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Hinduism Women in Hinduism
by
Perundevi Srinivasan

Introduction

This article attempts to map scholarly resources on the status, roles, and representations of women in Hinduism. The history of women’s sociocultural location in Hindu traditions from early Vedic times (1200–800 BCE) until the early 21st century is marked by several shifts. While the early Vedic conceptual paradigm of the “divine couple” includes women on par with men in the public sacrificial sphere, late Vedic practices appear to have domesticated women to some extent, with the public and domestic ritual spheres becoming segregated. Similarly, although we encounter a few women thinkers in the Upanishads, the renunciatory ideal set for men increasingly undermined the importance of women. In the classical period (400 BCE–400 CE), with the composition of the Dharmaśāstras, such as the Mānavadharmaśāstra (Codes of Manu), which discriminated against women, their position further deteriorated. However, the medieval bhakti traditions (600 CE–1700 CE) brought many female poet-singers to the fore. The increasing popularity of goddesses, as suggested by the Devī-Māhātmya (500–600 CE) and informed by tantric traditions, also provided alternate options and models for subjugated women. The modern period has been characterized by fervent critiques of the position of Hindu women from both colonizers and indigenous Indians. A consequence has been redemptive legal reforms and feminist movements that attempt to rework the status of women in the societal and familial realms. This article introduces a body of scholarship that explores and interrogates Hindu womanhood from ancient days to late-20th- and early 21st-century times. It excludes Hindu goddesses and their relationship with Hindu women, since these topics are dealt with separately in the article "Goddess."

General Overviews

Among general overviews on the topic of women in Hinduism, two works are notable. Young 1987 surveys the roles and representations of women in Hinduism from the early Vedic texts to modern times. Narayanan 1999 provides an idea of different female models available in Hinduism to demonstrate how late-20th- and early 21st-century women relate to these models in empowering themselves. Van Woerkens 2010 provides “portraits” of a range of women in India who have fought against the established male hegemony and patriarchy.

  • Narayanan, Vasudha. “Brimming with Bhakti, Embodiments of Shakti: Devotees, Deities, Performers, Reformers, and Other Women of Power in the Hindu Tradition.” In Feminism and World Religions. Edited by Arvind Sharma and Katherine Young, 25–77. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.

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    Argues for a feminist praxis stemming from Indian cultural traditions, rather than borrowing it from the West. Uses figures of powerful Hindu women, such as the female saints-poets Āṇṭāḷ and Mahādēviyakka (Akka Mahadevi), from the past and present in support of this argument.

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  • van Woerkens, Martine. Nous ne sommes pas des fleurs: Deux siècles de combats feminists en Inde. Paris: Albin Michel, 2010.

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    Discusses the lives of and challenges faced by “elite” women, such as Tarabai Shinde and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, and “plebeian” women, including Phoolan Devi. Provides a detailed account of twelve such powerful women of the 19th and 20th centuries who have “fought for liberty” of women in India.

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  • Young, Katherine. “Hinduism.” In Women in World Religions. Edited by Arvind Sharma, 59–103. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987.

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    Analyzes the cultural location of women in three phases of Hindu history: ancient, classical and medieval, and modern. Uses scriptural and textual sources as well as anthropological studies in the analysis.

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Textual Traditions

In almost every Hindu text, Sanskritic or vernacular, from the Vedas and epics to medieval and modern texts, we find woman’s sociocultural locations articulated in some way. For brevity’s sake, this section is restricted to secondary sources that engage with particular texts to map these sociocultural locations. In an early work, Pinkham 1941 provides a collection of quotations about women from Hindu texts, interweaving them with a simplistic analysis. Das 1962 brings forth an analysis of the law codes of Manu and related commentaries in order to unravel the status of woman in the text. Jamison 1996 explores Vedic texts and epics to probe the wifely role and function of women in ancient Vedic rituals and gift exchange. Leslie 1989 focuses on a relatively modern text, Strīdharmapaddhati (translated by Leslie as “Guide to the Religious Status and Duties of Women”), by a Hindu court poet, to bring out gendered discourses pertaining to the domestic life of women in 18th-century Tamilnadu. Doniger O’Flaherty 1980 and Doniger O’Flaherty 1999 explore both classical textual and vernacular sources to track sexual significations and animal metaphors, with particular reference to the interrelationship of man and woman. Hart 1973, in a discussion on concepts of womanhood in South India, locates the genealogy of these concepts in North India. Sutherland 1989 explores the characters of heroines in classical Hindu epics against the background of the emotion of aggression built into these characters. Patton 2002 is a volume of essays that articulate the female authority expressed in Hindu texts and in the interpretations of these texts by females.

  • Das, Ram Mohan. Women in Manu and His Seven Commentators. Varanasi, India: Kanchana, 1962.

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    Examines ideas of womanhood and woman’s position in the Mānavadharmaśāstra and presents commentaries by seven authoritative commentators.

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  • Doniger O’Flaherty, Wendy. Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

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    A collection of articles that probe into expressions of sexuality in interpersonal relationships of Hindu men and women. Engages mainly with Sanskrit textual sources but also occasionally uses “local” vernacular narratives, including Bengali and Tamil mythologies.

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  • Doniger O’Flaherty, Wendy. Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

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    Engages in a cross-cultural comparison of representations of women in Greek and in ancient Hindu cultures. Analyzes the discourses of doubling and splitting of engendered bodies; drawing upon motifs such as shadow, phantom, and disguise in Greek and Hindu narratives, inquires into female subjectivity and sexuality.

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  • Hart, George L. “Woman and the Sacred in Ancient Tamilnadu.” Journal of Asian Studies 32.2 (1973): 233–250.

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    Discusses the concepts of chastity, sacred power, and widowhood of woman in ancient Tamil culture while providing a comparative analysis of these concepts as encountered in classical Sanskrit texts.

