Description
We think Vedic religion meant purity, fire, mantras, and rules. But the Rigveda gives us Apala, a girl who breaks that entire picture apart with her own teeth. Rejected by her husband because of a skin disease, she finds Soma by a river one day. No priest, no altar, no stones to crush it with. So she chews it herself and calls Indra down to drink it.
In later religion, food touched by someone's mouth is considered impure. But here, the king of the gods comes to a rejected woman and drinks the Soma she chewed. This isn't love. It isn't shame. It isn't a devotee weeping at someone's feet. Apala demands three boons: hair on her father's bald head, grain in his barren field, healthy skin on her own body. Indra pulls her through the hole of his chariot three times, and each time an old layer of skin peels away.
Meera surrendered. Shabari waited. Apala negotiated. One of India's first rishikas wasn't a devotee. She was a dealmaker.