Mirabai and the Spiritual Economy of Bhakti

Author(s): Kumkum Sangari

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 25, No. 28 (Jul. 14, 1990), pp. 1537-1541+1543-
1545+1547-1552
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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 Mirabai and the Spiritual Economy of Bhakti
Kumlkuin Sangari

In an econo,nv where the labouir of womnen and the suirplus productioni of the peasant anid artisan are
and 'naturally' appropriated by the ruling groups, the high Hindu traditions souight to encompass and r
management of spiritual 'surplus' and to circutmiscribe its availability along lines of caste atid gender. In t
economy, the liberalising and dissenting forms of bhakti emerge as a powerfulforce which selecti
metaphysic of high Hinduism in an attempt to create an inappropriable excess of transcendent val
in the dailiness of a material life within the reach of all.
This paper attempts to understand the specific character of Mirabai's bhakti as it finds shape within t
ping yet contradictory configuration of the patriarchal assumptions of the medieval Rajput state,
brahminical texts, and the female devotional voice as it develops in earlier and contemitporary com
male bhaktas. What emerges is, firstly, that though the prescriptions of the smritis and Puranas d
as law, they are available as ideology which shapes the customary domain and self-description of R
groups and constitute the historical moment in which Mira lives. Secondly, in the breaking and remakin
chal relations, Mira's bhakti marks as well as belongs to a longer historical rnoment in which the p
of the smritis and Puranas are selectively internalised, and the customniarv nexus of religious practice i
into metaphors and emotional structures. Thirdly, though Mira's compositions are themnselves ambivalen
there are significant differences in her personal practice and in her ideological location when compared
and contemporary male bhaktas. And, finally, etched into Mira's enterprise is miot only the diffic
'original' in an oral tradition, but also the recalcitrance and the precariousniess of personal rebelli

rhis paper has been published in two parts. The first part appeared last week.]
VII
Female Devotional Voice
and Male Bhakts
THE female voice represents a particular
emotional configuration, expresses a par-
ticular social relation, symbolises a humble
yet powerful subalternity. This voice and the
feminisation of devotion assists in the 'per-
sonalisation' not merely of worship, but of
a feudal hierarchy as a whole; it enables
a transcendence which then begins to cut
across and go beyond gender. It is only when
this process is well under way, when
femaleness is already inscribed in the
idealities and modalities of bhakti, that aindi- eulogistic text of unknown authorship
vidual women bhaktas begin to find open-
ings in it. It is not in the first place created section written in the form of an allegorical
by women but of women, 'womanhood' and
'femaleness'. Mira does not by any means
invent this language.
The female devotional voice and the
'feminine' relation to god has a remarkable
history. It spreads across saguna and nirguna
bhakt4 monistic and dualistic or advaita and
dvaita theology, Shaivism and Vaishnavism,
and seems to be as old as bhakti itself.
Despite the differential history of this voice,
the abstract notions of femaleness and
womanhood gradually acquire a semantic
content and crystallise into symbologies
which have both a direct and an inverse rela-
tion to the 'lowliness' of women. It is used
by the 7th century Alvar saints: Goda Andal
in her intense madhuryabhakti for Krishna
mingles the erotic aspects of shringara with
spiritual desire. Among the Nayanars too,
as in Sambandav (7th c AD), divine union
is described in terms of conjugal love: the
bhakta is a love-sick woman and god the sons. In keeping with the hollow, heretical
thief who steals her heart.i0 The Vaishnavite
nature of kaliyug, Mukti grew weak and
Tamil saint Nammalvar (c 600-800 AD) saw went to Vaikuntha at her behest and now
himself as a woman.5' Mahadeviakka comes to this world only after command.
(c 1100 AD) betrothed herself to Siva and Narada promises to restore her status and
sang: "I saw the haughty Master/for whom to revive her sons. They do not revive fully
men, all men,/are but women, wives".52 on hearing the Vedas, Vedantas or the
The 'feminisation' of worship is more Bhagwad Gita. However, the sages or munis
pronounced in Vaishnav texts. This ten- assure him that the sons will revive on hear-
dency was later foregrounded by Bengal ing the Bhagwat Purana, because this text
Vaishnavism wherein "The essential nature is composed from the essence or meaning
of all men is that of a gopi",.53 In the of the Vedas and Upanishads and consists
Bhagwat Purana, one of the relations it is therefore of the best of the scriptures.
possible to have with Krishna, among others, Narada holds a yajna in Haridwar attend-
is that of a lover as the gopis do ed by all gods, demi-gods, sacred rivers, and
(BhP:4:1433-35). The Bhagwat Mahatmya, the presiding deities of the scriptures; here
devotion or Krishnabhakti is explained as
appended to the Bhagwat Purana, has a the simple path through which all that can
be obtained through yoga, tapa and jnana
narrative in which bhakti itself is personified is more easily attainable. The Bhagwat is the
as a woman. In Vrindavan, Narada encoun- verbal image of Krishna. At the end of this
ters an unhappy young woman in distress. discourse, Bhakti appears with her two sons
Two old men lie unconscious in front of her. who have regained youth. Described as
She is trying to revive them. She tells him beautiful "prem-rupa", she is bedecked with
that she is Bhakti and the two old men are ornaments in the form of the teachings of
her sons, Jnana and Vairagya. Over time, the Bhagwat Purana. The munis say she has
with -the advent of Kaliyug and heretical emerged from the meaning of the Bhagwat
teachings, she and her sons grew old, weak Katha, and tell her to reside henceforth in
and lustreless. On coming to Vrindavan she the hearts of Vaishnavs. Bhakti then enters
becomes new, young and beautiful, but her the hearts of Vishnubhakts. Seeing the
sons are still old and tired. She is distressed presence of Bhakti in the hearts of
because a mother should be older not Vaishnavs, Krishna leaves his heavenly abode
younger than her sons. Narada explains that to be in their midst (BhP:l:lxxv-xcix). Bhakt
this has occurred because in kaliyug, all is represented as the distillation or essence
people, even those in Vrindavan, have of the Bhagwat Purana born' out of its
become complacent and incapable of seeing meaning, she wears for adornment "the
her in -the company of her sons. He tells her ornaments made out of its meaning". The
that she is Krishna's beloved: He made Bhagwat Purana is in turn established as the
Mukti (liberation) her servant, and Jnana distilled essence of the Vedas and
(knowledge) and Vairagya (renunciation) her UDanishads.

Economic and Political Weekly July 14, 1990 1537

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 A powerful symbology of femaleness is woman. As a fact, Mirabai was a beautiful on an understanding of the place of woman
produced here, which connects it not only young princess, and he had not much faith in a fixed social hierarchy, the limits of the
to the rejuvenation and recovery of all the in her pretensions. Hearing the message of female condition become the limits of the
'true, ancient or 'original' sources of Rup, Meerabai replied 'Is he then a male? human condition, as well as the way beyond
knowledge, and to salvation, but also to a If so, he has no access to Vrindavan. Males it. This is only possible because femaleness
commonly and easily internalisable mode of cannot enter there, and if the goddess of is both extrapolated from a social relation
devotion. It is not the temple (despite the ya- Vrindavan comes to know of his presence,
and conceived as an essence.
she will turn him out. For does not the great
jna and the munis) which Bhakti finally in- What characterises the male use of this
Goswami know that there is but one male
habits but the devotee's heart. voice? The Gujarati saint Narsi Mehta, born
in existence, namely, my beloved Knailal
In some padas by Surdas, the gopis are about eighty years before Mira, describes his
(Krishna), and all beside are females?" Rup
jealous of the murli (flute) who is nearer to experience in Dwarka:
now understands she is a staunch devotee of
the lips of Krishna than they are. The murli I took the hand of that lover of the gopis in
Krishna and agrees to see her.57
is personified as a woman. The gopis berate loving converse.. I forgot all else. Even my
her as a licentious upstart, an immoral In Rup Goswami there is a visible contradic- manhood left me. I began to sing and dance
casteless reed; she is a saut or the favoured tion between the 'femaleness' of the male as a woman. My body seemed to change and
'other' wife of Krishna who having brought bhakt and the misogynist, patriarchal under- I became one of the gopis. I acted as a
him under her sway, controls him and in- pinning of male asceticism. go-between like a woman, and began to
toxicates him with pleasure. The murli The female voice thus qualifies to be lecture Radha for being too proud... At such
answers that she has undergone severe simultaneously the essence of devotion, a times I experienced moments of incom-
parable sweetness and joy. He who was sit-
austerities (tap) and viraha in order to obtain patra or vessel/medium, and the marg or
ting,singing with Radha was also at that very
this proximity with Krishna. The jealousy path of bhakti because it has certain social
time seated in my own heart.59
of the gopis ceases and turns into a attributes, because it is neither neutral nor
There is an implicit understanding here that
chastened admiration: they recognise her as empty.
gender is both a social function and an ex-
the sign of suffering, self-sacrifice and devo- The female devotional voice is used and
pressive mode, that gender is culturally con-
tion, and also understand that the murli is inflected differently by each bhakta,
structed and so gender functions may be in-
only a patra, a vessel. It is after all the sound whether male or female. Several male
terchangeable. The female voice can be us-
of the murli which has attracted the gopis bhaktas, predecessors and contemporaries
ed undisguisedly by a male devotee, and
from their homes; the murli is the dasi or of Mira including Kabir, use the voice of the
followed by a male signature. A man can
intermediary between Krishna and Radha, woman, wife or bride, and figures of ser-
unselfconsciously sing as a woman. Male
and by implication between them and vitude, sensuous desire or yearning. This
bhaktas may wish to renounce masculinity
Krishna. The murli is not possessive about voice has certain universalising aspirations
and become as women.W0 The female voice
Krishna, she sees herself as one of his many but nevertheless speaks of the ways in which
then becomes a way not only of locating that
beloveds.54 The notion of femaleness at gender is described, and indicates the spread
which is powerless in men, but of achieving
work here is both as an ideal embodiment and tentacular reach of patriarchal assump-
an immersion in powerlessness. The use of
of devotion and as an attributeless vessel or tions and practices. Further, the ability to
the female voice by a male bhakta can also
uncharacterisable medium for devotion. adopt the female voice, when loving itself
betoken an inward understanding of a social-
Gender is stretched beyond the social and becomes worship, also enunciates the con-
ly constructed vulnerability which comes to
biological into the metaphysical realm. tradictory shaping of desire by patriarchal
mark not only his understanding and
Femaleness becomes something men can morality.
representation of (an inversely powerful)
adopt in order to gain spiritual advantage. What enables the female devotional voice
subalternity in general, but more specifically
Dadu Dayal (1601-1660) who lived mostly in to cut across gender divisions? First and
an understanding of existing notions of
Rajasthan, though influenced by nirguna most obviously, 'belief is by definition
female sexuality, of male sexuality in
bhakti, advocates viraha, an aspect of shared by men and women, it is neither indi-
relation- to it and of pleasure. The
madhuryabhakti, as the supreme path of viduated nor apparently gendered. Second,
sensuous inwardness with female vulner-
devotion. He not only uses the voice of the social interests in the domain of feudal rela-
ability can become a way of engag-
virahini himself but generalises femalenesstions are more likely to. be represented in
ing with the relational construction of male
as the characteristic relation of all humans terms of familial, dynastic or feudal
sexuality. The male use of the female voice
to god. God is the only male, all humans are allegiances rather than in terms of politically
has a distinct doubleness-the bhakt is also
female: asserted patterns of identity or represen-
singing about the possibilities of male sex-
Purush hamaara ek hai, ham naari bahu tativeness. The quasi-familial nexus of
uality, the ways in which he may wish to be
ang bhakti images and voices-friend, guru,
desired. Finally, the male use of the female
Jai jai taahi sau, maile tishi rang55 child, lover-can at one level be explained
voice also makes a potential space for men
Or Kahi Kabir mohi byaahi chale haipurush as emerging jointly from basic schemes of
outside the heterosexual norm. To some
ek bhagwaana existing social organisation, and from the
extent the distinction between the male sub-
Saith Kabir, the one god, the divine male, analogical mode of mythical thought in
ject or devotee and the male object of wor-
hath wed and taken me with him.56 God which the invisible is analogous to and yet
ship becomes flexible in the self description,
enters into a (polygamous?) relation of male superior to the human world.58 Finally, which occurs usually in the bhanita or
'mastery' with the worla. Similarly, Priyadas many bhakti compositions either rework or signature line.
(her eighteenth century biographer) tells the shift the classical theory of karma by
following story about Mirabai, in which she locating the source of human suffering in Kabir bahut dinan kijovti, baat tumhari
turns the maleness of god and the female- pride (ahamkar) and blindness rather than Ram
ness of the devotee into a claim for the in past births. In this reinterpretation of Jiv tarsai tum milau ko mani naahi
equality of the female with the male bhakt, karma, the power of a femaleness free of bisraam (KG,G:13)
for a neutralising of gender difference: ahamkar becomes at least equal to the power By the medieval period the female voice
When Meerabai, the Rajput princess, who of willed poverty or asceticism. Inits ideality has been used by several women saints, and
femaleness is simply one mode of immersion now amounts to a shared representation.
left everything for her love of Krishna, visited
the renowned Rup Goswami of Vrindavan, in the world, anid in one sense to speak in Such sharing does not materially shift
one of the chief bhakts of Sree Gauranga the female voice is simply to have access to patriarchal power relations. Nor does it prise
(Chaitanya), Rup, an ascetic of the highest the mystery of human existence or to find apart the social orders from which defini-
order, refused to see her on the ground that a way of embodying the inexpressible rela- tiOllS of sexuality emerge and upon which
he was precluded from seeing the face of a tion between bhakt and god. Though based they rest. However, it potentially loosens

