A Vaisnava Poet in Early Modern Bengal

Description

This book examines the practice of poetry in the devotional Vaiṣṇava tradition inspired by Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya (1486-1533), through a detailed study of the Sanskrit poetic works of Kavikarṇapūra, one of the most significant sixteenth-century Caitanya Vaiṣṇava poets and theologians. It places his ideas in the context both of Sanskrit literary theory (by exploring his use of earlier works of Sanskrit criticism) and of Vaiṣṇava theology (by tracing the origins of his theological ideas to earlier Vaiṣṇava teachers, especially his guru Śrīnātha). Both Kavikarṇapūra's poetics as well as the style of his poetry is in many ways at odds with those of his time, particularly with respect to the place of phonetic ornamentation and rasa. Like later early modern theorists, Kavikarṇapūra reaches back to the earliest Sanskrit poeticians whom he attempts to harmonise with the theories current in his time, to develop a new poetics that values both literary ornamentation and the suggestion of emotion through rasa. This book argues that the reasons of and purposes for Kavikarṇapūra's literary innovations are firmly rooted in his unique Vaiṣṇava theology, and exemplifies this through a careful reading of select passages from the Ānanda-vṛndāvana, his poetic retelling of Kṛṣṇa's play in Vṛndāvana.

About the Author

Rembert Lutjeharms is a librarian and research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, and a tutor in Hinduism at the Faculty of Theology & Religion of the University of Oxford. The main subject of his research is the early intellectual history of the Caitanya Vaisnava tradition. He is also an editor of the Journal of Hindu Studies.

Table of contents

Introduction
1: On Kavikarṇapūra
2: On Doctrine and Devotion
3: On Rasa
4: On Poetic Language
5: On Defining Poetry
6: On the Vṛndāvana of Bliss
7: On the Rasa of Love
Bibliography