‘Wild Women’: Anthology of Bhakti poems shows how women shaped language subconscious in India

With Wild Women, a wide-ranging anthology of hand-picked Bhakti poems from all the major Indian languages, poet Arundhathi Subramaniam has joined the great league of scholars like Susie Tharu, K Lalita, Vanamala Viswanatha, Malashri Lal, Ruth Vanita, Mrinal Pandey, Mamta Kalia, and Kshama Sharma. Subramaniam will be remembered not only for her poems but also as one of those luminaries of post-colonial women’s studies, who fought against the unipolar dominance of the West by recharging native traditions, local knowledge systems and movements like the Bhakti tradition.

How did she recharge these indigenous traditions? Through the electric sockets of what is called “thick translation” – translations adorned with footnotes, brief biographies, insightful prefaces, and (in some cases) also with adaptations or intertextual transplantation of what the 9th Century poet and critic Anandavardhana had once referred to as dhwani inlaid in Anyayoni poems.

An anthology of fellowship

Subramaniam’s grand anthology of such translations is going to be a throbbing presence for at least three kinds of people: Radical thinkers, fellow poets, and students of intricate mass movements like Bhakti. First of all, it is quite a soul support for radical thinkers and fellow citizens of our troubled times, who keep wondering why a pursuit as poetic as religion should...

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