The Foundation Myths

For the most part the narratives to be recounted are gleaned from my interviews with Rajput women.^[4] A couple of narratives (Jamvai Mata variant two, and Naganecha Ji variant one), however, were recited by noblewomen's male relatives. I have chosen to include them not because women were unfamiliar with these variants—in fact, the wives knew these stories—but because the accounts given by the men in these two instances contain important elaborative detail scattered among numberous women's accounts.^[5] The women who narrated the other accounts gave the most lucid and comprehensive versions of the myths that I discovered in the course of research. All accounts here are verbatim.^[6]

I begin with the story of Ad Mata, the kuldevi of the Jhala kul (see fig. 10a ).^[7] The Jhalas presided over two of Mewar's foremost noble es-

[4] Unlike the stories of many popular deities, these Rajput goddess stories are not sold as pamphlets outside the gates of public temples or in urban bookstalls.

[5] Although "itihasic" in substance, these accounts are so terse as to imply a stylistic "intertextuality," for such brevity is typically characteristic of zanana , or in South India, of akam tales. See Ramanujan, "Two Realms," 43, 51. The bardic versions of these tales would be filled with details and names.

[6] Because each narrator did provide his or her own variation, I present here no "right" myth. Many narrators, particularly men, cautioned me not to heed other's accounts because they would doubtless be "wrong" in certain respects. Narrators believe counts because they would doubtless be "wrong" in certain respects. Narrators believe they are relating essential truths. The idea that there are variations of a foundation narrative and that these are interesting in themselves—they reveal concerns of contemporary narrators—is one that occurs to Rajput narrators no more readily than it would to most nonacademic religious persons in other cultures. Incidentally, the idea of variations of kuldevi narrative seemed to cause much more anxiety than variations of satimata accounts. Because each family has several ancestors who became satis, a discordant variant would be about a different ancestor—such conclusions were often drawn when others commented on interviews being conducted. I have used such contextualizing accounts from these other sources where indicated.

[7] In Gujarat she is referred to as Shakti Mata (personal communication from Jayasinh Jhala, 3 Oct. 1987).

tates, Bari Sadri and Delwara (see fig. 5), as well as over Jhalawar, an independent kingdom that split off from the Cauhan-ruled kingdom of Kota.

Ad Mata

Three little boys, princes of the royal family, were playing outside the palace when a mad elephant suddenly charged. Ad Mata, their spinster auntie, had been watching them from a second-story window. Just in time, she reached out for them with her arms, which grew and grew until they extended all the way down to the children. She snatched up the children and lifted them into her embrace. In this way Ad Mata saved the princes and so the royal lineage.

Another variant adds that because Ad Mata rescued the boys, the line descending from one of the princes came to be known as Jhala , meaning "snatched" or "grabbed."^[8] This etymology is well known by Jhalas, who date the origin of their kul to this kuldevi miracle (camatkar ).

Next is Jamvai Mata, the kuldevi of the Kachvaha Rajputs of Jaipur state (see fig. 20).

Jamvai Mata

The Kachvahas used to live in Navargarh in central India, the place where Nala and Damayanti used to live. They left that place in search of a kingdom and wandered toward Rajasthan. When they arrived, they met resistance from some tribals.^[9] There was a big battle between the Kachvahas and the tribals where Rajgarh Dam is now [about forty minutes' drive from Jaipur].^[10] The Kachvahas fared badly. They lay wounded and dying on the battlefield and there was no water for them to drink. They began to think of Parvati and she became a cow. She stood over the dying soldiers and poured out her milk, which revived them. They renewed their attack and achieved victory.

A Variant of this Myth Provides More Detail

The Kachvahas came from Navar near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. They fought their way to Dosa, which they won from the Gujar Rajputs. They took some lands from the Mina tribe by treachery. Finally, at . . . Rajgarh, they were defeated. Dularai, their leader, was badly injured. He lay unconscious and dying on the battlefield. Jamvai Mata appeared to him in a vision.

