Many thanks to Dragomir Dimitrov and Jayandra Soni for sending me the two articles I asked for (and a couple more!).
Best wishes to you all, Marco --- Marco Franceschini ———————————--- Associate Professor University of Bologna Department of History and Cultures Personal web page <https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/marco.franceschini3/en> Academia web page <http://unibo.academia.edu/MarcoFranceschini> — > Il giorno 30 mar 2026, alle ore 14:35, Marco Franceschini > <[email protected]> ha scritto: > > Dear colleagues and friends, > > I have been unable to locate the following two articles: > > - Dragomir Dimitrov. 2008. “Some Remarks on the Rūpyāvatyavadāna of the > Divyāvadāna(mālā).” In: D. Dimitrov, M. Hahn, and R. Steiner (eds.): > Bauddhasāhityastabakāvalī. Essays and Studies on Buddhist Sanskrit > Literature. Dedicated to Claus Vogel. Marburg (Indica et Tibetica 36), pp. > 45–64. > - Dragomir Dimitrov. 2004. “Two Female Bodhisattvas in Flesh and Blood.” In: > U. Roesler and J. Soni (eds.): Aspects of the Female in Indian Culture. > Marburg (Indica et Tibetica 44), pp. 3–30. > > I have asked my library to purchase the volumes in which they were published, > but it will take some time to acquire them, and I would be grateful if, in > the meantime, someone could share the PDF versions. > > Best wishes, > > Marco > --- > Marco Franceschini > ———————————--- > Associate Professor > University of Bologna > Department of History and Cultures > Personal web page <https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/marco.franceschini3/en> > Academia web page <http://unibo.academia.edu/MarcoFranceschini> > — > > >> Il giorno 17 mar 2026, alle ore 19:25, Marco Franceschini >> <[email protected]> ha scritto: >> >> Dear friends, >> >> first of all, I would like to thank everyone who so generously responded to >> my request for suggestions regarding gender change in pre-modern Sanskrit >> literature (I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone!): Shubham Arora, Tarinee >> Awasthi, Daniela Bevilacqua, Simon Brodbeck, Tracy Coleman, Anna Aurelia >> Esposito, Christian Ferstl, Eli Franco, Elisa Ganser, Robert Goldman, >> Anahita Hoose, Matthew Kapstein, Petra Kieffer-Pülz, Dmitrii Komissarov, >> Robert Leach, Steven Lindquist, Valerie Roebuck, Tulika Singh, Caley Smith, >> Roland Steiner, Eric Steinschneider, McComas Taylor, Christophe Vielle. >> >> I have tried to organise the information I received, separating the episodes >> of gender change found in the primary sources (Sanskrit literary works) from >> the academic studies on the subject. I have pasted the result below. >> >> Thanks again to all of you! >> >> Marco >> --- >> >> Change of gender episodes in Sanskrit literature >> - Ila/Sudyumna-Ilā (Rāmāyaṇa, Bhāgavatapurāṇa, Viṣṇupurāṇa, Vāyupurāṇa) >> - Bhaṅgāsvana (Mahābhārata) >> - Śikhaṇḍin (Mahābhārata) >> - Mūladeva (Vetālapañcaviṃśati) >> - Arjuna (Mahābhārata). (See several entries in the bibliography) >> - The story of Rūp(y)āvatī/Rukmavatī (Divyāvadāna). The story has been >> handed down in three different versions. (See Dimitrov 2004, 2008; Steiner >> 2002; Straube 2009.) >> - Bhagavadajjukīya by Bodhāyana/Baudhāyana >> - Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra; a girl became a man before reaching buddhahood >> - Viṣṇu’s appearance as Mohinī (Mahābhārata etc); the story is retold in a >> funny way in Samudramathana by Vatsaraja >> - The story of queen Cūḍālā and king Śikhidhvaja. Cūḍālā transforms herself >> (through yogic power) into a young sage named Kumbha to instruct her >> husband; later on, she (in the form of Kumbha) tells Sikhidhvaja that in the >> past she had offended a sage and consequently was cursed to become a woman >> every night. (Yogavasiṣṭha and Mokṣopāya VI.81.11–114.32) (Mokṣopāya. Das >> Sechste Buch. Nirvāṇaprakaraṇa. 