Eunuchs and Wikipedia

 

Eunuch
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A eunuch is an infertile human male whose testicles have either been removed (deliberately or by accident) or are otherwise non-functional. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 21st century B.C. Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures such as courtiers or equivalent domestics, treble singers, religious specialists, government officials, military commanders, and guardians of women or harem servants.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Religious castration
3 Castrato singers
4 Eunuchs in modern times
5 Figurative use
6 Involuntary disorder
7 Myths
8 Historically significant eunuchs
9 Some other famous eunuchs
10 Eunuchs in Fiction
11 See also
12 Notes
13 Sources and references
14 External links

[edit]
History
The English word eunuch is from the Greek eune (“bed”) and ekhein (“to keep”), effectively “bed keeper.” Servants or slaves were usually castrated in order to make them a safer servant of a royal court where physical access to the ruler could wield great influence – seemingly lowly domestic functions such as making the ruler’s bed, bathing him, cutting his hair, carrying him in his litter or even relaying messages, literally giving him “the ruler’s ear” could impart de facto power on the formally humble but trusted servant, as reflected in the humble origins and etymology of many high offices (e.g. chancellor started out as a servant guarding the entrance to an official’s study). Eunuchs supposedly did not generally have loyalties to the military, the aristocracy, or to a family of their own (having neither offspring nor in-laws, at the very least), and were thus seen as more trustworthy and less interested in establishing a private ‘dynasty’. Because their condition usually lowered their social status, they could also be easily replaced or killed without repercussion. In cultures that had both harems and eunuchs, eunuchs were sometimes used as harem servants (compare the female odalisque) or seraglio guards.

The first mention of eunuchs was made in the Assyrian Empire (ca. 850 till 622 B.C.). Eunuchs were also familiar figures in the court of the Achaemenid emperors of Persia and the Egyptian Pharaohs (down to the Lagid dynasty known as Ptolemees, ending with Cleopatra).

In ancient China castration was both a traditional punishment (until the Sui Dynasty) and a means of gaining employment in the Imperial service. At the end of the Ming Dynasty there were 70,000 eunuchs (宦官 huàn’guān, or 太監 tàijiān) in the Imperial palace. The value of such employment—certain eunuchs gained immense power that may have superseded that of the prime ministers—was such that self-castration had to be made illegal. The number of eunuchs in Imperial employ had fallen to 470 in 1912, when their employment ceased. The justification of the employment of eunuchs as high-ranking civil servants was that, since they were incapable of having children, they would not be tempted to seize power and start a dynasty. Concurrently, a similar system existed in Vietnam.

The tension between depraved eunuchs in the service of the emperor and virtuous Confucian officials resisting their tyranny is a familiar theme in Chinese history. In his History of Government, Samuel Finer points out that reality was not always that clear-cut. There were instances of very capable eunuchs, who were valuable advisors to their emperor, and the resistance of the “virtuous” officials often was procrastination on the part of a privileged class which blindly resisted any change, whether it be for the good or the bad of the empire.

Eunuchs are also known in India and throughout the East. In India the Hijra are eunuchs who have the disorder by birth or they are hermaphrodites. They usually dress in saris, or Indian garb worn by women, and wear heavy make-up. They are considered as good luck and are invited to bless the bride and the groom during weddings. They also come by themselves to give their blessings on occasions like child birth, new shop opening etc and are given a lot of gifts on such occasions or in need they just beg by singing and dancing and usually get the money easily. They rely on such gifts for their livelihood.

The practice was also well established in Europe among the Greeks and Romans, although more rarely as court functionaries than in Asia. For example in late Rome, emperors such as Constantine were surrounded by eunuchs for such functions as bathing, hair cutting, dressing, and bureaucratic functions, in effect acting as a shield between the emperor and his administrators from physical contact. Eunuchs were believed loyal and dispensable. At the Byzantine imperial court however, there were a great number of eunuchs employed in domestic and administrative functions, actually organized as a separate hierarachy, following a parallel career of their own. Archieunuchs -each in charge of a group of eunuchs- were among the principal officers in Constantinople, under the emperors.[1]

Allegedly it was only after the Muslim Arabs conquered parts of the Roman Empire that they acquired eunuchs from the Romans, and not knowing what else to do with them, made them into harem guards.

For the Eunuchs in the Ottoman Great Sultan’s harem and wider palace service, see the (Topkapi) Seraglio.

[edit]
Religious castration
Among the earliest records of human religion are accounts of castration as an act of devotion, and sacred eunuchs are found in spiritual roles. Archaeological finds at Çatalhöyük, a large neolithic town of southern Anatolia, suggest that such practises were common in the worship of the goddess Cybele in 7500 BC. The Galli, later Roman followers of Cybele, also practiced ritual self-castration, known as sanguinaria. The practise continued throughout Christian times, with many of the early church castrating themselves as an act of devotion.[2] A famous example is the early theologian Origen, who found scriptural justification in the Gospel of Matthew 19:12. In this passage, Jesus advised: “There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.” Tertullian, a 2nd century Church Father, believed that Jesus himself was a eunuch, and that the apostle Paul of Tarsus also castrated himself.[3]

Eunuch priests have served various goddesses from India for many centuries. Contemporary examples can be found among devotees of Yellammadevi,[4] and the Ali of southern India.[5]

The 18th-century Russian Skoptzy (скопцы) sect was an example of a castration cult, where its members regarded castration as a way of renouncing the sins of the flesh. Several members of the 20th century Heaven’s Gate cult were found to have been castrated, apparently voluntarily and for the same reasons. The Hijra of India still practice a ritual castration that involves the removal of both the penis and testes. They are often referred to as eunuchs.