1538 Economic and Political Weekly July 14, 1990

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demarcations of the mascuhiie and feminine
enabling a degree of speculation about such
boundaries. Thus the explicit adoption of
the female role and voice inadvertently
reveals both to be cultural constructs, hints
at the limits of such construction,
transforms their fixity into at once a liminal
and a universal space which can be occupied
by a male devotee.
Though the social bases of the female
voice and role can be sought to be univer-
salised, they cannot be effaced. (Nor indeed
is there any attempt to efface them-some
things we now construe as ideological stick
to the surfaces of bhakti compositions a-d
do not need to be 'exposed'.) These become
clear in the differing uses of the female devo-
tional voice by men and by women, especial-
ly material and qualitative difference in the
matters of choice, agency and patriarchal
ideology. The male bhakta does appear to
have a 'freer' choice-whereas not only does
choice operate in another sort of logic of
necessity for women, but their willed ser-
vitude is also of another order. When a male
bhakta uses the female voice, e g, Kabir, it
is only one voice among other available
voices-while a woman must sing as a
woman. Further, it seems that the woman
saint, unlike her male counterpart, 'need
undergo no conversion'. and that no woman
saint, however defiant,
takes on a male persona. It is as if, being
already female she has no need to change
anything to turn towards god. Like the un-
touchable and the low-caste saint, she needs
shed nothing, for she has nothing to shed;
neither physical prowess, nor social power,
nor punditry, nor even spiritual pride. She
is already where she needs to be...61
From this historical distance, it is easier
to approach the question of male and female
agency in their relation to patriarchal norms.
Since the relation to god is one of subalter-
nity, the visible and experienced forms of
subjection are replete with symbolic value
and potential for idealisation. Whereas male
saints do not always reject the family,62 the
female saint's voice seems to come into its
own when accompanied by an actual rejec-
tion of domesticity. The disruption of prac-
tised patriarchal norms by the exceptional
woman can be used inversely to legitimise
the normative, or even made to assist in
preserving specific ideals. However, despite
these possible accommodations, such
disruption remains significant. The female
voice as used by women, because it is
predicated on a rejection of domesticity,
usually holds femaleness-as-subjection in a
poignant tension: it is simultaneously social-
ly imposed, personally chosen and 'essen-
tial' nature. When Mira occupies the female
devotional voice itsgeography changes. Her
voice indicates the materiality of her
subalternity, her practised resistance, as well
as the possibilities for abstracting an essen-
tialised voice from these.
The female voice is formed as it were in
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the male gaze of god-for women it is in

addition formed in the gaze of men. The

Economic and Political. Weekly July 14, 1990 1539

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female voice yearns for darsan, for the sight
of god. It is this anticipated gaze which
sexualises the devotee's (female) body, the
intangible gaze has tangible effect. The
devotional voice whether used by a male or
female bhakt incessantly seeks to absorb or
enclose this gaze (Baso more nainan me
nandlal BM: 64; or Kabir: Naina antari aav
tu... Nainu ramaiya rami rahya, dooja kaha
samai K, HD: 329). Whereas the female
voice offers men the possibility of either
renouncing or remaking some aspects of
their maleness, it does not necessarily offer
women escape from their 'femaleness' or
from their own bodies and selves as it were.
For the male user the female voice can on
occasion constitute a reversal of his own
patriarchal power, whereas for the woman
it can perform no magical reversal, unless
a visible break with patriarchal power
accompanies it-and such a break has its
own consequences. Mira's heightened
consciousness of flouted norms, rejected
roles and the perception of her (log kahen)
as mad or immoral which she must repeated-
ly contest with self-description, adds up to a
gendered consciousness of public
surveillance.
Perhaps the sharpest difference between
Mira's use and the use of the female devo-
tional voice by male bhakts is in relation to
patriarchal norms, values and ideologies.
Mira enters into a contestatory relationship
with them, albeit often in fragile, complicit,
overturnable ways. Even when she is unable
to make any conceptual shifts, her defiance
is unmistakable and enters her compositions
as self-display (He ri mein to prem divani
B: 139). She displays her 'self' in a relation-
ship to Krishna and the social world to both
Krishna and the social world-repeatedly
claims or defines her place and marks the
boundaries of obedience and transgression.
The difference between Mira's mode of
address-a compound of persecution,
defiance and display-and Kabir's is itself
revealing. Kabir usually addresses a com-
munity of bhakts (Suno bhai sadho) or a
laity of followers, and on the strength of
these conducts both an active dialogue
within this community and a philosophical
polemic against a Brahmin dominated
orthodoxy. Mira addresses Krishna, the
rana, female friends (aali, sakhi, heli, baala,
saheliya, heri), mother (,nai), friend (hhai)--
no community formed around her bhakti.
The sadhus are her audience, she respects
them, performs for them, but her addrcss
does not match the confident equality of
Kabir.
Ta] kusang satsang baith nit hari charcha
suni leeja (B:55)
Sadhu sangat men dil raaji, bhai kutumb
se nyaari (B:184)
Sadhu sangati kari hari-sukh lau, jag su
door rahu (BM: 64)
The sadhus are not people she can teach,
instead their company is a sanction, an alter- reiteration of patriarchal values, but the
native to the custody of the family.
Even the similarities between the male and
female use of female voice are modulated
by the relation to patriarchal values. The
female voice of madhuryabhakti in Kabir
often has what I can only call a 'mono-
gamous' intensity-a quality equally evident
in Mirabai-and is in fact one of the
characteristic tenors of the female voice and
its social power. Polygamy disperses male
desire and affective investment in a woman
whereas women must concentrate both in a
single man. Men are emotionally
polygamous, women are emotionally mono-
gamous. The consolidation and compression
of affective investment in a single object
gives a special strength to the female voice.
Whereas in Mira this voice derives an inverse
force from the transgressive relation to
marriage and other patriarchal institutions,
in Kabir this voice derives its persuasiveness
from a proffered model of the pativrata's
devotion accompanied by patriarchal ideals
and misogynist images. The relation between version of a 'higher' femaleness is easier to
the female voice and patriarchal values in reconcile with the institution of marriage.
other male bhaktas, especially Kabir, needs
detailed attention.
KABIR, PATRIARCHAL IDEALS AND THE
FEMALE DEVOTIONAL VOICE
The difficulties of individuating an oral
corpus acquire another dimension in rela-
tion to patriarchal values. The fact that the
corpus of male saints belong like Mirabai's
to oral traditions which accrue over time,
where the search for authenticity only pro-
duces ambiguous results since they are writ-
ten into by followers (who may be men or
women) who literally sign themselves into
a tradition-now begins to speak of the
magnitude of patriarchal assumptions, of a
mode of social perception.
Unlike Mira's paraphernalia of 'sectarian'
Vaishnavism, Kabir (c 1450-1575) has at
hand a powerful array of potentially
egalitarian concepts-of body, of soul, of
knowledge, of mnaya and creation, of a
nirguna god. With these he actively contests
caste, sectarian differences of religious
denomination and orthodox ritual, but not
patriarchal value structures. The concept of
an attributeless nirgluna god allows Kabir to
be a social reformer of an order quite dif-
ferent from Mira; however, when he uses
madhuryabhava god becomes saguna and
acquires 'male' attributes. He situates the
female devotional voice as giving access to
a single-minded bhakti: this voice, one of the
irntermediaries between himself and god, ex-
prcsses with extraordinary intensity the
whole gamut of the emotions related to
lovc-longing, intoxication, the pain of
separation, delirium, suffering. Yet in the
name of ascetic transcendence he simul-
taneously constructs a patriarchal typology
of women, represents women themselves as
obstacles to salvation, and aspires to sub-
ject their sexuality to the usual regulation.
What is of interest in Kabir is not the mere
contradictory relation of this assertion to the
female devotional voice, and the way in
which both participate in the making of
belief. What is the process which occurs
here? what are its compulsions?
Kabir draws on three sorts of femaleness
-the 'fallen' femaleness of strisvabhav so
familiar from prescriptive texts, the noble
precepts of stridharma, and the 'higher'
femaleness emerging in bhakti compositions.
His compositions explicitly harness the
ideologies of stridharma produced in
marriage for a somewhat exalted purpose.
The 'higher' form of femaleness in tandem
with stridharma may be used to chastise the
'lower' sort, and simultaneously to uphold
the misogynist sentiments and patriarchal
values from which the 'lower' sort of female-
ness emerges. The three become interdepen-
dent, strisvabhav must be opposed both to
stridharma and the 'higher' femaleness of
bhakti in order to construct a structure of
values/typology of women. Unlike Mira, his
In one set of compositions attributed to
Kabir, women are represented as impedi-
ments to male salvation-corporeally as em-
bodiments of maya, and metaphorically as
personifications of maya. Maya becomes the
conceptual basis for differentiating between
various kinds of women along a typological
plane.
Kabir works with two notions of maya.
He retains the earlier notion of maya as a
pervasive cosmic illusion, and simultaneous-
ly perceives it as a removable obstacle to
salvation, i e, as the remodulated maya of
bhakti compositions. According to the
earlier notion maya or desire is a part of
origi nal creation or prakriti alongside the
(at'ma or soul. From her both the world or
sansaar and the gods are born (Ekai jani
jana sansara).63 Maya herself is anaadi or
parentless, nobody gives her birth (Bij:104).
Shc prcdates ordered social relations: she is
the wife of god and the mother of man
(Bij:23,347), she never marries but has
children, goes to neither nahar nor sasuraal
yet cohabits with her husband, i e, the world.
Bar naahin barai byah naahin karai,
putra janam-honihaari
Kaare mnoonde ek naahin chaadai, ab hi
aadikunwaari
Rahai na mnaike jai na sasure sai ke sang
sorai (K, HD:303)
She commits incest (poot bhataarhi baithi
khai K, H D:31 1) since all her 'husbands' are
her own offspring, and then destroys them
(K, HD:321-22). She cohabits with son,
father (ishwar or god) and father-in-law
(sasur or ignorance) alike (Bij:134).
Maya is the great transgressive principle
of lawlessness, and paradoxically the in-
escapable 'law' of living in this world. Out-
side of all kinship and familial relations, she
has neither head nor feet nor soul yet the
entire world is subject to her (Bij:104). She
is a form of self-destroying creation: maya
is the root, flower and garden of the world
and herself devours all Aapuhi mool phool
phoolwari. aapoohi chooni chooni shaai

