By P.T. Bopanna
In the run-up to the publication of my forthcoming book ‘Kodava Religion At Crossroads’, I wish to highlight about an illuminating chapter penned by Puliyanda Anu Chengappa (in picture) on the customary rights of a Kodava woman.
Anu has a Masters in Environmental Law and is an advocate practising in the High Court of Karnataka. She has served as Faculty at the University Law College, Bangalore.
In the well-researched chapter, Anu attempts to capture the essence of the status of the Kodavati in Kodava society with specific focus on the matrimonial, maintenance, succession and property rights as per Kodava custom.
She says Kodava society in its pristine form was a much evolved one with crystallized customs ensuring gender equality and in some instances the Kodavati being more privileged than her male counterpart.
In Kodava society there has never been any dearth of support and encouragement for a Kodavati to scale new heights and evolve and achieve to her heart’s content.
However, with the Kodavas mingling with a cross section of society and the mainstream thought processes making deep inroads into the Kodava psyche, the unique and practical Kodava way of life is steadily waning and it is the Kodavati bearing the brunt of it.
Attempts to impose rituals and symbolisms and mainstream stereotypes inspired by the Manuvian concept of “na sthri swantantriyam arhati” (‘a woman is not capable of being independent’ – Manu in ‘Manusmriti’) are not only suffocating but are an antithesis of all that a Kodavati is and stands for.
A more disturbing trend is of Kodavatis themselves blindly aping mainstream Hinduism and sporting tokenisms like bindi, Kumkum, kartha mani (chain made of black beads), toe rings, etc., that are alien to Kodava custom. Visiting gurus and godmen at the cost of forgetting their own Karona, involving priests for homas and havans have absolutely eroded the sanctity and simplicity of Kodavame.
The once abhorred astrology and horoscope have now become the deciding factors of Kodava marriages. The list of self-destructive practices being adopted by the Kodavas is endless. All this has not only alienated the Kodavas from their original identity, but worse, has reduced the Kodavati to a lesser mortal in the Kodava psyche.
From being respected, valued and cherished as an indispensable asset of Kodava society and being treated as an absolute equal to her male counterpart, the Kodavati has to now grapple with mainstream misogynist outpourings by men of her own community.
While rest of the women through legislations, policies and judicial interpretations are trying to catch up with the status and rights that the Kodavati has been enjoying since time immemorial, the Kodavati herself has been fettered by the lesser privileges under the codified Hindu law.