Five held for kindnapping, castrating youth

 A Selvaraj, TNN Apr 4, 2009, 04.01am IST

CHENNAI: When 16-year-old Vinoth, a class 9 dropout, disappeared from his house in Kovalam in 2006, his parents searched long and hard, in vain. In March 2009, he surfaced as Trisha,' a transgender. His parents Nagooran, a daily labourer, and Rani then approached two NGOs and through them the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women. Their petition was then forwarded to the police and special teams were formed.
On Friday, five persons, including three transgenders, were arrested for kidnapping Vinoth, castrating him and forcing him into sex trade. The five S Arasu alias Arasi (25) of Kovalam, S Subbu alias Subakaran of Annai Sathya Nagar in Kasimedu and transgenders D Radha alias Raja (52), S Shanthi (32) of Kellys and S Kuttima (31) of Kallarai were later remanded in judicial custody.

"When he turned up at our house on March 11, my mother was shocked to see Vinoth wearing women's clothes, lipstick and nail-polish. He did not utter a word for a whole day," Rani said in her petition.

According to the police, Vinoth, after dropping out of school, went back to his parents in Kovalam but didn't want to be a burden on them. He approached soothsayer Arasu, said to be an MSM (men who have sex with men). The latter allegedly had sex with him. Vinoth left his house on July 18, 2006.

The petition said Arasu took Vinoth to Kasimedu and left him at Subbu alias Suba's house. A day later, Vinoth was taken to transgender Radha's house near the old central prison. Radha confined him there for more than a month and forced him to wear women's clothes. "Radha promised my son a job in Pune and sold him to another transgender Angalamma. Later, my son was given to Subalakshmi who forced Vinoth into begging. His signature was taken and he was taken to a hospital in Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh where an operation' was performed to turn him into an eunuch. He was then forced into prostitution. Finally, he managed to flee and return to Chennai on March 11," said Radha.

The five accused were booked under Sections 3 (1), 4 (1), 5 (1) and 6 of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act and Sections 363 (A), 372, 373, 346, 326 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 120 (B) of IPC.

On Friday, while the arrested were being taken to a magistrate's court in Egmore some of their relatives and friends stage a road roko'. The anchor of a private TV channel who came to cover the incident was gheraoed by a group of lawyers and transgenders.

source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-04-04/chennai/28052701_1_transgender-kovalam-rani

12-yr-old castrated, forced to be part of eunuch group

Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times   New Delhi, March 05, 2013

First Published: 00:49 IST(5/3/2013) | Last Updated: 02:08 IST(5/3/2013)

When their missing son came back home after six months, his family was unable to decide whether to celebrate his return or grieve his plight. Their son Apurva Singh (name changed) was a victim of forced castration, carried out by a group of eunuchs.
Six months ago, when the 12-year-old did not show up long after school hours, his worker parents approached the police who failed to locate him. Apurva became yet another name in their list of 5,540 children, who went missing last year.
The Singh family had lost all hope of finding their son, until last week when Apurva showed up at their doorstep. He was their son, but the child inside him was gone. “He was much more mature,” recalled a neighbour.
He had been lured by a person with the offer of sweets. That person had been friendly with him for some days. An unsuspecting Apurva ate the sweets he offered and fainted. When he woke up, he found himself on a dirty cot in a small dingy room.  
Apurva was surrounded by a group of eunuchs, who offered him good food and new clothes and said they were now his family. He was kept there for the next few days. The eunuchs began teaching him all about his new life — of being a eunuch.
Almost two months later, the boy said he was given a tablet that made him unconscious. He was apparently castrated in his sleep and he woke up with pain in his private parts. “The eunuchs told me that the pain will subside soon and gave me medicines,” Apurva recalled.
The wounds healed in a month after which he was made a part of a group of eunuchs, who would collect money at marriage venues and the homes of newborns. He got his share of money every day. Confident that he will return on his own, Apurva was finally allowed to visit his family.  
Rakesh Senger of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a child rights group, said “Nearly seven children go missing from Delhi every day.” He said cases like Apurva’s were not unusual in Delhi, but their number was not very high.
A similar case was reported in 2008 from Jahangirpuri in northwest Delhi.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/12-yr-old-castrated-forced-to-be-part-of-eunuch-group/Article1-1021176.aspx

