by
means of
improper
occupations
[anucitdrambhanibhrtam]"
(1.11).
No doubt this has most immediate reference to tasks in-
appropriate
to their
ksatriya
caste. But this itself involves
taking
on defilement.
Similarly,
the theme of the brothers and
Draupadi
taking
on
"improper"
tasks is
unmistakably popular among
par-
ticipants
and audiences in the terukkuttu dramas of the South
Indian
Draupadi
cult. In
fact, the
Vanniyas,
who constitute the
most
prominent caste in the cult and who
provide
most of the
77
Kinjawadekar,
ed.
(see n. 38
above), 6: 199
(same citation as for critical
ed.).
168
actors for the
dramas,
are
especially
attentive to such a theme.
They
are 8sudras who view themselves as
ksatriyas,
as it were in a
disguise
forced
upon
them
by history.78
It has
already
been noted that
Draupadi's disguise
and actions
as a Sairandhri
(chambermaid/hairdresser)
hold
strong
associa-
tions with defilement and low caste
(see
nn. 17 and
26, above).
Since these are treated
extensively elsewhere,79
it will be
fitting
to
regard
them from a new
angle.
In
intensifying
her
defiling
contacts
during
this last
year
of exile from the
throne, Draupadi
is cast in
a manner that draws from themes which
today
are associated with
the
village
Goddess. Note the
parallels
with this
myth
about
Selliy-
amman
(from
southern
Chingleput
District, Tamilnadu).
Forced
to
grant
a demon various boons and her own
weapons, Selliyamman
was now without
power,
without her shakti. The demon took over
Selliyam-
man's
kingdom,
and out of
vengeance
for the loss of his
wife,
he made
Selliyamman
his slave
[adimai], forcing
her to do low domestic tasks and
field labor.
Selliyamman
called on her son
Virabatra,
her brother
Vishnu,
and her husband Siva to defeat the
demon,
but none of them could.... So
Vishnu took the form of
Lakshmi, and the demon was attracted to her.
Lakshmi was then able to kill the
demon, and to return
Selliyamman
to her
kingdom.
During
the time of her
slavery
to the demon, Selliyamman
had
done all the
unpleasant
tasks in the
village,
so the
villagers
were
grateful
to
her and
worshipped
her thereafter.80
Like
Draupadi, estranged
wife of at least one
impersonator
of
giva, during
the
reign
of the demonic
Duryodhana,
the
village
Goddess
Selliyamman,
wife of
8iva,
must take on the lowest and
most
defiling
tasks
during
her
period
of
"slavery"
to a demon
king.
Yudhisthira's associations with
impurity
are not
immediately
evident. His
disguise
as a brahmin
may
be
improper (though
com-
mon in the
epic)
for a
ksatriya,
but it
may
not
necessarily
be
thereby impure.
It is Biardeau who has found this
indispensable
piece
of the
puzzle;
Yudhisthira's name
Kanka, "Heron,"
con-
nects with Dharma's
disguise
as the crane
(baka)
who
temporarily
kills each of Yudhisthira's brothers
(3.296).
Biardeau is
surely
right
that when the
epic
refers to Dharma as Yudhisthira's
father,
it is
evoking Yama, although
one cannot
say
that the
epic fully
identifies Yama and Dharma.81 Yudhisthira's name "Heron" thus
carries connotations of Yama's own associations with
impurity
and
death,
and it can be no accident that success
during
the
period
78
See
Hiltebeitel, "Sexuality
and Sacrifice"
(see
n. 2
above).
79
See
Hiltebeitel, "Draupadi's
Hair."
80
Michael Moffatt, An Untouchable
Community in South India: Structure and
Consensus
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1979), p.
273.
81
See
Biardeau, EMH
(V), pp. 99-101; see Hiltebeitel, "Draupadi's Garments,"
n.
17, discussing
alternate views on Dharma's identity.
