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@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@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 WarszawskiPolska
2016-10-07 20:16 GMT+02:00 Nagaraj Paturi <nagarajpaturi@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@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 WarszawskiPolska
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Nagaraj PaturiHyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.Former Senior Professor of Cultural StudiesFLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of Liberal Education,(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )
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