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  • Jamison, Stephanie. Sacrificed Wife, Sacrificer’s Wife: Women, Ritual, and Hospitality in Ancient India. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

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    Explores the position of woman in ancient Hindu culture as informed by Vedic and early epic literature. Analyzing these Sanskrit texts, brings out the significant position of women in the matrices of marriage, ritual, and hospitality and the key role they played in connecting men and gods.

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  • Leslie, Julia. The Perfect Wife: The Status and Role of the Orthodox Hindu Woman as Described in the Strīdharmapaddhati of Tryambakayajvan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

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    Provides an edition, translation, and commentary of the 18th-century work by Tryambakayajvan, a pundit at the Tanjore Maratha court, and discusses the representation of women in the work, with an overview of the position of women in early Hindu texts.

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  • Patton, Laurie, ed. Jewels of Authority: Women and Textual Tradition in Hindu India. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

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    Nine essays discuss female authority interconnected with the roles and status of women, as espoused in Hindu texts and as expressed by Hindu women in their discourses of selective Hindu texts. Authors explore the claims, exercise, and contestation of female authority primarily within the context of Brahmanical Hinduism, drawing from historical, textual, and ethnographic sources.

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  • Pinkham, Mildred Worth. Woman in the Sacred Scriptures of Hinduism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1941.

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    An early work that presents quotations relating to the status of women in Hinduism from the Vedas to the epics.

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  • Sutherland, Sally J. “Sītā and Draupadī: Aggressive Behavior and Female Role-Models in the Sanskrit Epics.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 109.1 (1989): 63–79.

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    Analyzes selected episodes from the Sanskrit epics, the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, and examines the construction of the characters of Sītā and Draupadī. Focuses especially on the emotional behavior of aggression of these characters in the epics. Argues that since Sītā directs her aggression inwardly, whereas Draupadī directs it toward her husbands outwardly, the actions of Sītā are considered “societally normative,” resulting in her being considered the “ideal female model” in ancient and contemporary India.

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Expressive Traditions

In addition to the study of texts and historical archives, scholarly attention has been drawn to the expressive and oral traditions pertaining to Hindu women as producers and audiences of these traditions. Appadurai, et al. 1991 is notable; some of its essays discuss the expressive genres of performance of women and men, implicated with power and politics of gender, in the Hindu cultural sphere. Karlekar 1991 draws attention to the personal perspectives of elite Bengali women on modern education. Menon 2002 focuses on the meaning and power that a Hindu woman derives from her life within an extended family. Raheja and Gold 1994 explores the gendered economy of power and kinship in folk discourses of women in rural Rajasthan. Viramma and Racine 1997 presents a vivid account of a Dalit woman’s perspectives on Hindu worldviews and divinities.

  • Appadurai, Arjun, Frank J. Korom, and Margaret A. Mills, eds. Gender, Genre, and Power in South Asian Expressive Traditions. South Asia Seminar Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

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    Among various authors in the volume, Susan Wadley, Peter Claus, Alf Hiltebeitel, and David Shulman discuss the gendered paradigm in expressive traditions related to the Hindu conceptual universe.

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  • Karlekar, Malavika. Voices from Within: Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women. Delhi and New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

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    Focuses on writings by eleven Bengali women, published between 1868 and 1967, describing their lives and highlighting their personal perspectives on women’s education, which was a controversial subject in that period.

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  • Menon, Usha. “Neither Victim, nor Rebel: Feminism and the Morality of Gender and Family Life in a Hindu Temple Town.” In Engaging Cultural Differences: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies. Edited by Richard A. Shweder, Martha Minow, and Hazel Rose Markus, 288–308. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002.

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    Focuses on the lives and experiences of upper-caste Hindu women in Orissa, drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in the temple town of Bhubaneswar. Argues that feminism, inspired by the “ideology of individualism,” largely fails to appeal to Hindu women because the “family roles” that they play within the extended family are significant and offer them certain, meaningful identity.

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  • Raheja, Gloria Goodwin, and Ann Grodzins Gold. Listen to the Heron’s Words: Reimagining Gender and Kinship in North India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

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    Discusses the construction of gender identities and female agency against patriarchal oppression as displayed in the discourses of rural women in North India.

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  • Viramma, Josiane Racine, and Jean-Luc Racine. Viramma: Life of an Untouchable. New York: Verso, 1997.

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    The autobiographical narrative of Viramma portrays experiences of a Dalit woman encountering and participating in Hindu worldviews and lifestyles. Delineates how these experiences are implicated with hegemonic power relations of caste and gender.

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Historical Overviews

Many scholars have shown interest in deploying specific textual resources in Hinduism, such as epics or court poetry, as historical artifacts that can throw light on the position of Hindu women in the historical period that a given text represents. Some of these works are cited under Textual Traditions. There are a few works that try to map the figure of the Hindu woman across a span of decades or centuries, employing varied resources. Of these, Young 1987 gives a succinct account of the Hindu woman as she is articulated through the history of Hinduism, starting with the Vedic scriptures. Gupta 1987 attempts to explore changes in the status of Hindu women in precolonial Muslim India. Kumar 1993, in a history of feminist thought and activism in modern India, also speaks about the roles of Hindu nationalism, fundamentalism, and reformist movements in constituting the modern Hindu feminine self.

  • Gupta, Kamala. Social Status of Hindu Women in Northern India, 1206–1707. New Delhi: Inter-India, 1987.

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    Delineates the changes in the status of Hindu women during the five centuries of the Muslim regime.

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  • Kumar, Radha. The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism in India, from 1800 to 1990. New York: Verso, 1993.

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    A detailed history of the feminist movement in modern India. Among various subjects, this work discusses the question of women in connection with Hindu nationalism and its revival, Hindu personal law codes, and social reform movements, including the movement against dowry. Reprinted, New Delhi: Kali for Women, 2002.

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  • Young, Katherine. “Hinduism.” In Women in World Religions. Edited by Arvind Sharma, 59–103. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987.

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    Gives an overview of the status, roles, and representations of Hindu women from early Hindu texts to modern reformist outlooks.

