The Aesthetic Woman: Re-Forming Female Bodies and Minds in Early Twentieth-

Century Keralam
Author(s): J. Devika
Source: Modern Asian Studies , May, 2005, Vol. 39, No. 2 (May, 2005), pp. 461-487
Published by: Cambridge University Press

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Modern Asian Studies 39, 2 (2005) pp. 461-487. ? 2005 Cambridge University Press
doi:10.1017/S0026749X04001519 Printed in the United Kingdom

The Aesthetic Woman: Re-forming

Female Bodies and Minds in Early
Twentieth-Century Keralam
J. DEVIKA

Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

In late nineteenth century Malayalee society, the project of social

reforming was caught up in the concern to evolve an alternative to
established Jati-based mode of ordering human beings. The criticism
by the missionaries of the CMS, LMS and the Basel Mission of the
established order in Malayalee society as entirely unnatural and
inimical to (universal) human values was heard right through the
nineteenth century. At the turn of the century, the nascent modern
educated of Tiruvitamkoor, Kochi and Malabar were beginning to echo
such viewpoints actively. The terms on which these groups perceived
their identities and assessed local society were more or less set by
colonial sociology and the codification efforts by both imperial and local
powers. Interpreting locally existing jati in terms of the construction
of 'caste' (i.e., 'Nair', 'Ezhava', 'Araya' etc.) these groups sought to
form organisations for the reform of caste, to transform these into
full-fledged modern communities.
Gender assumed unprecedented importance in such imaginings
of modern communities to be attained through reforming. The
entrenched Jati-order appeared to be grounded upon 'external deter-
minants' like birth or inherited social authority, and against this,

* Throughout this article, I have used 'Keralam', 'Tiruvitamkoor', and 'Kochi'

instead of the commonly used 'Kerala', 'Travancore' and 'Cochin' because these
usages are closer to the original Malayalam words. Also, 'Keralite' has been replaced
by 'Malayalee' to refer to a community of Malayalam speakers who were spread out
in three different political units, the princely states of Tiruvitamkoor and Kochi, and
Malabar, which was part of the Madras Presidency before 1957. The three parts were
united to form the State of Kerala, which is in the deep south-west of the Indian
subcontinent.

00oo26-749X/o05/$7.50+$o. 10o

461

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 462 J. DEVIKA
a liberal vision of a society of
individuals who would be valued
way of inheritance, but for their
development, focused on fosterin
qualities and dispositions, was acc
twentieth-century Malayalee ref
Dharma Paripalana Yogam of the
the Araya Sabha, the Yogakshem
etc., as well as in subaltern refor
and in radical reappropriations of
Raksha Daiva Sabha.
While the mind and its endowments were attributed visible
importance in the project of shaping the modern self capable
resistance to theJati order, the body, especially its sexual endowm
was seen to be contributing the 'raw material' for reform. W
seemed given before self-development was seen to be substan
determined by the sexual endowments of the particular body
qualities one possessed were seen to be strongly determined by
sexual character of one's body, its maleness or femaleness. Th
ideally, attaining modern individuality would automatically m
that one would be inserted into an idealised 'Womanly' or 'Ma
subjectivity, in the distinct spheres of the domestic and the publi
shaping of such (ideally gendered) individuals, within the boun
of the projected caste-based modern communities of the futur
high up on early twentieth-century reformist agendas in Mal
society. Significantly, the putative inner space in which these qua
were seen to inhere seemed to be reached only by perform
operations upon the body, subjecting it to disciplinary practi
Not surprisingly, proposals of 'correct training'-including m
education-involved both the preparation of boys and girls
subjectivities deemed 'natural' to them and the inculcation of
control-control over bodily urges.
This essay focuses on a particular interesting chapter in the com
history of the project of gendering through tracing the deb
around female dress-reform in late nineteenth-early twentie
century Malayalee society. However, the effort is not really to de
the many ways in which women's dress was refashioned in Ke
in this period, and the different sorts of politics that informed t
moves. While this in itself is an interesting venture, here we t
use these debates as a particularly telling instance of how in th
ideal of Womanliness the female body gets reinscribed as a sou

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 463
pleasure for men, even as it is increasingly recommen
purported capacity to incite lascivious feelings may b
It will also help us to understand how a non-recipr
of visibility is established between Man and Woman i
of complementary sexual exchange between Domestic
Public Man, idealised by Malayalee reformers. Again,
history of dress-reform in Keralam is indeed a charge
moves and counter-moves, in which women do not occ
position, here we do not try to document resistance i
many women of this period who were exposed to new i
the body was a mode of self-assertion against the older or
this force is indeed acknowledged, we would also like to h
of the ambiguities involved in such self-assertion. These h
continued to characterise the very problematic 'liberat
been the lot of Malayalee women in the twentieth century
celebrated in Developmentalist narratives of 'social dev
Keralam.

Some of the most interesting literature on female dress-reform

colonial India has emphasised the extent to which the propagati
of new sartorial codes meant the discursive organisation of phys
exposure infused with patriarchy. Modern dressing was neve
neutral practice mainly determined by 'taste'; it was mobili
to political concerns, and if, in the earlier order(s), it served
mark social hierarchies, in the new, it was used to signify vari
'inner qualities' found necessary to constitute the new Individu
As Inderpal Grewal has pointed out, the female body was alread
excluded from the feminised ideal of beauty that took shape
late eighteenth-nineteenth-century England.' This was a beau
that placed a premium on 'inner qualities', one in which the fac
is privileged against the body in an opposition homologous
that between the familiar/knowable and the mysterious/unknowable
Himani Bannerjee, writing on the sartorial philosophy that under
the dressing prescribed for the bhadramahila in Bengal says that
meant the desexualisation of the bhadramahila : 'She must be constan
aware of male gaze and avoid being or doing anything provocative
The sartorial moral philosophy of Bengal... implies an invisible
constant male gaze at women. The purpose of this gaze, or rath
its origin/occasion, is domination, to create an ideological objec

1 Inderpal Grewal, Home and Harem: Nation, Gender, Empire and the Cultures of Tr
(London: Leicester University Press, 1996), p. 30o.

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 464 J. DEVIKA
sexually circumscribed "other"'.2 I
dress-reform echo these concerns;
appear more complex. For, here, the
for 'holding' her husband within
was emphasised to a remarkable e
the female body had to be aesthe
modern male. Thus while the nece
was advocated as an extreme urgen
modern female sartorial codes we
especially for modern family life.
abiding concern of reformers to s
conjugal patrifocal unit, which had b
groups, such as the substantial num
others like the Malayala Brahmins w
in which only the eldest son was
caste, and the others were to have
It is of course important to not
dress codes for women implied m
sanitisation/aestheticisation as highl
it meant achieving greater conform
for women, especially with the sari,
veshti; it also implied membershi
Malayalee society, setting off the
those who were still 'traditional'. H
actively followed up in this essay, t
and do definitely deserve detailed
The following section tries to gi
in which reform of traditional dress codes was implicated in
the project of modern Self-building in late nineteenth and early
twentieth-century Malayalee society--it was considered a necessary,
though not sufficient condition of modern Self-building. The next
section describes how the bare-breastedness of shudra women
in Keralam came to be understood as a sign of their sexual
overindulgence/exploitation, and thus affirming the importance of
covering the body in re-forming them into sexually disciplined
subjects. Covering the bosom formerly signified either a particular
location in the Jati-order as Muslim or Christian; or, differently done,

2 Himani Bannerji, 'Attired in virtue: Discourse on Shame and Clothing of the

Gentlewoman in Colonial Bengal', Investing Subjects: Studies in Hegemony, Patriarchy and
Colonialism (New Delhi: Tulika, 2001), p. 123.

