Reinventing Ramanand: Caste and history in Gangetic India

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 30, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 549-571

  Pinch, William R ^a  

^a WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 6144221852     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0026749x00016590     Document Type: Article

References (77)

1. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (1912-1927), s.v. 'Ramanandis, Ramawats,' 570.
2. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (1912-1927), s.v. 'Ramanandis, Ramawats,' 570.
3. For example, Peter van der Veer remarks of a recent study of sant religiosity in north India that 'Although the name of Ram is central to sant tradition and Ramanand is often said to be the guru of Kabir, there is no mention of the most important "Vaishnava" ascetic tradition of North India, that of the Ramanandis.' Journal of Asian Studies 47, 3 (August 1988), pp. 678-9.
4. Peter van der Veer, Gods on Earth: The Management of Religious Experience and Identity in a North Indian Pilgrimage Centre (London: Athlone, 1988), esp. chapter three.
5. See Surajit Sinha and Baidyanath Saraswati, Ascetics of Kashi: An Anthropological Exploration (Varanasi: N. K. Bose Memorial Foundation, 1978), pp. 49-52, 115, on the dramatic growth of the Ramanandi community vis-a-vis Dasnamis since the eighteenth century.
6. See Nicholas Dirks, 'Castes of mind,' Representations 37 (Winter 1992): 56-78; and Bernard Cohn, 'The census, social structure and objectification in South Asia, An Anthropologist among the Historians and Other Essays (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990), 224-54.
7. See Nicholas Dirks, 'Castes of mind,' Representations 37 (Winter 1992): 56-78; and Bernard Cohn, 'The census, social structure and objectification in South Asia, An Anthropologist among the Historians and Other Essays (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990), 224-54.
8. See Christopher A. Bayly, 'Peasant and Brahmin: consolidating traditional society,' chapter five of Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), esp. 155-68; and Dirk H. A. Kolff, Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market in Hindustan, 1450-1850 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
9. See Christopher A. Bayly, 'Peasant and Brahmin: consolidating traditional society,' chapter five of Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), esp. 155-68; and Dirk H. A. Kolff, Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market in Hindustan, 1450-1850 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
10. An important exception is Rosalind O'Hanlon, Caste, Conflict, and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low-Caste Protest in Nineteenth-Century Western India (Cambridge: University Press, 1985).
11. I utilize the term Shri Vaishnava in this essay to refer to Ramanuja-oriented Vaishnavas; however, many who were to be distinguished after 1921 as either Ramanandis or Ramanujis would claim the title. Likewise, prior to 1918-1921 the term Ramanandi would have indicated individuals who would later be distinguished as either Ramanuji or Ramanandi. 'Shri' is an honorific, 'revered.'
12. The kumbha mela is a major pilgrimage festival held every three years in four alternating locations: Allahabad, Ujjain, Haridwar, and Nasik.
13. On the debate itself, see van der Veer, Gods on Earth, 103-7 , wno describes the controversy from the perspective of present-day Ayodhya. Richard Burghart, 'The Founding of the Ramanandi Sect,' Ethnohistory 25, 2 (Spring 1978), esp. 131-4, analyzes the debate with respect to the question of the historical origins of the Ramanandi sampraday. I refer to both works in the pages below.
14. On the debate itself, see van der Veer, Gods on Earth, 103-7 , wno describes the controversy from the perspective of present-day Ayodhya. Richard Burghart, 'The Founding of the Ramanandi Sect,' Ethnohistory 25, 2 (Spring 1978), esp. 131-4, analyzes the debate with respect to the question of the historical origins of the Ramanandi sampraday. I refer to both works in the pages below.
15. April 1920: 185-92.
16. Farquhar's view reflects the difficulty scholars have had in trying to date Ramanand. He also advances the interesting hypothesis that Ramanand was in fact a member of a now extinct Ramchandra-worshipping order of South India. This latter argument has been rejected by a number of scholars, most notably perhaps by Shrikrshn Lal, 'Swami Ramanand ka Jivan-Charitr' [a biography of Ramanand], in Pitambar Datt Barthwal (ed.), Ramanand ki Hindi Rachnaen [Ramanand's Hindi verse] (Kashi: Nagari Pracharani Sabha, 1955), 40-2.
17. Sita Ram to George Grierson, 29 June 1920, Mss.Eur.E.223.XI.93 - correspondence with Sita Ram, India Office Library and Records (IOLR). Sita Ram was a retired magistrate and deputy collector of U.P. who became associated with Allahabad University and eventually authored an important Hindi-language history of the town of Ayodhya, entitled Ayodhya ka Itihas (Allahabad: Hindustani Academy, 1932); he and Grierson had begun corresponding in 1904 and would continue to do so until the mid 1930s. The letter would be published in the following year.