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Rites and Rituals

Numerous works focus on religious rites and rituals performed by Hindu women, bringing out the significance and role of these rites and rituals in their lives. McGee 1987, examining Sanskrit traditional texts, including the Puranas and Dharmaśāstras, points out how vratas (making a promise or vow to a deity, usually combined with ritual fasting) are conceived as essential for women to partake in the Hindu religious world. An edited volume, Leslie 1991 contains essays by various authors that draw from historical, textual, and contemporary sources and explore the religious experiences and roles of Hindu women. Basaka 2006 concentrates on a variety of vows performed by Bengali women, bringing forth associated narratives. McDaniel 2003 analyzes the role that the vows play in forming good wives and daughters. Hancock 1999 examines the religious experience of rites engaged in by urban upper-caste women in the city of Chennai, while Pearson 1996 and Pintchman 2005 focus on the religious significance of festive rites and ritual fasting of women in Banaras. Wadley 1980, drawing from the author’s fieldwork in a village in Uttar Pradesh, brings out the positive value of women’s rites and vows in the universe of Hindu thought. Pintchman 2007 explores the complex and nuanced interconnection between the domain of Hindu women’s religious rituals and the sphere of their everyday life.

  • Basaka, Sila. Women’s Brata Rituals. New Delhi: Gyan, 2006.

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    Focuses on the “folk ritual” of a range of vows engaged in by women in Bengal. Explores tales and poetry centered on the vows observed by women.

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  • Hancock, Mary Elizabeth. Womanhood in the Making: Domestic Ritual and Public Culture in Urban South India. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1999.

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    An ethnographic study of the rituals of devotional groups of urban women. Draws from the author’s fieldwork in Chennai in Tamilnadu, South India.

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  • Leslie, Julia, ed. Roles and Rituals for Hindu Women. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991.

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    A collection of ten articles that focus on the religious experiences of women and attempt to glean their voices from them. Divided into four sections: “The Ritual Wife,” “Power in the Home,” “The Ritual of Dance,” and “The Pursuit of Salvation.”

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  • McDaniel, June. Making Virtuous Daughters and Wives: An Introduction to Women’s Brata Rituals in Bengali Folk Religion. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003.

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    Discussing Bengali women’s bratas (vratas), located as they are in Bengali folk religion, this work talks about the cultivation of wifely and daughterly selves through them.

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  • McGee, Mary. “Feasting and Fasting: The Vrata Tradition and Its Significance for Hindu Women.” Ph.D. diss., Harvard Divinity School, 1987.

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    This work brings out the significance of vratas to Hindu women as a means of participating in the discourses of dharma and the Hindu religious experience.

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  • Pearson, Anne Mackenzie. “Because It Gives Me Peace of Mind”: Ritual Fasts in the Religious Lives of Hindu Women. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.

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    Explores the practice of ritual fasting engaged in by urban women based in the northern Indian city of Banaras. Draws from ethnographic fieldwork while giving a textual and historical overview of the practice of vrata.

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  • Pintchman, Tracy. Guests at God’s Wedding: Celebrating Kartik among the Women of Benares. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005.

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    Explores women’s narratives, practices, and experiences pertaining to the lunar autumnal month of Kartik. Primarily based upon fieldwork conducted in Benares as well as textual resources.

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  • Pintchman, Tracy. Women’s Lives and Women’s Rituals in the Hindu Tradition. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

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    An anthology of ten articles that explore ritual practices as controlled or maneuvered by women as well as their interrelationship with the lives of women beyond the religious sphere.

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  • Wadley, Susan. “Hindu Women’s Family and Household Rites in a North Indian Village.” In Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives in Non-Western Cultures. Edited by Nancy Auer Falk and Rita M. Gross, 94–109. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1980.

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    Brings out the association between vows, traditional auspiciousness, and the patrivrata concept prevalent in Hindu society.

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Temple Performing Artists

Devadasis (“temple performing artists” or “temple dancers”), associated with Hindu temples and considered ritually wedded wives of male Hindu deities, have been a fertile topic for scholars of religion. Orr 2000 examines the historical inscriptions in medieval Tamilnadu to speak about the social and religious role that devadasis played in that period. Apffel-Marglin 1985 inquires into the institution of devadasis in Puri along with the associated temple rituals, against the conceptual background of purity/impurity and auspiciousness/inauspiciousness. Kersenboom 1987 brings forth the relevance of devadasis and their position in the Hindu religious system. While Prasad 1991 traces the traditional roles and position of devadasis in ancient South India, other scholars have focused on the modern, colonial context. For instance, Jordan 2003 discusses the impact of changes in colonial policy on the “social, religious, and legal status” of devadasis. Nair 1994 focuses on the abolition of the devadasi customs in the princely state of Mysore within the context of the “project of modernization” initiated by indigenous rulers. Kannabiran 1995 attempts to unearth the “material reality” of the devadasi institution and practice in the colonial Madras presidency.

  • Apffel-Marglin, Frédérique. Wives of the God-King: The Rituals of the Devadasis of Puri. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.

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    Based on field interviews conducted in the famous Jagannathā temple at Puri, Orissa, the author brings out the religious and divine as well as everyday and domestic roles of the temple performing artists.

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  • Jordan, Kay K. From Sacred Servant to Profane Prostitute: A History of the Changing Legal Status of the Devadasis in India, 1857–1947. New Delhi: Manohar, 2003.

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    Traces changes in the policy of the colonial British government toward devadasis.

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  • Kannabiran, Kalpana. “Judiciary, Social Reform and Debate on ‘Religious Prostitution’ in Colonial India.” Economic and Political Weekly 30.43 (1995): WS59–WS69.

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    Discusses the discourses of “colonial judiciary” in the Madras presidency on the subject of devadasis in order to examine how a body of knowledge was created about the institution of devadasis and devadasis as performing artists.

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  • Kersenboom, Saskia C. Nityasumangalī: Devadasi Tradition in South India. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987.

