Born to Two Mothers, The Hero Bhagiratha

Female-Female Love and Miraculous Birth in Hindu Texts

This essay examines some fourteenth-century sacred narratives of the hero Bhagiratha’s
birth to two queens who are co-wives and who become lovers after they are widowed.
Placing these stories in the context of pre-modern Indian notions of co-wifehood, same-
sex sexual relations, same-sex co-parenting, and miraculous or monstrous conception by
Gods and humans, the author asks how a relationship that may be perceived as abnormal
and a child that may be perceived as illegitimate come to be written into sacred texts as
divinely blessed and miraculous.

Love, Sex Or Both? perceived as contributing to the cross-sex sexual love too evokes
In our book Same-Sex Love in welfare of the community and thereby some anxiety in most cultures,
India, which was a collection of to the glory of God.3 Most of Bray’s including Indic cultures.
translations from texts composed materials do not indicate whether or Cross-sex romantic relationships
over a period of 2000 years in 15 not the loves thus celebrated had a in most Western countries expect and
Indian languages, Saleem Kidwai sexual dimension. The European generally receive social approval,
and I argued that to look only for Christian over-emphasis on the unless some other factor (such as
evidence of sexual intercourse in Biblical injunction against sodomy class, race or age difference)
representations of same-sex rendered impossible any public intervenes. Conversely, few romantic
relationships in pre-modern texts celebration or even acknowledgment relationships received automatic
is to overlook many of the of same-sex sexual relationships. social approval in pre-modern
criteria, such as commitment and Some pre-modern Hindu texts, societies, whether European or Asian.
exclusivity, which define love in however, operating within a distinctly A romantic relationship, whether
cross-sex relationships.1 Same-sex different world-view, are able to cross-sex or same-sex, had to prove
relationships are today often viewed accommodate same-sex sexual itself as good and worthy of social
as being all about sex; “love” (and relationships within the norm of love, approval by being about more than
marriage, with its emphasis on love) which pre-modern Christian texts are just sex. Lovers had to demonstrate
thus come to be reserved for cross- unable to do. This accommodation is that they loved not just each other
sex relationships. In the title of our not entirely free from anxiety, but but also the greater good. In Christian
book, Kidwai and I therefore terms, the good love had to be about
deliberately used the word “love” both eros and agape. But in Christian
rather than “desire” or “sex,” the texts only cross-sex relationships can
words preferred by some theorists.2 include both love and sex; same-sex
Historian Alan Bray has relationships can be good only if they
demonstrated argues those same-sex are defined as love and friendship
(mostly male) intimate relationships (amicitia). Same-sex sexual
in medieval and Renaissance relationships are automatically
Western Europe that were publicly outlawed; whether they are loving or
celebrated in texts and funerary not becomes irrelevant. I claim that in
monuments were embedded in other Hindu texts, same-sex relationships
kinship relations and were also can sometimes be about both love
and sex and yet be termed good.4
All illustrations in this article are by In the texts I examine celebrate
Vishwajyoti Ghosh sexual love between co-widows is

22 MANUSHI
 embedded in kinship and public debate. Right-wing
conduces to the welfare of the Christian opponents of same-
patrilineal family and the sex parenting repeatedly state
community. The women’s that every child must be raised
sexual relationship is by a father and a mother. This
praiseworthy because it cliché coexists in the U.S.
occurs with divine blessing, debate with another cliché,
fulfills both human and divine popularized by Hillary Clinton
aims, and furthers the good of – that it takes a village to raise a
the family, the community, and child. In many Indian families,
posterity. But it also results in the reality of child-rearing lies
physical and emotional somewhere in between these
pleasure for the individuals clichés. Indian children are
concerned. Unlike Christian generally raised by more than
canonical texts, these two adults. These may include
canonical Hindu texts are able parents, grandparents, aunts
to conceive of a same-sex and uncles. Widowed and
sexual relationship that is good divorced mothers often raise
in terms similar to those in children with the active
which a cross-sex sexual participation of aunts,
relationship is represented as grandmothers, female servants
good. While there is no doubt that many co- and co-wives.
Conjugality of Co-Wives wives do feel these emotions both in Half-siblings refer to each other
This raises the further question: if life and in literature, there is also no as siblings, and in Hindi generally
this love is good, is it conjugal? Are doubt that some co-wives do develop address their father’s other wives as
co-wives in any sense married to one feelings of love and attraction for one “big mother” or “small mother.”5 The
another? When they marry the same another. I am interested in the way Hindi term for a co-mother is sauteli
man, they commit themselves to living Indian texts represent and evaluate ma, often inadequately translated as
not only with him but also with each these feelings. “stepmother.” Sauteli derives from
other. Since the sexual relationship Once the husband dies, how do saut, which means “co-wife.” So the
between Bhagiratha’s two mothers co-wives live out their relationships function of co-motherhood derives
occurs in the context of marriage and with one another? The dominant from the status of co-wifehood. “Co-
with divine blessing, is it analogous stereotype is that widows live mother” would be a closer translation
to marriage? Like the relationship miserable lives, oppressed and for sauteli ma. The saut or co-wife
between husband and wife, the shunned by all. In reality, not all plays an important part in folk songs
relation between co-wives is usually widows live in joint families with and stories as well as in major texts
a lifelong one. In fact, co-wives relatives who oppress them. Widows like the epics. Co-parenting also often
normally spend much more time on often have greater freedom and intersects with adoption within the
an everyday basis with one another mobility than do married women, and family. Thus a couple that cannot have
than with their husband. may acquire the position of powerful children will often adopt a nephew or
Keeping in mind the dominant matriarchs in the family. A glimpse of niece, and a woman who cannot have
Indian ideal that conjugal love and the more hidden aspects of co- children may adopt a co-wife’s child.
attraction between husband and wife widows’ relationships with one Bhagiratha in Bengal
develop after, not before, marriage, another is provided by the Bengal Bhagiratha is an important figure
may co-wives also be expected to texts’ accounts of the birth of to Hindus because he brought the
develop love for each other, and what Bhagiratha. Ganga down to earth from heaven, a
kinds of love are they shown Same-Sex Couples as Parents task his father and several of his
developing in Indian texts? To ask this Both in India and the West many forefathers had tried and failed to
question is to go against the dominant same-sex couples raise children perform. One of the names of the river
textual and popular notion that the together. The larger numbers and Ganga is Bhagirathi in Bhagiratha’s
only emotions co-wives feel for one greater visibility of such couples in honor. His name also survives today
another are hatred and jealousy. the West today has led to a major in the popular imagination through the

