66. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.139; 2.20.148–149.
67. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.139.
68. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.21. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja cites Rūpa Gosvāmin’s definition in his discussion of prakāśa in Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.1.35–37, with śloka 34.
69. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.140–142, with śloka 25; 1.1.36–37, with ślokas 32–34.
70. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.143–148. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja’s understanding of vaibhava-prakāśa draws on Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.23, in which Rūpa Gosvāmin maintains that when Kṛṣṇa, without abandoning his “Kṛṣṇa-rūpatā,” manifests a four-armed form, this four-armed form is a prakāśa of his two-armed form.
71. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.14.
72. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.152.
73. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.14; Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.153.
74. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.15.
75. See Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.1.38, with śloka 35, which cites Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.15.
76. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.154–159; 1.5.19–20.
77. The twelve mūrtis that are the presiding deities of the months are Keśava, Nārāyaṇa, Mādhava, Govinda, Viṣṇu, Madhusūdana, Trivikrama, Vāmana, Śrīdhara, Hṛṣīkeśa, Padmanābha, and Dāmodara.
78. The eight vilāsa-mūrtis are Adhokṣaja, Puruṣottama, Upendra, Acyuta, Nṛsiṃha, Janārdana, Hari, and Kṛṣṇa.
79. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.160–211; 1.5.33–34. Among the twenty-four mūrtis—the four vyūhas, the twelve mūrtis that are the presiding deities of the months, and the eight vilāsa-mūrtis—two of the vaibhava-vilāsas, Vāmana and Nṛsiṃha, are also ascribed special functions in the material realm as līlā-avatāras, as will be discussed later.
80. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.17.
81. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.2.2. Rūpa Gosvāmin devotes three chapters (1.2–1.4) to a discussion of the five categories of svāṃśa avatāras.
82. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.2.35–46; 1.4.52–70.
83. In Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.211–214 Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja mentions the five classes of svāṃśa avatāras—puruṣa-avatāra, guṇa-avatāra, līlā-avatāra, manvantara-avatāra, and yuga-avatāra—along with a sixth class of avatāras, śaktyāveśa-avatāra. As will be discussed later, while the svāṃśa avatāras are classified as part of tadekātma-rūpa, śaktyāveśa-avatāras are classified as part of āveśa-rūpa (see Figure 2).
84. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.227–228.
85. In Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.17 Rūpa Gosvāmin gives two examples of the svāṃśa forms: the series exemplified by Saṃkarṣaṇa, who is identified with Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu as the first of the puruṣa-avatāras, and the series exemplified by Matsya, who is one of the līlā-avatāras. In Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.212 Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja follows Rūpa in suggesting that svāṃśa “has two divisions: Saṃkarṣaṇa and those in the line starting with Matsya. Saṃkarṣaṇa is the puruṣa-avatāra, and the other is the līlā-avatāra.” In this twofold division the guṇa-avatāras are represented as secondary manifestations of the puruṣa-avatāras, and the manvantara-avatāras and yuga-avatāras are relegated to a secondary status in relation to the līlā-avatāras.
86. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.2.9, citing an unidentified passage from the Sātvata Tantra. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja invokes Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.2.9 in his discussion of the three puruṣa-avatāras in Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.217, with śloka 31, and 1.5.66, with śloka 10.
87. Among the various cosmogonic accounts pertaining to the sarga and the pratisarga in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, see in particular the following chapters: 2.5–2.6; 2.10; 3.5–3.12; 3.20; 3.26.
88. See Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.2.41–42; 2.21.29–31.
89. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.2.10–12.
90. See Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.14.11.
91. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.221–226; 2.20.229–241; 1.5.42–77.
92. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.5.65–70; 2.20.245–249; 1.5.84–89; 1.5.94–98.
93. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.2.13–14.
94. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.241–251; 1.5.77–92.
95. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.2.16–34; 1.2.56–57; Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.245–249; 2.20.257–268; 1.5.86–89; 1.1.34; 2.21.28.
96. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.2.15, citing Bhāgavata Purāṇa 2.2.8. One pradeśa is the length from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the index finger.
97. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.2.33–34.
98. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.252–254; 2.20.265–268; 1.5.92–98.
