Meaning of Muria

[Swaminathan Madhuresan]

   The Monier-Williams data on "zUlA" as harlot, does it have
   anything to do with marrying basavis/devadasis with trident
   pillars?

--- "N. Ganesan" <naga_ganesan at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> In Kannada, devadasis are basavis, and tamil sangam
> texts call dancing women as viRalis. Both have the
> same meaning, "strong women" which has to do with their
> auspicious ritual power to convert inauspicious/uncontrolled
> things into auspicious/controlled. Karnataka custom of marrying
> basavi devadasis to bulls (Nandin) in temples may have ancient
> antecedents. I've seen Wendy Doniger relating Rishyashringa
> myth with Enkidu bull-man tamed by a prostitute,
> and Parpola connecting the unicorn of IVC seals (motif
> borrowed from Mesopotamia) with Rishyasringa myth. I think
> the basavi devadasi marrying basava bulls may ultimately be related.
> Like Karnataka, Tamilnadu has the custom of marrying
> devadasis to stones (called nATTukkal), and let's see
> how people adapt when high govt. authorities and Chr.
> missionaries want to ban the ancient tradition:
> <<<
> "But by far the the most sorrow laden hour was spent in
> the village from which the little child was taken to
> the temple near our home ... they chained her fair
> young body to the cold and cruel stone ... married
> her to the god" (Carmichael 1907).
> In the 1920s, interim legislation was passed forbidding
> the dedication of minors. This meant that if a girl
> were to be dedicated before puberty some other type of
> ceremony had to be devised. The need for dedication
> before puberty was a very real concern for the isai
> vellala [farmers of music -NG] community who introduced
> a practice known euphemistically as the "Rose Garland
> Ceremony"(rOjA-pU-mAlai). This consisted of a rose garland,
> with the symbol of the marriage, the pottu, hidden in it,
> being placed around the neck of the young girl to be
> dedicated. Dedication continued, usually in secret
> from the authorities, but with the knowledge of the temple
> authorities and the local townsfolk and villagers
> (Amrit Srinivasan 1984).
> >>
> (p. 30, A-M. Gaston, Bharata Natyam: From temple to theater,1997).


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