ABSTRACT
While the paradigmatic gopis of Krishna bhakti clearly set the model for the soteriological strategies of the devotees, the importance of femininity in the nirgun̩ tradition is more ambiguous and often unacknowledged. This chapter will focus on the way different aspects of a woman’s life are instrumentalized by bhakti, exemplified by the pads of Kabir. It will serve to open a discussion about the extent to which they represent the appropriation of a stock of images, common throughout the poetic landscape of North India or whether they shape in more concrete and subtle ways the emotional experience of the audience.
