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Daukes, Jacqueline (2014) Female voices in the Vārkarī sampradāya : gender constructions in a bhakti tradition. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/20367 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. FEMALE VOICES IN THE VĀRKARĪ SAMPRADĀYA: GENDER CONSTRUCTIONS IN A BHAKTI TRADITION Jacqueline Daukes Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 2014 Department of the Study of Religions, SOAS, University of London Declaration for SOAS PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: _______________________________ Date: ____________ 2 ABSTRACT This thesis explores the ways the attribution of women’s authorship is used in the construction and development of the Vārkarī bhakti tradition in order to ask what function the high visibility of female poet-sants (santakaviyatrīs) in the tradition might have played in the sampradāya’s self-understanding and presentation. The thesis investigates why there are so many women associated with the Vārkarī sampradāya, while the santakaviyatrīs and the compositions attributed to them are largely absent from contemporary devotional practices. I consider how gender attribution within the sacred biographies (caritra) and the compositions attributed to the santakaviyatrīs relates to the basic tension within the Vārkarī sampradāya, and within bhakti more generally, between complete devotion to God to the exclusion of all others and the worldly duties of a householder; the tension between sannyāsa and gṛhastha. Consequently, the thesis considers the elements that mark the Vārkarī sampradāya out as a householder tradition, as well as the importance of the sants and their attributed compositions to the devotional practices and the discursive formation of the sampradāya. The thesis contends that the presence of compositions attributed to women and caritras about women within the Vārkarī literary corpus is indicative of an argument for, and indeed exemplification of, the viability of the householder path by those who were involved in constructing the traditions of the sampradāya. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 Table of contents.......................................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................................... 7 List of illustrations ....................................................................................................................................... 9 Transliteration ............................................................................................................................................ 10 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................. 12 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................... 13 1. Introduction................................................................................................................................... 13 2. Research Questions ....................................................................................................................... 16 3. Literature Review.......................................................................................................................... 17 3.1. Bhakti and the tension between sannyāsa and gṛhastha ....................................................... 21 4. Methodology................................................................................................................................. 27 4.1. The discursive formation of the Vārkarī sampradāya........................................................... 27 4.2. My original contribution ...................................................................................................... 31 4.3. Translation............................................................................................................................ 31 4.4. Ethnography ......................................................................................................................... 33 5. Outline of chapters........................................................................................................................ 35 CHAPTER ONE ........................................................................................................................................ 37 Introduction to The Vārkarī Sampradāya In Historical and Contemporary Perspectives........................... 37 1. Pandharpur: an historical perspective ........................................................................................... 38 2. The Vārkarī sants .......................................................................................................................... 45 3. The pilgrimage to Pandharpur....................................................................................................... 50 4. Contemporary perspectives: caste, class and social vision............................................................ 60 CHAPTER TWO ....................................................................................................................................... 64 Ethnography Among Contemporary Vārkarīs............................................................................................ 64 CHAPTER THREE.................................................................................................................................... 94 The Discursive Construction of The Vārkarī Sampradāya as a Householder Path .................................... 94 1. Introduction................................................................................................................................... 94 2. The Vārkarī ‘canon’ ...................................................................................................................... 97 2.1. Jñāneśvar and the Jñāneśvarī................................................................................................ 98 2.2. Eknāth and the Eknāthī Bhāgavata..................................................................................... 104 2.3. The abhaṅgas of the Vārkarī sants...................................................................................... 109 3. The literary genre of caritra......................................................................................................... 123 4. Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 129 CHAPTER FOUR.................................................................................................................................... 130 4 The Sacred Biographies of the Vārkarī Santakaviyatris........................................................................... 130 1. Introduction................................................................................................................................. 130 2. The caritras of the santakaviyatrīs and some female bhaktas associated with the Vārkarī sampradāya .......................................................................................................................................... 130 2.1. Muktābāī............................................................................................................................. 131 2.2. The women in Nāmdev’s family ........................................................................................ 139 2.3. Janābāī................................................................................................................................ 149 2.4. Soyarābāī and Nirmaḷābāī .................................................................................................. 155 2.5. Banka and Vāṅka................................................................................................................ 158 2.6. Bhāgū Mahārīṇ................................................................................................................... 158 2.7. Kānhopātrā ........................................................................................................................