European illustration of a Eunuch (1749)[edit]
Castrato singers
Eunuchs castrated before puberty were also valued and trained in several cultures for their exceptional voices, which retained a childlike and other-worldly flexibility and treble pitch; unfortunately the choice had to be made at an age the boy would not yet be able to consciously choose whether to sacrifice in his sexual potency, and there was no guarantee that the voice would remain of musical excellence after the operation. Such eunuchs were known as castrati.

As women were sometimes forbidden to sing in Church, their place was taken by castrati. The practice, known as castratism, remained popular until the 18th century and was known into the 19th century. The last famous Italian castrato, Giovanni Velluti, did not die until 1861. The sole existing recording of a castrato singer documents the voice of Alessandro Moreschi, one of the last eunuchs in the Sistine Chapel choir. Unfortunately, the early 20th century recording is of poor quality and Moreschi, who was never trained for the stage, is not considered a great singer.

[edit]
Eunuchs in modern times
There are many millions [citation needed] of eunuchs in many countries around the world, including India and Bangladesh.

[edit]
Figurative use
The term is also used, though technically incorrect, for men who are considered ‘emasculated’ because of reasons other than castration, such as sufferers of physical or psychosomatical impotence, and even for homosexuals, the reasoning being that although they remain perfectly capable of sexual performance, their exclusive orientation to infertile intercourse renders them biologically emasculated.

[edit]
Involuntary disorder
The body dysmorphic disorder or dysmorphophobia characterized by desire to be a eunuch is called skoptic syndrome, named after the Skoptzy sect. However, in the latest issue of DSM, there are no references to the term, and it is virtually unknown in psychological literature. It is also important to notice that the term, along with GID, can and is also used to imply “minority mainstream view/practices” without negatively implying dysfunction or ‘wrongness’, nor is it applicable to all people with a desire for castration, due to the highly diverse nature of reasons for volunteer castration. This particularly in view that castration has a history, up to the modern age, of therapeutic use; according to Victor T. Cheney, in his Castration: Advantages and Disadvantages (Authorhouse, Dec. 2003), castration has been documented to effectively reduce symptoms in people with schizophrenia, psychosis, violent behaviors, paraphilias, manias, overactive libido, baldness, sleep apnea, as well as prostate disorders and prevention of various sexually transmitted diseases, by means of eliminated or reduced sexual activity. Many men indeed chose to become eunuchs for some of these reasons. This desire is still present in modern populations, as evidenced in the large membership in message boards on the Internet related to the topic. Alternatively, some men derive sexual excitement from the idea of being castrated or otherwise having their genitals mutilated, usually by another person (see masochism and paraphilia). There has been frequent news coverage of incidents of self-castration (autocastration) and underground networks of people without medical licenses performing castrations. Most urologists have experience with patients who have attempted castration on themselves. According to a June 12, 2002 article by Detroit Free Press: self-castrations tend to be more common than leaving the job to someone else, said Dr. Dana Ohl, a urologist at the U-M Medical Center who has operated on botched amateur castrations. “Usually, when these people just chop their own testicles off, they don’t pay attention to the blood supply,” he said.

[edit]
Myths
According to Tom Burnam’s Dictionary of Misinformation, a common misconception about eunuchs is that, since they were castrated, they were either unable or unwanting to defile or perform sexual intercourse with the women in the harem they were employed to watch over. This was not always true, however. Though they would be expected to have a lower sex drive, eunuchs could often achieve an erection and engage in coitus, though no pregnancy could result. According to Burnham, some women preferred eunuchs as lovers since they never ejaculated and could, therefore, maintain erections longer.

[edit]
Historically significant eunuchs
In chronological order.

Daniel (5th century BC) He held a position in King Nebuchadnezzar’s court that was reserved for eunuchs. That he, alone, of those who held that post, had not been castrated has been argued by a few theologians; however, his three companions, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were certainly eunuchs.
Bagoas (4th century BC) A favorite of Alexander the Great. Influential in changing Alexander’s attitude toward Persians & therefore in the king’s policy decision to try to integrate the conquered peoples fully into his Empire as loyal subjects. He thereby paved the way for the relative success of Alexander’s Seleucid successors and greatly enhanced the penetration of Greek culture to the East.
Sima Qian – old romanization: Ssu-ma Chi’en (2nd/1st century BC) Was the first person to have practiced modern historiography – gatherering and analyzing both primary and secondary sources in order to write his monumental history of the Chinese empire.
Ganymedes (1st century BC) Highly capable adviser & general of Cleopatra VII’s sister & rival, Princess Arsinoe. Defeated & almost killed Julius Caesar in battle at Alexandria, capturing his cloak in the process. Could have changed the history of Rome and of the eastern Mediterranean if he had not been displaced through Egyptian court intrigue.
Pothinus ( 1st century BC) Regent for pharaoh Ptolemy XII.
Cai Lun – Ts’ai Lun in the old romanization (1st/2nd century AD) Reasonable evidence exists to suggest that he was truly the inventor of paper. At the very least, he established the importance of paper and standardized its manufacture in the Chinese empire.
Origen – early Christian theologian, castrated himself based on his reading of the Gospel of Matthew 19:12 (For there are eunuchs, who were born so from their mother’s womb: and there are eunuchs, who were made so by men: and there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it.). Despite the fact that the early Christian theologian Tertullian wrote that Jesus was a eunuch, there is no corroboration in any other early source. (The Skoptsy did, however, believe it to be true.) Tertullian also wrote that he knew, personally, the author of the Gospel of Matthew, and that he was a eunuch. Again, this is not attested elsewhere.
Eutropius (5th century AD) Only eunuch known to have attained the highly distinguished and very influential position of Roman Consul.
Narses (478-573) General of Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I, responsible for destroying the Ostrogoths in 552 at the Battle of Taginae in Italy and saving Rome for the empire.
Ignatius of Constantinople (799-877) Twice Patriarch of Constantinople during troubled political times [847-858 & 867-877]. First absolutely unquestioned eunuch saint, recognised by both the Orthodox & Roman Churches. (There are a great many early saints who were probably eunuchs, though few either as influential nor unquestioned as to their castration.)
Ly Thuong Kiet (1019-1105) – Eunuch-turned-general during the Ly Dynasty in Vietnam. Penned what is considered the first Vietnamese declaration of independence. Regarded as a Vietnamese national hero.
Pierre Abélard (1079-1142) French scholastic philosopher & theologian.
Zheng He (1371-1433) Famous admiral who led huge Chinese fleets of exploration around the Indian Ocean and, perhaps, to America and Australia in the early 15th century.
Judar Pasha (Late 16th century) A blonde, blue-eyed Spanish eunuch who became the head of the Moroccan invasion force into the Songhai Empire. In 1591, despite overwhelming odds, his forces conquered a large swath of sub-Saharan Africa for the Saadi Dynasty and firmly entrenched Islam in the region.
Carlo Broschi, called Farinelli (1705-82) Greatest Italian castrato.
See also Eunuchs

