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3A+Goddess+of+eunuchs&id=43193>

Ma Baucharaji: Goddess of eunuchs
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Shikha Trivedy

Wednesday, October 1, 2003 (Ahmedabad):


During Navratra, women can be seen dancing a garba at the Ma
Baucharaji Mandir that tells the tale of a local princess who jumped
into the temple pond and turned into a prince.

The unusual story of magical sex change goes on to describe how she
then marries the princess of a neighbouring kingdom.

Not all the dancers are women – some are men who have come to
become
eunuchs. According to legend, this is one of the places where Arjun
hid, dressed as a woman. Since then, Ma Baucharaji Mandir has become
the spiritual home of every eunuch in India.

"Men come here to become eunuchs. It is only possible if the Goddess
allows it," said Urvashi, a eunuch.

While the eunuchs, locally known as Pawaiyas, are amongst the chief
devotees of Ma Baucharaji, her bodyguards are equally unusual
–the
Kamaliyas, believed to be Muslim converts, became devotees of the
goddess during the reign of Allauddin Khilji.

Their genealogy, recorded in a painting at the temple depicts the
story of the hens of Baucharaji. The temple had hundreds of hens,
which are considered her royal vehicle.

The miracle

When Allauddin Khilji's army came to destroy the temple, the
soldiers killed and ate the birds. When the goddess came to know
what had happened, she summoned the hens and they began to emerge
out of the stomachs of the men.

Only those who hadn't eaten survived. Seeing the miracle, they
became Ma Baucharaji's devotees.

As a sign of respect to the goddess, the Muslim soldiers decided to
dress up as women and men simultaneously, a tradition which
continued till two decades ago.

"We were clean shaven on one side and had a moustache on the other.
We wore a bangle in one hand and kept a trishul in the other. We
wore both the ghagra and a dhoti," said Kalidas Pujara, the temple
priest.

But today the converts deny their Muslim origins, even though they
still bury their dead.

But Ma Baucharaji is not some obscure cult – the temple is the
second most important goddess temple in Gujarat after Ambaji and
visited by thousands of believers especially during Navratari.

Baucharaji with its hazy boundaries between genders and religions is
a strange anomaly in a state which many consider the stronghold of
hardline Hindutva.