Poetesses in Classical Sanskrit Literature

Abstract

This article seeks to render audible the voices of poetesses in classical Sanskrit literature between the 7th and 13th centuries C.E., and to juxtapose these voices with the Pālīgāthās of the Therīs, the verses of the Prakrit poetesses as well as the poetry of the Tamil bhaktins. We have argued that while the Sanskrit poetesses were not profes-sional writers, their verses occupy a niche of their own in the corpus of Sanskrit kāvya. The poetry of the Sanskrit poetesses belongs to the prema tradition, which stands in contrast to the hegemonic masculine śrngārī tradition of the rest of the Sanskrit kāvya. We have also argued that in spite of the largely feminine concern of bonding with male partners, there is a subversive quality in these voices that makes many of these Sanskrit verses worthy of being treated as female voices with stirrings of feminist consciousness. A close reading of the verses enlightens us about an entire gendered social world inhabited by these Sanskrit poetesses.