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 465
it could indicate a woman of 'easy virtue'. The fourth s
how covering the female bosom was divested of such
and endowed with new ones. This, however, meant no
desexualisation of the female body, but also its aesthe
make it appealing to modern men, while making it acce
the desexualised space of the modern home. The fifth s
looks at the gradual discrediting of covering the body as a
sexual disciplining. In the leftist literature and writings i
from the 1930s onwards, there is qualified acceptance of b
quickly tamed as a 'need' to be satisfied within disciplined
The need to control the mind is now emphasised, and new
like sex education, are recommended. The female b
however, equally marginal to both these projects.

II

In nineteenth-century Keralam, dress served to mark soci

and deference. 'Anyone after living a little while in the co
a CMS missionary from Kottayam in 1884, 'even at first g
what caste a stranger belongs by the way he or she wears
garments'.3 Indeed, this was a centuries-old practice i
society. The Synod of Udayamperoor (1599 A.D.) em
necessity:

The Church is particular that the difference between faithful f

who do not possess faith should be expressed externally thr
ornamentation as well. Why? To distinguish these groups by th
Synod upon seeing that there is no difference between Nazranis
in dress and hair, bids them to make difference.4

Different styles of dressing distinguished various g

together in a common network (later perceived as a s
For instance, different styles of wearing the waistcloth d

3 Quoted in RobinJeffrey, The Decline ofNayarDominance (London: Su

Press, 1976), p. 1o.
4 Canon 14 (S: IXD. XVII), Dr. Scaria Sakaria (ed.), Udayamperoor
Kanonakal (Edamattom: IICS, 1994), P. 240. The translation is free
convened by the Latin Catholic bishop Menezes, and part of the Portu
transform Syrian Christians. Mathew Daniel, Kerala Kraistava Samask
1985), pp. 69-86.

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 466 J. DEVIKA
different sub-groups of Malayala
Dress and ornamentation also marked hierarchical distinction-
groups located lower in the established order were prohibited
using finer clothing, umbrellas and gold jewellery. Jati-group
to maintain these signs strictly. Breach of dress conventions
tantamount to dosham-inviting inauspiciousness, as the story
the Samutiri's shoulder-ache showed.6 Lower-caste disregard
such conventions would be read as challenging upper-caste po
The well-known 'Breast-Cloth Struggle' of nineteenth-century
Tiruvitamkoor involved not only the issue of feminine modest
also struggle around Jati.7 Wearing the upper cloth would sig
symbolic equality of the Channars with upper-caste Nairs and
Tiruvitamkoor government refused to allow this, while conceding
demands for 'modesty'. The Proclamation of 1865 allowed all classes
use the blouse but not the upper-cloth. Indeed, there is other evid
to show that the steadily-modernising State of Tiruvitamkoo
not at all averse to the demands of 'modesty' provided it did
interfere with the maintenance of social hierarchy: when the P
Works Department was set up in 1863, clothing the upper parts of
person was a condition for employment of women-labourers.8 A
same time, through newly emergent forces, the practice of readin
a person's dress qualities such as 'modesty', 'Civilisation', 'decenc
the lack of these, was slowly beginning to gain ground. In the Bre
Cloth Struggle, the diverse ways of reading dress became enta
in one another.

The differentiating function of dress continued well into the twen-

tieth century with important additions. For example, the new mode of
dressing was a way in which 'Westernised' people could be identified
from those who were not. For a long time, modern dress would
signify close contact with modern institutions. 'Sahitya Panchananan
P. K. Narayana Pillai remembers how the Tiruvitamkoor government

5 K. P. Padmanabha Menon, History of Kerala Vol. III (1929) (New Delhi: AES,
1984), P. 49.
6 Samutiri (Zamorin) was the title of the ruler of medieval Kozhikode (Calicut), and
the story is about the last powerful ruler, who drove away the Goddess of Prosperity
unwittingly by wearing an upper-cloth wrongly. Kottarathil Sankunni, Aiteehyamala
(Thrissur: Current Books, 1992), pp. 116-18.
7 R. Jeffrey, Decline ofNair Dominance, pp. 50-85; R. N. Yesudas, The People's Revolt in
Travancore: A Backward Caste Movement for Social Freedom (Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala
Historical Society, 1975).
8 Jeffrey,Decline p. 92.

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 467
official Rajarama Rayar (who insisted on the observance of
of dress that worked to mark off social hierarchy) had to
when he met white officials, and how one such meetin
because the shirt was missing.9 An old student of the s
scions of the royal family of Kilimanoor remembers that
the school dress-code for Tiruvitamkoor was observed in that school
only during the day of the Inspector's visit. On other days, they would
all go to school in loincloths.'0 Takazhi Sivasankara Pillai remembers
wearing his first shirt on joining an English school in the same decade,
and how by that time, 'those who wore shirts did not go to work in
the fields anymore'." This also began to signify new sorts of social
hierarchies, even activating self-gaze, it seemed, that revealed one's
'lacks' or 'inferiority'. The reformer C. Kesavan vividly recollects his
childhood:

All the children were sitting on the floor. In the group there was a child
wearing a satin Kuppayam and a cap that covered the ears, sitting a little
apart, close to the wall on the right. A somewhat special consideration was
given to the 'Kuppayam and cap'. I was wearing a small Torthumundu (a coarse
variety of cloth worn around the waist covering the lower body), that was all. I felt
ashamed of myself.12

Remembering a visit to the SNDP Yogam's Industrial Exhibition at

Kollam in 1905 as a thirteen-year-old, in which the leading men wore
dark shirts, turbans and long coats, he remarks: 'It was surprising to
many... that such clothes would suit Ezhavas'.13 One could even make
'use' of the signification of modern dress, as the reformer C. Krishnan
found out, on a journey to Ceylon in 1899:

To be free of nuisance from other people, I started off in European fashion,

hat and all. I was convinced of the efficacy of this trick after journeying in a

9 P. K. Narayana Pillai, Smaranamandalam (Kottayam: SPSS, 1964), p. 116. 'Because

all those who sought favours from him knew well of his aversion towards any craze for
dress and ornamentation, they would go before him only in dirty dress, and that which
hardly covered the knees. I have seen the Deputy Tahsildar of Ambalappuzha keep
aside a mundu for the sole purpose of deploying it before the peishkar on his circuit
visit'. (ibid., p. 12o).
10 C. R. Rajaraja Varma, Adhyapakante Atmakatha (Kilimanoor, 1976), p. 13.
11 Takazhi Sivasankara Pillai, Ormayude Teerangalil (Kottayam: SPSS, 1985), p. 23;
Ente Balyakala Katha (Thrissur: Mangalodayam Press, 1967), p. 132.
12 C. Kesavan,Jeevitasamaram (Kottayam: SPSS, 1953), p. 28.
13 C. Kesavan,Jeevitasamaram, p. 409.

