Poetry as Prayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of Kashmir 0190889810, 9780190889814

Table of contents :
Cover
Series
Poetry as Prayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of Kashmir
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. Stotra Literature: An Overview
3. Literary Hymns from Kashmir
4. Poetry as Theology
5. Poetry as Prayer
6. Stotra as Kāvya
7. Devotion as Rasa
8. Stotra as Tradition
9. Conclusion
References
Index

Citation preview

Poetry as Prayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of Kashmir

RELIGION IN TRANSLATION SERIES EDITOR John Nemec, University of Virginia A Publication Series of The American Academy of Religion and Oxford University Press THE STUDY OF STOLEN LOVE Translated by David C. Buck and K. Paramasivam THE DAOIST MONASTIC MANUAL A Translation of the Fengdao Kejie Livia Kohn SACRED AND PROFANE BEAUTY The Holy in Art Garardus van der Leeuw PREFACE BY MIRCEA ELIADE Translated by David E. Green With a new introduction and bibliography by Diane Apostolos-​Cappadona THE HISTORY OF THE BUDDHA’S RELIC SHRINE A Translation of the Sinhala Thūpavaṃsa Stephen C. Berkwitz DAMASCIUS’ PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS CONCERNING FIRST PRINCIPLES Translated with Introduction and Notes by Sara Ahbel-​Rappe THE SECRET GARLAND Āṇṭāḷ's Tiruppāvai and Nācciyār Tirumoḻi Translated with Introduction and Commentary by Archana Venkatesan PRELUDE TO THE MODERNIST CRISIS The “Firmin” Articles of Alfred Loisy Edited, with an Introduction by C. J. T. Talar Translated by Christine Thirlway DEBATING THE DASAM GRANTH Robin Rinehart THE FADING LIGHT OF ADVAITA ĀCĀRYA Three Hagiographies Rebecca J. Manring THE UBIQUITOUS ŚIVA Somānanda’s Śivadṛṣṭi and His Tantric Interlocutors John Nemec

PLACE AND DIALECTIC Two Essays by Nishida Kitarō Translated by John W. M. Krummel and Shigenori Nagatomo THE PRISON NARRATIVES OF JEANNE GUYON Ronney Mourad and Dianne Guenin-​Lelle DISORIENTING DHARMA Ethics and the Aesthetics of Suffering in the Mahābhārata Emily T. Hudson THE TRANSMISSION OF SIN Augustine and the Pre-​Augustinian Sources Pier Franco Beatrice Translated by Adam Kamesar FROM MOTHER TO SON The Selected Letters of Marie de l’Incarnation to Claude Martin Translated and with Introduction and Notes by Mary Dunn DRINKING FROM LOVE’S CUP Surrender and Sacrifice in the Vārs of Bhai Gurdas Selections and Translations with Introduction and Commentary by Rahuldeep Singh Gill THE AMERICAS’ FIRST THEOLOGIES Early Sources of Post-​Contact Indigenous Religion Edited and translated by Garry Sparks, with Sergio Romero and Frauke Sachse GODS, HEROES, AND ANCESTORS An Interreligious Encounter in Eighteenth-​ Century Vietnam Anh Q. Tran

Poetry as Prayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of Kashmir

z

HAMSA STAINTON

1

1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2019 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-​in-​Publication Data Names: Stainton, Hamsa, author. Title: Poetry as prayer in the Sanskrit hymns of Kashmir / Hamsa Stainton. Description: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2019] Identifiers: LCCN 2018045677 (print) | LCCN 2019012669 (ebook) | ISBN 9780190889821 (updf) | ISBN 9780190889838 (epub) | ISBN 9780190889814 (hardcover) Subjects: LCSH: Religious poetry, Kashmiri—History and criticism. | Religious poetry, Sanskrit—History and criticism. Classification: LCC PK7031 (ebook) | LCC PK7031. S73 2019 (print) | DDC 891/.21009382945—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018045677 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America

For my mother Sheela, and my daughters Ellora and Mirabel

Contents

Acknowledgments

ix

Abbreviations

xv

1. Introduction

1

2. Stotra Literature: An Overview

27

3. Literary Hymns from Kashmir

65

4. Poetry as Theology

97

5. Poetry as Prayer

159

6. Stotra as Kāvya

197

7. Devotion as Rasa

231

8. Stotra as Tradition

265

9. Conclusion

287

References

299

Index

323

Acknowledgments

It takes a community and network of colleagues, friends, and family to produce a book like this. Truly, it is a pleasure to be able to acknowledge and thank the many individuals and institutions that have supported this project. Needless to say, any faults and infelicities that remain are mine alone. Everyone involved in the editing and publication of this book has been helpful and a model of professionalism. I thank everyone at Oxford University Press and its partners, and particularly Salma Ismaiel, Tharani Ramachandran, and Cynthia Read. It’s an honor to be published in the Religion in Translation Series of the American Academy of Religion, and I thank Anne Monius for her initial interest in the project when she was its editor. I am especially grateful to John Nemec for his outstanding work as the current Series Editor. He managed the critical stages of this project with efficiency, clarity, and understanding—​may every writer find an editor like John! The two anonymous reviewers of the book were also ideal readers. Their feedback has improved this book immeasurably, from its argumentation to its translations to the details of its transliterations. I cannot thank them enough for the care they took in reviewing the book. Happily, they both identified themselves later in the process, so I can extend my full gratitude to David Buchta and Whitney Cox. The first draft of this book emerged from my doctoral work at Columbia University. I was fortunate to have exceptional advisors and members of my dissertation committee: Sheldon Pollock, John S. Hawley, Rachel McDermott, Elizabeth Castelli, and Yigal Bronner. I offer them my gratitude again and again. I can only aspire to the same generosity and wisdom in my professional life that they shared with me. Shelly served as the chair of my committee, and his guidance over the years has been invaluable. He has challenged me to think broadly and read deeply. Jack remains a tireless mentor and advisor, and I learn something new in every interaction I have with him. Rachel has supported this project every step of the way with critical feedback and enthusiastic insight. I’m grateful to Elizabeth for her wide-​ranging guidance and advice over the years. Finally, my thanks go to Yigal, who contributed his time and expertise to this project despite geographical and institutional distance.

x

Acknowledgments

I also want to offer special thanks to Somadeva Vasudeva. For several years I studied a wide variety of Sanskrit texts with him, including many that I discuss in this book. I am grateful for the time, energy, resources, and stunning range of knowledge that he has shared with me. Many other mentors and teachers have supported my scholarship over the years. In particular, I thank Gudrun Bühnemann, Daniel Gold, Dominic Goodall, Jane Marie Law, William Mahony, Lawrence McCrea, Anne Monius, and Parimal Patil. Other scholars have helped in specific ways. Jürgen Hanneder generously shared some of his unpublished work on Sāhib Kaul and Ratnakaṇṭha with me. Both David Smith and Mark Dyczkowski sent me e-​texts of the Stutikusumāñjali. I  never studied directly with Alexis Sanderson, but I  am indebted to his work throughout this book and I benefitted from speaking with him on several occasions. Many other colleagues and friends—​too many to name—​have contributed to this book with their support, advice, and challenging questions. For specific feedback on parts of the book, I  want to thank especially Dean Accardi, Emilia Bachrach, Joel Bordeaux, Jo Brill, Patton Burchett, Lynna Dhanani, Alberta Ferrario, Elaine Fisher, Borayin Larios, Timothy Lorndale, Simone Barretta McCarter, Mark McLaughlin, Luther Obrock, Andrew Ollett, Charles Preston, James Reich, Allen Roda, Jason Schwartz, Sarah Pierce Taylor, Audrey Truschke, Anand Venkatkrishnan, Steven Vose, Christopher Wallis, and Ben Williams. Special thanks to Caley Smith for comments on the complete manuscript, and to my doctoral student, Anna Lee White, for drafting the index. This book has benefitted from comments on papers and lectures I have delivered at conferences and other events over the years. For specific conversations in these contexts, I thank John Cort, Don Davis, Finnian Gerety, Anya Golovkova, Kashi Gomez, Aleksandra Gordeeva, Shaman Hatley, Xi He, Barbara Holdrege, Stephen Hopkins, Knut Jacobsen, Whitney Kelting, Jon Keune, Hannah Kim, Andrew Nicholson, Christian Novetzke, Laurie Patton, Gary Tubb, Christian Wedermeyer, the participants in the American Institute of Indian Studies Dissertation-​to-​Book Workshop, the participants in the Religion in South Asia Conference at Missouri State University, especially Stephen Berkwitz, Jack Llewellyn, and Deonnie Moodie, the participants in The University of Iowa South Asian Studies seminar, especially Philip Lutgendorf, Fred Smith, and Pranav Prakash, and the academic community at The College of William & Mary, especially Patton Burchett, Mark McLaughlin, Oludamini Ogunnaike, and Chitralekha Zutshi. The work for this book was done while I was affiliated with three different institutions in North America. My thanks go to the faculty and former graduate students in the Religion Departments at Columbia and Barnard who contributed to my research. Much of the work on this book was completed while I was teaching in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas from 2012 to 2017. I am grateful to all of my former colleagues there for many lively conversations that benefitted this book, and particularly Dan Stevenson, Geeta Tiwari, and

Acknowledgments

xi

Molly Zahn. I also thank my Sanskrit students Matt Leville and Aniket Sengupta for reviewing parts of the book with me. Finally, the critical stages of this project were completed at McGill University. This has been a wonderful academic home for me. I thank all my colleagues here in Montreal for their support, especially Andrea Marion Pinkney for her advice and thoughtful comments on sections of the book. I am also grateful to the many institutions and programs that have supported this project. The Religion Department at Columbia University sponsored a summer research trip in India in 2008 that laid the groundwork. Like many scholars studying India, my research would not have been possible without the support of the American Institute of Indian Studies. In addition to studying in the AIIS Sanskrit program in Pune in 2005, I conducted research in India from August 2010 to June 2011 on an AIIS Junior Research Fellowship. I offer my gratitude to everyone in the AIIS community, and especially to Madhura Godbole, Meenal Kulkarni, Purnima Mehta, Purushottama Bilimale, and Philip Lutgendorf. I  also thank the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute for the many resources it makes available to scholars worldwide. At the University of Kansas, this project was supported by a New Faculty General Research Fund Award in 2013, as well as other internal grants for conferences and a pre-​tenure research-​intensive semester in 2016. This book has also been supported in a variety of ways by McGill University. It is particularly serendipitous that the image on the cover of this book comes from a Kashmirian manuscript of Sanskrit stotras and other devotional works contained in the Indic Manuscript Collection of the Rare Books and Special Collections of the McGill University Library. I  thank all the librarians and staff members who helped make this possible. Finally, I thank Brill for permission to reproduce some material from “Stotras, Sanskrit Hymns” in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Volume Two: Sacred Texts, Ritual Traditions, Arts, Concepts (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2010) here in Chapter 2, and Springer for permission to reproduce some parts of “Poetry as Prayer: The Śaiva Hymns of Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa of Kashmir” in the International Journal of Hindu Studies 20, no.  3 (December 2016) here in Chapter 5. While conducting research in India, I visited a number of libraries and manuscript archives, including the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (Pune), the Shri Ranbir Sanskrit Research Institute (Jammu), the Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute (Jodhpur), Adyar Library and Research Centre (Chennai), Sarasvati Bhavan Library at Sampurnanand Sanskrit University (Varanasi), the Oriental Research Library (Srinagar), the Library of the Asiatic Society (Kolkata), and the library and digital archives at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (Delhi). I am grateful to the knowledgeable staff at each of these institutions for their valuable assistance. My time in Delhi was much improved by working at the India International Centre and the American Institute of Indian Studies Library in Gurgaon. In Varanasi it was wonderful to be able to work at the Samvidalaya

xii

Acknowledgments

Abhinavagupta Research Library. I also benefitted greatly from workshops sponsored in 2011 by the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies in Shimla and the Indian Council for Philosophical Research in Lucknow. Many scholars and friends in India have shared their time, knowledge, and hospitality with me and my wife over the years. Meenu, Sudha, and Deepankar were our second family in Delhi. Radhavallabh Tripathi, Vice-​Chancellor of the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, gave freely of his time and expertise to me, both in India and during his trip to Columbia University in 2011. He also introduced me to other scholars relevant to my work, including Ramakantha Shukla, who sang verses from the Stutikusumāñjali for me in Delhi. I  thank Advaitavadini Kaul at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts for many conversations, e-​mails, and collaborations. Despite his busy schedule, Karan Singh took time to meet with me and discuss his experiences and thoughts on Kashmir. I  also thank everyone at Swami Lakshman Joo’s Ishwar Ashrams in Delhi and Srinagar. Navjivan Rastogi led a brilliant workshop in Lucknow, and I am grateful for all of his encouragement. In Pondicherry, Dominic Goodall and everyone at the Institut Français de Pondichéry and the École française d’Extrême-​Orient created an exceptional scholastic community, and I  have learned much from them not only about Indology but also about productive collaborative research. In Varanasi, the Purohits have always welcomed us like family, and Nihar first introduced me to a number of Indian scholars there. On several occasions I received insightful advice from K. D. Tripathi. I thank Mark Dyczkowski for many enlightening conversations over the years. Bettina Bäumer has been a great friend and mentor, and I also owe her special thanks for introducing me to the Stutikusumāñjali. While in Varanasi, I was often aided in my work by Dilip K. Jaiswal and everyone at Indica Books. Finally, I  offer special thanks to Pandit H.  N. Chakrabarty. I  read Śaiva stotras with him regularly in 2008. He passed away in 2011, but his wisdom and commitment to teaching live on in the many students he mentored so selflessly. I also offer my gratitude to Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, who taught me to love the music of stotras, explore the meaning of bhakti, and treasure the pursuit of knowledge. In the years that I have worked on this project, my family and friends have supported me with remarkable patience, confidence, and love. I would not be where I am today without them, and I am grateful to them every day. My sister, Satya, deserves special thanks—​not just for being such a supportive sister, but also for being a brilliant and inspiring editor and writer herself. My mother-​and father-​in-​ law have also been special supporters of this book, especially through their help with our children; thank you, Tara and Warren. Most of all, my deepest gratitude goes to my wife Danika. This book has been with us since before we were married. Throughout the years and across multiple continents she has been the embodiment of wisdom, compassion, and love. When I think of how grateful I am to her,

Acknowledgments

xiii

I lose my breath. Danika, thank you for sharing this life with me. It is a wonder and a joy. Finally, my heart overflows as I acknowledge three special people brought together, in some ways, by this book. My mother was the first and biggest supporter of my writing and academic career. She died suddenly in June 2012. She was an extraordinary woman who inspired everyone who met her with her enthusiasm, strength, wisdom, and so much more. I can see what her face would have looked like if she had been able to meet her grandchildren, and it makes me smile. My extraordinary daughters, Ellora and Mirabel, were born in 2013 and 2015. I dedicate this book, with all my love and all my gratitude, to these three beloved beings.

Abbreviations

ANĪSt BhASt BhSt CŚ CSSA CST DNV DŚ HaVi ĪPK KāSt KrSt RT SĀB SAṢ ŚāSt SCĀK ŚJD SKA SP ŚSĀ ŚŚV StC SūŚ VP

Ardhanārīśvarastotra of Kalhaṇa Bhairavānukaraṇastotra of Kṣemarāja Bhairavastotra (=Bhairavastava) of Abhinavagupta Caṇḍīśataka of Bāṇa Citsphārasārādvaya of Sāhib Kaul Cittasaṃtoṣatriṃśikā of Nāga Devīnāmavilāsa of Sāhib Kaul Devīśataka of Ānandavardhana Haravijaya of Ratnākara Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā of Utpaladeva Kālikāstotra of Jñānanetra Kramastotra of Abhinavagupta Rājataraṅgiṇī of Kalhaṇa Svātmabodha of Sāhib Kaul Sahajārcanaṣaṣṭikā of Sāhib Kaul Śārikāstava of Sāhib Kaul Saccidānandakandalī of Sāhib Kaul Śivajīvadaśaka of Sāhib Kaul Stutikusumāñjali of Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa Sāmbapañcāśikā of Sāmba Śivastotrāvalī of Utpaladeva Śivaśaktivilāsa of Sāhib Kaul Stavacintāmaṇi of Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa Sūryaśataka of Mayūra Vakroktipañcāśikā of Ratnākara

Poetry as Prayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of Kashmir

1

Introduction In India it is not true that all poetry is religious, nor that all religious expression takes the form of poetry; yet the relationship between the two is an especially close one. Norman Cutler 1 The close relationship between poetic and religious expression has been a widespread phenomenon across religious traditions, regions, and time periods in South Asia. There is a special appeal to making prayer poetic, and using poetry for prayer. Norman Cutler makes this observation in his work on the poetics of Tamil devotion, but it is just as true in the case of Sanskrit and other languages. The Sanskrit hymns of praise known as stotras are some of the best examples of this compelling connection. These flexible compositions generally praise and appeal to a divinity with direct, devotional, and poetic language. Stotra literature ranges from simple, formulaic eulogies to sophisticated poetry, from strings of names and epithets to elaborate theological compositions. Some of the most famous authors of premodern South Asia composed their own hymns (or have had multiple hymns attributed to them), while countless other authors remain anonymous or obscure. To this day, stotras remain one of the most prominent ways that Sanskrit enters the religious life of modern Hindus (as well as Buddhists and Jains). Stotras are found in archives and libraries, in personal collections and on temple walls. Often they are memorized. They are recited and sung in both personal and public worship, including during private devotional practice, communal liturgies, temple rituals, and festivals. Stotras have received numerous commentaries and they continue to be composed today. The great versatility of this literary form is one of the main reasons for its enduring popularity. Yet perhaps because of this perception of stotras as “popular” texts, they have not received the serious scholarly attention they deserve. The present study analyzes the history of literary hymns in Kashmir from the eighth century to the present. It focuses on literary compositions across this

1. Songs of Experience: The Poetics of Tamil Devotion (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), 111.

2 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

timespan that offer insights into the history and nature of the stotra genre itself. Six key elements weave throughout this study and can be disaggregated here at the start.2 First and foremost is the stotra form itself, with its flexible and unique combination of features. As a genre, the stotra raises questions about poetry, poetics, and prayer. Also critical to any interpretation of stotra literature is the category of bhakti, with all its nuances, from devotion and love to sharing and participation. Finally, we must consider the special features of the Kashmir region, for its religious and literary history are the primary contexts for this study.

Stotra The title of a major collection of stotras published in the twentieth century describes its contents as a “great ocean of hymns.”3 Anyone who embarks on a study of Sanskrit stotras quickly realizes the truth of this assessment, for the quantity and variety of stotra literature seem endless (and for the scholar, perhaps, even treacherous). While focusing on a specific region or tradition, as I do in this book, provides an anchor for interpretation, it will still be valuable to review some general features of the genre. There is no standard definition of a stotra, despite the common assumption of its stability as a genre. In Chapter 2, I consider several ways of defining and classifying stotras, and I offer my own working definition. Central to any description of stotras is praise; the Sanskrit root for the word stotra, along with its synonyms stuti and stava, is √stu-​, “to praise” or “to eulogize in song.” Because stotras are generally offered or sung in praise of a deity or other addressee, they are usually glossed as “hymns of praise.” In other cases, their poetic qualities are emphasized and they are described as “praise-​poems.” Such glosses are convenient, and their ambiguity actually mirrors this quality of the term stotra itself, which can be used just as easily to refer to highly personal and refined poetry as to impersonal lists of names; to lengthy, complex compositions or to short, formulaic texts. Historically, stotras are closely linked to a number of other genres and literary developments. Many stotras share important continuities with Vedic hymns, and they also share features with other lyrical poetry, such as gītās, and specifically with other eulogistic poetry, such as māhātmyas that praise particular places and sites. Stotras have been popular across traditions and communities, and there are shared patterns between hymns composed by Buddhists, Jains, Śaivas, Vaiṣṇavas, and so on. Many stotras are found within larger compositions, including various

2. Additional concepts, like theology and tradition, are central to the arguments of specific chapters and are considered therein. 3. N. R. Ācārya, ed., Bṛhatstotraratnākaraḥ, Vols. 1–​2 (Varanasi: Chaukhambha, 1983); see also Rāmateja Pāṇḍeya, ed., Bṛhatstotraratnākaraḥ (Varanasi: Chaukhambā Vidyābhavan, 2005).

Introduction

3

recensions of the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa, most Purāṇas, Tantras, and Āgamas, and many of the “great poems” (mahākāvya) of classical Sanskrit. The concerns and strategies of Sanskrit stotras also overlap considerably with forms of vernacular poetry generally analyzed in terms of devotion (bhakti). The formal features and functions of stotra literature vary widely. Some, like the majority of those discussed in this study, aspire to the same poetic standards as elite Sanskrit literature (kāvya) and are replete with literary ornaments (alaṅkāras). Other stotras, of varying poetic quality, seem to function as expanded verses for the visualization of and meditation on a deity (dhyāna) found in many Sanskrit scriptures. The concluding or postscript verses of some stotras, which generally describe the manner and benefits of reciting that hymn, sometimes suggest that a particular hymn should also be interpreted like a mantra, in which the style and number of repetitions is critical to the efficacy of that hymn. This is true, for example, for many nāmastotras, hymns that consist almost exclusively of names of a deity. Other hymns present themselves as verbal amulets or armor that protect the reciter from various types of harm. A far cry from these protective hymns are those often designated as vedāntastotras that prioritize the didactic explication of theological positions. Some stotras seem designed specifically for liturgical worship, including as key components of the daily worship schedule of a temple or the periodic worship activities of a community, such as a weekly service. Sometimes stotras are linked explicitly with icons at particular temples, while more often it is difficult to locate where and how they were recited over the centuries. In each of these cases, the addressees can vary widely. Most hymns praise specific deities, either directly or indirectly, but some isolate individual features to address (such as a deity’s foot as a metonym for divine grace), or even aim to turn the reciter’s devotional gaze inward at his or her own mind or consciousness (as Nāga does in his Cittasaṃtoṣatriṃśikā, discussed in Chapter 4). In recent years, scholars have begun to adopt approaches to stotra literature that reflect the complexity and creativity of their subjects. Some have focused on how stotras make interventions in religious contexts as theological texts;4 others have considered the pedagogical potential of the stotra form.5 In some regions authors composed Sanskrit stotras alongside devotional poetry in other languages, 4. Most notably: Friedhelm Hardy, “The Philosopher as Poet: A Study of Vedāntadeśika’s Dehalīśastuti,” Journal of Indian Philosophy 7 (1979): 277–​325; Nancy Ann Nayar, Poetry as Theology:  The Śrīvaiṣṇava Stotra in the Age of Rāmānuja (Wiesbaden:  Otto Harrassowitz, 1992); and David Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry: Didactics and Devotion in Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Stavamālā” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2014). 5. See Yigal Bronner, “Singing to God, Educating the People: Appayya Dīkṣita and the Function of Stotras,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 127, no. 2 (2007): 113–​130; Christian K. Wedemeyer, “Appraising Praises:  Buston’s ‘Praise Entitled “All Wishes Fulfilled” ’ and its Genre in South Asian Buddhist Literature,” in In Vimalakīrti’s House: A Festschrift in Honor of Robert A.F. Thurman on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday, ed. Christian K. Wedemeyer, John D. Dunne, and Thomas F. Yarnall (New York: The American Institute of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University in New York, 2015); and Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry.”

4 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

such as Tamil, and in close relationship to other types of texts.6 By moving beyond general surveys and translations of individual texts (though these have certainly been valuable), recent scholarship on stotras has begun making new strides in appreciating both continuities across stotra literature in South Asia and the distinctive features of such compositions in specific regions. The general corpus of Sanskrit stotras may be like a great ocean, but the stotras that were composed and circulated in Kashmir would form their own inland sea. Hundreds of unpublished stotras sit in various archives that may have been composed or popular in Kashmir. Most of these have no known author and are said to belong to larger scriptures, such as the Bhṛṅgīśasaṃhitā. Moreover, the literary quality of these stotras varies significantly, and their dates of composition remain difficult to determine. In general, there is a divide between most of these anonymous, unpublished hymns and those composed by various religious and literary luminaries in Kashmir over the centuries. Throughout this book I focus on those stotras, mostly from the latter of these two categories, whose authors show commitment to the literary quality of their hymns. In part, this is because my primary concern is the stotra genre itself and its unique combination of literary and religious features. But creative engagement with literary conventions and a dynamic literary culture is also one of the distinguishing features of the most well-​known and popular Kashmirian stotras. There are many such hymns from Kashmir, and usually their authors are identified; occasionally they are attributed to a semi-​mythical figure. The hymns that I  study in detail are often self-​consciously poetic and ambitious. Their authors are familiar with literary conventions and often engage with them in innovative ways. Studying these hymns both raises and allows us to address the questions about the relationship between literary and religious expression at the heart of this book—​questions about poetry as prayer.

Poetry and Poetics Poetry has been well represented within religious traditions in South Asia. In general, such heightened use of language is set apart from normal speech. As Frank Burch Brown observes, “in a variety of ways poetry estranges itself from the familiar and creates a measure of creative disorientation.”7 Poetry highlights a dichotomy that has been discussed in varying terms—​the dichotomy of imagination

6. E.g., Steven Paul Hopkins, Singing the Body of God: The Hymns of Vedāntadeśika in Their South Indian Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). 7. Frank Burch Brown, “Poetry: Poetry and Religion,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 11 (2nd ed.), ed. Lindsay Jones (Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2005), 7204.

Introduction

5

and information, the “workly” and the documentary, expression and content, and so on.8 In India, poetry (kāvya) has been theorized from its beginnings as a special, distinct kind of composition. Kāvya too distinguishes itself from the ordinary usage of language. In a discussion of innovations within Indian aesthetics and literary theory, Sheldon Pollock notes: With its figures of sense and sound and intentionally patterned sound qualities differentiating it from all other forms of usage, literary language, we might say, defamiliarizes the discourse so as to differentiate it from the everyday world and its real referentiality [ . . . ]9 It is not surprising that religious traditions have harnessed the power of literary language to “defamiliarize” or “estrange.” This disorientation allows for new kinds of orientation, giving poetic language the potential to facilitate personal transformations, theological reflection, the formation of communities, and a variety of other functions within specific contexts. While the earliest hymns of the Ṛgveda are metrical and poetic, both the Sanskrit literary tradition and modern scholarship recognize the beginnings of a new type of literature called kāvya around the time of the composition of Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa. According to the Sanskrit literary tradition, Vālmīki was the first poet (ādikavi), and his epic poem describes the origins of literature and its paired emphasis on sound and sense in one of its most famous passages.10 In his analysis of the beginnings of Sanskrit literature, Pollock argues for a remarkable expansion of the Sanskrit literary world around the beginning of the Common Era, when Sanskrit shifted from the language of liturgy to the language of literature, and particularly to being a literary language closely related to political self-​presentation.11 Kāvya itself is a complex category. There is no single canonical definition, and the first evidence we have for the theorization of kāvya comes surprisingly late,

8. See Sheldon Pollock, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit: Culture, and Power in Premodern India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), 3. 9.  “What Was Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka Saying? The Hermeneutical Transformation of Indian Aesthetics,” in Epic and Argument in Sanskrit Literary History:  Essays in Honor of Robert P. Goldman, ed. Sheldon Pollock (Delhi: Manohar, 2010), 147. 10. See the discussion and relevant citations in Chapter 6. 11. Language of the Gods in the World of Men, 75. According to Pollock, until that time Sanskrit had been socially bounded through “ritualization (the restriction of Sanskrit to liturgical and related scholastic practices) and monopolization (the restriction of the language community, by and large, to the ritual community)” (ibid., 12).

6 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

in the seventh century CE.12 Most definitions and descriptions of kāvya focus on the special relationship between word and meaning in such compositions. What is important in poetry is not just what one says, but how one says it. Discussions of kāvya use various classifications to map a complex literary landscape. Kāvya is often used to mean literature in a broad sense, but sometimes it is used specifically to mean literature that is read or recited but not staged. Kāvya in this narrower sense—​literature as opposed to drama—​is generally subdivided into prose, verse, and mixed forms, which are further subdivided. Verse poetry includes both the lengthy narratives with internal divisions known as “great poetry” (mahākāvya or sargabandha) and some category of shorter poetry (e.g., laghukāvya, khaṇḍakāvya, muktaka). “Great poems” like the Raghuvaṃśa and Kumārasaṃbhava of Kālidāsa have long been celebrated as exemplars of Sanskrit literature, but short poetic works also have been very popular since the early days of kāvya. As an umbrella category, kāvya includes a variety of compositions that adhere to conventional literary standards, such as the use of poetic figures, careful construction of poetic structure, and attention to both words and their meaning (such as speaking indirectly, avoiding redundancies, and so on). As one would expect (but scholarship often ignores), the capacities and resources of Sanskrit as a literary language evolved over the course of its history. As Yigal Bronner has argued persuasively, Sanskrit was not simply equipped with a natural potential for certain kinds of complex literary expression. Rather, its capacities were actively developed and cultivated by a variety of literary and hermeneutic practices, from the creation of lexicons to the composition of commentaries. Developments like the “movement of simultaneous narration” (śleṣa) that Bronner has charted represent the accumulation of linguistic and conceptual resources for Sanskrit as a literary language.13 Thus, the history of kāvya is closely tied to developments within a number of other discourses in South Asia, including grammar, prosody, etymology, lexicography, hermeneutics, and the philosophy of language. But it is the discipline of poetics and literary theory (alaṅkāraśāstra) that is most closely associated with the history and reception of kāvya. The earliest formal analysis of aesthetics anywhere in South Asia is found in Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra (c. 300 CE?), which presents a systematic theory of drama (nāṭya) and introduces many of the ideas and terms that have continued to be debated within Indian

12.  This evidence is the works of Bhāmaha and Daṇḍin. For a list of prominent definitions of kāvya, see Sigfried Lienhard, History of Classical Poetry:  Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1984), 11n30. 13.  Yigal Bronner, Extreme Poetry:  The South Asian Movement of Simultaneous Narration (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), especially 13–​16. By the second millennium of the Common Era, the aesthetic power of Sanskrit had been greatly expanded. The growing popularity of simultaneously narrating the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata that Bronner studies is one example; others include experiments with citrakāvya and transformations in the field of literary theory and criticism.

Introduction

7

aesthetics down to the present day, especially rasa (“taste”) and its related aesthetic factors. The discourse on poetics and literary theory (alaṅkāraśāstra) assimilated components of the theories of drama in the Nāṭyaśāstra several centuries later.14 This collective tradition of aesthetic discourse focused on the formal features of the work of art. For poetics, this meant the focus was primarily on classifying, defining, and illustrating individual “ornaments” of speech (alaṅkāras) as comprehensively as possible. A number of developments within Sanskrit poetics advanced by authors in Kashmir from the end of the eighth century onward had dramatic consequences on the trajectory of aesthetics in South Asia. These included a push for systemization, the incorporation of semantic theories, and a new focus on the audience’s subjective reception of a poem or play.15 One of the most influential examples of new directions in Sanskrit poetics is the ninth-​ century Dhvanyāloka16 of Ānandavardhana. Here, Ānandavardhana applies theories about the teleological analysis of texts from Vedic hermeneutics (Mīmāṃsā) to the interpretation of poetry. In particular, he argues that the key to understanding poetry is the analysis of how a unique semantic process called suggestion (dhvani) is used to communicate one overarching aesthetic taste (rasa) for a given work.17 For Ānandavardhana, poetic ornaments (alaṅkāras) are important but ultimately secondary to the emotional content of a poem. Ānandavardhana is just one of the impressive collection of authors who pursued important literary agendas in Kashmir. Some of them expanded and revised Ānandavardhana’s groundbreaking ideas, and some rejected them or went in altogether different directions. Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka (c. 90018), who criticized Ānandavardhana, brought about a lasting transformation in aesthetic discourse by shifting the focus of analysis from the characters of the play or work of

14.  Sheldon Pollock, A Rasa Reader:  Classical Indian Aesthetics (New  York:  Columbia University Press, 2016), 6–​7. 15. See Yigal Bronner, “Sanskrit Poetics,” in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (4th ed.), ed. Roland Greene and Stephen Cushman (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012), for an overview of the history of Sanskrit poetics, and pp. 1245–​1248 for the discussion of these developments in Kashmir. 16. Though this is how the text is commonly known, Daniel H. H. Ingalls has argued persuasively that its original title was most likely Sahṛdayāloka (Daniel H.  H. Ingalls et  al., trans., The Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana, with the Locana of Abhinavagupta [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990], 12–​13). 17. Lawrence McCrea, The Teleology of Poetics in Medieval Kashmir, Harvard Oriental Series 71 (Cambridge, MA: Published by the Dept. of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University; Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2008), 442. 18. Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s specific dates are uncertain; he wrote sometime between 875 and 975 CE, but most likely around 900 CE (Pollock, “What Was Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka Saying?,” 138, and Rasa Reader, 144–​145).

8 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

literature to its audience, which he emphasized as the locus or substratum of rasa. Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–​1025) synthesized insights from both Ānandavardhana and Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka, and his writings (or, in many cases, their summary in Mammaṭa’s popular Kāvyaprakāśa) became the definitive presentation of aesthetics in Kashmir. And yet Ānandavardhana, Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka, and Abhinavagupta are only the tip of the iceberg, the most prominent and visible members of an active intellectual community that evolved for centuries. Many other Kashmirian thinkers, like Kuntaka, Mahima Bhaṭṭa, and Ruyyaka, contributed original and controversial analyses that had various degrees of influence beyond their homeland. There are several ways that the definition and history of kāvya, as well the early history of alaṅkāraśāstra and its transformations in Kashmir, are central to the study of stotras in this book. To begin with, the stotra genre occupies an ambiguous place in the world of Sanskrit literature. The relationship between stotra and kāvya is far from clear, and this is due both to the shortage of scholarly work on the historical development of stotra literature and to the many conflicting and unstated views on this within Sanskrit literary culture itself. As Chapter 6 explores in detail, stotra literature overlaps with kāvya and participates in many of its central conventions, including the prevalent and varied use of poetic ornaments and careful attention to compositional structure. Yet stotras are included at the margins—​if at all—​in most mappings of Sanskrit literature. In part, this book considers what stotra literature itself has to say about its relationship to kāvya. At least in some cases, poets have much to say, and much to show, in their devotional poetry about the relationship between stotra and kāvya. Stotras are also largely absent or marginal in the history of poetics. Yet some poets in Kashmir engage directly and indirectly with ideas developed and debated by alaṅkāra theorists. Through their own metapoetic statements, many stotra authors show themselves to be concerned with central questions in poetics. They hold up certain types of poetry as praiseworthy, they offer nascent or inchoate aesthetic theories, and they present systematic knowledge from poetics in potentially pedagogical ways. None of this should be surprising, given the flexibility of the stotra form and the rich history of literary activity in Kashmir, and yet it has received hardly any notice in extant scholarship. Throughout this book, and particularly in Chapter 7, I unpack how stotra authors participate in the discourse on poetics in Kashmir in creative and sometimes surprising ways. Overall, this book argues that stotras are an important component of the literary history of Kashmir, both in terms of its poetry and its poetics. In the introduction to their volume on “innovations and turning points” in the history of kāvya, Yigal Bronner, David Shulman, and Gary Tubb propose that when we “read Sanskrit kāvya with an open mind, we see evidence of tremendous vitality and continuous change,” and this newness is central to the history of kāvya.19 The same is true for

19. “Introduction” to Innovation and Turning Points: Toward a History of Kāvya Literature, eds. Yigal Bronner, David Shulman and Gary Tubb (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014), 2.

Introduction

9

the history of stotras—​except that stotra literature has received even less critical, diachronic analysis than kāvya. What we see in Kashmir is that stotra literature is filled with self-​conscious novelty and active engagement with the traditions of Sanskrit poetry and poetics, and in fact in some cases they represent the most vital representations of those traditions in Kashmir. What is unique about stotra as kāvya is how it combines poetry and poetics with prayer.

Prayer Prayer, like stotra, is a flexible term that resists strict definition.20 One reason that it is difficult to define prayer is that the term can refer to either the text of a prayer or the performance or act of prayer, or their combination.21 What prayer means, moreover, changes based on the context of its performance and interpretation. Any definition of prayer, therefore, will be heuristic and can be articulated in broader or narrower terms. Some theologians, for example, have offered capacious (and ambiguous) characterizations of prayer, such as the claim that “prayer is spirituality.”22 Scholars often offer broad definitions and then move on from any discussion of the category itself. In the introduction to an anthology of prayer, for example, the editor glosses prayer as “an address to or celebration of

20. For a discussion of the impossibility of a cross-​cultural definition of prayer, see Simon Pulleyn, Prayer in Greek Religion (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1997), 1–​2, and also Yehuda Septimus, On the Boundaries of Talmudic Prayer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015), 1n1. I agree with Septimus that prayer is still a valuable category for heuristic and comparative purposes. For a more detailed discussion of prayer as an analytic category, see Chapter 5 in the present work. 21. Sam Gill unpacks this in his Native American Religious Action: A Performance Approach to Religion (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1987): Seen in one way, an act of prayer is clearly an intelligible communication between human beings and higher powers. It is a language act open to translation, interpretation, and analysis. But seen in another way, prayer is poetic in language and is performed as a highly complex ritual act. In this view whatever message exists in the prayer language is not nearly as important as its power to evoke a network of images related to sense experiences, moods, emotions, and values. (97; see also 147–​152) 22. This definition comes from a letter from Benedicta Ward quoted by Roy Hammerling, “Introduction: Prayer—​A Simply Complicated Scholarly Problem,” in A History of Prayer: The First to the Fifteenth Century, ed. Roy Hammerling (Boston: Brill, 2008), 2. This is not to say that such proclamations about prayer are not valuable in their own way for specific communities. Efforts to characterize activities like walking, for instance, as a type of prayer have been a common and seemingly inspiring strategy for many religious teachers.

10 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

a deity” without much further analysis.23 To match the interpretive needs of specific contexts, other scholars have focused on particular ways of thinking about prayer. Thus, for his work on Chinese Buddhist prayers of healing, Stephen Teiser proposes a performative definition of prayer as “the words accompanying the performance of ritual” and seeks to link prayers with the inculcation of virtues in different rituals.24 Yehuda Septimus also considers prayer as performance in his study of Talmudic prayers, but he focuses on prayer itself as ritual speech.25 Stephanie Clark takes a different approach in her work on petitionary prayer in Anglo-​Saxon England. She argues that to understand these prayers we have to appreciate the language of exchange that pervades them; we have to interpret such prayer, in other words, as a kind of gift economy.26 Other studies of prayer cast a wide net, recognizing various types of nonverbal prayers—​from sighs and the breath to dance movements and jazz music.27 Scholars working on the materiality of prayer have characterized it as “a particular sensory attunement emerging at the interface between the assumed everyday capacities of the body and its technological extensions and material supplementations.”28 As these examples suggest, scholarly understandings of and approaches to prayer have multiplied dramatically in recent years, and this book contributes to this growing body of scholarship.

23. Mark Kiley, “General Introduction,” in Prayer from Alexander to Constantine: A Critical Anthology, ed. Mark Kiley (New York: Routledge, 1997), 1. 24. Stephen F. Teiser, “Prayers for Healing in Chinese Buddhism” (http://​forums.ssrc.org/​ ndsp/​2013/​02/​26/​prayers-​for-​healing-​in-​chinese-​buddhism/​, accessed August 15, 2018). There are, of course, limitations to this definition, but such definitions support particular research projects. 25.  More specifically, Septimus uses speech act theory to define prayer as “any ritualized devotional communication that has God as one of its essential illocutionary targets” (On the Boundaries of Talmudic Prayer, 44). 26. Stephanie Clark, Compelling God: Prayer in Anglo-​Saxon England (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017), 3. 27. Two good studies of the materiality of prayer in the form of sighs and breath are, respectively, Naya Tsentourou, Milton and the Early Modern Culture of Devotion:  Bodies at Prayer (New  York:  Routledge, 2018), Chapter  3, and Anderson Blanton, Hittin’ the Prayer Bones: Materiality of Spirit in the Pentecostal South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015), Chapter 3. On dance as prayer, see Sarah M. Pike, “Sweating Our Prayers in Dance Church” (http://​forums.ssrc.org/​ndsp/​2014/​04/​04/​sweating-​our-​prayers-​in-​dance-​ church/​, accessed August 15, 2018); on jazz prayers, see Jason C. Bivins, “Take It to the Bridge:  Jazz Prayers” (http://​forums.ssrc.org/​ndsp/​2014/​03/​28/​take-​it-​to-​the-​bridge-​jazz-​ prayers/​, accessed August 15, 2018). 28.  Anderson Blanton, “The Materiality of Prayer:  A Curatorial Introduction” (http://​ forums.ssrc.org/​ndsp/​2013/​02/​20/​the-​materiality-​of-​prayer-​a-​curatorial-​introduction/​, accessed August 15, 2018).

Introduction

11

In the present context, my focus is on the interpretation of literary hymns of praise as prayer, and thus on the language of prayer preserved in texts. In using the term “prayer,” therefore, I am referring on a basic level to language practices that communicate directly or indirectly with some type of deity.29 However, these texts also encode perspectives on their own performance, on the efficacy of prayer, and on the connections constituted through such language-​based practices. Prayer implies a relationship between the speaker and the implied or direct addressee of prayer, and this relationship is formed through the performance of petition, praise, adoration, thanksgiving, blessing, homage, and so on.30 Such practices are central to the stotra genre, as they are to hymns in many traditions. Over the course of this book, I suggest new insights into the stotra genre by analyzing such hymns as prayer, and, at the same time, I offer additional perspectives on the category of prayer itself. There are many dimensions to prayer that make it a valuable category in the analysis of religious traditions. Prayer can be private and deeply personal, but more frequently it is public, with multiple audiences.31 Some scholars have focused on theories of “prayer-​as-​connection” in a general sense that includes prayers focused on oneself, others, and some form of the divine.32 Prayer can be an individual practice, including the practice of meditation on and visualization of a deity, but it can also be part of communal, liturgical worship that brings people together in a shared ritual practice and the articulation of a shared religious vision. Prayers can articulate individual or collective aspirations, or serve as a technology

29.  On the inclusion of a variety of “communicative practices under the heading of ‘prayer’,” see Sonja Luehrmann, “Introduction: The Senses of Prayer in Eastern Orthodox Christianity,” in Praying with the Senses:  Contemporary Orthodox Christian Spirituality in Practice, ed. Sonja Luehrmann (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018), 8. However, this edited volume includes a wider range of approaches and characterizations of prayer—​ including nonverbal forms of prayer and the intriguing idea of prayer as “remembrance”—​ than I do in this study (ibid., 9). 30. Buchta notes an example of a South Asian typology of prayer: Rūpa Gosvāmin “speaks of three types of vijñapti (prayer), each of which is a common component of stotras: petitionary prayer (saṃprārthanātmikā), the confession of humility (dainyabodhikā), and prayer filled with ardent longing (lālasāmayῑ)” (“Pedagogical Poetry,” 27). For an example of social scientific attempts “to empirically define the multidimensional characteristics of prayer,” see Kevin L. Ladd and Bernard Spilka, “Inward, Outward, and Upward: Cognitive Aspects of Prayer,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 41, no. 3 (2002): 475–​484. 31. For an example of a study of public prayer, see Tom Boylston, “Sharing Space: On the Publicity of Prayer, between an Ethiopian Village and the Rest of the World,” in Praying with the Senses:  Contemporary Orthodox Christian Spirituality in Practice, ed. Sonja Luehrmann (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018). On the idea of the “public,” and “publics,” see Christian Novetske, Religion and Public Memory: A Cultural History of Saint Namdev in India (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), especially 13–​23. 32. Ladd and Spilka, “Inward, Outward, and Upward: Cognitive Aspects of Prayer.”

12 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

of the self that cultivates virtues or otherwise changes the one who prays.33 They circulate as texts that model and instruct how one should pray (even when they are juxtaposed with injunctions to pray from the heart, unhindered by external expectations!). Particularly when it consists primarily of praise, prayer indicates key values for an individual or community: What or whom is worth praising? Why offer praise prayers to these specific addressees? Prayers are performed as speech acts, or more specifically, at least in South Asia, as song acts. In some cases, prayer plays an epistemological role, allowing for new kinds of knowledge or the confirmation of a particular understanding—​praising a deity allows for a devotee to know that deity in a distinctive way.34 Often prayer has theological implications, either by offering new historical formulations or by making unique interventions in theological debates. In some cases, including some of the stotras I discuss in this book, specific prayers can also be interpreted as meta-​prayers that self-​consciously reflect on the nature of prayer itself. There are all different types of prayer; their meanings are deeply context-​dependent, and they imply a host of different relationships between human and non-​human parties. The need for more varied and rigorous analysis of prayer is especially true for prayer in South Asia. It is significant that Jan Gonda’s study of “prayer and blessing” in the Vedic tradition has not been complemented by similar studies of these phenomena in later Indian history.35 In general, it is surprising how infrequently stotras have been analyzed in terms of prayer, at least until recently.36 But there are certainly indications that many have thought of stotras in terms of prayer already.

33.  Mohandas K.  Gandhi regularly presented prayer as aspirational, and as a key part of personal and collective discipline. In his “Speech at Prayer Meeting, Sabarmati Ashram” in January 1930, he argues that “even when [prayer] is petitional, the petition should be for the cleansing and purification of the soul, for freeing it from the layers of ignorance and darkness that envelop it” (The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi [Electronic Book], Vol. 48 [November 21, 1929–​April 2,  1930] [New Delhi:  Publications Division, Government of India, 1999], 243, http://​www.gandhiserve.org/​cwmg/​VOL048.PDF). The day before he led the Salt March to Dandi, and anticipating the arrest of the participants, Gandhi urged his followers: “Let no one commit a wrong in anger. This is my hope and prayer” (“Speech at Prayer Meeting, Sabarmati Ashram, March 11, 1930,” in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi [Electronic Book], Vol. 48, 403–​404). On prayer as a technology of the self, see Luehrmann, “Introduction,” 9. 34. For example, Gonda argues that in the Vedic context “praise is a form of truth which should always be repeated” (Jan Gonda, Vedic Literature [Wiesbaden:  Harrassowitz, 1975], 106). 35. Gonda, Prayer and Blessing: Ancient Indian Ritual Terminology (Leiden: Brill, 1989). 36.  For an example of a recent study that uses prayer in relation to stotras—​in dialogue with my own earlier work (Hamsa Stainton, “Poetry and Prayer:  Stotras in the Religious and Literary History of Kashmir” [Ph.D.  diss., Columbia University, 2013], and “Poetry as Prayer:  The Śaiva Hymns of Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa of Kashmir” [International Journal of Hindu Studies 20, no. 3 (December 2016)]:  339–​354—​see Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry,” especially  49–​52.

Introduction

13

In his important survey of stotra literature from 1977, for example, Gonda notes that “many stotras can best be characterized as prayers.”37 Daniel H. H. Ingalls, Jeffrey M. Masson, and M. V. Patwardhan translate stotra as prayer on occasion in their groundbreaking edition and translation of Ānandavardhana’s Dhvanyāloka with Abhinavagupta’s commentary.38 Moreover, characterizing stotras as prayers is far more common among South Asian authors and proponents of such hymns. V. Raghavan, the eminent twentieth-​century Sanskritist, anthologized and translated stotra verses from an ambitious collection of texts in his Prayers, Praises and Psalms.39 Publications by various Hindu organizations embrace the characterization of stotras as prayers; the Swaminarayan Aksharpith in India, for example, published audio recordings of an “ocean of hymns” called Stotra Sindhu: Sanskrit Prayers.40 Such practices suggest that scholars would benefit from paying closer and more sustained attention to stotras as prayers. The stotra is just one of many genres in which praise and prayer are central over the past two thousand years. Studying stotras as prayer reveals both the advantages and challenges of using prayer as an analytic category. As I  argue in Chapter 5, for example, at least some Kashmirian stotras challenge the lingering presumption in the study of Hinduism and other traditions that “true” prayer is spontaneous and natural, an outpouring of emotion from the heart. Without denying that there may indeed be some forms of prayer that match this description, this study of stotras shows how prayer frequently is well crafted, even dense, and attentive to complex contexts and audiences. Sophisticated poetry can also be prayer, and this invites more nuanced appreciation for the ways that poets employ language in their devotional poetry. In Kashmir, as we will see throughout this book, many stotra authors were deeply concerned with the relationship between prayer and poetry, and also poetics. Investigating these can revise not only our approach to South Asian sources but also the comparative study of prayer and devotional poetry across regions and disciplines.

37. Medieval Religious Literature in Sanskrit (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1977), 242. 38. Ingalls et al., trans., Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana, 242, 532. 39. Prayers, Praises and Psalms, trans. V. Raghavan (Madras: G.A. Natesan & Co., 1938). While the collection includes verse excerpted from a wide variety of sources, from the Upaniṣads to “classical poetry” to “the Acharyas,” Raghavan and the publisher, G. A. Natesan, both make it clear that they conceived of the volume as a collection of stotra verses. Raghavan calls it “the first, biggest and most representative collection of Sanskrit hymns” translated into English, and Natesan describes how its publication was impelled by his contemplation of the need for a “comprehensive collection of Stotras” (ibid., vi–​vii and xi–​xii). 40. Stotra Sindhu: Sanskrit Prayers (60 minutes), published by Swaminarayan Aksharpith, Ahmedabad, India. I am grateful to Kalpesh Bhatt and Hanna Kim for pointing me to this publication.

14 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

Bhakti Some of the greatest contributions to our understanding of religious history in South Asia have focused on poetry and communities that both Indian and international scholars have interpreted in terms of bhakti.41 The term bhakti, very familiar to students of religion and culture in South Asia, encompasses a rich complex of meanings, including devotion, love, sharing, participation, loyalty, and even religion itself.42 In addition, the popular and commonly repeated narrative of “the bhakti movement” remains influential among Indians and scholars of South Asia alike. This narrative links myriad vernacular poets from different regions, time periods, genders, and social classes, usually starting with Tamil poets from the middle of the first millennium CE and climaxing with several Vaiṣṇava traditions in the middle of the second millennium. Various unifying features are adduced to support this compelling story of “the bhakti movement,” including the expression of intense devotion, a general populism, and a tendency to offer social critique or suggest religious reform. But scholars have worked to challenge the coherence of this neat and idealistic narrative. Recent scholarship—​most notably John S.  Hawley’s A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement—​has made great strides in understanding the historiography of this idea, which has its own history that cannot simply be ignored.43 Hawley argues that this narrative crystallized in the 1920s and 1930s and was actively promoted as part of a project of national integration. At the same time, phenomena explained by the idea of “the bhakti movement” have existed for centuries. Hawley suggests other ways of describing this history, including the idea of a bhakti network, one in which there is indeed movement but not necessarily always the populist, progressive agitation or implicit teleology suggested by the phrase “the bhakti movement.”44 Other studies on regional traditions of poetry and performance, such as Christian Novetzke’s work on Nāmdev, have shown some of the complex relationships between personal devotion, communal identities, and the interpretation and narrativization of the past.45 Overall, the study of bhakti in vernacular contexts—​both as a phenomenon and as an

41. For a scholarly overview of trends and challenges in the study of bhakti, particularly from the perspective of vernacular traditions, see Novetzke, Religion and Public Memory,  7–​13. 42. On bhakti as “religion,” see ibid., 7–​8. 43. A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), and “The Bhakti Movement—​From Where? Since When?” IIC Occasional Paper #10 (New Delhi: India International Centre, 2009). 44. A Storm of Songs, 295–​312. 45. Religion and Public Memory.

Introduction

15

historiographical category—​has been one of the most dynamic and productive areas of scholarship on South Asian religions. The problem, however, is that the vibrancy of this subfield often colors the interpretation of bhakti in other contexts. Despite the fact that devotional poetry has been composed in Sanskrit consistently for thousands of years, its turning points and major developments are not well understood. In part, this is because discussions of vernacular bhakti have dominated academic discourse. To realize this one only needs to consider the vast quantities of Sanskrit stotras that have never been studied, translated, or even properly edited. Scholars have had good reasons to focus on vernacular expressions and explorations of bhakti, including the accessibility and popularity of vernacular poetry among modern South Asian communities. But debates about the narrative of a bhakti movement unifying the vernacular languages of South Asia often disregard the trajectory of Sanskrit expressions of and reflections on bhakti.46 Thus, in addition to critiquing the coherence and dominance of this narrative, scholars must also consider what this narrative has crowded out. Sanskrit did not simply cease to be important, even if there were important changes taking place in the second millennium. It continued to be the medium for innovation, particularly in the form of stotras. Devotional poetry and reflections on bhakti in Sanskrit developed alongside and in interaction with their vernacular counterparts, as some of the exemplary studies of Sanskrit poetry in South India make clear.47 The present work on Sanskrit stotras, therefore, contributes to a reevaluation of the history of bhakti in South Asia by bringing to light developments in the realm of Sanskrit previously underappreciated. Notably, many of the exceptions that do study bhakti poetry in Sanskrit in the second millennium focus on examples that are closely linked to vernacular practices and are themselves exceptions within Sanskrit literary culture. The Gītagovinda, for instance, enjoyed great popularity first in eastern India, where it was composed, and then throughout the subcontinent. But part of its success was because of the uniqueness of this text, based on a Sanskrit lyricism that drew from both classical Sanskrit sources and vernacular poetic traditions.48 Yet some

46. In his work on Vedāntadeśika, who self-​consciously composed poetry in multiple languages, Steven Hopkins notes that the “equation of bhakti with the vernacular alone is also an inadequate model to use in assessing the Sanskrit and Tamil devotional poetry of the later generation of Ācāryas and is perhaps partly responsible for their relative neglect in the study of South Indian bhakti literature until fairly recently” (Singing the Body of God, 40). 47. See, for example, Hopkins, Singing the Body of God, and Nayar, Poetry as Theology. 48. For the best introduction to the text, see Barbara Stoler Miller’s introduction and translation: Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva’s Gītagovinda (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977). See also Lee Siegel, Sacred and Profane Dimensions of Love in Indian Traditions as Exemplified in the Gītagovinda of Jayadeva (London: Oxford University Press, 1978) and Stella Sandahl-​Forgue, Le Gītagovinda:  Tradition et innovation dans le kāvya, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis: Stockholm Oriental Studies 11 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1977).

16 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

prominent scholars have treated this text as representative of developments with Sanskrit poetry as a whole rather than as an exceptional text that stands out in large part because of the lack of previous works with the same style.49 Much of the extant scholarship on the Sanskrit discourse around bhakti takes as its starting point the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition centered on the incarnate god Kṛṣṇa and the region of his youth, Braj. In the sixteenth century, the religious teacher and reformer Caitanya invigorated the worship of Kṛṣṇa in eastern and northern India, and Braj in particular. The tradition he founded combined Sanskrit and vernacular literary traditions and was developed by his followers, chiefly the Gosvāmins. The texts they produced radically revised and reoriented theories about bhakti and aesthetic experience developed in Sanskrit over many centuries. The religious and aesthetic contours of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava world have received ample attention by contemporary scholars, and many students of South Asian religions and aesthetics have some familiarity with this tradition.50 But the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava vision of religious aesthetics is not the only such vision in South Asia, as I explore in Chapter 7. Poets and scholars in Kashmir composed texts that embodied or suggested their own interpretations of the relationship between poetry and religious experience. Central to these alternative visions, and key to a revitalized response to many of the challenges I have outlined here, are the compositions at the heart of this project: Sanskrit stotras. The Sanskrit stotra is the genre closest to the vernacular poetry at the heart of the narrative of “the bhakti movement,” not just in its content but also in its popularity and ubiquity in India. Stotras are arguably the most widespread and popular form of Sanskrit devotionalism. Yet scholarship on bhakti traditions largely ignores the history of Sanskrit devotional hymns by following the biases inherent in “the bhakti movement” narrative itself: namely, that Sanskrit represents what the vernacular traditions were revolting against—​dry scholasticism and rigid authority. Bringing stotras into this analysis directly challenges these historiographical assumptions and raises new questions for the study of bhakti across regions and periods.

49. See Lawrence McCrea’s critique of Edwin Gerow’s interpretation of the text in this way in Teleology of Poetics, 11–​19. The Gītagovinda did, however, influence many subsequent authors. For a discussion of how Rūpa Gosvāmin’s style was modeled on Jayadeva, for example, see Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry,” 211–​233. 50. See, for instance: V. Raghavan, The Number of Rasas (Adyar: The Adyar Library, 1940); David L. Haberman, Acting as a Way of Salvation:  A Study of Rāgānugā Bhakti Sādhana (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988); Barbara A. Holdrege, Bhakti and Embodiment: Fashioning Divine Bodies and Devotional Bodies in Kṛṣṇa Bhakti (New York: Routledge, 2015); and David Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry,” and “Evoking Rasa through Stotra: Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Līlāmṛta, A  List of Kṛṣṇa’s Names,” International Journal of Hindu Studies 20, no. 3 (December 2016): 355–​371.

Introduction

17

Bhakti recurs as a theme throughout this book. As we will see, Kashmirian poets express and reflect on bhakti in related but also unique ways. Paying careful attention to the roles bhakti plays within the stotra genre as well as in its interpretation yields new ways of appreciating the quantity and quality of Sanskrit engagements with bhakti, particularly in relation to aesthetics and non-​dual theology in Kashmir.

Kashmir Kashmir boasts a dynamic religious and literary history that makes it an ideal case study for an investigation of the development, popularity, and interpretation of stotras in North India.51 Kashmir has had a relatively strong regional identity since at least the middle of the first millennium CE, partly due, no doubt, to the topographical distinctness of the Vale of Kashmir nestled high in the Himalaya mountains. This regional identity can be seen in the Kashmirian Nīlamatapurāṇa, for example, which tells of the mythical origins of Kashmir, and later in the Rājataraṅgiṇī of Kalhaṇa and its continuations by Jonarāja, Śrīvara, and so on.52 This long and continuous regional awareness contributed to the cohesiveness of its long literary history. Kashmir has a remarkable history of literary production and transmission across intellectual and religious fields, justifying its frequent designation as the abode of Śāradā, the goddess of learning.53 Between the ninth and twelfth centuries it was arguably the most vibrant hub of Sanskrit literary production in South Asia, and it continued to be the site of new production even after this heyday. Sophisticated and innovative works of literature, philosophy, aesthetic theory, Tantric theology, and ritual theory produced during this period circulated far beyond the Kashmir valley. While important philosophical works like Jayanta

51. The definitive work on the pre-​Islamic religious history of Kashmir, as well as the Sanskrit-​ based religious activity during Islamic rule, has been done by Alexis Sanderson over the last three decades. See, in particular, “The Śaiva Exegesis of Kashmir,” in Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner, ed. Dominic Goodall and André Padoux (Pondicherry: Institut français d’Indologie /​École française d’Extrême-​Orient, 2007), and “Kashmir,” in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume One:  Regions, Pilgrimage, Deities, ed. Knut A. Jacobsen (Leiden: Brill, 2009). 52. See Walter Slaje, Medieval Kashmir and the Science of History (Austin: South Asia Institute, University of Texas at Austin, 2006), Walter Slaje, ed. and trans., Kingship in Kaśmīr (AD 1148–​1459):  From the Pen of Jonarāja, Court Paṇḍit to Sulṭān Zayn al-​‛Ābidīn (Halle an der Saale: Universitätsverlag Halle-​Wittenberg, 2014), and Luther James Obrock, “Translation and History:  The Development of a Kashmiri Textual Tradition from ca. 1000–​ 1500” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2015). 53. The transmission of manuscripts in Kashmir, like in Nepal, has been facilitated by weather conditions more conducive to preservation than other parts of India.

18 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

Bhaṭṭa’s Nyāyamañjarī and literary compositions like Ratnākara’s Haravijaya were composed by Kashmirian authors, it is Indian aesthetics that has been most influenced by theories developed in Kashmir, most notably theories on suggestion (dhvani), aesthetic taste (rasa), and the aesthetic process overall. Many Kashmirian works circulated widely and garnered admirers and critics far beyond the snowy peaks of the Kashmir region. When we consider these developments as a whole, we can see that Kashmir was the home to what can be called, to use Randall Collins’s terminology, a “structural crunch” in multiple fields over several centuries; that is, it had the conditions of competition and compounding creativity that lead to exceptional intellectual production.54 The religious history of Kashmir is particularly rich and complex. Those less familiar with the region may associate it primarily with Śaivism and then Islam, but Kashmir was also an important site of Buddhism, brahmanical Smārtism, the worship of the sun-​god, and Vaiṣṇavism, in addition to an astonishing diversity of Śaiva and Śākta-​Śaiva traditions.55 The earliest firm evidence for religion in Kashmir is Buddhist. The Sarvāstivādin Buddhist tradition was present by the first centuries of the Common Era,56 and Kashmir was linked closely with Buddhist strongholds to the west.57 Brahmanical traditions were well established by the middle of the first millennium and may go back much further. The worship of the sun-​god, seen most dramatically in the great Mārtaṇḍa temple at modern-​ day Maṭan, flourished for a time before fading and becoming assimilated into later Śaiva traditions.58 For centuries it was actually Vaiṣṇavism that was the dominant religion among the elites of Kashmir, particularly during the rule of the Kārkoṭa kings (c. 626–​855), which was also a period of great power and prosperity for the region.59 There was a Vaiṣṇava orientation to the brahmanical tradition in

54. As Collins describes it, “the structural crunch is a pattern of both network density and creativity driven by conflict” (The Sociology of Philosophies:  A Global Theory of Intellectual Change [Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998], 76). 55.  Many Kashmirian sources directly or indirectly acknowledge the vibrant diversity of Kashmir’s religious culture. See, for instance, the satirical play by Jayanta Bhaṭṭa, Āgamaḍambara (Much Ado About Religion, trans. Csaba Dezső [New  York:  New  York University Press, 2005]). 56. Sanderson, “Kashmir,” 101–​102. 57. Ibid., 102. 58.  Alexis Sanderson, “The Śaiva Age:  The Rise and Dominance of Śaivism During the Early Medieval Period,” in Genesis and Development of Tantrism, ed. Shingo Einoo, Institute of Oriental Culture Special Series, 23 (Tokyo:  Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, 2009), 57; Bettina Bäumer, “Sūrya in a Śaiva Perspective:  the Sāmbapañcāśikā, A Mystical Hymn of Kashmir and Its Commentary by Kṣemarāja,” in Sahṛdaya: Studies in Indian and South East Asian Art in Honour of Dr. R. Nagaswamy, eds. Bettina Bäumer et al. (Chennai: Tamil Arts Academy, 2006), 2. 59. Sanderson, “Kashmir,” 107–​109.

