Examining the Shifting Paradigms of Bhakti and Sanskrit Literature through Devotional Poetry of Jayadeva and Dadu

The wave of the Bhakti movement significantly affected India for over a period of twelve centuries. Considering that it left inerasable impressions on the history and culture of the land, this research paper argues that what only imbibed the feeling of pure devotion also became a tool in the hands of those who were desirous of radical religious, political and social changes. To prove this, the paper undertakes the translation of Dadu Dayal’s Sanskrit compositions. Additionally, the paper also questions the very model of Bhaktikal (the Age of Devotional Literature), propagated by the scholars of Hindi Literature, which divides it into two distinct theological categories, Sagun and Nirgun. By examining the devotional poetry of Jayadeva Goswami and Dadu Dayal, and their sectarian positions, it demonstrates that the proponents of the two diametrically opposite schools of Bhakti did not always honour such a distinction for bhakti’s spirit is above such schisms.

“My Unwritten Novel”: The Long Poems of Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh between Genre and Form

The long poems of the Hindi poet Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh (1917–64) present a series of fantastic narratives, in which a nameless speaker journeys through a fantastic landscape. These works, often analyzed solely in terms of a supposed mythic, romantic structure, should be considered as a response to formal problems of the novel and the lyric in midcentury Hindi literature. Despite acknowledging these long poems as his most important contribution, literary critics display a marked discomfort with what they see as their excesses. Muktibodh’s writings, however, reflect his substantive consideration of the problems of narrative poetry. In Muktibodh’s most famous work, “Aṁdhere meṁ” (“In the Dark”), the long poem’s distinct formal structure is deployed to produce the disjointed paratactic narratives that typify Muktibodh’s work. Furthermore, this poetic structure is crucially influenced by free verse poetics in Marathi, making clear that any consideration of modern Hindi literature must take into account the complex interrelationships of literary cultures in South Asia. Thus, Muktibodh’s long poem prompts a reconsideration of the role of genre and form in our understanding of South Asian literary cultures and their engagements with the world.

Impacts of Historical Pandemics on India: Through the Lens of 20th Century Hindi Literature

India has been swept by pandemics of plague, influenza, smallpox, cholera and other diseases. The scale and impact of these events was often cataclysmic and writers offered a glimpse into the everyday life of ordinary people who lost their lives and livelihoods and suffered the angst and trauma of mental, physical and emotional loss. This paper focuses on the devastation caused by pandemics especially in the Ganges deltaic plains of India. Through selected texts of 20th century Hindi writers – Munshi Premchand, Phanishwar Nath Renu, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, Bhagwan Das, Harishankar Parsai, Pandey Bechan Sharma – this paper aims to bring forth the suffering and struggles against violence, social injustices and public health crises in India during waves of epidemics and pandemics when millions died as they tried to combat the rampant diseases.

Bhakti versus rīti? The Sants’ perspective

Scholars have rightly questioned the periodization of early modern Hindi literature (fourteenth to mid-nineteenth century) into two major thematic and temporal categories, often described as binaries: an early bhaktikāl (era of devotion), and the later rītikāl (era of mannerism). It is now common to understand bhakti and rīti as complementary modes of poetic expression rather than oppositional styles that poets had to identify with entirely. This paper uses the perspective of poet-saints (sants) to argue that, although the sants share many features with the rīti poets in terms of genres and register, they diverge fundamentally from them on the topic of the proper motives of composing verse. The criticism that the sants register with selected rīti themes – conflicts which would later figure in the writings of Hindi literary historians in the nationalist era – can be seen as anticipating the modern bhakti versus rīti distinction.

Kafkaesque motifs in Kunwar Narain’s novels

Since the 19th century European literary tradition indisputably influenced the development of Indian literature. Indian intellectuals, familiarizing particularly with the inheritance of European modernism, follow works of modernist writers, accept their key themes and motifs, thereby bring new literary devices and images into Indian literature. One of the main authors, whose novels have made a deep impact on the development of Hindi literature, is Franz Kafka. The influence of his works is extremely visible across India. Indian writers create Kafkaesque worlds and protagonists in their own novels and stories. One of Hindi novelists, who refers to Franz Kafkas motifs, is Kunwar Narain. In Indological studies his name is associated with poetry. However, he is not only a representative of New Hindi poetry (Naī Kavitā), but a novelist also. The article is focused on Franz Kafkas influence on Indian writers fiction. It is determined in what period and in which novels Kunwar Narain uses kafkaesque motifs. The perception of Kafkas worldview concept in Kunwar Narains novels is studied. It is an attempt to find out what new Indian prose-writer brings to a kafkaesque picture of world. It is also analyzed, in what Indian literary material and in what Indian literary tradition imagery he applies the images of Kafkas stories.

Indigenous Traditions, Modernity, and Madness

Emergence of the ‘mind sciences’ in vernacular Hindi literature was a variegated phenomena. Western medical ideas were sometimes amalgamated, segregated, filtered, and appropriated by the vaidyas and hakims according to the needs of the time. Certain key psychiatric concepts had long interesting afterlives while others could not survive. These hybrid practices reflect not only the wide circulation of knowledge but also the impulses of the medical markets that recast traditional medicine in a modern garb. This chapter is a preliminary investigation into the indigenous ways of dealing with and healing madness. The spread and dissemination of Western medical knowledge led to the reshaping of some of the Ayurvedic concepts of mental illness.

Towards the Visual

This paper examines the new forms and genres of storytelling in India with an emphasis on the visual aspect of the literary narration. It begins with a remark on the literary and performing tradition of India, where stories were told with an accompaniment of visuals: single or sequential images, scroll paintings, acting etc. With time, storytellers and poets started including modern-day, contemporary themes and problems into their narratives, which not only brought changes in the repertoire of stories, but also, quite naturally, caused development in terms of genres and ways of expression. The present study is based on graphic novels by Sarnath Banerjee and Vishwajyoti Ghosh, with reference to contemporary Hindi literature and some examples from visual art. The author seeks to answer the following questions: 1) what is the “new language” of a literary work in relation to the visual, 2) how – and by which means – does the literature reflect the reality of the new generations, 3) how is a story narrated through images. In conclusion, some observations are made on mutual influences between literature and audio-visual arts.