| Abstract: | Vratas represent the dual meaning as both a means of patriarchal control over women’s bodies through ritualized activity and as a space of female agency. The Vratas as a ritual tradition in Puranic literature, and Dharmanibandhas can be understood in the context of inclusion of the woman in these practices and the patriarchal norms that are reinstated through it. The democratization of Vratas during the Puranic period allowed for the participation of women and marginalized groups in previously elite sacrificial rites and for the establishment of popular models of devotional practice. Although women and marginalized groups were allowed to participate in Vratas through the democratization of Vratas during the Puranic period, their participation operated within the ideological confines of patriarchal structures. This study interrogates how Brahmanical ideology used Vratas to maintain traditional gender norms, control women’s autonomy, and reinforce ideals such as patiVrata dharma and chastity and purity, while at the same time arguing that women actively negotiated these structures by appropriating Vratas for their own personal, emotional, and social use. Through the use of a comparative philological and historical/textual methodology, this essay argues that Vratas served both as mechanisms of dominance and also giving some sort of autonomy to the women. In summary, the present study examines the complicated interactions between devotion, dominance, and negotiation that defined Vratas as a significant form of cultural expression and tradition both in the past and present. |