Boy forced to change sex for flesh trade in Bangalore

Bengaluru, Nov 10: March 23, 2008, a IX standard boy Chandrashekar, a resident of Dasarahalli goes missing. Today the same boy Chandrashekar has been rechristened as Shilpa and is under the safe custody of the police. Till now the police were groping in dark to investigate cases relating to child missing or kidnaps. With the rescue of this missing boy the police have got a new investigation angle to detect cases of the missing that is to question eunuchs. The Samigehalli police in the Bangalore North East police jurisdiction have rescued Chandrashekar and have arrested two eunuchs for allegedly kidnapping him.  The euncuhs arrested are identified as Basavaraj alias Mangala (26), resident of Nelamangala and Vedu alias Baby (20), native of Tumkur.
The eunuchs have revealed that a team of eunuchs specailsed in kidnapping school children had kidnapped Chandrashekar near Government High School in Dasarahalli based on their behest. Later the boy was taken to Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh and was subjected to sex change operation. Initially the boy was induced with a hormon injection and once again the boy was taken to Kadapa and was subjected for a final sex change operation and was rechristened as Shilpa.
Meanwhile Venkatappa, father of the victim had filed a complaint with the police. But the police were unable to find the boy. On Friday the Sampigehalli police found the victim standing under the Hebbal fly-over and luring customers for flesh trade.
The police who were tipped-of about the flesh trade took Chandrashekar  to their custody and later learnt about the tragic incident. Based on the statements of Chandrashekar alias Shilpa the police arrested the two eunuchs and are questioning them. The two eunuchs have revealed several names of their gang members who are  absconding. The Sampigehalli police is further investigating.

source: http://news.oneindia.in/2008/11/10/boy-forced-change-sex-flesh-trade-bangalore.html;

Teen undergoes forced sex change surgery by eunuchs

Lawrence Milton, TNN Nov 20, 2008, 11.29am IST

MYSORE/BANGALORE: This is a story of a teenager who was forced to undergo a sex change surgery and face a traumatic life as a girl.
Manju, (19), a native of Mysore taluk, turned a girl in a few months and wears feminine clothing. Like other children, he had dreams of pursuing higher education and leading a normal life, but his fate took a turn for the worse after an encounter with two eunuchs in Mysore city, about six months ago, when he came for admission into a PU college.

The eunuchs pounced upon him that afternoon and bundled him into a four-wheeler on Sayyaji Rao Road, before being taken to Mumbai via Chennai.
He did not know what had happened to him for nearly three months after his abduction as he was sedated continuously without being allowed to regain consciousness. Later, he realized to his shock that a forced surgery had been performed on his genitals.
"I was served only two chapattis and coffee every day. But, when I gained conscious, I was shocked to see that my genitals had been amputated," he recalls, adding that the trauma he underwent was unimaginable. "I writhed in pain for many days."
Manju managed to escape from the clutches of the "hijras " in Mumbai only five days ago and reached Mysore taluk. But the incident came to light only on Sunday, after the district police visited his house to pursue the case of "missing person" his parents had filed in July, two months after he went missing.
Manju, now Manjula, said: "It was on May 6, when I was kidnapped by a gang of six 'hijras' from Sayyaji Rao Road. I was intercepted by two of them when I was visiting a college to enquire about admissions to first PU.
"They took me to a house in Mysore and later shifted me to Chennai the same night. Before that, a group of hijras served me rice, probably mixed with some sedatives. But when I regained conscious I was handed over to them in Chennai, who later shifted me to Mumbai few days later."
A tearful Manju recounted how he was put to sleep for three months inside a closed room. "At that time, I was not aware about the surgery. They also administered hormonal injections on my chest to develop breasts. Later, after a few weeks, I was let out along with a group of hijras to beg on the streets of Mumbai.
In the meantime, I befriended a Marwari from Karnataka during my visit to the shops there. On 12 November, I escaped from them on pretext of washing hands after having a lunch at a hotel. The Marwari helped me to reach Bangalore and later funded to go his village," said Manju.
According to the police, they came to know of it only after a visit to his house to check whether "the missing boy" had reached home or not.
The police said they would crack down on eunuchs in the city, so that it may lead them to solve some more cases of missing children.

