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Akka Mahadevi is one of the foremost feminist and spiritual icons of Indian history. Her powerful vachanas, written in twelfth-century Karnataka, trace a radical journey. Unlike other women bhaktas, Mahadevi worked within the female body, not around it – eventually walking naked, ‘breast to breast with the cosmos’, and moving beyond all binaries, including male–female, devotee–God. Steered by her own inner experiences, Mahadevi cut loose from religious initiations. Her bhakti was the path, her inner voice the guru. Sky-clad is a radical new reading of Akka Mahadevi’s story, one where the body is seen not as the prison of the mind or soul, but as the ground of intelligence, creativity and enlightenment.

Akka Mahadevi is one of the foremost feminist and spiritual icons of Indian history. Her powerful vachanas, written in twelfth-century Karnataka, trace a radical journey. Unlike other women bhaktas, Mahadevi worked within the female body, not around it – eventually walking naked, ‘breast to breast with the cosmos’, and moving beyond all binaries, including male–female, devotee–God. Steered by her own inner experiences, Mahadevi cut loose from religious initiations. Her bhakti was the path, her inner voice the guru. Sky-clad is a radical new reading of Akka Mahadevi’s story, one where the body is seen not as the prison of the...  Read More