Tale of the ancient bed-keepers

Tushar Madhav
Meri News
2nd April 2008

The term ‘eunuch’ derives from Greek word for ‘bed’ indicative of the most ancient role of bed-keepers that eunuchs played. The practice continued till the end of the Ming Dynasty in China. Much has changed since then:

IT IS Vedic India somewhere around 2nd century BC. The historic Kurukshetra war of Mahabharata between the legendary Pandavas and Kauravas is about to begin. A sacrifice to Goddess Kali of a warrior amongst Krishna, Arjuna or Aravan would assure victory to Pandavas. Choice is difficult, yet obvious. Bheeshma Pitamah advises the Pandavas to sacrifice Aravan, son of Arjun. But the mighty warrior Aravan has one last wish to make. He wishes to get married and enjoy sexual bliss before he sacrifices his life for the sake of Pandavas’ triumph. Now who would want his daughter to get married only to see her widowed the next day? At last, Lord Krishna comes to the rescue. Metamorphosed as Mohini, he marries Aravan and becomes his widow the next day – laying down the seed of legendary Mohini, who would later be known as the first ancestor of transvestites.

Several centuries pass by. It is the same country – inhabiting over 1 million transvestites. First full-moon night of the Tamil New Year, and eunuchs from all over India have gathered in the abysmal town of Villupuram to celebrate the festival they all have been waiting for. Dressed in silk sarees and gold jewellery, they can be seen sauntering in and out of a few guest houses, which pose no objection to their residency. An hour-long drive from Villupuram would take these devotees of Aravan to Koovagam – land of Aravan’s worship and ‘Mecca’ of eunuchs. Finally the D-Day arrives. Dressed as brides, over a thousand eunuchs are seen parading and dancing with colours, encircling several inquisitive guests and townsmen at the Koovagam’s Kuthandavar-Aravan festival. The temple portico revels with seductive dance, ecstatic shouts, chirping bells and smoke of incense sticks. As the temple priest ties the sacred thread around their necks, eunuch brides celebrate their moment of marriage to Aravan – the only man who would recognise them as his wives and bless them with a night of marital bliss. For the next morning, he would be sacrificed and their sacred threads would be cut-off, turning them into Aravan’s ‘widows’.

Much surreal and epic-like as this festival seems, it is a symbol of just another alternate lifestyle India incorporates – narrating the story of a gender that mostly lurks in the darkness of exclusion.

It is very common to find eunuchs begging on Indian roads or gatecrashing wedding ceremonies. What’s uncommon, however, is to be able to listen to their stories, peek into their lives and trace their history backwards. Transgender communities have existed in large parts of the world with different names, practicing their own rituals and beliefs. In India (where they are commonly called ‘Hijras’) eunuchs trace back their roots to religious epics – Ramayana and Mahabharata. The eunuchs of Tamil Nadu consider Aravan their soul mate and progenitor, and worship him every year at the Koovagam’s festival.

After the sacrifice ceremony of Aravan is re-enacted, his ‘widows’ collectively mourn and then get-together in search of new soul mates. What follows then is a Beauty Pageant for eunuchs (an event which has attracted much media attention, even internationally). In certain senses this competition is their way to break out of social confinements and restrictions, and celebrate their much desired womanhood.

The general belief that eunuchs possess occult powers to bless new-borns and newly-weds hails from an episode from Ramayana, which goes like this. When Ram is sent on an exile away from his kingdom, his loyal followers begin to trail him. Ram asks ‘all men and women’ to go back to their homes. However, the transvestites who are neither men nor women decide to follow him. Pleased with their devotion Ram blesses them with special powers that are now believed to be holy. As Gayatri Reddy in her book With Respect to Sex states: “Hijras are men who sacrifice their genitalia to a goddess in return for the power to confer fertility on newlyweds and newborn children, a ritual role they are respected for, at the same time as they are stigmatized for their ambiguous sexuality”.

Today’s scientifically enlightened world puts eunuchs in the category of third-gender. However, perception towards the sex of historical eunuchs in the bygone age was completely different. “Today we usually determine these categories based on biology and gendered attributes. It is risky to assume that tenth-century Chinese, Byzantine, or Moslem societies used the same categories that we now use. Despite pejorative rhetoric that compared Byzantine eunuchs to women, for example, it is clear that they were considered to be men, though men with different attributes, talents, and physiology when compared to whole men.” – writes Kathryn M. Ringrose in her paper Eunuchs in Historical Perspective.

