Gendered Devotion in Neo-Vaishnavism: Women,Monks and Sattras of Majuli,Assam

Gender and Devotion in Indian Context

The beginning of the Vaishnavite movement in Assam had its connection with other religious movements that were spreading over different parts of India. As most Hindu religious movements emerged in response to the unequal social order, their goal was to eliminate these inequalities. Though scholars worked mostly on the country’s economic and political history or the study of social movements of a more secular character (Lorenzen, 2004), at the same time, debates in South Asian history and society included various interpretations of Bhakti or Bhakti movements beginning from the early 7th century to the 16th and 17th centuries. A caste-based society (ibid, 2004) led to the growth and perpetuation of the Bhakti movement within Hinduism. In this growing body of literature, the lives of saints, monks, holy men or sadhus were analysed, taking an active note on how such movements paved the way for devotion, spirituality and asceticism (Ghurye, 1964; Pinch, 1996).

In today’s northeast India, Assam was the first region to be persuaded by the waves of Bhakti, and from the early 18th-century tenets of mainstream Hinduism and its practices was also introduced in Manipur. However, Assam’s neo-Vaishnavism has not got any significant importance in the scholarly debates on Hinduism and religious movements. Like other devotional movements within Hinduism, the neo-Vaishnavite movement also had a firm impact in shaping ‘religiosity’ and thus Assam saw a significant shift in its socio-religious spheres. However, scholarly works on neo-Vaishnavism did not address the question of absence of women from such domains. Not unexpectedly, feminist critics have questioned such absences of women and female devotees within the spheres of religion and religious movements (Chakravarti, 1996; Ramaswamy, 1992). Within a broad historical framework, the emergence of devotional movements provide room to understand gendered spirituality—but this often does not interest scholars in India (Ramaswamy, 1997).

This exclusion of women from the religious sphere had been witnessed in many other parts of India. Owing to their low social status, women were confined to the household and their participation in the spiritual domain was totally ignored in the literatures (both religious texts and historical writings). More recently, scholars like Vijaya Ramaswamy (1997) and Uma Chakravarti (1999) have explored the lives of women saints like Andal, Avvaiyar, Karaikkal Ammaiyar and Akka Mahadevi who occupied a different space within the bhakti domain during early medieval society. Through their lives, it becomes evident how bhakti had given a specific space to develop selfhood, contrast to conventional gender and social relations (Chakravarti, 1999, p. 300). ⁸ However, such gendered spirituality does provide some important insights into the lives of these saints and their relationship to devotion. It also raises questions of integrity in terms of what kind of space bhakti provides to feminine spirituality. For instance, Ramaswamy (1996) deals with the spiritual domain of women in Virasaivism through the vacanas, the religious lyrics in Kannada of Akka Mahadevi who was the great woman saint and follower of Basavana. They broke away from the Brahminical social order and ‘used devotion as an armour and God as her supporter in her resistance against the priest and the husband’ (Ramaswamy, 1996, p. 310). Similarly, A.K. Ramanujan, in Speaking of Siva, writes about modes of bhakti of the great Mahadeviyakka where ‘like other bhaktas, her struggle was with her condition, as body, as women, as social being tyrannized by social roles, as a human confined to a place and time. Through these shackles she bursts, defiant in her quest for ecstasy’ (Ramanujan, 1973, p. 114). What were common in women bhaktas’ modes of bhakti were bhakti poems, which became a significant part of south Indian bhakti literatures. Through these poems devoted to Siva, women saints personalised religious experience and had a direct relationship with God.

