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Invoking Mirabai: Elision And Illumination In The Global Study Of Women Mystics, Nancy M. Martin
Invoking Mirabai: Elision And Illumination In The Global Study Of Women Mystics, Nancy M. Martin
Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters
From the early nineteenth century, British scholar-officers readily compared Mirabai to European mystics as a way to come to terms with this intriguing and admired sixteenth-century woman as they attempted to order the dense weave of Indian culture and religion through the production of knowledge. And in the twentieth century she would increasingly be cited in comparative works on women’s voices, resistance, and religious lives and on global ethics and spirituality. This chapter will explore the place she comes to occupy, beginning by tracing the ways that Hindu bhakti or “devotion” maps (or does not map) onto European Christian and …
Mirabai: The Making Of A Saint, Nancy M. Martin
Mirabai: The Making Of A Saint, Nancy M. Martin
Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters
This book traces the narrative genealogy of the immensely popular Indian saint Mirabai from the earliest manuscript references to her through colonial and nationalist formations to scholarly and popular portrayals in the decades leading up to Indian independence. This iconic sixteenth-century woman is renowned for her unwavering love of God, her disregard for social hierarchies and gendered notions of honor and shame, and her challenge thereby to familial, feudal, and religious authorities. Though verifiable historical facts regarding her life are few, stories about her have multiplied across social, linguistic, regional, and religious boundaries. With attention to who is telling which …
The Gendering Of Voice In Medieval Hindu Literature, Nancy M. Martin
The Gendering Of Voice In Medieval Hindu Literature, Nancy M. Martin
Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters
"To fully grasp the implications of the gendering of voice in this literature, we must first understand the religious context that generates these voices and the life stories of the saintly figures in whose names these voices continue to be spoken. Accordingly, we will trace the origins and nature of devotional Hinduism. Theologically gender inclusive and embracing a feminine spiritual identity, the stories and songs of its saints will nevertheless reveal an ongoing bias against women and upholding of patriarchal norms that is continually challenged, particularly by women saints whose life stories follow very different trajectories than their male counterparts, …
Fluid Boundaries And The Assertion Of Difference In Low-Caste Religious Identity, Nancy M. Martin
Fluid Boundaries And The Assertion Of Difference In Low-Caste Religious Identity, Nancy M. Martin
Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters
"The boundaries of religious traditions are being actively contested in India today, though in practice their internal and external structures are fl uid and open. Each religion takes a wide array of forms, refl ecting the diversity of the communities and adherents who fi nd relevance and meaning within it, and symbols and practices fl ow readily across what prove to be very permeable and overlapping boundaries between religious traditions. However, religion has been used by the powerful to assert and maintain dominance and in national and regional communal politics, at times fanning the fl ames of extreme violence. Fundamentalists …
Rajasthan: Mirabai And Her Poetry, Nancy M. Martin
Rajasthan: Mirabai And Her Poetry, Nancy M. Martin
Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters
"Mirabai (born c. 1500) is among the most well-known and loved of the Hindu women saints devoted to Krishna. Her devotion to her Lord is absolute, as her life and songs attest. Her story is a romantic tale of star-crossed lovers—one human, the other divine—marked by perseverance and triumph in the midst of great suffering. Songs sung in her name speak of the joys and trials of the devotional life and evoke the full range of romantic love, from the devastating longing that marks separated lovers and the blazing anger of a woman betrayed to the sweet and intoxicating pleasures …
Hinduism And Holy People, Nancy M. Martin
Hinduism And Holy People, Nancy M. Martin
Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters
"In Hinduism, there are both a relatively large number and a wide array of types of people considered holy. Such people are deemed to be spiritually advanced, having reached the highest levels of spiritual realization, and to have the power to guide others toward that realization. They are thus treated with respect and reverence. A person can be transformed merely by being in their presence through the experience of darshan (both seeing and being seen by a holy person), even as a person can be transformed by being in the presence of deity. Such holy people may be seen to …
Loving The Goddess In Hinduism, Nancy M. Martin
Loving The Goddess In Hinduism, Nancy M. Martin
Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters
"But what if ultimate reality is experienced as female, as Goddess? How is love for Goddess in Hindu traditions experienced and expressed? Who is she? In what sense is she feminine? And on what terms does a human man or woman approach her?"
Mirabai In The Academy And The Politics Of Identity, Nancy M. Martin
Mirabai In The Academy And The Politics Of Identity, Nancy M. Martin
Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters
No abstract provided.
Love And Longing In Devotional Hinduism, Nancy M. Martin
Love And Longing In Devotional Hinduism, Nancy M. Martin
Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters
"As Julius Lipner has so eloquently stated in his chapter earlier in this ..r\. volume, Hinduism is stubbornly multiform, a tapestry of interwoven worldviews, practices, and beliefs characterized by a fundamental and irreducible orality, a movement from multiplicity and outward appearance toward identity and interiority, and a search within a constantly shifting world for ordering principles and centers of meaning around which to shape meaningful lives. I would now like to explore one current within this broad river of tradition - the devotional or bhakti path. The passionate love shared by devotee and God that is the driving force of …