Childless-Couple in Kongu, Tamil Nadu

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/in-defence-of-the-chronicler-of-kongu/article6778031.ece

Extract:

“Perumal Murugan is a scholar with a rich sense of history.”
A file photo of the novelist. - The Hindu

“Mathorubhagan” was published four years ago. The novel marks the second phase of Mr. Murugan’s fictional explorations. It poignantly tells the story of a childless peasant couple set in a time about a century ago. Ponna and Kali rejoice in their conjugal love but their pain of being childless is accentuated by the taunts of neighbours and insults on religious functions. Tiruchengode, the abode of Siva in the form of half-woman half-man, is the sacred temple to which childless couple flock to this day hoping to extend their lineage. Over 125 years ago, Chinnathayammal and Venkata Naicker of Erode circumambulated the “varadi kal” at Tiruchengode resulting in the birth of the great rationalist, Periyar.

After exhausting all means, childless couples seek what is, from a modern perspective, an exotic, even ‘immoral,’ solution. Every year, at the Vaikasi Visakam car festival, childless women indulge in consensual sex in a carnivalesque atmosphere. The lucky are able to conceive. Children born of this socially sanctioned ritual are referred to as sami kodutha pillai (god-given children). 

Any anthropologist would attest to similar practices existing in many pre-modern societies with no access to assisted conceptions. Classical Hindu traditions refer to this practice as niyoga or niyoga dharma — an indication of its religious sanction. It is this section of the novel that has provoked the ire of Hindu fundamentalists and caste purists. Portrayed as a slur on Hindu women, Mr. Murugan is being pilloried for denigrating the whole town.
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My Note:
Due to political agitation, Perumal Murugan has discontinued his profession as writer and has left his town. Compare this narration with the modern procedure for childless couples portrayed in the 2012 Hindi film "Vicky Donor" in which a young unemployed man is the donor of his sperm that is used by the doctor to impregnate his clients. The modern procedure avoids physical sexual contact by the lady with the sperm-donor who remains anonymous. The Pandavas were the children of Kunti and Madri through Nioyga :

"The epic Mahabharata describes two instances of niyoga. Queen Satyavati compels her son and sage Vyasato perform niyoga with the widows of her son Vichitravirya. The widows Ambika and Ambalika and one of their maids bear Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura respectively. When Pandu is cursed to die on being intimate with any woman, his wives Kunti and Madri perform niyoga with the Devas and mother five sons - the Pandavas." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niyoga