Women Devotees and Literature of neo-Vaishnavism

Contrary to south Indian Siva bhakti, the tradition of neo-Vaishnavism in Assam did not adhere to the same position on the question of women’s spirituality. This devotional tradition transformed through time and this transformation in turn influenced other aspects of social structure. Sankardeva propagated Vaishnavism against practices of multiple gods, sacrificial rites and discrimination based on brahminical practices. However, influenced by Vedic Hinduism, neo-Vaishnavism was unfavourable to women. In several passages of the Vaishnava text Kirtana, Sankardeva described the evil influence of women and wealth which a devotee should try to avoid (Sarma, 1966, p. 65). In biographies of him, it was mentioned that along with kings and Brahmins, he was not inclined towards initiating women into Satttras. So, considering positions of women in Sankardeva’s philosophy, one can imagine how norms of ‘purity and pollution’ kept women away from the religious sphere and gave an evil character to women’s position. Not only were women kept away from the devotional and spiritual sphere—the absence of the female deity as the Supreme Being is also one of the major characteristics of neo-Vaishnavism in Assam. The main motive of neo-Vaishnavism was to eliminate the practices of worshiping multiple gods and goddesses and replace it with belief in one form of God and to maintain a personal relationship with him. The mediation between God and the human being was denied owing to which the role of a Brahmin was completely done away with. While doing so, the existence of goddesses which prevailed in Saktism and Tantraism was completely replaced by a form of (male) God, Krishna. This makes it significantly different from the Vaishnavite practices in other parts of India as, ‘all other Vaishnavite cults in India worshipped a female entity as either consort or attributes of Lord’ (Borkakoti, 2006, p. 73). This ideal is thus appropriated and supported by all Vaishnava monasteries of Assam. Though some sub-sects within neo-Vasihnavism believe in idol worship, yet they do not have a single female deity in their Manikut, the main shrines.

There are few examples of women playing an important religious role in the history of Assamese Vaishnavism. One such historical figure is Kanaklata Ai who acted as a religious head and deputed 12 apostles to different parts of Assam to spread the teachings of Sankardeva. Legends narrate that Kanaklata Ai was authorised by the grandson of Srimanta Sankardeva, Chaturbhuj Thakur who later established a monastery in Tamranga (present Bongaingaon district of Assam). Similarly, another name is that of Bhubaneswari who was the daughter of Haridev. ⁹ However, the contribution of women apostles is completely absent in the history of neo-Vaishnavism and Sattra; rather women devotees are mentioned only in relation with male apostles.

The neo-Vaishnavite movement of Assam produced a wide range of literature on the life of saints and apostles. Charit-puthis are the biographical literatures of Sankardeva and other Vaishnava saints of Assam. Known as Katha-guru-Charita which are considered to be the early biographies of the Vaishnava saint which informs and narrates to us the story regarding the deification of Sankardeva within the Vaishnava circles in Assam. This is the key literature which not only informs us about the lives of the Saint, but also provides knowledge about the sociopolitical structure of the region which was responsible for consolidating the Vaishnava movement in Assam. Relevant biographical literature can be basically divided into two categories, ‘the old biographical literature (Guru-Carita) centring around Sankardeva and his cult and second, independent biographical works on the apostles of Sankardeva, and other religious leaders’ (Neog, 1965, p. 3). It is worth mentioning here that such texts were compiled within the sacred precincts of each Satttras which characterises its legacy, conflicts and differentiation within the Vaishnava sect. The content of such texts is considered to be a part of oral history and therefore, the continued use of these sources help us to understand the historical past of the Sattras and thereby unveil the specific nature of relationships structured by it. While the chronology of events based on such literature can be questioned, the detailed accounts of social and political histories of the region cannot be found in any other literature. Such practices of writing life stories of saints and sociopolitical history of the region started in the later phase of the 18th century. Before that, Buranjis (chronicles of the Ahoms) were the only written source of information which chronologically documented their reign in the upper valley of Assam. ¹⁰ Vaishnavism came as a challenge to the Ahoms and hagiographical and other religious texts produced within the premise of the monastery offered an alternative history, thereby also providing a comprehensive account of the social structure of the times.

Though there are abundant hagiographical accounts available on early saints and reformers of Vaishnavism in Assam, yet, such literatures are conspicuously silent on the role played by female devotees like Kanaklata Ai and Bhubaneswari. Therefore, the problem lies in the histories produced and reproduced within the fold of religious institutions which do not offer any space even to the few female devotees who were involved within the Sattra fold. There have been numerous writings on Sankardeva’s neo-Vaishnavism and monastery system till date; however, none has focused on the paucity of female devotees and how the role and presence of women within Sattras is ordained through social and religious norm and prescriptions. Such gendered sacredness is the accepted form of neo-Vaishnava religiosity. Scholars like Ramaswamy (1992) point out that in case of the medieval south Indian bhakti tradition, emergence of female spiritualism indicates a break in the existing social order even though women saints were both conformists and rebels. However, the absence of a legacy of women saints is premised on the fact that no woman saint actually established a guruparampara or monastic tradition. Sattras also survived because they relied on the guru–disciple tradition which is the most important aspect of monastic life of the Vaishnavas. Locating the presence of women within such institutionalised structures helps us document the role and legacy of women saints or apostles, and also sketch a brief outline of the overall participation of women in the Vaishnava monasteries of Assam. A study of women’s role and participation within the Sattra fold tells us more about their overall position in the social and economic spheres, which is discussed in the following section of this article. Thus, after discussing the historical location of gender dynamics within neo-Vaishnavism and the emergence of gendered spirituality within feminist writings in India, the paper moves on to discuss the tradition of a Vaishnava monastery and how it institutionalises male devotion. It also highlights how, through various cultural mediums, both Sattra and monks try to bring women into its imagination.

