When a girl child is born in India, she is said to be an avatar of Laxmi Goddess. So I am not wrong if I say that I belong to the country where people worship woman as a Goddess but on the other hand women are humiliated on the name of menstruation.
People tend to follow the old rules blindly. They don’t try to analyse or find out the origin or cause of the rule but just follow them blindly without using their brains. Menstruation is the process of discharging blood from the vagina through uterus. It is also known as period or monthly. It occurs at intervals of about one lunar month from puberty until menopause, except during pregnancy.
Many societies believe that a woman is impure during her period. On that basis, people don’t treat her properly. She is humiliated many times, plus she has to live apart from her family during menstruation. There are many restrictions for her to follow.
Generally, all across the India, there are some common menstruating rules. Example, she cannot enter a temple, she cannot cook or touch the food, she cannot have her food sitting with others, she cannot water the plants, she cannot touch the pickle, she has to live separately from other family members, etc. All these rules are not followed with proper logic and people have taken it all the way wrong. Every rule made up in earlier times has some logic attached to it. Some rules are still effective while some have no meaning to exist but still prevails.
I came across this article where I did find many interesting and positive facts and logics behind these rules:
• There is a temple named Devipuram (dedicated to Devi) in Andhra Pradesh where women are allowed to enter into the temple even when they are menstruating. Shri Amritananda Natha Saraswati (Guruji), founder of this temple gave the reason why menstruating women do not visit temple :
'' What is pure, we don’t touch. A menstruating woman is so pure that she is worshipped as a goddess. She is a living goddess at that time. The energy of the God or Goddess in the murti (idol) will move to her and that idol becomes lifeless, while the menstruating woman is life. It has nothing to do with a woman being impure.'' It’s entirely opposite of what society believes.
• Before menstruation, a woman gatheres the energy in her in order to prepare for pregnancy. However, when pregnancy does not occur, the energy starts flowing out of the body (during menstruation). While eating, people exhale negative energy and the menstruating woman who is energy sensitive, absorbs those energies. So if she is sitting in a group of people to eat she may or may not absorb the negative energy. And that is the reason why woman don’t eat with others during menstruating. Moreover, they avoid cooking because they need rest due to blood loss.
• At many places, women lives in secluded huts during menstruation. They provide the reason that their own homes are too small for them to maintain privacy, so they live in these huts where they can even rest.
• In Kashmir Hindu Culture, menstruating woman are given special care considering the belief that they become weak due to blood loss. They do not consider them to be impure and rules like, a woman on her period cannot visit temples or cannot work do not apply.
• In Manipur, when a girl bleeds for first time, the cloth in which she bleeds is kept aside safely and is gifted back to her when she gets married. It is believed that the cloth is too powerful thay it can protect the girl and her family from poor health and other ills.
• There is another traditional practice in Manipur, where the girl tastes a drop of first menstrual blood. It is said that this blood is powerful and it helps in maintaining good health.
• On the contrary, in Jarkhand, if people find the blooded cloth of a woman, they consider her as a witch or cursed. Thereafter, she is murdered and all her property is taken away.
• In Karnataka, a Tulu festival named Keddasa is celebrated in the month of January or February for 3 days. It is the beginning of Mother Earth’s fertility cycle which is equal to the female fertility cycle. They don’t disturb Mother Earth and she is given rest for 3 days and no farming is done during those 3 days. On the 4th day, some oil and turmeric is sprinkled on the Earth and the process of sowing seed begin. The same practice prevails in Punjab too.
• In the temples, Bhagwati in Chengannur (Kerala) and Kamakhaya Devi (Assam), it is believed that even the Goddess menstruate and thus, the temple is closed for 3 days. After 3 days, they celebrate the end of menstruation. The menstrual cloth is considered as highly auspicious and is distributed among devotees!!
So if these rules were made taking into mind that a menstruating woman is impure or she is a witch or just to restraint woman kind, then the same would not be done with the Goddess. Menstruation is a natural body cleansing process. It helps woman to maintain good health. There is no need to exaggerate the rules in negative way.
I am not saying that all women should follow all the rules. In fact, women is not untouchable during her period. She is not required to live isolated. She can enter the temple if she wants. She can do any other thing she wishes to. My aim was just to provide logical reasons through this writing.
Women should be treated with respect and her utmost care should be taken during menstruation because women are not impure but are the Goddess.
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