source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2008-11-20/bangalore/27896444_1_mysore-eunuchs-hijras;

Forced Sex Changes

 Homosexual relationships are banned in Iran, but the country allows sex change operations and hundreds of men have elected for surgery to change their lives.
Ali Askar - renamed as Negar
“He wants to kill me. He keeps telling me to come home so he can kill me. He had put rat poison in my tea.”
For Ali Askar, at age 24, the decision to become a woman came at a heavy cost. His father threatened to kill him if he went ahead with surgery.
Now renamed Negar, she says she would not have had the operation if she did not live in Iran.
“If I didn’t have to operate, I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t touch God’s work.”
But as Ali, he felt he had no identity.
He could not work with men because they sexually harassed him and made fun of him. But he could not work with women because he was not officially a woman.
“I am Iranian. I want to live here and this society tells you: you have to be either a man or a woman”.

“Diagnosed transsexuals”
Sex changes have been legal in Iran since Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, passed a fatwa – a religious edict – authorising them for “diagnosed transsexuals” 25 years ago.
Today, Iran carries out more sex change operations than any other nation in the world except for Thailand.
The government even provides up to half the cost for those needing financial assistance and a sex change is recognised on your birth certificate.
“Islam has a cure for people suffering from this problem. If they want to change their gender, the path is open,” says Hojatol Islam Muhammad Mehdi Kariminia, the religious cleric responsible for gender reassignment.
He says an operation is no more a sin than “changing wheat to flour to bread”.
Yet homosexuality is still punishable by death.
“The discussion is fundamentally separate from a discussion regarding homosexuals. Absolutely not related. Homosexuals are doing something unnatural and against religion,” says Kariminia. “It is clearly stated in our Islamic law that such behaviour is not allowed because it disrupts the social order.”

Sex change surgery
Dr Mir-Jalali, a Paris-trained surgeon, is Iran’s leading specialist in sex change surgery.
He claims to have performed over 450 operations in the last 12 years.
Many of his patients are struggling to figure out what to do because they do not fit into the norm. They see Dr Mir-Jalali as a saviour.
“Transsexuals feel that their body doesn’t match how they feel,” he says. “Whatever you do, psychiatrists, pills, prison, punishment, nothing helps”.
Another of his patients, Anoosh, 21, was deeply unhappy before surgery and felt pressured to leave school because of his feminine behaviour and appearance.
“I wanted to live like everyone else, like all the other boys and girls walking around. My goal was simply to find my own identity.”
Like many young people in Iran, Anoosh struggled to reconcile his sexual identity with the wishes of family, community and culture. He says he was continuously harassed and threatened with arrest by Iran’s morality police before he had his sex change.
His boyfriend was also keen for him to go ahead with the sex change because 90% of the people they passed in the street said something nasty.
“When he goes out in female clothes and has a female appearance it is easier for me to persuade myself that he is a girl. It makes the relationship better,” he says.
For Anoosh’s younger brother, Ali Reza, it was harder to come to terms with Anoosh’s desire to become a woman.
“I have had a brother for many years. I can’t just suddenly accept him as my sister. If I refer to him as my brother he gets upset. But it’s hard for me to believe this”.
Anoosh’s mother, Shahin, raised her children alone and had high hopes for her son.
“My child was meant to be the star of the family. I counted on him to be something other than this”.

Avoiding shame
Documentary film maker Tanaz Eshaghian spent weeks filming Anoosh, Ali and other transsexuals in Iran. She thinks that part of what is driving many of the boys to operate is the desire to avoid shame.
“If you are a male with female tendencies, they don’t see that as something natural or genetic. They see it as someone who is consciously acting dirty.”
Being diagnosed as a transsexual makes it a medical condition, not a moral one.
Once a doctor has made a diagnosis – and an operation is in the pipeline – the transsexual can get official permission from his local government official to cross-dress in public.
“They look for a solution that will at least allow them to be attracted to the gender they are naturally attracted to – without feelings of shame, sin and wrong-doing – and move around in society without harassment. The price is often being disowned by your family,” says Tanaz Eshaghian.