18. Farquhar, 'The Historical Position of Ramanand,' 191.
19. Ibid., 185.
20. Grierson was so esteemed by Indian scholars that, a full quarter century after his departure from the subcontinent and retirement to England, the Bihar and Orissa Sanskrit Association conferred upon him the title of 'vagiska,' eloquent master. See Grierson to Dr. Bari Chand Shastri (acknowledging the honor), 30 September 1921, Grierson Mss, IOLR.
21. Sant is often translated as 'saint,' though the two are etymologically distinct. Though cumbersome, 'truth-exemplar' would be an accurate translation. See John Stratton Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer, Songs of the Saints of India (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 3-7.
22. See, for instance, The Bijak of Kabir, tr. by Linda Hess and Shukdev Singh, with notes and essays by Hess (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986), 19-21.
23. He is characterized as such in passing by John Stratton Hawley, 'The Sant in Sur Das,' in Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod (eds), The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987), 192 and footnote 1.
24. Charlotte Vaudeville, Kabir, vol. I (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974), 36, footnote 3 (see also pp. 113-14).
25. Burghart, 'The Founding of the Ramanandi Sect,' 121-39.
26. Translated: Bhaktamala: text, commentary, and list of names (Kashi: Chandraprabha Press, 1903-1909). For the life of Ramanand, see pp. 413-32. The list of names comprises noted contemporary Ramanandis associated with the author - more on which below. Bhagvan Prasad's Bhaktamala was cited favorably by George Grierson in many of his contributions to the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics; similarly, Grierson was prominent among those warmly acknowledged in the conclusion (p. 1331) of Bhagvan Prasad's own work.
27. Sita Ram to Grierson, 29 June 1920, Grierson Mss, IOLR.
28. Rasik best translates as aesthete. The rasik strand of devotion emphasizes heightened emotion, the use of the senses, and (often) a focus on Sita as a means of access to Ramchandra; thus many rasiks, Bhagvan Prasad included, assumed the role of handmaidens to Sita. For more on rasiks, see Peter van der Veer, Gods on Earth, 159-72; on rasiks as practitioners of Vaishnava devotion and performance, see Philip Lutgendorf, The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 309-21. These important works rely in part on the detailed study of Bhagwati Prasad Sinha, Ram-Bhakti men Rasik Sampraday [the rasik sampraday in Ram bhakti] (Balrampur: Avadh Sahitya Mandir, 1957).
29. Rasik best translates as aesthete. The rasik strand of devotion emphasizes heightened emotion, the use of the senses, and (often) a focus on Sita as a means of access to Ramchandra; thus many rasiks, Bhagvan Prasad included, assumed the role of handmaidens to Sita. For more on rasiks, see Peter van der Veer, Gods on Earth, 159-72; on rasiks as practitioners of Vaishnava devotion and performance, see Philip Lutgendorf, The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 309-21. These important works rely in part on the detailed study of Bhagwati Prasad Sinha, Ram-Bhakti men Rasik Sampraday [the rasik sampraday in Ram bhakti] (Balrampur: Avadh Sahitya Mandir, 1957).
30. Rasik best translates as aesthete. The rasik strand of devotion emphasizes heightened emotion, the use of the senses, and (often) a focus on Sita as a means of access to Ramchandra; thus many rasiks, Bhagvan Prasad included, assumed the role of handmaidens to Sita. For more on rasiks, see Peter van der Veer, Gods on Earth, 159-72; on rasiks as practitioners of Vaishnava devotion and performance, see Philip Lutgendorf, The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 309-21. These important works rely in part on the detailed study of Bhagwati Prasad Sinha, Ram-Bhakti men Rasik Sampraday [the rasik sampraday in Ram bhakti] (Balrampur: Avadh Sahitya Mandir, 1957).
31. Shri Bhaktamala (1903-1909), 420 and 432, respectively. Bhagvan Prasad noted the incorrect view of Wilson and others that Ramanand was fifth in descent from Ramanuja; in fact, according to the Bhaktamala, he was twentieth (see also p. 414). Grierson reproduces Bhagvan Prasad's criticism in his contribution to the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, s.v. Ramanandis, Ramawats (see the bibliographical note on P- 571.
32. Shri Bhaktamala (1903-1909), 420 and 432, respectively. Bhagvan Prasad noted the incorrect view of Wilson and others that Ramanand was fifth in descent from Ramanuja; in fact, according to the Bhaktamala, he was twentieth (see also p. 414). Grierson reproduces Bhagvan Prasad's criticism in his contribution to the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, s.v. Ramanandis, Ramawats (see the bibliographical note on P- 571.
