Soul still in shrines

Anuradha Dutt

The onset of e c o n o m i c liberalisation in mid-1991spurred Gurgaon's – now named Gurugram - growth from a rustic suburban town into the millennium city, considered almost at par with the capital Delhi. As a hub of business outsourcing operations, it hosts an estimated 250 Fortune 500 companies.
The rapidly changing skyline of new Gurgaon is shaped by high rises, fancy condominiums, malls and glitzy office complexes. But its soul rests in the older section, where the famed Sheetla Mata temple draws pilgrims from all parts. During the Navratris, marked by widespread worship of the feminine divine over nine days in spring and autumn, large numbers of devotees camp in the sprawling complex. Sheetla Mata, a folk deity who is propitiated for warding off small pox and other maladies that afflict children in particular, is credited by locals with having blessed Gurgaon and adjoining villages with prosperity. They owe their newly acquired wealth largely to land deals and burgeoning real estate.
Smoke wafting up from Vedic yagyas, performed in a smaller shrine on the temple premises by sadhus, with dreadlocks coiled upon their heads, embody the greater Hindu tradition. The scene evokes the ancient milieu of

Pigs in cages and goat roaming about or resting in the shade mark the divergence from the greater tradition practices, centring on sanitised modes of worship, and offerings of fruits, flowers and prasad, obtained from non-violent sources. Here devotees make the same offerings but also include a black strip of cloth, with even a female priest dispensing prasad. Animals and fowls outside are left in thanksgiving for fulfillment of wishes by devotees, either to be set free or taken away by the Valmikis.

the Mahabharata era, with Gurugram believed to have been the abode of Guru Dronacharya who taught the five Pandav princes and hundred Kaurav princes the art of archery. Some identify the gold-plated image of the goddess with the guru's wife; and others with Lalita Devi.
The folk tradition is exemplified by another goddess shrine about half a kilometre away, overlooking the Harijan basti crossroads.
Worship at crossroads is believed to be very potent in diverse cultures, and has a deep association with the occult. Inside a small stone structure upon a low altar rests an engraving of Masani Mata or Chhoti Sheetla Mata on silver-hued metal.
Members of the Valmiki community, sweepers by profession, take care of the shrine and function as priests.
It is customary for devotees across castes and classes to seek blessings here after first worshipping at the Badi Sheetla Mata Mandir.
Pigs in cages and goat roaming about or resting in the shade mark the divergence from the greater tradition practices, centring on sanitised modes of worship, and offerings of fruits, flowers and prasad, obtained from nonviolent sources. Here devotees make the same offerings but also include a black strip of cloth, with even a female priest dispensing prashad.

In local parlance crossroads are termed 'chognan'. So the deity also bears the name Chognan Mata. Her other name, 'Masani', derives perhaps from the Hindi word 'shamshan', cremation ground, with a shamshan being located a short distance away. A sadhu who visits Gurgaon pilgrimages frequently from Ajmer, says: "The goddess's image rose up from the ground. This site was then a crematory. The temple was built around it."

