Chanting Against Patriarchy, Priestesses Are Reclaiming Their Right To Rituals

The idea of a Hindu priestess, to a large majority subscribing to the religion, would still seem incredulous. The extra 'ess' an aberration in the scheme of seeming age-old purity and tradition. Pujas at weddings, housewarmings, funerals have forever buttressed patriarchy by gatekeeping women from performative, presiding roles.

That knowledge - too sacred to be carried lightly - has always been reserved for pandits, not panditayins. 

Through several desperate attempts to arbitrarily reason women out of the scholarly space, under the garb of preserving holy instruction from up above, patriarchal systems have convinced believers preaching should be an all-male domain. (A historical context to mansplaining, could we say?)

The prescription of shutting women out of Vedic practice and rituals is often attributed to ancient texts. Interestingly, the Vedas don't make mention of any such demarcation. 

"After the Vedic age, there was a change and dilution in narrative," Dr Bramaramba Maheshwari, award-winning Vedic scholar and among India's leading priestesses, tells SheThePeople. "This came about during the Puranic age (understood to start around 500 BCE). For example, women began being considered impure because of their monthly menses or their body undergoes changes during pregnancy."

"Men want to see us at second-level," she adds. "Stree ko gyaan nahi dena, otherwise they will ask questions. Keep them in the dark, they believe."

Image: Bramaramba Maheshwari for SheThePeople

Maheshwari, also a Carnatic singer, initiated herself into Vedic studies in the 1980s under the tutelage of Swami Brahmdev. At the time, when she asked him if women could do havans, he told her, "Zaroor. The Vedas have given permission. Men and women may be different physically, but the soul doesn't have a gender."

Hindu Priestesses Are Bringing Progressivism in Culture

"Purohit is a gender-neutral term. It means someone who wishes well for others. Someone who identifies as neither a man nor woman can also become a purohit," Rohini Dharmapal, another well-known priestess from West Bengal, tells us. She is carrying forward the legacy of her mother, Gouri Dharmapal, a poet and Sanskrit scholar who famously solemnised the wedding of filmmaker Aparna Sen's elder daughter, among other ceremonies in the 1980s.

Male domination in the field of religious study and practice meant an obviously tilted handover of customs down the generations, most of which haven't fallen in the favour of women.

The regressive custom of kanyadaan - where the bride is 'given away' to the groom - is a standing example, its blatantly patriarchal overtones paling even the most opulent expenditures at big, fat, modern Indian weddings.

"In the Rigvedic process, kanyadaan was never a part of the wedding rituals. My mother was at the forefront of conducting marriage ceremonies, following the Rigvedic way, ie, without kanyadaan," Dharmapal says. "Rigvedic marriages are not a style statement to have a priestess solemnising the ceremony. It is about bringing a paradigm shift. The bride and groom, for instance, have equal participation in the rituals."

"Kanya daan nahi, kanya pradhan hai," Maheshwari says. Thus she, as other prominent priestesses like Nandini Bhowmik, have strictly sworn off performing kanyadaan at weddings.

Tides Of Change? 

Across cultures, religion has oppressively kept women either out or relegated to the sidelines to occupy second status. Lack of public knowledge and access to authentic sources of traditional wisdom has ensured the play of patriarchal hierarchies continues unchanged. How are these grounds to be levelled if not reversed?

Through education and learning, women are taking the reins of progressivism in their hands, in a bid to transform and recreate cultures where they can regain the dignified positions they once seemed to have occupied. Since potential without opportunity tends to turn to wasted effort, bringing more women into the fold of Vedic scholarly studies isn't a one-way push.

In a watershed recognition of women's right to become religious scholars, the Tamil Nadu government in June this year said they would provide training to those wishing to become temple priestesses. Maheshwari and Dharmapal, meanwhile, are keeping so busy presiding over marriages and other ceremonies nationally and internationally, that they are completely booked out for the year.

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