{"id":7933,"date":"2017-08-02T13:22:03","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T07:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=7933"},"modified":"2017-08-02T13:22:03","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T07:37:03","slug":"what-devdutt-pattanaik-says-about-the-kinnarsthird-genders-and-kankalasskeletons-of-tantrik-temples-in-nepal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/what-devdutt-pattanaik-says-about-the-kinnarsthird-genders-and-kankalasskeletons-of-tantrik-temples-in-nepal\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT DEVDUTT PATTANAIK SAYS ABOUT THE KINNARS\/THIRD-GENDERS AND KANKALAS\/SKELETONS OF TANTRIK TEMPLES IN NEPAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunil Babu Pant\/Pahichan – When I was a small boy, I remember visiting\u00a0Guhyeshwori<\/em>\u00a0Temple every time we visited\u00a0Pashupati<\/em>\u00a0Temple with my parents. In fact it\u2019s the other way around, my mother and grandmother usually visited\u00a0Guhyeshwori<\/em>\u00a0Temple first then walked to the\u00a0Pashupati Temple<\/em>\u00a0afterwards. Located around one kilometer east of the main\u00a0Pashupatinath<\/em>Temple, I was told that\u00a0Guhyeshwari<\/em>\u00a0Temple was one of the revered holy temples in Kathmandu, Nepal. This temple is dedicated to\u00a0Adi Shakti<\/em>. This refers to the popular legend where\u00a0Shiva,<\/em>\u00a0distressed, was carrying the corpse of\u00a0Devi Sati\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Vishnu\u00a0<\/em>annihilated it with his\u00a0Sudarshan<\/em>\u00a0Chakra<\/em>.\u00a0Shiva<\/em>\u00a0later declared the 51 such places where\u00a0Devi Sati\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0body parts fell to be worshiped as the\u00a0Shakti Peethas<\/em>\u00a0and meditated at all these places as various forms of\u00a0Bhairavas<\/em>. The place where\u00a0Devi Sati\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0knees fell is\u00a0Guheswari<\/em>\u00a0in Kathmandu.<\/p>\n

In Nepal, the form of\u00a0Shakti<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0Mahashira<\/em>\u00a0and the form of\u00a0Bhairava<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0Kapali<\/em>.\u00a0King Pratap Malla<\/em>\u00a0built this temple in the 17th century. More than the temple\u00a0Pashupatinath<\/em>and\u00a0Guhyeshwari<\/em>, and the main idols of these temples representing the\u00a0Shiva and Shakti<\/em>unity, I was struck by the vivid image of a life size\u00a0Kinnara\u00a0<\/em>or Third gender and a\u00a0Kankala\u00a0<\/em>or Skeleton, right at the entrance of the\u00a0Guhyeshwari\u00a0<\/em>temple (you can find these images all across the\u00a0Tantrik<\/em>\u00a0temples in Nepal, either at the entrance or on the temple wall-outside). I asked several people, \u201cWho are they and why these images are here?\u201d Not only did I not get any answer, but my questions made people really uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Kinnar<\/em>\u00a0or Third gender is portrayed as having long unbound hair, has very dark skinned body except the face which is white, has fully grown-up female breasts and fully grown-up male genital which is erect, and the only thing she wears is a\u00a0Bindi<\/em>\u00a0on her forehead. The\u00a0Kinnar<\/em>\u00a0image is on the rights side of the entrance as you walk out of the temple, along with lord\u00a0Ganesha<\/em>. The life (or should I say the death) size\u00a0Kankal\u00a0<\/em>or Skeleton is portrayed on the left side of the entrance along with lord\u00a0Kartikaya<\/em>. Interesting thing is that both of these images are next to big-wide open eyes on either sides of the entrance.<\/p>\n

For many years I didn\u2019t get any answers but during my recent conversation with Devdutt Pattanaik,<\/strong>\u00a0I asked him the same decade old question: \u201cWho are they actually and why these images are here? What are they trying to convey?\u201d And I hear the most fascinating reply from him.<\/p>\n