After surgery
Anoosh who became Anahita, and her boyfriend
Ali Askar – now renamed Negar and aged 27 – said that after the sex change operation she was initially depressed.
“But now, it’s like I have been born again and I am in a new world.”
But her family’s reaction has taken its toll. Although they warned her she would be disowned, she thought that they would change their mind after the operation.
“They pray for me to die soon. If I’d known that my family would truly shun me like this, I would never have done it.”
She now lives with other transsexuals who have had a sex change. She has had to work as a prostitute to make ends meet.
Rejection by her parents has affected her deeply: “When parents can kill the love for their own child inside themselves, I have killed love in my being. I will never fall in love”.
But for Anoosh – who has changed her name to Anahita – there is a more positive outcome.
“Now when someone is attracted to me, it is as a girl,” she says.
She is now engaged to her boyfriend and even her mother is happy.
“A boy will always just get married and leave his mum, but a girl stays, a girl is always yours and will never leave, and now I will never experience the sadness that occurs when a boy leaves.
“I always wanted a daughter and I think it’s a gift from God that I finally got one.”

source: http://muslimmannersblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/forced-sex-changes/;  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7259057.stm

Changing gender is no easy task in India

As old as the Kama Sutra, South Asia’s hijra communities are one of few transgender sub-cultures around the globe with such a long history.

Hijras are men or hermaphrodites who identify as women. They are a marginalised caste that generally ekes out a livelihood through performing, begging and sex work. Some hijras choose to undergo ritual emasculations in which the penis and testicles are removed, and boiling oil is used to cauterise wounds. The ritual includes a pre-dug grave for the bodies of patients who do not survive.

Medical options

There is a safer transformation available to people in India, an option that enables people to change their sex outside the hijra traditions. A few medical teams around the country offer gender reassignment therapy.

“We don’t get many patients for gender reassignment; maybe six to ten people per year,” says Dr. Sajal Haldar. He is the cosmetic surgeon for a team that provides treatment in New Delhi. “Expense is the main concern.”

Haldar says the therapy is complex. To transform a man to a woman requires breast implants, castration, penectomy, construction of a vagina and countless other procedures. Changing a woman to a man is just as complex, and both transitions require ongoing of hormone treatments. Haldar says the entire process can cost up to three lakh rupees, approximately 7000 USD.

Cutting corners

For many people in India, that price tag is just too high. Christy Raj, a citizen journalist from IndiaUnheard, recently produced a story about a person who chose a cheaper path, with dire consequences. Sneha Prabha says that she paid between two and three lakh for treatments that included castration and vaginal construction, but left her with pain and urinary tract problems. Prabha says she had some procedures done illegally, and that left her with no recourse for the botched surgeries.

Raj is also transgender. Born with a female body, he lives as a man. Raj says he is scared to start gender reassignment therapy because of stories he has heard about surgeries gone wrong. He believes that Indian law about sex change operations are unclear; he has seen a lot of confusing information about what treatments to get, and where. “Without having any proper information, I cannot get it done and harm myself.”

Legal but taboo

Dr. Richie Gupta says gender reassignment therapy is legal in India, “but there is a lack of information and education about it.” In fact, since 2006 government hospitals in Tamil Nadu are obliged to pay for gender reassignment therapy. Gupta says the only legal hurdle to treatment is that would-be patients have to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether they are truly transsexual.

Gupta agrees that cost is a barrier in parts of the country where people have to pay for their own treatment. There are social barriers as well. “There is a strong familial stigma about being transgender,” says Gupta. “The family fabric is very strong here. People rarely go against the wishes of their family.”