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    Draws from textual sources in Sanskrit, Telugu, and Tamil as well as from field research to explore the cultural tradition of devadasis, who are regarded as nityasumangalī or “ever-auspicious women” in Tamil culture.

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  • Nair, Janaki. “The Devadasi, Dharma, and the State.” Economic and Political Weekly 29.50 (1994): 3157–3159, 3161–3167.

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    Discusses the institution of the devadasi and its abolition in the princely state of Mysore.

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  • Orr, Leslie C. Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

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    Analyzing medieval Chola inscriptions in Tamilnadu, argues that temple women exercised agency in participating in the Hindu religious culture, of which temple rituals form a part.

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  • Prasad, A. K. Devadasi System in Ancient India: A Study of Temple Dancing Girls of South India. New Delhi: H. K., 1991.

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    A detailed history of the roles and activities of devadasis, along with a related discussion on the development of temple institutions as economic and social power centers in South India.

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Mothers, Wives, and Widows

The roles of mother, daughter, wife, and widow played by a Hindu woman have been explored and analyzed by scholars. This section presents selections from the available literature on this subject. Bhattacharji 1990 surveys motherhood as represented in the textual sources of ancient India. Jamison 1996 focuses on Vedic and epic literature to trace the image of the Hindu wife and her role in ritual and marriage. Bennett 1983 draws upon her fieldwork in Nepal to unearth patriarchal cultural conceptions of sisters and wives. Leslie 1989 focuses on an 18th-century text to discuss the concept of ideal Hindu womanhood in that historical cultural milieu. An edited volume, Sarkar 2001 locates the figure of the modern Hindu wife within the dynamics of emerging Hindu nationalism. Harlan and Courtright 1995, explores how women negotiate with and reclaim power in marginalized situations, such as widowhood and divorce. Chapters in Jacobson and Wadley 1995 engage with the Hindu conceptions of wife and mother roles as informed by narratives and ritual events that mark the lives of women.

  • Bennett, Lynn. Dangerous Wives and Sacred Sisters: Social and Symbolic Roles of High-Caste Women in Nepal. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.

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    Explores the ambivalent attitude toward woman in Hindu culture. Based on field study carried out among high-caste Nepalis.

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  • Bhattacharji, Sukumari. “Motherhood in Ancient India.” Economic and Political Weekly 25.42–43 (1990): WS50–WS57.

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    Drawing from Brahmanical and Buddhist literature, this article locates the status of mother in “material production” in ancient India. Argues that the “glorification of motherhood” goes along with the conception of woman as a “passive land” in ancient Indian society centered on agriculture.

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  • Harlan, Lindsey, and Paul B. Courtright, eds. From the Margins of Hindu Marriage. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

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    Essays draw from disparate sources, including literature, songs, gift-giving customs, history archives, and ritual events. Employing multiple methodologies and frameworks, the essays engage with a Hindu wife’s precarious position in the sociocultural order as defined by her marriage and discuss a few possibilities for its subversion.

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  • Jacobson, Doranne, and Susan S. Wadley. Women in India: Two Perspectives. New Delhi: Manohar, 1995.

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    Three chapters by each author. Drawing from ethnographic data, chapters survey issues such as monogamy, chastity, and familial authority as related to Hindu women. Two chapters focus on Hindu wives and Hindu childbirth rituals.

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  • Jamison, Stephanie. Sacrificed Wife, Sacrificer’s Wife: Women, Ritual, and Hospitality in Ancient India. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

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    Using a philological approach and textual exegesis, this work attempts to map the wifely role of woman in ancient Hindu culture as informed by Vedic and epic literature.

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  • Leslie, Julia. The Perfect Wife: The Status and Role of the Orthodox Hindu Woman as Described in the Stridharmapaddhati of Tryambakayajvan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

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    Provides an edition, translation, and commentary of the 18th-century work by Tryambakayajvan, a pundit at the Tanjore Maratha court, and discusses its representation of women, with an overview of the position of women in early Hindu texts.

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  • Sarkar, Tanika. Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation: Community, Religion, and Cultural Nationalism. London: Hurst, 2001.

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    The first essay in this volume discusses the domestic practices of Hindu women in the context of emerging notions of nationalism. Another speaks of Hindu conjugality and the marital sphere shaped by the Hindu nationalist worldview.

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Widow Immolation (Sati)

There is an enormous body of literature on sati, the death of a woman on her husband’s funeral pyre, in India; this section lists only a few important works. Hawley 1994 analyzes ethnographies of the practices related to sati and its semantic context among other related concerns. An earlier collection of essays, Sharma et al. 1988, brings in discussions centered on the historical and phenomenological aspects of the practice. Weinberger-Thomas 1999 presents a succinct sociocultural account of sati in the state of Rajasthan. Mani 1999, a groundbreaking work, unpacks the complex, colonial discursive terrain of sati, caught between tradition and modernity. Sutherland 1994 analyzes the reworking of the semantics of sati in colonial discourses and the entailment of this reworking in the colonized space. Das 1995 has a chapter analyzing the sati of an eighteen-year-old Rajput woman, Roop Kanwar, that took place in September 1987 and was subsequently caught between collective voices of the community and the legislating state.

  • Das, Veena. Critical Events: An Anthropological Perspective on Contemporary India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995.

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    Contains six essays organized around the anthropological representation of India and the academic practice of Indian anthropologists. One chapter addresses Roop Kanwar’s sati in Rajasthan as a “social text” and analyzes its location, caught between the debates on religious rights and the demands of the state.

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  • Hawley, John Stratton, ed. Sati, the Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in India. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

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    Contains five essays by various authors who deal with different discourses of sati, such as feminist responses to sati, the sati tradition in Rajasthan, iconographies of sati, sati in European culture, and public debates surrounding Roop Kanwar’s sati in Rajasthan.

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  • Mani, Lata. Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

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    Explores the colonial discursive terrain of the practice of sati, implicated with debates among colonizers and middle-class Indian men about “religious tradition” and “modernity.”

