SECRET MEETINGS AND MIDNIGHT ORGIES
Saktism does not assume its most revolting form in the Matangi cult, nor in the worship of matris and fiends and demons. The frenzy of possession, the mad excitement of the dance, the slaughter of beasts, and the shouts of the bystanders, may be sufficiently hideous; but they are not an outrage upon human nature.
In the Chermanishta sect there are meetings that need the cover of darkness. Vague reports only reach the outer world of that which is done in secret.
Once a year the members of the Chermanishta sect meet in the house of one of their number. They may belong to any other cult or religion and yet come to this secret meeting. Religious distinctions and caste distinctions are wiped out for the time being. Strange to say, Brahmin, Sudra and Madiga are, during that night, on a basis of equality. But the utmost secrecy is required of all. In the morning all resume their own caste, and no one dare divulge the knowledge of the presence of the others during the orgies of the night.
As midnight approaches, the Guru enters the house of meeting; the rest follow, one after another. After all are seated, the Guru goes around with a vessel containing sarai, and lets each one take a sip. In the other hand he has a piece of meat, and touches the tongue of each. He himself finally eats and drinks of both. Then nine kinds of meat, previously cooked, are passed around: fowl, pigeon, pig, goat, cow, donkey, cat, dog and buffalo. Each one puts a little of each on a plate made of dried leaves and eats it, while sarai flows plentifully.
While eating, all sing: “We have now severed both caste and family connection. We have joined together both ruling caste and servants. We desire to be saved by the Guru. This is the time.”
The piece of meat, which touches the tongue of each, seems intended to wipe out every social distinction between them. Later in the night a woman is brought in—generally, it seems, a Madiga woman—and there are orgies that form a loathsome representation of the creative force in nature. At last the Guru announces the place for the next meeting, and all steal away silently, one after another, as they came.
The fact that the Madigas are admitted to the rites which join kulapathi and dasulathi, “ruling caste and servants,” is not without its own significance. Perhaps the Brahmins learned the mysteries of the cult from the aborigines. The members of the sect claim that the deeds of the night are free from lust and vice, because the mind is filled with thoughts of worship. It is nature-worship in the most revolting form, and may well be called the most corrupt aspect of modern Hinduism.
Nowhere in books could I find a reference to the Chermanishta sect. I concluded that perhaps it was Sakti worship under a local name—perhaps the name of the Guru who first taught its rites in parts of the Telugu country. I thought it would have to be classified as a worship of Siva, because Saktism generally centres in Parvati, the consort of Siva. But I was told repeatedly, by those who claimed that they knew, that it was part of the Ramanuja sect.
An explanation was given me which is a mixture of fact and hearsay. My informants knew that there was once a great teacher, Ramanuja, who made disciples of all castes and of both sexes. He did not initiate his followers into the mysteries of his doctrines, but wrote them in a book, which he concealed from them. At the time of his death no one was with him, and the book of secret doctrines fell into the hands of the Brahmins, who characteristically kept it to themselves. But his other followers, too, wanted to know of the teaching of their Guru. Two of his disciples, who were women of the caste of dancing-women, and were, therefore, versed in the art of reading and writing, sought to meet the emergency by writing each a book. They claimed that these books contained the teaching of Ramanuja, imparted to them on his death-bed. From one of these books sprang the Ramanuja sect, from the other the Chermanishta sect.
This is a curious instance of the way in which the common people explain to themselves that which is beyond their comprehension. It is probably true that at the death of Ramanujacarya, who lived in the twelfth century, and was the first of a line of Vaishnayite reformers, the Brahmins took possession of his books. The abstruse reasoning which they contained concerning a triad of principles—the Supreme Being, the Soul, and Non-Soul—was not of a nature to satisfy the wants of the multitude.
His followers corrupted his teaching. The sect was divided into the northern and the southern school. The struggle between the two schools was fierce, and was really the controversy between Arminian and Calvinistic doctrine in Indian guise.
The northern school claimed that the soul lays hold of the Supreme Being as the young monkey clings to its mother, of its own free-will. The southern school have “the cat-hold theory.” They argue that the soul remains passive and helpless until acted upon by the Supreme Being, as the kitten is held by the cat. The kitten remains passive until the mother-cat transports it from place to place.
Not only on the question of free-will did the Ramanuja sect divide, but also on the question of the place to be assigned to the consort of Vishnu. The northern school regard her as infinite and uncreated, like her consort, while the southern school maintain that she is simply a mediator, not an equal channel of salvation. The story told me of the books written by the two dancing-women probably points to this division of the Ramanuja sect.
There is incongruity in giving to a sect that inculcates a hideous form of Saktism a place among the followers of Ramanuja. The teachings of Ramanuja were moral. He forbade the use of animal food and intoxicating drinks. He probably came in contact with Christian missionaries, for his insistence on the spiritual equality of all men points to Christian principle. He demanded personal devotion to a personal god, and this god was Vishnu.
The secret orgies of the Chermanishta sect date back thousands of years previous to the time of Ramanuja. To find for them a place in the Ramanuja sect is simply an attempt, unconsciously put forth, perhaps, of finding in the more modern religious movements a place for an ancient cult.