The Sabarimala issue has been discussed, debated and argued upon in homes, social media, television, bars, kitty parties and also in a number of publications. Nithin Sridhar, the 31 year old editor of Indiafacts.org has taken a lot of efforts to documents facts connected with menstruation across cultures. His efforts have resulted in the interesting book - The Sabarimala Confusion : Menstruation Across Cultures, A historical Perspective. The book has been published by Vitasta. Renu Kaul Verma of Vitasta has successfully published a number of good books.
The Sabarimala issue has been discussed, debated and argued upon in homes, social media, television, bars, kitty parties and also in a number of publications. Nithin Sridhar, the 31 year old editor of Indiafacts.org has taken a lot of efforts to document facts connected with menstruation across cultures. His efforts have resulted in the interesting book - The Sabarimala Confusion : Menstruation Across Cultures, A historical Perspective. The book has been published by Vitasta. Renu Kaul Verma of Vitasta has successfully published a number of good books.
Nithin Sridhar was recently at Coimbatore in connection with the launch of the book in the textile city. Indica and Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts and Science for Women had invited him to speak about his work. The speech was followed by an interactive session. Nithin Sridhar has researched extensively on the subject ' menstruation ' and this book is an outcome of the same. His frank approach on a difficult subject needs to be lauded. The author was born in Hassan and lives at Mysuru with his family. He is also associated with the institution ' Advaita Academy '. Harikiran Vadlamani, the energy behind Indica has been very supportive of the work of this young author, speaker and thinker who is a practicing Hindu. Indiafacts.org focuses on Indian history, culture and philosophy.
Several authors and thinkers have reviewed and given their word on this work of Nithin Sridhar. Dr.Pingali Gopal, Bibek Debroy and quite a few join the list. According to Galina Krasskova, "It challenges western stereotypes of Hindu women as oppressed by patriarchal religious ideas, shows the deeply nuanced theological positions found within Hindu thought and opens the door for greater understanding, participation and discourse by both men and women, scholars and lay people about the position of women within these traditions."
"I wrote a few articles about the issues connected with Sabarimala. The media narrative connected this issue with women. Immediately it came to stating that Hinduism oppresses women and also discriminates women using' menstruation'. This lead me to start my research into the issue. I began with Hinduism but later expanded the scope of study. Therefore it was possible to write about menstrual notions and practices in Hinduism and other religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, ancient civilizations like Greek, Rome, Egypt and Mesopotamia. The book has notions found with tribal communities found in North America, South America, Africa and South East Asia. Hinduism treats menstruation in a positive manner. For the Hindus, menstruation is a positive healing, self purificatory process. It is sacred and needs to be celebrated. Others misuse the Sanskrit term ' Ashoucha ' meaning impure for creating issues. But if one reads the Hindu texts in the context of menstruation ' Ashoucha ' simply means that women are in a heightened condition of ' Rajas '. Hence menstruation itself is called as ' Rajashrava ' ( flow of Rajas ). The heightened condition of Rajas make women ineligible to perform certain activities like prayers or physical exertion etc., stated the young author.
Two themes of special focus in the book are impurity and sacrality. While they are often understood as being opposed to each other, the book examines how they are treated as two sides of the same coin, when it comes to menstruation. This is especially true in Indic traditions and pre Christian polytheistic traditions like Greco - Roman, Mesopotamian and Egyptian. Impurity and Sacrality complement each other to form a comprehensive world view of these cultures. The book also examines how the understanding of impurity in Abrahamic religions differs from those of polytheistic cultures. As part of the examination of sacrality attached to menstruation, a special focus has also been given to deities of menstruation in polytheistic cultures and to what Ayurveda and Yoga say about this essential function in a woman's physiology.
The author Nithin Sridhar was trained as a civil engineer who has worked in the construction field but has moved to journalism since 2015. His previous book, Musings on Hinduism provides an overview of various aspects of Hindu philosophy and society. The book under review has a few quotes from the famous author Amish Tripathi on its wrapper. Amish furthers the narrative, "There are a lot of misconceptions today regarding the traditional Hindu approach towards menstruation. Some think that our ancestors thought of it as impure in some way. This is an erroneous belief. I am glad that Nithin is approaching this delicate subject with maturity and nuance. Do read this book."
"Where does this connection with impurity come from. It comes from the story of Adam and Eve. She ate the forbidden apple and hence the couple got thrown out of the garden of Eden. This came to be known as the original sin. The Bible states that God punished Eve additionally for causing them both to perform the original sin. Therefore Eve had to menstruate every month. The women who are descendants of Eve are considered to be in a state of sinfulness when they enter their monthly periods.
The association of menstruation with sinfulness or moral degradation is not from Hinduism. The book is about menstruation and has Ayyappa just in the introduction. I examined the media claims and went about the book. Except the Abrahamic religions, the other traditions associate sacredness and celebration with menstruation and it is very similar to the approach propounded by the Hindu scriptures. Menarche, the first menstruation is celebrated across India, "added Nithin. In one of the chapters, Nithin criticizes the modern narrative on menstruation. He believes that one has to put in things as they are and that Hindu practices connected with menstruation are much more beneficial than the modern narrative. He also contends that the practices in the Lord Ayyappa temple is connected with the deity being a Naishtika Brahmachari ( celibate ) and not with menstruation.
Nithin Sridhar speaks Sankethi at home. It is interesting to learn that Sankethi is a southern Dravidian language that is closely related to Tamil and Kannada. It has a strong lexical influence of Kannada, Sanskrit, Tulu and Tamil. The language is spoken in Karnataka by Sankethi people who had migrated from Sengottai in Tamilnadu.
Beloo Mehra has added to the reviews by stating that, "When dealing with the Hindu view of menstruation, Sridhar provides evidence from several texts such as Vedic Samhitas, Brahmanas, Dharma Shastras, Kamashastras as well as texts on Ayurveda and Jyotisha….for the sheer amount of textual evidence one can find in this book, along with appropriate interpretations, it is a source of great information and valuable resource for researchers working in the area of women's reproductive health and or related socio cultural aspects."
The author states further, "The Western lens of ' religion ' and ' superstition ' distorts our understanding of the scientific basis for these rituals. More important than strict adherence to each and every prescription is the inner awareness that menstruation is an austerity, a self purificatory process and the recognition that menstruation practices have been designed for the overall welfare of women is important ."
The book has six chapters - Menstruation notions in Other Traditions, Abrahamic Religions, Ancient Western Civilizations, among Indegenous communities, Menstruation Attitude : Hinduism vs Modernity follow the one - Hindu View on Menstruation. A list of texts and books referred to are given in the latter part of the book. The book requires an attentive read for it is information packed. However it is a comfortable one to follow and understand. A reader of this well researched book is sure to get enriched.
Noted ‘ Ayyappa Scholar ‘ was the Chief Guest for the launch.
Well, this book is a good addition to one's library of knowledge.