Vallabhcrya on the Love Games of Ka by James D. Redington Review by: Charles S. J.

White Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 110, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1990), pp. 373-374 Published by: American Oriental Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/604565 . Accessed: 09/04/2014 21:01
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Reviews of Books
Vallabhacarya on the Love Games of KrsnVa. By JAMES D. REDINGTON.Delhi: MOTILALBANARASIDASS, 1983. Pp. 492. Rs 140. Vallabhacarya (c. 1479-c. 1531), founder of the sect that bears his name, the Vallabhasampraddya, was a writer of brilliance in the Sanskrit language. He is often cited as the last, great philosopher in that classical Vedanta tradition, identified as Vaisnavite, and having its origin in the Alvar poets of ancient Tamilnadu. Indeed, the mingling of poets and philosophers in the development of the tradition is exemplified in the Vallabha sect, whose Hindi-vernacular poet, Siirdas, based his masterpiece, called the Sursagarsar, on the Sanskrit Krsnite text, the Bhdgavata Purdna. Professor Redington has done the great service of translating a considerable portion of Vallabha's prose Sanskrit commentary on the sections of the Bhdgavata (whose relevant stanzas are also included) that deal with Krsna's love games. Vallabha's son, Vitthalanatha, who is regarded as co-founder of the sampraddya, also interpolated passages into these commentaries. Redington's work is divided into three main divisions. First, the introduction, part I, sets forth the theological issues that shape the content of the Vallabha-Vitthala commentary (SubodhinT) on the indicated portions of the Bhdgavata. Part II of the introduction deals with the character of the text. Redington states that he did not find it possible to do a manuscript study of the SubodhinT. He worked with two printed texts: Fatehchand Vasu's Tamasaphalaprakarana, volume five ("Pafcama Puspa") of 9rT SubodhinTGranthamala, in Hindi and Sanskrit; whose Sanskrit text Redington corrected by comparing it with M. T. Telivala's and D. V. Sankalia's edition of the SrTSubodhinT. Dasamaparvardhatamasaphalaprakaranam, published in 1924, but now out of print. He made minor but infrequent changes in the latter when there were "doubtful readings." Second, the greatest part of the work comprises Redington's translation of the SubodhinT.The third section presents the Sanskrit text of the Bhdgavata with the VallabhaVitthala commentary, whose editing has been described above. In addition there is a short section of bibliography and an index, "of important words and themes ... intended to double as a glossary." Redington's introduction presents important themes in the Vallabhite interpretation of the Krsna of the Bhdgavata Purana. He says, for instance, that, theological, philosophical and ethical issues aside (issues, which Vallabha does treat in a systematic way when warranted), Vallabha's real concern is "the aesthetic viewpoint." The poetic beauty of the Tenth Book of the Bhagavata as a whole, and especially of Krsna's love games, is

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universally recognized. The autumn, the moon, the river, the forest and the animals, and Krsna as the paragon of male as well as the Gopls of female beauty, all interact and address one another with a charm difficult to parallel in any scripture. (p. 2) Redington rightly emphasizes the leading role played by aesthetic theory (alahkdraSdstra)in the creation of Krsnite and Ramite scriptures in the classical and medieval periods. The rasas and bhdvas of literature, and the arts generally, become the "yoga" of the religious experience in the bhakti tradition. One of Vallabha's most fascinating perspectives on bhakti yoga lies in his special interpretation of the "constraint" or nirodha that is expressed by Krsna, in the first instance, who constrains himself to "descend" (avatarati) into a particular world at a particular time and place, out of so many alternative possibilities. The devotees, in the second instance, are constrained by negative and positive effects. Negatively, they are constrained by forgetting the world (prapafcavismrti), and positively, through "passionate attachment to the Blessed Lord" (bhagavaddsakti). It follows, too, that the "moods" of bhakti, as that of the slave, friend, parent or lover, about whose relative standing there has been so much dispute, can be regarded in some sort of hierarchical fashion as the stepping stones for the devotee away from the mundane world toward greater and greater immersion in the love of Krsna. In this context Redington explores an issue that might well be dealt with in a different kind of comparative study: it is that of the "role playing" of the devotees in their inner, spiritual experience of identification with Krsna, Radha, child Krsna, the Gopis, etc. In the Sakhibhava sects, for example, the devotees identify mainly with the female companion (sakhO) of Radha who is privileged to witness the Radha-Krsna love-making. These companions are sometimes organized into ranks (gopT, sahacdrT, saheli, etc.) to distinguish their degrees of purity and hence transcendence of the erotic context of their religious experience. Redington disputes the common assumption that the prevailing devotional mood of the Vallabhasampraddya is that of vdtsalyabhdva, or parental love. Redington acknowledges that "child Krishna," including NathjTand the Navanlta-priyajTforms, are most often depicted in contemporary Vallabhite worship. Yet, he says that, ... it should not cloud our perception of the fact that the love games, inculcating as they do the mood of passionate love for those devotees who are eligible, are exalted high above the infancy and early childhood games of Krsna by Vallabha, Vitthala and the great scholars and commentators of the Sampradaya. (p. 21)

