A Genealogy of Devotion: Bhakti, Tantra, Yoga, and Sufism in North India

452 Pages·2019·9.359 MB·English

by  Patton Burchett

A
GENEALOGY
of
DEVOTION

Bhakti,
Tantra,
Yoga,
(cid:69)(cid:82)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:55)(cid:89)(cid:193)(cid:87)(cid:81)
in North India

PATTON E. BURCHETT
A
Genealogy
of
Devotion

A
Genealogy
of
Devotion
Bhakti, Tantra, Yoga, and
Sufism in North India
Patton E. BurchEtt
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press gratefully acknowledges the generous support for
this book provided by Publisher’s Circle member Neil Krishan Aggarwal.
Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation for
assistance given by the Dean’s Office at the College of William & Mary,
as well as the Columbia University Seminars’ Schoff- Warner
Publication Funds, in the publication of this book.
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup .columbia. edu
Copyright © 2019 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Chapter 8 contains some material previously published in
“My Miracle Trumps Your Magic: Encounters with Yogis in Sufi and
Bhakti Hagiographical Literature,” in Yoga Powers: Extraordinary
Capacities Attained Through Meditation and Concentration,
ed. Knut A. Jacobsen (Leiden: Brill, 2012).
Chapter 9 contains some material previously published in
“Bitten by the Snake: Early Modern Devotional Critiques of
Tantra- Mantra,” Journal of Hindu Studies 6, no. 1 (2013).
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Burchett, Patton, author.
Title: A genealogy of devotion : Bhakti, Tantra, Yoga, and
Sufism in North India / Patton Burchett.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018036629 (print) | LCCN 2018043259 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780231548830 (electronic) | ISBN 9780231190329 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Bhakti. | Sufism. | Yoga. | Tantrism. | India— Religion.
Classification: LCC BL1214.32.B53 (ebook) | LCC BL1214.32.B53 B87 2019 print) |
DDC 294.5/43609545— dc23
LC record available at https:/ /lccn .loc .gov /2018036629
Columbia University Press books are printed on
permanent and durable acid- free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover image: Julia Kushnirsky
to Jack
and
to MichEllE

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Notes on Transliteration and Translation xv
Introduction: Tantra, Yoga, and Sufism in
the Historiography of Bhakti 1
Part i
From Medieval Tantra to Early Modern Bhakti
1. The Tantric Age: Tantra and Bhakti in Medieval India 29
2. Sultans, Saints, and Songs: Persianate Culture, Sufism,
and Bhakti in Sultanate India 64
3. Akbar’s New World: Mughals and Rajputs in
the Rise of Vaiṣṇava Bhakti 99
Part ii
Yogīs, Poets, and a New Bhakti Sensibility in Mughal India
4. Between Bhakti and Śakti: Religious Sensibilities Among
the Rāmānandīs of Galta 129
9
viii   contEnts
5. Nāth Yogīs and Rāmānandī Bhaktas: Styles of Yoga
and Asceticism in North India 169
6. Agradās and the Circulation of Mughal Bhakti:
Formations of Bhakti Community 195
Part iii
The Devotee Versus the Tāntrika
7. Yogīs and Tantra- Mantra in the Poetry of the Bhakti Saints 239
8. The Triumphs of Devotion: The Sufi Inflection of Early Modern Bhakti 276
Conclusion: Bhakti Religion and Tantric Magic 305
Appendix: List of Manuscripts Containing Compositions by Agradās 313
Notes 317
Bibliography 389
Index 413
Acknowledgments
T
his book is the culmination of more than a decade of study, research,
and writing— including two years spent in India— and could not have
been completed without the support of many individuals and institu-
tions along the way. The origins of this project go back to the fall of 1997 in a
classroom at Davidson College in North Carolina, where Professor William
Mahony inspired me in ways he could not have imagined and thereby set me
on a path that has led to a doctorate in South Asian religions, a tenure- track
position as an assistant professor, and now the publication of this book. Thus,
the first of many thanks I want to offer goes to you, Bill. I also owe a great deal
of thanks to my mentors in the Religious Studies Program at Indiana Univer-
sity Bloomington, David Haberman and Rebecca Manring, who took in a rather
clueless master’s student fresh out of the army and very unsure of his aca-
demic prospects, deftly transforming him into a young scholar of religion and
South Asia with fundamental skills and perspectives necessary for success in
my doctoral work at Columbia. After completing my PhD, I was extremely for-
tunate to spend three years in a postdoctoral position in the Religious Studies
Program at New York University, where Angelo Zito and Adam Becker provided
an unusually supportive and intellectually vibrant atmosphere and helped me
to grow as a teacher and scholar in ways I do not think I otherwise would have.
Since arriving at the College of William & Mary in 2015, I have received an
exceptional level of institutional support. The college has awarded me two
summer grants that were crucial to the final stages of writing and revising
while also generously providing subvention funds vital for the publication
of this book. I feel very fortunate to be a part of its Department of Religious