Reconstructing tradition : Advaita Ācārya and Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism at the cusp of the twentieth century

323 Pages·2005·6.9 MB·English

by  Rebecca J. Manring

RECONSTRUCTING TRADITION
AdvaitaAcarya and Gau4lya Vai~7:zavism at the
Cusp of the Twentieth Century
REBECCA J. MANRING
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Publishers Since 1893
NEW YORK, CHICHESTER, WEST SUSSEX
Copyright © 2005 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
LCCN 200504838
ISBN o-231-12954-8
Complete CIP data is on file with the Library of Congress.
Case bound editions of Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and
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Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Vii
NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION Xiii
INTRODUCTION
1. THE BIRTH OP AN IMAGE 17
2. ADVAITA ACARYA: A NEW IMMINENCE 44
3· VARIANT MESSAGES:
NONHAGIOGRAPHICAL TEXTS TREATING ADVAITA ACARYA 76
4· REVIVAL AND RETURN 103
5· ANOTHER "BLACK FORGERY" OR MERB PLAY? 128
6. ADVAITA PRAKASA 153
7· SITA DEVI: GATEWAY TO THE FUTURE 193
8. ADVAITA ACARYA TODAY 220
9. CONCLUSIONS 232
NOTES 253
BIBLIOGRAPHY 285
INDEX 299
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T
HIS BOOK, WHICH NO LONGER bears much resemblance to the disserta
tion it began as, has been well over a decade in the making and owes its
completion to more people and institutions than I can properly thank.
I began the studies that led to this book in Carol Salomon's study in Seattle,
Washington, learning to read and write Bengali, and eventually to appreciate the
richness of the Bengali literary tradition. Bengali led me to Sanskrit and to Rich
ard Salomon, with whose help, as well as that of numerous Foreign Language
and Area Studies fellowships, I was able to return to graduate school. My disser
tation committee at the University of Washington also included Eugene Webb
and the late Alan Entwistle, and I am grateful for the instruction and patient
guidance all four of them provided.
The Jackson School oflnternational Studies at the University of Washington
awarded me numerous FLAS grants; the University's Graduate School disserta
tion fellowship and a teaching associateship in the Department of Asian Lan
guages and Literature made my final year of writing possible.
The American Institute oflndian Studies has provided tremendous support,
beginning with the Advanced Language Study Fellowship for 1987-88 and, most
recently (2ooo), a Senior Research Fellowship. Just as important has been the
support of Dr. Pradip Mehendiratta in the Delhi office and of Dr. Tarun Mitra
and Ms. Aditi Sen in Kolkata. I am particularly grateful for the Fulbright-Bayes
Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship in 1992-93, which allowed
me to spend the requisite time in West Bengal reading manuscripts in research
libraries, traveling to sites associated with Advaita Acclrya, and discussing his
movement with various scholars and devotees. The American Institute for Ban
gladesh Studies awarded me a similar doctoral dissertation fellowship, without
which I would never have seen the birthplace of Advaita Acarya, or had the plea-
VIII ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
sure of working in the manuscript libraries of Dhaka University and the Bangia
Academy.
Dr. Uma Das Gupta, then eastern regional director, U.S. Educational Foun
dation in India, and her competent and compassionate staff took a personal
interest in my success and well-being during my stay in their jurisdiction, as
they have for countless other American scholars. Uma-di introduced me to nu
merous academics and library officials whose help was indispensable for my
research and also did her best to ensure that I remained in good physical and
emotional health throughout my stay. For that, and for her continued friend
ship, I am grateful.
The late Professor Chinmayee Chatterjee of the Sanskrit Department of
Jadavpur University spent countless hours reading and discussing the philosophi
cal writings of }Iva Go swami with me. Her efforts instilled in me an appreciation
for a theological philosophy centered in the heart rather than in the intellect.
Professor Ramakanta Chakrabarty of Barddhaman University (retired) also
was very generous with his time and his knowledge of the early years of Gauc;liya
Vai~IJ.avism. Professor Chakrabarty directed me toward many scholars and ref
erences I would not likely have otherwise discovered and continues to provide
helpful comments on my work.
Dr. Cand an Raychaudhuri, general secretary, and Mr. Citrabhanu Sen, librar
ian, of the Asiatic Society in Kolkata ensured that I was promptly supplied with
needed materials housed in their collections.
Professor S. Bhattacarya, secretary of the Bangiya Sahitya Pari~at in Kolkata,
granted me special permission to read many manuscripts in the reading room
of the BSP library as an exception to their rule allowing only two manuscripts
out of the storage room at a time. Mr. Visvanath Mukherjee and Mrs. Aruna
Chatterjee provided photocopies of needed materials and assisted me in locat
ing obscure resources.
