Strangely mirrored lives
SOMA DAS
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There were some uncanny resemblances between the lives of a devadasi and a geisha, both structured by a patriarchal society.
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Beauty at a heavy cost: A still from "Memoirs of a Geisha".
WHEN two misunderstood women from different parts of the world with strikingly different looks but similar fate lines meet, would they understand each other's pain or eye the other with suspicion?
"A mortal fairy born out of beauty and poverty, moulded in a rigorous grind into a malleable personality who is a concoction of a career woman, slave, glamour queen, proficient performer and preservator of traditional art form. She has been a subject of fascination, a mysterious puzzle who is at once the revered fairy, at once a fallen disrepute outcaste". Wonder whether the above words describe a Japanese geisha or an Indian devadasi better.
String of parallels
Devadasis are a class of girls in India who are dedicated to God by ritually marrying the temple's idol. Referred to as Kalavanti in ancient texts, implying an expert in performing art, her body space is a merging ground of pleasure principles, art, aesthetics and religion.
Geisha, the Sino-Japanese word, means an art-person. Iwasahi, a geisha who authored Geisha of Gion, describes geishas as professionally trained "women in art", devoted to aesthetic pleasures. MacIntosh, the Canadian researcher, defines a geisha as one who does Gei (a performing art).
Apart from a devadasi's natural daughters, sonless, childless couples vow to offer their girl in case of wish fulfillment. Destitute parents and relatives of orphans sold girls to households maintaining the practice. The girl must be in her pre-pubertal stage, preferably younger. From the age of 7, she was initiated into a rigorous training and perfected the art of serving God. She then applied to the temple authorities to accept her as a devadasi, underwent a test before the temple administrator, a panel of learned priests and, at places, the patron-King. If found eligible, she was then declared a devadasi. At a tender age, she was married to the temple deity.
After a rigorous training, she made her debut in temple dance. Thereafter she regularly danced in temples premises, an occasion open for public viewing. Apart from regular salary from the temple, she earned valuable gifts from art connoisseurs. The amount of wealth she acquired in her youth depended on her beauty, talent and reputation. There was fierce competition among devadasis. As her youth and vigour faded, she retired from dancing and adopted one or more girls whom she groomed to carry on as devadasi, whose affairs she administered in the hope that her old age will be supported by her.
Similar fates
Similarly with geishas, usually poverty made parents sell off their pretty daughters who landed in a geisha habitation. A geisha's daughters also adopt this profession. After being bought by an Okiya (geisha household), the girl, usually aged around seven, is made to do menial household chores like a servant. This process is meant to toughen her up for a difficult life. Alongside she trains in dance, song and samisen. After passing a test in performing arts, she graduates to become an apprentice, who is absolved of housework and usually works for a single Ochaya (tea house). After a brief stint, they are promoted to maikos, a word that means "dancing girl". A maiko is trained in special hospitality traits as she is attached to a practising geisha. She has to apply to the Central Registry Office and interviewed by a selection board comprising many senior geisha where she has to present her artistry skills. On passing the test she becomes a geisha.
Once she adorns the hat of a geisha, she signs contracts with specific teahouses. Teahouses themselves have been graded so that the more famous geishas get to work with more reputed ones. Their work profile includes singing, dancing, playing samisen and entertaining the guests. Apart from her regular income from ochayas, she is given expensive gifts by her fans. Geishas have intense rivalry among themselves to be associated with the best teahouses and wealthiest patrons.
With passage of time, new, young geishas replace the ageing ones who gradually settle down as the "mother" of the household, managing the household affairs and internships of future geishas. An old geisha is sustained by the income of a successor whom she has readied for the profession
The devadasi usually adorned heavy silk brocade with real gold thread embroidery. In Orissa, the devadasi teamed the brocade with gem-studded velvet bodice and exquisite ornaments. They often used bee wax and fenugreek paste as hairstyling gel. On the face, neck and arms they smeared a paste of turmeric and sandal to whiten the complexion.
The last devadasi of Puri, Sasimoni, admitted: "Behind the elaborate dressing lied enormous pain. The weight of the attire and jewellery made it difficult to walk. The head ornaments were so heavy that I couldn't lift my head an inch to drink water even if I was dying of thirst. In Puri's sultry weather, the sticky beewax made my scalp sweat and itch but I dare not touch the hairstyle for fear of dishevelling it. Besides, I had to dance with all that on."
The basic costume of a geisha is the extravagant silk kimono with intricate thread embroidery. The waistcloth obi involves a complicated tying process. For the face make-up, a white paste made up of rice or lead was used with red lipstick and black accent around eyes. The suffering behind the beauty has been brought alive in Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha.
When a devadasi reached puberty there was a secret bidding for her defloweration after which she took on a patron who was usually from the priestly or ruling class. She had the discretion to maintain sexual relations with him, but no monetary exchange in return for sexual favour was envisaged in such a relationship. He played the role of a patron-protector. She could change patrons, but usually this was a long-lasting relationship. However, once wedded to God, she was forbidden to marry a man.
The geisha's virginity too was auctioned in a practice called Mizuage. The highest bidder became the danna, the patron of the geisha. A geisha and her danna shared a special relationship, not necessarily sexual in nature. But geishas were not allowed to marry. If they did choose the marital path, they must quit from the profession.
Societal background
Such uncanny resemblances could have been a product of similar societal set up in both the countries. Both India and Japan had an inflexibly patriarchal set up where the ideal wife was restricted to the domestic domain. Traditionally, marriages were arranged between families and pre-marriage romance was not approved of. In that context the inaccessible mystique eroticism of the damsel captured the imagination of men
As a fall out of British and American presence, both the countries entered a phase of intense political and social turmoil. The traditional aristocracy, which was the financial patron of both systems, collapsed. This led many devadasis and geishas to enter the darker lanes of prostitution.
The Westerners, unable to draw a parallel in their own cultures, misunderstood and misrepresented the fascinating characters as prostitutes, whereby their role as a preservator of art form was grossly overlooked. In 1947, temple dancing was declared illegal. In the 1940s, geishas were banned in Japan.
No doubt that the devadasi and the geisha were soul mates who could share their grief and soothe each other's pain, for, both have gone through the same hell. But the fact remains that the devadasi never met the geisha and left this world without having anyone to call her own, and no one to mourn her demise.
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