1. Teil: Kapitel 1–119. Kritische Edition >> von S. Krause-Stinner und P. Stephan. Wiesbaden 2018, pp. 319–474.) >> - The goddess swapping her female body with the śrāvaka monk Śāriputra in >> the Vimalakīrtinirdeśasūtra >> - Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva are transformed into females on entering Goddess’ >> Maṇidvīpa (Devībhāgavatapurāṇa 3.4) >> - Prajāpati (considered as tha creator of the universe) manifests features >> associated with both male and female generative power, including lactating >> breasts (Śatapathabrāhmaṇa [Mādhyaṃdina] 2.5.1-3 etc.) >> - The episode of Kṛṣṇa's son Sāmba, who in Book 16 of the Mahābhārata, >> thirty-six years after the war, dresses as a pregnant woman (as part of a >> prank that does not end well for him.) >> - Story 62 of the Śukasaptati: a young and handsome lover manages to >> disguise himself as a woman in order to live with the women of a Rajput. >> With a special trick he can even dance naked without being recognized. >> (Transmitted in the textus simplicior [11th/12th c., crit. ed. by Richard >> Schmidt, Leipzig ], not transmitted in the textus ornatior [crit. ed. by >> Richard Schmidt, München 1898]). (See Artola 1975 [or 1977]). >> - The story of “The pregnant Vidyādhara” in the Tantropākhyāna (an >> incomplete gender change) narrates of the transfer of an embryo from a >> pregnant female to a male character (and the final death of the latter, >> unable to give birth). (See Artola 1965) >> - Hasyacūḍāmaṇi by Vatsaraja (An ascetic and an old bawd form a couple; they >> don't exchange genders, but they do exchange gender roles.) >> - Atharvavedic hymns that purports to forcibly change ones gender from man >> to woman/man to neuter or otherwise emasculate/render impotent. (e.g. >> Śaunakasaṃhitā 6.138 ~ Paippalādasaṃhitā 1.68.) >> - Kāmasūtra 2.7.22–23, plus chapter 2.8 (woman playing the man’s part). >> >> Studies and secondary sources >> - George T. Artola. 1965. “Ten Tales from the Tantropākhyāna”, ALB 29, pp. >> 30–73 (st. 2 "The pregnant Vidyādhara", pp. 36, 52-53). >> - George T. Artola. 1975. “The Transvestite in Sanskrit Story and Drama”, >> Annals of Oriental Research (Madras, ed. K. Kunjunni Raja) 25, pp. 57-68, >> reed. in Id. The banner of Kāmadeva and other topics of Sanskrit literature >> and Indian culture (Monographs of the Department of Sanskrit and Indian >> Studies, University of Toronto, vol. 3), Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1977, >> pp. 44-59. (On the topic of the "third nature”; on p. 65 the article deals >> with story 62 in the Śukasaptati.) >> - Simon Brodbeck and Brian Black (eds). 2007. Gender and Narrative in the >> Mahabharata. Routledge. (Especially the chapters by Andrea Custodi on >> “Transsexuality and Gender-Bending in the Characters of Arjuna/Brihannadaa >> and Ambaa/Shikhandin”, and by Georg von Simson on “Krishna’s Son Saamba: >> Faked Gender and Other Ambiguities on the Background of Lunar and Solar >> Myth”.) >> - Dragomir Dimitrov. 2008. “Some Remarks on the Rūpyāvatyavadāna of the >> Divyāvadāna(mālā).” In: D. Dimitrov, M. Hahn, and R. Steiner (eds.): >> Bauddhasāhityastabakāvalī. Essays and Studies on Buddhist Sanskrit >> Literature. Dedicated to Claus Vogel. Marburg (Indica et Tibetica 36), pp. >> 45–64. (On the story of Rūp(y)āvatī/Rukmavatī.) >> - Dragomir Dimitrov. 2004. “Two Female Bodhisattvas in Flesh and Blood.” In: >> U. Roesler and J. Soni (eds.): Aspects of the Female in Indian Culture. >> Marburg (Indica et Tibetica 44), pp. 3–30. (On the story of >> Rūp(y)āvatī/Rukmavatī.) >> - Wendy Doniger. 2016. Redeeming the Kamasutra, pp. 109–113. (Section on >> traditional and inverted Indian concepts of gender.) >> - Wendy Doniger. 