Feminism and Lalleshwari
BY Rohini Vaishnavi
My knowledge about Mata Lalla has come through the folklores and the verses spoken in day-to-day life by my grandmother when I was young. Coming from a generation of Kashmiris who barely spent childhood in Kashmir before we had to finally flee due to the violence in the state, I consider myself fortunate to have at least heard by word of mouth, the verses such as
Hu Kus Be Kus
Teli Wan tche Kus
Moh Batuk Logum Deg
Shwas Khich Khich Wang-mayam Bhruman daras Poyun chokum Tekis Takya bane Tyuk
This was a fun song for children, the words were quire distorted which I didn’t now even till recently. I was surprised that the verse which seemed to be a song for children was actually summing up the essence of Kashmir Shaivism.
The verse means :
Who are you and who am I, then tell us who is he the creator that permeates through both you and I
Each day I feed my senses/body with the food of worldly attachment and material love (Moh = attachment)
For when the breath that I take in reaches the point of complete purification (Shwas = Breath), It feels like my mind is bathing in the water of divine love (Bhruman = nerve centre in the human brain, poyun
= water).Then I know I am like that sandal wood which is pasted for divine fragrance symbolic of universal divinity. I realize that I am, indeed, divine
It set me thinking as to how a woman could muster the strength to leave her home and defy all societal norms seven hundred years before. I couldn’t but stop thinking about her as an ordinary woman who left the home of her parents at a tender age of 12. Chandra Ju Bhat was her father and he would see inquisitive Lalla asking questions and seeking answers to existential issues. That is when he introduced her to his own guru , known by all as Sid Srikanth.
This verse talks about her thirst for knowledge. “gwaras pritshyom sasi late
yas nu kenh vanan tas kyah nav pritshan pritshan thachis tu lusus kenhas nishi kyah tany drav.”
A thousand times did I my Guru ask. What is the name of the one who can’t be named. And asking again and again I tired myself out. How has something come out of nothing?
Her childhood was lost to mistreatment by in laws to the extent that she didn’t get enough to eat. Her mother-in-law would place a stone in her plate and cover it with little rice to give it the appearance of a mound. Lalla would eat whatever she was given in her plate, wash the stone and quietly keep it aside in the kitchen. A vulnerable woman she was, it was a predictable behaviour of anyone in her place in the 14th century and even now in the 21 st century, in large parts of India. Lal Ded’s life took a turn at the age of 26 , when she finally renounced her family. It was quite gutsy to challenge the societal norms and break free from the exploitation and humiliation that she went through at the hands of her husband who would be suspicious of her character, to the extent of following her when she went outside home to fetch water or visit a shiva temple nearby.
She was just a kid when she had to adapt in the new home of her in – laws and suddenly life turned hostile. We think of her as our mother and mothers are super women who shield their children, she is not vulnerable or weak , she is supposed to have the endurance of the earth, which bears hardships only to create a conducive environment for the sustenance of life in it. Think of her as a young vulnerable girl who only faced hostility. It happens even today and the women adapt, dilute their own personality and blend with the circumstances. Sticking to what you stand for in 14th century Kashmir was indeed a courageous act, a path which was laden with thorns.
I have heard this verse by Lalleshwari very often during my childhood, “Kath Maritan ya Hond , lalli su nilvath chali na zah.”
It means that even if there is feast at home, whether a big sheep is killed or a smaller one to be cooked, for me there is only a stone in my plate and nothing changes for me.
Whatever little I read about the Vakhs of Lalleshwari, I did not see their interpretation from a feminist angle. Even though there is no feminism in her Vakhs which could be because they were not perceived through a woman’s eyes ,however her poetry is woman’s work and she gives a voice to women. I heard a video of Mita Vasishth who has directed a play on Lalleshwari , she says, “ I was expecting to read feminism in Lalleshwari’s verses but I ended up seeing nothing about the emancipation or exploitation of women or fighting for women’s rights. On the contrary I only found her desire to become one with god.”
The Vakhs were verbally uttered in the 14th century and documented many centuries later and hence there is a lot of scope for varied interpretations and the dilution of the original essence. Since most of the writers used to be men, the interpretations are obviously from a male perspective. Vakh means speech in Sanskrit. These are short verses comprising of few lines. Lal Ded never wrote anything; she spoke and it travelled through word of mouth across generations of Kashmiris that it became a part of the everyday language. A mother would scold a child using Lal Vakh or put her to sleep with another Vakh. Someone would express her joy , agony or humour through a La Vakh. Lalla’s contribution to Kashmiri language and literature was immense as she introduced Shaivism to an ordinary Kashmiri in their own Vernacular. Shaivism was limited to Sanskrit knowing population till then.
