Introduction: Ancient Indian Materials

Part I Introduction: Ancient Indian Materials Ruth Vanita here is no watertight division between ancient and medieval texts, so most of the pat T terns traced in this introduction are also relevant to the medieval texts in the San skritic tradition, some of which I discuss here. My readings of ancient and medieval texts stress certain patterns, underemphasiz:e others. Other readings, past and present, prior itiz:ed other patterns, for example, male-female coupledom or filial, fraternal, and human-divine interactions. The richness of these texts makes available all of these possibilities, and I attempt to render more visible one important and hitherto neglected strand in their weave, without claiming that this is the most important strand. The cultures that have come to be called Hindu allow for a diversity of belief and practice ranging from monotheism, polytheism and what nineteenth-century German Indologist Max Muller termed "henotheism" (choosing one deity for special worship, while not disbelieving in others) to animism, atheism, and agnosticism. Of these, it is the thriving culture of poly theism/henotheism that has survived over centuries and that is most remarkable for its flexi bility, tolerance, and ability to change and grow. In Hindu texts and traditions, both written and oral, there is a god and a story or a variation of a story for practically every activity, incli nation, and way oflife. The extracts in this first section are from the the epic, classical, and early Puranic (ca sec ond century B.C. to eighth century A.D.) periods. I My discussion begins with these periods, al though I mention some Vedic and Vedanga texts as precedents. Since this first section 1. For information on historical events in ancient India, see A. L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India: A Survey ofthe History and Culture ofthe Indian Subcontinent before the Com ing ofthe Muslims (Calcutta: Rupa & Co., 1981), and Romila Thapar, A History ofIndia (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966), vol. 1. 2 ~ Ancient Indian Materials contains only a few extracts, I discuss other ancient texts in considerable detail in this introduction. My discussion of these texts is organized around certain patterns and ttopes that emerge in ancient Indian writings as sites for the representation of same-sex attachment and continue to be influential today. These are: friendship as life-defining, often expressed in a same-sex celi bate community; sex change and cross-dressing; moving beyond gender; and rebirth as the ex planation for all forms oflove, including same-sex love. 2 Resistance to marriage often functions to prepare spaces where same-sex attachments can flourish. These patterns acquire different dimensions in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain texts. Miraculous birth of a child to two parents of the same sex is a trope in ancient texts which becomes more prominent in later medieval texts. Ideals of Friendship The Rig Veda Samhita (ca. 1500 B.C.) presents an ideal of friendship as a very sacred relation. While it represents the man-woman relation as oriented toward procreation, it constructs friendship not as reproductive but as creative. Friendship is identified with the uniquely human power of language, presided over by the great creating spirit, Yak, goddess of speech. Thus, even without a female reproductive figure, human abilities are seen as presided over by female forces. Naming objects in the universe is the process of befriending them. In this hymn from the Rig Veda, friendship is identified as the touchstone of rectitude, indeed of humanity itself one who has abandoned a friend has no part in Yak, that is, in human interaction. Friendship is the measure of worth-though all have the same biology (eyes and ears), the depth of the spirit varies: I. When men, Brihaspati, giving names to objects, sent out Yak's first and earliest utterances, All that was excellent and spotless, treasured within them, was disclosed through their affection. 2.. Where, like men cleansing corn-flour in a cribble, the wise in spirit have created language, 2. Giti Thadani, Sakhiyani: Lesbian Desire in Ancient and Modern India (New York: Cassell, 1996), was perhaps the first commentator to examine female homoeroticism in ancient Indian texts. While her readings are often insightful, their persuasiveness is undermined by their focus on a few passages out of context and in a critical vacuum; also, they fre quently tend to wishful thinking and exaggeration, for example, her translation ofyuvatyo (young women) as "evergreen women lovers" is inaccurate (24). One major difference be tween her approach and ours is that she sets woman-woman bonds in simple opposition to heterosexual bonds, completely ignoring male homoerotic bonds, while we attempt to foreground patterns of same-sex bonding, both female and male, in