HOME | DD

Description

In the red-light district of a seaside market in eastern Bengal, a woman sat singing. The rhythm of her song wove together with the rhythm of her mortar and pestle as she pounded sesame seeds into oil. Although she sat only on an old woven mat in front of humble mud houses, the women who gathered to listen to her looked upon her with reverence. As the words flowed from her mouth, her listeners found themselves glimpsing enlightenment. She sang of how the absolute truth of the universe lives deep in all of us, just as the essence of the oil resides in the sesame. But without hard work of pounding, or of study under a guru, you cannot extract the oil or the truth.

Who was this woman, and why did she sing of enlightenment by comparing it to the work of a sesame pounder? Pounding sesame seeds into oil was considered menial work in her society, fit only for the members of the lowest castes, the untouchables. To the learned Brahmins, there was nothing about such hard, manual labour that was close to the divine. But this woman was part of a radically different religious tradition, one that rejected the caste system and all of its ideas about ritual impurity. She was a Tantric Buddhist, and her name was Bharima.

Bharima came from a family of untouchables in Bengal. Her people made their living in the region's busy ports, through fishing and other types of manual labour. Some say her father was a sesame seed pounder, and that Bharima sometimes partook in that work herself. But her primary occupation was as a prostitute. Far from the glamour of royal courtesans, she plied her trade on the streets of a market town. Prostitutes were usually relegated to the southern part of the city, since that direction was associated with evil. They attracted customers by putting a light outside their door in the evenings, or by sending male intermediaries to recruit customers for them at the local inns and taverns. If they were lucky, they worked in an organised brothel under the protection of the kuttani or house-mother. Such brothels paid taxes to the state in return for some provision of care when they became too old to work in the sex trade. Women who worked on their own had no such guarantee and often ended up as beggars.

Bharima probably worked in a brothel. Her kuttani was in charge of managing her wages and keeping unscrupulous men from harassing her and her colleagues in the house. She may have been the kuttani's biological daughter, or her kuttani may have adopted her once she found her way into the profession. In order to attract paying customers, Bharima and her kuttani employed men who could venture more safely out into the city at night than she could. At the higher levels of society, a prostitute's procurer was usually an educated man who enjoyed the company of learned courtesans, who were required to study many fine arts in order to entertain their wealthy customers. But a sex worker of Bharima's caste had no such education and relied on her beauty and charm to attract men. Procurers for women like her were men of a similarly low caste who made their money from customers' tips and by working other jobs during the day.

One day, a man came to Bharima's brothel looking to work as her servant. He must have been an odd sight in this part of town: His hands were smooth, and his speech was dripping with all the marks of a highly educated Brahmin. In fact, he had been a priest of the highest rank before abandoning his monastery to seek enlightenment elsewhere. His name was Prabhāsvara, a name meaning "radiance" that was given to him when mysterious lights appeared all over India at the time of his birth into a prominent Brahmin family. Although he had an illustrious career as a priest, he felt restless and like he was not going to achieve any sort of enlightenment in the comfortable surroundings of a wealthy monastery. Then a dakini, or a female enlightened spirit, came to him and issued the following command:

In Bengal, in the East
In the marketplace of Pañcapana,
There is the prostitute Bharima and her retinue.
If you follow her as her servant, you will be purified;
You will pass over the limits of practice and attain perfection!

Thus began Prabhāsvara's journey into Tantric Buddhism. Tantrics were a radical sect who were reaching a critical mass in Bengal at this time. They taught that the rules of purity and Brahmanical ritual meant nothing, so they spent their time in "untouchable" places such as charnel grounds, cemeteries, and brothels. Their own rituals included taboo substances such as blood, semen and urine. Sexual union was important both in metaphor and in practice as a way of achieving enlightened Buddhahood with a partner. Women therefore had a much more prominent role to play as teachers and praticioners in Tantric Buddhism than in the more mainstream religion of the time. For Tantric Buddhists, learning the esoteric teachings from a guru was essential to achieving this enlightenment. On the other hand, these gurus need not be from the priestly caste, and in fact were more likely to be found among the common people.

Such is the reasoning that led Prabhāsvara to Bharima's doorstep. Bharima herself was deeply interested in the spiritual life. She took this man on as her servant. During the day, he pounded sesame seeds into oil to supplement his income. This gave him the nickname Tilopa, the name by which he came to be known in Buddhist teachings. At night, he procured customers for Bharima. Sometimes, they also meditated together, or even performed sexual yoga in the local cemetery. He gave up all the trappings of his Brahmanical origins and dressed in simple clothing, working hard day and night for many years in Bharima's service. As they explored the depths of Tantric practice together, he became a yogi and she became a yogini, masters of tantra and yoga.