No.146 23
 expression idiomatic in several Indian intercourse will be a boneless lump of inclinations, and also remarking that
languages, “Bhagiratha prayatna,” flesh.6 However, this medical text desire takes many unaccountable
the equivalent of “Herculean feat.” represents such a birth as monstrous, forms and leads to actions somewhat
Bhagiratha is a hero and a while the Bengal narratives represent beyond analysis or interrogation.7
benefactor of humanity. He also it as miraculous. Some of the Bengal Through this allusion along with an
fulfilled a duty to his ancestors in the narratives recount how the boneless implied reference to the ancient
sun lineage. His great-great- child survives without bones and is medical text, the Sushruta Samhita,
grandfather king Sagara had sixty cured later in life, while others the text places itself in the context of
thousand sons who were killed by the represent the child born undeformed sacred textual traditions, both medical
wrathful sage Kapila. Their funerary through the gods’ blessings. Neither and erotic, that are already at this time
ceremonies were postponed until the of these possibilities is envisaged in over a millennium old. It both claims
Ganga could be brought down to the Sushruta Samhita. I argue that the authority of those traditions to
earth. Bhagiratha appears in the part the Bengal texts develop these legitimize its account of the
of the Ramayana that recounts the possibilities in the context of devotion miraculous birth of Bhagiratha, and
ancestry of King Rama. to Goddesses, well developed in that also develops those traditions by
The story of Bhagiratha’s birth to region by the fourteenth century. interpretation, since it gives a new
two women occurs, as far as I know, Vatsyayana in Padma Purana twist to the idea of female-female sex
only in texts produced from the In the Bengal version of the and procreation that is not present in
fourteenth century onwards in Padma Purana, The narrator of the the ancient texts.
Bengal. Why is this so? Bengal is Bhagiratha story is the primal serpent, In the Bengal Padma Purana, the
one of the centers of Goddess or Sheshanaga, and the interlocutor is story is brief. King Dilipa’s two
Shakti worship and also of the sage Vatsyayana. Vatsyayana is widows grow worried after he dies
Vaishnavism or worship of Vishnu, the famous as the author of the childless. They visit the family priest
preserver God, especially in his Kamasutra, the fourth-century erotic Vasishtha in his hermitage and
incarnations as Krishna and Rama. treatise that discusses a wide range request him to help them continue the
These traditions often assume of sexual relationships. Vatsyayana’s family line. 8 Vashistha, who is
syncretic forms in Bengal. The Bengal role here would recall to the reader immersed in meditation, assures them
texts that tell the story of Bhagiratha’s the sophisticated exegesis of that a son will be born to them. He
birth to two women are primarily eroticism in the Kamasutra, which then performs the putreshti sacrifice,
Vaishnava texts, glorifying Vishnu, includes a fairly non-judgmental and which, as its name indicates, is aimed
but I suggest that the influence of pleasurable account of same-sex at obtaining a son (putra), and
Shakta traditions is present in the way sexual relations, and a comment that prepares a food called charu (literally,
these texts develop the idea of two these relations may be practiced sweet or pleasant). Giving this food
women procreating in a according to the customs of one’s to the queens, he tells them that one
parthenogenetic manner. Among community and region and one’s own of them should eat it and the other
these texts are the Bengal manuscripts should have sexual intercourse with
of the Padma Purana, which is a her, with the bhava of a man
Vaishnava text, in Sanskrit but written (purushabhavena maithunaya).
in the Bengali script; and various The word bhava can mean, among
versions of the Krittivasa Ramayana other things, “being,”
in Bengali. The Krittivasa Ramayana “temperament,” “way or manner,”
is still the most popular version of the “intention, purpose,” “mind, heart,”
Rama story in Bengal today. The “emotion, inclination,” “notion,
Bhagiratha story also appears in some idea,” or “outward indication of
later texts produced in Bengal. emotion. As no physical change here
These medieval Bengali script takes place in the queen who is
texts do not invent the idea of two advised to take on the bhava of a
women producing a child; they derive man, the term suggests performing
it from the ancient Hindu medical text, through outward action a desire,
the Sushruta Samhita, which remarks emotion or inclination, in this case
that since the father contributes the one that is directed towards a woman
bones and the mother the flesh and and is therefore usually attributed to
blood, a child born from two women’s a man.

