Open Collections

Shulka, Rohini

Database of Religious History (DRH)

Bahinabai Chaudhari, popularly remembered as Bahinai, was born in an agrarian village in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra. She had three sisters and three brothers and was married off at the age of 13 to a Vatandar (landowning farmer) - Nathuji Chaudhari. Nathuji was 30 when he married Bahinai; Bahinai was 30 when she was widowed. Bahinai could not read or write. She spent most of her life toiling in farms and kitchens; as a widow, she did the same with the additional burden of clearing her husband’s financial debt. In this context of everyday labor, Bahinai sang a genre of song called ovi - short, rhyming, rhythmic couplets. She sang in the Khandeshi-Varhadi dialect of Marathi (also called Ahirani). Her songs were preserved and published posthumously by her son, Sopandev, and have since been a topic of academic writing and popular representation in films and school textbooks. Of the many themes that these songs address, Bahinai's devotion and love (bhakti) for Vitthal (an avatar of Krishna worshipped by Varkaris) is persistent. I, therefore, think that exploring her performance tradition in the disciplinary context of religion could raise important questions - what were the different ways of worshipping Vitthal in Bahinai's immediate context? Why did she sing ovis in the midst of everyday labor like grinding grain and threshing wheat? Are these activities 'religious' or 'folk' or both or neither? Do larger categories like Hinduism elucidate Bahinai's songs at all? And what are the gendered aspects of this genre - in terms of its history and contemporary practice? The following questionnaire is a rudimentary attempt to address these questions.

Other

eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0438237

Non UBC

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/