Life journey of Eunuchs in India

A Eunuch's journey: From Life to Death!

1. The secretive world of Eunuchs

In India, eunuchs are known as Hijras, or a "third gender," neither a he nor a she. While they were once worshiped in the Hindu world and also worked for Islamic rulers, they are now widely feared. Even though "Indians attribute a sacred power to them ... (they are) often considered vulgar and are sometimes despised, mostly silently, and harassed," according to Dr. Serena Nanda, a professor of anthropology, who has written a book on Hijras.

2. Curse of the Hijra

Misfortune has long been a companion of India's eunuchs. Because the country has historically recognized only two genders, Hijras have been deprived of the right to vote, own property, marry or go to schools, according to a report written by the People's Union for Civil Liberties. In 2005, Indian passport office allowed eunuchs to write "E" instead of male or female. Ironically, their lot is considered so bad that they turn up to places of joy, such as weddings and births, to take away everybody else's bad luck.

3. Curse of the Hijra

Loud finger snapping followed by a popping hand gesture announces their arrival before they show their demanding hands. And they don’t take no for an answer. People usually pay up quickly afraid of bad luck, obscene gestures and profane language. Once they give cash they get a blessing and are safe from the curses. Hijras are known to crash weddings and appear at birth celebrations demanding lots of money. Everyone is eager to pay for good fortune. There is no option - It’s either cash or curse.

4. History and Cultural Relations

The history and cultural relations of the hijras are rooted both in ancient Hinduism, where eunuchs are mentioned in a variety of texts, including the epic Mahabharata, and in Islam, where eunuchs served in the harems of the Mogul rulers. The ritual participation of hijras in life-cycle ceremonies has a clearly Hindu origin, though they may perform for Muslims as well. Many aspects of hijra social organization are taken from Islam, and many of the most important hijra leaders have been and are Muslim.

5. History and Cultural Relations

However, hijras differ from traditional Muslim eunuchs, who did not dress as women. Nor were Muslim court eunuchs endowed with the powers to bless and to curse that hijras derive from their ambiguous sexuality and connection with the mother goddess. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Hindu and Muslim hijras did not live together, but in contemporary India they often do. Another historical connection of the hijras appears to be with the Magna Mata cults in ancient Greece, whose devotees also dressed in women's clothing.

6. What the Hijaras used to do

Apart from sing and dance, they used to earn a livelihood by becoming servants in the women's quarters of the house. In the old days, women of wealthy families had a separate "ladies only" area. Hijaras worked in such houses as they could bridge the male / female divide in the house. They could go out and do the errands, do the shopping for the ladies and also be their guards. Emperors kept them as trusted guards. Some even became generals in the Moghal armies!

7. The ceremony of emasculation

The central ceremony of hijra life is the emasculation operation. It is viewed as a rebirth; the new eunuch created by it is called a Nirvan. For them, emasculation completes the transformation from impotent male to potent eunuch. Emasculation links them to both Shiva and the goddess and sanctions their performances at births and Weddings. They believe that any impotent man who resists a call from the goddess to emasculate himself will be born impotent for seven future births.

8. The ceremony of emasculation

A eunuch, called a "midwife," performs the operation after receiving sanction from the goddess. The ritual of the surgery and many of the postoperative restrictions involving special diet and seclusion imitate those of a woman who has just given birth. At the end of the forty-day isolation period, the nirvan is dressed as a bride, is taken in procession to a body of water and subsequently to a ritual involving fertility symbolism relating to marriage and childbirth, becomes a hijra and gets the power of the goddess.

9. Cremation and Burial of a eunuch

Having accepted the harsh life of a third gender as their fate, many of them do not have great ambitions or big dreams. Their last rites are carried out in a normal way. Not many have witnessed the death of a eunuch. Since death is a somber affair, burial or cremation takes place without any fanfare. Some also believe that they carry out their death rituals at night. Developing filial and social relationships that cause mourning on one’s demise is limited to very few.