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  • Sharma, Arvind, Ajit Ray, Alaka Hejib, and Katherine K. Young. Sati: Historical and Phenomenological Essays. Foreword by M. N. Srinivas. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988.

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    An anthology of twelve essays by the authors concerning various subjects centered on sati, including the Western reaction to sati, the history of sati, scriptural references to sati, and a phenomenological reading of sati.

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  • Sutherland, Sally J. “Suttee, Sati, and Sahagamana: An Epic Misunderstanding?” Economic and Political Weekly 29.26 (1994):1595–1605.

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    Drawing from the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa, analyzes how the semantic range of the term “sati” in these works is broad and how this range was narrowed by the colonizing British in the course of their “civilizing” Indians.

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  • Weinberger-Thomas, Catherine. Ashes of Immortality: Widow-Burning in India. Translated by Jeffrey Mehlman and David Gordon White. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

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    Draws from a variety of resources, including printed narratives, interviews, visual artifacts, and demographic data from Rajasthan. Based on interviews with women in the Shekavathi region in Rajasthan, it discusses the possible volition and agency of women who had engaged in the practice.

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Saint-Poets

Works on medieval female saint-poets have been overwhelming in number. Many of these studies draw from both textual and historical materials and ethnographic fieldwork. Vidya Dehejia (Antal 1990) provides an English translation of two bodies of Tamil poems by the Vaishnavaite saint-poet Antal. Ramaswamy 1996 translates the poetry of Virasaiva female saints and discusses their role in the protest movement of Virasaivism. Zelliot 2000 focuses on the intersecting spheres of domestic and public lives of female saints in medieval Maharashtra. Mukta 1994 engages with the life history and poetry of the saint-poet Mirabai, whom the author considers as someone representing marginalized voices of her time. Harlan 1995 explores the oral narratives of “marriage” of Mirabai with Krishna in Rajasthan in order to examine her wifely and saintly identities. Sangari 1990 analyzes the “radical potential” in and ideological appropriations of Mirabai’s bhakti (devotion to a deity) in the social domain. Ramanujan 1973 introduces the lyrics of Mahadeviyakka, a female saint-poet of medieval Karnataka. Hawley and Juergensmeyer 1988 gives a brief but rich chapter introducing Mirabai’s life and her songs in translation.

  • Antal. Antal and Her Path of Love: Poems of a Woman Saint from South India. Translated by Vidya Dehejia. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990.

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    Along with translations of poems, a detailed introduction locates Antal in the context of other alvars, Tamil saint-poets devoted to Vishnu.

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  • Harlan, Lindsey. “Abandoning Shame: Mīrā and the Margins of Marriage.” In From the Margins of Hindu Marriage. Edited by Lindsey Harlan and Paul B. Courtright, 204–227. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

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    Explores the divine love and the “marriage” of Mira with Krishna and analyzes its nonconformity with and challenge to Hindu cultural understandings of marriage. Draws from ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the author.

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  • Hawley, John Stratton, and Mark Juergensmeyer, eds. and trans. Songs of the Saints of India. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

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    One of the sections highlights the life history of Mirabai and provides translations for selected songs composed by her. Useful for undergraduate students as well as for generalists interested in the songs of Mirabai.

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  • Mukta, Parita. Upholding the Common Life: The Community of Mirabai. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994.

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    Discusses the songs and persona of the North Indian woman saint Mirabai and explores how the saint has been rejected and received by different social groups in Rajasthan and Saurashtra.

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  • Ramanujan, A. K., ed. and trans. Speaking of Siva. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1973.

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    Introduces the vacanas (sayings) and life histories of medieval Virasaiva (heroic Saiva) saints of the Kannada-speaking region. The female saint-poet Mahadeviyakka is one of the saints represented in the collection. Useful for introducing medieval bhakti saint-poet to undergraduates.

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  • Ramaswamy, Vijaya. Divinity and Deviance: Women in Virasaivism. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996.

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    Provides a translation of vachanas (verse poems) by female Virasaiva saints. Analyzes their presence in the Virasaiva protest movement within the broader social history of medieval South India.

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  • Sangari, Kumkum. “Mirabai and the Spiritual Economy of Bhakti.” Economic and Political Weekly 25.28 (1990): 1537–1541, 1543–1545, 1547–1552.

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    Analyzes Mirabai’s bhakti located within an interwoven dynamics of patriarchal configurations, “medieval Rajput state” formations, ideological prescriptions of Brahmanical texts, and “personal practice of bhakti and rebellion” of Mirabai. Argues that Mira’s bhakti “protests” as well as “assists in its appropriations” by diverse ideological forces.

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  • Zelliot, Eleanor. “Women Saints in Medieval Maharashtra.” In Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India. Edited by Mandakranta Bose, 192–200. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

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    Analyzes the songs of female saints like Muktabai and Bahina Bai in the state of Maharashtra to bring out the dynamics of their role as householders and saints. Analyzes how female Marathi saints tend to remain close to their families as they display exemplary devotion to a god.

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Ascetics

Works on female ascetics largely focus on modern female ascetic orders, communities, and life practices of female ascetics, drawing from ethnographic fieldwork. Babb 1986 examines different interpretations of the “Hindu religious universe” in three contemporary religious movements and their emerging identities in their engagement with the reality around them. One of the movements analyzed is the female ascetic order of Brahmakumari. Chowdhry 1996 also looks at that sect in colonial Sindh society and its sustained reception in the urban middle classes in the postcolonial period. Denton 2004 explores the lives and practices of female ascetics based in the city of Varanasi. Clementin-Ojha 1988 examines the challenges that female ascetics face within the “male-oriented” systems of ascetic orders and renunciation. Sinclair-Brull 1997 deals with the history and workings of a specific institution of female ascetics associated with the Ramakrishna order in Kerala. Khandelwal 2004 looks at the ways in which gender is meaningful in female renunciation traditions. A volume edited by Khandelwal, et al. 2006 explores asceticism in connection with female empowerment, choice, freedom, and engagement with society in diverse South Asian traditions, including Tibetan Buddhists and Bauls from Bengal.

