Page 113 - ENGLISH 10

followed her into the thundering current of the Arun River. After leading a
campaign for reform and justice, Yogmaya ¿nally confronted the ruler with

an ultimatum: “If you do not grant us justice, we will die,” she declared. Juddha
Shamsher responded by sending his army to round up the protesters.
The tragedy that resulted remains a stain on the government. The Nepalese
authorities covered up the episode and banned all mention of her. Her campaign
was thoroughly expunged from the nation’s historical record and almost lost to
its political consciousness. But the powerful verses composed by Yogmaya, the
hazurbani, survived. And there lies the story.
I am the child in your lap.
You are the babe in mine;
There is nothing between us, nothing at all.
Your eyes have tears, just like my own.
On the surface, these lines may appear to be politically innocent, they are
not. They embody the very principle of equality. They call for parity and
mutual respect. They are tender reminders of the sensitivity of all of our common
needs, joys and sufferings.
Manamaya uttered another of Yogmaya’s verses ¿lled with praise of nature and

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also love of land, or homeland.
Curriculum Development Centre
Supreme among peaks, this our Himalaya
From where waters À ow, Arun merges
And with Barun, À ows on
To mingle with Irkhuwa.
These lines hint her political goal to move towards equality. Her effort to
challenge the system is opposed by priests, the public, and the government.
But still Yogamaya attacks.

Virtue, stained by greed.
Justice, undone by bribes.
Though innocent, we lost.
Thus, we’re twice punished.
Eventually, Yogamaya’s teachings became a comprehensive utopian ideal,
linked with a non-violent political strategy she devised to bring it about. It
began four decades before the United Nations sponsored an international
convention on women, before the current generation of American feminists
was born, and even before Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent 'Quit India'
movement (a campaign to rid India of British occupation) was underway, But
Yogamaya’s movement went further because it included a call to end injustice
against women and girls.
108 ENGLISH, Class 10