Collected Information About the
Eunuchs of India Known as Hijras

Articles | Books | Photos | Movies | Videos | Blogs | mailing lists | Jogappas | Other

click for source of fullsized image
shrine deity or murti of the hijra goddess Bahuchara Mata (Balol Temple, Santhal, Gujarat)
photo by Harshal Purohit

Hijra means "impotent one" in Urdu. In Hindi, hijra may be spelled hijada, hijara, hijda, hijira, or hijrah, and is pronounced somewhere between "heejra" and "heejda". An older, more respectable term for hijra is kinnar. An abusive slang Hindi term for hijra is chakka.
Some hijras were made to be literal eunuchs -- some of them against their will. The process isn't ordinarily a pretty one, usually carried out without the aid of modern anesthesia or antibiotics. Most, however, are transgender of some sort and choose to foreswear their lives as men while retaining their sex organs. A few, however, are intersex and are considered to be "born eunuchs." Hijras are usually considered to constitute a third sex or third gender in that they are neither men nor women. (Not coincidentally, both hijras and two-spirits -- Native American "Indians" who are also of a third gender -- have been said to refer to themselves as "not men, not women.") Hijras don't all look at themselves the same way. Some see themselves -- or are construed by others -- as females, feminine males, transsexuals, or androgynes. There are also female hijra, called hijrin, which are not the same as sadhin.
The term mukhanni may or may not be a synonym for hijra. Another such term is ali. The relatively new (as of 2003) Aravani (aka aravanni, aravani, or aruvani), originated in Tamil Nadu, was popularized in India as a politically correct term to describe members of the third gender, yet it applies more to the devotees of Kutandavar Aravan (India's god of the ali) than those of Bahuchara Mata (the goddess of the hijras). In Urdu and Punjabi, both in Pakistan and India, the term khusra is sometimes used. In Gujarati, they are called Pavaiyaa. Another term is jankha.
The term koti (aka kothi) refers to males who take a "receptive" or feminine role in sex. They are usually not conflated with hijras, although they often dress as women and act in a feminine manner.
The word "hijra" has another, wholly unrelated meaning in another context: in Arabic, "Hijra" (aka Hegira) means "Migration," and is used in reference to various historic travels, such as the prophet Muhammad's journey from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE to set up the first Islamic state.
An all-around introductory explanation of hijras is stored on this very site, here. If you are reading this and have information which you feel might be helpful to this site, please send an e-mail message to <scfeldman@juno.com>.
This page is linked to the Androgyne Online website because hijras have some things in common with androgynes -- like being of a third gender, for example.

There is also the term jogappa (or joggapa).
According to the fourth footnote at the bottom of the article, "Confessions of a Tantric Androgyne," by Ganapati Sivananda Durgadas, at the now-defunct Anything That Moves site, hijra is a Persian-influenced North Indian term, while joggapa is the South Indian languages' equivalent. Durgadas says that joggapa are priestly in vocation and predominantly transvestitic, while the hijra lean towards the transsexual side and labor in various vocations. Another writer, Walter Penrose, says that the jogappa are followers of Yellamma, "a goddess of skin disease who is believed to have the power to change the sex of individuals." According to Amara Dasa, the jogappa "do not practice castration."

Bahuchara Mata
click here for the source page of this image
31k enlargement
  
Bahuchara Mata
click here for the source page of this image
20k enlargement
  
Bahuchara Mata
from Neither Man Nor woman: The Hijras of India, by Serena Nanda
185k   442k
  
Bahuchara Mata
click here for the source page of this image
38k enlargement

Articles | return to top

Books | return to top

A Free Downloadable 116-page Study on Hijras

Photos   –   with thanks for help from Rekha on MySpace | return to top

 
Bahuchara Mata
click here for the source page of this image
53k enlargement
  
Bahuchara Mata
click here for the source page of this image
182k enlargement
  
Bahuchara Mata
click here for the source page of this image
137k enlargement
  
Bahuchara Mata
click here for the source page of this image
223k (note yantra on right)

Movies | return to top

Videos | return to top

Blogs | return to top

Yahoo groups mailing lists | return to top

Jogappas | return to top

Other | return to top

Bahuchara Mata yantra
(explanations: 1, 2, 3)
click here for the source page of this image
173k enlargement
  
Bahuchara Mata
shrine deity or murti
click here for the source page of this image
63k enlargement
  
Bahuchara Mata, from
Mota, in Gujarat, India
from http://www.motagaam.com/photo.htm
280k   335k   607k
  
Bahuchara Mata's
alleged avatar, Pema
click here for more pictures of Pema
59k enlargement

What is the difference between a eunuch and an androgyne? Well, for one, most androgynes have a gender identity of neither a man nor a woman, while eunuchs tend to have a feminine gender identity closer to that of a transsexual than an androgyne. Is there a tendency to conflate androgynes with eunuchs? Perhaps. And yet, not all eunuchs are hijras, and not all hijras identify as transsexuals or androgynes.
Many would argue that it wouldn't be entirely inappropriate to refer to a eunuch as an "it," but even an agendered androgyne would probably object to being called an "it." Androgynes might bend over backwards trying to use terms like sie (pronounced SEE) instead of he and she; and hir (pronounced like "hear") instead of him or her; but surely, they would like to avoid "it." Why is that, I wonder? If one truly is agendered and wants to make an issue of it, why not reclaim the term "it" like some blacks have reclaimed "n*gg*r" and some gays have reclaimed "queer"?
Finally, for those interested, there is a special type of agendered androgyne or eunuch known as neutrois.


Return to Androgyne Online Home Page


The Internet Archive has created The Wayback Machine, a search engine which makes it possible to access otherwise offline, unhosted web pages. Enter a defunct URL and try it for yourself!
Surf the Web as it was. Enter the URL of a defunct web page below.
(Otherwise, you can open The Wayback Machine in a new window.)

This page has been visited times since March 1, 2007.
Free counter provided by Andale.

This page first created 6/7/01. Copyright © Stephe Feldman, 2001, 2004, 2008. Last update: 5/8/09.