Sattra, Celibacy and Women

Over the years, the Vaishnava sect, known as Mahapurusiya got divided into four sub-sects (Samhati) and each branched out and established different monasteries all over Assam. However, Majuli is the only site in the entire region which has monasteries of all the four sub-sects. ¹¹ The primary distinction among different Sattras is made based on celibacy: whether or not one inherits monastic (Udasin) or non-monastic (Grihasthi) tradition. They are also distinguished according to whether one is an idol worshiper or not. Sattras belonging to Brahma and Purusha Samhati are idol worshipers with the image of Krishna in the main shrine. These characteristics mark significant differences in the physical structure of the monastery and the way in which it functions. The term Bhakat is popularly applied to those devotees who either hold a sacred office in the Sattra or for the celibate monks (Sarma, 1966, p. 102). Vairagya as the way to renunciation was part of Vaishnava philosophy and, as a matter of fact, celibacy became the institutionalised means to attain Vaishnava in its true sense. As celibacy abjured family life, it eliminated women from the sphere of religion and devotion. The social framework around celibacy thus restricts entry of women into the realm of neo-Vaishnavism, and Sattras appropriate it by separating the world between ‘men’ and ‘women’, ‘monks’ and ‘householders’. Through means of celibacy, men are entitled to the world of renunciation whereas women are debarred and attached instead to the sphere of domesticity.

Gender relations within neo-Vaishnavism needs to be understood in relation to the growth of feudal structures and the conformist attitude adopted by the Sattra in relation to the norms of mass landholdings in Assam. With such mass landholdings in Majuli as well as in many other parts of Assam, agricultural relations and labour is structured around the relationship that Sattra shares with the villagers and such relations are maintained along gendered lines. For instance, under Kamalabari Sattra (Na-Sattra), there are 14 villages with a total of 16,152 bigha, 4 kotha and 14 loocha of land. ¹² Traditionally, working on lands inherited from the Sattra, a total of 898 households have agriculture as the main occupation. Though the participation of women in such agricultural labour as seasonal cultivators is paramount, their contribution to the economy is not recognised but rather restricted to the household domain. Along with this, women are also actively engaged in weaving and looking after domestic animals, where also their contributions are not recognised. Further, though self-help groups under government schemes are coming into existence, however, very few are for women. For instance, in Bhekulimari, a village that I studied, there was only one self-help group for women based on weaving. Inheritance of property is also passed through the male line as the Sattras validate patrilineality. Historically, landed property once given to the settled villagers by the Sattra perpetuates through the male line. Thus, in Majuli, this hierarchical system and supremacy of the Sattras has kept women at the margins by reinforcing a gendered economic and religious order.

Sattras not only dominate beliefs and practices, but also influence heritage, lineage and knowledge systems. The culmination of the bhakti tradition, a Sattra is an orchestrated group of disciples and devotees, with strong authority which altogether defines the nature of such an institution and weaves the moral fabric of the social system. Sattra also incorporates Sisyas, lay devotee or disciples. In this case, residential devotees of the Grihasthi Sattra are referred to as Sisya. Looking at the nature of existence of the Sattras and beliefs among celibate monks, Udasin Sattras are considered to be the representatives of neo-Vaishnava ideology. ¹³ As one of the monks of Bhoogpur Sattra commented:

We are Kewaliya bhakat (another term used for celibate monks) and our Sattra preaches the idea of celibacy since its beginning. In Majuli, there are other Sattras which do not follow the tradition of celibacy. In certain other Sattras both Sattradhikar (the religious head of the Sattra) and his clerics are married. However, we as celibates share a different identity among the Vaishnavite bhakats.

