Bhakti and Power: Debating India's Religion of the Heart (Global South Asia) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0295745509 ISBN 13: 9780295745503

Publisher: University of Washington Press, 2019

Synopsis

Bhakti, a term ubiquitous in the religious life of South Asia, has meanings that shift dramatically according to context and sentiment. Sometimes translated as “personal devotion,” bhakti nonetheless implies and fosters public interaction. It is often associated with the marginalized voices of women and lower castes, yet it has also played a role in perpetuating injustice. Barriers have been torn down in the name of bhakti, while others have been built simultaneously. Bhakti and Power provides an accessible entry into key debates around issues such as these, presenting voices and vignettes from the sixth century to the present and from many parts of India’s cultural landscape. Written by a wide range of engaged scholars, this volume showcases one of the most influential concepts in Indian history—still a major force in the present day.

About this title

About the Authors

John Stratton Hawley is professor of religion at Barnard College, Columbia University. His publications include A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement (Harvard University Press, 2015), Three Bhakti Voices: Mirabai, Surdas, and Kabir in Their Time and Ours (Oxford University Press, 2012), The Memory of Love: Sūrdās Sings to Krishna (Oxford University Press, 2009), and Sūr Dās: Poet, Singer, Saint (University of Washington Press, 1984).

Christian Novetzke is associate professor of South Asian studies and comparative religions at the University of Washington. He is the author of The Quotidian Revolution: Vernacularization, Religion, and the Premodern Public Sphere in India (Columbia University Press, 2016) and Religion and Public Memory: A Cultural History of Saint Namdev in India (Columbia Press, 2008); and coauthor of Amar Akbar Anthony: Bollywood, Brotherhood, and the Nation (Harvard University Press, 2016).

Swapna Sharma is a senior Hindi lector at Yale University. Her research concerns Hindi language and literature. She assisted in the editing of Dictionary of Bhakti: North-Indian Bhakti Texts into Khaṛī Bolī, Hindī, and English (D.K. Printworld, 2009) and the translation and editing of The Hagiographies of Anantadās: The Bhakti Poets of North India (Curzon, 2000).

Kalyanakrishnan "Shivi" Sivaramakrishnan is Dinakar Singh Professor of India and South Asia Studies, professor of anthropology, professor of forestry and environmental studies, and codirector of the Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University.

Padma Kaimal is Batza Professor of Art and Art History at Colgate University. She is the author of Scattered Goddesses: Travels with the Yoginis (Association for Asian Studies, 2013) and Opening Kailasanatha: The Temple in Kanchipuram Revealed in Time and Space (Washington, 2021).

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0295745509
• ISBN 13: 9780295745503
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264
• Editor: Hawley John Stratton, Novetzke Christian Lee, Sharma Swapna