Hijra In India

Sexual prejudices and discrimination as a whole continue to be dominant in certain societies in India. Even if women are partly enjoying their independence .and freedom allocated to them, still it is not enough. Whereas the <<Hijras in India a general Term <Hijra> is used to eunuchs and travesties. The way the word <Hijra> itself is pronounced is very derogatory manner emphasizing on insult. These people are not considered to be deem fit in societies, because of their harrowing plight remain unknown to the heterosexual majority .They are known as sexless person. Throughout their life, they encounter lot of injustices and prejudices. Unlike, every normal heterosexual couple, they are being set aside from the society, they belong too. For eunuchs, Living happily or acquiring their dreams is simply a <Myth> as happiness is beyond their reach.
Nevertheless, they are always found to be dancing and singing on the road. They normally come out in groups of about five to ten and spread out in the streets approaching small shops and restaurants for alms. Normally people give them small alms out of fear of being cursed. It is widely believed in India that the curse of a <Hijra> is very effective; same with their blessings. Most eunuchs in India live by begging. No one will ever realize that these people are actually striving hard to earn their living. It is like a <parda> of fake happiness covering their real identity and their grief. It is indeed contradictory as with their ill-fated destiny, still they manage to bring smile, enjoyment and happiness in other people’s life. Group of eunuchs learn some music and dancing based on Hindi movie songs and offer to dance at small family functions like naming ceremonies of newborn children, weddings and other. This is a way for them to earn their living.
They prostitute themselves and beg to survive. Few members of India’s sexual minority communities gays, lesbians, bisexuals and <hijras >or the “third gender”-dare for fear of being scorned and much worse to stand up and publicly identified, leave alone struggle for their rights. For examples, they  are sexually and economically exploited by the men, the threats and violence from men in the streets and the abuses they had to face, as no one are willing to employ them, because of who they are.
Thus life of a <hijra> is one never- ending series of torments. Some tries to get out of poverty by getting jobs through various NGO working for justice of sexual minorities. They deserve every possible right. There is the need for them to be recognized by the state as equal citizens, to have education and be decently employed, to marry and adopt children, and be free from hate and scorn.

Another 'Kinnar' getting married in Nagpur today.

Vinita Chaturvedi, TNN May 7, 2013, 12.00AM IST

 There is jubilation in the Kinnar samaj. After all, another daughter of this marginalised society is getting married today to a straight guy, at their Kamptee Road habitat. This is the second case in the nation, where a Kinnar Muslim Bride will tie the knot with Hindu groom. Blushing bride-to-be, Zeenat, says: "I have no fear in my heart because in Abhay Sonone, I have found my soulmate."

Aur pyaar ho gaya...
Their lovestory has a filmi ouvre. Zeenat met her dream man on her way to work, where she would have cane juice at his kiosk every day. "Milte milte nazrein milee aur pyar ho gaya," says she.
I'll fight all obstacles
Groom-to-be, Abhay, knows that the path ahead will not be easy. But, there's steel in his voice when he says: "My parents haven't accepted Zeenat. But, I will take care of her and fight all the obstacles that come in her way. She will not work after marriage, and dare anyone pass a comment on her, I will take it as a personal insult."
Mother's worries
While she's looking after the guests and decorating her 'daughter', Zeenat's gurumaa Fiza Kashish Shah, is unable to stop her tears of happiness. "I want all the girls of my clan to get married and have a happy life and not face any harassment ever. I hope the cops also start treating us as humans, and not as objects of mockery."

source:http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-07/man-woman/39090113_1_zeenat-cane-juice-dream-man

Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk 2013 - the 12th edition of India's oldest queer pride walk:

Come join hands and walk with us shoulder to shoulder, with heads held high celebrating solidarity amongst diverse sexualities!

Date: July 7, 2013

Possible route:

Starting Point - Hazra Crossing.
End Point - In front of Academy of Fine Arts, Rabindra Sadan.

Timing : Walk will commence tentatively at 3.00 pm

Keep track for more updates.

Please feel free to invite more friends and supporters to this event. The more the merrier! Hope to see you all :)

KANNIGASALAM POOJAI

 History
Kannigasalam goes back to ancient Sadir times. Devadasis were servants of God. Most were women, but some were transsexuals. There is a thin line between the cultural practices of both genders. But basically who were the davadasis? The devadasi tradition (தேவதாசி; “servant of god”) was a religious tradition in which girls and transsexual women are “married” and dedicated to a deity (deva or devi) or to a temple and includes performance aspects such as those that take place in the temple as well as in the courtly and mujuvani [Telegu] or home context. Dance and music were essential part of temple worship. Originally, in addition to this and taking care of the temple and performing rituals, these women learned and practiced Sadir (Bharatanatya), Odissi and other classical Indian artistic traditions and enjoyed a high social status.