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Pic from\u00a0http:\/\/sajha.com<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Close up<\/strong>! Pic from\u00a0Kamakhya\u00a0Bhakt<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Devdutt Pattanaik\u2019s reply:\u00a0The Tantrik images are very fascinating. Perfectly aligns with Tantrik thought.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tantrik texts and imagery starts appearing in South Asia in Buddhism and Hinduism roughly around 600 AD.<\/em><\/p>\n

During this time, society shifted in two different directions.<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Gyana, which was highly intellectual and favoured celibacy and monasticism\u200a\u2014\u200aessentially rejection of Nature (Shiva in Puranas)<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Karma, which was focused on rituals and marriage and household duties\u200a\u2014\u200aessentially control\/domestication of Nature (Vishnu in Puranas)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Tantra embodied all that was being left out, rejected and denied. The raw power of nature. Its dark side. This attracted a whole school of thinkers, who were often identified as sorcerers and magicians. Lots of stories of war between celibate monks (often of upper caste) and sexual yoginis (often of lower castes).<\/em><\/p>\n

    Padmasambhava of Himalayan Buddhism comes from this tradition; he was born probably in Odisha. The Goddess plays a central role here. Here we find the \u2018hidden\u2019 aspect of life being brought to the forefront:<\/em><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Death and Decay (Kankala)<\/em><\/li>\n
    2. Alternate Sexual beings (Kinnara\/Kimpurusha)<\/em><\/li>\n
    3. Terror (Bhairava)<\/em><\/li>\n
    4. Dalits (Chandala)<\/em><\/li>\n
    5. Essentially all the Bhuta-ganas\u00a0\u2026\u2026 essential part of nature but no one likes: cockroaches, fleas, maggots, locusts, rodents.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      These are typically associated with Goddess. She is offered food that the \u2018mainstream\u2019 gods avoid: lemon, chillies, blood.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Thus is the world is acknowledged between those who deny nature, those who control nature and those who appreciate nature\u2019s hidden (guhya) side that culture denies.<\/em><\/p>\n

      In the temple gate, we are forced to see (see the value placed on eyes) what we don\u2019t want to see.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Her children (<\/em>lord Ganesha and Kartikiya)reveal her power. She managed to get the super-celibate Shiva to give her children. Neither are born normally via sexual intercourse. This is triumph of nature\/Goddess over three dominant aspects of culture\/God (priestly Brahmin, royal Vishnu, ascetic Shiva).<\/em><\/p>\n

      Modern Western society wants to bring the \u201cdark\u201d aspects of nature in public space. This frightens many ordinary folk who react with violence.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Traditional society in South Asia acknowledged the queer but avoided bringing it to mainstream. They had their place in the margins, but were never completely rejected or denied.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Hope this answers your questions.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Thank you Devdutt for this insight!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Sunil Babu Pant\/Pahichan – When I was a small boy, I remember visiting\u00a0Guhyeshwori\u00a0Temple every time we visited\u00a0Pashupati\u00a0Temple with my parents. In fact it\u2019s the other way around, my mother and grandmother usually visited\u00a0Guhyeshwori\u00a0Temple first then walked to the\u00a0Pashupati Temple\u00a0afterwards. Located around one kilometer east of the main\u00a0PashupatinathTemple, I was told that\u00a0Guhyeshwari\u00a0Temple was one of the revered holy temples in Kathmandu, Nepal. This temple is dedicated to\u00a0Adi Shakti. This refers to the popular legend where\u00a0Shiva,\u00a0distressed, was carrying the corpse of\u00a0Devi Sati\u00a0and\u00a0Vishnu\u00a0annihilated it with his\u00a0Sudarshan\u00a0Chakra.\u00a0Shiva\u00a0later declared the 51 such places where\u00a0Devi Sati\u2019s\u00a0body …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":6616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[621,492,490],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-opinion","category-slider"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7934,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7933\/revisions\/7934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}