In light of
the excitement surrounding the upcoming pujo
season, I was recently asked about why the punya
mati, or ‘virtuous soil’, that is included in the making of the idols of
Maa Durga, must be taken from nishhidho
pali (forbidden territories) – in other words, begged for at a courtesan’s
doorstep. I’ve never really paid attention to that ritual. I was first exposed
to it when I watched the movie Devdas, and it didn’t strike any curiosity
chords in me then. Being asked and not knowing the answer got me inquisitive.
As I do with
anything and everything that I don’t know enough about, I looked it up on the
internet. It turns out that no one seems to know for sure. One of the common
explanations I got was that when men entered such places with sin on their
minds, they left their virtues at the door; hence, the soil from a courtesan’s
doorstep contains the purest of virtue. Now I don’t know if you see what I think
is so wrong about this explanation. Firstly, such men probably left their homes
with sinful intentions, thereby having left their virtues behind in their own
houses. Secondly, I don’t like or identify with the idea of discrete locations
of purity and virtue.
An
alternatively offered explanation was that this is done to include the even most
excluded types of women in the making of the ultimate divine feminine figure. Now,
if that were true, at least on that superficial level, I should think that part
of the punya mati would be taken from
leper communities as well. They’re equally excluded in our society.
But this
category can be explored further. Perhaps the soil from these areas is taken to
include one of the most potent forms of femininity in the making of a wholesome
female entity. If there is a woman behind every successful man, there’s one
behind every fallen one as well. Femininity is the most powerful weapon that a
woman has. Important men have made big decisions based on their weakness in
front of female potency. A wife cannot always be seen in this light; women
living off their bodies might more accurately represent this side of womanhood.
And who are we to judge another human being? Every form, every roop of a woman is to be celebrated.
After all, Durga represents the pure, complete, omnipotent female.
While
discussing this with a few of my family members, we came up with another
possible explanation. It was suggested that perhaps this ritual is done to rid
a man of his guilt. Keep your minds open for this one. Going by the old ways of
society, a man could be unknowingly related to the courtesan he will get the
holy soil from. When this man knocks on her door, he does not know how to
address the woman – she could be like his mother, or like his sister, or his
aunt, depending on how frivolous he or his male relatives have been – so he does
not know how he may or may not be related to her. So when he pays his respects
to her by begging for the mud, he respects her, not in respect to a
relationship or any stereotypes of society, but as a woman, and a woman alone. In
a patriarchal society where women are either someone’s daughter or someone’s
wife, this unconditional veneration might be considered to be the purest form
of respect anyone can have for a woman.
I don’t know
if people today even know the reason we have this ritual at all. I definitely don’t,
and didn’t find any conclusive answers on ever-knowing Google either. If we
start to demand the underlying reasons behind all the rituals we have for
festivals these days, we will find a large percentage of them to be utterly
irrelevant to the workings of society today. But, you know, who dares question?