[edit]
Some other famous eunuchs
Shu Diao Intrigant eunuch who was responsible of a successor civil war in the feudal state of Qi
Zhao Gao Favourite of Qin Shihuangdi, who plotted against Li Si (died 210 BC)
Zhang Rang Head of the infamous “10 Changshi” (Ten attendants) of Eastern Han Dynasty
Huang Hao Eunuch in the state of Shu; also appears in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Cen Hun Eunuch in the state of Wu during the Three Kingdoms Period
Gao Lishi A loyal and trusted friend of Tang emperor Xuanzong
Li Fuguo The Tang eunuch who began another era of eunuch rule
Yu Chao’en Tang eunuch who began his “career” as army supervisor
Tong Guan A eunuch of Song Dynasty; also appears in the novel Water Margin
Wang Zhen First Ming eunuch with much power, see Tumu Crisis
Liu Jin Another “famous” eunuch despot
Wei Zhongxian Most infamous eunuch in Chinese history
An Dehai Corrupt eunuch of Qing Dynasty – Favorite of Empress Dowager Cixi
Li Lianying Another despotic eunuch of the Qing Dynasty
Sun Yaoting (1902–1996) last surviving imperial eunuch of Chinese history
Boston Corbett, who killed John Wilkes Booth, castrated himself to avoid temptation from prostitutes.
Nick Evesham, the famous Belgian born computer programmer who in the late 1970’s played a cruicial role in the SATA program.
El Don, erasmus eunuch.
[edit]
Eunuchs in Fiction
In the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Captain Jack Sparrow refers to the character of Will Turner as a eunuch while speaking to Captain Barbossa. Possibly, Sparrow is attempting to reassure Barbossa that Turner is not a threat, given the historical role of eunuchs.
The character and narrator Taita in Wilbur Smith’s “Egyptian” (1991-) series of novels is a eunuch (performed as a punishment while a slave).
[edit]
See also
genital modification and mutilation
female genital cutting
[edit]
Notes
^ This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain. [1]
^ Hester, J. David (2005). Eunuchs and the Postgender Jesus: Matthew 19:12 and Transgressive Sexualities. Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Vol. 28, No. 1, 13-40 (2005)
^ Tertullian, On Monogamy, 3: “…He stands before you, if you are willing to copy him, as a voluntary spado (eunuch) in the flesh.” And elsewhere: “The Lord Himself opened the kingdom of heaven to eunuchs and He Himself lived as a eunuch. The apostle [Paul] also, following His example, made himself a eunuch…” Tertullian also declared: “The kingdom of heaven is thrown open to eunuchs.”
^ Yellamma cult of India
^ The Mystery of the Threshold: “Ali” of Southern India
[edit]
Sources and references
English translation of Rudople Guilland’s essay on Byzantine eunuchs “Les Eunuques dans l’Empire Byzantin: Étude de titulature et de prosopographie byzantines”, in ‘Études Byzantines’, Vol.

Third Gender

Eunuchs — India’s Third Gender
By Nabanita Dutt

Their face is their fortune. Caked in cheap rouge, kajal, powder and lipstick, they dress in ill-fitting blouses and colourful saris in a grotesque parody of womanhood as they roam the busy marketplaces in groups, terrorizing pedestrians, hustling for ten or a hundred rupees. These are not your average beggars on the street. With male voices shouting expletives, palms meeting crossways in a trademark clap, they prey on susceptible passersby, who will part with their cash sooner than be treated to the sight of the group collectively lifting up their saris and flashing castrated genital areas right in their faces.

Eunuchs – castrated males – have been in existence since the 9th Century BC. The word derives from the Greek “keeper of the bed” because castrated men were in popular demand to guard royal harems. The practice is believed to have started in China where, at the end of the Ming dynasty, there were as many as 70,000 eunuchs in the grand palace itself and many thousands more waiting to fill vacancies in the royal quarters. In the 1930s, when American journalist Vincent Starrett visited Beijing, he interviewed 33 palace eunuchs, ranging in age from 60 to 80. In his journals, he described the surviving eunuchs as “thin, hairless, fat-lipped and bejowled…with shrill voices and hair which hang down to their necks.”

By 1960, the number of Chinese eunuchs had dwindled to 26 living in Beijing, and 1996 saw the death of Sun Yaoting, the last of these noble civil servants who passed away a little before his ninety-fourth birthday.

India is the only country where the tradition of eunuchs is prevalent today. There are about 1 million of them, though their role in life has changed drastically from that of royal servants, confidantes and friends.

Eunuchs, or hijras as they are called here, have become something to be feared. Nobody wants to be accosted by one of them – be nudged with their elbows, stroked on the cheek, taunted, cursed and flashed.

