Bengal has a glorious and long-standing lineage of folk traditions.Amongst them, Baul tradition stands at the acme of the indigenous hierarchy of Bengal (both East and West Bengal).Baul tradition is exclusively an amalgamation of various distinctive religious traditions including Sufi mysticism, Sahajiya Buddhism, and Tantric philosophies.Baul practices historically resisted the established...
Saundaryalaharī, the hundred-verse hymn, is traditionally attributed to Ādi Śaṅkaracārya.At the intersection of Śākta Tantra and Advaita Vedānta, a unique position is occupied by this hymn.This hymn extols the Divine Mother as dynamic Śakti, without which Śiva is inactive.Simultaneously, Nirguna Brahman as the Ultimate Reality is upheld by Advaita Vedānta.Ānanda Lahari, the first section of the...
This paper critically examines the ritualistic performance of Deodhani in Assam as a rich cultural archive that embodies precolonial understandings of gender plurality and sacred nonnormative identities.Often overlooked in dominant gender and historical discourses, the Deodhani tradition, where individuals, often assigned female at birth but not exclusively so, embody the goddess through trance...