Introduction

19

Kashmir, as well as the program of calendric rites and festivals, until they were later reframed with a Śaiva orientation.60 Nevertheless, while the Vaiṣṇavism in Kashmir was vibrant and influential,61 the Śaivism that came to dominate between the ninth and fourteenth centuries was even more so. Scholars have made great strides in understanding the tangled history of Śaivism in Kashmir, and in North India in general, in recent decades. This is due, most notably, to the scholarship of Alexis Sanderson and several of his colleagues and former students, and this progress is compounding. This is not the place to attempt a summary of such a vast and complex body of scholarship, but some of the broad trends in this history provide important background information for the chapters that follow. Most scholarship on Kashmir has focused on the period between the ninth and the twelfth centuries, certainly the most creative period of Kashmirian Śaiva literature. This is not to say that Śaiva traditions did not flourish in Kashmir before this period; the Haravijaya of Ratnākara, composed in the first part of the ninth century, demonstrates knowledge of multiple Śaiva and Śākta-​Śaiva traditions. Śaiva Siddhānta, in particular, seems to have been well established by this time, for Ratnākara echoes several of its scriptures as well as some of its early exegetes.62 But in the ninth century we see evidence for numerous innovations in both scriptural and post-​scriptural Śaivism. Non-​dualistic Śaivism developed in Kashmir in the ninth century, as did the Śaiva-​Śākta Krama tradition propagated by Jñānanetra. The Netratantra, a Kashmirian Śaiva scripture teaching the popular worship of Amṛteśvara, was likely produced during this period as well.63 During the latter half of the ninth century, Śaiva-​Śākta texts like the Śivasūtra and the Spandakārikā presented “a non-​dualistic metaphysics and gnostic soteriology in opposition to the dualistic and ritualistic exegesis of the Śaiddhāntika Śaiva scriptures.”64 Distinct to this trend, particularly in its early phase, was the view that these teachings came not from Śiva directly but from certain enlightened beings, usually called siddhas.65

60. Ibid., 19. 61. As Sanderson notes, there were at least two different forms of Pāñcarātra Vaiṣṇavism in Kashmir, and these influenced Vaiṣṇava developments outside of Kashmir (ibid., 14–​17). 62. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 425. 63.  Sanderson, “Kashmir,” 119; also Alexis Sanderson, “Religion and the State:  Śaiva Officiants in the Territory of the Brahmanical Royal Chaplain” [with an appendix on the provenance and date of the Netratantra], Indo-​Iranian Journal 47.3–​4 (2004): 273 ff. 64. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 426. 65. As Sanderson points out, “it is not without good reason, then, that the historian Kalhaṇa speaks of the reign of Avantivarman (c. 855/​6-​883) as one that was marked by the descent of Siddhas among men for the benefit of the world” (ibid., 427).

20 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

The tenth and eleventh centuries were a time of remarkable exegetical activity in various Śaiva traditions. The tenth century was the heyday of Kashmirian Saiddhāntika exegesis,66 and some of the most famous non-​Saiddhāntika theologians and exegetes wrote extensively during the time. Somānanda (fl. c. 900–​ 950), a Kashmirian Śaiva-​Śākta tāntrika, “not only founded the highly influential Pratyabhijñā school, the philosophical tradition most commonly associated with ‘Kashmiri Shaivism,’ but he was also a pioneer of the post-​scriptural Trika,” a goddess-​centered Śaiva tradition that was established in Kashmir by the beginning of the ninth century.67 Somānanda’s disciple Utpaladeva became even more well known for his rigorous exposition of the Pratyabhijñā tradition. The latter’s grand-​ disciple, Abhinavagupta, became one of the greatest polymaths in India’s history for his brilliant exegesis in multiple fields, including Tantric ritual and theology, Pratyabhijñā philosophy, and aesthetics. His monumental Tantrāloka stands as one of the most ambitious and far-​reaching works on Śaivism, looking back on several centuries of scriptural and exegetical composition and synthesizing these in a new, complex vision of Śaiva-​Śākta non-​dualism. Abhinavagupta’s disciple Kṣemarāja continued and developed his teacher’s non-​dualistic exegesis, extending this vision to encompass a range of other texts and genres in Kashmir, from the central scriptures of the popular cults of Svacchandabhairava and Amṛteśvara to several devotional hymns. Jayaratha, a scholar at the court of Kashmir in the first part of the thirteenth century, wrote a learned commentary on the Tantrāloka, although even by that time some of the sources used by Abhinavagupta were no longer available. Most scholarship on Śaivism in Kashmir has gravitated toward these seminal figures, particularly Abhinavagupta. There is certainly merit in this, for the brilliant vision of these authors has survived down to present times in Kashmir, even if the ritual systems that undergirded it did not.68 But Śaivism during this remarkable period was vibrant and complex, and scholars continue to bring this diversity into focus. Śaivism in Kashmir continued to evolve in the second millennium. After the thirteenth century, this often meant contraction and revision in the face of major demographic changes—​in particular the large-​scale adoption of Islam—​but there were also areas of expansion and innovation. Śaiva Siddhānta declined precipitously, probably (like Buddhism) because of a decline in patronage to its public institutions that formed the core of its religious life.69 The Śaiva-​Śākta traditions of

66. Ibid. 67.  John Nemec, The Ubiquitous Śiva:  Somānanda’s Śivadṛṣṭi and His Tantric Interlocutors (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 2; one of the most accessible accounts of the Trika is found in Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 370–​381. 68. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 433–​434. 69. Sanderson, “Kashmir,” 100.

Introduction

21

the Trika and Krama, along with the philosophical Pratyabhijñā school, eventually came to survive primarily “as textual resources of exegetical and spiritual inspiration” rather than as living systems of ritual worship.70 But another Śaiva-​Śākta tradition, focused on the goddess Tripurasundarī, was introduced into Kashmir in the eleventh century and came to dominate the Śākta-​oriented Śaivism of the valley down to modern times. In part this was due to the community of immigrants to Kashmir from northern Bihar who brought their own tradition of East Indian Śāktism, including the seventeenth-​century Sāhib Kaul, whose work is highlighted in several chapters of this book. But this development is only one among many interesting features of the trajectory of Śaivism in Kashmir after the thirteenth century, and new scholarship continues to reshape our interpretations of religion in this region. Stotras were composed, recited, and transmitted throughout the complex religious and literary history of Kashmir I  have sketched here. This is true not just for the peak period of Sanskrit literary production in the region—​namely, the ninth to the twelfth century—​but also for the centuries of change and general contraction that followed. Based simply on folio count, stotras may seem less important than other kinds of texts produced in Kashmir, from Śaiva scriptures to philosophical treatises to mahākāvyas. Yet when we look at the long history of religious life and literary activity in Kashmir, stotras stand out for their popularity, creativity, and adaptability throughout the changing circumstances of those who came to be known as “the Kashmiri Pandits.” In fact, the brevity of many stotras has contributed to their success: they are more easily read, recited, studied, copied, and disseminated than longer texts, and as poetry they are specifically designed to say less while doing more. Throughout Kashmir’s history, stotras’ economy of words brings together complex theology, devotional practice, communal identity, and aesthetic theory. They were recited publicly in temples and included in manuals for personal study and devotional worship. Some were styled on sophisticated court poetry while others transmitted esoteric and ecstatic Tantric teachings. Some of the earliest extant commentaries on stotras were composed in Kashmir, and some of the region’s most well-​known authors—​including Ānandavardhana and Abhinavagupta—​composed their own praise-​poetry. Most strikingly, many Kashmirian authors reflect on the stotra genre itself, pondering its potential and limitations, and some sought to dramatically expand its scope and stature. Stotras have had a vital place in the history of religion and literature in Kashmir, and in modern times, devotional and poetic hymns have been important for Kashmirian Hindus seeking to engage with the voluminous and complex tradition of Sanskrit religious literature in Kashmir, as I argue in Chapter 8.

70. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 433.

22 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

Given the popularity of stotras throughout South Asia and the ambitious creativity of many stotras from Kashmir, it is surprising that they have not received more sustained scholarly attention. There have been some studies and translations of a few of the most well-​known hymns from the region.71 In a limited number of cases, scholars have published critical or semi-​critical editions.72 More editions have been published both in India and internationally with less reliable editing practices. A  number of translations and studies have been published in Hindi and other Indian languages, but the quality varies considerably among these.73 Notably, several Indians scholars have published valuable works in Hindi and English on the Stutikusumāñjali (SKA), in stark contrast to the dearth of scholarship outside of India on this important text.74 Overall, despite the many strengths of the extant translations and short studies of stotras in Kashmir, they generally

71. Constantina Rhodes Bailly’s Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir: A Translation and Study of Utpaladeva’s Shivastotravali (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1987) introduces and translates the collected devotional poetry of Utpaladeva. The second half of Bettina Bäumer’s Abhinavagupta: Wege Ins Licht, Texte des tantrischen Śivaismus aus Kaschmir (Zurich: Benziger, 1992) translates and discusses Abhinavagupta’s stotras in German, and her relevant articles in English include “Sūrya in a Śaiva Perspective” and “Abhinavagupta’s Anuttarāṣṭikā” in The Variegated Plumage:  Encounters with Indian Philosophy (A Commemoration Volume in Honour of Pandit Jankinath Kaul “Kamal”), ed. N. B. Patil and Mrinal Kaul “Martand” (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2007). Jürgen Hanneder published an article on the long seventeenth- century poem by Sāhib Kaul: “Sāhib Kaul’s Presentation of Pratyabhijñā Philosophy in his Devīnāmavilāsa,” in Le parole e i marmi: Studi in onore di Raniero Gnoli nel suo 70°, Serie Orientale Roma 92.1–2 (Rome: Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, 2001). Lilian Silburn published several French translations of stotras from Kashmir:  Hymnes de Abhinavagupta (Paris, Institut de civilisation de l’Université de Paris: E. De Broccard, 1970); La Bhakti: Le Stavacintāmaṇi de Bhaṭṭanārāyaṇa (Paris: Boccard, 1964); and Hymnes aux Kālī: La Roue des Energies Divines (Paris: Institut de Civilisation Indienne, 1975). André Padoux discusses and translates the Sāmbapañcāśikā in French as well: “Sāmbapañcāśikā, Les cinquante strophes de Sāmba [à la gloire du soleil]” in Le parole e i marmi: studi in onore di Raniero Gnoli nel suo 70 compleanno, ed. Raffaele Torella (Rome: Instituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, 2001). 72. Bailly used a number of manuscripts in Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir; for a fully transparent critical edition, see J. Hanneder, S. Jager, and A. Sanderson, eds. and trans., Ratnakaṇṭhas Stotras:  Sūryastutirahasya, Ratnaśataka und Śambhukṛpāmanoharastava, Indologica Marpurgensia 5 (München:  Kirchheim Verlag, 2013). Hanneder has also prepared an edition of Sāhib Kaul’s short poetry; it has not yet been published, but he generously shared a draft with me. 73. Some of the best work has been done by Navjivan Rastogi, such as his Kāśmīra kī Śaiva Saṃskṛti meṃ Kula aur Krama-​mata: Kula-​Prakriyā evaṃ Tantra-​Prakriyā ke Pariprekṣya meṃ (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2011). 74. For Indian scholarship on the SKA, see: Ācārya Paṇḍit Śrīmahāvīraprasādajī Dvivedī, “Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa ki Stutikusumāñjali,” in Kalyāṇ (Śivāṅka) (Gorakhpur, India: Gita Press, 1933): 317–​325; B. N. Bhatt, “The Position of ‘Stutikusumanjali’ in Sanskrit Stotra Literature,” in Oriental Institute Journal (Baroda) 21, no. 4 (June 1972): 318–​323; and Vidyārāṇī Agravāla, Stutikusumāñjali kā Dārśanika evaṃ Kāvyaśāstrīya Anuśīlana (Bodhagayā:  Kañcana Publications, 1982).

Introduction

23

focus on a single text or author from a limited period of time, namely the tenth and eleventh centuries, using well-​known published sources. The major exception to this scholarly pattern is the work of Alexis Sanderson. It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of his work for the study of Śaivism and the history religion in Kashmir. His work on stotras, while secondary to his overall historical project, offers vital insight into the diverse and evolving role of stotras in the religious and literary history of Kashmir. Sanderson has shown that such hymns played a far greater role in this history than previously understood. The evidence he has gathered suggests, for instance, that stotras were important in the transmission of teachings in the esoteric Śaiva-​Śākta tradition known as the Krama, and specifically the Krama’s meditative worship.75 Sanderson draws extensively on unpublished manuscript materials and thus brings previously unknown or underappreciated sources into play. His careful work on the relationship between texts and lineages has laid the groundwork for further research on religious practice and literature in Kashmir, including the research in this book. The history of stotras as a whole is complex and daunting, and this has deterred many scholars from tackling it. Focusing on stotras in Kashmir allows for a diachronic, in-​depth investigation of a core set of stotras within a coherent intellectual and religious context. At the same time, Sanskrit works produced in Kashmir were influential and popular far beyond the Kashmir valley. The present work builds upon Sanderson’s historical analysis of the complex relationships between various texts and traditions, as well as the translations and studies scholars have done of select hymns, to investigate the nature, history, and broader implications of stotras in Kashmir. One of my central arguments throughout this book is that through a sustained inquiry into the history of stotras in Kashmir we can analyze the recurring themes, striking innovations, and enduring appeal that make this genre and its history illuminating for the study of religious traditions, not just in Kashmir but throughout South Asia and beyond.

Chapter Overview This book is organized thematically, though in each chapter texts are generally discussed in chronological order and there is some historical progression from one chapter to another. It uses stotras from Kashmir as case studies for reflecting on the stotra genre from a variety of angles. Chapter 2 offers a much-​needed overview and analysis of the stotra genre. This analysis is threefold. I begin by considering some recent descriptions of the stotra genre and offering my own working definition. Next I discuss how stotras have been classified, and in doing so I introduce the most salient and recurring features of stotra literature overall. Finally, I review

75. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 262–​263.

24 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

the history of stotra literature in South Asia, highlighting key texts and periods of development. While far from complete, this overview makes it possible both to appreciate key features of this genre and its history, and to identify the strengths and limitations of current scholarship. The third chapter presents an overview of the history and study of stotras in Kashmir. In roughly chronological order it introduces the central texts discussed and referred to throughout this book. It highlights three distinctive themes that emerge from a long view of stotras in Kashmir. The first is the relationship between theology and literature, and specifically how many Kashmirian authors address theological issues, such as the nature of non-​dualistic prayer and devotion, in their hymns. Second, Kashmirian stotras frequently express concern with complex audiences, both human and divine. This chapter draws attention to different ways that stotra authors engage multiple audiences. Finally, I note how the trajectory of this genre is markedly different from that of other genres in Kashmir. When we consider the long trajectory of literary hymns in Kashmir, from the eighth century to the present, we can appreciate the stotra’s appeal and popularity as a flexible genre for expressing and reinventing religious traditions. Chapter  4 delves into the complexity of poetry as theology. Focused largely on the most influential period of theological composition in Kashmir, from the ninth century to the twelfth, this chapter reevaluates poetry by some of the most well-​known authors from the region, including Utpaladeva, Abhinavagupta, and Kṣemarāja. It charts a variety of ways that Sanskrit hymns can do theological work, and specifically how the poetic features of many hymns help to constitute their theological content. In this chapter I also argue for the pedagogical potential of some hymns and argue that they do not simply present theology in their poetry; they also reflect on the stotra genre and explore multiple iterations of a theology of poetry. In Chapter 5, I turn to the core issue of the book: how the poetry of Kashmirian stotras functions as prayer. I begin by evaluating the pitfalls and potential of prayer as a category of analysis in the study of South Asian religions. Then, using an important and previously unstudied text from fourteenth-​ century Kashmir (Jagaddhara’s SKA) as a case study, I analyze the various types of prayer sheltered under the umbrella of the stotra genre. Finally, I argue for the value of two creative ways of interpreting poetic prayer, the first based on how Jagaddhara dramatizes Śiva’s interactions with Sarasvatī as the beautifully embodied form of praise-​poetry and the second by analyzing poetic prayer as a type of verbal prasāda, an offering made to the deity and then enjoyed by a community of devotees. Chapter 6 considers the status of stotras as literature in Kashmir, as well as the complicated and often ambiguous status of stotras within Sanskrit literary culture more broadly. It analyzes Jagaddhara’s SKA as an historically significant example of how devotional poets sought to promote the status of stotras in the world of Sanskrit literature. Jagaddhara reaffirms the value of classical Sanskrit poetry

Introduction

25

and poetic theory even as he re-​envisions this literary world as being justified and revitalized by devotional praise of Śiva. I argue that in the fourteenth century Jagaddhara sought to elevate the stotra genre and use this flexible form to revitalize Sanskrit literature and poetics during a critical period of transition in Kashmir. In the seventh chapter, we turn from stotras as literature to stotras and literary theory. While poetic theorists in Kashmir had little to say about devotional stotras, the authors of such hymns frequently adopted language and ideas from aesthetics in unusual and creative ways. Stotra authors were particularly drawn to the language of rasa, which can be glossed most simply as “taste” but came to have the technical meaning of an aestheticized emotion. Theories about rasa developed in Kashmir came to dominate subsequent debates about literature and theater across the subcontinent up to the present day, and the canonical list of rasas accepted by the majority of theorists in Kashmir contained nine rasas. Even though devotion (bhakti) did not make this list, when some stotra authors incorporated terminology and ideas from aesthetics into their poetry they gravitate toward the language of devotion, suggesting that perhaps they viewed the devotional rasa as central to stotra literature. The majority of scholarship today on bhaktirasa centers on Vaiṣṇava reflections on rasa theory and theology. Scholars have good reasons to study these developments, but the evidence from Kashmir suggests that there are earlier reflections on the aesthetic dimensions of devotion that can contribute to our understanding of the relationship between religion and aesthetics in South Asia. Part of the enduring appeal of the stotra form has been the way that it has allowed for creative negotiations with Kashmir’s literary and religious pasts by specific communities. Chapter 8 analyzes stotras in the seventeenth and twentieth centuries to explore how hymns have functioned as tradition; that is, tradition as a process in which a set of practices and texts consciously preserve, reiterate, and honor patterns established in the past even as they are reformulated in the present. After weighing the benefits and challenges of using “tradition” as a way of analyzing these phenomena, the chapter focuses on the seventeenth-​century compositions of Sāhib Kaul, a twentieth-​century hymnal used by the devotees of Swami Lakshman Joo, and the relationship between stotras and the tradition that has come to be called “Kashmir Śaivism.” Overall, the chapter investigates prominent examples of how stotras are used to establish links with the past even as they embody and facilitate change and adaptation, and they exemplify the need to study tradition as more than simply unchanging or invented. In the concluding chapter, I summarize the primary questions, insights, and arguments of this study. I bring these together to reiterate the overall thrust of the book, namely the value of analyzing stotras in terms of their unique combinations of poetry and prayer. The implications of this study are broad, and I spell these out in the conclusion while also identifying new avenues for exploration. This book could be twice as long and it still would not plumb the depths of Sanskrit stotra literature in Kashmir, let alone the rest of South Asia. Yet it offers

26 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

a starting point for future work on stotras and brings to first or new light a corpus of literary hymns that show the remarkable vitality of religious and literary expression in Kashmir. Most of all, it explores the power and appeal, across the centuries, of poetry as prayer. It is only fitting that I invite you to explore these themes and read the remainder of this book on devotional poetry from Kashmir by quoting a verse by Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa, an author who looms large in the pages ahead: May the words of the best of poets give you contentment like sleep at the end of the night, like the state of childhood, like the trembling beauty of a new bride’s glance, like the heavenly Ganges, like speaking of Śiva.76

76.  niśāntanidreva daśeva śaiśavī navīnavadhvāś cakiteva dṛkchaṭā /​ surasravantīva katheva śāmbhavī kavīndravāṅ nirvṛtim ātanotu vaḥ //​ SKA 7.1 //​

2

Stotra Literature An Overview 1

The eminent Sanskrit scholar V. Raghavan called the stotra “the most prolific and popular among the branches of Sanskrit literature.”2 While the relationship between stotras and Sanskrit literature as a whole has often been unclear or heavily context-​dependent, the popularity of the genre is readily apparent. Collections of Sanskrit hymns continue to be published today, and even more stotras are published in small booklets designed for ritual, devotional, and liturgical purposes.3 Moreover, these published stotras are far outnumbered by those that survive in manuscript archives throughout South Asia. The multivolume catalogue of manuscripts in the library of the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi, for instance, includes an entire volume in four parts, each an independent book of several hundred pages, devoted to stotra manuscripts.4 This is no anomaly; manuscript libraries of all sizes often have a high percentage of stotra manuscripts. The same is true for collections that have ended up abroad, like the Chandra Shum

1. Parts of this chapter are adapted from the following: Hamsa Stainton, “Stotras, Sanskrit Hymns” in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume Two: Sacred Texts, Ritual Traditions, Arts, Concepts, ed. Knut A. Jacobsen et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 193–​207. I thank Brill for permission to reproduce this material. 2.  Stotrasamuccaya:  A Collection of Rare and Unpublished Stotras [I], ed. K. P. Aithal (Madras: Adyar Library and Research Center, 1969), x; also cited in Yigal Bronner, “Singing to God, Educating the People: Appayya Dīkṣita and the Function of Stotras,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 127, no. 2 (2007): 114. 3.  K. P. Aithal, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit and Other Indian Manuscripts of the Chandra Shum Shere Collection in the Bodleian Library, Part  3:  Stotras (Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1999), ix. 4.  A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts Acquired for and Deposited in the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University (Sarasvatῑ-​Bhavana) Library Varanasi During the Years 1951–​1981, Vol. 5, parts 1–​4 (Varanasi: Sampurnanand Sanskrit University Library, 1996).

28 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

Shere collection in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, whose catalogue includes an entire volume dedicated to stotras.5 The textual record, therefore, suggests that the stotra has long been a vibrant, widespread genre. Yet what exactly is a stotra? The volume and diversity of stotra literature makes this simple question surprisingly complicated. Examining the extant corpus of stotras, it is not immediately clear what makes this genre distinct and cohesive, both for communities that have produced, transmitted, and consumed this literature and for scholars seeking to interpret them within analytic frameworks. Moreover, when one turns to the history of stotra literature, the situation becomes even more complicated, for stotras have been so deeply embedded across regions and traditions that an exhaustive history of stotras would necessitate a comprehensive history of religion and literary culture in South Asia and beyond. Despite and because of these challenges, in this chapter I  offer my own working definition of a stotra, introduce the most salient and recurring features of this literature, and survey its history in South Asia. I do not argue for a universal or exclusive definition, and this survey and history is far from exhaustive. But a direct engagement with these issues lays critical groundwork and yields new insights for the study of specific stotras and traditions.

What Is a Stotra? Much scholarship on stotras discusses such compositions as if there were a well-​defined genre of religious poetry to which they belong. Upon closer consideration, however, it is difficult to identify what exactly it is that defines a stotra. The synonyms stotra, stuti, and stava6 are all nouns derived from the Sanskrit root √stu: “to praise, to eulogize,” and also, more specifically, “to celebrate in song, to hymn.” Common translations include “hymns of praise,” “praise-​poems,” “devotional hymns,” “prayers,” “devotional lyric poems,” and “hymns of adoration.”7 Jan Gonda gives one of the most detailed discussions of stotras available, yet never offers a definition of a stotra.8 Gudrun Bühnemann suggests that “the majority of stotras which are included in popular collections and are recited today are hymns

5. Aithal, Descriptive Catalogue. 6.  For a discussion of one attempt to differentiate stotra and stuti, see David Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry: Didactics and Devotion in Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Stavamālā” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2014), 28–​29. 7.  For some weaknesses of “hymn of praise” as a standard translation, see Gudrun Bühnemann, “Some Remarks on the Structure and Application of Hindu Sanskrit Stotras,” Wiener Zeitschrift Für Die Kunde Südasiens 28 (1984): 76 ff. 8. Jan Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature in Sanskrit. A History of Indian Literature, Vol. II, fasc. 1 (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1977), 232–​270.



Overview of Stotra Literature

29

that praise a personal deity and promise material benefits to the reciter.”9 Yigal Bronner offers another useful generalization: We can say that stotras are relatively short works in verse, whose stanzas directly and repeatedly address a divinity in the vocative case. Furthermore, stotras are typically not divided into chapters or sections and tend to consist of a round or auspicious number of verses (e.g., 8, 16, 50, 100).10 This basic characterization holds true for the majority of stotras, yet there are still many exceptions. For example, some stotras do not use the vocative case at all, consisting solely of third-​person benedictions (āśīs) or declarations of homage (namas) to a particular deity, including lengthy lists of a deity’s names in the nominative case. There is also a small minority of stotras in prose (which Bronner notes as well).11 At the core of all stotras, however, is the act of praise itself. Through this praise, every stotra has some explicit or implicit orientation, a direction in which its exaltation is directed, and thus stotras can be described as vectorial.12 In addition, this praise is seen as efficacious for the one who recites a given hymn of praise. As a simple working definition, therefore, we can say that stotras are usually short, vectorial poems, almost always in verse, that directly and indirectly praise and appeal to a deity (or some other religious addressee) and are considered efficacious in obtaining religious or material benefits when recited or sung. They are often devotional and personal (frequently using first-​and second-​person pronouns), but not necessarily so. It is worth emphasizing, however, that there is no strict delineation of what counts as a stotra or not, either in traditional Sanskrit scholarship or in contemporary writings by religious practitioners and scholars alike. There is also a good deal of overlap between stotras and other genres of literature, such as māhātmyas (usually “glorifications” of religious sites) and gītās (lyrical or didactic “songs”).13 Unlike these texts, however, stotras generally do not include a sustained narrative 9.  Budha-​Kauśika’s “Rāmarakṣāstotra”:  A Contribution to the Study of Sanskrit Devotional Poetry (Vienna: Indologisches Institut der Universität Wien, 1983), 9. 10. Bronner, “Singing to God, Educating the People,” 114. 11. Ibid., 2n7; see also Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 250 and 257, and Bühnemann, Budha-​Kauśika’s “Rāmarakṣāstotra,” 13. 12. In describing stotras as “vectorial,” I am thinking primarily of vectors in mathematics, which are quantities with both magnitude and direction. Stotras always have a content that has some external orientation and directional movement. But critically, as we will see throughout this book, stotras do not have one trajectory, one direction. To think about stotras as moving in multiple directions, establishing multiple relationships, it might be helpful to think about vectors in biology, where vectors are carriers of pathogenic agents and are potential sources of infection. 13. Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 271–​286.

30 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

or dialogues between characters, focusing instead on directly or indirectly addressing their object of praise. Despite some ambiguity around the edges, the stotra genre has been a loose but recognizable category in South Asia for centuries. A wide range of compositions are found under the umbrella of the stotra form, and these can be identified and classified according to their features, albeit imperfectly.

Classifying Stotras The complexity and variety of stotra literature make any definition of a stotra, including the one I have offered above, a limited and messy endeavor. The same is true for classifications of this corpus. Here I will simply consider some of the factors that can and have been used to differentiate and analyze this extensive and varied literature. In doing so, I survey many of the conventions and subtypes of these hymns.14 Let us begin with the classification of stotra texts as material objects that demand some sort of organization to have any utility. Most manuscript archives and catalogues organize their stotra collections according to the addressees praised in individual hymns, and published stotra anthologies generally follow this pattern.15 There are several consistent exceptions within this trend, however. Most notably, stotras attributed to Śaṅkara, the famous Advaita Vedāntin, are usually placed in a separate section, even when those hymns praise deities that have their own sections. Nevertheless, the basic convention is to group stotras according to the deity they celebrate and extoll. Not surprisingly, the largest number of stotras are dedicated to some form of Śiva, Viṣṇu, and the goddess (Bhairava, Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, Lakṣmī, Kālī, Lalitā, Ardhanārīśvara, etc.). Stotras to Gaṇeśa are well represented, and they are generally listed first in archive catalogues. Hymns to the sun-​god (Sūrya) and planets (navagraha) are also common. In fact, it is difficult to find Hindu deities not addressed in such hymns of praise. Yet this far from exhausts the range of this literature. Stotras also frequently praise religious teachers (gurus, ācāryas), pilgrimage sites (tīrthas, pīṭhas), and religious events or actions like Śiva’s cosmic dance (e.g., the Śivatāṇḍavastotra). Hymns to rivers are particularly popular, such as Jagannātha Paṇḍitarāja’s Gaṅgālaharī, and at least in

14.  For examples of useful classifications of stotra literature, see Bühnemann, Budha-​ Kauśika’s “Rāmarakṣāstotra” and “Some Remarks on the Structure and Application of Hindu Sanskrit Stotras,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 28 (1984): 73–​104, and M. A. Dhaky, “Arhat Pārśva with Dharaṇendra in Hymnic Literature,” in Arhat Pārśva and Dharaṇendra Nexus, ed. M. A. Dhaky (Ahmedabad: Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology; and Delhi: Bhogilal Leharchand Institute of Indology, 1997). The latter is summarized in John Cort’s paper, “In Praise of the Jina:  The Digambara Five Stotras,” presented at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference in Philadelphia, March 2014. 15. Aithal, Descriptive Catalogue, xi.



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modern times are often recited as part of pūjās to them.16 Some stotras address a very specific aspect or feature of a deity. Umāpati Śivācārya’s Kuñcitāṅghristava, for example, praises the upraised, curved foot of Śiva in the form of the lord of dance (Naṭarāja) enshrined in the South Indian temple at Cidambaram.17 Other stotras are philosophical or abstract, praising an impersonal reality or idea. Not infrequently, stotras praise a mantra, such as [oṃ] namaḥ śivāya,18 or celebrate a concept like bhakti, or even praise itself (e.g., the Stutipraśaṃsāstotra in the SKA collection by Jagaddhara). Even this longer list of examples does not exhaust the range of addressees found in this extensive and creative body of literature. As Gonda notes, stotra literature includes “within its orbit [ . . . ] almost every being and object worth adoring and worshipping,” and yet there is a marked tendency among poets to praise and worship only one of these addressees at a time.19 The focused attention on a specific addressee in a given stotra goes side by side with the remarkable variety within stotra literature overall. The range of addressees seen in this literature suggests the wide appeal of the stotra form, and surveying whom and what stotras address suggests the rich diversity of religious life in South Asia. In general, the titles given to stotras reflect their subject matter and suggest some basic distinctions within stotra literature.20 The Gaṅgāstava praises the river (and goddess) Gaṅgā, the Viṣṇustotra praises Viṣṇu, and so on. Some stotras take their titles from a repeated phrase in the composition, or from its first word. The most famous example of the latter is the Mahimnaḥstava21 (Hymn

16. For translations of various hymns to the river goddess Yamunā, including some Sanskrit stotras, see David L. Haberman, River of Love in an Age of Pollution:  The Yamuna River of Northern India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), Appendix I, 197–​223. 17.  David Smith, The Dance of Śiva:  Religion, Art and Poetry in South India (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 8. 18. E.g., the Śivapañcākṣarastotra. 19. Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 239. Note, however, that there are many exceptions to this, including hymns that celebrate pairs like Śiva and Pārvatī or multiple forms of a single deity, like hymns celebrating Viṣṇu’s incarnations (avatāras). 20. In her introduction to the Budha-​Kauśika’s “Rāmarakṣāstotra” Gudrun Bühnemann classifies stotras primarily based on the final element of their titles, which reveals important trends within the large corpus of extant hymns. However, as she notes in a later work (“Some Remarks on the Structure and Application of Hindu Sanskrit Stotras,” 73–​81), such a classification is inevitably incomplete, and she offers additional classifications based primarily on the content of the hymns themselves, but also on their formal features and functions in different contexts. 21. There are multiple versions of the title of this text. The hymn presumably takes its title from the first word of the first verse—​mahimnaḥ (“greatness”), the genitive singular form of mahiman. When joined with the words stotra or stava, it commonly takes one of three forms:  mahimnaḥ, mahimnas, or mahimna. This is in keeping with a set of options acknowledged in the Pāṇinian grammatical tradition. Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī (8.3.36) provides for the first two options, thus accounting for titles like Mahimnaḥstotra

32 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

to [Śiva’s] greatness), which begins with the word “mahimnaḥ.” A tendency in stotra literature is for some compositions to echo the name of a famous stotra and imitate its style and meter. Thus, there are hymns in praise of the greatness of Viṣṇu and Gaṇeśa called the Viṣṇumahimnaḥstotra and Gaṇeśamahimnaḥstotra. Such hymns form subgroups within the larger corpus through their relationship with famous hymns. As Diana Eck and Wendy Doniger have argued in the case of sacred geography and mythology, respectively, what is important is worth repeating; as Eck puts it, “significance is marked not by uniqueness, but by multiplicity.”22 Other popular groupings are those based on the use of a stock word or image in their titles, such as those ending in “-​mālā” and “-​laharī” (e.g., Mukundamālā, Saundaryalaharī, Gaṅgālaharī). Other titles indicate the number of verses in the stotra, usually by ending in a round or auspicious number such as six (“-​ṣaṭka”), eight (“-​aṣṭaka”), fifty (“-​pañcāśikā”), or one hundred (“-​śataka”). Almost always, however, such compositions contain slightly more (or occasionally less) than the indicated number, often due to the addition of phalaśruti verses. The Caṇḍīśataka (CŚ), for example, means “One hundred [verses in praise of ] Caṇḍī,” although the whole text actually consists of 102 verses.23 Other hymns take their titles from specific poetic meters, like the Sūryāryāstotra (Hymn to [the sun-​god] Sūrya in Āryā meter). There are a small number of stotras in prose, and this distinguishing feature is usually indicated in their titles, such the Śrīmahādevagadya (Prose [hymn] to the great god).24 Often the title of a hymn will indicate the performance of a particular religious act accomplished by its recitation, such as begging a particular

or Mahimnasstava; the latter is how it is listed in Raghavan, Prayers, Praises and Psalms, for example. A vārttika quoted in Patañjali’s Mahābhāṣya on this sūtra provides for the third option, which is seen, for example, in the well-​known edition and translation by W. Norman Brown, The Mahimnastava, or Praise of Shiva’s Greatness (Poona: American Institute of Indian Studies, 1965). I have even seen manuscripts expand the title to include the second word (pāra) of the first verse; for instance, the relevant colophon in Indic ms. 36 in the McGill archives identifies the hymn as Mahimnaḥpārastotra (see H. I. Poleman, compiler, A Census of Indic Manuscripts in the United States and Canada [New Haven, CT:  American Oriental Society, 1938], no. 930, p.  43). Additionally, the title is often given in both published and manuscript sources with Śiva’s name appended before it (the Śivamahimnastotra, etc.). I owe my clarity on this issue to several conversations with David Buchta and Jo Brill. I am very grateful for their helpful comments. 22. Diana Eck, India: A Sacred Geography (New York: Harmony Books, 2012), 2, 11; Wendy Doniger, Other Peoples’ Myths (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 31. 23.  The Sanskrit Poems of Mayūra, ed. and trans. George Payn Quackenbos (New York: Columbia University Press, 1917), 245–​357. 24. Bühnemann, Budha-​Kauśika’s “Rāmarakṣāstotra,”  12–​13.



Overview of Stotra Literature

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deity for forgiveness for one’s sins (e.g., the Śivāparādhakṣamāpanastotra25). Some take their names from an unusual incorporation of the alphabet or mantras; the Śivapañcākṣarastotra, for instance, praises the “five syllables” (pañcākṣara) of the mantra namaḥ śivāya.26 Thus, the title of a stotra can offer basic information not only about its content but also its formal and poetic features: the number of verses, its meter, and so on. Some of these groupings are distinct enough that they constitute distinct subgenres within stotra literature. Hymns that consist primarily of a series of names and epithets for a deity are usually classified specifically as nāmastotras.27 They developed “on a large scale into a literary and liturgical form of praise, adoration and magnification [ . . . ] based on the doctrine of the divine name as a means of protection or salvation.”28 Nāmastotras usually consist of any generally auspicious number of names, including eight, twelve, one hundred, and one thousand.29 The most likely prototype for such hymns is the Śatarudrīya from the Yajurveda (often called the Śrīrudram or just the Rudram), which is usually interpreted as giving “one hundred” (śata) names and epithets for Rudra (Śiva). But the well-​known Viṣṇusahasranāman or Viṣṇusahasranāmastotra—​Hymn of the thousand names of Viṣṇu—​has had more literary reiterations. There are dozens of stotras that are also identified as -​sahasranāmans and imitate the style and meter of this text.30 Another type of common but infrequently studied hymn is composed and recited to obtain protection, as indicated by designations such as kavaca (“armor”), varman (“defensive armor”), rakṣā (“protection”), and pañjara (“cage”). Kavacas, for example, aim “to neutralize evil influences, to propitiate the planets, to protect children, to ward off death etc.”31 Such hymns are frequently found in or said to belong to Purāṇas and Tantras.32 They are also appended at the beginning or end

25.  For the Śivāparādhakṣamāpanastotra, see Pāṇḍeya, Bṛhatstotraratnākaraḥ, 38–​40; for another example of such a hymn, see the Devyaparādhakṣamāpanastotra, in Pāṇḍeya, Bṛhatstotraratnākaraḥ, 119–​120. 26. Pāṇḍeya, Bṛhatstotraratnākaraḥ, 36. 27. Names have long been significant within Hinduism; for a detailed study of early materials, see Jan Gonda, Notes on Names and the Name of God in Ancient India (Amsterdam: North-​ Holland, 1970). The full history of nāmastotra as a recognized category remains a desideratum. 28. Ibid., 68. 29.  Bühnemann, Budha-​Kauśika’s “Rāmarakṣāstotra,” 13; Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 268. 30. See, for instance, Jankinath Kaul “Kamal,” trans., Bhavānī nāma sahasra stutih [sic]: The Thousand Names of Bhavānī; A  Page from Rudrayāmala Tantra (Srinagar, Kashmir:  Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, 1991). 31. Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 247. 32. See, for example, the Nārāyaṇavarman in Bhāgavatapurāṇa 6.8.

34 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

of other texts; a kavaca, for instance, is one of the subsidiary texts (aṅgas) attached to the beginning of the Devīmāhātmya.33 In the Tantras, these protection hymns are closely associated with mantras, yantras, and practices such as nyāsa, the sequential installation of mantras in the parts of one’s body.34 Sometimes they are associated with physical amulets designed for protection as well. A good example of a protection stotra is the Rāmarakṣāstotra (Hymn to Rāma for his protection), a popular stotra in Maharashtra, which Gudrun Bühnemann has studied in depth.35 While there are many versions of this hymn, its core section (vv. 4–​9) is structured as a kavaca (“armor”): the verses ask Rāma to protect the limbs of the reciter’s body from head to foot. The unique feature of this particular kavaca is that the sequence of names and epithets with which it refers to Rāma summarizes the main events of Rāma’s life, as described in Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa. Thus, this section begins by saying, “May the descendant of Raghu protect my head, Daśaratha’s son my forehead,” and ends: “May he who built the bridge (to Laṅkā) protect my knees, he who killed the ten-​headed (Rāvaṇa) my shanks, he who bestowed prosperity on Bibhīṣaṇa my feet; may Rāma protect my whole body.”36 Bühnemann’s monograph is an exception—​while such hymns are relatively well represented in manuscript archives, they have received a minimal amount of scholarly attention. Both nāmastotras and hymns of protection would loom large in any comprehensive survey of stotra literature. If the wide variety of compositions that are often classified as stotras were placed on a spectrum based on their content, nāmastotras and protection hymns would be near one end and a group of philosophical and theological stotras usually called vedāntastotras37 would be on the far end. This subgenre of stotras generally focuses more on arguments and teachings than devotional praise and prayer.38 Theoretically, the hymns classified as vedāntastotras form a distinct subgenre whose content is oriented toward Vedāntic philosophy and theology. Gonda, for example, attempts to distinguish between “reflective and speculative stotras [ . . . ] typically represented by the Vedāntic hymns ascribed to Śaṅkara and the later, mainly Viṣṇuite impassioned devotional eulogies, especially those dealing with

33.  Thomas Coburn, Encountering the Goddess:  A Translation of the Devī-​Māhātmya and a Study of Its Interpretation (Albany: SUNY Press, 1991), 104–​106, 175–​179. 34. See, for example, a description of the Hanumatkavaca, devoted to Hanumān, in Philip Lutgendorf, “Five Heads and No Tale:  Hanumān and the Popularization of Tantra,” International Journal of Hindu Studies 5, no. 3 (2001). 35. Bühnemann, Budha-​Kauśika’s “Rāmarakṣāstotra.” 36. Rāmarakṣāstotra vv. 4, 9; trans. Bühnemann, Budha-​Kauśika’s “Rāmarakṣāstotra,”  30–​31. 37. See, for instance, Aithal, Descriptive Catalogue, 148–​155. 38.  Nancy Ann Nayar, Poetry as Theology:  The Śrīvaiṣṇava Stotra in the Age of Rāmānuja (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1992), 17.



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the Kṛṣṇa-​Rādhā legend.”39 It is difficult, however, to classify compositions as vedāntastotras simply based on their content. It might be more accurate to say that there are generally two possible criteria for grouping such stotras: some Vedāntic content (like the Tattvamasistotra,40 based on the famous statement “tat tvam asi” from the Chāndogya Upaniṣad), or else attribution to Śaṅkara or another prominent Vedāntin author. Although the attribution of almost a hundred hymns to Śaṅkara suggests this is a complex authorial tradition, it emphasizes that stotras can also be classified according to their authors, particularly when these are famous individuals. In Kashmir, stotras attributed to Abhinavagupta are often found together in manuscripts. In other cases, stotras may be grouped according to the sectarian community to which they belong. In fact, such communities sometimes have produced their own anthologies, such as the Stavamālā collection of stotras by Rūpa Gosvāmin for the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava community.41 Stotras can also be differentiated according to their explicit and implicit objectives. The immediate goal often seems to be propitiating a deity, which then leads to more specific benefits.42 In this analysis, some combination of the beauty and affect in these hymns has the potential to please a deity, just as in the case of other offerings, like fragrant flowers. Yet some poets rhetorically doubt the very possibility of making a human offering that can please the deity. The author of the Mahimnaḥstava, for example, claims that the real reason for praising Śiva is simply to purify his own mind: Could even the speech of the guru of the gods be a source of amazement for you, O Brahmā,43 you who have created the supreme nectar of speech44 filled with sweetness?

39. Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 235–​236. He seems to be following in the footsteps of S. K. De, who contrasts “the Vedāntic hymns ascribed to Śaṃkara” as paradigmatic of “the tradition of literary and reflective Stotra” with hymns marked “by their erotico-​mystic sensibility and by their more passionate and sensuous content and expression, of which those to Kṛṣṇa are the most exemplary” (Aspects of Sanskrit Literature [Calcutta: Firma KLM Private Ltd., 1976 (1st ed. 1959)], 128–​129). 40. For one published version of this hymn, see Pāṇḍeya, Bṛhatstotraratnākaraḥ, 272–​273. 41.  See Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry.” The Stavamālā was not compiled as a collection by Rūpa Gosvāmin himself, but rather by his nephew (ibid., 35–​37). 42. In the paradigmatic frame story for the Bhavānīnāmasahasrastuti, for example, Śiva describes how the goddess is “pleased” (santuṣṭā) by his hymn (stava) and actually enters into him (Bhavānī nāma sahasra stutih, trans. Kaul “Kamal,” 10). 43. Here Śiva is praised as Brahmā, the creator. 44. This refers specifically to the Vedas, articulated by Brahmā.

36 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

Yet my mind is resolved on this task: I will purify this speech of mine through the merit of describing your qualities, O destroyer of the [three] cities.45 This suggests that the purpose of some stotras might be to affect the state of the reciter—​to purify her or his mind, for example, or to augment the experience of devotion. The majority of stotras, however, simply offer praise to a deity and seek protection, prosperity, health, and divine favor. While some stotras are said to lead to liberation and/​or heaven, many promise worldly benefits. Stotras can be recited to overcome a sickness or curse, for example; hymns to the sun-​god, in particular, are associated with the power to heal. Sometimes they are part of special observances and votive rites (vratas). While they are often recited privately as part of personal worship, they can also be liturgical and communal. Like Vedic hymns, stotras can be recited during temple rituals; the Śivamahimnaḥstotra, for instance, is recited in certain temples during the ritual bathing (abhiṣeka) of a śivaliṅga.46 Public recitations of stotras can have other functions rarely acknowledged within the hymns themselves, such as unifying a religious community, or serving as a tool for preaching or religious instruction.47 Many hymns are used in both public rituals and personal worship, including the visualization of specific deities. Some are particularly designed to accompany worship and perhaps should be called “liturgical stotras.”48 Suprabhātastotras, for instance, are morning hymns to awaken a deity with praise, and are commonly used to awaken temple deities and commence the temple’s liturgical schedule for the day. Others seem designed for mental worship or visualization, such as the Śivamānasapūjā ([Hymn] for the mental worship of Śiva). The Pañcāvaraṇastava of Aghoraśiva, a prominent twelfth-​century Śaiva Siddhāntin theologian, presents “all that is done with the mind in the course of the daily obligatory worship of Sadāśiva and his retinue (yāga) by an initiate to the Śaiva Siddhānta.”49 At least some stotras, therefore, were explicitly composed for worship and set out specific programs of meditation and visualization.

45. madhusphītā vācaḥ paramam amṛtaṃ nirmitavatas tava brahman kiṃ vāg api suraguror vismayapadam /​ mama tv etāṃ vāṇīṃ guṇakathanapuṇyena bhavataḥ punāmīty arthe ‘smin puramathana buddhir vyavasitā //​ Mahimnaḥstava v. 3 //​ 46. Bühnemann, “Structure and Application of Hindu Sanskrit Stotras,” 83. 47. Bronner, “Singing to God, Educating the People”; Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry.” 48. The Pañcāvaraṇastava of Aghoraśivācārya: A Twelfth-​Century South Indian Prescription for the Visualisation of Sadāśiva and His Retinue, ed. Dominic Goodall et al. (Pondicherry: Institut français de Pondichéry; École française d’Extrême-​Orient, 2005), 15. 49. Ibid., 17.



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Much information about the recitation and function of stotras can be gleaned from the verse or set of verses usually found at the end of a stotra (as well as some other genres of literature) called the phalaśruti (literally, “hearing the fruits”). This is primarily a statement of the benefits that accrue from properly reciting the stotra at hand. A phalaśruti can also describe how a stotra should be recited (the proper time, place, and so on), and extol its power and greatness. For instance, here are the last two verses of the Mahālakṣmīstotra in John Woodroffe’s translation: Whosoever reads this hymn once a day Is freed from sin, He who reads it twice a day Has ever abundance of paddy and wealth. Whosoever reads this hymn thrice a day, All his great enemies perish; Mahālakṣmī ever bestows Her grace on him, Grants him all boons, And does him all good.50 Phalaśruti verses often indicate the rewards of specific numbers of repetitions. This suggests some similarities between the perceived efficacy of stotras and mantras,51 which are also seen as efficacious based on the number of repetitions (although stotras are sung more often than mantras). It is worth noting that while music plays a central role in many Hindu traditions, it is often overlooked or underappreciated in studies of Hinduism. As Bühnemann explains, stotras “are traditionally not read from a book but recited (by heart) in a semi-​musical tune, i.e. every metre in a set of particular tunes.”52 The appeal of such musical and metrical recitations must be added to the list of features that have made stotras such popular texts over millennia. Lastly, a number of stotras identify their primary focus as the cultivation of bhakti, both in the reciters of these hymns and in their audiences. The meaning of bhakti in such contexts includes love, devotion, and participation. These stotras frequently invoke bhakti by referring to themes, characters, and incidents found in other genres. Often, they reflect on the nature and role of bhakti, or pray for even

50. Hymns to the Goddess (Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1973), 231–​232. In this chapter I have deliberately included some translations of stotra verses by other translators in order to represent a variety of translation styles. 51. Bühnemann, Budha-​Kauśika’s “Rāmarakṣāstotra,”  9–​10. 52. Ibid., 109; see 109–​119 for musical notations of eleven common meters.

38 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

stronger devotion, as in these verses of the popular Mukundamālā53 in praise of Mukunda (Viṣṇu/​Kṛṣṇa): O Mukunda! Bowing my head down fully, I beseech you for just this one thing: through your grace, in life after life may I never forget your lotus-​feet!54 I have no interest in dharma, or the accumulation of wealth, or the experience of pleasures; whatever is to be, will be, O lord, in accordance with my past karma. This is my greatest wish: may my devotion to your lotus-​feet be unwavering, even in life after life!55 Such prayers do not always stay focused on the speaker of such hymns. Occasionally they extend to the implied human audience for such compositions, indicating the perception that stotras have the power to generate and cultivate bhakti. We see this, for example, in the Bhagavadbhaktistotra of Avadhūtasiddha, sometimes simply referred to as the Bhaktistotra. While we do not know the exact provenance of this hymn, it was popular in Kashmir among both Śaiva Siddhāntins and non-​dualist Śaivas.56 This hymn praises (and argues for) the greatness of Śiva using language and imagery steeped in both the theology of the Śaiva scriptures (āgamas) and the narratives found in the Purāṇas, but it emphasizes bhakti most of all. The final two verses of the hymn present bhakti both as what facilitates the composition of this hymn and as its goal. In other words, Avadhūta composed this hymn with bhakti in the hope of inspiring the same in his human audiences: Even the lotus-​born Brahmā is worn out praising you, despite the fact that he plainly has four mouths. So who are we, when it comes to the act of praising your qualities?

53. The hymn is attributed to Kulaśekhara, but there is some debate over the identity and date of this author; see Sigfried Lienhard, History of Classical Poetry, 143. 54.  mukunda mūrdhnā praṇipatya yāce bhavantam ekāntam iyantam artham /​ avismṛtis tvaccaraṇāravinde bhave bhave me ‘stu bhavatprasādāt //​ Mukundamālā v. 1 //​ 55.  nāsthā dharme na vasunicaye naiva kāmopabhoge yad yad bhavyaṃ bhavatu bhagavan pūrvakarmānurūpam /​ etat prārthyaṃ mama bahumataṃ janmajanmāntare ‘pi tvatpādāmbhoruhayugagatā niścalā bhaktir astu //​ Mukundamālā v. 3 //​ 56.  We do not know the exact date of its composition, but the Yaśastilaka of the South Indian Jain Somadeva Sūri, composed in 959 CE, quotes from it (Mark Dyczkowski, The Stanzas on Vibration:  the Spandakārikā with Four Commentaries [Albany:  SUNY Press, 1992], 295).



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Devotion is our only authority (pramāṇa),57 so forgive all of this.58 O sole friend of the world, whatever small merit I, Avadhūta, have gained here from composing this praise-​poetry (nuti) to you with devotion to the best of my ability, may the world have devotion to you, O lord, because of it!59 These concluding verses acknowledge the tripartite context for such hymns, namely the relationship between the poet, the deity she or he addresses, and the hymn’s human audience. Avadhūta points to the potential of such hymns to propagate the worship of a specific deity, rooted in a rich scriptural tradition, by inspiring an emotional response through devotional poetry. This is just one of the many ways that stotra authors include and explore bhakti in their hymns. While not every stotra can be said to express, invoke, or reflect on bhakti, it remains a central feature to this genre based on a communication between a speaker and his or her human and divine audiences. Stotras can be differentiated by their self-​acknowledged objectives and the ways in which their poets see them being efficacious. Some focus on cultivating bhakti, others on teaching philosophical doctrines, while some stotras function more like mantras or amulets for protection. Overall, we see that a wide variety of criteria can be used to classify and analyze stotras, from their semantic content to formal features to functions in specific contexts. The criteria used to classify stotras will inevitably overlap. Any particular classification of stotra literature can be valuable, but it cannot be final; it will always be heuristic in relation to a set corpus of hymns. Because of the flexibility of the stotra genre and the quantity and diversity of stotra literature produced over the millennia, no single criterion can efficiently organize this literature as a whole. The brief survey presented here illustrates that there are multiple, overlapping ways of classifying and analyzing Sanskrit hymns. In part, this testifies to the malleability and expansiveness of the stotra form. But it is also a function of the long, complex history of this dynamic genre, which evolved within

57. The word pramāṇa is a technical term in Indian philosophical discourse. It refers to valid means of knowing, such as inference and perception (the number of pramāṇas is a hotly contested topic). Here Avadhūta relies on bhakti to justify his attempts to praise Śiva. 58.  yat khidyate kamalayonir api stuvānaḥ sākṣāccaturbhir api nāma mukhair bhavantam /​ tat ke vayaṃ tava guṇastavanakriyāsu bhaktiḥ pramāṇam iti sarvam idaṃ kṣamasva //​ Bhagavadbhaktistotra v. 64 //​Gopīnātha Kavirāja, ed. and Hindi trans., The Bhaktistotra of Avadhūtasiddha (Lucknow: Bhāratīya Saṃskṛta Pariṣad, 1978), 25. 59.  kṛtvā mayā tava nutiṃ jagadekabandho bhaktyā svabuddhisadṛśīm avadhūtanāmnā /​ puṇyaṃ yad alpam api kiñcid upāttam atra lokasya tena bhagavaṃs tvayi bhaktir astu //​ Bhagavadbhaktistotra v. 65 //​Kavirāja, Bhaktistotra of Avadhūtasiddha, 26.

40 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

multiple traditions and regions. This history is as fascinating as it is difficult to tell with any completeness, but examining its major contours clarifies crucial features of both the nature and appeal of the Sanskrit stotra.

On the History of Stotras Few scholarly works address the history of stotras as a genre. Some scholars have surveyed the voluminous corpus of stotras with some basic chronological organization,60 but a sustained investigation into the major developments of these compositions and their functions and interpretations in South Asia remains to be done. Such a history is beyond the scope of the present study, and much work needs to be pursued on regional traditions before a more complete history can be constructed. This section does not offer a neat, chronological history—​both because of the nature of the source materials and the status of scholarship on this corpus. But beyond this, I would argue that regional traditions have their own histories that get lost when stotras from all over South Asia are put into a single, linear history. Instead, in what follows I discuss important trends within the genre and raise some of the broad historical questions that will benefit from future research on stotras and their complex history. The frequent translation of stotra as “hymn” suggests an appropriate starting point:  What is the relationship between Vedic hymns and the wide variety of post-​Vedic stotras? There are two main ways to address this question. One approach is to stress the many continuities between stotras and Vedic hymns.61 Both have the act of praise at their core, and both typically celebrate the power of a specific deity and appeal for some kind of intervention.62 They generally include vocatives that directly address the deity and expressions of homage and benediction. References and allusions to well-​known narratives and exploits of the gods are common in hymns from both the Vedic and later periods. Such hymns sometimes include declarations of their own efficacy—​ for instance, in removing a disease or obtaining progeny, wealth, or victory over one’s enemies. It is also possible (but not necessary) for the recitation of both Vedic hymns and stotras to be accompanied by the performance of rites or worship.

60. E.g., Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 232–​270, and Siegfried Lienhard, A History of Classical Poetry: Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1984), 128 ff. 61. Discussing stotra literature, Jan Gonda notes that “the hymnic tradition goes back to Vedic times,” and “there are no serious reasons for the supposition that after the Vedic period the production of eulogies ever was completely interrupted” (Medieval Religious Literature, 233). 62.  On hymns, praise, and prayer in Vedic literature, see Jan Gonda, Vedic Literature (Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas). A History of Indian Literature, Vol. 1 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1975), 105–​113.



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Moreover, some of the hymns of the Sāmaveda, which are sung, are actually called stotras.63 Certain Vedic hymns had applications beyond their use in ritual liturgy. Jan Gonda has argued that many of the Vedic hymns not specifically employed in the liturgy of the Vedic rituals functioned as adoration, prayer, and other less complicated forms of worship in pursuit of specific, private benefits. These features, Gonda concludes, are shared with later stotras, and suggest that Vedic religion encompassed more than just the sacrificial rituals.64 Some stotras recited today may even reproduce or be based explicitly on earlier Vedic hymns. Gonda provides the example of a stotra called the Sūryāryādvādaśaka (Twelve Ārya stanzas in honor of the sun), which begins “with a nearly literal reproduction” of Ṛgveda 1.50.11.65 This popular stotra, used in the worship of the sun-​god and believed to cure a sick person who recites it, indicates at least some textual continuity between Vedic hymns and stotras. Moreover, associations between stotras and Vedic eulogies may have boosted the authority of the stotra form in the eyes of Hindu communities, which may help to explain its popularity in certain contexts.66 From one perspective, therefore, the history of Sanskrit stotras is an evolving but continuous tradition of poetic prayer that stretches back to the earliest Sanskrit texts available. The flexibility of the stotra genre—​evinced by both the definition with which I began this chapter and the many ways stotras can be classified—​supports an open-​ended, inclusive approach that sees Vedic hymns as part of the broad historical development of stotra literature. At the same time, there are also discontinuities between Vedic and post-​Vedic hymns that justify some distinction between them. As one would expect, the deities addressed in stotras generally differ from those in Vedic hymns, as do the theological and liturgical traditions surrounding them. Vedic hymns were not used for the visualization of temple icons (mūrtis), for example.67 Theological interpretations of these hymns differ as well. The Mīmāṃsā tradition of Vedic exegesis interpreted the narrative and eulogistic elements of the Vedas as arthavāda—​a technical term meaning statements that are not to be taken as directly injunctive but rather are meant to commend or discourage certain actions on the part of the listener—​and this contrasts with the devotional interpretations of theistic

63. Jan Gonda, Hymns of the Ṛgveda Not Employed in the Solemn Ritual (Amsterdam: North-​ Holland, 1978), 25; Nayar, Poetry as Theology, 16. 64. Gonda, Hymns of the Ṛgveda, 125. 65. Ibid., 32. 66. Nayar, Poetry as Theology,  16–​18. 67. Of course, not all post-​Vedic hymns were used for such visualizations, but this example suggests how theological and liturgical changes affected the kind of hymns produced and how they were used.

42 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

traditions. Perhaps most importantly, many stotras incorporate elements of post-​ Vedic Sanskrit literature (kāvya), which was seen from its beginnings as different from Sanskrit liturgy, despite overlaps in language and poetic styles.68 Post-​Vedic stotras often are included within a wide variety of larger texts, such as Purāṇas and Tantras. Overall, it is clear that Vedic and post-​Vedic hymns are closely related and part of a long history of praise and prayer in South Asia. The versatility of the stotra category means that it can be productively used to discuss both continuities and discontinuities across the centuries. Historically, one part of the Vedas in particular has been an important bridge between the Vedic hymns and later stotra literature. As we have seen, the Śatarudrīya, a part of the Yajurveda, likely served as a prototype for later hymns, and particularly nāmastotras. According to its later reception, it gives “one hundred” (śata) names and epithets for Rudra (Śiva), and its enumeration of this deity’s names and attributes was considered highly efficacious in winning divine favor for the Śaiva devotee.69 To this day, the Śatarudrīya is frequently recited in Śaiva temples, particularly in South India, during temple rituals such as the ritual bathing of temple icons (abhiṣeka). Gonda interprets this Vedic litany as a “eulogy, a ‘hymn of praise’ or stotra,” and one that served as a model for later poets. In some cases, this is even explicit, as in the example of the Rudrārthasārastava, a stotra that poetically paraphrases the Śatarudrīya, as Gonda analyzes in detail.70 As a devotional, liturgical hymn, the Śatarudrīya has served as a link between the poetic innovations of post-​Vedic hymns and the authority of Vedic literature. The loose relationship between stotras and Vedic hymns, along with the vast number of extant Hindu hymns, tends to obscure an important historical point: some of the earliest, most prominent examples of stotras that we know of are Buddhist and Jain. Perhaps the earliest independent stotras still extant are the hymns to the Buddha by the poet Mātṛceṭa (second or third century CE). They circulated as far as Central Asia on the northern branches of the Silk Road, and many fragments of these hymns survive there.71 His Śatapañcāśatkastotra and Varṇārhavarṇastotra (both known by other names as well72) were respected widely

68. See Sheldon Pollock, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), 75–​79. 69. Jan Gonda, “The Śatarudrīya,” in Selected Studies of Jan Gonda, Vol. 6, Part 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1991), 527. 70. Ibid., 533–​534. 71.  Sheldon Pollock, “Sanskrit Literary Culture from the Inside Out,” in Literary Cultures in History:  Reconstructions from South Asia, ed. Sheldon Pollock (Berkeley:  University of California Press, 2003), 75. 72.  See Das Varṇārhavarṇastotra des Mātṛceṭa, ed. and trans. Jens-​ Uwe Hartmann (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1987), 22–​25.



