Publisher's Synopsis
This book examines the practice of poetry in the devotional Vaiṣṇava tradition inspired by Sri Kṛṣṇa Caitanya (1486-1533), through a detailed study of the Sanskrit poetic works of Kavikarṇapura, one of the most significant sixteenth-century Caitanya Vaiṣṇava 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 Vaiṣṇava theology (by tracing the origins of his theological ideas to earlier Vaiṣṇava teachers, especially his guru Srinatha). Both Kavikarṇapura'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, Kavikarṇapura 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 Kavikarṇapura's literary innovations are firmly rooted in his unique Vaiṣṇava theology, and exemplifies this through a careful reading of select passages from the Ananda-vṛndavana, his poetic retelling of Kṛṣṇa's play in Vṛndavana.