the overall context of different types of relationships between individuals and groups. Another difference is that she is interested only in explicitly sexual bonding that she terms "lesbian," while we are interested both in this and in other types of romantic same-sex attachment that function as primary without being explicitly sexual. Introduction ~ 3 Friends see and recognize the marks of friendship their speech retains the blessed sign impnnted 3. No part in Yak hath he who hath abandoned his own dear friend who knows the truth of friendship Even if he hears her still in vain he listens: naught knows he of the path of nghteous action 4. Unequal in the quickness of their spirit are friends endowed alike with eyes and hearing. Some look like tanks that reach the mouth or shoulder, others like pools of water fit to bathe in. (X: LXXI)3 This preoccupation with friendship continues in the epics. Krishna and Arjuna are perhaps the most famous pair of male friends from any ancient Indian text. Modern paintings and cal endar art depicting the Bbagvad Glta show them alone together in their chariot, engaged in di alog Arguably, their friendship provides the primary frame for the unwieldy set of texts that constitutes the Mababbarata. Order is imposed on the epic by the identical invocation with which each of the eighteen books of the Mababbarata opens. This invocation is addressed to the two primal sages (risbIs) Nara and Narayana, of whom Arjuna and Krishna are said to be reincarnations: "Om' Having bowed down unto Narayana, and unto that most exalted of male beings, Nara, and unto the goddess Saraswati also, must the word Jaya be uttered."4 The Adl Parva, or first book, con cludes with Krishna asking Indra, king of the gods, for the boon of eternal friendship with Ar juna. This request sets the tone for the story to follow, wherein every decisive turn of events in the war is occasioned by Krishna's intervention, which he invariably explains as motivated by his love for Arjuna. The story of Nara and Narayana, repeatedly recounted throughout the epic, is important as it blurs the lines between divine and human-Arjuna too is divine just as Krishna is in carnated as human. Grandsire Bhishma says that these divine sages live in the forest together, practicing austerities, and their togetherness represents a state of immortal and perfect bliss. They are born in the human world to fight against unrighteousness. Thus they are placed both in an eternal past and an eternal present. One of Arjuna's many names is Krishna, the dark one; he and Krishna are frequently referred to as "the two Krishnas," a twinning remi niscent of the two Asvins in the RIg Veda. 5 3. The Hymns ofthe Rigveda, trans. Ralph T. H. Griffith (Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, 1963; originally published 1889), II: 484-85. 4. The Mahabharata of Krishna Dwaipayana ~asa, trans. Kisari Mohan Ganguly (1883-1896; New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1970, 3rd ed. 1973). Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations are from this third edition; parenthetical and footnoted citations refer to Ganguly's original volume and page numbers. 5. Further metaphoric mirroring occurs via this name since Vyasa, the poet, who is also Ar juna's grandfather, is named Krishna too, and so is Draupadi, but the term "the two Kr ishnas" is reserved for Krishna and Arjuna. 4 ~ AnCient Indian Materzals The author-narrator, the sage Vyasa, explains to the preceptor Drona that Narayana is the creator of the universe who produced his equal, the great sage Nara, by his austerities6 The mystical oneness of Krishna and Aljuna in a previous or eternal form is thus used to explain their inordinate love for one another. Krishna makes more than one declaration of this love, telling Aljuna: "Thou art mine and I am thine, while all that is mine is thine also' He that hateth thee hateth me as well, and he that followeth thee followeth me' 0 thou irrepressible one, thou art Nara and I am Narayana or Hari! ... 0 Partha, thou art from me and I am from thee!" (Vana Parva xny It is important to remember that the Krishna of the Mababbarata is not the later Krishna of the Bbagvata Purana who sports with Radha and the cowherd women. In the epic he is pri marily a king and a warrior, not a lover of women. Like most of the other adult men, he is mar ried and a father, but his duties in this role are subordinate to his duties as ruler and as friend of the Panda vas The husband of Rukmini, Satyabhama, and others, he is not given to extra marital dalliance. His primary identity is that of Friend.8 He and Aljuna are first cousins, and Aljuna marries Krishna's sister, which places them in a particularly intimate relationship.9 The two men's married state is comfortably integrated into their love for one another, which is repeatedly stated to be primary.

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