During British rule in the Indian subcontinent, kings who were the patrons of temples and temple arts became powerless. As a result, devadasis were left without their traditional means of support and patronage. During colonial times, reformists worked towards outlawing the devadasi tradition on grounds that it supported prostitution. Recently the devadasi system has started to disappear, having been outlawed in all of India in 1988.
However, devadasis still exist in India today, as shown in a 2004 report by the National Human Rights Commission of the Government of India. According to this report, “after initiation as devadasis, women migrate either to nearby towns or other far-off cities to practice prostitution” (p200). A study from 1990 recorded that 45.9% of devadasis in one particular district were prostitutes, while most of the others relied on manual labour and agriculture for their income.

Devadasis are also known by various other local terms, such as jogini. Furthermore, the devadasi practice of religious prostitution is known as basivi in Karnataka and matangi in Maharastra. It is also known as venkatasani, nailis, muralis and theradiyan.

Devadasis were sometimes referred to as a caste in India, so were the Hijras of the north and the Thirunangais of the south.

The Ceremony’s Origin

From the late medieval period until 1910, the Pottukattu or tali-tying dedication ceremony, was a widely advertised community event requiring the full cooperation of the local religious authorities. It initiates a young girl or transsexual into the devadasi profession and is performed in the temple by the priest. In the Brahminical tradition marriage is viewed as the only religious initiation (diksha) permissible to women. Thus the dedication is a symbolic "marriage" to the temple's deity, not a physical marriage like men and women.
In the sadanku or puberty ceremonies, the devadasi-initiate consummates her marriage with an emblem of the deity borrowed from the temple as a stand-in 'bridegroom'. From then onward, the devadasi is considered a nitya sumangali: a woman eternally free from the adversity of widowhood.
She would then perform her ritual and artistic duties in the temple. The puberty ceremonies were an occasion not only for temple honor, but also for community feasting and celebration in which the local elites also participated. The music and dance and public display of the girl or transwoman also helped to attract patrons.

For the transsexuals, they practice the Kannigasalam Poojai which is similar to the pottukattu but has a higher level of dedication and slightly different than a girl devadasi. Kannigasalam is not the same as the Catholic methods of becoming and being a nun. The transsexuals patronize the goddess Bahuchara who is the essence of fertility. Thus, when a transsexual is “touched” by Bahuchara, she will be led by the deity to fulfil her destiny.

In simple words, Kannigasalam is to become the daughter of the respective deity. The Catholic nuns practice averageness, obedience and chastity in order to serve God. But this is different for the transsexual women as they do not experience the same puberty changes as biological women. But the similar Hindu nuns as in the Catholic principles would be the Brahmacharinis (who were Kanniyastris, not Kannigashtris).

To become a Kannigashtri, you should have three main intentions, to serve the deity as her daughter, to preach her teachings and to assist all who come to you in her name. It is a choice to remain celibate because celibacy was to ensure you were not distracted from your duties for God.

The Ceremonial Procedure

The kannigastri will first undergo physical purification by doing the Jalem Pooja. After the Yagna (sacrificial fire offering) and Maha Pooja to the deity, the deity will be bathed in the Kumbham holly water and with other abhishega ingredients such as milk, turmeric water, attar, rose water, and abhishega koote. The bath water is reserved into a pail and the kannigastri is later bathed in it by her mother, grandmother, or sisters. She is later dressed and adorned with accessories just the same as how the deity is prepared.

Before the kannigasalam pooja, the deity’s Kala Graha Kundalam Pooja is performed. The deity now presides as a young maiden and the kannigastri will sit in front of the deity. The gurukal takes responsible of the process towards the deity and his assistant will perform the same towards the kannigastri.

The floor the kannigastri sits will become the Puniya Stalam. It is decorated with the kolam made of turmeric paste. A stool is placed in the centre of the kolam and the kannigastri sits there. Then it is the nalenggu process where mothers, grandmothers and aunts spread turmeric paste on the arms of the kannigastri, the kumkum (saffrom powder) is placed on the arms in a red dot and one on the forehead and temple.

Prior to the pooja, the mangalyam or thali is prepared, and it is the same as the dasis. The thali is in the shape of two pottus side by side as 1 (double pottu thali). A yellow thali string is used to weave them together and it may be complimented with the mango pendant and others.