24 MANUSHI
 When the queens obey his reproducing the translation. 11 For the predicament of children of single
instructions, the older one becomes purposes of comparative analysis, I mothers and lesbians today.
pregnant. The text tells us that the refer to this version as Krittivasa 1. When Bhagiratha is five years old
child is born without bones and is The Gods Brahma and Indra grow he is sent to study with other children
named Bhagiratha because he is born worried when King Dilipa of at sage Vasishtha’s hermitage. One
of the bhaga (vulva) alone. This type Ayodhya, descendant of Sagara, dies day, when the children are quarreling,
of explanation for the name childless. Ayodhya is without a ruler, another child calls him jaaraj or a child
Bhagiratha, found only in the Bengali and Vishnu is to be incarnated as born of a mother’s adulterous lover.
script texts, is interesting because it Rama in the royal lineage. Now that Bhagiratha is deeply hurt and makes
explicitly credits both women with the Dilipa is dead, the line seems to have no answer. With tears in his eyes and
act of conception, and credits the come to an end. The Gods hold a feeling unstable, he lies down in the
female reproductive system with consultation and send Shiva to sulking room (kopa graha) at school.
independently generative power. Ayodhya. Shiva goes to Dilipa’s two When it grows late, his mother
Bhagiratha, being boneless, is widows and tells them they will have becomes worried and, like a tigress
crippled and ugly, but he grows up a son by his blessing. When the deprived of her cub, asks the sage
and is well educated, learning all the widows ask how this is possible, where her son is. Vasishtha tells her
Vedas in his childhood. On the way Shiva instructs them to have sexual not to weep and leads her to her son.
to study with his teacher Vasishtha, intercourse with each other. This text She embraces the child, wipes his
he one day encounters the sage adds a short description to the story: tears, asks what is troubling him, and
Ashtavakra, whose name literally “The two wives of Dilipa took a bath. promises to find a doctor to cure
means “bent in eight places.”9 As his The two young women lived together whatever ails him. Bhagiratha replies
name indicates, Ashtavakra is in extreme love [Sampritite achhilen that he is not suffering from any
deformed, and when Bhagiratha se dui yuvati]. After some time, one ailment or wound but that someone
greets him, the sage suspects that the of them menstruated. Both of them has insulted him by calling him a
boy is mocking him by mimicking his knew one another’s intentions and bastard.
crippled condition. The infuriated enjoyed love play [keli karitey], and Bhagiratha then asks his mother,
sage declares that if the boy is one of them conceived.” 12 “To what lineage do I belong and to
mocking him, he will be burnt to The child is born as a boneless what clan, and whose son am I?” His
ashes, but if he is naturally crooked, lump of flesh. The embarrassed and mother tells him the true story of how
he will immediately attain beauty and grief stricken, mothers decide to throw his ancestors of the Sagara clan were
strength. As a result of these words, him into the river Sarayu. Vasishtha destroyed by the sage Kapila’s curse,
Bhagiratha’s body is transformed – intervenes and advises them to leave and how three of his forefathers had
he becomes a strong youth, as him on the roadside instead, which performed austerities in an
beautiful as Kama, Godof love. they do. After they leave, the sage unsuccessful attempt to bring the
Thanking Ashtavakra, he proceeds to Ashtavakra sees and curses the Ganga down to earth to redeem them.
meet Vasishtha, who is so impressed deformed child who gets transformed She also narrates how his father Dilipa
by his beauty that he crowns him king. exactly as in the Bengal Padma died childless and how he was born
Extreme Love in Krittivasa Purana. Ashtavakra then calls the as a result of Shiva’s blessing. She
There are several versions of the two queens who are delighted and tells him that he was named
Krittivasa Ramayana and the story take their son home. Ashtavakra Bhagiratha because he was born of
of Bhagiratha appears only in some performs the naming ceremony and two vulvas. He was born in the race
manuscripts. This is an accretive text the child is named Bhagiratha, which of the sun in the city of Ayodhya.
– additions continued to be made to is here somewhat differently explained Hearing this, Bhagiratha laughs.
it up to the eighteenth century.10 In - he was born not of the vulva alone When his mother asks why he is
the version widely available in Bengali but of two vulvas (bhage bhage laughing, he replies that bringing
today, which has also been translated janam hetu bhagirath nam). Goddess Ganga to earth is not a small
into English and Brajbhasha, the story Child of Same-Sex Parents task but a “Bhagiratha” task that only
is an expansion of the one I have The next section in Krittivasa 1 he can perform. He then declares his
recounted above. As a translation of appears to be unique among medieval intention of bringing Ganga down for
this version has already appeared in texts in its depiction of problems faced the benefit of his ancestors. His two
Same-Sex Love in India I shall at school by a child of two mothers. mothers grow anxious and try to
summarize it here instead of Parts of the description resonate with dissuade him because he is too young

No.146 25
 for such an exploit, but he does not Obeying Brahma’s bidding When Malavati realizes she is
listen to them. He takes diksha Madan went straight into the pregnant, she cannot understand it,
(initiation, completion of education) inner quarters of the palace. but, fearing social disgrace, she goes
from Vashistha and takes leave of his As Madan reached the king’s to the river Sarayu to commit suicide,
mothers. He then begins to perform palace the two queens and Brahma comes to stop her. He
severe austerities, addressed to each began menstruating. explains that this pregnancy is divinely
of the Gods in turn, which ultimately
Three days later they took the planned to enable the royal lineage to
result in his successfully bringing the
purifying bath, continue, and goes on to say:
Ganga down to earth.
entered their husband’s sanctum[
The Monsoon Romance “If there is any demerit within you,
literally, temple, mondire],
The two queens’ personalities are let me bear it and you can go home
and lay down there.
more developed in another version of free of it.
the Krittivasa Ramayana, found in The sky was overcast with clouds,
the swans sang and Your son will be the incarnation of
only one manuscript, which I shall
the peacocks danced. God and his able hands will save
refer to as Krittivasa 2. We are told
The skies darkened and the world.”
their names – Chandra and Mala; and
rather than being instructed to make a stormy rain followed. The child is born beautiful and
love in order to have a son, they Burning with desire induced by healthy. The problem of his being
spontaneously make love in the Madan, Chandra and Mala boneless does not arise in this
romantic monsoon season, while lying took each other in embrace, version. The episode concludes:
in their late husband’s bedroom. and each kissed the other. Since he was born of the mutual
Kama, god of love, who inspires all Chandravati played the man and enjoyment (sambhog)
lovers, infuses them with his tej Mala the woman between two vaginas [bhaga]
(energy/brilliance) and the pregnancy God Brahma named him
[Chandraboti purush hoilo Mala
is an unexpected and initially Bhagiratha.
hoilo nari]
unwelcome by-product.
The two women dallied Erotic Power as Sacred Power
The God who intervenes here is
Brahma, not Shiva, and Kama acquires and made love The most important difference
a more active role. Because Kama [Dui nari mono ronge rongo krira between Krittivasa 2 and the other
inspires the pregnancy, the child is kori]. versions is that here Bhagiratha is
born beautiful and healthy, with bones. God’s blessing had enabled the two born as a healthy beautiful boy, not a
Here is the relevant section, after women to play the game of love boneless lump of flesh. Brahma cites
the death of King Dilipa: and the energy [tej] the involvement of Madan, God of
The Gods in heaven congregated of Madan [love/desire] entered love, as the reason for this. The gods’
to address the matter. the womb of Malavati. blessing is more powerfully evident
Without the Suryavansha [the
sun’s lineage] the world would
cease to be.
Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara
[Shiva] met on Mount Kailash.
Lord Brahma conferred with all the
Gods and decided to summon Sage
Vasishtha.
He requested Vasishtha to help
Chandra and Mala get a son.
“Vishnu Vishnu,” said the sage,
covering his ears, and
refused to comply with their wishes.
After Vasishtha’s refusal
they called upon Madan [Kama].
Brahma directed Madan to make
haste and make a son be born from
the stomachs of Chandra anMala.

