A Vaisnava Poet in Early Modern Bengal

This book examines the practice of poetry in the devotional Vaiava tradition inspired by r Ka Caitanya (1486-1533), through a detailed study of the Sanskrit poetic works of Kavikarapra, one of the most significant sixteenth-century Caitanya Vaiava poets and theologians. It places his ideas in the context both of Sanskrit literary theory (by exploring his use of earlier works of Sanskrit criticism) and of Vaiava theology (by tracing the origins of his theological ideas to earlier Vaiava teachers, especially his guru rntha). Both Kavikarapra's poetics as well as the style of his poetry is in many ways at odds with those of his time, particularly with respect to the place of phonetic ornamentation and rasa. Like later early modern theorists, Kavikarapra reaches back to the earliest Sanskrit poeticians whom he attempts to harmonise with the theories current in his time, to develop a new poetics that values both literary ornamentation and the suggestion of emotion through rasa. This book argues that the reasons of and purposes for Kavikarapra's literary innovations are firmly rooted in his unique Vaiava theology, and exemplifies this through a careful reading of select passages from the nanda-vndvana, his poetic retelling of Ka's play in Vndvana.