The time is observed by the priest to ensure all goes well within the heavenly timings. At the right time, the mangalyam is tied around the neck of the kannigastri and the deity by the gurukal and his assistant simultaneously. Next the aarathi is taken to ward of the evil eye and the kannigastri lives to serve the deity.

If she chooses marry, the groom has to be bound to the deity as well, but this has to come from him naturally and not by force. The deity will be observed for the first year and in this duration there will be many challenges and unfortunate incidents. IF she has a suitor, on the second year, the annual yagna is performed and the yellow string that is tied from the sacrificial flames to the deity acts as the new thali string.

On the third year, if all is still well with the blessings of the deity, the groom prepares 2 sets of the same double pottu thali. The yellow string is used to hold the set which would be tied for the kannigastri. The yagna is performed and the first ritual is repeated but this time the wedding will be similar to the Meenakshi thirukalyanam whereby the hand of the kannigastri will be given to ther groom by anyone who is related to her as an elder brother. The thali is tied for both the kannigastri and the deity simultaneously. This bond is called the Sokkan-thamotharanam. Goddess Meenakshi did perform kannigasalam before being married to Shiva as Sokkanathan.

The marriage will be blessed to last for eternity and when the kannigastri meets her end (even if her husband leaves her first), she will be buried or cremated as a sumanggali with her thali. Her mangalyam is never taken away from her and she descends to the feet of God.

Traditionally, no stigma was attached to the devadasi or to her children, and other members of their caste received them on terms of equality. The children of a devadasi were considered legitimate and devadasis themselves were outwardly indistinguishable from married women of their own community.

Furthermore, a devadasi was believed to be immune from widowhood and was called akhanda saubhagyavati ("woman never separated from good fortune"). Since she was wedded to a divine deity, she was supposed to be one of the especially welcome guests at weddings and was regarded as a bearer of good fortune. At weddings, people would receive a string of the tali (wedding lock) prepared by her, threaded with a few beads from her own necklace. The presence of a devadasi on any religious occasion in the house of an upper caste member was regarded as sacred and she was treated with due respect and was presented with gifts.

Devadasis nurtured the arts - dance and music - to the high levels of today. They were torchbearers of these arts throughout the history of India under various rulers, passing on their legacy until the end of the 19th century. After that period the upper castes started learning these arts, taking away the devadasis' only means of subsistence.

Meenakshi Sokkanathan

Legend has it that the emperor Kulasekhara Pandyan was the founder of the ancient city of Madurai. He was succeeded by Malayadwaja Pandyan. Malayadwaja Pandyan and his consort Kanchanamala who did not have any children of their own, worshipped with the desire of obtaining progeny. During the course of their ceremonial prayer, a baby girl appeared in the sacrificial altarmiraculously.

The Royal couple brought up this child as their own and named her Tataatakai. An odd feature about the baby was that it had three breasts instead of two, and that a divine prophecy decreed that the third one would miraculously disappear, at the princess’s sight of her consort to be.

Tataatakai grew up to be a valorous queen; she was also known as Meenakshi, the one endowed with fish like eyes. Tataatakai embarked upon a DigVijaya or a tour of victory, across the length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent. In the course of her travels she came to Mount Kailash where she encountered Shiva; upon standing in front of Shiva her third breast disappeared and a valorous warrior princesstransformed into a blushing bride.
Shiva directed Meenakshi to return to Madurai, and promised her that he would join her in eight days as her groom. Accordingly Meenakshi returned to Madurai, and at the appointed time, the divine wedding was celebrated with pomp and splendour. Maha Vishnu, believed to be the brother of Meenakshi is said to have given the bride away after her kannigasalam.

Legend has it that Meenakshi and Sundareswarar ruled over the city of Madurai for a long period of time.Sundareswarar also goes by the name Sundara Pandyan.Ugra Pandyan the son of the divine couple is believed to be none other than Subramanya.

The legend of Meenakshi Kalyanam brings together four of the six main streams in popular Hinduism i.e. the Saiva,Shakta, Vaishnava and Skanda faiths – and this grand culmination of faiths is still celebrated in great splendour today, in an enactment of Meenakshi Kalyanam each year

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