Eknāth Remembered and Reformed: Bhakti, Brahmans, and Untouchables in Marathi Historiography Jon Milton Keune Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2011 © 2011 Jon Milton Keune All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Eknāth Remembered and Reformed: Bhakti, Brahmans, and Untouchables in Marathi Historiography Jon Milton Keune This dissertation investigates how stories about the Marathi sant-poet Eknāth of Paiṭhaṇ (1533-1599) interacting with untouchables changed over the course of three centuries of textual repetition and dramatic representation. In tracing memories of Eknāth over such time and through various Marathi public spheres, the dissertation sheds light on why Eknāth has come to be viewed in complicated and conflicted ways in the present. This examination of stories, particularly as they pertain to inter-caste relations and the expression of a bhakti social outlook, offers a chance to view how understandings of devotional religion and caste changed in Maharashtrian society between 1700 and the present. At the heart of these stories is a narrative tension between Eknāth’s boundary-transgressing actions that are presented in spiritually egalitarian terms, and societal expectations about ritual purity and brahman-ness. I show that although the details of the stories change through various repetitions and renditions, this tension endures and produces an ambiguity in the narrative that (perhaps intentionally) makes Eknāth’s social allegiance impossible to determine. My sources for this study include hagiographical texts (ca. 1650-1800), biographical books and essays (1880-1925), and six major dramas and films (1903-2005) – all of which richly portray aspects of Eknāth’s life, and nearly all of which are in Marathi. In the course of preparing this historiographical analysis, I introduce many Marathi sources to the English scholarly world for the first time and call attention to several historical texts and plays that have been forgotten or overlooked by Marathi scholars as well. Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Approach ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter Overview ....................................................................................................................... 8 Outline of Maharashtrian History (1500-present) ..................................................................... 11 Shape and Emphasis of the Dissertation ................................................................................... 18 Chapter One – Background and Literature Review ...................................................................... 20 A Common Biographical Sketch of Eknāth .............................................................................. 21 Literature Review of Eknāth Studies ........................................................................................ 36 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 58 Chapter Two – Eknāth Remembered in Early Hagiography (1650-1760) ................................... 63 The Śrīkhaṇḍyākhyān of Mukteśvar ......................................................................................... 66 The Pratiṣṭhān-caritra of Kṛṣṇadās Jagadānanda-nandan ......................................................... 78 The Eknāth-caritra of Keśavsvāmī .......................................................................................... 102 Preliminary Analysis ............................................................................................................... 132 Chapter Three – Eknāth Remembered in Late Hagiography (1762-1800) ................................. 134 Minimal Collective Hagiographies ......................................................................................... 135 Maximal Collective Hagiographies ........................................................................................ 136 Minor and Independent References ........................................................................................ 163 Analysis of Stories about Eknāth’s Social Interactions .......................................................... 171 i Chapter Four – Eknāth in Marathi History and Scholarship (1800-present) .............................. 179 Alternative Sources for a Historiography of Eknāth ............................................................... 180 History, Devotion, and Caste in Early Biographies of Eknāth (1883-1931) .......................... 208 Vectors of Interpretation in the 20th Century .......................................................................... 259 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 269 Chapter Five – Eknāth on the Marathi Stage and Screen ........................................................... 272 Early Productions (1903-1934) ............................................................................................... 273 Dharmātmā (1935) .................................................................................................................. 307 Bhāva Toci Dev (1964) ........................................................................................................... 327 VCD Films .............................................................................................................................. 339 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 354 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 358 Review .................................................................................................................................... 358 Notable patterns, themes and trends over time ....................................................................... 364 The Conspicuously Missing Piece: Śūdras and Dalits on Eknāth .......................................... 369 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 372 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 374 Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 401 Appendix A – Full translation of Mukteśvar’s Śrīkhaṇḍyākhyān .......................................... 402 Appendix B – Chapter Outline of Kṛṣṇadās Jagadānanda-nandan’s Pratiṣṭhān-caritra ......... 409 ii Appendix C – Chapter Outline of Keśavsvāmī’s Eknāth-caritra ............................................ 414 Appendix D – Chapter Outline of Mahīpati’s Bhaktavijay .................................................... 426 Appendix E – Chapter Outline of Mahīpati’s Bhaktlīlāmṛt .................................................... 429 Appendix F – Chapter Outline of Bhīmasvāmī’s Bhaktlīlāmṛt .............................................. 434 Appendix G – Table of all major stories about Eknāth and their textual locations ................ 436 iii Notes on Transliteration and Format Scholars have addressed the challenges of rendering Marathi words into English in various ways. For the sake of clarity and consistency, I want to advise readers of my choices. I retain diacritical marks on most Marathi words and place names throughout the dissertation, as readers of a dissertation will likely tolerate visual inelegance for the sake of precision. The only major exceptions are the words Maharashtra, Marathi, and brahman (the caste), names of Indian cities that are commonly known, and Marathi words that occur in English quotations or titles without diacritics. Anusvars that precede consonants I transliterate as the nasal letter corresponding to the given consonant’s class (guttural, retroflex, palatal, dental and labial). In other words, anusvars before k, c, ṭ, t and p are written ṅ, ñ, ṇ, n, and m respectively, as they would be pronounced aloud. Final anusvars are transliterated as ṁ. I represent the pronunciation of Marathi words rather than adhere to a strict formula when transliterating their orthographic appearance (which works for transliterating Sanskrit but is artificial for Marathi). For example, the name of the sant at the center of this study – एकनाथ – will be transliterated as it is pronounced (Eknāth) rather than as it would look if transliterated as a Sanskrit word (Ekanātha). Since this dissertation considers Marathi literature that spans four centuries and a variety of dialects and styles (and spelling and printing errors in modern texts), readers will see some variation in how Marathi words are spelled. Standardizing or noting all of the variations would be impractical; I will simply reproduce them in my transliterations and comment on them only when they are extremely confusing and might hinder readers’ understanding. In this dissertation when I refer to an author whose text under consideration was written in Marathi, I will use diacritics to transliterate