[8] Jhaliyodau: caught, seized (Hindi: parkada hua ); in Sitaram Lalas, Rajasthani Sabd Kos , vol. 4, pt. 3 (Jodhpur: Caupasni Siksa Samiti, 1978), s.v.

[9] Speaking English, the narrator used the term "tribal" nominally, as it often occurs in local Indian English.

[10] Henceforth, all bracketed remarks are my own.

She said, "I am the kuldevi of the Minas, but I am angry with them. I am a vegetarian but they offer me meat and wine in my temple." Jamvai Mata then turned herself into a cow and sprayed milk on Dularai's face. She revived the rest of the Kachvahas in the same way. Meanwhile the Minas were rejoicing over their victory. They were drunk. The Kachvahas successfully attacked them. Since then Jamvai Mata has been our kuldevi .

A third kuldevi is Naganecha Ji, protector of the Rathaur kul (see fig. 10b, c ). She oversees the state of Marwar as well as Ghanerao, a Solah Thikana.

Naganecha Ji

Naganecha Ji came with our ancestors when they moved here [Jodhpur] from the south. When Sinha Ji [a Rathaur king] was carrying her around his neck, she demanded that he put her down at Nagana. She wanted to stay there. He slept and she became anchored in the ground, never to move. From that spot a snake slithered away.

This account, like the one that follows, yields a murky picture of the form in which Naganecha Ji arrives. The informant implies that the goddess was worn as a pendant, a pala (a form in which goddesses often travel; see fig. 18); other accounts have it that the king bore her temple icon on his shoulders or upper back. The nature of her original form does not appear to be critical. What should be noted is that this foundation myth assumes Naganecha Ji's association with the Rathaurs in their former home. In traveling from that home the goddess manifests two forms, which serve different purposes. Her first form, anchored at Nagana, establishes that as the new territory for her protégés.

Her second, which is a mobile form, shows that she is not confined to one place. As a serpent she accompanies her protégés when they engage in conquest. An alternate version of the myth makes this clear:

Naganecha Ji came with our ancestors when they journeyed from Idar [in Gujarat]. While they were fighting for Nagor, Naganecha Ji became their kuldevi . At Nagana they built a temple for her. She was called Naganecha Ji—Nagana plus ish , "deity." She appeared to Cumda Ji Rathaur, who had prayed to her because he was losing a battle. She manifested herself as a snake and from then on was always with him. Because of this the Rathaurs were able to conquer Marwar.

Fourth, there is Ashapura, protectress of the Cauhan kul , which ruled the states of Kota and Bundi as well as such Udaipur-linked thikanas as Bedla and Kothariya.

Ashapura

My forefathers used to wage many wars. One time my ancestor and his army had run out of rations on the battlefield. Annapurna [a Sanskritic goddess, whose name means "She Who Has (Gives) Food"] appeared to my ancestor in a dream and said, "I will become a green fly and sit on your arm while you fight. You will win many villages." [Having received food and the protection of Annapurna's avatar] he was able to conquer 1,444 villages in a single night. Since then we worship both Annapurna and Ashapura [Annapurna's avatar, "She Who Has (Grants) Wishes"].

The final kuldevi to be discussed is Ban Mata, guardian goddess of Mewar (fig. 12) and, inter alia, the Mewari thikanas of Bansi, Amet, Kurabar, Kanor, Begum, and Salumbar.^[11]

Ban Mata

The kuldevi for the Sisodiyas used to be Amba Mata. Then, when the Sisodiyas were at Chitor, the kuldevi became Kalika Mata.^[12] There is still a temple for her there now. Later, when the king conquered Gujarat, he demanded a Gujarati princess in marriage.^[13] That princess had always wanted to marry the Sisodiya king. She had even sent him a letter telling him that. Her kuldevi , Ban Mata, had determined to help her accomplish this aim. After the conquest, the marriage occurred. When the princess left for her new home, Ban Mata came with her in the form of a pendant. That is how Ban Mata left Girnar (though there is still a temple for her there) and came here.

A second account is not so much a variation as another etymology, one that states a homology between the Sanskritic goddess Durga and the kuldevi .