Tilopa was pounding sesame in the marketplace one day when the oil turned as smooth as butter. Suddenly, his mind was filled with a burst of truth and understanding. After all of his hard work, he had finally attained perfection. People in the town started to see strange visions of him. Flames seemed to leap from his body. Ornaments made of bone appeared on his arms, crackling with the heat of the fire. Afraid but compelled with curiosity about the spectacle, people in the street asked him for instruction. "O devotees!" he cried. "May this inborn reality in my mind enter your hearts!" Everyone who heard him was immediately liberated, finding enlightenment from his words.

At what point Bharima also achieved enlightenment is not entirely clear in the sources. Some imply she was with him when this happened, while others have people running to ask her what is going on with her servant. Even if she wasn't there at first, Bharima soon joined him and shared his enlightenment with him. Together, they pounded sesame seeds and shared their wisdom with all who came to see them. Word of their teachings soon spread, and they started to attract large crowds of people from all walks of life. The king himself rode an elephant into a part of town that had never seen such luxury before. Rich and poor, young and old, they all gathered to hear what the two enlightened ones had to say. Together, Tilopa and Bharima raised their voices in song:

The sesame oil, which is its essence,
Although even the ignorant know it is in the sesame seed,
If they do not know how,
They cannot extract the essence of the oil.
In the same way, the inner knowledge,
Even if it is present in the hearts of all beings,
It is not realized until the way is explained by a wise guru.
By pounding the sesame and clearing away the husks,
One can extract the sesame oil, that essence -
Likewise, when one is close to the guru,
The truth of the absolute is revealed
By means of a symbol, like the sesame oil.
The entity of objects is one and inseparable.
O! So far extending, so hard to measure in its depth,
the meaning is now clear. Wonderful!

Everyone who heard them immediately achieved enlightenment. It was here, in the gritty streets of the pleasure district, that Tilopa and Bharima could bring an epiphany to the king himself.

After this performance, they travelled around Bengal, singing the song of the sesame seed to people from all walks of life. How long they did this together is unknown. At this point of the story, Bharima fades away. Tilopa continued to teach as a yogi, taking on students who would go on to become major figures in Tantric Buddhism in their own right. He is therefore considered one of the founders of the Kagyu tradition, a major one within Tibetan Buddhism today. Although occasionally a modern Buddhist source will claim Bharima as a founder too, she has mostly become overshadowed by Tilopa. She may have died, or they may have simply parted ways. Perhaps she continued to share their teachings without him. The sources rarely go into further detail about the lives of yoginis once they weren't working with their male yogi partners anymore. But we do occasionally get brief mentions of yoginis taking on students of their own, usually nameless women who they trained to be yoginis too.

Whether Bharima had students of her own once Tilopa left her life is lost to history. In this illustration, I chose to envision a future for her where she became an independent teacher like many other yoginis did. While Tilopa continued roaming the world, she returned to her hometown and the people she grew up with. It was here that she brought her message of nirvana - not to the lush gardens and palace halls of the elite, but to a poor community of untouchables like herself. Here a well-dressed dancer and a poor fisherwoman gather to listen to Bharima as she pounds the sesame. She grinds stone against stone, pulling oil out of seeds and truth out of hearts.

How incredible is it to have the name of a low caste woman recorded from so long ago? I am really glad to be bringing you a story today of someone from such a different class than what the records usually preserve. Learning about Bharima was really fascinating. This picture took me awhile to research but I really enjoyed learning more about medieval Bengal. The architecture was pretty different than what I often draw in this picture, but I think it turned out pretty well. I hope you enjoyed learning about Bharima's story today!

Learn more and see the uncensored version on the website: womenof1000ad.weebly.com/bhari…

Others in the series include...

