Transgender Identity in Ancient Indian Thought: Text, Tradition, and Contemporary Gender Discourse
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Abstract
This paper seeks to understand the historical, textual and philosophical paradigms of gender-diverse identities and their representations in ancient Indian thought through the lens of howearly textual traditions expressed gender fluidity through concepts like tritiya prakrti ("thirdnature") and napumsaka. Through an analysis of canonical Sanskrit texts ranging from vedic hymns, epics, dharma sastras (texts on law), medical and erotic texts, this paper will seek to understand how gender variance was structured in ancient South Asia. This paper juxtaposes the above paradigms with the extreme marginalization that contemporary trans and Hijra communities face in India. Finally, it will explore how ancient indigenous models interact with contemporary global gender discourse and the role of historical text and tradition in the making of legal and social liberation
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