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for their literary merit and recited for their religious benefits. Based on the testimony of Yijing, who translated the Śatapañcāśatkastotra into Chinese and gave an account of its author, these hymns were popular components of monastic recitation. He identifies six benefits to learning to recite them, including knowledge of the Buddha’s virtues, instruction on literary composition, psychological confidence, and the prolonging of a healthy life.73 Stotras remained popular for Buddhists in South Asia, as the many diverse hymns collected in the anthology called Bauddha-​Stotra-​Saṃgraha suggest.74 In the case of Jainism, there is evidence for devotional activities involving stotras prior to the Common Era.75 There are hymns to Jain figures included in early Jain scriptures; the earliest of these, the Mahāvīrastava in the Sūtrakṛtāṅga, may have been composed in the second or first century BCE.76 We also have evidence for the tradition of reciting the Caturviṃśatistava (Hymn to the twenty-​four [Jinas])—​one of the six daily obligations (āvaśyakas)—​from the beginning of the Common Era or earlier.77 Recitation of the Caturviṃśatistava and other hymns is a key component of the caityavandana (Veneration of the [Jina] image), an important ritual for icon-​worshipping Jains.78 Hymns found in the early Jain Śvetāmbara canonical texts primarily focus on eulogizing one or more Jinas or the qualities of a Jina more generally. By the fifth century CE, Jain authors like Siddhasena Divākara were composing independent hymns with literary and philosophical aspirations.79 Perhaps the two most famous Jain stotras are the Kalyāṇamandirastotra, attributed variously to Siddhasena Divākara or the twelfth-​century Digambara Kumudacandra, and the Bhaktāmarastotra of Mānatuṅga.80 The fame of the latter

73.  The Śatapañcāśatka of Mātṛceṭa, ed. and trans. Shackleton Bailey (Cambridge, UK:  Cambridge University Press, 1951), 5, and I-​Tsing, A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671–​ 695), trans. J. Takakusu (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896), 157–​158. 74.  Janardan Shastri Pandeya, comp., Bauddha-​Stotra-​Saṃgraha (A Collection of One Hundred Old Buddhist Hymns) (Varanasi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1994). 75. For an overview of Jain hymns, see Lynna Dhanani, “Jain Hymns in Sanskrit and Prakrit” in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Jainism (forthcoming). I am grateful to Lynna Dhanani for her many helpful comments on this section. 76. M. A. Dhaky, “The Jina Image and the Nirgrantha Agamic and Hymnic Imagery,” in Shastric Traditions in Indian Arts, ed. Anna Libera Dallapiccola (Stuttgart:  Steiner, 1989), 99–​101. 77.  John Cort, “Bhakti in the Early Jain Tradition:  Understanding Devotional Religion in South Asia,” History of Religions 42, no. 1 (2002): 71–​72, 79, and Dhaky, “The Jina Image,” 101. 78. Cort, “Bhakti in the Early Jain Tradition,” 79. 79. Dhaky, “The Jina Image,” 102–​103. 80.  Hermann Jacobi, “Zwei Jaina-​Stotra,” Indische Studien 14 (1876):  359–​391; John Cort, “Devotional Culture in Jainism:  Mānatuṅga and His Bhaktāmara Stotra,” in Incompatible

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is due in part to the many stories that place it in competition (both in terms of its literary merit and miraculous efficacy) with the well-​known CŚ of Bāṇa and Sūryaśataka (SūŚ) of Māyura (discussed later). Over the centuries, prominent Jain authors like Hemacandra continued the tradition of composing different types of hymns for different purposes. Hemacandra’s Vītarāgastotra, for instance, was composed as part of his effort to convert a Śaiva king to Jainism.81 Stotras are often included in Jain biographies, and specific hymns are associated with specific fruits, like healing. Many Jain authors composed hymns in multiple languages (Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsha, and, particularly after the fourteenth century, in various vernaculars). For example, Jinaprabhasūri (c. 1261–​1333), a leader of a branch of the Kharatara Gaccha, became legendary for the number of hymns he composed in multiple languages—​roughly one hundred are extant.82 Overall, these Buddhist and Jain hymns share many similarities with Hindu stotras of high literary quality, though their addressees (and related narrative elements and technical vocabulary) seem to mark them distinctly as Buddhist and Jain.83 Notably, both the Buddhist and Jain stotras praise and appeal to human religious teachers. This may have helped to expand the range of subjects appropriate for stotras in general, since hymns in praise of one’s teacher (guru, ācārya) became popular among Hindus as well. While the remainder of this chapter focuses on hymns that came to be considered Hindu, much more could be said about the history of Buddhist and Jain stotras, both in South Asia and beyond. Before moving on to discuss post-​Vedic Hindu hymns, let us briefly consider one other early literary development in South Asia interwoven with the evolution of stotra literature. Praśasti—​political eulogy, often in the form of inscriptional panegyrics84—​is a literary cousin to the stotra genre.85 More broadly, praśasti and

Visions: South Asian Religions in History and Culture, Essays in Honor of David M. Knipe, ed. James Blumenthal (Madison: University of Wisconsin-​Madison Press, 2005). 81. On the stotras of Hemacandra and his contemporaries in eleventh-​and twelfth-​century Gujarat, see the forthcoming dissertation by Lynna Dhanani (Yale University). 82. Steven M. Vose, “The Making of a Medieval Jain Monk: Language, Power, and Authority in the Works of Jinaprabhasūri (c. 1261–​1333)” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2013), 9, and also 198–​224. 83. Ongoing research by scholars like Lynna Dhanani, however, increasingly suggests that there are styles and structures unique to these communities. 84. For an analysis of two royal praśasti texts (as opposed to inscriptions) in praise of the same king and their relationship to the conventions of kāvya, see Luther James Obrock’s discussion of Kalhaṇa’s Rājataraṅgiṇī and Śambhukavi’s Rājendrakarṇapūra in “Translation and History: The Development of a Kashmiri Textual Tradition from ca. 1000–​1500” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2015), 39–​45. 85. On the praśasti form, see Sheldon Pollock, “Praśasti and Its Congeners: A Small Note on a Big Topic,” in Rajamahima: C. Rajendran Congratulatory Volume, ed. N. K. Sundareswaran



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kāvya are closely related, and in fact their early development seems to have occurred almost simultaneously, though there generally was a divide between their respective composition and reception.86 They facilitated, as Sheldon Pollock has argued, the shift to Sanskrit as the dominant means of inscribing political will in the early centuries of the first millennium of the Common Era.87 The stotra and praśasti genres share numerous features. At the core of both is the act of praise. This praise is designed to establish in language the eternal fame of their subjects, paradigmatically the deity and the king, respectively. In both cases, the powers of poetic language are harnessed to present the fame of their subjects as transcending the local and the transient.88 Pollock suggests that “what power does, however momentous—​defeating a Hun king, for example—​seems far less important than how power speaks; the particular exists only as vehicle, or occasion, or excuse, for the paradigmatic.”89 Through such non-​liturgical, public discourse, royal poets articulated a power and fame for their patrons that participated in what he labels the “Sanskrit cosmopolis.” What has remained largely unexamined, however, is that stotra authors also were invested in portraying the subjects of their praise-​poetry as eternal, transregional, and paradigmatic. In fact, these qualities of the Sanskrit cosmopolis can be interpreted as mirroring these features of the divine realm of the gods. In general, stotras and praśastis are also both invested in reflecting on the power of language itself. Pollock suggests that “if as a genre praśasti can be said to be about anything, it is as much about exploring the capacities of the Sanskrit language for the production of praise as about the content of the praise itself,” and the same is true for much stotra literature as well.90 Moreover, stotras and praśastis have shared the unfortunate position of being regularly undervalued, ignored, or marginalized as poetry by scholars, including traditional literary theorists in South Asia (see Chapter 6). In addition, both the stotra and praśasti forms were successful outside of India. They spread along with mainstream Sanskrit kāvya, for example, to Southeast Asia, where their popularity grew. Praśasti inscriptions are found throughout the region, and we have evidence that the stotra was a popular genre as well. By the ninth or tenth century, for instance, Mayūra’s SūŚ was being studied by the literary

(Calicut: University of Calicut Press, 2013), 21–​39. Note that while royal eulogy is the paradigmatic type of praśasti, it can also praise other figures, such as ascetics or poets (ibid., 23–​24). 86. Pollock, Language of the Gods, 134; Pollock, “Praśasti,”  27–​32. 87. See Pollock, Language of the Gods, particularly Chapters 1 and 3. 88. “The work of power in the Sanskrit praśasti was in part the work of the expressive and performative, executed by drawing on Sanskrit kāvya’s rich repertoire of formal and rhetorical devices to create and preserve the fame of the king” (Pollock, Language of the Gods, 148). 89. Ibid., 140. 90. Ibid., 137.

46 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

elite in the Khmer kingdom, alongside other great works of kāvya like Kālidāsa’s Raghuvaṃśa.91 Many Hindu and Buddhist stotras have been preserved in Bali and are still used in ritual by Balinese priests. Some of these hymns have Indian antecedents, but many more were actually composed in Indonesia.92 This success further illustrates their appealing combination of flexibility, aesthetic beauty, and expressive power. Overall, despite the many family and functional resemblances between praśasti and stotra, the historical relationship between these two genres is difficult to assess. The histories of both are closely intertwined with the history of kāvya, but the extent to which they were directly influential in one way or another remains an open area of research.93 Both genres indicate the value of literary developments for the articulation of power on a human or divine level. This has remained a compelling feature of the stotra genre throughout its history, and thus it is crucial to recognize its intriguing but poorly understood historical relationship to praśasti praise-​poetry. The earliest post-​Vedic hymns that came to be considered Hindu are embedded within larger compositions. There are many stotras included in the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, although it is unlikely that these belong to the older strata of the texts.94 Well-​known stotras in the Mahābhārata include Bhīṣma’s praise of Kṛṣṇa while he lies on his deathbed of arrows95 and two hymns to Durgā; the latter are relegated to appendices in the critical edition.96 While a greater number of stotras are included within the Mahābhārata, the Rāmāyaṇa contains perhaps the most famous, commonly known as the Ādityahṛdaya (The heart of the sun).

91. Pollock, “Sanskrit Literary Culture from the Inside Out,” 75. 92. See T. Goudriaan and C. Hooykaas, Stuti and Stava (Bauddha, Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava) of Balinese Brahman Priests (London: North-​Holland Publishing Co., 1971). 93. There are structural indications, for example, that premodern Jain Śvetāmbara praśastis written in Sanskrit and found at the end of caritras and commentaries may have been influenced by themes and structures found in vernacular hymns (Lynna Dhanani, “Praśasti as Stotra: Examining Hemacandra’s Royal Paneygric in Light of Contemporary Hymn-​Making Practices,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Denver, November 2018). 94.  Some later stotras even suggest or summarize the full stories of the epics (Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 239; Bühnemann, Budha-​Kauśika’s “Rāmarakṣāstotra”). 95. Mahābhārata 12.47.10–​62; The Mahābhārata: Text as Constituted in Its Critical Edition, Vol. 3 (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1974), 2044–​2046. 96.  Thomas Coburn, Devī-​ Māhātmya:  The Crystallization of the Goddess Tradition (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984), 267–​275. Coburn notes that these hymns to Durgā are most likely older than the Devīmāhātmya and thus provide valuable information about early perspectives on goddess worship (Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devī-​ Māhātmya and a Study of Its Interpretation [Albany: SUNY Press, 1991], 20–​21).



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This popular passage is found in most southern recensions of the epic and is placed after the ninety-​third chapter of book six (Yuddhakāṇḍa) in the critical edition. When Rāma appears exhausted and anxious during the climactic battle with the demon Rāvaṇa, the sage Agastya teaches him a hymn of praise to the sun-​god Āditya. After a number of verses praising the sun, there are several phalaśruti verses: Even if a man be in distress, difficulty, or danger, or if he be lost in the wilderness, he shall not, Rāghava, so long as he praises the sun, succumb to any harm. Therefore, with a focused mind, you should worship that god of gods, the lord of the worlds. For, having intoned this hymn three times, you will be victorious in all your battles. This very hour, great-​armed warrior, you shall slay Rāvaṇa. (trans. Robert P. Goldman, Sally S. Sutherland Goldman, and Barend A. van Nooten)97 Rāma memorizes the hymn, gazes at the sun, and recites it; rejuvenated, he returns to battle and, of course, goes on to defeat Rāvaṇa. This hymn is a good example of praise winning the favor of a deity who then bestows strength and ultimately victory upon the reciter (although some interpreters stress that Rāma was not actually exhausted but only appeared to be98). Literary hymns are also found within many of the “great poems” or “court epics” called mahākāvyas. Kālidāsa’s mahākāvyas include multiple, early examples of such stotras. In the Kumārasaṃbhava (2.4–​15), the gods, led by Indra, praise and appeal to Brahmā to help them escape the oppression of the demon Tāraka. In the last two verses, for example, they extol: You are the ancestor of the ancestors, the deity of the gods, higher than the high, creator of creators. You alone, eternally, are the oblation and the maker of the oblation, what is enjoyed and its enjoyer, both the known and the knower,

97.  Ādityahṛdaya vv. 49–​53ab, translated in The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki:  An Epic of Ancient India, Volume VI:  Yuddhakāṇḍa, trans. and annotated by Robert P. Goldman, Sally S. Sutherland Goldman, and Barend A. van Nooten (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009), 1343. 98. Ibid., 1342.

48 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

the meditator and the supreme object of meditation. (trans. Smith)99 Their efforts please Brahmā, although in the end they must turn to Śiva and Pārvatī for help. In the Raghuvaṃśa, the gods praise Viṣṇu in a similar scene.100 Stylistically, however, the stotras embedded in Kālidāsa’s mahākāvyas are simpler, with fewer poetic figures, than the surrounding poetry. The fact that this is not true for stotras in later poems like the Haravijaya suggests that stotras were slower to incorporate developments taking place in Sanskrit poetry and poetics, perhaps because they were deliberately linked to the pre-​kāvya Vedic hymns.101 The stotras most often celebrated as high-​quality poetry are not embedded in larger poems but rather are independent works. Sometimes these are classified as laghukāvya—​short or “light” literature, usually with minimal narrative elements—​as opposed to “great literature” (mahākāvya).102 The seventh century was a particularly important period for the composition of devotional poetry. Bāṇa, the famous poet at the court of King Harṣa (606–​647 CE), composed the CŚ 103 during this time, and it is likely that Mayūra, the author of the SūŚ, was his contemporary. Bāṇa’s poem praises the goddess Caṇḍī (whom he refers to with a variety of names, including Devī, Durgā, Kālī, and Pārvatī), and especially her left foot, victorious in crushing the buffalo-​demon Mahiṣa. The SūŚ praises the sun-​ god Sūrya and has many similarities with Bāṇa’s poem, and it may have even “enjoyed a greater reputation than its rival.”104 Like the CŚ, it is filled with allusions to

99.  Kumārasaṃbhava 2.14–​15, trans. David Smith, The Birth of Kumāra (New  York:  NYU Press, 2005), 65. 100. Raghuvaṃśa 10.16–​32; The Raghuvaṃśa of Kālidāsa, with the Commentary (the Sanjīvinī) of Mallinātha, ed. and trans. by Moreshwar Rāmachandra Kāle (Bombay: Gopal Narayan & Co., 1922 [3rd reve Ed.]), 226–​230 [Sanskrit edition], 81–​82 [English translation]. Other early mahākāvya authors included stotras in their works as well. For example, when Śiva reveals himself to Arjuna in the climactic fight scene of Bhāravi’s Kirāṭārjunīya (based on an episode in the Mahābhārata), Arjuna’s immediate response is to offer a stotra to the great god. The hymn ends with an appeal for forgiveness for fighting with Śiva and a request for the powerful pāśupata weapon, once again showing praise as effective in winning the favor of the gods. See Indira Vishwanathn Peterson, Design and Rhetoric in a Sanskrit Court Epic: The Kirātārjunīya of Bhāravi (Albany: SUNY Press, 2003), Chapter 9, and 175–​176, discussing Kirāṭārjunīya 18.21–​43. 101. Nayar, Poetry as Theology,  18–​19. 102. On mahā-​, laghu-​, and stotrakāvya, see Chapter 6. 103. For a discussion of the attribution of the CŚ to Bāṇa in the context of his other extant works, see Gary Tubb, “On the Boldness of Bāṇa,” in Innovations and Turning Points: Toward a History of Kāvya Literature, ed. Yigal Bronner, David Shulman, and Gary Tubb (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014), 321–​333. 104.  George Payn Quackenbos, ed. and trans., The Sanskrit Poems of Mayūra (New York: Columbia University Press, 1917), 265.



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Vedic literature, the epics and the Purāṇas, and offers various benedictions. Both are packed with poetic figures (alaṅkāras). The SūŚ and CŚ are examples of, and perhaps partially responsible for, a major development in stotra literature begun centuries earlier by Buddhist and Jain authors: the composition of independent, short, kāvya-​style hymns that consist entirely in praise and adoration of a deity for the sake of benediction. The fact that these two poems were widely celebrated and disseminated within the Sanskrit literary world suggests the growing appeal of such high-​quality literary hymns.105 Traditionally, Mayūra is said to have been cured of leprosy by reciting his hymn to the sun. This miraculous recovery is associated with the sixth verse in particular.106 The tradition of praising Sūrya to cure an illness or weakness and to absolve oneself of sins is common throughout stotra literature. I have already discussed the Ādityahṛdaya, which restores Rāma to strength when recited, and the Sūryāryādvādaśaka, which praises the sun and was believed to cure a sick person who recites it. The author of the Sāmbapañcāśikā is also said to have been cured of disease by worshiping Sūrya.107 Hymns to the sun are not the only ones that are said to facilitate miraculous cures, of course. Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa, a Brahman from Kerala, composed the Nārāyaṇīya near the end of the sixteenth century. This extended devotional poem presents the entire Bhāgavatapurāṇa in 1,036 verses and became quite popular in Kerala. According to tradition, Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa freed himself from disease by reciting it; each subdivision of the work ends with a prayer for relief from suffering.108 The actual number of well-​known literary hymns like the SūŚ is relatively small, but they have enjoyed widespread popularity and been influential in the history of stotras as well as other genres. Perhaps the paradigmatic literary stotra is the Mahimnaḥstava, attributed to a celestial musician (gandharva) named Puṣpadanta. It is frequently quoted by Sanskrit authors, and, as we have seen, a number of other compositions derive their titles and style from it, such as the Viṣṇumahimnaḥstava. The text was inscribed on a stone at the Amareśvara temple on the Narmadā River, either in the year 1063 or 1163 CE (the second digit is damaged), and it is illustrated in detail in at least one extant manuscript.109 The poem is a good example of an

105. For indications of their place in the history of Sanskrit kāvya, see Bronner, Shulman, and Tubb, eds., Innovation and Turning Points, 326, 340–​341; and Pollock, “Sanskrit Literary Culture from the Inside Out,” 75. 106. Quackenbos, Sanskrit Poems of Mayūra, 114–​115. 107. See Sāmbapañcāśikā v. 46, translated and discussed in Chapter 3. 108. Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 263. 109.  W. Norman Brown, ed. and trans., The Mahimnastava, or Praise of Shiva’s Greatness (Poona: American Institute of Indian Studies, 1965), 21.

50 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

elegant stotra that combines allusions to a deity’s exploits, references to iconographic features, and well-​crafted poetic figures. The Mahimnaḥstava also develops themes that continue to be explored by stotra authors for centuries, such as the impossibility of adequately praising God.110 Consider this elegant verse, here in Sheldon Pollock’s translation: If the inkwell were the ocean and the ink as black as the Black Mountain, if the pen were a twig of the Wishing Tree and the manuscript leaf the earth, if the writing went on forever, and the Goddess of Learning herself were to write, even then the limit of Your powers could never be reached.111 Overall, short poems like the CŚ, SūŚ, and Mahimnaḥstava have been very influential on the general interpretation and development of stotras. They circulated widely, received many commentaries, and stood as exemplars of the possibilities of highly poetic, devotional hymns in Sanskrit. While some stotra literature developed in close connection with the larger world of Sanskrit kāvya, different kinds of stotras or closely related compositions evolved in other contexts. A significant number of stotras are embedded within Purāṇas and Tantras, although some that claim to belong to these texts are not actually found in most editions. Sometimes they are woven into the narrative or simply taught as part of a program of worship. As poetry, these hymns are usually a far cry from hymns like the Mahimnaḥstava, although they are sometimes more poetic than the text that surrounds them. In other cases, these hymns consist in a series of names and epithets for the deity (nāmastotras) or protective formulae (kavaca, rakṣā). Often these stotras are extracted as separate texts. For example, the periodical entitled simply Purāṇa publishes a stotra from a Purāṇa at the beginning of each issue.112 Within the narrative structure of the Purāṇas, they usually model what the text’s audience itself should do. For instance, there are a number of hymns within the popular Devīmāhātmya section of the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa. When the goddess kills the demon Mahiṣa, the overjoyed gods praise her in a hymn;113 pleased, she grants them their request that she will help anyone who remembers and praises her.114 Similarly, when she kills the demon Śumbha, the

110. See Mahimnaḥstava vv. 1–​3; Brown, Praise of Shiva’s Greatness,  8–​9. 111.  Mahimnaḥstava v.  32, trans. Pollock, “Sanskrit Literary Culture from the Inside Out,” 88. Note that this verse was probably an addition; it is not found in the inscription at the Amareśvara temple (Brown, Praise of Shiva’s Greatness,  6–​7). 112. Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 233. 113. Devīmāhātmya 4.2–​26, trans. Coburn, Encountering the Goddess,  48–​51. 114. Devīmāhātmya 4.28–​33, trans. Coburn, Encountering the Goddess,  51–​52.



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gods respond with a hymn,115 and once again she makes the same promise: “He who, with composed mind, will always praise me with these hymns, /​For him I will destroy all misfortunes; of this there is no doubt.”116 The Purāṇas are filled with examples of hymns praising a god or goddess for eliminating some demon or danger, often culminating in the god or goddess bestowing some divine favor on the devotees. As in the Purāṇas, stotras in the Tantras (and related texts like the Āgamas and certain Saṃhitās) are frequently incorporated into the text’s narrative. The vidyāpāda section of the Kiraṇatantra, for example, begins with a hymn to Śiva in which Garuḍa alludes to some of Śiva’s famous exploits, like killing the demon Andhaka and destroying the triple city of the gods: Victory [to you who showed] skill in splitting the knot of the extensive shoulders of Andhaka! Victory, burner of the [triple] city occupied by those chiefs among heroes to whom a great boon [had been granted]! Victory [to you who are] fearsome, because of cutting off a head of [Brahmā], the overlord of all the gods! Victory, destroyer of the body of the god of love whose power is spread [everywhere]! (trans. Goodall)117 Garuḍa continues like this for six more verses, and only after offering praise to Śiva in this way (and thus winning his favor) does he begin to ask for knowledge. Singing hymns of praise to a deity is also a common component of Tantric worship. They are recited as part of the standard preliminaries in Śaiva ritual in Kashmir, for example.118 Sometimes stotras are prescribed with specific actions; recitation of the Śāntistava to Bhairava and other Kula deities, for instance, is meant to precede ritual drinking.119 Other stotras in these texts function more like mantras. They are efficacious when repeated and are used in regular worship as well as to obtain specific goals. Some stotras even provide the mantras for a particular Tantric practice. The Karpūrādistotra, for instance, not only praises the goddess Kālī and gives instructions for her visualization (dhyāna) but also provides

115. Devīmāhātmya 11.2–​34, trans. Coburn, Encountering the Goddess,  74–​77. 116. Devīmāhātmya 12.1, trans. Coburn, Encountering the Goddess, 79. 117. Kiraṇatantra, Vidyāpāda vv. 2–​3, translated in Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha’s Commentary on the Kiraṇatantra, volume I: ­chapters 1–​6, ed. and trans. Dominic Goodall (Pondichéry: Institut Français de Pondichéry, École française d’Extrême-​Orient, 1998), 166. 118. Alexis Sanderson, “The Śaiva Exegesis of Kashmir,” in Mélanges tantriques à la mémoire d’Hélène Brunner/​Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner, ed. Dominic Goodall and André Padoux (Pondicherry:  Institut Français d’Indologie/​ École Française d’Extrême-​ Orient, 2007), 293. 119. Teun Goudriaan and Sanjukta Gupta, Hindu Tantric and Śākta Literature (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1981), 95.

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the mantras for worshipping her and instructions for their repetition (japa). Here, for example, is the third verse of this hymn (in John Woodroffe’s translation), which gives instructions for reciting the bīja or “seed” syllable hrīṃ: O Kālikā, O auspicious Kālikā, with dishevelled hair, from the corners of whose mouth two streams of blood trickle, they who recite another doubled Bīja of Thine composed of Īśa [i.e., “ha”], Vaiṣvānara [i.e., “ra”], Vāmanetra [i.e., “ī”], and the lustrous Bindu [i.e., “ṃ”], destroy all their enemies, and bring under subjection the three worlds.120 The Tantric practitioner, in other words, is instructed to recite hrīṃ hrīṃ as part of this goddess’s mantra. In this way, Tantric hymns frequently encode the main features necessary for worship of a particular deity. They are also found in collections of five types of short texts (pañcāṅga) relevant for the worship of Tantric deities: a paṭala (containing information on the use of mantras in particular), a pūjāpaddhati (a ritual manual for worship), a kavaca, a sahasranāman, and a stotra, most often in this order.121 In such lists, the term stotra refers to a general hymn of praise, while kavaca (“armor”) and sahasranāman (“a thousand names”) refer specifically to hymns of protection and nāmastotras, respectively. The fact that devotees in different sectarian traditions may be instructed to offer a sahasranāman helps to explain the proliferation of such hymns with different addressees. Other than the Śatarudrīya, the most important of the nāmastotras is certainly the Viṣṇusahasranāman. It is usually included in recensions of the Mahābhārata, and a popular commentary on the text is attributed to Śaṅkara. One of the many Indian publications of the Viṣṇusahasranāman includes a description of “the method of repeating this hymn”: The ancient custom, still observed in villages, especially of the south, is to repeat each name of the Sahasranāma, offering Tulasi leaves or any available flowers of the season to the idol of Viṣṇu in his various incarnations as Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, etc. This is done for the fulfilment of one’s desires, or to ward off the evil influence of planets. Many merely repeat the whole list sitting before the idol with bhasma (sacred ashes) in a plate by their side, which is afterwards distributed among the village people.122

120. Hymns to the Goddess, 290; see also Sir John Woodroffe [under the pseudonym Arthur Avalon], Hymn to Kālī: Karpūrādi-​stotra (Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1953), 2–​4. 121. Goudriaan and Gupta, Hindu Tantric and Śākta Literature, 156; Bühnemann, “Structure and Application of Hindu Sanskrit Stotras,” 84. 122. Viṣṇusahasranāma with the Bhāṣya of Śrīśaṃkarācārya, trans. R. Anathakrishna Sastry (Madras: Adyar Library and Research Centre, 1980), xxiii.



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Among the various types of nāmastotras, series of 1,000 or 1,008 names and epithets are particularly common, most likely due to the success of the Viṣṇusahasranāman. The popular Lalitāsahasranāman, for example, which is said to be part of the Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa, praises the Śrīvidyā goddess Lalitā, also known as Tripurasundarī.123 In such Tantric traditions the association between stotras and mantras is especially clear. The śrīvidyā mantra is seen as the “condensed” name of the goddess in the Śrīvidyā tradition, while the thousand names of Lalitā in the Lalitāsahasranāman are considered her “diffuse” mantra.124 Sometimes an abbreviated form of these compositions is published along with the full stotra for shorter recitations and worship, along with pronunciation guides and other supporting materials to aid the worshipper.125 There are also extended poems based on such nāmastotras, such as the Devīnāmavilāsa of Sāhib Kaul, which expands on the thousand names of the goddess Bhavānī. Part nāmastotra, in that it provides and explains the thousand names of the goddess, and part kāvya, in that it is an extended narrative replete with complex poetic figures, the DNV shares many features with stotra literature but resists strict classification, as we will see in Chapters 3 and 8. While the majority of stotras, including nāmastotras and hymns of protection, have no known human author, certain authors have been considered traditionally to be the author of multiple types of hymns. Śaṅkara, or Ādi Śaṅkarācārya (c. eighth century CE), is considered to have been particularly prolific. There are over a hundred hymns attributed to Śaṅkara, and a great deal of dispute remains about which were composed by him, which were composed by later Advaita Vedāntin teachers holding the institutional position of a śaṅkarācārya, and which have been attributed to him for the sake of prestige, authority, or fame.126 Attributing such hymns to philosophical authors may have also been used to present their teachings in condensed form, or to add personal or emotional elements to their rational arguments. What is remarkable about the hymns attributed to Śaṅkara is their diverse content, which ranges from basic philosophical texts to devotional and Tantric hymns to Śiva and several goddesses. Some of the philosophical stotras attributed to him develop the style and content of hymns found in early mahākāvyas, which often used archaic language and emphasized ideas over poetry. Others are devotional,

123. Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 270. 124. Douglas Renfrew Brooks, The Secret of the Three Cities: An Introduction to Hindu Śākta Tantrism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 104. 125. See, for example, Kusum N. Desai, Śhri Lalitā Sahasranāma Stotra (Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1998). 126.  Lienhard, History of Classical Poetry, 139–​140; Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 252–​255; Robert E. Gussner, “A Stylometric Study of the Authorship of Seventeen Sanskrit Hymns Attributed to Śaṅkara,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 96, no. 2 (1976).

54 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

highly poetic, or even erotic. Many scholars have noted that Śaṅkara’s doctrine of a higher and lower truth could accommodate the devotion and anthropomorphism of popular stotras. Hindus often interpret his authorship of stotras as evidence for the compatibility of devotional worship and philosophical non-​ dualism. Nevertheless, it is striking that a number of Tantric hymns in particular are traditionally accepted as authentic. The most popular is the Saundaryalaharī (whose first forty-​one verses are known separately sometimes as the Ānandalaharī), “one of the most widely used devotional texts of modern Hinduism.”127 This famous hymn praises the goddess and belongs in particular to the Tantric Śākta tradition of Śrīvidyā.128 Manuscripts of it are found throughout India, and “there are numerous lists of magic diagrams (yantra) and mystic seed syllables (bījākṣara) for use with the separate stanzas and prescriptions of accessory paraphernalia and methods for reciting the stanzas.”129 Its fame must be due in part to its rich combination of religious sentiment and poetic quality. The Dakṣiṇāmūrtistotra, which pays homage to Śiva in the form of the guru, may also have some Tantric associations; it has long been noted that it employs some of the technical terms and analogies of the Śaiva philosophical and theological tradition called Pratyabhijñā.130 This hymn, according to Robert Gussner (based on painstaking “stylometric” analysis), may be the only hymn actually composed by Śaṅkara himself—​but this, too, remains in doubt.131 Many of the other hymns attributed to the great philosopher are more squarely Vedāntic. The Mohamudgara (Hammer [ for destroying] ignorance), for example, extolls the knowledge that leads to liberation. Traditionally, the Mohamudgara is usually called the Bhajagovindastotra, after the key phrase in its refrain, bhaja govindam:  “Worship Govinda!” or “Be devoted to Govinda!”132 Rather that addressing a deity, this hymn calls out to a human audience, to those people who might stray from the path of true knowledge. This appeal to a human audience supports the argument that some stotras have important public dimensions.133 The Mohamudgara in particular strikes one as a tool for conveying the basic teachings of Advaita Vedānta. Verse 9, for example, says:

127. W. Norman Brown, ed. and trans., The Saundaryalaharī or Flood of Beauty, Traditionally Ascribed to Śaṅkara (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1958), v. 128.  On Śaṅkara and Śrīvidyā, see Elaine M. Fisher, Hindu Pluralism:  Religion and the Public Sphere in Early Modern South India (Oakland: University of California Press, 2017), Chapter 2. 129. Brown, Saundaryalaharī, v. 130. T. M. P. Mahadevan, The Hymns of Śaṅkara (Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1970), 6–​7, 13, 17. 131. Gussner, “A Stylometric Study,” 259–​267. 132. On this phrase as a refrain, see Mahadevan, Hymns of Śaṅkara, 38. 133. Bronner, “Singing to God, Educating the People”; Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry.”



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Through the company of the good, there arises non-​ attachment; through non-​attachment, there arises freedom from delusion; through delusionlessness, there arises steadfastness; through steadfastness, there arises liberation in life. (trans. T. M. P. Mahadeva)134 There is a popular story about the authorship of this hymn. Śaṅkara was walking with his disciples in Varanasi when he heard a scholar reciting grammatical rules. He approached him, and with twelve verses (plus the refrain, quoted above) he urged the scholar to turn from grammar to worship. The fourteen disciples with him are said to have each added a verse of their own.135 Both the story and the poem itself suggest this hymn may have functioned as a tool for preaching or teaching. The list of stotras attributed to Śaṅkara goes on and on.136 This group of texts raises many of the same challenges hindering the study of stotras and their history: uncertain authorship and provenance, the accretion of frame stories (many of which are hagiographical), the complex and shifting textual record of these compositions, and their sheer number and diversity. The stotras attributed to Śaṅkara pose an intriguing but difficult challenge for scholarly interpretations of India’s religious history. Unfortunately, the tangled origins of these compositions have prevented many scholars from asking more interesting questions about their content, reception, and interpretation. Overall, the ascription of such a diverse range of hymns to this one author, along with their great popularity, remains a fascinating and understudied feature of stotra literature. While generally not as famous or prolific as Śaṅkara is traditionally held to have been, many other prominent authors in South Asia composed stotras along with their other works (or had stotras attributed to them), including Rāmānuja (and other early Śrīvaiṣṇava poets), Vedāntadeśika, Appayya Dīkṣita, Utpaladeva, Abhinavagupta, Rūpa Gosvāmin, and Jagannātha Paṇḍitarāja. Many of these hymns provide evidence for this genre’s potential to express, develop, and disseminate specific theological positions. In South India, for instance, composing stotras was part of the early evolution of the Śrīvaiṣṇava tradition. Yāmuna and Rāmānuja

134. Hymns of Śaṅkara, 66. 135. Ibid., 39. 136.  Among the many other hymns attributed to Śaṅkara are the Śivānandalaharī, which praises Śiva in rich poetic verses (Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 254–​255; Mahadevan, Hymns of Śaṅkara, 115–​243); the short Annapūrṇāstotra, still recited in Varanasi, where there is a major temple to this goddess; the Gurvaṣṭaka, eight stanzas praising devotion to one’s religious teacher; the Bhavānyaṣṭaka and Devyaparādhakṣamāpana, both addressed to Devī and praised as being among “the finest specimens of Sanskrit hymnic poetry” (Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 253); and the Harimīḍestotra, whose title comes from the phrase “I praise Hari” (harim īḍe). And the list goes on.

56 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

(eleventh and twelfth centuries) are both said to have composed stotras (the latter’s in prose), as did Rāmānuja’s disciples Kūreśa and Bhaṭṭar. Nancy Ann Nayar has argued that they used these hymns to bring together multiple streams of religious literature to express their unique theological vision.137 These hymns are dedicated to specific iconic forms of Viṣṇu, such as Lord Varadarāja at Kāñcīpuram, and they “are recited even today in their appropriate temples as an integral part of Vaiṣṇava temple ritual.”138 Bhaṭṭar’s Śrīraṅgarājastava even depicts the Śrīraṅgam temple layout, beginning with a eulogy to the area surrounding the temple, then proceeding through the various gateways and areas of the temple complex, and culminating in a eulogy to the form of Viṣṇu and Śrī within the inner sanctum.139 Vedāntadeśika (c. 1268–​1369), another prominent Śrīvaiṣṇava poet, also used stotras to bring together potentially disparate aspects of his tradition and to resolve certain theological debates.140 Like the earlier poets, Vedāntadeśika also focuses on the iconic images of Viṣṇu enshrined in temples and on the relationship of the Śrīvaiṣṇava devotee to that form. In the Devanāyakapañcāśat, for example, he says: Seeing your lovely body whose splendor is made even more perfect by each perfect limb, enjoyed by your beloved wives with unblinking, astonished eyes, and sought out by the jewels and weapons that adorn it to increase their own radiance, my sight, O Lord of Gods, is not sated with seeing! (trans. Hopkins)141 Such verses seem to suggest a personal and intimate relationship between Viṣṇu and his devotee. Yigal Bronner, however, has argued that, at least in the case of the Śaiva theologian and philosopher Appayya Dīkṣita, there are also important public dimensions to the composition and recitation of stotras. He proposes that Appayya was attracted to the stotra form because it was useful to him as a teacher,

137. Poetry as Theology, xi. 138. Praise-​Poems to Viṣṇu and Śrī: The Stotras of Rāmānuja’s Immediate Disciples, trans. Nancy Ann Nayar (Bombay: Ananthacharya Indological Research Institute, 1994), 3. 139. Ibid., 10–​12,175–​225. 140. See Steven Paul Hopkins, Singing the Body of God: The Hymns of Vedāntadeśika in Their South Indian Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 22, 236, and also Chapter 4 of the present work. 141. Devanāyakapañcāśat v. 14, trans. Hopkins, Singing the Body of God, 199.



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giving him a means of reaching a wider audience with his teachings on a variety of topics. It allowed him “to reach out to some community of listeners and instruct them on a variety of topics: from purāṇas to speech ornaments to piety and surrender.”142 Stotras have been popular and influential in other traditions and regions as well. In the northeast, many stotras were composed by the followers of Caitanya (1485–​ 1533), most notably by Rūpa Gosvāmin and Raghunātha Dāsa. Rūpa Gosvāmin’s short works were compiled by his nephew Jīva Gosvāmin into a collection called the Stavamālā.143 The hymns of these poets reflect the distinct features of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition, such as what is called rāgānugā bhakti, devotion that involves acting out of a particular dramatic role in the divine play with Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā.144 Moreover, as David Buchta has argued, Sanskrit stotras played an important role as both theological and pedagogical texts in the early development of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava community.145 Some hymns in this tradition are closely associated with temple liturgical schedules, such as Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Aṣṭakālīyalīlāsmaraṇamaṅgalastotra (Auspicious praise of the remembrance of [Kṛṣṇa’s] play divided into eight time periods). This hymn divides Kṛṣṇa’s divine play in Vraja (vrajalīlā) into eight parts, which structures the corresponding temple schedule.146 In other words, the events described in this hymn—​Kṛṣṇa’s activities like sleeping, eating, and his love-​play with the gopīs—​are matched by the temple routine that wakes and feeds Kṛṣṇa, dresses him for his departure for the forest, and so on. Rūpa Gosvāmin makes it clear that his stotra is designed for worship at its very start: “I praise Kṛṣṇa’s eternal activities in Vraja in order to explain now the mental worship to be performed by those travelling on the path of passion (i.e., Rāgānugā).”147 According to this tradition, such poetry was produced both as a result of meditation on Kṛṣṇa’s līlā and also for such meditation.148 Such hymns are frequently memorized and used as the basis for the visualization and worship of Kṛṣṇa within Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava communities. In the far north, many of the leading Śaiva theologians from Kashmir composed stotras, as Chapter  4 explores in detail. Hymns by the Śaiva polymath

142. Bronner, “Singing to God, Educating the People,” 127. 143. Lienhard, History of Classical Poetry, 147, and Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry,” 35–​37. 144.  Examples of these dramatic roles include Kṛṣṇa’s friends and lovers; see David L. Haberman, Acting as a Way of Salvation: A Study of Rāgānugā Bhakti Sādhana (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988), and Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 262. 145. Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry.” 146. Haberman, Acting as a Way of Salvation, 128. 147. Trans. Haberman, Acting as a Way of Salvation, 161. 148. Haberman, Acting as a Way of Salvation, 129–​130.

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Abhinavagupta, for example, are generally sophisticated and dense compositions, reflecting his complex, non-​dual exegesis of earlier Tantric traditions. Some of the most well-​known compositions are the devotional hymns and individual verses of the Pratyabhijñā theologian Utpaladeva, which were later gathered together into a collection called the Śivastotrāvalī (Garland of hymns to Śiva). In addition to emphasizing the non-​dual theology of Utpaladeva’s tradition, these hymns are sometimes personal and dwell upon the experience of devotion to Śiva, as in the second verse of the collection: Though my soul is young Drinking the nectar of your devotion, It is yet as one gone grey, With hair whitened by the dust Along this journey through the world. (trans. Bailly)149 These hymns were probably used by both Śaiva initiates and lay devotees during Śaiva rituals or when visiting Śaiva shrines.150 In the seventeenth century, Jagannātha Paṇḍitarāja, a scholar from Varanasi patronized by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, became famous for his Sanskrit works, including five highly poetic hymns called laharīs (“waves” or “billows”) to the gods Viṣṇu and Sūrya, the goddess Lakṣmī, and the rivers Yāmuna and Gaṅgā (Karuṇālaharī, Sudhālaharī, Lakṣmīlaharī, Amṛtalaharī, and Gaṅgālaharī).151 They hearken back to the Saundaryalaharī attributed to Śaṅkara. A famous story is associated with the last of these, the Gaṅgālaharī. Jagannātha is said to have married a Muslim woman at the court of Shah Jahan, for which he was excommunicated by his Brahman community. But when he recited the Gaṅgālaharī on the steps of the Ganges, the river is said to have risen fifty-​two steps (for the poem’s fifty-​two verses, other than one phalaśruti verse) and washed over Jagannātha and his wife, purifying them. According to the story, they both drowned, but the poem achieved fame throughout India. While this is historically problematic, since Jagannātha quotes his own Gaṅgālaharī in later works, it dramatizes the esteem given to this poet and the power of poetic prayer.152

149. Śivastotrāvalī 1.2, trans. Constantina Rhodes Bailly, Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir: A Translation and Study of Utpaladeva’s Shivastotravali (Albany: SUNY Press, 1987), 29. 150. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 399–​400. 151.  On the Gaṅgālaharī, see Paṇḍitarāja Jagannātha, The Saving Waves of the Milk-​White Gaṅgā, trans. John Cort (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 2007). 152.  Gonda, Medieval Religious Literature, 265; K. N. Shastri, ed., Works of Panditaraja Jagannath’s Poetry (Stotra Kavyas: Five Laharis) (Jaipur: Publication Scheme, 1987), 4–​7.



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Stotras have maintained and increased their vitality in the modern period. It is notable that the two most important poems of the Indian nationalist movement—​ Rabindranath Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana (now the national anthem of India) and Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay’s Bande Mataram (originally published in the novel Ānandamaṭha)—​were written in Bengali but heavily influenced by Sanskrit. They suggest how the stotra form—​as a public eulogy capable of connecting a speaker and audience—​can be turned into a powerful political tool. Stotras have continued to be composed across a wide variety of traditions. The Bengali renouncer Hariharananda Aranya (1869–​1947), for example, composed devotional hymns to Īśvara, the highest god of Sāṃkhya-​Yoga, that are recited in the monastery he founded in the state of Jharkhand.153 Stotras continue to be published individually and in collections, both in Sanskrit and in translation. Often these publications include instructions and support for Hindus who want to recite these stotras in worship, including audio recordings, such as the collection Stotra Sindhu: Sanskrit Prayers, a “selection of Sanskrit verses written by the sadhus and devotees of Bhagwan Swaminarayan.”154 Devotees continue to compose their own stotras. In the mid-​twentieth century, for example, Rameshvar Jha composed his Gurustuti in honor of Swami Lakshman Joo (1907–​1991), the Śaiva guru from Kashmir.155 Stotras are particularly popular in modern guru-​traditions, many of which have an international community of followers. In his study of Mata Amritanandamayi (affectionately called Amma or Ammachi), Selva Raj reports that this famous guru has strongly encouraged her devotees to chant and study the Lalitāsahasranāman. This text, moreover, “is now available to devotees on an interactive CD, with special stotras (praise hymns) composed to Amma as Lalita, revealing the clear claim that Amma is the direct embodiment of the great South

153.  Knut A. Jacobsen, “Songs to the Highest God (Īśvara) of Sāṃkhya-​Yoga,” in Yoga in Practice, ed. David Gordon White (Princeton, NJ:  Princeton University Press, 2011), 325–​ 328, and 330–​336 for some of Aranya’s hymns in translation. For more on this tradition, see Jacobsen’s other works on Sāṃkhya-​Yoga:  “The Wisdom of Kapila’s Cave:  Sāṃkhya-​ Yoga as Practice,” in Hinduism in Practice, ed. Hillary Rodrigues (London:  Routledge, 2011); Kapila:  Founder of Samkhya and Avatara of Vishnu (New Delhi:  Munshiram Manoharlal, 2008); “Yoga Powers in a Contemporary Sāṃkhya-​Yoga Tradition,” in Yoga Powers: Extraordinary Capacities Attained Through Meditation and Concentration, ed. Knut A. Jacobsen (Leiden: Brill, 2012); and his forthcoming monograph on “living Sāṃkhyayoga.” 154.  The following description is available on the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha website (http://​www.baps.org/​Publications/​Audios/​Kirtan/​Stotra-​Sindhu-​245.aspx, accessed February 11, 2017):  “Selection of Sanskrit verses written by the sadhus and devotees of Bhagwan Swaminrayan. These verses which describe the glory of God and Guru are sung daily in BAPS shikarbaddh mandirs. These soothing recitals create a profound atmosphere of peace.” 155.  Bettina Bäumer and Sarla Kumar, eds., Saṃvidullāsaḥ:  Manifestation of Divine Consciousness: Swami Lakshman Joo, Saint-​Scholar of Kashmir Śaivism: A Centenary Tribute (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2007), 29–​32.

60 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

Indian deity, Lalitambika.”156 Numerous websites make stotras available online and often include recordings of these hymns being sung. The website of Sri Venkata Sastry (vedamantram.com), for instance, offers recordings of various hymns to Śiva, Viṣṇu, and Devī, in addition to selections from the Vedas. Many of the same features that have made the stotra genre successful over the centuries—​its adaptability, its combination of poetry, theology, and practice, its performative dimensions, its ability to be sung and put to music—​have contributed to its enduring appeal into the twenty-​first century. The history of stotra literature is interwoven with countless other developments in South Asia, from praśasti and kāvya to the trajectory of specific religious communities. But the relationship between Sanskrit hymns of praise and vernacular devotional poetry is particularly significant. While the history of this relationship is too complex, and too varied, to be analyzed in detail here, it is important to note the mutual influence that Sanskrit and vernacular hymns have had on each other. As Norman Cutler observes in his study of Tamil bhakti poets: If, in the saints’ poems, we hear echoes of classical Tamil poems of love and war, of folk songs, of Sanskrit stotras, and even of Vedic hymns, there is good reason for this. These are among the many sources from which the Tamil poets drew inspiration. It is also important to keep in mind that Tamil and Sanskrit thrived for many centuries side-​by-​side in south India, and that southern authors of Sanskrit texts were also influenced by the themes and forms of Tamil literature.157 The case of Tamil poetry has been particularly well studied in this regard, at least in comparison to other vernacular languages. In her study of the Śaiva Tamil poets, Indira Peterson notes that “in terms of subject matter and some formal characteristics, as well as in terms of their function as sacred utterances in a ritual context, the patikams [Tamil hymns] are closely associated with early Sanskrit stotra (‘praise poem’) hymns.”158 Sometimes Tamil hymns were even referred to in Sanskrit literature as draviḍastotras (“Dravidian” or Tamil stotras). As for the influence of Tamil hymns on Sanskrit literature, the Bhāgavatapurāṇa remains

156. Selva J. Raj, “Passage to America: Ammachi on American Soil,” in Gurus in America, ed. Thomas A. Forsthoefel and Cynthia Ann Humes (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005), 143. For additional context on this claim, see Amanda J. Lucia, Reflections of Amma: Devotees in a Global Embrace (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 104. 157. Norman Cutler, Songs of Experience: The Poetics of Tamil Devotion (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), 6. 158. Indira Vishwanathan Peterson, Poems to Śiva: The Hymns of the Tamil Saints (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989), 25–​26.



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the most well-​studied case and includes a number of hymns indebted to earlier Tamil poetry.159 Nancy Ann Nayar notes that “the general literary milieu of both the Āḷvārs and the early Ācāryas was one in which the poetry of praise flourished. Many devotional praise-​poems in Tamil resembled the Sanskrit stotra both in structure and in style.”160 And for Vedāntadeśika, Hopkins argues, “a full praise of the deity demands more than one tongue.”161 Stotras were important for poets composing in other vernaculars as well. Much more could be said about specific vernacular poets and their relationship to Sanskrit literature, but in the present context a few generalities must suffice. Vernacular hymns share many of stotras’ general features outlined above, including the basic act of praise and the frequent use of vocatives, epithets, and allusions to texts like the Purāṇas to describe the deity’s iconography, exploits, and powers. They are recited, sung, and often memorized. They are frequently used in worship and are almost always devotional. One could argue, therefore, that stotras are the closest form of Sanskrit literature to vernacular devotional poetry, and their mirrored popularity stems partly from their shared characteristics. I return to the interwoven history of vernacular and Sanskrit devotional poetry in this book’s conclusion, but this is a large and open field for future research. Looking back on the long history of stotras in South Asia, we can see notable historical developments and also challenges and questions that remain. It seems, for instance, that the seventh century was a landmark period for stotra literature, as professional poets composed short, devotional poems using the full arsenal of formal Sanskrit literature that became popular across a vast area. Other aspects of this history remain indeterminate but tantalizing; Were Buddhist or Jain authors, for example, the first to write kāvya-​style hymns? In part, a full history of stotras remains a desideratum because of the diversity of the genre itself. Stotras served different functions and evolved distinctive features within specific communities and regions. Moreover, as we have seen, there are distinct types of hymns—​protective, philosophical, and so on—​that converge under the umbrella of the stotra as a broad, flexible category. These subtypes have their own trajectories that require their own studies. Additionally, they are found in a huge array of texts, from Sanskrit court poetry to esoteric Tantric scriptures. The survey I have offered here highlights the need for further research on specific contexts and developments, which can then contribute to our understanding of the rich, long history of stotras in South Asia. This is precisely what I present in the remainder of this book: an historical analysis of stotras from Kashmir that introduces new

159. Nayar, Poetry as Theology, 20–​21; Friedhelm Hardy, Viraha-​bhakti: The Early History of Kṛṣṇa Devotion in South India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983). 160. Nayar, Poetry as Theology,  19–​20. 161. Hopkins, Singing the Body of God, 6.

62 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

evidence and perspectives into the study of poetic, devotional prayer and hymnal literature in South Asia.

Conclusion The most striking feature of stotra literature as a whole is its great diversity. The stotra is a highly flexible form, and it evolved as it was adapted in various contexts by human agents. In particular, stotras have served frequently as a bridge between different aspects of religious life. Composed in Sanskrit, they resonate with much vernacular devotional poetry. Closely linked with Vedic hymns and sharing in some of the prestige and authority of Vedic literature, they are also connected with post-​Vedic developments in theology, worship, and literature. In Steven Hopkins’s felicitous phrase, they embody “the poetry of pūjā.”162 They are employed in personal and temple rituals, yet this is not always or necessarily the case. Most immediately, stotras mediate between the deity and the devotee, but they engage other audiences as well, like the reciter’s students or religious community. Through stotras, Sanskrit continues to play a role in the religious practice of millions of Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists worldwide. Stotras continue to be memorized, sung, published, composed, and adapted to changing contexts in creative ways, and no doubt they will continue to be. This chapter has surveyed this complex corpus of stotra literature through three basic approaches: definition, classification, and history. All three highlight the flexibility of the genre and the diversity of this stotra literature. They are, of course, closely related and often overlapping. As a genre, the stotra is unified by the central act of praise that orients the composition toward some religious addressee, with all the range and ambiguity provided by the qualification “religious.” To reiterate the working definition with which I began this chapter, I characterize stotras on a basic level as reasonably short, vectorial poems, almost always in verse, that directly and indirectly praise and appeal to a deity (or some other religious addressee) using devotional language and that are considered efficacious in obtaining religious or material benefits when recited or sung. When we actually begin to differentiate between the countless compositions that have been called stotras, the usefulness of such definitions begins to fade. And yet much of the diversity of this corpus should be understood in relation to such a centralized understanding of the genre. The creativity of individual poets and traditions becomes clear when it contrasts with the existing conventions that serve as its backdrop. The history of stotra literature is interwoven with countless other strands of religious and cultural life in South Asia. Despite its Vedic roots, the stotra became a popular and creative genre in the hands of Buddhists and Jains as well. Stotras

162. Italics original; Hopkins, Singing the Body of God, 139.



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mirrored developments in poetry and poetics, perhaps those in praśasti literature in particular, and they also became influential sites of innovation. They are found embedded in a host of other texts, including the Sanskrit epics, mahākāvyas, Purāṇas, Tantras, and Āgamas. Independent hymns circulated widely in Central, South, and Southeast Asia. By the end of the first millennium, stotra literature was developing in close relationship to vernacular poetry in several regions, and bhakti became increasingly important as an explicit theme. The increasing number of commentaries on stotras from the latter half of the first millennium onward points to the potential this form offered for theological innovation and education. There has been an ever-​expanding range of addressees within stotra literature, and the functions such hymns serve also continue to multiply. Each region and period of study offers unique adaptations of the stotra form. Overall, the diversity and volume of stotra literature means that the movement between the study of individual hymns in their historical contexts and the consideration of broad, interregional trends is particularly important. This chapter has focused on the vast forest of stotra literature, noting general trends and features and drawing on a range of examples; the chapters that follow turn to the individual trees of Kashmir’s small but influential literary and religious landscape over the centuries.

3

Literary Hymns from Kashmir

A long view of Kashmir’s religious and literary history reveals that the stotra has been (and remains) a vibrant and popular genre of religious literature. Since at least the ninth century, stotras have reflected the diversity and complexity of the religious culture in Kashmir as well as its rich traditions of Sanskrit literature and literary theory. While the remainder of this book will focus on specific texts and themes, this chapter surveys the extended history of stotras in Kashmir. It focuses on some of the most influential and notable stotras produced in Kashmir from as early as the eighth century onward, and it analyzes what light they cast on the history of the stotra genre in this important hub of religious and academic learning. This overview, like this book as a whole, covers material spanning approximately 1,200 years, and thus it is necessarily selective. First and foremost, it focuses on literary hymns whose authors, provenance, and time of composition are relatively well established. This includes the most well-​known and influential stotras from Kashmir as well as others that offer unique evidence for the literary and religious history of the region. The poets I highlight are usually invested in the literary quality of their hymns, and more often than not they reflect on the nature of praise, prayer, devotion, and the stotra genre itself. As we will see, creative engagement with a complex, evolving Sanskrit literary culture is one of the distinguishing features of the most celebrated Kashmirian stotras. In contrast to these hymns, there are hundreds of unpublished stotras in various archives that may or may not have been composed or have been popular in Kashmir. Most of these have no known author and are said to belong to larger scriptures, such as the Bhṛṅgīśasaṃhitā.1 Many are associated with specific

1. Sanderson notes, for example, that the Vitastāmāhātmya, a text in praise of sacred sites along the Vitastā River in Kashmir valley, is said to belong to the Bhṛṅgīśasaṃhitā, and the Vitastāmāhātmya contains an anonymous hymn to Svacchandabhairava called the Vālakhilyastava “written in the Tantric Śaiva register,” which is “transmitted independently in composite manuscripts in which individuals have copied various short Tantric Śaiva works for their personal devotional study” (Alexis Sanderson, “Kashmir,” in Brill’s

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pilgrimage sites or festivals. Moreover, the quality of these stotras varies significantly, and their dates of composition remain difficult to determine. In general, there is a divide between these anonymous hymns and those composed by various religious and literary luminaries in Kashmir over the centuries. While the former certainly circulated in Kashmir, there is less evidence for how individual hymns from this general corpus have been influential or particularly popular.2 Even focusing on literary hymns, however, leaves a great deal that I cannot discuss, including many stotras that clearly warrant scholarly attention. I have deliberately left out some stotras known to Kashmirian authors that were most likely composed outside of Kashmir (such as those attributed to Śaṅkara), or those that have obscure histories, like those collected in the Pañcastavī. Some, like the Bahurūpagarbhastotra,3 are anonymous texts closely associated with a particular scripture and distinct from the literary hymns at the heart of this project. Sadly, some hymns have been lost, with only glimpses of their content available when they are quoted by others. In other cases, I simply have not had the space to discuss all the texts that could be explored—​the Bhāvopahārastotra,4 for example, or the hymns included in Jayadratha’s thirteenth-​ century Haracaritacintāmaṇi, which contains accounts of Śiva’s deeds in the world. Others, like the Īśvaraśataka, are only discussed briefly. Rather than trying to be exhaustive, I look closely at a selection of the most influential, sophisticated, and challenging stotras from the literary history of Kashmir. This overview suggests certain trends within this long history. Let me flag three of the broad themes that will make their appearance throughout this chapter and those that follow. The first is the complex relationship between theology and literature, and more specifically, theology and hymnic literature. Many Kashmirian authors explore theological concerns in their hymns. Those espousing non-​dualistic

Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Volume One:  Regions, Pilgrimage, Deities, ed. Knut A. Jacobsen [Leiden: Brill, 2009], 99–​126, 113–​114). 2. I should note, however, that this corpus awaits further research and may indeed prove to have had more influence and popularity than we currently understand. 3. See Hemendra Nath Chakravarty, “Bahurūpagarbhastotra: An Annotated Translation,” in Sāmarasya: Studies in Indian Arts, Philosophy, and Interreligious Dialogue, in Honour of Bettina Bäumer, ed. Sanananda Das and Ernst Fürlinger (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2005), 37–​48. Alexis Sanderson notes that the hymn received a commentary by Anantaśakti (which unfortunately I have not yet been able to examine) and the recitation of this hymn “became a standard feature at the beginning of Śaiva worship in Kashmir” (“The Śaiva Literature,” Journal of Indological Studies [Kyoto], nos. 24 & 25 [2012–​2013], 2014, 76: 46n173). 4.  On this hymn by the Śaiva ascetic Bhaṭṭāraka Cakrapāṇīnātha, see Alexis Sanderson, “The Śaiva Exegesis of Kashmir,” in Mélanges tantriques à la mémoire d’Hélène Brunner/​ Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner, ed. Dominic Goodall and André Padoux (Pondicherry:  Institut Français d’Indologie/​École Française d’Extrême-​Orient, 2007), 231–​ 442, 323–​328.



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positions, in particular, repeatedly address the nature of non-​dualistic praise, prayer, and devotion. This is often where they show the most creativity and complexity. These hymns indicate that stotras were seen to have a unique power to express, demonstrate, and disseminate theology in ways that other genres simply did not. Second, these stotras directly or indirectly express concern with their complex audiences. On one hand, like most stotras they have a divine audience with whom they interact by such means as calling out directly and indirect praise. On the other hand, these hymns have deep and self-​conscious concern for their human audiences. Some stotras, like those from the Krama tradition, are highly technical and lineage-​specific, requiring and transmitting specific and often esoteric knowledge. Others parallel the exoteric orientation of traditional Sanskrit literature. In both cases, however, these hymns engage with their multiple audiences in creative ways. Many, for instance, have potential as pedagogical texts, and some explicitly reveal this agenda. Collectively considered, these stotras raise the question of audience more insistently and productively than other genres. Third, authors chose the stotra form for creative literary experiments that challenged contemporary conventions or re-​envisioned earlier traditions. The trajectory of this genre is markedly different from that of other genres in Kashmir. The popularity of the stotra form has lasted for centuries, and the form remained a medium for great creativity even as the production of other types of texts dwindled. As the religious culture of Kashmir changed, it was the inherent flexibility of the stotra genre that enabled it to retain its appeal. Only if we consider its long trajectory, going beyond the most influential early period, can we appreciate the stotra’s full value for expressing, maintaining, and reformulating religious traditions in Kashmir. The history of stotras over this long period indicates the vitality of this genre as a site for religious innovation in Kashmir, from the time of the earliest literary hymns composed in the region down to the present day.

Stotras in Kashmir: An Overview An early hymn to the sun-​god stands out for its literary ambition, historical significance, and enduring popularity in Kashmir: the Sāmbapañcāśikā (SP), Sāmba’s fifty verses.5 The SP is a dense, poetic hymn totaling fifty-​three verses, all but the first and fifty-​third in the elegant Mandākrānta meter. It has been well known in Kashmir since at least the eleventh century, but this is primarily because of its

5. Bettina Bäumer reports that she has “heard it recited with a slow and impressive rhythm in Kashmir during the annual yajña at Ishvar Ashram and Guptaganga Temple” (“Sūrya in a Śaiva Perspective: The Sāmbapañcāśikā, A Mystical Hymn of Kashmir and Its Commentary by Kṣemarāja,” in Sahṛdaya:  Studies in Indian and South East Asian Art in Honour of Dr. R. Nagaswamy, ed. Bettina Bäumer et al. [Chennai: Tamil Arts Academy, 2006], 1).

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assimilation into the Śaivism that came to prevail among Kashmiri Pandits.6 We cannot say for certain when this poetic hymn to the sun was composed, aside from the fact that Kṣemarāja composed his commentary on it in the eleventh century. But there is evidence that the Saura tradition of sun worship flourished in Kashmir in the eighth century, exemplified most dramatically by the magnificent temple to the sun-​god and his consort at Mārtāṇḍatīrtha (modern Maṭan), built by King Lalitāditya in the mid-​eighth century.7 It is likely, therefore, that the SP was composed during this flourishing of the Saura tradition in the eighth century, and it may have been associated with the Mārtaṇḍa temple.8 The SP is attributed to “Sāmba” (both in the title and in vv. 51 and 52), a semi-​ legendary figure in the Saura tradition.9 The forty-​sixth verse of the SP suggests what had become a trope in Saura worship, namely that the author worshipped the sun-​god to free himself of disease: Those who, intent on enjoyment and yoga, say that the Lord grants freedom from disease when worshipped are both wise and fortunate in the world. Who else but the immortal Sun gives people (the freedom from disease) filled with the happiness of both enjoyment and liberation?10

6. Despite the fascinating content of the SP, the primary reason we have access to it at all is because it was incorporated into the Śaiva traditions of Kashmir through the commentary of Kṣemarāja. It is an excellent example of the “etiolation and subsumption of the cult of the Sun-​god” within Śaivism, a trend that has been charted by Alexis Sanderson in “The Śaiva Age: The Rise and Dominance of Śaivism During the Early Medieval Period,” in Genesis and Development of Tantrism, ed. Shingo Einoo, Institute of Oriental Culture Special Series, 23 (Tokyo:  Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, 2009), 53–​58. Bettina Bäumer likewise notes that the absorption of this tradition within Śaivism “was surely facilitated in the case of the Advaita Śaiva tradition of Kashmir because the Sun became a symbol of the Supreme Light of Consciousness (cit, saṃvit, prakāśa) and was hence identified with Śiva” (“Sūrya in a Śaiva Perspective,” 3). 7. Sanderson, “The Śaiva Age,” 57; Bäumer, “Sūrya in a Śaiva Perspective,” 2. 8. Bäumer, “Sūrya in a Śaiva Perspective,” 2. 9. According to André Padoux, tradition considers Kṛṣṇa the author of the first ten verses and his son Sāmba as the author of the remaining forty-​three, but there is no evidence internal to the text itself to suggest this dual authorship or any divisions within the text. As he notes, Sāmba has an Upapurāṇa devoted to him (the Sāmbapurāṇa), and he appears as a figure in the Mahābhārata and other Purāṇas: “Sāmbapañcāśikā, Les Cinquante Strophes de Samba [a la gloire du soleil],” in Le Parole e i Marmi: Studi in Onore di Raniero Gnoli nel suo 70° Compleanno, ed. Raffaele Torella (Rome:  Instituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, 2001), 565. 10.  ye cārogyaṃ diśati bhagavān sevito ‘py evam āhus te tattvajñā jagati subhagā bhogayogapradhānāḥ /​ bhukter mukter api ca jagatāṃ yac ca pūrṇaṃ sukhānāṃ tasyānyo ‘rkād amṛtavapuṣaḥ ko hi nāmāstu dātā //​ SP 46 //​Unless otherwise noted, all references are to the edition in Gopīnātha Kavirāja, ed., Tantrasaṃgraha, Part I, Yogatantra-​Granthamālā Vol. III (Varanasi: Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, 2002).



