Concept of Bhakti according to Chaitanya (Sect) in Vaishnavism.

On the life of Narottama Dasa, 16th century Vaishnava saint.

This is a Comprehensive Survey of the Bhakti Movement as it sprang in South India to spread across the subcontinent in independent and multifarious manifestations yet marked with amazing commonalities. Spanning a period of 11 centuries starting from the 6th CE, the movement encompassed in its sweep a vast range of dimensions; Social, political, economic, religious, cultural, linguistic, ethical and philosophical. Among the multifarious movements which contributed to the formation of India and its Culture, the Bhakti was undoubtedly the most pervasive and persistent, says the author. Besides its sweep and depth, what proved most remarkable about the movement was that it arose almost everywhere from the masses who belonged to the lowest class and castes. Though spirituality was its leitmotif, Bhakti proved to be a stirring song of the subaltern in their varied expressions of resistance and revolt. A seemingly conservative phenomenon became a potent weapon against entrenched hierarchies of orthodoxy and oppression, in a wonderful dialectical expression. This qualifies Bhakti movement to be reckoned on a par with European renaissance as it marked a massive upsurge in the societal value system to directly impact a range of fields like arts, politics, culture or religion. Even as he takes note of the elements of reactionary revivalism that also marked the Bhakti movement, the author convincingly argues that those of renaissance and progress far outweighed the former.

Select Contents: Translation of the Bhaktirasamrtasindhu-Eastern Quadrant: The Categories of Devotion to the Lord-Southern Quadrant: Explanation of the General Characteristics of Devotional Rasa-Western Quadrant: Explanation of the Primary Devotional Rasas-Northern Quadrant: Explanation of the Secondary Devotional Rasas.

This (Dana Keli Kaumudi) is a divine play/drama, written by Srila Rupa Goswami, with commentaries of Srila Visvanath Cakravarti Thakur. In the Caitanya-caritamrta (Antya 4.226) there is a verse that describes the writings of Sril Rupa Gosvami: Srila Rupa Gosvami compiled 100,000 verses, beginning with the book Dana-Keli-Kaumudi. In all these scriptures, he elaborately explained the transcendental mellows of the activities of Vrndavna. This one-act drama describes the very celebrated pastime of Krsna’s efforts to extract a toll from Radha and her companions as they carried butter for the performance of a sacrifice being performed in the forest of Vrndavana. Of course, it cannot be emphasized enough that such pastimes are only to be relished by devotees who have thoroughly understood Lord Krsna’s position as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by carefully studying the first nine cantos of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.”

Description: Although some aspects of the medieval bhakti movements are known or have been viewed by the historians from their own angles of vision, much remains to be known, understood and interpreted. The present volume, issued on the occasion of the Quincentenary of Mahaprabhu Sri Caitanya, is an attempt to understand a little more of the medieval bhakti movements of India. The contributors to the volume who have enthusiastically agreed to participate in this project are all specialists in their own fields and their valuable papers are expected to throw new light on many hitherto unknown or known features of the great historical movement, the far-reaching consequences of which are very much lively in the heart of the Indian masses even today. The contributors to this volume are Bimanbehari Majumdar, Niharranjan Ray, G.S. Chhabra, Manorama Kohli, G.V. Saroja, J.C. Jain, M.S. Ahluwalia, H.A. Qureshi, Manjula Bhattacharyya, Uma S. Deshpande, P.S. Mukharya, B.D. Gupta, Hafiz Md. Tahir Ali, N. Jagadesan, R. Champakalakshmi, S.K. Pathak, N. Subrahmanian, R. Meena, K.K. Kusuman, N.H. Kulkarnee, Prabhat Mukherjee, S.N. Sharma, Sarat Chandra Goswami, S. Dutta, N.N. Acharya, Bhaskar Chatterjee, Neal Delmonico, Sachin Majumdar, David Kopf and Pranabananda Jash. A detailed bibliography containing list of books and articles used by the contributors in preparing their papers and also other works pertaining to the bhakti concept has also been supplied. This handy volume has been edited by N.N. Bhattacharyya with an informative introduction.

2023-24 RO/ARO UPPSC/UKPSC General Studies & General Hindi Solved Papers