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Pedagogical poetry: Didactics and devotion in Rupa Gosvamin's "Stavamala".
- Format:
- Book
- Thesis/Dissertation
- Author/Creator:
- Buchta, David, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- South Asian studies.
- Religion.
- Literature.
- South Asia Regional Studies--Penn dissertations.
- Penn dissertations--South Asia Regional Studies.
- Local Subjects:
- South Asian studies.
- Religion.
- Literature.
- South Asia Regional Studies--Penn dissertations.
- Penn dissertations--South Asia Regional Studies.
- Genre:
- Academic theses.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (450 pages)
- Contained In:
- Dissertation Abstracts International 76-05A(E).
- Place of Publication:
- [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] : University of Pennsylvania ; Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest, 2014.
- System Details:
- Mode of access: World Wide Web.
- text file
- Summary:
- Rupa Gosvamin (late 15th century--1564) was a foremost founding intellectual of the Gaud&dotbelow;iya Vais&dotbelow;n&dotbelow;ava tradition. Complementing scholarship on his role in developing an aesthetic theology of bhakti-rasa, this dissertation examines Rupa's praise poems (stotra) collected in the Stavamala, asking how they contributed to Rupa's role as a leader of a newly developing religious community. Thus, it helps to paint a richer portrait of Rupa Gosvamin and the early history of the Gaud&dotbelow;iya Vais&dotbelow;n&dotbelow;ava community and to highlight the communicative importance of the stotra genre and the continued vitality of Sanskrit composition in the "vernacular millennium." The approach taken here recognizes the interdisciplinary nature of Sanskrit learning. Rupa's deceptively simply stotras are examined against the background of a wide variety of intellectual traditions, including the Bengali hagiographical tradition, Vedanta theology, Puran&dotbelow;ic mythology, and Sanskrit prosody, poetics, and aesthetic theory. After an introductory chapter providing background on Rupa Gosvamin and the stotra genre, the body of this dissertation (Chapters Two through Four) is conceived in three main divisions, following a typology emic to the Gaud&dotbelow;iya Vais&dotbelow;n&dotbelow;ava tradition, which divides discourse into three major areas: sambandha (ontological relationship between God and the self, i.e. theology), prayojana (the nature of the liberation, i.e. participation in Kr&dotbelow;s&dotbelow;n&dotbelow;a's eternal play), and abhidheya (the enjoined practice of devotion). Chapter Two considers stotras wherein Rupa addresses the divinity of the saint Caitanya and of Kr&dotbelow;s&dotbelow;n&dotbelow;a's Name, two of the most controversial theological doctrines of his tradition. Chapter Three examines a set of stotras wherein Rupa provides an "intra-lingual translation" of the narratives of Kr&dotbelow;s&dotbelow;n&dotbelow;a's play from the canonical Bhagavata Puran&dotbelow;a, making these narratives accessible to a broader audience. Chapter Four highlights Rupa's composition of stotras as a model for how to offer prayer, including his important role in the development of the virudavali genre. The stotra genre is shown to have developed as an extremely versatile means of communication, representing not merely a vehicle for personal expression of devotion, but a critical tool for the development of religious communities in medieval South Asia.
- Notes:
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 76-05(E), Section: A.
- Adviser: Deven M. Patel.
- Department: South Asia Regional Studies.
- Thesis Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2014.
- Local Notes:
- School code: 0175.
- ISBN:
- 9781321479232
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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