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Gujarati
and Marathi literature The
early literature of these languages from western India follows a
similar pattern to those of the north and east, being mostly
religious in character. The
oldest Gujarati literature derives from Jainism, which is still
widely practised in Gujarat. This
literature teaches Jain beliefs through narrative tales.
Heroic verse, describing the valour of kings and heroes, was
also popular during this period.
By contrast, the bhakti poet Narsimh Mehta, who lived in the
1500's, composed poems to Krishna.
The songs of Mira Bai also appear in Gujarati versions.
Marathi
has one of the oldest of the northern regional literatures.
Its most important early work is the Jnaneshvari (On Divine
Knowledge), a long commentary on the Bhagavad Gita written in the
1200's. A commentary on
the Bhagavata Purana, written in the 1500's by Eknath, is another
example of how the Sanskrit tradition was carried on by writers in
the regional languages. Marathi
devotional poetry was often written in praise of the god Vitthal (a
form of Vishnu). The
greatest of the Vitthal poets was Tukaram (1608-1649).
In
the Marathi tradition,
Namdev (c.1300) celebrated Vishnu, particularly in his
manifestation as Vitthoba at the Pandharpur temple; and in the 17th
century Tukaram, the greatest poet of this literature, sang of the
god of love in numerous hymns.A small sect, the
Kabirpanthis, acknowledges Kabir as its founder, but its
importance is less than that of the vigorous new religion
(Sikhism) founded by one of Kabir's disciples, Nanak. In its
final form, Sikhism contains elements taken from Islam (equality in
the faith, opposition to iconolatry, extreme reverence for the
sacred book) and probably also from Christianity (the Sikh baptism
and communion meal), but its theology is still essentially Hindu.
Although
the earliest Hindu text in Bengali
is a mid-15th-century poem about Radha and Krishna, medieval texts
in praise of gods and goddesses, known as mangal-kavyas, must have
existed in oral versions long before that. In later Bengal Vaishnavism,
the emphasis shifts from service and surrender to mutual attachment
and attraction between God (i.e.,Krishna) and humankind: God is said
to yearn for the worshiper's identification with himself, which is
his gift to the wholly purified devotee. The mystical and devotional
possibilities of the Krishna legend are made subservient to
religious practice; the divine sport and wonderful feats of this
youthful hero are interpreted symbolically and allegorically. Thus,
the highest fruition of bhakti is admission to the eternal sport of
Krishna and his beloved
Radha, whose sacred love story is explained as the mutual
love between God and the human soul. Various gradations of bhakti
are distinguished, such as awe, subservience, and parental
affection. These are correlated with the persons of the Krishna
legend; the highest and most intimate emotion is said to be the love
of Radha and her girlfriends for Krishna
A
particularly rich tradition centred in Bengal concentrated on the
love of Radha, who symbolizes the human soul, for Krishna, the
supreme God. In this tradition are Candidas and the Maithili poet
Vidyapati (c. 1400). The greatest single influence was
Caitanya, who in the 16th century renewed Krishnaism. He left
no writings but inspired many hagiographies, among the more
important of which is the Caitanya-caritamrta ("Nectar of
Caitanya's Life") by Krishna Das (born 1517).
Caitanya
had a profound and continuing effect on the religious sentiments of
his Bengali countrymen and propagated the community celebration
(samkirtana) of Krishna as the most powerful means of bringing about
the proper bhakti attitude. Caitanya also introduced the worship of
God, the director of man's senses, through the very activity of
man's senses, which must be free from all egoism and completely
filled with the intense desire (preman) for the satisfaction of the
beloved (i.e.,Krishna).
The
religious lyric continues in the so-called padas (verses); one of
the greatest poets in this bhakti genre in which divine love is
symbolized by human love is Govinda Das (1537-1612). The songs of
Ramprasad Sen (1718-75) similarly honour Shakti as mother
of the universe and are still in wide devotional use. The most
famous religious lyrics in Gujarati
are the poems of the saint Mira
Bai (1503-73), who wrote passionate love poems to Krishna, whom she
regarded as her husband and lover.The complex interaction between
Sanskrit and non-Sanskrit religious classics may be seen in the
development of the epics.Parts of the two great Sanskrit epics, the
Mahabharata and the Ramayana, and many Puranas (especially the
Bhagavata-Purana) were translated into various vernaculars.
Technically, these works were not literal translations, but
freeversions in which the authors placed their own emphases,
different from the original and from one another.
The
oldest of the vernacular versions of the
Ramayana is the Tamil one of
Kampan (c. 12th century), a work suffused with devotion
(bhakti) and of high literary distinction. Another famous
translation in Tamil, written by Villiputturar, exists from the 18th
century. A Telugu rendering was made by Ranganatha about 1300. In
Bengali several translations were made, with some interesting and
probably authentic variations from the "official" Rama
story by Valmiki, the best-known one by Krttibas Ojha (1450).
Equally, if not more, famous is the Hindi version by Tulsidas (c.
1550), entitled Ramcaritmanas ("Holy Lake of theActs of
Rama").
The
Mahabharata was translated into Bengali about 1600 and into
Telugu by Nannaya and Tikkana in the 13th century.The
Bhagavata-Purana, which was translated frequently (e.g., into
Bengali by Maladhar Vasu, 1480), was popular both as a text and
because it gave the canonical account of Krishna's life and
especially his boyhood, which is the perennial inspiration of the
bhakti poets.
In
Marathi the teacher Jñanadeva
(also known as Jñaneshvara; c. 1275-96) composed a commentary on
the Bhagavadgita that
remains a classic in that literature. His work was continued by
Eknath (c. 1600), who also composed bhakti poetry. In the 16th
century the Kannada poet Gadugu produced his own highly individual
version of the Mahabharata.
In
addition to the above literal or not-so-literal translations of the
Sanskrit epics, the Tamils composed their own epics, notably Ilanko
Atikal's Cilappatikaram ("The Lay of the Anklet") and its
sequel, the Manimekhalai ("Jeweled Girdle"). In Telugu
there is the great Palnadu Epic; Rajasthani has an entire epic cycle
about the hero Pabuji. The remaining vernaculars have produced many
other works of the epic genre
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