‘Sacred Rebels’ of Bengal: The DashaMahavidyas as Counter-narratives to Colonial Patriarchal Womanhood in Bengal

Ananya Mitra

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i02.72615

‘Sacred Rebels’ of Bengal: The DashaMahavidyas as Counter-narratives to Colonial Patriarchal Womanhood in Bengal

Author(s)	Ms. Ananya Mitra
Country	India
Abstract	In India, the patriarchal social structure assigns women roles that are rooted in ideals of obedience, chastity, and domesticity. Hinduism is considered the oldest religion in the world, and Hindu Tantra is a significant part of it. In Hindu Tantra, particularly the worship of the ten Mahavidyas (Dasha Mahavidya), presents goddess archetypes that defy the patriarchal norms that expect women to be gentle, soft spoken, well dressed, patient, modest, obedient and dependent; while they themselves are portrayed as wild, fierce, erotic, chaotic, ascetic, terrifying, and independent. Colonial India was a period when women’s lives were shaped by both traditional patriarchal expectations and colonial modernity, and as reform movements. This study proposes to investigate how the Mahavidyas embody “transgressive femininity” and how their narratives contrast with the roles and identities prescribed and expected of women during the colonial period in patriarchal Hindu society. The Mahavidyas include Kali, Tara, Tripurasundari, Bhuvaneshwari, Chhinnamasta, Bhairavi, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi, and Kamala. These goddesses range from nurturing beauty to terrifying destruction. By comparing these goddesses with the societal expectations of women in colonial Bengal, this research aims to uncover women’s subordination, domestic roles, control over sexuality and mobility, and how the Mahavidyas challenge patriarchy. The Hindu Tantric goddess models exemplify female power that disrupts social order. Therefore, the researcher seeks to reveal the paradox of admiring and worshipping transgressive goddesses while restricting women’s roles in society from a sociological perspective. The objectives of this study are: • To compare the Mahavidya archetypes with roles and behavioural expectations for Hindu women of the colonial period of Bengal. • To understand how the Mahavidyas challenged patriarchy. The researcher tries to find out more about the DashaMahavidya worshipped in Bengal and how they challenge patriarchy that controlled and shaped the identities of the colonial women of Bengal. The researcher has done a field visit to the two DashaMahavidya temples present in Kolkata, and also conducted a desk research based on secondary sources of data to find out more about the colonial women’s roles and identities in Bengal.
Keywords	DashaMahavidya, patriarchy, women’s roles, societal expectations, contrasts.
Field	Sociology
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 2, March-April 2026
Published On	2026-03-26
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i02.72615

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‘Sacred Rebels’ of Bengal: The DashaMahavidyas as Counter-narratives to Colonial Patriarchal Womanhood in Bengal

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