The Heretic of Plovdiv (Bulgaria)
The Cacica and the Water Bearer (Colombia)
The Dog Breeder of Desolation Sound (Canada)
Ladies Li, Liu and Yang (China)
Queen Heonae (Korea)
Maga'håga (Guam)
The Lovers of Amesbury Abbey (England)
Ayagigux' (Alaska)

Hrugs 'or za (Tibet)

The Royal Dancer of Gao (Mali)

Description

In the red-light district of a seaside market in eastern Bengal, a woman sat singing. The rhythm of her song wove together with the rhythm of her mortar and pestle as she pounded sesame seeds into oil. Although she sat only on an old woven mat in front of humble mud houses, the women who gathered to listen to her looked upon her with reverence. As the words flowed from her mouth, her listeners found themselves glimpsing enlightenment. She sang of how the absolute truth of the universe lives deep in all of us, just as the essence of the oil resides in the sesame. But without hard work of pounding, or of study under a guru, you cannot extract the oil or the truth.

Who was this woman, and why did she sing of enlightenment by comparing it to the work of a sesame pounder? Pounding sesame seeds into oil was considered menial work in her society, fit only for the members of the lowest castes, the untouchables. To the learned Brahmins, there was nothing about such hard, manual labour that was close to the divine. But this woman was part of a radically different religious tradition, one that rejected the caste system and all of its ideas about ritual impurity. She was a Tantric Buddhist, and her name was Bharima.

Bharima came from a family of untouchables in Bengal. Her people made their living in the region's busy ports, through fishing and other types of manual labour. Some say her father was a sesame seed pounder, and that Bharima sometimes partook in that work herself. But her primary occupation was as a prostitute. Far from the glamour of royal courtesans, she plied her trade on the streets of a market town. Prostitutes were usually relegated to the southern part of the city, since that direction was associated with evil. They attracted customers by putting a light outside their door in the evenings, or by sending male intermediaries to recruit customers for them at the local inns and taverns. If they were lucky, they worked in an organised brothel under the protection of the kuttani or house-mother. Such brothels paid taxes to the state in return for some provision of care when they became too old to work in the sex trade. Women who worked on their own had no such guarantee and often ended up as beggars.

Bharima probably worked in a brothel. Her kuttani was in charge of managing her wages and keeping unscrupulous men from harassing her and her colleagues in the house. She may have been the kuttani's biological daughter, or her kuttani may have adopted her once she found her way into the profession. In order to attract paying customers, Bharima and her kuttani employed men who could venture more safely out into the city at night than she could. At the higher levels of society, a prostitute's procurer was usually an educated man who enjoyed the company of learned courtesans, who were required to study many fine arts in order to entertain their wealthy customers. But a sex worker of Bharima's caste had no such education and relied on her beauty and charm to attract men. Procurers for women like her were men of a similarly low caste who made their money from customers' tips and by working other jobs during the day.

One day, a man came to Bharima's brothel looking to work as her servant. He must have been an odd sight in this part of town: His hands were smooth, and his speech was dripping with all the marks of a highly educated Brahmin. In fact, he had been a priest of the highest rank before abandoning his monastery to seek enlightenment elsewhere. His name was Prabhāsvara, a name meaning "radiance" that was given to him when mysterious lights appeared all over India at the time of his birth into a prominent Brahmin family. Although he had an illustrious career as a priest, he felt restless and like he was not going to achieve any sort of enlightenment in the comfortable surroundings of a wealthy monastery. Then a dakini, or a female enlightened spirit, came to him and issued the following command:

In Bengal, in the East
In the marketplace of Pañcapana,
There is the prostitute Bharima and her retinue.
If you follow her as her servant, you will be purified;
You will pass over the limits of practice and attain perfection!

Thus began Prabhāsvara's journey into Tantric Buddhism. Tantrics were a radical sect who were reaching a critical mass in Bengal at this time. They taught that the rules of purity and Brahmanical ritual meant nothing, so they spent their time in "untouchable" places such as charnel grounds, cemeteries, and brothels. Their own rituals included taboo substances such as blood, semen and urine. Sexual union was important both in metaphor and in practice as a way of achieving enlightened Buddhahood with a partner. Women therefore had a much more prominent role to play as teachers and praticioners in Tantric Buddhism than in the more mainstream religion of the time. For Tantric Buddhists, learning the esoteric teachings from a guru was essential to achieving this enlightenment. On the other hand, these gurus need not be from the priestly caste, and in fact were more likely to be found among the common people.

Such is the reasoning that led Prabhāsvara to Bharima's doorstep. Bharima herself was deeply interested in the spiritual life. She took this man on as her servant. During the day, he pounded sesame seeds into oil to supplement his income. This gave him the nickname Tilopa, the name by which he came to be known in Buddhist teachings. At night, he procured customers for Bharima. Sometimes, they also meditated together, or even performed sexual yoga in the local cemetery. He gave up all the trappings of his Brahmanical origins and dressed in simple clothing, working hard day and night for many years in Bharima's service. As they explored the depths of Tantric practice together, he became a yogi and she became a yogini, masters of tantra and yoga.

