Valpey - Attending Kṛṣṇas Image: Caitanya Vaiṣṇava Mūrti-sevā as Devotional Truth

ATTENDING KAS IMAGE

There is a steady and growing scholarly and popular interest in Hindu religious especially devotional (bhakti) traditions as forms of spiritual practice and expressions of divine embodiment. Associated with this is the attention to sacred images and their worship. This book extends the discussions on Indian images and their worship, bringing historical and comparative dimensions and considering Ka worship in the context of modernity, both in India and the West. It focuses on one specific worship tradition, the Caitanya Vaiava tradition, emerging in sixteenth-century northern and eastern India and now expanded to countries worldwide as a result of missionary Hinduism reaching both the Hindu diaspora and Western seekers. Situating current practice in historical contexts, the author keeps central the interrelationship of text and image as both migrated westward in the late twentieth century and take firm root today.

By focusing on two temples and their Ka images (mrtis) one in the north Indian pilgrimage town of Vrindavan, the other outside London this study brings forth a nuanced picture of a complex and ever-changing tradition of devotional practice (sev) and the theological reflection supporting it. By applying the comparative category of religious truth, the author provides a comprehensive understanding of a living religious tradition. He successfully demonstrates the understanding of devotion as a process of participation with divine embodiment in which worship of Kas image is integral. This book spans several disciplines theology, anthropology, art history, and philosophy to provide a valuable contribution to the understanding of contemporary Hindu temple culture.

Kenneth Russell Valpey is currently a post-doctoral research fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and an associate lecturer of the University of Wales, Lampeter (Open Learning Theology and Religious Studies Programme). He has studied, practiced and taught the mrti-sev tradition of Caitanya Vaiavism since 1972.

ROUTLEDGE HINDU STUDIES SERIES

Series editor: Francis X. Clooney, SJ

New series editor from September 2005: Gavin Flood,

University of Stirling

The Routledge Hindu Studies Series, in association with the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, intends the publication of constructive Hindu theological, philosophical and ethical projects aimed at bringing Hindu traditions into dialogue with contemporary trends in scholarship and contemporary society. The series invites original, high quality, research level work on religion, culture and society of Hindus living in India and abroad. Proposals for annotated translations of important primary sources and studies in the history of the Hindu religious traditions will also be considered.

EPISTEMOLOGIES AND THE LIMITATIONS OF PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY

Doctrine in Mdhva Vednta

Deepak Sarma

A HINDU CRITIQUE OF BUDDHIST EPISTEMOLOGY

Kumarila on perception

The determination of perception chapter of Kumarilabhattas Slokarvarttika

Translation and commentary

John Taber

SAMKARAS ADVAITA VEDANTA

A way of teaching

Jaqueline Hirst

ATTENDING KAS IMAGE

Caitanya Vaiava mrti-sev as devotional truth

Kenneth Russell Valpey

ATTENDING KAS IMAGE

Caitanya Vaiava mrti-sev as devotional truth

Kenneth Russell Valpey

First published 2006

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2006 Kenneth Russell Valpey

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Printed and bound in Great Britain by

Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Valpey, Kenneth Russell, 1950

Attending Krishnas image : Chaitanya Vaishnava mrti-sev as devotional truth / Kenneth Russell Valpey.

p. cm. (Routledge Hindu studies series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Chaitanya (Sect)Rituals. 2. Religious lifeChaitanya (Sect) 3. Bhakti. I. Title. II. Series: Routledge Hindu studies series.

BL1285.355.V35 2006

294.5512dc22

205027778

ISBN10: 0415383943

ISBN13: 9780415383943

This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother,
Nellie Blanche (19251987),
and to the memory of two special friends,
Tamal Krishna Goswami (19492002) and
Bhakti Tirtha Swami (19502005).

CONTENTS

FIGURES

SERIES EDITORS PREFACE

The Routledge Hindu Studies Series, published in collaboration with the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, intends primarily the publication of constructive Hindu theological, philosophical, and ethical projects. The focus is on issues and concerns of relevance to readers interested in Hindu traditions in particular, yet also in the context of a wider range of related religious concerns that matter in todays world. The Series seeks to promote excellent scholarship and, in relation to it, an open and critical conversation among scholars and the wider audience of interested readers. Though contemporary in its purpose, the Series recognizes the importance of retrieving the classic texts and ideas, beliefs and practices, of Hindu traditions, so that the great intellectuals of these traditions may as it were become active participants in the conversations of today. Deepak Sarmas Epistemologies and the Limitations of Philosophical Inquiry, John Tabers A Hindu Critique of Buddhist Epistemology: Kumarila on Perception and Jacqueline Hirsts Samkaras Advaita Vedanta: A Way of Teaching were fitting first volumes in this new Series.

Kenneth Russell Valpeys Attending Kas Image: Caitanya Vaiava Mrti-sev as Devotional Truth is now published as our fourth volume. This remarkable book testifies to the vitality and adaptability of traditional Hinduism as illustrated by the continuities and changes in the practice and context of devotional practice as it travels from a temple in Vrindavan to a temple in London. First of all, we learn much about the details of worship, the practices and the people involved in them. But Dr Valpeys study does more, modeling for us how to think about the cultural exchange of India and the West on multiple levels what texts tell us, how careful attention to historical context affects our reading, and how understanding keeps being enlivened by details from specific conversations, scenes, festivals and ritual moments. and in the new global face of Hindu tradition in the West will all find much to enjoy and learn from here.

The volume is all the more valuable because Dr Valpey has walked the fine line between the intimacies of an insider and the distanced, objective perceptions of a Religious Studies scholar. He has for many years been a Vaiava himself, and has long experience as a Vaiava priest. His studies at the University of Oxford and his remarkably thorough mastery of the secondary sources in theology, anthropology, art history, and philosophy render his presentation of the Indian and London materials open to the questions and further input of other scholars. All of this combines to give