1540 Economic and Political-Weekly July 14, 1990

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(Bij:133). The knowledge of the vedas, the the death of her husband because there The genealogy of women and of maya as
ten avataars are all part of her bhram-the is someone else to keep her. He who keeps a removable impediment, both characteris-
truth is nirguna and non-dualistic her is destroyed because though he enjoys ed by sensual pleasure, greed, deceit, lies in
(Bij:185,136). Maya is everything that is false. sensual pleasure here, he goes to hell in the classifications of strisvabhav. If maya
Kabir uses this conception as a levelling, the next world.) personifies women and women embody
democratising and egalitarian principle, Kabir's reference to her as a suhaagin here maya, then this principle of femaleness
which assists in the attack on caste, sectarian and elsewhere (Bij:335) is obviously a ought to be an external hindrance to male
differences, and on brahminical institutions: sarcasm. salvation. However, it also seems to live in-
since all religions are a product of maya Conversely, in the descriptions of women, side the hearts and bodies of men as kaam
there can be no difference between religious the nature of all women, whether 'inside' or or desire ready to deprive them of their
communities, Hindus and Turks, brahmin 'outside' marriage, begins to correspond with spiritual treasures (BK:167). All beings
and non-brahmin, all are equal before it mayaX maya functions both as an evaluative (male?) are afflicted with maya, she is "every
(Bij:215). Indeed this maya is difficult to principle of typological differentiation bet- living creature's woman" (KG,G:365/BK:
categorise as either fundamentally male or weeii women as well as a totalising concept 177); men, gods, ascetics, pilgrims, kings,
female. She appears to combine 'male' power to define their essential nature. If on a Turks, bhakts all find this deceptive woman
with 'female' attraction, and this leads to a universal plane maya is the illusion that is is always with them (BK:178/K,HD:312).
suspicion among the learned that she was the created world which draws the self into Maya does not merely live in the home-heart
first a man and then became a woman: fatal bondage, then on a more mundane as agyan or ignorance and bhram or illusion
Bujhu pandit karhu vichaara, purush hai scale woman represents the fall into worldly (Gharhi me baabu badhli raari, uthi uthi
ki naari (Bij:185) entanglement: she is simply the single type laagai chapal naari Bij:350), but even
Avadhu aisa gyaan bichaari,taatai bhai of the temptress-material and sexual desire becomes identical with the heart (Man maya
purush thai naari.(KG,G:283) incarnate. The woman is either a beautiful to ek hai, maya manhi samaay Bij:426)-
devouring snake (Kamnini sundar sarpini, jo the product of its own imagination or desire.
In terms of patriarchal gender description
chherai tihi khaij,65 or worse than a snake With the enemy inside, internal purification
this notion of maya is certainly intractable
(Bikat naari ke paale pare, kaadi kaleja is imperative (Naag phaans liye ghar bheetar
if not potentially subversive.
shaay Bij:139); indeed a noose is better than Bij:133). In this way the fallen femaleness
On a lower metaphysical plane where
a beautiful woman (Kabir sundari tai sooli of strisvabhav becomes the generalised prin-
maya is a removable impediment, the con-
bhahiKG,G:68). If maya is the fire in which ciple of male self-division, i e, of the male
cept is amenable in making a typology of
the world burns (Maya ki jhak jag jare striving for higher truth. There is a mighty,
bad women, the metaphors are deeply
Bij:438) then women too are like flames argumentative struggle between Kabir and
patriarchal and in practice women and maya
(Kabir ek kanak aru kamini doi agni ki maya (Bhaaga ho chhadai nahi, bhari bhari
become indistinguishable, if not virtually
jhaal, KG,G:67) and so, "Whether the marai baan KG,G:56; K,HD:311-12). But self-
interchangeable. Significantly, these com-
woman is your wife or another, to have division can be conquered, and maya not
positions employ a male voice. Maya is
dalliance with her is to go to hell; one fire only mastered by the saint but made to serve
represented as the prototype of the sexually
is the same as another; do not put your hand god (Kabir maya daasi sant ki, KG,G:57).
available or licentious woman who is 'out-
in it at all" (BK: 168): In Mira's compositions. maya is mostly
side' marriage in the sense that she is either
represented through the generalised and
uncontrolled by or not fully subject to Kabir naari parayi aapnii, bhugtya narkhi
classic sins of lust, anger, greed using animal
patriarchal norms. Maya is the sweet- jaai
images (BM:77). Maya as a licentious,
tongued ensnaring woman (Maya Aagi aagi sab ekhai, taame haath na baahi
greedy, unfaithful woman is an exception
mahathagini K, HD:312) and "The world is (KG,G:68)
rather than the rule:
aflame in the fire of maya caught up by gold Not only is womran "the off-scouring ot the
Chhail birano laakh kohe apne kaaj na hoi
and woman" (KG, G:60).64 She is the world; she separates the good from the l6ad;
Ta ke sang sidharata hai bhala na kahsi koi
hardened harlot who seduces men with her only the basest of men flirt with her; the
Var heeno apno bhal hi kodi kushti hoi
cajolery but allows none to master her 'no noble-minded hold aloof" (Kabir joru
Ja ke sang sidharata ha bhala kahai sab koi
one enjoys her fully', and 'the seductress' joothini jagat ki, KG,G:68/BK:168) but
(B:168)
who enchants the wisest of sages (BK:175); "Woman is the pit of hell; few can stop
The world does not criticise a woman for
she is the treacherous, untrustworthy woman themselves from falling" (Kabir naari kund
going in the compdny of her poor husband.
(KG,S:124/BK:175), and the paapini or narak ka, birla thaame baagi, KG,G:68). For But it does ridicule the lady, howsoever
daakini who devours men (KG,G:56,58); she the love of women men go cheerfully to hell gorgeously attired, passing her time in the
is the recalcitrant wife who looks outward even though they are the poison fruit which gay company of rich strangers (B:115)
rather than inward to her husband/atma and burn the person who touches them and kill The patriarchal values 'in Kabir's composi-
even deserts her sleeping husband (Bij:105); the eater (KG,G:67) very like the triple- tions centre on the family as an institution
she is first the kunwaari who refuses natured tree of maya whose branches and which guarantees licit, righteous progeny,
marriage, then the unwilling wife who con- fruit torment the senses (BK:177). restrains female sexuality, and reproduces a
tinues to live in her maika or natal home and Women and maya are identical obstacles normative notion of marriage. Infractions
refuses to go to her sasuraal or marital home, to bhakti and salvation. "Falling in love with simply extend his typology of deviant
or if she does enter her sasuraal she refuses a woman is all evil with no saving feature" women. Women are transient property like
to have conjugal relations with her husband (BK:168); affection for a woman robs all wealth, cattle and clothes (Kanak kamini
or saai (Bij:185); she is the principle of deceit men of their wisdom and discretion (Kabii ghor patora, sampati bahut rahai din thora
and comparable to the woman who sells naari seti neh, buddhi bibek sabhi harau Bij:48). It is the duty of a married bhakt to
liquor in order to keep her customers intoxi-BK:168/KG,G:67); the man loses his access beget children who become bhakts, the
cated (BK:175); she is also the 'bad' widow: to bhakti, salvation and knowledge: prime rationale and road to salvation for a
Ek suhaagin jagat piyaari mother is to give birth to a bhakt or gyani
Sagle jiu jant ki naari Kabir naari nasai teeni sukh, ja nar paasai
(KG,S:41, 97/BK:167). The mother who does
Khasam mare to naari na rovai, us hoi
not give birth to such a son may as well have
rakhvaara aurau hovai Bhagti mukuti nij gyan mei, paisi na sakaibeen barren, or a widow or have miscarried
Rakhvaare ka hoi vinaas, aage narak iha koi (KG,G:67) (KG,G:217). Though he may argue against
bhog vilaas (KG,G:365-66) The woman, literally and metaphorically the kulabhimaan as a mere human institution
(Maya is one such suhaagin who is dear mistress of the senses, is the duhaagin who and part of the spell of maya elsewhere
to the whole world. She does not weep on must be defeated (Bij:130). (KG,S: 20, 25, 36/BK:188), he measures

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women against the honour of the kul. The which suggest differing degrees of immer- Kai ham pran tajti hai pyare, kai apni kar
woman who has left husband, family, sion in femaleness: it ranges from the relative lev
domestic seclusion is a prostitute (Aai kultri objectivity of analogy, where the female Das Kabira birha ati badher, hamko darsan
kulsani parihari chhori bhataar). The voice is an analogue for bhakti and the dev (K,HD:3'9)
ganika's children are marked by their bhakt retains his discrete identity, to an The bed has become my enemy,/I be awake
dubious paternity-no one can ascertain the authorial immersion in metaphor. The the whole night.
father of a prostitute's son (Ganika kau poot female voice may be followed by a moralistic We are your maids, 0 Lord, You are our
pita kaasau kahen, KG,G:218). bhanita, which establishes a movement in husband,...
The good wife or pativrata, a model of and out of the female voice and establishes Kabir Das says, viraha is increasing,/Please
stridharma, represents a channelled sexual give me your glance.69
a pedagogical, dialogic relation with it. Nis
desire. Promiscuity is a sign of kaliyug din khelat rahin sakhiyan sang ends with The female devotional voice in Kabir
(KG,G:37). Though adultery is condemned Kahai Kabir suno sakhi mori (K,HD:243), signifies an undivided self. The ecstasy of
for men and women KG,G:66), the un- and Aaj din ke mein jau balihaari/Pitam its love represents the pain of separation
faithful wife becomes a type ot the woman- saheb aahe mere pahua ends with Soorat lagi from god or the universal pain of human
soul who can never please her husband-god sat naam ki aasa, kahai Kabir daasan ke existence: "The jiu bears within itself the
(Bij:482; KG,G:130). The pativrata is singled daasa (K,HD:286). Here, metaphoric immer- pain which inflicts the whole world"
out for praise, she shines out among other sion in femaleness terminates in the signed (BK:130). Its self-abasing bhakti removes
women.56 She must adapt to her husband's bhan[ta which recovers and displays a division and uncertainty ends when the
life and surrender heart, body and mind to distance from the female voice by re- spouses are united: "No one has come bet-
him in order to qualify as a suhaagin: situating it as analogy. ween us, you my husband and I your wife"
In some compositions Kabir is un- (BK:179,264) or Kahe Kabir aur nahi dooja,
Jo pai pativrata hvai naari, kaise he rahau
se piyhi piyaari reservedly immersed in the female voice. The jug jug ham tum ek (K,HD:333). This love
Tan man jeevan saupi sareeraa, taahi wife-soul or jiu suffers in the separation in turn is the path to salvation-union with
suhaagin kahai kabeera (KG,G:225). from god and unabashedly desires consum- god brings freedom trom rebirth (Kahi A'ahir
mation of her love (KG,G:327). miii piv se/janaiti janam ko amar bhai).'
Her shringara, which must be intended to
Freedom from rebirth is eternal suhaag, a
please her husband alone (KG,S:14), is of Baalam aavo hamaare geh re
concept which has a far more abstract
value only if it is a sign of genuine devotionTum bin dukhiya deh re
philosophical valence, and enters a more
(K,HD:243); shringara is suitable only for Sab koi kahe tumhaari naari, moko laagat
laaj re specific patriarchal register when compared
a married woman (Kwaari kanya karai
Dil se nahin dil lagayo, tab lag kaisa sneh re to Mira:
syangaar, sobh na paye bin bhartaar
(KG,G:218), and if her husband does not Ann na bhavai, neend na aavai, grih-bar Dhani piu ekai sangi basera, sej ek pai
desire her then her shringara is worthless dhare- na dheer re milan duhera
Kaamin ko hai baalam pyara, jyo pyaase ko Dhanni suhaagini jo piu bhavai, kah kabir
(KG,G:79, 224). All women appear to be
neer re phiri janami na ave
similar but it is only the fortunate one who
Hai koi aisa par upkaari, pivso kahai Blessed is the bride who is pleasing to her
obtains her husband's love, i e, suhaag
sunai re beloved
(KG,G:213): the woman who discards all
Ab to behaal Kabir bhayo hai, bin dekhejiv Kabir's words: she will never come to birth
other hopes and desires for her husband-
jaye re (K,HD:262) again (KG,S:211/BK:44)
master is rewarded by his fidelity (KG,G:130).My b1dy and my mind are grieved for want
Suhaag is as much an ideology which
Women who are not obedient pativratas will of Thee;
guarantees wifely fidelity and indissoluble
not only be unable to win their husbands' 0 my Beloved! come to my house.
marriage as a metaphoric recognition of god
love (Bij:482) but are dogs and pigs and When people say I am Thy bride, I am
which leads to mukti (KG,G:334).
unworthy of being called beautiful: ashamed; for I have not touched
Thy heart with my heart. However, the self of the male saint and
Soi tiriya jaakai paativrat aagyakaar na reformer remains split. On one side is an
Then what is this love of mine? I have no
lopai
taste for food, I have no sleep; internalised femaleness which can be inter-
Aur sakal a kookri sookri suindari naau na
My heart is ever restless within doors and preted as virtually the strisvabhav of maya
auopat67 without. and of women. This is the femaleness of a
The good wife then is a rarity, desirable As water is to the thirsty, so is the lo`er to male frailty desiring sensual pleasure, univer-
in herself, as well as a measure for the devia- the bride. salised as the ungendered hell of kaam which
tion of other women. The male voice speaks Who is there prevents both men and women from
with minatory didacticism, with exemplary that will carry my news to my Beloved? reaching a desireless god:
authority and objectivity, and with all the Kabir is restless; he is dying for sight of
anxiety that maintaining patriarchal values Him.68 Narnaari sab narak hai, jab lag deh
involves. The male voice adopts a tutelary This female voice is suffused with subalter- sakaam
position vis-a-vis the hesitant wife-soul: nity, sexual desire and abandon: to live Kahe Kabir te Ram ke, je sumirai nihkaam
without the husband is a kind of delirium, (KG,G:67)
Dulhini tohi piy ke ghar jaana
Kaahe rove kaahe gaavo, kahe karat to meet him is to be drunk with joy On the other side is the newer femaleness
bahaana (K,HD:286, BK: 211). It is free of ahamkar- of the devotional voice buttressed by
Kahe pahiriyo hari hari churiya, pahiriyo selfishness, egotism, pride; its subalternity stridharniia-this is the femaleness of a
prem ka baanaa represents human unworthiness in genieral,higher, exemplary male desire. The* two
Kahe Kabir suno ihai saadho, bin piya accentuates the perfection of the divine appear to be parallel and unreconciled but
nahin thikaana (K,HD:330) husband (KG,S:143/BK:48) and becomes a are interrelated-they do not cancel each
The female devotional voice in tandem complement of god's nature-god being the other rather they re-situate each other.
with the pativrata wife-soul is of great help 'protector of the lowly' meets those who are Firstly, the female devotional voice assists
to the bhakt in his struggle against maya. 'desireless and resourceless' (BK:207). With in exorcising and renouncing the bondage
In the compositions where Kabir uses the great humility this female voice sees itself of hopes and desires associated with maya
female devotional voice, the bride-wife-soulas one of many such devoted to a single lord.and strisvabhav and gives access to divine
yearns for god addressed as avinaasi dulha Sejariya bairin bhat' hamko, jaagat rain love. The saint 'masters' maya in order to
(immortal unaging spouse), bhartaar b/hay enslave himself to god.
(husband), khasam (husband or master), Ham to tumri daasi sajna, turn hamre So long as I remained stubborn and foolish
thakur and piv. The voice is used in ways bhartaar... my beloved never opened his mouth to me.