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 468 J. DEVIKA
train for some time. Because people wo
there was no nuisance in the compartm

Because dress could thus different

a charged site of confrontation.
struggle: European styles were repl
with khadi. Wearing Khadar an
significance in Malabar during t
Discussion of the reform of official dress of teachers was sometimes
polarised around approval and disapproval of 'local' and 'foreign'
fashions.16 Changes in dressing were also crucial in the constitution
of new identities in most varieties of reformism: in the Yogakshema
Sabha, which was committed to modernising Malayala Brahmins, for
instance, the issue of dress was a charged one. In the modern school
for Malayala Brahmin boys at Edakkunni, initially there were strict
rules disallowing teachers and students from wearing shirts during
formal sessions.17 The twenty-first session of the Yogakshema Sabha
was regarded to be revolutionary because participants did not bathe
or remove their shirts before lunch;'8 subaltern self-assertion clearly
involved open rejection of established dress-conventions-the mass
meeting of Pulayas at Kollam in 1915 saw the rejection of certain
ornaments worn by Pulaya women;19 in subaltern self-assertion, as in
the Pratyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha, they were encouraged to stay
clean and wear white clothes.20

14 Quoted in K. R. Achutan, C. Krishnan: Jeevacharitram (Kottayam : SPSS, 1971),

pp. 19-20.
15 P. K. K. Menon, The History of the Freedom Movement in Kerala Vol. I
(Thiruvananthapuram: Govt.of Kerala, 1972), p. 209.
16 Debate on the resolution moved by member E. Ikkanda Warrier regarding refo
of teachers' dress in Kochi, Malayala Manorama, 18 August, 193o; debate on sim
resolution regarding the uniform of government servants in Kochi. 'Kochi Niy
Sabha', Malayala Manorama, 17 December, 1927.
17 Madampu Kunhikuttan, Abhivadaye (Kottayam :D. C. Books, 1986), p. 30.
18 P. K. Aryan Nambutiripad, NalukettilNinnu Nattilekku (Thrissur: Mangalodaya
1969), 104.
19 T. H. P. Chentarassery,Ayyankali (Thiruvananthapuram: Prabhatam Publishin
1989), pp. 103-6. Interestingly, the Malayalee reported that after the act of rejecti
two of the garlands were taken by the president of the meeting and the Chief Secret
of Tiruvitamkoor, both upper-caste men, as curios. In order to be perceived as 'cur
or 'aesthetic objects' the Kalla and Mala had to be first stripped of their function
signifying difference and social distinction within the entrenched Jati-order.
20 P. Sanal Mohan, 'Religion, Social Space and Identity: Construction of Boundar
in Colonial Keralam', Paper presented at The Conference ofSubaltern Historians, Janua
3-8, 1998, Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow, pp. o20-1.

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 469
Besides, new dress codes were also found to signify t
implication in modern Self-building. Dress was seen to
only a certain subjectivity but also a certain internality. W
clothes' by subalterns, therefore, could signify not only th
of the established order but also purity of minds. Mahatma
1925 found the Malabar style of female dress praisewor
because of its simplicity, convenience or 'Indianness' but
it seemed to signify inner-purity and sacrifice. He rem
Malayalee women's white apparel reminded him of Seeta
her husband into exile.21 Modern 'modest' dressing had
indispensable in the set of operations by which the Indi
be fashioned. An author pointed out: '... And, especially
human beings do not fulfil our desires unrestricted like an
not shameful for us to leave exposed those parts that incit
The 'human being' is defined here by his/her ability
bodily desire; covering provocative parts becomes necessary
human. By itself, it was even felt that adopting modern
be a distraction from Self-building, often an empty imi
West (as, for example, in the 'novel' Parangodiparinayam
Kunhiraman Nayanar, writing in the late nineteenth cen
lampoon new fashions as signs of lack of Manliness, not co
for the absence of proper training:

... These days there are mostly half-female men. Necktie, c

overcoat and so on. Though the need for exercise is often t
there are few smart young men who can walk for a Nazhika
measure of time) or two.24

This cautionary word continued to be voiced in the

century. In E. V. Krishna Pillai's essay Shirtukal (Shirts),
criticised as the sign of a parasitical generation.25 Cover

21 'Tiruvitamkoorine Patti', Malayala Manorama, 7 April, 1925.

22 Vadakkumpattu Lakshmi Amma, 'Vastrachchadanam' , Sharada
1906, pp. 13-15.
23 Kizhakeppattu Ramankutty Menon, Parangodiparinayam (1892)
P. V. George Irumbayam (ed.), Nalu Novelukal (Thrissur: Kerala Sah
1985).
24 'Paramartham', from P. K. Gopalakrishnan (ed.), Kesari Nayanarude Kritikal
(Kozhikode: Mathrubhumi Publications, 1987), p. 33.
25 E. V. Kritikal Vol. I ( Kottayam: D. C Books, 1978), p. 187. He writes: 'The shirt
has some disabilities. He is totally averse to the pickaxe and the spade. The fields, the
crops and garden-lands are all in dire enmity with him. He can't stand the smell of
paddy; tapioca, yams, tubers, millets all these are alien to him'. (p. 187).

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 470 J. DEVIKA

was a necessary, though not

imagining of ideal Men an
importance of 'decent dre
of European dress-is stre
characterised as wholly a 'M
with an upper-cloth alway
fashions. Western dress b
'correct training' within m
adoption of Western-style
his praise for women's dress
disagreeable as it appeared a
of Self-building.
Though covering the body
men and women, it seeme
The nakedness of young M
those who advised them to
in Meenakshi, it was critic
in 1928, even a scholar a
Nambi Neelakanta Sharma
on account of his conventi
Sahitya Parishat (Literary
female nakedness were far
be seen in the next section.

III

Sexual submissiveness of shudra women to Brahmins has often been

projected as an important element of upper-caste dominance in

26 0. Chandu Menon, Indulekha (1889) (Kottayam: D. C Books, 1991), p. 25. It

was noted in the late nineteenth century itself that among the issues that appeared
most frequently in the newly-arisen Novel, covering the breasts was a prominen
one. See Kesari Nayanar, 'Novel' in Gopalakrishnan (ed.), Kesari Nayanarude Krithikal
pp. 70-5-
27 Mahatma Gandhi, 'Tiruvitamkoorine Patti', Malayala Manorama, 7 April 1925.
28 'Malayala Brahmanarude Adhunikavasta', Malayala Manorama, 19 July 1905.
29 Cheruvalathu Chathu Nair, Meenakshi (1890) (Thrissur: Kerala Sahitya
Akademi, 1988).
3o The Thiruvananthapuram-based lawyer, Malloor Govinda Pillai, made this
criticism which, however, irritated many of the Nambi's followers. E. V. Krishna Pillai,
Jeevitasmaranakal Vol II (Thiruvananthapuram: Shree Rama Vilasom Press, 1948),
p. 621.

