A Genealogy of Devotion by Burchett Patton;

Author:Burchett, Patton;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 3)

The Bhakti Community Envisioned by Agradās and Nābhādās

Agradās is the first Rāmānandī for whom we have any significant body of written literature. It is clear from the corpus of his work, as well as from the literature produced by his disciple lineage—most especially his immediate disciple Nābhādās and his grand-disciple Anantadās—that Agra began a literary project that aimed to extol exemplary Vaiṣṇava bhaktas and spread the saving message of bhakti in a fashion that would give his community a place of prominence in the new social, political, and cultural atmosphere of Mughal India. While all indications are that Kīlhadev, Kṛṣṇadās Payahārī, and probably even Rāmānand himself positioned themselves primarily within an ascetic, yogic, and Sant devotional culture and were not much concerned with either brahmanical propriety or the composition of literature, Agradās seems to have spearheaded an effort to secure respectability and legitimacy for the Rāmānandīs among other sectarian Hindu communities by producing vernacular devotional literature that engaged Sanskritic traditions and interfaced with the developing Mughal-Rajput court culture. With the Rajputs’ rise to political power within the system of Mughal rule developed under Akbar, paralleled by the intertwined ascent of rasik aesthetics and Vaiṣṇava bhakti, religious communities found themselves in a new patronage milieu, and Agradās took the lead in adapting and representing his community in light of these developments, all the while promoting the power of bhakti and praising the great bhaktas.

Agradās’s disciple Nābhādās, in accord with Agra’s directives, continued this project, further expanding the circulation of a sensible bhakti and a bhakti sensibility. In fact, while Agra may have inaugurated a multipurpose Rāmānandī bhakti literary endeavor, there is no doubt that history remembers Nābhā’s contribution to have exceeded that of his guru. According to Priyādās’s Bhaktirasabodhinī (1712), one day Agradās and Kīlhadev came across a blind infant who had been abandoned in the forest; this child was none other than Nābhādās. Agra and Kīlha restored his sight and brought him back to Galta, where Agradās initiated him into the Rāmānandī order.103 At the beginning of his Bhaktamāl, Nābhā explains that it was Agra who ordered him to compose his famous work in praise of the devotees of God. In the fourth dohā, he states, “Guru Agradev gave the order, ‘Sing the glory of the bhaktas. There is no other way to cross the ocean of existence.’ ”104 Toward the end of the Bhaktamāl, Nābhā reiterates the key role of his guru in the composition of the text, stating, “Agra says, he who narrates the virtues of the followers [of God] gains the power of Sītā’s Lord [Rām].”105 As mentioned, Agra composed several Brajbhasha works creatively retelling stories (all found in the BhP) about exemplary bhaktas—namely, his Nām Pratāp, Prahlād Caritra, and Dhruv Caritra—in order to praise the power of Vaiṣṇava devotion. Nābhā’s verses about his guru give further evidence of Agradās’s bhakti philosophy, suggesting that the Bhaktamāl was a work directly inspired by and dedicated to Agra’s conviction that divine favor, even liberation, can be attained by singing the praises of the great bhaktas, cherishing their memory, and following their model.

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