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But when I reduced myself to the level of dust
as a maidservant then master opened his
heart to me. (BK:250).
Union with god is jivan mukti, the state of
release prior to the death of the body.
Secondly, release through devotion is
possible because Kabir not only separates,
but builds an active opposition between
sexual desire and spiritual desire. Kaam is
opposed to Ram (KG,S:31/BK:206) and to
spiritual desire or prem (Kaam balwan teh
prem kah paiye; prem jaha hoi tah kaam
nahi K,HD:263). Divine love can fleetingly
be portrayed by earthly love but is intended
in every way to transcend it.7" The impliedascetic conquest of 'emotion' remains a
or suggested meaning is arranged hierar-
chically above the materiality of images of
human love. The almost binary opposition
between human and divine love results in
Kabir 'working' them more often into the
intellectual clarity and 'distance' of analogy offers direct access to god, claims a single
or allegory rather than into the blurred and
displacing realm of metaphor, as is usual
with Mira. The female devotional voice then
becomes an abstraction. The analogical
mode is more compatible with the pre-
dominant nirguna and advaitic elements in
his bhakti with the belief that the union of
wife and husband is ultimately a unity in
duality: the distinction between you and I
can vanish-ab hum tum ek bhaye hari
(KG,S: 244).
Thirdly, the competing notions of female-
ness which inhabit the male self, even when
they are metaphorical, retain an irrepressible
materiality. The female voice is by implica-
tion the pativrata's voice, the voice of con-
jugal and licit love. Monogamous both in
its intensity and in the associated structure
of values: it is a voice which covertly
chastises all non-wifely women and
repeatedly celebrates marriage and wifely
service (KG,G:38). Though the soul-wife may
sometimes desire reciprocity, she guarantees
above ail her own strict fidelity:
She begs him to come live in her eyes,
she will then close her eyes forever and look
at no one else nor allow him to look at
anyone (K,HD:329)
All my love is for you, my illustrious
if I should but enjoy speaking to another it
would be as if
I had blackened my teeth (KG,G:35/BK:199)
(Blackening teeth is the sign of a sexually
promiscuous woman.)
When used metaphorically, wifely devo-
tion and divine devotion, god and human
husband, slide into each other. The bhakt
atma is in effect the pativrata and the
suhaagin rolled into one-Aarati saaj ke
chali hai suhaagin priya apne ko dhundan
(K, HD: p 333; KG, S: 216). In a circum-
locutory fashion women continue to get
salvation through their husbands.
Finally, the self-transformation required sects,72 yet patriarchal values actively com-
in order to become a saint necessitates a pose his bhakti. For example, the couplet from institutionalised Hinduism, then this
negotiation of 'lower' female desire qua Rahi ek ;i- bhai anek ki, beshyaa bahut is achieved at the cost of retaining patriar-
maya in order to incorporate 'higher' forms bhataari
of female duty and desire into male trans-
cendence. Somewhere on this path patri-
archal values are re-legitimised, and the
(If a woman/prostitute cohabits with many
choice of renunciation begins to appear men, on whose pyre will she burn? Bij:476)
primarily as an option for men not for is conventionally explained as an allegorical
women. Yet, ironically, 'lower' femaleness isdiatribe directed against those who worship
relocated in a hierarchical typology rather many gods. Such interpretations evaporate
than fully transcended, and the 'higher' patriarchal content as mere superficial
female devotional voice in Kabir's composi- equivalence-as if the allegorical figure is
tions remains too rich and volatile to be fully only a value neutral shell encasing a deeper
accommodated into this structure of values. meaning. However, this allegorical figure,
It retains, excessively, an energy of its own. like nany other metaphors, is aligned cen-
The contradiction between the 'femaleness' trally with a system of patriarchal values.
of the male bhakt and the misogynist These may, to borrow a term, be called low
elements which enter into the construction risk metaphors73 in which the deeper mean-
of male asceticism is never resolved. The ing depends on the definite or more or less
agreed upon paraphraseability of the surface
somewhat contradictory precondition for image. It is because the surface image draws
emotional ecstasy. so heavily and explicitly on a patriarchal
A sustained and complex adjustment withconsensus-an existing semantic-that it
patriarchal values is the uneasy companioncan be read allegorically at all.
of an otherwise egalitarian bhakti which It may therefore be more apposite to ask
who's patriarchy does Kabir's corpus repre-
origin for all humans, and describes the sent? Surely not that of an individual alone.
body, the heart, the soul and true knowledge In oral traditions, it is difficult to ascertain
as ungendered. The body is corporeal and how many of the patriarchal ideologies and
mortal for men and women, brahmins and contradictions may be attributed to indi-
sudras: vidual authors, to popular reinterpretations
Aisaa bhed biguchani bhaari and/or orthodox appropriations of bhakti,
Bed kateb deen aru duniya, kaun purush and how much to reiterated literary conven-
kauin naari tions. A contextual study of Kabir's corpus
Ek boond ekai mal mutra, ek chaam ek may be able to determine intersecting
gooda interests.
Ek jyoti thai utpanaa, kaun bahman kaun Another important question concerns the
sooda (KG,G: 189) relationships between patriarchal ideals and
The soul is neither Hindu nor Muslim, the engendering of 'belier in oral traditions.
neither male nor female: Hans na naari The fact that these values are structured into
belief in various ways suggests a cultural pro-
purush hai, yeh sab jag ka bhed (Bij: 190-91).
True knowledge or gyan transcends divisions cess in which patriarchal ideals and religious
of caste and gender: belief are jointly formed. If marriage reflects
Hari hirdai ek gyan upaayaa, taathai at a lower level the primary relation of bhakt
chhooti gai sab maya and god, then the success of analogies seems
Jahan naad na byand divas nahi raati, nahi to require 'perfect' marriages in the here-
narnaari nahi kul jaati (KG,S:141). and-now. The pativrata, a product of the
It is difficult to categorise the man neatly: regulation of marriage, is made to assist in
it may be that which survives the body, the the rejection of worldliness as well as in the
meaning of which has been sought but regulation of worldliness, i e, marriage.
seldom found by gods and bhakts alike; theDisorder in marriage and in the faculties of
true man is free of attributes and present in the soul can act as analogues or metaphors
every human being, and as indestructible asfor each other. Their interrelation is
maya: ultimately to be located not in the figural
spouse; realm of devotional poetry but in desired
Akal niranjan sakal sareera, taa man sau
and existing patriarchal relations. Coherence
mili raha Kabira (K,PFT:65)
is sought and guaranteed both in the social
Maya mui na man muva, mnari mari gaya
sareer (KG,G:57).
and transcendent realm.
In one way the female voice is ideally
Despite its enigmatic nature, the man is one
placed to contest uppercaste religious institu-
of the concepts used for egalitarian ends.
tions, it is by definition 'true", intuitive,
It is not sufficient to conclude that Kabir'saffective and unlettered while brahminical
compositions are progressive in some ways institutions are by definition learned and
and the persistence of patriarchal assump- false:
tions is merely a passive 'reflection' of the Kabir pothi padhi padhi jag muva, pan dit
time. Though the contradictions in Kabir's bhaya na koi
verse may be related to a conflict in his own Ekai ashir piv ka, padhai su pandit hoi
life between marriage and celibacy, or (KG,G:65)
located as part of a polemic against other
If one of the functions of the female voice
in Kabir's corpus is to win a certain distance
chal value structures. These become a com-
Kahihi Kabir kaake sang jari hai, bahu pensatory mode of ethical legitimisation,
purushan ki naari which at one level minimises the daring of

1544 Economic anci Political Weekly July 14, 1990

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the attack on religious institutions, and at
another level perhaps facilitates it. The
dystopia of strisvabhav is maintained in
order to imagine a salvation which is pro-
duced through the maintenance of a patri-
archal order of stridharma-one institu-
tional base is retained to assist the attack on
other institutions.
Patriarchal values and 'belief' interlock.
The paraphraseability of the analogies and
low-risk metaphors suggest an active process
of making a patriarchal consensual ground
(existing or desired) upon which religious
bonding can be sought or can occur.
PATRIARCHAL VALUES, THE FEMALE
DEVOTIONAL VOICE AND OTHER BHAKTAS
Kabir is not alone in his contradictions.
The disjunctions between perceiving women
as essentially immoral and their subjection
as both natural and necessary, between the
female voice as an essentialised ideality and
as patra for devotion, between male
asceticism and madhurvabhav a, between the
femaleness of the male bhakt and his affir-
mationi of patriarchal typologies, are evident may have been Mira's guru in Rajasthan,
i(l te compositions of many male blhaktas.
The imost interesting case is that of Surdas such as Malukdas (1631-1739), Sundardas
(c 1478-1584) who not only comilposes some
of the most er-otic songs about the love of
Radha and Krishna, but also represents
Krishna as a passioniate reciprocating god-
lover-Madhav Radha ke rang ranche,
Radha madhav rang rai, (S:2, 4911)-Radha
and Krishna melt into each other. Mutually
proficient in the skill of making love they
put Kaani to shame-Dulhani dulha syama
syam/Kokkalaa vyutpann paraspar, dekhat
lajjit kaam, (S:l, 1762). Though his gopis
love Krishna with a pativrata bhava (Aapuhi
kahi karau pati-sewa, ta sewa kau hai ham
aai, S:1, 1640, 2077; S:2, 4149) many are
married women who have forsaken their
husbands and homes for him (Gai sorah
sahas hari pai, chaadi sut-pati-sneh, S:l,
1625), and express much less 'subalternity'
than does Mira. Ironically it is the fickle
playful Krishna himself, who becomes the
male voice par excellence and stridently
preaches stridharma. When Radha tells him
of her parents' knowledge and disapproval
of her love for Krishna (S:1, 2301-02)
Krishna satisfies her with the answer that
dharmna consists of obedience to social
custom (lok laaj and kul maryaada), and
that she and he are two bodies but one
being/soul (Dwai-tan jiv-ek ham dou, S:1,
2303-06). He not only exhorts Brahmin
wives to be pativratas (Prabhu kahyo
pativrata karau sadaai, yumko yehi dharmna
sukhdaai, S:1, 1418), but informs the gopis
that husbands or wives who leave each other female usage, vis-a-vis patriarchal values,
are to be scorned; the husband's dharma is emerges in relation to whether the female
to provide sustenance and protection, the voice is that of a parakiya or a swakiya, i e,
wife's dharma is to serve her husband eveni illicit
if
he is a wrongdoer. And since a wife's dharmaBengal (e g, Vidyapati and Chandidas) there
is in her home he asks them to return
home and serve their husbands (Dhik so
naari purush 10 tyaagai S:l, 1633). He
presents worship of the husband, regardless
of whether he is foolish, diseased or a sinner,
as the Vedic path to salvation, and describes
the wife who leaves her husband as one who
is no longer a kulin woman and will be
punished both here and hereafter (S:l,
1798-99, 1635). Like Kabir, Surdas too con-
flates woman and maya as the obstacles to
devotion which must be renounced (S:l, 59,
84, 329, 372-3; Sukhdeb kahiyo, suno ho
raar, naari naagini ek svabhav, S:1, 446). He
also praises the pativrata, denounces the
unfaithful wife and looks askance at the in-
determinable paternity of the ganika's sons
(S:1, 352). The illicit love of the gopis who
have broken free of lok laaj and kul
maryaada (S:l, 2077) is ambivalently
represented in metaphors of adultery, pro-
stitution (S:2, 2933, 2993, 3472) and of a
bride outcasted for having deserted her
marital home (jyau kulbadhu bahiri pari
ker, kiil inai phiri na samai (S:2, 2934). The
gop,is love for Krishna is celebrated as a
higher love in the female voice and chastised
in the male voice.
Raidas (c 15/16 c) a chamaar by caste who
Dadu Dayal (1601-1660), and later figures
(1653-1746, Dadu's pupil), Dariya Sahib
Biharwale (1731-1837), Paltudas (1827-?)
enclose an impassioned female devotional
voice within the following typology. The
single-minded devotion and anguished for autonomy. It is precisely the tightness of
viraha of the pativrata who can recognise patriarchal structures which gives female
her one eternal husband is a mtodel for theillicit love its special daring; existing prohibi-
male bhakt: she thinks of no other tions give the symbolic break a transgressive
man, finds pleasure in surrendering body, power.
mind and heart to her husband, breaks all
relations to be imnmersed in him, is above kul
sharp opposition of dharma and social duty
and jaati, brings good fortune to her marital
and natal family, and internalises devotion
in the core of her being. (Virtually a pati
bhakti marg.) This wife-soul who loves god
is described repeatedly as a suhuagin. The
bad wife or woman-soul who turns away
from god is named a sinner and a duhaagin,
a vyabhicharini (a wanton woman), an
asuhaagin. She is in every respect the
opposite of the pativrata. She does not win
the love of her husband, she is insincere or
hypocritical, despicable, a kulta naari or
raand who spends time with other men, has
relationships with more than one man, or
is simply a prostitute available to many
men."4 Sometimes (in Sundardas as in
Kabir) the female voice describes itself as a
pativrata, or (as in Dariya Sahib) the female
voice of longing is constricted by the 'moral'
of suhaag which follows in a male voice in
the bhanita.75
Another set of differences in male and
or licit. For the Sahajiya Vaishnavs of
is no polarisation between the human and
the divine, human love simply affirms and
duplicates the divine.76 While for the or-
thodox Vaishnavs Radha is a swakiya or
wife, for the Sahajiyas she is a parakiya: an
unmarried woman or an adultress. This is
accompanied by the belief that in illicit love
devotion is freely given, it is a matter of
pleasure, passion, longing, rather than one
of duty, procreation and possession as in
marriage. Where the wife's devotion is a
duty, and viraha is "endured as a necessity,
as a symptom of her oppression". illicit love
is gratuitous, shot with peril and rapture and
the pain of separation is prized.77 Thus in
many Bengali representations of a parakiya
Radha, true love exists apart from or out-
side the institution of marriage which is
perceived as being based merely on physical
union, utility and dharma.78 The bhakt
must no longer be subject to maya-which
includes the patriarchal laws and customs
of society.
Here another reason for the special
evocativeness of the female devotional voice
is suggested. Ironically, the greater regula-
tion of female sexuality gives also a greater
valuLe to temale infringement of it. If a man
'illicitly' loves a woman other than his wife
or renounces her, he is neither threatening
nor- opposing patriarchal structures-his
actions can be accommodated within them.
For womnen, illicit love or adultery usually
does infringe the order of a patriarchy-it
may even constitute both a genuine break
with 'worldly' relations and a substantial bid
The Sahajiya path of illicit love, in its
by desire appears to be less patriarchal. Here,
because adultery and illicit love are virtually
exalted into a metaphysic, pleasure triumphs,
and Krishna is represented as a more human,
reciprocating and suffering figure. One of
the earliest texts in this tradition is Jayadev's
Gitagovinda, in which Krishna is made
mortal by his longing and by the pain of
viraha he suffers.79 Radha, an adulteress, is
of course a surrogate for all women and
worshippers, but Jayadev does not use a
female voice simply. He, as poet and devotee,
himself becomes an intermediary in the lila
of Krishna and Radha, interceding or
describing each to each, and celebrating the
entire spectacle of their love. In what is struc-
tured essentially as a dramatic presentation,
he adopts many voices-male, female,
Krishna's, Radha's, her friends', his own-
and none are subaltern.
The parakiya bhava, even in the traditions
of Vaishnav bhakti, was subjected to
orthodox 'scholarly' justifications and
realigned with patriarchal values. For Jiv
Goswami and others in the Bengal school of
Chaitanya, the gopis are manifestations of
Krishna's own saktis;80 the adulterous is
read as the manifest relation while the licit
or swakiya as the hidden one-thereby
preserving the 'inner' or essential 'chastity'
of the female voice. Further the gopis are

