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Budha

The story of Ila and Budha appears in several traditional Hindu texts. Ila was a king, previously known as Sudyumna, who was cursed by Shiva and Parvati to be a man one month and a woman the next. Budha is the god of the planet Mercury, the love child of Tara (the goddess of the stars) and Chandra (the god of the moon) who was cursed at birth by Brihaspati (Tara's husband and god of Jupiter) to be neither male nor female. Ila, who is both male and female, marries Budha, who is neither. Their descendants were called 'Ailas' or 'Chandravamsis' who include the royal families of Hastinapur, the protagonists of the Mahabharata.

arries Budha, the god of the planet Mercury, who is neither male nor female, also as a result of a curse. Their descendants were called 'Ailas' or 'Chandravamsis', which includes the protagonists of the Mahabharata, the royalty of Hastinapur.

Although Budha knows of Ila's alternating gender, he doesn't enlighten the 'male' Ila, who remains unaware of his life as a woman. The two live together as man and wife only when Ila is female. In the Ramayana version, Ila bears Budha a son, although in the Mahabharata Ila is called both mother and father of the child. After this birth the curse is lifted and Ila is totally changed into a man who goes on to father several children with his wife

ए रेवती

ए रेवती बेंगलूरु में स्थित लेखिका और हिजरा समाज की सदस्या एवं समाजसेविका हैं।

जीवनी

रेवती का जन्म तमिल नाड़ राज्य के सालेम तालुका में हुआ था। उन्हें जन्म पर "दोरईस्वामि" नाम दिया गया था। बचपन से ही उन्हें लड़कोंं के बजाय लड़कियोंं के साथ खेलना पसंद था और वे अपनी माँ के वस्त्र पहन महिला का रूप धारण करती थीं। किंतु वे शारीरिक रूप से पुरुष थीं, परंतु मानसिक और स्वाभाविक रूप से वे खुद को महिला के रूप में ही पहचानती थीं।उन्हें अपने स्त्री जैसे व्यवहार के कारण अपने परिवार एवं विद्यालय में हिम्सा सहनी पड़ी। इन कखिनाइयों के उनकी पढ़ाई पर नकारात्मक असर के कारण वे दस्वी कक्षा में फ़ेल हो गईं।

एक दिन जब वे अपनी कक्षा के साथ नामक्काल की सैर पर गईं थीं, उनकी कुछ ट्रान्सजेन्डर व्ययक्तियोंं से मुलाकात हुुुई। उनहें जान पड़ा कि वे अकेेली नहीं हैं-- उन जैसे और भी हैं जिनकी लिंग-संबंधित आत्म-पहचान उनके शारीरिक लिंग से ना मिलती हो। उनसे प्रेेरित होकर और दूसरों के अत्याचार से मुक्ति पाने रेवती अपने घर से भागकर नई दिल्ली की ओर चल बसीं।

Revathi was born as Doraiswamy, a physiological male, in the district of Salem in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. As a child, Revathi experienced violence in her school and within her family for her 'feminine' ways. She preferred playing with young girls over boys and dressed up as a woman in her mother's clothes, plagued by the feeling of being a female trapped in a male body. Her personal and social hardships affected her academic performance, and she had to drop out of school as a result, having failed the tenth grade. However, when she first met a group of people from the kothi community during a school trip to Nammakal, she felt a sense of kinship and decided to run away to Delhi with them so that she could be true to her gender identity. In Delhi, she met a group of people belonging to the Hijra community and began living with them. She later underwent a sex-change operation, which was considered a rite of passage to get formally initiated into the hijra household. Post her operation, she was rechristened as Revathi by the guru or head of the household. Though she could finally be true to her gender identity, Revathi discovered the harsh realities of life as a hijra, where social exclusion, violence and sexual assault were all too common. She had to resort to several odd jobs to survive including dancing at weddings, begging and sex work. After some months, tired of her life in Delhi, she ran away and went back home, where she discovered she was not welcome. She subsequently left her home in Tamil Nadu and moved to Bangalore for work. While she initially took to sex work, she finally got a job at Sangama, an NGO working for the rights of sexual minorities. Here, she was exposed to activist meetings and learnt more about her rights. While she started off as a peon in the organisation, she rose in the ranks and finally ended up as the director. She works now as a transgender-rights activist based in Bangalore.

Her literary work and other achievements

Revathi published her first book in Tamil, Unarvum Uruvamum (Feelings of the Entire Body), in 2004. It is a collection of real life stories of the people belonging to the Hijra community in South India.

Following this, she decided to write about her own experiences. She published her second book, "The Truth about Me: A Hijra Life Story", in 2010. The book was written in Tamil and translated into English by feminist historian V Geetha. According to Revathi, she initially released the book in English and not Tamil to avoid conflict with her family, who did not speak English. She cites a very prominent Tamil Dalit writer Bama as one of her main inspirations.

She is one of the first members of the hijra community to write a book in the English language. Her works have been translated in more than 8 languages and acting as a primary resources on Gender Studies in Asia. The American College in Madurai has included ‘The Truth about me: A Hijra Life story’ as part of its third gender literature syllabus.