ment does not interfere with his activities nor does it seem unduly concerned with them.

How does an Indian become an Hijra? The conversion may begin in his boyhood or after he has passed nuberty: effeminancy, his only requisite. Often he is a youthful derelict cast aside by his family. During his training by older Hijas he is given. cloth for his sari, jewelry, food and above all, attention and understanding which he never knew.

No one knows for certain how the Hijra came into being but there is a legend that began in the time of Navab of Lucknow who had 100 wives, each with her own bedroom in his palace. Jealous of their beauty and acutely aware of his sexual limitations Navab permitted no virile male servant near them. The Hijras solved his problem.

In the Grand Hotel in Calcutta the author overhead the room clerk tell a British seaman how the Hijras, in the days of the harems, gained access to maharaja's private quarters. They waited until the festival of the eighth month of the moon when all the females of the household were busily occupied with new clothes, fairs and their gardens. Then in the moonlight while everyone was drinking they disguised themselves as courtesans and slipped into the gentleman's bedchamber, but not for nothing. The maharaja rewarded them with saris and jewelry. Many kept Hijras in their seraglios.

In the Calcutta library I noticed an Hijra absorbed in a book, his interest so intense I asked the librarian, a young man, what the subject of the book was. He explained it was The Kama Sutra, the celebrated Hindu treatise on love, a standard in Sanscrit literature, and that no Sanscrit library was complete without it. Vatsyayana, its author, compiled it while leading the life of a religious student at Benares somewhere between the

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first and sixth centuries of the Christian era. After the Hijra finished and left, the young man opened the book to a page with its corner turned back. "Every Hijra that comes here reads this one chapter," he said with a wise smile. "It describes how the eunuchs disguished themselves as courtesans, imitated their dress, speech, gestures and even derived their livelihood from the practice. It traces the custom to a very ancient time, much of it described in the Shushruta, a work on medicale. some 2000 years old. Should you ever go to Cuttak near Orissa, you will see it sculped on the walls in several Shavin temples that were built about the eight century. Records show that many eunuchs of that period wore male clothing and continued their relations with men under the guise of shampooers. According to Vatsyayana the Holy Writ did not prohibit the practice, moreover he saw no reason why it should not be caried on if a man paid regard to the place, the time and also whether it was agreeable to his nature and to himself."

The librarian turned the pages to another chapter and continued. "In here it describes, the methods the eunuchs used to make themselves attractive to men." He read. "If the bone of a camel is dipped into the juice of the plant. eclipta prostata, and then burnt, and the black pigment produced from its ashes is placed in a box also made of the bone of a camel, then that pigment is said to be very pure and served as a means of subjecting others to the person who uses it." He closed the book and lay it on the table then said, "As far as we know there are very few eunuchs nowdays. Fortunately the Hirjas have taken their places. I say fortunately because the souls of men who died without their desires fulfilled are said to go to the World of the Manes and not direct to the Supreme Spirit."

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