Gender, Space and Performance: A Study of the Visual Narratives of Kodungallur Bharani Festival

Open this record in the interactive library

Catalogue identifier: kali-fifty4-020
Alternate titles and import identifiers: KALI-50B4-020
Author or attribution: Nimisha K. Jayan
Record type: Dissertation
Language: English
Date / edition: July 2020
Source / repository: University of Calicut
Access: Open access
Subjects: 50 Full-Text Sources — Batch 4, November 2026; Scholarship and historical studies; Theses and Dissertations

Description and curator notes

This doctoral study examines the Kodungallur Bharani festival at the Bhadrakali temple in central Kerala through performance, gender and spatial analysis. Its chapters move from the festival’s historical narratives to ritual conflict, embodied performance, spectatorship and ritual language. The research foregrounds participants and the social inequalities negotiated through their actions, rather than treating a festival as an unchanging survival of an ancient religion. It is particularly useful for investigating how the goddess’s body, caste boundaries and gendered authority are interpreted in a living regional tradition. The thesis combines ethnographic material with theoretical readings; its conclusions should therefore be attributed to the researcher, not presented as the unanimous understanding of devotees. Bibliographical references and an appendix accompany the complete dissertation. Readers should be aware that its discussion and documentation of ritual songs include explicit language. This is a contextual study of Bhadrakali worship, not a universal account of Kali or a ritual instruction manual.

Curator source KALI-50B4-020. Scholarship and historical studies. Research supplement dated 5 November 2026.
Except where specific checks are described below, source access, completeness and scholarly or devotional assessments are supplied by the curator document, not a new independent verification by this library. Comparative goddess identities, healing claims and devotional interpretations are attributed, not established universal or clinical facts. Full source content is linked, not reproduced.

20. Gender, Space and Performance: A Study of the Visual Narratives of Kodungallur Bharani Festival
Author/editor: Nimisha K. Jayan | July 2020
Type / language: Doctoral dissertation | English; Malayalam ritual terms and translated song material
This doctoral study examines the Kodungallur Bharani festival at the Bhadrakali temple in central Kerala through performance, gender and spatial analysis. Its chapters move from the festival’s historical narratives to ritual conflict, embodied performance, spectatorship and ritual language. The research foregrounds participants and the social inequalities negotiated through their actions, rather than treating a festival as an unchanging survival of an ancient religion. It is particularly useful for investigating how the goddess’s body, caste boundaries and gendered authority are interpreted in a living regional tradition. The thesis combines ethnographic material with theoretical readings; its conclusions should therefore be attributed to the researcher, not presented as the unanimous understanding of devotees. Bibliographical references and an appendix accompany the complete dissertation. Readers should be aware that its discussion and documentation of ritual songs include explicit language. This is a contextual study of Bhadrakali worship, not a universal account of Kali or a ritual instruction manual.
Read the complete source: Open full-text document
https://scholar.uoc.ac.in/bitstream/handle/20.500.12818/225/1409.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1
Access check: Complete institutional PDF downloaded directly without payment or signup on 5 November 2026.

Source links:
https://scholar.uoc.ac.in/bitstream/handle/20.500.12818/225/1409.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1

Source access

Read or locate the original source at University of Calicut

Rights and reading conditions

Curator-reported free reading is not a blanket republication licence. Follow each source's copyright and reuse conditions; third-party images may have different rights from the article text. No full texts or scans are reproduced here. Complete institutional PDF downloaded directly without payment or signup on 5 November 2026.

Citation

Nimisha K. Jayan. Gender, Space and Performance: A Study of the Visual Narratives of Kodungallur Bharani Festival. University of Calicut. July 2020. https://scholar.uoc.ac.in/bitstream/handle/20.500.12818/225/1409.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1

This page supplies catalogue metadata and links. It does not reproduce the underlying source text. Historical, religious, healing and interpretive claims belong to the cited sources, not to an independent verification by this catalogue.