Mirabai temple at Chittor Mirabai in

by Parita Mukta

“Only that historian will have the gift of fanning the spark of hope in the past who is firmly convinced that even the dead will not be safe from the enemy if he wins. And the enemy has not ceased to be victorious.

Walter Benjamin, “Illuminations”

94 MANUSHI THE legend of Mira, the sixteenth century Rathori princess who took to the life of an itinerant singer, has it that on more than one occasion, she survived attempts on her life by the ruling Sisodiya family of Mewar into which she was married. That Mira, who rejected marriage to the Sisodiya prince and declared her love for Krishna, was able to withstand these threats to her life within her own lifetime is remarkable enough. What is even more remarkable is that the memory of Mira has been kept safe and has continued to be evoked through the centuries of Sisodiya rule, in the midst of repression by the rulers. There has been a systematic attempt by the Rajput princely family, and more generally the Rajput community in Rajasthan, to blot out the name of Mira within its own social fabric and within the society over which it held Women bhajniks in village Chandravads, district Jamnagar, Saurashtra power. This was demonstrated to me time and again by the various people I spoke you now.” experiences recounted, that those who to and questioned in my attempt to Similar to the experience of Bhattnagarji were tied in a dependency, in different reconstruct a social history of Mira. is the experience of Chothuji Bhat, who ways, to the dominant Rajput community, Bhattnagarji belongs to a family of comes from a family of travelling had to tread warily and not evoke the killedars who have been fortkeepers of puppetteers, and who for many years memory of Mira, for fear of losing their Chittorgarh from the thirteenth century. earned his living by travelling and livelihood. That men from the dominant Bhattnagarji continues living within the performing. About 15 years ago, he was Rajput community exercised this power to fortress of Chittor, and his experience is travelling through Rajasthan, and called a attempt to suppress the memory of Mira is an important indicator of the way Mira’s halt at Sisodiya Ka Kheda, a village near significant enough. It is also the case that name was socially obliterated within the Chittorgarh. Chothuji did not then know women from within the Rajput communities state of Mewar. He now works in the the social make-up of the area, and, as have expressed a hostility to what Mira finance department of the collector’s was his custom, he began singing about stood for. kacheri in the town of Chittor. Mira, in order to rally a crowd round him In a village called Dagla Ka Kheda near He began by laughing about the irony to encourage them to gather and view his Chittorgarh, a group of Bhatti women were of discussing the history of Mira within puppet show. “People round about started incensed when I asked whether one of the state office where he was working. He shouting that if this is what you want to their daughters was called Mira and was emphatic that it would not have been sing, you’d better leave the village. I was whether a girl child would ever be named permissible to do so while working for the confused till an old man came to me and Mira. The negative answer was given in . He stated that no one with said, ‘You’re a poor man, come here to earn an outraged tone. Embedded in the name any link to the princely state would have your keep. This is a Sisodiya village. of Mira for the majority of even dared utter the name of Mira. “No, we were Wherever there are Sisodiyas, you must today (though not for the middle class not told not to. We knew not to. The not sing about Mira. They still think that Brahman and Bania communities of today people who gave us jagirs, who paid me, Mira blemished their name.’ All this time, amongst whom the name of Mira is popular remained silent on the history of Mira. I some people kept on shouting, that by in the same way that the name Puja or Arti know that if anyone had dared to talk singing what I had (it was about Mira, I is) is a woman who was a widow, but who about her, he would have been thrown out remember, I don’t remember, the exact refused the norms governing widowhood, of state service. Sing Mira’s bhajans? How bhajan) I had humiliated them. (Yah hame a woman who laid aside the kul maryada, can one sing or hear the bhajans of niche jhukane ki baat hai.) From that and who brought shame on her kul. The someone whose name is not to be uttered? time on, I stopped singing Mira bhajans kul (and those with loyalties to that kul) In earlier times, I myself would not have in that region.’’ have responded by attempting to obliterate talked freely about Mira as I am doing to It is clear from these two, and other her existence.

