[INDOLOGY] Sexual Harassment

[Artur Karp]

I hesitate ---

Let me admit - yes, despite my Indological preparation - while in India (I
used to live and work there for four years) I had the feeling that the
omnipresence of the Śivaite phallic symbols - erect and often presented
with naturalistic detail -- the feeling that these images themselves might
be felt as - sort of - aggresive instruments of sexual harassment. And that
feeling of mine was confirmed by my wife, a Christian by her upbringing,
and ethnographer by profession, but not an ardent church goer, not at all.

How these symbols are received by non-Śivaites? Any negative reactions in
literature?

I hesitate - I would not want my question to be taken as criticism directed
at the religious tenets of Śivaism. Far from it.

Artur K.

2016-10-17 20:31 GMT+02:00 Shyam Ranganathan <shyamr at yorku.ca>:

> Hello all
>
> Well, it's often struck me that many of the stories of Vishnu where Laksmi
> or some incarnation of her's is involved have elements of sexual harassment
> (or threat of sexual assault) with Vishnu coming to intervene on her side.
> The abduction of Sita is certainly one example, but so it seems to me would
> be the Varaha avatara. Krishna marrying Rukmani (by having to abduct her)
> is an example too. In the Venkateshwara story where Vishnu is kicked in the
> chest, Sri takes it as an affront to her boundaries.
>
> The case of Narakasura seems different as in some presentations it is
> Satyabhama who has to release the captured women (though she arrives in
> battle with Krishna who faints I hear), but Krishna marries the freed women
> as a way of securing their independence. On this point it seemed to me that
> whenever Krishna married someone they were basically free to carry on their
> life as they choose (in the absence of further threat). (Rama's marriage to
> Sita seems almost the opposite.)
>
> It's also struck me that the backdrop story of Vishnu's demon killing
> avataras that I grew up hearing--- of the four Kumaras who are barred from
> entering Vaikunta and subsequently curse the guards (forcing Vishnu to
> participate in their expiation)--- starts the ball rolling by calling out
> agism, as (I was told) they were not allowed to enter because they seemed
> to young. But what Vishnu has to endure with Sita as Rama is the absurdity
> of patriarchy (listening to elders etc.,), which is sexist too. The Krishna
> avatara seems to have gotten over that problem: he generally doesn't listen
> to authorities as Krishna, or at least he picks and chooses what authority
> to endorse, but he also liberally finds his partner everywhere in many
> forms (in contrast to Rama).
>
> I'm no philologist, so I cannot cite chapter and verse (all of this
> largely from my memory raised in a Sri Vaishnava household), and I'm sure
> that the details of these stories will vary according to sources. But there
> does seem to be a strong theme in the Vishnu Laksmi stories about sexual
> freedom, and the threat posed by misogyny and patriarchy. Things go best
> for Laksmi and Vishnu when patriarchy and misogyny have no pull in their
> environment. Certainly, this generalizes for us all.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Shyam
>
> Shyam Ranganathan
>
> Department of Philosophy
> York University, Toronto
>
> On 17/10/2016 1:23 PM, Artur Karp wrote:
>
> > harrasment
>
> orthography, yes - being harassed by domestic problems, one tends to
> forget the spelling rules.
>
> Artur K.
>
> 2016-10-17 19:18 GMT+02:00 Artur Karp <karp at uw.edu.pl>:
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> Should I understand that there are no traces, no mentions of sexual
>> harrasment in the entire - vast - corpus of ancient/medieval Indian
>> literature?
>>
>> My thanks to Nagaraj Paturi - for his hint re.
>>
>> Artur Karp (ret)
>>
>> Uniwersytet Warszawski
>> Polska
>>
>> 2016-10-07 20:16 GMT+02:00 Nagaraj Paturi <nagarajpaturi at gmail.com>:
>>
>>> I guess studies focussed on Draupadi's disrobing or Draupadi's
>>> harassment by Keechaka must have dealt with the issue of sexual harassment,
>>> though I do not have a ready bibliography.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 7, 2016 at 7:51 PM, Artur Karp <karp at uw.edu.pl> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear All,
>>>>
>>>> has the topic of sexual harassment been ever addressed within South
>>>> Asian Studies?
>>>>
>>>> If not - why?
>>>>
>>>> Artur Karp (ret.)
>>>>
>>>> Uniwersytet Warszawski
>>>> Polska
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Nagaraj Paturi
>>>
>>> Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.
>>>
>>> Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies
>>>
>>> FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,
>>>
>>> (Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
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