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 471

Keralam, and the convention of leaving t

women, which continued well into the early
century, has been considered to be part of th
in the twentieth century have often drawn u
Thus, the pre-Brahmin past has been char
'Women commonly used a garment cover
upper-cloth irrespective of caste',32 which B
to have ended. Robin Jeffrey writes: 'The
bare her breasts as a mark of respect before
Brahmins), her greatest pleasure should be gi
P. K. Balakrishnan claims that even if female bare-breastedness
predated the advent of the Brahmins, it was perpetuated as an elem
of the dominance of Brahmins over the lower-castes.34
The extraordinary attention given to female bare-breastedness is
noteworthy, while both men and women of groups lower in the
entrenched order were equally expected to display their submission by
removing their upper-cloth.35 The anthropologist Fred Fawcett who
did fieldwork in the late nineteenth century, argued against prudery
regarding female bare-breastedness ('In Malabar, where there is
prevalent the idea that no respectable woman covers her breast, there
has crept in lately, chiefly amongst those who have travelled, a feeling
of shame in respect of this custom of dress. Dress, is, of course, a
conventional affair, and it will be a matter of regret should false ideas
of shame supplant those of natural dignity such as one sees expressed

31 See, quotation from a letter to the newspaper Paschima Taraka (Western

Star) in R. Jeffrey, Decline, pp. 186-9. History writing of various caste-groups
has been an important terrain upon which such battles have been fought. To
mention one such account, see K. Damodaran, Ezhavarude Itihasam (Kollam: Sri
Rama Vilasam Press, 19, 29), p. 16. Also see, Kanippayur Sankaran Nambutiripad's
rebuttal of the 'sexual exploitation by the Nambutiris' thesis of Nair reformers
in Acharavimarshanam (Kunnamkulam: Panchangom Press, 1968), Elamkulam P. N.
Kunhan Pillai, Keralam Anchum Aarum Noottandukalil (Kottayam: SPSS, 1961); Paul
Manavalan, Keralasamskaravum Kraistava Missionarymarum (Kottayam: D. C Books,
1990); P. K Balakrishnan, Jati Vyavasthayum Kerala Charitravum (Kottayam: SPSS,
1984).
32 Elamkulam, Keralam Anchum, p. 9go.
33 Jeffrey, Decline, p. 12.
34 'The sight of 'high-breasted females'... must have been a great challenge to the
Dharmasatras' (Balakrishnan,Jativyavastayum p. 363).
3' There is evidence to show that this was a long-established practice here.Jacobus
Canter Visscher, the Dutch Chaplain of Kochi between 1717 and 1723 A. D. noted it
in his letters about life in Kochi. Letter XIII, reprinted in K. P. Padmanabha Menon,
History ofKerala (Kochi: Govt of Kochi, 1929), p. 30.

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 472 J. DEVIKA

in the carriage and bearing

it necessary to defend fem
mainly regarding exposure o
it seems, took longer to c
about the Nairs in the lat
men had not changed much
have improved much for th
around their middle, a pie
length.. .'37
However, bare-breastedness was required of both men and women
in the entrenched order; signs of submission were to be produced by
both men and women of groups lower in theJati hierarchy towards both
men and women placed higher up. K. P. Padmanabha Menon mentions
a much-discussed event in Kochi in the early twentieth century in
which a young woman had her blouse stripped off for not removing
it before a princess in Kochi.38 Such obeisance was paid to Gods-the
general practice was (and is still, for men) to appear bare-breasted
before deities in temples. Musicians playing Deva-Vadyams (musical
instruments of the 'godly' variety such as the Edakkai as differentiated
fromAsura-Vadyams such as Chenda) do not wear the upper-cloth, unlike
those who play the Asura type. Not permitting women to cover their
breasts does not seem to have been linked to forced display; in fact,
as Fawcett observed, the reading of uncovered breasts as signifying
immodesty seems to be of recent origin.
Travellers' accounts testify to the ordinariness of the sight of the
exposed female torso.John Henry Grose wrote:

... the women of these countries are not allowed to cover any part of their
breasts, to the naked display of which they annexe no idea of immodesty
which in fact ceases by the familiarity of it to the eye. Most Europeans at
their first arrival experience the force of temptation.... but it is not long
before these impressions wear off, and they view it with as little emotion as
the natives themselves, or as of the obvious parts of the body the face or
hands.39

In many autobiographies female bare-breastedness appears as

an everyday sight. K. P. S. Menon remembers: '...Nairs did not
think it shameful to speak of breasts. Because they did not cover

36 Fred Fawcett, Nayars ofMalabar (1915) (Madras: AES, 1984), p. 198.

37 Menon, History ofKerala Vol III, pp. 2oo-1.
38 Ibid., p. 20o4.
"9 Quoted in Menon, ibid., pp. 20o 1-2.

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 473

them.... Even when family members were t

of certain parts of the body was not prohibit
is remembered as something done in public, a
their infancy.41
In fact, as observers like William Logan42 no
been in force a reversal of the Western notion
account of the reaction of Tiyya women t
telling:

... the women, however modest and discreet, will wear no garment above the
waist: they are not prostitutes, they say, that they should cover the bosom. English ladies
who engage them as nurses have tried over and over again, in the name of
English decorum, to make them wear a neckerchief but have encountered the
determined resistance which they would have offered had they been asked to
promenade the highways unclothed.43

K. P. S. Menon recalls that in his childhood wearing the blouse was

associated with Veshamkettal-immodest dressing-up.44
The association of the covered breast with immodesty seems to have
been more general than might be expected. Abbe Dubois noted it for
the devadasis in his travels in India, in the early nineteenth century:

Of all the women in India it is the courtesans... who are most decently
clothed. Indeed they are particularly careful not to expose any part of their
body... Experience has no doubt taught them that for a woman to display
her charms damps sensual ardour instead of exciting it, and the imagination
is more captivated than the eye.45

Interestingly, this has crept into a late nineteenth-century text like

Meenakshi,46 which otherwise attacks female bare-breastedness as
immodest display. In this work, however, the seductress does not
appear with breasts exposed in the seduction-scene. Rather she took
up a 'specially laundered muslin upper-cloth and threw it over her
shoulders in the Makkana fashion'.47 Not surprisingly, this figures

40 K. P. S. Menon, Atmakatha (Kottayam: SPSS, 1971), p. 21.

41 See, Cherukad Govinda Pisharody, Jeevitappata (Thiruvananthapuram: Chinta
Publishers, 1984), P. 41; K. P. S. Menon, Atmakatha, p. 21.
42 William Logan, Manual Vol I (1906) (Madras: AES, 1951), p. 134.
43 Quoted in K. P. P. Menon, History ofKerala, p. 210o. The Italics are mine.
44 K. P. S. Menon, Atmakatha, p. 21.
45 Abbe J. A. Dubois, Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies (1906) (N. Delhi: AES,
1983), p. 586.
46 Cheruvalathu Chathu Nair, Meenakshi.
47 Ibid., p. 90o.

