When the World Becomes Female: Guises of a South Indian Goddess

334 Pages·2013·3.134 MB·English

by  Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger

WHEN THE WORLD BECOMES FEMALE
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WHEN WORLD BECOMES
THE
F E M A L E
GUISES OF A SOUTH INDIAN GODDESS
JOYCE BURKHALTER FLUECKIGER
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
BLOOMINGTON AND INDIANAPOLIS
Th is book is a publication of Th e paper used in this publication meets
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Indiana University Press National Standard for Information Sciences—
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iupress.indiana.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-
Publication Data
Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Flueckiger, Joyce Burkhalter.
Fax orders 812-855-7931 When the world becomes female : guises
of a South Indian goddess / Joyce Burkhalter
© 2013 by Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger Flueckiger.
All rights reserved pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
No part of this book may be reproduced or ISBN 978-0-253-00952-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic — ISBN 978-0-253-00956-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
or mechanical, including photocopying and — ISBN 978-0-253-00960-9 (e-book)
recording, or by any information storage and 1. Gangamma (Hindu deity)—Cult—India—
retrieval system, without permission in writing Tirupati. 2. Worship (Hinduism) 3. Tirupati
from the publisher. Th e Association of American (India)—Religion. I. Title.
University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions BL1225.G362F58 2013
constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. 294.5'2114—dc23 2012051547
1 2 3 4 5 18 17 16 15 14 13
For Velcheru Narayana Rao
who introduced me to the imaginative worlds of Telugu
and has been a constant conversation partner in this work
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CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgments • ix
Note on Transliteration • xv
Introduction • 1
Part One. Imaginative Worlds of Gangamma
1. An Aesthetics of Excess • 27
2. Guising, Transformation, Recognition, and Possibility • 54
3. Narratives of Excess and Access • 75
4. Female-Narrated Possibilities of Relationship • 97
5. Gangamma as Ganga River Goddess • 113
Part Two. Th ose Who Bear the Goddess
6. Wandering Goddess, Village Daughter: Avilala Reddys • 139
7. Temple and Vesham Mirasi: Th e Kaikalas of Tirupati • 157
8. Th e Goddess Served and Lost: Tatayyagunta Mudaliars • 180
9. Exchanging Talis with the Goddess: Protection and Freedom to Move • 210
10. “Crazy for the Goddess”: A Consuming Relationship • 242
Conclusion: Possibilities of a World Become Female • 265
Glossary • 273
Notes • 281
References • 297
Index • 305
vii
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Preface and Acknowledgments
Th is is a book about the South Indian goddess Gangamma, whose rituals
and narratives off er a range of possibilities and debates about gender at both
cosmological and human levels. Gangamma becomes most visible and grows
into her fullest power during her annual hot-season festival, during which
time, for one week, ultimate reality is imagined and experienced as female.
Th e relationship between the everyday lives of women and the mythi-
cal lives of goddesses—more specifi cally, whether or how the goddess may
be a model or source of empowerment of women—has been debated in
scholarly work and has caught the imagination of many others who have
not grown up with goddesses (Hiltebeitel and Erndl 2000; Gold 1994;
McDermott 2003). My research with Gangamma worshippers suggests
that, in this context, the relationship between the goddess and human
women is not of one imitation or modeling, but an empowering relation-
ship in which their shared nature as possessors of shakti (female power) is
asserted and performed. During Gangamma’s festival, female celebrants are
the “unmarked” gender; they only intensify and multiply what they already
do on a daily or weekly basis for the goddess—that is, feed her. Men (and
aggressive masculinity), on the other hand, must be transformed (by taking
female guises) to be in the presence of an excessive (ugra) goddess. Th ese
gendered possibilities are characteristic of the south Indian artisan/trader
castes that traditionally celebrate Gangamma’s festival, possibilities that
are being threatened both by processes of brahminization of Gangamma’s
largest temples and the growth of middle-class aesthetics and gender and
sexual mores.
Th e story of how I fi rst entered the worlds of Gangamma is told
in the introduction, fi rst as a curious onlooker and then gradually as an
ix