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In this way, the SP echoes two other famous hymns to the sun-​ god—​ the Ādityahṛdaya and the SūŚ of Mayūra.11 All three of these poems associate praising the sun-​god with revitalization, a common theme in much stotra literature (and one that is repeated in Kashmir in the seventeenth-​century hymns of Ratnakaṇṭha, discussed later). The content of the SP draws heavily on Vedic imagery and practices, yogic physiology, and a theology of speech and sound.12 The second verse, for example, praises the sun within the body as the sound “oṃ” and as what stabilizes the in-​ breath and out-​breath. In his commentary, Kṣemarāja introduces this verse by saying that “the poet, having praised the supreme sun as all-​pervasive (in v. 1), now praises the sun as pervading the central channel in the body.”13 Both Kṣemarāja’s commentary and the SP itself embrace the rich potential of imagery related to the sun, such as whiteness and light—​much of which can be depicted as both external and internal, symbolic phenomena. From verse to verse, the poem shifts between different conceptions of Sūrya as the supreme deity, the physical sun, and a light or energy within the body.14 Kṣemarāja interprets the SP according to his own non-​dual tradition, but one can also discern a strong non-​dual trend within the SP itself, which surely was one of the features of this Saura poem that appealed to Kṣemarāja. As I  explore in Chapter  4, the complex poetry of the SP enables specific kinds of theological exploration about the nature of devotion and prayer. Other sophisticated literary hymns were composed in the ninth century. This was an exciting time for Sanskrit in Kashmir. Kashmirian authors made long-​ lasting contributions to a number of disciplines, from logic and hermeneutics to Śaiva theology to poetry and aesthetics. The reign of Jayāpīḍa (c. 826–​83815),

11. On these two hymns, see earlier, Chapter 2. The SP echoes these earlier poems to Sūrya in other ways as well, especially the SūŚ. For instance, the SP and the SuŚ both use complex imagery and poetic figures, such as elaborate punning (śleṣa). Both SP v.  9 and SuŚ v.  7, for example, use śleṣa to invoke the image of Viṣṇu as a dwarf or youth. In fact, in light of such close parallels, it is likely that the author of the SP was familiar with the SuŚ and was deliberately building upon it. 12. Padoux, “Les Cinquante Strophes de Sāmba,” 566. For some examples of Vedic references, see SP vv. 10, 24, and 27; for examples of yogic physiology, SP vv. 2, 5, 14, 19, 29, 35, and 50; for the theology of speech and sound, SP vv. 1, 2, 4, 13, 21, 23, and 32. 13. evaṃ sāmānyavyāptyā paramārkaṃ stutvā dehasthamadhyanāḍīvyāptyā stauti; SP, p. 2. 14. As Padoux notes: “Throughout, the hymn alternates or mingles forms of homage or worship with micro-​and macro-​cosmic identifications and correspondences, the sun being at once the supreme deity, a star, and an aspect of the energy that is both cosmic and human” (“Les Cinquante Strophes de Sāmba,” 568; my translation). 15. On this dating, see Alexis Sanderson, “History Through Textual Criticism in the Study of Śaivism, the Pañcarātra and the Buddhist Yoginītantras,” in Les Sources et le temps [Sources and Time], ed. François Grimal, Publications du département d’Indologie 91 (Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondichéry/​École française d’Extrême-​Orient, 2001), 5–​6n3.

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in particular, is heralded by later authors as inaugurating the cultural hegemony of the vale of Kashmir within the Sanskrit cosmopolis.16 The flourish of literary activity taking place in Kashmir during the ninth century included the composition of several literary hymns notable for their relationship to both Sanskrit literature and the history of religious traditions in the region. The poet Ratnākara placed two hymns at crucial moments of his major poem (mahākāvya), the Haravijaya (HaVi; Śiva’s victory), composed around 830 CE at the court of Jayāpīḍa.17 His short, independent work—​the Vakroktipañcāśikā (VP; Fifty verbal perversions18)—​uses clever literary devices to offer praise and benediction. But the real focus of the poem is Ratnākara’s experimentation with (and perhaps creation of19) a specific literary figure called “crooked speech” or verbal distortion (vakrokti) and its deployment for the poem’s plot and characterization. Yigal Bronner and Lawrence McCrea have shown how the use of deliberate verbal distortions in Ratnākara’s representation of a dialogue between Śiva and Pārvatī develops its plot and characters. The VP is a praise-​ poem20 about Śiva and Pārvatī, but it is directed toward a human audience able to appreciate the poet’s depiction of divine wordplay. In fact, Ratnākara assures this audience that one who contemplates this poem without envy “will become skilled in the composition of poetry, like Ratnākara himself.”21 Here he points to the instructive potential of such poetry. Considering this poem in light of the hymns in the HaVi, one can see that the praise-​poem was a flexible and powerful genre for Ratnākara’s innovative interventions in the literary world of ninth-​century Kashmir.

16.  Yigal Bronner historicizes this claim to cultural hegemony by analyzing Kalhaṇa’s account of Jayāpīḍa’s rise (“From Conqueror to Connoisseur: Kalhaṇa’s Account of Jayāpīḍa and the Fashioning of Kashmir as a Kingdom of Learning,” Indian Economic and Social History Review 50, no. 2 (2013): 161–​177). 17. For the date of the Haravijaya, see Sanderson, “History Through Textual Criticism,” 5–​ 6n3, and also Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 425. 18.  See Yigal Bronner and Lawrence McCrea, “The Poetics of Distortive Talk:  Plot and Character in Ratnākara’s ‘Fifty Verbal Perversions’ (Vakroktipañcāśikā),” Journal of Indian Philosophy 29 (2001): 435–​464. 19. Ibid., 439–​440. 20. Classifying this poem raises certain problems, which attests to its creative sophistication. While most -​pañcāśikā texts are indeed stotras (e.g., the Sāmbapañcāśikā), Ratnākara’s emphasis on narrative and character (as analyzed by Bronner and McCrea) is more closely aligned with kāvya proper than most stotra literature. 21. kāvyabandhe sa bhavet ratnākaravad pravīṇaḥ /​ VP v. 51.



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One of Ratnākara’s contemporaries also composed an elaborate praise-​ poem. While Ānandavardhana is renowned for his work on aesthetic theory, the Dhvanyāloka, he also composed a hymn of “a hundred verses”22 to the goddess called the Devīśataka (DŚ). This poem has received some attention because of the apparent discord between its poetic style and the literary criticism in Ānandavardhana’s expository work. Ānandavardhana famously classifies citrakāvya—​“brilliant” or virtuosic poetry, sometimes including pictorial elements, which he defines as poetry devoid of aesthetic suggestion—​as the lowest of three kinds of kāvya. As Daniel H. H. Ingalls notes, “it therefore comes as a surprise to find that this same author wrote, in the DŚ, a work that exactly fits the definition of this execrated category of literature. Almost every stanza of the poem contains a verbal display of some sort.”23 Ingalls explains this by drawing on the verse hidden within the final verses, only to be reconstructed by the correct interpretation of the image (citra) of a wheel that can be constructed out of syllables from the hymn’s verses. This secret verse claims that the poet composed this hymn to the goddess because she instructed him in a dream: The son of Noṇa has thus performed his worship of the Goddess under the title of “The Goddess’s Century” as instructed in a dream, a worship unsurpassed by reason of her having been the instructress. (Ingalls’s translation)24 Ingalls proposes that this command from his chosen deity would have allowed him to compose such a poem, drawing on his skill in composing citrakāvya poetry, without incurring criticism for composing a poem that seems to contradict his own practice of literary criticism.25 This explanation is only partially satisfying. Citrakāvya has long been popular in South Asia, and Ānandavardhana may have felt obligated to demonstrate his own virtuosity in this arena. Or maybe the pictorial element of citrakāvya appealed to his religious sensibilities; the secret verse in the middle of the wheel of verses parallels the placement of one’s chosen deity in the center of a maṇḍala. David Buchta compares the “ornamentation of a poem in honor of a god to the ornamentation of a temple icon” to help explain why Ānandavardhana, and many other stotra authors, include such citrakāvya

22.  The total number of verses is 104, including the phalaśruti verses and the additional verse created out of the inner rim of the “great wheel” created in the final set of verses (see Daniel H. H. Ingalls, “Ānandavardhana’s Devīśataka,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 109, no. 4 (October–​December 1989): 575. 23. Ibid., 565. 24. Ibid., 575. 25. Ibid., 566.

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in their hymns.26 Perhaps his literary practices reflect a liberal attitude toward poetry dominated by devotional concerns, or the marginal status of such hymns within the world of Sanskrit literature (as I discuss in Chapter 6). In other words, Ānandavardhana may have chosen to compose his own citrakāvya in the stotra genre because the centrality of bhakti in such compositions shielded his work from some of the criticisms his own followers or opponents might levy. According to the logic of such bhakti, if the goddess wants citrakāvya, the devotee must comply—​just as in other contexts, devotees must offer her blood sacrifices, even if they have their reservations, because that is what she wants. Or finally, perhaps at the time he composed it he did not see a conflict between citrakāvya and rasa at all, and the poetic devices of the poem were designed to evoke the miraculous rasa (a possibility I return to in Chapter 6). Ratnākara and Ānandavardhana’s hymns show that some of the smartest poets in ninth-​century Kashmir took this genre seriously as a site for literary experimentation. Their poetry combines traditional features of stotra literature—​praise for a deity’s qualities and legendary activities, supplication, and so on—​with the sophistication of kāvya and theological reflection. In this way, these poets look back to earlier exemplars in Sanskrit literature—​most notably Bāṇa and Mayūra—​but also contribute to the dynamic evolution of Sanskrit literature in the second half of the first millennium. Their hymns, along with the SP, also mark the beginning of an enduring trend in the composition of stotras in Kashmir: the potent mixture of ambitious literary and theological strategies, devotion, and, not infrequently, reflection on the stotra genre itself. These concerns permeate many of the stotras composed in Kashmir. In the tenth century, or perhaps the second half of the ninth,27 the Kashmirian Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa28 composed the Stavacintāmaṇi (StC; The wish-​fulfilling gem of

26.  David Buchta, “Evoking Rasa Through Stotra:  Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Līlāmṛta, A  List of Kṛṣṇa’s Names,” International Journal of Hindu Studies 20, no. 3 (December 2016): 358. See also the discussion of citrakāvya in Chapter 6 of the present work. 27.  See Lilian Silburn, trans., La Bhakti:  Le Stavacintāmaṇi de Bhaṭṭanārāyaṇa (Paris:  De Boccard, 1964), 8, and Boris Marjanovic, trans., Stavacintāmaṇi of Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa with the Commentary of Kṣemarāja (Varanasi: Indica Press, 2011), 19. 28. The earliest (and majority of) references to the Stavacintāmaṇi come from Kashmirian authors, the majority of manuscripts of the text come from Kashmir, and Bhaṭṭa was a common title (and later name) for Kashmirian Brahmans, hence Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa was almost certainly from Kashmir. Note that his name is sometimes rendered as Bhaṭṭanārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa, or Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa (e.g., in Mark Dyczkowski, trans., The Stanzas on Vibration: The Spandakārikā with Four Commentaries [Albany: SUNY Press, 1992], 28, 304, 313n3). We have no other texts by this author; attempts to identity this Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa with other authors bearing similar names have been tentative at best. Kṣemarāja says that, according to “those who know the history” (ākhyāyikāvidaḥ), Parameśvara was the name of Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa’s paternal grandfather, Aparājita was his father’s name, Śrīdayā his mother’s, and Śaṅkara his older brother’s. These identifications



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praise), which consists of 120 verses29 in the flexible Anuṣṭubh meter in praise of Śiva as the supreme god. Abhinavagupta quotes it respectfully, so in all likelihood Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa was at least his elder contemporary.30 Since no earlier citations have been identified (so far), Abhinavagupta’s references remain the primary evidence for the terminus ante quem.31 As for its terminus post quem, we have less certainty. There are no definitive clues in the text itself about its relative date. However, StC vv. 117 and 118 hint at a theological debate between what were most likely dualistic Śaiva Siddhāntins and non-​dualist Śaivas. While this allows for no precise dating, it suggests that the StC was composed sometime after the rise of non-​dualism in Kashmir in the ninth century, and most likely during the prolific period of learned exegesis and philosophical debate in tenth-​century Kashmir.32 The evidence, therefore, while far from conclusive, does point toward the tenth century, or perhaps late ninth century, as the time of the StC’s composition. In its content, the StC draws on Śaiva scriptures and promotes accessible, devotional practices. These include the offering of praise and the recitation of the exoteric mantra [oṃ] namaḥ śivāya. While it uses some specialized language, the StC is not particularly sectarian or esoteric. Theologically, the hymn is generally non-​dualistic. It praises and appeals to Śiva in multiple forms, from the supreme, transcendent reality to an anthropomorphic deity with recognizable features and exploits to one’s own conscious self. This combination appears to have been a popular one; the prominence of this hymn within mainstream intellectual culture

are based on Kṣemarāja’s interpretation of puns (śleṣas) in the first three verses of the Stavacintāmaṇi (StC, p. 10). 29.  The Kashmir Series in Texts and Studies (KSTS) edition actually contains 121 verses, since there are two different verses numbered 47. All numbering and references to the StC and Kṣemarāja’s commentary refer to the KSTS edition, unless otherwise noted (The Stava-​Chintāmaṇi of Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa with Commentary by Kṣhemarāja, ed. Mukunda Rāma Shāstrī, KSTS No. X [Srinagar: Kashmir Pratap Steam Press, 1918]). 30. Dyczkowski, Stanzas on Vibration, 304. 31. One tentative connection could shift this date earlier. In the concluding verses of his commentary, Kṣemarāja mentions that there was an earlier commentary on the StC by one (Śrī-​) Rāma. There is some ambiguity about this Rāma. Some scholars have suggested that he is the same Rāma (also called Rājānaka Rāma and Rāmakaṇṭha) who wrote commentaries on the Spandakārikā and Bhagavadgītā, composed his own hymn or hymns, and collected and arranged Utpaladeva’s poetry into the Śivastotrāvalī (if indeed all of these authors are one and the same; see Navijivan Rastogi, “Foreword,” in Stavacintāmaṇi of Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa with the Commentary by Kṣemarāja, trans. Boris Marjanovic [Varanasi: Indica, 2011], 13–​14). If this is the case, then he was a disciple of Utpaladeva (fl. 925–​975). This would mean this Rāma wrote in the latter half of the tenth century, so the date of the StC could then be pushed back to the middle of the tenth century or earlier. But the identification between these Rāmas is far from certain, and we simply do not have enough evidence (most notably, Rāma’s commentary on the StC) to decide one way or the other. 32. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 427–​428.

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in Kashmir by the eleventh century is supported both by Kṣemarāja’s commentary on it and by Kṣemendra’s incorporation of some of its verses into his own eleventh-​century text, the Narmamālā (Garland of satire). Kṣemendra’s text provides some information on how the StC and other such stotras may have been used and perceived within elite circles in Kashmir. He incorporates the StC into his satire on the hypocrisy and corruption of government officials in Kashmir. In the relevant scene, a cruel official recites this Śaiva hymn in the first half of each verse, but breaks up his recitation in the second half with vicious commands to his henchmen. His orders are about a Brahman hunger fast he has orchestrated to manipulate the current political situation. The elegant language and religious sentiments of the StC’s verses are contrasted in this way with the official’s religious hypocrisy harnessed for political ends. Here are the first of these unique and provocative verses (in Fabrizia Baldissera’s translation): I.38. Surrounded by hundreds of servants he always recites hymns in his hypocritical worship of Śiva, exclaiming “Hā! Hā!” with tears in his eyes. I.39. “Through Paśyantī33 of beautiful words, who captivates the mind as soon as she is seen”—​ how many fasters unto death did I put in place in the temple of Vijayeśvara yesterday? I.40. “His infinite majesty shines forth Glory to Parameśvara!”—​ let these seventy-​three people be added to those who are already there.34 He continues in this way for several verses, and his orders get crueler as he goes. Right after singing a verse praising Śiva as the cause of all auspicious things, for example, he orders that “those who defy punishment should be killed, and all their wealth confiscated!”35 Kṣemendra concludes this sequence by saying:

33. Paśyantī, the “seeing” word, refers to a subtle level of speech originally described by the grammarian and philosopher Bhartṛhari. It became popular among the Śaivas of Kashmir, who adopted and changed Bhartṛhari’s original formulation. 34.  Fabrizia Baldissera, ed. and trans., The “Narmamālā” of Kṣemendra, Beiträge zur Südasienforschung 197 (Heidelberg: Südasien-​Institut Ergon Verlag, 2005), 48–​49. 35. Narmamālā v. I.43cd, trans. Baldissera (ibid., 49).



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I.45. So he loudly recited this and other hymns, deafening everyone with his bell and after issuing these orders he entered quickly into the assembly hall crowded with officers (niyogin).36 This episode indicates that the StC was familiar within elite political and literary circles in eleventh-​century Kashmir—​otherwise the satire of the scene would lose its edge. In addition, it suggests that such stotras were indeed recited or sung, with real or fake emotions and sometimes physical signs like tears. And at least in this depiction, the StC was recited with a large group of people in attendance. Kṣemendra’s Narmamālā provides evidence, therefore, for the potentially performative, public nature of such hymns. Moreover, the harsh satire of this scene contrasts sharply with the lofty devotional content of the hymn, and certainly offers a grain of salt to any saccharine consideration of stotras overall. The StC remains one of the most well-​known hymns from Kashmir. Perhaps the only text more famous, especially outside of Kashmir, is the Śivastotrāvalī (ŚSĀ). The ŚSĀ is a collection of hymns and verses to Śiva composed by Utpaladeva (c. 925–​975).37 A verse from the Śāstraparāmarśa of the South Indian Madhurāja exclaims: “There are, it is true, everywhere thousands of rivers of beautiful verses, but none of them resembles the divine river of the Stotrāvalī.”38 Many manuscripts of the ŚSĀ survive, and it has been edited and published numerous times.39 Swami Lakshman Joo published a Hindi gloss on the text in 1964, and his English comments on each verse were edited and published posthumously by his disciples in 2008. Kṣemarāja composed a commentary on the collection in the eleventh century, and the ŚSĀ continues to be recited by some Kashmiri Pandits today.40

36. Trans. Baldissera (ibid., 50). 37. On this dating, see Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 411. 38.  Śāstraparāmarśa v.  8, trans. Raffaele Torella (Raffaele Torella, ed. and trans., The Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā of Utpaladeva, with the Author’s Vṛtti [Delhi:  Motilal Banarsidass, 2002], xli n65); see also K. C. Pandey, Abhinavagupta: An Historical and Philosophical Study, Chaukhamba Sanskrit Studies Vol. I (Varanasi:  Chaukhamba Amarabharati Prakashan, 2000 [1963]), 163. 39. E.g., Constantina Rhodes Bailly, Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir: A Translation and Study of Utpaladeva’s Shivastotravali (Albany: SUNY Press, 1987) and Rājānaka Lakṣmaṇa, ed. (with a Hindi commentary), The Śivastotrāvalī of Utpaladevāchārya, With the Sanskrit Commentary of Kṣemarāja (Varanasi: Chaukhamba Amarabharati Prakashan, 2008 [1964]). My quotations from the ŚSĀ and Kṣemarāja’s commentary refer to the latter. Interestingly, there is no edition of the ŚSĀ in the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies. 40. According to Bettina Bäumer, many Kashmiri Śaivites “recite at least one stotra daily” and “know many verses by heart” (“Introduction” to Swami Lakshman Joo, Śivastotrāvalī of

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The text itself did not originally have the form it does now. According to Kṣemarāja, hymns and individual verses composed by Utpaladeva were redacted at least twice after their composition. In his commentary, Kṣemarāja says: [Utpaladeva] composed the Saṃgrahastotra, Jayastotra, and Bhaktistotra, and also a number of single-​verse poetic hymns for his daily devotions. Some time thereafter Rāma and Ādityarāja received the latter mixed up with the former and then edited them in the form of a series of [multi-​ verse] hymns. It is reported that Viśvāvarta then [re-​]arranged them as twenty hymns with titles of his own invention. (trans. Sanderson)41 Utpaladeva’s fame as a philosopher and theologian surely has contributed to the circulation of his devotional poetry, but his verses have had their own appeal to generations of audiences both inside and outside of Kashmir. His poetry makes a unique contribution to the tradition that came to be called the Pratyabhijñā (Recognition), which espouses a radical non-​dualism and cultivates the “recognition” of the identity between one’s own conscious self and Śiva as the one supreme lord, whose nature is dynamic, blissful consciousness. His collection of devotional poetry, with its compelling combination of poetry, personal emotion, and theological reflection, remains one of the most influential texts from Kashmir today. Far less well known, but equally intriguing, are a number of hymns associated with the tradition known as the Krama.42 The Krama is centered on the worship of the goddess Kālī, specifically as “she who devours time” (kālasaṃkarṣiṇī). Because of this emphasis on the goddess, the Krama is most accurately categorized as a Śaiva-​Śākta tradition, and technically a subdivision of the Kālīkula.43 The Krama was one of the most well-​developed religious traditions in the region from at least the ninth century onward. Unlike the hymns we have considered thus far, Krama texts developed a highly antinomian system that involves transgressive practices, a radical non-​dualism, and the worship of female deities at the center of its pantheon. The Krama tradition is also notable for including female Tantric gurus in its lineage, although we do not have any extant texts from these women.44 The term krama means “sequence,” “cycle,” or “process.” This designation refers to the Krama tradition’s most remarkable characteristic: the worship of Kālī as the power

Utpaladeva: A Mystical Hymn of Kashmir, transcribed and ed. Ashok Kaul [New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2008], 4). 41. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 399–​400n563. 42. It is also known as the Mahānaya (Great Way) or Mahārtha (Great Truth) tradition. 43. On these general divisions, see Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis.” 44. Ibid., 273–​275.



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of consciousness “devouring” the various features of temporal existence. This is accomplished by worshipping a series of deities that embody her powers as they unfold in the process of cognition itself. In the penultimate cycle of her standard worship, twelve Kālīs are worshipped, embodying the processes of emission, persistence, and withdrawal (sṛṣṭi, sthiti, and saṃhāra) in consciousness, each of which is subdivided according to four phases, namely emission, persistence, withdrawal, and rest. The final “nameless cycle” (anākhyacakra) of worship focuses on a thirteenth Kālī, she who is beyond the previous cycles and brings all this diversity together as one.45 Thus the sequence (krama) of cognition is embodied in the sequence of worship, and it also includes the oneness or coherence underlying this multiplicity.46 This program of worship is based on a radical non-​dualism that considers the supreme deity to be dynamic consciousness, worshipped as the goddess who consumes and thus encompasses all facets of experience. As this brief description suggests, the details of Krama worship are complex and technical. What is important in the present context, however, is that the stotra form became a prominent and distinctive feature of this tradition’s transmission. Alexis Sanderson carefully charts the history of this period, and draws attention to many unpublished Krama hymns.47 What his work clarifies is the development of the Krama tradition through specific teaching lineages and the central importance of the stotra form for both innovation and transmission during this process. As we will see, the flexibility of the stotra form offered Krama authors unique opportunities to convey their radically non-​dualistic theology and program of worship. This trend begins with the first datable author in the Krama tradition,48 the guru Jñānanetra[nātha] (c. 850–​900), also known as Śivānanda[nātha]. All Krama authors who mention their lineages eventually trace it back to Jñānanetra, who is said to have received the Krama teachings as revelation directly from Yoginīs in the region called Uḍḍiyāna (in what is now Pakistan).49 His hymn

45. Alexis Sanderson, “Maṇḍala and Āgamic Identity in the Trika of Kashmir,” in Mantras et Diagrammes Rituelles dans l’Hindouisme, ed. André Padoux (Paris:  Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1986), 169–​214, 195–​196. 46. See Alexis Sanderson, “Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions,” in The World’s Religions, ed. S. Sutherland, L. Houlden, P. Clarke, and F. Hardy (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988), 660–​704, 696–​699. In Sanderson’s words, the tradition developed “a liturgy which could be thought of as the unfolding of the imperceptible sequence of cognition (saṃvit-​ krama) in the perceptible sequence of worship” (ibid., 696). 47. It will be clear in the analysis and footnotes that follow that this discussion is greatly indebted to Sanderson’s work. On the post-​scriptural exegesis of the Krama specifically, see “Śaiva Exegesis,” 260–​369. 48. Earlier Krama scriptures, such as the Kālīkulapañcaśataka, have no known authors. 49.  Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 263; on Uḍḍiyāna, see ibid., 265–​269. See also Ben Williams, “Abhinavagupta’s Portrait of a Guru:  Revelation and Religious Authority in Kashmir” (PhD diss., Harvard University, 2017), 146–​148, 197–​200, and 206–​207.

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called the Kālikāstotra (KāSt) consists of twenty verses in Āryā meter. These glorify Kālī’s nature as consisting in the pure, non-​dualistic consciousness that encompasses all diversity. While the hymn alludes to the Krama system of worship, the details of this system are developed more explicitly in his successors’ works.50 The overall import of Jñānanetra’s hymn is to emphasize the pure, natural unity of consciousness underlying the multiplicity of the world and to equate this essential unity with the nature of the speaker himself. According to Jñānanetra, this understanding is based on his experience of the goddess’s nature, revealed to him in the great cremation ground in Uḍḍiyāna.51 In his final verse he claims that he offers this hymn out of his own experience of religious rapture: I, who am Śiva, have offered this hymn of praise to (my own52) true nature by the power of my state of total immersion.53 O goddess named Auspiciousness, may this hymn bless the whole world that truly is no different from me.54 With this verse, Jñānanetra concludes his hymn by dramatically restating the identity between himself, the deity, and the manifest world. By using the stotra form, Jñānanetra is able to point to multiplicity—​to himself as the speaker, to Śiva, to the

50. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 270; for the specific allusions Jñānanetra makes, see ibid., 270–​272. 51. Ibid., 268 and 272. For a published edition of the KāSt, see Prabha Devi, trans. (Hindi) and Samvit Prakash Dhar, trans. (English), Shri Gurustuti and Other Stotras, 3rd ed. (Ishbar [Nishat], Kashmir: Ishwar Ashram Trust, 2000). 52. The meaning here is underdetermined: svarūpastutiḥ just combines “own nature” with “praise” or “hymn of praise.” The emphasis of the verse, however, is the identity between the speaker and both the goddess and Śiva, and thus I have supplied the description of this as the speaker’s own nature. 53.  On samāveśa, see Christopher Daren Wallis, “To Enter, to be entered, to merge:  The Role of Religious Experience in the Traditions of Tantric Shaivism” (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2014), Alberta Ferrario, “Grace in Degrees: Śaktipāta, Devotion, and Religious Authority in the Śaivism of Abhinavagupta” (PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2015), and Hamsa Stainton, “Poetry and Kṣemarāja’s Hermeneutics of Non-​dualism,” in Tantrapuṣpāñjali: Tantric Traditions and Philosophy of Kashmir; Studies in Memory of Pandit H.N. Chakravarty, ed. Bettina Sharada Bäumer and Hamsa Stainton (Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, 2018). 54.  itthaṃ svarūpastutir abhyadhāyi samyaksamāveśadaśāvaśena /​ mayā śivenāstu śivāya samyaṅ mamaiva viśvasya tu maṅgalākhye //​ //​ KāSt v. 20 //​(Em. maṅgalākhye; ed. maṅgalāya [Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 272n127]). For alternative translations, cf. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 272, and Wallis, “To Enter, to be entered, to merge,” 303.



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goddess, to the world—​and then overthrow such dichotomies by asserting their essential unity. Jñānanetra’s stotra marks the beginning of a tradition among Krama authors in Kashmir, who continued to compose such hymns as a way of elaborating the teachings first presented in the Krama scriptures.55 No strictly exegetical texts on Krama scriptures survive, but as Sanderson notes, these hymns construct a tradition of interpretation that develops the Krama teachings and program of worship.56 There are at least two reasons later authors may have chosen the stotra form over others: the exceptional authority of Jñānanetra within the tradition may have inspired his pupils and future generations to compose in the same genre as he did; and the stotra form itself, with its flexibility and potential for use in verbal or internal worship free from external ritual action, must have appealed to these authors teaching the liberating power of knowledge and the worship of the goddess as the phases of cognition. For such non-​dualists, these stotras facilitate a shift away from external ritual toward expression that functions as both worship and a theological statement that undercuts the duality implied by worship. Stotras also served as useful compositions for disseminating—​through individual instruction, but also perhaps selective proselytization—​the Krama teachings. According to later sources, the teachings Jñānanetra received were passed down to a number of disciples, three of whom are described as female Yoginīs—​ Keyūravatī, Madanikā, and Kalyāṇikā. No works of theirs survive, but according to Abhinavagupta the latter two passed on the teachings they had received from Jñānanetra to three disciples.57 One of these was named Eraka[nātha] (c. 900–​950). His only known work is a hymn called the Kramastotra, a composition deeply respected by later authors.58 The full text of this hymn is lost, as is Abhinavagupta’s commentary on it called the Kramakeli,59 but parts of both survive in quotations included within other works. These quotations reveal, among other things, that

55. Jñānanetra’s hymn is not explicitly exegetical, yet he combines and develops elements from earlier Krama scriptures. According to Sanderson, “the result, to judge from the more detailed accounts to be seen in the works of his successors, is a harmonious and original whole carefully designed to express a coherent model of the cyclical unfolding and reversion of cognition pervaded by its non-​sequential core, producing perhaps for the first time in Śaivism a model for a form of contemplative ritual entirely fashioned by and subservient to the terms of a doctrine of liberating gnosis” (Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 273). 56. Ibid., 262–​263. 57. Ibid., 273. 58. Sanderson notes that “later authors refer to [it] reverentially as the Kramastotrabhaṭṭāraka, using an honorific otherwise reserved for scriptures” (ibid., 274). 59.  On the Kramakeli, and its possible identification with Abhinavagupta’s commentary on a certain Devīstotra, see ibid., 352–​359. Jayaratha claims that Hrasvanātha (/​Vāmana/​ Vāmanadatta/​Vīranātha) also composed a commentary on Eraka Kramastotra, but no other evidence corroborates this (ibid., 276).

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Eraka claims to have been inspired to benefit the rest of humanity by passing on the esoteric teachings of the Krama in the form of a hymn.60 Stotras thus serve as a means of disseminating (both in writing and through oral recitation) specific teachings, even those as esoteric as the Krama’s. There are many other Kashmirian hymns related to the Krama tradition. The ascetic Prabodhanātha (c. 950–​1000) composed the Aṣṭikā, a hymn to the goddess in eight verses, as well as another unnamed hymn (or possibly two different hymns) to the goddess attributed to him in quotations by later authors.61 Nāga (c. 1025–​1075) composed two hymns of thirty verses each that depict enlightenment through immediate absorption in pure consciousness.62 While the Bhāvopahārastotra, a hymn by the ascetic Bhaṭṭāraka Cakrapāṇinātha, praises Śiva and has no explicit Krama content, Sanderson has suggested that the double meanings in some of its verses indicate its connection to the Krama tradition (and Ramyadeva, in his commentary, interprets various parts of the hymn as being related to the Krama).63 Another hymn, the Kramavilāsastotra, presents an alternate form of Krama worship,64 as does the Khacakrapañcakastotra, also likely to have been composed in Kashmir.65 Such hymns suggest not only the appeal of the stotra form for Kashmirian Krama authors but also the latitude it provided them for presenting terse and innovative reformulations of Krama worship.66 Krama hymns are primarily concerned with worshipping one’s own consciousness as the supreme deity through internalized cycles of worship. They emphasize non-​duality by depicting multiplicity but then revealing its underlying unity. Unlike Ratnākara’s hymns, for example, which referred to a variety of theological positions, Krama stotras present the specific views of a single tradition. They are,

60. Ibid., 274. 61. Ibid., 293–​294. 62. Ibid., 295; see also my detailed discussion of Nāga’s poetry in Chapter 4. 63. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 323–​324. 64. Ibid., 317–​318. 65. Ibid., 321–​322; see also Mark Dyczkowski, ed. and trans., “The Khacakrapañcakastotra, Hymn to the Five Spheres of Emptiness:  Introduction, Edition, and Translation,” in Tantrapuṣpāñjali: Tantric Traditions and Philosophy of Kashmir; Studies in Memory of Pandit H.N. Chakravarty, ed. Bettina Sharada Bäumer and Hamsa Stainton (Delhi: IGNCA, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, 2018). 66. The composition of hymns in the Krama tradition extended beyond Kashmir. The lengthy Cidgaganacandrikā of Śrīvatsa is a hymn to Kālī closely related to the Mahānayaprakāśa of Arṇasiṃha (Nāga’s disciple). According to Sanderson, “more than a third of its 312 verses are closely related to Arṇasiṃha’s text, and these parallels are best understood as rephrasings of Arṇasimha’s formulations in a more poetic, tighter style” (Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 297). Śrīvatsa’s lineage is apparently Kashmirian, but the manuscripts and citations of the text suggest it was composed in the south (ibid., 298–​299).



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however, also designed for an elite, sophisticated audience, just like Ratnākara’s hymns. Some of the later Krama authors in particular are highly accomplished poets, and the complexity of their poetry matches the complexity of Krama worship and theology. The Krama tradition influenced both Abhinavagupta and his disciple Kṣemarāja.67 In addition to his erudite works on Tantric ritual, Śaiva theology, philosophy, and aesthetics, Abhinavagupta composed his own stotras and had many more attributed to him. Two of his stotras are dated, and thus provide some of the only specific anchors we have for the dating of Kashmirian texts and authors from this period. The concluding verses of his Kramastotra (KrSt) and Bhairavastotra (BhSt) claim he composed these hymns in 991 CE and 993 CE, respectively.68 There has been some disagreement among scholars as to the total number of stotras Abhinavagupta actually composed. In his landmark study of Abhinavagupta, K. C. Pandey included an appendix with nine stotras attributed to him, including the two dated stotras.69 While some scholars have accepted the attribution of many of these,70 Sanderson has argued persuasively against his authorship of several—​the Paramārthadvādaśikā, Mahopadeśaviṃśatika, and Rahasyapañcadaśikā, as well as the Paryantapañcāśikā, which is not found in Pandey’s work but is attributed to Abhinavagupta in a South Indian manuscript edited by V. Raghavan71—​and cast doubt on others.72 The only stotras unanimously accepted as Abhinavagupta’s are

67.  On the Krama tradition in relation to Abhinavagupta specifically, see Williams, “Abhinavagupta’s Portrait of a Guru,” especially 192–​208. 68. He dates one other work, his Īśvarapratyabhijñāvivṛtivimarśinī, to 1015 CE. See Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 411. 69. These are Anuttarāṣṭikā, Paramārthadvādaśikā, Paramārthacarcā, Mahopadeśaviṃśatika, Kramastotra, Bhairavastava [also known as Bhairavastotra], Dehasthadevatācakrastotra, Anubhavanivedana, and Rahasyapañcadaśikā. See Appendix C in K. C. Pandey, Abhinavagupta: An Historical and Philosophical Study, Chaukhamba Sanskrit Studies Vol. I (Varanasi: Chaukhamba Amarabharati Prakashan, 2000 [1963]), 943–​956. 70.  Translations of hymns attributed to Abhinavagupta into European languages include Paul E.  Muller-​Ortega’s English translation of the Anubhavanivedana (“On the Seal of Śambhu:  A Poem by Abhinavagupta” in Tantra in Practice, ed. David Gordon White [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000], 573–​586); Bettina Bäumer’s translation of the Anuttarāṣṭikā into English and a number of hymns into German (“Abhinavagupta’s Anuttarāṣṭikā,” in The Variegated Plumage:  Encounters with Indian Philosophy; A Commemoration Volume in Honour of Pandit Jankinath Kaul ‘Kamal,’ ed. N. B. Patil and Mrinal Kaul ‘Martand’ [Delhi:  Motilal Banarsidass, 2007], 168–​174, and Abhinavagupta, Wege ins Licht [Zürich: Benziger, 1992]); and Lilian Silburn’s French translations (Hymnes de Abhinavagupta [Paris: De Boccard, 1970] and Hymnes aux Kālī: La Roue des Energies Divines [Paris: Institut de Civilisation Indienne, 1975]. 71.  The Paryanta Pañcāśikā of Abhinavagupta, ed. V. Raghavan (Madras:  Thompson & Co., 1951). 72. Sanderson argues:

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the BhSt and KrSt. These hymns are dense and dynamic texts, as one would expect from such an accomplished author, and while their poetic qualities do not match those of Ratnākara or Nāga’s hymns, they have been popular and respected paragons of the stotra genre in Kashmir since their composition.73 The BhSt praises Śiva in his fierce form as Bhairava and equates the deity with one’s own self. It is a short hymn, only nine verses plus an additional verse with information about the author and the poem. Yet Abhinavagupta crafts its verses carefully to lead the one who recites it to articulate a radically non-​dual understanding of his or her own nature. The KrSt also presents this non-​dualistic theology, but from the point of view of the Krama tradition. Abhinavagupta’s KrSt closely follows the earlier Kramastotra of Eraka. It consists of thirty verses celebrating the contemplation of the powers of cognition embodied in the series of Kālīs.74 The majority of the hymn presents the internalized worship of Śiva through his Śaktis manifested as the phases of consciousness. The opening of the hymn, however, explores the nature of praise and worship within a non-​dualistic context. Both hymns reflect the author’s sophisticated views on theology and religious practice, and indirectly on the stotra genre itself. As for the many other stotras attributed to Abhinavagupta, it is unlikely that most were composed by him. Of these, the Anuttarāṣṭikā and Paramārthacarcā have stronger manuscript evidence in support of Abhinavagupta as their author.75 The former celebrates the joy of experiencing one’s innate identity with the “unsurpassable” (anuttara) and directs its listeners to abandon various external religious activities and realize this experience for themselves.76 The latter praises Śiva as Bhairava, but emphasizes the theological understanding of reality as the fusion

The attribution of the Anubhavanivedanastotra and the Dehasthadevatācakrastotra rests on oral report alone, and the subject of the latter, the mental worship of Ānandabhairava and his consort Ānandabhairavī surrounded by the eight Mothers, has no parallel in Abhinavagupta’s other works. [  . . .  ] The Anuttarāṣṭikā and the Paramārthacarcā survive in Kashmirian manuscripts with colophons that assert that Abhinavagupta is their author. But I know of no evidence that confirms this assertion. Nor am I aware of any that refutes it. However, the fact that Jayaratha cites a line from the former without attribution does not inspire confidence, since this goes against his usual practice when quoting Abhinavagupta. (“Śaiva Exegesis,” 381) 73. No doubt in part this is due to the fame of their author. There are more manuscripts of stotras attributed to Abhinavagupta than to any other Kashmirian author, with the possible exception of Utpaladeva. 74.  Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 356. As Sanderson notes, however, in his own hymn Abhinavagupta presents his revised number (twelve) and order of the Kālīs (beginning with Sṛṣṭikālī in verse fifteen, Raktākālī in sixteen, and so on), as well as the unusual depiction of Manthānabhairava as the lord of these Kālīs (ibid., 353–​357). 75. Ibid., 381. 76. See Bäumer, “Abhinavagupta’s Anuttarāṣṭikā.” Also cf. ŚSĀ v. 1.1.



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of Śiva and Śakti embodying “the self-​manifest light of reality (prakāśaḥ) and its innate power of creative ideation (vimarśaḥ).”77 The term prakāśa, which can simply mean “light,” appears in each of the first three verses of the Paramārthacarcā, and the poem plays with the imagery of light, based on the possibility in Sanskrit for verbs related to light (“to shine” and so on) to also mean “to appear, to manifest,” and therefore also “to be, to exist.”78 Like Abhinavagupta’s other stotras (as well as Kṣemarāja’s Bhairavānukaraṇastotra), the Paramārthacarcā and Anuttarāṣṭikā stress the non-​dualistic reality underlying all diversity. The content of both hymns accords with Abhinavagupta’s other writings, but without further evidence their attribution remains tentative. However one adjudicates the claims about Abhinavagupta’s authorship of these and other stotras, the fact remains that many Kashmirian scribes and authors (not to mention those in other parts of South Asia) have attributed stotras to this celebrated author. Why does there seem to have been such an impulse to claim that he composed stotras in particular, just as there has been in the case of Śaṅkara? There are, of course, practical reasons. Stotras are often collected, and it is easy to imagine several anonymous stotras in a collection being attributed to the author of another stotra in that collection. Like Śaṅkara, Abhinavagupta was a famous, learned, and highly respected author and teacher. Associating a given text with him would have ensured a greater chance of its preservation and dissemination. It also may have been a way to connect him with a tradition otherwise removed from his writings, as in the case of the Dehasthadevatācakrastotra and its mental worship of Ānandabhairava and his consort Ānandabhairavī, which Sanderson notes is unparalleled in Abhinavagupta’s other writings.79 His works on Tantric theology and philosophy are also exceptionally complicated; one can speculate that there was a desire for more accessible and personal formulations of his teachings. Moreover, such devotional hymns are applicable in worship and ritual contexts—​including the worship of Abhinavagupta himself as a revered guru80—​in ways that complex theological treatises are not. One does not even need to understand the precise meaning of such hymns to recite them and invoke Abhinavagupta as a guru and

77. Sanderson, “Saiva Exegesis,” 413. 78.  Raffaele Torella, discussing Abhinavagupta’s predecessor Utpaladeva, notes:  “Prakāśa forms, together with a large group of synonyms or quasi-​synonyms (from the roots bhā-​, pratibhā-​, bhās-​, avabhās-​, ābhās-​, pratibhās-​, prath-​), a close-​knit constellation of ‘luminous’ terms indicating the notions of being manifested, emerging from the dark, coming to consciousness or, more in general, of being the object of knowledge and finally simply ‘being’ ” (ĪPK, xxiii–​xxiv). Cf. the Dakṣiṇāmūrtistotra attributed to Śaṅkara, which uses similar imagery to make related theological points. 79. “Śaiva Exegesis,” 381. 80. See, for example, Sunday Puja (Ishber, Kashmir: Ishwar Ashram Trust, 2002), a hymnal used by the followers of Swami Lakshman Joo, which I discuss in Chapter 8.

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symbol of a celebrated tradition of religious practice and scholarship, as I argue in Chapter 8. Finally, one might reasonably expect Abhinavagupta to have composed more than two stotras (if we accept only the most conservative account), given some of his own comments. In KrSt v. 4, for example, he urges his own heart to make his own praise-​poetry, which he claims arises effortlessly for him, available to others in the form of stotras.81 We do know, however, that his practice of composing dense, non-​dualistic hymns was continued by at least some of his successors, most notably his prolific student Kṣemarāja. Kṣemarāja (c. 1000–​1050) exerted a great influence on the future of Śaivism in Kashmir, and its interpretation, through his commentaries on a wide range of works. In addition to his commentaries on several hymns, Kṣemarāja wrote commentaries on the Netratantra and the Svacchandatantra, the scriptures at the heart of two major traditions of Śaiva worship in Kashmir. The second of these scriptures focuses on the form of Śiva called Svacchandabhairava.82 In addition to his commentary on the Svacchandatantra, Kṣemarāja composed a hymn to its central deity, the Bhairavānukaraṇastotra, which presents a non-​dualistic interpretation of the details of Svacchandabhairava’s visualization. 83 He quotes this stotra repeatedly in his commentary on the Svacchandatantra. Most of the hymn’s forty-​eight verses systematically describe and interpret the iconography of Bhairava, such as the many weapons he holds in his hands and his various accouterments. Overall, the hymn seeks to frame the iconographical form of Bhairava within a non-​ dualistic theology that interprets Bhairava’s form in terms of the dynamic activity of supreme consciousness. The opening of the hymn also explores the offering of praise-​poetry and the performance of worship from a non-​dualistic perspective. The trends that Abhinavagupta and Kṣemarāja’s stotras demonstrate continue in the work of Kṣemarāja’s disciple, the ascetic Yogarāja (c. 1025–​1075). While he is best known for his commentary on Abhinavagupta’s Paramārthasāra, he also composed a short hymn to Śiva called the Śivāṣṭikā. It praises Caitanyaśiva, “Śiva who is consciousness,” just as Kṣemarāja’s stotra praises Bhairava who is consciousness (cidbhairava). As with the works of his teacher, his language is heavily influenced by the Krama tradition.84

81. See Chapter 4 for a translation of this and other verses from Abhinavagupta’s hymns. 82. On the worship of Svacchandabhairava, see Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 385–​398. 83.  For the hymn itself, see Raniero Gnoli, “Miscellanea Indica,” in East and West 9, no. 3 (Rome:  Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1958). On Kṣemarāja’s interpretation of Bhairava’s iconography, see Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 398, and Alexis Sanderson, “Meaning in Tantric Ritual,” in Essais sur le Rituel III:  Colloque du Centenaire de la Section des Sciences religieuses de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études, ed. A.-​M. Blondeau and K. Schipper, Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes Études, Sciences Religieuses, Vol. CII (Louvain-​Paris: Peeters, 1995),  64–​70. 84. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 380.



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Between the ninth and eleventh centuries, literary hymns were composed by some of the most outstanding poets, scholars, and theologians in the region. But the composition of such hymns did not stop in the centuries that followed. From the twelfth century, we have the Dīnākrandanastotra of Loṣṭaka.85 This stotra offers a poetic lament on the vicissitudes of life, addressed to Śiva, and eventually expresses the peace that comes from taking refuge in Śiva alone.86 Kalhaṇa is identified as the author of a hymn to Ardhanārīśvara, which consists in part of verses also found in his well-​known Rājataraṅgiṇī (written between 1148/​49 and 1149/​50).87 Jayadratha’s88 thirteenth-​century Haracaritacintāmaṇi—​“a collection of accounts of Śiva’s deeds in the world of men, the majority of which are told in versions that associate them with local sites of pilgrimage and the local religious calendar”89—​includes some stotras within its narrative. Another hymn, the Paridevitadvādaśikā, is also attributed to Jayadratha.90 By the beginning of the thirteenth century, Sanskrit production in general had begun to decline in Kashmir91—​and yet authors in Kashmir continued to turn to the stotra form, reinvigorating it so that it remained a vital genre for literary and religious innovation to the present day.

85. He is also known as Loṣṭadeva, Loṣṭha, and Loṣṭhaka, son of Ramyadeva. His dates are approximately 1125–​1175, since he and his father are mentioned in the twenty-​fifth chapter of Maṅkha’s Śrīkaṇṭhacarita (see vv. 25.31–​36). This Kashmirian poet apparently visited Varanasi and became a renunciant (Dīnākrandanastotra v. 51). 86.  See Kāvyamālā:  A Collection of Old and Rare Sanskrit Kāvyas, Nāṭakas, Champūs, Bhāṇas, Prahasanas, Chhandas, Alaṅkāras, etc., Part VI (2nd ed.), ed. Paṇḍita Durgāprasāda, Kāśīnātha Śārma, and Vāsudevaśarma (Bombay: Nirnay Sagar Press, 1930), 21–​30; Kedāra Nātha Śarmā, Kaśmīrī Stotraparamparā evaṃ Dīnākrandana Stotra (Delhi:  Eastern Book Linkers, 2004); and Navjivan Rastogi, The Krama Tantricism of Kashmir, Vol. I: Historical and General Sources (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979), 193–​195 (although the latter, as one would expect, needs updating, and also apparently refers to Śrīkaṇṭhacarita 25.26 instead of 25.36 for Loṣṭadeva’s description). 87.  Thus, the following correlations (with some variant readings) are readily apparent:  Ardhanārīśvarastotra (ANĪSt) 1  =  Rājataraṅgiṇī (RT) 1.2; ANĪSt 3  =  RT 3.1; ANĪSt 4 = RT 2.1; ANĪSt 5 = RT 6.1; ANĪSt 6 = RT 5.1; ANĪSt 10 = RT 4.1; and ANĪSt 11 = RT 8.1. On this hymn, see Walter Slaje, “Kalhaṇas Ode an den androgynen gott (Ardhanārīśvarastotra),” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 165, no. 2 (2015): 395–​416. 88. On the date of Jayadratha, brother of Jayaratha (well-​known for his commentaries on Abhinavagupta’s Tantrāloka and the Vāmakeśvarīmata), see Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 418–​419. 89. Ibid., 378n475. 90. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to examine the manuscript of this unpublished work. See Rastogi, Krama Tantricism, 212–​213. 91. See Sheldon Pollock, “The Death of Sanskrit,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 43, no. 2 (2001):  392–​426; Jürgen Hanneder, “On the Death of Sanskrit,” Indo-​Iranian Journal 45 (2002); and Chapter 6 of the present work.

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The fourteenth-​century Stutikusumāñjali (SKA; Flower-​offering of praise) of Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa, perhaps the best example of this trend, stands out as a major work of literature from post-​twelfth-​century Kashmir. The SKA is a coherent and ambitious collection of literary hymns, and one of the most dynamic examples of stotra literature anywhere in South Asia.92 It engages with the established traditions of Sanskrit literature and poetics that preceded it while experimenting boldly in its content and form. This is all the more remarkable because the SKA was composed during a crucial period in Kashmir. We do not know the precise date of the SKA’s composition. However, we can infer that Jagaddhara flourished during the fourteenth century because of information in Śitikaṇṭha’s commentary on the Bālabodhinī, Jagaddhara’s own commentary on the Kātantra grammar.93 Śitikaṇṭha composed his commentary during the reign of Ḥasan Šāh (r. 1472–​1484), and he identifies himself as the son of Jagaddhara’s grandson’s granddaughter,94 most

92.  The SKA was published in 1891 as the twenty-​third volume in the Kāvyamālā series. However, unless otherwise noted all references to the SKA in the present work refer to Śrīkṛṣṇa Panta, Premavallabha Tripāṭhī, and Govinda Narahari Vaijāpurakara, eds., Stutikusumāñjali, with the Laghupañcikā commentary [Sanskrit] of Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha and the Premamakaranda translation [Hindi] of Premavallabha Tripāṭhī (Kāśī:  Acyuta Granthamālā-​Kāryālayaḥ, 1964). Ratnakaṇṭha’s commentary, the Laghupañcikā, is included in this edition. Since it is included as a distinct text after the SKA, with its own pagination, I refer to the Laghupañcikā according to its own page numbers. 93.  The SKA and Bālabodhinī are generally regarded as the only two extant works of Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa of Kashmir. However, Sanderson reports that an expanded version of the Kalādῑkṣāpaddhati contains a number of hymns, including one attributed to “Mahākavi Paṇḍita Jagaddhara [ . . . ] that is not among the thirty-​eight of his Stutikusumāñjali as commented upon by Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha in his -​laghupañcikā” (“Śaiva Exegesis,” 397n555). I have not yet been able to see the relevant manuscripts. In addition, Georg Bühler reports purchasing a manuscript for another grammatical text attributed to Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa, the Apaśabdanirākaraṇa, but I have not been able to confirm any further information about this work (Detailed Report of a Tour in Search of Sanskrit Manuscripts Made in Kashmir, Rajputana, and Central India, Extra Number of the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society [London: Trübner, 1877], xviii). Note that this Jagaddhara is not the same Jagaddhara who composed commentaries on such texts as the Vāsavadatta and Mālatīmādhava. Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa was the son of Ratnadhara and grandson of Gauradhara, while the other Jagaddhara was also the son of one Ratnadhara, but the grandson of Vidyādhara. Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa lived in Kashmir, while the other Jagaddhara almost certainly did not. Neither author gives any indication of knowing the other’s works, and their writing styles are quite different. The confusion clearly arises because they share the same name, as do their fathers, and they both seem to have flourished in the fourteenth century. On the second Jagaddhara, author of numerous commentaries, see P. K. Gode, Studies in Indian Literary History, Vol. I, Shri Bahadur Singh Singhi Memoirs (Bombay: Singhi Jain Śāstra Śikshāpīth, Bhāratīya Vidyā Bhavan, 1953), 364–​375. 94. tannaptṛkanyātanayātanūjo; see Premavallabha Tripāṭhī’s introduction in Panta, Tripāṭhī, and Vaijāpurakara, Stutikusumāñjali, 24. There is some disagreement about the details of this genealogy, however. Sanderson describes Śitikaṇṭha as the son of the daughter of Jagaddhara’s grandson (“Śaiva Exegesis,” 332n329), for example, and Rastogi has conflicting



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likely putting Jagaddhara in the latter half of the fourteenth century. This was a period of time when earlier patterns of literary and religious textual production were changing dramatically, and new cultural and religious formations—​in particular the rise of Islam in Kashmir—​were emerging that would have a long-​ lasting influence on the region. There are few Sanskrit testimonies from this time, and the SKA is one of the most extensive and interesting. In South Asia, the SKA has long been appreciated for its literary and religious importance, and scholars have called for more scholarship on this work.95 In Kashmir, Jagaddhara’s poetry was anthologized by later scholars96 and it received a learned commentary in the seventeenth century, called the Laghupañcikā, by the poet and scholar Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha. Manuscripts of this lengthy text, many of them complete and accompanied by Ratnakaṇṭha’s commentary, can be found in archives not only in Srinagar and Jammu but also farther afield in places like Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and West Bengal, in both Sharada and Devanagari scripts. In the twentieth century, verses from the SKA were incorporated in the liturgical hymnals used by the famous Śaiva guru Swami Lakshman Joo and his followers.97 Several Indian scholars have studied Jagaddhara’s poetry and written about it in Hindi, but there is almost no work on it in English or any other European language.98 Throughout my own travels to libraries and universities in India, scholars often spoke about the SKA with appreciation, sometimes quoting specific verses.99 While scholars outside of India have often referred to the SKA in surveys of Indian poetry or the history of religion in Kashmir, and they have invoked the text in debates about the history of Sanskrit literature and learning in Kashmir, this key

information in his discussion of Śitikaṇṭha and his chronological table of Krama authors (Krama Tantricism, 223 and Appendix A). Nevertheless, these assessments all put Jagaddhara roughly in the latter half of the fourteenth century. 95. B. N. Bhatt, for example, tried “to draw the attention of scholars to the literary excellence of the ‘Stutikusumāñjali’ ” and noted that “according to the opinion of Ācārya Paṇḍit Śrīmahāvīraprasādajī Dvivedī [author of an earlier article in Hindi on the SKA] there is no other Stotra in Sanskrit Stotra literature which excels the ‘Stutikusumāñjali’ ” (“The Position of ‘Stutikusumanjali’ in Sanskrit Stotra Literature,” Oriental Institute Journal [Baroda] 21, no. 4 [ June 1972], 321). 96.  See Peter Peterson and Pandit Durgāprasāda, eds., The Subhāṣitāvali of Vallabha (Bombay: Education Society’s Press, Byculla, 1886), 36–​37, for a list of Jagaddhara’s verses included in this anthology. 97. See Sunday Puja, 27–​34, where SKA vv. 1.6, 1.7, and 1.9 are numbered vv. 1–​3, SKA v. 11.38 is numbered v. 14, and SKA v. 11.32 is numbered v. 15. 98. Hindi scholarship on the SKA includes Dvivedī, “Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa ki Stutikusumāñjali”; Agravāla, Stutikusumāñjali kā Dārśanika; Śarmā, Kaśmīrī Stotraparamparā. For scholarship in English by an Indian scholar, see Bhatt, “The Position of ‘Stutikusumanjali’.” 99. For example, Dr. Ramakant Shukla at the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan in Delhi was kind enough to recite and sing several of the stotras in the SKA for me.

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work deserves more detailed and sustained analysis. Jagaddhara’s creativity and skill as a poet meant that his work influenced a number of future poets and continues to appeal to audiences today. While the SKA is an exceptional composition, it also is just one of a number of innovative literary hymns produced in Kashmir after the twelfth century. The Devīstotra of Yaśaskara100 systematically illustrates the poetic figures in the Alaṅkāraratnākara, a work on poetics by Śobhākaramitra, with prayers to Pārvatī.101 The hymn has modest merit as a work of poetry, but it is most noteworthy in how it experiments with the stotra form for instructional purposes, probably taking inspiration from examples of instructional literature (śāstrakāvya) like the Bhaṭṭikāvya, which are creative works that also provide information on specific topics.102 Its examples for the literary ornaments also look back to earlier praise-​poetry in Kashmir. The same is true for the Īśvaraśataka of Avatāra, which was probably composed in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century103 and harkens back to Ānandavardhana’s DŚ. It contains a variety of complex citrakāvya elements, including poetic “twinning” (yamaka), punning (śleṣa), and specific visual representations formed from the arrangement of the syllables in certain verses (citrabandha). Like many other authors in Kashmir, Avatāra chose to compose elaborate poetry in the form of a hymn. The seventeenth century was a particularly rich time for the composition of such devotional poetry. In the latter half of the seventeenth century, Ratnakaṇṭha composed multiple stotras and his commentary on Jagaddhara’s SKA, as well as

100. While its precise date of composition is unknown, this Devīstotra seems to have been composed in Kashmir between the twelfth and seventeenth century. In the seventeenth century, the poet and scholar Ratnakaṇṭha edited Śobhākara’s original sūtras, bits of his commentary, and some of his summary verses from the Alaṅkāraratnākara and combined them with the verses of Yaśaskara’s hymn, replacing the examples in Śobhākaramitra’s text. See Matthew Leveille, “Teaching Through Devotion: The Poetics of Yaśaskara’s Devīstotra in Premodern Kashmir” (M.A. thesis, University of Kansas, 2017). My appreciation and understanding of this text were enhanced by reading it with Leveille at the University of Kansas in 2016. 101.  Devīstotra of Śrī Yaśaskara Kavi, ed. Kālīprasāda Dube, Laghu-​ Granthamālā 57 (Varanasi: Sampurnand Sanskrit University, 2001). See also Peter Peterson, Detailed Report of Operations in Search of Sanskrit Mss. in the Bombay Circle, August 1882–​March 1883, Extra Number of the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (Bombay: Society’s Library, 1883), 12. 102. See Yigal Bronner, David Shulman, and Gary Tubb, “Introduction,” in Innovations and Turning Points: Toward a History of Kāvya Literature, ed. Yigal Bronner, David Shulman, and Gary Tubb (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014), 11. 103.  This Avatāra was probably the same Avatāra whose grandson Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha composed a commentary on Jagaddhara’s SKA, which was finished in 1681. See Śarmā, Kaśmīrī Stotraparamparā evaṃ Dīnākrandan Stotra,  28–​32.



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learned works on astronomy and commentaries on the Kāvyaprakāśa of Mammaṭa and the Yudhiṣṭhiravijayamahākāvya of Vāsudeva.104 Ratnakaṇṭha’s stotras are creative works. He composed at least two hymns to the sun-​god, in which he addresses the deity with a plethora of epithets and invokes and venerates his various features. They look back to the famous hymn to the sun by Mayūra, the SūŚ, but they also participate in a Kashmirian tradition of literary hymns.105 His Sūryastutirahasya, for instance, consists of twenty-​five verses in six different meters that praise the sun-​god Sūrya. It extolls the sun-​god’s powers and the efficacy of worshipping him; its final verse promises happiness and freedom from death if it is recited at sunrise. Its title suggests its most striking feature, its “secret” (rahasya) for the praise and worship of the sun (sūryastuti): when the initial syllables of its twenty-​four verses106 are strung together, they form the famous twenty-​four-​syllable Vedic Gāyatrī mantra in praise of the sun. Aside from this acrostic, the hymn contains other riddles and is replete with complex literary figures of both sound and sense, such as extensive alliteration (anuprāsa) and “crooked speech” (vakrokti) in which there are deliberate misunderstandings of statements between two interlocutors.107 Another of Ratnakaṇṭha’s hymns, the Śambhukṛpāmanoharastava (“Beautiful with Śambhu’s Mercy”108), is one of a series of hymns by different authors (including

104. The Ratnaśataka was written in 1665, and the Sūryastutirahasya probably was as well. For the most comprehensive introduction to Ratnakaṇṭha, see J. Hanneder, S. Jager, and A. Sanderson, eds. and trans., Ratnakaṇṭhas Stotras: Sūryastutirahasya, Ratnaśataka und Śambhukṛpāmanoharastava, Indologica Marpurgensia 5 (München:  Kirchheim Verlag, 2013), and also Hamsa Stainton, “Review:  Ratnakaṇṭhas Stotras:  Sūryastutirahasya, Ratnaśataka und Śambhukṛpāmanoharastava (J. Hanneder, S. Jager, and A. Sanderson),” Indo-​Iranian Journal 59, no. 4 (2016): 365–​370. 105. The Ratnaśataka invokes and celebrates the sun-​god Sūrya with its 100 verses (plus two verses with additional information). The alternative title Citrabhānuśataka, which is given in a colophon that may or may not have been written by Ratnakaṇṭha himself, seems to have been the original title of the text. But Ratnaśataka was also used by Ratnakaṇṭha, referring back to his earlier work in his commentary on the SKA. This title connects the text with the author through the similarity of their names and has been more popular over time; hence Hanneder, Jager, and Sanderson chose it as the title for their edition. Another alternative title, Sūryaśataka, is more likely a summary of the poem’s contents than an official title. Ratnakaṇṭha takes Mayūra’s popular SūŚ as the model for his work, both in content and form. Like Mayūra’s text, the Ratnaśataka systematically describes Sūrya’s characteristics, such as the horses and charioteer of his solar chariot and the glory of the solar disk itself. Ratnakaṇṭha primarily relies on the same meter—​Sragdharā—​as Mayūra, but he also uses the Śārdūlavikrīḍita meter (see Hanneder, Jager and Sanderson, Ratnakanṭḥas Stotras, 24–​ 27, which includes a chart comparing the contents of the two poems). 106. This total excludes the final phalaśruti verse on the benefits of reciting the hymn. 107. See, for example, vv. 11, 14, 19, and 21, and Hanneder, Jager, and Sanderson, Ratnakaṇṭhas Stotras,  22–​23. 108. Hanneder, Jager, and Sanderson, Ratnakaṇṭhas Stotras, 141.

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one by Ratnakaṇṭha’s father, Śaṅkarakaṇṭha) contained in an extant manuscript of a Kashmirian ritual manual.109 The hymn itself consists largely of the poet’s laments over his misguided deeds and appeals to Śiva to save him. It is fifteen verses long, and vv. 2 through 12 end with a refrain: “If you will not show me mercy in this hour [of my need], who else, O Śambhu, will save me?”110 Verses 13 and 14 shift from this address to the deity and instead advise the hymn’s human audience to devote itself to Śiva. The final verse identifies the author and praises the power of the hymn. Like Ratnakaṇṭha’s other stotras, the Śambhukṛpāmanoharastava is dense and elaborate poetry, though it has neither the complicated puzzles of the Sūryastutirahasya nor the ambitious structure and imagery of the Ratnaśataka. Presumably Ratnakaṇṭha composed a number of other hymns, for he frequently quotes his own poetry to help explain Jagaddhara’s verses in his Laghupañcikā commentary on the SKA. The verses that he quotes and identifies as his own often parallel Jagaddhara’s quite closely, and most likely he has extracted them from other hymns he composed. Consider these two verses, the first Jagaddhara’s and the second Ratnakaṇṭha’s: Even though you once gave away the ocean of milk, you receive a drop of milk (offered during worship).111 Even though your eyes are the three sources of light, you accept the light of a lamp (offered by devotees).112 Even though you are the source of all speech, you listen to the words of simple folk. What will you not do out of consideration for your humble devotees? //​SKA 11.14 //​ Even though you bear the Ganges river, you receive the ritual bathing with water (by devotees). Even though you yourself are beyond value (anarghya), you accept the tiny valuables (arghya) (offered by devotees). You are the supreme light, and yet you accept the light of a lamp (offered by devotees). What will you not do out of consideration for your humble devotees? (Laghupañcikā, p. 94) 109. Alexis Sanderson notes that the context for the inclusion of these hymns is “the ritual of pavitrārohaṇam to be performed immediately after a post-​initiatory consecration ceremony (abhiṣekaḥ)” (“Śaiva Exegesis,” 397n555). 110. Trans. Sanderson, Ratnakaṇṭhas Stotras, 134–​139. 111. This refers to a well-​known story in the Purāṇas in which Śiva gives the ocean of milk to a young devotee named Upamanyu. 112.  The sun and moon are the two eyes on Śiva’s face, while fire is the third eye on his forehead.