The Shantipur Vai~IJ.ava community opened their homes and temples to me
and provided valuable research assistance as well as kind hospitality and friend
ship. Mr. Balai Lal Mukherjee and Mr. Subal Candra Maitra arranged extensive
programs for me during my several visits to Shantipur so that I was able to meet
and interview many local scholars and devotees. Dr. Purnendunath Nath and
Mr. Asoka Datta discussed my research with me on several occasions and pro
vided valuable insights. Mrs. Manjulika Gosvami was kind enough to provide
me with her hospitality on each of my visits, most recently in January 2001. Her
son, "Ranju," is a fifteenth-generation direct descendant of Advaita Acarya. The
family lives at Madana Gop ala Pada (whose temple houses Advaita Acarya's own
images) and allowed me to observe and photograph both Advaita Acarya's birth
celebrations and the rasa lila festivities. Mrs. Maitra and Manjulika-di's mother,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IX
the late Mrs. Sanyal, treated me to delicious Bengali cooking on each of my visits
and fussed over me like the good Bengali mothers they are. The entire Sanyal
family welcomed me into their midst, and their kindness allowed me to experi
ence rural Bengali life during my time with them.
Dr. and Mrs. Mohit Ray invited me to Krishnanagar for a lecture, opening
their home to me and taking considerable trouble to locate a long out-of-print
text for me.
At the Vrndavana Research Institute Mr. Gopalacandra Ghosa provided me
with a great deal of information regarding Advaita Acarya's activities and de
scendants in Vrndavana. Mr. Phulin Gosvami of the VRI photographic section
assisted me in obtaining a complete copy of one manuscript and also kindly al
lowed me to photograph several old paintings and book covers relevant to this
study in the VRI collection.
The libraries of Dhaka were a delight to work in. Dr. Shamsuzzaman Khan
and the librarian of the Bangia Academy, Mrs. Syeda Farida. Parvin, manuscript
keeper at Dhaka University Library, the librarians at Dhaka University and An
ima. and Bimal Majumdara and Indra Kumara Sinha ofRamamala Granthagara
in Camilla all provided invaluable assistance and made it very easy for me to
work in their facilities.
Swami Ak$arananda Maharaja and Mintu Maharaja of the Ramakrishna
Mission in Dhaka arranged my trips to Sylhet and Comilla and introduced me
to key members of the Vais1,1ava and Ramakrishna communities in both cities
who were able to assist me.
Professor Bijit Kumar De and Mrs. De and family and Professor Pranab Ku
mar Sinha and Mrs. Sinha made my stay in Sylhet the highlight of my time in
Bangladesh. The fifty members of the De household made me feel like another
member of the family and provided hours of interesting conversation. Profes
sors De and Sinha took several days out of their busy academic schedules to
ensure that I met many local scholars and visited sites in the area associated with
Advaita Acarya and Caitanya. Together with their Sunamgaiij colleagues Dr.
Dhirendra Choudhury and Mr. Dipak Ranjan Das they somehow manifested
a speedboat to take all of us twenty miles up river from Sunamgaftj to Advaita
Acarya's birthplace in Navagra.ma, a journey that would have taken six hours
each way by "country boat" and one that I would never have been able to make
on my own. We made the last mile or two of the journey on land, barefoot, as
befits a pilgrimage. I am tremendously grateful to have been able to visit the site
where this story all began, for their spirited companionship on our pilgrimage,
and for their kindness in making that visit possible.
Several Dhaka University faculcy members also provided much assistance.
Professor Anisuzzaman of the Bengali Department and the late Professor M.
X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
R. Tarafdar of the Department of Islamic History and Culture discussed my re
search with me on numerous occasions and made many useful suggestions. The
late Professor Ahmed Sharif, then retired professor of Bengali at Dhaka Uni
versity, was kind enough to meet with me for several hours a day, several days a
week, to read the Ad vaita Prakasa and one of the Advaita Kadaca Sotras. Thanks
to his patient efforts I was able to understand not only the difficult Middle Ben
gali of the texts but also the subtle cultural underpinnings I would not have
noticed on my own.
More recently, Indiana University's College of Arts and Sciences awarded me
a summer research fellowship, and in the summer of 2003 Research and the Uni
versity Graduate School awarded me a faculty summer research fellowship, both
of which freed my time over two summers to work exclusively on this book. I am
immensely grateful for all the financial support I have received over the years.