2014. On Hinduism. (Especially the section on Transsexual >> Transformations of Subjectivity and Memory in Hindu Mythology.) >> - Wendy Doniger. 2002. The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade. >> - Wendy Doniger. 1999. Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient >> Greece and India. (Especially chapter six might be useful.) >> - Wendy Doniger. 1982. Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts. >> - Anna Aurelia Esposito. 2013. “Wie man im alten Indien sein Geschlecht >> verändert: Transformationen von Geschlecht in der klassischen indischen >> Literatur”, Heike Moser und Stephan Köhn (eds), Frauenbilder/Frauenkörper, >> Inszenierungen des Weiblichen in den Gesellschaften Süd- und Ostasiens. >> Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 503–524. >> - Sanjay Gautam. 2013. “The Event of Sexual Pleasure as De-subjectivization >> in Foucault and the Kāmasūtra”, South Asian Review, Vol. 34(3), p.19-34. (On >> raticakra; Gautam discusses how intense passion causes a male-female couple >> to reverse their genders temporarily.) >> - Robert Goldman. Notes on Arjuna’s “transvestism” at Virāṭa’s court (email). >> - Anahita Hoose. 2025. “The god with a thousand vulvas: heroic feminisation >> in ancient India and Greece”, JRAS, Series 3, 35, 505–521. >> - Padmanabh Jaini. 1991. Gender and Salvation. Jaina Debates on the >> Spiritual Liberation of Women. University of California Press. (On the male >> body as the normative body, the male body as the superior body, and explicit >> or implicit demonization of women and female sexuality, including (as >> warnings) stories about sex change in current or future lives.) >> - Susanne Mrozik. 2006. “Materialization of Virtue: Buddhist discourses on >> bodies.” In E. T. Armour and S. M. St. Ville (eds), Bodily Citations >> Religion and Judith Butler. Columbia University Press. >> - John Powers. 2009. A Bull of a Man. Images of Masculinity Sex and the Body >> in Indian Buddhism. (On the male body as the normative body, the male body >> as the superior body, and explicit or implicit demonization of women and >> female sexuality, including (as warnings) stories about sex change in >> current or future lives.) >> - Hidenori Sakuma. 1990. Die āśrayaparivṛtti-Theorie in der Yogācārabhūmi. >> Stuttgart. (On the notion of āśrayaparivṛtti/parāvṛtti, one of its earliest >> meanings is “gender change”). >> - Roland Steiner. 2002. “Zum ursprünglichen Titel der >> ‘Rūpyāvatī’-Geschichte.” In: D. Dimitrov, U. Roesler and R. Steiner (eds.): >> Śikhisamuccayaḥ. Indian and Tibetan Studies. Wien (Wiener Studien zur >> Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 53), pp. 203–210. (On the story of >> Rūp(y)āvatī/Rukmavatī.) >> - Martin Straube. 2009. Studien zur Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā. Texte und >> Quellen der Parallelen zu Haribhaṭṭas Jātakamālā. Wiesbaden >> (Veröffentlichungen der Helmuth von Glasenapp-Stiftung. Monographien 1), pp. >> 322–324 (“Das Rukmavatyavadāna”). (On the story of Rūp(y)āvatī/Rukmavatī.) >> - McComas Taylor. 2013. “Purāṇic Masculinities and Transgender Adventures in >> the Garden of the Goddess”, International Journal of Hindu Studies, Vol. 17, >> No. 2 (August, 2013), pp. 153-179 >> - Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai (eds). 2000. Same-Sex Love in India: >> Readings from Literature and History. (Some chapters on sex and gender >> change might be of interest.) >> - Fernando Wulff Alonso. 2020. In Search of Vyāsa: The Use of Greco-Roman >> Sources in Book 4 of the Mahābhārata. (On Arjuna’s transvestism at the court >> of Virata and its parallels in the legend of Heracles.) >> - Serenity Young. 