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either said to have never consummated their usages of the female voice, and negotiated female devotional voice. (There is scanty
marriages or to love not for their own in several ways. One way is to simply dissolveevidence in her usage of mediation by a
gratification but for Krishna's-i e, for the the contradiction in the eternal fidelity of guru, unlike the mnadhur l -ahhiakui of later
enjoyment of being enjoyed. Not only is this the female while maintaining some in- Rajasthani women saints, Sahjobai
female voice self-negating, and constituted decision about characterising the love as licit (1740-1820) and Davabai (1750-1830) which
entirely in the godly/male gaze, bjit can or illicit. Thus Surdas' gopis and Radha will depends heavily on a legitimising guru
become a symbol of chastity regardless of never become fickle like Krishna, and Radha figure.) For Mira, loss of shame as in Sakhi
whether it describes itself as a swakiya or will remain an eternal virahini; Radha has ri laaj bairan bhai is equivalent to the
parakiya. Here the more daring aspects of a gandharva vivah with Krishna (S: 1, courage to go away with Krishna (BM: 83).
bhakti are allegorically reconciled with the 1689) and is acknowledged by Krishna as his She combines the intensity, the excessive love,
institution of marriage. own, a swakiya, but never becomes a and the social indecorum of the parakiya
A neat way taken by Krishna in the wife/queen like Rukmini. Surdas gets the with the unstinting devotion of ideal
Bhagwat Purana, reused by later bhakfas,, cachet of illicit love, through the renuncia- wifehood; her voice wavers between the licit
maintains the transgressive potential of the tion of lok laaj by Radha and the gopis, and the illicit so suffusing the feudal rela-
parakiya gopis but renders their love as while maintaining the monogamous fideli- tion with the challenge of an ineffable desire.
'mental' or platonic and their desire as ty of the female voice. A second option,
spiritual; the infidelity of the gopis is first found in Surdas' corpus is to spiritualise love VIRAH: MIRA AND KABIR
rationalised then aligned with male asceti- retrospectively. Thus Krishna, in keeping The figure of the virahini, central to
cism. He declaims to his disciple Uddhava: with the moral tone of the Bhagwat Purana, madhuryabhakui, constitutes the female
Just as sages lost in meditation arc not con- after his final departure from Vrindavan, voice as the embodiment of an exquisite suf-
scious of (their bodies and the world con- sends his messenger to instruct the virahini fering. It enters the compositions of several
sisting of) names and forms, or even as riversgopis-that they must now worship a
male bhaktas: Jayadev, Surdas, Kabir, Dadu
entering the sea (lose their identity of name nirguna brahma rather than a corporeal
Dayal, Nanak, Sundardas, Dariya Sahib. Yet
and form) become totally unconscious of this Krishna! (S: 2, 4103). Another solution is
there are differences between the male and
(i e, their own person, their husband and that of Kabir (echoed in other saints, e g, female representation of viraha.
sons) world as well as that (which was at a Paltudas)81 where the female voice being In Mirabai the most prominent and
distance i e, even the next world). Ignorant
predominantly licit and conjugal, it is the passionate bhava is virah drawing upon
of my essential supreme nature, the Gopa
scope of the transgression which is popular traditions of love poetry and folk
women were enamoured of me whom they
reduced-lok laaj often merely amounts to such as the barahmasa (Matvaro
songs
regarded not only their lover but a paramour.
decorum within the family. Giving it up oc- aye re BM: 69; Barsai badariya
baadar
Hundreds and thousands of such women in
this way attained to the supreme Brahman
curs in the context of defying a watchful saavan ki B:148).
marital family, the bride simply loses, asInshe
secular traditions the basis of virah is the
by contact with me., Hence 0, Uddhava
ignore Vedic injunctions and prohibitions, must, her shame, and loves her husband absent or forgetful husband or lover, and the
renounce both Pravritti and Nivritti type of openly (K,HD:204): deserted or neglected but blameless woman.
karmas, and give up what is learnt and what Dheerai panv dharau palanga par, jagat
Aap na aavai likh nahi bhejaifBM:51)
is to be learnt. With exclusive devotion to me nanad jithani (K,HD :206)
Deepak joi kahaa karu sajni, piya pardes
seek shelter in me only who am the soul of Hamri nanad nigodin jaage.., rahave (B:151)
all embodied beings (BhP: 5: 1976-77). Jo sukh chahai to lajja tyaagai, piy se hili- Pritam ku patiya likhu re kaaga tu le jai
mili laagai
Jaiji pritamji su yu kahai re thaari virhan
For Krishna, the gopis transgression of Ghunghat khol ang-bhar bhentai, nain aarti
dhaanan kai (B:151).
familial-patriarchal law is a lesson in immer- saajai (K,HD: 332).
The figure ofThe virahini is in a social sense,
sion in bhakti for the disciple, an exemplum
It is loss of this kind of shame which is predicated on the inability or the lack of
of the concentrated transgression of the
presented as intense and daring (Aaj suhaag agency vested in a woman to overcome or
Vedic path which he desires from the male
ki raat piyari . . . Khol ghunghat mukh end her separation from the lover or
bhakt. A dual character is created for the
dekhaigaa).82 In addition, Kabir sets up an husband. The 'return' of the (fickle) man,
gopis-they appear to break the law but
opposition between nahar or natal family as especially in the polygamous, warring clans
'actually'. do not, and yet they must func-
this world and sasural or marital family asof Rajasthan, may be out of her control (Des
tion as models for others to do so.
otherworldly parlok (K,HD:204, 285,302);vides sandes na pahunche, hoi andesha
When the female voice is a swakiya, as a recurring usage establishes the former as bhaari BM: 87). Yet since the pain of viraha
in several male bhaktas, then what happens ignorance and falsehood and the latter as enables total absorption in the loved one,
to the daring, transgressive power of the true knowledge. The virtuous wife yearns for bhakti redescribes it as the "saving grace
female voice? This power is indispensable: the latter (Naiharva hamka nahi bhavai/Sai which fixes the mind on god",83 and grants
first, because of the paradoxical 'purity', ki nagri param ati sundar (K,HD:205) but agency to the 'female' bhakta to resist maya
'unworldliness' and extraordinary intensity the stress is on conjugal devotion. Even and dissolve separation into union through
of illicit love, and second, because it is a within the sasural, the bride's relationship devotion. The woman becomes an agent in
compelling metaphor for the break which with her husband is valued above her her passion (mein hun birah diwani P:145).
must necessarily be made with maya. The obedient domestic service of his entire Further, since maya is the principle which
very concept of maya declares all worldly family: separates the devotee from god, all life may
relations, institutions, customary laws Pahli naari sadaa kulvanti, saasu sasuraa be presented as yearning, and yearning as
including the conjugal or familial to be false manai the human condition. In this way viraha
(Jhuthe naate jagat ke S:l, 372). Only the Devarjeth sabni ki pyaari, priya ko maram spreads femaleness across the boundary of
person who relegates them can be free of na jaani (KG,G:282). gender; there is also a visible movement from
maya (Koi ekjan ubrai, jini todi kul ki kaani Transgression occurs within the boundaries the actual lives of some women, to metaphor
KG,G:57). Renouncing maya-as represen- already drawn by the suhaagin and the for devotion, to a metaphysic of the human
tation of both 'worldliness' and the swakiya and not in opposition to them. soul. Love is experienced as suffering-preet
laws/customs of this world-while rendering In Kabir's corpus, patriarchal values begin kiya dukh hoi (Ac: 52).84 Sadness is
patriarchal support to the family enter to delimit
into the transgressive potential of therepresented almost as an integral part of
a fundamental contradiction with each female voice, whereas for Mirabai the (pro-female sensuality-Heri mein to darad-
other. bable) practical curtailment of her sexualitydivani, mera darad na janau koi (BM: 85)-
This contradiction is evident in some male gives access to the limitless desire of the a combined product of social (patriarchal)

Economic and Political Weekly July 14, 1990 1547

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constriction, intimations of mortality, and
a desire which is incommensurate with its
(human) object but seeks continuously to
remake that object in divine forms.
Mira's songs are suffused more with a sen-
suous yearning for rapture (Sooni sej jahar
jyu laage B:15 1), than with an explicit render-
ing of consummation when compared to the
Radha of Jayadev, Vidyapati or Chandidas.
It is not merely Krishna's physical distance
from Nlira but his fickleness and closeness
with other women which exacerbates her
virah (Aa waau kai gava san wara, kar gaya
kaul anek BM: 63). He is a selfish nirmnohiya
(apni garaj ke meet BM: 87); he has
hardencd his heart (Hari man kaatha kiya
DP: 55). He is "dallying in Mathura" or
"frolicking" with other women to punish her
(DP:109, BM:86), he is indifferent (Ham
chitwat turn chitwat nahin dil ke bade
kathor BM:55) or has "abandoned" her
"half-way" after having "lit the fire of the
pain of absence" (DP:57,77):
Kaajal teeki ham sab tyaagya tyaagyo chai
Chod gaya biswas pargaata prem ki baati
balai
Birah samad me chod gaya cho, neh ki naar
chalaay(BM:59/DP:60)
Hoji hari kit gaye neh lagai (BM:86/DP:108)
and she is racked with jealousy (DP:80),
Auran so ras batiyaan karat ho, hamse rahe
chit chori(P:97)
Sister, He snaps the ties of love
As you might pluck a sprig of jasmine.
(DP:56)
Inmrat pai kai vish kyu deejai,
kun gaanv ki reet (BM:53)
Why, having first plied me with nectar
Do you serve -ie with poison now? (DP:57)
If you are now making love to another
Why did you make love to me first? (DP:67)-
Mira's love, as we have have seen, may
often be wifely but is not emblematic of
Hindu wifeliness in the way it is claimed to
be.85 Her viraha too hovers between the licit
and the illicit. Viraha is represented in the
renunciatory symbols both of widowhood
and sanyaas-shaving the head, removing
jewellery, giving up shringara or the signs
of marriage, donning ochre robe or ashes
and deerskin, fasting (DP:73, B:150).
Tere karan jogan hoongi..
Ang bhabhut gale mrigchhaala yo tan
bhasam karuri (B:151)
Phaarungi cheer karu gal kantha rahungi
bairaagan hoiri
Churiya phoru maang bakheru kajra mein
daaru dhoi ri (BM:75)
Jogiya ji chhai rahya pardesh
Jab ka biccharya pher na miliya bahori na
diyo sandes
Ya tan upri bhasam ramaau khor karu sir
Bhagwai bhekh dharu tum kaaran
dhundhat chyaaru des (BM:54/DP:62)
Udho mei vairagin hari ki
Bhooshan bastar sab hi ham tyaage (BM:49)
Haar singar sabai mai tyaagya, karisya
bhagwa bes
Ang bibhuti gale mrigchaala, laamba
bandhau kes (BM:67)
Tere karan sab rang tyaaga kaajal tilak
tamola (P:181)
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These nuances of widowhood in her virah
can be interpreted as an extension of licit
wifehood. The description of viraha as a
form of ascetic widowhood is not un-
commnon in bhakti compositions. The
prescriptive conflation of separation with
widowhood lurks behind it: the Manusmriti
sternly enjoins a wife whose husband is
travelling to live like a widow in his absence
and give up most of her shringara(MDS:
240). In Mira's compositions these sym-
bolsrnay signify either her actual
widowhood or her rejection of earthly
suhaag, but they certainly represent her
repudiation of the norms and courtly power
of her own class, her desire to renounce
maya, as well as the pain of her separation
from Krishna.
Nahin bhaavai thaaro deshadlo rangrudho
Thaara desaa me rana saadh nahin chai log
base sab koodo
Gahna gaathi rana ham tyaagya tyaagyo
kar ro choodo
baandhan joodho
Mira ke prabhu girdhar naagar var paayo
chai roodho (BM:58;79)
I don't like your strange 'beautiful' world,
Rana,
A world where there are no holy men, and
all the people are trash,
I have given up ornaments, given up
braiding my hair.
I have given up putting on kaajal, and
putting my hair up.
Mira's Lord is Girdhar Nagar,
I have found a perfect bridegroom.86
Ranaji the Kyaane raakho mahaasu ber...
Mahal ataari ham sab taagya taagyo thaaro
basno sahar
Kajal tiki Rana ham sab taagya bhagwi
chaadar pahar (BM:80)
In one sense the guise of the widow or the
jogin, replete with its own sanctions, is also
a new mark of identification for her, a
visible sign of choice (P:177), an
announcement:
Sadho! mein vairaagan har ki
Bhushan vastar sab hi ham tyaage, khaan
paan vishraano (P:121)
Nowhere in Mira's compositions is there a
simple conflation of actual widowhood and
the figure of the virahini. She rejects both
the good wife and the immolated widow-
sati na hosya (B:162). Her own personal
deity/husband is alive, immortal.If she can
give up shringara for Krishna, she can also
don shringara for Krishna-Baajuband
kadula sohai, sindoor maang bhari
(BM:56)-there is no contradiction between
the two.
kes In Kabir's compositions, however, there is higher cause.
a slide fromvirah to widowhood. The
entanglement of the female devotional voice
in patriarchal values on the one hand, and
in nirguna-advaitic bhakti on the other,
enables a distinct movement from the
pativrata to the virahini to the sati.
Virah combines pain with ple-asure
(KG,G:17); Kabir's virahini is full of an in- introspection. Yet the descriptions from
dispensable anguish, redolent with sexual
and Political Weekly
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desire, tormented by longing (KG,G:12-19,
BK: 209). Virah is a path through which to
find the beloved, without it the heart would
be a cremation ground:
Kabir biraha buraha jini kghau, biraha hai
sultan
Jisi ghati birah na sanchrai, so ghat sadaa
masaan (KG,G:16)
Viraha is a metaphorical widowhood: the
agonised virahini breaks her bangles on the
bed, they are useless without him.87 The
pain of viraha is a burning pain, perpetual
and intolerable:
Viraha agni tan talfai ho (K, HD: 330, 338-9;
KG, G: 118)
Aath pahar ka dajhna mo pai sahgaa na
jaai (KG,G:18)
The being burns like wood in the fire of
viraha, smoke emerges but the beloved does
not come (KG, G: 18; Bij: 415).
Though virah assumes a dualism, Kabir
seeks to interpret it non-dualistically. The
beloved is inside the heart:
Pritam ko patiya likhu, jo kahu hoi vides
Tan me man me nain me, taakau kaha
sandes (K, HD: 329)
Since the husband-god resides' withirrthe
virahini or wife-soul (K, HD: 332-33), union
is only prevented by internal blindness,
egotism (ahambhav) and worldliness
(maya). In this fairly common interpreta-
tion, vitaha is not only a process of
'purification', but of the extinction or
immolation of the 'self'.
The virtue of the pativrata, the burning
pain of thevirahini and the idealism of viih
come together in the figure ofsati. The sati
is the only type of woman who manages to
give upmaya-unlike the male bhakta this
involves a prior, complete subjection to the
ideology of marriage. Whether widow im-
molation appeared to Kabir to be an ideal
action for a good wife in practice88 is
debatable, but the sati and what she
represents is certainly an ideal model for th
bhakt.
The ideality of sati combines a desired
model of marriage with the trajectory
desired for the soul. Widow immolation is
represented as interchangeable with conjugal
devotion, a transparent sign of love.
Sati ko kaun sikhavata hai, sang swaami ke
tan jaarna ji
Prem ko kaun sikhawata hai, tyaag maahi
bhog paavna ji (K,HD: 273).
Since mukticomes from recognising the in-
visible or adrisht (Bij:32), sati can be equated
with the reunion of woman-soul (atma) with
husband-god (paramatma) through the
soul's active annihilation of itself for a
Kabir satijalan ku nikli, piv ka sumri neh
Sabad sunat jiv niklya, bhuli gai sab deh
(KG,G:119).
Within an idealist theology, the human
widow can be comfortingly interpreted as
either abstract analogue or metaphor and
widow immolation as a moment of pure
which this ideal moment is to be extracted
July 14, 1990
are, and must be, substantive in order to be
persuasive.
It is in this contradictory space, marked
at each end by the human widow and the
idea of the widow that the figure of the
satitakes shape. In some compositions the
widow is not fully corporeal for Kabir-
widowhood is a state of mind, an emblem
of the predicament of the human soul. In
one composition widowhood signifies
ignorance or agyan. The wife/soul arrives
in the worldsasuraal with her husband (sai
ke sang saasur aai) but due to her ignorance
does not recognise him and falls into
worldliness/maya. She marries a man and
as a result soon finds herself a widow beside
his corpse (Argha de lai chali suvasini,
chauka raand bhai sang sai) though her true
husband is seated near her all the while.
Despite being eternally married she finds
herself without a husband. The only solu-
tion for her is to forsake worldliness and
awaken to find her true husband inside her
(Bij:203). In another composition, ignorance
qua widowhood is overcome in the moment
prior to immolation. This is the moment of
recognition of the true husband. The com-
position is, exceptionally, in the first person
of the female voice. Kabir metaphorically
identifies with the sati. The bhanita declares
that he/she will happily prepare the pyre and
go to meet the real husband:
Apnepurush mukh kabhu na dekhyau, sati
hot samjhi amjhai
Kahe Kabir hu sal rachi maarihu, tirau kant
le toor bajai (KG,G:280)
Though the widow may not be fully cor-
poreal, yet sati is not illusory. It is at once
a configuration of action, behaviour and
event in which the human widow remains a
referent, as well as an inner state of recognis-
ing the truth. No woman can become a sati
by simply adopting the outer insignia of
modesty, i e, veiling herself (Ghunghat
kaadhya sati na koi KG,G:275). The sati goes
to be burnt with but one thought fLxed
within her mind, body and soul are to be
offered to her beloved so that nothing
separates them:
Kabir sati jaran kau neeks4 chit dhari ek
bibek
Tan man saupa piv kau,tab antari rwhi na
rekh (KG,G:119/BK:243)
As the sati heroically leaves everything for
the solitary pain of the pyre, so too, Kabir
suggests, the bhakt must abandon himself
(KG,G: 118/BK:243). The bhakt stands in the
same relation tobhakti as does the good
woman to sati and the warrior to courage-
if any of them hesitate or leave their 'work'the limited, the shapelessness of a nirguna
unfinished then they waste a lifetime's effort:
atma/paramatma from the shapes of this
Kabir tooti baras akaas thai, koi na sakai world, the body becomes not a vehicle but
ihad jhal
Sadh sati aru soor ka, ani upela khel
(KG,G:118)
The sati signifies the end of hesitation for phical framework of nirguna or advaitic
the man, the fearless discarding of maya
Exactly as the sati forsakes the utensils of
domesticity, and the courageous warrior is-
unafraid of death, so must the bhakt for-
Economic and Political
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sake his fears. Like the saii having once volition of the woman is central to this
picked up the casket of sindhur, he must philosophical framework-the wife-soul
follow the entire logic of his choice lest he must be a willing soul-a sati by definition
wishes to become a laughing stock in the cannot be coerced. On the one hand only
eyes of the world, for retreating half way! the patriarchal restriction of the agency of
Dagmag chhaari de man baura women through practices and ideologies can
Ab tau jare mare bani aavai keenhau produce the symbol of a sati. On the other
haathi sindhaura hand the success of the symbol requires the
Hoi nisank magan hoi naachai lobh nioh attribution of a spurious agency to women
bhram chaarai in the spiritual domain.
Sura kaha maran tai darpai sati na What is the social basis of the analogue
sanchai bhandai and metaphor? In considering the relation
Lok bed kul ki marjadaa ihai gale mai between a patriarchal practice and an oral
phaansi
tradition, it is impossible to ignore the social
Aadhaa chali kari paachai phirhi hoi jagat
potentials of the images, which may either
mai haansi
coincide with or be quite distinct from
Yeh sansaar sakal hai maila ram kahai to
'authorial' intention. The practice of im-
soocha
molation and/or the virtue of the immolated
Kahe Kabir naau nahi chaadau girat parat
widow are either commonly accepted verities
chadhi ooncha89
or are being sought to be established as a
The compulsions of patriarchy are
patriarchal consensual ground upon.which
transformed into the true volition of the
bhakti can be propagated. In asking a bhakt
bhakt. The dread of widowhood becomes
to be like the immolated widow, safi is be-
the ecstasy of the soul freed from maya; the
ing invoked as an already accepted, analo-
widow weighed down by kul ki marjada
