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Fall 2003

FLARR Pages #34: Elements of Hindu Myth in Goethe's "Der Gott und die Bajadere"

Edith Borchardt University of Minnesota - Morris

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Recommended Citation Borchardt, Edith, "FLARR Pages #34: Elements of Hindu Myth in Goethe's "Der Gott und die Bajadere"" (2003). FLARR Pages. 12. https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/flarr/12

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Elements of Hindu Myth in Goethe's of the god as an animation of the idol: ''The ''Der Gott und die Bajadere", Edith rite consists of welcoming the god as a Borchardt, UMM distinguished guest. Bathing the god, dressing him, adorning him wid applying Central to Goethe's ballad, "Der Gott und scent, feeding him, putting flowers round die Bajadere" ["The God and the him and worshipping him with moving Bailadeira"] are two Indian customs: l) the flames accompanied by music wid song: tradition of the "Devadasi" in local Hindu such are some of the essential features of the temples and 2) the tradition of "Sati" (= rite" (30). Goethe's ballad reconnects ritual wife) immolation, both cultural practices and myth, revitalizing their interdependence now forbidden by law but still practiced in through the narration of the story. To this some parts of India. day, though outlawed, there continue to be Devadasis or "bailadeiras" in a cult in Goethe's "Bajadere" (from the Southern India: Portuguese:"bailadeira") is an Indian temple http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/people/yell dancer, a "Devadasi." The Devadasis amma/yellamma,htm. attached to the temples were sacred dancers or courtesans (Renou 31), often trained in "Sati" was a secular practice prevalent the art of dance from childhood and offered among certain sects of society in ancient to the God of the Temple at puberty. There India. The widow who burned herself on her are seven types of Devadasis (Thurston), husband's funeral pyre was considered incarnations of the mythological Urvashi, righteous or "virtuous" the celestial nymph. According to legend, (http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/hindu/sati. from her, a thousand Devadasis were born: htm) and thought to go directly to heaven, (http://www.hinduwom.org/i ssues/devadasi, redeeming her ancestors by this meritorious htm). Their dance was equally erotic and act. She was worshipped as a goddess and spiritual, representing a symbolic temples were built for her or hero-stones lovemaking with the God of the Teqiple erected in her Iionor. The custom of "Sati" (http://wwwI.cs.columbia.edu/-deba/odissi/ was considered voluntary. One theory about devadasi.html). The Devadasi in Goethe's the origin of "Sati" claims that it began with ballad dances, bows, and presents flowers to a jealous queen, who heard that dead kings the stranger, the God Mahadoh or Shiva were welcomed in heaven by beautiful incarnate, also known as Shiva Mahadeva. women called Apsarasas. When her husband Her actions and gestures represent the died, she demanded to be immolated with devotional ritual in temple practice: the him, so that she would arrive at the same worship of the lingam, Shiva's emblem, time and prevent the Apsarasas from which often rests on a yoni base consorting with him (http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/tantr (http://adaniel.tripod.com/sati.htm ). More a/shiva.htm ). These ancient masculine and likely, the custom of "Sati" (prohibited by feminine religious icons are law in 1829) was brought to India by anthropomorphized in the ballad and their Scythian invaders, who adopted Indian union is rendered as a performance at the funeral practices and instead of burying their core of Goethe's poem. Louis Renou in his dead king with his mistresses or wives wid volume on Hinduism considers the worship servants began to cremate them. The Scythians were warriors, and in Hindu Myths 155). Goethe's ballad ritualizes this society, castes of warrior status or higher idea as a love story which also sheds light observed this custom (Aharon Daniel). on the idea of "Sati" immolation in the poem. Goethe's ballad derives from an Indian legend in which a mortal woman attains Indira Peterson identifies the Devadasi of divinity through her love and devotion for the legend as Manikkanacchiyar, a model • the Gcxl who appears to her in human form. devotee, "who insists on becoming the Sati There are similarities with the Greek myth of a man who died after spending the night ' of "Eros and Psyche," where a Gcxl is made with her." She speaks of a "conflation of human and a mortal divine. The poem is female cultural icons" in both the legend and ' about the union of male and female in the Goethe's treatment of the Devadasi-Sati ' hieros gamos (the sacred marriage) and the traditions: one linked to temple ritual, the •4 humanizing and spiritualizing processes other representing a secular practice. The central to all mystery religions. "Der Gott conflation of female archetypes, I would und die Bajadere" is based on P. Sonnerat's argue, represents the first stage of ' travel narrative "Reise nach Ostindien und transformation for the Devadasi. Through China" (1783) and appeared first in EROS, she is conjoined with the God. Friedrich Schiller's "Musenalmanach" Committing SATI, claiming to be his wife, ( 1798). The Indian source remains she assumes heroic status denied her by the unknown, but Indira V. Peterson (Mt. chanting priests, who represent orthcxlox Holyoke College) at a recent conference of religious thought. By choosing the Devadasi Asianists has suggested the poem's origin to as his bride beyond life and death, Mahadoh be a narrative in a Tamil collection about the elevates her to Goddess status, to be revered gcxl Shiva's deeds in the South Indian temple as SATI, like his original consort, who city of Tiruvarur. The legend flourished immolated herself, according to myth. In mainly in local oral tradition: this transformation, the secular heroine http://www.aasianst.org/absts/2000abst/Sout returns to her spirit mate, who has shed his h/S-153.htm mortal form in the fire to once more become the God. In his human incarnation, Shiva The ballad contains the theme of androgyny, Mahadeva (Mahadoh) has realized himself but it reverses the process of individuation in the love union with the Devadasi, and maturation associated with this embracing his soul, his feminine self in her. archetype in Western tradition: the joining She is the female principle returning to the of male and female in the poem signifies a source of being and at-one with it. return to origins through love, the Eros principle. Operative in this particular Indian legend is the idea of overcoming polarity WORKS CITED and separation in the joining of male and female energies and returning to the original Renou, Louis. Ed. Hinduism. New York: one-ness of the cosmos in the embrace of the George Braziller, 1962. divinity, attaining to a state beyond opposites to a pre-conscious totality, Thurston, Edgar. Castes and Tribes of reversing processes of ego-consciousness. Southern India. Madras: the Government • Marie-Louise von Franz describes the state Press, 1909. 7 volumes. Reprinted 1987, 4 of enlightenment called "Bodhi" in 1993. Cited in: "Devadasis." 15 September Buddhistic philosophy and "Satori" in 2003. Hindu Women Universe. Global Japanese Zen Buddhism as "attempts of Hindu Electronic Networks. consciousness to jump back in a kind of intuitive flash into the oneness which existed Von Franz, Marie-Louise. Creation Myths. before the splitting into two" ( Creation Dallas: Spring Publications, Inc., 1986.