99. The twenty-five līlā-avatāras discussed by Rūpa Gosvāmin in Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.3.1–97 are: (1) Catuḥsana, (2) Nārada, (3) Varāha, (4) Matsya, (5) Yajña, (6) Naranārāyaṇa, (7) Kapila, (8) Dattātreya, (9) Hayaśīrṣa, (10) Haṃsa, (11) Pṛśnigarbha, (12) Ṛṣabha, (13) Pṛthu, (14) Nṛsiṃha, (15) Kūrma, (16) Dhanvantari, (17) Mohinī, (18) Vāmana, (19) Paraśurāma, (20) Rāma (Rāghavendra), (21) Vyāsa, (22) Balarāma, (23) Kṛṣṇa, (24) Buddha, and (25) Kalki. All of these avatāras, with the exception of Hayaśīrṣa, Haṃsa, and Pṛśnigarbha, are included in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa’s account in 1.3.6–28, although they are enumerated in a different order. Other accounts of the avatāras are found elsewhere in the Bhāgavata (for example, 2.7.1–38) and include Hayaśīrṣa (2.7.11), Haṃsa (2.7.19), and Pṛśnigarbha (10.3.41) among the avatāras. Jīva Gosvāmin, in his discussion of the līlā-avatāras in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha, follows strictly the number and order of avatāras given in the Bhāgavata’s account in 1.3.6–28.
100. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.3.97; cf. 1.4.28–29.
101. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.255–256.
102. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.3.1–97.
103. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.4.34.
104. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.5.63.
105. Rūpa Gosvāmin provides an extended discussion of the category of parāvastha avatāras in Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.5.16–93 and also describes the three individual parāvastha līlā-avatāras in 1.3.
106. Rūpa Gosvāmin briefly discusses the category of vaibhava avatāras in Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.4.45; 1.4.48–51 and provides descriptions of the nine individual vaibhava līlā-avatāras in 1.3. As will be discussed later, the vaibhava avatāras also include the fourteen manvantara-avatāras. As we shall see, Vāmana and Yajña also appear in the list of manvantara-avatāras and thus are both ascribed dual roles as līlā-avatāras and manvantara-avatāras.
107. Rūpa Gosvāmin briefly discusses the category of prābhava avatāras in Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.4.45–47 and provides descriptions of the seven individual prābhava līlā-avatāras in 1.3. As will be discussed later, the first type of prābhava avatāras also includes the four yuga-avatāras.
108. Rūpa Gosvāmin defines the encompassing category of āveśa-rūpa in Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.18–19. He discusses the āveśa-avatāras in 1.4.35–44 and provides descriptions of the five āveśa līlā-avatāras in 1.3. The āveśa-avatāras will be discussed later.
109. See Bhāgavata Purāṇa 12.7.15.
110. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.4.1–24; 1.4.30–33; Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.269–278. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa’s accounts of the avatāras and other cosmic administrators of the manvantaras are given in 8.1.17–30; 8.5.1–10; 8.13.1–36.
111. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.4.48–51.
112. Cf. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.8.13; 12.3.52.
113. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.4.25.
114. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.4.46.
115. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.279–284.
116. See Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.2; 1.1.4.
117. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.3.22–31, with ślokas 6–7; 1.3.40–45, with ślokas 9–10; 2.20.279–280, with śloka 48; 2.20.284–287, with ślokas 53–57; 2.11.87–88, with śloka 10; 2.6.98, with ślokas 3–4. Jīva Gosvāmin, in the maṅgalācaraṇa with which he opens the Tattva San
darbha, invokes Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.5.32, which he similarly interprets in light of Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.8.13 as referring to Caitanya, whom he extols as the avatāra of Kali Yuga who is “black (kṛṣṇa) inside and golden (gaura) outside.” See Tattva Sandarbha 1–2, with Jīva’s commentary in Sarva-Saṃvādinī 1.
118. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.1.śloka 1; 1.1.śloka 4.
119. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.18.
120. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.138; 2.20.305–310, with śloka 60. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja adds a second subdivision, vibhūti, which he does not explicate beyond invoking Bhagavad-Gītā 10.41–42, the final verses of the tenth chapter of the Gītā, which is entitled “Vibhūti-Yoga.” See Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.306; 2.20.311, with ślokas 61–62.
121. The distinction between jīvas and svāṃśas will be discussed further in Chapter 2.
122. Rūpa Gosvāmin discusses the category of āveśa-avatāras in 1.4.35–44 and provides descriptions of the five āveśa līlā-avatāras in 1.3.
123. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.307–310. In his enumeration of āveśa-avatāras Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja also includes the thousand-headed serpent known as Śeṣa or Ananta, who is invested with two different śaktis. In his role as the serpent-bed of the second puruṣa-avatāra, Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, Ananta-Śeṣa is invested with the svasevana-śakti, the power to serve the Lord himself, while in his role as upholder of the worlds associated with the third puruṣa-avatāra, Kṣīrodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, he is infused with the bhūdhāraṇa-śakti, the power to support the earth on one of his hoods. See Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.5.83–84; 1.5.100–107. In Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.19 Rūpa Gosvāmin includes Ananta-Śeṣa as an example of an āveśa form, but he does not include him in his later enumeration in 1.4.35–44 of the āveśa-avatāras who descend to the material realm.
124. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 7.9.38.
125. Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 1.5.87, citing an unidentified passage from the Nārada Pāñcarātra.
126. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.2.91; 1.2.93–97; cf. 1.5.111–115.
127. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.4.83–85.
128. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.4.61.
129. For Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja’s discussion of Rādhā and the three classes of her manifestations, see Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.4.59–85; 1.1.40–42.
130. For an extended study of the contributions of Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja to the competing theories of Caitanya’s divinity, culminating in his own distinctive vision of Caitanya as the androgynous divinity who manifests Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā together in a single body, see Stewart 2010: esp. 45–188.
131. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.1.śloka 5.
132. For an overview of the Śrīvaiṣṇava conception of the five modes of manifestation of Viṣṇu, see Narayanan 1985a: 54. Vedāntadeśika provides a brief encapsulation of the five modes in his Rahasyatrayasāra, chapter 5. For a discussion of Vedāntadeśika’s understanding of this fivefold taxonomy, see Hopkins 2002: 101–102, 184–188. As Carman (1974: 179–186, 135–140) notes, although Rāmānuja defends the Pāñcarātra system in his Śrībhāṣya, he only mentions three of the five modes of manifestation of the deity in this context: para, which he terms sūkṣma; vyūha; and vibhava. He does, however, allot a central place to the antar-yāmin elsewhere in his theological discussions. For a discussion of Rāmānuja’s conception of Viṣṇu’s transcendent body, see Carman 1974: 167–175.
133. See Gupta 2007: 84–87.
134. See Carman 1974: 180; Narayanan 1985a: 54 n. 4.
135. For a discussion of the role of the arcā in Śrīvaiṣṇava theology and practice, see Narayanan 1985a.
136. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.244. The transmundane realities to which Rūpa Gosvāmin refers in this verse are the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, nāman, Vraja-dhāman, and mūrti, along with Kṛṣṇa bhaktas, which he described in the five preceding verses, Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.239–243, as the focal points of the five most important practices of vaidhī-bhakti. In Chapter 2 I will discuss these five practices as well as the role of Kṛṣṇa-rati in the Gauḍīya theory of bhakti-rasa.
137. For Peirce’s theory of signs, see Peirce 1955: 98–119.
138. Tattva Sandarbha 26, citing Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.3.45.
139. In Chapter 3 I will provide an extended analysis of the role of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa in the Gauḍīya discourse of embodiment.
140. Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.17.127–128. The identity between Kṛṣṇa and his name is also emphasized in Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.2.233–234, with Jīva Gosvāmin’s commentary. For a discussion of the theology of the name that undergirds the central Gauḍīya practice of nāma-kīrtana, singing of the divine names, see Hein 1976. In Chapter 4 I will explore at length the role of nāman in the Gauḍīya discourse of embodiment.
141. Jīva Gosvāmin provides an extended analysis of Kṛṣṇa’s transcendent and terrestrial dhāmans in Bhagavat Sandarbha 60–78; Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha 106–116. For extended studies of Vraja (Hindi Braj) as a literary construction and a major pilgrimage center, see Entwistle 1987; Haberman 1994; Corcoran 1995. In Chapter 5 I will explore at length the role of Vraja in the Gauḍīya discourse of embodiment.
142. See, for example, Bhakti Sandarbha 286.
143. For a recent study of the theology and practice of mūrti-sevā in the Gauḍīya tradition, with particular emphasis on the Rādhāramaṇa temple in Vṛndāvana, see Valpey 2006. For an extended analysis of the ritual and aesthetic traditions that ground contemporary Gauḍīya practices of ornamentation of Kṛṣṇa’s mūrtis in the Rādhāramaṇa temple and the Govindadeva temple in Jaipur, see Packert 2010: 28–73, 123–175.
2 The Embodied Aesthetics of Bhakti
1. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.14.23–24; cf. 11.2.40; 11.3.31–32; 1.6.16–17.
2. Farquhar 1967: 229–230.
3. Gonda 1948: 640. Translation cited in Hardy 1983: 38.
4. Dasgupta 1959: 124–126. Hopkins (1966: 9) has also noted the “significant change” from the “quiet contemplation” of the bhakti of the Bhagavad-Gītā to the “emotional fervor” of the bhakti of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.
