© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021, Ofce 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Shefeld S1 2BX Religions of South Asia 13.3 (2019) 368–384 ISSN (print) 1751-2689 https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.19015 ISSN (online) 1751-2697 Gender Constructions in the Theological Dimension of the Sūfī Premākhyāns: Sūfī Politics of Representation in the Citrāvalī by Usmān ANNALISA BOCCHETTI 1 Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies ‘L’Orientale’ University of Naples 80134 Naples Italy bocchetti.annalisa16@gmail.com ABSTRACT: Through the analysis of the Citrāvalī (1613 ce) by Usmān, this article explores the interrelation between aesthetics, gender and religion within the Indian Sūfī romances (premākhyāns) in Avadhī language. These narratives reinterpret the Sūfī semantics of love, narrating the quest of the hero in yogic disguise in search of the heroine, portrayed as a divine woman. Usmān creatively reimagines the heroine of his romance as an artist, drawing on this motif to trace the allegory of creation as divine art. Therefore, this article identifes conventional aesthetic patterns in Usmān’s narrative reproducing relevant gender dynamics, such as the eroticized and yet idealized image of the heroine in relation to the hero’s spiritual growth, contrasting with the escalation of the villain’s sexual desire. The traditional Hindu setting of the story broadly refects the socio-cultural norms of the North Indian world in early modern times, and implies gender hierarchies established by the local society. The intersection of these points in the Citrāvalī suggests further refections on the articulation of gender in a rich branch of Sūfī literature composed in a regional language of India, which may open new perspectives in the interpretation of the relationship between mysticism and eroticism. KEYWORDS: early modern India; Sūfī Indian literature; aesthetics; gender. 1. Annalisa Bocchetti is a PhD candidate in the Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies of ‘L’Orientale’ University of Naples. She earned her MA at the same institution, where she completed her studies in Hindī and Urdū literatures. She is member of the European Association of South Asian Studies (EASAS) and the British Association of South Asian Studies (BASAS). Her academic research currently focuses on North Indian narrative traditions, particularly early modern Indo-Muslim literature.