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474 J. DEVIKA

as an 'eroticising techniq
Ambopadeshams-in which
the arts of seduction by
Nambutiripad's Ambopadesh
her well-formed breasts co
mundu) so that her body be
One may object that the co
female sexual availability.
position in the establish
shirt/blouse was required
body with a cloak and a
Antarjanams when they ven
body, therefore, seemed to
purposes-used in a certain
in another way it could en
point is that the covered f
connotation of modesty in a
figure as objects of contest
tales that circulate about s
the female body becomes a
between groups, in mainly m
Early visitors to South Indi
freely without shame rega
writing, an association be
and woman, they are all b
about the middle. They loo

48 Shlokam 35 of Ambopadesha
Sheevolli Narayanan(ed.), Venman
49 Keralam had a special way o
Moorkoth Kunhappa, Moorkoth
pp. 258-9.
50 To mention two such tales:
Velayudha Panikkar of Arattup
intervened in conflicts around dr
opponents and distributing upper
M. Satyaprakasham, Sarasakavi M
Dept. of Cultural Publications, G
tale is around another mid-ninet
forcibly made Ezhava women wear
the Muslim tradesmen of Kayamk

Ente Kathaillaimakal
51 Marco Polo about (Thrissur : C
Quilon. From
ofSouth India from Megasthenes to
of Madras, 1930), pp. 181-2.

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 475

By the nineteenth century, this association ap

terms in missionary accounts. In Christianity
innocence only before the fall; shame came
between a missionary and a colonial offi
reported by the missionary, shows the streng
the missionaries' reading of local society. The

On entering Palaghaut, I noticed a change in costu

of the people. The women were also sparsely d
cloth around the waist and another small piec
shoulder... We may hope that as education sprea
these people in the scale of society, civilisation, th
Christianity, will spread also, and they will emerg
degradation in which they are sunk .... I may brie
I had with the station-master at Palaghaut, who
customs and habits of these people. He said that th
in accordance with nature, with a state of prim
adapted to the climate. He forgot that savages r
his idea of clothing compatible with 'innocence'.52

True to his faith, the missionary points out t

only sin, and not innocence, unless in the g
Fall. Missionary writings often made this clai

Hear, readers. The Shudra women of Malay

maturity receive cloth from many and become
many children. Even the mother cannot know
children... Due to such evil practice, there is a
between husband and wife or love for one's fat
of the desire for material gain... Women, in or
up their honour, and like offering bait to fish, ca
display their breasts in order to grab wealth.53

Such sensibility was being upheld by a

'civilisation'-colonial officials, the modernis
and the newly educated classes. In the Report o
of 89gr, V. Nagam Aiya noted that shudra w

...do not, as a rule, cover their bosoms while a

outdoors in North Travancore. Civilization is st

52 W. T. Satthianadhan, 'Notes of a Tour Through

Madras Church Missionary Record vol. XXXVIII, No. 6,
53'Vivahathe Kurichu', Vidyasangraham Vol i(5
VidyasangrahamJuly 1864-April i866 (Kottayam: Ben
CMS. College, 1993), pp. 282-3.

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476 J. DEVIKA
South, the effects of which are clearly
not one Nair girl who will walk out w

By the early twentieth century, t

carrying lamps bare-breasted in
the Shree Padmanabha Swamy T
being opposed in the newspapers
women with covered bosoms atte
of the significance of the femal
of sexual excess/exploitation w
texts like Kerala Mahatmyam as a
origins of Malayalee social arra
shudras of Keralam are said to
heavenly courtesans-the dress-co
in well with the 'vice' associated w
text appeared to confirm the m
breastedness among shudras was th
sexual activity, and sexual slavery
formed an important source of a
groups in their struggle against
century. One advantage of this w
men from responsibility of their w
Not surprisingly, this practice wa
twentieth century Keralam which
building.58 In what was probabl

54 V. Nagam Aiya, Report on the Census o

55 Madras Times, 19 May, 1903. Quoted b
History ofKeralavol. III, p. 2 14; editorial of
12, 19o01 cited in K. Bhaskara Pillai, Swad
56 Jeffrey, Decline, Note 33, Chapter 6.
57 The Malabar Marriage Commission Repo
defended Sambandham believed that shudr
desires of Brahmans, enjoining on them to
their breast, and declaring that promiscu
common was void of the least taint of sin'.
Quoted in F. Fawcett, Nayars ofMalabar,
58 Here one may mention a rather cur
reformism, which probably illustrates
female body and sexual excess had become
Kunhiamma says: 'Once he (her husband,
wearing the blouse. The decision was to g
wear the blouse and take them up to Ch
blouse. Many people had gathered on the
of the women removed their blouses an

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 477

breasts by poorer Nair Women, the Nair confer

1916 took the decision to permit women to wear
instead of the longer blouse.59 By the end of
of royal families of Kochi and Kozhikode wer
blouse.60 This is not to say that dress convent
an anthropologist studying the Nairs in the earl
at that time, women were not provided blous
joint-families but by their husbands if they w
so attired.61 In fact, a few decades back it wa
women going bare-breasted in rural areas in Ker
1930s, the condemnation of bare-breastedness
had already crystallised.

IV

Rejection of older conventions and adoption of modern dressing was

often an act of defiance by women in these times.62 In literature,
it sometimes symbolically expressed the female subject's struggle
against the older order as in the reformist play Ritumati.63 In Ritumati

a person called Kidangoor Mundan approached these women who were reluctant to
wear the blouse in a completely naked fashion'. Quoted in M. K. Sanoo, Shree Narayana
Guru Swami:Jeevacharitram(Kottayam: SPSS, 1986, p. 178). The use of violence to
clothe women who refused to be reformed was not heard too. Ettumanoor Gopalan,
Dewer Enna Karmadheeran ( Kochi: Dewer Smaraka Samiti, 1993), pp. 42-4 gives an
account of the use of force in making Araya women cover their bosoms.
5 N. Balakrishnan Nair, K. Chinnamma: Jeevacharitram (Thiruvananthapuram:
Srivilas Press, 1947), p. 105. There were attempts to devise costumes that would
not offend existing conventions of dress while achieving the end of feminine modesty,
such as the Karuppan Kachcha, devised by Pandit K. P. Karuppan for Araya women.
See, Ettumanoor Gopalan, Dewer Enna, p. 42.
60 'Kochi Rajakudumbavum Atinte Bhaviyum', Malayala Manorama, June 28,
1927. Also, 'Samutiri Rajavamsathile Streekalude Parishkarabhilasham', Malayala
Manorama, April 28, 1930.
61 M. S. A. Rao, Social Change in Malabar (Bombay: Popular Book Depot, 1957),
P. 77.
62 This should not be exaggerated. Actually, there seems to have been resistance
to wearing modern blouses among women, who often wore it under compulsion.
Kunhiamma Shanku (in M. K. Sanoo, Shree Narayana Guru Swamy, p. 178) makes this
clear: 'I myself wore the blouse for the first time only at the age of twenty. That too,
under the compulsion of my husband. I would cover the blouse by covering myself with a
cloth in the presence of my maternal uncle and others...'. A. P. Udayabhanu mentions
two such instances of compulsion, involving the Ezhava reformer C. V. Kunhiraman's
sister and Lady Mandath Krishnan Nair, wife of a Dewan of Tiruvitamkoor. A. P.
Udayabhanu, Ente, p. 178.
63 M. P. Bhattatiripad, Ritumati (1944) (Thrissur: Current Books, 1991).