Several women authors have researched Lal Vakhs in the recent past but by then a narrative had been established. Lalleshwari is seen as a mother , very respectfully and her Vakhs are indeed an expression of Kashmir Shaivism to the core. However, Lalleshwari was a woman too and I must say that even though mother is a woman but a mother is perceived as a protector, procreator; she is supposed to possess the strength to fight any odds to protect her children. Talking about women in general, they could sometimes be frail and at other times have personal desires and ambitions, like any other human being.
The following verse suggests how much rejection and denigration she must have faced, for she did not toe the conventional path:
“ Yous me maley, hedyam gelyam, maskari karyam Su ha male, manas kharyem na zanh
Shiv Panun yeli anugrah karyam, Luk hyedun me karyam kyah
It means: Anyone who mocks at me or makes fun of me, will never be disliked by me. When my Shiva will finally accept me, public disgrace will not matter to me.
“Lyak ate thoka , pyatha sheri hyacham, Nyanda sapnim pata brontha taney,
Lal chas kal zanh na me chenyam, Day yeli sapnis vyepihe kyah.
It means : I bore the curses showered on me by the society from the very beginning till now. I am Lall and I will never give up on my faith in the almighty. When I finally attained Shiva, nothing that the society said about me mattered any more.
She was an outcast in her society and understood its orientation with regard to patriarchy. She distanced from the society but empowered herself in the spiritual realm. For a woman it must have been difficult to have a say but Lalla dared to voice and establish herself. She, by seeking refuge in the spiritual domain, challenged the society dominated by men. Lal Ded created a transcendental space for herself wherein only oneness existed, dissolving all distinctions.
The following Vakh again reflects this:
“Lal bo tsaayas swaman baagabaras, Vuchum Shivas Shakht miilith ta vaah ! Tati lay karmas amritsaras,
Zinday moyas ta me’ kari kyaah.” It ,means:
I, Lalla, entered by the garden-gate of my own mind, and there (O joy!) saw Siva with Shakti
sealed in one; and there itself I merged in the Lake of Immortal Bliss. Now I am dead even though I am alive, who can now hurt me. Being dead while she is alive means that even though from worldly standards , her body exists and she is alive, the world has lost the power to hurt her anymore because she has attained control over her senses.
Mother Lalla, defied all the norms of gender and feminism. Her reaction to this unfair and unjust treatment, was flabbergasting. She obliterated the gender angle by not attracting self-pity or displaying rage and instead she rose above the gender by losing the body consciousness and awakening her soul consciousness and also that of the others around her through her Vaakhs. She rose above the discourse of gender oppression instead emphasized the shaivist philosophy of Kashmir , the importance of over-coming the senses and the wavering mind and concentrating on Sadhana
(meditation) as a means to attain salvation, the merging of individual soul with the Universal Consciousness. It really meant the realizing of the Divine in one’s own being.
“ Chalun Chu wuzmal ta tratay, Chalun chu mandyan gatkar,
Chalun chu pan panun kadun gratay Hata maley Santosh wati panay.
This means that forbearance is like lightening and thunderstorm, darkness in the middle of the day and like being ground in a mill stone. If you be patient you will find god.
All this reflects how she must have swum against the tide. Renouncing home and living the life of an ascetic , was not ordinary for a woman of 14th century.
Her Vaakhs depict her suffering such as the following one:
Lal bo draayas kapsi poshici sa’tsu’y Kadya ta dunya kadnam yichiy lath Tayi yeli kharnas zaviji taiye
Vovreye van gayam alhanz lath
Dobi yeli chavnas dobi kanya pyathay Saz ta saaban machnam yachay
Sachi yeli firnam hani hani kachay Ad Lal mai provum param gath
I was born like a cotton flower, I, Lalla, set forth in the colourful world. But soon the cleaner and the carder came and gave me hard knocks and blows. Spun into a gossamer yarn by a woman spinner on her spinning wheel, I was helplessly hung upon a loom, and given more knocks from the weaver’s broom. Now turned into cloth, I was dashed and dashed by the washerman on the washing-stone. Then into a large mortar made of stone, he threw me, and with his grimy feet, rubbed me with fuller’s earth and soap. The tailor now worked his scissors on me, and cut me with care, piece by piece. Thus was it that I, Lalla, at last entered the High Estate of God.
