Back with Stephane Guillerme and and another story from India. It was time for a change of scenery, to migrate to the East and to visit the famous and enigmatic Ramnami from the depths of Chhattisgarh, in central-eastern India, in a geographical area full of historical-religious stories. In one of the fundamental texts of Hinduism, the Râmâyana *, the god Râma (or simply Ram) exiled himself from his father's kingdom for fourteen years with his wife Sîtâ and his brother Lakshmana. They spent part of this exile in a forest called Dandaka, apparently not so far from where our tattooed friends reside..
The adventure started off badly: my unique and very simple Canon G12 camera had just failed a few days earlier, just arriving in an authentic Baiga village where the women are the most tattooed in India ( www.tattoolife.com/do-it-tough-for-the-baiga-part-1 +++++ www.tattoolife.com/do-it-tough-for-the-baiga-part-2 ) Luckily, I had just enough time to take a few pictures before the blackout. Hazards of the trip, although when you hit the road with small budgets, pains, problems and resourcefulness are necessarily part of the peregrination. But there is always a little light in the night, and it was an Indian I met on the internet via Couchsurfing who put me in touch with a couple of locals who intended to meet the Ramnami. We got together and every now and then they were kind enough to lend me a Nikon camera that I hardly had time to adapt to. However, I can easily illustrate this wonderful journey to the confines of the vast subcontinent. I'll take you there, let’s go!
Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh, to Sarangarh, a village along the Mahanadi river, in the heart of the territories hosting the Ramnami: 7 hours of bumps but not those I prefer. Here it is no longer deep India but abyssal India ! As the road went by in the old state bus that was missing every other window, as I was shrinking by 1 centimeter every 10 kilometers, and I ate a bag of dust every minute, I imagined the hotel that was waiting for me: a hut with toilets in your dreams or a charpoi* made of old worn leather straps placed outside next to a roadside greasy spoon. Or else, imagination dictates, a 5-star hotel with a Jacuzzi in the bathroom and a masseur with firm fingers to set me back to rights after this turbulent trip on the region's apocalyptic roads. It’s still allowed to dream, right? Landed late in the rural night of Sarangarh, I found myself a hotel at a time when the lights leave you a limitless field of imagination. Stains become personal touch of the artist, the corosive smells are masalas of sublime scents, the gnome at the reception is a divine hostess. Of course there was no jacuzzi, no sublime smells, no masseur, and last but not least : no divine hostess. I must have had the wrong card, the wrong mantra and instead recited the one that allows the bus not to lose screws or bolts in the chaos of the road and to arrive in one block. Obviously all these pains, all these damages of the trip had a goal which was not that of satisfying my masochistic impulses but that of meeting certain people who might seem a little masochistic to you: the Ramnami.
The Ramnami live east of Raipur, the capital of the state of Chhattisgarh. They live in an area crossed by a holy river answering to the sweet name of Mahanadi. They live on both sides of this waterway. They are farmers, vegetarians, and the ancient Ramnami, keepers of the tradition, spend their free time (i.e. outside the fields) reciting sacred texts dedicated to Ram or singing praises (Bhajan kirtan) to the same god. They have no religious hierarchy, do not pray to any idols, do not have any particular and complex rituals like in traditional Hinduism. They do not build temples except for a small edifice open to the four winds and crossed in the center by a pillar adorned with the name of Ram and which is called a jait khambh (pillar of victory). Each year a new building is built on the site of their annual meeting, always in a different location since the end of the 19th century. Their sacred book is the Ramcharitmanas. This book is quite simply the Ramayana* translated from Sanskrit* to Hindi* by the great 16th century scholar and poet: Tulsidas. He made this translation in order to make the knowledge, wisdom and prescriptions of Râmâyana accessible to as many people as possible. So the common man now too could sing and meditate on behalf of Ram, and in a language he understood. But since nothing is really simple in Hindu mythology, the Ramnami do not worship the god Rama but THE NAME OF RAM (A). A subtlety worthy of the greatest. The Hinduism god Râma, Vishnu's 7th avatar*, is said to have 12 kalas*. According to Tulsidas and the Ramnami, THE NAME OF RAM has 16 kalas. And to complicate the confusion, Krishna, 8th avatar of Vishnu also has 16 kalas. In short, even with knowledge of Hinduism you still have to be assiduous. This is India, Man. Another world !
