"Mirabai" - A Paragon of her kind

It is 2020, and yet, it is oftentimes an uphill struggle for women to live a fulfilled and creative life. The expectations of the society are for women to marry, settle down, and devote their lifetime to familial and domestic responsibilities, duties, and obligations.

Parallels can be drawn to the life of Mirabai. At a time(early 17th century) when women were thought to be subordinate to men and were meant to mostly just go down to the male and patriarchal agenda of the religious and worldly pursuits, Mirabai demonstrated subversion via the way she chose to live her life and via the poetry that she wrote. She defied the creative canon of those times and also showed open disregard for the contemporary Rajput customs. She refused to commit Sati, after her husband's death and instead, chose to dedicate her entire life to the worship of Lord Krishna. She overstepped the boundary lines, drawn by the upper castes, and mingled with other worshipers. She chose to live the life of a Mendicant and chose austerity and poverty to pursue spirituality.

In the book "Songs of the Saints of India", John Stratton Hawley, writes about Mirabai, "She fired her imagination with her fearless defiance..the only one of her gender to have earned a place on the Honor roll of North Indian Bhakti Saints, she exerts a fascination that none of her male counterparts can match".

Here was a woman that had no shame or fear of authority and walked the streets fearlessly. Her poems became a means of rebellion against the unfair expectations of contemporary society and were a perfect mix of asceticism and aesthetics.

Women of this day and age can draw from Mirabai's example in making their own choices and stick to them, and in living an independent and creative public life...

Words of Anghrija Chakraborty

Art by Swasthi

PS: Check out my few other Coffee paintings in the next article