Overview
What jogappa means.
Jogappa is not a word for a feeling. It's a role inside the worship of the goddess Yellamma, also called Renuka, in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring regions. Jogappas were assigned male, live in feminine dress, and are described as spiritually wedded to the goddess. The work is hers: singing her legend to the chowdki and shruthi, dancing and singing at weddings and birth ceremonies, seeking alms in her name.
It belongs to those communities. You don't become jogappa by recognising yourself in a description; you become one through dedication to the goddess, which is a ritual and a life, not a self-identification. You'll also see jogati, jogathi and jogta; jogathi is the name the best-known member of the tradition, Manjamma Jogathi, carries. If you have no connection to this tradition, the description may fit you exactly and the word is still not yours.
What it is not: it isn't a regional word for hijra. Jogappas perform similar work to hijras and are often listed alongside them, and some move in both worlds. But the deity is different, the lineage is different, and there's no guru-and-house system of the same kind. And the written record in English is thin: a few sentences in Wikipedia's hijra and Renuka articles, and a page for Manjamma Jogathi, awarded the Padma Shri for the Jogathi folk dance. Most of the tradition lives in the villages and the songs, not in English.
South Indian devotees of Yellamma (Renuka), assigned male and living in feminine dress and role; a religious community, not a label.
Jogappa in one line
Origin
Where the word comes from
Jogappa is a much older cultural and religious role, not a modern coinage: devotees, believed to be married to the goddess Renuka Yellamma, who live in feminine dress and gender presentation, concentrated in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring regions of South India. The role predates British colonial rule and is documented as part of a wider landscape of gender-variant religious and social roles across South Asia, alongside hijra communities.
British colonial administration reshaped how these communities were treated rather than creating the role itself. From the 1870s, colonial law in India — including the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 — targeted hijra and related gender-variant communities as a criminal class, restricting dress, movement and inheritance; historians of colonial South Asia (for example Jessica Hinchy's work on eunuchs and colonial law in North India) describe this as part of a broader imperial project to police gender variance that Mughal and pre-colonial Indian society had not treated the same way. That colonial legal legacy, and the stigma and exclusion it entrenched, still shapes the social position of jogappa and related communities in India today.
Signs people describe
Common experiences
None of these is a test. Most people recognise a few and shrug at the rest.
There was a day you were given to the goddess, and after it home was not somewhere you could simply go back to.
You know Yellamma's legend well enough to sing it from the first line to the last, and which verses the crowd waits for.
The chowdki is a working instrument to you, and its sound means the day has started.
Much of your income follows the wedding calendar, and a lean month is a month with fewer functions.
You've been asked by an NGO worker, a census officer or a journalist whether you are hijra, and given an answer that was true and didn't satisfy them.
The goddess is not a metaphor to you.
She's the reason, and the part that people who don't understand the rest can at least understand.
Pronouns
Pronouns
Jogappas and jogatis generally live and are addressed in feminine terms; Kannada and Marathi carry gender in the verb, and the feminine is the usual form. In English, 'she' is how the tradition's own public figures are written about. Some describe themselves as neither man nor woman; some as women; some simply as the goddess's. Use what the person in front of you uses.
Consider another path
This might not be your word if…
- 1You're not from these communities. The description may fit you closely: feminine, devoted, neither one thing nor the other. The word is still not yours; work out what the feeling is and find the word that is.
- 2You want a label for a private identity. This is a public role with a goddess, a dedication, a repertoire and an economy attached.
- 3You're South Asian and feminine and living an ordinary life with a job and no dedication. That's a trans woman's life, or something else you'll name yourself. Jogappa without Yellamma is just a word.
- 4You're here for a costume, a character or a novel. Read Manjamma Jogathi's story. Take the reading. Leave the label.
Close by
Related identities
Hijra
The wider South Asian community with gurus, houses and reet. Jogappas do comparable work and get listed beside hijras, but the deity is Yellamma rather than Bahuchara Mata, the lineage is separate, and there's no house system of the same kind. Cousins, not the same thing.
ReadThirunangai
Tamil Nadu's own tradition and word, tied to different festivals and a different history. Not a translation of jogappa and not interchangeable with it.
ReadAravani
The older Tamil term, tied to the god Aravan and the Koovagam festival. A different deity, a different region, a different lineage.
Read
Transgender Female
A woman assigned male at birth, as an identity. Jogappa is a religious role with a goddess, a dedication and work attached. Some jogatis describe themselves as trans women; the role does not depend on it.
ReadThird gender
The legal box in India that covers hijras, jogappas, trans women and others who share little beyond the form. The state made it; nobody grew up inside it.
ReadQuestions people ask
Frequently asked questions
Are jogappas the same as hijras?+
No, though they're often listed together. Both do comparable ritual work, singing and dancing at births and weddings, and both are assigned male and live in feminine dress. But jogappas are dedicated to Yellamma specifically, and the guru-and-house structure that defines hijra life isn't the shape of the jogappa tradition. Some people move between the two worlds. The words aren't interchangeable.
How does someone become a jogappa?+
Through dedication to the goddess, which is a ritual, and not something you can do to yourself over the internet. The published accounts describe being given to Yellamma; Manjamma Jogathi's page says she was married to the deity by ritual and not allowed to return home. How and why a dedication happens varies, and the sources in English are thin. This page doesn't pretend to know more than that.
Can I identify as jogappa if I'm not from Karnataka or Maharashtra?+
No. It isn't a personal label with criteria you can meet. It's entry into a religious tradition, granted by the tradition itself, in a particular part of India. If what caught you was the feminine devotion, or being neither man nor woman, those feelings have words that are yours to use. Start there instead.
The flag
No flag — no page on any of the three wikis.
Sources
- Hijra (South Asia) — Wikipedia (the Jogappa entry redirects here) Fetched 2026-09-03 via the Jogappa redirect. Renuka 'believed to have the power to change one's sex'; male devotees in female clothing known as jogappa; similar roles to hijra, dancing and singing at birth ceremonies and weddings; Bahuchara Mata as the north Indian goddess.
- Renuka — Wikipedia Fetched 2026-09-03. Jogappa community 'spiritually wedded' to Renuka Yellamma; Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring regions; singing the legend to chowdki and shruthi and seeking alms; Jogathi Nruthya.
- Manjamma Jogathi — Wikipedia Fetched 2026-09-03. Married to the deity by ritual and not allowed to return home; Jogathi Nritya as a North Karnataka folk dance; Padma Shri 2021.
- Power, perversion and panic: eunuchs, colonialism and modernity in North India — Jessica Hinchy (thesis) Fetched 2026-09-06. Documents how the 'eunuch' became a criminal legal category under British colonial law in the 1870s in North India, used here for colonial context around hijra/jogappa communities.
Still figuring things out?
Twenty questions, four minutes, and a few words worth trying on.