The Sisodiyas used to worship Durga, Mata Ji. Banasur was a demon who fought with Mata Ji. She conquered him. From then on she was called Ban Mata.

[11] The name Ban was pronounced and written in many different ways: Ban, Baen, Bayan, Byan, and Vyana. Written sources tend to prefer Bayan, but informants usually spelled out Ban when I asked them to spell their kuldevi 's name.

[12] The antecedents of Ban Mata are vague. Amba and Kalika are Sanskritic epithets and so do not characterize these goddesses as discrete local incarnations. As we shall see, these stories refer to a kuldevi preceding the appearance of Ban Mata but give her no specific local name or identity. There is a Kalika Mandir at Chitor.

[13] Tod identifies the king as Bappa Rawal and the bride as the daughter of Esupgole, prince of the island of Bunderdhiva (Annals and Antiquities 1:197). Another narrated variant identified Ban Mata as the daughter of a Caran in the village of Khod; Hamir, the great Sisodiya leader, heard of her powers, worshiped her, and asked her blessing in his attempt to reclaim Chitor from the Moghals. She aided him and he installed her as Sisodiya deity. This variant places the adoption of Ban Mata just after the Sisodiya line of Guhils came to the throne rather than after the Guhils first won Chitor, as Tod's variant has it.

12.
Ban Mata image, Chitor.

These myths conjointly illustrate a number of fundamental points. First, every kul explicitly associates the appearance of its kuldevi with a critical act of divine guardianship. The goddess utilizes her power (shakti ) to rescue royal heirs, revive dying soldiers, and establish Rajput kingdoms.

Second, the kuldevi 's power of protection is directed toward the king and his family. The goddess appears to the king (or prince) and either with him or through him protects the kul and hence the realm. Thus, Jamvai Mata protects Dularai, Naganecha Ji guards Cumda Ji, Ad Mata saves the little princes, and so forth.^[14] Afterward the kuldevi 's primary relationship remains with the king, who tends to her needs just as his own servants tend to his. This close mythical association between king and goddess means that the kuldevi is identified with the royal family and conceptualized with reference to the protective functions it performs. Her temple is patronized by the royal family and is located in or near its palace.

Because of this close relationship between king and kuldevi , worship of the kuldevi and service of the king are intertwined. The king attends the kuldevi through personal acts of devotion and through public ceremonies, such as buffalo sacrifices, which are held in conjunction with the biannual festival of Navratri.^[15] The kuldevi protects him and through him the kingdom. Historically, members of the kul have served the king, whose authority has been legitimated by kuldevi worship on the part of both king and kul members.

Another thing clear from the myths is that the kuldevi 's foremost arena of protection is the battlefield. Kings and other kul members are warriors. They guard and increase not only the territory of the realm but also its glory. From the beginning, a kingdom attempts to expand through battle, which is the caste duty of all Rajput men and the principal measure of their personal worth. Because battle is the route to glory and prosperity, the great king is a conqueror.^[16] As the Rajput king and his army fight to subjugate new land, the kuldevi accompanies the

[14] This shared scenario varies markedly from others elsewhere in India. For example, one South Indian lineage deity (kulateyvam ) is venerated after being sacrificially beheaded (Hiltebeitel, Cult of Draupadi , 336, citing Reinich). It is evidently not unusual in South India for such a deity, especially a goddess, to be venerated as a kul deity after she punishes the king or threatens to kill him for inappropriate behavior (Meyer, Ankalaparmecuvari , 187, 253; and Tarabout, Sacrifier , 132).

[15] Details of this festival are given below.

[16] See, for example, Agni Puranam , trans. Manmatha Nath Dutt Shastri, 2 vols. (Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Studies Office, 1967), 778. On the expansion of South India kingdoms, see Shulman, King and Clown , 35–36.

king as a snake, sits on his shoulder as a green fly, or, in still another tale, flies above him as a kite (an eagle-like bird of prey).^[17] Thus in her mobile animal form the kuldevi is identified with the growing might, resources, and renown of the kul or shakh she protects.

