Page 257 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

232 Kusum Sonavne

I call you Laksmī for the sake of marriage only
.
When will the lamp of the lineage be in your womb?
As a consequence, a woman can only feel frustrated by a male partner
acting important and concerned only with power when she expects
consideration and affection in return for her love and is to get none:
A man says: ‘The king of this territory, it’s me!’
How much affection though I feel for you,
your distinction is opposite.
In the same perspective, parents know when they hand over their
daughter in marriage that they can give her no assurance of happiness
whatsoever:
Father says: ‘My daughter, I gave you and go back, woman
Your existence, me, I am not to act as guarantor for it.’

The fourth male attribute is violence. Four songs explicitly denounce
male aggression as harmful. Unwilling to protect his sister who already
has to bear with a co-wife, a brother hands both of them over and gets
rid of them. Compared to a useless stem of millet that can not carry
ears, his insensitivity turns him into a murderer. The sister in the song
equates him to a butcher who wrecks women’s lives.
On the riverside, this is no millet but sterile stocks
Brother gives sister and co-wife, this is no brother but a butcher.

A second song refers to the life of Krishna whose maternal uncle Kamsa
was the mythical king of Mathura. Following a prophecy that one of the
sons of Devaki, his sister, will kill him, Kamsa tries to kill all her sons
lest one of them should make the prophecy come true. The maternal
uncle, māmå, usually playing the role of a protector of his sister and
sister’s children, in particular the weakest ones, like a niece, plays a
key role especially in the decision and celebration of their marriage. In
the song this male privilege proves fatal and murderous as in the case
of the child Krishna, Devaki’s son, whom Kamsa tries to kill:

In the gardener’s garden, fœnugreek grass is in bloom
No hope for the niece, this is no māmå but Kamsa.