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Angala Devi
Hindu goddess From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Angala Devi, also known as Angalamman and Angala Paramesvari, is an aspect of the Hindu goddess Parvati, primarily worshipped in the villages of South India as a kaval deivam, a guardian deity. She is often additionally considered to be an aspect of one of the Matrikas.[2] However, she predates Hinduism's presence in South India and is not an exclusively Hindu goddess. She is particularly venerated by thirunangai (Tamil transfeminine people) and seen as an ethical role model and legitimizer for their existence.[3]
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Legend
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Perspective
Angalamman is a manifestation of Parvati that is more popular in South India. She is a fierce form of Parvati who is a guardian deity in many villages. It is stated that Parvati took the form of Angala Amman to help Shiva get rid of the Kapala that was following him after he cut off the fifth head of Brahma.
At one point the Sembadava (a caste of freshwater fishermen) considered Angalamman to be their clan diety. They believe that Angalamman was a Sembadava woman who Shiva fell in love with, and at one point performed rituals to her where participants dressed up as Shiva by wearing a feathered cap and smearing ashes on their faces. She has also been recorder as keeping away "the devils of the forest".[3]
According to legend, Shiva took the form of Bhairava and cut off the fifth head of Brahma for being arrogant about his creation. Brahma had no remorse about the suffering that living beings experienced on earth. Shiva soon felt remorseful. To receive redemption for the sin, Brahma told him to become a wandering ascetic (Bhikshatana) and beg for food in his skull, and he felt remorse for and cured the suffering of living beings on earth.
As per the story of Angalamman, the fifth head of Brahma started following Shiva. The head of Brahma made his home in the arm of Shiva and started eating whatever Shiva received from begging.
Parvati decided to put an end to the Kapala of Brahma. On the advice of Vishnu, she prepared food for Shiva at Thandakarunyam Tirtham near Angikulam Tirtham. Shiva came to eat the food. Parvati intentionally scattered food around the place and the Kapala of Brahma came down to eat them, leaving the hand of Shiva. Parvati seized this opportunity and took the fierce form of Angalamman and stamped down the Kapala using her right leg and destroyed it, turning it into ashes, after which it merged with Brahma.
Another version of this story is that originally, Brahma and Shiva both had five heads. Brahma one day disguised himself and attempted to have sex with Shiva's wife, Parvati, but was caught when she saw his true reflection in the water. She told her husband of this, and in his rage he struck Brahma, and took one of his heads off. The head stuck to Shiva and began sucking away his life force and driving him mad. He wandered the world's cremation grounds, afflicted and eating marrow from human bones, half burnt corpses, and drinking blood. Vishnu informed Angalamman that soon Shiva would arrive at a cremation ground near her, and that she had to cook massive amounts of food and scatter them in the area. The food enticed the head to release Shiva so it could eat the food, and Angalamman stomped on it. Unfortunately, this meant the head was now attached to Angalamman, and began driving her crazy and making her eat corpses. To help her, a large yearly festival occurs (Mayana Kollai) where large amounts of food are taken to the cremation ground.[3]
The most famous temple dedicated to Angalamman is the Sri Angala Parameswari Temple at Melmalayanur in Gingee Taluk in Villupuram District in Tamil Nadu.
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Connection to transgender women
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Angalamman is often connected to thirunangai (literally "honorable women", a term used by transgender Tamils that is synonymous with the term aravani). Like the hijra community (both the Muslim/syncretic majority and Hindu minority), thirunangai also venerate Bahuchara Mata, but she is considered a distant figure only associated with the nirvan (gender affirming surgery). In day-to-day life, amman (mother) goddesses like Angalamman are more important. Many of the transgender devotees to Angalamman are maruladis (trance dancers) or saamiyaadis (deity dancers). Both terms refer to the practice of dancing while embodying or being possessed by a god(dess). They also may perform healing rituals, benedictions, counter-sorcery, exorcisms, and so on while channeling Angalamman. Beyond channeling and possession, some of them are ritual experts on venerating Angalamman, and perform devotional labor (cooking, cleaning ritual spaces and paraphernalia, and making garlands for rituals). Cisgender people often consider the thirunangai to be Angalamman in human form, regardless of if they are currently in trance.[3]
For thirunangai with an intimate connection to Angalamman that grants them power, they connect their ability to use that power to their closeness to the goddess, and in turn connect that to their integrity. A person who has not acted with integrity and has power from Angalamman will see their power wane and decrease in efficacy, often meaning people who come to them for healing are not helped as much as they could be.[3]
Many transgender women in India also make money via sex work, which Angalamman does not judge them for. Some of them explicitly do it to ensure they can host lavish festivals for the goddess by securing funding, though donation campaigns are also used. Angalamman is also venerated in other non-Brahmin, artisanal, and working-class communities, and connects thirunangai to them in a broader social network.[3]
Many transgender Tamils are primarily secular in their activism, though this may exist alongside communal veneration of goddesses.[3] Unlike the Muslim hijras, or Hindu trans communities like shiva-shaktis and joginis,[4] thirunangai do not make religious identity a core feature of being a thirunangai, though individuals may find it important. Some thirunangai dedicated to Angalamman are Muslim, or practice a syncretism with her worship and Islam. Thirungai also do not use their position within religion as a basis for their political goals, even if they leverage it socially. Some are careful to delineate and keep quiet their religious activities specifically because they do not want to present as "Hindu" in their transgender activism in the current Hinduvta influenced political environment. Not all thirunangai are devoted to Angalamman, though many still socialize at events related to her.[3]
The association between the goddess and transgender women has likely always existed on some level, but specifically has intensified over recent decades as trans activism has become more public. The surviving historical record makes no mention of transgender people at Angalamman ceremonies before the latter half of the 20th century, but we do know ritual crossdressing was done, and doing so made one embody the goddess. Some older thirunangai who lived during the early to mid 20th century have also noted that the gender presentation among transfeminine people was different back then, and it would have been easier for authors to mistake a "pottai" for a man, since they would have cut their hair short and worn some men's clothes, but with a few articles of women's clothing or with the clothes arranged in a feminine way. Additionally, hormone therapy didn't exist or was not easily available back then, and fewer people went through nirvan (a form of castration used by transfeminine communities in India).[3]
Several terms like rit/reet, guru, guru-bhai, and chela are used both by thirunangai and hijras.[3][4]
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See also
Notes
References
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