God’s creations are incredible, and in that one of the great creations is human beings. They may be male, female or intersex. Intersex people are those who have sex characteristics of both females and males. People whose gender identity is different from the one assigned to them at birth are transgenders Hindu Vedas and Puranas the transgender had a divine status. It has been mentioned in Vedas and puranas as trithiya prakrithy or queer gender. Third gender characters are often found in traditional Hindu literary sources such as Vedas, Puranas, Mahabharata, and Ramayana. For instance the Ardhanarishvara is a composite androgynous form of the Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati. In Shiva-purana, it is said that god Brahama created male beings and instructed them in turn to create others, but they were unable to do so. When Shiva appeared before him in an androgynous form, Brahma realized his omission and created females. Hindu epics has so many examples where deities changing gender, manifesting as different genders at different times. In the Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu takes the form of the enchantress, Mohini, during samudra madhanam. In the Mahabharata, Lord Krishna took the female version, Mohini, in order to fulfil the wish to experience marital bliss of Aravan, son of Arjunan who sacrifice to Maa Kali during Kurukshtra battle. Now, also the transgenders in Tamil Nadu who are known as Aravani’s celebrate 18 days festival based on the the marriage of Aravan and Mohini, her widowhood and mourning. Ila an androgyne deity is another example of of transgenders in Hindu mythology. There are many versions of the tale exist. Ila is mentioned as a daughter or son of Vaivasvata Manu who is born as female changed into a male form by divine grace soon after her birth.
Later, he is cursed to change the gender every month. As a woman ,Ila married Budha,the god of the planet mercury and bore him a son called Puruvaras,who was the father of lunar dynasty (Chandra Vamsha). After the birth of Pururavas, Ilā is transformed into a man again and fathered three sons. Chandra vamsha is one of the very first dynasty and all other Puru, Bharatha, Kuru, Yadhu, etc., all formed or related to that in Hindu Mythology. Another powerful transgender character in Mahabharata is Shikandini who was the daughter of King Drupatha was raised as a man and was taught warfare and statecraft. Shikhandi fought in the Kurukshetra war for the Pandavas. In the Bhisma Parva of Mahabhartha, upon being asked by the pandavas about How he could be killed in battle, Bhishma himself suggested that Arjuna should shoot his arrows at him standing behind Shikandi. In the same epic during the exile of Pandavas Arjuna had his transgender version as Brihannala who was the dance teacher for Princes Uttara. The first epic poem Ramayana composed in the 5th century BCE, depicted the presence of third genders. When Ram leaves Ayodhya for his 14 years banishment, his subjects follow him into the forest, but he tells them that all the “men and women” should return to their places. After 14 yrs of exile, when he returns to Ayodhya, he finds that the Hijras, being neither men or women, haven’t moved the place. Lord Rama who was impressed by their loyalty grants Hijaras the boon to confer blessings on people during auspicious occasions like weddings and child birth. Still in Northern states of India this blessing as a ritual continuing. More over Jain and Budha literature also clearly mentioned the presence of third gender. Upaguptha, teacher of Samrat Great Ashoka, turns into a women to teach monk on detachment from family life. In Kerala, the Kottankulangara festival (Kottankulangara Chamayavilakku) is held annually at the Kottankulangara Devi temple at Kollam district, temple in which men from across the state and now even outside it dress in female attire. The cross-dressing is part of traditional ritual festivities and at night they hold traditional lamps and walk in procession to the temple for the blessings of Goddess. These all shows the status of transgender in Hindu mythology and Bharathiya concepts where they were revered with high status in the form of Rajamatha, Princess and even worshiped by Devas The Hindu mythology described about different types of Transgender like Trans women, tans men, and cross dressers.. Moden medical science identified almost forty type of transgenders.
During the Mughal times, the status of trans had come down to a considerably lower level, due to the transgender high integrity , loyalty, and strong physical strength they were deployed as tax collectors, securities for the palaces, anthapuras and body guards for kings and queens. After concurring the countries, Mughal commanders use to arrest the royal family male members and used to forcefully sterilized, or mutilated their sexual organs. Further those were gifted to their masters depute as the helpers or servants for wife’s of sultans or other officers in the administration. Since they do not have the sexual organs and inside anthapuras dressed like females and had the physical strength of man, they used to be accompanying the bosses and played the role of conscience keeper. Since they are close to their powerful masters they are misinterpreted in the history that they had a high social status. Unfortunately during Mughal period the trans genders were exploited using there helpless situations. As a result they slipped from the divine status to servants.
British time was the black days for transgender in India because their civil rights were dismissed. In 1871, the colonial power introduced the Criminal Tribes Act (CTC). It required registration and control of eunuchs. There was a blanket suspicion of kidnapping, castration and sodomy.Under the CTC, wearing female clothing was a punishable offence for men. According to this law, “any eunuch … who appears, dressed or ornamented like a woman, in a public street or place, or in any other place, with the intention of being seen from a public street or place, or who dances or plays music, or takes part in any public exhibition” could be sentenced to up to two years of imprisonment plus a fine. Moreover, the CTC criminalized “all persons of the male sex who admit themselves or on medical inspection clearly appear to be impotent”. British described transgenders as cross dressers, beggars and unnatural prostitutes. The officials began considering them as “ungovernable” and portrayed as people who were “addicted to sex with men”. Thus Colonial law deprived the transgenders primary source of income and any kind of rights. It pushed them further into poverty and social exclusion. After Independence the same situation continues and the society put them in a category who are doing prostitution, kidnapping and castrating young boys. The truth is that due to rejections from society and home they end their life doing begging and prostitution.
Now it is expected that the population of transgenders in India is around 4.87 lakh (0.04% of the total population). Indian census has never recognized third gender before, while collecting census data for years. Hence the actual number will be four to five times more than the declared. But they are the most marginalised community in the country today. Therefore a mechanism should be developed for the representation of transgenders at parliament house which is highly required for empowering them. As the central government is passing the bill to stopping Anglo-Indian nomination in Lower House, it should be replaced by nominating of a transgender to the house. During the time of independence India had 2 million Anglo-Indians, and now it has come down to one lakh whereas the population of transgenders is triple of that. We should be encouraged transgenders to declare voluntarily to bring their queer status as earlier in Bharatiya concepts, while giving confidence including the reservation to the shrine of democracy.
Discussion about this post