26 MANUSHI
 in this text than the others as here the triumph, since he succeeds in that lovers experience – did they love
inauspiciousness of a deformed birth awakening Shiva from his ascetic one another of their own will or
is preempted by love. The presence trance and making him respond to the agency or was the event in some
of the God of love trumps both the attractions of goddess Parvati. Shiva sense fated or providential? This age-
medical prognostication that a child also restores Kama to life at the old uncertainty today takes the form
born of two women’s union will be request of Kama’s wife Rati (literally, of the controversy about whether
boneless and also the impurity sexual pleasure). Although Kama is a same-sex desire is inborn or a choice.
possibly associated with their sexual male God, he is invisible and his Indian texts routinely explain love as
union. The creator God, Brahma, “energy” or “spirit” (tej) that the result of attachments in a former
taking any inauspiciousness on impregnates Mala may be read as the life or of divine intervention. Ancient
himself, enables the healthy creation male element required for birth Greek texts generally represent love
of a child from same-sex love. The (analogous to donated sperm used by as a madness sent by Aphrodite,
extended romantic description of the lesbian mothers today) or as symbolic goddess of love, or Eros, god of love.
women’s love, attraction, and sexual of the universal energy of desire. The residual power of such notions
union in this text would appear to be Erotic desire in Indian literature, persists in English in such phrases as
not fortuitous but directly relevant to art, and even modern cinema, is “falling in love” or “a match made in
the auspiciousness of the outcome. strongly associated with the rainy heaven.”
match between Bhagiratha’s mothers season. This association is found in The divine messenger appears
is literally made in heaven. The God works both of Hindu and Indian after instead of before the conception
of love’s role is important and must Islamic provenance. Lovers are and reveals the purpose of the miracle
be understood in the context of what usually shown trysting and sporting to Mala. The messenger here is
this god represents. Madan or while peacocks dance, clouds darken Brahma, the creator, instead of Shiva.
Kamadeva is the God of love, desire, the sky, and rain falls. Krittivasa 2 He explains that the presence of the
and beauty. Like the Greek Eros and follows these conventions and thus God of love enabled the two queens
the Roman Cupid, he represents erotic places the relationship of Chandra and to make love. Brahma then makes an
desire and energy, human, non- interesting offer – if there is any
Mala squarely in the mainstream of
human, and divine. It is natural for demerit involved in this union or this
erotic representation.
this creative energy to be associated desire, he will bear it and she will be
Unlike Padma Purana and
with Brahma, the creator God, and to free of it. This mention of possible
Krittivasa 1, the two widows here do
be at war with Shiva, the destroyer demerit builds on the element of
not ask for a son nor do they unite at
god. Unlike Cupid, Madan or Kama is anxiety introduced into this text by
the behest of a God or a sage in order
invisible, as a result of a curse inflicted sage Vashishtha’s horror; this anxiety
to have a son. This allows for them
by Shiva whose meditations he is not found in this form in the Padma
and their relationship to be depicted
disturbed. He is therefore also called Purana and Krittivasa 1, although
with greater psychological depth.
Ananga or the bodiless one. there it perhaps takes the form of the
They engage in love making, like any
Kama, one of the four aims of life child’s deformity at birth, which is
other lovers, merely because they are noticeably absent in Krittivasa 2.
according to Hindu sacred texts, is a inspired by desire, conventionally The word Brahma uses is paap,
universal principle. The God Kama, embodied in the god Kama. Although often translated as “sin” but in fact,
therefore, represents an irresistible Kama is acting at the behest of the closer in meaning to “impure/
natural urge as well as a social gods, the two widows are not aware demeritorious actions,” as opposed
desideratum and a divinely ordained of this. Lying in their husband’s to punya or pure/meritorious actions.
law. In literary convention, two bedroom, in the fertile rainy season, Paap in the Hindu context is very
persons who fall in love are said to while they themselves are fertile, they different from sin in the Christian
have been struck by the arrows of follow their impulses. Unlike context. In the Hindu context, paap is
Kama and therefore to be helpless to husbands and wives, who, in the the demerit born of bad actions that
resist desire. However, in Hindu texts sacred texts, usually engage in sex attaches to the self and causes rebirth;
this principle is somewhat fraught with the desire to procreate and are however, the merit born of good
because it is opposed by the principle disappointed if they fail to do so, actions also attaches to the self and
of Hindu asceticism. Kama’s conflict these two widows engage in causes rebirth. Demerit will result in a
with Shiva reflects this opposition. lovemaking for its own sake. lower birth and suffering while merit
Although reduced to ashes by Shiva, Most love stories address the will result in a higher birth (even a
Kama, backed by all the gods, does feelings of wonder regarding agency birth as a god or demi-god) and

