Introduction: Medieval Materials in the Sanskritic Tradition

Part II Introduction: Medieval Materials in the Sanskritic Tradition Ruth Vanita uring the period from approximately the eighth to the eighteenth centuries A.D., Is D lamic culture took root in the Indian subcontinent. Various regional and religious cultures including the Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu (Vaishnava, Shaiva, and Shakta) interacted during this period, producing a range of cultural practices that have been highly influential for subsequent periods. Although altered by modern developments during and after the colonial period, many of these practices still exist in recogniz:able form today. Among the texts generated in this period are those in Sanskrit; those in Sanskrit-based lan guages, many of which took on their modern forms at this time; those in the southern Indian languages; and those in the Perso-Arabic and Urdu tradition. In the first three groups, the texts we look at belong to the following major genres: the Puranas, which are collections of re ligious stories, compiled between the fourth and fourteenth centuries; vernacular retellings of the epic and Puranic stories; Katha literature or story cycles; historical chronicles produced in courts; and devotional poetry.! I will here discuss developments of the patterns discussed earlier in the introduction to an cient materials and new developments consequent on the spread of new types of devotion known as Bhakti. Bhakti was a series of movements centered on mystical loving devotion to a 1. For an overview of the literature, see Sukumari Bhattacharji's two books, The Indian Theogony: A Comparative Study ofIndian Mythology from the Vedas to the Puranas (Cam bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), and History of Classical Sanskrzt Literature (Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1993). R. Vanita et al. (eds.), Same-Sex Love in India © Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai 2000 56 ~ Medieval Materials in the Sanskritic Tradition chosen god that began around the seventh century A.D. in south India and spread throughout the subcontinent. One major tendency in medieval texts is that of commentary on and exegesis of ancient canonical texts. Often this commentary takes the form of intellectual play with concepts, retelling well-known stories to draw out their imaginative potential and elaborating on what were under stated suggestions in earlier texts. This kind of commentary is often found in the texts generated by Bhakti. Contrary to the popular stereotype, Bhakti poetry is not always a spontaneous emo tional outpouring; it is frequently informed by a thoroughgoing engagement with philosophical concepts drawn from earlier texts and carries on a sophisticated dialog with those texts. During the British period, Christian scholars constructed a theory of medieval Bhakti that was later developed by Marxist scholars and remains prevalent in India today. In this view Bhakti was a movement of the oppressed, especially the lower castes, the poor, and women, who criticized and even rejected the so-called Brahmanical tradition, including its philosophi cal texts such as the Vedas and the Upanishads and also its ritual practices, substituting instead the direct and loving relationship of the devotee with a personal god. Furthermore, Bhaktas ("devotees") advocated communal harmony between Hindus and Muslims. However, this account ofBhakti is too simplistic. > The idea that there are several paths to lib eration from the cycle of births and deaths is found in major Brahmanical texts, including the Upanishads and the Bhagvad Gita; one is the path of knowledge Unana), another the path oflove (Prema), both paths being variants ofBhakti. While many medieval mystics emphasize emotional devotion, others, especially the Sants, also emphasize intellectual devotion. Medieval Bhakti tra ditions represent a significant growth, in scale and in form, of ancient devotional traditions. They also incorporate major new interpretations of ancient texts. While lower-caste people, women, and Muslims were often prominent devotees, so were upper-caste people such as Brahmans, kings, and chieftains.3 Bhaktas do not discard ancient texts but rather cite them to prove that any one can attain salvation through devotion and that to exclude untouchables or Muslims is wrong. For instance, Shri Chaitanya pointed out that Krishna ate in the house of Vi dura, an outcaste.4 2. A seminal study that takes issue with received wisdom in this regard is Krishna Sharma, Bhakti and the Bhakti Movement: A New Perspective (New Delhi: Munshiram Manohar lal, 1987). See also Ashis Nandy, The Intimate Enemy (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983), 61. 3. For an example of how caste mingling is susceptible of differing interpretations, see Ed ward C. Dimock, The Place o/the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaisnava-Sahajiya Cult o/Bengal, new foreword by Wendy Doniger (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989),216-21. Dimock interprets the Sahajiya men's use oflow-caste and "untouchable" married women as ritual sexual partners as "perhaps ... contempt for the Vedic and Brah manical tradition." I would interpret it as exploitation. The epics are full of examples of upper-caste men's sexual relations with low-caste women. 