Early Modern Women Writers in India

Most scholars and studies on late medieval and early modern writing from India have focused on Bhakti, the devotional movement that spread across the Indian subcontinent from medieval to early modern times. This entry focuses on different compositions by women of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including oral compositions from the everyday lives of women and songs composed and performed by women who were part of what is now known as the Bhakti movement, during the early modern period. If these two genres illustrate the secular and devotional contributions of women, writing by women of the nobility who were formally trained in reading and writing gives us insight into the lives of people in and around the monarchical courts.