No.146 27
 happiness. However, since life is “Since he was born of the mutual would be called intersexed.
bound by time and is always a mixture enjoyment [sexual intercourse] According to this scheme, a child
of happiness and suffering, and since between two vulvas The god Brahma cannot be born without the maternal
even the happiness acquired by merit named him Bhagiratha.” element as it would be a mere skeleton
will get exhausted in time, humans The word “sambhog,” used in this but it can be born without the paternal
should strive to be detached from all version but not in the others, literally element. According to Sushruta, a
actions and not to accumulate either meaning “mutual enjoyment,” is the woman dreaming of sexual intercourse
merit or demerit, thereby liberating word generally used to signify sexual can conceive and give birth to a jelly-
themselves altogether from rebirth. In intercourse even today. In this like mass. However, Sushruta does not
Christianity, since the soul is born version, the gods’ displacement of the prescribe any cure for such babies
only once and after death is either sages works to heighten the born without bones. In fact, he
saved by faith or damned by sin, sin auspiciousness of the relationship appears to view such births as
is potentially much more deadly. that produces the child. monstrous, and the result of sinful
Brahma’s offer suggests that there acts.
may be some demerit or impurity
Interpretation in Medical Tests
In what ways do these texts rewrite Both in India and in Western
associated with the queens’ love Europe, medieval texts often rewrite
making. He does not elaborate on this the ancient Hindu medical texts’ view
of intercourse between women? The ancient canonical texts, although
suggestion nor does he say that there claiming to be merely commentaries
definitely is impurity associated with Sushruta Samhita (circa second
century BC), states that a boneless on the latter. The Bengal narratives of
it (he uses the conditional “If”). The Bhagiratha’s birth rewrite the ancient
impurity in question could be related child, (interpreted by commentators as
medical texts when they introduce the
to same-sex relations; more likely, it with cartilaginous bones) is the result
idea that a child born to two women
could refer to the taboo on widows of an act of sexual intercourse between
by divine blessing can be not
indulging their sexual and other two women, in which their sukra or
monstrous but heroic. This idea
sensual desires. Brahma’s taking the sexual fluids unite in the womb of one
emerges from medieval Puranic ideas
impurity on himself and freeing the of them (132).13 This idea has to be of goddesses and gods giving birth
queens from it indicates that the understood within the overall by parthenogenesis and other types
impurity, inspired by the god Kama, understanding of conception. of miraculous dynamics.
is not a major one. The Kamasutra According to this text as well as Gods and heroes in most
declares that objects normally another contemporaneous medical mythologies are conceived and born
considered impure are pure for certain text, the Charaka Samhita, miraculously - from virgins, from
purposes – thus, although Hindus conception is produced by the human-divine intercourse, or from a
normally consider another person’s aggregate of five elements – the father, single parent, male or female. The
saliva impure, a woman’s mouth is the mother, the Self or spirit (atman), miracle functions to signal the hero’s
pure during sex. suitability, nutrition, and mind.14 Of innate difference from other mortals.
That the two women are widows these, the Self is most important, as it As Boswell has shown, heroes are
is a fact whose significance bears also often raised differently from other
causes birth in a particular species,
examination. Krittivasa’s Ramayana, children – by adoptive or foster
mind, sense organs, respiration,
a normative sacred text in Bengal, parents, human, divine, or animal.15
consciousness, memory, ego, will, and
endorses the widows’ sexual pleasure, This may signify that they belong not
and thus flies in the face of the so on. The Self plays an important
to one family alone but to the whole
stereotype that Hindu widows, role in conception and in determining
society; it also serves to mark them
especially in Bengal, are stripped of gender and other propensities. The as different from others.
agency and totally forbidden to mother causes skin, blood, flesh, fat, In Hindu texts, one of the most
indulge in pleasure, especially sexual and all the fleshy organs such as common forms of miraculous birth is
pleasure. heart, liver, kidneys, stomach, a god, demon, or Goddess producing
The etymology given for intestines. The father causes hair, other beings from the self. When this
Bhagiratha’s name is the same as in nails, teeth, bones, veins, and semen. happens in the heat of battle, these
the other texts, but it is Brahma, not a The Charaka Samhita states that beings are born of wrath and are
sage, who names him: when the maternal element terrifying. They aid the parent in
Bhage bhage sambhog je tathe preponderates, the child is female, fighting. For example, in the Padma
upagata when the paternal preponderates, the Purana, Shiva, battling the demon
Brahmadev thuilen nam child is male, and when both are equal, Jalandhara, produces a female deity
bhagiratha. the child is of no sex or what today called Kritya from his third eye. 16

28 MANUSHI
 Goddesses and Female Powers the earth without human parents and downplay but in fact emphasize this
Goddesses usually, but not is found by her adoptive father, by putting forward a folk etymology
always, produce females rather than Janaka, lying in a furrow he is of Bhagiratha’s name – born of two
males in this manner. In the Devi ploughing. She is known as the vulvas (bhagas). How is it that these
Mahatmya, the Goddess, who is daughter of earth and at the end of sacred texts accommodate and even
invoked by the Gods to destroy the the epic, when she is worn out by celebrate a same-sex sexual act which
demons, creates an army of different Rama’s unjust treatment of her, she appears to be anti-normative and vio-
types of divine female beings from calls on earth to receive her, and earth lative of prescriptive texts like the
herself. A similar phenomenon occurs opens and swallows her up. Manusmriti and the Arthashastra?
in most Goddess texts. This type of This older idea of divine fecundity In their repudiation of ayoni or
mass production of female beings may takes a specific form in the ancient non-vaginal sex the Hindu law books
be seen as a type of cloning because medical texts’ idea of women directly contradict narratives in epics
producing a child together, which in and Puranas. The law tends to
these beings are all embodiments of
the fourteenth-century Bengal texts prohibit non-vaginal sex whereas
the Goddess’s different attributes;
again gets transformed by Shakta sacred stories often show heroic
they mirror her and may merge back
ideas of the Goddess as the ultimate children springing from such sex.
into her. In all such cases, the effect
Often the same text, for example, the
of such reproduction is immediate creative principle. Consequently,
Mahabharata and several of the
subduing of or submission by the older stories too undergo changes and
Puranas, contains both stories and
Goddess’s opponents or rivals, emerge transformed.
precepts, and thus contradicts itself
whether Gods or demons. Bhagiratha’s mothers, however,
on the question of whether non-
Sometimes, however, a female are not Goddesses. Unlike other
vaginal sex is impure or sacred. The
produces another being not from wrath beings, such as sages, who reproduce
explanation of this apparent
but from other kinds of emotion such miraculously, they are not even
contradiction may lie in the fact that
as erotic or motherly love. Thus, in represented as semi-divine or of
what is normally taboo or polluted
the Padma Purana, Vishnu, disguised divine ancestry. They are just ordinary
may be excessively sacred in special
as the demon Jalandhara, seduces human women. How then, do they
or ritual contexts. The law books
Jalandhara’s wife Vrinda. While they participate in a type of reproduction
declare that ayoni or non-vaginal
are engaged in love play, Tulasi, a generally reserved for Goddesses or
sexual intercourse is impure and
purifying nymph, arises from Vrinda’s other divine beings?
punishable, although that the
sweat. Tulasi (identified with the sacred Some feminist critics are of the penalties prescribed are very light
plant, holy basil) represents Vrinda’s opinion that Hindu worship of powerful compared to penances and
pure erotic desire for Vishnu. 17 The goddesses has no positive effect punishments imposed for other types
plant is still worshiped today by whatsoever on Hindu women’s status, of sexual misconduct, such as
devotees of Vishnu. because Hindus view goddesses as adultery. The category of ayoni sex
Parvati produces Ganesh from totally different from human women, and is very wide – it can include oral sex,
her body rubbings merely from goddesses do not share women’s manual sex, anal sex, sex with animals,
maternal longing - she wants a son suffering. 18 In my view, although masturbation in the water or in a pot
of her own, who will be devoted only Goddess worship does not have a one- or other aperture. The Kamasutra is
to her. Bhagiratha’s mothers, to-one equation with improving aware of this prohibition but
although they are humans, not women’s status, it is not true that Hindus nevertheless uninhibitedly describes
Goddesses, are enabled to imitate see goddesses and women as totally various types of ayoni sex between
Goddesses when they produce a different. In fact, every girl and woman men and between men and women.
child from desire – desire for a child is seen as embodying the Goddess in a This text points out that desire takes
and desire for each other. latent form, whose powers can become many shapes, depending on time,
The ability to produce fully manifest under suitable conditions. place, custom, and individual
formed beings from the self appears Goddesses do not always function to predilection. It also, as noted earlier,
in ancient Hindu texts to be related to empower women but they often can and points out that what is normally
the idea, also found in ancient Greek do become means that may be so used. considered impure may be pure for
texts, that the earth (also represented Non-Vaginal, Intervaginal Sex certain purposes – just as a dog’s
as a Goddess), produces certain types While the Goddesses spontane- mouth is normally polluted but
of life, such as worms, from herself. ously produce beings from them- considered pure when the dog is used
In the ancient epic Ramayana, Sita, selves, Bhagiratha’s mothers engage in hunting, so too another person’s
who is a Goddess, is produced from in sexual intercourse. The texts do not mouth in sex.

