Category: Non-fiction
Publisher: Rupa Publications (forthcoming)
Rights: World rights available (excluding Indian subcontinent)
Daughters of Light: Journeys with India’s Women Mystics is a personal sojourn through India’s spiritual legacy of the last three hundred years that has been consistently nurtured and silently preserved by women. Some women have recorded their experiences in the form of verses and memoirs ranging across literary and philosophical traditions. However, their words and teachings have remained outside popular anthologies and literary histories.
Beginning as the inner journey of a daughter learning to live without the physical presence of her father, this book demonstrates how the words of the old can bring healing, guidance, and meaning in today’s times. Dedicated to the largely ignored works of India’s women bhaktas, yoginis, saints, and mediums, this book also showcases select translations of their original writings for the first time. Each spiritual tradition and practice highlighted in the book has been experienced by the writer personally over a long period.
From crowded alleys in the heart of Old Delhi to silent Himalayan cliffs in Darjeeling, and from dusty by-lanes of rural Rajasthan to the healing waters of Ganga in Rishikesh, the writer has walked in the footprints of the daughters of light to understand their struggles, calling and means of awakening.
These are layered and multifaceted journeys of inheritors, followers, and seekers who have kept alive these forgotten names from India’s long and unbroken spiritual heritage. Daughters of Light is a unique blend of original research and personal transformation, inviting us to discover unheard names and collect unread stories of the women mystics of our land.
The author: Namrata Chaturvedi