The last crucial point about these tales is that a kuldevi is homologous with the great Sanskritic Goddess, particularly in her warrior aspect, Durga.^[18] In the myth of Jamvai Mata, the first narrator states that the warriors "began to think of Parvati and she became a cow." Thus the kuldevi is conceived of as an incarnation (avatar) of Parvati, herself one of the best known forms of the Goddess. Ashapura is understood as an emanation of the Goddess, Annapurna, whose power to provide food is the basis for the kul 's triumph. Ban Mata is understood to replace Kalika Mata, whose name is another epithet of the Goddess. She, in turn, is understood to have taken over from Amba Mata, who bears yet another Sanskrit epithet. These sequential substitutions symbolically connect the local goddess with the great Sanskritic Goddess.

The etymology of Ban Mata provided by one woman confirms the general identification of the local goddess with the great Goddess. She says that the local kuldevi is so named because, as the Goddess, she defeated the demon Banasur. The woman does not know any details of this story. I do not know whether she encountered the Sanskritic story of Banasur^[19] or simply assumes that the kuldevi received her name because she defeated a demon who must have had that name.^[20] Both pos-

[17] Goddesses are associated with bird and snake imagery elsewhere in India; see examples in Beck, Three Twins , 155–56; and Meyer, Ankalaparmecuvari , 194. Several men told me that in pre-British days kings often began campaigns just after Navratri-Dashara celebrations.

[18] Sanskrit literature often treats various goddesses as phenomenal manifestations of a single female goddess, the Devi, who embodies motivational power or shakti (also a name for the Devi), which is conceived as female. Through the process of Sanskritization, by which local deities are identified with Sanskritic or "Great Tradition" deities, kuldevis are sometimes generally associated with the Devi and sometimes specifically associated with individual Sanskritic goddesses (especially Parvati, the wife of Shiva [Hindi: Shiv]). See further discussion in Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), 71, 82 ff.

[19] This is Asura Bana; in "Aniruddha's Hymn" from the Harivamsha , he imprisoned Aniruddha because Aniruddha was infatuated with Bana's daughter, Usha (Thomas B. Coburn, Devi Mahatmya [Columbia, Mo.: South Asia Books, 1985], 284–85). In a story of Banasur from the Kanyaksetramahatmya , Bana demands a share of Markandeya's sacrifice and is cursed by the sage to be killed by a virgin, who turns out to be Parvati (David Dean Shulman, Tamil Temple Myths [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980], 145). The name Ban Mata may also suggest an association between the kuldevi and Shiv, known by the epithet Baneshwara in some shrines in the Udaipur area. No informants made this association in their comments or used the epithet for the Mewari ishtadevta Ekling Ji.

[20] A man from the Hara shakh of the Cauhan kul linked another kuldevi and a demon in a distinctive Ashapura narrative. He told me that Ashapura, who used to live

in an ashapala tree—from which she got her name—revived his ancestor, killed by a rakshasa (demon) who had eaten all but his bones; the ancestor was called Asthipal (asthi [bones] and pal [protector]).

sibilities point to a Sanskritic homology. Moreover, even if the story of Banasur is only a local or unique version, it employs the popular Sanskritic convention of referring to deities by the names of demons they have killed. The most famous epithet, of course, is that of the Goddess as Mahishasuramardini, "Slayer of the Buffalo Demon."^[21]

This speculative homology joins an omnipresent homology between all kuldevis and the Goddess expressed during Navratri, the festival celebrating her conquest over her buffalo demon foe (see fig. 16). On this day the kuldevi is worshiped as Durga. The Devimahatmya or Durga Path , a Hindi translation, is recited in great Goddess temples and kuldevi temples alike. Moreover, kuldevis are as often referred to as Durga, Devi, Kali, Camunda, and Shakti, all Sanskritic-tradition epithets, as they are by their individual local names. The import of this equation of the local kuldevi with the Sanskritic Goddess is an implicit identification of kul , or in this case shakh , history with cosmic history. The shakh 's victories coincide with the Goddess's divine victory over the demon army led by Mahish.