33. Bhagvan Prasad cites Tapasvi Ram, along with other bibliographic sources, in Shri Bhaktamala (1903-1909): 426. Tapasvi Ram (1815-1885) was not only renowned for his scholarship and elegant Ramchandra-centered poetry, but was Bhagvan Prasad's father. For more on Tapasvi Ram, see Shivpujan Sahay, Hindi Sahitya aur Bihar [Hindi literature and Bihar], vol. II (Patna: Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad, 1963), 5-7, esp. fn. 3, and 57-66.
34. Bhagvan Prasad cites Tapasvi Ram, along with other bibliographic sources, in Shri Bhaktamala (1903-1909): 426. Tapasvi Ram (1815-1885) was not only renowned for his scholarship and elegant Ramchandra-centered poetry, but was Bhagvan Prasad's father. For more on Tapasvi Ram, see Shivpujan Sahay, Hindi Sahitya aur Bihar [Hindi literature and Bihar], vol. II (Patna: Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad, 1963), 5-7, esp. fn. 3, and 57-66.
35. Bhavishyottarkhand can be translated as 'the section on events that are going to occur in the future.' The edition of the Agastyasamhita used by Bhagvan Prasad was published in 1879 by the Suryya Prabhakar Press, Kashi. Hans Bakker, Ayodhya (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1989), has argued that the Agastyasamhita (or hymns of Agastya) was of central importance in the development of Ayodhya as a pilgrimage center. Agastya himself was a Vedic sage, or rishi, who figures in both the Ramayan and Mahabharat and is thought generally to have been responsible for rendering the southern peninsula hospitable for Aryan culture (see K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar, third ed. [Madras: Oxford University Press, 1966], 68-81). The mytho-geographic symmetry here should not go unremarked, in that the point of contention in 1918-21 was whether Ramanand should be regarded as the sole originator of bhakti or merely its transmitter to the north from the south.
36. Bhavishyottarkhand can be translated as 'the section on events that are going to occur in the future.' The edition of the Agastyasamhita used by Bhagvan Prasad was published in 1879 by the Suryya Prabhakar Press, Kashi. Hans Bakker, Ayodhya (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1989), has argued that the Agastyasamhita (or hymns of Agastya) was of central importance in the development of Ayodhya as a pilgrimage center. Agastya himself was a Vedic sage, or rishi, who figures in both the Ramayan and Mahabharat and is thought generally to have been responsible for rendering the southern peninsula hospitable for Aryan culture (see K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar, third ed. [Madras: Oxford University Press, 1966], 68-81). The mytho-geographic symmetry here should not go unremarked, in that the point of contention in 1918-21 was whether Ramanand should be regarded as the sole originator of bhakti or merely its transmitter to the north from the south.
37. Shri Bhaktamala (1903-1909), 414-32.
38. 'Shri' is an honorific that precedes the name; 108 is an auspicious number that indicates the number of times the prefix 'shri' occurs before the name, or, in other words, the extent of veneration due the individual.
39. Of or having to do with smriti, remembered law (that contained in the dharmashastra texts), as opposed to sruti, revealed knowledge (that contained in the Vedic texts).
40. Grierson (p. 570) was of the opinion that the mantra was om ramaya nama; however, om namo narayanaya is also a likely possibility. After 1918, the former would indicate allegiance to the radical faction, whereas the latter to the Ramanuji faction.
41. Sri Bhaktamala (1903-1909), 421-2.
42. On the significance of commemoration as a way of extending the past into the future, see Edward S. Casey, Remembering: A Phenomonological Study (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), 216-57 and passim. I am grateful to my colleague Vera Schwarcz for this reference.
43. Shivnandan Sahay, Shri Sitaram Sharan Bhagvan Prasad ji ki Sachitra Jivani [an illustrated biography of Shri Sitaramsharan Bhagvan Prasad] (Patna: Khadgavilas Press, 1908), 5-6.
44. Ibid., 35
45. Burton Stein, 'Social Mobility and Medieval South Indian Sects,' in J. Silverberg (ed.), Social Mobility in the Caste System in India (The Hague: Mouton, 1968), 92.
46. Van der Veer, Gods on Earth, 102.
47. Swami Dharnidharacharya, Shri awadhavamshiya kshatriya martandah [honourable awadh-lineage kshatriyas of the sun], second ed. (Chapra: Awadhvamshi Kshatriya Sabha, 1936; first ed., Allahabad: n.p., 1930), 143-4. This publication is a caste identity pamphlet, a fact of no small importance given the religious identity of the author.