No.146 29
 In sacred narrative, Gods called missionary position.
and heroes are often born from Masturbation and female-
non-vaginal sex. Celibate femalesexual intercourse of any
sages, when stirred by desire kind also came to be labeled
at the sight of a woman, sodomy. Hence the Indian
frequently ejaculate into pots Penal Code’s glossing of
or other receptacles. Both the “sodomy” as intercourse
Gurus in the Mahabharata, “against the order of nature.”
Dronacharya and Here lies the importance of
Kripacharya, are born in this the Bengal texts’ insistence
way. A divine variant of this that Bhagiratha’s name means
is when Shiva, interrupted one born of two vaginas. His
during intercourse with his birth is not an ayoni one; it is,
wife, ejaculates into the fire so to speak, a double-yoni one
God Agni’s hands or mouth (bhage-bhage). In Krittivasa
(in different versions) from 1 there seems to be some
which Kartikeya is born.19 awareness that the etymology
It would appear then that is suspect, for the text asserts
non-vaginal sex is forbidden the putative author’s
or taboo. Like other taboos, reputation as a scholar
this one may be broken by immediately after providing the
special beings or in special etymology: “Because he was
contexts, and is broken in secret by and remained a minor infraction of born of two vulvas (bhaga) he was
ordinary beings too. The Kamasutra Hindu law. Second, sodomy came to named Bhagiratha. The great poet
takes a worldly approach to the matter, be considered unmentionable and Krittivasa is a recognized scholar
pointing out that many people in unspeakable – the sin not to be named (pandit). In this Adi Kanda he sings
secret practice forbidden forms of among Christians, while no similar the birth of Bhagiratha.” 21 By
desire. The sacred texts show that prohibition on mentioning ayoni sex repeating the word for vagina (bhaga)
forbidden forms of sex may be developed among Hindus. Third, the texts both enact and underscore
practiced by divinities and those with from the Renaissance until the the female-female intercourse that
divine powers or by ordinary people nineteenth century in England, resulted in this miraculous birth. The
under special circumstances, and may sodomy became not just as a sin to idea of the primal and pure fecundity
have good results. In the West, the be atoned for with religious penance of the goddess appears to hover
category of “sodomy,” applied to anal but a legal crime to be punished with behind this construction of his
and oral (that is, non-vaginal sex) may disenfranchisement, torture, and even conception.
appear to be somewhat analogous to death. No such development took Bhagiratha’s birth is not in “the
that of ayoni sex. The British passed place in the case of ayoni sex. As far order of nature” – this is true of many
a law in India prohibiting sex “against as I have been able to discover, no heroes’ births. Most cultures
the order of nature” (Section 377, one has ever been executed in India acknowledge at least two ways of
Indian Penal Code, 1860); this law for same-sex intercourse. being non-natural – a phenomenon
remains on the books and has Apart from these obvious may be supernatural or divine, or it
generally been interpreted to refer to differences, however, an important may be subnatural and demonic.
anal or oral sex between men or difference that has not so far been Bhagiratha’s birth, like Christ’s, is
between a man and a woman. noticed is that ayoni literally means framed as supernatural. In this
However, it could conceivably be “non-vagina,” therefore this category context, it is important to remember
applied to sex between women as well. is literally incapable of encompassing that when males reproduce
There are, however, important sex between two women. On the other miraculously in the Hindu texts, a
differences between sodomy and hand, as many commentators have woman or at least an apparent
ayoni sex. First, sodomy came to be shown, sodomy was constructed as woman is always involved as the
constructed in Christendom as a an ambiguous and catch-all category inspirer of desire who causes the
horrific sin, almost the worst of all that ultimately encompassed every ejaculation – the sages see beautiful
sins, “a favored synecdoche for sin type of sexual activity apart from women and ejaculate; Shiva sees
itself.”20 Conversely, ayoni sex was penile-vaginal intercourse in the so- Vishnu in the form of Mohini and