The homology between Durga and kuldevi in the contexts of the Navratri ritual and the Mahishasur (Sanskrit: Mahishasura) myth brings to light some important assumptions about kingship. In Navratri buffalo sacrifice, which ritually reenacts Durga's conquest over Mahish, the king stands in the role of primary sacrificer.^[22] Like the goddess Mahishasuramardini, the king is the slayer of the buffalo, who is the (demonic) enemy. Like the goddess, the king severs the buffalo's head, blood from which he then offers to the goddess. At the same time the king is identified with the victim, Mahish, who is king of the demons.^[23]

[21] A similar epithet is Vritraghni, "killer of Vritra," who is Sarasvati (Alf Hiltebeitel, The Ritual of Battle [Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976], 153). There is also the example of Madhusudhana, "Slayer of Madhu," a title for Krishna used throughout the Bhagavad Gita . See, for example, J. A. B. van Buitenen's translation, The Bhagavadgita in the Mahabharata (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), 71, 73.

[22] Where buffalo sacrifices are performed by Rajputs ("sons of kings") who are not in fact kings, the sacrificers stand in the position of the king relative to the sacrificial victim, the buffalo. As elsewhere in India, the Rajput does what the Brahman priests cannot, i.e., he spills blood. Priests direct the sacrifice and read from the Devimahatmya , but only the warrior can decapitate the victim.

[23] See Madeleine Biardeau and Charles Malamoud, Le sacrifice dans l'Inde ancienne (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1976), 146. Also see the discussion of Mahish as Potu Raja in ibid., 150; in Hiltebeitel, Cult of Draupadi , 37 n. 8 and passim; and in Gunther D. Sontheimer, Pastoral Deities in Western India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 56–57.

Thus the blood he offers is also his own.^[24] The demon Mahish, liberated by death from his demonic buffalo form, becomes the Goddess's foremost devotee. The king, also represented as the kuldevi 's foremost devotee, offers her his death to assure her victory over the enemies of his kingdom.^[25] Thus Ban Mata bears the epithet Bukh Mata, "Hungry Mother," for she needs blood from her royal protégés to protect them.^[26] Such an identification of king as sacrificer and sacrificed is widely documented by scholars treating Vedic and popular sacrifice.^[27]

This same double identification is seen in the traditional construction of warfare. The king, who is protected by the Goddess (as kuldevi ) and who acts as she does when he kills his enemies, also gives his life in battle. Thus again, the king is not only conqueror of Mahish but also Mahish, the king-victim. To sacrifice one's life in battle, also called balidan , is the warrior's desired destiny.^[28] As foremost and quintessential warrior, the king gives his blood on the battlefield, which nourishes the kuldevi who protects the kul and kingdom.^[29] At times Bukh Mata has needed the blood of many kings and soldiers to make battle successful. Hence the kuldevi helps the king protect and strengthen his kingdom but, like Durga "liberating" Mahish, she also leads him and his soldiers toward glorious death in battle.

One myth, which was told to me by the brother of an informant, makes the identification of the king as sacrificer and sacrificed particularly vivid. He said that the Muslims had killed all his ancestors in their erstwhile home at Narola. Only the pregnant queen escaped and managed to deliver the heir. When the boy, Vijay Raj, was old enough, he was married to a daughter of the Jaisalmer king. The Muslims were keen

[24] In a Madhya Pradesh estate where one noblewoman grew up, male family members cut their arms to offer their kuldevi their own blood on Navratri. On buffalo sacrifice as symbolic enactment of human sacrifice, see Biardeau and Malamoud, Le sacrifice , 148; Herrenschmidt, "Le sacrifice," 150; and Hiltebeitel, Cult of Draupadi , 63. I shall discuss animal and human sacrifice in greater detail in my study of hero worship in Rajasthan.

[25] For a more detailed sketch of this myth see David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 96–99.

[26] See chapter 3 for details of the story by which Bukh Mata gained her epithet.

