Divorcing Mathamma: Testaments of Caste Violence and Emancipation

Somewhere in a deep village of Thiruvallur district in Tamil Nadu, a wedding ritual practice believed to have been abandoned decades ago was in full swing. Men were drawing the goddess Mathamma’s likeness on the temple floor with rice chalk. Women were cooking and bustling about. Little boys were running around with their shirts off, their faces and chests painted with symbols and scripts. A sacrificial buffalo was being led around village, a cloth sack chained to its neck containing the “dowry” of the bride. Chanting rhythmic music was playing full blast.

The initiation to the ritual was a full sensual experience. It was all sorts of colorful and dark, spectacular and horrific, noisy and solemn, an organized chaos of surreal grotesqueness. Each pulse crescendoed towards the closing act: a man brutally killing a goat with his bear teeth. Then a moment of quiet, signaling the “re-enactment”and anticipated arrival of the “offering”.

This time around, the girl-bride was nine years old. She paraded somewhat unassumingly, as if she wanted to keep her head bowed but the tall pile of claypots of rice resting atop her head forced her chin up. She had to be assisted by three grown women, she could barely walk with the heavy load in her bridal garb.

When the ceremony was over, as part of the ritual, the painted boys removed her clothes, leaving her naked for all to behold. The girl, from hereon bearing the name “Mathamma”, had been offered to spend the rest of her life living and dancing in the Mathamma temples. The thali (mangal sutra symbolizing her marriage to the God Mathamma) on her neck forbids her to marry anyone else. She was now considered public property. The ritual was over, but the girl’s fate to live a life of prostitution and forced slavery had just begun.

Despite the enactment of the Madras Devadasis Act (Prevention of Dedication) in 1947 and the Women Dedication Prevention Act of 1988, the Mathamma System remains an open secret up to now. There are no clear guidelines to implement the laws and stop the practice. Government officials and political parties are conveniently turning a blind eye in fear of ‘antagonizing’ tradition. The communities, mostly composed of ‘Shoemakers’, the lowest among the lowest of castes, are largely ignored.

SRED’s Mathamma Movement seeks “Mathamma Liberation” by rescuing and rehabilitating girl/women victims (and their children out of wedlock). The movement started by working with 61 Mathamma women in 31 villages from Thiruvallur, Vellore and Kanchipuram. Over the years, it had protested and stopped some incidents of temple dancing. By assisting them in changing their names, the Mathamma women are able to “restore their social status” and re-create their destinies. Here are some of their stories:

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Devi, founder of the Mathamma Movement

Devi was born in Kaverirajapuram, Thirutani Taluk in Thiruvallur district to parents who worshipped the goddess Mathamma. She was a frail and weak child who constantly fell sick. Traditional belief dictated that when a girl child is sick, she would only be cured if dedicated to the goddess.

"It was the summer month of Vaikasi-Anni, the month of the Mathamma Festival in our village. I was seven years old. My parents and relatives decorated me as a bride and placed me in front of the goddess Mathamma for the wedding. An elaborate ritual followed with offerings of coconut and camphor. Vessels filled with fresh grain, lemon, milk, turmeric water and cow urine were offered to the temple. Amidst the drumbeat, dancing and drinking, I was marked as a Mathamma with a pestle dipped in turmeric water and milk. An elderly woman from our community tied the thali on my neck. From then on, I have been dancing in several villages during the festival and earned my livelihood that way. Men offered me money and gifts and offered themselves too. (Interview with Devi, 2003)"

Devi recalled having to dance day and night every year in July for the five-day festival. She said she was given alcohol and made to dance erotically while carrying a “theesatti”, a hot pot filled with fire. Village men, both young and old, would dance with her and pin rupees on her blouse, near her breast. They would invite her to sleep with them. She was sexually harassed, raped and abused over and over again in public places. She said the whole experience made her lose her dignity and left her mentally depressed and wounded.

Inevitably, Devi bore a child. The man who got her pregnant said, “You are Mathamma, not an ordinary woman”, and left her when she gave birth. Her child was born to a life of discrimination, as with the cases of all “Harijan”, fatherless children of God.

Devi could not find other work because of her Mathamma status. She faced humiliation and was not accepted in the workplace. She had no permanent income, no house, no land, no education and no other skill for livelihood except to dance in temple festivals.

In 2000, Devi met with some members of the Rural Women Liberation Movement (RWLM). She told them of her hardships and learned about the situations of other rural women like herself. She asked for help to change her name to Devi to create a new identity and free herself of her ties to the Mathamma system.

Not long after, Devi formed the Mathamma Movement. She started visiting other villages not anymore to dance in the temples but to liberate other Mathammas. She went to the police to report the festivals and stopped women from dancing erotically in public. She confronted village leaders and challenged villagers to treat Mathammas as equal citizens. Under her leadership, the Mathamma Movement demanded audience with high level bureaucrats to petition for housing rights, voting rights, credits and education for the children of all Mathammas.

Devi was able to build a house of her own with her son. But when her son got married, he also drove her out of her own house, provoked by his in-laws to banish her for being a “Mathamma”. From then on, Devi stayed at SRED’s community center in their village and continued her work with the Mathamma Movement until the time of her death.

Before she died, Devi removed the Mangalyam thali from her neck and threw it at the goddess’ statue, exclaiming, “It’s you, your people, the society, that made me suffer throughout my whole life!”. It was Devi’s last revolutionary act. She was finally free.

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Renuka, from “Mathamma” to strong leader

Offered to the goddess and made to dance in the festivals, Renuka suffered the most horrendous act of violence and indignity as a young girl of 13 when a group of drunken men kidnapped and gang-raped her. Throughout her life as a Mathamma, she gave birth to fatherless children, a boy and a girl.

She was introduced to the Mathamma Movement in her village and came to understand the patriarchal norms and caste violence that oppressed women like her. She changed her name and removed the thali that symbolized her marriage to the goddess and started working with the movement.

Renuka became instrumental in exposing and addressing the plight of Mathamma girls and women. She actively stopped girls from dancing in the temples. With constant guidance and capacity-building from the Mathamma Movement, she also fought for basic services for Mathammas and condemned caste atrocities against the women in her village.

Renuka worked for the abolition of the “two tumbler system” that discriminated against Dalits in tea shops. She vehemently fought for a Mathamma woman who was raped and had the rapist arrested and punished. She also demanded housing land titles for 33 women in her Veeraragavapuram village; and successfully facilitated the pensions of 10 elderly women there too. She acquired job cards for 20 women through the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) which ensured them employment for 100 days. She mobilized 30 women in her community to form an association to assert basic amenities. As their leader, she led lobbying efforts to various government offices, such as the District Collector’s Office, Taluk Office, Block Development Office, and police stations to demand benefits and address issues of the community.

"The community respects me now and I have earned it over a period of time," she proudly said. From a scared, exploited girl, Renuka flourished into a beloved strong leader who fought not only for the liberation of Mathammas but for the rights and welfare of all Dalit women and people.

Renuka died a few years ago but her daughter carries on her work and legacy with the Mathamma Movement.