Taboos Around Menstruation

What is Menstruation?

So, what exactly is menstruation? It's pretty straightforward - once a month, the ovaries release an egg. If that egg doesn't get fertilized, the uterine lining sheds, causing what we call a period. Oh and, quick important note: periods aren't just a "women's thing" - trans men, intersex, genderqueer, and nonbinary folks experience them too!

Now speaking about the messy history of period stigma, it’s been a taboo in India for ages. Menstruation was considered impure, and women were banned from various spaces, from kitchens to temples. In some extreme cases, some communities they were forced their girls to live in "menstrual huts" far from home. Tragically, these isolated shelters/ 'devil dens' as popularly called -  killed a lot of young girls either from suffocation or by being attacked and eaten up by wild animals.

But what are the exact reasons for all of these practices?

I read an explanation for this question long ago and was content with the explanation, about this concept coined by our ancestors with the reasons behind the so-called taboos, so here is my explanation for it. 

(PS:- This is taken from the point of Vedic scriptures and dharmic references)

To begin with, menstruating women are not considered unholy, impure, or unsanitary in any of the Vedic scriptures.

Let’s start with Ayurveda and the concept of “Pancha Prana” or the 5 essential winds that govern the body,i.e.,

Prana: heartbeat and breathing.    

Udaan: sound production or vocals

Samana: cellular metabolism and food digestion

Vyana: circulation, and involuntary muscular system

Apana: excretion

Since the mind is more or less in harmony with these 5 winds, the Apana Vayu is most prominent in a woman during her period, it’s also called a downward wind. Hence the mind and consciousness are pulled down or downwards: toward the material

The purpose of temples is to uplift the consciousness or pull the mind and the spirit away from the material. They have a strong energy pattern, that’s why they are called Kshetra or energy fields. So, when a menstruating woman goes to such places, there will be a strain to the mind because of the disturbance of these winds. It disturbs the mind and the mood. And the places like temples are meant for concentration but with the Apana wind pulling the mind towards the material they might find it hard to concentrate (that doesn’t mean a woman can’t concentrate during this time, we do prepare and write our exams along with all the other tasks) menstrual cramps might also be the reason for this. Women in the earlier days worked like factory machines from dusk till dawn, also cooking was massive because of the joint families; fire has a strong pattern of upward energy, and it might also be because the heat of the fire makes you tired easily and a menstruating woman already shedding blood was avoided situations where they were led to harm. They weren’t allowed to make pickles or eat them because making pickles was hard, where they had to grind the spices in heavy stones, and the women needed rest (they didn’t have grinders of course). Pickles are said to worsen blotting and cramps as they contain a high amount of salts, causing dehydration.

Now coming back to the temples, you might have seen the priest bathing several times and smearing himself with sandalwood before touching the idol or doing the pujas, this was done to avoid the exchange of heat. Even the idols are washed several times in different "Abhishekas", it is for the same reason, to cool the temperature of the idol. During menstruation the body temperature rises and falls due to the change in hormonal levels, so to avoid the transfer of heat, maybe our ancestors told us not to touch the idols, but remember we were never restricted from praying to god during menses, devotion was never restricted because purity is in the mind and it’s not physical. Furthermore, nobody is allowed to offer prayers during excretion, and menses in a way, is excretion. Another possibility is that temples are mostly packed with people, and the high CO2 might cause discomfort, also excessive blood loss or menorrhagia is fatal if not treated in time ( a common condition leading to extreme fatigue and dizziness during menstruation). 

We are all obliged to think that our ancestors thought that women on their periods were impure, but the shrine in Assam says otherwise. Dedicated to Kamakhya Devi famous as “the bleeding goddess” who menstruates in the month of Ashaad (July), a priest from this mandir once said, “what is pure we don’t touch, what we don’t touch we call it a taboo. She(woman)is so pure that she is a goddess. And the reason that she isn’t allowed into a temple is that she is a living goddess all that time. The energy of the idol will move into her and the idol becomes lifeless, while this is life, so that’s why she was prevented from going into the temple”.

All of these show that sexism was never a thing in the ancient minds, and if you look into it, neither are all women not allowed in the temple nor are all temples refuse the entry of menstruating women. It’s just what the toxic minds and the patriarchy have done in the Middle Ages. Little knowledge is always dangerous, all the things of betterment turned into senseless rituals, eventually made into taboos. Sadly, a beautiful concept proposed by our ancestors ages ago for a woman's comfort has gradually turned into a nightmare, because menstruating has never been as painful as the menstruating taboos are for a woman.

(this was all my personal opinion. Something I read and heard growing up. This isn’t a way to justify the discrimination on the period blood, but an explanation of how all of the so-called taboos were born.)

                                                                                                                          -Daebee