It’s by taking advantage of this discomfort and embarrassment at their existence, that hijras in 21st Century India are making their living. Begging isn’t their only source of income. It’s an age-old custom in the country to have hijras bless childbirths, weddings, housewarmings and other auspicious occasions. The eunuchs are believed to possess occult powers, and their blessings – and curses – are both considered potent.

The community has a complex network system, which informs them of every happy event in the neighbourhood. No sooner has a baby been born in the family that a tinkle of ankle-bells herald the arrival of the hijras. They sing and dance and create a commotion outside the house until the mother has allowed them to look at the baby. Once they have blessed the child they demand exorbitant sums of money in lieu of their good wishes. The inspection also carries an ulterior motive. On rare occasions when the baby is born a eunuch, the hijras insist that the baby is given to them. Often, the families will comply to avoid humiliation in society, and the group will take the child away to their ghettoes to raise him as he should be: as one of their own.

What happens in these ghettoes is a mystery few know about. Most people, in fact, have no notion about how hijras come to be. Some believe they are simply born that way – males without the male genitalia – while others will tell you that they are really men who were forcibly castrated in their youth.

Both views are true, though natural eunuchs are a very rare occurrence and castration isn’t always by force. An `operation’ as hijras call it, is cause for huge celebrations in the community. It is performed out of doors, and feasts, song and dance are rituals that attend the event, which is orchestrated by the head of the community known as Gurus.

Views differ on the exact process of castration and one would believe that there are several procedures by which the hijras dispense with unwanted male appendages. A common practice, however, begins with the individual being sequestered in isolation for some days during which he is fed on a diet of opium and milk to keep him in a permanent state of intoxication. On a day declared auspicious by the Guru, the boy is laid down on a hard surface and a cord is tied tightly around his testicles to stop the flow of blood. Several eunuchs hold him down as a sharp knife severs the penis and testicles in one swift movement. The wound is bled for a period of hours, to signify the draining of manhood and the onset of womanhood. A metal or wooden plug is inserted into the wound to stop full closure and leave an aperture for the passage of urine. Hot oil is poured over the area and herbs are placed on it to hasten the healing process

Some communities, however, do not consider the procedure complete until the boy has been made to sit on a grinding stone and pushed down until he bleeds from the anus. The drops of blood are taken to signify the first menstruation, and only then is the initiation complete.

Thereafter, the Guru takes over the proper upbringing of the newest member. Everything the young hijra learns about the clan’s customs and traditions is at the feet the Guru. His adopted family of fellow hijras provides a loving environment and he is fed, clothed and looked after well until he too feels a sense of security and well-being.

The hijras I met at a ghetto in Bombay’s Kamatipura area seemed pretty content with their lot in life. This was in 1995, when all I knew about them was that they were neither men nor women, were rude and aggressive people and lived in areas where outsiders were strictly unwelcome. But I happened to be near a hijra neighbourhood, and in a spirit of adventure, I asked a male friend who was with me, if we could take our taxi close enough to see some of them.

The houses they lived in were typical Bombay chawls – ancient three to four-storeyed structures with a long, common verandah running down the front of each floor. Hijras were everywhere, leaning over the banisters, walking down the narrow street, chatting, laughing, combing each other’s hair. The appearance of our taxi caused no stir, and encouraged by this, my friend stopped the car and walked a small distance to chat up a hijra. He’d pretend to be a customer, he said. At that point, I had no idea that hijras also sold their bodies. Yet, many of them were indeed standing at doorsteps, hand on hip, the way I had seen prostitutes pose in the adjacent Kamatipura red-light area. Men were everywhere, walking in and out of the buildings.

A couple of hijras walked up to the taxi in which I was sitting and I watched their progress with mounting fear. The presence of a female in their ghetto must anger these people, and I wondered if they would react violently to this intrusion.

“Look, look your man is chatting up another woman,” laughed the taller of the two, gesturing with her hand at my friend who was by then deep in conversation with the hijra he had chosen. She urged me to get out of the cab, and informed me she was Sita and her friend was called Aarti. The `woman’ my `husband’ liked, she said, was Lata. Not only did they have female names, they also spoke of each other as women. The couple invited me into their house, and it was with much trepidation that I began to climb up the dark, dingy staircase with my friend and his woman in tow.

As we made our way along the second-floor verandah, hijras who were lounging about reached forward to shake my hand. I was amazed to note that I caused more of a flutter among them than my male friend. Used to women who ran away at the sight of them, it appeared I was a novelty in these parts and everybody wanted to get closer and touch me.

The room we were led into contained two beds, and a hijra who looked to be about 70 was cutting vegetables into neat piles. I was wondering how they entertained customers in such a domestic environment when Lata, the one my friend had chosen, pointed at a narrow ladder placed at one end of the room. The ladder led up to a platform which was partitioned into three cubicles. Each contained a stained mattress and a naked bulb hung from a low ceiling. Lata led us into her own cubicle and I gathered this was where they serviced the men. There wasn’t enough room to sit cross-legged on the mattress and Lata giggled merrily as we tried to get comfortable without banging our heads on the ceiling.

My friend had paid her Rs 300 for an hour, during which time we said we only wanted to talk to her. The request didn’t seem to surprise Lata – probably because I was present and there was little chance of any real action – and agreed to tell us her story.

She used to be a young boy from Bihar before her operation, she said. When she was young, her school-master would take her to lonely classrooms and sodomise her regularly. The discomfort disappeared after a while and when other village men began to prey on her, it didn’t feel bad or abnormal. By the time she was 17, Lata knew she liked what the men did to her and she decided to have an operation. She couldn’t explain the need to cut off her male genitals and could only say that it made her feel more of a woman. Soon after, having collected enough money for the procedure, she ran away and got herself operated at a local clinic in Bihar which did this kind of stuff. Thereafter, she came to Bombay, having heard that business was good in the city, and was pretty content servicing men who visited this hijra neighbourhood.

