Good Queen, Bad Queen
Gender, Devotion, and Mythmaking in Women's Histories
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3393516 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sundari Johansen Hurwitt (0009-0007-8979-7018, California Institute of Integral Studies, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 954 |
| Publication date | 2023-07-25 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel14080954 |
| OpenAlex | W4385259568 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
How do we remember and write about powerful women and the impacts they have had on history? Who tells their stories, and to whose advantage are those narratives constructed? And what happens if we look carefully and acknowledge that when they enter historical narratives, many of these "women" are not adults, but actually relatively young girls? Rani Rasmani Dasi (1793-1861) and Bar-rajā Phuleshwari Kunwari (also known as Phulmati and Pramateshwari) (d. 1731) are each remembered as powerful women influencers of popular religion in South Asia, though in very different ways. These two "queens" were each remarkable women who variously defied, upended, and upheld common assumptions and narratives about caste, gender, power, and religion in Hindu society in early modern India. This study critically investigates the work of Rasmani and Phuleshwari's many chroniclers, biographers, and hagiographers, questioning received narratives and attempting to construct a glimpse of them as living girls and women. What do we actually know about them, about their activities and motivations? And what can we know, when so much of the evidence is unreliable? Thrust into unfamiliar social, political, and religious environments as young girls, they grew into deeply religious women who used their considerable influence and resources to promote their own visions of divine power. They also became full participants in and beneficiaries of problematic power structures of domination and exploitation. But with closer investigation, it appears that much of what we think we know about these women is incomplete or, in the case of Phuleshwari, completely unreliable
Art · Hinduism · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Vision · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Asian Studies and History · Gender Studies · History · Law · Religious studies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |