Mirabai in Popular Imagination: Reading Bhakti Canon in Contemporary Context
Dublin Core
Title
Mirabai in Popular Imagination: Reading Bhakti Canon in Contemporary Context
Subject
Mirabai, Bhakti, Gandhi, Indian Freedom Struggle Movement, Promiscuity, Women in Public Spheres.
Description
The immense popularity of Mirabai, the sixteenth-century bhakti poet-saint, transcends time and space. Beliefs have it that she renounced her kshatriya and royal identity for spiritual pursuits in the public domain. She was challenged, critiqued, ostracised, and castigated within her community and was labelled as a woman of questionable character. Mirabai wandered to various places, singing and dancing to bhajans negotiating the public and the private while becoming both virtuous and promiscuous in multiple narratives. Mirabai has been accommodated within the marginalised and subaltern communities and gradually, a community of destitute women has formed around her. With the revival of Mirabai during the Indian ‘nationalist’ period by popular spokespersons such as Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi as an ‘ideal’ and ‘chaste’ historical character in their public speeches and private letters, the promiscuous image of Mirabai, perpetuated through centuries, witnessed transgressions and she was eventually elevated to the status of a saint. This paper with literary, biographical and hagiographical representations explores the mechanism of the paradoxical plane that allowed the promiscuous image of Mirabai to achieve sainthood and become a cult name in the bhakti tradition.
Creator
Varghese, Ritu
Source
Artha Journal of Social Sciences; Vol. 19 No. 2 (2020): Artha Journal of Social Sciences; 67-81
0000-0000
0975-329X
Publisher
Centre for Publications, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore
Date
2020-04-01
Rights
Copyright (c) 2020 Artha Journal of Social Sciences
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Relation
Format
application/pdf
Language
eng
Type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
Identifier
Collection
Citation
Ritu Varghese, Mirabai in Popular Imagination: Reading Bhakti Canon in Contemporary Context, Centre for Publications, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, 2020, accessed October 31, 2024, https://igi.indrastra.com/items/show/491