REIMAGINING WOMANHOOD: MAHATMA BASAVESHWARA’S VISION OF GENDER EQUALITY

Abstract

This research study seeks to examine the ideas held by Mahatma Basaveshwara concerning women which is expressed in his vachanas and the broader reformist praxis of   12th century Karnataka. With women as reliant and ritual other beings in a highly patriarchal social structure, Basaveshwara redefined them as entirely human beings, spiritually qualified and social beings, in a righteous community. The same ethic that he has criticized scriptural prescriptions which forbade women worship, learning and public functions accompanies a positive one, which requires men to train their own gaze and behavior and perceive every woman (except his wife) as mother or sister. The vachanas and historical narratives that have been explored in the paper are thematic and strongly close reading of womanhood with respect to spiritual equality, moral responsibility, labour and participation in institutions through the AnubhavaMantapa. It claims that Basaveshwara views of gender are ahead of the time on a modern interpretation of the rights of women and at the same time it is based on bhakti-based spirituality, and that it still presents a powerful contribution to the current arguments about gender justice in India.