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 478 J. DEVIKA
the Nambutiri-girl's struggle aga
traditional home is expressed in h
In this play, the resisting hero
cultivated mind, her only source
of central importance in the pr
ideal monogamous union, the part
compatibility. Such statements as th
encountered in writings about Wom

It is true by experience that a specia

beautiful woman at first sight. But i
first sight must be sustained certain
the most important one is the lack of

Courage displayed by women

their families, or in resistance
of Womanliness was heartily app
strength.65 Devaki's insistence on
approved as a defence of Womanl
in favour of union with modern-th
incident related in the autobiograph
narrator of this account is the wife
early twentieth-century reforme
reached Mayyanad, this lady's vi
century from Thiruvananthapura
there. Presented with two blouse
she ventured to try them on. Kesav

... I too found them attractive, and tri

But ticklish; I took them off folding th
very enthusiastically. Amma (mother)
gallivant? Fold and put them into th
Amma, she would kill me. At night I s
Good, you can wear them, he agreed. It
Vadhyar (teacher, meaning C. V.) had a
and I, in my simple mind, came out
some day-dream I didn't see Amma c
of firewood being broken and turned
fire and fury. 'Remove it at once, you h

64 V. R. Raman Menon, 'Streekalude Saun

no. 11, 1924, p. 292.
65 Puthezhathu Raman Menon, 'Paurushamulla Streekal', Lakshmi Bhayi vol. io,
no. 8, 1914, PP. 309-20.

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 479

wear the blouse like a Muslim!' I removed it that

beaten by Amma. But I too was stubborn... If Amma
did. I wouldn't wear the blouse during day-time. The
I saw that Amma was asleep, I would take out my blo
Amma. Vadhyar would come only late at night, like

Wearing the blouse here is already an act of

established authority (Amma) which would s
of being a 'dancing-girl' or a change in the w
Jati-order. The wearer of the blouse, however, i
blouse a way to make herself attractive to her
even ifAmma does not. The 'husband' emerges ou
the images of 'Vasanthy's father', 'Vadhyar' (tea
(celestial lover, seeker of beauty, favouring
virgins). It is for such a man-modern in t
that the woman in the account dupes tradition
the blouse.
It may be argued that this account merely confirms the fear voiced by
many reformers that unless modern dressing was not strictly regulated
by making it an element of correct training, it would become a
technique of displaying the body as an aesthetically-pleasing object,
instead of being an instrument of building sexual self-control. But
aestheticising the female body did sometimes appear as a sort
of necessity-indeed, we do sometimes find it being advocated by
those reformers who insisted upon 'correct training' for women. The
propaganda in favour of modern dress for Antarjanams, actively
carried out by Malayala Brahmin reformers, is particularly striking
in this respect. This was considered to be of prime importance for
promoting intra-community unions within the Malayala Brahmin
community-reckoned to be of considerable importance in community
building. It was pointed out that the traditional garb of Antarjanams
would be repulsive to modern-educated young Nambutiris; to
remedy this, Antarjanams were to adopt modern dress. Addressing
Antarjanams in one of his most well-known speeches, the well-
known Malayala Brahmin reformer V. T. Bhattatiripad stressed its
importance in attracting men in general. Aestheticising the female
body-adorning it with culture-is identified as of equal importance
with culturing the mind. Therefore, along with advising Antarjanams

66 From C. Kesavan,Jeevitasamaram, pp. 109-11.

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 480 J. DEVIKA
to cultivate their minds,67 V. T.
their dressing:

Many of us are turning head over heels

not because of our fascination for you
concern for morality. I do not hide th
are fed up of your ugly, disgusting dr
do no more than curse ourselves.

In this speech, elements of dress traditionally signifying the

Antarjanam get marked out as primitive, disgusting, unhygienic while
the new dressing gets presented as its opposite-attractive, cultured,
clean. A healthy body, apparently, is not enough to hold a man; it
must be aestheticised, 'clothed in culture': 69 Hygiene is advocated
not merely for the sake of good health but more prominently for
making the female body attractive. V. T. Bhattatiripad was by no
means a lone figure in his emphasis of this need-it echoed throughout
the instances of the advocacy of dress-reform for Antarjanams in
Nambutiri reformism.70 The 'union of minds', curiously, seemed to
require an aesthetic presentation of the female body; as an important
means of cementing the modern monogamous conjugal union. Here,
wearing modern dress was not only a technique of attaining sexual
self-control; it was a way in which aesthetic pleasure from the female
body could be accentuated.
In fact, built in the very construction of modern Woman that was
circulating in dominant reformisms of the period is a role of the
provider of pleasure. It is in this sense that Woman differs from
Kulina of classical texts. In texts like the Natyasastra, different types

67 Speech at Aliyathur Upasabha Yogam, 'Nambutiri Manushyanayai Maranamen-

kil'. Appendix to V. T. Bhattatiripad, Karmavipakam (Thrissur : Best Books, 1988),
p. 330-1.
68 Bhattatiripad, 'Nambutiriye', p. 332.
69 Bhattatiripad, 'Nambutiriye', pp. 333-5.
70 Report of the 2oth Annual Yogakshema Sabha Conference, Malayala Manorama,
27 December 1927; report of the 21st Annual Conference, Malayala Manorama, 29
December 1928; Moothiringote Bhavatratan Nambutiripad, 'Poorvacharam Athava
Keezhnatappu', Unny Nambutiri vol. 7, no. 11, 1925, p. 645; P. M. Manezhi,
'Antharjanangalum Avarude Veshabhooshanagalum' , Unny Nambutiri vol. 7, no. 12,
1925, P. 715; Presidential Address, 9th Annual meeting, Nambutiri YuvaJana Sanghom,
Unny Nambutiri vol. 9, no. 4, 1927, p. 281; M. Rama Varma Tamban, 'Nammude
Bandhukkal', the same issue, p. 361. Nambutiri reformism was by no means unique
in this respect. See early Malayalam novels, for example, 0. Chandu Menon,
Sharada in Dr. P. V. G. Irumbayam (ed.), Anthappayiyude Novelukal; Chandumenonte
Sharadayum(Thrissur: Current Books, 1991), pp. 357-8; Chathu Nair, Meenakshi,
PP. 76-7.