In the Sattras, monks are brought to these monasteries at an average age of between 7 and 10 years, and then they are groomed and trained in various facets of monastic life. Ordination of women as monks has never been part of neo-Vaishnavism unlike existence of bhikkhunis or nuns both in Buddhism and Christianity. However, Uma Chakravarti states that patriarchal values were reflected in the early Buddhist literature and Buddha did not want bhikkhunis to enter the Sangha (Chakravarti, 1996, p. 31). Similarly, in the case of Udasin Sattras, ordination of women is still restricted. A Sattra shares an intimate relation with a village and villagers participate in various religious occasions. However, within a Sattra, women are prohibited from entering Naamghar, the main prayer hall that constitutes the most significant part of sacred spaces. On important occasions, they are seated outside in the viewing area. In addition, every village also has one or more Naamghars that function as community prayer halls where women’s access and participation is more open. Thus, women’s participation, and their status is structured by the larger social and cultural norms which silences their voice and relegates them to the sphere of domesticity. So, the act of personalised devotion can only be attained by playing the role of wife, mother or daughter-in-law. Moreover, as lay devotees, their visit to the monasteries is limited. Mothers or women relatives of the monks can visit only during the day. Though women visitors in general are becoming a common at the precincts of the Sattras, they have to maintain a certain distance from the monks or the other religious heads of the monastery and there is no question of night stays. When asked why women are debarred from entering certain parts of the Sattra and how monks maintain a certain distance from them, Jiban Sarma (70) from Titabar (Jorhat district) Mahima Sattra took a minute to gather his thoughts. He told me that couple of years back another woman (a doctor by profession— he emphasised her profession) had asked him the same question. Though the woman had many queries, he very confidently told me that he was able to convince her with his arguments. He then set out to convince me:

We, the udasin bhakat (celibate monks) can’t touch women. We have to stay away from the physical contact of a woman. We have mothers, sisters or female cousins, and by that relation if I touch or sit together with them, it is not a sin. We live in a world where men and women belong together. However, it is not about sharing intimacy with my family, but sharing any kind bond with women in general. Just as an electric wire cannot be touched with safety, we too should not come into contact with a woman without maintaining a certain distance.

Metaphors like the one used in the above statement draws a co-relation between the philosophy and ideology of Vaishnavism used to maintain the tradition of monastic life. Therefore, Samaduratva (equal distance) from women is a cherished ideal among the celibate monks, an assertion of their religious and pure status as the agents of the monastic tradition.

Cultural Performance and Gendered Roles

The neo-Vaishnavite movement not only institutionalised certain cognitive standards by establishing Sattra, but also produced a cultural system of knowledge known as the great Sankari culture of Assam responsible for creating and cultivating a rich heritage in the performing arts. The religious sphere brought about a cultural transformation which was and is still maintained through the artistic knowledge of the devotees. Sankari culture consists of distinctive music styles, dance and drama of various kinds. ¹⁴ These are symbolic modes through which the teachings and philosophy of the charismatic leader are conveyed and the means through which devotees articulate their devotion. The classical form of dance is called Sattriya, an amalgam of several dance forms. Another unique component of Vaishnava culture is drama known as Ankiya-Nat. Adapting many stories from the Ramayana, these dramas inculcate notion of bhakti in the minds of the devotees. Such cultural forms provide an interesting space to understand and interpret the status of women, as they both distance and incorporate feminine forms within their narrative structures.

Formulated during the inception of Sattras, these aesthetics and performances were perpetuated and reproduced by monks and male disciples along gendered line. Performance and participation constitute an integral part of a monk’s life. It is during the performance of dance and drama that such gendered identities are altered. Femininity is seen as an essential character within the male monks of the Sattras. This is chiefly manifested in the performance of traditional dramas and occasions like Raas-Leela celebrated in the month of October. Raas is celebrated across Majuli, especially within the premise of the Sattras. In Raas, monks enact the role of Gopis, the cow-herding girls of Vrindavan. Their physical training in Yoga and the Sattriya dance makes the bodies of the monks desirable—often acknowledged by women as dhuniya (Assamese colloquial for beautiful). Minu Kalita (42) elaborates on this aspect,

Monks are very good looking; they maintain a strict dietary and exercise regime which keep them flexible. During performance, when monks dress likes women they look very appealing, and sometimes even look better than us! It becomes difficult to recognise them and their performances as women are really convincing. ¹⁵

Clearly, women accept and appreciate the temporal androgyny of monks. It is almost as though through such temporal gender identity of the monks women feel closer to them, an emotion that is otherwise eschewed. Addressing the question of androgyny Susan Visvanathan writes ‘Androgyny celebrates the differences and similarities that involve being human’ (Visvanathan, 1996, p. 185). She also signals this androgynous aspect of the celibate of the Ramanasramam (Visvanathan, 2010). Thus, the question of physicality remains a significant category for women whilst conceptualising the idea of coexistence in the religious sphere.