  • Babb, Lawrence A. Redemptive Encounters: Three Modern Styles in the Hindu Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.

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    Explores the identity/self of participants in contemporary religious movements, including the Brahmakumari movement. Discusses the “millennial expectations” and “gender concerns” of the movement, which are tied to the question of articulation of identity.

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  • Chowdhry, Prem. “Marriage, Sexuality and the Female ‘Ascetic’: Understanding a Hindu Sect.” Economic and Political Weekly 31.34 (1996): 2307–2321.

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    Analyzes how the female ascetic order of Brahmakumaris (daughters of Brahma) has grown from the colonial period to its present form in the modern era. Explores the “aspects” and “motives” of female renunciation, while highlighting the patriarchal control of and negotiations with female sexualities.

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  • Clementin-Ojha, Catherine. “Women Ascetics in Hindu Society.” Economic and Political Weekly 23.18 (1988): WS34–WS36.

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    Draws from the author’s ethnographic fieldwork with female ascetics in Benares. Analyzes how the “genealogical tree” structure of Hindu monastic traditions allows female ascetics into its fold and the challenges that females face in becoming “self-sustained” ascetics.

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  • Denton, Lynn Teskey. Female Ascetics in Hinduism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004.

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    Examines the “institutionalized asceticism” of female ascetics based in the North Indian city of Benares (Varanasi). Draws from ethnographic field research.

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  • Khandelwal, Meena. Women in Ochre Robes: Gendering Hindu Renunciation. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004.

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    An ethnographic account of the women saints (sannyasins) who live in Haridwar, North India. Analyzes the conflict between “worldly” and “otherworldly” concerns and related tensions from the perspective of these women saints.

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  • Khandelwal, Meena, Sondra L. Hausner, and Ann Grodzins Gold, eds. Women’s Renunciation in South Asia: Nuns, Yoginis, Saints, and Singers. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

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    Essays by various authors explore the spiritual life in the form of asceticism and the freedom and power it offers to female ascetics in South Asian religious traditions. Discuss the ascetics’ active engagement with everyday social life, their community connections, and their social and political motivations.

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  • Sinclair-Brull, Wendy. Female Ascetics: Hierarchy and Purity in an Indian Religious Movement. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 1997.

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    Examines the history and practices related to Sarada Mandiram, an organized monastic order of women ascetics, which is a branch of the Ramakrishna order, situated in Kerala. Draws from both textual and ethnographic resources.

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Gurus

Works on female spiritual masters, or gurus, are typically organized around a specific individual. Pechilis 2004 contains essays that explore the identities and spiritual experiences of ten female gurus from multiple cultural locations. Forsthoefel and Humes 2005 examines the notable “conceptual and cultural changes” that marked the American landscape with the advent of modern Indian gurus, including the female gurus Anjali and Ammachi. Hallstrom 1999 explores the “complex fabric” of the ascetic world of the 20th-century female guru Anandamayi Ma from Bengal, with specific attention to the community of devotees and the relationship between the female spiritual master and her disciples. Lipski 1977 introduces the life and teachings of Anandamayi Ma while also locating them within the context of India’s modernization. Warrier 2003 brings out the spirit of “secularization” among middle-class participants in the new religious movement of Mata Amritanandamayi. Kounen 2005 has directed a documentary film on the spiritual sessions of Amritananda Mayi with her devotees.

  • Forsthoefel, Thomas, and Cynthia Ann Humes, eds. Gurus in America. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005.

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    A chapter by Selva J. Raj discusses the “career, charisma, and authority” of the female guru Ammachi in redefining the Hindu tradition on American soil. Draws upon the author’s fieldwork centered on two American congregations of the movement. Christopher Key Chapple explores the guru tradition in America, specifically focusing on Guru Anjali from Bengal, who established a yoga and meditation center in Amityville, New York.

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  • Hallstrom, Lisa Lassell. Mother of Bliss: Anandamayi Ma. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

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    Based on field interviews and published biographies of Anandamayi Ma, this work attempts to situate her life and message within the broad context of the community of her devotees and Hindu discourses on femininity and sainthood.

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  • Kounen, Jan, dir. Darshan: The Embrace. New York: Whispering Media, 2005.

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    The film captures the meeting of the guru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi with her devotees and her reaching out to them. Gives a glimpse of the life and the religious movement of the guru.

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  • Lipski, Alexander. Life and Teachings of Sri Anandamayi Ma. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977.

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    Explores the biography and teachings of Sri Anandamayi Ma from Bengal, a female guru, saint, and “avatar of Kali.”

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  • Pechilis, Karen, ed. The Graceful Guru: Female Gurus in India and the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

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    A collection of essays drawing from biographies, hagiographies, and personal interviews with devotees and female gurus to analyze the role and authority of female gurus in Hindu practices. Includes discussions on gurus such as Gauri Ma, Jayashri Ma, and Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati.

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  • Warrier, Maya. “Processes of Secularization in Contemporary India: Guru Faith in the Mata Amritanandamayi Mission.” Modern Asian Studies 37.1 (2003): 213–253.

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    Explores the “private and individual-oriented aspect” of the relationship between the guru and devotees to bring out the dynamics of “secularization” among middle-class people in an urban context.

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Women in Politics

Studies concentrating on Hindu women in politics mostly situate them within nationalist politics and right-wing (that is, Hindu-dominant) discourses. Bacchetta 1993 analyzes how the goddess trope and iconography are deployed by activist women participating in Hindu right-wing movements. Bacchetta 2004 and Sen 2007 inquire into the active participation of women in the ideological discourses of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh and of Shiv Sena, respectively. Menon 2005 explores how women in the nationalist discourse function as recipients of constructed histories. Sarkar 2001 delineates cultural nationalist practices in colonial Bengal that attempted to define ideal Hindu womanhood. A volume of essays, Sarkar and Buttalia 1995, engages with a range of subjects concerning women in the discourses of the Hindu right. A few essays in Copley 2003 focus on the gender element in Hindu reformist movements.

