MEDIEVAL INDIA

Third Term Assignment

Sujit Thomas
II HISTORY

Q. Examine the emergence of women saints in the context of the medieval Indian
social milieu. Did they function within traditional patriarchal norms or were
they rebels?

The period from the seventh century onwards witnessed the growth of numerous
devotional movements, which, beginning in South India, began to spread into
Maharashtra in the west and Bengal and Orissa in the east, acquiring a regional
character. These movements are subsumed into the larger rubric of Bhakti for they all
deviated from Puranic and Brahmanical religion to some extent and acquired a
popular, regional following. The Bhakti movements may be seen, as A.K. Ramanujan
argues, as constituting a counter system, opposed to traditional norms and subverting
them. In particular, they helped to create a certain space for women in spirituality,
loosening the shackles of patriarchy.
These movements gave rise to a number of women saints including Andal, Karaikkal
Ammaiyar, Avvaiyar and Isainaniyar from the Azhwar and Nayanar traditions of the
Tamil country, Mahadevi Akka and Akka Nagamma of the Virasaivite tradition of
Karnataka, Mira of Rajasthan, Lal Ded of Kashmir, etc. Vijaya Ramaswamy in her
book “Walking Naked” observes that the form of bhakti manifest in the hymns of
these women saints is ‘bhava’ or ‘madhuri’ bhakti which is of an intensely emotional
character. As Ramanujan remarks, the very fact that the Bhakti tradition used the
regional languages opened up a sacred space for women, for these languages lent
themselves more easily to an emotional expression of spirituality. In this form of
bhakti, the god is worshipped as a lover, a husband or a child.

ROLE OF DEVOTIONAL MOVEMENTS

The numerous regional devotional movements in the Bhakti tradition played a vital
role in facilitating the participation of women in the religious sphere. While
Tantricism and the heterodoxical faiths did offer some scope in this regard, on the
whole, the perception of women was extremely unfavourable. In the patriarchal
setting in which Bhakti arose, women were seen as impure creatures and as obstacles
in the path of a man’s spiritual progress.
It must be admitted that the early Nayanar and Azhwar traditions were dominated by
men---only three of the 63 Nayanar saints were women while there was only one
woman saint in the Azhwar tradition---Andal. Moreover, in the Bhagavata movement,
the presence of women is only marginally felt; most often they appear in typical
patriarchal situations where they are sold or bartered away as objects. Frequently the
devotional fervour of the male Nayanars is at the expense of their women. However,
the adoption of the bridal metaphor and the examples of Andal and Karaikkal
Ammaiyar helped to open the movement to women. The gender imbalance of
Bhagavatism was corrected to some extent by Ramanuja in the eleventh century.
However it was in the Virasaivite tradition of the 12th century that women began to
play an active role in religion. In Virasaivism, as Vijaya Ramaswamy points out, Siva
was seen as the male principle and the bhaktas, irrespective of gender, as the female
principle. Within the bhakta community therefore, gender differentiation was
transcended. The idea of pollution in the case of the female was completely
repudiated as women were initiated into the rituals of worship. The kinds of pollution
associated with women in Vedic Brahmanism were absent in Virasaivism. It is
scarcely surprising that Virasaivism enjoyed a substantial following amongst women.
The existence of a community of bhaktas, established by these movements also
provided an environment of security to bhaktins and a level of social acceptance that
was denied to them in patriarchal society. However the role of these communities was
not always positive---often enough, radical women saints were harassed, as in the case
of Mira to whom sexual overtures were made, or openly rejected as in the case of
Mahadevi Akka.

Vijaya Ramaswamy draws attention to the ‘dual deprivation’ of women in patriarchal

society---on the one hand, there existed injunctions to prevent women from taking the
spiritual path and on the other, deviant spiritual women were ostracized by the
Brahmanical value system. She speaks of the ‘dual alienation’ of women saints; being
of a spiritual inclination, they were alienated from the material world. Further, as
women, asceticism and non-conformist spiritualism was not a viable option, unlike in
the case of men, even low-caste men.

NEGOTIATING MARRIAGE

The relatively large number of unmarried Virasaiva women saints indicates a

fundamental conflict between the spiritual path and the household with its constraints
of patriarchy. Uma Chakravarty observes that this is not a conflict which existed for
male bhaktas due to the breakdown of the grhastha-renunciant divide in Bhakti, best
exemplified by the life of Tiruvalluvar. For a bhaktin however, an escape from
marriage was often imperative.
Avvaiyar escapes the conflict between devotion towards god and devotion towards the
husband by transforming herself into an old woman. Andal refuses to marry a mortal
man and insists upon marriage to the Lord himself. She achieves a mystical union
with Sri Ranganatha. In the case of Karaikkal Ammaiyar, she is able to pursue a
spiritual path only after her husband leaves her. Lal Ded, Mira and Mahadevi Akka all
have to contend with marriage and a mortal husband. All three refuse to consummate
their marriage, holding themselves to be the betrothed of the Lord and spurning their
mortal husbands. They walk out of their marriages and their homes and take to
wandering and preaching.

The escape from and rejection of marriage and the patriarchal relations of the
household is a recurrent theme in the lives of these saints.

FORMS OF EXPRESSSION

The form of worship adopted by these women saints varies from one individual to
another. The manner in which this worship is conceptualized is also different from
one case to another. In the case of Karaikkal Ammaiyar, the worship of Siva is
conceptualized as the attitude of a slave (dasi) to her master. She calls upon Siva as
her father.
In analyzing the space afforded to women in the Bhakti traditions, Uma Chakravarty
advocates a focus on three aspects of the lives of these saints: their relationship with
God, with their body and with other men and women. Certain trends may be observed
in the forms of worship adopted by the bhaktins.