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Here are the verses in Sanskrit, with the key vocabulary shared between them in bold: dugdhābdhido 'pi payasaḥ pṛṣataṃ vṛṇoṣi dīpaṃ tridhāmanayano 'py urarīkaroṣi  /​ vācāṃ prasūtir api mugdhavacaḥ śṛṇoṣi kiṃ kiṃ karoṣi na vinītajanānurodhāt //​ SKA 11.14 //​ gaṅgādharo 'pi vṛṇuṣe payaso ‘bhiṣekaṃ gṛhṇāsi cārghyakaṇikāḥ svayam apy anarghyaḥ /​jyotiḥ paraṃ tvam asi dipam urīkaroṣi kiṃ kiṃ karoṣi na vinītajanānurodhāt //​ Laghupañcikā, p. 94 //​ Such continuities in both meaning and wording indicate that the SKA was a major source of inspiration for Ratnakaṇṭha. Through his own compositions—​ both his independent hymns and his commentaries—​Ratnakaṇṭha shows his participation in a legacy of devotional literature in Kashmir, a legacy filled with both close adherence to past practices and striking innovations in content and style. This general trend is also found in the work of Ratnakaṇṭha’s contemporary, Sāhib Kaul (active mid-seventeenth century113). The quantity, creativity, and ambition of his compositions are remarkable. He wrote a number of short devotional works, several ritual manuals (paddhatis), and the Devīnāmavilāsa (DNV; Play of the goddess’s names), a creative and sophisticated interpretation of an earlier nāmastotra.114 Sanderson has argued that Sāhib Kaul and his community are important in the religious history of Kashmir because they introduced Śākta ele­ments prevalent in East India into Kashmir’s religious culture in the late sixteenth or seventeenth century.115 As I  argue in Chapter  8, the stotra form was a flexible and potent medium for Sāhib Kaul’s negotiation of his community’s position within Kashmir and the transmission of its evolving traditions. The DNV is Sāhib Kaul’s most impressive literary composition. According to the text itself, it was composed in 1666.116 This lengthy poem reformulates and interprets a much simpler, non-​Kashmirian hymn to the Śrīvidyā

113. Sanderson, “Kashmir,” 124. 114. On Sāhib Kaul’s compositions, see Alexis Sanderson, “The Śaiva Religion Among the Khmers, Part I,” Bulletin de l’ École française d’Extrême-​Orient 90–​91 (2003–​2004), 365n42. 115.  Sanderson notes:  “The Kauls, though subsequently integrated as a distinguished division of Kashmirian brahmin society, were Maithila Mādhyandinīya Yajurvedins who had come to Kashmir from northern Bihar during the period of Muslim rule, probably after the incorporation of Kashmir into the Mughal empire in 1586” (“Śaiva Exegesis,” 409–​410; see also Sanderson, “Kashmir,” 124–​126, and Sanderson, “Śaiva Religion Among the Khmers,” 361–​366). 116. Madhusudan Kaul, ed., The Devīnāmavilāsa of Sāhib Kaul, Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies 63 (New Delhi: Navrang, 1989), 2.

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goddess Bhavānī called the Bhavānīsahasranāmastotra (Hymn of the thousand names of the goddess Bhavānī). This, in turn, is modeled after the famous Viṣṇusahasranāmastotra. The DNV constructs a narrative frame story for the earlier hymn and expands upon the thousand names given using complex, poetic language. Chapters  1 through 5 include descriptions of the scene on Mount Kailāsa and Śiva’s chief attendant Nandin, as well as a hymn of praise Nandin offers to Śiva and Śiva’s own praise of the goddess. Chapters 6 through 15 present and interpret her thousand names, and the final chapter serves as phalaśruti for the work as a whole. As this brief summary suggests, the DNV is a literary hybrid, a creative work that challenges standard attempts at categorization. It combines elements of mahākāvya literature, Śaiva-​Śākta scriptures, theological expositions, and devotional stotras. A number of short devotional works are attributed to Sāhib Kaul.117 His DNV confirms some of these by mentioning their titles in the closing verses of its chapters, and therefore these at least were composed prior to this major literary work.118 Overall, these poems suggest much about the vitality of stotras in seventeenth-​ century Kashmir. Even though they are often identified as stotras, these works stretch the bounds of the stotra genre. Some, like the Śārikāstava (ŚāSt) devoted to the Kashmirian goddess Śārikā, identify themselves as being stotras or stavas, but others are less explicit.119 For example, while the poet begins the Śivaśaktivilāsa (ŚŚV) by paying homage to Śiva directly,120 the rest of the poem is devoid of vocatives, second-​person pronouns or verbs, and the usual formulations of praise, homage, and so on typically found in stotras. Instead, it describes the play (vilāsa) between Śiva and his various Śaktis, moving first through the traditional group of five (cit, ānanda, icchā, jñāna, and kriyā) and then describing additional Śaktis.121 In its depiction of the interplay between Śiva and his powers, this poem is less a

117. I am very grateful to Jürgen Hanneder for generously sharing his unpublished critical edition of Sāhib Kaul’s stotras with me and encouraging my work on them. Needless to say, any textual or interpretative errors in this section are my own. 118.  Sāhib Kaul’s references to earlier stotra compositions include:  DNV 3.125 → Citsphārasārādvaya; DNV 4.235 → Saccidānandakandalī; DNV 5.91→ Śivaśaktivilāsa; DNV 6.110 → Śārikāstava; DNV 8.101 → Sahajārcanaṣaṣṭikā; DNV 9.101 → Nijātmabodha; DNV 10.101 → Candramaulistava; DNV 11.101 → Suprabhātastava. 119. The title of this poem refers to it as a stava, and in v. 17 Sāhib Kaul says he composed this stotra to Śārikā, his lineage-​deity. The Sahajārcanaṣaṣṭikā and Śivajīvadaśaka follow the practice of many earlier texts usually accepted as stotras that identify the number of verses in the body of the poem; the former also refers to itself as a sūkti (“beautiful [praise-​]poem”) (v. 61). 120. “I offer homage to you, the lord” (namāmi prabhuṃ [ . . . ] bhavantam) (ŚŚV v. 1ab). 121. E.g., ŚŚV v. 9 describes the power of vibration (spandaśakti), while ŚŚV v. 12 depicts the power of great illusion (mahāmāyā).



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prayer than an exposition, probably intended to teach about the nature of the relationship between Śiva and Śakti. Several of Sāhib Kaul’s poems diverge so strikingly from the stotra genre that they can barely be included in the category, although they include features common to much praise-​poetry. These poems experiment with the structure of such hymns, and in doing so, they draw attention to their pedagogical features. For instance, the Citsphārasārādvaya (CSSA) presents the exchange between a student seeking liberation and his teacher.122 In its dramatization of this exchange, the poem differs from the majority of stotras, which usually do not contain such narratives. After the teacher instructs the student, he commands him to speak from his own state. In his response, the student reiterates the teachings given earlier, but from a first-​person perspective. At the climax of his response, the student expresses the identity of his own self with the lord who is the agent of all volition, knowledge, and action, and he offers homage to this, his own self (me namaḥ).123 As we will see in Chapter 4, the unusual form and flow of this narrative highlights the flexibility and pedagogical potential of the stotra genre. Some of Sāhib Kaul’s other poems also present the first-​person voice of one who has attained the realization praised in that poem, just as the student does in the CSSA. But in these hymns there is no dialogue providing context for this first-​person expression. Instead, the development of the poem itself justifies it. Another of Sāhib Kaul’s hymns, the Sahajārcanaṣaṣṭikā (SAṢ), praises and performs a specific type of worship for Śiva. In this worship the identity between Śiva and the worshipper is made manifest, and the external aspects of ritual worship are homologized to non-​material virtues.124 The SAṢ praises both Śiva and his true worship, which consists in the natural identification between worshipper and the one being worshipped. Moreover, this hymn performs this worship by praising and glorifying Śiva while establishing this identification. While the content and variety of Sāhib Kaul’s hymns are often striking, their poetic features are less distinctive. Like most stotras from Kashmir, they often incorporate literary figures such as alliteration125 and “apparent contradiction” (virodhābhāsa).126 While such literary figures are found throughout Sāhib Kaul’s poems, they are not as prominent as they are in his DNV and they seem secondary

122. For a brief discussion of this poem, see Jürgen Hanneder, “Sāhib Kaul’s Presentation of Pratyabhijñā Philosophy in His Devīnāmavilāsa,” in Le Parole e i Marmi: Studi in Onore di Raniero Gnoli nel Suo 70° Compleanno, Serie Orientale Roma 92.1–​2, ed. Raffaele Torella (Rome: Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, 2001), 399–​418, 415–​416. 123. CSSA v. 60. 124. E.g., SAṢ v. 7, discussed in Chapter 4. 125. E.g., CSSA v. 164d; SCĀK vv. 2–​3, 36, 41. 126. E.g., SCĀK v. 42.

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to the other kinds of creative features in these poems discussed earlier. Overall, Sāhib Kaul’s stotras show both continuity and innovation within the history of stotras in Kashmir. While they are not particularly striking as poetry, their experimentation with the possibilities of the stotra form demonstrates great creativity. They are part of Sāhib Kaul’s assimilation of a Kashmirian heritage and facilitate the transmission of various teachings. They boldly embrace the unique logic of non-​dualistic praise, and they seem to serve as a means of assimilating the theology of non-​duality into one’s own experience. More than anything, this prominent author’s choice in the seventeenth century to compose texts within the flexible stotra genre suggests its continued appeal as a religious and literary form in Kashmir. A number of other authors in Sāhib Kaul’s tradition composed stotras. As Sanderson notes, these include: the Gurubhaktistotra and Gurustuti of his pupil Cidrūpa Kaul, the Sadānandalāsya of Sadānanda Kaul, another of his pupils, the Bhairavīśaktistotra (modelled on Abhinavagupta’s Bhairavastotra), the Śrīnāthastotra and Tripurasundarīstotra of Gaṇeśa Bhaṭṭāraka, the Gurustotra of Jyotiṣprakāśa Kaul, and, by Jyotiṣprakāśa Kaul’s pupil Govinda Kaul of the Dār lineage (dāravaṃśodbhavaḥ), a commentary (-​padapradīpikā) on that hymn, a Gurustutiratnamālā, and a hymn to Svacchandabhairava, the Svacchandamaheśvarāṣṭaka, the last another indication of the Kauls’ assimilation of the local Śaiva tradition.127 In addition to continuing themes found in Sāhib Kaul’s work, such as the adaption of local Kashmirian traditions, these hymns emphasize the role of the guru, which continued as a dominant feature of stotra literature in the twentieth century. Stotras have continued to be recited, transmitted, and composed by Hindus from Kashmir up to the present. In fact, the appeal of stotra literature, due no doubt to its flexibility and accessibility to religious practitioners, does not seem to have waned at all. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a great deal of energy went into publications, translations, and studies of stotras. For instance, in the twentieth century Swami Lakshman Joo published editions of multiple stotras. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries also saw the development of formal liturgical traditions that prioritized devotional hymns. While stotras have long been collected for personal and communal use, in recent centuries official Hindu hymnals (at least partially indebted to the institution of the Christian hymnbook) have been made publicly available

127. “Śaiva Exegesis,” 410.



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throughout India and also in Hindu communities throughout the world. Swami Lakshman Joo, for example, directly shaped the formation of a hymnal (Sunday Puja) used by his community for weekly worship. This has continued to be revised, republished, and recited after his death. Stotras are central to this collection, including many that I  discuss in this book, such as hymns by Jñānanetra, Abhinavagupta, and Jagaddhara (see Chapter 8). They are accessible and recited by members of the community regardless of their level of comprehension. These hymns connect this contemporary community with the great poet-​teachers of Kashmir’s past, particularly Abhinavagupta, and position Swami Lakshman Joo as the twentieth-​century equivalent within their devotional community.

Conclusion Inevitably, such a diverse set of texts from a period spanning the eighth or ninth century to the present resists neat conclusions. Yet as I outlined at the start, this overview does offer some general insights into the history of Kashmir’s stotra literature. We have seen how stotras are important intersections for the rich religious and literary developments taking place in Kashmir, a theme that recurs in detail in the following chapters. Various authors, from Ānandavardhana to Nāga to Sāhib Kaul, chose to express, demonstrate, and disseminate their religious visions through the creative use of stotras. In part, this is because they stand between scripture, exegesis, worship, and literature. Their unique structure, involving (usually) the address of a recipient of praise but also an implied or explicit human audience, allows authors to engage with their audiences in creative ways, as in Sāhib Kaul’s CSSA. Such hymns demonstrate and reflect upon their own pedagogical potential, and they indicate the role stotras can play in the dissemination and transmission of a tradition. Moreover, this survey indicates the impressive flexibility of the stotra form, which has remained central to its appeal throughout the religious, intellectual, and social transformations that have transpired in Kashmir. While the inclination or ability to compose in many genres has waned, the stotra form has continued to thrive, invigorated time after time by new compositions. This overview also illustrates some of the recurring themes and concerns of Kashmirian stotras. Many of these hymns are used for literary or theological innovations. While they certainly look back to the rich traditions that preceded them, Kashmirian stotras are often challenging compositions that reinvigorate the present with new visions for the future. In general, they are highly self-​conscious, reflecting on their own operation as praise-​poetry with rhetorical or theological implications. Their ability to express theological complexity even in the midst of praise or worship itself helps to explain their popularity among non-​dualistic

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Śaivas, and perhaps, in part, the enduring success of this theological and exegetical tradition within Kashmir. Finally, many Kashmirian stotras challenge or stretch the conventions of the genre, thriving on its blurry boundaries. For centuries, therefore, stotras have engaged the literary and religious traditions of Kashmir while demonstrating a resiliency, creativity, and appeal rooted in the flexibility of this genre.

4

Poetry as Theology Reflecting, I praise Maheśvara, my own self, uninterrupted consciousness, who liquefies the mass of fetters, in this temple that is the body. Kṣemarāja, Bhairavānukaraṇastotra v. 81 literary hymns in Kashmir are often also theologically sophisticated. Some hymns, such as those contained within Ratnākara’s HaVi, have been important sources for charting religious developments in the region. Many poetic stotras engaged theological issues directly or indirectly. Authors within non-​dualistic traditions, such as Kṣemarāja, were particularly keen on addressing theological issues, like the nature of non-​dualistic devotion and prayer, through their poetry, and they present or suggest systematic ways of thinking about such specific theological issues in their hymns. In this chapter, we will explore in greater detail the contents of many of the hymns introduced in Chapter 3. In doing so, we will see multiple ways that Kashmirian authors composed poetry as theology. Before turning to specific stotras, however, let us linger on this idea of poetry as theology. Scholars have identified many different factors that can characterize something as “theological,” and recent efforts have helped to bring Hindu theology in particular into focus.2 Throughout the history and evolutions of its usage, theology has been used to designate a type of reasoned analysis and discussion of divinity (broadly conceived) and related topics that can be differentiated from other intellectual practices. But other factors are also frequently important, such

1.  staumi vimṛśan maheśvaram ātmānaṃ svaṃ cidekaghanam /​ srāvitapāśakadambakam etasmin dehadevagṛhe //​ BhASt 8 //​ 2.  David Buchta offers a valuable summary of “theology in a Hindu context” as part of his analysis of stotras as theology (“Pedagogical Poetry:  Didactics and Devotion in Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Stavamālā” [PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2014], 55–​60). Of the many studies of Hindu theology that have emerged in recent years, two of the most useful are Francis Clooney, SJ, “Restoring ‘Hindu Theology’ as a Category in Indian Intellectual Discourse,” in The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, ed. Gavin Flood (Oxford:  Blackwell Publishing, 2003), and Jonathan Edelmann, “Hindu Theology as Churning the Latent,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 81, no. 2 (June 2013).

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as appeals to revelation or scriptural authority. Theologians are often concerned with accessing layers of meaning in a text that are not readily available through normal textual and historical methods,3 and they frequently have a personal commitment to the texts they interpret. Active commentarial traditions within specific religious communities are often signs of theological reflection.4 Francis Clooney suggests seven themes that often distinguish such theological discourse: “a) the nature of a sufficient world cause, world maker; b) whether God is one or many; c) divine embodiment; d) the problem of evil; e) the nature and time of liberation; f) the appeal to revelation; g) ‘ignorance’ as a theological category.”5 Many of these themes (with some modifications) are directly relevant to our analysis of stotras from Kashmir.6 Thinking about poetry as theology has been a productive lens for scholars of stotras in recent years.7 Of course, almost every discussion of a stotra identifies its theological context and the theological viewpoints found within it. But some studies have argued for the historically significant nature of the theological contents of particular hymns. In Poetry as Theology: The Śrīvaiṣṇava Stotra in the Age of Rāmānuja, for instance, Nancy Ann Nayar argues that Rāmānuja’s disciples used stotras to merge three streams of literature:  the Sanskrit Veda (and its auxiliaries), the Tamil Veda (the verses by the Āḻvārs known collectively as the Divya Prabandham), and the Pāñcarātra Āgamas. In other words, the stotras of Rāmānuja’s disciples Kūreśa and Bhaṭṭar, “when analysed as a corpus, are the earliest extant documents in Śrīvaiṣṇava literature to reflect the tradition’s unique, unified, and encompassing theological vision.”8 The title of her book, therefore,

3. See Edelmann, “Hindu Theology.” 4.  Clooney, “Restoring ‘Hindu Theology’ as a Category in Indian Intellectual Discourse,” 460–​463. 5. Ibid., 452. 6. I am not concerned, however, with whether or not a particular hymn should or should not be classified as “theological.” Rather, I aim to show how the poetry of these hymns does theological work in a variety of ways. For instance, they can function as literary arguments or commentary on theological positions. 7. Stotras, in turn, have been fertile resources for comparative theology; see, for example, Frances X. Clooney, SJ, Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). 8.  Nancy Ann Nayar, Poetry as Theology:  The Śrīvaiṣṇava Stotra in the Age of Rāmānuja (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1992), xi. She expands further: “Kūreśa’s stotras are the first extant texts to show us the ways in which Rāmānuja’s basic theological teachings concerning the nature of the Supreme Brahman and His relation to the world are retained and extended, as they are combined with the doctrines and temple practices of Pāñcarātra and with the world-​affirming anthropocentricity of ancient Tamil culture represented by the poetry of the Āḻvārs, and expressed in the poet-​Ācāryas’ emotional and sensual approach to God. As such, these praise-​poems, composed during the crucial first centuries of the Śrīvaiṣṇava



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suggests that the tradition’s distinctive theological vision is expressed in poems of praise. Nayar is particularly invested in showing how the hymns of Kūreśa and Bhaṭṭar express certain theological ideas earlier than they were articulated in expository formulations, and thus they are valuable sources for studying the intellectual history of the Śrīvaiṣṇava tradition.9 Moreover, she sees the poetic features of these hymns as essential to their ability to articulate a Śrīvaiṣṇava theology that integrates components of the Sanskrit Vedic tradition with elements from the Pāñcarātra scriptures and the emotional religiosity of the Āḻvārs.10 Similar themes are explored by Steven Hopkins in his study of Vedāntadeśika’s stotras. He too considers how a Śrīvaiṣṇava author uses Sanskrit hymns to bring together different aspects of the tradition—​Tamil and Sanskrit, the local and the translocal, the emotional and the reflective—​and he too treats stotras “as primary theological texts.”11 For instance, Hopkins argues that the stotra form—​often more personal and emotional than other genres—​gives Vedāntadeśika the space to resolve a contentious and consequential theological debate about self-​effort and grace. His discursive accounts of doctrine emphasize human action in the operation of divine grace, like that of a baby monkey clinging to his mother in the traditional metaphor. But in his poetry, according to Hopkins, Vedāntadeśika is able to express fully the helplessness of the devotee—​like that of a kitten picked up by his mother—​while maintaining a tiny degree of self-​effort “in the poetic act of praying itself, wherein one claims one can simply do nothing to earn or deserve salvation” (italics original).12 The stotra form, therefore, served as the context for subtle theological explorations about shared ground in an active theological debate. Stotras were also important in the evolving theology of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas in northeast India. In his recent study of the Stavamālā, a collection of Rūpa Gosvāmin’s stotras, David Buchta demonstrates how Rūpa’s poetic hymns were central to his role in the early development of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition. They were a key means for Rūpa to communicate with this religious community, and they reveal perspectives not found in his expository writings. Buchta highlights in particular how Rūpa’s stotras address two issues surprisingly absent from his

community, reveal the on-​going innovative process of integration initiated by these Brahmin religious leaders, as well as their deep indebtedness to their Āḻvār forerunners, one of whom is believed to have been a Śūdra, and another who is remembered as a member of the even lower ‘fifth’ caste” (ibid.). 9. Ibid.,  6–​7. 10. Ibid., 258–​259. 11. Steven Paul Hopkins, Singing the Body of God: The Hymns of Vedāntadeśika in Their South Indian Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 47. 12. Ibid., 22. On some of the differences between Hopkins’s interpretation and Friedhelm Hardy’s, see Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry,” 68, and 178–​180.

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formal work on the divinity of Kṛṣṇa: the divinity of the saint Caitanya and the theology of the name.13 Rūpa’s stotras also appeal repeatedly to Vaiṣṇava scriptures and canonical texts and draw hidden or latent meanings from them.14 Buchta further argues that “Rūpa used the stotra genre as a context for exploring the boundaries of a theological system that was still under development and taking on more controversial topics without the full commitment to a view and its possible repercussions that formal theological writing would entail.”15 In this way, Rūpa’s poetry functioned as theology in multiple ways that supported the early development of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava community. The work of scholars like Nayar, Hopkins, and Buchta has shown that stotras can be primary theological texts and offer a means of theological reflection that can be public, devotional, and carefully crafted. Building on such work, this chapter analyzes the contents of literary stotras from Kashmir to show how poetry can function as theology in a variety of ways. Many of these hymns are rich theological sources that offer distinct perspectives on theological debates.16 As poetry, they express positions in different ways than prose and expository verse, and thus they are particularly suited for addressing certain theological issues, like the limitations and liberating potential of speech, the nature of non-​dual devotion, and the proper understanding of petitionary praise. Because of their public nature, the stotras available to us also illustrate how this literary form can be used to model and teach specific theological positions. They are both theology in action and, to borrow Buchta’s felicitous phrase, pedagogical poetry. Finally, these hymns taken together suggest patterns in how various authors have viewed the stotra genre, and thus they contribute to a theology of praise and prayer embodied in the Sanskrit stotra.

A Theology of Prayer in a Hymn to the Sun-​God The SP develops a non-​dual theology of prayer in its poetic verses praising the sun-​god. The thirty-​second verse, for example, suggests the unity of the speaker and the addressee: Since you are the cause of the universe, all things exist eternally in your body, and you in each one of theirs simultaneously, like a possessor of qualities who is at the same beyond all qualification. When you are like this, O lord, truly

13. Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry,” 41–​42, and, for the full discussion, 69–​184. 14. Ibid., 61. 15. Ibid., 69. 16. Unlike the work of Nayar, Hopkins, and Buchta, the present study does not focus on the relationship between these Kashmirian stotras and their authors’ other works, worthwhile though such a study would be.



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I am nothing other than you—​but still you are the omniscient, supreme person (puruṣa), and I am a limited knower by nature (prakṛti).17 As this verse suggests, despite an ontological unity between the deity and devotee, there remains an epistemological difference between them. The poet addresses this tension throughout the poem. Several verses, for instance, explore the (ontological) falseness in the distinction between the poet who offers praise and the one being praised, yet maintain the usefulness of such praise in uprooting ignorance.18 Much of the SP uses poetry to parse the theological implications of offering devotional praise and prayer—​central to the stotra genre—​within a non-​dualistic framework. One of the significant differences between the SP and SūŚ of Mayūra (probably the text most closely related in content and style to the SP) is the SP’s degree of self-​awareness toward the stotra genre itself. Mayūra’s verses contain elaborate poetry and vivid descriptions, but lack the kind of self-​conscious reflection on the act of praise that one finds in the SP. The latter often addresses what it means to offer praise-​poetry and prayers in light of the text’s theological non-​ dualism, a position that seems logically incommensurate with the subject–​object dichotomy of eulogy. Consider this example: “I will praise you with hymns of praise (stuti)”—​my understanding of difference in this way is actually ignorance. Still, this understanding is even more useful for the eradication of that ignorance. I do praise that which is described in three ways: as gross, subtle and supreme.19 Indeed, the wise call ignorance the supreme means to knowledge.20

17.  lokāḥ sarve vapuṣi niyataṃ te sthitās tvaṃ ca teṣām ekaikasmin yugapad aguṇo viśvahetor guṇīva /​ itthaṃbhūte bhavati bhagavan na tvadanyo ‘smi satyaṃ kintu jñas tvaṃ paramapuruṣo ‘haṃ prakṛtyaiva cājñaḥ //​ SP 32 //​The verse is full of references to the Sāṃkhya tradition—​ for instance, the deity possesses qualities like omniscience, but is also separate from the three guṇas that constitute limited existence. The references to the paired categories of puruṣa and prakṛti suggest that the poet is separated from the deity by means of his involvement with the material basis of the universe, needing only to overcome this limiting entanglement to realize his identity with the deity. 18. See SP vv. 11 and 15, discussed later. 19.  Bettina Bäumer notes that this is a standard framework of the Āgamas (“Sūrya in a Śaiva Perspective: the Sāmbapañcāśikā, A Mystical Hymn of Kashmir and Its Commentary by Kṣemarāja,” in Sahṛdaya:  Studies in Indian and South East Asian Art in Honour of Dr. R. Nagaswamy, ed. Bettina Bäumer et al. [Chennai: Tamil Arts Academy, 2006], 12). In SP v. 20, the poet wonders: If Sūrya’s gross form cannot be perceived fully since it is infinite, and his subtle form is inconceivable because it is neither existent nor nonexistent, then how can Sūrya be contemplated? 20. tvāṃ stoṣyāmi stutibhir iti me yas tu bhedagraho ‘yaṃ saivāvidyā tad api sutarāṃ tadvināśāya yuktaḥ /​ staumy evāhaṃ trividham uditaṃ sthūlasūkṣmaṃ paraṃ vā vidyopāyaḥ para iti budhair gīyate khalv avidyā //​ SP 11 //​

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The verse identifies the straightforward intention behind such praise as ignorance, yet justifies it as a means to an end. Praise may falsely rely upon a division between the one who praises, the object of praise, and the praise itself, but it is still efficacious epistemologically.21 The poet is concerned with showing that praise relies upon a dualistic framework but that it can lead beyond that to a non-​dualistic realization. In other words, the nature of true praise is that it can point beyond the limitations underlying its own operation. As we will see, this is an important, recurring theme among Kashmirian authors and interpreters of stotra literature. Nevertheless, the tone of the SP often conveys some hesitation about the possibility of knowing—​and thus being able to describe and praise—​the supreme deity directly, another theme that became common for poets to explore.22 Verse 13, for instance, says: When they try to describe your nature, sages repeatedly say “not—​, not—​” and become completely exhausted; they don’t even say “you” or “like this”! Since words full of knowledge flow more freely, I will only say simple utterances like “Homage to you!”23 In other words, the sages in the Upaniṣads did not even explicitly say, “You are like [X]‌”; they just said “not—​, not—​” and then gave up. For this reason, the poet indicates his own reticence to praise the deity directly, based on the objection that praise relies upon a description of qualities, and describing the lord’s qualities is impossible because one cannot know them in full. The poet seems to mark a certain kind of arrogance or presumption in any intention to praise a supreme deity, one that underlies the very structure of the stotra genre. At the same time a theology of non-​duality also justifies all praise. Thus, the poet says: You alone, who have the nature of the agent, the object of action, and the action itself, play as the one who praises, the one to be praised, and the praise

21.  Cf. SP 15, translated later, and SP v.  48, which begins:  “What speech can be spoken whose speaker is not you? What could be said by any speech which is not you, O you who has the form of all?” (kiṃ tannāmoccarati vacanaṃ yasya noccārakas tvaṃ kiṃ tadvācyaṃ sakalavacasāṃ viśvamūrte na yat tvam). 22. Cf. Mahimnaḥstava v. 2. 23. tattvākhyāne tvayi munijanā neti neti bruvantaḥ śrāntāḥ samyak tvam iti na ca tair īdṛśo veti coktaḥ /​ tasmāt tubhyaṃ nama iti vacomātram evāsmi vacmi prāyo yasmāt prasaratitarāṃ bhāratī jñānagarbhā //​ SP 13 //​



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itself. Therefore, I  have no independence in the act of praising you. On the other hand, whatever pleasing prayers I offer, O lord of the rays,24 are real, for anything in the universe that seems different from you would be false.25 The poet may have no independent power to praise the lord, yet he is still encouraged, since there is nothing that is separate from him. Hence his prayer must be real or true in that sense. The author of the SP also validates the act of praise by praising its power: Because of praising you, my intentions, desires, and so on, as well as all of my sense organs, inner energies (prāṇa), and speech, have been perfected, and this life has become a refuge for me. Moreover, it seems to me that merit and sin are headed toward their end. Otherwise, how could there be such devotion and faith at your two feet?26 In other words, devotion and faith in this life are proof of previous good deeds becoming manifest; this life is a refuge because these other things have matured due to praising the supreme deity, in this case the sun-​god. Not surprisingly, devotion (bhakti) is closely linked with the act of offering praise and prayer.27 While the supreme deity may be beyond the mind or the senses, this deity is somehow accessible through bhakti: For people like us, knowledge is only obtained through the inner organs, but you are inconceivable because you are totally beyond any organ. You are beyond meditation. Hence you cannot be obtained except by bhaktiyoga. Therefore, I  have taken refuge in bhakti in order to obtain the nectar of immortality.28

24. The term used here—​gopati—​can mean either the “lord of the rays” (i.e., the sun) or “lord of speech.” 25. stotā stutyaḥ stutir iti bhavān kartṛkarmakriyātmā krīḍaty ekas tava nutividhāv asvatantras tato ‘ham /​ yad vā vacmi praṇayasubhagaṃ gopate tac ca tathyaṃ tvatto hy anyat kim iva jagatāṃ vidyate tan mṛṣā syāt //​ SP 15 //​ 26. saṃkalpecchādyakhilakaraṇaprāṇavāṇyo vareṇyāḥ saṃpannā me tvadabhinavanāj janma cedaṃ śaraṇyam /​ manye cāstaṃ jigamiṣu śanaiḥ puṇyapāpadvayaṃ tad bhaktiśraddhe tava caraṇayor anyathā no bhavetām //​ SP 33 //​ 27. E.g., in SP v. 48. 28.  jñānaṃ nāntaḥkaraṇarahitaṃ vidyate ’smadvidhānāṃ tvaṃ cātyantaṃ sakalakaraṇāgocaratvād acintyaḥ /​ dhyānātītas tvam iti na vinā bhaktiyogena labhyas tasmād bhaktiṃ śaraṇam amṛtaprāptaye ‘haṃ prapannaḥ //​ SP 16 //​

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The verse draws upon the multivalence of the term bhakti, and particularly the sense of participation.29 While the supreme deity may be beyond the senses, bhakti allows a kind of participation in or with that deity. This verse in particular associates the sun-​god with the nectar of immortality, hence bhakti also suggests the consumption or obtainment of this nectar, which is then enjoyed by the devotee. In other words, bhakti is crucial to praise and prayer, and the stotra genre itself, because of the limitations of the mind, senses, and language to adequately encompass and comprehend the supreme deity. Bhakti is what connects the devotee to the deity even when language fails. The SP also offers some interesting perspectives on the efficacy of stotras. Toward the end of the poem, its verses tend to reflect on the fruits of offering such praise-​poetry, and the last two verses can be described as a phalaśruti, an appendix articulating the benefits of reciting the hymn. The second half of the penultimate verse states: “He who constantly recites this stotra to the sun, seeing all beings as his own self at the time of death, obtains the orb of the hot-​rayed sun.”30 The final verse says: This group of fifty verses on the supreme, subtle teaching is favorable because of its praise for the sun, and it is a reflection on the supreme reality (brahman) along with scriptural tradition (āgama). May it remove your misfortunes when you hear it recited by us, and, like a mother, may it grant devotees auspicious success.31 These verses emphasize the efficacy of reciting and also hearing such hymns. But the SP overall suggests a wide range of benefits. The penultimate verse quoted earlier suggests a desirable destination after death, while the last verse suggests the removal of sin. But earlier verses suggest the goal of the poem is to bring about a yogic state of equanimity or balance (samatā) between various dualities.32 The poet describes this praise-​poem as being capable of freeing one from the grasp—​literally the “eclipse”—​of dharma and adharma.33 Other verses suggest the power of such hymns to release one from the cycle of rebirth, but in v. 34 the poet

29. On bhakti as dynamic participation in diverse contexts, see Karen Pechilis Prentiss, The Embodiment of Bhakti (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). 30. yaḥ sāvitraṃ paṭhati niyataṃ svātmavat sarvalokān paśyan so ‘nte vrajati [ . . . ] maṇḍalaṃ caṇḍaraśmeḥ //​ SP 52cd //​ 31.  iti paramarahasyaślokapañcāśad eṣā tapananavanapuṇyā sāgamabrahmacarcā /​ haratu duritam asmadvarṇitākarṇitā vo diśatu ca śubhasiddhiṃ mātṛvad bhaktibhājām //​ SP 53 //​ 32. SP vv. 49–​51. 33. dharmādharmagrasanaraśanāmuktaye yuktiyuktāṃ; SP v. 51c.



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prays not to be released from this cycle right away, asking instead for his praise and worship to give him another birth to help others across the ocean of saṃsāra (a wish that evokes the Mahāyāna Buddhist ideal of the bodhisattva). Finally, the poet suggests the power of such hymns to the sun-​god to grant immediate and visible results as well.34 The most well-​known example of this is v. 46, in which he praises the power of the sun-​god to cure diseases (as well as grant liberation). This freedom from disease allows one to experience the joys of existence; hence Sūrya bestows both bhukti (enjoyment) and mukti (liberation).35 In this way, the SP depicts the diverse benefits of reciting and hearing hymns to the sun, and perhaps this can be analyzed in terms suggested by the text itself: these benefits are gross, subtle, and supreme like the sun-​god himself. Some are physical, manifesting on the level of the body, while others are subtle. But ultimately, the text suggests that there is no difference between the one offering praise and the one being praised. In this case, the supreme benefit of such praise-​ poetry is nothing more than the balanced enjoyment of a state that already exists. The self-​reflective features of the SP stand out for the perspectives they cultivate toward the nature of the devotional, poetic praise at the heart of the stotra genre. Such awareness of the challenges and possibilities of the genre, such as the paradox of devotion and prayer within a non-​dualistic theology, indicate a level of maturity within the tradition of stotra composition. Moreover, they model and promote such devotional prayer. By praising the rejuvenating power of praising the sun, for instance, and possibly implying that the author experienced its benefits, the poem demonstrates its efficacy. In this way one might say that it becomes its own evidence. Other verses, like those that rhetorically question the possibility of praise, turn a potential theological challenge into an instrument of even greater praise. Overall, the SP presents an appreciation for the possibilities of the stotra genre and seeks to cultivate this same appreciation in its human audiences. The poetic features of the SP were also critical to its long-​lasting appeal. While the Saura tradition centered on worship of the sun-​god faded in Kashmir as an independent tradition, Kṣemarāja’s commentary on the SP reinterpreted Saura non-​ dualism within a Śaiva framework. Kṣemarāja had no connection (that we know of) with the SP or its author beyond his appreciation for the content of the poem. But the rich visual elements of the hymn, its non-​dual orientation, and its own tendency to move between macro-​and microcosmic visions must have appealed greatly to Kṣemarāja, whose own non-​dual tradition relied heavily on metaphors

34. In SP v. 45 he says that other gods are invisible and give invisible results, but Sūrya is visible or manifest, and so he asks for the benefits of his prayers to be that way as well. 35. SP v. 46, translated earlier in Chapter 3.

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relating to light (e.g., prakāśa, ābhāsa).36 Kṣemarāja’s commentary demonstrates how the poetic features could be put to great effect in a theological reinterpretation of a text. He relies repeatedly on his treatment of the hymn’s literary qualities and his metaphorical reading of them to reframe the SP in a fully non-​dualistic Śaiva light, subsuming a dynamic Saura composition within his own tradition.37 Most centrally, Kṣemarāja relies on the metaphor of the sun as consciousness.38 In the opening verse (maṅgalaśloka) of his commentary he says:  “I bow to the one sun that is consciousness” (naumi cidbhānum ekam).39 In his exposition of SP v. 7 he explicitly equates Sūrya with Paramaśiva.40 In his commentary on SP v. 11, in which the poet says, “I offer praise” (staumy evāhaṃ), Kṣemarāja glosses it emphatically: “I praise you alone, the sun that is consciousness, but not some limited deity [i.e., the sun-​god as a lesser divinity].”41 The equation of the sun with consciousness permeates Kṣemarāja’s commentary, and it is facilitated by the well-​established tradition of using metaphors associated with light within non-​dualistic Śaiva theology. Often Kṣemarāja interprets the SP’s verses in several ways, and he consistently gives consciousness as the supreme form or meaning of “sun.” Kṣemarāja systematically interprets the SP in ways that multiply its meanings, giving theologically inflected depth to each verse. This is no surprise, given that he composed a Śaiva commentary on a Saura text. Equating the sun and its light with consciousness is only the beginning of his esoteric interpretation of the SP. He often explicitly acknowledges the difference between

36. For an overview, see Bettina Bäumer, “Light and Reflection: The Metaphysical Background of Aesthetics in Kashmir Śaivism,” in Aesthetic Theories and Forms in Indian Traditions, ed. Kapila Vatsyayan and D. P. Chattopadhyaya (Delhi:  Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture, 2008). 37. For a detailed discussion of Kṣemarāja’s hermeneutic strategies, see Hamsa Stainton, “Poetry and Kṣemarāja’s Hermeneutics of Non-​ dualism,” in Tantrapuṣpāñjali:  Tantric Traditions and Philosophy of Kashmir; Studies in Memory of Pandit H.N. Chakravarty, ed. Bettina Sharada Bäumer and Hamsa Stainton (Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, 2018), 339–​368. 38.  While he equates the sun with consciousness most frequently, he also identifies it as the self, as in his introduction to SP v.  1:  “Illustrious Sāmba, for the benefit of the world, begins his praise-​poem to the sun-​god who is his own self by saying . . .” (śrīsāmbaḥ svātmavivasvatstutiṃ jagato ‘nugrahāya vaktum upakramate; SP, p. 1). 39. SP, p. 1. 40.  However, as Bettina Bäumer notes, this is a rare occurrence (“Sūrya in a Śaiva Perspective,” 9). While consciousness is often described in terms relating to light, the equation of the sun-​god (Sūrya), a specific deity, with supreme and all-​encompassing Paramaśiva is unusual. Sūrya is more often related to a specific form of Śiva, Mārtaṇḍa-​Bhairava, or else interpreted as the light of consciousness (prakāśa). 41. tvām eva cidarkaṃ staumi na tu parimitāṃ kāñcana devatām; SP, p. 9.



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such interpretations and his explanation of the “external” (bāhya) elements of the verse. His commentary on SP v.  9 is paradigmatic. The verse praises the sun-​god but uses extended puns (śleṣas) to compare him to Viṣṇu in the form of a Brahman youth. Both spread throughout the universe by means of their pādas—​in the case of the sun, his “rays”; in the case of Viṣṇu, his “feet.” This refers to the well-​known and old story in which Viṣṇu takes on the form of a young (or dwarf ) Brahman to trick the powerful demon Bali into giving him whatever land he can cover in three steps, which end up covering far more than Bali expects. Kṣemarāja’s commentary, however, does not begin by addressing either the literal meaning of the verse or the comparison with Viṣṇu suggested by the śleṣas it contains. Rather, he begins by explaining what he calls the ultimate or supreme meaning (paramārtha).42 This interpretation equates the sun with sattva, the quality of lucidity and the very existence of all things. Furthermore, it identifies its form as the great light (mahāprakāśa) that is the nature of consciousness and the ground for all existence. He goes on to gloss the various parts of the verse with technical terms from his own tradition. For example, he interprets the “seven worlds” (saptaloka) as the seven levels of perceivers (pramātṛ), from Śiva down to the most limited perceivers called sakalas. Only near the end of his commentary does he acknowledge that the verse is also referring to the external (bāhya) sun/​sun-​god, whose rays are traditionally described as seven horses. After briefly discussing this meaning of the verse he ends by explaining its śleṣas suggesting the comparison between the sun-​god and Viṣṇu.43 Kṣemarāja repeats this general format in the rest of his commentary, and often signals a switch from an esoteric or “supreme” (para) reading to an exoteric or mundane one with the word “external” (bāhya).44 In this way his commentary prioritizes internalized interpretations. Elsewhere Kṣemarāja uses a tripartite classification to establish levels of meaning in the text. The SP itself suggests such a classification—​in SP v.  11, quoted earlier, we saw that this Saura poet praises the sun as having three forms, which are physically manifest (sthūla), subtle (sūkṣma), and supreme (para). Kṣemarāja identifies the first as the sun whose existence is external, the second as the supreme brahman existing within the body as the vital energy in the central channel, and the third as the unbroken bliss that is consciousness, the nature of the universe.45 He invokes this tripartite classification in his commentary on other

42. SP, p. 7. 43. SP, pp. 7–​8. 44. E.g., SP vv. 8, 24. 45. sthūlaṃ bāhyaprāṇārkarūpam /​ sūkṣmaṃ madhyanāḍīgataṃ prāṇabrahmarūpam /​ paraṃ cānavacchinnaṃ viśvātmacidānandaghanam; SP, p.  9. On the idea of the supreme sun as having the form of brahman in the central channel within the body, see Kṣemarāja’s

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verses as well,46 and it opens the doorway to a hierarchy of interpretations that Kṣemarāja uses to assimilate the dominant Saura elements of this poem into his own tradition. Kṣemarāja also uses many concepts and terms from Indian aesthetics to analyze the SP. He identifies figures such as apparent contradiction (virodhābhāsa), complex punning (śleṣa), and simile (upamā), in addition to instances of poetic suggestion (dhvani). Usually his explanations of such literary figures occur briefly near the end of his commentary on a given verse, and they gloss the basic operation of the poetic features of the hymn. However, they also allow for complex interpretations of the SP, and in this way they are part of his strategy of multiplying the meanings of the text in order to align it, ultimately, with his own tradition. In other words, discussing the layers of meaning created by puns or similes opens the text to the kind of complex, multileveled interpretation Kṣemarāja espouses. Consider SP v. 37: O lord, even though you terminated the darkness that seemed to swallow up the whole world, your heart is scented with compassion, so you maintain the night and the day by separating the light and dark paths. O sun-​god, save me as well from the disgrace of my wicked deeds!47 The verse itself simply praises the sun, without explicitly triggering a multivalent interpretation. But for Kṣemarāja, darkness always suggests ignorance as well, so he analyzes the verse as containing a śleṣopamā—​a comparison by means of a complex pun. What is striking, however, is that he takes the literal reading of the verse as secondary. In other words, he explains that the verse means the inner sun of consciousness removes the darkness of ignorance, just as the external sun removes darkness.48 Thus his analysis of the SP’s poetic features serves to reinforce and develop the hierarchized layering of meaning he creates for this Saura poem. In this way, his analysis of the SP as poetry, in particular, supports his complex theological readings of the text.

commentary on SP v. 2 (SP, pp. 2–​3), especially: taṃ paramādityaṃ parabrahmasvarūpam eva dehasthitaṃ madhyanāḍīgataprāṇabrahmaniviṣṭam ādyaṃ viśvacitrabhittibhūtaṃ sapadi prapadye abhisandhyavadhānena samāviśāmi. 46. E.g., SP vv. 12, 22. 47.  yena grāsīkṛtam iva jagat sarvam āsīt tad astaṃ dhvāntaṃ nītvā punar api vibho taddayāghrātacittaḥ /​ dhatse naktaṃdinam api gatī śuklakṛṣṇe vibhajya trātā tasmād bhava paribhave duṣkṛte me ‘pi bhāno //​ SP 37 //​(Em. bhava paribhave; Kavirāja ed. bhavaparibhavae) 48. SP, p. 25.



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Kṣemarāja’s commentary on the SP ensured its continued relevance to Śaivas in the region. But the SP also stands out because of the trajectory of stotras in Kashmir. The combination of poetic ambition, theological reflection, and devotional meditation on a specific deity found in this hymn runs throughout many of the most influential stotras from Kashmir, from the technical Śaiva-​Śākta hymns of various Krama authors to the literary collection of Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa. From at least the time of the SP, there was a tendency in Kashmir to engage with the stotra form as literature, drawing on the power and potential of Sanskrit kāvya, particularly embodied in the elaborate use of literary figures. The SP can be seen as an earlier trailblazer for the kind of literary stotras that were composed in the centuries that followed.

Hymns in the Narrative: Ratnākara’s Śivastotra and Caṇḍı ̄stotra Sophisticated hymns occur at two critical junctures in Ratnākara’s HaVi. The HaVi is often considered the longest of the Sanskrit mahākāvyas, a designation that has earned it both praise and revilement.49 The basic plot of the poem is as follows. Having conquered the gods, the demon Andhaka oppresses the world. The Seasons come to Śiva’s abode, which is described in detail in the first chapters, and worship Śiva, after which Spring offers him a hymn of praise that ends with the news of Andhaka’s fierce oppression. Śiva’s assembly reacts with anger to the news, and Śiva sends an envoy to Andhaka. While the envoy is on his mission, Śiva, Pārvatī, and their followers sport with pleasure. The envoy reaches Andhaka, but even after many speeches in the demon’s assembly hall war is inevitable. During the peak of battle, just before Śiva appears to slay Andhaka himself, a hymn to the fierce goddess Caṇḍī is offered on the battlefield.50 As this brief description highlights, two hymns occur at crucial moments in the narrative.51 The hymn to Śiva serves as a conclusion to the first six chapters, offering what David Smith characterizes as a summary of the status quo, a static presentation of Śiva’s supreme nature, before Andhaka’s oppression is mentioned at the hymn’s end.52 The Caṇḍīstotra, on the other hand, is offered during the intensity of battle, as befits the fierce form of the goddess. Theologically, Smith has

49.  David Smith, Ratnakara’s “Haravijaya”:  An Introduction to the Sanskrit Court Epic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 3. The poem consists of fifty chapters and 4,351 verses. 50. For more on this progression, see ibid., Chapter 5. 51. Smith’s discussion of the HaVi’s overall structure makes this clear (ibid.). 52. Ibid., 252.

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argued, they suggest both the transcendent and the immanent aspects of divine power.53 Alexis Sanderson has drawn attention to the significance of these hymns for our understanding of the history of religion in Kashmir. They offer the earliest dateable evidence we have for the traditions that make up the broad stream of Śaivism in Kashmir called the Mantramārga.54 While the Śivastotra demonstrates knowledge of Śaiva Siddhānta scriptures and commentarial literature, the Caṇḍīstotra alludes to the Śaiva-​Śākta tradition known as the Trika.55 But beyond the importance of this historical evidence, these hymns demonstrate a remarkable combination of literary and theological expression. Both hymns are long and complex: the Śivastotra and Caṇḍīstotra constitute almost the entire sixth and forty-​ seventh cantos of the HaVi, respectively, for a combined total of over 350 verses. They are some of the earliest evidence we have for one of the central concerns of Kashmirian authors: the nature of stotras as a pivotal point of contact between religious traditions and the realm of literature and literary theory. In the ornate and complex language of Sanskrit mahākāvya, the Śivastotra expounds upon Śiva’s supreme nature as the one god underlying all reality. In doing so, it refers to numerous religious and philosophical traditions and richly evokes Śiva’s iconographic features and salvific activities. Allusions to Śaiva soteriological systems, and in particular Śaiva Siddhānta, make the hymn theologically dense. Many of its verses refer to specific doctrinal points. For instance, one of its verses

53. See ibid., 135 and 275–​276. 54. Literally “the path of mantras,” the Mantramārga refers to Śaivism open to both ascetics and married householders who may pursue worldly pleasures and extraordinary powers in addition to liberation (in contrast to the other main branch of Tantric Śaivism, the Atimārga, which is only open to ascetics who pursue liberation alone). For an introduction to these Śaiva streams, see Alexis Sanderson, “Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions,” in The World’s Religions, ed. S. Sutherland, L. Houlden, P. Clarke and F. Hardy (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988). 55. Alexis Sanderson, “The Śaiva Exegesis of Kashmir,” in Mélanges tantriques à la mémoire d’Hélène Brunner/​Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner, ed. Dominic Goodall and André Padoux (Pondicherry:  Institut Français d’Indologie/​ École Française d’Extrême-​ Orient, 2007), 425. Sanderson also argues that the lack of references to the Kālīkula system suggests that the Kālīkula and specifically “its Krama refinement had not yet come to the fore of the Kashmirian Śākta domain of the court, whereas the Trika was already well established there” (ibid., 426). For the correlations between verses of the Śivastotra with specific Śaiva Siddhānta texts, see Alexis Sanderson, “History Through Textual Criticism in the Study of Śaivism, the Pañcarātra and the Buddhist Yoginītantras,” in Les Sources et le temps. Sources and Time, ed. François Grimal, Publications du département d’Indologie 91 (Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondichéry/​École Française d’Extrême-​Orient, 2001), 1–​ 47, 5–​6n3 and 18–​19n21. On the Trika, Krama, and Kālīkula, see Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” especially 250–​381, and on the Trika in particular, Alexis Sanderson, “Maṇḍala and Ᾱgamic Identity in the Trika of Kashmir,” in Mantras et Diagrammes Rituelles dans l’Hindouisme, ed. Andre Padoux (Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1986).



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evokes three of the cuirasses (kañcukas) in the Śaiva Siddhānta ontology of thirty-​ six levels or principles of reality (tattva), echoing the Svāyambhuvasūtrasaṃgraha,56 an early scripture of this tradition.57 Such verses refer to standard Śaiva Siddhānta doctrines, but this hymn does not only praise Śiva in these terms. Theologically, it links Śiva with a number of earlier traditions, interweaving references to Yoga and Sāṃkhya, the Vedas and Upaniṣads, and Buddhism.58 It praises Śiva as the one who really sings the Sāmaveda (through Brahmā),59 and it equates Śiva with the ineffable reality to which Yājñavalkya gestures in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad:60 O you who are praised by all, the celebrated sages of old, who see beyond the mundane, (can only) describe it as “not—​, not—​,” beyond all secondary descriptions. That supreme nature of yours is amazing!61 In this way, Ratnākara presents a vision of Śiva that embraces earlier soteriological traditions but establishes Śiva as their apex by showing how the views of others are, in the end, linked with Śiva as the supreme god. Many other verses simply focus on describing Śiva’s iconographical form. Such verses offer highly poetic meditations on his perceptible appearance, evoking a vision of Śiva through praise. They visualize and substantiate Śiva’s embodiment and relate it to the rich narratives associated with him,62 such as when he incinerated the god of love with his fiery third eye.63 Such verses do not offer simple, transparent descriptions; they require careful attention and sophisticated skills and knowledge to be fully appreciated. They use literary figures like utprekṣā, an imaginative ascription that contains an implicit comparison, to evoke Śiva’s

56. Sanderson identifies this parallel in “History Through Textual Criticism,” 5–​6n3. 57.  HaVi 6.126. On the kañcukas, see Raffaele Torella, “The Kañcukas in the Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava Tantric Tradition:  Some Considerations Between Theology and Grammar,” in Studies in Hinduism II: Miscellanea to the Phenomenon of Tantras, ed. Gerhard Oberhammer (Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1998). 58. HaVi 6.94, for instance, refers to the views of the Mādhyamikas (mādhyamikadarśana). 59. HaVi v. 6.33. 60. E.g., Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.2.4 and 4.4.22. 61. prathitāḥ parāparadṛśaḥ purāvidaḥ kathayanti viśvanuta neti neti yat /​ sakalair vinākṛtam upādhisādhanaiḥ paramaṃ tad eva tava tattvam adbhutam //​ HaVi 6.39 //​Many other stotra verses pick up this same theme; see, for example, SP v. 13. 62. For more on the depiction of Śiva in this hymn, see Smith, Ratnākara’s “Haravijaya,” Chapter 8. 63. See, for example, HaVi 6.173.

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iconography (e.g., his third eye, the crescent moon on his head) and his exploits. For poet, reciter, and listener alike, such verses facilitate the rich evocation of a complex deity and sustained meditation on his form and nature. The experience associated with such poetry, therefore, is one of appreciating complexity. This is particularly true for the Śivastotra and Caṇḍīstotra, since they are intricate parts of a lengthy mahākāvya, unlike the rest of the hymns we will consider in this chapter. Yet this tendency to express theology and devotion in complex ways extends to almost all of these hymns. The descriptions and praises of Śiva are a prelude to the main event of the canto: the speaker of the hymn, Spring, finally shares the news of Andhaka’s oppression, which initiates the action that follows. The Śivastotra thereby serves an important narrative function.64 The hymn praises Śiva, dwelling on his greatness as the supreme deity encompassing all earlier traditions, and thereby impels him to action. It is almost as if the hymn establishes his identity as the hero of this mahākāvya, showcasing his qualifications and authority (adhikāra) as he who conquers the demon Andhaka. Moreover, the praise serves implicitly as a kind of theological pressure: Logically, how could such a great lord sit by idly while Andhaka oppresses the universe?65 The hymn wins Śiva to the cause of his supplicants. Theologically, of course, this is more complicated—​Śiva is free and independent, not controlled by his devotees—​but in practice the logic of stotras often suggests that they are effective at persuading Śiva to take action. Thus, in the Śivastotra we see Śiva celebrated for his various attributes and activities, established as the supreme deity underlying the many systems known at that time, and finally compelled to act on behalf of his supplicants. The second of Ratnākara’s stotras occurs much later in the HaVi and showcases the divine power that encompasses violence, leading ultimately to victory, in the form of the fierce goddess Caṇḍī. She appears at the height of the battle. Seeing her, the celestial beings (Siddhas and Sādhyas) offer a hymn of praise that constitutes the forty-​seventh chapter of the HaVi.66 Like the Śivastotra, this Caṇḍīstotra presents its addressee as the supreme truth behind other religious traditions. Two verses, for instance, depict her as the reality behind the Pāñcarātra Vaiṣṇava tradition,67 and in another her celebrants proclaim:  “the

64. In Smith’s words: “The hymn of praise to Parameśvara concludes the first part of the Haravijaya, the description of the status quo. In its final verses Śiva is informed of the depredations of the demon Andhaka. The poem is shaken out of its timelessness” (Smith, Ratnākara’s “Haravijaya,” 252). 65. Moreover, as Smith notes, Śiva is reminded that he gave birth to the demon who is now oppressing the world (ibid., 255). 66. It is likely that Ratnākara was self-​consciously paying homage to Bāṇa and his CŚ with this hymn (see ibid., 15ff). 67. HaVi 47.55–​56.



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Buddha’s profound eightfold path to liberation was revealed by you alone.”68 We have already seen that this hymn reveals Ratnākara’s technical knowledge of the Trika tradition. It mentions, for instance, the visualization of the goddess enthroned on a lotus above a trident—​central features of the distinctive maṇḍala of the Trika.69 The trident is a pregnant image here because it foreshadows Śiva’s slaying of Andhaka with this famous weapon. As Smith puts it, “the trident of spiritual power transcends and foreshadows the actual implement of the mythological Śiva.”70 In many verses Caṇḍī is also closely linked with the power of language, reflecting the increasing emphasis on this aspect of the goddess in Kashmirian Śaiva-​Śākta circles, especially the Trika.71 Thus she is referred to as mātṛkā, the “mother” or matrix of the syllables, and called the pericarp of Brahmā’s seat, the lotus of all language.72 An extended syntactical unit (kulaka) praises the syllable “oṃ” as her mouth.73 But the Caṇḍīstotra, like its earlier counterpart to Śiva, also combines theological reflections with iconographical meditations. Here, however, the focus is specifically on her terrifying features appropriate to the battleground—​juxtaposed with depictions of her as the mother who is benevolent and loving toward her devotees.74 The poet exclaims that even her necklace of snakes has been scared off by her garland of rattling skulls, and yet her heart is compassionate.75 Devotion to such a goddess is particularly important to ensure this benevolent side of her personality. Ratnākara compares devotion to her to the blade of an axe in the forest of saṃsāra,76 and says that Yama refrains from tightening his noose on her devotees after seeing the devastation she has wreaked upon her enemies.77

68.  aṣṭāṅga eṣa parinirvṛtaye tvayaiva saṃdarśito ‘tigahanaḥ sugatasya mārgaḥ /​ HaVi 47.53cd //​ 69. See HaVi 47.99, translated in Sanderson, “History Through Textual Criticism,” 18n21, where he also gives other examples. For more on the visualization of the goddesses of the Trika on Śiva’s trident, see Sanderson, “Maṇḍala and Āgamic Identity.” 70. Smith, Ratnākara’s “Haravijaya,” 276. 71. On the goddess Mālinī, see Somadeva Vasudeva, The Yoga of the Mālinīvijayottaratantra, Chapters 1–​4, 7, 11–​17, Collection Indologie Pondichéry—​19 (Pondicherry: Institut français de Pondichéry; École française d’Extrême-​Orient, 2004). 72. HaVi vv. 47.114 and 47.118; HaVi v. 47.109. 73. HaVi vv. 47.61–​92. See Smith, Ratnākara’s “Haravijaya,” 26. 74. E.g., the poet calls out to her as mother explicitly in HaVi 47.144. 75.  preṅkhatkapālakusumasragapoḍhabhogihāraṃ bhayānakam adhīśvari rūpam etat /​ cetaḥ punas tava dayāmṛdu saptalokabhogāpavargaphalasādhanabaddhakakṣam //​ HaVi 47.156 //​ 76. HaVi 47.31. 77. HaVi 47.149.

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The final verses of the stotra present the speakers’ hopes about the fruitfulness of their praises and their final pleas for her assistance: O mother, may the merit gained because of these descriptions of your qualities make this devotion (bhakti) toward you ever bear fruit for us in the pleasure of worshipping your feet.78 Quell the fever of great delusion, make my vision ever clear, eliminate the accumulations of sins, and tear apart the tight bonds of those who are entangled in saṃsāra. For those who bow (to you), the memory of your lotus-​feet is never fruitless.79 Overall, Caṇḍī represents a theological response to the violence at the heart of this mahākāvya. She encapsulates the terrifying and fierce aspects of the battle but also neutralizes them for her devotees. Foreshadowing Śiva’s final and inevitable victory over Andhaka, this hymn presents a vision of cosmic order not bereft of violence but rather encompassing and going beyond it. Unlike the Mahābhārata, for example, which continues to express disenchantment after the war, the HaVi celebrates the military victory of its hero, the god Śiva. The hymn to Caṇḍī offered on the bloody battlefield invokes this form of the goddess, closely associated with Śiva, which is seen as underlying other soteriological systems and embodying the manifest power that triumphs in the end. This fierce goddess’s unique combination of violence and grace allows the narrative to transition into Śiva’s ultimate victory. Taken together, Ratnākara’s Caṇḍīstotra and Śivastotra suggest several important features of the history of stotras in Kashmir. They provide dateable evidence for the flourishing of the Śaiva Siddhānta and Trika traditions in ninth-​ century Kashmir, as Sanderson’s careful historical work has made clear. They also demonstrate the perception of stotras as key links between religious and literary traditions. It is no accident that it is specifically the stotras within this mahākāvya that allude to these theological traditions. While these particular hymns are embedded in a long and complex piece of Sanskrit literature produced at the court of Kashmir, most hymns, full of devotional praise for specific deities, are more

78.  iti tava guṇavādataḥ kilāsmāj janani yad arjitam asti puṇyajātam /​ pratisamayam iyaṃ tvadaṅghripūjābhiratiphalā tvayi tena no ‘stu bhaktiḥ //​ HaVi 47.167 //​ 79.  praśamaya mahāmohātaṅkaṃ vidhatsva sunirmalāṃ dṛśam anudinaṃ kūṭībhūtaṃ tiraskuru kilbiṣam /​ vighaṭaya dṛḍhān pāśagranthīn bhavavyatiṣaṅgiṇo na tava viphalā pādāmbhojasmṛtiḥ praṇatātmanām //​ HaVi 47.168 //​



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closely linked to ritual and worship. Ratnākara’s representations of the offering of such hymns allows him to invoke particular theological positions and allude to more esoteric ritual contexts, like that of the Trika.80 Moreover, Ratnākara uses these hymns, and their position in the narrative, as an occasion to embrace the wide range and history of religious traditions present in varying degrees in the Kashmir of his day, organizing them within a hierarchy crowned by Śiva (and the goddess inextricably linked with him). These hymns infuse a new level of theological reflection and devotional expression into this mahākāvya,81 and they stand out for their originality, theological density, and poetic sophistication.

Praise-​Poetry, a Wish-​Fulfilling Gem Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa’s StC lays out a religious vision focused on devotional practices. It praises Śiva as the one supreme god, the culmination of all other religious traditions. The poet refers to various features of Śaivism taught in the Śaiva Siddhānta scriptures, such as the defilements (malas) that keep one bound in limited existence.82 But while Śaiva Siddhānta is a dualistic form of Śaivism, the theology of the StC is generally non-​dualistic. The poet prays, for instance, to eventually go beyond all dualities by offering whatever he says, thinks, and does to Śiva.83 He addresses Śiva throughout the poem as the highest god, the supreme reality (paramārtha).84 He depicts Śiva as both the ultimate, transcendent reality and an anthropomorphic deity associated with various stories and iconic features, such as his matted hair and trident. Moreover, Śiva is described as supreme consciousness, which, in the end, is no different from one’s own self (ātman).85 Śiva, therefore, represents a complex of ideas:  an abstract ultimate reality, supreme consciousness, an anthropomorphic deity, and the conscious self. This Śiva is described as being beyond all dualities (nirdvandva) and secondary limiting qualities

80. Such allusions probably functioned in multiple ways. Ratnākara demonstrates his impressive learning throughout his mahākāvya, and references to sophisticated and esoteric traditions were probably an additional means of exhibiting his remarkable and wide-​ranging erudition. At the same time, such allusions may have only been fully comprehensible to certain elites, so that Ratnākara’s poetry operated on multiple levels, according to the specialized knowledge of his audience. 81. Discussing Ratnākara’s place within the history of kāvya poets, Smith observes: “entirely original is the way in which Ratnākara introduces a new philosophical level into kāvya in his sixth sarga, a new level of devotionalism in his forty-​seventh” (Ratnākara’s “Haravijaya,” 7). 82. StC v. 76. 83. StC v. 17. 84. StC v. 11. 85. StC v. 85.

