Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
GALINA KRASSKOVA
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the groundwork for this discussion, highlighting the need for contemporary
discourse around menstruation, women’s health, sanitation needs and
commercialization of these attendant issues (16). The author particularly notes
that the prevailing narrative about Indian women indulging “in unhygienic and
superstitious menstrual practices owing to… imposed cultural practices rooted
in patriarchy is misleading, incorrect, and may have been manufactured for
ulterior motives” (20). In doing so, Sridhar opens up the discourse, situating the
issue of menstrual taboo across the broad spectrum of Indo-European religious
practices both ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, and showing that far
from being rooted in misogyny, in many cases taboos developed organically out
of a response to communal and religious concerns around purification,
concerns of relevance to men and women alike.
Chapter One introduces readers to Sanatana Dharma, i.e. Hinduism, and its
history. It offers an analysis of Hindu perceptions of menstruation from a
historical perspective but also thematically vis-à-vis Hindu dharma. The
cosmological origins of menses and its connection to lunar cycles is explored
(25) along with Ayurvedic methods for ensuring health and fertility (26). Sridhar
examines the story of Indra, interpreting it as both cosmological narrative and
as the origin for specific menstrual guidelines (31). Indra, afflicted with the
“Karmic guilt of Brahmahatya” (31) had one third of his guilt carried by the
earth, one third by trees, and one third by women. This latter guilt is said to
manifest as a stained garment leading to specific menstrual taboos.
Menstruation is then positioned as something sacred and natural but also as a
time and means for self-purification (33). Readers are introduced to the Hindu
concept of ritual impurity (ashaucha), and through an in-depth analysis of the
Sutras and their attendant interpretations, Sridhar connects the idea of
menstruation as a time of ritual impurity to Hindu theologies of the self and of
the soul. The call to purity becomes an essential duty for every human being,
without which all spiritual work is “fruitless” (36). This purity may be both
internal and external and the requirements for purity are not unique to women.
Menstruation however, is a process of purification, a temporary state of
impurity that by its nature purifies the woman (39), making it unique among
conditions of ritual contagion.
This chapter is thoroughly, meticulously researched and examines relevant
Hindu scriptures across denominations of Hinduism. Sridhar even points out
specific Tantrika practices that highlight menstruation as a particularly vital and
powerful time (63) and also notes Deities and festivals celebrating menstruation
(65) including Parvati, Bhoomi Devi, Kamakhya, and Brahmacharini Durga, to
name a few. This chapter also explores menstrual prohibitions as therapeutic
prescriptions according to Ayurvedic practices of health. Overall, it highlights
that just as Hinduism is not monolithic in practice and approach, neither is the
way its various denominations deal with the questions of menstruation and
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KRASSKOVA Review: The Sabarimala Confusion
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WALKING THE WORLDS Summer 2019
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KRASSKOVA Review: The Sabarimala Confusion
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WALKING THE WORLDS Summer 2019
(316) and this has had a deleterious effect on women and their position within
religious practice. For Sridhar, it delegitimizes women (417) and the remainder
of the book examines these influences from modernity and the way they often
conflict with traditional Hindu ideals. Finally, he concludes by emphasizing the
ways in which Hindu traditions promote positive ideas of women and
menstruation, namely that menstruation is best approached as a period of rest,
austerity, and self-purification, and most of all as a special privilege available
only to them (318).
It is here that Menstruation Across Cultures is truly ground-breaking. In
‘common’ understanding, menstruation in the Indic, and especially the Hindu
traditions too often seems all about restrictions that always lead to unhealthy
attitudes both in women and in religious communities. This book challenges
that misunderstanding by painstakingly detailing the understanding the Hindu
Shastras have of menstruation, the meaning they accord it, and how it fits into
the philosophy and schema of human life in general. It challenges Western
stereotypes of Hindu women as oppressed by patriarchal religious ideas, shows
the deeply nuanced theological positions found within Hindu thought, and
opens the door for greater understanding, participation, and discourse by both
men and women, scholars and lay people about the position of women within
these traditions. It is a worthy addition to any scholar’s library.
[Note: for the purposes of full disclosure, I reviewed this from a PDF version received from the
author prior to publication.]
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