Animals and fowls outside are left in thanksgiving for fulfillment of wishes by devotees, either to be set free or taken away by the Valmikis. These votive offerings embody a different impulse, linked to the lesser or little tradition that subverts mainstream mores. Stigmatised customs of people who are marginalised or live outside the social pale because they eat food and engage in work considered taboo as per orthodox tenets, are accepted here..
In local parlance crossroads are termed 'chognan'. So the deity also bears the name Chognan Mata. Her other name, 'Masani', derives perhaps from the Hindi word 'shamshan', cremation ground, with a shamshan being located a short distance away. A sadhu who visits Gurgaon pilgrimages frequently from Ajmer, says: "The goddess's image rose up from the ground.
This site was then a crematory. The temple was built around it."
The event is dated to the remote past. The goddess bears still another name – Tirahawali – owing to three roads intersecting, rather than four as is usual at crossroads. It accentuates her association with the supernatural as intersections are believed to be potent for invoking occult powers and for working magic.
On the other side are shops that sell the routine prashad, and which are run by people from the Brahmin community. They live across the Valmiki settlement that has mushroomed near the shrine.
A temple custodian, Capt Jagdish, a retired Army officer, concedes that Valmikis rear pigs and consume their flesh.
"But we are Hindus and don't eat beef," he says. Those who adhere to sanitised practices and diet also worship here, after offering prayers at the Sheetla Mata temple. Hence, this goddess is also called Chhoti Mata, younger mother. Sheetla Mata is the elder mother, revered also by Valmikis. The greater and lesser traditions thus merge.
A sadhu from Orissa, Ramsevak Baba, who many years ago came to live in a small ashram inside the Sheetla Mata temple complex, and performs Vedic yagyas reveres the Valmiki-run shrine too. So too the Rajput woman Chandrakala, who, along with her husband, runs a prashad shop near the elder goddess's shrine. Both places command equal faith. Deepali Sharma, a devotee, claims that she does the round of both places of worship, in the customary order.
Capt. Jagdish avers that the shrines date back about 2,000 years, but the old structures must have been felled by the elements or marauders and rebuilt numerous times. The tradition of goddess worship is an anomaly in an aggressively patriarchal milieu, where the writ of khap panchayats still rules, and females are accorded subordinate status, being forced into early marriage, denied inheritance rights and otherwise treated as chattel in areas where feudal mores prevail. Khap panchayats, male-driven village councils, preside over community affairs in a manner that is reminiscent of Shariat courts/panchayats. Shakti puja, therefore, is a legacy of a more equitable age and society when gender relations were at par, and females got their due. And the widespread regard for the subaltern shrine indicates that faith transcends social barriers.