Clients who came to their quarters, she said, were often heterosexual men who could not afford a female prostitute. The rest were closet gays for whom hijras were the only source of release for pent-up frustrations.

Before the evening was over and we left the place, I had spoken to several members of the community. While all of them told stories that suggested they had homosexual tendencies, few could explain the need to neuter themselves or adopt the hijra way of life. “We are the third gender,” said Sita, my first hijra friend. “There is no room for homosexuals in this society. And none of us can envisage a life where we are forced to marry females and have children by them. So the only way out is to cut off our manhood and become hijras. This is the only community which will accept us and let us live our lives the way we want to. By not being heterosexuals, we are already damned. As a hijra, at least we are not the sole target of the derision and ridicule that society heaps on us. We can endure it as a community.”

The feeling that life has shortchanged them often prompts their perverse and obscene behavior in public. “What more do we have to lose?” says Sita. “We are anyway treated worse than an untouchable. If we overdo the kind of behavior that is expected of us, we can twist people’s arms and make them pay for our sustenance. It’s the least society can do for us.”

The freedom this deviant existence affords within the community, however, is not without some restrictions. Their society is strictly hierarchical and a eunuch’s life is governed by regulations laid down by his immediate superior. Hijras all over the country are divided into seven `houses’. Each house has a Nayak at its head, below whom come several Gurus. The Gurus in turn rule over the community members and regulate their day-to-day life. While the houses of north India have very rigid systems, the ones in the south are said to be more relaxed in the way the members dress and behave.

The high point of every eunuch’s life is the annual festival at Koovagam, a small village 200 miles south of Madras. On Chitrai Purnima, the new year of the Tamil lunar calendar, the sleepy little village becomes a hive of activity as hijras from all over the country converge for a ‘ceremony of marriage and subsequent widowhood’.

The scene is adopted from the Mahabharata, one of India’s two great epics. During the battle of Kurukshetra, the Pandavas brothers had to sacrifice one warrior to gain a tactical edge over their warring cousins. Their war council selected Aravanan, one of epic hero Arjuna’s sons. The boy agreed to die for the holy cause of defeating the wicked Kaurava cousins, but he expressed a wish to marry first. Aravanan’s last wish posed a huge problem, for who would knowingly let their daughter marry a man who would die in battle the very next day? To solve the issue, Lord Krishna assumed the form of Mohini, a beautiful woman, and married Aravanan.

The man-woman context appealed to the eunuch community, and for over 500 years, Aravanan has been deified and made central to the eunuch psyche. The hijras see themselves as Mohini, and on the festival day the priest at Aravanan’s temple marries them off to the diety. The next day, the priest cuts the mangalsutra, the marriage chain, and the hijras all become widows. After the marriage celebrations and mournings of widowhood are over, the time comes for hijras to mingle and find new mates. A number of competitions take place then, notable among which is the annual beauty contest. In gaudily embroidered saris, elaborate hair styles, make-up and jewellery, the hijras parade down the aisle, showing off their stuff to thunderous applause from the crowds.

In recent years, events such as the hijra beauty contest have begun to receive a lot of public attention, and a group of eunuchs even had the opportunity to model in a professional fashion show, which was well-attended by India’s fashion circle and the media. This attempt at bringing them to the forefront of public consciousness was a huge success and the eunuchs who took part couldn’t get over the fact that they were sharing the stage with Miss Indias and the country’s leading models.

Not quite so much in the media glare, however, are a number of social bodies such as the Hijra Kalyan Sabha and the Dai Welfare Society which are working alongside these eunuchs to give them a proper place in society. “We too want to go to restaurants, visit cinema halls and parks,” says Revathi, a hijra activist who was in Calcutta recently at a social meet. “We also want to educate ourselves and improve our prospects. We want to enjoy the privileges of being an Indian, and I believe that in time we will achieve our dream. Hijras have already won elections and entered the field of politics. Movies are being made about us, and people are trying to understand our predicament. In the world’s largest democracy…maybe there’s hope for us yet.”

http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/article.1734.html
Eunuchs — India’s Third Gender
By Nabanita Dutt

EUNUCHS IN INDIA

EUNUCHS IN INDIA
——————————————————————————–
It has been estimated that there are at least a million eunuchs in India. They are known as hijra, and make their livings as beggars, prostitutes and by removing “bad luck”.
Visitors to India can frequently see groups of gaudily dressed hijra outside large railway stations. They beg for money and, if you refuse, you will be loudly cursed and they will expose the area between their legs where their genitals used to be. Many of them have also had this area branded, so that at first glance they appear to be women.

The prostitution side of their income is interesting. They act as prostitutes for men who can not afford the price of a real woman. Of course, they are also popular with men who like transsexuals.

Removing bad luck also provides part of their income. When a house is built, the owners will frequently employ a eunuch to dance in each room to take away any potential bad luck. This is because eunuchs have suffered the very worst fate that could befall anyone, and consequently do not mind accepting a little bit more for a fee. Groups of hijra also turn up uninvited at weddings and dance around the guests, ostensibly to take away any bad luck that may befall the groom and bride. However, it is an expensive matter to get the hijras to leave, making this a lucrative part of their income.

During the last few years they have found a new way of making money. In a crowded country like India it is very difficult for young couples to have time all by themselves. Consequently, they find secluded parts of public parks to cuddle and perhaps make love. The hijras search out these young couples out and demand money to leave.

