The villagers don’t like this story at all. This Parasurama is definitely a gumma.

Thimmakka is about to open her mouth in anger. Annaiah quickly shakes his head at her and continues. Jamadagni is pleased and asks Parasurama what he wants as a boon. Parasurama, lowering his bloody axe, seeks his mother’s life. Jamadagni gives him some water and says, sprinkle this on her and she will live. He quickly goes to his mother and Yellamma. He is not able to make out which is Renuka’s head and which is Yellamma’s, they have become interchangeable. The eyes of both women are wide open and red, their hair has come undone and, even as he sees them, the feet of the severed bodies are slowly turning inward. In a panic, Parasurama quickly attaches heads to bodies and sprinkles water. The women wake up and Parasurama realizes that he has switched the heads. Renuka’s head now has the body of Yellamma.

It’s a conundrum for Jamadagni: who is he to accept as his wife now? What do you think? Annaiah asks the villagers. The one with the head is Renuka, says Thimmakka swiftly. Annaiah smiles at her with sorrow. That is not what Jamadagni thinks. He thinks the body he slept with is his wife. He chooses the body of Renuka with Yellama’s head to live with. Renuka, unhappy and angry, leaves them and lives on her own. Her power is such that her head bursts into a million other heads, and all of them are worshipped to this day. Her eunuch sons become her followers and women priests do the pooje at the temples that come up for her.

Gradually, men start to take over these temples too and push the women priests into serving Renuka-Yellamma with their bodies, which are interchangeable. Like Jamadagni, for all of them, the body is more important than the mind. It has come about that poor people and people with problems, like our lower castes, send their daughters to the temples to serve Yellamma, seeking her blessings. The daughters earn money for the temple and to feed their families by sleeping with the patrons. Rich people pay to initiate the girls into the life at Yellamma temples.

Everyone is disturbed. Annaiah is holding a mirror to them and they can’t look at it. Ajji has tears pouring down her cheeks.

‘This practice has been going on for centuries,’ Annaiah says gently. ‘Renuka-Yellamma, a strong, powerful woman, our Ooramma, has not been able to rescue them till now. Instead of seeing her power, our people have made her a stone idol who cannot protect even her own devotees. Shouldn’t this stop? Shouldn’t we honour her and protect her children?’