Vol. 6, Issue 2, Part D (2024)

Bhakti cult, essentially known as devotional theism, differed in its orientation and teachings from other contemporary religious movements, both orthodox and reformative; it became a dominant phenomenon which influenced the socio-political and religious life in Medieval Maharashtra. This study attempts to trace the development of this syncretic movement and its contribution to the sensitisation of issues like gender, language, and social mobility in medieval Maharashtra. It also deals with the aspects of popular culture lost in the homogeneity of cultural hierarchy. Attempts will be made to locate women within the socio-cultural tradition of Maharashtra by focussing on Bahinabai. The absence of women from popular culture accounts will be analysed here in the context of Bahinabai, the saint-poetess in seventeenth-century Maharashtra.