Different societies have called transgender communities with different names – ‘Baklas’ in Philippines, ‘Berdaches’ in American Indian tribes, ‘Serrers’ in Africa and names such as ‘Hijras’, ‘Jogappas’ and ‘Shiv Shaktis’ in South Asia. Moreover, they have also been classified into ‘natural’ and ‘created’ eunuchs based on whether they were born ‘sexually deformed’ or got themselves castrated.

The term ‘eunuch’ derives from Greek word for ‘bed’ indicative of the most ancient role of bed-keepers that eunuchs played. The practice of bed-keeping is trusted to have been prevalent at the end of the Ming Dynasty in China – where, it is believed, were over 10,000 eunuchs present in the Royal Quarters itself. “By the end of the fifteenth century, during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), it has been estimated that there were 10,000 eunuchs serving in the Forbidden City, the closed political and courtly nerve center of the Chinese Empire.

In 1644, the beginning of the Quing dynasty, this number had risen to 100,000” (Ringrose). In the Byzantine society ‘natural’ eunuchs were honored due to a belief that god had freed them from engaging in sexual sins. Certain evidences also suggest that eunuchs also served as courtiers in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (934 – 610 BC). Hellenistic and Roman empires continued to hire eunuchs as servants. Byzantines bought eunuchs from the coasts of Black Sea and castration was regularly practiced in Byzantium even though it was maintained that Christians did not entertain or promote castration.

As the Islamic world spread across Northern Africa, Southern Spain and Southern Italy, the practice of hiring eunuchs as servants was adopted. Eunuchs were considered trusted servants especially as guardians of women and children courts in Islamic empires where any sexual activity between royal women and male servants was highly disregarded. Men who got castrated in these empires before the onset of their puberty gained characteristics such as minimal body hair and fat deposition in certain body parts peculiar of women.

Contemporary state of eunuchs in India (which is one of those very few countries that still has a large population of transvestites) is a far cry from how they were treated historically around the world. This un-gendered segment of people is confined to their ghettos surviving on beggary and flesh-trade.

Even within the prostitution industry, eunuchs lurk in the lowest rungs suffering from poor bargaining power and greater vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases. People’s Union for Civil Liberties-Karnataka (PUCL-K) stated in its report that eunuchs, as they face stern intolerance in their own families, often use public spaces such as parks to engage in their business. This makes them vulnerable not only to violence but also affliction and ridicule by police. “The place with the most scope for abuse is the police station where the police, on a regular basis, violate all canons of civilised behaviour by physically, sexually and verbally abusing and humiliating ‘Hijras’” (PUCL-K report). The sexual reassignment surgery as prescribed by doctors is not available in government hospitals or done by private practitioners leading the Eunuchs to perform the ‘operation’ in their ghettos their own way.

Eunuch society is based on strict hierarchies administered by firm regulations and rules that they have laid down for themselves over the years. Typically, in India, eunuchs are divided into seven houses, each headed by a ‘Nayak’ – counterpart of male head in a general patriarchal system. ‘Nayak’ appoints ‘Gurus’ who have the responsibility of grooming their ‘Chelas’. Rules of these houses in north India are believed to be much more stringent than their southern counterparts – which are generally found much more liberal in allowing their resident eunuchs not only to beg but also indulge in flesh-trade.

“Ever since I can remember, I have always identified myself as a woman. I lived in Namakkal, a small town in Tamil Nadu. When I was in the 10th standard I realised that the only way for me to be comfortable was to join the hijra community” (Excerpt from PUCL-K report).

"There is no room for homosexuals in this society. And none of us can envisage a life where we are forced to marry females and have children by them. So the only way out is to cut off our manhood and become hijras” (Excerpt from an interview of a eunuch by Nibanita Dutt).

Contrary to a much popular belief that eunuchs forcibly castrate men, the entire ‘operation’ ceremony is celebrated in ‘Hijra’ communities with immense devotion and excitement involving song, dance and a gala feast. A day is decided by the ‘Guru’ when the man to be castrated is made to lie on a hard board; his sex-organs are cut and he is left to bleed for a few hours indicating the inception of his womanhood. Certain communities also make the castrated man sit on a grinding stone until he bleeds from anus signifying his first menstruation. The ‘Guru’ thereafter takes up the responsibility of grooming the new member of his community.

Bizarre, though, it is the way of life eunuchs choose for themselves. Fact remains that these uncanny intertwining of genders and lifestyle patterns have existed in this world since centuries. Eunuchs as a community have not only transformed their ancient means of living but also begun to transcended certain social boundaries they had until recently been confined to. Be it by participating in beauty pageants or by learning beauty therapies in Chennai – ‘Mohinis’ of Aravan have stated a point – The show will go on!