“…a mob attacked the couple alleging that they had been found in a compromising position.”
A young Sikh police officer saves a Muslim boy (from certain lynching) found with a Hindu girl in a place of worship which in this case happened to be the temple of an innocent Hindu goddess. The temple of Garijya Devi aka Girija Devi is near Ramnagar in Uattarkhand.
On an island in the middle of Kosi river this small temple of local hill deity Garjiya Devi is located atop a large rock. In earlier times, just where the dirt road descends to the temple, before you cross the river, there was a Buddhist monastery of which little remains now and the entire compound has occupied by the temple authorities. To reach the temple one needs to first cross a bridge over the river, climb down the other side and them climb a hundred odd near vertical steps on a very narrow stair case – a single side of which is just enough for people to walk up in single file. Further up as your reach sanctum sanctorum one is supposed to circumambulate the deity again on a narrow corridor, and get down the other side. On a dry patch facing the temple and on its side are a hundred odd thatch roof shops selling all kinds of stuff for offerings and prayers. Hundreds of people throng this place including locals, tourists, pandits who perform rituals, locals acting as guides, boat owners for a ride over the river, drivers of buses and private cars and mahauts with their elephants. Barely 10 kms from here is the famous Corbett National Park, so this temple becomes a part of the itinerary for visitors. Right behind the temple is a huge hill with two smaller temples of lesser known deities at its base. Having visited Garjiya Devi temple people also proceed to these temples…. ‘now that you are here might as well visit the others too and why offend the lesser deities’. Now, in this miles of open stretch there is not a single place where you can be away from the prying eyes of the people… mind you it is a river bed which is flooded during monsoon – not even a tree behind which may attempt to hide, unless you plan to swim across the river on either sides and walk into the thick jungle. It defies me how could this romantic couple be ‘hiding’ anywhere or were found in any ‘position’ compromising or otherwise. By the way, I visited the place only last year during our trip to Corbett. The inhabited area or villages around do have a fairly good number of Muslims population.
I do not believe any one who says that the couple was doing any thing hanky-panky. I can find no answer as to why the young couple would chose a place like that to spend their day out when they could have easily walked a kilometer across in any direction to enjoy to their fill. The girl had brought the young man, possibly her lover, to visit the temple, or to show him the temple – which, him being a Muslim living in contemporary times, he wouldn’t have dared to go alone – or to take vows of eternal togetherness – or even a harmless picnic with a friend.
And, what was that ‘compromising position’ in which they were found or caught by the moral police? Not with their pants down, not kissing or hugging, not even holding hands. They were sitting by the river not even their shoulders touching each other. The boy was decently dressed, the girl too was traditionally dressed with dupatta on her head. And what is that ‘position’ called?
Dictionaries and chacha Google describe the position as:
“Compromising” usually used as “found in a compromising position” or (especially if referring to a sexual act) “in flagrante delicto” are typically euphemistic newspaper terms meaning “caught with your pants down” i.e. doing something romantic/sexual with someone other than your long term partner.
Come to any of the metro cities, you would find them by hundreds hanging out in market places, gardens and parks, inside and outside the pubs and malls, cinemas – in all kinds of places and positions. So what was the problem? Big one… ‘love jihad’? A Muslim had dared to manipulate a Hindu girl? No my dear in this case they are all wrong. It was the girl who took the boy there, to the temple. She was nobody’s wife in bed with her secret lover… she too was conscious of her izzat in this society of narrow minded imbeciles. She wasn’t doing any wrong, neither in private nor in public. The two were there very much to announce their presence together. Period.
During my visit, I had seen at least a dozen men literally with their pants down shitting by the side of scared river, next to the sacred temple, and then washing their filthy shit with the clear flowing water and further more washing their dirty infected hands with the same water that is taken hundreds of step up as an offering to the deity or used to make prasad. I also saw at least one women peeing away from the banks, though her back was covered (advantage saree). Doesn’t this undignified position create any awkward moment for the moral police, pundits, pujaris and devotees – men or women propagating swachh bharat – why does this not arouse disdain or anger – don’t these or other similar acts violate the Devi or the faith – but mere presence of ‘the other’ (who didn’t even chose his faith) prompts them to act like barbarians. A mob out to kill a defenceless innocent individual!
All this emanates from their fear, their suspicion, their fragile morality, their perception of superiority as a race, an act without their social consent or approval – contrary to the way they want you to speak, eat, dress, pray, support or be seen. Though they will be too happy to convert ‘the other’ to their faith but for that ‘the other’ must surrender to a temple, a thread, a ritual, a brahmin and not to a woman.
