The Gujarati Lyrics of Kavi Dayarambhal
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The Gujarati Lyrics of Kavi Dayarambhal Rachel Madeline Jackson Dwyer School of Oriental and African Studies Thesis presented to the University of London for the degree PhD July 1995 /f h. \ ProQuest Number: 10673087 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10673087 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT Kavi Dayarambhal or Dayaram (1777-1852), considered to be one of the three greatest poets of Gujarati, brought to an end not only the age of the great bhakta- poets, but also the age of Gujarati medieval literature. After Dayaram, a new age of Gujarati literature and language began, influenced by Western education and thinking. The three chapters of Part I of the thesis look at the ways of approaching North Indian devotional literature which have informed all subsequent readings of Dayaram in the hundred and fifty years since his death. Chapter 1 is concerned with the treatment by Indologists of the Krsnaite literature in Braj Bhasa, which forms a significant part of Dayaram's literary antecedents. Chapter 2 then considers studies of Dayaram by Gujarati scholars which tend to focus on him as a devotee of Krsna and a member of the Pustimarga. It also looks at literary criticism of his writings in the context of the Gujarati literary world. Chapter 3 discusses Dayaram’s lyrics from an Indological perspective, concentrating on form and language. Part II puts forward a new approach to a study of Dayaram's lyrics. Chapter 4 argues that these texts deserve treatment as literary texts in their own right and suggests a reading informed by the thought of Mikhail Bakhtin (1895- 1975). Chapter 5 discusses Dayaram's lyrics in the light of Bakhtin's concept of the carnivalesque, Chapter 6 looks at the functions of chronotopic features in the lyrics. Part III is a selection of Dayaram's lyrics. The Gujarati texts are given in Roman transliteration, followed by literal translations into English. A full bibliography of primary and secondary sources consulted is included. 2 The thesis introduces a poet scarcely known to western scholars and makes a selection of his work available to those who do not know Gujarati. It examines a number of approaches which have conventionally been brought to bear on literature of this kind. It finds much which is valuable in them but highlights some of their limitations for a study of this poet; a new critical approach from literary theory, using the ideas of Bakhtin (in particular those of the camivalesque and the chronotope) allows the thesis to re-examine the position of Dayaram in the history of Gujarati literature. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 6 Style notes 8 Introduction 11 PART I Chapter 1 The Indologists' approaches to Krsnaite literature 30 1.1 Indologist writing on Guj arati Vaisnava literature 31 1.2 Indologist writing on Braj literature 40 Chapter 2 Gujarati attitudes to Dayaram 62 2.1 Life of Dayaram 62 2.2 Dayaram and the Pustimarga 66 2.3 The reception of Dayaram's works in Gujarat 74 Chapter 3 Dayaram's lyrics 88 3.1 The Guj arati religious lyric before Dayaram 8 8 3.2 Dayaram's coipus: texts and transmission 102 3.3 Dayaram's lyrics 110 3.4 The language of Dayaram's lyrics 122 PART II Chapter 4 Mikhail Bakhtin 129 4.1 Mikhail Bakhtin 129 4.2 Mikhail Bakhtin’s thought 132 4.3 Towards a Bakhtinian reading of Dayaram 139 4 C hapter 5 The camivalesque 141 5.1 The camivalesque in the Krsna cult 141 5.2 Developments of camivalesque elements in the Pustimarga 145 5.3 Camivalesque features in the lyrics of Dayaram 148 5.4 Camivalesque and popular culture 168 C hapter 6 The chronotope 173 6.1 The'generic'chronotope 174 6.2 Space and place 176 6.3 Time 182 6.4 Chronotopic motifs 184 6.5 The chronotopes of the author and of the reader 188 6.6 Concluding remarks 191 PART III Chapter 7 The lyrics: texts and translations 195 Bibliography 433 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For academic help I thank my supervisor Professor Christopher Shackle; Dr. J.D. Smith for his help with the metrics in Chapter 3; and Dr. Raghuveer Chaudhari for Ins advice on the translations in Chapter 7. For help in locating material I am indebted to members of the Gujarati Departments of MS University Baroda and of the University of Bombay, in particular to Dr. Subhashbhai Dave and Dr. Bharatiben Dalai who introduced me to the Bhalcta Kavisri