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Upaniṣads of the Non-Dualism of Love: Govardhana's Āryāsaptaśatī

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Upaniṣads of the Non-Dualism of Love: Govardhana's Āryāsaptaśatī Upaniṣads of the Non-Dualism of Love: Govardhana’s Āryāsaptaśatī Dissertation zur Erlangung der Würde des Doktors der Philosophie der Universität Hamburg vorgelegt von Dolores Minakakis aus Cambridge, USA Hamburg 2011 1. Gutachter: Herr Professor Dr. Harunaga Isaacson 2. Gutachter: Herr Professor Dr. Michael Zimmermann Datum der Disputation: 12 Juli 2011 ii Zusammenfassung der Dissertation Titel: Upaniṣads of the Non-Dualism of Love: Govardhana’s Āryāsaptaśatī Der indische Dichter Govardhana (ca. 1200 AD) war Hofdichter des bengalischen Königs Lakṣmaṇasena. Govardhanas Berühmtheit gründet auf seinem umfangreichen Gedicht, die Āryāsaptaśatī, eine Sammlung von etwa 700 Sanskritstrophen (muktakas), die im Āryā-Versmaß verfasst und zum größten Teil einem erotischen Thema gewidmet sind. Meine Dissertation ist eine literarische Studie des Dichters und seiner Āryāsaptaśatī. Der erste Teil der Dissertation widmet sich dem Kontext des Gedichts und erforscht die Bedeutung der Āryāsaptaśatī, wie auch ihre Beziehung zu anderen Texten der Sanskrit- und Prakrit-Literatur. Obwohl das Werk in großem Maße von der älteren prakritischen Gāhāsattasaī inspiriert ist, vertritt die Dissertation die These, dass die Āryāsaptaśatī ein einzigartiges Beispiel darstellt, um die Evolution der sanskritischen muktaka-Poesie während der Entwicklung des Genres aufzuzeigen. Der zweite Teil der Dissertation bietet einen Text und Übersetzung der gesamten Āryāsaptaśatī. Der Text ist auf der Grundlage von mehreren Handschriften und früheren Druckausgaben editiert worden. Die Übersetzung ist keine poetische Übersetzung, sondern eine wissenschaftliche, die aus den veröffentlichten und unveröffentlichten Sanskritkommentaren der Āryāsaptaśatī Nutzen gezogen hat. Gleichzeitig versucht die Übersetzung, das Wortspiel und die Schönheit von Govardhanas Dichtkunst aufzuzeigen. iii Abstract Title: Upaniṣads of the Non-Dualism of Love: Govardhana’s Āryāsaptaśatī The Indian poet Govardhana (c. 1200 AD) was a poet at the court of the Bengali king Lakṣmaṇasena. He is most famous for his massive work, the Āryāsaptaśatī, a collection of about 700 Sanskrit single-stanza poems (muktakas) in Āryā meter, mostly with an erotic theme. My dissertation is a literary study of Govardhana and his Āryāsaptaśatī. The first part of the dissertation presents the context of the poetry and explores the importance of the Āryāsaptaśatī and its relationship with other Sanskrit and Prākrit literary texts. Although the work takes much of its inspiration from the earlier Prākrit Gāhāsattasaī, the thesis presents the Āryāsaptaśatī itself as a unique example of the evolution of Sanskrit muktaka poetry throughout the development of the genre. The second part of the dissertation presents a text and translation of the entire Āryāsaptaśatī. The text has been edited on the basis of a number of manuscripts and earlier printed editions. The translation is a scholarly, rather than a poetic one, and has benefited from the consultation of both published and unpublished Sanskrit commentaries. At the same time, it attempts to showcase the wordplay and beauty of Govardhana’s poetry. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The process of writing this took much longer than anybody anticipated and I couldn’t have done it without the help and support of: Harunaga Isaacson, who first introduced me to Govardhana and who mentored me with kindness, strength, and patient expectation of only my best possible work, who never even seemed to think that I wouldn’t be able to do this, even when I was convinced of it; Deven Patel, who supported me mentally and emotionally and who was one of my biggest cheerleaders, not to mention a trusted guide in thorny areas of Sanskrit literature; Shaman Hatley, for providing me with manuscripts and friendship; Steven Vose, for taking time out of his own busy schedule to help me with the mysteries of Hindu astrology; David Nelson, for his help and guidance from the fifth floor of Van Pelt; George Cardona, for teaching me the Sattasaī; Dr. Barbara Schuler, for help with German; Michael Zimmermann, Tatiana Oranskaia, and Ram Prasad Bhatt, for agreeing to be on my committee; Kengo Harimoto, for being on my committee and for always making me feel welcome and sociable in Hamburg; the aforementioned Van Pelt Library, for everything; the Houghton Library at Harvard, for letting me in. In the non-scholastic realm, I owe a great deal of thanks to my family, especially my parents, for pushing me and for their love and support during my years of wandering. My family by marriage—my other family in Greece—always showed me unconditional love and a steely belief that the most important things were my studies, even when I wasn’t too sure about my own path. Amalía provided me hours of entertainment, distraction, and happiness. The Chávez family in Philadelphia let me use their wonderful home as headquarters during a research trip and made me feel like one of the family in the meantime. During some tough times Deborah DiLazzero listened and helped. My students at Southfield School also inspired me, with their understanding of why I needed to do this, as well as their raucous insistence on making sure I finish so that they could call me “Doctor.” All my friends whom I haven’t listed: thank you for letting me vent to you. Finally, I couldn’t have done this without Stratis. From the first day we met, when I was complaining about my dissertation topic, to the years afterward, you have been there to listen to my ideas, to support me in all of my decisions, to proofread, and to be there for me on the darkest days. This entire endeavor is dedicated to you, with love. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. The Āryāsaptaśatī and its Environment 1 II. The Gāhāsattasaī 17 III. The Search for Govardhana’s Origin 38 IV. Hints of the Sattasaī in the Saptaśatī 53 V. Prākrit in Sanskrit Literature and in the Āryāsaptaśatī 61 VI. Divine Transformation in the Āryāsaptaśatī 82 VII. Conclusion 90 A Note on Translation 100 Editions and Manuscripts Read of the Āryāsaptaśatī 110 TEXT & TRANSLATION 113 BIBLIOGRAPHY 334 vi INTRODUCTION I. THE ĀRYĀSAPTAŚATĪ AND ITS ENVIRONMENT In the later years of the 12th century AD, or in the early 13th century, the writer Govardhana, a poet at the Bengali court of king Lakṣmaṇasena, wrote a massive collection of single-stanza poems, titled the Āryāsaptaśatī (“seven hundred [verses] in Āryā [meter]”). Obviously taking its cue from the earlier Prākrit collection of poetry, the Gāhāsattasaī (in Sanskrit, Gāthāsaptaśatī, literally “seven hundred [verses] in Gāthā [the same meter as Āryā]”), supposedly compiled by Hāla centuries before, Govardhana’s collection of verses is an impressive example of Sanskrit literature. In total, it holds seven hundred fifty-six verses, all in Āryā meter, most of them devoted to the subject of erotic love, although many verses deal with morality, ethics, and appropriate behavior. Many of the verses depend strongly on anyokti [lit. “other speech”], or indirect expression/allegory, with dense puns and plays on words—one verse can have two different meanings depending on how it is read, due to the poet’s sophisticated use of language. The Āryāsaptaśatī begins with 54 verses of introduction, in which Govardhana praises gods, poets, and poetry before confidently introducing his own poetry. After this section, the work is divided alphabetically into sections called vrajyās, although within the individual sections there is no particular order—alphabetical or otherwise—followed. Because of the Āryāsaptaśatī’s close structural similarity to the Gāhāsattasaī, in Western scholarship throughout the years, Govardhana generally has been held to be a poor imitator of Hāla—although most admire the fact that he actually wrote all of his seven hundred verses, as opposed to Hāla—and his work. However, upon a closer 1 reading and exploration of his Āryāsaptaśatī, it is clear that Govardhana’s work deserves its own place in the unofficial canon of Sanskrit literature, an example of which he himself presents in the introduction to his work.1 The writer’s awareness and acknowledgement of his literary predecessors also merits attention, as well as the environmental/geographical setting of many of his poems. Although Hāla’s2 poems are mostly set in the context of the village, no doubt to match the “rustic” Prākrit3 in which they were written, in the centuries following the appearance of the Gāhāsattasaī, Sanskrit poetry—especially erotic muktakas [single-stanza verses] such as these—shifted in setting, placing the amorous situations more squarely in an urban environment. Nevertheless, apart from paying tribute to the Gāhāsattasaī in structure, meter, and subject, the Āryāsaptaśatī, quite surprisingly for such relatively late Sanskrit poetry, also finds many of its situations taking place in the village, moving away from the courtly/urban culture seen in earlier muktakas. The world of classical secular Sanskrit poetry is inextricably linked with that of the premodern Indian court. Many of the greatest writers of the ages were patronized by royal personages and earned their livings as court poets. For example, in the case of Kālidāsa’s Meghadūta, Leonard Nathan posits that this poem, “like most classical Indian 1 As will be seen later in this section, in verses 1.30 to 1.37 of the Āryāsaptaśatī, Govardhana pays tributes to some of the great writers and works of Sanskrit literature: Vālmīki (author of the Rāmāyaṇa), Vyāsa’s Mahābhārata, the Rāmāyaṇa itself, Guṇāḍhya (author of the Bṛhatkathā), the three great epics (the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, and Bṛhatkathā), Kālidāsa, Bhavabhūti—with a reference to the Uttararāmacarita, and Bāṇa. The following two verses pay tribute to a poet named Nīlāmbara, who seems to be Govardhana’s father, and to the king Lakṣmaṇasena, respectively. 2 Although Hāla is the compiler, rather than the sole author, of the Gāhāsattasaī, for simplicity’s sake throughout this work, I will use his name as shorthand for when I mean the author of a particular stanza found in the collection of poetry.
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