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(nirupādhi),86 as being omniscient and omnipotent (sarvajña, sarvakṛt), and as facilitating the arising and withdrawing of the universe through his power, Śakti.87 Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa uses the literary features of his poem to establish its theological content. Apparent contradictions (virodhābhāsa), in particular, are prevalent throughout his poem. Such poetic embellishments serve to suggest wonder and amazement at Śiva’s paradoxical nature, as when the poet exclaims:  “(O lord), you fulfill all desires (kāma) even though you are beyond all desire (niṣkāma)!”88 Similarly, he presents the amazing contrasts in Śiva’s power as the creator of both bondage and liberation for ordinary beings: Homage to you, O lord, who creates delusion for those who are totally bewildered in mundane existence—​ and then smashes it! Who conceals the non-​dual bliss of true knowledge—​ and then reveals it!89 This particular verse is quoted repeatedly by non-​dual Śaiva authors to exemplify Śiva’s supreme power.90 The StC itself does not go into the many detailed and often technical arguments that support these theological positions. However, it does present bondage and the experience of duality as functions of ignorance, rather than the result of any ontological bonds, and it depicts liberation as a function of knowledge. In this, the hymn aligns with the stream of non-​dualism that emerged in ninth-​century Kashmir and eventually outlived Śaiva Siddhānta in Kashmir, albeit in a much-​altered form. While the StC praises Śiva in terms of Śaiva theology, it places more emphasis on a variety of devotional Śaiva practices as it proceeds. These include the offering of homage, service to Śiva, and, most importantly, devotion and the offering of

86. StC v. 54. 87. StC v. 31. 88. niṣkāmāyāpi kāmānām anantānāṃ vidhāyine /​ StC 63ab /​As Radhavallabh Tripathi notes in his essay on such poetic figures in the ŚSĀ, literary theorists in South Asia identified and analyzed multiple types of contradiction. Mammaṭa, for instance, examines ten varieties of contradiction (virodha) in his Kāvyaprakāśa (“Alaṃkāras in the Stotras of Utpaladeva,” in Utpaladeva, Philosopher of Recognition, ed. Raffael Torella and Bettina Bäumer [Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 2016], 343–​344). 89. namas te bhavasaṃbhrāntabhrāntim udbhāvya bhindate /​ jñānānandaṃ ca nirdvandvaṃ deva vṛtvā vivṛṇvate //​ StC 71 //​ 90. E.g., Abhinavagupta’s Mālinīślokavārttika 1.119cd–​120ab, translated in Jürgen Hanneder, Abhinavagupta’s Philosophy of Revelation:  Mālinīślokavārttika I, 1–​399 (Groningen:  Egbert Forsten, 1998), 78–​79.



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praise. In part, this may have been a way to appeal to a large lay population of Śaivas in Kashmir in a public way, since other aspects of Śaivism, such as the use of esoteric mantras, were only available to initiates. As ways of connecting to Śiva, general practices like service and praise are far removed from the complex, formalized rituals prescribed by most Śaiva scriptures. Similarly, the StC stresses the repetition of Śiva’s names and his exoteric mantra [oṃ] namaḥ śivāya (“[Oṃ], homage to Śiva”).91 In one verse, for example, Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa extolls those who recite this mantra: “Homage to Śiva, homage to Śiva”—​ Those who resort to the power of this mantra, intent on enjoying Śiva’s splendor, should be praised.92 Such verses not only offer praise to Śiva; they also celebrate those who offer such praise, and thereby encourage such activity. In this way the text is self-​reinforcing. It offers devotional praise and extolls the value of this very practice. This is most clear in the hymn’s title, Stavacintāmaṇi, which equates the offering of praise-​ poetry (stava) with a wish-​fulfilling gem (cintāmaṇi, literally a “thought-​gem” that procures whatever one thinks of). In this way, the StC promotes the very practices accomplished by the recitation of the StC itself. One way the StC does this is by emphasizing the internal elements of religious practice. Frequently Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa uses metaphor and other literary figures to establish equivalences between external acts or elements of action with internal ones. In one verse, for example, he equates external ritual action (karman) with contemplation of Śiva: Amazing, O lord! Who, from Brahmā down to a bug, does not have the authority (adhikriyeta) to perform this great rite, your contemplation (bhāvanā), for the sake of liberation?93 The verb “adhikriyeta” suggests having the official authority, qualification, or fitness to perform a specific rite (i.e., having the prerequisites). But this verse argues

91.  However, there seems to be at least one reference to a more specific Tantric mantra, called the vyomavyāpinī mantra, in StC v. 8. 92.  namo namaḥ śivāyeti mantrasāmarthyam āśritāḥ /​ ślāghyās te śāmbhavīṃ bhūtim upabhoktuṃ ya udyatāḥ //​ StC 20 //​ 93.  aho mahad idaṃ karma deva tvadbhāvanātmakam /​ ābrahmakrimi yasmin no muktaye ‘dhikriyeta kaḥ //​ StC 48 //​

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that, unlike Vedic rituals for which only the twice-​born are authorized, the contemplation (bhāvanā)94 of Śiva is an action open to everyone. By equating an external rite (karman) with the contemplation of Śiva, Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa internalizes it and turns it into a function of knowledge.95 One may still perform external activities, but it is the internal meditation on Śiva that the poet praises as the great rite. The poet explores this relationship between external and internal features of worship throughout the StC. He celebrates non-​dualism and the liberating power of knowledge over ritual even as he celebrates devotional worship, as in the following verse, which relies heavily on metaphor: O lord, when will I worship you with the lamp of knowledge that burns the wicks that are the impressions of saṃsāra, moistened by the oil of the defilements?96 The verse suggests that the ultimate worship is inner worship, the one done with knowledge, rather than external actions. This does not mean one must necessarily abandon external actions,97 but such verses use metaphors and other strategies to shift the primary site of worship from the external to the internal, privileging knowledge and devotion over ritual action. In addition, such verses frame how such external worship should be understood. In this way, the hymn also teaches a non-​dualistic approach to religious activity by offering and celebrating its own interpretation of external worship. Much of the StC grapples with the discord between the idea of non-​duality and the experience of duality. Thus, the poet ponders:

94. Bhāvanā has a range of meanings. Derived from the causative of the root √bhū, “to be,” it literally means “causing to be or come into being,” “production.” In the context of Śaivism it usually refers to a kind of creative contemplation, but one that leads to the realization or “production” of whatever is contemplated. But Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa also plays upon the fact that bhāvanā has a much narrower, technical meaning in the tradition of Vedic hermeneutics (Mīmāṃsa), related to the injunctive power of scriptural language. In this verse, Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa suggests a movement from the world of Vedic ritual, available only to the elite, to the practice of contemplating Śiva and the world of Śaiva devotion accessible to all. For more on bhāvanā, see Chapter 7. 95. Here Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa also plays upon the fact that karman came to encompass a wide range of meanings beyond “ritual action.” 96. malatailāktasaṃsāravāsanāvartidāhinā /​ jñānadīpena deva tvāṃ kadā nu syām upasthitaḥ //​ StC 113 //​ 97. As we saw in Kṣemendra’s satire in Chapter 3, the StC was apparently recited along with external features of worship, such as the use of a bell (Narmamālā v. 1.45). Kṣemarāja, however, makes the stronger argument: “with the lamp of knowledge” means “with the lamp that is the knowledge of reality, but not with external flowers and so on” (tattvāvadbodha eva dīpaḥ tena, na tu bāhyakusumādinā; StC, p. 119).



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What direction are you not in? All time consists of you. Even though I get this about you, O lord, tell me: when will I get you?98 In other words, Śiva encompasses all time and space, so from that perspective there can be no separation from him; Śiva is already attained. But the limited individual, whose full identity with Śiva is concealed, experiences this separation. In fact, most of Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa’s verses focus on the means to overcome the illusory experience of separation, and this highlights some of the dominant features of the stotra genre, including devotion, the relationship between the speaker and the addressee, and the acts of poetic praise and prayer. These enunciate the gap between the god and the supplicant, even if there is also a close, intimate connection between them. The StC has no narrative progression per se, but its tone becomes more personal and insistent in its second half. One of the central features of the stotra genre is the direct or indirect address of a hymn’s principal subject. Approximately two-​ thirds of the verses in the StC use second-​person pronouns or verb forms, and even more contain epithets in the vocative case. These features create the sense of an intimate dialogue between the speaker or singer of the hymn and Śiva as the addressee. Yet despite this intimacy, they still set up a relationship between the two that articulates a duality. For example, the poet exclaims: Give me that singular state beyond fear, full of bliss, and imperishable! Come quickly, lord! Why do you delay?99 The urgency of this appeal, while pointing to a close connection between the speaker and Śiva, serves to heighten the impression of separation between them, between the “you” and “I” of the text. In this way the StC paradoxically presents a non-​dualistic theology while focusing on dualistic relationships as the means. It is only key verses, like the penultimate verse of the hymn, that begin to dissolve some of these relationships: O lord, by your grace may my speech, thoughts, deeds and body

98. yā yā dik tatra na kvāsi sarvaḥ kālo bhavanmayaḥ /​ iti labdho ‘pi karhi tvaṃ lapsyase nātha kathyatām //​ StC 56 //​ 99. nirbhayaṃ yad yad ānandamayam ekaṃ yad avyayam /​ padaṃ dehy ehi me deva tūrṇaṃ tat kiṃ pratīkṣase //​ StC 89 //​

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all be adorned only by being one with you.100 Constant identification with Śiva is the goal, yet even this verse relies on the relation between the supplicant and Śiva, and the latter’s favor toward the former. Overall, the StC presents a generally accessible, non-​dualistic Śaivism that still highlights the experience of dualism and the means of overcoming it. It emphasizes the internal over the external, knowledge over formalized ritual, but this focus on inner worship can enhance the performance of external worship. Perhaps the central thrust of the hymn is the praise of devotion and praise itself. Ultimately, as its title suggests, the StC celebrates devotional praise to Śiva as the means to fulfill all ends, like a wish-​fulfilling gem.

Theology in Action: The Pedagogical Poetry of Utpaladeva Utpaladeva has long been renowned as a philosopher and theologian. His writings became the definitive expression of the influential tradition of Śaiva non-​dualism that came to be referred to as the Pratyabhijñā, based on the prominence of “recognition” (pratyabhijñā) in Utpaladeva’s formulation—​recognition of Śiva as the one supreme lord, who is conscious, dynamic, blissful, and identical with one’s own consciousness.101 His fame as a philosopher and theologian surely contributed to the circulation of his collection of devotional poetry, the ŚSĀ, well beyond the valley of Kashmir. Scholars have long observed the distinct tones Utpaladeva adopts in his philosophical writings and his hymns. The bulk of his Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā (ĪPK), for instance, employs the pan-​Indian language of philosophical discourse to argue with its main philosophical opponents, the Buddhists (saving its theological arguments based on scripture to the shorter third and fourth āhnikas). The ŚSĀ, on the other hand, is a collection of hymns full of emotion, poetic expressions, and direct, personal addresses to Śiva. In Raffaele Torella’s terms, Utpaladeva “passes

100.  vacaś cetaś ca kāryaṃ ca śarīraṃ mama yat prabho /​ tvatprasādena tad bhūyād bhavadbhāvaikabhūṣaṇam //​ StC 119 //​ 101.  For the basic positions of this tradition, see the introductions to John Nemec, The Ubiquitous Śiva:  Somānanda’s Śivadṛṣṭi and His Tantric Interlocutors (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2011) and Rafaelle Torella, ed. and trans, The Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā of Utpaladeva, with the Author’s Vṛtti (Delhi:  Motilal Banarsidass, 2002 [1994]). It is in Utpaladeva’s formulation of this non-​dualism that pratyabhijñā gains the prominence it has since retained; the term does not occur with its later technical meaning in Somānanda’s extant work (Torella, ĪPK, xx). On Utpaladeva’s writings as “the normative expression of Pratyabhijñā philosophy,” see Nemec, Ubiquitous Śiva, 3.



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from the noetic register of the ĪPK to the emotional register of the bhakti in the ŚSĀ.”102 Ernst Fürlinger asserts that “in his hymns, the atmosphere changes completely: here Utpaladeva talks poetically and ecstatically, as a bhakta [devotee], free from the controlled character of philosophical argumentation.”103 Scholars have recognized, of course, that the ŚSĀ does address topics found in Utpaladeva’s philosophical works,104 but as Bettina Bäumer observes: No attempt has been made so far to relate the philosophical texts of Utpaladeva to his mystical and devotional hymns. The reason is the generally accepted dichotomy between philosophy and devotion, and mysticism is considered too emotional to be mixed with technical philosophy.105 Analyzing Utpaladeva’s body of work as a whole is beyond the scope of this chapter, but I want to revise these descriptions of Utpaladeva’s poetry by looking more critically at some of his devotional hymns and verses. As we shall see, the registers of theology and poetry may not be as distinct as one might expect. According to the standard interpretation, Utpaladeva’s collected stotras and verses are “mystical” hymns expressing his “spiritual experiences” of non-​duality and devotion. They are often characterized as spontaneous, emotional outpourings.106 It is true that this poetry is often very personal and describes intense experiences. Yet interpretations of this rich, influential collection cannot and should not stop here. Most critically, such interpretations downplay the importance of the human audiences for his poetry. His depictions of his own offering of praise as ecstatic and unrestrained can and should be interpreted as a kind of rhetoric, one that may well be crafted to model and instruct as much as to express. With his devotional poetry, Utpaladeva provides others with a text that can be performed in the manner he depicts in his hymns. While his expository writings aim to persuade his audience with logic and argumentation, his poetry dramatizes his teachings and demonstrates for his human audience how his non-​dualistic theology

102. ĪPK, xxxi. 103. Ernst Fürlinger, The Touch of Śakti: A Study in Non-​dualistic Trika Śaivism of Kashmir (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2009), 73. 104. Fürlinger, for example, observes that “the Śivastotrāvalī also presents many philosophical and theological topics, as for example the relation between the transcendence and the immanence of the Divine,” adding that these topics “do not unfold out of argumentation, but rather arise almost playfully, like haikus” (ibid., 74). 105. Bettina Bäumer, “Introduction,” in Swami Lakshman Joo, Śivastotrāvalī of Utpaladeva: A Mystical Hymn of Kashmir, transcribed and edited by Ashok Kaul (New Delhi:  D.K. Printworld, 2008), 5. 106.  See, for example, Fürlinger, Touch of Śakti, 73, and Bäumer, “Introduction” to Śivastotrāvalī, 2–​4; this topic is taken up in more detail in Chapter 5.

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can be implemented in speech.107 In doing so, his poetry actually tackles theoretical issues raised by the practice of composing and reciting stotras within a non-​ dualistic framework, including the nature of praise, prayer, and devotion. The ŚSĀ is full of praise, and many of Utpaladeva’s verses describe or praise Śaiva devotees instead of Śiva himself. For instance, Utpaladeva claims that whatever state true devotees may be in, they offer praise to Śiva: Whether crying or laughing, these devotees address you loudly, worshipping you with hymns of praise. They certainly are unique!108 Such verses hold up these devotees and their actions, and specifically the offering of devotional hymns, as exemplary. This is reinforced by the depiction of the pleasure Śiva takes in such offerings: Glory to you who delight in offerings steeped in the nectar of devotion (bhaktirasa109)! Glory to you who are pleased with the dance-​like words of devotees unrestrained through the intoxication of devotion!110 This is one of many instances in which Utpaladeva links the devotional offering of hymns or prayers with the spontaneity and abandon of intoxication. Such verses have been read too readily as a description of what Utpaladeva himself has done. While he may have composed his verses in a state of unrestrained devotion, as if drunk, the evidence we actually have consists in the descriptions he offers in his poetry. These descriptions should not simply be read as autobiographical and descriptive; they can also be understood as rhetorical and prescriptive. They praise the devotee who offers such devotional poetry with great love and devotion, thereby encouraging and cultivating such devotional worship.

107. Cf. Clooney’s comparative work in Divine Mother, Blessed Mother, as when he notes: “I have chosen hymns, because they are informative texts that are also meant to be enacted, recited as praise, in direct address. They instruct but also invite readers to be participants. The Śrī Guṇa Ratna Kośa and Akathistos [ . . . ] are prayers, not just theology about prayers. They model and make possible the worship for which they offer theoretical justification” (151). 108. rudanto vā hasanto vā tvām uccaiḥ pralapanty amī /​ bhaktāḥ stutipadoccāropacārāḥ pṛthag eva te //​ ŚSĀ 15.3 //​ 109. On the compound bhaktirasa in Utpaladeva’s poetry, see Chapter 7. 110.  jaya bhaktirasārdrārdrabhāvopāyanalampaṭa /​ jaya bhaktimadoddāmabhaktavāṅnṛtta­ toṣita //​ ŚSĀ 14.10 //​



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One also can see the prescriptive nature of Utpaladeva’s poetry in the verses that indirectly argue for the proper use of prayer, and petitionary prayer in particular. A number of verses praise those who do not praise and worship Śiva in order to fulfill mundane requests. For instance: Bravo! Unsullied by requests, the special form of worship of devotees whose hearts are full of devotion for you, O bestower of boons, is praiseworthy.111 As Kṣemarāja points out in his commentary, even though Śiva (“bestower of boons”) grants all wishes, these devotees do not ask him for anything. This is what makes their worship so unique and praiseworthy. Similarly: Some think of worship as a wish-​fulfilling cow. Others, turning inward, drink a milk (rasa) that is better than a flood of nectar.112 In a parallel example, Utpaladeva says that while one could appeal to the wish-​ fulfilling tree of the gods for mundane requests, Śiva bestows benefits beyond all normal prayers.113 Thus Utpaladeva values prayers and worship that are not rooted in a sense of lack or desire, but rather a sense of fullness based on the realization of identity with Śiva. In all of this, Utpaladeva is not simply expressing his “spiritual experiences” in an outpouring of emotion. His verses are crafted to guide and teach others how specific theological ideas can be experienced and articulated in language. While his philosophical treatises argue for a radical non-​dualism, his poetry models and praises the celebration of this non-​duality in speech. Thus the continuity between Utpaladeva’s philosophical works and his poetry lies in his effort to teach his formulation of Śaiva non-​dualism. The objective in his poetry remains the same as in his philosophical works, except that his approach is different. As a kind of verbal action it enacts specific theological positions in prayer, worship, and so on. Poetry can be internalized, recited, shared, and

111. aho bhaktibharodāracetasāṃ varada tvayi /​ slāghyaḥ pūjāvidhiḥ ko ‘pi yo na yācñākalaṃkitaḥ //​ ŚSĀ 17.24 //​ 112.  pūjāṃ ke cana manyante dhenuṃ kāmadughām iva /​ sudhādhārādhikarasāṃ dhayanty antarmukhāḥ pare //​ ŚSĀ 17.37 //​ 113. ŚSĀ 19.1

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enjoyed in ways that expository texts cannot. Those who recite Utpaladeva’s poetry actually take on his voice, something much different than studying expository texts, for example. Consider this final example of the ŚSĀ’s reflection on speech and praise: You are beyond mental constructs, and full of great bliss. May my speech, praising you, become the same way!114 How could speech be beyond conceptualization, beyond dichotomizing mental constructs (vikalpas)? Yet here Utpaladeva prays that his praise-​poetry gestures toward that supremely blissful Śiva who is beyond all the normal distinctions created through language. Perhaps most importantly, the ŚSĀ also models a specific kind of bhakti. Addressing the nature of bhakti in a non-​dualistic context is one of the most prominent themes running throughout Utpaladeva’s poetry.115 We have already seen how devotion is part of what he models for his audiences. ŚSĀ 17.24 extolls those devotees who worship without making petitions and whose hearts are full of bhakti; ŚSĀ 14.10 describes Śiva as he who is pleased with offerings steeped in devotion and offered with abandon. Numerous verses mention the intoxication or madness of bhakti (bhaktimada), modeling or prescribing specific kinds of behaviors. For instance: Intoxicated by devotion, may I rage against the world of saṃsāra and repent; may I laugh and cry and shout out “Śiva!”116 Utpaladeva’s prayer depicts and encourages a specific kind of emotional worship, one full of devotion and unrestrained as if because of intoxication.

114. nirvikalpo mahānandapūrṇo yadvad bhavāṃs tathā /​ bhavatstutikarī bhūyād anurūpaiva vāṅ mama //​ ŚSĀ 6.4 //​ 115. By my count, he uses the term bhakti or bhakta almost 150 times in the ŚSĀ. Scholars have rightly noted this centrality. Bäumer, for example, refers to “the emphasis on bhakti, repeated again and again,” and “the constant theme of the relationship between bhakti and advaita [non-​dualism]” (“Introduction” to Śivastotrāvalī, 16, 15). Utpaladeva literally repeats bhakti: ŚSĀ 16.24 uses the word four times, while ŚSĀ 16.25 uses it four times in the first hemistich, and once more in the latter. 116. bhaktikṣīvo ‘pi kupyeyaṃ bhavāyānuśayīya ca /​ tathā haseyaṃ rudyāṃ ca raṭeyaṃ ca śivety alam //​ ŚSĀ 16.7 //​



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But Utpaladeva envisions bhakti as something more nuanced than simply free-​ flowing emotion and devotion. He presents bhakti as something that is both an expedient means and an end in itself, a process to be enjoyed: For some, worship is only a stepping stone, a means of serving in order to obtain your state. But for devotees it is the manifestation of repose in the state of oneness with you.117 Verses like this one frame bhakti in a distinctly non-​dualistic way. Here we see worship not as a stepping stone, but as a manifestation of unity, an articulation of the final goal itself. Bhakti serves as an ideal way for Utpaladeva to reinterpret what appears to be dualistic within a non-​dualistic framework. This reinterpretation provides the key for explaining the underlying non-​duality of a host of religious activities, such as worship and prayer. In other words, Uptaladeva’s careful presentation of bhakti suggests to his audiences how they might understand and practice other aspects of religious life. Bhakti becomes paradigmatic for a non-​ dualistic approach to religious practice and also the ideal experience of oneness amidst diversity. Bhakti is particularly suited for such a role. On a basic level, it involves duality, since whether it is translated as love, devotion, sharing, participation, or enjoyment it is based on a relationship between things. Unlike worship, festivals, and other practices and events, bhakti is generally recognized as an internal phenomenon, some kind of feeling, stance, or experience, and therefore even if it seems relational and hence dualistic, it is more easily reframed to fit into a non-​dualistic framework. For Utpaladeva, bhakti does not really mean a relationship between one thing and another. It means an experience of pleasure at a shared state, an essential unity.118 Thus for Utpaladeva, singing hymns with bhakti means offering those hymns while relishing the underlying identity between the deity being praised, the manifest world, and one’s own nature. From this perspective, bhakti is superior to the standard view of liberation as some kind of ontological state, since it is actually the enjoyment of a state that does not need to be obtained, only recognized and realized in every moment.119

117. upacārapadaṃ pūjā keṣāṃ cit tvatpadāptaye /​ bhaktānāṃ bhavadaikātmyanirvṛttiprasaras tu saḥ //​ ŚSĀ 17.40 //​The final compound literally means the “flow” or “activity” (prasara) of the “final beatitude” (nirvṛtti) that is the “state of oneness with you” (bhavadaikātmya). 118. See, for example, ŚSĀ 17.40. 119.  In his commentary on the ŚSĀ, Kṣemarāja explains that there is dualistic devotion (dvaitabhakti), exemplified by service (sevā), and non-​dualistic devotion (advaitabhakti); both lead to Śiva but the latter is immediate and constant, since it consists in immersion, rather than desire or dependence on Śiva (commentary on ŚSĀ 16.13).

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The way that Utpaladeva depicts the relationship between bhakti and Śiva’s grace suggests the paradigmatic nature of bhakti for Utpaladeva. They are closely paired in verses like this one: You are pleased by devotion, O lord, and devotion arises when you are pleased. You alone understand how this mutual dependence is reconciled!120 Here bhakti is juxtaposed with Śiva’s favor. The relationship between these is complex, but Utpaladeva emphasizes the importance of devotion: Once there is devotion to you, union with you is certain. Once a large pitcher of milk has been obtained, vain is a concern about yoghurt. (trans. Bailly)121 In this analogy, if we understand it with the previous verse in mind, Śiva’s grace is presumably the initial culture that will turn the milk into yoghurt, and this is out of the devotee’s control. The devotee only has some influence over the devotion alone, since the lord’s will and grace are independent and self-​willed. In each of these examples, bhakti is related to what the devotee does and experiences, and it is the common link between worship, ritual, festivals, prayer, and so on. Therefore, it is important to see bhakti’s prominence in the ŚSĀ not simply as a single theme, but as a way of reframing and reinterpreting a host of religious practices.122 Utpaladeva’s poetry has been widely appreciated by diverse audiences for centuries. In my analysis here, I have shown how his poetry does theological work in several ways. On the most basic level, he uses poetic language to point to truths that transcend the normal dualities of language. In doing so, he conveys theological ideas using poetry. But there are other theological dimensions to his ŚSĀ. The stotra genre itself raises several challenges for a non-​dualistic theology. Do not praise and prayer directed at a deity presume a duality between the speaker and the one being praised or petitioned? Does not the very idea of devotion imply a separation between the devotee and the object of devotion? And how can one even

120. tvaṃ bhaktyā prīyase bhaktiḥ prīte tvayi ca nātha yat /​ tad anyonyāśrayaṃ yuktaṃ yathā vettha tvam eva tat //​ ŚSĀ 16.21 //​ 121. Constantina Rhodes Bailly, Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir: A Translation and Study of Utpaladeva’s Shivastotravali (Albany: SUNY Press, 1987), 86. bhavadbhāvaḥ puro bhāvī prāpte tvadbhaktisambhave /​ labdhe dugdhamahākumbhe hatā dadhani gṛdhnutā //​ ŚSĀ 15.12 //​ 122. This discussion of bhakti in the ŚSĀ leaves one of the most striking ways that Utpaladeva describes bhakti for treatment in Chapter 7, namely the relationship between bhakti and rasa.



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talk about a single ultimate reality using language that relies on differentiation? Utpaladeva’s poetry addresses these challenges directly. In doing so, he models for a human audience how prayer and devotion can be understood and expressed non-​dualistically, and he dramatizes the experience of one who is immersed in what this theology describes. Moreover, he guides his audience on how to use language in a way that aligns with this radically non-​dualistic system. Thus, his ŚSĀ can be understood both as theology in action and as pedagogical poetry. Utpaladeva’s dramatic focus on the theological issues related to devotional prayer within a non-​dualistic context continues in the hymns of Śaiva authors in the tenth and eleventh centuries, most notably those composed by the great theologians and exegetes, Abhinavagupta and Kṣemarāja.

Abhinavagupta and Kṣemarāja: Theologians, Exegetes, Poets Of the many stotras attributed to Abhinavagupta, the two most widely accepted as having been authored by the great polymath are the BhSt and KrSt. These hymns are dense and dynamic texts, as one would expect from such an accomplished author, and they demonstrate how this master of theological exposition articulates his vision in devotional poetry. The BhSt identifies and celebrates Śiva (in his fierce form, Bhairava) as the supreme deity and also one’s own self. The BhSt is short; it consists of only nine verses, plus a tenth that identifies Abhinavagupta as the author and its date of composition as 993 CE. But the progression of these verses is quite deliberate. They present his non-​dual theology, describe its realization, and finally articulate the joy and freedom from fear that arises from this realization. The hymn is directed at Bhairava, but as the poem proceeds the distance between the speaker and the deity being praised—​the “I” and “you” of the poem—​dissolves. In the end, rather than arguing for a theological position, Abhinavagupta uses the stotra form to put a theological perspective into action, demonstrating how it can be articulated in language even though that language seems to imply duality. Abhinavagupta begins the BhSt by laying out his basic understanding of the deity: Lord Bhairava protects the helpless, pervades all living and non-​living things, consists in pure consciousness, and is singular, without beginning or end. I worship that lord Bhairava in my heart as the consciousness that is you.123

123.  vyāptacarācarabhāvaviśeṣaṃ cinmayam ekam anantam anādim /​ bhairavanātham anāthaśaraṇyaṃ tvanmayacittatayā hṛdi vande //​ BhSt 1 //​

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The verses that follow flesh out this position. The second verse establishes an important progression: because of the power of Śiva’s favor, the poet realizes the whole universe consists in Śiva; and since Śiva is identical with the self, the poet realizes the entire universe as the manifestation of his own self.124 For non-​dualistic Śaivas like Abhinavagupta, Bhairava is Śiva both as supreme consciousness—​seen, for example, in the title of the Vijñānabhairava, which equates Bhairava with consciousness—​and, iconographically, as a particularly fearsome form of Śiva. The terrifying features of such a deity represent, in part, his or her power to destroy whatever terrifies one, such as death. Abhinavagupta’s hymn to Bhairava stresses how the proper understanding of this fearsome form leads one to overcome all fear. In the fourth verse the poet asserts that he himself possesses all of the powers of terrifying Bhairava, since Bhairava is no different from his own self. He goes on to explain that the light of consciousness has destroyed his great darkness, and thus he is no longer afraid of the lord of death and his night-​roaming henchmen.125 As the hymn nears its close, Abhinavagupta describes the movement from a state of fear to the experience of non-​differentiation from Bhairava: Just when a state of distress, tormenting like the hot season, afflicts my mind, O lord, a shower of supreme nectar arises—​ the praise (stotra) of non-​differentiation from you.126 Those who offer praise-​poetry (stotra) without any sense of difference from the one being praised experience a bliss that is compared to a shower of nectar in the midst of the hot season. Verses 7 through 9 function as a phalaśruti in that they describe the great benefits not just of reciting the hymn but also of realizing its teachings. In the final

The “you” in the verse is ambiguous: it can refer both to the deity addressed by the hymn, and also the human audience whose individual consciousness (citta) is also identical with the supreme deity described here. 124. tvanmayam etad aśeṣam idānīṃ bhāti mama tvadanugrahaśaktyā /​ tvaṃ ca maheśa sadaiva mamātmā svātmamayaṃ mama tena samastam //​ BhSt 2 //​ 125. itthaṃ upoḍhabhavanmayasaṃviddīdhitidāritabhūritamisraḥ /​ mṛtyuyamāntakakarmapiśācair nātha namo ‘stu na jātu bibhemi //​ BhSt 5 //​ 126.  mānasagocaram eti yadaiva kleśadaśā ‘tanutāpavidhātrī /​ nātha tadaiva mama tvadabhedastotraparāmṛtavṛṣṭir udeti //​ BhSt 7 //​ In this context, stotra suggests both praise in general and this Bhairavastotra. The final compound here can mean both praise for non-​differentiation from Śiva, and also the offering of praise to Śiva without any differentiation.



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verse, Abhinavagupta exclaims that the one who attains Śiva, through his grace, rejoices in delight: O lord Bhairava, this consciousness of mine dances, sings, and rejoices greatly having obtained you, the beloved, unique and beautiful to behold. It is difficult for others to obtain you; only you know the right time.127 Consistent with his rejection of the ontologically transforming and soteriologically effective power of ritual alone, Abhinavagupta claims in these final verses that the effect of reciting such hymns with the awareness of non-​duality leads not to any ontological change but to an epistemological transformation. After progressing through some core theological teachings, the hymn dwells on the experience of realizing these teachings. The BhSt praises Bhairava as consciousness and the self, but it is not especially technical. The KrSt, on the other hand, participates explicitly in the Krama tradition. As we have seen, Abhinavagupta composed a commentary called the Kramakeli on the tenth-​century Kramastotra of Eraka, but no manuscripts of this text have been found.128 Abhinavagupta’s own Kramastotra, which seems to closely follow Eraka’s hymn, consists of thirty verses celebrating the Krama vision of true worship: the contemplation of the powers of cognition embodied in the series of Kālīs.129 While the body of the hymn teaches the internalized worship of Śiva through his Śaktis manifested as the phases of consciousness, the first section contains reflections on praise and worship that are illuminating for the stotra genre in general. These verses offer justification for praise as a joyful activity devoid of any striving for a particular goal, since the poet is already identified with the one being praised. Like other non-​dual authors, Abhinavagupta emphasizes the effortlessness of true

127.  nṛtyati gāyati hṛṣyati gāḍhaṃ saṃvid iyaṃ mama bhairavanātha /​ tvāṃ priyam āpya sudarśanam ekaṃ durlabham anyajanaiḥ samayajñam //​ BhSt 9 //​ In other words, it is impossible to realize Śiva without his grace. Śiva is the supreme agent and knower; only he knows the “right time” at which one can obtain him. Abhinavagupta places this phrase (samayajñam) last in the verse, thereby stressing that all of this is only possible because of Śiva’s grace. Note that here consciousness is grammatically feminine (saṃvid) and rejoices after meeting with her male beloved (priya); thus, samayajña can also refer to knowing the time for a romantic meeting. 128. There are, however, quotations from it in other works; see Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 352–​356. 129. Ibid., 356. On Abhinavagupta’s revised number and order of Kālīs, see ibid., 353–​357.

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praise and delights in offering praise for its own sake, rather than for a particular objective. As he says in v. 2: Having realized one’s own self, one then realizes that its activities are praiseworthy. Then the one who offers praise makes (that self) manifest in a hymn of praise whose topic is based on difference, and when one knows any topic, one’s own self is realized. Hence this is what I do here in this hymn of praise to you, constantly, without any effort.130 This is how Abhinavagupta presents the act of offering praise-​poetry:  the poet recognizes his own supreme self as identical with Śiva, and understands the praiseworthy nature of Śiva’s deeds and characteristics, and so he manifests them in praise-​poetry that shows the true nature of the appearance of multiplicity. Moreover, since this is a Krama hymn, he emphasizes that the self is realized through the cognitive activities that manifest Śiva’s powers, personified as the set of Kālīs worshipped in this system. Finally, Abhinavagupta explains that this is what he himself is doing, and in the next verse he addresses Śiva, saying:  “my heart is devoted to your praise (stotra) and eternally delighted.”131 He shifts dramatically in the next verse, however, and calls out to his own heart132 directly: Other followers only managed such praise-​poetry (stotra) to the omniscient one after wandering through a series of rebirths. O heart, you have achieved it without any effort! Now, having put it into splendid language within that flows from the stream of your own awareness, make manifest this poetry to the lord.133

130.  vimṛśya svātmānaṃ vimṛśati punaḥ stutyacaritaṃ tathā stotā stotre prakaṭayati bhedaikaviṣaye /​ vimṛṣṭaś ca svātmā nikhilaviṣayajñānasamaye tad itthaṃ tvatstotre ‘ham iha satataṃ yatnarahitaḥ //​ KrSt 2 //​ 131. tato ‘ham tvatstotre pravaṇahṛdayo nityasukhitaḥ /​ KrSt 3d. 132. For Abhinavagupta, the term hṛdaya or hṛd (“heart”) refers to the core of the individual that is essentially no different from the supreme reality. On the complexity of the heart as a term and symbol, see Paul Eduardo Muller-​Ortega, The Triadic Heart of Śiva: Kaula Tantrism of Abhinavagupta in the Non-​dual Shaivism of Kashmir (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989). 133.  vicitrair jātyādibhramaṇaparipāṭīparikarair avāptaṃ sārvajñaṃ hṛdaya yad ayatnena bhavatā /​ tad antas tvadbodhaprasarasaraṇībhūtamahasi sphuṭaṃ vāci prāpya prakaṭaya vibhoḥ stotram adhunā //​ KrSt 4 //​



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This movement between the object and agent of praise amplifies the theme of non-​duality. Moreover, for anyone reading or reciting this hymn, it immediately becomes reflexive: one follows in Abhinavagupta’s footsteps and places one’s own self at the center of this verbal worship. Abhinavagupta uses the feature of address, central to the stotra form, to place consciousness itself at the heart of his poem, just as the Krama poet Nāga does in his poetry, roughly two generations later. This verse also frames the verses that follow as the expression of his own skill and enthusiasm in composing praise-​poetry that flows from the nature of his own consciousness. Abhinavagupta continues to reflect on the nature of praise-​poetry in this opening section of the KrSt. In v. 5 he describes praise (stuti) as a fire that burns up differentiation, before questioning the very possibility of praise in v. 6: O Bhava! If the various activities of the lord, whose many powers are manifested through his great sovereignty, are based in one’s own heart, then how could that heart offer praise? And yet it does. Through this praise, homage to Śiva becomes the primary means of quickly obtaining oneness with Śiva.134 Like many other poets before him, Abhinavagupta rhetorically questions the possibility of praising Śiva or his deeds, since ultimately he holds there is no difference between his own heart and Śiva. Yet here in this hymn he offers energetic praise, which he justifies by explaining that praise or homage (nati) is a means, an expedient method for realizing identity with Śiva. In the end, moreover, that very praise or homage is no different from Śiva himself. As the hymn progresses, Abhinavagupta continues to reflect on the theme of praise itself. In v. 9 he prays that he may continue to offer praise to Śiva: O you who answer prayers, it is well known that through such manifestations your undifferentiated form, lord, appears as manifold in this universe that is a portion of the self. May I always offer ever-​enthusiastic compositions that externalize language in order to praise this very form that is the heart.135

134. bhava prājyaiśvaryaprathitabahuśakter bhagavato vicitraṃ cāritraṃ hṛdayam adhiśete yadi tataḥ /​ kathaṃ stotraṃ kuryād atha ca kurute tena sahasā śivaikātmyaprāptau śivanatir upāyaḥ prathamakaḥ /​ KrSt 6 //​ 135.  itīdṛkṣair rūpair varada vividhaṃ te kila vapur vibhāti svāṃśe ‘smin jagati gatabhedaṃ bhagavataḥ /​ tad evaitat stotuṃ hṛdayam atha gīrbāhyakaraṇaprabandhāś ca syur me satatam aparityaktarabhasaḥ //​ KrSt 9 //​

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Verse 12 also depicts Śiva’s manifestation of diversity through his powers, and, like the BhSt, suggests that offering praise leads to a freedom from fear: “As I praise your pure sovereignty, your power that is so astonishing, my fear melts, for I am Śiva!”136 Taken together, the verses in this opening section do two things: they explore and justify the act of offering prayer and praise-​poetry, and they provide a general introduction to the praise of specific Kālīs as the phases of cognition in the verses that follow.137 The latter explains the emphasis on the nature of multiplicity and differentiation, for the Krama, as we have seen, is radically non-​dualistic and yet worships various sequences of deities. The bulk of the verses that follow praise the Kālīs of the Krama system, and conclude by praising consciousness (citi), as the supreme goddess, and Śiva, as the possessor of the powers that make up the phases of cognition, in the hopes of winning divine favor.138 But it is the introductory and reflexive section I  have focused on here, consisting of almost half of the text, that shows Abhinavagupta’s concern with the nature of the stotra genre itself. As a whole, the hymn serves to express a truth such authors claim underlies both stotras and consciousness itself. While appearing dualistic, their underlying reality is unity—​between the one who praises, the one who is praised, and praise itself; between the objects, process, and agent of cognition, all of which, for Abhinavagupta, consist in consciousness. Abhinavagupta’s most influential disciple, Kṣemarāja, also composed a hymn to Bhairava, the Bhairavānukaraṇastotra (BhASt).139 He quotes this hymn to Svacchandabhairava multiple times in his commentary on the Svacchandatantra. Kṣemarāja’s stotra presents a non-​ dualistic interpretation of the details of Svacchandabhairava’s visualization, and the bulk of its forty-​eight verses systematically describes and interprets Bhairava’s iconography.140 This includes the many weapons he holds in his hands, such as the noose (v. 18)  and elephant goad (v. 19), the hand gestures dispelling fear and granting wishes (vv. 21–​22), and his

136.  anarghaṃ svātantryaṃ tava tad idam atyadbhutamayīṃ bhavacchaktiṃ stunvan vigalitabhayo ‘haṃ śivamayaḥ //​ KrSt 12cd //​ 137. This begins with praise of Sṛṣṭikālī in KrSt 15. 138. Abhinavagupta presents his revised sequence of the Krama Kālīs in vv. 15–​26. He prays for the dynamic goddess of consciousness (citi) to reside in his own heart in v.  27, pays homage to Śiva as the possessor of the Śaktis that make up the phases of cognition in v. 28, and argues that Śiva should show his favor on the poet in v. 29. Verse 30, the last of the poem, identifies Abhinavagupta as the author and gives the date of composition for the stotra. 139. For Kṣemarāja’s hymn, see Raniero Gnoli, “Miscellanea Indica,” East and West 9, no. 3 (1958): 215–​226 (Rome: Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente). 140.  On Kṣemarāja’s interpretation of Bhairava’s iconography, see Alexis Sanderson, “Meaning in Tantric Ritual,” in Essais sur le Rituel III: Colloque du Centenaire de la Section des Sciences religieuses de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études, ed. A.-​M. Blondeau and K. Schipper,



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terrifying accouterments, such as his garlands of bones and skulls (vv. 13, 35) and the bloody elephant hide that he wears (v. 15). The hymn seeks to reconcile the iconographical form of Bhairava with a non-​dualistic theology, interpreting the various aspects of Bhairava’s form in terms of the nature and activities of supreme Śiva as consciousness. As in Abhinavagupta’s KrSt, the BhASt’s opening section addresses some of the underlying theological issues involved in offering such praise-​poetry and the worship of a deity within a non-​dualistic framework. The second verse lays out the explicit identification of supreme Śiva with Bhairava and consciousness: I offer homage to Śiva, to that Bhairava who is consciousness, whose nature is supreme nectar, who is resplendent, singular, and supreme, who illumines everything grasped by the group of sense organs.141 The verse that follows immediately addresses the apparent duality involved in the offering of such praise-​poetry: “The one to be praised, the one who praises, and the praise itself”—​ even here there is nothing separate, just as whatever form one perceives has the form of consciousness (alone).142 Kṣemarāja quotes this verse in his commentary on the SP, which expresses a very similar idea using much of the same language.143 In both cases, the poet offers a theological justification for and interpretation of the verses that follow. For Kṣemarāja, it is the understanding that anything one perceives still has the form

Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes Études, Sciences Religieuses, Volume CII. (Louvain-​ Paris: Peeters, 1995), 15–​95, 64–​70. 141. cidbhairavam eva paraṃ paramāmṛtarūpam ekam atidīptam /​ ullasitakaraṇacakragrasta­ samastaṃ śivaṃ vande //​ BhASt 2 //​ 142.  stutyaḥ stotā stutir iti yad api vibhinnaṃ na kiṃcid astīha /​ mṛśati yathā yad rūpaṃ cidrūpatayā tathā bhavaty etat //​ BhASt 3 //​Em. yad rūpaṃ; Gnoli ed. yadrūpaṃ. Note that Gnoli’s edition tries to emend the reading of the manuscript available to him using the reading in Kṣemarāja’s commentary on SP v. 15, keeping some differences. Cf. the reading in Kavirāja’s edition of the SP with Kṣemarāja’s commentary (SP in Tantrasaṃgraha, p. 11): stotā stutyaḥ stutir iti yad api vibhinnaṃ na kiñcid astīha /​ mṛśasi yathā yad rūpaṃ cidrūpatayā bhavasy etat //​ 143. Kṣemarāja’s commentary on SP v. 15.

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of consciousness, so there really is no separation between the one offering praise, the one being praised, and the praise itself. The most interesting and unique way that Kṣemarāja presents a non-​dualistic theology is through the term anukaraṇa, most prominently in the title of his hymn. In general, the verb anu√kṛ means “to do afterward” or “to imitate.” Terms based on this verb have significance in other contexts—​notably in aesthetics, in which the idea of rasa as an imitation of the emotions of the characters in a drama or text, attributed to Śaṅkuka, was rejected by later authors, particularly Bhaṭṭa Tota and Abhinavagupta.144 Kṣemarāja, however, apparently intended a different meaning with this and related terms. In his stotra, anu√kṛ means to create something that is not separate from the creator, to create something that follows after (anu-​) the one doing the creating, in the sense of not being different from it. The title of the hymn thus suggests the manifestation of one reality, understood as pure consciousness, as both the iconographical form of Bhairava and the full diversity of existence. I offer homage to your form (tvadākṛti), O lord, the manifestation (anukṛti) of your reality, the uninterrupted bliss of consciousness, which dissolves all differentiation (and yet) consists in all differentiation.145 The same point appears in Kṣemarāja’s commentary on the Svacchandatantra chapter on Bhairava’s iconographical features. In his introduction to this chapter, he says: It gives form to the manifestations (anukṛti) of Śambhu that are the expansions of consciousness as this or that. Supreme is that “seal” (mudrā) of the all-​pervasive lord that consists in form that can be engaged through worship and so on.146

144.  See Sheldon Pollock, “What Was Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka Saying? The Hermeneutical Transformation of Indian Aesthetics,” in Epic and Argument in Sanskrit Literary History: Essays in Honor of Robert P. Goldman, ed. Sheldon Pollock (Delhi: Manohar, 2010), 139 and 165n9, and Kamalesh Datta Tripathi, “Rasa and Bhāvānukīrtana—​ Complementarity of Two Concepts,” in The Concept of Rasa with Special Reference to Abhinavagupta, ed. S. C. Pande (Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 2009). 145.  vigalitasarvavibhedaṃ sarvavibhedātma cidghanānandam /​ yat tava tattvaṃ bhagavaṃs tasyānukṛtiṃ tvadākṛtiṃ vande //​ BhASt 4 //​ 146.  tattatsaṃvitsphārān anukṛtirūpān vyanakti yā śambhoḥ /​ ākṛtirūpā mudrā jayati vibhor arcanādinirvartyā //​This is the second of Kṣemarāja’s introductory verses to the fourteenth paṭala of the Svacchandatantra. The first verse glosses the word mudrā by



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In other words, Kṣemarāja praises the manifestation or embodiment of the lord in a specific form, accessible for worship, contemplation, visualization, and so on, but which is still not ontologically separate. The doctrine of one consciousness becoming manifest as all of reality repeats in his other uses of words based on the verb anu√kṛ. For instance, Kṣemarāja addresses Śiva, saying:  “O lord, you manifest your great power externally” (mahāśaktim devānukaroṣi bahis).147 Other verbs suggest the taking on of form. In v. 40, the poet says: You, O lord, who are supreme brahman resort to the form of Bhairava. Understanding the nature of reality, you manifest that form even in the midst of differentiation; you are totally free!148 The verse presents a contrast between pure, abstract paramabrahma and the terrifying, iconographical form of Bhairava. This contrast suggests the freedom of the lord to manifest himself without constraint by apparent dualities, such as purity or impurity, or form itself. As we have seen, for Kṣemarāja Bhairava is also consciousness itself; in the final verse of the poem, the poet calls out to cidbhairava directly, to “Bhairava who is consciousness” (v. 48). The upshot of the hymn as a whole is precisely this relationship between the abstract and personal, the transcendent and immanent, oneness and plurality. For Kṣemarāja, as for many of these authors, the nature of praise itself became an ideal context for exploring these themes, since it invokes dualities such as the object and subject of praise, and the specificity of a deity’s features and activities. Collectively, Abhinavagupta and Kṣemarāja’s stotras suggest the power of such hymns to reflect upon—​and demonstrate in language—​specific theological positions. They are particularly concerned with addressing the nature of multiplicity within a non-​dualistic tradition. They also offer indirect exegesis on particular traditions of worship and theology, such as the Krama and Svacchandabhairava traditions. In this way, these hymns were probably part of Abhinavagupta and Kṣemarāja’s larger project of synthesizing religious traditions popular in Kashmir and framing them within their own version of non-​dualistic theology. While not as

interpreting its individual syllables (nirvacana) (The Svacchanda Tantram with Commentary by Kshemarāja, Vol. 6, ed. Madhusūdan Kaul Shāstrī, Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies 56 [Bombay: Nirnaya Sagar Press, 1935], 109). 147. BhASt v. 26bc. For the two other verses that use words based on the root anu√kṛ, see BhASt vv. 29 and 33. 148. paramabrahmamayas tvaṃ deva yad āśrayasi bhairavākāram /​ tat prathayasi tattvajñaḥ saty api bhede vimukta iti //​ BhASt 40 //​Em. yad āśrayasi; ed. yadāśrayasi.

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closely related to kāvya as some hymns, such as those of Ratnākara and Jagaddhara, their stotras incorporate various semantic and aural features that would have make them appealing and memorable. Finally, as we have seen repeatedly, they often dwell on the topic of prayer and praise-​poetry itself, reflexively interpreting the nature of their own language in an attempt to transcend and encompass its apparent dualities.

Enlightenment Now: A Krama Hymn Stotras played a central role in the early history of the tradition known as the Krama, as we saw in Chapter 3. In this antinomian, radically non-​dual system, the fierce goddess Kālī is worshiped as the dynamic consciousness that constitutes and transcends all facets of temporal experience. Krama hymns are primarily concerned with worshiping one’s own consciousness as the supreme deity through internalized cycles of worship. They emphasize non-​duality by depicting multiplicity but then revealing its underlying unity. Some of the later Krama authors are especially accomplished poets, and the sophistication of their poetry matches the complexity of Krama worship and theology. To investigate the relationship between the theology and poetry of this tradition, let us consider the hymns of one poet in particular. In the eleventh century, Nāga composed two poetic and complex Krama hymns, neither of which has been published in full.149 These praise pure consciousness and its worship using the language of the Krama. Unlike most earlier Krama hymns, like the KāSt, which allude to specific phases of Krama worship, Nāga’s hymns focus on enlightenment as the constant experience of immersion in this pure consciousness. His Paramārcanatriṃśikā (Thirty verses on supreme worship) characterizes true worship by this experience: Is that [true] worship if in it one does not experience the surge of expanded consciousness within each and every movement of cognition, taking hold of the trance of sudden enlightenment, flooded with radiant, pure awareness? (trans. Sanderson)150 Nāga’s second hymn, the Cittasaṃtoṣatriṃśikā (Thirty verses on the satisfaction of the mind), depicts the transformation of the poet’s own awareness from

149. On his dates, see Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 411. My translation of verses from the Cittasaṃtoṣatriṃśikā below is based on the following manuscript:  Cittasaṃtoṣatriṃśikā, SOASL 44390 (“Śaiva Hymns”), ff. 41r–​49r. I am grateful to Somadeva Vasudeva for sharing and reading this manuscript with me. 150. Paramārcanatriṃśikā v. 7, trans. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 295.



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contraction in the experience of limited existence (saṃsāra) to the contentment and bliss of repose in this pure consciousness that underlies and transcends all differentiation. A close examination of this stotra suggests several ways that this genre may have appealed to such authors. Nāga describes the attainment of his own enlightenment as the result of the oral transmission from his guru, which in the Krama marks a higher means of liberation than the sequence of Krama worship.151 He begins the Cittasaṃtoṣatriṃśikā (CST) by praising the gaze or vision (dṛś ) of his guru: Unblinking, perfectly clear, and attractive with the bliss of the self, it rolls, smiling at the experience of the transcendent. Because of its expansion, even a bound soul attains lordship. Supreme is that extraordinary gaze of the best of gurus!152 In the verses that follow Nāga depicts a contrast between an earlier time and the present. In the former, his mind or limited consciousness (cetas, citta) experienced various afflictions and fears, while in the latter it has attained the satisfaction and peace indicated by the poem’s title. This transformation occurs through some great good fortune (diṣṭyā) because of the experience and repose in the pure consciousness or awareness (cit, saṃvit) that is beyond all of the vicissitudes of the limited experience of differentiation. The following selection of verses develops this theme: Through great good fortune this very mind, scorched by the heat of hundreds of flames from the fire of limited existence and abused on the rough paths of rebirth, now, plunged into the midst of the nectarian ocean of pure consciousness, basks in an incomparable peace.153

151. This transmission is described in CST v. 29: “By great good fortune I stand today flooded with the blissful relish of the nectar of the unlocated consciousness that surges up from [its] unfettered, spotless ground, astonished by the fruition of the instruction in the inexpressible practice that I obtained from the heart of my true teacher’s oral teaching” (Sanderson’s translation; “Śaiva Exegesis,” 296). 152.  lokottarānubhavasasmitaghūrṇamānasvānandasundaravinirmalanirnimeṣā /​ yatsphārataḥ paśur apīśvaratām upaiti sā kāpi dṛg vijayate gurupuṅgavānām //​ CST 1 //​Conj. -​puṅgavānām; ms. -​paṅgavānām. The manuscript reading (paṅgava) may be a variation on what seems to have been Nāga’s guru’s name, Paṅkaka (see Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 295). The reference to his guru’s gaze also suggests one of the means of initiation within Śaiva traditions. 153.  diṣṭyā bhavānalaśikhāśatatāpataptaṃ janmāṭavīṣu viṣamāsu kadarthitaṃ yat /​ cetas tad etad adhunāmalacitsudhābdhimadhye nimagnam asamāṃ bhajate praśāntim //​ CST 2 //​

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This same mind, which was a receptacle for the misery of limited existence, muddied by wrong views and doubts, as though churned up in confusion, now has brought forth the great clarity of pure discernment by serving at the guru’s lotus-​feet.154 Unsteady because of the arrows of the god of love, it was drunk in, struck down, devoured, and ravished by doe-​eyed women. That same mind became worthy of the succession of glances flooded with the nectar of affection from Lakṣmī, the splendor of supreme liberation.155 It was worn out by the struggles involved in suppressing the flow of breath, in the mumbling of mantras and harsh yoga. Now that same mind reposes, inebriated from the liquor that is the intoxicating nectar born from the universal flavor (sāmarasya) of supreme non-​duality.156 That mind was an enfeebled bee, terrified by the advancing blows of the severe winter of differentiation. Now, having obtained the nectar of Śiva’s teachings,157 it reposes forever, intoxicated from drinking in the fragrance of the flowers on the vine of pure consciousness.158 Even while served by religious observances such as yoga and vows, she did not even enter the range of his vision. Now this beloved in the form of pure consciousness never abandons the lucky lover that is this mind, who has the good fortune of great happiness, even for a moment.159 154. vyāmūḍhamantham iva saṃśayadoṣaduṣṭaṃ ceto yad etad abhavad bhavaduḥkhapātram /​ jātaṃ tad adya gurupādasarojasevāsañjātanirmalavibodhamahāprakāśam //​ CST 3 //​ 155.  kandarpabāṇaviṣamaṃ hariṇekṣaṇābhiḥ pītaṃ hataṃ kavalitaṃ muṣitaṃ yad āsīt /​ tat pātratām upagataṃ paramokṣalakṣmīpremāmṛtāplutakaṭākṣaparamparāyāḥ //​ CST 5 //​Conj. -​paramparāyāḥ; ms. -​paramparaṇāt. Here the poet contrasts the glances of normal women with those of Lakṣmī as the embodiment of liberation. 156. kliṣṭaṃ yad etad abhavaj japakaṣṭayogaprāṇapravāhavinirodhakadarthanābhiḥ /​ cetas tad adya paramādvayasāmarasyasañjātasaṃmadarasāsavamattam āste //​ CST 6 //​ 157. The word dhāman can mean teachings, but also abode or light, both of which suggest refuge from the harsh winter. 158.  yo bhedatīvraśiśiraprasaropaghātabhīto manomadhukaro hataśaktir āsīt /​ āsādya so ‘dya śivadhāmamadhuṃ sadāste saṃvillatākusumasaurabhapānamattaḥ //​ CST 7 //​Var. āsīt; ms. corr. āset. 159.  yogavratādiniyamair upasevitāpi nāvāpa darśanapathaṃ kila yasya jātu /​ saṃvitpriyā subhagam ūrjitabhāgyasampac cetas tad adya na jahāti muhūrtam ekam //​ CST 10 //​“The



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Saṃsāra used to be something this mind had to abandon through great effort, for it is said that it is terrifying and its essence is suffering. Now, through great good fortune, that very saṃsāra, enlivened by the universal taste of the nectar of supreme consciousness, has become the same for it as liberation!160 Alas, neither in meditation nor in worship nor in anything else did it ever attain any kind of contentment. Now, through great good fortune, even though it is submerged in the midst of daily activities, this mind never abandons the state of plenitude.161 The bee of my mind ever strayed among the trees of sensory objects, its petty cravings unfulfilled, but now, through great good fortune, it has attained the wish-​granting tree of the supreme lord. Satisfied, it gives up its fickleness as if curled up to sleep.162 In these verses Nāga emphasizes the efficacy of the guru’s grace, which led him to real contentment, while the observance of vows, the repetition of mantras, and other laborious practices only left him unsatisfied. Rather than escaping the challenges of saṃsāra, however, the poet claims to have transformed his life into something blissful through the realization of the pure consciousness that underlies and transcends all experience. He compares this experience to sexual enjoyment (v. 10) and the ecstasy of inebriation that arises from the fusion of all experiences, all flavors, into the inherent bliss of consciousness (vv. 6, 7, 11). The literary quality of the CST is as striking as its theological boldness. Nāga uses language carefully to create elegant and dramatic verses. We have already seen how the structure of his verses repeatedly stresses a contrast between an experience of limitation or contraction sometime in the past with his immediate, direct insight “now.” This repetition emphasizes the dramatic transformation that can occur in an instant, infusing the theological views he presents with intense immediacy. Nāga fills his poetry with alliteration and other basic literary figures.

good fortune of great happiness” suggests, of course, the “intense” (ūrjita) and constant union of the lover (the poet’s mind) and his beloved (pure consciousness). 160. duḥkhaikasāra iti bhīma iti prayatnāt saṃsāra eṣa kila yasya babhūva heyaḥ /​ diṣṭyā sa eva paracidrasasāmarasyasañjīvitaḥ śrayati tasya vimuktisāmyam //​ CST 11 //​ 161. dhyāne ‘rcane ‘pi na kadā cana kāṃ canāpi kutrāpi nirvṛtidaśāṃ bata yan na lebhe /​ diṣṭyā nimagnam api samvyavahāramadhye cetas tad adya na vimuñcati pāripuṇyam //​ CST 15 //​Em. diṣṭyā; ms. ciṣṭyā 162.  sarveṣu cittamadhupo viṣayadrumeṣu babhrāma yaḥ satatam astamitābhilāṣaḥ /​ daivād avāpya parameśvarapārijātaṃ tṛpto vilīna iva muñcati cañcalatvam //​ CST 16 //​

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But he is most adept at crafting suggestive metaphors that weave throughout one or more verses. Liquid metaphors are particularly important, for example. He describes his mind as muddied or clouded by wrong views and doubts, as if churned up in confusion (v. 3). But serving the guru’s lotus-​feet leads his mind to clarity, and this evokes a classic trope: the lotus that rises above the muddy waters below, beautiful and pure. Moreover, this suggestion of pure, clear water builds upon the imagery in the previous verse (v. 2), which describes the mind, previously scorched by the fire of limited existence, as peaceful now that it is plunged in the cool, refreshing ocean of pure consciousness. The complex metaphors and poetic language Nāga uses gives his poetry texture and elegance that enhances the sense of rich, immediate experience. The literary features of the CST serve a distinct theological position. The primary recipient of Nāga’s praise and glorification in this hymn is pure consciousness itself. This consciousness, however, is not seen as something outside or separate from the speaker in any way. Nāga demonstrates this by addressing his own mind absorbed in this pure consciousness: What enormous good deed has resulted in this? Where has this arising of merit come from for you, which isn’t obtained by others? (O mind,) you are not abandoned even for one second by the good fortune that is pure consciousness, in which the dichotomizing thoughts of differentiation have fallen away.163 O mind, previously you were overcome by the senses, as though you were defeated by powerful enemies. Now, by great good fortune, you are beautified by those same senses partaking fully of the taste of supreme consciousness, which is pure and beyond limiting characteristics, like (a ruler) by his attendants.164 Shall I honor you? Praise you respectfully? Or overwhelm you with joy, O mind? Or, since you have obtained the Śaiva perfection known as the great arising, difficult to obtain, shall I just look at you with wonder, friend?165 163.  kasyorjitasya sukṛtasya phalaṃ tad etat puṇyodayas tava kuto ‘yam ananyalabhyaḥ /​ saṃvicchriyā galitabhedavikalpayā yad ekaṃ muhūrtam api naiva vimucyase tvam //​ CST 13 //​ 164. yair indriyair api vaśīkṛtaśakti cetaḥ pūrvaṃ kadarthitam abhūr ahitair ivoccaiḥ /​ svacchāni ketaparacidrasasaṃvibhaktaiḥ diṣṭyādya tair anucarair iva rājase tvam //​ CST 17 //​Em. –​cetaḥ; ms. –​ceta; em. ivoccaiḥ; ms. ivaiścaiḥ. 165.  vandāmahe kim u numaḥ kim u gauraveṇa harṣeṇa citta kim u nāma nipīḍayāmaḥ /​ saṃprāptadurlabhamahodayaśaivasampat tvāṃ kautukena kim u mitra vilokayāmaḥ //​ CST 21 //​



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His own mind, formerly his tormenter, has become his friend through a sudden shift in his experience through what he describes as a repose in pure consciousness. It is striking to see a poet praising his own mind so intensely, and this highlights some of the complexities of non-​dualistic praise. Rather than praise or appeal to a particular deity, he lauds his own mind for realizing Śiva’s state. Standard discursive language involves various dichotomies (e.g., subject–​object, I–​you), and Nāga turns to the poetic features of the stotra form in his attempt to circumvent these limits. At the same time, as he suggests, perhaps all he can do is wonder and take delight in this experience, like savoring an astonishing flavor. As Nāga’s hymn progresses, it becomes increasingly personal and immediate. This intimacy reflects the Krama’s emphasis on internal processes, direct experience, and close guru–​disciple relationships. The hymn climaxes in a poetic and powerful verse on the immediate, blissful immersion in pure consciousness, Śiva’s state: This mind was a wanderer, exhausted from delusion in the desert of saṃsāra, overpowered by an obsession with ever-​growing craving for terrible things. Now, by great good fortune, it has found that ocean of nectar, Śiva’s state. This mind, with reverence and great joy, plunges in, diving deeper, and deeper, right now.166 As a whole, the CST serves as a testimony and an implicit invitation: you too can dive deep, suggests Nāga, at this very moment; you too can experience a profound transformation in your immediate experience through the realization of the non-​ dual teachings taught by the gurus and scriptures of the Krama tradition. Nāga’s CST illustrates many important features of the various Krama stotras composed in Kashmir. It demonstrates the particular importance of the guru–​ disciple relationship in the transmission of teachings within the Krama tradition.167 It is radically non-​dualistic, and shows how stotras may be ideally suited for the expression of such a theological position—​as when Nāga addresses his own mind, as if his poetry doubles back on itself to eliminate the duality implied by praise itself. In doing so this poet glorifies the Krama’s internalized worship and, more directly, the enlightened state of immersion in the pure consciousness that underlies and transcends all differentiation. Stotras may be recited in ritual contexts, but they can also be savored as expressions of a particular state

166. bhavamarubhuvi śrānto mohād ya eṣa mano’dhvago viṣamaviṣayaprodyattṛṣṇāniveśavaśīkṛtaḥ /​ śivapadasudhāsindhuṃ daivād avāpya sa sādaraṃ kim api sukhitaṃ majjaṃ majjaṃ nimajjati sāmpratam //​ CST 30 //​ 167. On the importance of oral transmission in the Krama, see Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 332-​352.