Dayaram Smarak Samiti, Dabhoi and numerous Dabhoivasis. Manjuben Jhaveri of the Forbes Gujarati Sabha provided me with much of the essential material for this work; Ghanshyambhai Desai and the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (Bombay) gave further help as did Deepakbhai Mehta (USIS); H.H. Shyam GosvamijI, Bombay, and H.H. Indirabetiji, Vadodara, made available material on the Pustimarga. During my field research, I received such warm hospitality from so many people in Gujarat and in Bombay that I can mention only a few: in Vadodara, the household of the late Lalitbhai Maganbhai Patel (in particular Amitaben who allowed me to question her about the Pustimarga for weeks on end) and of Natubhai (N.C.) and Leelaben Patel; in Bombay, the families of Bhanubhai (B.M.) Patel, of Jalal Agha and of Monisha Shah. Thanks to my family and friends, in particular, to my husband, Michael Dwyer, and to my parents, Tom and Vivian Jackson. This thesis is dedicated to my dear father. 6 Thomas Jackson ( 1925 - 1994) They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. Psalm 107:23-4. 7 STYLE NOTES A Transliteration 1 Italicised words in strict transcription as Sanskrit with inherent -a throughout: 1 All texts and quotes from Dayaram's lyrics; ii Terminology of sect with translation in inverted commas in brackets: e.g. anugraha ('favour'); iii Technical terms: e.g. chapa, garabl, garabo, pada, teka. 2 Personal names in roman: i Gods’ names as Sanskrit (i.e. as 1 above): e.g. Krsna, Rama; ii From the time of Vallabhacarya onwards as Hindi (i.e. without inherent -a except after conjuncts): e.g. Dayaram, Surdas, Vitthalnath, also SrinathjI (-ji otherwise omitted); iii Muslim names with macrons but otherwise as roman: e.g. Shah Jahan; iv When authors have used roman spellings of their own names these are used: e.g. Kavi Narmad, K.M. Munshi, Narasinhrao; This may result in some initial confusion when an author may appear with two different spellings of his name according to whether the book was written in Gujarati or in English: e.g. Tripathi 1957, Tripathi 1958; v English spellings elsewhere: e.g. Shivaji, Gaekwad. 3 Place names: i Conventional English spellings without diacritics, using spellings of Muthiah 1991: e.g. Bombay, Dabhoi, Gokul, Gujarat, Hanuman Ghat, Mathura, Mewar, Mount Govardhan, Nathdwara, Rajasthan, Vadodara, Varanasi, Vrindavan, Yamuna; ii The Hindified spelling is used if more usual: e.g. Braj. 8 4 Other names: i Names of texts with capitals and italics, with transliteration appropriate to the language (i.e. inherent -a for Sanskrit etc.): e.g. Bhagavata Purana, CanrasI vaisnavan kl varta, Brhat kavyadohan; ii Names of sects with a capital: e.g. Pustimarga (with inherent -a by 1 above), Svaminarayan; iii Names of the Was, in italics in Braj spelling: e.g. balllla, danlila, makhancorilila. Brajffla; iv Others: e.g. astachap, Haveli samglt, Holl. 5 English words are used elsewhere: e.g. Bania, Brahmin, Maharana, Maharaja, Rajput. 6 Perso-Arabic words: The transcription of words from Urdu, Persian and Arabic follows the conventions given by Shackle 1989a:v: e.g. ghulam . be-hal, maslahat, ma'shuq. These conventions do not apply to the transliterations in Chapter 7 where strict transcription as Sanskrit with inherent -a is used throughout. The translations use the transliterated form of names etc. as given in the text. Krsna's epithets are translated only in the chapa . B References to Dayaram's lyrics These are according to the numbers and titles in Raval 1953. When referring to the whole lyric the title is given in transliteration beginning with a capital. The titles are given without capitals in Chapter 7. C Metrical conventions 1 In 'strict’ songs1: looks metrically short but scans long; ^ ee 3.3 below. 9 \/ looks metrically long but scans short; /£ scans for four matras or more. 2 In 'free' songs numbers are used to count beats. D Dates Dates refer to the Christian era unless otherwise specified. 10 INTRODUCTION Kavi Dayarambhal (1777-1852) lived during a time of great change throughout India. Gujarat,1 which had been ruled as a suba of the Mughal empire from 1573-1707, began to suffer Maratha raids from the mid-seventeenth century when Shivaji invaded Surat in 1664. The Maratha Gaekwad of Vadodara came to be the greatest power in Gujarat and Saurashtra, and the Marathas and Mughals ruled Ahmadabad jointly from 1738 to 1753, when the Mughals relinquished any claim to Gujarat.