4. Dimock, 79. Introductzon ~ 57 \\!hen orthodox Brahmans castigated Bhaktas for breaking caste rules, the Bhakti texts usually show not an all-out conflict but a rapprochement occasioned by divine intervention. A miracle causes the orthodox to regret their rigidity; simultaneously, the devotees, and sometimes even god himself, agree to undergo ritual penance for breaking the rules. A more one-way capitulation is generally represented when the conflict is between the devotees and Muslims in authority try ing to convert them. 5 As Peter van der Veer has argued, Nirguna ascetics' disregard of caste distinction was a "far cry from an active religious protest against caste discrimination."6 This disregard, feasible in the peripatetic life of the ascetic, became problematic in a sedentary existence. Historically, as Bhakti spread and took root, ascetic tendencies were domesticated, a process still ongoing in some traditions (see pp 98-99).7 5. These points can be illustrated from a major hagiographical text produced by late me dieval Bhakti, Mahipati's (1715-1790) 40,000-line Marathi verse collection of the lives of devotees, entitled Bhaktavijaya, translated by Justin E. Abbott and N. R. Godbole, Sto ries o/Indian Saints (1933; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1996). Although composed com paratively late, the text draws heavily on earlier texts such as those composed by Jnaneshwar and Namdev. Mahipati begins in orthodox style by invoking Saraswati, the great sages, and the Vedas. Although his devotion is addressed to the saguna (with attrib utes) deity, he is careful to acknowledge that this is the same nirguna (without attributes) deity whom even the Vedas could not fully describe. For examples of upper-caste devo tees, see the stories of the Brahmans Jagamitra Naga, vol. I, 311-319, Ramdas of Dakur, vol. II, 1-6; Kalyan and Niradha, vol. II, 14, Bhanudas, vol. II, 109-21. Better-known Brahman Bhaktas are Tulsidas, author of the Ramcharitmanas, Surdas, Chaitanya, and Ramdas. For the story of how Namdev, on Krishna's instructions, feasts the Brahmans as prescribed, how Krishna undergoes ritual penance for having broken caste rules and how the orthodox Brahmans express regret and are embraced by Krishna, see vo!' I, 207-58. A similar story is narrated about Eknath. In contrast, when a king tries forcibly to con vert Bodhla to Islam, a miracle turns cooked flesh into flowers, and Bodhla leaves in dis gust without accepting the proffered wealth (vo!' II, 328-29). The erring king is embarrassed but not embraced. Muslim devotees of Vishnu such as Latibsha similarly de feat Muslim kings (vol. II, 345-47). In the case of direct conflict between a Hindu upper caste authority figure and Muslim authorities, the latter are represented as discomfited and defeated. See the story ofShivaji's visit to Tukaram and the defeat of the Muslim army sent to capture him (vo!' 11,208-15); also the story of how Muslims in Bedar attack devo tees holding a musical procession to celebrate Rama's birth, whereupon Hanuman ap pears and destroys a mosque, killing many inside it. The Muslim king then donates money to the devotees for their celebration (vo!' II, 362-66). 6. Peter van der Veer, Gods on Earth: The Management 0/ Religious Experience and Identity in a North Indian Pilgrimage Centre {London: Athlone Press, 1988),93. See also 175-76. 7. Mark Holmstrom, "Religious Change in an Industrial City in South India," Journal o/the RoyalAsiatic Society o/Great Britain and Ireland, No.1 (1971): 28-40, argues that Bhakti represents a religious universalism in which devotees are religiously equal but socially bound by caste values. 58 ~ Medieval Materials in the Sanskrztic Tradition In this context, I will briefly outline some of the spaces hospitable to same-sex love that emerge in medieval texts, in relation to the patterns I traced in ancient texts. Multidimensional Divinities Medieval devotion was directed not to the Vedic deities but to the pantheon of Puranic gods and goddesses. The marvelously flexible and multiple lives and doings of these new deities are recounted in the Puranas ~iterally, "old stories"). The eighteen major Puranas were composed in what are today classified as the later ancient and early medieval periods. Like most early texts, they are extremely difficult to date with exactitude. The earliest Puranas were probably compiled around the second and first centuries B.C. One redaction took place around the fourth century A.D. Most Puranas were completed by the seventh century A.D. but the latest were probably completed by the thirteenth century.8 In the Puranas the new pantheon of gods, which replaced the Vedic gods and is still in place today, emerges and is fully fleshed out. The Vishnu family and the Shiva family came to be worshiped in different shapes on a large scale.

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