What if God was a woman? A new play in Mumbai has the answers

Ulka Mayur

It was on summer afternoon, while researching for a play that writer-actor Ulka Mayur stumbled upon writings of women Bhakti poets, some of whom she had known and the rest unheard of. "I was mesmerised by how women Bhakti poets insisted on the right to body, right to choose and right to resist exploitation. That got me thinking," she says. The result is a new theatrical performance titled Cast Off All Shame that captures the essence of Bhakti movement in the context of today's women.

The play begins with the spirit of Janabai taking over a radio show and playing an agony aunt to women. "Bhakti poets never saw God as distant entity, they treated God as one of their own. For Janabai, God was a woman, and hence she addressed Lord Vithal as Vithabai in all her poems."