2004. Courtesans and Tantric Consorts. Sexualities in >> Buddhist Narrative, Iconography, and Ritual. Routledge. (On the male body as >> the normative body, the male body as the superior body, and explicit or >> implicit demonization of women and female sexuality, including (as warnings) >> stories about sex change in current or future lives.) >> - Leonard Zwilling and Michael J. Sweet. 2000. “The Evolution of Third-Sex >> Constructs in Ancient India: A Study in Ambiguity”, in Julia Leslie and Mary >> McGee, eds., Invented Identities: The Interplay of Gender, Religion and >> Politics in India, 99–132, New Delhi: Oxford University Press. (On Arjuna’s >> “transvestism” at Virāṭa’s court.) >> >> Pāli literature >> - The story of Soreyya/Soreyyā (Pali commentarial literature) >> - Dhammadinnā. 2019. “Soreyya/ā’s double sex change: on gender relevance and >> Buddhist values”, ARIRIAB 22, 9–34. (On the story of Soreyya/Soreyyā.) >> >> ------------------ >> >> >> >>> Il giorno 14 mar 2026, alle ore 23:07, Marco Franceschini >>> <[email protected]> ha scritto: >>> >>> Dear friends and colleagues, >>> >>> I would like to sincerely thank everyone who responded to my question, both >>> on- and off-list. I am deeply grateful to you all: in less than 24 hours, I >>> received 25 suggestions – I am amazed by our group’s capacity for >>> cooperation and mutual enrichment. >>> Reading your replies, I realised that this topic can take on a scope I >>> hadn’t considered, as it borders on and, at times, overlaps with related >>> topics, such as androgyny, the male body as the normative body, the concept >>> of āśrayaparivṛtti/parāvṛtti, normative literature (Kāmasūtra and >>> Kāmaśāstras), Buddhist literature in Pāli, genderbending/emasculating >>> rituals in Vedic texts – to mention just a few. Perhaps a dear friend is >>> right who, off-list, writes to me that the topic deserves a panel at a >>> conference or, perhaps, an entire conference... >>> Over the next few days I will organise your suggestions and recommendations >>> and send you a summary email with a bibliography. >>> >>> Thank you again. >>> Warm regards to all, >>> >>> Marco >>> --- >>> Marco Franceschini >>> ———————————--- >>> Associate Professor >>> University of Bologna >>> Department of History and Cultures >>> Personal web page <https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/marco.franceschini3/en> >>> Academia web page <http://unibo.academia.edu/MarcoFranceschini> >>> — >>> >>> >>>> Il giorno 13 mar 2026, alle ore 21:46, Marco Franceschini >>>> <[email protected]> ha scritto: >>>> >>>> Dear friends and colleagues, >>>> >>>> one of my students is writing her undergraduate thesis on the theme of >>>> gender change in pre-modern Sanskrit literature. >>>> So far, we have identified the following cases: >>>> - Ila/Sudyumna-Ilā (Rāmāyaṇa, Bhāgavatapurāṇa, Viṣṇupurāṇa, Vāyupurāṇa) >>>> - Bhaṅgāsvana (Mahābhārata) >>>> - Śikhaṇḍin (Mahābhārata) >>>> - Mūladeva (Vetālapañcaviṃśati) >>>> - Rūpāvatī (Divyāvadāna) >>>> - Arjuna (Mahābhārata) >>>> >>>> As for studies on the subject, we have been able to identify only these >>>> three: >>>> - M. Bloomfield, On the Art of Entering Another's Body: A Hindu Fiction >>>> Motif >>>> - N. Brown, Change of Sex as a Hindu Story Motif >>>> - R. Goldman, Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety in Traditional India >>>> >>>> I would be grateful for any additional suggestions you might wish to >>>> provide. >>>> >>>> Thank you in advance for your suggestions. >>>> Best wishes, >>>> >>>> Marco >>>> --- >>>> Marco Franceschini >>>> ———————————--- >>>> Associate Professor >>>> University of Bologna >>>> Department of History and Cultures >>>> Personal web page <https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/marco.franceschini3/en> >>>> Academia web page <http://unibo.academia.edu/MarcoFranceschini> >>>> — >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >> >
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