My time in South Asia would not have been spent productively were it not
for the assistance and companionship of Ms. Hena Basu, a Kolkata scholar who
has for many years helped foreign scholars attempting to navigate the many re
search libraries of West Bengal. She has tirelessly accompanied me to various
destinations around the state, spent hours tediously copying, by hand, articles
and even manuscripts I needed for this work, and always manages to find some
thing to laugh about even when prospects for uncovering something seem most
dim. Ms. Susmita Sen often accompanied us on our travels, and her compan
ionship and assistance were delightful. Susmita managed to find a crucial but
obscure footnote in a dusty old journal at the last minute for this project, and
did so with her usual grace and alacrity. I am grateful to both of them, without
whom this project would simply never have reached completion.
Professor Abul Ahsan Chowdhury, now of Islamia College in Kushtia, per
formed ably as my research assistant during my time in Bangladesh and .very
kindly introduced me to a number of scholars without whose help this work
would have been much less than it is. He offered his kind services to me and
became my de facto private instructor of Bangladeshi language, culture, and
modern history. His efforts led me to an appreciation of his country and its cur
rent situation I would otherwise have missed.
Professor Subhadra Kumar Sen, son of the late great scholar Sukumar Sen,
and his family (Mrs. Krishna Sen; Nupur and Shorn) first entered this proj
ect when I was searching for manuscripts in his father's collection. We have all
become friends, and that friendship led to the recovery, cataloguing, and mi
crofilming of the Sukumar Sen Manuscript Collection (catalogue soon to be
published) as well as many hours of good food and fascinating conversation. I
am grateful to the Sen family.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XI
Pika Ghosh and Doris M. Srinivasan provided useful advice about some of
the art historical issues in this study.
Tim Callahan, assistant director of the Indiana University India Studies Pro
gram, produced the graphics for this book, as well as offering hours of computer
wisdom and far more patience than seems humanly possible. Deep gratitude
also to the staff in the Religious Studies Department, in particular Caroline
Dowd-Higgins.
Several of my colleagues in Religious Studies at Indiana University have
kindly read through various drafts of this book; their suggestions have much
improved the text. These include Rob Campany, John McRae, and Jan Nattier.
Robert Orsi read and commented on the final draft of the manuscript, taking
much time out of a seriously overcommitted schedule; I am grateful for his gen
erosity and comments and in particular for his drawing my attention to the
issue of marginality and its ramifications. And I also appreciate the comments
of the anonymous reviewer for Columbia University Press, which comments
led me to include the field work reports that comprise chapter 8. Finally, Dr.
Kumble Subbaswamy, dean of the Indiana University College of Arts and Sci
ences, generously provided subvention funding to help offset production costs
of this book.
Susan Pensak, senior manuscript editor at Columbia University Press, has
been very thorough in her editing and very patient with this first-time author,
and her tireless efforts have improved my text. Wendy Lochner, senior executive
editor for religion, philosophy, and anthropology, has been tremendously help
ful throughout this process as well. All these colleagues have helped to make this
a better work, and I hasten to add that any remaining inadequacies are entirely
my own.
I am also grateful for the intellectual support and friendship of my colleagues
in the Religious Studies Department at Indiana University, especially (in addi
tion to those already mentioned) Kevin Jaques and David Haberman.
One colleague deserves the highest of praise and gratitude. Tony K. Stew
art has been involved with this project since its inception. His storehouse of
knowledge of and enthusiasm for Gauc;IIya Vaisl)ava literature have amazed and
inspired me since our initial contact. Tony has spent countless hours discussing
Vai~l)ava theology with me, and even more time reading drafts of my work. His
patience in taking me beyond a rather naive grad student in love with language
and languages is truly remarkable. He continues, in our conversations, to chal
lenge my own understanding as well as common wisdom about the tradition.
Our original teacher-student relationship has evolved to that of colleagues and
friends, much to my delight.
XII ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
During all the time in South Asia, and the ensuing years of starting a new ca
reer, I have benefited tremendously from the wisdom, friendship, and support of
many other people, most of whom had nothing to do with my research. Among
these are Aditi Sen, Sushma Nayak, Rita Agarwal, Dipti Basu, Donetta Cothran,
Baba Hari Dass, Gretchen Horlacher, Elizabeth Jasper, Shanti Marcotte, Anne
Mongoven, Anne Monius, Ma Renu, Paula Righi, Andrea Singer, and the Tritt
family. I must also mention my father, Ben Manring, who is no longer here but
whose quiet confidence in me through the initial stages of this study continues
to be a tremendous support. And, more recently, the Indianapolis flower garden
of Camelia, Lily, and Rose Manring and their parents Keith and Ann have pro
vided hours of distraction whenever it was needed.
My last bit of thanks is for my husband, Tim Bagwell. We met as this project
was in its final stages. His support and love, as well as his willingness to take over
more than his share of domestic responsibilities, ensured that I met my dead
lines for completion of the manuscript.