169
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
of concealment is
promised
to Yudihsthira
by
his father Dharma-
Yama,
after the latter has
dropped
his crane
disguise (3.298.16-19).
The
period
of rebirth in the "womb" of
Matsya
thus takes
place
under the
auspices
of death. Yudhisthira enters
Matsya,
"Fish," as
a
"Heron,"
an "eater of fish," thus
prefiguring
his destructive role
at
Kuruksetra,
the battlefield where the crane and the heron will
be
frequently mentioned, despite
their
aquatic habitat, among
the
carrion-eating predators
who will
gather
to consume the
corpses
of the fallen warriors.82
With
Bhima,
the matter is less covert. In
preparing
food for
Virata,
he handles its
impurity
for one of
only apparent higher
rank. But Bhima is not
merely washing vegetables
and
preparing
curries. He claims the role of
govikartr, "cow-slaughterer,"
the
priest
whose name
suggests
the role of
dividing up
the sacrificial
animal
by cutting
it asunder
(4.2.7).83
There can be no serious
question
that the
epic poets regard
such a task as
tinged
with im-
purity.
The Southern Recension also "clarifies" matters
by having
Bhima
identify
himself as a sudra
(4,191*) performing
"low karma"
(nicakarma [4.192*,
line
1]).
Skipping
Arjuna
for the
moment,
the case of the twins is close
to Bhima's. On the
surface,
their
assumption
of
vaisya tasks,
as
supervisors
of horses and
cattle, involves a
lowering
of caste rank
and thus some attendant
impurity. Curiously,
pasupdlas,
those
who tend animals, are included in the same list that mentions
parvakdras
as "inadmissable to
society" (13.90.6).
But hidden
behind these
apparently benign
roles is
again
an
identity
as
sacrificers. In a
passage
which foretells the sacrificial roles which
the
major
warriors will
play
at the "sacrifice of
battle," Karna
says
that Nakula and Sahadeva "will act as the Samitr
priest
[samitram
...
karisvatah]" (5.139.36);
that
is,
as
"slayers
of sacri-
ficial
animals," holders of the
priestly
office that involves
putting
the victim to death
by
suffocation or
strangulation.84
For these four
brothers, then, the
disguises
are
tinged
with im-
purity,
in connection with both their caste identities and their
roles as sacrificers.
Concerning caste, one must note
that-contrary
to Dumezil-the
disguises
embrace more than
just
the
upper
three
varnas. With
Arjuna
and
Draupadi included,
the caste associa-
82
Biardeau, EMH
(V), p. 104, p. 99, n. 1, and above, n. 14. See also Laws
of
Manu, 4.30.
83
Compare
EPHE 82
(1973-74): 90-91, 95: Bhima's
cooking
utensils as sacri-
ficial
implements.
84
See Citrabhanu Sen, A
Dictionary
of
Vedic Rituals (Delhi: Concept Publishing,
1978), p.
110.
170
tions are with the total social
order,
from brahman to
outcaste,
the order which will be
regenerated
with their
victory
at Kuruk-
setra. As
regards sacrifice,
the
primary
concern with
Draupadi
and
all the brothers but
Arjuna
is with the
impurity
of death. For
Arjuna,
however,
the matter is different. He whom Krsna will
teach to kill without
sin,
whom Siva will
precede
in
battle,
is
concerned-in his
disguise-not
with the
impurity
of death but
that of birth. It is
Arjuna-Brhannada
who hands on the
garments
of
rebirth-representative
of the amnion and chorion85- to Uttara
for her "dolls."
As to our second
strand,
the associations of all the Pandavas
with
Siva,
and of
Draupadi
with the
Goddess,
it intertwines with
the first. Let us recall
how,
according
to the
epic, they
all came to
be born on earth.86 In the "overanxious maiden"
story,
Siva
promises Draupadi
in her
previous
life
that,
as she had
prayed
five
times for a
husband,
she would have five husbands. And in the
"Story
of the Five Former
Indras,"
it is Siva and Parvati
playing
dice who have
consigned
the five Indras to a cave and forced the
goddess
8ri to
weep
and
appear
as one of "ill fortune." In both
cases we see that it is Siva who oversees the "rebirths" of the
Pandavas and
Draupadi.