5. Hacker 1959: esp. vol. 1, 93–147. See also Otto 1932: 160–162, in which he contrasts the mystical experience of Prahlāda in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, for whom bhakti is “the stilling of the soul before God, a trustful, believing devotion,” with the experience of Caitanya, for whom bhakti is “‘Prema,’ a fevered, glowing Krishna-eroticism, colored throughout by love passion.” As will be discussed later, the Kṛṣṇa bhakti of Caitanya and of the Gauḍīya tradition that he inspired is closely allied with the bhakti of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, which provides the authoritative scriptural basis for Gauḍīya theology.
6. For an extended discussion of the distinctive nature of the “emotional” bhakti of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, see Hardy 1983: esp. 8–10, 36–43, 573.
7. Vaudeville 1962: 40.
8. See in particular the rāsa-pāñcādhyāyī, chapters 29 to 33 of the tenth book of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, which, as I mentioned in Chapter 1, celebrate Kṛṣṇa’s love-play with the gopīs, culminating in the rāsa-līlā, the circle dance. For a recent translation and study of the rāsa-pāñcādhyāyī, see Schweig 2005a.
9. See, for example, Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.22.5–13.
10. Among studies of the various traditions of reflection on rasa in classical Indian aesthetics, see De 1960b; Gerow 1977; Masson and Patwardhan 1970; Ingalls, Masson, and Patwardhan 1990. For analyses of Rūpa Gosvāmin’s theory of bhakti-rasa and its relationship to the theories of rasa propounded by the dominant schools of Indian aesthetics, see Delmonico 1990, 1998; Haberman 2003: xxxvi–lxvii. See also n. 12.
11. Nāṭya-Śāstra 6.31.
12. For a comparative analysis of Rūpa Gosvāmin’s theory of bhakti-rasa and the contending theories of rasa propounded by Bhoja and Abhinavagupta, see Delmonico 1990: 231–260. Delmonico concludes that Bhoja’s theory of rasa exerted a more profound i
nfluence on Rūpa’s notion of bhakti-rasa than that of Abhinavagupta.
13. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 2.5.2.
14. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.3.1, with Jīva Gosvāmin’s commentary; 2.5.3; 2.5.92, with Jīva Gosvāmin’s commentary.
15. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.3.1; 1.4.1.
16. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 1.4.1.
17. Rūpa Gosvāmin discusses the five forms of primary Kṛṣṇa-rati in Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 2.5.6–38.
18. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 2.5.7.
19. Rūpa Gosvāmin enumerates the five primary rasas in Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 2.5.115. He then devotes the five chapters of the Western Quarter of the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu (3.1–3.5) to a discussion of each of these five rasas. Rūpa’s Ujjvalanīlamaṇi is devoted entirely to mādhurya-rasa, which he ranks as the highest in the hierarchy of primary rasas. Jīva Gosvāmin, elaborating on Rūpa’s aesthetics of devotion, provides an extended exposition of the five primary rasas in the Prīti Sandarbha.
20. Rūpa Gosvāmin discusses the seven bhāvas, or forms of secondary Kṛṣṇa-rati, on which the seven secondary rasas are based in Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 2.5.39–72. He enumerates the seven secondary rasas in 2.5.116 and then devotes the first seven chapters of the Northern Quarter of the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu (4.1–4.7) to a discussion of each of these seven rasas. An analysis of the seven secondary rasas is also included in Jīva Gosvāmin’s Prīti Sandarbha.
21. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 3.1.4–10; 3.1.36–42.
22. Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu 3.1.37.
23. As mentioned in n. 19, Rūpa Gosvāmin devotes the five chapters of the Western Quarter of the Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu (3.1–3.5) to a discussion of each of the five primary rasas and then provides an extended exposition of mādhurya-rasa in his Ujjvalanīlamaṇi. Jīva Gosvāmin also provides an extended analysis of the five primary rasas in the Prīti Sandarbha. For a brief discussion by Rūpa of the unrivaled status of the gopīs and Rādhā as the highest in the hierarchy of bhaktas, see Laghubhāgavatāmṛta 2.1.29–46. For a recent translation and study of the rāsa-pāñcādhyāyī, the five chapters of the tenth book of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa pertaining to Kṛṣṇa’s rāsa-līlā (circle dance) with the gopīs, see Schweig 2005a. Schweig’s illuminating study draws on the works of Rūpa Gosvāmin, Jīva Gosvāmin, and Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, as well as later Gauḍīya commentators such as Viśvanātha Cakravartin (seventeenth to eighteenth century CE).
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