48. Ibid., 149.
49. Awadh Kishore Das ['Shri Vaishnava'] (ed.), 'Shri Ramanand Sampraday ke Vartman-Vidvan' [Contemporary Scholars of the Ramanandi Sampraday], Ramanand-Granth-Mala ka Shri Ramanandank [The Ramanand Number of the Ramanand-Book-Series] (hereafter Ramanandank) 1, 5-6 (1935-36), 62.
50. Van der Veer, Gods on Earth, 103. See also 'Shri Ramanand Sampraday ke Vartman-Vidvan,' Ramanandank, 62, where a similar committee (named Puratatvanusandhayini Samiti) is described as having been formed in 1918 at the urgings of Sitaramiya Mathuradas, another leading Ramanandi of Ayodhya. This committee also leaned toward the independent position.
51. Van der Veer, Gods on Earth, 103. See also 'Shri Ramanand Sampraday ke Vartman-Vidvan,' Ramanandank, 62, where a similar committee (named Puratatvanusandhayini Samiti) is described as having been formed in 1918 at the urgings of Sitaramiya Mathuradas, another leading Ramanandi of Ayodhya. This committee also leaned toward the independent position.
52. Van der Veer, Gods on Earth, 104.
53. Burghart, 'The Founding of the Ramanandi Sect,' 131-2.
54. Shyamsundar Das, 'Ramavat Sampraday,' Nagaripracharani Patrika n.s. 4 (1924): 329. Shy. Das was also an editor of the journal. (For this information I am grateful to Francesca Orsini of the School of Oriental and African Studies. University of London.)
55. First edition 1927, p. 18; cited in Shrikrishna Lal, 'Swami Ramanand ka Jivan Charitra' [A biography of Swami Ramanand], in P. D. Barthwal (ed.), Ramanand ki Hindi Rachnaen [The Hindi Work of Ramanand] (Kashi: Nagari Pracharani Sabha, 1955), p. 43. Bhagavadacharya's 40-page work is in Sanskrit and Hindi and aims to correct the hagiographie 'deficiencies' of Ramanandi tradition; it was later re-issued as ShriRamanand-Digvijavah (Ahmedabad: Adhyapika Shrichandandevi, 1967) , but, unfortunately, without the author's preface. See also Burghart, 'The Founding of the Ramanandi Sect,' p. 133.
56. First edition 1927, p. 18; cited in Shrikrishna Lal, 'Swami Ramanand ka Jivan Charitra' [A biography of Swami Ramanand], in P. D. Barthwal (ed.), Ramanand ki Hindi Rachnaen [The Hindi Work of Ramanand] (Kashi: Nagari Pracharani Sabha, 1955), p. 43. Bhagavadacharya's 40-page work is in Sanskrit and Hindi and aims to correct the hagiographie 'deficiencies' of Ramanandi tradition; it was later re-issued as ShriRamanand-Digvijavah (Ahmedabad: Adhyapika Shrichandandevi, 1967) , but, unfortunately, without the author's preface. See also Burghart, 'The Founding of the Ramanandi Sect,' p. 133.
57. First edition 1927, p. 18; cited in Shrikrishna Lal, 'Swami Ramanand ka Jivan Charitra' [A biography of Swami Ramanand], in P. D. Barthwal (ed.), Ramanand ki Hindi Rachnaen [The Hindi Work of Ramanand] (Kashi: Nagari Pracharani Sabha, 1955), p. 43. Bhagavadacharya's 40-page work is in Sanskrit and Hindi and aims to correct the hagiographie 'deficiencies' of Ramanandi tradition; it was later re-issued as ShriRamanand-Digvijavah (Ahmedabad: Adhyapika Shrichandandevi, 1967) , but, unfortunately, without the author's preface. See also Burghart, 'The Founding of the Ramanandi Sect,' p. 133.
58. Shrimadramanand-digvijayah (1927), 18; cited in Lal, 'Swami Ramanand ki Jivan Charitra,' 43.
59. Shrimadramanand-digvijayah (1927), 18; cited in Lal, 'Swami Ramanand ki Jivan Charitra,' 43.
60. Avadh Kishor Das, Ramanandank, 75-6.
61. Van der Veer, Gods on Earth, 104.
62. Ahmedabad: Swami ShriRamcharitracharya Vyakaranacharya. The contentious circumstances surrounding this work are recounted by Bhagavadacharya in the introduction, pp. 1-42 (and esp. 1-7).