NUMBER 50-51-52 (January-June 1989) Mira leaving Chittor, by Kanu Desai, a student at Vidyapith, founded by Gandhi. How then has Mira’s memory been kept safe and alive in Mewar? And why? It has been retained in a sphere of life over which the rulers could not wield direct power — the sphere of religious expression, of bhakti and bhajan singing, into which the rulers did not intrude. These bhajan gatherings are composed of women and men from communities with similar social backgrounds. They congregate of an evening, after the day’s labour, to participate in a collective bhajan sharing under one roof. These gatherings take place on particular occasions — at Ekadashi, regularly in the months of Sravan, Kartik, at the birth of a child, during Mira leaving Chittor, by Kanu Desai, a student at , founded by a period of mourning. Gandhi Within these bhajan gatherings, it is — weavers, leather workers, Dangis, Patel, riches and her thereafter taking to a life of not only Mira bhajans which are sung, of Jats, Dhakars, have collectively, in the poverty. This has led to an alignment with course. But the singing of Mira becomes a singing of Mira bhajans, kept her memory her by the poor, who have seen in her political act when it is sung, as it is in alive. action an alignment with their own Mewar, by the subordinate sections, of Who will take the leading role in a conditions. Secondly, the ostracism and peasant and artisan origin, who bhajan session, depends on a variety of harsh suffering Mira suffered at the hands understand that to sing Mira is to flout factors; at the home of Huki Kodra Patel, of the Rana — the cup of poison and snake ruling Rajput authority. The bhajniks of there were more women then men gathered, sent to destroy her, symbolishing the Mewar are aware of the fact that they, and with the women very much in the forefront, repression she faced — have enabled only they, have retained Mira. interjecting comments and discussing the those who were at the receiving end of the Huki Kodra Patel, a 60 year old widow themes of the bkajans in the lull between. rule by the Ranas of Mewar to identify who lived on her own, tilling nine bighas Usually, it is older married women or with her, and articulate through the Mira of unirrigated land in the village of Pahara widows who participate with zest. Rarely bhajans the immorality (as they see it) of near Kherwara, said at a bhajan gathering have I seen unmarried women do so. the Ranas’ rule. Thirdly, Mira’s acceptance held in her house: “They sing only of their Sometimes the women are very visible, of Rohidas as guru, her breaking of caste warriors and battles”, pointing in the forming half the gathering, but not taking and class boundaries, has made for an general direction of Udaipur, “We sing part in the public singing or in the playing alliance between her and the Dalit Mira.” “On the bus to Deolia, a group of of instruments — manjira, ektara. The older communities. Fourthly, Mira’s choice of a Od women, brick kiln workers in Udaipur men would do so. relationship with Krishna, in sharp who were on their way to Pratapgarh to In a society which does not give much opposition to the marriage to the Rana, fetch someone recently widowed to her worth to the life of any individual woman, Mira’s refusal of the status of widowhood, marital home, on being told my work, sang the upholding of Mira over more than 400 are all articulated through bhajans, which a number of Mira bhajans with great years gives us a tradition of hope and contain strong statements on personal intensity. One of them, Partapi Modhu Od, challenge in which a woman is remembered liberties for women. The bhajniks of said: “Mirabai made Raidas, a Chamar, her to have survived for her own truth in the Mewar perceive the Rana of Mira’s songs guru. Obviously the Rajputs could not face of a virulent opposition. as her husband. They sing some bhajans tolerate this.” There are four elements to the bhajans which are not Mira compositions but are Again and again, the bhajniks sung by the peasants and artisans of cast in a dialogic rnode between Mira and reiterated that the “Thakurs” would never Mewar, which I can only briefly delineate other bhaktas. One such bhajan which sing Mira. “They tried to kill her for having here, but which I hope to pursue more upholds the assertion of Mira runs like this: brought shame on their name. Why should systematically in a forthcoming work. There is dust rising up in the distance, they sing of her?” Both women and men Firstly, Mira’s rejection of the Rana as Mirabai, there is dust rising up in the from the subordinate sections of Mewar husband, and her rejection of a life of distance. You are bound to the name of