Tilopa was pounding sesame in the marketplace one day when the oil turned as smooth as butter. Suddenly, his mind was filled with a burst of truth and understanding. After all of his hard work, he had finally attained perfection. People in the town started to see strange visions of him. Flames seemed to leap from his body. Ornaments made of bone appeared on his arms, crackling with the heat of the fire. Afraid but compelled with curiosity about the spectacle, people in the street asked him for instruction. "O devotees!" he cried. "May this inborn reality in my mind enter your hearts!" Everyone who heard him was immediately liberated, finding enlightenment from his words.

At what point Bharima also achieved enlightenment is not entirely clear in the sources. Some imply she was with him when this happened, while others have people running to ask her what is going on with her servant. Even if she wasn't there at first, Bharima soon joined him and shared his enlightenment with him. Together, they pounded sesame seeds and shared their wisdom with all who came to see them. Word of their teachings soon spread, and they started to attract large crowds of people from all walks of life. The king himself rode an elephant into a part of town that had never seen such luxury before. Rich and poor, young and old, they all gathered to hear what the two enlightened ones had to say. Together, Tilopa and Bharima raised their voices in song:

The sesame oil, which is its essence,
Although even the ignorant know it is in the sesame seed,
If they do not know how,
They cannot extract the essence of the oil.
In the same way, the inner knowledge,
Even if it is present in the hearts of all beings,
It is not realized until the way is explained by a wise guru.
By pounding the sesame and clearing away the husks,
One can extract the sesame oil, that essence -
Likewise, when one is close to the guru,
The truth of the absolute is revealed
By means of a symbol, like the sesame oil.
The entity of objects is one and inseparable.
O! So far extending, so hard to measure in its depth,
the meaning is now clear. Wonderful!

Everyone who heard them immediately achieved enlightenment. It was here, in the gritty streets of the pleasure district, that Tilopa and Bharima could bring an epiphany to the king himself.

After this performance, they travelled around Bengal, singing the song of the sesame seed to people from all walks of life. How long they did this together is unknown. At this point of the story, Bharima fades away. Tilopa continued to teach as a yogi, taking on students who would go on to become major figures in Tantric Buddhism in their own right. He is therefore considered one of the founders of the Kagyu tradition, a major one within Tibetan Buddhism today. Although occasionally a modern Buddhist source will claim Bharima as a founder too, she has mostly become overshadowed by Tilopa. She may have died, or they may have simply parted ways. Perhaps she continued to share their teachings without him. The sources rarely go into further detail about the lives of yoginis once they weren't working with their male yogi partners anymore. But we do occasionally get brief mentions of yoginis taking on students of their own, usually nameless women who they trained to be yoginis too.

Whether Bharima had students of her own once Tilopa left her life is lost to history. In this illustration, I chose to envision a future for her where she became an independent teacher like many other yoginis did. While Tilopa continued roaming the world, she returned to her hometown and the people she grew up with. It was here that she brought her message of nirvana - not to the lush gardens and palace halls of the elite, but to a poor community of untouchables like herself. Here a well-dressed dancer and a poor fisherwoman gather to listen to Bharima as she pounds the sesame. She grinds stone against stone, pulling oil out of seeds and truth out of hearts.

How incredible is it to have the name of a low caste woman recorded from so long ago? I am really glad to be bringing you a story today of someone from such a different class than what the records usually preserve. Learning about Bharima was really fascinating. This picture took me awhile to research but I really enjoyed learning more about medieval Bengal. The architecture was pretty different than what I often draw in this picture, but I think it turned out pretty well. I hope you enjoyed learning about Bharima's story today!

Learn more and see the uncensored version on the website: womenof1000ad.weebly.com/bhari…

Others in the series include...

The Heretic of Plovdiv (Bulgaria)
The Cacica and the Water Bearer (Colombia)
The Dog Breeder of Desolation Sound (Canada)
Ladies Li, Liu and Yang (China)
Queen Heonae (Korea)
Maga'håga (Guam)
The Lovers of Amesbury Abbey (England)
Ayagigux' (Alaska)

Hrugs 'or za (Tibet)

The Royal Dancer of Gao (Mali)