30 MANUSHI
 ejaculates to produce Harihara; developed a deep suspicion of by the separate wives of each
Shiva is interrupted in intercourse bodily desire and pleasure but this brother, merge into a group of
with Parvati and ejaculates to suspicion always was and still is “children” in relation to the “parent”
produce Kartikeya. But when a contested in Hindu philosophy and generation. All the parents together
goddess produces autonomously, practice by the dominant idea of mourn the deaths of the children in
she can do so without the Kama or desire as one of the four battle.
involvement of a male, like Parvati normative aims of life. In many mythologies, a hero is
producing Ganesh from her body Such a concept of bodily, this- privileged to have more than one
rubbings or Devi or Sita cloning worldly pleasure as a major life-goal mother or to be raised by two loving
Matrikas from her self.22 is not to be found in Christian women – mother and grandmother,
Children as Divine Blessing theology. mother and aunts, or two mothers.
Opponents of same-sex marriage The blessing of same-sex Thus in medieval European art, the
today generally fall back on the intercourse with a miraculous child infant Christ is often represented as
argument that procreation is the in the Bhagiratha texts may be read surrounded by his mother and her
purpose of marriage. Although this as a heterosexist assimilation of female kin, especially her mother.24
argument ignores the fact that same-sex coupling; it may, In Indian traditions, the best
infertile heterosexuals and post- conversely, be seen to function as example is Krishna who is born to
menopausal women are allowed to an affirmative incorporation of same- Devaki but raised by Yashoda, the
marry, it still carries a lot of weight. sex sexual and amorous paradigmatic devoted mother.
This, Mark Jordan argues, is relationships within a religious norm In the Bhagiratha texts, the
because the Christian West has not of the good and sanctified life. two women who miraculously
fully given up its historical Opponents of gay marriage and produce a child together are
condemnation of sexual pleasure in parenting in the West today insist represented raising him together,
general: “the entire force of that the heterosexual nuclear family but in other sacred texts two
condemnation – including the is the only appropriate environment males who miraculously produce a
surplus of force left over from the for child rearing. They consider any child rarely raise it together. When
concession to marriage – could be other form of parenting, including Shiva and Vishnu (in the form of
brought to bear on it [same-sex single motherhood, as less than Mohini) together produce a son
love]. The irrational force of the ideal. For centuries, however, named Harihara (Hari=Vishnu;
Christian condemnation of Sodomy European and American literature Hara=Shiva), Mohini is embarrassed
is the remainder of Christian has represented single or paired and abandons the child on earth
theology’s failure to think through uncles, aunts, older siblings and where he is found and adopted by a
the problem of the erotic.” 23 Jordan adoptive parents as superior to childless royal couple, and grows
also points out that many branches neglectful biological parents. up to become the god Ayyappa. In
of Christianity, in their celebration Hollywood continues this tradition a later legend, Ayyappa, when
of families and reproduction, have of representation today. questioned by Narada as to his
“degenerated into fertility cults” In Indian joint families not only relationship with Parvati, wife of
(174), thereby giving up the Gospels’ do co-wives or co-husbands (like Shiva, and Lakshmi, wife of Vishnu,
prioritization of spirit over body. the Pandavas in the Mahabharata) becomes puzzled, and retreats to the
Writing as a Christian, Jordan sees raise children together but so do forest where he is still worshipped.25
the celebration of biological fertility brothers and sisters-in-law. This In contrast, the god Kartikeya, born,
as pagan, not Christian. norm is reflected in the Tamil terms in some versions, of Shiva’s
I would go on to argue that a for a father ’s older brother interaction with Agni, is raised by
“pagan” emphasis on biological (Periappa, literally, big father) and Shiva’s wife Parvati.
fertility in conjunction with an father’s younger brother (Chitappa, However, single men can be
acceptance of desire and bodily literally, small father), and their represented as very tender adoptive
pleasure as fundamental to life might wives (Periamma, big mother, and fathers, for example, Shakuntala,
be congenial to the construction of Chitti, small mother). In the born to a sage and a heavenly
same-sex desire as potentially, if Mahabharata, the children of the nymph, is abandoned by her
miraculously, fertile. As discussed five Pandava brothers, whether born biological parents and raised by
earlier, Hindu ascetic traditions of their common wife Draupadi or another sage who finds her and

No.146 31
 adopts her as his daughter. Thus, Virtuous relationships in element – the God of love’s energy
non-biological parenthood of normative texts are those where the or tej, backed by all the Gods’
various types emerges in Hindu individuals make sacrifices not blessing, results in the birth of a
sacred stories as both a social reality only for each other but also for beautiful and extra-special child.
and an ideal. their families and friends, the Bhagiratha, like his mothers’
Co-mothering by pairs or groups community, humanity, and the Gods. relationship, may be socially labeled
of mothers appears as an ideal as These norms, which also reappear as illegitimate. In one version of the
early as the hymns of the Rig Veda in modern Indian cinema, are not story, he is taunted as the product
(circa 1500 BC). Agni, one of the very different from those in pre- of adulterous love; in another
most important deities in the Rig modern Europe. The one significant version, his mother considers
Veda (after Indra, the largest number difference concerns sexual suicide. So the miracle is not an
of hymns address him), is intercourse. European texts judge easy one – it involves conflict,
repeatedly described as “child of cross-sex relationships by whether struggle, and defiance of social
two mothers”(dvimatri), and they are only about sexual desire norms. Only the Gods and the
occasionally, “child of three (lust) or also about love, but same- sages, who are emissaries of the
mothers” (the three worlds). Agni’s sex relationships are represented Gods, support Bhagiratha and his
two mothers are sometimes Heaven only in terms of love. They cannot mothers. One may compare the
medieval European plays that
and Earth (the sun, moon, and stars be represented as good if they are
dramatize Joseph’s rejection of
are the fires of heaven) and explicitly sexual. This is not always
Mary as adulterous and her
sometimes the two sticks from which the case in Indic texts.
vindication by the angel of God.
fire is generated for the sacrifice.26 An argument routinely put
Like Jesus or like children of
These two parents sometimes are forward by opponents in the current
same-sex parents today, Bhagiratha
identified as father and mother but international debate about gay
has a shadowy father; Bhagiratha
far more often, as two mothers.27 marriage is that marriage is for
is termed Dilipa’s son as Jesus is
The Miracle of Birth procreation and child-rearing but termed Joseph’s son. The gods’
While the Bible and the Qur’an same-sex couples cannot produce a participation in his conception also
appear to declare all same-sex sexual child together. In response, one makes him the child of the Gods. If
relationships undesirable, Hindu could argue that most societies every child is a miracle, because
texts appear to distinguish the have tended to see fertility as a nature or the Gods have to
desirable from the undesirable. The divine blessing – that is, a child is cooperate in conception, then
criteria for judging a relationship thought to be produced not just by Bhagiratha is no different from other
praiseworthy appear to be the same parents but by some third force, children, except that in his case, the
whether the relationship is that of nature or the gods, and even today participation of the Gods is more
siblings, friends, lovers or spouses. most societies rhetorically represent visible. Bhagiratha is different from
The question is: is the relationship every child as a miracle of sorts. If other children because he has two
a selfish one or does it contribute that is the case, then the child of a mothers rather than a father and a
to the greater good? Purely selfish same-sex couple could be seen as mother, but he is also different in
relationships based only on even more of a miracle. having marvelous abilities. He can
individual pleasure are judged Bhagiratha’s birth to two women perform exceptional feats because
undesirable and shown to logically is a possible monstrosity made he himself is the product of an
culminate in disaster since two miraculous by divine blessing. Two exceptional feat. He may be read as
individuals who selfishly desire versions of the story (Padma a trope for that which is perceived
each other for their own pleasure may Purana and Krittivasa 1) follow as abnormal but which actually
also desert each other when they the fairytale paradigm wherein transcends the normal and rewrites
discover that they can get greater inner beauty transforms outward the norm. Like the children of many
pleasure elsewhere. Such are the appearance. When the sage realizes same-sex parents today, he makes
many folk tales that show a man and that the child is not mocking him, as possible the impossible - he is the
a woman eloping together only to most children would, he heals the son of two mothers, and he also
soon discard one another for other child. In the third version, however, brings the Ganga down from
lovers. the presence of the third divine heaven. As such, his existence