But it is the second
myth
that is most
astonishing
in our
present
context. The
gestation
of the five Indras
in the cave and the
appearance
of Sri as "ill-fortuned" are but
foreshadowings
of the Pandavas and
Draupadi's concealment
(and
in
Draupadi's case,
her transformation from an
image
of
prosperity
to one of ill fortune evocative of
Mrtyu
or
Kali)
in the womb of
Matsya.
In each case we have the
image
of a diksd in which the
gods
or heroes offer themselves as victims to take on destructive
sacrificial roles. And the
self-offerings
in the
Virataparvan involve
hints at association with Siva that
go
beyond
the case of
Arjuna
alone.
The
key
here is a detail from the
Rajasiuya
sacrifice, a rite whose
structure and
complexities
have shed considerable
light
on
many
features of the
Mahabharata,
and in
particular on the dice match.87
One of the rites which are
performed
in the course of this sacrifice
85
See Heino
Gehrts, Mahabhdrata. Das Geschehen und Seine
Bedeutung
(Bonn:
Bouvier
Verlag Herbert
Grundmann,
1975), pp. 206-7,
224-25;
Hiltebeitel,
"Draupadi's Garments."
86
See
Hiltebeitel, Ritual
of Battle, pp. 86-101, 169-91; Scheuer, pp. 94-107
(n.
12
above).
87
See J. A. B. van
Buitenen, "On the Structure of the
Sabhaparvan of the
Mahabharata," India Maior
(Leiden:
E. J. Brill,
1972),
pp. 78-83; Gehrts, passim
(he rather stretches the
application; see
Hiltebeitel, Erasmus, vol. 29, no. 3-4
[1977], cols, 86-91, where I review Gehrts's
book).
171
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
is the
offering
to the eleven or twelve
ratnins,
the
"jewel-possessing"
dignitaries
of the realm. Each of the Ratnins is connected with a
deity,
and a number of them are also differentiated
among
the four
castes.
Now, two of the Ratnins are
usually
mentioned
together:
the
aksdvdpa,
or
"surveyor
of the
dicing hall,"
and the
govikartr,
the
"cow-slaughterer."
Their caste is
probably sudra,
and their
deity
is Rudra.88 The connection with Rudra is not difficult to
perceive.
8iva is
persistently
"fond of
dicing"
in Indian tradition.89
And it is he who takes on the
impurity
of death in the classical
brahmanical animal
sacrifice,90
here in connection with the office
of sacrificial butcher.
Quite clearly,
the two oldest Pandavas'
disguises
are bared
by
these convergences. Yudhisthira-Ka-nka becomes the
surveyor
of
Virata's
dicing hall;
and
Bhima,
as we have
seen,
becomes
literally
his
govikartr.
Let us now look more
closely
at the relations of each
of these to Rudra-8iva.
Biardeau,
attempting
to extend the link she sees between Yama-
Dharma and Yudhisthira, has
suggested
that the latter's new-
found
mastery
of dice suits a
representative
of
Yama, "given
the
link between the daiva
[fate]
and the dice
game. During
the thir-
teenth
year,
Virata's court will continue to
play dice, and Yudhis-
thira-Kanka will not cease to
win,
announcing
his
forthcoming
victory in the war."
91
But
Yudhisthira-aksdvapa
should not be
confined to
only
one divine dimension
any
more than
Arjuna.
Yudhisthira shows a
rapport
with both Yama and
8iva,
as is
evident from his dream in which he sees
Rudra,
in a destructive
and
inauspicious form, facing
toward the
south,
the
region
of Yama
(2,
app.
1, no.
30).
Though
this
passage
is found
only
in the
Northern
Recension, it
signals
essential themes.