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 481
of women-Kulina, Vesya and Bhrtya-are constructe
different from each other with different lifestyles, func
preferences, gestures, movements,71 even group ethi
typology, the vesya was the vessel of culture, the provide
aesthetic, intellectual and bodily pleasure-to men, of
standing, at a price.73 The list of the skills of the ideal ves
to the Arthasastra, included singing, playing musical i
recitation, dancing, acting, belles-letters, painting, makin
the art of knowing the minds of others, dress and
massaging and seduction.74 The Kulina, in contrast, was to
perpetuate traditional norms and values. The provision of
seen to be the Vesya's special task, and producing legitima
the Kulina's. This division seems to have held good-
in the completely different codes of conduct prescribed f
observed by Abbe Dubois. He remarks: 'The courtesans
women in India who enjoy the privilege of learning to read
sing. A well-bred and respectable woman for this reaso
to acquire any of these accomplishments'.75
To Western observers, such cultural activity and sexu
seemed inextricably bound in the Vesya, and the form
condemned as the latter. Singing by devadasis, for inst
'... often vulgar and lewd, and sung not only before a
men, but even the deities with a view of exciting the lasc
the men'.76
One may also remember that discussions of female e
late nineteenth century often mentioned the criticism th
would make women immoral emanating from non-mod

71 Dr. K. T. Rama Varma, Kamapooja Keralathil (Kozhikode: Class

1985), p. 58-9.
72 This is well illustrated in the story of the Veshya murdered by her
who becomes the vengeful Yakshi 'Panchavankattu Neeli'. Neeli dies s
had not cheated him of his money, she had only adhered to the ethi
See, Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer, 'Panchavankattu Neeli', in Ulloorinte
(Thiruvananthapuram : Ulloor Memorial Publications, 1980), pp. 3
73 The moral stigma attached to the Veshya also seems to have b
in the non-modern cultural worlds in early twentieth century. Femal
like 'Vesukutty', 'Vesamani' etc were certainly known in Keralam i
of this century. To call girl children 'Vesukkutty' as a term of endea
known (ibid.). See also K. T. Rama Varma, Kamapooja, p. 10o.

74 Dubois,
75 QuotedHindu
in K.Manners,
T. Rama Varma,
p. 586. Kamapooja, p. 55"
76 John Shortt, 'The Bayadare; or Dancing Girls of South India', Journal of The
Anthropological Society ofLondon vol. 3, 1870, pp. 183-4.

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 482 J. DEVIKA
countered by advocates of moder
century, change was in sight. In a
of Abbe Dubois', the editor added
is slowly extending to all classes,
existed no longer applies to women
dancing is still restricted to the p
considered respectable'.77
Womanly education included lear
etiquette etc. and the new Woman
being the 'Vessel of Culture' from
different way, by bringing accom
interior of the modern home as sou
in effect, was to turn them into ins
stability of the modern home by in
Modern Woman therefore was im
Reproducer and the Vessel of Cul
to the former, and the former rely
Throughout the period lasting fr
twentieth century-and even into
which Woman acquires the accom
in the 'sanitised' manner mention
This may be further explicated b
in Malayalam, Lakshmikesavam79 an
a contrast is set up between L
courtesan called Mysore Muthuma
and possess considerable musical
are installed within the modern hom
to-be, and her family. However,
are for all men of a certain soc
The hero Kesavanunny visits the
voice but is mistaken to be an asp

77 Dubois, Hindu Manners, p. 586.

78 It has been noticed that Raja Ravi V
not of nubile adolescents or voluptuous mi
who are 'sensuous but not seductive, forth
thus 'could they be the noble spouses of br
which however, was still in a nascent for
middle-class in Keralam. R. Nandakumar,
Ravi Varma and the Concepts of Family,
Kerala', South Indian Studies, 1,January-J
79 Komattil Padoo Menon, Lakshmikesava
Nalu Novelukal.
80o O. Chandu Menon, Indulekha, n. 24.

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 483
understanding, the courtesan's musical skills and sexua
inseparable. However, for Kesavanunny, the courtesan's m
be an instrument of sexual seduction: 'Though Kesavanu
too much stupefied by the matchless beauty of her form, h
song impressed him'.81 Lakshmi's musical gifts have n
significance, they are to bring no material gain-unlike the
To Kesavanunny, the courtesan's beauty and her music
strictly separable: her music cannot be an instrument o
Woman is Kulina in that she must be sexually chaste a
good progeny; at the same time, she also brings pleasu
monogamous marital union. She is unequivocally distanc
Vesya in that her accomplishments are not for a price.
the heroine refuses to entertain the unwelcome suitor with her music
precisely because she wants to turn down his suit, insisting that that
she would play for him only if he behaved 'with dignity'.82
Dance, significantly, took much longer time to be 'sanitised'. In
Meenakshi, a distinction was made between 'true' and 'false' sorts
of dance, pitting Mohiniyattom as 'false' against Kathakali as 'true'.83
Mohiniyattom was thus stigmatised because it seemed to highlight the
body and exude erotic appeal, while Kathakali was seen to be a form of
dance that did not foreground the body but appealed to the intellect.84
Items in Mohiniyattom that appeared to be related to folk-performances
or lewd and ribald were purged from the repertoire. Overtly sexual
allusions have been interpreted as the expression of the Spiritual in
erotic terms.85 Only since mid-twentieth century was the possibility of
imagining dance as a source of aesthetic pleasure and not necessarily
as an instrument of sexual seduction opened.86

81 Komatttil Padoo Menon, Lakshmikesavam, p. 188.

82 0. Chandu Menon, Indulekha, p. 156.
83 Chathu Nair, Meenakshi, pp. 106-14.
84 By the 1940s, such 'sanitisation' of dance was proceeding well through the poet
and cultural figure Vallathol's efforts, as well as through other quarters. See, speech
by the Dewan of Tiruvitamkoor, Sir. C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyarn, 'The Art of Dance'
in P. G. Sahasranama Iyer (ed.), Selected Speeches and Addresses of Sir C. P. Ramaswamy
Iyer (Thiruvananthapuram, 1943), pp. 20-3. For an intimate account of'sanitisation'
of dance in Vallathol's institution, see the autobiography of the Kathakali artiste
Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, Entejeevitam Arangilum Aniyaraiylum (Kottayam: D. C.
Books, 1986).
85 Venu G, Nirmala Panikkar, Mohiniyattom, (Thrissur, 1983), pp. 18-20.
86 The history of this opening up is one of conflict. The famous disagreement
between one of the most prominent literary and cultural figures of early twentieth
century Keralam, Mahakavi Vallathol who was a key figure in 'sanitising' Mohiniyattom,
and the radical reformer Sahodaran K. Ayappan about rehabilitating dance is a good

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 484 J. DEVIKA
In this reckoning, one may see h
'sanitised'. On the one hand, it is n
of easy reputation; it begins to si
the wearer. At the same time, it
appeal of Woman's body, bringin
relationship. Woman, therefore, ma
strict limits: 'It is difficult to accep
who beautify themselves with sho
are indeed pure. If this is done for t
their sin is forgivable...',87
Woman may be the provider o
marital union, but she is strictly
her accomplishments serve a very
twentieth-century women's mag
the Malayalam press have been
Woman-as-Reproducer and Woman
projection of ideal and desirable W
enough to find Women's Magazine
ways of developing their 'Individu
same time suggesting ways in which
order to be attractive to men-and,
their bodies should not gain precede
themselves. This tendency was alr
'Women's columns' publishing arti
one such:

We should not forget our individuality in our obsession with fashion. Fashion
without individuality is like curry without salt. No matter how attractive the
sari is, no matter how expensive the ornaments are, if they do not suit our
individuality they will never blend, like curd and paddy mixed.88

The 'union of minds', prized in late nineteenth and twentieth-century

Malayalee reformism, seemed to require an aesthetic presentation of

instance to begin. M. K. Sanoo, Sahodaran K. Ayappan (Kottayam: D. C Books, 1989),

p. 292.
87 V. R. Raman Menon, 'Streekalude Saundaryabhramam', pp. 293-4.
88 V. Malaty, 'Feshionum Streekalum' (Women and Fashion), Mathrubhumi Weekly
vol. 31, no. 30, 1953, p. 26; 'Streekalum Saundaryavum' (Women and Beauty) in
Mathrubhumi Weekly vol. 31, no. 33, 1953, P. 25, also 'Kesa Susroosha' (Hair-care) in
Mathrubhumi Weekly vol. 31, no. 40, 1953, p. 33.

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 485
Woman's body. Whether this indicated a subversive 'r
body' in the project of fashioning Woman was debate
literature, for instance, one may find efforts to imagi
primarily defined by the Mind. Aestheticising the female
subversive to the fashioning of the Individual; romantic l
as a refinement of lust, which secretly sneaks back t
the 'Union of Minds'. This is pronounced in the novel D
which the ideal communist-woman-intellectual is proje
the figure of Rajamma, lawyer and activist. Replying to t
that this character appears in working-class garb in the f
with her suitor,90 Cherukad defended his depiction th
not simply an attractive toy. She is as much an Individual
free as, and with the same (faculties of) reason and emotio
In his Muthassi too, Cherukad introduces his heroine Nan
explicit comment that she is physically unattractive.92 Th
it seemed, was to accept lust as a given physical need,
subject it to strict control by Reason and Science. Rea
than romantic love, was seen to be the appropriate in
binding individuals' marriage. Thus inDevalokam marriage
between rational Individuals. Rajamma's suitor tells
have no romance at all. Not towards Rajamma either.
(for marriage) if Rajamma is prepared to agree to an
contract'.93
Indeed, Rajamma's transformation into an ideal comrade involves
an overcoming of lust masquerading as romantic love. Marriage
becomes a real 'Union of Minds'-bodily love in marriage is projected
as simply the orderly and socially non-disruptive satisfaction of bodily
needs. Another ideal couple in Devalokam is a working-class pair whose
union is a contract that enables labouring and procreating together.94
'Progressive Literature' in Malayalam of the mid-twentieth century
was seen to deeply distrust romantic love-but then it was sometimes

89 Cherukad Govinda Pisharody, Devalokam(1971) (Thiruvananthapuram: Chinta

Publications, 1987). Such suspicion really predated leftism, already appearing in the
words of the prominent woman-reformer, Parvati Nenminimangalam in the 1930s.
Aesthetic dressing, she contended was a way of ensnaring men, and that women must
'seduce with undiluted Love alone'. 'Streetvam', Stree vol. 1, no. 1, 1933, PP. 15-16.
90 Cherukad, Devalokam, p. xiv.
9' Ibid.
92 Cherukad, Muthassi (Thrissur: Kerala Sahitya Akademi, 1989), p. 1.
93 Cherukad, Devalokam, p. 229. See also the writings of the prominent author of the
mid-twentieth century, K. Saraswati Amma, Purushanmarillaththa Lokam ( Kottayam:
SPSS, 1961), p. 30o.
94 Cherukad, Devalokam, p. 61-4.

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 486 J. DEVIKA
argued that the progressive writers
love' mistaking it for the real thin
identified to be prevalent among th
for mating and making a living thr
was thus recast in the mould of reasonable contract.
By the 1950s, covering the body, in speech and in everyday life,97 was
recognised as an inefficient technique of toning down lust. Its double-
edgedness was already perceived in criticism of the nascent Malayalam
cinema, which would progressively find infinite ways of organising the
female body as a pleasurable sight in the subtle play of concealment
and exposure.98 At the same time, it was pointed out that avoiding
explicit reference to the body in speech was useless.99 Changampuzha
Krishna Pillai, speaking at a meeting of Progressive Writers in 1945,
remarked: 'Those who are interested in the morality of the future
generation should not seek to childishly conceal such terms as the
above (i.e. terms like Mula-the breast) in asterisks; rather the effort
should be to impart sex education to them from an early age'.100
This was no foolproof solution, judging from its later subversion in
so-called 'sex-education' (a euphemism for soft porn) films in
Malayalam, common from the 197os.
Criticism against the aestheticisation of the female body in Keralam
continues to be made from leftist-radical circles and feminism, to
rightist, conservative positions. At the same time, institutions that

95 M. B. Menon, Premavum Purogamana Sahityavum (Thrissur: Marxist Publishing

House, 1949).
96 Menon, Premavum, p. 7.
97 C. J. Thomas, 'Veshavum Sadacharavum', in Ivan Ente Priyaputran (Kottayam:
SPSS, 1953), pp. 19-25.
98 P. K. Rajaraja Varma, 'Cinemayile Kuchabhramam' in Shreemati Kunji
(Thiruvananthapuram, 1953), PP- 51-9-
99 Explicit reference to the female body, particularly to the female breasts, was
common in Malayalam. Breasts figured in the 'Hair-to-toe' descriptions of Nayikas
and goddesses in medieval Malayalam literature, in songs sung for Kaikottikkali, a
dance performed in savarna homes by women, in prayers chanted everyday. The use
of the word Mula(breast) to simply indicate 'female' was common, as for example,
in the saying 'Two heads may mingle, four breasts, never', or in reference to the
sexually-mature female as 'she whose hair and breasts have grown'. But this term was
not the only one in use to denote 'female'. Adukkala (Kitchen) was another. Sexual
transgression of Antarjanams was called Adukkaladosham. Adukkalakkanom was part of
the dues paid by tenant to landlord for renewal of lease, supposed to be for the ladies
of the house. V. Nagam Aiya, Travancore State Manual Vol. 3 (1906) (Madras: AES,
1989), p. 318.
100 Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, 'Sahitya Chintakal' in Purogamana Sahityam
Entinu? (Kottayam: SPSS, 1953), PP. 71-2.

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 THE AESTHETIC WOMAN 487
project the need to beautify the female body have also p
cinema, television, advertising, women's magazines, beau
beauty contests, fashion etc. But the female body, in
equally marginalised: either treated as requiring on
calculable attention in fashioning the Mind-defined
or as primitive raw-material that needs culturing, bea
bedecking, in order to be acceptable.

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