Zeitschrift für Kunst- und Sozialwissenschaften

Comparing Mira Bai with Lal Ded, Habba Khatoon

Abstract

He Y and Bhat NA

Lal Ded and Habba Khatoon are two Kashmiri women poets who share commonalities with Bhakti poet Mira Bai. Within the comparative framework the paper would try to explore these commonalities in their poetry. The selection of these three women poets would throw some light on the syncretism in the Sufi and Bhakti tradition as upheld by Lal Ded and Mira Bai respectively in their poetry. This paper would not be just an intercultural comparative analysis of Lal Ded and Mira; it would also engage us intra-culturally. This analysis would be done within the framework of literary historiography. From Lal Ded to Habba Khatoon, we see a shift from the Sufi poetry to the romantic poetry. It is this “idea of literary history” which helps us to have a holistic understanding of these poets irrespective of their socio-cultural background, and the different temporal settings they live in. The aim of this paper is to explore their voices against the patriarchy. For this, the paper shall closely observe a few works of the above mentioned women poets and see, how their ideology of self-determination sets them apart not only from the women of their times, but also many women of contemporary times.