Ganga’s Daughters

Ganga’s Daughters is a chronicle of a decade-long association of Sheba Chhachhi with the women ascetics of the Juna Akhada in Allahabad. She was documenting the women’s movement in India in the 80s when she came across this Shaivite sect, where women had stripped themselves of the markers of gender, often becoming androgynous. Their initiation meant the death of their social self, identities, sexuality and rebirth as ascetics into a parallel culture of the influential Akhadas in Allahabad. Curious to get a glimpse of this universe, Chhachhi followed them just like a fellow nomad. The camera came in much later and she photographed them only when they allowed it and in the way they wanted to be seen.

Ten years later her body of work – Ganga’s Daughters emerged, narrating the story of these mystical women belonging to an alternate subculture within orthodox Hindu society. An extraordinary part of Ganga’s Daughters is a set of black-and-white photographs called Initiations. It documents the three-day initiation process dating back to 4th century B.C., which involves shedding all layers of identity one by one; including clothes, hair, ornaments, name, family lineage, caste and even gender. Their new identities are given a new name, usually related to the sacred river-Ganga, where the initiates take a ritual bath marking the end of their transformation.

Hence, Ganga’s daughters are reborn after performing the death rites of their old identities. These women ascetics live a life that is an antithesis of the ‘normal’ way of living for Indian women. They are not wives, daughters, mothers or even females. These photographs represent a radical psychological transformation, which leads the ascetics to break all social norms. Interestingly enough, Chhachhi couldn’t bring herself to photograph the most powerful women ascetics she met. This is enough to challenge the parameters of looking at this seemingly small community of women sadhus of India. Although they document events that are completely real, these images have a lyrical and performative quality. The de-emphasis on background and context renders these moments timeless, as if they could have existed thousands of years earlier as well.