Abstract
Early modern poets conventionally began their compositions by praising and invoking the blessings of their higher authorities, be they their gods, gurus or courtly patrons. In the eighteenth century, North Indian society was particularly unstable, and the relationships between these different power brokers proved volatile. This article considers how intellectuals attached to religious households navigated the challenges of the period, particularly invading armies, religious reforms and forced migration. I examine the works of Vrindavandas (c. 1700–87), a Brajbhasha poet and lay devotee of the Radhavallabh Sampraday, and provide contextualised readings of two of his poems, concerned with recent history and the contemporary political climate. Vrindavandas was not a scribe or chronicler in a conventional sense; however, closer examination of his works reveals the porous boundaries between scribes-cum-recorders and other kinds of intellectuals. Here, I consider how Vrindavandas’ literary activity included copying archival sources, recording recent history, documenting dreams and emotions, and folding different senses of temporality into a single work. This article asks how far his poetic works gesture to a distinctively eighteenth-century mode of literary expression and reflexivity, and how performing these poetic archives through reading, singing, and musical accompaniment provided the sect with tools to navigate a turbulent political landscape.
Highlights
Modern poets conventionally began their compositions by praising and invoking the blessings of their higher authorities, be they their gods, gurus or courtly patrons
Vrindavandas suggests Jaisingh was a devastating force, it appears that it was possible for some religious households to reject his proposals without major consequences, perhaps because they could rely on mercantile support and funding
It is unclear if Vrindavandas had been influenced by literary precedents: Bengali vaishnavas already had a practice of both transcribing and paraphrasing letters within hagiography,49 but it is possible that he had been influenced by the contemporary fascination with Persian belles-lettres, given that his other works seem to have taken inspiration from other Persianate genres,50 writing as he was in a period of original literary
Summary
Modern poets conventionally began their compositions by praising and invoking the blessings of their higher authorities, be they their gods, gurus or courtly patrons. 1700–87), a Brajbhasha poet and lay devotee of the Radhavallabh Sampraday, and provide contextualised readings of two of his poems, concerned with recent history and the contemporary political climate. I consider how Vrindavandas’ literary activity included copying archival sources, recording recent history, documenting dreams and emotions, and folding different senses of temporality into a single work. This article asks how far his poetic works gesture to a distinctively eighteenth-century mode of literary expression and reflexivity, and how performing these poetic archives through reading, singing, and musical accompaniment provided the sect with tools to navigate a turbulent political landscape. In a painting from late eighteenth-century Kishangarh, devotees from a minor vaishnava sect, the Radhavallabh Sampraday, are sat together in an assembly. Sometime between 1775–800, the artist captured the distinctive details of the devotees’ faces and bodies and each individual was named with a miniature inscription: the image seems to stand apart from more typical paintings of perfected but impersonal bhaktas
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