Most hijras are transsexuals who have had the operation voluntarily. The operation is expensive and most have had to save up to have it done. It is performed out of doors and a group of hijras will gather to sing songs as the operation is being performed. The eunuch-to-be is usually drugged and the operation is performed with one cut, severing the entire genitalia. The person is then made to walk around for an hour or so before being allowed to rest. Surprisingly, even though the operation is done with unsterile instruments, the mortality rate is small. However, when I was in India a few years back I read a newspaper article condemning the practice because some people die as a result of the operation.

An excellent book called “Neither Male nor Female” describes the life of the transsexual eunuchs. However, it makes no mention of the boys who are kidnapped and castrated by members of the eunuch community. This is one of two bad aspects of the hijras.

If a child is born with any deformity of the genitals they are destined to join the hijras, whether they want to or not. The hijras will wait until the child is twelve or thirteen and then gather outside the house demanding the child as theirs. Even if the parents do not want to part with the child, they ultimately do so.

It is a risky business being a small boy living on the streets in any part of the world, but especially so in India, as there is the added risk of being transformed into a eunuch. The eunuchs gain the child’s trust by providing food, shelter and friendship. There are two photographs of a fifteen year old eunuch (one naked and the other wearing women’s clothes), kidnapped and castrated by the eunuch community, in the book “Sex Watching” by Milton Diamond (Macdonald and Company, London, 1984).

I have visited India countless times on business and my interest in the hijras began on my first visit in 1969 when I stayed in a large hotel in Bombay. The man who took my bags up to my room asked if I wanted a woman for the night. I was exhausted after a long flight and said “no”. He then offered me a boy. When I said “no” to that also, I was offered a eunuch.

http://www.bmezine.com/ritual/970101/hijra.html

A Eunuch Friend

Our Viewpoint : A Eunuch Friend

Eunuchs in India have become something to be feared of, forget about being friends with them. Nobody wants to be approached by one of them, be nudged with their elbows, stroked on the cheek or being cursed. Especially women stay off from them. On the other hand they are the most vulnerable community to face prejudice often of brutal nature, violence, in public spaces, police stations and prisons and even in their homes. People are hesitant of employing them and the choice many are left with is prostitution or begging. They are disempowered even by the law as India doesn?t recognize the ?third sex?.

Eunuchs – castrated males – have been in existence since the 9th Century BC. The word is derived from the Greek “keeper of the bed”. In the Bible in book of Esther 2: 3, we see kings appointing eunuchs to take care of all the beautiful young virgins and queens so that it would be impossible for them to have sexual relations with the women under their care. They were the ideal guards of harems.

India is the only country where the tradition of eunuchs is prevalent today. There are about 1 million of them, though their role in life has changed drastically from that of royal servants, confidantes and friends. In India they have become the face of fortune and are often seen gracing special occasion like new born or marriages with their trademark clapping and singing and dancing. They have their own ghettos in Mumbai and southern cities of the country. Most of them are engaged in prostitution today.

Being eunuchs: Natural eunuchs are a very rare occurrence (called atypical genitalia). Most of them are eunuchs either by castration or because of the sexual trauma they went through as a young boy or some are operated for medical reasons. Today many frustrated homosexuals, rejected by the society, have adopted the way of eunuch life style. In actual they do not fall under the category of eunuchs. Homosexuals are not eunuchs. Jesus did talk about eunuchs and gave them equal opportunity; however the Bible condemns the act of homosexuality.

In Mathew 19:11-12, Jesus says the command of not to divorce in marriage doesn?t apply to eunuchs because they were born that way, others were made that way by men, and other have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. This clearly says that Jesus does accept the state of eunuchs. Jesus places both naturally born eunuchs (who are born with deformity of genitals) and the ones who prefer not to marry so that they can serve the Lord, equally as eunuchs. Therefore, it is not a failure or a cause for despair that one remains a eunuch or in the celibate state. Those who remain unmarried for the Kingdom of God’s sake do in order to place all the emphasis on Christ, and not on caring for a wife. It very well may be a special calling of God, or something that is for the best according to the will of God.

In the Bible (Act 8:26-40) we read about a non-Jewish Ethiopian eunuch, an important official. Philip a disciple of Jesus was directed by the Holy Spirit to explain the good news to him. As Philip preached him gospel he accepted Jesus as his personal savior and took the baptism. Contrary to standard Jewish teachings and practices, Jesus did not limit their inclusion in the kingdom.

The human rights movement in India has begun to take notice of the concerns of the community only recently. In recent years, events such as the hijra beauty contest have begun to receive a lot of public attention. Even the media has been covering such events positively. They are entering the arena of fashion and politics as well.

It is time that we reach out to Hijra community with the love of Jesus Christ. It is tough to crack the trend and image of stereotype eunuchs but before it is too late we must do our duty and give them opportunity to understand the love of Jesus Christ so that they can make a conscious decision to lead a meaningful life. According to the Bible, eunuchs have unique prospect of serving the Lord without having to worry about family responsibilities. God wants them to come to him. He wants them to turn from their sinful acts. He is asking us to obey the call just like Philip preached to the Ethiopian eunuch. Are we willing to accept a eunuch friend to worship the Lord Jesus along with us?

http://www.cbnindia.org/socialconcerns.php?id=221&tid=5

Two eunuchs to contest elections from Lucknow

Two eunuchs to contest elections from Lucknow
Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

With two eunuchs having plunged into the fray from Lucknow, the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh are likely to witness history of sorts.

While the six-feet-tall Payal is posing a challenge to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s man Friday Lalji Tandon, who also happens to be the state’s minister for housing and urban development, Sridevi is taking on Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Suresh Tiwari.

“You have seen the government run by men and woman; now see a government run by eunuchs,” Payal says. “Even with a minister for housing and urban development, this constituency remained plagued with poor sanitation, shortage of drinking water and absence of many other civic amenities”, she says.