Occurring
before
the fateful dice match in the
Sabhaparvan,
it
portends
that the
dice match will not
only
be under the
sign
of
Siva, but that it will
be oriented toward destruction and
death, that
is, toward the
south. It is in this context that Yudhisthira's associations with
Yama
will, as Biardeau has
perceived, begin
to be
played
out.92
Yudhisthira's
mastery
of dice in the
Virataparvan,
however,
is not
to be identified with Yama.
Here,
as
usual, dicing points
to
Siva,
88
J. C.
Heestermann, The Ancient
Royal Consecration
('s-Gravenhage: Mouton,
1957), pp.
49
(with facing chart)-57;
p.
55, n. 34 mentions the possibilty of sudra
rank.
89
Hiltebeitel, Ritual
of Battle, pp. 94-101.
90
Biardeau, EMH
(III), p. 80; Hiltebeitel, "Indus
Valley 'Proto-~iva," p. 770
(see
n. 60
above).
91
Biardeau, EMH
(V), p.
187.
92
Ibid.,
p.
105.
172
but this time it is oriented toward destruction and
victory,
and
the
mastery
of fate and time which the four throws of the dice
represent
in their correlation with four
yugas.93
As
regards Bhima,
a number of links with Rudra-8iva
amplify
his role as
govikartr.
As Biardeau has
perceived,
"Bhima's
aptitude
for
killing,
in
particular killing
enemies with whom it is not
always
possible
to
respect
the rules of the
perfect ksatriya, corresponds,
in other
terms,
to the rudraic
aspect
of the avatdra."94 Thus he
slays Draupadi's
tormentor Kicaka
by compressing
his limbs into
a "ball of flesh"
(mdmsapinda)
"in the manner of Siva
killing
a
sacrificial animal
[pasoriva pindkadhrk]" (4.21.59-60).
95
Bhima-
govikartr
is thus an
image
of
Siva-Pasupati.
As
"cattle-slaughterer,"
he is
prepared during
his
period
of
disguise
to undertake his own
part
in the
slaughter
of
victims-ultimately
pasu,
"cattle"-at
Kuruksetra.96 Here his
disguise
would seem to correlate with that
of the
twins, who,
as we have
seen,
not
only
tend horses and
cattle,
but act as Samitrs. This latter
priestly office,
which involves ad-
ministering
the actual
killing,
is
certainly tinged
with
impurity.
But more than
this,
as Scheuer
remarks, noting
a number of associa-
tions between Siva and the
dangerous
and
impure aspects
of the
sacrifice: "One would be
equally tempted
to think that there was
a
particular rapport
between the 'samitr' and
Pasupati;
the ritual
texts tell us
nothing,
but doesn't one see
Pasupati,
in the
[Brah-
mana] myth, pursue
and wound
Prajapati
[the archetypal
vic-
tim]?"
97
The twins' sacrificial identities, which their
disguises
as
animal tenders would seem to
evoke, would thus also be reminis-
cent of
Pasupati.
And of course
Arjuna
is the
recipient
of the
Pasupata,
Siva's
doomsday weapon,
named after the same iden-
tity
of the
god.
The Pandavas and
Draupadi's disguises
thus show that the
poets
conceive these heroes and their wife to have more than
univocal
mythic
associations. The Pandavas' links with their
trifunctionally
arrayed
fathers are but one facet of the whole.
They
are also five
93
See
Hiltebeitel, Ritual
of
Battle, pp.
94-95.
94
Biardeau, EMH
(IV), p. 233, cf. EPHE 82 (1973-74): 95-96: "he is to
Arjuna
what Siva is to Visnu."
95
See
Biardeau, EPHE 84
(1975-76); 176; Scheuer, pp. 223-28. In
pretending
that he is
Draupadi, Bhlma also acts in a manner that
points toward the
apparently
post-epic myth
of Siva in the form of a seductress with toothed
vagina killing the
demon
Adi; see
O'Flaherty, Hindu
Myths, pp. 251-61 (n. 43
above).
