Just Like That | The legacy of the rebellious women saints of the Bhakti movement
Hindustan TimesThese days there is much greater recognition of the role of women's power in the winning of elections. She boldly left her husband, and settled in a cremation ground in the town of Alankatu, rejoicing in Shiva’s dance among the dead: She has shrivelled breasts And bulging veins With ruddy hair on her belly The demon woman wails at the desolate cremation ground Where our Lord Whose hanging matted hair Blows in eight directions Dances among the flames Another remarkable poet was Mahadevi, known also as Akka, or elder sister. On the whole, the women icons of the Bhakti movement posed a challenge to gender orthodoxies and traditional notions of male superiority sanctioned by texts like the Manusmriti. The intense passion and unconventional confidence of these uninhibited female devotees led also to a point of view that bhakti could be pursued best only if the devotees imagined themselves to be women. Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the towering Bengali saint, used to wear women’s clothes in his worship of Krishna.
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