Aryan Patriarchy and Dravidian Matriarchy

The more profound suppression involves the systematic distortion and rewriting of Indian history. Thadani has given numerous accounts of where the feminine of the original Sanskrit has been translated as masculine. She also encountered temples where the goddess had been mutilated and either replaced by or turned into a masculine god. One of the more amusing attempts to rewrite goddess mythology concerns the goddess Kali. There are many examples of artwork showing the fierce Kali standing on the corpse of Shiva with her tongue hanging out of her mouth. In the Shaivite and Shakta traditions the exposed tongue simple represents her fierce, defiant aspect and the iconography is about her dominance of Shiva. But in the Aryan retelling the tongue is said to represent shame – Kali is showing remorse for accidently stepping on her ‘husband’ Shiva.

I said earlier that in the Aryan ideology a woman must see her husband as her guru. If he tells her something is so, it is so. On another list devoted to Indian issues I was surprised to read one Indian recount how the women in his family were shocked to find out that the Shivalingam statues they had been touching in temples were in fact phallic symbols. I was shocked because in my Shaivite ashram it was very clearly explained that the Shivalingam represented the male and female principles and was a representation of a penis in a vagina. But it seems that in conservative Aryan households such ‘delicate’ information is kept from women.

But it goes much further than that; it extends to the almost complete neglect and avoidance of the goddess in museums and universities. Thadani tells of important goddess statues hidden in vaults in poor conditions and of academics who refuse to accept the evidence. She tells of one encounter where a leading archaeologist is standing with her in front of what she says is clearly a goddess statue with him insisting it is male. ‘But it has breasts,’ she exclaims.

Thadani also goes on to explain that the religious departments of many universities focus on Aryan literature and that there is vast amount of Tantric and Shakta literature that remains to be translated and studied. If they are anything like the Yoni Tantra then it might not be hard to understand why a conservative Aryan male might be shocked. The Yoni Tantra is a classic of Shakta literature and it states quite clearly that the way to enlightenment is the worship of a woman’s vagina. All vaginas should be worshipped from age 12 to 60, of all castes and types. It says:

“In Kaula every woman is thought of as a manifestation of the Goddess. No man may raise his hand, strike or threaten a woman. When she is naked, men must kneel and worship her as the Goddess. She has equal rights with men on all levels.”

In other Shakta Tantras the aspirant is urged to worship semen and menstrual blood: