74 Spirituality Studies 11-1 Spring 2025 traditional gender expectations were transcended rather than resisted; or rather, in their intimate love for the ultimate, their gender identities became too irrelevant for them. Hence, their spiritual pursuit constructed new paradigms of devotion that were founded on deeply felt realisations of the divine. Akka Mahadevi, the twelfth-century saint-poet from the South Indian state of Karnataka, exemplifies the Bhakti way of life through her lyrical poetry with beautiful images from an intense and profound life. Married to a king at a young age, Akka Mahadevi renounced worldly life, embracing Bhakti and ascetic wandering in defiance of the social norms of her time. The raw intensity and deep spiritual longing in her words, transcend the limits imposed by cultural appropriations. Her life and poetry remind us that feminine agency need not have the context of patriarchy to exist; it can be independent, all-inclusive, and revolutionary. The rebellious spirit that we find in her poetry never compromises with any social institution, categorically challenging the patriarchal social structures of the period. However, the rational critique of power structures does not stop her from a creative outpouring of her femininity in the form of devotion. In contrast to contemporary feminist theorists, she keeps the rational critique of patriarchy and the seamless dimension of devotion separate but never mutually exclusive. On the contrary, these two aspects of rebellion against social norms and a feminine embrace of life through devotion exist organically in her poetic world. 5 Defiance and Rebellion in Akka Mahadevi’s Poetry If you can pull out the serpent’s fangs And make it dance It is good to make friends with serpents. – Akka Mahadevi 2010, 47 Akka Mahadevi’s attitude towards social constructs of any sort including gender has got a playful lightness to it. The entire discourse of feminist gender critique is centred around the toxicity involved in the patriarchal ways of functioning. In sharp contrast, Akka Mahadevi, quite playfully, says it is fun to play with snakes if you know how to pull out their fangs. She sees the social world along with its unjust power dynamics as an illusion as well as a trap. An engagement with it should have an element of gaiety and playfulness because seeing it as a concrete reality, or rather the only reality is the root of Māyā, the delusionary predicament of a human being. Being playful about gender discrimination in no way makes her submissive to a patriarchal social structure. Many of her vāchānas (Sa. “that which is said”), spontaneous poetic expressions of devotion, are about the rebellion in family – an unambiguous assertion of her freedom against social expectations with regard to marriage and the way a woman should conduct herself. When King Koushika married her at sixteen, she declared her unwavering devotion to only one man, Chennamallikarjuna (Sa. “Lord white as jasmine”), a name she used for Shiva to emphasize her deep and exclusive spiritual bond with him. It is quite interesting that she allowed the marriage even as she vehemently refused to play the role of a wife. It speaks volumes about her absolute disregard for the social institution of marriage to the extent of deciding not to give it any sanctity by refusing it. At the same time, she asserted her freedom with no holds barred. There is power and fierceness in her words when she commands her husband to let go of her saree (Akka Mahadevi 2010, 113): Don’t hold me. Don’t Stop me. Let go of my hand, the hem of my sari, Don’t you know of the worst hell for those that break the promise made in black and white? You shall be doomed If you touch the woman Married to Chennamallikarjuna.
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