gous 'truth' a stable structure-of values to
becomes the sati who has cast off its
which social assent can be taken for granted.
bondage. A practice which is partly a pro-
The assumption is that no one will disagree
duct of the regulation of female sexuality is
with the patriarchal 'truth' in which sati is
re-interpreted as a final transcendance of the
anchored. A description of such an order
body. The sindhoor, a mark of marriage
equals an affirmation because sati is the
erased on widowhood, an emblem of suhaag
stable part of the metaphor-that which is
conflated with the religious virtue of the
either already established as 'common sense'
woman, has a fatal logic for the immolated
or represented as already established-while
widow. Here, with the impunity of the male
it is the status of the bhakt which is uncer-
voice, Kabir transforms it first into a
tain and sought to be fixed. Therefore
generalised moral about that fear of death
patriarchal truth becomes indistinguishable
which the bhakt must shed, and then into
from the road to divine truth. The bhakt's
the eternal logic of salvation. For Kabir
desire is being shaped alongside/by patriar-
femaleness as a social definition and as a
chal morality. Here the question which arises
metaphor begins to prop a metaphysic which
goes beyond the invaluable assistance which
in turn underpins patriarchal social practice.
patriarchal values and belief render to
If earthly marriage and widowhood are
each other: rather are they not mutually
'false, then immolation can be at once -real generative?
and unreal. On the one hand, immolation Mira's bhakti may occasionally be non-
signifies the pure volition and bravery (in dualistic and her descriptions sometimes
withstanding pain) of the woman, and on
echo Kabir's compositions. Viraha is a fire
the other hand the fire is euphemistically
for her too (taap tapan bahutera (BM:51),
represented- as a painless one: sati is a way
and god resides in her heart:
of proving the 'Truth' by -'sleeping' in the Jin ke piya pardes basat hai likh likh
flames with the piv (KG,G:119). The poet bhejai paati
asks why this sat could not be proved Mera piya mere hiya basat hai na kahu
through 'immolation' of her 'self' while her aati jaati (BM:74/DP:42)
husband was alive, why wait for his death? But Mira never quite arrives at Kabir's
(KG,G:119) A position which wavers between denouement, even in the one composition
the human widow and the idea of the widow where the images are similar. She is pleading
can contradict the practice of widow im- with Krishna not to leave her:
molation, but upholds it metaphorically, Agarchandan ki chita banaau, apne haath
ideologically and inspirationally. jalaa jaa
Jal bal bhai bhasm ki dheri, apne ang
In the attempt to find the limitless from, lagaa jaa
Mira kahe prabhu girdhar naagar, jot me
jot mila jaa (BM:55)
If/when I become/make a pyre of
an obstacle in finding god. In using sati as sandalwood; light it with your hand
analogue and metaphor for giving up the And when iti burns to a heap of ashes
body Kabir also makes the idea of sati apply it to your body
ideologically compatible with the.philoso- Mira says* Lord Girdhar mingle my light
with yours.90
Hinduism. The same nirguna monistic The image wavers suspiciously between a.
universalism which assists in the rejection suicidal love and the immolation of a
of caste, ritual et al, also assists in an deserted woman, between the fire of virah
'analogical' adjustment with patriarchy. The and a funeral fire, between a desired abstract
Weekly July 14, 1990 1549
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union of two flames, and physical extinction
as the path to such union.
Mira's compositions thus partake in
similar devotional voice and metaphors, yet
in her corpus both voice and metaphor enter
into a contestatory relation with patriarchal
definitions and social practices. However, at
some levels, the female devotional voice re-
mains 'impersonal'. First, the doubleness of
a desire which traverses the sensual and the
spiritual, 'effectively prevents desire from
becoming 'individual' despite the 'individua-
tion' of the signature, and makes it the per-
sonally signed expression of a collectivity.
Second, the web of interconnected imagery,
the interchangeability of the female voice,
the fact that it is used by both male and
female bhakts, allows for the effacement or
the erasure of the self, even as the 'author'
signs her/his song. And yet the self is never
really/fully erased, because the self is part
of, speaks to and from a larger social,
ideological and religious collectivity-a col-
lectivity which reduces the distance between
the singer and the listener, the bhakt and the
follower. Many pads by Kabir, Surdas, Tulsi,
Narsi Mehta are simply given Mira's signa-
ture later by her followers (BM: 45).
The combination of the sociality of the
female voice, with the signature whether
male or female implies a personal subject
knowingly immersed in an oral collectivity
who does not choose to do more than leave
a small mark of his/her repetition and in-
novation on existing expressive modes, who
claims neither full originality nor singular
innovation, who knows and accepts that
devotion is marked not by novelty but by
repetition and submersion. If Mira's bhajans
create a different configural space then it is
also a space which relies heavily on older and
contemporary ways of seeing which she can
personalise but which she cannot fully in-
dividuate. Her emphasis on suffering, on the
cost of her devotion puts her bhakti into
another register but Mira's is not a unique
subjectivity-the boundaries between her
own speech and the speech of others are
unclear. In this sense her bhakti is a 'public'
consciousness in the form of an intimate
longing.
MIRABHAKTI AND TIME
'Feudal' time exists in several different
relations with what we call 'secular' time.
There is a certain instrumentality within
feudal society both because it is stratified
and because it is (relatively) mobile. Mira's pretation. Though this process is not con-
bhakti defines itself first against the birth- fined to royal groups (and her songs are
determined, quasi-mythological bardic time being re-inscribed or entirely re-written into dread nor a pragmatic approach to living-
celebrated in Rajput courts; second against
the preordained time of karma which sets condensation of Mira's life into symbolic discussions, sanyaas, suicide in Benaras
out to explain the 'origin' and inevitability
of social inequality, and third within the
combined time of a meaningful changeable
present and the elongated span of rebirth. mobility'95 which can function
Rajput chronicles and biographies were
autonomously at the level of consciousness
beginning to conjure mythical histories and and salvation. Precisely as in one of Mira's
genealogies as a usable past to authorise andsongs Shabri remains low of caste though
buttress present rule. Since mythicisation is,she gets a place in Vaikunth (heaven) The very weight of being born a
the privileged mode of legitimisation and
seen to be self-authenticating, the secular
time of the 'event' is fed into "Time im-
memorial". This is not the "Time imme- Hari ji su baandhvo het baikunth me
morial" which Kosambi designates as a time jhulni (B:168/DP:112,B:115)
corresponding to a sealed, self-sufficient, use so the chiefs and chieftains, princesses and
value oriented ancient and medieval village queens who became bhaktas of Mira or
economy,91 rather it is an instrumental imitated her in composing bhaktl songs
aspect of social mobility and a 'sanctifying' (Nabhadas' Bhakiamala records Akhey Raj
mode which processes the accessions to of Idar, Prithviraj of Bikaner, his wife the
political power for the upper strata. Bardicprincess Ranavati, Jai Singh of Jaipur, and
narratives reconstruct events according to the a princess Kichani of Marwar)' did not
code of social acceptability and political ef-challenge or abdicate royal status. Another
ficacy: here myth and legend are historical roval, instituitional modc of appropriation,
because they are submerged in their own which falls outside the comforting para-
time. nicters ot oral transmutation and literary
Mira's bhakti is the obverse of courtly convention, and absorbs Mirabai into the
time. She scarcely attempts to retell the life 'charity' ot the Rajput state is described as
of Krishna in the biographical manner then follows:
popular: e g, in Rajput illuminations of the A small sect of Mirabais composed of
Bhagwat Purana, in some bhakti composi- 13rahinili anid other caste widows,
tions, and in narratives of a heroic Krishna acknowledginig the leadership of the
in medieval Rajasthani akhyan kavyas.92 Rajput printcess, wearing dress in the man-
The Radha Krishna devotionalism of ner otf Mira anid professing the same at-
medieval ritikaal poetry which flourished tacihmivenit to Krishna is still in existence in
under the patronage of northern courts was Mewar. These Mirabais maintain them-
selves oni public charity and daily ration
mainly a continuation of the eulogistic tradi-
tion of Rajasthani heroic poetry in which provided tor them from charitable funds
ot Mewar state which may be traced from
royal patrons are elevated to the position of
the 17th century onwards.97
divinity. Again, the compositions of the
Indced the redLictionl of Mira into a model
bhats and charans-kavyas and raasos-are
of the governable 'good widow' who could
a form in which the autobiographical self-
hencetorth gct state approval and financial
consciousness of the family or clan is fused
suipport can be seen in the case of Gawari
with that of the state. Organised around the
13ai (1758-1808). B3orn in a Nagar Brahmin
particularised memory of a clan or sub-clan,
faamils in D)ungarpur, shc was a child widow.
these compositions become the official or
Known for hter devotioin and her pursuit of
institutional memory of and betoken the
kniowledge an1d well versed in the scriptures,
future designs of the state. The narrated lives
shc attracted the attention of Maharawal
of kings and kingdoms are further entwined
Sissinha (1730-1785) of Dungarpur. He built
with the actions of gods and the plots of
a temple for hier to residc in. She went to
salvation. It is a compositional mode which
Kashi in her list days aind died there. She
embodies the privileges and desires of a
is considered to be an incarnation of
powerful group, represents the self-identity
Mirabai.95
of their power. In rejecting this mode, Mira's
bhakti in effect rejects the public and Mira repeatedly asserts her belief in
'historical' memory of the state (also a rebirth: it both sanctions her love for
record of the rights of ownership of women, Krishna (meri unki preet purani B:155) and
of property)93 in favour of a 'personal' nar- dissolves the fear ot karma. Krishnabhakti
rative of love and salvation. Her songs is a product of the mnerit of past lives (Meera
devalue the privileges of birth, honour, ke girdhar intilcva ji foorab janam ke bhaag
status or heroism which establish courtly BM:70): shtc has becen with him in a previous
time, and are preconditions for entering it. life where hie 'promised' her future, sue
However, her own life and songs are fed cessive reunions (B:168/DP:112, DP:42).
into a similar de-personalising and sancti- Karma oppressively determines good and
fying process which erases the material evil fortune (DP:110,113); human birth and
specificity of her options, homogenises herher own fortune in being wedded to Krishna
life with that of other saints, turns her life are rewards for "good deeds in past births"
into legend and symbol (not into an indi- (DP:42).
viduated biography of linear time), her per- Naahi aiso janam baarambar
sonality into distance and aura, blocking it Ka jaanu kachhu punya pragate,
off from any but a quasi-symbolic inter- maanusha avataar (BM:57/DP:117)
However, karma and rebirth do not destroy
free will, they dictate neither an attitude of
the orality of peasant-artisan forms)94 the she scoffs at fasts, pilgrimages, philosophical
value leads to some specifiable appropria- (BM:66/DP:116). Immersion in Krishna
tions. The space created for women by Mirareleases the devotee from fear of karma and
comes to be confined to space for 'spiritual rebirth-his redeeming presence can trans-
form dread into celebration.
Karam gal taare naahin tare......
Mira ke prabhu girdhar naagar, vikh se
amrit kare (BM:50/DP:113)
woman-conventionally a proof of mis-
Neech kul ochhi jaat ati hi kucheelni....
Aisi kaha ved padhi chhin me vimaan deeds in past lives-evaporates: the present
chadhi becomes a gift not a curse. Mira 'inherits'

