Kumkum Sangari In an economy where the labour of women and the surplus production of the peasant and artisan are customarily and 'naturally' appropriated by the ruling groups, the high Hindu traditions sought to encompass and retain thi management of spiritual 'surplus', and to circumscribe its availability along lines of caste and gender In this spiritual economy, the liberalising and dissenting forms of bhakti emerge as a powerful force which selectively uses the metaphysic of high Hinduism in ah attempt to create an inappropriate excess or transcendent value grounded in the dailiness of a material life within the reach of all.