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 110.2 (1990)

One could argue either way: first, perhaps regretfullythough even our contemporary human experience is rife with examples-that parental love transcends erotic love, which is its source, or second, that erotic love transcends all other forms of love. Contemporary values confirm the latter, too, often enough. The Vallabhite sect may well have raised the vdtsalyabhdva mood to its higher status in the same way that Indian family values and prevailing social behavior have tended to favor the familial forms of love over the individually or collectively erotic. Furthermore, we should beware of the probable differences in value that all these categories of the bhakti yoga may have had across a five-hundred year span and in a culture as different as India's is from that of the West. Vallabha created an intricate analytical schema for the Bhdgavata that favors its interpretation within the categories of his brand of Krsnite theology. Vallabha divides the tenth book of the Bhdgavata into specialized units, i.e., After treating the opening four chapters of Book Ten as the Janmaprakarana-The Treatise on Krsna's Birth-Vallabha divides the rest of the book into four major sections . . . viz., tamas, rajas and sattva. Hence the section on the love games, following the treatise on Krsna's birth is called the Tdmasaprakarana,"The Treatise on the Tamasa devotees." (p. 18) After the section on the gunas comes the final group of chapters, the Nirgunaprakarana ("The Treatise on the Devotees who have Transcended the Qualities of Existence"). Further subdivisions of some sections include pramdna ("means of knowledge"), prameya ("object of knowledge"), sddhana ("means of attainment"), and phala ("reward"). In such fashion the Bhdgavata Purdna becomes a sectarian work for the Vallabhasampraddya.Sirdas, of course, carries the process further by rewriting the Bhdgavata in an original Hindi version slanted toward Vallabhite views. Tulsi Das similarly transformed Valmiki's Rdmdyana from Sanskrit into Hindi devotional poetry. It is enormously important to have this leading theoretical work of Vallabha's translated into English. Its publication should help to amplify the context in which scholars have approached the work of Sirdas without much reference to the Sanskrit literature, which is of prime importance in understanding the theology of the Vallabhasampraddya. There are other medieval devotional movements which similarly have separate canons in Sanskrit and in a vernacular language. Professor Redington pays special homage in the preface to Shri Shyam Goswamy, a major contemporary scholar and religious leader of the Vallabhasampraddya,from whom he has derived both a good deal of help in developing his

Ratndkara 's Haravijaya: An Introduction to the Sanskrit Court Epic. By DAVID SMITH. Oxford University South Asian Studies Series. Delhi: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1985. Pp. 322. The sincerest tribute I can pay this book is to regret the fact that Oxford has not seen fit to distribute it in this country. This is a thoughtful, original, and well-informed study of a significant mahdkdvya placed in its social and literary contexts. The first three chapters (which describe the subtitle) should be read by all who are interested in Sanskrit poetry. I am somewhat less impressed by his particular analysis of the Haravijaya, for reasons I shall indicate below. As stated in the introduction, Smith's goal is to "gain friends for the Haravijaya 'as a whole"' (p. 5). As one might suspect from this, his posture is defensive. Smith wants us to see, against the disdainful judgment of Keith (whose rejection of most kdvya as at best charming trivia still has force, despite Ingalls' dismissal, over 60 years later), that even this most excessive of kdvyas-50 sargas and over 4000 verses, dealing with giva's defeat of his own demonic offspring Andhaka-is more than a bombastic exercise of verbal ingenuity on set themes. Whether his argument would convince anyone to include a translation of the poem (if there were one), or even part of it, in a comparative literature course is doubtful, but it is clear that Smith would not have us treat the poem merely as a museum-piece of Indian courtly culture. His citations include among others Rene Wellek, Northrop Frye, and I. A. Richards, and he often tells us that passages he deals with are "good" or "excellent" poetry (e.g., p. 122). The first chapter sets the Haravijaya in its historical context, not only as a court epic written under the patronage of the Kashmiri child-king Cippatajayapida during the 9th century (Smith believes that Ratnakara was this ill-fated youth's tutor in kdvya), but as a stage in the development of mahdkdvya. Smith argues that Ratnakara culminates a tradition begun by Bharavi and Magha (p. 24), regarding Aivaghosa and Kalidasa as early geniuses with whom the form had not yet stabilized. (Smith postpones till ch. 4 his consideration of Ratnakara's own claim that he is a "second Bana.") There is a useful chart showing authors, works, and and probable dates (p. 16); summaries of the KirdtdrjunTya Sisupdlavadha; and also an interesting analytic breakdown

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