32 MANUSHI
 blesses not just his parents and 5 In the story of Supriya recounted at the Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine
beginning of this chapter, Supriya’s sons Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition
lineage but also society and humanity
addressed her co-wife in Marathi as Kaki or (Berkeley: University of California Press,
at large. aunt (literally, father’s brother’s wife). In 1986), and Samjukta Gombrich Gupta, “The
Thanks to the American Council most Indian communities, cousins raised in a Goddess, Women, and the Rituals in
of Learned Societies, the Social Science joint family also think of and refer to one Hinduism,” in Faces of the Feminine in
another as siblings. Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India, ed.
Research Council and the National Mandakranta Bose (Delhi: Oxford University
Endowment for the Humanities, for 6 Kaviraj Kunjalal Bhishagratna, An
Press, 2000),87-123.
English Translation of The Sushruta Samhita
awarding me a fellowship for the year (Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series 1 9 See “Shiva Purana: The Birth of
2003-04 to work on this project. Any Office, 1963), Vol. 2, Chapter 2, p. 132. Kartikeya,” in Vanita and Kidwai, Same-
views, findings, conclusions or Sex Love in India, 77-80.
7 Alain Danielou, The Complete Kama
recommendations expressed in this Sutra (Rochester, Vermont: Park Street 2 0 Mark D. Jordan, The Invention of
paper do not necessarily represent Press, 1994), 194. For a detailed analysis of Sodomy in Christian Theology (Chicago:
same-sex sexual relations in this text, see University of Chicago press, 1997), 17.
those of the National Endowment for my essay, “Vatsyayana’s Kamasutra,” in
the Humanities. I would also like to Vanita and Kidwai, Same-Sex Love in India 2 1 Same-Sex Love in India, 101.
thank the following for giving me an (New York: Palgrave, 2000), 46-53. 2 2 See “Shiva Purana: The Birth of
opportunity to present versions of this 8 Many Hindu narratives show a sage Ganesha,” in Vanita and Kidwai, Same-Sex
work, and the audiences for the intervening to give a childless king and/or Love in India, 81-84.
discussions that led me to refine the queen children. In most cases, as in that of 2 3 Mark Jordan, op cit., 175.
the birth of the heroine Damayanti, the
argument: South Asia Program at the sage’s blessing has the desired result; in some 2 4 For further analysis of this paradigm,
University of Michigan; Center for the cases, like that of Vyasa and the widowed see Ruth Vanita, Sappho and the Virgin
Study of Gender and Sexuality at New queens of Vichitravirya in the Mahabharata, Mary: Same-Sex Love and the English
the sage himself fathers the widow’s child. Literary Imagination (New York: Columbia
York University; Center for Lesbian University Press),
and Gay Studies at City University of 9 For an analysis of the disabled
Ashtavakra’s empowering role in the disabled 2 5 See “The Embrace of Shiva and Vishnu,”
New York; Seattle University; Bhagiratha’s life, see my essay, “Disability and my essay, “Ayyappa and Vavar: Celibate
Kalamazoo College; Swarthmore as Opportunity: Sage Ashtavakra Mentors Friends,” in Vanita and Kidwai, Same-Sex
College; and the 2004 Pacific, Asian, Bhagiratha,” in Ruth Vanita, Gandhi’s Tiger Love in India, 69-71 and 94-99.
North American Asian Women in and Sita’s Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality
and Culture (forthcoming Yoda Press, New 2 6 See Alfred M. Hillebrandt, Vedic
Theology and Ministry annual Delhi, 2005). Mythology, trans. S. Rajeswara Sarma (Delhi:
conference, “Religion, Sexuality, and Motilal Banarsidass, 1990).
1 0 For the dating problem with regard to
Asian and Asian American Cultures: the Krittivasa Ramayana, see Sukumar Sen, 2 7 The Bhagavata Purana (IX. 14.49)
Embodying the Spirit in Our History of Bengali Literature (New Delhi: provides a heterosexual interpretation of the
aranis. In the Mahabharata, however, only
Communities.”
Sahitya Akademi, 1960; 1979), 67-69.
the mother is identified with the fire-stick.
11 Vanita and Kidwai, Same Sex Love in A passage extolling the importance of the
Endnotes India, 100-102. This translation is by
1 Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai, Same- mother as the dearest of all beings notes “Of
Kumkum Roy. this union of the five elements in me due to
Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature
and History, (New York: Palgrave-St 1 2 Ibid, 101. my birth as a human being, the mother is the
cause as the fire-stick of fire” (Santi Parva
Martin’s, 2000; New Delhi: Macmillan, 1 3 Kaviraj Kunjalal Bhishagratna, An Part II, CCLXIII). A more intellectualized
2002), xiii-xiv, xx-xxi. English Translation of The Sushruta reading occurs in the discourse of a Brahmana
Samhita, ibid. to his wife, recounted by Krishna to Arjuna:
2 For a similar argument, see Allen J.
Frantzen, Before the Closet: Same-Sex Love 1 4 Caraka-Samhita, translated and edited, “intelligence devoted to Brahman is the lower
from Beowulf to Angels in America (Chicago: Priyavrat Sharma (Varanasi: Chaukhamba Arani; the preceptor is the upper Arani . . .
University of Chicago Press, 1998), Orientalia, 2nd. Ed. 1994), Vol. 1, pp. 418- From this is produced the fire of knowledge”
especially 16-25. 427. (Aswamedha Parva XXXIV). Theosophist
Madame Blavatsky commented that the
3 Alan Bray, The Friend (Chicago: 1 5 John Boswell, The Kindness of Strangers
secret mystical meaning of the female arani
University of Chicago Press, 2003). 1 6 Padma Purana, VII. 17. 81-84. had been “perverted into phallic significance”
Deshpande, page 2381. by a materialist later age (H. P. Blavatsky,
4 Even in John Boswell’s strong reading Theosophical Glossary, New York:
of same-sex unions blessed in churches 1 7 Padma Purana, V. 15. 42b-46.
Theosophical Publishing Society, 1892).
(Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe), Deshpande, page 2371.
he does not claim that these marriage-like The author is a Professor in Liberal and
1 8 See, for example, Sukumari Bhattacharji,
relationships between men were explicitly Women and Society in Ancient India Women Studies, University of Montana,
and publicly acknowledged as sexual (Calcutta: Basumati Corporation Ltd 1994), USA. She was co-editor MANUSHI from 1978
relationships. 86. For an opposing view, see David Kinsley, to 1990.

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