Gender Performativity and the Trickster Figure of Amar Ayyar in Tilism-e-Hoshruba

Abstract

This article examines the trickster figure of Amar Ayyar in Tilism-e-Hoshruba, the first fully Indianized epic dastan of South Asia, through a poststructuralist gender framework inspired by Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity. The study situates Amar Ayyar within both the Urdu dastan tradition and poststructuralist discourse to show how Tilism-e-Hoshruba anticipates modern debates on gender fluidity and performative identity. While not a chivalric hero, Amar Ayyar emerges as the true agent of transformation in the religious and symbolic conflict depicted between the forces of good and evil in the dastan. By performing and parodying gender through his series of disguises, Amar destabilizes the presumed natural link between sexed bodies and gendered behavior. His acts of deception and transformation reveal gender as a cultural construct sustained by repetition rather than essence. Unlike conventional narratives where deviation from gender norms invites punishment, Amar’s subversions are rewarded—suggesting an alternative precolonial understanding of embodiment and identity.