Sashimoni
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Mar 29 2015
Leela Venkataraman
Sashimoni straddled a tradition seen as both sacred and profane
With the passing away of Sashimoni, among the last of the ma haris serving at the Jagannath temple in Puri (they are known as devadasis elsewhere), an epoch in Orissa's history has ended. A great deal of romanticizing about the tradition aside, by the end of the 19th century , the mahari tradition had lost much of its spiritual tone and fibre. By the 1920s it was reduced to a mere formality as a temple ritual. The grant of land and food to the maharis from the temple were discontinued, and by the beginning of the 1940s, their role as singers and dancers in the service of the deity had almost completely diminished. Priyambada Mohanty-Hejmadi, pioneering Odissi dancer, maintains that few could have witnessed an authentic mahari dance performed within the portals of the temple, with the last door leading to the sanctum sanctorum closed once the mahari entered for her seva. By 1954, the ritual had become extinct.
When Sashimoni joined the fold, it was already too late for any systematic guru-parampara training. But there was no denying that she was a born dancer. Recalls Odissi dancer Sharmila Biswas: “Small, with a slight hunch, Sashimoni was no beauty.But she had dance in her veins and the joy in her movements made her stand out.“
Sashimoni, like all maharis was intitated with the `sari-bandha' ceremony , with the raja of Puri, before whom she was presented, gifting her a ritual red sari. “She would tie it in the kania kachha style (through the legs) which she taught me,“ says Biswas.It was draped in this red saree that she always played the role of Nanda-rani in a temple festival that came a little after Janmashtami. Sashimoni was also part of the Naba-kale bara festival of 1996 (when the deities acquire new “bodies“ fashioned out of special wood).
Maharis had to sing non-stop while the car penters worked. Keeping up with this mara thon effort, with only another mahari sharing her task, was very difficult, she told Biswas.
Taken up by Sashimoni's lively appearance, Biswas produced “Sampurna“ a film based on the mahari tradition. Kamalini Dutta, a former Doordarshan producer, too made a documen tary for which Sashimoni sang and danced vigorously .
Among Sashimoni's most vivacious dances was Chalo chalo natha, supposedly writ ten by her mother. Nobody else performed this item among the maharis. When she performed to the lyric Natta kori chalu kette range, where the nayika teases the Gopi for her coquetry, her gait, ges tures and exuberance were something to see. And this was no young woman.
When Sashimoni died, she must have been about 90. She was extremely sensitive to the public's lovehate relation ship with temple women. Peo ple would collect soil from the house of a mahari because that was considered auspicious, but when she appeared in a public space, some would wash their hands and feet to cleanse the space. “On Janmashtami, she once took me to the late-night pooja,“ says Biswas. “She knew exactly the place from where I would get a good darshan.Lest people object to her presence, she nimbly climbed on to a ledge, and remained an unseen presence. Nobody offered her any prasad.“
Sashimoni lived with families, and worked as a companion, during wedding ceremonies etc, doing odd jobs. Despite no pension or gov ernmental or institutional support, she lived up to a ripe old age, without any bitterness towards the society that allowed women of her ilk to be forgotten by history.