10. Premonition of Death

Eunuch gurus are supposedly clairvoyant. It is said that they can foretell events. They can see their sins and also activities of disciples etc. Disciples are afraid that their clandestine plans would get known to their gurus, even without their disclosing them. It is believed that they can even foresee their death. This ability to foresee their death is believed to be present only in born eunuchs.

11. Prayers for the next birth

When a eunuch comes to know about her death, she will not go out anywhere but will sit in a corner of the house without consuming any food or tea and surviving only on water, similar to birds and beasts. She immerses herself in prayer. In fact it is the best way to welcome a painless death. Other eunuchs start praying, ask for the blessings of the dying eunuch and beg for her forgiveness, so that she is not born as eunuch in the next birth.

12. Dying eunuchs are considered godly

Occasionally, their fellow beings inform other acquaintances about her being on the deathbed. Many eunuchs from different parts of the country come to take blessings, as dying eunuchs are considered godly and imbued with divine powers. Those who want to visit but cannot due to some reason, think of the dying eunuch and seek her blessings, others pray for the soul. Amidst such surroundings, the dying eunuch peacefully travels to the other world. After her soul departs the body’s last rites are carried out.

13. Performance of Death Rituals

Upon hearing of the death of a eunuch, her eunuch friends gather. They inform other eunuchs and relatives (if available). The group members also inform the crematorium authorities, who are requested not to disclose the death of the eunuch. Though most eunuchs are poor, they all contribute for these funeral requirements. The last rites are performed in a simple manner. Her body is ceremonially bathed and wrapped in clean, mostly white cloth. Jewellery, is removed before cremation.

14. Performance of Death Rituals

Similar to gendered Hindus in India, Hindu eunuchs too are cremated in open grounds upon wooden pyres. Water from either the Ganga or from any other holy river is poured into the mouth of the deceased. Before cremation, any strings etc that tie the body are removed, symbolising the severance of all ties of the deceased with this world. The body is to be set alight by the male blood relative of the deceased (if present) or the senior most member of the band.

15. Performance of Death Rituals

Once the skull of the dead body bursts (usually an hour after lighting the pyre), the attendant people face the pyre and join hands in prayer, after which they return home. This practice of cremation is universal among Hindu eunuchs. Contrary to popular belief, Hindu eunuchs are never buried but invariably cremated.

16. Burial of a eunuch

Upon death of a Mulsim eunuch, eunuchs from the neighbourhood areas assemble and visit the place to see the dead. If the deceased is a guru, the eunuch next in seniority bears the responsibility of performing all the rituals. Generally, everybody comes with garlands, flowers, incense sticks or whatever they desire to offer. Burial rituals include: Bathing the dead body; Enshrouding dead body in a white cotton cloth; Funeral prayer or Fatiha and positioning the deceased so that the head faces towards the Kaaba.

17. Bizarre Festival of the Indian Eunuchs

A community steeped in mystery tends to have customs and traditions that are even more esoteric for the common man. Some eye witness accounts of a few of the celebrations are presented here so that one may have a glimpse of the religious and spiritual lives of eunuchs. Regardless of their individual faith, eunuchs participate in all festivals, whether Hindu, Christian or Muslim, like Holi, Diwali, Christmas, Eid etc. There are some festivals which, though celebrated by one and all, are of prime importance for eunuchs.

18. The fascinating festival at Koovagam

The high point of every eunuch's life is the annual festival at Koovagam, a small village 200 miles south of Madras. On Chitrai Purnima, the new year of the Tamil lunar calendar, the sleepy little village becomes a hive of activity as hijras from all over the country converge for a 'ceremony of marriage and subsequent widowhood'. The scene is adopted from the Mahabharata. During the battle of Kurukshetra, the Pandavas had to sacrifice one warrior to gain a tactical edge over their warring cousins.

19. The fascinating festival at Koovagam

The Pandava war council selected Aravanan, one of epic hero Arjuna's sons. The boy agreed to die for the holy cause of defeating the wicked Kaurava cousins, but he expressed a wish to marry first. Aravanan's last wish posed a huge problem, for who would knowingly let their daughter marry a man who would die in battle the very next day? To solve the issue, Lord Krishna assumed the form of Mohini, a beautiful woman, and married Aravanan.