“My aim is to serve the people and get rid of corruption by exposing bungling in high places”, she adds

Payal first shot into limelight when she participated in the first ever fashion show by eunuchs. And now she is the first eunuch to contest from the capital of India’s most populous state, which also happens to be the political constituency of the prime minister.

She has a great sense of style too! Payal was dressed in jeans, a red button-down collar shirt and a navy blue blazer when she went to hand over her nomination papers. And when the returning officer told her “thank you”, she quipped: “Wish me good luck too!”

“We eunuchs have no family or relatives. So, unlike others who have this insatiable lust to fill coffers not only for themselves, but for their future generations, we have no such interests,” says Sridevi

Considering that her opponent has earned much disrepute for not having done anything, Sridevi’s slogans on corruption and the incumbent’s indifference towards the problems of the people is likely to be a hit with the electorate.

Shaista Ambar, a well-known social worker who founded the National Communist Party to promote the political interests of eunuchs, said: “We are going to have a large number of eunuchs from different corners of the country to campaign for the Lucknow candidates.”

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/jan/23poll.htm

The Eunuch Ethos

The In- betweens
The third sex has been the subject of many debates and studies, wonder and apprehension, curiosity …. or just plain disgust. In most western societies, the concept of eunuchs, people who are neither male nor female, may not be the same as it is in the Eastern countries, especially India.
Warning. Discretionary Content. This article may contain material that is either inappropriate or offensive to some audiences

In all practical probabilities, eunuchs, natural born men with deformed or absent genitalia, or even castrated males, have existed as long as humans have. But the first documented mention is in the ninth century before Christ. The term itself is a derived word from Greek, meaning `keeper of bed’. This was because in ancient Greece, eunuchs, or castrated males had the popular job of guarding harems.

In Asia, the practice in China, at the end of Ming dynasty, was at its peak. At that point there were almost 70,000 eunuchs living in the grand palace itself. They were in great demand as guards and for other worker positions in the palace premises, because they were men, but harmless. There numbers fell sharply thereafter, as the royals started dying off and by the 1960s, there were only 26 real eunuchs living in Beijing…of those who had served the royal family.

In India, Gods, demons and earthlings, eunuchs have been everywhere since times mythological. They were the form that Gods took for various devious means, they were cursed forms that humans were given, and they were supposed to have the power of the gods on their tongue. The epic of Lord Rama, Ramayana, talks of a legend – when Lord Rama was sent to exile, all the men and women from his country, Ayodhya, accompanied him to the forest. He stopped them all, urging the men and women to go back home. After 14 years when he came back, he saw some people still living at that spot. They were neither men, nor women, so did not go home….but waited for their king to come back. He blessed them and gave them the power of the word…that comes true once spoken!!! Indians still believe they have that power; such is the strength of mythology. That is the reason why there are about a million eunuchs in India, some natural, some others castrated (in a most horrendous manner.), and they make a living out of their deformity.

But one often wonders, how does the tribe grow? There are a very large number of castrated males in the eunuch population, and then there are the children born with deformed genitalia. However, natural deformities are sometimes followed up by crude surgery to make the incomplete man a complete eunuch. In any case, once a child is born, the complex network of communication that the eunuch community in the Indian society enjoys makes sure they are present to take their pound of flesh. This also gives them an opportunity (traditionally), to check out the child’s gender. If there is any problem, and the parents are still not ready to part with it, they do not push. But by the time the child is about twelve years old, they close in on the kill, and a deformed child is usually made to join their ranks.

The process of castration has been described as many journalists as a horrendous one, with crude scalpels and un-sterilized other instruments, but surprisingly, the mortality rate is very low.

The boy is kept in isolation for a few days and fed on opium and milk to induce a sort of anesthesia. Then, on a previously ordained day, his external genitalia are cut off with a knife and the bad blood is allowed to flow for a period of time. There are some more horrifying practices attached to make the eunuch a `complete’ one, the kind that does not merit description here. It will be sufficient to say that the process is painful enough to kill the faint of heart. However, at the end of it, they emerge as complete eunuchs, now ready to take their place among their tribe and earn a living – begging, cursing or peddling their body.

Yes, these are, in the current Indian scenario, the only means of livelihood for eunuchs. Most of them operate in the lowest rung of the society. They are beggars, though glorified because they use threats instead of cajoling. They also operate as prostitutes, but for preferences after women and boys.

In the Indian society, the eunuchs have a very important place during any social function. Weddings, and births merit special attention because these are the times when Indians normally look for blessings, and can do without curses. Groups of eunuchs reach the venue of the marriage or the home of a new mother and dance, sing, perform, asking to be paid. If one refuses to be paid, they threaten with curses, or the ultimate weapon, flash their deformed genitals. No one wants these kinds of things to happen, so most people just pay up. Eunuchs are supposed to take away bad luck, which is why they are encouraged to dance around a new house or around the bride and the groom in a marriage. People believe, even in grudgingly, that this takes away all the evil effects, and pay these eunuchs handsomely for this.

The eunuch community in India, however, is not without its regulations. The eunuch society is strictly hierarchical and divided into seven houses, each headed by a Nayak, with several Gurus under him. It is these gurus who regulate their daily life, control and run the community settlement, provide sustenance and also their social behavior. Which brings us to their biggest festival, which is covered by most people watchers across the world. The New Year of Tamil lunar calendar (the original Hindu calendar), Chitrai Purnima, sees a huge congregation of eunuchs from around the country, celebrating a myth from the Mahabharat. This is the story of marriage and widowhood in the same breath, at Koovagam, a sleepy little village 200 kms south of Chennai (old Madras). The myth talks about the story of a warrior who was selected to die during the war, but he had one wish, he wanted to marry before he died. The Pandavas could find no one to agree to marry the boy who was to die the next day, so Lord Krishna himself became a beautiful woman, Mohini, and agreed to marry him. True to the tale, the warrior died the next day and Mohini became a widow.