96
On the term
pasu used for victims in the
Mahabharata, see
Hiltebeitel, Ritual
of
Battle, pp. 320-24.
97
Scheuer, p. 283 (brackets mine): see
Sen, p.
110
(n. 84
above): "the ~amitr
also cuts
[the victim's] limbs with a
sharp knife," citing Apastamba ?Srautasutra
7.14.14.
173
Siva,
the
Goddess,
and
Disguises
Indras,
a fact of
special importance
with
regard
to Yudhisthira.98
And we now see that
along
with
Draupadi, they
also evoke Siva
and the Goddess in her destructive
aspect.
The full
import
of these
textured heroic associations with the
gods requires
fuller examina-
tion,
particularly
as it will affect our
understanding
of Krsna in
the
epic.
For it is clear that the roles of the
epic
heroes and heroines
reflect a
"deep"-leveled
concern for
articulating complementary
yet
differentiated roles for
figures closely
linked with
Visnu, Siva,
and the
goddess.
Finally,
it is
noteworthy
that the association of the Piandavas
with
Siva, which this
study
has
emphasized,
are also
registered
in
folk traditions
concerning
the Mahabharata.
Throughout
India one
can find
caves, hills, and
temples
sacred to Siva which are
regarded
as
places
where the Piandavas
spent
their
years
of exile.99 It is thus
implied
that
during
this
period
the Pandavas and
Draupadi
wor-
shiped Siva,
duplicating
as a
group
the
special rapport
with Siva
achieved
by
Arjuna's tapas
and further
anticipating
the fuller
rapport
that
they
would have with him
during
their thirteenth
year disguised
in the
kingdom
of Virata. Their forest
tapas
thus
prepares
them for their diksd-like
gestation
in the womb of
Matsya.
And
through
the
latter, they
are in turn reborn to
per-
form the sacrifice of battle as sacrificers identified with
Siva,
the
lord of
destruction, yet
also the
god
who, as
Pasupati,
neutralizes
the
impurity
of sacrificial death for the benefit of the worlds of
gods
and men.
George
Washington University
98
See
Hiltebeitel, Ritual
of
Battle, pp. 81-99, 169-200.
99
The
caves, Pandulenis, are often
thought
to have
originally
been Jain or
Buddhist ascetic retreats. I have visited one behind
Ferguson Hill, Pune: attended
by
outcaste
priests,
its
major
icon is a trident.
Aivarmalai-s, "Hills of the
Five,"
are found
throughout Tamilnadu: one near Palani has caves with both Jain and
Saiva-Sakta Pandava and
Draupadi appurtenances I have visited Pandaves-
vara
temples
at
Hastinapura (behind the old
mounds)
in Uttar Pradesh, and at
Talegaon and Pandeshwar
(near
Jawalarjun,
a name
meaning "Arjuna
is
nearby,"
and
Jejuri)
in Maharashtra.
Many
other Siva
temples without such names hold
legends
Draupadi spent time there
during
their forest
wanderings. Several of our themes
converge
at the Chandan Festival at Puri,
which
precedes the
Jagannatha Ratha
("Car") festival:
images
of "Five ~ivas"
from various Siva
temples around Puri are known as the
"Paficupandabas" (Five
Pandavas). They
are drawn about in a boat with an
image of
Balabhadra, all of
them
together representing asceticism
(in the
epic Balarama is the other forest
wanderer and
tirthaydtrin), and attended on the boat
by boys who dance as women!
See
Frederique Apfel Marglin, "Wives of the
God-King: Rituals of Hindu
Temple
Courtesans"
(doctoral diss., Harvard
University, 1980), pp. 267-75.
174

Śiva, The Goddess, and The Disguises of The Pā Avas and Draupadi

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iva, the Goddess, and the Disguises of the Pavas and Draupadi

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