The Art of Visualising Reality: Jīva Gosvāmī’s Aesthetics and the Role of Ritual Imagination

Abstract

Abstract This paper reconstructs an otherwise problematic role of ritual imagination in the sixteenth-century Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava thinker Jīva Gosvāmī’s seminal treatise, Ṣaṭ-sandarbha. As part of his explanation of worship under the broader theme of bhakti as practice, the author recasts a set of Pāñcarātric visualisation rituals to suit Gauḍīya theology and praxis centred on devotional visualisations of divine forms. However, while explaining the rituals, he paradoxically claims that the visualised forms, despite being imagined, are not to be considered imaginative. I argue that this paradox dissolves if we view Jīva’s rationale on this issue through the lens of a similarly re-orientated version of ancient dramatic and poetic rasa theory that he employs to map the higher experiences of devotion at the culmination of his treatise. Although he does not mention using this strategy for the visualisation rituals, it can be inferred through the correlations I make between his descriptions of their visualised content and certain categories of rasa theory. Through this reconstructive analysis, the reality of the ritual imaginals can be explained and the paradox dissolved.