1550 Economic and Political Weekly July 14, 1990

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the love of Krishna not the burden of
misdeeds in previous lives; Krishna's name
can destroy "ancient sins of many a former
birth" (DP:118). When Krishna is fickle it
becomes a question of recovering or reviv-
ing his love which she tIas enjoyed in former
births (Purab janam ki preet hamaari
BM:85/DP:51, DP:58). Her own bondage
(daasijanam janam ki B:144) has been con-
stant across births, her own love spans an
elongated time and is matched by the im-
mortality of Krishna: 'I have chosen no
miserable bridegroom/Who will die at each
rebirth' (DP:119, 49, 53, 59). The suhaag of
prescriptive Rajput practice defines a
punitive, retributive present made dreadful
in the interest of future security.
Mira'ssuhaag is endless time, connecting past
births to a present which is also the imma-
nent future (BM:70). Mira claims the time
of immortality which accrues in the ideology
of suhaag while disclaiming the full duty of
a wife; she appropriates the excess of time
but recedes from the stridharma which has
hitherto offered it to women conditionally-
through obedience to prescription.
Real dukha or suffering comes not from
the bondage of karma but from the separa-
tion from god. Mira desires freedom from
rebirth-kato jam ki phaansi (BM:66)-but
more intensely, seeks union with/dissolution
in Krishna (DP:98, 90, 20). As abhava, virah
signifies not an emptiness but a fullness, or
a claim to presence based on absence. Unlike
karma which speaks an absolute past con-
taining the present, virah speaks an unfinish-
ed present, an incomplete time-in-the-
making. Mira uses the present (He ri mein
to prem divani B:139) as well as the future
tense (Baalha mein vairaagin hoongi
BM:75). The resolve of the present deter-
mines the future while the immanent future
precipitates into the present. Virah is lifelong it is possible to function ethically without
(BM:54, 61), each moment like an age (Palak
palak moheyugse beetain P:95), yet the time
of virah is never finally resolved. The seman-
tic stability of karmic time is set aside even
though its stretch of rebirth is accepted. God
is complete, the devotee is not. God coin-
cides with himself, there is no gap between
essence and manifestation; his story already
exists, he is already everything he could
become. The devotee is constantly and
publicly making/ remaking herself as a
devotee:
Mein to sanvre ke rang raachi
Saaji singar bandhi pag ghunghru lok laaj
taji naachi (BM:75)
The time of karma and rebirth is claimed
as elongated time, but challenged by faith
in Krishna's direct intervention, it is also
compressed: mukti is available here in this
life as well as hereafter (Mira keprabhu gir-
dhar nagar, janam maran so chhutki
BM:72). The time of karma magnifies the
distance between cause (past deeds) and ef- character. A product of social change, aspir-
fect (present life), between action (in this life)ing to level certain forms of inequality, it also 70 Quoted in Sharma, Hindi Sant, p 163.
and consequence (in an unknowable future).
Mira's bhakti narrows this gap. This con-
figuration allows Mira to relocate predeter-
mined time as present time, though her ac-
ceptance of the package of karma and
rebirth may also open a way for future co-
option into 'high' Hinduism.
Economic and Political Weekly July 14, 1990 1551
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What is the space for dissent and social overlapping patriarchies, but neither finds
critique based on a linear progressive notion nor creates an unsullied space. Her bhakti
of time within this schema? In Mira's songs is internally poised to lose the ground it sets
the body, life and the world are ephemeral- out to gain. For us Mira represents a strug-
"like the sporting of sparrows/ It will end gle, not a victory.
with the onset of night"(DP:116):
(Concludldd
Is dehi ka garab na karna, maati me mil
jaasi
Notes
Yo sansaar chahar ki baaji, saanjh
padya uth jaasi (BM:66/DP:116)
50 Pande, Birth of Bhakti, pp 122, 131.
Badhat chhin chhin ghatat pal pal jaat na 51 Quoted in Thaper, History of India, p 187.
laage baar 52 Ramanujam, Speaking of Siva, p 120.
Birachh ke jyo paat toote bahuri na 53 Kinsley, The Sword, p 65.
laage daar.... 54 Sursagar, Nanddulare Vajpeyi (ed) (Sur
Samiti, Kashi: Nagri Pracharini Sabha, vs
Gyaan chosar mandi chohate, surat paasa
2009), 2 Vols Khand 1: pad 1931-36, 1948,
saar
1956, 1271-74, 1277, 1839, 1848, 1857-58,
Ya duniya me rachi baaji, jeet bhavai haar 1868-69, 1876, 1879, 1917-18, 1907, 1927,
Sadhu sant mahant gyani, chalat kat 1933, 1941, 1948-56, 1958-60, 1962-63,
purkaar 1975-76, 1%5, 1%7, 1979, 1982. Subsequent
Lal girdhar, jeevana din chyar (BM:57) references to this are cited in the text as S.
Questions of social responsibility and 55 Dadu Dayal ki Vani, pp 71, 148, 36 in
R Sharma, Hindi Sant, pp 234-36.
possibilities for change, are tied into an
56 Kabir Granthavali, Shyamsundardas (ed),
ontology and a metaphysical schema.
(Varanasi: Nagari Pracharini Sabha, vs
Ethical questions are restated as daily ques- 2034), p 225-henceforth this is cited in the
tions within an already structured world in text as KG, S; Macauliffe, Sikh Religion,
which the time of mortality always intersects Vol 6, p 209.
that of daily choice. The insecurity of 57 Sharma, Social Life, p 233; Alston, Devo-
human relations, the public fact of human tional Poems, p 6.
58 See Maurice Godelier, Perspectives in
finitude, the condition of human existence,
Marxist Anthropology translated by Robert
is not separated from her own challenge to Brain (1973, rpt Cambridge: Cambridge
domestic confinement: the management of University Press, 1977), p 183.
death and mortality is a confronting of the 59 Emphasis added. Quoted in Parshuram
problems of life in this world. Transience is Chaturvedi, Bhakti Sahitya me
emblematic of human relations: it is the Madhuropasana (Allahabad: Bharati Bhan-
space from which notions of ethical action dar, 1961), p 47, translated in Alston, Devo-
tional Poems, pp 24-25. Mira is said to have
and salvation will be wrested (Ab tum sovat
authored a set of compositions on Narsi
sej palang par, kal tum jayoge masaan Mehta entitled Narsiji Ro Mahero
B:173); the repeated reminder of mortality (Acharya, Bhakt Mira, p 44).
itself becomes a call for and a rationale for 60 Narsi Mehta writes: "Of all our incarna-
ethical action (Satsango ras chaakh tions, woman is supreme;/Balabhadra is
pranL.../Hasti ne ghora maal khajaana kaai tamed by her./Oh, sweet companion, what's
the use/of manly vigour in attaining my
na aave saath P:117). Within this rationale
desire?" (Devotional Songs of Narsi Mehta,
translated by Swami Mahadevanand, Delhi:
aspiring to change the world. Whether Motital Benarsidas, 1985, p 26). See also
ethical action collapses into the quietism of Ramanujam, 'On Women' in Divine Con-
maya and maintains the existing hierarchical sort, Hawley (ed), p 336; Milton Singer,
order, or attempts to change it by using 'The Radha Krishna Bhajans of Madras
City' in Krishna: Myths, Singer (ed),
mortality as a 'democratice levelling principle
pp 132-33.
with which to oppose a hierarchical feudal
61 Ramanujam, ibid, p 324.
polity, depends not on an individual bhakt
62 Ibid, p 323.
but on the other historical forces at work in 63 Kabir Sahab ka Bijak Granth, Hajur
the wider social formation. In the notion of Prakashmaninam (ed) (Varanasi: Vishwesh-
time as posited by Mira's bhakti, there is no war Press, 1982), 4th ed, pp 14, 22. Hence-
separation between renunciation and social forth this is cited in the text as Bij.
critique. The infinite span of the meta- 64 The English translations are from William
J Dwyer, Bhakti in Kabir (Patna: Associated
physical can subsume the finite action of the
Book Agency, 1981), pp 59, 174. This is
individual, even the 'historical' can be sub-
henceforth cited in the text as BK.
sumed in longing. Since the individual and
65 Quoted in Pyarelal Shukl, Bhaktikaleen
the 'historical' constantly seek a place in a Kavya me Chitrit Nari Jeevan (Allahabad:
malleable metaphysical schemas, no con- Sahityavani, 1984), p 45.
tradiction need necessarily surface between 66 Sant Sudhasar, Viyogi Hari (ed), p 131,
the two. quoted in Sharma, Hindi Sant, p 148.
67 Quoted in Shukl, Bhaktikaleen Kavya, p 37.
Mira's bhakti is contradictory; it protests
68 Songs of Kabir, translated by Rabindranath
and assists in its appropriations, has both Tagore (New York: Macmillan, 1916), p 82.
a radicalising potential and a compensatory 69 Kabir edited and translated by Prabhakar
Machwe (Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1968).
participates in making a vocabulary and 71 Dwyer, Bhakti, p 251.
structures of feeling which can compensate 72 See Dwyer, Bhakti, pp 166-67. Kabir
for the absence of those desired freedoms. criticises Shaivites: Sundari na sobhai,
sankadik ke saath/Kabhu ke daag lagaavai,
It traverses the perilous paths of brahminical
kaari haandi haath (Bij: 100)-A woman
injunction, salvation schemas and feudal does not ornament a sankadik, she is the
relations in medieval Rajasthan, negotiates black utensil which will surely stain the
the webbed terrain of oral traditions and of hand sometime.
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
73 Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Ronald Carter,
Michael Toolan, 'Clines of Metaphoricity,
and Creative Metaphors as Situated Risk-
Taking', Journal of Literary Semantics NOTICE
(April 1988), p 30.
74 Quoted in Sharma, Hindi Sant, Raidas: pp
It is hereby notified for the information of the public that SHAW WALLACE & C
176, 183-84; Dadu Dayal: pp 236-37, 240;
Malukdas: p 253; Sundardas: pp 263-64, LIMITED proposes to make an application to the Central Government in the De
273-74; Dariyasahib: pp -289-90, 295; of Company Affairs, New Delhi, under Sub-Section (2) of Section 22 of the M
Paltudas: pp 326, 328-29, 337, For Raidas,
and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969, for approval to the establishment
see also Macauliffe, Sikh Religion, Vol 6,
p 334. undertaking/unit/division. Brief particulars of the proposal are as under
75 Sundar Darshan, Triloki Narayana Dikshit
(ed), p 264, and Dariya Granthavali, 1. Name and address of the applicant Shaw Wallace & Company Limi
Dharmendra Brahmachari Shastri (ed), pp
4, Bankshall Street
382; quoted in Sharma, Hindi Sant, pp 272,
296-97. Calcutta 700 001
76 Dimock, 'Doctrine and Practice in Krishna:
2. Capital structure of the applicant AUTHORISED
Myths, Singer (ed), pp 62-63; Lie Siegel,
Sacred and Profane Dimensions in Indian organisation Ordinary Rs. 40,00,00,000
Traditions as Exemplif ed in the Gitagovin- SUBSCRIBED
da of Jayadeva (London: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1978), pp 25-26. Ordinary Rs. 12,00,00,000
77 Siegel, ibid, pp 116-20.
78 Siegel, ibid, p 114 and Dimock, 'Doctrine
3. Management structure of the Mr M R Chhabria, Chairman
and Practice in Krishna: Myths, Singer applicant organisation indicating the Mr K R Chhabria, Managing Director
(ed), pp 55, 65. names of directors, including Mr A K Das, Mr B S Mehta,
79 The Gitagovinda of Jayadeva, edited and
translated. by Barbara Stoler Miller (Delhi: managing/whole-time directors and Dr R S Tarneja, Mr P K Pandit,
Motilal Benarsidas, 1977), pp 92, 111. Mira manager, if any Mr A S Malik, Mr J Bhagava,
is said to have written a teeka or commen-
Mr T S Venkatesan, Mr K Srinivasan
tary on the Gitagovinda, its probable author
was Rana Kumbha-Rana Sanga's grand- 4. Indicate whether the proposal New Division (Commencement of
father (see Acharya, Bhakt Mira, p 44).
relates to establishment of a new production of Ethyl, DTCL)
80 Dimock, 'Doctrine and Practice in Krishna
Myths, Singer (ed), p 56; Siegel, Sacred and undertaking or a new unit/division.
Profane, pp 224-25.
81 Quoted in Sharma, Hindi Sant, p 331. 5. Location of the new undertaking/ Durgachak, Haldia, Midnapore,
82 Quoted in Sharma, Hindi Sant, p 162. unit/division West Bengal
83 Dimock, 'Doctrine and Practice in Krishna:
Myths, Singer (ed), p 61. 6. Capital structure of the proposed Same as in item 2
84 For translation of other poems on the suf- undertaking
fering of virah see Alston, Devotional
Poems, pp 76, 84, 103.
7. In case the proposal relates to the Name of Proposed Estimated
85 Ibid, Alston, p 25.
86 Translation by S M Pandey and Norman production, storage, supply, distribu- Goods/ Licensed Annual
Zide, Poems from Mirabai, mimeograph tion, marketing control of any Articles Capacity Turnover
(University of Chicago, 1964), p 12, quoted
in David Kinsley, 'Devotion as an Alter- goods/articles, indicate Ethyl DTCL 200 M.T. Rs. 98,10,OOC
native to Marriage in the Lives of Some
Hindu Women Devotees' in Tradition and 8. In case the proposal relates to Not Applicable
Modernity, Lele (ed), p 89. the provision of any service, state
87 Kabir ki Saakhi, pp 40-41, quoted in
the volume of activity in terms of
Sharma, Hindi Sant, pp 166-67.
88 Shukl, Bhaktikaleen Kavya, p 50. Shukl usual measures such as value, in-
compartmentalises Kabir's patriarchal at- come, turnover, etc.
titudes and his use of the female voice as
parallel but unrelated.
9. Cost of the project Nil. Propose to use the idle capacity
89 Parasnath Tiwari, Kabir (1967, rpt New
Delhi: National Book TYust, 1981), p 102. in the existing facilities
This cited henceforth as K, PT.
90 Translation from Pandey and Zide, 'Surdas' 10. Scheme of finance, indicating Not Applicable
in Krishna: Myths, Singer (ed), p 199. the amounts to be raised from each
91 D D Kosambi, Syed (ed), p 28. source
92 Pratapaditya Pal, The Classical Tradition
in Rajput Painting (Pierpont Morgan
Library: The Gallery Association of New Any person interested in the matter may make a representation in quadruplicate to
York State, 1978), pp 50, 68, 112; Hiralal the Secretary, Department of Company Affairs, Government of India, Shastri Bhavan,
Maheshwari, History of Rajasthani
New Delhi within 14 days from the date of publication of this Notice, intimating his
Literature (Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1980),
pp 95, 122. views on the proposal and indicating the nature of his interest therein.
93 Thapar, Ancient Indian, pp 327-28.
94 Ibid, Maheshwari, pp 186-87.
95 Arnold Hauser's phrase, The Social History
of Art (New York: Vintage, 1951), Vol 1, SHAW WALLACE & COMPANY LIMITED
p 232.
S.C. MAJUMDER
% Sharma, Social Life, p 235. A pasban of Ra-
ja Sawant Singh of Krishangarh, Banithani- SECRETARY & ASST. VICE PRESIDENT
ji, composed many verses on Radha and
Krishna (Arora, Rajasthan me nari,
Dated this 9th day of July 1990.
pp 95-96).
97 Sharma, Social Life, p 235.
98 Maheshwari, History of Raiasthani, p 152. Pressman

1552 Economic and Political Weekly July 14, 1990

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