		EDITOR'S MAIL FROM THE EDITOR POLITICAL IRONY POLITICS OF CONFLICT UNIVERSITY AUTONOMY QUESTION PAPER LEAKS FRANKLY SPEAKING REALPOLITIK SHAME INDIA ! SHAME INDIA ! SIGNS OF THE TIMES POLITICAL SCENE EXPORT DRIVE KASHMIR WATCH KASHMIR WATCH HIMACHAL PRADESH POLITICS IN PUNJAB CHANDIGARH DIARY COMMONWEALTH GAMES HITS & MISSES INDIA'S TIBET POLICY SYRIAN CRISIS REMEMBERING S. NIHAL SINGH REMEMBERING TVR BOOK BAZAAR BOOK BAZAAR YOGA IN DAILY LIFE STORY OF GURUGRAM CINEMA ART OF LIVING Issue:May' 2018 Subscribe Now	STORY OF GURUGRAM Soul still in shrines Anuradha Dutt The onset of e c o n o m i c liberalisation in mid-1991spurred Gurgaon's – now named Gurugram - growth from a rustic suburban town into the millennium city, considered almost at par with the capital Delhi. As a hub of business outsourcing operations, it hosts an estimated 250 Fortune 500 companies. The rapidly changing skyline of new Gurgaon is shaped by high rises, fancy condominiums, malls and glitzy office complexes. But its soul rests in the older section, where the famed Sheetla Mata temple draws pilgrims from all parts. During the Navratris, marked by widespread worship of the feminine divine over nine days in spring and autumn, large numbers of devotees camp in the sprawling complex. Sheetla Mata, a folk deity who is propitiated for warding off small pox and other maladies that afflict children in particular, is credited by locals with having blessed Gurgaon and adjoining villages with prosperity. They owe their newly acquired wealth largely to land deals and burgeoning real estate. Smoke wafting up from Vedic yagyas, performed in a smaller shrine on the temple premises by sadhus, with dreadlocks coiled upon their heads, embody the greater Hindu tradition. The scene evokes the ancient milieu of Pigs in cages and goat roaming about or resting in the shade mark the divergence from the greater tradition practices, centring on sanitised modes of worship, and offerings of fruits, flowers and prasad, obtained from non-violent sources. Here devotees make the same offerings but also include a black strip of cloth, with even a female priest dispensing prasad. Animals and fowls outside are left in thanksgiving for fulfillment of wishes by devotees, either to be set free or taken away by the Valmikis. the Mahabharata era, with Gurugram believed to have been the abode of Guru Dronacharya who taught the five Pandav princes and hundred Kaurav princes the art of archery. Some identify the gold-plated image of the goddess with the guru's wife; and others with Lalita Devi. The folk tradition is exemplified by another goddess shrine about half a kilometre away, overlooking the Harijan basti crossroads. Worship at crossroads is believed to be very potent in diverse cultures, and has a deep association with the occult. Inside a small stone structure upon a low altar rests an engraving of Masani Mata or Chhoti Sheetla Mata on silver-hued metal. Members of the Valmiki community, sweepers by profession, take care of the shrine and function as priests. It is customary for devotees across castes and classes to seek blessings here after first worshipping at the Badi Sheetla Mata Mandir. Pigs in cages and goat roaming about or resting in the shade mark the divergence from the greater tradition practices, centring on sanitised modes of worship, and offerings of fruits, flowers and prasad, obtained from nonviolent sources. Here devotees make the same offerings but also include a black strip of cloth, with even a female priest dispensing prashad. In local parlance crossroads are termed 'chognan'. So the deity also bears the name Chognan Mata. Her other name, 'Masani', derives perhaps from the Hindi word 'shamshan', cremation ground, with a shamshan being located a short distance away. A sadhu who visits Gurgaon pilgrimages frequently from Ajmer, says: "The goddess's image rose up from the ground. This site was then a crematory. The temple was built around it." Animals and fowls outside are left in thanksgiving for fulfillment of wishes by devotees, either to be set free or taken away by the Valmikis. These votive offerings embody a different impulse, linked to the lesser or little tradition that subverts mainstream mores. Stigmatised customs of people who are marginalised or live outside the social pale because they eat food and engage in work considered taboo as per orthodox tenets, are accepted here.. In local parlance crossroads are termed 'chognan'. So the deity also bears the name Chognan Mata. Her other name, 'Masani', derives perhaps from the Hindi word 'shamshan', cremation ground, with a shamshan being located a short distance away. A sadhu who visits Gurgaon pilgrimages frequently from Ajmer, says: "The goddess's image rose up from the ground. This site was then a crematory. The temple was built around it." The event is dated to the remote past. The goddess bears still another name – Tirahawali – owing to three roads intersecting, rather than four as is usual at crossroads. It accentuates her association with the supernatural as intersections are believed to be potent for invoking occult powers and for working magic. On the other side are shops that sell the routine prashad, and which are run by people from the Brahmin community. They live across the Valmiki settlement that has mushroomed near the shrine. A temple custodian, Capt Jagdish, a retired Army officer, concedes that Valmikis rear pigs and consume their flesh. "But we are Hindus and don't eat beef," he says. Those who adhere to sanitised practices and diet also worship here, after offering prayers at the Sheetla Mata temple. Hence, this goddess is also called Chhoti Mata, younger mother. Sheetla Mata is the elder mother, revered also by Valmikis. The greater and lesser traditions thus merge. A sadhu from Orissa, Ramsevak Baba, who many years ago came to live in a small ashram inside the Sheetla Mata temple complex, and performs Vedic yagyas reveres the Valmiki-run shrine too. So too the Rajput woman Chandrakala, who, along with her husband, runs a prashad shop near the elder goddess's shrine. Both places command equal faith. Deepali Sharma, a devotee, claims that she does the round of both places of worship, in the customary order. Capt. Jagdish avers that the shrines date back about 2,000 years, but the old structures must have been felled by the elements or marauders and rebuilt numerous times. The tradition of goddess worship is an anomaly in an aggressively patriarchal milieu, where the writ of khap panchayats still rules, and females are accorded subordinate status, being forced into early marriage, denied inheritance rights and otherwise treated as chattel in areas where feudal mores prevail. Khap panchayats, male-driven village councils, preside over community affairs in a manner that is reminiscent of Shariat courts/panchayats. Shakti puja, therefore, is a legacy of a more equitable age and society when gender relations were at par, and females got their due. And the widespread regard for the subaltern shrine indicates that faith transcends social barriers.