This social group, the Ramnami samaj, appeared 120 years ago, mainly made up of untouchables (also called harijan or even dalit) who, for various reasons, began to tattoo their entire body with the name of the unique god that they worship: Ram. In those remote times, a large number of untouchables were particularly despised by the upper castes, the Sanskrit* of Râmâyana was incomprehensible to them, and temples were forbidden to them. The response of those excluded from the system was to sanctify their body, which thus became their personal temple. Around 1890 the supposed founder of the movement, a certain Parashuram, launched the movement by tattooing the name of the god Ram on his forehead once. Then the bids went up to the top. This word sanctifies their bodies. These untouchables began to tattoo repetitions of the word Ram, in line, RAMRAMRAMRAMRAM, hundreds of times (it is said 1,001 times), on their arms, legs, thighs, face, ears, eyelids, inside the mouth on the inside of the lips, on the tongue, no area is spared. It is even said that in the heyday, around 1930, some went so far as to risk being blinded by having Ram's name tattooed on the whites of their eyes. It was their masterful response to a vertical society whose abyss they inhabited.
Another story goes that the initiator, Parashuram, suffered from leprosy. In order to protect the other inhabitants from his illness he left the village. One day he met a saddhu who predicted to him that the next day the word RAM would be inscribed on his chest. Indeed the next day RAM was indelibly inscribed on his chest, and the leprosy was gone from his body. Parashuram considered this tattoo to be a prasad, an offering made to him by the god. From that day on, his persecuted Dalit friends were also going to inscribe the name of Ram under the skin, the ultimate prasad, an offering that they, poor untouchables, could make to the god.
Seven years ago, when we met, there were only 6 Nakhshikha, 5 men and 1 woman. In Hindi nakh means nail and shikha means head. Tattooed from nails to head, total tattoo. However, there are still many people not fully tattooed, some of whom apparently continue to get tattooed, area by area, tirelessly. Today young Ramnami refuse to get tattooed anymore. You might as well carry a sign in the street with this inscription: "The bearer of this sign is, according to Hinduism, a waste of humanity ». The Ramnami youth want to blend in with society like sugar in hot tea. Their name is usually enough to ostracize them, no need to add more. At best, some young people who are very attached to their "tribal" history will just get Ram's name tattooed once or twice in a row. In fact, this practice began a long time ago, around the time of India’s independence in 1947, and particularly after some specific legislation in 1955. These reforms guaranteed them certain rights, certain state protection. Thus many Ramnami stopped passing under the metal of the needles. But one rule remains to continue to mark an attachment to their history: to have the name of the god tattooed at least once before the age of two, preferably on the chest. The ones I was able to meet were tattooed RAMRAM on the inside of the arm, like the one in the picture. He is about the same age as the fully tattooed Ramnami, and who responds to the very succinct name of Shri Shri Shri Aacharya Dharmaguru Mehatta Ram Tandon Ramnami. The transition began when they were born. It is the same for women. Indeed, the wife of Shri Shri Shri Aacharya Dharmaguru Mehatta Ram Tandon Ramnami (not very succinct in fact) did not get a tattoo like her parents and ancestors. Just a few RAM forming a rather discreet circle between the eyes. Let us add that many Ramnami of the old tradition, men and women, are dressed in fabrics also printed with RAMRAMRAMRAM called “The Ram odhni”, just like that worn by the wife of Shri Shri Shri Aacharya Dharmaguru Mehatta Ram Tandon Ramnami . And to distinguish themselves in yet another way, these followers wear headgear made of bamboo, fabrics printed with Ram's name, and peacock feathers. Let us add one more element that the peacock is linked to the cult of Vishnu of which Râma is the 7th incarnation (avatar).
And coming back to the subject of tattooing, there was a time when Ramnami got tattoos with feathers. Then it evolved with the needles. According to Shri Shri Shri Aacharya Dharmaguru Mehatta Ram Tandon Ramnami 3 needles tied together were used for the body while only two were used for the face. Someone else told me that a 7 needle bundle is used. The ink was made from water mixed with soot obtained using a kerosene lamp. Someone else told me that the ink is made from a plant called Kajli that is cooked and mixed with another brew made from the bark of the Babool tree. The tattooing process took around 8 hours a day for 18 days to mark the entire body. I've heard different versions of this fact but it was more about the same tattoo time. And to the question: "it must hurt? "He replied:" Your tattoos are decoration, mine are for God. » No comment !
* Râmâyana : One of the two founding texts of Hinduism, along with the Mahâbhârata (from which the famous Bhagavad-Gîtâ is taken). The Râmâyana tells the story of the god Râma and his wife Sîtâ. This story teaches Dharma, an essential element of Hinduism: the set of universal laws that every Hindu must follow according to his birth, his social rank. In short: respect the obligations and constraints of one's caste (Varna in Hindi). More precisely of his jati, his sub-caste. * Sanskrit : Very old language mastered only by scholars. It is said to be a cousin language of Latin. * Hindi : A more modern language derived from Sanskrit and spoken today in much of the northern half of India. * Kalas : Qualities, powers. * Charpoï : Indian bed made from a wooden frame (sometimes in metal today) and braided straps. They will be leather (old fashioned) or synthetic (often what we see today). Very common in India, inside and outside homes, and in places to stop along the major roads of Mother India.
