Collected Information About the Eunuchs of India Known as Hijras, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
Hijra means "impotent one" in Urdu. In Hindi, hijra may be spelled hijada, hijara, hijda, hijira, or hijrah, and is pronounced somewhere between "heejra" and "heejda". An older, more respectable term for hijra is kinnar. An abusive slang Hindi term for hijra is chakka.
Some hijras were made to be literal eunuchs -- some of them against their will. The process isn't ordinarily a pretty one, usually carried out without the aid of modern anesthesia or antibiotics. Most, however, are transgender of some sort and choose to foreswear their lives as men while retaining their sex organs. A few, however, are intersex and are considered to be "born eunuchs." Hijras are usually considered to constitute a third sex or third gender in that they are neither men nor women. (Not coincidentally, both hijras and two-spirits -- Native American "Indians" who are also of a third gender -- have been said to refer to themselves as "not men, not women.") Hijras don't all look at themselves the same way. Some see themselves -- or are construed by others -- as females, feminine males, transsexuals, or androgynes. There are also female hijra, called hijrin, which are not the same as sadhin.
The term mukhanni may or may not be a synonym for hijra. Another such term is ali. The relatively new (as of 2003) Aravani (aka aravanni, aravani, or aruvani), originated in Tamil Nadu, was popularized in India as a politically correct term to describe members of the third gender, yet it applies more to the devotees of Kutandavar Aravan (India's god of the ali) than those of Bahuchara Mata (the goddess of the hijras). In Urdu and Punjabi, both in Pakistan and India, the term khusra is sometimes used. The Urdu term moorat -- a contraction of mard (man) and aurat (woman) -- is often used in Pakistan. In Gujarati, they are called Pavaiyaa. Another term is jankha.
The term koti (aka kothi) refers to males who take a "receptive" or feminine role in sex. They are usually not conflated with hijras, although they often dress as women and act in a feminine manner.
The word "hijra" has another, wholly unrelated meaning in another context: in Arabic, "Hijra" (aka Hegira) means "Migration," and is used in reference to various historic travels, such as the prophet Muhammad's journey from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE to set up the first Islamic state.
An all-around introductory explanation of hijras is stored on this very site, here. If you are reading this and have information which you feel might be helpful to this site, please send an e-mail message to .
This page is linked to the Androgyne Online website because hijras have some things in common with androgynes -- like being of a third gender, for example.
There is also the term jogappa (or joggapa).
According to the fourth footnote at the bottom of the article, "Confessions of a Tantric Androgyne," by Ganapati Sivananda Durgadas, at the now-defunct Anything That Moves site, hijra is a Persian-influenced North Indian term, while joggapa is the South Indian languages' equivalent. Durgadas says that joggapa are priestly in vocation and predominantly transvestitic, while the hijra lean towards the transsexual side and labor in various vocations. Another writer, Walter Penrose, says that the jogappa are followers of Yellamma, "a goddess of skin disease who is believed to have the power to change the sex of individuals." According to Amara Dasa, the jogappa "do not practice castration."
kind courtesy
androgyne.0catch.com/hijrax.htm