63. SriRamanandabhashyam Ayodhya: Swami Shribhagavadacharya-Smaraksadan, 1963?). Though the publication gives no date, the quote is taken from Bhagavadacharya's preface (pp. 5-18) which is dated August 26, 1963. The text purports to be Ramanand's commentary of Badarayana's Brahmasutra, describing thereby Ramanandi dualist doctrine. See the postscript, pp. 201-6, for sampraday reactions to the impending publication of this volume.
64. The proceedings of this festival were published as SwamiBhagavadacharyaShatabdiSmritiGranth [A book commemorating a century of Swami Bhagavadacharya] (Ahmedabad: Shrichandanbahin 'Sanskritibhushana', 1971).
65. Sahay, Shri Sitaramsharan Bhagvan Prasad-ji ki Sachitra Jivani, pp. 5-6.
66. Brajendraprasad, Shri Rupkala Vak Sudha [The Essence of Shri Rupkala's Sayings] (New Delhi: Dr Saryu Prasad [Brajendrapasad's son], 1970), p. 14. Rupkala was Bhagvan Prasad's nom de plume when composing religious poetry.
67. Bhagvan Prasad, Shri Bhaktamala (Lucknow: Tejkumar Press, 1962), p. 283.
68. These factions are described by Avadh Kishor Das in Ramanandank (1935-1936), 74.
69. G. S. Ghurye, Indian Sadhus (Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1964), p. 168.
70. These disagreements over caste in the sampraday are manifest in the contradictory interpretations of Peter van der Veer and Richard Burghart, particularly Gods on Earth, 172-82, by the former; and 'Renunciation in the Religious Traditions of South Asia,' Man n.s. 18,4 (1983): 641-4, by the latter.
71. These disagreements over caste in the sampraday are manifest in the contradictory interpretations of Peter van der Veer and Richard Burghart, particularly Gods on Earth, 172-82, by the former; and 'Renunciation in the Religious Traditions of South Asia,' Man n.s. 18,4 (1983): 641-4, by the latter.
72. Gods on Earth, 106.
73. explore this history in greater detail in Peasants and Monks in British India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), esp. Chs 3 and 4.
74. Nevertheless, there was clear and significant ideological change taking place in these overlapping social spheres. The question is, how to characterize this change most accurately. An important clue is that Arya, which increasingly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries connoted a racial category, was gradually supplanting individual commitments to the more socially restricted caste groups. While all Aryas (including shudras) were conceived of as equal since they were thought to have descended from an ancient people, to be kshatriya was to be first - politically - among equals in colonial society. The desire for such precedence in an egalitarian ethos is best understood as a function of racial ideology. Louis Dumont describes this 'serious and unexpected consequence of egalitarianism' succinctly: 'In a universe in which men are conceived no longer as hierarchically ranked in various social or cultural species, but as essentially equal and identical, the difference of nature and status between communities is sometimes reasserted in a disastrous way: it is then conceived as proceeding from somatic characteristics - which is racism.' Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications, rev. ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 16. See also, in the same volume, Appendix A, 'Caste, Racism and "Stratification": Reflections of a Social Anthropologist,' pp. 247-66. What we may be seeing here, then, are the indications of a periodic flux between hierarchical and egalitarian world views, during which the language of caste is forced to accommodate itself to the meanings inherent to race.
75. Nevertheless, there was clear and significant ideological change taking place in these overlapping social spheres. The question is, how to characterize this change most accurately. An important clue is that Arya, which increasingly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries connoted a racial category, was gradually supplanting individual commitments to the more socially restricted caste groups. While all Aryas (including shudras) were conceived of as equal since they were thought to have descended from an ancient people, to be kshatriya was to be first - politically - among equals in colonial society. The desire for such precedence in an egalitarian ethos is best understood as a function of racial ideology. Louis Dumont describes this 'serious and unexpected consequence of egalitarianism' succinctly: 'In a universe in which men are conceived no longer as hierarchically ranked in various social or cultural species, but as essentially equal and identical, the difference of nature and status between communities is sometimes reasserted in a disastrous way: it is then conceived as proceeding from somatic characteristics - which is racism.' Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications, rev. ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 16. See also, in the same volume, Appendix A, 'Caste, Racism and "Stratification": Reflections of a Social Anthropologist,' pp. 247-66. What we may be seeing here, then, are the indications of a periodic flux between hierarchical and egalitarian world views, during which the language of caste is forced to accommodate itself to the meanings inherent to race.
76. The phrase is from Kolff, Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy, 181.
77. Such as Sitaramsharan Bhagvan Prasad himself, who prior to his retirement to Ayodhya worked for many years as an inspector of schools in the education department in Bihar.