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as part of personal worship or contemplation.168 In addition, such hymns serve to persuade and instruct their human audiences. As one reads or recites such hymns, one takes on the voice of the poet, and in the case of Nāga’s hymns, this means learning ways of articulating a radically non-​dualistic understanding. The CST testifies to the power of enlightenment, as taught by the Krama tradition, which is depicted as transforming one’s experience of this very world into one of constant bliss. In doing so it was also promotion for this tradition, a proclamation of its power and appeal. The success of this message was surely facilitated by the high quality of Nāga’s poetry. In addition to being short and lucid, his hymns are full of complex images, elegant constructions, and rich language, which would have contributed to their appeal for an elite audience. While hymns like the KāSt suggest some of the distinctive features of Krama worship and describe the basic theological position of the tradition, Nāga’s hymns praise and advertise the transformation and contentment that comes with the realization of the Krama’s teachings. The beauty of such hymns, and the kind of enjoyment they facilitate in the right audience, suggests the very savoring of all experience described by this poet.

́ An Inclusive Vision: The Devotional Saivism of the Stutikusumāñjali Unlike most of the stotras discussed in this chapter, Jagaddhara’s SKA presents a far more general Śaiva theology. Its religious vision is unified by the loving worship of Śiva through praise-​poetry and other kinds of prayer. Here I consider in brief the theology of this text, saving discussions of the SKA as prayer and as sophisticated Sanskrit literature for Chapters 5 and 6. Given the prominence and history of non-​dualistic stotras in Kashmir, one might expect Jagaddhara to develop similar themes in his poetry. There are, in fact, scattered verses that suggest a non-​dualistic framework for the SKA. Yet these isolated instances are overshadowed by the majority of verses that explore the relationships between the poet, Śiva, and the community of Śaivas who read or hear the hymns of this collection. In contrast to earlier poets like Utpaladeva and Nāga, Jagaddhara generally does not probe the nature of non-​dualistic bhakti, praise, and so on. Despite his occasional references to the identity between Śiva and the self, for instance, he is more concerned with depicting fruitful interactions between himself, his human audiences, and Śiva that rely on at least a functional duality. In many verses, Jagaddhara asks Śiva to rescue him as he rescued devotees in the

168. Given the Krama traditions antinomian tendencies, its hymns were probably shared in intimate settings or used in personal worship.



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past, or pleads with him to be true to the meaning of his names and epithets, such as Śambhu, “the benevolent one.” Such verses highlight the relationship between them and their individual personalities, and often stress the distance between them. A set of verses in the eleventh stotra, for example, uses a series of puns to show how they are ostensibly alike. They are both nirguṇa, for instance—​but for Śiva this means he is beyond the three guṇas or qualities that pervade the manifest universe, while for the poet it means he is devoid of any good qualities.169 The final line of each verse makes this distance explicit: Jagaddhara laments repeatedly that despite their specious similarities, “this is the problem: you are auspicious Śiva, but I am inauspicious (aśiva), struck down by fate.”170 Thus, while the puns in these verses seem to suggest some similarity between Śiva and the speaker, in the end they only accent the sharp difference between them revealed in the last line of the verse. In general, the SKA celebrates a variety of exoteric Śaiva practices. Praise and prayer are foremost among these, and they tie together other types of practices. In one of the last hymns of the SKA, for example, Jagaddhara says: There is meditation, there is samādhi, there is the great sacrifice, there is all worship, there truly is supreme initiation where one hears Śiva’s praise.171 In this verse, as in the majority of the SKA, Jagaddhara refers to general features of Śaivism without marking his poetry as sectarian or diving deep into technical terminology. He mentions Śaiva initiation (dīkṣā), for example, but does not elaborate on what kind, or into what tradition.172 Moreover, this verse suggests that one obtains the benefits of initiation (and the other practices he lists) simply by praising Śiva. In other words, when Jagaddhara does gesture toward more technical Śaiva practices, he does so by bringing them under the umbrella of devotional praise.

169. SKA 11.93. 170. kaṣṭaṃ śivas tvam aśivas tu vidhikṣato ‘ham, which recurs as the final quarter of SKA 11.93–​97. 171. tad dhyānaṃ sa samādhiḥ sa mahāyāgas tad arcanaṃ sakalam /​ sā khalu paramā dīkṣā yatra nutiḥ śāmbhavī śrutiṃ viśati //​ SKA 37.11 //​ 172. Ratnakaṇṭha, on the other hand, does not hesitate to interpret such references in light of specific scriptures and traditions in his commentary. His interpretation of this verse, for instance, relies on the Svacchandatantra, even though there is no indication in Jagaddhara’s text that this is what he had in mind (Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 431).

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In this way, the SKA presents an exoteric Śaivism for Śaiva devotees who have not necessarily been initiated and therefore follow the kind of general prescriptions found in Śaiva scriptures like the Śivadharmottara. These focus on the worship of Śiva primarily in pan-​Indian forms recognizable across exoteric Śaiva scriptures, especially the Purāṇas, as well as Sanskrit literature more broadly. These include Śiva as Pārvatī ’s husband, as the lord who is half-​female (Ardhanārīśvara), as the cosmic dancer (Naṭarāja), and as the fierce Bhairava. It is these well-​known forms to which Jagaddhara refers most frequently throughout the SKA. He alludes repeatedly to celebrated stories of Śiva’s compassion and to his familiar iconography, including such standard features as the snakes and ash that covered his body; the dark color of his throat, stained after he consumed the cosmic poison to save the universe; his three eyes, where the sun, the moon, and fire reside; and the Ganges river, the crescent moon, and the matted locks that adorn his head. The exoteric nature of this form is matched in the realm of mantras by his invocations of the exoteric mantra [oṃ] namaḥ śivāya, which is accessible to all, rather than to limited circles of Śaiva initiates.173 A relatively stable vision of Śiva’s personality emerges throughout the SKA. He has many of the characteristics of a king, such as being the protector, the punisher, and the one who answers petitions. This verse summarizes many of these functions: He protects those in fear. He is the lord of all things conscious and unconscious. He eliminates the difficulties of the virtuous who praise him. He produces the identity with himself desired by devotees.174 He punishes the wicked. His bestows enjoyment and liberation on those who serve him. He playfully manifests the creation, maintenance, and withdrawal of the triad, namely, the earth, the heavens, and the intermediate region. May that gracious lord protect you!175 Particularly important for Jagaddhara is Śiva’s power to save one from death, embodied in the figure of Yama. Many of his appeals to Śiva emphasize his terror and desperation in the face of Yama’s imminent appearance.176

173. See, for example, his praise of this mantra in SKA 7.20–​22. 174.  As Ratnakaṇṭha glosses it:  bhaktis tadvatāṃ matām abhimatāṃ svasya samatāṃ svasāyujyaṃ kartā (Laghupañcikā, 27). 175.  trātā bhītibhṛtāṃ patiś cidacitāṃ kleśaṃ satāṃ śaṃsatāṃ hantā bhaktimatāṃ matāṃ svasamatāṃ kartāpakartāsatām /​ devaḥ sevakabhuktimuktighaṭanābhūr bhūrbhuvaḥsvastrayī­ nirmāṇasthitisaṃhṛtiprakaṭitakrīḍo mṛḍaḥ pātu vaḥ //​ SKA 3.51 //​ 176. See, for instance, SKA 11.103 and 32.1 (both translated in Chapter 5).



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For the devotee, what matters most is Śiva’s compassion and grace (kṛpā, anugraha, prasāda), from which all other benevolent functions spring. Whatever weaknesses or faults a devotee may have, whatever particular suffering a devotee may experience, if Śiva is compassionate then he bestows his favor, which has the power to uplift anyone, no matter how wretched. Throughout the SKA Jagaddhara walks a fine line: he recognizes Śiva’s total independence and the impossibility of influencing him through any means, on one hand, and yet on the other hand he suggests that devotional poetry can win his favor. Verses such as this one stress how difficult it is to actually obtain this favor: Even the illustrious wish-​fulfilling tree could not produce it. Once one has it, there is no thirst for the nectar of ambrosia. One cannot get it even by profound yoga or Vedic sacrifices. May this extraordinary favor (prasāda), given by Hara, take away your impurity!177 And yet others boldly suggest that Śiva cannot refuse to help those who come to him for protection: The whole universe, including the gods and demons, is subject to you. You, O lord, are subject to compassion. That compassion is subject to the wretchedness of the humble, and that wretchedness has fallen to me without any effort!178 Jagaddhara, in other words, presents himself as so wretched that Śiva has no option but to save him because he cannot ignore his own compassionate nature. Such verses, and the SKA as a whole, suggest the power of devotional poetry to inspire Śiva’s compassion and win his favor. Another significant aspect of Śiva’s nature recurs throughout the SKA:  its amazingness, its ability to produce wonder. Countless verses use poetic figures to highlight the astonishing features of Śiva’s nature, and Jagaddhara even explicitly describes Śiva as “he who produces the greatest wonder” (uttamacamatkṛtikṛt).179 He often resorts to figures of speech, such as puns (śleṣas) and apparent contradictions

177. śrīmān akalpata na kalpatarur yadāptyai tṛṣṇā rasāyanarasāya na yaṃ sametya /​ labhyo na yo gahanayogahavaiḥ sa vo ‘gham aprākṛto harakṛto haratu prasādaḥ //​ SKA 3.43 //​ 178. jagad vidheyaṃ sasurāsuraṃ te bhavān vidheyo bhagavan kṛpāyāḥ /​ sā dīnatāyā namatāṃ vidheyā mamāsty ayatnopanataiva seti //​ SKA 12.5 //​This verse appears early in the twelfth stotra, after the eleventh emphasized Jagaddhara’s own low state (dīnatā). In that sense, it indicates continuity in the flow of the SKA: the eleventh hymn demonstrates Jagaddhara’s wretchedness, and the twelfth builds upon this established idea. 179. SKA 3.19.

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(virodhābhāsa), to convey this point. Consider this verse, which puns on the two meanings of the word sthāṇu (Śiva and tree trunk), presented here with the puns translated side by side:

It has no beginning. It is adorned by a digit of the moon. It can relieve all the suffering of devotees. It is without even a speck of misfortune, it is immediately fruitful, and it is worshipped by the wise. May Śiva (sthāṇu), with this amazing body be auspicious for you!

It has no roots. It is covered in buds. It provides relief from the heat for those beneath it. It is covered in sprouts, it provides fruit instantly, and it abounds with flowers. May the bare tree trunk (sthāṇu) with this amazing form be auspicious for you!180

In such verses Jagaddhara is far less concerned with theology than he is with literary strategies that can suggest the marvel of Śiva’s nature. In this production of wonder, Śiva is like poetry itself, and thus poetry becomes the ideal means of best expressing that nature. Overall, Jagaddhara depicts Śiva as a deity who is wondrous and produces wonder, who is compassionate, omnipotent, and omniscient, and whose favor enables devotees to overcome all difficulties. He presents a supreme deity who is accessible through his forms within the realm of thought, speech, and action, even as they simultaneously point to a reality that transcends what can be apprehended in these ways. Bhakti is central to this Śaivism. Jagaddhara repeatedly describes Śiva as favoring his devotees (bhaktas).181 Not only does Jagaddhara characterize his own verses as being full of bhakti, but he prays that his poetry might spread bhakti among those who hear it.182 Moreover, he depicts an embodied bhakti as preferable to liberation. For instance, he praises the lowly body since it can worship Śiva but disavows the liberation (mukti) that takes one away from the “festival of service” (niṣevaṇotsava) to Śiva and “does not lead to union”

180.  mūlojjhitena kalikākalitena tāpaśāntikṣameṇa namatām avipallavena /​ sadyaḥphalena sumanobhir upāsitena sthāṇuḥ śriye ‘stu bhavatāṃ vapuṣā ‘dbhutena //​ SKA 3.12 //​As Ratnakaṇṭha points out, features such as the ability to provide shade and the presence of buds, sprouts, flowers, and fruit are all amazing since they are normally impossible for a bare tree trunk (Laghupañcikā, 17–​18). 181.  E.g., in SKA 2.15, where he describes Śiva as the one “who favors his devotees” (bhaktānugrahakāriṇe). 182. See, for example, SKA 38.29, quoted in the conclusion of this book.



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(ayuktipātinī).183 This bhakti infuses a host of religious practices, including all of those performed through the poetry of the SKA itself, such as praise, the offering of homage, and the act of taking refuge. The emphasis of the SKA is squarely on the relationships created through such acts based in language. Despite its non-​dualistic framework, therefore, the SKA stresses the subjective realities of dualistic relationships. Nevertheless, a small number of verses indicate the non-​dualistic perspective underlying the text as a whole. Some refer to the identity between Śiva and the self.184 Occasionally Jagaddhara demonstrates concerns we saw in the works of earlier authors who were explicitly non-​dualistic in orientation. One verse in particular reiterates not just a theme but also much of the language of verses found in two earlier compositions, the SP and the BhASt: You alone are the one to be praised, you alone are the one who praises, you alone are the praise itself. There is nothing other than you. The idea that I might praise you with praise-​poetry is ignorance, a false understanding based on differentiation.185 Like many stotra authors before him, Jagaddhara offers his own response to this doubt about the possibility of praise:  “Despite this, I  do praise you again and again, for only ignorance can destroy ignorance.”186 According to this justification, praise does indeed involve a false dichotomy rooted in ignorance, and yet it is a useful means of overcoming that ignorance.187 Occasionally, therefore, Jagaddhara does explicitly address the theological issues raised by the potentially dualistic implications of praise and prayer. More often, Jagaddhara explores the theme of oneness and multiplicity. He stresses Śiva’s nature as the one reality underlying all of the differentiation found in the universe. He illustrates this fundamental unity through such classic examples as the gold used in various ornaments, and water found in various bodies of water.188 The universe arises and dissolves in Śiva, like clouds in the sky or

183.  varaṃ bhaved apy avaraṃ kalevaraṃ paraṃ harārādhanasādhanaṃ hi yat /​ na tu kratudhvaṃsiniṣevaṇotsavaṃ vinighnatī muktir ayuktipātinī //​ SKA 7.24 //​ 184.  See, for example, SKA 38.8, in which this identification is explicit (mamāntarātmā vibhur eva). 185. stutyas tvam eva stutikṛt tvam eva stutis tvam eva tvadṛte ‘sti nānyat /​ iyaṃ tv avidyā yad ahaṃ stuve tvāṃ stutyeti mithyā pṛthagarthabuddhiḥ //​ SKA 12.2 //​Cf. SP 15 and BhASt 2. 186. staumy eva tatrāpi punaḥ punas tvāṃ naśyaty avidyā yad avidyayaiva /​ SKA 12.3ab. 187. This develops the argument found in SP 11. 188. SKA 2.24.

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waves in the ocean.189 Ultimately it is Śiva who performs the various functions in the universe associated with other deities: Sporting in the maintenance, dissolution, and creation of the triple universe, he becomes Hari, Hara, and Brahmā through his actions. His power surpasses the speech and thought of all people. May that god grant you eternal, imperishable good fortune (śiva).190 Such verses describe deities common to the Purāṇas, Sanskrit kāvya, and other exoteric texts. Yet occasionally Jagaddhara does refer to forms of Śiva specific to certain traditions or regions. Some of his verses allude to the form of Śiva known as Amṛteśvara from the Netratantra, whose worship has been very popular in Kashmir.191 Others refer to Sadāśiva, the five-​faced Śiva of the Śaiva Siddhānta tradition,192 and in some places he praises the eightfold form of Śiva called the aṣṭamūrti that goes back to the Vedic tradition.193 He also alludes to one of the foremost temples to Śiva in Kashmir, Vijayeśvara, which was apparently under Śaiva Siddhānta control until at least the thirteenth century.194 These various references indicate his familiarity with a range of Śaiva traditions, as well as his residence in Kashmir. He may have been an initiate into a specific tradition, but the SKA does not provide any clear evidence for this. Instead, it promotes a Śaivism that seeks to be inclusive and general, rather than accessible only to specific Śaivas. The SKA, in other words, is not particularly Tantric. It is not rooted in the technical practices and theologies of specific, esoteric Tantric scriptures. This may be surprising, given the prominence of Tantric Śaiva and Śākta traditions from Kashmir. Jagaddhara does allude to concepts or practices common to many Tantric traditions, but he does so without limiting the orientation of the text as a whole. His references to śaktipāta illustrate this well.195 Śaktipāta literally means

189. SKA 3.2. 190.  lokatrayasthitilayodayakelikāraḥ kāryeṇa yo hariharadruhiṇatvam eti /​ devaḥ sa viśvajanavāṅmanasātivṛttaśaktiḥ śivaṃ diśatu śaśvad anaśvaraṃ vaḥ //​ SKA 3.3 //​For a similar example, see SKA 2.23. 191. E.g., SKA 2.28 and 19.30. 192. E.g., SKA 11.116. 193. E.g., SKA 33.36ff. See Barbara Stoler Miller, “Kālidāsa’s Verbal Icon: Aṣṭamūrti Śiva,” in Discourses on Śiva: Proceedings of a Symposium on the Nature of Religious Imagery, ed. Michael W. Meister (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1984). 194. Alexis Sanderson, “Kashmir,” in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Volume One: Regions, Pilgrimage, Deities, ed. Knut A. Jacobsen (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 121. devyāṃ bhramadbhruvi jayāvijayārcitāyāṃ saktā tavāstavijayā vijayāya dṛṣṭiḥ /​ vṛṣṭyeva bhūr divijayā vijayākhyayā te mūrtyā trasadravijayāvi jayāhvayā ca //​ SKA 30.70 //​ 195. To the best of my knowledge he only uses this distinct phrase twice, in SKA 13.7 and 38.5.



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“the descent of power,” and it has an important history within Śaiva and Śākta-​ Śaiva traditions.196 It was a major topic among Tantric authors and the subject of much debate between dualist Śaiva Siddhāntins and non-​dualistic authors like Abhinavagupta.197 Despite a history of dense theological reflection on the term, for Jagaddhara śaktipāta refers simply to Śiva’s grace, his compassionate favor toward his devotees. In this sense it parallels Śiva’s darśana—​his “seeing” of, and being seen by, his devotees. Jagaddhara uses a number of loosely synonymous phrases that parallel his use of śaktipāta, including dṛṣṭipāta, dṛkpāta, and rudradṛkpāta, all of which refer to the descent of Śiva’s “glance” as a way of showing his favor for his devotees.198 When he uses the term śaktipāta itself, he sidesteps the complex theological debate surrounding it. The debate among Śaivas revolved around the question of causation. Does śaktipāta occur because of some particular event, such as the accumulation of merit or the maturation of karma? Or does it happen spontaneously at the will of the lord, totally independent of additional causes? Śaiva Siddhāntins generally argued the former, while non-​dualists such as Abhinavagupta argued the latter. Jagaddhara does not address this debate directly, but he indirectly offers his own perspective: This is what I know: the mind that performs the worship of the lord is (these three things): a full accumulation (upacaya) of good fortune, the very descent of the supreme lord’s power (śaktipāta), and the most precious grace (anugraha) of the great.199 This verse invokes the key positions of the debate:  the accumulation (upacaya) of merit, divine grace (anugraha), and śaktipāta itself. But rather than taking a particular side, Jagaddhara emphasizes the value of simply worshipping Śiva. In

196. See Christopher Wallis, “The Descent of Power: Possession, Mysticism, and Initiation in the Śaiva Theology of Abhinavagupta,” Journal of Indian Philosophy 36, no. 2 (2008): 247–​ 295, and Christopher Daren Wallis, “To Enter, to be entered, to merge: The Role of Religious Experience in the Traditions of Tantric Shaivism” (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2014). 197. See, for example, Kṣemarāja’s summary of the non-​dualistic position in his commentary on StC 117–​118. 198.  For dṛṣṭipāta, see SKA 8.19 and 12.28; for dṛkpāta, SKA 17.29 and 33.25; and for rudradṛkpāta, SKA 18.5. 199.  avaimi bhāgyopacayaḥ sa puṣkalaḥ sa śaktipātaḥ khalu pārameśvaraḥ /​ sa vā mahārho mahatām anugraho yad īśvarārādhanasādhanaṃ manaḥ //​ SKA 38.5 //​In his commentary on this verse, Ratnakaṇṭha interprets mahatām anugraho as “the grace of true gurus” (sadgurūṇām anugrahaḥ) (Laghupañcikā, 249). There are, however, some instances in which Jagaddhara contrasts the power of grace with the impotency of his effort; see, for example, SKA 39.15.

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other words, he bypasses the theological debate, focusing instead on praising the one who worships Śiva. In sum, the SKA does not rigorously develop a theological position or engage with a particular theological tradition in the same way as many of the stotras from Kashmir discussed thus far. Theologically, its closest precedent is probably the StC, which also emphasizes devotional worship and praise of Śiva as the supreme lord while eschewing polarizing theological debates. The SKA also harkens back to the stotras contained within Sanskrit kāvyas, especially those of Ratnākara—​ not surprisingly, given its dual claim to be both stotra and kāvya (see Chapter 6). As a whole, the SKA presents a general vision of Śaiva worship that emphasizes commitment to Śiva, as well as a host of general religious practices enacting this. Jagaddhara’s poetry brings together and celebrates the basic tradition of efficacious worship of Śiva. In doing so, it demonstrates how poetry can be theologically flexible and inclusive. It is risky to speculate about the possible reasons for promoting this particular vision of Śaivism. Yet it does fit with what we know of Kashmir’s history at this time. We know that the exceptional diversity and depth of the Śaivism that thrived in Kashmir around the turn of the millennium contracted in the centuries that followed. Śaiva Siddhānta, for instance, largely disappeared as a distinct soteriological system, so much so that it was usually assumed to be exclusively a southern tradition by scholars.200 Jagaddhara may have been sponsoring a consolidated Śaivism not limited to a particular scriptural tradition as a response to this general contraction, parallel to his creative consolidation of Sanskrit literary traditions within the stotra form. More than anything else, the SKA serves as a celebration of and argument for the value of commitment to Śiva and Śaivism in general.201 Furthermore, we know that the second half of the fourteenth century, the time when Jagaddhara likely composed the SKA, was a time of transition in Kashmir. Kashmir came under Muslim rule in 1320 CE, and fourteenth-​century figures like Lal Dĕd (Lalleśvarī) point to religious developments indebted to Śaiva, Śākta, and Muslim influences. We do not have much reliable data about the conversion of the Kashmirian population to Islam during this time, but even without knowing the details it is clear that the demographics were shifting during the fourteenth century. There were Muslim preachers in the region, and popular devotional movements

200. The work of Alexis Sanderson and Dominic Goodall, in particular, has rectified this misconception; see the latter’s introduction in Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha’s Commentary on the Kiraṇatantra, volume I:  Chapters  1–​6 (Pondichéry:  Institut Français de Pondichéry; École Française d’Extrême-​Orient, 1998). 201. This can be seen in earlier stotras as well, such as the Mahimnaḥstava, and they too were probably participating in debates with other traditions and attempting to assert the supremacy of Śaivism.



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around figures who came to be known as the Rishis.202 In the fourteenth century, the future of Śaivism in Kashmir was uncertain. It seems possible, therefore, that Jagaddhara’s promotion of a nonsectarian, elite but inclusive Śaivism was designed to consolidate a community in competition with increasingly successful Muslim communities in Kashmir. Moreover, it is tantalizing that his emphasis on a personal relationship to Śiva, based on devotional praise, worship, and surrender, parallels Muslim patterns of relating to Allah more closely than the majority of earlier Śaiva religious expressions, at least in Kashmir. Such speculations remain tentative, but Jagaddhara’s silence on such issues does not preclude his indirect engagement with them. Many Sanskrit intellectuals chose to exclude Islam and Islamic culture from the Sanskrit literary world,203 and in Kashmir it was not until the reign of Zayn al-​‘Ābidīn (r. 1418-​1470)204 that Sanskrit intellectuals engaged directly with the new prominence of Islamic cultural and political power in the valley. So perhaps Jagaddhara’s lengthy celebration of Śaivism in the fourteenth century can be viewed also as a sophisticated argument, aimed at a general community of Śaiva elites, to take up a revamped and consolidated version of Śaivism in the face of great change.

Sāhib Kaul’s Literary Hybrids Theologically complex experiments with the stotra form continued in Kashmir long after Jagaddhara. In the seventeenth century, Sāhib Kaul composed a number of poems that explore theology in creative ways. Jürgen Hanneder has shown that the third chapter of the DNV, which continues Nandin’s hymn to Śiva that begins in the second chapter of the DNV, praises Śiva in philosophical terms and paraphrases the entire text of the eleventh-​century Pratyabhijñāhṛdaya, a popular, short work on Pratyabhijñā non-​dualism by Kṣemarāja.205 Sāhib Kaul’s short

202.  The lack of reliable scholarship on this period remains lamentable. Notable exceptions include Walter Slaje, Medieval Kashmir and the Science of History (Austin:  South Asia Institute, University of Texas at Austin, 2004); M. Ishaq Khan, Kashmir’s Transition to Islam:  The Role of Muslim Rishis (New Delhi:  Manohar 2002); Luther James Obrock, “Translation and History: The Development of a Kashmiri Textual Tradition from ca. 1000–​ 1500” (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2015); and Dean Accardi, “Asceticism, Gender, and the State: Saints of the Kashmiri Sultanate, 1550–​1650” (PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2014). 203. For a discussion of this history in North India, including prominent exceptions, see Audrey Truschke, Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016), Chapters 1 and 2. 204. On the dating of his reign, see Slaje, Medieval Kashmir and the Science of History, 22. 205.  Jürgen Hanneder, “Sāhib Kaul’s Presentation of Pratyabhijñā Philosophy in His Devīnāmavilāsa,” in Le Parole e i Marmi:  Studi in Onore di Raniero Gnoli nel Suo 70°

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poems often blur genre boundaries in dramatic ways, and by experimenting with the conventional structure of devotional hymns, he draws attention to their pedagogical features and theological potential. Let us briefly consider a few of these short poems. Unlike the majority of stotras, Sāhib Kaul’s CSSA presents a narrative exchange:  it dramatizes the dialogue between a guru and a student seeking liberation. The poem begins with the student approaching the teacher. He proceeds to ask a series of questions, decry his own troubled state, and beg the guru to teach him about the lord who is one’s own self (vv. 2–​3). The guru responds that he will teach the seeker (vv. 4–​5), and then the narrator breaks in once again to introduce the text as the CSSA of Sāhib Kaul (v. 6). After this introductory section, the guru presents his teachings to the troubled student, often addressing him directly. The content of the poem is partially inflected by Advaita Vedānta, and it gives a glimpse of Sāhib Kaul’s view of the relationship between Vedānta and Śrīvidyā.206 Throughout these verses the teacher encourages the student to give up his worry by realizing his own identity with Śiva, the supreme lord. “You are not the body, or the senses, or the mind, or the vital energy, or a man; you are not a momentary or empty awareness, you are not a limited agent or enjoyer, you are not insentient,” the teacher explains; “you are that indescribable, pure one who consists in being, consciousness, and bliss. Do not fret in vain!”207 After v.  47, the teacher pauses, observes his student, declares him free from ignorance, and commands him to speak immediately of his own state.208 The student’s response, which manifests (prakaṭīcakāra) his ultimate experience of his own self (svātmānubhūtiṃ parāṃ) (v. 49), ends in v.  60. In this response, the student reiterates the teachings given earlier, but from a first-​person perspective. At the climax of his speech, the student expresses the identity of his own self with the lord who is the agent of all volition, knowledge, and action, and he offers homage to this, his own self (me namaḥ).209

Compleanno, Serie Orientale Roma 92.1–​2, ed. Raffaele Torella (Rome: Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, 2001), 399–​418. 206. See ibid., where Hanneder translates CSSA vv. 7–​8, which allude “to the three steps in Vedāntic soteriology, i.e. śravana, manana, nididhyāsana,” and fill these labels with Śaiva content. Sāhib Kaul uses the distinctly Vedāntic phrase saccidānanda in the title of another text, his Saccidānandakandalī, and in its twenty-​sixth verse, as well as close synonyms, such as sacciddharṣa (CSSA v. 11d), in other texts. 207. no deho ‘si na cendriyaṃ na ca manah prāṇo na vā no pumān na jñānaṃ kṣaṇikaṃ na śūnyam api no kartā na bhoktā jaḍaḥ /​ [ . . . ] sacciddharṣamayo ‘si ko ‘pi vimalaś cintāṃ vṛthā mā kṛthāḥ //​ CSSA 11ab, d //​. Cf. Nirvāṇaṣaṭkam v. 1. 208. vada vibho svīyāṃ daśāṃ satvaram; CSSA v. 49. 209. CSSA v. 60.



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As this brief description shows, the poem presents a narrative of a pedagogical moment. It dramatizes the assimilation of a major theological teaching, namely the identity between the supreme lord, his manifestation as all of existence, and the self accessible to every human being. In this simple narrative, the student has the experience of this self, and perhaps even more importantly, he articulates that experience in speech. This narrativization of (successful) instruction has significant pedagogical implications. As one recites or hears the CSSA, one implicitly takes the place of the student directly addressed by the teacher in the first part of the poem. But when the student speaks, anyone reciting or even hearing the poem takes on the student’s first-​person perspective as he articulates his assimilation of the teachings he has been given. Most stotras are not narrative, and they do not usually consist of a dialogue—​or rather, they usually consist of a one-​sided conversation between a devotee and a deity. Since this poem depicts a conversation, it does not contain the usual direct or indirect addresses to a deity one usually finds in a stotra. Moreover, the second-​person addresses throughout the poem are directed toward the two main characters, depending on which one is speaking. In general, these features mark this poem as distinct from other hymns. Yet at the same time, it indirectly offers devotional praise to Śiva. The vocatives and second-​person verbs found in many of its verses do parallel those often found in stotras, they are just directed at the guru or student. Moreover, the central point of the poem is precisely the identity between the student’s own self and Śiva, so the poem creatively adapts the stotra form to emphasize its theological and pedagogical agenda. The CSSA also concludes by describing and praising the benefits obtained by means of this poem, like many stotras. Sāhib Kaul says specifically that the benefit of this poem is the experience of its meaning, namely the “non-​duality that is the essence of the expansion of consciousness” (citsphārasārādvaya).210 Even as it stretches the boundaries of the stotra genre, the CSSA highlights its theological and pedagogical potential. The CSSA is not the only of Sāhib Kaul’s short poems to present the first-​ person voice of one who has attained the realization praised in that poem. In these other hymns, however, this first-​person expression is not framed by a narrative dialogue; it is the development of the poem itself that justifies it. For instance, in the Svātmabodha (SĀB; Realization of the self), the speaker describes himself as taking refuge in supreme Śiva, but then the poem emphasizes the unity of this supreme lord and the speaker’s own self, privileging this experience (nijānubhūti) (v. 7). The speaker thereby takes on the voice of identification, even calling out to others: Because of the power of just a tiny bit of my true favor, the resplendent lord of the planets moves constantly through the sky,

210. yo ‘py evaṃ vimṛśaty alaṃ sa labhate citsphārasārādvayam /​ CSSA 61d.

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and the moon produces pleasure for people. Therefore, wise ones, pay homage to me, the lord of all!211 In such verses the speaker adopts the voice of total identification with the supreme lord praised in this poem. This practice occurs in his other poems as well, and especially the Śivajīvadaśaka (ŚJD; Ten verses on the individual [self ] that is Śiva). Here the speaker repeatedly offers homage to his own self: What exactly is the body? Whose is it? Where is it? That which has a body is not bound in the body, it is not bound at all. I myself am Śiva, Viṣṇu, the sun-​god, Gaṇeśa, the creator, Śakti, and the possessor of all Śaktis. Homage to me! (namo me)212 Variations of this last phrase are repeated several times in this short poem (vv. 2–​5, 10). The tenth verse at the climax of the poem concludes:  “Homage to me, this individual self (who is also) Śiva.”213 Such expressions of self-​directed praise and glorification may startle some audiences, but earlier non-​dual stotras from Kashmir, such as those by Nāga, provide important precedents.214 Sāhib Kaul’s statements clearly refer to a very different “I” or “me” than usually intended by such statements.215 In fact, this seems to be precisely the point of such verses: they expand the meaning of the “I” with which one naturally identifies so that one’s self-​understanding breaks its normal bonds and one experiences a state of identification and self-​awareness as Śiva and all that this entails. In this way, such poems seem to function as exercises for the experience and assimilation of a particular understanding—​in this case, the identity of the individual self with supreme Śiva. In these poems Sāhib Kaul creatively develops the logic

211. matsatkṛpāleśavaśāt prakāśī caraty asau vyomny aniśaṃ grahendraḥ /​ candro janāhlādakaraś ca tasmān māṃ sarvanāthaṃ namata prabuddhāḥ //​ SĀB 15 //​ 212. kas svid dehaḥ kasya dehaḥ kva deho dehī dehe naiva baddho na baddhaḥ /​ so ‘haṃ śambhur viṣnur arko gaṇeśo dhātā śaktis sarvaśaktir namo me //​ ŚJD 2 //​ 213. jīvāyāsmai me namo vā śivāya /​ ŚJD 10d /​Em. jīvāyāsmai; ed. jīvāyasmai. 214.  For another example of such dramatic statements in Sāhib Kaul’s poetry, see SCĀK v. 99: so ‘haṃ sarvatra sarveśo jayāmi bhayahārakaḥ /​ māṃ jñātvā na punar moham upāyānti kadācana //​ 215.  Of course, Sāhib Kaul is not the first to advocate such a reevaluation of self-​identity. Many of his Śaiva predecessors, as well as Advaita Vedāntins and others, taught a transformation of consciousness through identification with a supreme reality or stripping away temporary identities until one realizes one’s identity with something transcendent (e.g., śivo ‘haṃ for Śaivas, aham brahmāsmi for Advaita Vedāntins).



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of non-​dualistic praise and worship to the extent that they become explicitly self-​ directed practices. Another of Sāhib Kaul’s hymns, the SAṢ, praises and performs a specific type of worship for Śiva. In this worship, the identity between Śiva and the worshipper is made manifest, and the external aspects of ritual worship are homologized to non-​material virtues: I worship the supreme lord with that worship in which the nectar of contemplation is the water for washing (your) feet, O great god, self-​restraint is the sandalwood, sexual restraint is the offering of respect, and quiescence is the pure flower blossoming forth.216 He calls this worship sahaja, a word that means “natural” or “spontaneous” but has many connotations within Tantric circles.217 It is a central term for Sāhib Kaul and occurs in many of his works. In the Saccidānandakandalī (SCĀK), for instance, he goes through the six parts of Śaiva yoga, praying that each may be sahaja and express the non-​duality between the speaker and Śiva.218 In the SAṢ, he says there is no other means (upāya) than this supreme, natural worship (paramāṃ sahajāṃ saparyāṃ) (v. 23). It brings about all desired fruits219 and leads, in particular, to the state of bliss beyond normal limitations: I sing and dance without restraint, totally content. I relish the complete, special, and indescribable taste (rasa). Everything is the same for me whether I cry or laugh—​ all through the power of your natural worship, O lord.220

216.  pādyaṃ vicārasuraso ‘sti maheśa yatra dāntiś ca candanam athoparatir mahārghyam /​ yatrāsti śāntir amalaṃ kusumaṃ praphullaṃ tenārcanena parameśvaram arcayāmi //​ SAṢ 7 //​ 217. Sāhib Kaul’s family roots in eastern India may also have encouraged his emphasis on the concept of sahaja, since it was a major theme for the Tantric Sahajīya Vaiṣṇavism from that region. But the term sahaja is prominent in many contexts, including the devotional poetry of northern poets like Kabir. 218. SCĀK vv. 92–​97. 219. cittaṃ prasīdati kṛtāntabhayaṃ vyapaiti vidyā ca siddhyati suniścayam eti buddhiḥ /​ dūraṃ galanti kalitā viphalā vikalpāḥ kiṃ kiṃ bhaven na bhavataḥ sahajārcanena //​ SAṢ 45 //​ 220. gītaṃ ca nṛttam amitaṃ ca karomi tuṣṭaḥ pūrṇaṃ rasaṃ ca rasayāmi kam apy avācyam /​ sarvaṃ samaṃ ca nanu rodimi vā hasāmi samyak taveśa sahajārcanavaibhavena //​ SAṢ 50 //​ Such verses echo the poetry of Utpaladeva, which also lists various psychological states and enthusiastic activities that spring from a state of devotional bliss.

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The SAṢ praises both Śiva and his true worship, which consists in the natural identification between worshipper and the one being worshipped. Moreover, this hymn performs this worship by praising and glorifying Śiva while establishing this identification. While Sāhib Kaul may rhetorically question the logic of praise-​poetry itself, just as many authors did before him, he also asserts that such praise is happening all the time, automatically: There is no place separate from him, no speech that does not praise him, no thought that does not contemplate him. I constantly perform this natural worship for him.221 In other words, this worship of Śiva occurs spontaneously at all times and places, in all speech and thought. It is ongoing and natural; it is sahaja. As a whole, this hymn reflects upon the nature of non-​dualistic worship but also demonstrates this same worship through its verses. These examples from Sāhib Kaul’s short poems show how he experimented with literary conventions to articulate and teach a radically non-​dual theology. While the poetic language of these works has less appeal than some earlier authors with similar objectives, Sāhib Kaul’s poems are remarkable for the variety and creativity of their content and form. They push the boundaries of what one expects from the stotra genre and showcase their potential as theological and pedagogical works.

Conclusion This chapter has explored patterns in literary hymns in Kashmir across numerous centuries. Careful reading of these stotras reveals a number of ways that they are both poetic and theological texts. Their poetic features not only support their theological content, they also help constitute it. Some hymns present clear, direct theological positions. Abhinavagupta and Kṣemarāja’s hymns to Bhairava, for instance, use the context of devotional praise to present their non-​dual interpretation of this deity and his iconographical features. Other poets, like Jagaddhara, find in poetry the opportunity to sidestep complex theological debates, as in his verses on the “descent of (Śiva’s) power”

221.  deśo na kaścid api yadvyatiriktarūpo vāṇī na kācid api yatstutiriktabhāvā /​ cittaṃ na kiṃcid api yatkalanātiriktaṃ nityaṃ tadarcanam idaṃ sahajaṃ karomi //​ SAṢ 12 //​Em. yatstutiriktabhāvā; ed. yat stutiriktabhāvā; em. yatkalanātiriktaṃ; ed. yat kalanātiriktaṃ; em. tadarcanam; ed. tad arcanam.



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(śaktipāta). Thus, poetry can advance specific theological interpretations or open a flexible space for devotion less constrained by formal doctrinal positions. The poetry of many hymns is primary in how they establish theological positions. Specific poetic figures like apparent contradiction are useful for conveying the wondrous nature of the divine, for instance. The interpretative potential of poetry can be seen even more explicitly in Kṣemarāja’s commentaries on stotras, and most notably his commentary on the SP. Here he relies on his analysis of literary features to reframe this devotional hymn to the sun-​god as a Śaiva text. Other authors, like Sāhib Kaul, use the structure of their poems to reinforce specific theological teachings. These stotras, as prayers, constitute individual relationships with different forms of divinity, and yet they are also public texts. The ideas explored and expressed in them also reach a human audience. These hymns, therefore, can be understood as models for human audiences to emulate, both in their interpretations of specific positions and in their implementation of those positions in practice. Utpaladeva’s hymns, for example, are not simply his expressions of devotion; they also teach his human audience how to articulate his theological vision in devotional prayer. This is, in fact, central to his theological project, for non-​dualism leads to questions about the appropriateness of seemingly dualistic behavior like prayer. His poetry exemplifies and offers instruction for his human audience on how to properly express non-​dualistic praise and prayer, and on the true nature of devotion as a celebration of a shared ontological state. In the case of Sāhib Kaul, we see the boundaries of the stotra genre itself being stretched by his experimental poetry designed to instruct and model for its human audience. Finally, these Kashmirian hymns are remarkable in how they frequently reflect on the nature and theoretical implications of devotional praise and prayer. The StC and SKA, for instance, again and again celebrate the power of praise. The hymns discussed in this chapter offer a series of reflections on the stotra genre itself. They are not only poetry as theology; collectively, they explore various iterations of a theology of praise-​poetry.

5

Poetry as Prayer This flower-​offering of praise (stutikusumāñjali) has been prepared here at the lotus-​feet of the lord adorned by the crescent moon by this servant, who collected it from the vine of fresh, beautiful praise-​poetry watered by uninterrupted devotion. May it make the hearts of the virtuous full of longing with its fragrance. Jagaddhara, Stutikusumāñjali 38.261 Stotras, like all hymns, can be analyzed in terms of prayer.2 They consist of language-​based interactions between human beings and various deities or other religious forces seen as powerful or auspicious. They make petitions and invocations, offer homage, praise, and benedictions, and perform verbal worship and adoration. But how useful is prayer as an analytic category for thinking about stotras and its devotional language? How exactly does poetic prayer work? In this chapter we will use Jagaddhara’s SKA as a case study for thinking through some of the complexities of praise-​poetry as prayer. In addition to evaluating prayer as a category, we will explore how Jagaddhara himself analyzes the various types of prayer sheltered under the umbrella of the stotra genre. In addition, we will consider two creative ways of interpreting prayer by examining how Jagaddhara dramatizes Śiva’s interactions with Sarasvatī as the beautifully embodied form of poetry and by analyzing praise-​poetry as a type of verbal prasāda, an offering received by a deity and then enjoyed by a community of devotees.

1. ayam iha kiṅkareṇa racitaś caraṇāmbujayoḥ stutikusumāñjalir bhagavatas taruṇendubhṛtaḥ /​ viralabhaktisiktanavasūktilatāvacitaḥ kalayatu saurabheṇa sukṛtāṃ spṛhayālu manaḥ //​ 2.  Parts of this chapter are adapted from the following:  Hamsa Stainton, “Poetry as Prayer: The Śaiva Hymns of Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa of Kashmir” [International Journal of Hindu Studies 20, no. 3 (December 2016)]: 339–​354. I thank Springer for permission to reproduce this material.

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Prayer as an Analytic Category As a general category, prayer suggests various ways of using language to engage with some type of divinity or revered figure.3 Prayer implies a relationship between the speaker and the implied or direct addressee of prayer, a relationship that can include such acts as petition, praise, adoration, thanksgiving, homage, lamentation, and even criticism. Despite the many genres and practices that use religious language in such ways, the history of prayer and its interpretation across cultures has received less treatment by scholars than it deserves. While theologians have lingered over questions of prayer, historians of religion have more often hurried by, accepting reductive psychological or functional explanations. This has begun to change in recent years—​more on this later—​but in general, scholarship on religion, and on Hinduism in particular, has skirted the complexity of prayer. Sam Gill’s assessment in 1987 remains an active challenge for scholars: The most striking fact is that in the past half century the general study of prayer has received little attention. This is in spite of the advancements in the study of language, speech acts, and religious language made in several fields. [ . . . ] While the study of prayer remains undeveloped, the fact is that prayer is among the most peculiarly remarkable of religious phenomena. It is foremost, and undeniably, religious. It has not been taken nearly seriously enough by students of religion. Can we claim to know much about religion while having ignored such a central and crucial act as prayer?4 One could easily replace “religion” with “Hinduism” in this appraisal, for Hindu prayer has not received scholarly attention nearly commensurate with its variety, vitality, and historical and contemporary prominence.5 Why have ethnographers and textual scholars alike generally avoided prayer as a substantial analytic and comparative category in the study of Hinduism? Most immediately, the sheer quantity of source materials has complicated efforts to discuss prayer in this region. But other challenges are conceptual and

3. While in the present context I am investigating verbal practices of prayer, recent scholarship has explored a variety of nonverbal communicative practices as prayer as well (e.g., Uri Ehrlich, The Nonverbal Language of Prayer [Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004]). 4.  Sam Gill, Native American Religious Action:  A Performance Approach to Religion (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1987), 94–​95. 5. Jan Gonda’s Prayer and Blessing: Ancient Indian Ritual Terminology (Leiden: Brill, 1989) remains a notable exception, and he saw his study at least in part as a response to Gill’s assessment (p. 2).



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historical. Some scholars have been hesitant to rely on prayer as an interpretive lens because of translation difficulties. In Sanskrit as well as many other South Asian languages there is no single word equivalent to prayer, and individual terms used to translate “prayer” often have limited signification. The term prārthanā, for instance, is commonly translated from Sanskrit, Hindi, and other South Asian languages as “prayer,” but it has a narrower scope and less historical significance than many other terms. A variety of religious concepts and compositions can be productively interpreted in terms of prayer, including japa (“repetition” of a mantra), āśīs (“blessing”), kīrtana (devotional singing), and stotra (“hymn of praise”). The inclination to avoid the use of English-​language categories such as prayer may also stem in part from a desire to circumvent the pitfalls of Orientalism, ethnocentrism, neo-​Colonialism, and so on. Such avoidance, however, implies a rejection of the comparison inherent in the study of religion as a field. Part of our task as scholars of various religions and regions is the practice of translation as interpretation. Through translation we make the unfamiliar intelligible for the sake of analysis and comparison. The benefits of analytic categories such as prayer allow for movement from the specific to the general, from the singular to the comparative, and thereby facilitate knowledge valuable beyond a highly distinctive context. Another challenge is a perceived association of the term prayer with the study of Christianity. No doubt this is due in part to the quantity of theological literature on Christian prayer and to the history of Christian missionary efforts in South Asia. Christian scholars have certainly offered lofty assessments of prayer—​Friedrich Schleiermacher asserted that “to be a religious man and to pray are really the same thing”6—​and for centuries Christian theologians and then scholars of Christianity have ruminated on the nature, function, and importance of prayer. While one must engage with this corpus with a critical, self-​reflective eye, it is precisely this long, rich history of Christian reflection on prayer that offers resources to the study of prayer in other traditions. Already in the third century CE, Origen wrestled with the subject of prayer in ways that continue to provide valuable starting points for analysis. He looked to Christian scripture to consider different terms for prayer, distinguished between distinct types of prayer (e.g., praise, thanksgiving, petition), and considered various questions—​from the logic of praying to an omniscient being to the role of prayers as models to what one should pray for and with what disposition—​ that are relevant in the interpretation of prayer in diverse contexts, including

6. Friedrich Schleiermacher, “The Power of Prayer in Relation to Outside Circumstances,” in Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher, trans. Mary F. Wilson (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1890), 38 (quoted in Sam D. Gill, “Prayer,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 11 [2nd ed.], ed. Lindsay Jones [Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005], 7370).

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South Asia.7 Many Christian theologians and, to a lesser extent, scholars of Christianity have approached the subject of prayer with the same gravitas as Origen.8 Prayer, moreover, has long been recognized as central in other traditions, particularly Judaism and Islam. Theologians and scholars of these traditions continue to investigate the nature and function of prayer. As just one example, Reuven Hammer interprets a wide variety of Jewish prayers in Entering Jewish Prayer. During a time of mourning, for instance, he explains that Jews recite blessings that bring the community together “at this time of personal loss in order to affirm its belief, and to speak words of consolation to the bereaved, putting the sorrow into a universal context, demonstrating the concern of all for the suffering of each one, and praising those who fulfill this act of kindness.”9 His analysis reflects the value many Jewish communities have placed on prayer and the diverse functions it serves at critical junctures such as mourning. In the past ten years or so, since I began the research that would lead eventually to this book, interdisciplinary scholarship on prayer has burgeoned. This scholarship has challenged previously dominant assumptions and pushed our approaches and understandings of prayer into new and fascinating directions. Much of this scholarly activity was associated with an initiative of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), “New Directions in the Study of Prayer,” that operated primarily from 2011 to 2015. This interdisciplinary project was developed by the program on Religion and the Public Sphere, and it funded (with support from the John Templeton Foundation) twenty-​eight scholars and journalists working on practices of prayer.10 While this is not the context for a full review of recent scholarship on prayer, a few examples will illustrate some of the productive “new directions” that have emerged in the study of prayer. A number of scholars have turned away from standard descriptions of prayer in terms of intellectual, verbal, and volitional activity, focusing instead on the

7. See “On Prayer” in Rowan A. Greer, trans., Origen: An Exhortation to Martyrdom, Prayer and Selected Works (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1979). 8. The most notable scholar working across boundaries in this regard is Francis X. Clooney, SJ, whose work on Hinduism and Catholicism illustrates the full possibilities of serious comparative work. For studies that pay particular attention to the power of poetry in relation to theology, see his His Hiding Place Is Darkness:  A Hindu-​Catholic Theopoetics of Divine Absence (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014) and Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). 9.  Reuven Hammer, Entering Jewish Prayer:  A Guide to Personal Devotion and the Worship Service (New York: Schocken Books, 1994), 281. 10.  Historical webpages associated with “New Direction in the Study of Prayer” are preserved on the website of the Social Science Research Council. For an overview, see https://​ www.ssrc.org/​programs/​component/​religion-​and-​the-​public-​sphere/​new-​directions-​in-​the-​ study-​of-​prayer/​, accessed August 15, 2018.



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materiality of prayer, including bodily techniques, material objects, technology, and media.11 Anderson Blanton, for example, conducted fieldwork with charismatic radio preachers and their congregations (both in-​studio and spread throughout southern Appalachia) and studied various material dimensions of prayer, including the radio as a “point of contact” in the performance of healing prayers, the circulation of prayer cloths, and the power of breath and nonrepresentational noises in the performance of prayer.12 Other scholars have focused on the sensory dimensions of prayer and the ways it is materialized in different media (e.g., a candle placed silently in a church).13 A related trend has seen some scholars influenced by an academic turn toward affect theory and the history of emotions. In Milton and the Early Modern Culture of Devotion, for instance, Naya Tsentourou argues that John Milton “shared with his early modern community an understanding of prayer as conversing with God but not necessarily with words: the relationship established was at the level of affect.”14 As this study shows, Milton saw prayer as “pathetical,” as an affective practice that is both an agent and a product of emotional intensity.15 Tsentourou’s work also investigates prayer as performance, as a form of embodied devotion in which corporeal communication is seen positively by seventeenth-​century authors as an alternative “to the hypocritical use of language in vocal prayers.”16 Other scholars have studied prayer in places previously presumed to be largely absent of it. Elizabeth Drescher, for instance, studied how prayer continues to be a durable and meaningful practice for many so-​called Nones, those who claim no religious affiliation, including those who describe themselves as atheists or agnostics.17 In her work, we see, for example, how some Nones describe prayer as a discursively distinctive practice; activities labeled as prayer were seen as elevated

11. Anderson Blanton, “The Materiality of Prayer: A Curatorial Introduction,” http://​forums. ssrc.org/​ndsp/​2013/​02/​20/​the-​materiality-​of-​prayer-​a-​curatorial-​introduction/​, posted February 20, 2013; accessed August 15, 2018. 12. Anderson Blanton, Hittin’ the Prayer Bones: Materiality of Spirit in the Pentecostal South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015). 13. Sonja Luehrmann, “Praying with the Senses: A Curatorial Introduction,” http://​forums. ssrc.org/​ndsp/​2013/​06/​17/​praying-​with-​the-​senses-​a-​curatorial-​introduction/​, accessed August 15, 2018. 14.  Naya Tsentourou, Milton and the Early Modern Culture of Devotion:  Bodies at Prayer (New York: Routledge, 2018), 11. 15. Ibid.,  1–​3. 16. Ibid., 15 and Chapter 3. 17.  Elizabeth Drescher, Choosing Our Religion:  The Spiritual Lives of America’s Nones (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 9, 12, and Chapter 5. See also Kevin Ladd, “Should Atheists Pray?” http://​forums.ssrc.org/​ndsp/​2013/​07/​10/​should-​atheists-​pray-​part-​two/​, accessed August 15, 2018.

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and special in a distinctive way.18 Drescher’s scholarship illustrates the flexibility, capaciousness, and enduring appeal of prayer as a special category of practice. While many scholars have consciously sought to go beyond the focus on prayer as a request addressed to God, other scholars have sought to nuance our understanding of petitionary prayer itself. Stephanie Clark, in her persuasive study of prayer in Anglo-​Saxon England, has challenged the way recent scholarship has taken a reductive view of petitionary prayer that replicates longstanding intellectual biases.19 Her analysis of prayer in terms of the language of exchange, and specifically the gift, shows how petitionary prayer is understood by different authors as more than just a mechanical operation. She argues, for example, that understanding prayer as a gift helps explain how certain authors interpret unanswered prayers, and how they focus on producing “certain kinds of persons, not (necessarily) particular practical results.”20 These examples represent only a portion of the new approaches to the study of prayer that have multiplied in recent years. Despite the progress seen in these developments, and despite the variety and long history of Western reflection on prayer (especially among theologians), scholarship on Hindu prayer continues to grapple with a set of presumptions it has inherited from a specific strain of early scholarship on Protestant prayer. Many nineteenth-​and twentieth-​century theologians and scholars alike emphasized prayer’s “spiritual” and psychological character, and defined it primarily in terms of a personal conversation.21 In his famous work on religious experience, William James characterizes prayer “as meaning every kind of inward communion or conversation with the power recognized as divine,” while Friedrich Heiler, in his classic monograph on prayer, exuberantly describes it as “a living relation of man to God, a direct and inner contact, a refuge, a mutual intercourse, a conversation, spiritual commerce, an association, a fellowship, a communion, a conversy, a oneness, a union of an ‘I’ and a ‘Thou.’ ”22 Even

18. Drescher, Choosing Our Religion, 164–​171. 19. As she points out: “The Social Science Research Council, speaking specifically to social science research, seeks to widen the prayer phenomena social science researchers study. However, broadening the focus, while entirely necessary, runs the risk of simplifying or flattening petitionary prayer, making it seem like it is only ever a transaction, a means for precators to get what they want, in which prayer’s efficacy is judged by how closely it conforms to what the precators pray for. That is not how the Anglo-​Saxon authors present it” (Stephanie Clark, Compelling God:  Prayer in Anglo-​Saxon England [Toronto:  University of Toronto Press, 2017], 274–​275). 20. Ibid., 279, and also 189. 21. For a good review of “a modern Western theory of prayer, rooted in individualism, influenced by Protestantism’s suspicion of forms and ritual, and dominated by secularism, with its premises of objectivity and its material bias,” see ibid., 9–​22. 22.  William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience:  A Study in Human Nature, Being the Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion Delivered at Edinburgh in 1901–​1902 (New Hyde



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more tellingly, Heiler privileges what he considers to be original, “free” prayer, in contrast to the empty formalism he sees in ritualized prayer: Prayer is at first a spontaneous emotional discharge, a free outpouring of the heart. In the course of development it becomes a fixed formula which people recite without feeling or mood of devotion, untouched both in heart and mind. At first prayer is an intimate intercourse with God, but gradually it becomes hard, impersonal, ceremonial, a rite consecrated by ancestral custom.23 Such descriptions present prayer as something deeply personal, emotional, and spontaneous, and thus, by this logic, as genuine or “real.” In part, this reflects a Protestant argument about what prayer should be like, in contrast to many Catholic and Eastern Orthodox views.24 Blanton summarizes the issue well in his response

Park, NY: University Books, 1902), 464; Friedrich Heiler, Prayer: A Study in the History and Psychology of Religion, trans. and ed. Samuel McComb (London:  Oxford University Press, 1932), 357 (the latter is also quoted in Gudrun Bühnemann, “Some Remarks on the Structure and Application of Hindu Sanskrit Stotras,” Wiener Zeitschrift Für Die Kunde Südasiens 28 [1984], 79). 23.  Heiler, Prayer, 65. Going back even earlier, in his nineteenth-​century early anthropological work, Primitive Culture (1873), E. B. Tylor attributed a psychological and “spiritual” character to prayer. He called it “the soul’s sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed” and “the address of personal spirit to personal spirit” (quoted in Gill, “Prayer,” 7368). 24. Sonja Luehrmann, asked about what is distinctive about Orthodox prayer, responds in part that: Another thing that is distinctive is the practice of praying with traditional texts. So this evangelical Christian idea of just having a casual chat with God—​or even the post-​ Vatican II Catholic idea where you can also do that—​is something that in Orthodox Christianity is not considered a norm. It is not even considered to be particularly desirable. So people I have talked to say, “Well, yeah, you can pray with your own words, but in the prayer book we have the words of people who were spiritually more advanced, who were monastics and who have been recognized as saints and everything. So why don’t we use their words?” (Jennifer L. Hahn, “Tradition, Innovation, and the Orthodox Sensorium,” http://​forums.ssrc.org/​ndsp/​2015/​05/​04/​tradition-​ innovation-​and-​the-​orthodox-​sensorium/​, accessed August 15, 2018). Approaching the topic from another angle, Stephen Teiser argues that one of the problems with using “a modern, Western, Protestant understanding of prayer as a norm for all measurements” is that “malevolent, violent, doubt-​creating, or non-​theistic forms of prayer are by definition excluded from the category” (Stephen F. Teiser, “Does Prayer Have a History?” http://​forums.ssrc.org/​ndsp/​2013/​09/​05/​does-​prayer-​have-​a-​history/​, accessed August 15, 2018). As he mentions earlier in this essay, he is thinking in part of work by scholars such as Elizabeth McAlister, who studies “aggressive prayer,” in addition to his own work on Buddhist rituals.

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to an interview question about the definition of prayer as “an address, as a petition to God (or a god), in word or thought” in the Webster-​Merriam dictionary: That definition is based upon a very Protestant idea about “proper” prayer which imagined the practice of divine communication, whether it be word or thought, to be a spontaneous and improvisatory outpouring of the heart. While I think this is certainly a legitimate way in which one might approach the phenomenon of prayer, there are all kinds of political motives operating behind this definition. For example, this particular description of prayer was often mobilized as an implicit critique of Catholic recitational practice and the use of devotional objects such as prayer beads. So from the very get-​go, Webster’s seemingly straightforward and taken for granted definition excludes all of the vibrant traditions that mobilize bodily techniques (breath, posture, manual gesture), colorful images, structures of repetition, and devotional objects in order to open a communicative space between the sacred and the everyday.25 This particular understanding of prayer, epitomized in Heiler’s work, stands in contrast to the textual and performative realities of prayer, which can be, for example, prescribed, repetitive, complex, and sophisticated.26 Many Western scholars and theologians have criticized Heiler’s interpretation for just these reasons. In their popular survey of prayer, for instance, Philip and Carol Zaleski observe that Heiler “disparages prayer that is highly ritualistic, tinged with magic or folk piety, or laden with strong penitential, intercessory, or sacrificial themes,” and go on to note that “this excludes a significant percentage of the world’s repertoire of prayer.”27 Sam Gill argues that “Heiler’s predisposition for the psychological nature of prayer, conjoined with his failure to make any clear or useful distinction between prayer as text and prayer as act, placed his consideration of prayer in a nonproductive position, one that has generally discouraged the academic study of prayer, especially beyond particular prayer traditions.”28 This disjunction has hindered the study of prayer in general and Hindu prayer in particular. Heiler’s interpretations,

25. Onnesha Roychoudhuri, “A Machine for the Production of Gods,” http://​forums.ssrc. org/​ndsp/​2015/​08/​17/​a-​machine-​for-​the-​production-​of-​gods/​, accessed August 15, 2018. 26. See Bühnemann, “Some Remarks,” 73–​104, 78–​81, for a discussion of the contrast between Heiler’s conception of prayer and the formulaic use of many stotras. 27. Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski, Prayer: A History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005), 30. While the Zaleskis are not concerned with critiquing such problematic categories as magic, their resistance to Heiler’s position reflects a mainstream recognition of the complexity and diversity of prayer. 28. Gill, “Prayer,” 7368.



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while representative of many views on prayer,29 do not do justice to the full range of Christian (and non-​Christian) reflection on prayer. Prayer has been central to Christian liturgy, and there many forms of prayer that are highly structured and contemplative. For example, lectio divina has a long history in Christianity. This practice of “divine reading” focuses on turning the reading of scripture into a meditative prayer; in Jean Leclercq’s gloss, “lectio divina is prayed reading.”30 This tradition directly challenges Heiler’s verdict as to what counts as “true” prayer. In general, many scholars of religion have broadened their definitions of prayer to include a variety of practices and texts. One of the most significant developments in the study of prayer has been the infusion of ideas and frameworks from ritual and performance studies. Textual and performative aspects of prayer can no longer be conflated, as they frequently were before the latter half of the twentieth century, and this means that the interpretation of prayers has benefitted from closer attention to context.31 Nonetheless, Heiler’s views have pervaded—​ and hindered—​ the study of Hindu prayer. A number of scholars seem to have embraced the ideal of heartfelt, spontaneous prayer, specifically in the form of devotional poetry. Sources that present devotion and prayer in ways that contradict this presumption have been sidelined or derided. If emotion and spontaneity are the predominant criteria for genuine religious expression, then many compositions, including the majority of stotras, can be disregarded as less worthy of study and analysis, despite their popularity and prevalence.32 This problem persists among Indian scholars as well as those working outside of India. In a lengthy dissertation on stotra literature, one Indian scholar, describing the stotra form, claims that “here, the expression

29. In some ways Heiler’s views have been reborn in the arguments of some modern authors that there is “no time of day, no activity, no place that cannot be prayer” (Michael Plekon, Uncommon Prayer: Prayer in Everyday Experience [Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2016], 252). 30.  Quoted in Mariano Magrassi, Praying the Bible:  An Introduction to Lectio Divina (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1988), 18. 31. For examples of performance approaches to prayer, see Gill, Native American Religious Action; Frances Hickson Hahn, “Performing the Sacred:  Prayers and Hymns,” in A Companion to Roman Religion, ed. Jörg. Rüpke (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007); and Yehuda Septimus, On the Boundaries of Talmudic Prayer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015). 32. Jan Gonda notes: “As to their literary merit and quality the—​older as well as later—​stotras are very unequal. Many of them—​especially many of the late ones which are much more numerous—​composed of time-​worn phrases and traditional figures of speech, make for a modern Westerner dull and monotonous reading” (Medieval Religious Literature in Sanskrit, A  History of Indian Literature Vol. II, fasc. 1 [Wiesbaden:  Otto Harrassowitz, 1977], 234). Sheldon Pollock, as part of his analysis of “the death of Sanskrit literary culture as a historical process,” describes the constriction and evaporation of creativity in Sanskrit “until only the dry sediment of religious hymnology remained” (“The Death of Sanskrit,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 43, no. 2 [April 2001]: 394, 417).

