Women in popular media: a study of medieval vaishnavite play reconstructing gender ideology in Assam

The Vaishnavite Movement of Assam which began in the 15th century under the leadership of Srimanta Sankaradeva was heralded as a revolutionary movement undermining Brahmanical priesthood and ritualism and establishing a more egalitarian social order. However, ironically, the movement also led to the establishment of a more rigid and stereotypical patriarchal socio-cultural ideal. As we all know in the medieval period the realm of media comprised of diverse communicative means such as music, play, literature, visual arts etc. Many of these means were utilized by Sankardeva in order to communicate his idea of bhakti far and wide, of which his plays called Ankiya Nat and Bhaona proved to be the most popular. In these plays, women were excluded from performing and roles of women were played by men. It is also seen that in the music of these plays, raginis or ‘female melodies’ are absent. The roles assigned to female characters were often simplistic, submissive and secondary to their male counterparts. Thus, a gradual crystallization of stereotypical gender imagery in conformity with Brahmanical culture took place, undermining the image prevalent in co-existing relatively egalitarian tribal matrilineal communities, ultimately resulting in a lower status for women in the society. What this study attempts to achieve is to undertake a critical appraisal of these plays and to see how this form of media portrays gender imagery in the society during the period under review. The aim would be to find out what implications the growth of the popular media had for reconstituting gender ideology in the region.