96 MANUSHI Hari. immersed in a spiritual unity with Krishna, and the dilution of the tensions inherent It is a procession of jogis, Mirabai, it in her history. is a procession of jogis. There is a lamp lit It was due to Tod too, that interest in to Hari in every home. the fortress of Chittor arose. It was renovated, so that what we see today is a It is not a procession of jogis, Mirabai, nineteenth century renovation and it is not a procession of jogis. There is a reconstruction. Within this century arose lamp lit to Hari in every home. the myth that the temple in Chittorgarh near the Kumbha Shyama temple, was built for It is a marriage party from Mira by Rana Kumbha, deemed to be her Chittorgarh which is arriving, Mirabai, husband. In this mythification, the Rana, it is a marriage party from Chittorgarh Mira’s husband, is supportive of her arriving. You are bound to the name of choice of a relationship with Krishna. This Hari. choice is not seen as involving a negation of marriage to the Rana, but as coexisting Lay aside these tattered rags, Mirabai, harmoniously side by side with it. lay aside these tattered rags. Drape Thus, Mira, so long reviled by the yourself in the garment sent by the Rana. Sisodiyas, began to be incorporated in their official history, with the challenge Drape the garment round your contained in her message smoothed out. slavegirl, Rana, drape the garment round It was not, however, until 1955 that a your slavegirl. These tattered rags are in The cardboard cut-out of Mira in the cardboard cutout figure of Mira was the name of Hari. inner sanctuary of the Mira temple at installed within the temple designated Chittor “Mirabai mandir.” This was done with Lay aside your garland of tulsi, would be to accept servitude to him. Her the official patronage of Lalsinha Mirabai, lay aside the tulsi garland. Tie mocking of the wedding ritual by offering Shaktawat, a Sisodiya Rajput from village on the necklace sent by the Rana. him her left hand (one can scarcely imagine Jagat at a stage of his political career, when a greater insult in a society which deems he was an MLA, from 1952 to 1956. Thus Tie the necklace round your slavegirl, the left hand dirty and inauspicious) is the Mira was reinstated in the bland cardboard Ranaji, tie the necklace round your ultimate rejection of the Rana as groom, shape of a smiling devotee in the very slavegirl. This tulsi garland is in the name and the ultimate flouting of his authority. fortress that she had sworn never to set of Hari. The two oppositional spheres — the foot in again. total rejection of Mira by the ruling This reinstatement of Mira took place Join your left hand with me, Ranaji, Sisodiya family and the people’s after Mira had become a national symbol, join your left hand with me. My right hand upholding of Mira in the midst of Sisodiya mainly through the importance placed on is for Hari. rule — began, slowly, to come together in her by Gandhi through his political the nineteenth century. It was a speeches and writings during the The lord of Dwarka has married me, contradictory process though, and anticolonial struggle, in which he depicted Ranaji, the lord of Dwarka has married remains riven with conflict even today. Mira as a “paramount satyagrahi.” Those me. I have taken to saffron because of him. Colonel James Tod, the British Political Rajputs rapidly losing their power, and Agent of Mewar from March 1818 to June showing a willingness to change I have found a guru in Rohidas, I have 1822, began the process of the according to the political climate, could ill found a guru in Rohidas. I am bound to romanticisation of Mira’s history. He wrote afford to (neither did they have the power the name of Hari. the Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan to) deny Mira as strongly as they had done in which he glorified dominant Rajput earlier. The history of Mewar became The bhajan seems to reconstruct the martial values such as honour and linked to two very different symbols— accepted version of Mira’s life, by making chivalry. In the Annals, Tod lauds Mira as Rana Pratap, and Bai Mira. Despite this her a single woman who rejects marriage the “most celebrated princess of her time official recognition granted to Mira, as I altogether, rather than a wife leaving her for beauty and romantic piety.” Tod have shown earlier, the Raj-puts at the husband’s home, or a widow. Her taunting reduced Mira’s history to a “romance” and village level to this day continue to feel advice to the Rana to give his gifts to his this paved the way for the idealisation of threatened by what Mira stood for. slavegirl suggests that to accept them Mira solely as a mystical, romantic bhakta, Within the religious expression of the

NUMBER 50-51-52 (January-June 1989) upper caste middle class, Mira is a recent beloved Mohan? I have become attached phenomenon, of a depth of no more than to your face. 60 years or so. Gandhi, particularly in I married my loved one and achieved Gujarat, but more widely in the cultural an indestructible relationship. I revivalism that accompanied the political annihilated the fear of widowhood, Struggle for independence, was crucial in beloved Mohan. I have become attached elevating the image of Mira as the chaste to your face, lover and ideal wife who quietly bore the Mirabai is blessed. My one hope rests torture inflicted on her by her husband and in you. Oh, I am fortunate beloved Mohan. who at last won him over to her truth by I have become attached to your face.” her acts of “satyagraha”: In Gujarati, the bhajan is extremely “...Mirabai...forsook her husband ...and powerful: “parni ne randavu pachhu...” lived a life of absolute love. Her husband and “randavano bhay taadiyo re, Mohan at last became her devotee.” (Collected pyara...” hit at the very raw nerve of works of , Navajivan widowhood. The expurgated version in the Trust, , 1966, Vol. 13, p. 442) Painting by Ravishankar Rawal shows a Mira in white. The rela- tionship Mira lived out and broke away from her family for, is here reduced to the household worship of an image.