In the above vaakh, she discusses her coming to this world as a flower full of enthusiasm, potential and possibilities but upon receiving harder blows from the society she was turned into something that could be put into service or use (Kak, 2007). Lalla felt an inner need to transcend the socially assigned roles. She set herself free from the shackles of the society by comparing the process with that of washing a piece of cloth. She relates the cleansing of herself with rubbing a cloth with soap and dashing it on the slab to let hold of the dirt. She describes the shredding of her worldly self, her worldly identity in terms of the washed cloth being cut into bits by a tailor (Temple, 2005). The “washerman‟ in the following verse relates to the self within her that aspires to reach the Supreme and hence engages in acts which empowered Lalla to transcend the feminine self. Every bit of cloth which is cut relates to the parts of Lalla‟s personality which turn into shreds and allow her true identity to come to the fore. Lalla, the daughter, Lalla, the daughter-in-law and Lalla, the wife, all these disassociated personalities leave hold of her and she emerges as a woman categorically refusing to confine to the socially
prescribed modes of behaviour (Kak, 2007). She says: When the washerman dashed me on a slab of stone, Rubbing me with much soap and washing soda and the tailor cut me into bits with scissors, I, Lalla, attained supreme bliss (Kak, 2007, p. 43) Lalla felt the need to transcend the conditioning that women were accustomed to and used her poetry to generate that awareness of self-empowerment and self-esteem.
She must certainly have craved for a home, which to her would have meant a place where she lives in harmony with her surroundings, without the struggle which she went through her entire life. She was after all a human being like anyone else, she was not born as a god and therefore she had to practice yog to attain salvation. The usage of the word “Home,” in my opinion clearly reveals her desire to have found a safe space where she could be loved and accepted as she was. Home is a social construct, if you remove society from the context, home disappears because it is an institution created by humans to create order in the society. She was enlightened enough to understand that she could never find a home on this earth, during her life time and hence she transgressed into a different realm where the definition of home was that of reaching the god.
It was not an easy path, there must have been times when she would have been tired, like any human being. At other times it might have been hard for her to keep going against the stream, fighting the whole world while also fighting the tough battle of attaining moksha. We look upon her as a yogini who had spiritual powers but her path towards spiritualty was that of a normal human being striving to finally attain moksha.
The following vakh reveals her struggle and the desire for emancipation and ultimate oneness with god which was like homecoming for her.
Ami pana so’dras navi ches laman Kati bozi Day myon meyti diyi tar Ameyn takeyn poniy zan sheman Zuv chum bramAn gara gatshaha.
With a rope of loose-spun thread am I towing my boat upon the sea. Would that God heard my prayer and brought me safe across! Like water in cups of unbaked clay, I run to waste. Would God I were to reach my home!
Mother lalla was up for ultimate liberation. Men, women irrespective of religion connected with her Vaakhs as they touched the daily struggles of ordinary people. She was born as a Hindu and she introduced Shaivism to ordinary Kashmiris, she was beyond religion.
Lal Ded’s Vakhs will take you on a beautiful journey through the disillusionment of the world, the distress of the man, a search for God and finally, the realization of the highest truth. Her verses touched the chords of all humans and they addressed the conflict and tribulations of the human mind.
She spoke about how much to eat, why food is not the goal of life but just a means for sustenance for achieving a higher purpose of attaining moksha. She talks about embellishing the outer appearance of our body and being consumed in the worldly objects so much so that we become slaves of it and emphasizing the importance of going inwards to realise the divinity which exists inside them.
All humans according to her were a single entity, all having come from Shiva. She appealed to people from all religions as she transcended to far greater heights of human consciousness. When her soul
left her body, it is said that her body disappeared . Both Hindus and Muslims claimed her as belonging to their religion.It is often said that Mata Lalla would roam around naked , without clothes. The inference is drawn from the following Vakh:
Gurun wonnam kunuy vachun Neybra dopnam andruyi achun; Suy gav lali mey vakh ta vachun,
Tavay mey hyotum nahangay nachun.
It means that : My Guru gave me but one percept :
“From without withdraw your gaze within And fix it on the Inmost Self.” Taking to heart this one percept,
Naked I began to roam.**
There is a controversy about whether the word “Nahangay” or” Nangay”. Was used in the verse. Latter means naked whereas former means an existence of complete freedom from all kinds of fears. Fear is an impediment in the path of attainment of enlightenment. Practically it was not possible in Kashmir , given it’s weather condition to walk around without clothes. There is no documented history about Lalleshwari. Whatever knowledge about Lalleshwari and her Vakhs, has come through word of mouth and is subject to varying interpretations. The likeliness of her being naked is too thin.
While for scholars like Nil Kanth Kotru, her nakedness symbolized her union with the Ultimate, for feminists, her roaming naked was a major challenge that she posed to the society. According to Jayshree Kak, her wandering nude was symbolic of the rejection that she posed to all worldly attachments including family, friends and home. It was a categorical violation of the patriarchal authoritative code of conduct. Neerja Mattoo opines that nakedness became a symbol and a powerful sign of authority which was Lal Ded’s own for it signalled a transcendence of her female body.
References :
A paper by Dr. Wasia, Assistant Professor, Department of English Govt. College for Women, M A Road Srinagar – year 2017