Bridal Mysticism

Bridal mysticism or the conceptualization of the bhakta as the bride of the Lord is a
recurrent trend in the devotion of many female bhaktas. The god is addressed by the
bhaktin as her lover or husband. While the earliest instance of this is Andal, the most
celebrated of the mystic brides is of course Mirabai. Mira, in the face of considerable
patriarchal opposition given her Rajput background, refuses to acknowledge her
husband and describes herself as a woman already married to Krishna. She refuses to
consummate her marriage, leaves her home and ultimately achieves union with her
‘true husband’ and Lord by being absorbed by an image of Krishna at Dwarka. This is
similar to the case of Andal who fuses with the idol Sri Ranganatha. Other than these
two instances, there exist other women bhaktas such as Ayidakki Lakhamma and
Satyakka who visualize Siva as their groom and address him as their husband.

Sexuality

The bhakti of most of the women bhaktas and particularly that of the mystic brides
contains a powerful sexual element---sexual union is frequently used as a metaphor
for achieving unity with the Absolute. For Andal and Mahadevi Akka, the body
becomes the instrument through which their devotion is expressed. While Andal
adopts the metaphor of bridal mysticism, for Mahadevi Akka the body is the focus of
her adulterous relationship with Siva.
However, other saints such as Karaikkal Ammaiyar and Avvaiyar reject their
sexuality by transforming their bodies into that of a demoness and that of an old
woman respectively. In doing this they become inviolate and transcend the body.
Nudity

In the case of Mahadevi Akka and Lal Ded, the rejection of the natural world is
expressed in the discarding of clothes. This may be interpreted as being symbolic of a
new ‘openness’ to God. It is also, however, the expression of the ultimate conquest of
gender differences. According to Vijaya Ramaswamy, at this stage the saint
transcends all paradigms of love, gender and sex, resulting in religious and social
catharsis. According to Uma Chakravarty however, nudity is defiance of the
vulnerability of the female body and a statement of femininity channelled towards
God, rather than a mortal husband. The body ceases to be an impediment to spiritual
development and the fear of violation is cast away along with her clothes. For
Ramaswamy on the other hand, it is the casting away of attractiveness and modesty
which, paradoxically, enhances sexual curiosity and the adoption of an indifference to
gender which is a liberation.
Lal Ded who does not fear violation because all men seem to her to be sheep evokes
another idea; the exclusive maleness of the deity.

A REBELLION AGAINST PATRIARCHY?

While it has often been argued that the lives of the women saints represent the
rejection of patriarchal society and the subversion of gender roles, Vijaya
Ramaswamy argues for the existence of patriarchy at the spiritual level. She argues
that the expression of the devotion of the bhaktins retains a familial paradigm. The
deity worshipped is always male and even though both men and women worship the
deity in its masculinity, there is no case of the deity being worshipped in a feminine
form. There is therefore, according to Vijaya Ramaswamy, the acceptance of
patriarchy at the spiritual level. The fact that most of these women bhaktas seem to
have had a male mentor (e.g. Ravidas in the case of Mira and Basava in the case of
Mahadevi Akka) is also an indication that it was not entirely a rebellion against
patriarchy.
This is disputed by Uma Chakravarty who asserts that there exists a relationship of
equality between the bhakta and the deity and that subordination is purely voluntary.
Ruth Vanita and Madhu Kishwar assert that the conceptualization of the deity as the
bridegroom and the bhakta as the bride is a religious idiom and not indicative of a
patriarchal relation at the spiritual level. Further the acceptance of a feminine attitude
and the bridal metaphor by even male bhaktas indicates, they argue, that this idiom
dissolves gender roles at the spiritual level rather than reinforcing patriarchy.

The case for the lives of the women saints as a rebellion is further weakened by the
fact that there existed several women saints who achieved union with God without
leaving the household. Saints such as Isainaniyar in the Nayanar tradition conform to
the patriarchal role model of dutiful wives. The saintly wife who achieves a
spontaneous connection with God without leaving the home is a prominent figure in
the Bhakti tradition. It cannot be argued therefore that all women saints functioned
outside patriarchal norms. The saint Avvaiyar, for instance, adheres to patriarchal
norms in her hymns, despite her own rejection of marriage.

The canonization of women saints such as Mirabai and their acceptance and
integration into the mainstream prevented the rise of an alternative approach to
religion for women. The absorption of these saints by the mainstream tradition was
conditioned by a reassertion of the patriarchal forces, preventing any of these saints
from acquiring a dedicated following or sect.
As is brought out quite clearly in this paper, while these women saints did not openly
transgress patriarchy in terms of worship, they did succeed in partially overturning
patriarchy within the secular sphere even through the use of idioms in the patriarchal
mode. Although patriarchy soon reasserted itself, the lives of these women saints
created a space for women in religion, subverting gender roles and extending
boundaries.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) Vijaya Ramaswamy: Walking Naked
2) Uma Chakravarty: The World of the Bhaktin in South Indian Traditions
3) R. Champakalakshmi: From Devotion and Dissent to Dominance: The Bhakti of
the Tamil Alvars and Nayanars
4) A.K. Ramanujan: Talking to God in the Mother Tongue
5) Madhu Kishwar and Ruth Vanita: Poison to Nectar: The Life and Work of Mirabai