20. The fascinating festival at Koovagam

The man-woman context appealed to the eunuch community, and for over 500 years, Aravanan has been deified and made central to the eunuch psyche. The Hijras see themselves as Mohini, and on the festival day the priest at Aravanan's temple marries them off to the deity. The next day, the priest cuts the mangalsutra, the marriage chain, and the Hijras become widows. After the marriage celebrations and mourning of widowhood are over, the time comes for hijras to mingle and find new mates.

21. Yellamma Devi fair

The Yellamma Devi fair is held about five times between October and February every year at the Yellamma temple located at Saudathi in Belgaum district. Hundreds of eunuchs, with vermilion on their foreheads and wearing ornaments made of cowries, participate in the annual Yellamma Devi procession to seek her blessings.

22. The Legend of Yellamma

The belief is that Yellamma alias Renuka, a beautiful Brahmin, was married to sage Jamdagni. She had five sons from the sage and one of them was the famous Parashurama. One day she forgot to return home on time, which led her husband to suspect her chastity. He ordered his sons one by one, to kill their mother but four of them refused on one pretext or another. Jamdagni cursed them to become eunuchs and got her beheaded by Parashurama.

23. The favourite sons of Yellamma

To the sage’s surprise, Renuka’s head multiplied by tens and hundreds and moved to different regions. This miracle turned her four cursed sons and others into her followers. Eunuchs consider themselves to be the favourite sons of Renuka and every year, they throng to her various temples in southern India to seek her blessings. Infertile couples, people suffering from chronic ailments etc visit Yellamma Devi with the belief that she will bless them with a child and good health.

24. Seeking forgiveness from Bahuchara Mata

Another diety of eunuchs, is located in Varakhdiwala in Bechraji town, 35 km west of Mehsana in Gujarat. The followers of Bahuchara Mata believe that she is an incarnation of Mother Durga, the goddess of power and patroness of eunuchs. There are two different stories involving Bahuchara Mata and the transgender community…

25. The Legend of Bahuchara Mata

One belief is that Bahuchara Mata was a princess who got married to a man who would run into the woods and act like a woman. Angry with his sexual abnormality, Bahuchara Mata cursed him to become eunuch. Another belief is that she was once travelling through a dense forest. Finding her alone, a man tried to rape her and she cursed him with impotence. The man begged for forgiveness and she agreed to pardon him, only if he acted like a woman.

26. Praying for the next life

Eunuchs consider Bahuchara Mata as their patroness and visit her temple to seek her blessings. They believe that they may have been cursed with non-functional gender due to their sins. By seeking her blessings, they hope that Mata will forgive them and bless them with a clear gender, either of a man or woman in the next life.

27. Urs of Khwaja Garib Nawaz

This is held every year, in the Muslim month of Rajab, to commemorate the death anniversary of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisty in Ajmer. The prime reason for the huge participation of eunuchs in the Urs of Khwaja Garib Nawaz is thanksgiving for their wishes being granted by him. The notion arose from the belief that in the 12th century, the Khwaja had blessed eunuchs and allegedly, one of them even got pregnant after being blessed by him.

28. Urs of Khwaja Garib Nawaz

Eunuchs across all over India and abroad gather at the Khwaja’s dargah during the Urs festival, wearing flashy, rich dresses, ornaments etc and offer a kalash, so that they may also be blessed like their ancient counterpart. The kalash contains coins and occasionally, gold/silver ornaments. Eunuchs fill it with rose water, scent, flower petals etc. Processions covering the distance of about 200 meters to the dargah are led by selected eunuchs who go strictly barefoot to the dargah after taking a bath.

29. Eunuchs in Modern India

For all their mystic power, hijras face constant stigma. Indian law does not recognize their civic rights, and as a result, they are barred from marriage, land ownership and voting. Without health care or education, hijras may even resort to prostitution and begging. However, attitudes towards hijras are changing. Indian media is opening up to transgender minorities, and there is a growing appreciation of hijras. International organizations are working to advance their rights and provide support centers.