Poetry can be a refuge, but it can also pull the rug from beneath your feet—blow you away or knock you to the floor with your shattered perceptions. Wild WomenThe anthology of sacred Indian poems edited by Arundhati Subramaniam does both well, thanks to its sheer power and diversity of voices. The collection’s vast female voices shatter all preconceived notions about the structure of sacred poetry, revealing a range of experience that has never been compiled in one place before and, gradually, providing clues to rediscover the paths of refuge.
At the book launch in Bengaluru Wild WomenArundhati called the book an “attempt to reclaim a powerful lineage”. She wanted poets whose voices we have barely heard over time to be “named, given the respect and attention they deserve”. She began with “a beautifully crafted list of 20-25 poets”, but when after research at least twice that number of poets sought to be included, she ended up narrowing it down. “I felt there was this parallel, underground stream, waiting to be recognised,” she says.
She wanted to showcase the work of women with very different temperaments, backgrounds, orientations and who made very different life choices. Thus, in this book, “you will find the voices of Buddhist nuns alongside those of Vedantins, devotees, Sufis, tantrics and others. You will find poets – some cerebral, some devotional, some meditative and others more blissful.”
Whether they wear ocher clothes, blue jeans or just their skin; whether they walk alone, with a religious order or as a householder with their spiritual partner – she wanted to “respect the choices of each of these spiritual seekers.”
Arundhati Subramaniam has showcased the work of women of very different temperaments, backgrounds and inclinations. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
In a brief e-mail interview, Arundhati said that the seed for this book was sown when she was working on an old volume of devotional poetry. Eating GodShe was troubled by the fact that the famous women saints she read about “seemed to be pious devotees, quiet singers, and humble followers… they were never presented as fierce spiritual warriors, wise ancestors, glorious forefathers.”
However, the specific idea of this compilation was born when he organized a music and sacred poetry festival entitled Wild Womenat Mumbai’s National Centre for the Performing Arts in 2019. As the festival took shape, she “discovered a huge number of unknown, unexplored women – wild, wise and amazing… who have been ignored or completely erased by religious and rationalist narratives. The intensity, passion and irreverence of their work took my breath away!” she says. Wanting to learn more about this “vast mystical sisterhood”, she set out to create a work that “acknowledged their uniqueness and celebrated them in polyphony.”
However, the challenges were many. “I had no grants, no fellowships. It was a passion project – perhaps in some ways a madness project, driven largely by my own prodigious curiosity. Apart from the rigours of research, it also meant commissioning translations, which required endless email exchanges with translators. The content of this correspondence ranged from discussing broad approaches to translation to sometimes fretting over a single word,” says Arundhati. “The biggest challenge was its size,” which had a list of 56 poets! Though she enjoyed the “immersion and discovery, the relentless, endless” nature of the project left her frustrated. “I thought of giving it up many times… but the poems of some of these extraordinary women – Bhadda Kapilani, Lakshminkara, Jeeradei, Janabai, Shenkottai Avudai Akkal, Habba Khatun, Tarigonda Venkamamba, etc – drew me in again and again. And muttering under my breath, I would resume the journey!” she says.
For her, the greatest gift of this journey has been the women themselves – “fierce, courageous, sometimes fierce – not shy or tame but with backbone, courage and astonishing bravery.” The project became a way to “reconstruct the family tree, recover lost genealogies, reclaim the erased history of female guardianship.”
Arundhati with Bharatanatyam dancer Alarmel Valli and renowned Carnatic singer Bombay Jayashree. Wild Women In Chennai | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Arundhati delights in the gifts offered by poets like Punnika, the dasi and Buddhist nun who confronted a ritualistic Brahmin who questioned ritualism 2500 years ago, or the voice of the 17th-century Kashmiri mystic Rupa Bhavani, who declared that she would never bow before God because she realised the sacredness within. “In a fragmented world, it is helpful to be reminded of those who refuse to separate body and soul,” says Arundhati, “women who acknowledge the intelligence of their bodies and break stereotypes about saliva and menstruation.”
While the first section Wild Women The book is very powerful in expressing the voices of women who have fully embraced their skin, the second part of the book highlights women as heroes rather than poets. The third part highlights Devi – “a wild woman who never disappears.”
This book is a rare treasure because it fills in the gaps and erased words of centuries. It does not hold any flag marches, but sings loudly in celebration. The colours it splashes in the air – if we can call them poems – are so many that it is difficult to name them. And yet, the undeniable success of this book is how it soaks us in those colours – leaving us both satisfied and restless.
