Sacred Subversions: Bhakti, Androgyny and Queer Affect in Bengali Vaishnav Literature

Abstract

Drawing on queer theory and affect studies, this paper examines queer religiosity within Bengali Vaishnav traditions from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, a period marked by intense Bhakti expression in vernacular literature. Through a close reading of Vaishnav Padavalis by poets like Chandidas and Govindadas, it explores how devotional lyrics of viraha (separation) and longing for Krishna are voiced through Radha and other female devotees. Male poets and practitioners thus perform feminine subjectivities, subtly unsettling, fixed gender roles within a theologically sanctioned framework. The study argues that these devotional practices constitute a form of spiritualized queerness, where divine love enables gender fluidity and non-normative affect. Engaging Vaishnav-Sahajiya theology, particularly its esoteric model of Radha–Krishna union as mystical androgyny, the paper demonstrates how early Bengali Vaishnav literature articulates embodied, premodern queer spiritualities beyond modern Western identity categories.