A silent revolution to empower women has taken place in and around Mohopada, a tiny village in Raigad district, barely 60km from Mumbai, thanks to the single-handed efforts of a retired teacher, 101-year-old Rameshwar Karve from Alibaug.
Over the past 18-odd years, more than 150 non-Brahmin, semi-literate women have got Sanskrit degrees to become trained and certified priestesses. The first puja each conducts is during Ganeshotsav in their respective homes.
After facing resistance and non-acceptance, the women have finally begun getting invitations to conduct pujas in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai to commemorate births, deaths and everything in between, including Ganeshotsav.
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They have solemnised marriages, conducted thread ceremonies and even performed the Shani Shanti puja, which is usually done by men, in a Dahisar home. It may be recalled that barely two years ago, women¡¯s groups had to agitate to be allowed inside the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar.
The women have dedicated their achievements to Karve who had done his Sanskrit Shastri, a course equivalent to a bachelor of education degree.
¡°Learning Sanskrit years after I quit college was very hard. I would make excuses of house work or helping my children with their homework to miss our 2-5pm classes.
But our guruji had a lot of patience and persisted,¡± said Surekha Patil (54), one of the first few women to start learning Sanskrit and shlokas in 2000. The women had to learn Sanskrit to be able to read the shlokhas and get the pronunciations right.
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Karve¡¯s daughter Vasanti Deo said her educationist father has started more than five schools in Raigad district. ¡°His focus has always been on making education, especially Sanskrit, accessible to the non-Brahmin population,¡± she said and added that ¡°Swatantra Veer Savarkar had told Tatya, as he is fondly called, to spread the Sanskrit language.¡±
Karve is said to have met the freedom fighter in Ratnagiri in the 1920s when he was under house arrest.
Lalita Dalvi (52), his first student from Mohopada, said it was her husband who was instrumental in her journey to learning Sanskrit.
¡°Our guru had come to deliver a lecture in a nearby zila parishad school. That was when my husband asked him if he would come and teach in Mohopada. My husband did not hope for a positive answer but Tatya agreed instantly,¡± said Dalvi and added that it was difficult to gather women to come for lessons every day.
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The attrition rate was very high and it took Karve several motivational talks to retain his students. ¡°He would get us munchies from Pen to keep us coming to class. He treated us like nursery students who are given sweets by their teachers to attend school. He poured his soul into teaching us,¡± said Bharti Mhatre (47) who used to manage classes after completing her household chores and sending two children to school while running a medical shop in the village.
¡°He would never give us homework because he knew we would drop out if we had to take our studies home. He ensured that our responsibilities towards our families were not compromised because of the study,¡± said Madhuri Kawade (62).
All of them completed Sanskrit Bharati, a six-month correspondence course which has four levels; a written exam has to be given to cross each level. Many of them got between 80 and 90 marks out of 100 in their final exams.
The women faced a rough journey to education. Many from their village called them names and warned that if women chant shlokas when they were menstruating it would invite divine punishment.
¡°Do we stop sending our daughters from going to school when they are menstruating? No, right? These classes were also like school for us. Why should we miss classes just because we are on our periods?¡± asks Naina Koli. ¡°Right here, we were booed by local priests for reciting the Ganpati aarti. But see today we confidently stand in the same temple and perform pujas,¡± said Koli, pointing to the village Ganpati temple.
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The women say people are warming up to change but it¡¯s a long way before things change completely. ¡°Even today when we go to people¡¯s homes to perform pujas we hear stray comments from their relatives asking us whether we know the rituals and if we recite the mantras properly. We just smile and continue our work,¡± said Dalvi.
Dalvi recounted an instance where they had gone to perform the Satyanarayan puja at a family friend¡¯s place. At the end of a puja, family members touch the pandit¡¯s feet and accept prasad from his hands. ¡°But here, they didn¡¯t touch our feet. They just took the prasad from us,¡± said Dalvi.
Family support has been pivotal for them. ¡°Many of my relatives used to ask me why was I sending my daughter and daughter-in-law to the class. Someone even told me it¡¯s not a good thing for women to be out of the house every day. I would just nod in front of them and come home and tell my daughters to continue their lessons. God doesn¡¯t believe in caste and gender,¡± said Dattatrey Raut (77).