In Hindu anthropology feelings belong to the sphere of competence of women. Accordingly, bhakti ideology, particularly, but not exclusively, in its Krishna-centered version, prescribes adopting a female alter ego when embracing the path to salvation. Bhakti poets often assume a female voice in their compositions and living emulations of the ubiquitous milkmaids (the gopī) recurrently appear in the devotional life in Braj and elsewhere.

What does this imagined womanhood mean? How is it constructed? How does it relate to the rare authentically female voices among bhakti poets? What’s the place of women in practical devotion today? This is the range of questions this presentation will attempt to address.

Organiser: Marianne Q. Fibiger mf@cas.au.dk