[Reader-list] Sarai / Independent Fellow 2007/ Priyababu/First Posting

[priya babu]

First Posting- Sarai Independent Research Fellowship 
  
  As an Aravani, founder member of Suder Foundation, a non-profit organization working for the rights of Aravanis [Transgender, henceforth referred to as TG] in Tamil Nadu, first TG reporter for ‘Youth India Magazine’, research staff in Indian Network for People Living with HIV+, part of Kannadi Kalai Kuzhu [TG Theatre group], and research collaborator with National Folklore Support Center [NFSC], I aim to create awareness and share positive information about my community within the mainstream society. 
  
  Aravanis take Aravan, the son of Arjun, to be their soul mate and husband. Every year they wed him on Chitra Pournami at Koothandavar [Aravan] Temple at Koovagam village in Tamil Nadu. Besides this very famous temple, there are other temples for Aravan in Tamil Nadu and in other Indian states, where Aravan is worshipped by diffrent names. The existence of these temples elicits the presence of Aravanis through out ancient Tamil history and culture. A study of this part of cultural linkage will provide proof of the coexistence of Aravanis and mainstream society.
  
  Strangely enough though we as a community opt to move out of biological definition of gender, we reciprocate a similar heterosexual pattern for emotional support through our own pseudo family adoptions of husband and daughter. We also seem to counter our birth caster hierarchy among ourselves even after our shift into the TG community. I intend to collate this information besides other traditions and worship practices through interviews, documenting worship patterns, community festivities, performance methods, and. sects and hierarchy amongst the community. 
  
  
  As the geography of this existence is large, I propose to limit my study to the city of Madurai which has an active worship practice at the Aravan Temple there, a full-fledged Jamaadh, with still practiced hierarchical patterns amongst the senior most Aravanis, exclusive to this community. 
  
  It has long been rooted belief among the mainstream community that the only income generation of an Aravani is through begging in the bazaar and sex trade. As against this myth about us, Aravanis in Madurai have always been cooks or professional performing artistes in Karakaattam, Oppari, Mayilaattam, and Therukoothu [all traditional folk art forms]. 
  
  Priyababu
  

 				
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