The story has appealed to eunuchs down the ages. Even today they celebrate the Arayanan festival at the temple, where the priest ties the nuptial thread(a mangalsutra that symbolizes marriage in South India), marrying them to the deity. The next day the marriage chain is cut and all the eunuchs become widows. There is a mourning period, and then they start looking for another mate.

In this social system, the process of castration or deforming to become apart of the eunuch tribe is sometimes the only release for a woman trapped in a man’s body. There are any numbers of people who have preferred castration to a life of ambiguity. It may be the deep-rooted psyche that forces them to project themselves as eunuchs rather than an incomplete man or woman
By Kanika Goswami
Published: 3/19/2004
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-17-2004-51783.asp

Eunuchs get together at conclave

 

Eunuchs get together at conclave

Mumbai: In a unique conclave of the third sex, over 10,000 eunuchs from all over the country and a few from overseas assembled in central suburb of Vikhroli for a 15-day annual get-together.

The conclave, which began on Sunday, is being organised in Mumbai after nine years.

While eunuchs are generally seen only on the roads or at functions, one at a time or in groups, this was an occasion when thousands of them came together and did some serious business apart from all the song and dance.

They came in from Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala to mingle with their own community. Some even flew in from other countries.

Over the fortnight, they held discussions on issues related to the community alongside a lot of song and dance.

This apart, they claim, this was also an exercise in ‘building families’ as this community has a long tradition of adopting family members.

And even foreign delegates echoed the traditional Indian thoughts and values. “She is my daughter and she is my sister. We all live like a family and, therefore, it’s like generations meeting each other,” said Slyvie, a Malaysian eunuch.

Having been transformed into the female form, shopping too was high on their agenda. Several Mumbai shops witnessed brisk business as the eunuchs went on a shopping spree, buying sarees, footwear, handbags and other stuff.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/060517/211/64bq8.html

Eunuchs get training in operation of EVMs

Eunuchs get training in operation of EVMs

By Our Special Correspondent

VILLUPURAM, MARCH 27. The Villupuram Collector, K. Gopal, emphasised the need for aravanis (eunuchs) to enrol themselves in the electoral rolls.

At a meeting held at the Collectorate yesterday, Mr. Gopal said the aravanis could obtain Form-6 from either the Revenue Divisional Officer or the Tahsildar concerned to become eligible for exercising their franchise. As per the Madras High Court guidance, they were given the choice of mentioning their sex according to their preference.

Mr. Gopal said in the case of those who had not yet obtained the electors photo identity cards, the Election Commission guidelines would be followed.

The Collector called upon the aravanis’ representatives to tell others about the need for including their names in the voters’ list. Mr. Gopal arranged a demonstration of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) for them.

Villupuram hogs the limelight every year as on the occasion of Chitra Pournami (in April), the aravanis from all over the country descend on the town and from here they would proceed to Koovagam near Sevalai in Ulundurpet taluk where their temple is located. Traditional pujas and even “beauty contest” would mark the occasion.

On the full-moon night, they would tie the mangalsutra, handed over by the priest, thus symbolically marrying the deity Aravanan. Later, a car procession would be taken out and at the end the deity would be beheaded. Following the event, the aravanis would break their bangles and remove the strings of flower, signifying that they have become widows, and after grieving over their loss for a while they would disperse.

The aravanis are thinly spread — at Villupuram, Ginjee, Thirukkoilur, Ulundurpet and Kallakurichi. The official figures put the eligible voters at 85, but unofficial count says it could be more than 500. The official sources say that after the aravanis mention their sex preference, they would encounter the problem of allotting them the queue at the polling stations.

Sometime ago, there was also a demand that they be allotted separate polling stations. The officials hope that as the aravanis are generally seen moving in groups, assigning them a particular queue would not pose problems.

The aravanis say that at last they have got recognition from the court, but the social recognition is hard to come by, because there exist certain reservations in accepting their status.

http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/28/stories/2004032802490500.htm

Eunuchs are eligible to be enrolled’

Eunuchs are eligible to be enrolled’

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, MARCH 24. The Chief Electoral Officer has clarified that eunuchs are eligible to be enrolled in electoral rolls. While filing Form 6, they are free to indicate their preference in the column relating to sex. It will be entered in the electoral rolls, following the statutory procedure prescribed in the Representation of the People Act 1950. Once the name is enrolled in the electoral rolls, eunuchs will be eligible for the elector’s photo identity, an official release said here today.

http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/25/stories/2004032506550400.htm

Indian debt collector calls in the eunuchs

Indian debt collector calls in the eunuchs
Channel to take heed and bolster credit control departments?
By Linda HarrisonPublished Thursday 6th May 1999 16:29 GMTSecurity White Papers – Download them free from Reg Research A cure for the spectre of bad debt currently stalking the IT industry may lie in the back streets of Bombay. In this Indian city, a debt-collecting firm has taken to employing eunuchs to embarrass those slow at paying up. The six eunuchs currently employed threaten to remove their saris, bringing shame on offenders, their businesses and their families. For those sceptics out there, bear in mind that this scheme has generated £8,500 in just a few weeks – a tidy sum in rupees, whichever way you look at it. According to today’s Daily Telegraph, BR Shetty, director of the aptly named Unique Recoveries, said: “By the grace of God success is there. People don’t like to be humiliated. We are also giving work to these people. They are very educated but nobody will give them jobs.” Shetty has hopes of expanding the business to chase credit card non-payers. “I am close to signing a deal with a foreign bank,” he told the Telegraph. “If I win a contract to collect money for credit card defaulters, I will have to employ 100 eunuchs.” There are believed to be 150,000 eunuchs in Bombay alone. Once guards to royalty, their lot is not a happy one in modern India.

sourced from the net..