Abstract
Stories, myths and legends travel across time and spaces, and constitute the very essence of a nation’s culture. The way certain popular narratives originate and circulate in public spheres—constantly challenging yet cohabitating with hegemonic forces of dominant cultures—is pivotal to understand why such narratives endure and how they evolve with the socio-political culture of an age. The case of the sixteenth-century Indian bhakti poet-saint Mirabai along with the multiple narratives of her life and legend that currently circulate in public spheres is crucial to understand the discourse of bhakti that once emerged as a social movement but eventually took the form of a religio-political enterprise which assimilated the marginalised with the centre, and provided new meanings of cultural interactions. Bhakti as an epochal sensibility valorised cultural resistance and thrived upon the creative energies of poet-saints such as Mirabai herself. The paper traces the lives of destitute women—especially widows—with interviews conducted recently in and around the city of Vrindavan in India, where they have embraced the name, life and suffering of Mirabai and are called ‘Miramais.’ It also explores the reception of Mirabai among Indian women as an icon of resistance in Indian cultural landscape when she moves along the public domains of canonised popular memory. Her lyrical compositions known as bhajans are read as sites of dissent, and have paved way for generations of Indian women to achieve socio-cultural emancipation through daily acts of performative bhakti in the form of bhajan singing and dancing.
Presenters
Ritu VargheseStudent, PhD Graduate Student, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Orissa, India
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
MIRABAI, INDIA, SPIRITUALITY, PUBLIC SPHERES, BHAKTI, BHAJANS, WOMEN EMANCIPATION
