Bringing together scholars from across the disciplines of social and intellectual history, philology, theology, and anthropology to systematically investigate Vaiṣṇavism in colonial Bengal, this book highlights the significant roles—religious, social, and cultural—that a prominent Hindu devotional current played in the lives of wide and diverse sections of colonial Bengali society. Not only does the book thereby enrich our understanding of the history and development of Bengali Vaiṣṇavism, but it also sheds valuable new light on the texture and dynamics of colonial Hinduism beyond the discursive and social-historical parameters of an entrenched Hindu “Renaissance” paradigm.
Contents
Introduction: Vaiṣṇavism in colonial Bengal: beyond the Hindu Renaissance
Lucian Wong and Ferdinando Sardella
PART I
Recovering the legacy: how Vaiṣṇavas adopted colonial modalities
1 The afterlife of an avatāra in modern times
Varuni Bhatia
2 Theorising Bengal Vaiṣṇavism: Bipin Chandra Pal and new perspectives on religious life and culture
Amiya P. Sen
3 Vaiṣṇava institutional processes in colonial Bengal
Santanu Dey
4 Baba Premananda Bharati: his trajectory into and through Bengal Vaiṣṇavism to the West
Gerald T. Carney
5 Claiming high ground: Gauḍīya missionising rhetoric on the adhikāra of worship
Kenneth Valpey
6 Directions for future research on Vaiṣṇavism in colonial Bengal
Joseph O’Connell and Amiya P. Sen
PART II
Contending the portrayal: how ethics shaped this religion of love
7 The power of the secret: the tantalising discourse of Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā scholarship
Tony K. Stewart
8 Sahajiya texts of Nadia: beyond reform and revival
Sukanya Sarbadhikary
9 Love of woman: love of humankind? Interconnections between Bāul esoteric practice and social radicalism
Jeanna Openshaw
10 Divine transgression: devotion and ethics in Bengali Vaiṣṇavism
Kiyokazy Okita
11 Colonial morals, Vaiṣṇava quarrels: tracing the sources of nineteenth-century anti-Sahajiyā polemics
Lucian Wong
For more details, go to: https://www.routledge.com/The-Legacy-of-Vainavism-in-Colonial-Bengal-1st-Edition/Sardella-Wong/p/book/9781138561793
To order a review copy, please complete the form at: https://m.email.taylorandfrancis.com/Review_copy_request