Heidi Pauwels - Mobilizing Krishna’s World: The Writings of Prince Sāvant Singh of Kishangarh

Padma Kaimal

K. Sivaramakrishnan

Anand A. Yang

SERIES EDITORS

Mobilizing
Krishnas World

The Writings of Prince Svant Singh of Kishangarh

HEIDI R. M. PAUWELS

A Samuel and Althea Stroum Book

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS

Seattle and London

Mobilizing Krishnas World is published with the assistance of a grant from the Samuel and Althea Stroum Endowed Book Fund.

Copyright 2017 by Heidi Rika Maria Pauwels

Printed and bound in the United States of America

Composed in Minion, typeface designed by Robert Slimbach

212019181754321

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS

www.washington.edu/uwpress

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Pauwels, Heidi Rika Maria, author.

Title: Mobilizing Krishnas world : the writings of Prince Savant Singh of Kishangarh / Heidi Rika Maria Pauwels.

Description: Seattle : University of Washington Press, 2017. | Series: Global South Asia | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017004042| ISBN 9780295742229 (hardcover : acid-free paper) | ISBN 9780295742236 (pbk. : acid-free paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Nagaridasa, 16991764. | Hindi literatureHistory and criticism. | Literature and societyIndia, NorthHistory.

Classification: LCC PK1967.9.N25 Z83 2017 | DDC 891.4/3809 [B] dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017004042

Cover artwork: Radha Offering Flowers to Yogi Krishna, Kishangarh school, ca. 175060.

National Museum, New Delhi, accession no. 63.1769. Courtesy National Museum (New Delhi).

All photos by the author unless otherwise credited.

The paper used in this publication is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.481984.

For Monika Horstmann

Contents

Acknowledgments

WHILE WORKING ON THIS BOOK OVER THE PAST TWO DECADES, I had the great privilege of returning like a pilgrim to Braj and Kishangarh, to savor the joy of immersion in the sacred stories and songs of r RdhKrishna and r St-Rma and enjoy the good company (satsaga) of many devotees. Along the way in India, I received invaluable help and support from many generous scholars and enthusiastic bhaktas, who made the project come alife. First of all I want to express my gratitude to H. H. Maharaja Brajraj Singh and Maharani Minakshi Devi of Kishangarh, who generously shared with me their deep knowledge of their family traditions and kindly allowed me to consult the non-illustrated manuscripts in the royal collection. r Madan Mohan crya, Mukhiy of the r Kalyarya j temple in Kishangarh, enthusiastically read or sang out the manuscript texts I was reading with him, so that I could not only compare them efficiently with the printed editions but also get a firsthand taste of the emotional fervor, or rasa, involved. The monsoon mornings and evenings spent in the lounge of the Phoolmahal hotel in Kishangarh provided the ideal setting for reading the seasonal poetry. I am grateful also to Shahzd Citrakr Al, who shared stories about his late father, Dr. Faiyz Al Khn, an authority on Kishangarhi culture. He graciously allowed me to consult and photograph his fathers works and the manuscripts preserved by the family. Dr. Jaykrishna Sharma, the crya of the Kacariya Nimbrka Ph, was always prepared to provide background, explain difficult passages, and give tips for pursuing manuscripts. I also had the privilege of enjoying the singing of Pandit Hrll Krtaniy and the company of Bhagadcand j Somani and his family. During my frequent trips to nearby Salemabad, I enjoyed the expert guidance of Pjr Ravi Sharm. At the National Museum in New Delhi, Dr. Vijay Mathur very graciously shared his knowledge about Kishangarh with me.

I am very grateful to Dr. Swapna Sharma of Vrindavan, now at Yale University in New Haven, for many delightful hours in Vrindavan and on the road, reading through Trthnand and selections of Pad-prasag-ml; to r Shrvatsa Gosvami, who knows the tradition and the region inside out and who together with his wife, Sandhya Gosvami, was, as always, a most gracious host, welcoming me into their wonderful family. I want to thank the staff of the libraries I worked in, the Vrindavan Research Institute, the Mathura Janmabhumi Library, and the Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute in Bharatpur and Jaipur, and Giles Tillotson and Chandramani Singh at the Jaipur City Palace. A special thanks to Jayesh Khandelval of the Ras Bhrat Sansthn in Vrindavan, for date estimates of his manuscripts and for sharing his extensive knowledge with me.

In the United States, I am particularly grateful to my historian colleague at the University of Washington, Purnima Dhavan, for many stimulating conversations on the history of the period and for our near-weekly reading sessions of Braj and Persian texts of the time, and to Navina Najat Haidar from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, who very generously made time to share her insights on Kishangarhi art and history. I cannot thank enough Susan Miller, expert on Thai literature from Anacortes, Washington, for her excellent advice on the translations and the chance to rediscover all over again the poetry included here as we discussed its translation together.

I also want to thank the hosts and audiences at the talks I had the opportunity to give, to test the waters: to Sally J. Sutherland Goldman and Robert Goldman for inviting me to their conference New Directions in the Study of the Epics of South and Southeast Asia at the University of California, Berkeley, in October 2012, where I first presented on Rm-carit-ml, a paper now appearing in the Journal of Hindu Studies; to Tyler Williams, who organized the Bhakti Conference in Shimla in the summer of 2012, where I presented a paper on Trthnand, now coming out in his edited volume; and to Monika Horstmann, who hosted an earlier chapter of the same conference in Heidelberg in 2003, where I first presented on Pad-prasag-ml. Many colleagues at these venues, and elsewhere, made excellent suggestions, but all remaining shortcomings are my own.

A major source of inspiration has been the work of Monika Horstmann, with whom I had the privilege of studying when she was heading the Institut fr Indologie at the Universitt zu Kln in 198990. I admire in particular that her work spreads over the whole range, from manuscript and archival research to careful philological work and interpretations for history and religious studies. It was a special treat to make my first visit to Galta in 2011 under her expert guidancetopped off with an unforgettable raj kachauri. This book is dedicated to her.

I want to thank Lorri Hagman of the University of Washington Press and her stellar team for wonderful editorial support and excellent advice and the anonymous reviewers for excellent suggestions. Thanks also to Jane Lichty for her keen eye and top-notch copyediting. For the images reproduced in this book, I gratefully acknowledge the National Museum in New Delhi, the Cleveland Art Museum, and especially Mr. Eberhard Rist from Stuttgart, to whom I am grateful also for helpful correspondence; for funding the project, I thank the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Royalty Research Fund and the Simpson Center for the Humanities of the University of Washington in Seattle, and the American Institute of Indian Studies. I am particularly grateful to Philip Lutgendorf and Purnima Mehta, for performing Hanumn-like feats in building bridges and moving my paperwork along to make my research trips possible.