Damn you.. he is in love with a woman not a temple or a mosque.
But that reminds me that I am in love with many a temple (mosques don’t come in this category of love unfortunately) – not at all for reasons of faith – but for their form/architecture, sculptures, carvings, engravings, and the erotic art. I am also secretly fascinated by the texts, iconography, imagery, folk or dance – or all put together – for what they have to offer.
Thousands of Shiva temples abound this beautiful land – each one with a 3D union of Shiva and Shakti, the Lingam and the Yoni in full public display, accepted without any issues of morality, explained by scriptures, understood even by children today. What ‘position’ is that? Can I take ‘that’ position with my partner and sit on a window sil? Women and men not only visit these temples by millions but also pray to be blessed with that physical and spiritual bliss. The milk which is poured over the lingam, and flows down the yoni… ah… man which culture has better symbolism for conjugal nectar. Krishna Leela, the love-lore of eternal couple is sung by few more millions celebrating love both physical and divine in all its glory in public space, be it the kunj or by the side of a pond, forcing his woman to step out naked from water in the presence of all her friends. Even if all this is a myth, we were better off in 3000 BC. This is the land where Kamadeva is a worshiped as god of desire.
Even in 10th Century AD we were an extremely liberal and open about the concepts of relationships and sex. Our temple art is a living example of that. Millions of domestic and international tourists visit these monuments to a glorious past and write tomes about them, but to puritan Indian sensibilities that is in the realm of Gods. At home they would cover Goddess Kali in all finery for they fear a woman’s body, naked or under a cloak. I suppose even Gods can seduce debauched brains.
Ever visited some renowned temples with the most voluptuous art: Kailasa in Ellora; Khjuraho; Sun Temple, Konark; Jagdish Mandir, Udaipur; Markendeshwar Nath, Mahrashtra; Padawali, Chambal; Lingaraja, Bhubaneswar; Osian, Rajasthan; Virupasha, Hampi, Karnataka; Bohramaodev, Chhatisgarh; Nanda Devi, Almora; Tripurantaka or Shivamogga, Karnataka. This is just a select list which is officially sold by our tourism departments to showcase ‘India and its culture and heritage’. And all these are existing physical specimens from over a thousand year back. Our minds and thoughts were much saner and purer than. Thousands of artisans and commoners spent decades intricately chiseling each piece with nothing but the idea of creating a masterpiece, a replica of their societies, their bodies, their acts and their desires transfused in dead stones, metal or logs which resonate the pious and the secular. Go and check out the most stunning sculpted wooden figures used as struts holding the ceilings of Hindu temples in Patan, Lalitpur or the Pashupati Nath in Nepal. Each of these truly sacred spaces celebrate the human and the physical body in all its glory, in purity of thought.
Ever heard of devdasis (married to deity – the sacred prostitutes) – the temple girls and courtesans, their ilk is spread from Maharashtra to Andhra, Kanataka and Tamil Nadu. They are venerated till date.
Ever heard of Kama Sutra the ancient “sex manual”? Why did ‘sage’ Vatsyayna (3rd Century BC) from Banaras had to document it for posterity – write it in such detail, nearly illustrated? For he knew that some retards would survive and create mayhem just because they are the lineage of the frustrated lot. The book is on top of the chart of a collective consciousness. Thanks to Richard Francis Burton who translated it into English in 1883 otherwise these finest treatise of desire and sexual union would have never been shared by Brahmins. The book deliberates, in depth, that in order for a society to be happy, both man and woman should be well-versed in the arts of pleasure, both carnal and cerebral.
Its basic tenets explore social concepts, ways of attracting women, sexual union, how to acquire a wife, about the wives of other men and about courtesans. What a man or a woman should do to win over the other, the role of a match maker, and the reasons why women might reject the advances of men. In terms of choosing a mate, the Kama Sutra does not bar between caste and class, in turn faith too.
Its ten chapters graphically explain amorous advances, sexual union, stimulation of desire, types of embraces, caressing and kisses, marking with nails, biting or marking with teeth, on copulation and its positions, slapping and moaning, virile behaviour in women, superior coition and oral sex, pre- and post acts to the game of love.
- It describes 64 types of sexual acts or positions, trust me not one of them is labeled ‘compromising position’. Vatsyayna also talks of how to deal with a situation when caught in the act of sex with anothers’ wife. That too is not a ‘compromising position’ for him.
Ankahi. Unsaid. 