During performances, symbolic gestures—mudras—and even the voice of the monks replicate feminine styles and forms. As Judith Butler argues, ‘Gender is instituted through the stylisation of the body and hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and enactments of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding self’ (1988, p. 519). Such illusion is created through the padding of breasts, hair and facial makeup and dressing as a woman. It is the imagination of a ‘female body’ and ‘creation of a woman’ which not only gets enacted, but also lived. Victor Turner (1969) suggests that performance in a traditional sphere involves an element of inversion, so while inverting their role as women, monks incorporate elements of femininity, thus reproducing a stereotypical notion of woman. Sarah Caldwell (1999) narrates such revelation of female body in metiyettu through male performing the role of Bhadrakali, the female Goddess. She writes,

Female breasts, as detachable icons, have the power both to attract and protect. The male warrior coopts female power to attract and kill his enemy. Female power (sakti) is simultaneously as abstract cosmic force and an immanent aspect of the female body which arouses erotic feeling in human male bodies. (Caldwell, 1999, p. 30)

Within the world of the monks, the essence of both woman and the female body is not only borrowed from the surrounding ‘world of women’, but institutionalised within the fold of Sattra which on one hand excludes women from active participation but incorporates feminine forms within it. It is this continuous existence of the ‘absence’ which is accepted as lived reality. Performing a female role is fixed for a particular monk and becomes a part of his life. Therefore, the genre of performance is understood in terms of its appearance in the social world and how it has been seen as empirical reality. The anthropological studies of performance (Turner, 1986) have used cultural theory to analyse the assets of performance. The typologies and the categories that exist in cultural performance can be understood in terms of its emergence along with its cultural history. When asked, ‘Do you like to perform as women’, Jadav Bora, a celibate monks replies,

Yes I do. However, it is not so difficult because since our childhood as young monks we are trained rigorously to carve our bodies. It is not only singing and playing various instruments, but dance is equally part of the training. Moreover, as celibate monks we are also equally efficient in household work. It is both the role of man and of woman which we have been performing in our daily lives. We go to the field as well as work in the kitchen.

Therefore, for the celibate monks, Sattra becomes a space where gender dynamics is conflicted and androgyny incorporated. Women, however, are active in the household and in agriculture front. As Majuli is regularly flooded, women are well equipped to participate in removing, shifting and arranging household goods, grains etc. During the floods, to find women navigating boats is also very common—a practice which is otherwise reserved for men. Female participation in rituals and religious ceremonies is limited to the village and women’s visits to the Sattra are occasional and restricted. Therefore, women deal with dual exclusion—from familial property and from the sacred domain of the Sattras.

With a history of nearly five hundred years, the only change that has occurred in the structural pattern of Sattras is the introduction of the concepts of marriage and family among the Bhakats. The precise time when marriage was introduced into these Sattras cannot be exactly determined. However, the history of Garamur Sattra reveals that Sri Pitamber Dev Goswami, the fourteenth Sattradhikar of the Sattra, initiated and changed certain imperatives regarding the functioning of the institution which was later followed by others Sattras like Bengenati, Samaguri and many Adhaar Sattras (personalised and smaller in size). It is important to note that these changes transformed the very structure of traditional Sattras. The main idea behind such initiatives was to keep more disciples in the Sattras. In many Udasin Sattras, monks had started to leave the monasteries so as to marry and have a family. Gradually, the same trend began among other Sattras, threatening the very notion of celibacy and celibate monks. Though through the ties of marriage, women became part of some Sattras, they could never attain the status of a Bhakat. Rather, Sattras reproduced and reaffirmed the norms of patriarchy as in some cases, the position of the Sattradhikar, was hereditary and followed the patrilineal line.