  • Bacchetta, Paola. “All Our Goddesses Are Armed: Religion, Resistance, and Revenge in the Life of a Militant Nationalist Woman.” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 25.4 (1993): 38–51.

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    Explores the agency and motivations of women who play an active role in the Hindu Right organization Rashtra Sevika Samiti. Draws from interviews conducted with a woman member of this organization in Gujarat.

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  • Bacchetta, Paola. Gender in the Hindu Nation: RSS Women as Ideologues. New Delhi: Women Unlimited for Kali for Women, 2004.

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    A collection of three essays exploring the agency of women in the discourses of the gendered nation. Draws from texts and ethnographic fieldwork with women.

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  • Copley, Antony, ed. Hinduism in Public and Private: Reform, Hindutva, Gender, and Sampraday. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003.

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    Essays by various authors focus on the interconnection of various reform movements that emerged from the early 19th century with those operating in the early 21st century. Topics covered include Rashtriya Swayam Sevak’s appropriation of Vivekananda, Hindu women’s right to renunciation, and the Vaisnava tradition in 19th-century Bengal, among others.

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  • Menon, Kalyani Devaki. “We Will Become Jijabai”: Historical Tales of Hindu Nationalist Women in India. Journal of Asian Studies 64.1 (2005): 103–126.

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    Drawing from anthropological field research in New Delhi, this article examines how nationalist construction of history is received and internalized by women participating in right-wing politics.

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  • Sarkar, Tanika. Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation: Community, Religion, and Cultural Nationalism. London: Hurst, 2001.

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    Essays by the author focus on the emergence of cultural nationalism in 19th-century Bengal, with attention to oppression of middle-class women within the specific historical moment of colonialism.

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  • Sarkar, Tanika, and Urvashi Buttalia. Women and the Hindu Right: A Collection of Essays. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1995.

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    An anthology of fourteen essays that explore a range of topics, including the ideological production of an ahistorical identity of Hindu woman, identity constructions of Hindu and Muslim men and women in the aftermath of partition, the rise of militant women in Hindu Right-wing groups, their self-constitution and political agency, and strategies of the Hindu right in appropriating women for its cause.

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  • Sen, Atreyee. Shiv Sena Women: Violence and Communalism in a Bombay Slum. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.

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    Explores the active agency and participation of women in the modern Shiv Sena movement in Bombay.

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Women in Media

A few good studies focus on representations of Hindu women in contemporary television serials, films, and theater. Pauwels 2008 discusses the possibility of goddesses as effective role models for early 21st-century women. Gupta 1991 examines the portrayal of epic heroines in television serials. Dimitrova 2008 analyzes how Hindu discourses of womanhood shape the representations of women in modern Hindi plays.

  • Dimitrova, Diana. Gender, Religion, and Modern Hindi Drama. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008.

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    Engages with “orthodox” and “liberating” images of women in the context of religious expressions of Hinduism in modern Hindi proscenium theater and how particular, conventional representations of the feminine determined the formation of the canon of modern Hindi drama.

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  • Gupta, Suddhabrata Sen. “Sexual Politics of Television Mythology.” Economic and Political Weekly 26.45 (1991): 2558–2560.

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    Analyzes the representation of the characters of Sītā and Draupadī in the television serials Mahabharata and Ramayana.

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  • Pauwels, Heidi R. M. The Goddess as Role Model: Sītā and Radha in Scripture and on Screen. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

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    Based on texts such as the Rāmāyaṇa and Bhāgavata Purāṇa and the visual media of television and film, especially popular Hindi movies. Explores the textual and visual media discourses of Sītā and Rādhā to examine to what extent the divine models are empowering for South Asian women.

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Social Reform

Reform movements concerned with women in India have been focused upon by a few scholars working on India or Hinduism. Copley 2003 is an edited volume of essays that analyze the shared context of religious reform movements with the ideologies of nationalism and the Hindutva while locating these movements within a broader framework of colonial and postcolonial modernity. Kannabiran 1995 explores how perspectives about the institution of devadasis, or temple performing artists, were framed in colonial South India. Kumar 1993 gives a rich overview of feminism in India and also discusses social reform movements concerned with women in India. Sinha 2006 argues that Katherine Mayo’s controversial Mother India (New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1927), a book that talks about “ill-treatment” of women in Indian culture, derives its interventional force from the global dynamics of the interwar period.

  • Copley, Antony, ed. Hinduism in Public and Private: Reform, Hindutva, Gender, and Sampraday. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003.

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    Essays by various authors focus on the interconnection of various reform movements that emerged from the early 19th century with those functioning in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Topics organized around gender include Hindu women’s right to renunciation and agency of female ascetics in Hindu religious institutions.

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  • Kannabiran, Kalpana. “Judiciary, Social Reform, and Debate on “Religious Prostitution” in Colonial India.” Economic and Political Weekly 30.43 (1995): WS59–WS69.

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    Discusses the discourses of “colonial judiciary” in the Madras presidency on the subject of devadasis in order to examine how a colonial body of knowledge was created about the institution of devadasis and devadasis as performing artists.

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  • Kumar, Radha. The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism in India, from 1800 to 1990. New York: Verso, 1993.

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    A detailed history of the feminist movement in modern India. Among various subjects, this work discusses the woman’s question implicated within Hindu nationalism and its revival, Hindu personal law codes, and social reform movements, including the movement against dowry. Reprinted in 2002 (New Delhi: Kali for Women).

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  • Sinha, Mrinalini. Specters of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006.

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    Traces the controversy associated with the book Mother India by Katherine Mayo (1927). Discusses how the book provided an opportunity for nationalists and feminists at that time to engage in “rights-based discourses” concerning reforms and how the interventional force of the work transcends the imperialist-nationalist dichotomous frameworks.