“Ecstasy” (left) and “Dedication” (right) by Kanu Desai. Both in- sidiously feed into the notion of woman as seductive in her chas- tity.

the Ashram Bhajnavali containing a number of Mira bhajans. In this Ashram Bhajnawali sounds nothing like Bhajnavali, one of the most popular and this, and it is possible that it was so ‘’Mirabai is said to have offended her critical of the Mira bhajans, still sung expurgated because the term used for husband by following her own conscience, throughout Gujarat and Saurashtra, has widowhood is the same as the term for was content to live in separation from him been edited in such a way as to remove prostitution (“randavu”) Be that as it may, and bore with quiet dignity and the challenge it poses to the institutions the edited version involves not merely resignation all the injuries that are said to of marriage and of widowhood. The still deletion of words, but obliteration of the have been done to her in order to bend her popular and extant original bhajan is as critique of the institution of widowhood. I to her husband’s will. Both Prahlad and follows: give below the translation contained in the Mirabai practised satyagraha... “Ashram Bhajnaval”, (Collected Works neither...had any ill will towards their “I have become attached to your face, of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 44, pp. 449-450.): persecutors...Mirabai [is regarded as] a beloved Mohan, I have become attached “O dear Lord, I love Thy face, as soon as I model wife.” (Ibid, Vol. 17, 152-153) to your face. saw Thy face, the world became useless In the sphere of music, Vishnu I saw your face and the whole world to me and my mind became detached from Digambar Paluskar did much to integrate appeared sour to me. My mind, though, it. The happiness that the world gives is the singing of bhajans within the classical was illuminated. I have become attached like a mirage, one should move about tradition and gave to the Mira bhakti a to your face. deeming it of no account. Mirabai says: new form and a new social base. Paluskar’s The householder’s happiness is an Blessed Lord, my only hope is in Thee and pupil, Narayan Moreshvar Khare, went to ephemeral one. ONE weds and becomes a I consider my-self fortunate (in that I have reside at Gandhi’s ashram and he edited widow. Why should I go to his house, seen Thee face to face.) 11-11-1930.”

98 MANUSHI Gandhi, who “read a profound meaning distorted conceptions of woman as in widowhood”, and whose message to supplicant, woman as dancer, woman as widows was: “Look upon your widowhood pliable lover. as sacred and live a life worthy of it,” The expression given to Mira by the (Collected Works, Vol. 16, 1919-1920 women and men of the subordinate Navajivan, pages 233 and 234) could not sections of society against the forces of have accepted a total rejection of the state upper class and caste slander and of widowhood. repression is now under a new threat. It is In the sphere of the visual arts, there being eroded in the face of the onslaught has been a similar attempt made to portray of a technologically orchestrated Mira in a way which appeals to the religiosity, in the ubiquitous sale of aspirations and the morality of the rising prerecorded cassettes, and in the steady middle classes. Ravishankar Rawal and imposition of a monolithic religious Kami Desai were two artists who did this ideology propagated by television and the most prominently in Gujarat. Ravishankar state. The looser, less hierarchical, less Rawal’s philosophy was to inculcate centralised and more egalitarian through art an appreciation of his expression within which Mira has survived interpretation of the moral values all these centuries needs to be actively embodied in Gandhian ethics. Rawal’s supported and nurtured if we are to retain philosophy, translated into paintings, an integral part of our past which can depicted woman as seductive through her Cover of an LP record shows enable us to shape and evolve a future chastity, appealing through her purity. Mira in widows’ white, denying encompassing the experiences of all those Within this hypocritical portrayal, he also her the saffron. She is sub- who continue to suffer degradation, and blended the image of Mira. Kanu Desai sumed into a Bhakti conducted to whom Mira holds a particular meaning. painted a folio on Gandhi — and, It is incumbent upon us all to fan the spark separately, on Mira. Kanu Desai gives us by widows in the family. of hope in the past—and to keep the dead an image of Mira which feeds into safe from the enemy.

NUMBER 50-51-52 (January-June 1989)