Grinding Culture and Singing Tradition of Maharashtra: Site of Cultural Confrontations Between Segregated Sisters and Upper Caste Women
摘要
This chapter discourses Maharashtrian women’s oral narrative tradition of grindmill as a site of cultural negotiation between segregated sisters and upper caste women. Throughout time this practice has been passed on from one generation to the next to allow cultural expression and maintain cultural continuity. In pursuit of this, the chapter seeks answers to the questions—Who are segregated sisters? What determines the classification of these groups as ‘segregated sisters’ in the first place? The effects of segregation brought about which new sociocultural standpoints? What developments occurred because of this phenomenon leading to cultural and countercultural confrontations and divergences? What role do the divine triad—Lord Vitthala, his wife Goddess Rukmini, and devotee Saint Janabai, play in the life of these women, and why do both upper caste and segregated sisters express their emotions through Triadic relationship between them while grinding? and finally what factors contributed to the cultural shift in the narrativity of the segregated sisters, and in what ways have they transformed prevailing paradigms?