ANEXOS

Among the many pictures I have seen of Dhumavati and the many descriptions I have read of her, three relatively recent paint-ings are striking, suggesting facets of the goddess that are not usually ap-parent. One painting is by the eighteenth-century painter Molaram of Himachal Pradesh (figure 29), another is from an eighteenthcentury i l -luminated Nepali manuscript (figure 30), and the third, done around

I O I5 > is by a Varanasi artist, Batuk Ramprasad (figure ^31).

Molaram's painting of Dhumavati shows her on a chariot being pulled by two enormous birds. Although they are not crows, their hooked beaks suggest carrion-eating birds, perhaps buzzards or vultures, which would

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Fig. 29. Dhumavati, by Molaram, late eighteenth century, Garwahl, Himachal Pradesh. Bharat Kala Bhavan, Benares Hindu University, Varanasi.

be appropriate to Dhumavati's generally inauspicious associations. She holds a large winnowing basket in her left hand, and her right hand is raised, perhaps in the gesture of conferring boons. She has fangs, and her tongue lolls out in the fashion of Kali and Tara. None of this is unusual for Dhumavati (except for the lolling tongue). What is striking about the picture is the elaborate ornamentation of the goddess. She wears bracelets, earrings, armbands, a necklace, and a pendant. She also wears elegant clothes. Her breasts are not pendulous but high and round. She is por-trayed as young and full of life. Her appearance contrasts sharply with descriptions of her as ugly, withered, and wearing the soiled clothes of a widow.

The Nepali painting of Dhumavati is equally uncharacteristic, if we take the descriptions in her dhydna mantras to be normative. In this striking picture, Dhumavati stands, legs apart as if striding, on a peacock, which in turn rests oh a lotus. She is naked except for a necklace of pearls and a circle of pearls crowning her hair. Her yoni is clearly exposed. Her breasts are high and not pendulous. Her hair is light in color and elaborately

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braided. She is looking at herself in a mirror, which she holds in her left hand. She is encircled by a ring of fire, which is a typical feature of Nepali iconography and many represent cremation fires. This image bears no sim-ilarities to any of Dhumavati's dhyana mantras with which I am familiar.

In this image she conveys a rather erotically alluring presence.

In the painting by Batuk Ramprasad, Dhumavati is again pictured in a style that deviates markedly from her dhyana mantras and from most depictions of her with which I am familiar. She is dressed in white and sits astride a huge crow. Surrounding her are what appear to be crema-tion fires, with a crow sitting on top of each one. Her complexion is black, and she holds a trident, sword, winnowing fan, and bowl in her four hands.

Her breasts are somewhat pendulous. Again, what is striking is that she is heavily adorned with ornaments—bracelets, armlets, anklets, toe rings, earrings, a nose ring, necklace, and pendant—and is wearing an elegant, diaphanous upper garment and a gold-hemmed lower garment, hardly the dress of a widow.

What might be the significance of these paintings? It is possible that there is another tradition, which I have not been able to find, in which Dhumavati is not a widow and is not described as ugly and clothed in soiled, worn garments. Barring this, a plausible interpretation of the paintings might well relate to the reputation of widows as dangerous to men. Attractive young widows, who in most upper castes are prevented from remarrying, are considered particularly threatening. Because her husband has died, the widow is a woman who has lost her social identity, at least from the point of view of the Hindu law books. From the male perspective, she is a social misfit, and if she is attractive and still in her childbearing years, she represents a temptation. She might also be un-derstood to have strong, unsatisfied sexual longings, particularly in light of the claim made in many (male authored) texts that females are sexu-ally insatiable. In short, the widow is understood to be sexusexu-ally tempt-ing to males. A saytempt-ing popular in Varanasi captures this: "Widows, bulls, stairs, and Sannyasis / If you can save yourself from these, / for you awaits the liberation of Kashi."^{4 5} Widows here are put on a par with such no-torious dangers in Varanasi as wandering bulls, dilapidated stairs at the bathing ghats, and unscrupulous "holy men."

Hints that Dhumavati possesses sexual attractiveness and allure can be found in her thousand-name hymn. She is said to give enjoyment (v.

10), to be completely beautiful (v. 15), to be lovely (v. 20), and to be doe-eyed (v. 71). She is also said to create dance and to be a leader of dancers (w. 7 6 - 7 7 ) and to be adorned with new garlands, clothes, and ornaments

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Fig. 31. Dhumavati, by Bhatuk Ramprasad, early twentieth century. Printed with the permission of Dr. Bhanu Shanker Mehta, Varanasi.

(w. ^77-78). She is also called She Whose Form Is Rati (either Kama-deva's wife or, literally, "sexual intercourse," v. 82) and is said to enjoy sexual intercourse, to be present where sexual activity is, and to be oc-cupied with sex (w. ^81-83). She is also said to have disheveled hair, which suggests a certain wildness, perhaps sexual wildness (v. 8), to like liquor and to be intoxicated (w. 8 7 - 8 8 ) , to be worshiped by intoxicated people

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(v. 112), and to partake constantly in the five forbidden things (panca tattva) (v. ^{0 2 ) .4 6}

Her generally ugly, decrepit, inauspicious, cranky, cronelike nature, then, is tempered or even offset by other qualities suggested in this hymn.

In particular, she is said to be beautiful and to have erotic power, aspects of Dhumavati that are featured in the three paintings. While these con-trasting qualities may reflect the common tendency to portray a goddess, particularly in her thousand-name hymn, as "complete," as having many facets, both terrible and benign, the mention of erotic qualities may also suggest the sexual appeal, and perhaps sexual danger, of widows.

Bagalamukhi