PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Alexandra Verini is an Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University. Abir Bazaz is an Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University.
This is an impressive, reflective volume of diverse essays that help to understand a historical pattern between 700 and 1500 CE, as women increasingly confronted gender norms by asserting religious/spiritual authority-often referred to or translated as 'mysticism'. By strategically limiting the scope to South Asia and Europe, the contributors present a manageable set of examples that can be brought into meaningful conversation, thereby joining in the growing current of critical comparison in religious studies. We find here careful analyses of detail-rich local cases, reflections on provincialities of key terms (especially 'mysticism'), and considerations of transregional and long-term relationships between gender and appeals to religion/spirituality to construct the world differently. Highly recommended for anyone interested in understanding women and gender in the premodern world, mysticism as a social force, cross-cultural translation, and the critically comparative study of religion. - Jon Keune, Michigan State University, USA
