Vilasini: Mahari Songs as Shared Expressions of Resistance and Interdependence

Abstract

Abstract This article examines how the artistic legacy of the maharis (female ritual specialists of the Jagannath Temple in Puri) can be made visible within Odissi dance without resorting to mimicry or failed reenactment. The first section analyzes the poetic text “Shringar,” composed by Mukta Mahari and preserved in the private collections of Kolkata-based Odissi artist Sharmila Biswas. Through literary analysis, the article argues that this poetic text not only displays literary brilliance but also records the maharis’ negotiations with royal, temple, and colonial laws, revealing their resistance to sociopolitical erasure. The second section explores Biswas’s choreography for Vilasini, based on the same poetic text. By examining Biswas’s choreography and her engagement with the mahari repertoire, the article develops interdependence as a decolonial theoretical framework that resists colonial, Brahmanic, and native-elitist hierarchies, demonstrating how her artistic practice embodies interdependent forms of historical and aesthetic relation. Finally, the article repositions the mahari repertoire as central to reimagining Odissi’s aesthetic and historical foundations.