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Converting from Hinduism

A few studies are concerned with recording and analyzing the perspectives of Hindu women who have converted to other religions, including Christianity. Chakravarti 1998 examines the writings and life of Pandita Ramabai, who lived in late-19th- and early 20th-century Maharashtra. Ramabai was an upper-caste Hindu widow and a scholar who later converted to Christianity. Ramabai 2000 brings forth Pandita Ramabai’s critique of discrimination against women in Hinduism, shifts in her perceptions of Christianity, and her desire for and commitment to social reform for Indian women. Kent 2004 interrogates the role of “indigenous gender ideologies” in the formation of the notions of ideal femininity and masculinity in Indian Christian culture.

  • Chakravarti, Uma. Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998.

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    Explores the life and writings of Pandita Ramabai (b. 1858–d. 1922), placing them within the historical context of Brahmanical patriarchy in Maharashtra and the rule of the British, which eroded Brahmanical power.

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  • Kent, Eliza F. Converting Women: Gender and Protestant Christianity in Colonial South India. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

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    Analyzes the “discourse of respectability” centered on Indian Christian women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in colonial India.

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  • Ramabai, Pandita. Pandita Ramabai through Her Own Words: Selected Works. Edited and translated by Meera Kosambi. New Delhi and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

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    Provides a rich understanding of Pandita Ramabai’s life and intellectual practices and her identity as an “insider” and “outsider” to both Hindu intellectual society and Western Christian society.

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Female Sexuality

Scholarship on female sexuality framed by and within Hindu discourses is still in the developmental stage. Gupta 2002 analyzes the colonial discourses of sexuality and obscenity concerning women, Muslims, and the Hindu public in the North Indian context. Kelly 1991 points out how the morality of the Hindu woman became a contested discursive terrain in the Indian-British dialogue in Fiji. Apffel-Marglin 1985 examines notions of female sexuality caught in the dichotomous conceptual grid in eastern India. Doniger O’Flaherty 1980 explores sexuality underscored by discussions from the pre-Vedic period to the late 20th century, which are centered on themes such as female seed, semen, milk, sweat, and blood. Pattanaik 2002 presents a compilation of queer tales from Hindu lore. Puri 2002 brings out the politics of translations of the Sanskrit text Kamasutra.

  • Apffel-Marglin, Frédérique. “Female Sexuality in the Hindu World.” In Immaculate and Powerful: The Female in Sacred Image and Social Reality. Edited by Clarissa W. Atkinson, Constance H. Buchanan, and Margaret R. Miles. Boston: Beacon, 1985.

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    Provides an account of the “ambivalent” understanding of female sexuality in eastern India. According to the author, female sexuality is more effectively framed within the paradigm of “auspiciousness/inauspiciousness” than the conventional “purity/impurity” paradigm.

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  • Doniger O’Flaherty, Wendy. Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

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    A collection of articles that probe expressions of sexuality in interpersonal relationships of Hindu men and women. Engages with Sanskrit textual resources as well as “local” vernacular narratives, including Bengali and Tamil mythologies.

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  • Gupta, Charu. Sexuality, Obscenity, Community: Women, Muslims, and the Hindu Public in Colonial India. New York: Palgrave, 2002.

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    Focuses on the discourses of patriarchal control of women, sexuality, and obscenity in late-19th- and early 20th-century Uttar Pradesh. Analyzes the articulation of gender identities in North Indian cultural and political realms.

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  • Kelly, John D. A Politics of Virtue: Hinduism, Sexuality, and Countercolonial Discourse in Fiji. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

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    Demonstrates how in the colonial period Fiji Indians articulated their collective voice, drawing upon the “virtue” of Hindu wives devoted to their “lords-husbands.”

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  • Pattanaik, Devdutt. The Man Who Was a Woman and Other Queer Tales of Hindu Lore. New York: Harrington Park, 2002.

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    A compilation of tales from Hindu lore that talks about “sexual transformation” and “gender metamorphosis.” Discusses Hindu ideas of queer sexuality.

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  • Puri, Jyoti. “Concerning ‘Kamasutras’: Challenging Narratives of History and Sexuality.” Signs 27.3 (2002): 603–639.

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    Analyzes different and contemporary translations of the Kamasutra to bring out how the text serves as a location of “hegemonic narratives of history and sexuality,” while at the same time it brings into play the interwoven dynamics of nationalism, colonialism, and Orientalism.

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Woman as Śakti

Śakti, which means an individual female deity and a cosmogonic concept implying power, has been a favorite subject for scholars. The essays in Wadley 1980 speak of Śakti as a concept of power that is intricately involved with female suffering, control, strength, and self-direction. Menon 2002 discusses the transformation of power as a “natural source” into the moral power of a woman through culturally mediated discourses and actions. Mohanty 2004 explores the influence of the cosmic concept Śakti upon the lives and writings of women writers in colonial Orissa.

  • Menon, Usha. “Making Śakti: Controlling (Natural) Impurity for Female (Cultural) Power.” Ethos 30.1–2 (2002): 140–157.

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    Analyzes the disjunction between “natural female power” and the subordinate social position of women. Draws from three stories gathered in Bhubaneswar.

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  • Mohanty, Sachidananda. “Burden of Shakti: Female Agency and Literary Creativity in Orissa.” Economic and Political Weekly 39.24 (2004): 2442–2444.

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    Discusses how noted women writers of Orissa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries identified themselves with the cosmic concept of Śakti as a strategy to empower themselves so that they could participate in the public discursive space.

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  • Wadley, Susan Snow, ed. The Powers of Tamil Women. Syracuse, NY: Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, 1980.

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    An anthology of six essays that deal with the concept of Śakti as it manifests in the realm of family and in a woman’s relationship with her husband. The articles draw from both textual and anthropological research.

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LAST MODIFIED: 01/27/2011

DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195399318-0104

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