[27] On the king's roles as sacrificer and sacrificed see Jan Heesterman, The Inner Conflict of Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 110; Hiltebeitel, Cult of Draupadi , 63, 77; Filliozat, "After-Death Destiny," 4; Shulman, King and Clown , 36, 286–87; and Beck, Three Twins , 53.

[28] For exploration of this widely recognized theme, see Hiltebeitel, Ritual of Battle ; Heesterman, Inner Conflict (particularly his chapter, "The Case of the Severed Head"); and Beck, Three Twins , 51–52.

[29] On the notion that eating flesh "makes" a goddess protect her wards, see Meyer, Ankalaparmecuvari , 168.

to kill him; they pursued him wherever he went. Just after the marriage his kuldevi , Ashapura, appeared to him and said:

I am your family goddess and I want to see you settled down. Tomorrow you go to a particular lake and you'll see a herd of buffalo bathing. In the herd will be a big male much bigger than normal. He'll have a gold ring in his nose. You kill him. Inside his stomach you'll find a big sword, which will stay with the ruling head of state in times to come. You will be a ruler now. That sword should be handed down from generation to generation.

After that Vijay Raj was successful against the Muslims.

The narrator then noted that "the sword has remained with the family but the golden bracelet, which is supposed to be worn by the ruler—you remember, the bracelet that was worn by the buffalo in his nose—is not with us any more. Maybe it got worn out or lost."

This account succinctly links buffalo sacrifice with success in war. It also identifies the king who kills the buffalo both as sacrificer—from the sacrifice he performs he gets a sword for battle and for more sacrifices—and as victim—because he is to wear as a bracelet the gold ring that the buffalo (the leader of the herd) once wore in its nose. The kuldevi gives the king the implements he needs for his success and her satisfaction.

The foundation myths presented above articulate an understanding of royal and kul or shakh power as divinely legitimated. The king and his warriors are guided by a kuldevi , whose duty as a war goddess is to facilitate their performance of military duties. What, then, can be the relevance of the kuldevi to the lives of women? To answer this question we must further ponder the connection between the concepts of caste and gender. The way that men and women understand the powers of the kuldevi reflects their suppositions about the norms Rajputs espouse and the roles women have. For women, these suppositions sometimes prove troublesome.

The most important supposition shared by men and women is that caste rules or norms relate closely to the caste duties performed by men. Rajputs, we have seen, have been rulers and warriors. That these duties are construed as male duties is seen most clearly in the ideal of the Rajput as a protector of women. Rajput men are to administer and defend their realms in such a way that women need never fight in defense of personal honor and family reputation.^[30]

[30] Tod attributes the Rajput protectiveness of women to the Rajput susceptibility to women: "If devotion to the fair sex be admitted as a criterion of civilization, the Rajpoot must rank high. His susceptibility is extreme, and fires at the slightest offense to female delicacy, which he never forgives" (Annals and Antiquities 1:223).

Ideally then, women do not perform these caste duties; they perform female duties, such as housekeeping and child rearing. Caste-related norms, however, apply to women as they do to men. Honor, courage, dignity, generosity, and kul loyalty are the virtues expected of a Rajput, male or female. Here trouble surfaces. For men, norms and duties are closely associated. For women, however, norms that derive from men's caste duties must be applied to duties understood as gender-affiliated. Furthermore, because gender-affiliated duties have their own normative ideals, there is always potential for friction between duty-alienated caste norms and duty-related gender norms.

The traditional norms of womanhood are subsumed within the central ideal of the pativrata , whose duties are those essential to being a good wife to her husband, a good mother to her children, and a good daughter-in-law to her husband's parents. All female duties derive from the pativrata ideal. If a woman is devoted to her husband, exemplary performance of all secondary duties will naturally follow.

Rajput women's conception of their kuldevi s clearly reflects this pativrata ideal. Like the men in their families, Rajput women understand kuldevi s as protectors but relate to them primarily as protectors of the household rather than as protectors of an extended kinship group. The kul (or shakh ) is not a group with which women identify or interact in any concrete way. It is relevant to them only insofar as it impinges upon the home. Thus women tend to tell stories in which their kuldevi s render aid to household members.