Fw: hijra question

[Alberto Pelissero]

You can see perhaps Wendy Doniger, _Splitting the Difference: Gender and
Myth in Ancient Greece and India_, Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press 1999:
278-81, who quotes Serena Nanda, _Neither Man nor Woman: the Hijras of
India_, Belmont/California, Wadsworth 1990: 13, 25, 26.

Alberto Pelissero
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On Thu, 6 Apr 2000, Gabriela Nik. Ilieva wrote:
> >
> >Question:  Are there any references to eunuchs and/or hijras in Ramayana
> >and/or Mahabharata?  In Zia Jaffrey's "The Invisibles," she quotes a
> >hijra saying that when Ram, Sita and Lakshman were leaving Ayodhya, the
> >townspeople follwed them.  Rama said, "Men and women, go back to your
> >homes." But since the hijras are neither man nor woman, they did not know
> >what to do.  As a result, when Rama returned fourteen years later, he
> >found the hijras where he had left them.  Pleased with their devotion, he
> >blessed them and granted them the right to exist (p. 29).  If there is
> >such a story, which version is it in and what books?  Thank you for your
> help.
> >