num_pages: 32
description: In devotional literature, gods take female forms all the time. Sometimes to serve as 'go-betweens' to bring lovers together, sometimes to stand in for a missing wife, and sometimes to nurse a sick devotee.Not all queer stories are sexual but they do challenge notions of gender. This queering, which is unique to India's devotional tradition, is worth examining to see how natural queerness was viewed by gods like Vishnu and Shiva.Read on as Devdutt Pattanaik examines a few of the most interesting instances of queerness in Gender Fluidity in Hindu Mythology.
language: English
title: Gender Fluidity in Hindu Mythology:
publisher: Penguin