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of the various devotional moods will be in their natural form, in the sense that no external aid of an artificial character is required. The devotee rapt in ecstasy extolls the attributes of his Chosen Deity.”33 In words that Heiler surely would have approved of, this scholar also explains: “Vedic Stotras are simple and sublime outpourings of the God-​intoxicated heart.”34 Similarly, a European scholar describes the Sanskrit hymns of Utpaladeva by saying that “in their conciseness and intensity the hymns seem like spontaneous exclamations with the colours, moods and times of different [musical] ragas.”35 Another, speaking about the same poetic hymns, argues that: since most of these verses were the spontaneous outpouring of their author in states of ecstasy and devotional emotion, they do not follow any logical order or, with a few exceptions, a single theme. The irregularity of metres within a stotra, or even irregular metres, show that his concern was not poetry (of which he was perfectly capable), but the spontaneous expression of his inner experience, which could not be bound even by the exigencies of Sanskrit metre.36 Such depictions rightly point out the often personal and intense tone of this poetry and its deep theological undercurrents. But as we saw in the previous chapter, our interpretations of such religious poetry should go further in their analysis. The rhetorical, pedagogical, performative, and aesthetic dimensions of such hymns are crucial to their functioning as prayer, and they often serve as instructive models for a human audience with rich aesthetic sensibilities. Overall, the legacy of scholarship that privileges inner experience and heartfelt, emotional expression remains influential in the discourse around poetry and prayer within Hinduism, even though it only represents part of the Western discourse on the subject.37

33.  P.  K. Gāyathri, “Stotra-​ Kāvya in Sanskrit:  Origin and Development” (Ph.D.  diss., University of Mysore, 1981), 28. Two seemingly errant commas have been edited out of this quotation. 34. Ibid., 33. 35. Ernst Fürlinger, The Touch of Śakti: A Study in Non-​dualistic Trika Śaivism of Kashmir (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2009), 73. 36. Bettina Bäumer, “Introduction,” in Swami Lakshman Joo, Śivastotrāvalī of Utpaladeva: A Mystical Hymn of Kashmir, transcribed and edited by Ashok Kaul (New Delhi:  D.K. Printworld, 2008), 3–​4. 37. At the same time, there are premodern Indian authors and traditions that emphasize—​at least rhetorically—​direct emotion and apparently spontaneous expression; see Steven Paul Hopkins, Singing the Body of God: The Hymns of Vedāntadeśika in Their South Indian Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 144 ff., where he discusses the rhetorical claim for certain poems as “outpouring of spontaneous emotion.” On the ideal of spontaneity claimed by devotional poetry in Hindi and its possible influence on Sanskrit literature, see Yigal



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When we turn to Sanskrit stotras in Kashmir, we find that their prayers, from petitions for help to offerings of homage, are often densely poetic. Their literary sophistication, sometimes on par with the most complex Sanskrit literature, requires analysis more nuanced than the rhetoric inherited from Heiler allows. My own approach echoes the views of Yigal Bronner, David Shulman, and Gary Tubb. In the introduction to their edited volume, Innovations and Turning Points: Toward a History of Kāvya Literature, they describe how one of the great Sanskrit poets, Śrīharṣa, viewed the textual knots he wove into his poetry. They explain that: Knots like these, although they require considerable effort to disentangle, are not meant to be mere obstacles; they are, in fact, opportunities. The reader is not meant to cut through the knot [ . . . ], but to release the multiple threads so as to allow them to unfold and expand in all their fullness. The difficulty is not an end in itself but an integral part of the aesthetic process—​a form of dense concentration of sound and meaning, which only a trained teacher can unravel.38 Bronner, Shulman, and Tubb speak here about kāvya, but the same applies to stotra literature. As we will see, the complexity of many Sanskrit stotras—​their literary knots of sound and sense—​is in fact central to how they function as praise and prayer. To explore how such hymns challenge persistent assumptions in the study of prayer in South Asia, let us turn to a composition from Kashmir that presents—​and also self-​consciously reflects upon—​sophisticated praise-​poetry as prayer.

Stotra as Prayer: Jagaddhara’s Stutikusumāñ jali Many stotras composed and circulated in Kashmir provide opportunities for thinking about the relationship between praise, poetry, and prayer, but perhaps the most promising of these is the SKA of Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa. The central theme of the SKA is praise itself, as its title suggests. On the most basic level this praise involves the celebration of Śiva’s deeds, qualities, and features. The collection includes countless allusions and references to Śiva’s activities that illustrate his

Bronner, “Sanskrit Poetics,” in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 4th ed., ed. Roland Greene and Stephen Cushman (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012), 1244–​1250,  1249. 38.  Yigal Bronner, David Shulman, and Gary Tubb, “Introduction,” in Innovations and Turning Points: Toward a History of Kāvya Literature, ed. Yigal Bronner, David Shulman, and Gary Tubb (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014), 14.

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greatness and his compassion, as well as repeated descriptions of his iconographical features, such as the moon that adorns his matted locks. But this praise works in more complicated ways as well. The organization and content of this ambitious work present a series of reflections on the stotra form itself. More specifically, this text systematically demonstrates how the stotra form encompasses a multitude of religious practices that can be classified as prayer, including praise, the offering of homage and blessings, the invocation of auspiciousness, and petition. For Jagaddhara, the stotra is an umbrella category. He disaggregates various functions the stotra can serve, and in doing so he highlights and celebrates the flexibility of the stotra form. As we will see in detail, the first four hymns of the SKA identify and extoll several key roles often performed by stotras:  offering praise (stuti), paying homage (namas), offering blessings (āśīrvāda), and invoking auspiciousness (maṅgala). By isolating and expanding upon these functions, Jagaddhara unpacks how they are all subsumed within the stotra form. Developing the logic of these individual practices, he adds nuance to his own presentation of the stotra genre and how it consists of, and reflects upon, prayer in general. Other hymns in the SKA emphasize different practices, such as petitioning Śiva directly, visualizing his iconographical forms, praising and reflecting on the nature of loving devotion to Śiva, and taking refuge in his protection. Jagaddhara frequently manipulates the logic of praise, trying to cajole Śiva into bestowing his favor. For instance, he often praises Śiva by alluding to his compassionate actions on behalf of his devotees or invoking his many names and epithets, only then to challenge Śiva to live up to his own reputation. Consider this verse from the eleventh stotra: Omniscient one, benevolent one, auspicious one, beneficent one, protector of the universe, conqueror of death, lord, merciful one, and so on—​ O glorious god, these names of yours bear fruit for others, but I have awful luck: for me, you are only sthāṇu (=Śiva/​a bare trunk)!39 In other words, while Śiva has numerous forms, the poet laments that he has been fruitless for him like a bare tree trunk (sthāṇu), punning on a common name for Śiva as a fixed, endless column or pillar of fiery energy. Praise thus becomes part of a kind of indirect criticism of Śiva. A central feature of praise according to Jagaddhara’s poetry is the importance of newness and, subsequently, the experience of wonder. The best praise

39.  sarvajñaśambhuśivaśaṅkaraviśvanāthamṛtyuñjayeśvaramṛḍaprabhṛtīni deva /​ nāmāni te ‘nyaviṣaye phalavanti kiṃtu tvaṃ sthāṇur eva bhagavan mayi mandabhāgye //​ SKA 11.83 //​



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is fresh and new, an idea best seen in the multivalence of the word nava, which can mean praise (or a hymn of praise) as well as “fresh.” Jagaddhara delights in this felicitous meeting of sound and meaning, frequently using doubling phrases, such as navaiḥ navaiḥ, “with fresh praises.”40 This freshness has such appeal in part because of its ability to amaze the audience for such poetry, and of course Śiva is the official audience for the SKA. On one hand, Jagaddhara recognizes the theological impossibility of delighting an omniscient, omnipotent deity, as many stotra authors did before him.41 Yet on the other hand he sees the power to amaze and delight as the key characteristic of praise-​poetry, and in practice he directs this power toward Śiva. And while Śiva himself may be theoretically beyond surprise, the human audience for the SKA certainly is not. Jagaddhara is very concerned with the reception of his poetry by his human audience, which he imagines as composed of Śaiva devotees who are also aesthetic connoisseurs. Frequently his poetic praise serves as an argument for the value in worshipping Śiva. In other words, his celebrations of Śiva function almost like advertisements for Śaiva worship. This is clearest in the many verses in which Jagaddhara glorifies Śiva by praising praise to him.42 Such verses certainly praise Śiva indirectly by extolling the value of praising him. But they also encourage their own propagation. Stotras usually include such verses near their conclusion in a section generally called the phalaśruti, “the hearing of the fruits” of reciting or listening to a particular hymn. Jagaddhara includes several stotras near the end of the SKA that form a large phalaśruti section. The thirty-​sixth stotra, for instance, is entirely dedicated to praising those devotees who worship and praise Śiva. Among his many descriptions of them, Jagaddhara says: They foil the desires in the hearts of enemies and spread the nectar of knowledge among those who are pitiable. Even kings do not overstep their words. Such are those who worship you with a bouquet of flowers that are expressions of praise! (stavoktikusu­marddhibhir)43

40. E.g., in SKA 30.31. 41. See, for example, the opening verses of the Mahimnaḥstava. 42. See, for instance, SKA 30.81, translated in Chapter 6. 43.  te vidviṣām abhimataṃ hṛdi moghayanti jñānāmṛtaṃ ca kṛpaṇeṣu samarpayanti /​ teṣāṃ vacaḥ kṣitibhujo ‘pi na laṅghayanti ye tvāṃ stavoktikusumarddhibhir arcayanti //​ SKA 36.2 //​ Note that the final compound is a synonym for stutikusumāñjali.

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And shortly thereafter: They make praising you the doorway to the abode of their hearts, they uproot the tree of suffering grounded in misfortune, and they spread the experience of you on earth, as if leading around a child. Such are those who make speech into a dancer, dancing for you.44 But he also incorporates verses in praise of praise to Śiva throughout the SKA. Combined with Jagaddhara’s many descriptions of what makes good poetry, such verses extolling the efficacy of praise to Śiva serve as a model and provide guidelines for the reproduction of the SKA through recitation and dissemination, and also the reproduction of Śaiva devotional poetry in general. Some verses celebrate the value of composing one’s own poetry, and teaching it to others. For instance, while addressing Śiva Jagaddhara praises “those who teach even the young to recite your praises”45 and celebrates “those who teach your praises like scripture to your devotees.”46 Through such verses, the SKA urges its listeners and readers to treasure and disseminate such poetry, and also to offer their own praise to Śiva. Thus, the SKA not only offers praise to Śiva, it also celebrates what good praise is and does, and urges the recitation, composition, and dissemination of such praise to Śiva. The SKA depicts how Śiva and its human audience are affected by its praise, but it also hints at how the poet or speaker is affected as well. Praise can function as a kind of meditation or visualization for the poet, a way to contemplate Śiva’s nature and characteristics. For Jagaddhara, praise is a sādhana or upāya, a means for religious attainment. In the Stutipraśaṃsāstotra (Hymn extolling praise), for example, he says: If you are thinking of doing difficult yogic practices—​ self-​restraints, observances, breathing exercises, and the like—​ then instead take up this easeful means of obtaining the supreme state: Śiva’s praise!47 In the next stotra, near the end of the SKA, he characterizes his own good fortune as a result of his affinity for praising Śiva:

44.  te tvatstutiṃ hṛdayadhāmni kapāṭayanti duḥkhadrumaṃ ca dṛḍham āpadi pāṭayanti /​ bhāvaṃ tavaiva bhuvi bālam ivāṭayanti ye vāṅnaṭīm abhimukhaṃ tava nāṭayanti //​ SKA 36.5 //​ 45. ye bālakān api navaṃ tava jalpayanti //​ SKA 36.19d //​ 46. tvadbhaktān ye śrutim iva nutiṃ tāvakīṃ śikṣayanti //​ SKA 36.41d //​ 47. yadi manuṣe yamaniyamaprāṇāyāmādi durghaṭaṃ kartum /​ tad imaṃ sugamam upāyaṃ śraya paramapadāptaye nutiṃ śambhoḥ //​ SKA 37.17 //​



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Being a human being, a male, a Brahman, intelligent, a good poet, and one with Śiva—​ this series of good fortune has only been accomplished through my attachment to praising the lord!48 In this way Jagaddhara depicts praise as that which has made his own life bear fruit. Of course, when the SKA is recited or read, its many first-​person references effectively shift from referring to Jagaddhara as the poet to whomever recites or reads it. Thus the line blurs between the poet as the original speaker and the reciter as the speaker at any given moment. Overall, praise stands out as the most dominant theme in the SKA. Not only does it consist almost entirely of verses in praise of Śiva (as one would expect from a collection of stotras), it also repeatedly praises and reflects upon the nature of praise.49 Jagaddhara uses praise to celebrate the deity Śiva and his various deeds and iconographical features, to petition and even negotiate for the bestowal of grace, to create wonder for both his divine and human audiences, to model and advertise a particular type of devotional Śaivism, to meditate upon and visualize his chosen deity, and to promote the efficacy of poetic praise itself. More than anything, I would suggest, praise in the SKA develops a complex relationship between the poet and his audiences.

Dimensions of Prayer: Homage, Blessings, and the Invocation of Auspiciousness From the very beginning, the SKA explores the dimensions of religious language. Its first verses use a series of puns on the word sarasvatī to paint a complex picture of how praise-​poetry works. The first stotra introduces the topic of praise, and then the stotras that follow focus on three specific functions language can serve: paying homage, offering blessings, and invoking auspiciousness. It is appropriate that he spotlights these functions in the first hymns of the SKA, for traditionally they are each considered a favorable way to begin a Sanskrit text.50 Jagaddhara disaggregates and expands upon each of these functions of poetic praise in turn.

48. manuṣyatā pūruṣatāgryavarṇatā manīṣitā satkavitā śivaikatā /​ iyaṃ mama kṣemaparamparā vibhoḥ stutiprasaṅgena gatā kṛtārthatām //​ SKA 38.9 //​ 49. In this way the SKA continues in the vein of the StC, which also identifies praise as its central metaphor and celebrates its efficacy in numerous verses. 50.  Daṇḍin, for example, says that the beginning of a mahākāvya consists of a blessing (āśīr), an expression of homage (namaskriyā), or an indication of the contents of the text (vastunirdeśa) (1.14). Opening verses that invoke auspiciousness in some way are frequently identified as maṅgala verses (maṅgalaślokas or maṅgalācaraṇa) (Christopher Minkowski, “Why Should We Read the Maṅgala Verses?,” in Śāstrārambha: Inquiries into the Preamble

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The second stotra in the SKA, called the Namaskārastotra (Hymn of homage), explores the offering of homage, obeisance, and respect (namaskāra) to a deity. As in the two stotras that follow, here Jagaddhara dwells on a particular way of using language common to stotra literature. Stylistically, the Namaskārastotra is simpler than many of the stotras in the SKA—​while the majority of the SKA employs a variety of complex meters, for example, the Namaskārastotra is almost entirely in a flexible Anuṣṭubh meter.51 On the other hand, along with the third stotra it offers more explicitly theological formulations than the rest of the SKA. In this way, it parallels many of the namaskāra or maṅgala verses that begin Sanskrit theological or scientific treatises, which often suggest the doctrinal content that follows in poetic opening verses. Theologically, the Namaskārastotra explores the theme of oneness and multiplicity. It stresses the underlying unity behind apparent diversity through such examples as the categorical unity of gold used in different ornaments and water found in different bodies of water.52 It is Śiva alone who is known as Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Rudra.53 The first verse of the hymn offers an expanded version of the basic formula namaḥ śivāya by providing doctrinal descriptions of Śiva: Oṃ, homage to Śambhu, the benevolent one, the supreme self whose nature is the one supreme reality, the one who appears as differentiated through false differentiation according to his own will.54 As the title of this hymn indicates, this format runs throughout its thirty verses. Each verse offers homage to Śiva and develops the image of both his abstract and personal nature. Thus, he is the supreme self but also the one who removes the fear of his devotees.55 Repetition dominates the poem, both poetically and semantically. Specific syllables are often repeated within each verse with different meanings, and the word namas itself occurs with increasing frequently, reiterating the

in Sanskrit, ed. Walter Slaje [Weisbaden: Harrassowitz, 2008], especially 4–​5). It may also be worth interpreting the first stotras in Jagaddhara’s collection—​and particularly the first, Stutiprastāvanāstotra (Hymn introducing praise)—​as functioning as a statement of the main topic of the text (vastunirdeśa), namely praise itself. 51. The verses are in Anuṣṭubh meter until SKA 2.25, which switches to the Vaṃśasthavila meter, which continues until the final verse (SKA 2.30) in the Nardaṭaka meter. 52. SKA 2.24. 53. SKA 2.23. 54.  oṃ namaḥ paramārthaikarūpāya paramātmane /​ svecchāvabhāsitāsatyabhedabhinnāya śambhave //​ SKA 2.1 //​ 55. SKA 2.1 and 2.7, respectively.



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hymn’s central act, the offering of homage. Verse 2.26 ends with a repetition of the word namas, v. 2.27 uses it five times, and v. 2.28, the last in Anuṣṭubh meter and the climax of this poetic crescendo, uses it eight times: namo namas te 'mṛtabhānumaulaye namo namas te 'mṛtasiddhidāyine /​ namo namas te 'mṛtakumbhapāṇaye namo namas te 'mṛtabhairavātmane //​ Homage, homage to you who are crowned by the nectarian moon (amṛtabhānu). Homage, homage to you who bestows imperishable attainment (amṛtasiddhi). Homage, homage to you who holds a pitcher of ambrosia (amṛta). Homage, homage to you, Amṛtabhairava.56 The poetic effect of this verse in praise of Amṛtabhairava, whose worship is taught in the Netratantra, is accentuated by the repetition of syllables throughout the verse, including the word amṛta.57 The shift to a second-​person pronoun here makes this verse more personal and direct, thereby increasing the intensity at the climax of the hymn. A change of meter after in v. 2.30 signals that the hymn is almost finished, and it appropriately concludes with the phrase namaḥ śivāya at the end of the verse.58 The basic function of the hymn is to express homage to Śiva, but in doing so it also establishes Śiva’s nature and personality, particularly as the supreme lord underlying all diversity. The repetition found throughout the hymn reinforces this by suggesting the paradoxical sameness and difference found in the use of the same syllables with different meanings, and in the use of rhymes throughout the hymn. As a whole, the hymn expands upon a standard kind of prayer—​the offering of praise and homage directly to a deity—​showing how it can combine the doctrinal presentation of a deity with a poetic crescendo that intensifies the basic act at the heart of such namaskāra verses.

56. SKA 2.28. 57. On the Netratantra and Amṛtabhairava (who is also known by other names, including Amṛteśa, Amṛteśvara, and Mṛtyuñjaya), see Alexis Sanderson, “Religion and the State: Śaiva Officiants in the Territory of the Brahmanical Royal Chaplain (with an appendix on the provenance and date of the Netratantra),” Indo-​Iranian Journal 47 (2004 [2005]): 229–​300. This deity is generally “crowned, white, one-​faced, three-​eyed, and four-​armed, sitting on a white lotus at the centre of a lunar disc. In the proper right of his two inner hands he holds a vase of nectar [amṛta] at his heart and a full moon held at head height in the left, the upper arm horizontal and the forearm vertical. The outer right and left hands show the gestures of generosity and protection” (ibid., 240n21). 58. vijayajayapradāya śabarāya varāya namaḥ sakalakalaṅkasaṅkaraharāya harāya namaḥ /​ jagadagadapragalbhavibhavāya bhavāya namaḥ pravaravaraprakāśitaśivāya śivāya namaḥ //​ SKA 2.30 //​

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The third stotra of the SKA, called the Āśīrvādastotra, consists of sixty verses offering blessings to its human audience. The term āśīrvāda means a statement of blessing or benediction, and it has a long history in South Asia.59 Each verse of the Āśīrvādastotra ends with such a statement. This marks a distinct shift from the preceding Namaskārastotra, which primarily offers homage directly to Śiva. The first parts of the Āśīrvādastotra describe specific features of Śiva’s nature, or more often, his physical form. The verses invoke Śiva’s distinctive identity and then pray that it is beneficial for the hymn’s audience. The following verse, for example, begins a long section describing Śiva’s body and iconographic features: It is white like snow or the great clouds of autumn, its resplendent appearance stands out because it is covered with luminous  ashes, and its throat is dark like a black bee. May this body of Śambhu, resembling the autumnal moon adorned with a mark, give you auspiciousness.60 Whiteness is associated with purity, and in the Sanskrit literary world white is also the color of fame (kīrti), which spreads in all directions like the light of the sun or the full moon. In Śiva’s case, this auspicious radiance is created by the white ashes on his body, but it is made even more beautiful by the contrasting dark color of this throat, stained when he consumed the cosmic poison to save the world like the moon marked by its dark spots. Thus, his form suggests his pervasive and auspicious brilliance, which appears all the brighter due to the dark mark of his compassion for those who seek his protection. Jagaddhara pairs the imagery and suggestion of poetry with extensive alliteration. Consider the original Sanskrit for the verse translated above; notice in particular the repetition of sibilants and the consonant bh throughout the verse: śambhor adabhraśaradabhratuṣāraśubhraṃ bhrājiṣṇubhūtibharaśībharab hāsvarābham /​ diśyād vapur bhasalanīlagalaṃ kalaṅkālaṅkāraśāradaśaśāṅkanibhaṃ śubhaṃ vaḥ //​61

59. The concept of āśīs/​āśīr is central to the Vedic tradition (see Gonda, Prayer and Blessing). 60. SKA 3.10; for the Sanskrit text, see the following paragraph. 61. SKA 3.10.



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The key words in the verse are śambhu, a name for Śiva meaning “benevolent,” śubhra, meaning “white” or “brilliant,” and śubha, a word for “auspiciousness” that also suggests brightness, whiteness, and light. Thus, the repetition of the consonants ś and bh amplifies these three central concepts that bookend the verse—​it begins with śambhor, describes Śiva as shining white (śubhra), and ends with śubhaṃ vaḥ, offering a benediction of auspiciousness. Syllables and meanings here combine to invoke Śiva’s form, and the verse prays for this to benefit “you,” the human audience for the hymn. Such verses suggest that for Jagaddhara, the poetic features of his prayers are central to their success, in this case the successful glorification of a particular form of Śiva and the invocation of its auspiciousness for the poet’s human audience. The verses that follow continue to describe Śiva’s nature and specific features of his body, such as his three eyes.62 Often Jagaddhara resorts to complex puns (śleṣas) in these descriptions, such as in this beautiful verse that compares Śiva’s glance to the sky at the turning of the season (with the punned section translated side by side): Its brightness is created by Its loveliness is enhanced by the moon, the sun, and fire. royal geese and peacocks. Without any veils, Without the covering of clouds 63 it is immediately clear and favorable. it is clear every day. May Śiva’s glance produce the maturation of your desired fruits, like the sky during the days at the end of the rainy season at the beginning of autumn.64 The puns in the verse double the auspiciousness of the blessing, for the sky, here the standard of comparison for Śiva’s glance, is also indicative of good fortune and prosperity, as the rainy season transitions into the bountiful autumn. Śiva’s eyes are particularly important for the devotee, and Jagaddhara spends extra time describing and invoking them in this hymn.65 The eyes suggest the bidirectional

62. Usually Jagaddhara invokes Śiva’s compassionate nature, but he also describes Śiva’s fierce side, praying that this too will be benevolent for devotees. SKA 3.54, for instance, describes Śiva’s wild, cosmic tāṇḍava dance at the time of the dissolution of the universe. 63. I have translated the word prasāda here both in terms of clarity and favor, since both meanings are equally relevant for Śiva’s eyes. 64.  yā rājahaṃsaśikhisaṃbhṛtakāntir eti sadyas tirohitaghanāvaraṇā prasādam /​ sā prāvṛḍantaśaradādidineṣv iva dyauḥ śambhor abhīṣṭaphalapākakṛd astu dṛg vaḥ //​ SKA 3.35 //​ 65. See SKA 3.35–​3.39.

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act of seeing (darśana)—​the devotee’s vision of Śiva’s auspicious form, and Śiva’s revealing of his form to the devotee, which indicates his grace and favor. Toward the end of the Āśīrvādastotra, Jagaddhara shifts from descriptions of the deity to celebrations of praise-​poetry dedicated to Śiva and the poets who compose it. He facilitates this shift using śleṣas: v. 3.57 praises Śiva’s bull but also praise-​poetry, since the word gaus can mean either, and the adjectives in the verse are puns that apply to both.66 The hymn concludes by describing Śiva’s greatness and praying that the poetry in praise of that greatness will be beneficial. The last line ends in a poetic decrescendo offering blessings to its audience: śārvaḥ stavaḥ śaṃ sa vaḥ (“May that praise to Śiva produce auspiciousness for you”).67 The movement in the last few verses connects all of Śiva’s greatness and auspiciousness described throughout the hymn with poetry and its power to make these features of Śiva beneficial for the devotee, in this case specifically through the offering of blessings (āśīrvāda). The repetitive grammatical constructions used throughout the hymn establish a particular kind of relationship between the poet, Śiva, and the hymn’s audience. The language of the hymn invokes Śiva’s auspiciousness and then serves as the medium by which that becomes beneficial for a specific audience. Moreover, anyone who recites the hymn then shares these blessings with others. Finally, the poetic features of the hymn are essential to its success. As we have seen, puns allow the poet to amplify the auspiciousness invoked in a particular verse or to shift between praising Śiva and praising the praise of Śiva itself. The fourth stotra in the SKA, entitled the Maṅgalastotra, develops a theme closely related to the offering of blessings (āśīrvāda) explored in the preceding stotra: maṅgala, or auspiciousness.68 The Āśīrvādastotra focused primarily on the offering of blessings and uses various terms to refer to good fortune, felicity, auspiciousness, Śiva’s favor, and so on throughout its sixty verses. The Maṅgalastotra, in contrast, consists of only eight verses, each of which ends with the same key phrase invoking the auspiciousness of a single form of Śiva. This particular form is called Hari-​Hara, for Hari (=Viṣṇu) makes up half its body, while Hara (=Śiva) makes up the other. In his introduction to his commentary on this verse, Ratnakaṇṭḥa explains that Śiva has taken on this amazing form called Hari-​Hara, which is like Ardhanārīśvara, by sharing half of his own body with Viṣṇu out of

66.  yasyaikasya suvarṇasaṃbhṛtapadanyāsānavadyakramavyaktiḥ preṅkhati gaur anargala­ gatisvācchandyahṛdyākṛtiḥ /​ prakhyātādbhutasargabandharacanāsaṃrabdhir ojasvinaḥ kāvyasyodayabhūr asau bhavatu vaḥ prītyai purāṇaḥ kaviḥ //​ SKA 3.57 //​See also SKA 3.58, which continues to laud praise-​poetry. 67.  yat sargābharaṇāyamānavapuṣaḥ kecit kakupkāminīkarṇālaṅkaraṇāyamānayaśasaḥ svargāyamāṇaśriyaḥ /​ duṣkālānalasannasajjanasudhāvarṣāyamāṇoktayaḥ prekṣyante mahimā sa yasya kurutāṃ śārvaḥ stavaḥ śaṃ sa vaḥ //​ SKA 3.60 //​ 68. For the beginning of a cultural history of maṅgala, see Minkowski, “Why Should We Read the Maṅgala Verses?”



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love for him, since he is Śiva’s foremost devotee.69 The eight verses of this hymn describe the striking and often paradoxical results of this unique pairing, and each ends with this quarter verse:  “May that body of Hari-​Hara give you auspiciousness” (tan maṅgalaṃ diśatu hāriharaṃ vapur vaḥ). Wonder and amazement are central to the hymn and its invocation of auspiciousness for its audience. In the first verse, Jagaddhara describes the paradoxical coexistence of various things that emerged during the famous churning of the cosmic milk-​ocean. The first three are linked with Viṣṇu, and the second three with Śiva, but in this context they coexist in the same place, the body of Hari-​Hara: In this one place there is the joyful experience of friendship for Śrī, (Viṣṇu’s divine) conch, the (jewel named) Kaustubha, the nectarian moon, the cosmic poison, and the nectar of immortality, since they all arose from the same place.70 Firmly established in the dharma of truthfulness (satya), it is located without any problem on both Garuḍa (satya) and Nandin (dharma).71 May that body of Hari-​Hara give you auspiciousness.72 Other verses explore the peculiar implications of this form. In one, Jagaddhara imagines that Brahmā wishes he too had only half a body, since he feels cramped in his dwelling, the lotus of Viṣṇu’s navel that is now half the size.73 In another, the final verse of the hymn, Jagaddhara marvels at how the Ganges river flows in reverse order on this form, from Viṣṇu’s foot to the top of Śiva’s head (drawing on the Vaiṣṇava view that the Ganges is sacred because it first flowed from Viṣṇu’s foot).74 These verses, like those about

69. śivabhaktamukhyaṃ hariṃ premṇā nijaśarīrārdhapradānenānugṛhṇatā ardhanārīśvaravad adbhutaṃ harihararūpaṃ yad vyadhāyi (Laghupañcikā, 30). 70. All of these extraordinary things emerged from the churning of the cosmic ocean. The first three are linked with Viṣṇu, and the second three with Śiva; hence in the present context they coexist in the same place, the body of Hari-​Hara. 71. On dharma as a bull, see Mānavadharmaśāstra 8.16. Ratnakaṇṭha glosses satya as garuḍa, the great eagle who serves as Viṣṇu’s mount, but only quotes an unnamed lexicon (satyas tu garuḍe caiveti koṣaḥ) (Laghupañcikā, 30). 72.  śrīkambukaustubhasudhāṃśuviṣāmṛtānāṃ saudaryasauhṛdasukhānubhavaikadhāma /​ yat satyadharmakṛtaniṣpratighapratiṣṭhaṃ tan maṅgalaṃ diśatu hāriharaṃ vapur vaḥ //​ SKA 4.1 //​ 73.  hīnārdhanābhinalinālayasaṅkaṭatvasātaṅkasaṅkucitavṛttikadarthitāṅgaḥ /​ arthīcikīrṣati tanuṃ druhiṇo ‘pi yatra tan maṅgalaṃ diśatu hāriharaṃ vapur vaḥ //​ SKA 4.5 //​ 74. pādāgranirgatam avāritam eva vāri yatrādhirohati śiras tridaśāpagāyāḥ /​ atyadbhutaṃ ca ruciraṃ ca niraṅkuśañ ca tan maṅgalaṃ diśatu hāriharaṃ vapur vaḥ //​ SKA 4.8 //​

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Ardhanārīśvara, suggest Śiva’s ability to encompass apparent contradictions and inspire wonder and amazement in all who behold him in this form. The Maṅgalastotra harnesses auspiciousness that comes from this and prays it is beneficial for its audience. In some ways the Maṅgalastotra continues the Āśīrvādastotra. Grammatically, it uses similar forms. Both hymns describe Śiva’s form and they pray for that to be auspicious for their human audience. But the Āśīrvādastotra never uses the term maṅgala, instead expressing the idea of auspiciousness, felicity, good fortune, and Śiva’s favor using other terms, such as śubha. The Maṅgalastotra, on the other hand, only uses the term maṅgala to express the idea of auspiciousness. The latter hymn, therefore, should be interpreted as a reflection on this particular concept and the practice of beginning compositions with such verses. It consists of a short meditation on the power and wonder of one of Śiva’s particular forms, rather than covering a wide range, as the Āśīrvādastotra does. A verbal action—​the offering of various types of blessings—​unifies the Āśīrvādastotra, while the Maṅgalastotra is distinguished by the repetitious invocation of auspiciousness that emerges from a particular form of Śiva. The Āśīrvādastotra focuses on relating Śiva’s features to its audience in specific ways; the Maṅgalastotra focuses on repeatedly calling forth the auspiciousness of a particular form. Both are oriented toward a human audience and mediate between Śiva and that audience, but one emphasizes the act of offering blessings or prayers while the other emphasizes auspiciousness itself. While the difference between āśīrvāda and maṅgala may be subtle, and open to debate, Jagaddhara seeks to differentiate them by exploring them in these two stotras. Overall, the Namaskārastotra, Āśīrvādastotra, and Maṅgalastotra show fine-​ grained reflections on the functions of praise and the language of prayer. They are distilled, concentrated examples of how poetic, prayerful language can function, and they offer new perspectives on the ways language has been used in countless texts that precede them. Such an exposition, particularly within a set of Sanskrit hymns, is unique, and shows Jagaddhara’s concern with unpacking the potential of this genre. In these stotras he highlights the inherent versatility of the stotra form and suggests how this genre develops the logic inherent in the different ways Sanskrit authors usually begin any text:  namaskāra, āśīrvāda, maṅgala, or some kind of praise in general (stuti). Exploring these functions through his sophisticated poetry, Jagaddhara also demonstrates how they are at least partially mutually constitutive. The auspiciousness invoked in the Maṅgalastotra, for instance, derives from the amazement produced by Śiva’s form as Hari-​ Hara expressed through literary figures such as complex puns (śleṣas) and poetic imagination (utprekṣā). Finally, they also serve as an auspicious opening section to the SKA itself by invoking Śiva’s awesome and compassionate deeds as well as his iconographic forms.



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Petitionary Prayer Jagaddhara petitions Śiva repeatedly throughout the SKA. He asks, prays, and even begs for Śiva’s favor, his compassionate glance, relief from his afflictions, and protection from Yama, the god of death. His petitionary prayers use a variety of techniques, from abject humility to aggressive confrontation to subtle argumentation. Often such requests go hand and hand with praise. In other words, by offering praise the poet hopes to please Śiva so that he will answer the poet’s petitions. While this is an overly simplistic description of a complex text, it gestures toward one of the most basic functions of the SKA as a whole. Petition plays a dominant role in several stotras within the SKA. Two are particularly illustrative: the Dīnākrandanastotra (Cry of the wretched) and the Śaraṇāgatoddharaṇastotra (Hymn for the uplifting of those who have come for refuge). The first is not only the longest hymn in the SKA but also one of the most poetically rich and creative. This stotra harkens back to another well-​known hymn with the same title: the Dīnākrandanastotra of Loṣṭaka. The poets of both hymns appeal to Śiva by rehearsing their own abject state, but Jagaddhara’s hymn does much more. Much of his Dīnākrandanastotra self-​consciously reflects on the implications of his own act. For instance, he calls the whole enterprise into question, chalking his own words up to the “insolence of flattery” (cāṭucāpala). But while this may transgress the bounds of Śiva’s affection, it does so as the insolence of child might offend a parent who ultimately loves that child unconditionally.75 He goes on to cite Śiva’s great magnanimity: even though the purifying waters of the Ganges flow from his head, he still accepts the humble water of the devotee’s ritual bathing of his images.76 After providing a variety of justifications for his prayers, he entreats Śiva: For all of these reasons I cry out something, despairing. O trident-​bearing Śiva, you who provide deliverance from intense affliction, I am suffering, stuck in this horrible difficulty, the wilderness of ignorance. O Śiva! Consider my plea, so that it might be auspicious (śiva)! 77 He continues to debate the merits or foolishness of offering such prayers in many of the verses that follow. For instance, he laments that his flattery will not earn

75.  yac cāṭucāpalam alaṅghyabhavabhramo’haṃ mohaṃ vahann iha muhurmuhur ācarāmi /​ tatra spṛhāvaham ahāryam ahāryaputrībhartuḥ parārdhyam aparādhyati saukumāryam //​ SKA 11.6 //​ 76. SKA 11.7. 77. krandāmy ataḥ kim api nāma pinākapāṇe tīvrārtinistaraṇakāraṇa kātaro ‘ham /​ mohāṭavī­ vikaṭasaṅkaṭasaṃsthitasya tan me’vadhāraya śivāya śivāturasya //​ SKA 11.9 //​

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Śiva’s favor, just as a dog’s movements here and there, done in order to win affection, do not earn it any respect.78 And yet he vacillates and tries to justify his own attempts to please Śiva: On the other hand, even the actions of a fool cannot fail to elicit the favor of the lord who is an ocean of compassion. O lord! You yourself are devoted to play in your mountain city—​ do not the leaps and bounds of a young boy steal your heart? 79 Jagaddhara uses praise to invoke Śiva’s benevolent side so that his reputation is on the line—​he must be compassionate or prove the devotee’s praises false.80 Such verses establish Śiva’s compassionate nature and set up a framework for some of his more insistent verses, such as this one: O lord, when someone like you, an ocean of compassion, disregards someone like me, who has no other refuge, for no reason, it is like lightning appearing from the orb of the moon, or darkness coming from the sun.81 In light of Śiva’s reputation (invoked by Jagaddhara’s praise), Śiva’s failure to be compassionate would be like a bolt from the blue. As the Dīnākrandanastotra progresses, Jagaddhara grows increasingly desperate and contentious. The specter of death, embodied in figure of Yama, looms large for him. Feeling death is close, he repeatedly challenges Śiva, as when he says: “Don’t you feel shame for abandoning one who has come to you for refuge?”82 78.  asmādṛśair aśucibhiś caṭucāpalāni kḷptāny avaimi na manas tava nandayanti /​ āvarjanāya vi­hitāny api candramaule kauleyakasya laḍitāni kim ādriyante //​ SKA 11.11 //​ Jagaddhara cleverly uses the word kauleyaka for “dog,” but it can also mean “someone from a good family,” such as Jagaddhara himself. The pun, like an “embrace” (śleṣa), makes the comparison between the poet and the dog even closer. Later in the same hymn Jagaddhara uses a similar image. He says that everything he has said here is pathetic, but even the leaping of a monkey can be amusing. The image suggests Hanumān’s amazing leap across the ocean to Laṅkā in the Rāmāyaṇa, and thus Jagaddhara subtly compliments his own poetry even as he disparages it (SKA 11.112). 79. yadvā na mugdhacaritāny api na prasādam utpādayanti bhavataḥ karuṇārṇavasya /​ svāmin daratpuravihāraparasya kiṃ na ceto haranti tava bālakavalgitāni //​ SKA 11.12 //​ 80. SKA 11.14, for example, praises Śiva for accepting even the humblest offerings from his devotees. 81.  abhyudgamo ‘yam aśaner amṛtāṃśubimbāt svāminn asau dinamaṇes timiraprarohaḥ /​ yuṣmādṛśasya karuṇāmbunidher akasmād asmādṛśeṣv aśaraṇeṣv avadhīraṇaṃ yat //​ SKA 11.66 //​ 82. āḥ kiṃ na rakṣasi nayaty ayam antako māṃ helāvalepasamayaḥ kim ayaṃ maheśa /​ mā nāma bhūt karuṇayā hṛdayasya pīḍā vrīḍāpi nāsti śaraṇāgatam ujjhatas te //​ SKA 11.102 //​



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His tone is surprisingly critical when we remember that he has already spent hundreds of verses praising the greatness of Śiva. Consider this pointed verse: Are you ignorant? Are you weak? Are you confused? Are you distracted? Are you uncompassionate? Are you incapable? Are you sleepy? Are you drunk? Why else would you ignore this plea full of distress because of the terror of Yama, the god of death?83 Jagaddhara presents himself as so far lost that all he can do is resort to bitter sarcasm. In a series of verses near the end of the hymn, he uses śleṣas to sarcastically criticize his own foolishness, since he resorts to Śiva who does not seem to hear his plea. This example puns on alternative names for Śiva, Pārvatī, and their son Skanda: Oh, I’m really smart—​ to get the fruit I wanted I tried to enter the home in which the husband is sthāṇu (Śiva/​a bare trunk), the bride is aparṇā (Pārvatī/​leafless), and their son is viśākha (Skanda/​branchless).84 While the surface meaning of the verse simply names three of the members of Śiva’s family, the punned meaning criticizes Śiva for not making the poet’s plea fruitful. Such verses fall under the category of vyājastuti, “feigned praise,” in that their sarcasm offers thinly veiled critiques (though ultimately the complexity of such verses contributes to the sophistication of the hymn and thus its celebration of Śiva).85 Jagaddhara’s very personal appeals to Śiva cover a wide range of tones and strategies, from exaltation to pleading to censure.86

83.  ajño ‘si kiṃ kim abalo ‘si kim ākulo ‘si vyagro ‘si kiṃ kim aghṛṇo ‘si kim akṣamo ‘si /​ nidrālasaḥ kim asi kiṃ madaghūrṇito ‘si krandantam antakabhayārtam upekṣase yat //​ SKA 11.103 //​ 84.  sthāṇuḥ sa yatra vibhur asya vadhūr aparṇā sā yatra yatra ca tayos tanayo viśākhaḥ /​ prajñāvatām aham aho pravaraḥ praveṣṭum icchāmi dhāma tad abhīṣṭaphalāptaye yat //​ SKA 11.117 //​ 85. On this poetic figure, see Yigal Bronner, “Change in Disguise: The Early Discourse on Vyājastuti,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 129, no. 2 (2009). Note that Jagaddhara’s cynicism here echoes Bhāmaha’s early characterization of vyājastuti more than the revised one of later authors who sought “to sanitize Bhāmaha’s sarcasm” (ibid., 184–​185). 86.  For comparative reflections on religious poetry that criticizes God, see Rachel Fell McDermott and Daniel F. Polish, “Intimate Relations: Psalms and Bhakti Poetry,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 50, no. 3 (Summer 2015): 376–​380.

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Again and again, Jagaddhara bemoans his own state in order to awaken Śiva’s pity, and at the same time he addresses the various criticisms of this very practice. Jagaddhara concludes the Dīnākrandanastotra in the same way:  he first reiterates his own sorry state and then prays for Śiva, the ocean of compassion, to hear his pathetic cry (dīnaṃ yad ākranditam) in his heart and forgive his mistakes.87 Jagaddhara’s poetry invokes Śiva’s nature and then appeals to that nature in highly personal terms. Throughout the Dīnākrandanastotra, he praises and pleads, argues and criticizes, and ultimately surrenders entirely to Śiva’s will. He recognizes that there is something wrong with even making such petitions; it is presumptuous, obsequious, useless. And yet over and over he makes his appeals in highly poetic verses. In some ways, the language he uses follows some of the same logic of the gift that Stephanie Clark has noted in the context of Anglo-​Saxon prayers: his prayers imply an exchange, but it is not mechanical; it has an openness.88 For Śaivas, this openness is Śiva’s total freedom. Like the Dīnākrandanastotra, the Śaraṇāgatoddharaṇastotra petitions Śiva directly. But it stands in contrast to the former in its brevity (only eight verses) and its repetition of a single line at the end of each verse, like a chorus: “O Hara! Quickly rescue this Jagaddhara, who is destitute and has come to you for refuge!” (caturam uddhara hara jagaddharam aśaraṇaṃ śaraṇāgatam). This refrain, which gives the stotra its title, contains an ironic reference to the poet himself: it asks Śiva to “lift up” (uddhara) Jagaddhara, whose name means “upholder of the universe.” The name refers to an epithet of Śiva, and thus Jagaddhara asks his namesake to live up to his designation. The repetition of this refrain is matched throughout the poem by the repetition of sounds, as in the first verse: bhavamarubhramaviṣamasaṃbhramasamuditaklamaviklavaṃ kuliśakarkaśahṛdayadurjanakṛtaparābhavaviplavam /​ atibhayaṅkararavijakiṅkaravikṛtahuṅkṛtikātaraṃ caturam uddhara hara jagaddharam aśaraṇaṃ śaraṇāgatam  // ​89 He is overcome by the fatigue arising from the terrible confusion of wandering in the desert of saṃsāra.

87. SKA 11.143. 88. Clark, Compelling God, 31–​32, 273, and Chapter 4, especially 189. Many of her insights are relevant to the study of poetry and prayer as prasāda, which I discuss later in this chapter. For example, she notes that “Ælfric undermines a sense that humans can control God through prayer, compel him to act according to their wishes by opening up the prayer economy, first by creating a three-​way exchange that involves all members of the community giving and receiving from each other and, in turn, receiving from God” (ibid., 277). 89. Note, for example, the repetition of the conjunct -​ṅk-​in the third quarter, and the rhymes at the end of the first two quarters (-​klamaviklavam, -​bhavaviplavam) and second two quarters (-​kātaraṃ, -​śaraṇāgatam) of the verse.



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He has been shipwrecked by the contempt of wicked people whose hearts are harsh like lightning. He is terrified by the menacing sounds made by the petrifying servants of Yama. O Hara! Quickly rescue this Jagaddhara, who is destitute and has come to you for refuge!90 The hymn retains this general structure in each of its verses. But it becomes increasingly personal and direct, reaching its climax in the final verse: Take away my fear! Get rid of my deception! Place your foot on my head! Make this mouth speak and beautify my words!91 O bestower of boons, don’t shun one who has surrendered to you! He has made countless intense efforts, without rest. He cannot bear this extreme exhaustion. O Hara! Quickly rescue this Jagaddhara, who is destitute and has come to you for refuge!92 By using numerous vocatives and imperative verbs, Jagaddhara creates a highly charged plea that culminates in the final reiteration of the refrain. While the Dīnākrandanastotra offers a wide variety of poetic appeals to Śiva that often self-​ consciously comment on the act of petition itself, the Śaraṇāgatoddharaṇastotra presents an intense, personal appeal that derives its power from its repetitions of both sound and sense. Such petitionary prayers run throughout the SKA, interwoven with the types of invocations and blessings already discussed. But these are linked with other types of practices as well, such as visualizations. Let us consider a few examples in brief. The SKA as a whole can be seen as a meditation on Śiva’s nature and forms, but certain stotras within it focus on describing and praising his iconographical features. The nineteenth stotra is called the Bhagavadvarṇanastotra (Hymn describing the lord). Its first verses distinguish between Śiva’s transcendent,

90.  bhavamarubhramaviṣamasaṃbhramasamuditaklamaviklavaṃ kuliśakarkaśahṛdayadurjana­ kṛtaparābhavaviplavam /​ atibhayaṅkararavijakiṅkaravikṛtahuṅkṛtikātaraṃ caturam uddhara hara jagaddharam aśaraṇaṃ śaraṇāgatam //​ SKA 32.1 //​ 91. Here I follow Ratnakaṇṭha, who glosses vacanam añcaya as śobhaya, “make it shine beautifully” (Laghupañcikā, 225). 92.  abhayam arpaya kapaṭam alpaya śirasi kalpaya me padaṃ mukham udañcaya vacanam añcaya varada vañcaya mā natam /​ bhṛśam aviśramakṛtapariśramaśatam atiśramaniḥsahaṃ caturam uddhara hara jagaddharam aśaraṇaṃ śaraṇāgatam //​ SKA 32.8 //​

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supreme (para) form (rūpa) and his embodied form (mūrti), using this distinction to justify praise for Śiva in a form that can be appreciated by the senses.93 The remainder of the hymn describes Śiva’s form systematically in the traditional sequence from foot to head.94 The bulk of the hymn, therefore, consists of praise, but it is devoid of many of the features of other hymns, such as petitions or the offering of blessings. Instead, the hymn functions primarily as a visualization of Śiva’s form. Such hymns, to use Steven Hopkins’s phrasing, “sing the body of god”; they become “verbal icons.”95 In offering praise to the features of Śiva’s embodied form, from his toenails to his chest to his matted hair, the hymn invites its human audiences to contemplate them with sustained focus. The two hymns that follow the Bhagavadvarṇanastotra continue this practice. In the twentieth stotra, called the Hasitavarṇanastotra (Hymn describing [Śiva’s] smile), Jagaddhara praises his chosen deity’s playful smile, especially when he takes on a disguise to tease Pārvatī.96 While Jagaddhara does pray periodically that this smile will be beneficial for his human audience, the substance of the hymn consists of the evocation and savoring of Śiva’s smile. Similarly, in the Ardhanārīśvarastotra (Hymn for the lord who is half-​female), Jagaddhara describes with amazement the unusual implications of this particular form (Ardhanārīśvara), thereby inviting his audience to dwell upon and experience this wonder as well. Taken together, such hymns illustrate additional ways in which the SKA includes practices, such as the visualization of Śiva’s wondrous forms, that rely on its use of poetic language. The eighth stotra offers one final illustration of this. This hymn focuses on the act of seeking Śiva’s protection, and hence it is entitled the Śaraṇāśrayaṇastotra (Hymn of taking refuge). Jagaddhara begins this stotra, as he often does, by praising the power of praise-​poetry itself. But the bulk of the stotra consists of verses that perform the act of taking refuge in Śiva. A twenty-​five-​verse description of Śiva97 concludes with this declaration: “I take refuge in that (lord Śiva), a refuge who relieves the suffering of those who seek his protection.”98 In most of the verses that follow, Jagaddhara enacts various expressions of this sentiment.

93. SKA 19.1-​3. 94. The hymn as a whole describes Śiva’s well-​known exoteric form, but SKA 19.30 refers specifically to Śiva as Amṛteśa, the same form we encountered above in SKA 2.28. 95. Singing the Body of God, 139. The poems Hopkins analyzes are often linked to specific temple icons, but we cannot state the same with certainty about Jagaddhara’s hymns. With or without a direct link to a temple icon, however, his stotras can still be understood as becoming such verbal icons. 96. In both its style and subject matter this stotra pays tribute to the Kumārasaṃbhava of Kālidāsa. 97. SKA 8.9-​33. 98. taṃ saṃśritārtiharaṇaṃ śaraṇaṃ śrayāmi //​ SKA 8.33d //​



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Through such first-​person, personal statements, Jagaddhara (and anyone who recites the hymn) takes refuge in Śiva again and again. Near the end of the hymn, he switches his addressee to his human audience. After a number of verses characterizing Śiva’s greatness, he says: “Therefore, resort to that lord (Śiva) in whatever way you can.”99 Thus, one who recites this hymn takes refuge in Śiva through its first-​person language and also encourages the human audience for that recitation to do the same through its second-​person language. Other stotras in the SKA work in similar ways with respect to related but distinct types of prayer, such as the verbal performance of worship. The SKA consists primarily of such devotional practices enacted through poetic language, various reflections on the nature of these practices, and communications with two primary audiences, one human and one divine.

Dramatizing Praise-​Poetry Throughout his SKA, Jagaddhara persistently explores the ways praise-​poetry works as prayer. In particular, he suggests how we might understand the interaction between poetic language and the deity and the unique power of poetic prayer. He compares praise-​poetry to a woman who seduces her husband, or more specifically, to the goddess Sarasvatī herself, the embodiment of poetry, who delights lord Śiva and wins his favor. In other words, Jagaddhara reflects on how we can think about the capacities of poetic prayer by suggesting a romantic relationship between Śiva and the goddess of speech.100 Called by a variety of names (e.g., Sarasvatī, Uktidevī, Bhāratī), she is the embodiment of poetry, including Jagaddhara’s. In the third verse of the SKA, for example, Jagaddhara uses śleṣas to compare poetry to a woman who can please her husband.101 In other cases, Jagaddhara suggests more erotic possibilities. Another early verse in the SKA says: The goddess of speech, even though she is used to dwelling on her mount, a royal goose beautiful like the rays of the full moon, reposes playfully in my mind, impure as it is.

99. tasmād upeta vibhum eva yathātathāpi //​ SKA 8.49d //​This shift marks the climax of the hymn as well. In the three verses that follow, Jagaddhara pulls back from the actual act of taking refuge and reflects rhetorically on the possibility of describing and talking about this lord in whom he wants to take refuge (SKA 8.50–​52). 100. The full version of this argument is developed in my paper presented at the 15th World Sanskrit Conference in Delhi, India, in January 2012: “The Courtship of Śiva and Sarasvatī in the Poetry of Jagaddhara of Kashmir.” 101. SKA 1.3, translated in ­chapter 6.

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The happiness of the glorious, moon-​crested Śiva that arises because of this is supreme!102 In other words, when Sarasvatī dwells in the mind of the poet (even though it is less pure than her usual place), the poet produces beautiful poetry and this pleases Śiva. But the verse also suggests that Śiva’s happiness is actually the pleasure that comes from his conjugal union with Sarasvatī in the mind of the poet. The commentator Ratnakaṇṭha explains that the pleasure referred to here is the result of the success or good fortune of a lover; the reason Sarasvatī comes to the poet’s mind is to be united with her partner. “Here’s the point,” he says: Śiva “is certain there would be union with his beloved.”103 In such verses, Jagaddhara links Śiva and Sarasvatī in ostensibly romantic or intimate ways, and this suggests the power of poetic praise to win divine favor. Stotras are often addressed directly to a deity, and Jagaddhara takes advantage of this in his depiction of the relationship between Śiva and the goddess of speech. He pleads and argues with Śiva directly, even scolding him on occasion (all of which, of course, also functions as praise). A set of verses in the eleventh stotra illustrates this well (SKA 11.16–​19). In the sixteenth verse, Jagaddhara admonishes Śiva for entering his heart, where the goddess of speech resides, building up her expectations, and then disregarding her.104 The next verse (11.17) challenges Śiva to reconcile his promise to Pārvatī that she would be his only beloved when he also lovingly holds Gaṅgā and Indulekhā (the celestial river-​goddess and the embodied, slender digit of the moon, respectively) on his head and Dayā (the embodiment of compassion) in his heart. The implication is that since Śiva has already broken his monogamous commitment to Pārvatī, he should accept the goddess of speech, the embodiment of Jagaddhara’s poetry. This idea is developed in the following verse (11.18), in which the poet again uses śleṣas to express two meanings simultaneously. The first questions why Śiva is moved to be compassionate again and again toward sycophants but ignores the poet’s sincere devotional poetry; the second questions why Śiva would sport with some old, miserable woman but ignore a young, virtuous beauty. Jagaddhara continues this theme in the nineteenth verse. Shortly after this, Jagaddhara argues that Śiva should accept his praise-​poetry, just as a husband should not turn away a blameless wife. He says:

102.  yat pārvaṇendukarasundaravāhahaṃsasaṃvāsadurlalitayāpi vacodhidevyā /​ viśramyate manasi naḥ samale salīlaṃ tat saubhagaṃ bhagavato jayatīndumauleḥ //​SKA 1.26. 103. niścayena priyāsaṅgama ity āśayaḥ; Laghupañcikā, p. 8. 104. sve dhāmni me hṛdi kṛtasthitim uktidevīṃ kṛtvā praveśam anayaḥ svayam unmukhatvam /​ dhārādhirūḍhavirahavyathitām idānīm ādhāya dhairyam avadhīrayasīty ayuktam //​ SKA 11.16 //​ Em. avadhīrasīty; ed. avadhārasīty (but Ratnakaṇṭha’s commentary has avadhīrasīty [p. 14], as does the Kāvyamālā edition of the SKA edited by Durgāprasād and Parab).



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gṛhṇāsi mūrdhani jalair dhavalair vilolair udvelitāṃ nijapadaskhalitāṃ dyusindhum /​ etām ananyagatim ujjhasi sādhuvṛttāṃ vācaṃ svatantracaritasya kim ucyate te  // ​105 On one hand, the verse means: You bear on your head the celestial river overflowing with white, rolling waters, descending from her own heavenly abode; yet you abandon this poetry in beautiful meters which has no other goal but you. What can be said? Your actions are totally free-​willed! On the other hand, the verse also says: You respectfully accept Gaṅgā, who has transgressed with handsome, fickle idiots106 and has fallen from her proper station; yet you abandon this Vāc (the embodiment of poetry), whose conduct is noble and who is devoted only to you. What can be said? Your actions are totally unpredictable!107 In other words, he implies that Gaṅgā is a loose woman, while the poet’s own poetry, embodied as the goddess of speech, is virtuous and beautiful, so it is illogical that he would not accept her. The metaphor works both ways. Jagaddhara often calls out to Sarasvatī herself, entreating her to be faithful to Śiva alone. “Be devoted to Śiva,” he says, “not some other pathetic lord”—​meaning that poetry should be used to praise Śiva, not other

105. SKA 11.22. Corr. udvelitāṃ; ed. udvalitāṃ. 106.  The śleṣa in this verse depends upon the interchangeability of the consonants “l” and “ḍ.” Thus in the first interpretation we must read jalair, and in the second, jaḍair (as Ratnakaṇṭha explains in his commentary; Laghupañcikā, 95). For another example shortly after this in the text, see SKA 11.39. 107. The key term Jagaddhara uses to describe Śiva’s actions is svatantra, which means independent or free-​willed. In this second translation, however, I have rendered it as “unpredictable” because this highlights how Śiva’s actions seem (rhetorically) illogical or confusing to the poet.

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gods or worldly kings.108 His verses about Sarasvatī offer a strong opinion about the proper function of poetry. The final verse of the whole SKA, for example, criticizes the use of poetry in political eulogy by personifying Sarasvatī as a woman who should save her coquetry and intimacy for Śiva alone: This is the truth: you had been humiliated by being dedicated to the false praise of vulgar chiefs who cannot discriminate between good and bad; that’s why you have been afraid. O mother, give up your timidity! Praises to the one lord of the universe, O goddess of speech, have produced this coquetry that ends in the good fortune of full felicity.109 Here, in his final verse, Jagaddhara commands Sarasvatī to be afraid no longer, since his poetry leads her to Śiva as her one lord. The theme of Sarasvatī’s shame occurs elsewhere as well. He says: She sighs hotly, scratches at the ground, holds her face in her hands, and doesn’t celebrate the love of her beloved lord with beautiful poetry. The goddess of speech has been overcome with a great fever in her heart since desperate poets have pointlessly made her endure the shame of praising compassionless, angry kings.110

108.  dātum anuttamahāvapuṣaṃ yaḥ prababhūva nadīnam /​ nātham anuttamahāvapuṣaṃ taṃ bhaja devi na dīnam //​ SKA 24.3 //​ 109.  yat satyaṃ sadasadvivekavikalagrāmīṇakagrāmaṇīmithyāstotraparā parābhavabhuvaṃ nītāsi bhītāsy ataḥ /​ mātaḥ kātaratāṃ vimuñca yad asau saubhāgyabhāgyāvadhiḥ sañjāto jagadekanāthanutibhir vāgdevi te vibhramaḥ //​ SKA 39.16 //​ 110. uṣṇaṃ niḥśvasiti kṣitiṃ vilikhati prastauti na preyasaḥ prītiṃ sūktibhir īśituḥ karatale dhatte kapolasthalam /​ vāgdevī hṛdayajvareṇa guruṇā krāntā hatāśair vṛthā nītāviṣkṛtakopaniṣkṛpa­ nṛpastotratrapāpātratām //​ SKA 5.34 //​ In such verses Jagaddhara echoes themes from the local kāvya tradition in Kashmir, particularly Maṅkha’s Śrīkaṇṭhacarita. Consider, for example, verse 25.8 of Maṅkha’s text, here in Sheldon Pollock’s translation: “Away with those whose speech, though immersed in Sarasvatī, Goddess of Speech [bathed in the river Sarasvatī], dirties itself like a drunken woman with the filth of praise given to kings” (“Sanskrit Literary Culture from the Inside Out,” 117).



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Such verses are a provocative way of depicting the appropriate use of poetry. For Jagaddhara, a faithful, loving relationship between Śiva and Sarasvatī, as beautiful poetry embodied, is a powerful metaphor for the capacity of poetry devoted to Śiva to win his loyalty and affection in return. One final dimension of this deserves mention. When Jagaddhara addresses Sarasvatī directly in his verses he often calls her “mother.”111 While this is not a new topos among Sanskrit poets, it takes on a stronger implication because of the relationship between Śiva and Sarasvatī that he develops in the SKA. Given this backdrop, his references to Sarasvatī as his mother suggest that he himself could be seen as the offspring of Sarasvatī and Śiva. We have seen that Jagaddhara suggests a romantic and intimate relationship between Śiva and Sarasvatī in which Sarasvatī courts Śiva’s favor on behalf of the poet. This has several important implications. First, it says something about the nature of poetry. Jagaddhara highlights and dramatizes the uniqueness of poetic expression, which does not function like other kinds of language. While some texts may command or counsel, poetry seduces.112 Jagaddhara develops this distinction in his SKA, where he dramatizes poetry persuading and pleasing like a lover, functioning quite differently from scripture, expository texts, and so on. Its aim is to please, persuade, beguile, and captivate, and thereby win favor. Personifying poetry’s interactions with Śiva also emphasizes the agency of the poet and his poetry. Jagaddhara imagines language to be the key link between the human and the divine: human beings create poetry, which also constitutes a deity, and this embodied poetry interacts with the supreme deity. This, in turn, is a vivid way of dramatizing the variety of language-​based interactions between a person and a deity that can be classified as prayer. The personification of poetry also gets at the intimacy between religious language and divinity that has a long history in South Asian religious traditions and Kashmir in particular. What Jagaddhara does that is new and provocative is combine the Śaiva emphasis on the relationship between Śiva and Śakti (and specifically goddesses associated with language and mantras, such as Mālinī) with the metaphor of adornment and the personification of poetry found in Sanskrit literary culture. Poetry, for Jagaddhara, constitutes the interaction between devotee and divine. A lot is at stake, therefore, in the quality of one’s poetry. One could argue that Jagaddhara implicitly rejects the logic that it is only the emotion or sentiment behind devotional poetry that really counts—​it should also be eloquent and beautifully adorned, as he strives to make his own

111. E.g., SKA 39.16, translated above. 112.  On the theorization of kāvya within Sanskrit discourse, including its differentiation from the Vedas, itihāsa-​purāṇa, and śāstra, see Pollock, “Sanskrit Literary Culture from the Inside Out,” 41–​52; on the specific correlation of literature with a lover, see ibid., 52, and Pollock, Rasa Reader, 149 and 369 n27–​28, where he discusses Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s formulation of this idea.

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hymns. His statements suggest that for Jagaddhara, better poetry is more effective at winning divine favor than sentimental poetry of lesser quality. Lastly, the courtship of Śiva and Sarasvatī serves as an apt metaphor for the interactions between Śaivism and Sanskrit poetics that Jagaddhara’s poetry embodies and, moreover, encourages, as we will see in more detail in Chapters 6 and 7. Jagaddhara attempts to interweave poetic theory with Śaiva devotion in part by depicting and cultivating a specific audience. His poetry inscribes and prescribes a human audience that is both solidly Śaiva and explicitly aesthetic in orientation. But of course the explicit addressee for the SKA is Śiva himself. Many verses of the text indicate that the poet seeks to win Śiva’s favor through the beauty of his poetry. For instance, the five opening verses (SKA 1.1–​5) emphasize the power of poetry to please Śiva, each relying on extended puns to make comparisons about poetry. Refreshing like the Sarasvati river, poetry is capable of captivating the heart, and like a beautiful stringed instrument it makes Śiva’s mind abandon its wandering. Such verses imply that their poetic features are essential to their efficacy, and this means that Śiva himself must have aesthetic taste. For Jagaddhara, I would argue, Śiva is the paradigmatic sahṛdaya, the aesthetic connoisseur. Overall, the relationship Jagaddhara envisions between Śiva and Sarasvatī reflects his vision of Śaiva devotionalism fully integrated with Sanskrit poetics.

Poetry as Prasāda Let me suggest one final way to think about praise-​ poetry in relation to prayer:  according to the logic of prasāda. We can interpret praise-​ poetry as verbal offerings to a deity, analogous to flowers, fruits, and other such offerings. Just as these physical items are offered to a deity and then enjoyed by a community of devotees as prasāda, as a physical expression of the deity’s favor or grace, these Sanskrit hymns are enjoyed by their secondary, human audiences. I suggest that this is a valuable heuristic strategy for interpreting the poetic language of Sanskrit stotras and the ways they function as prayers. It also suggests some parallels to the idea that some prayer is interpreted as part of a gift economy in which prayer circulates between various parties establishing and maintaining relationships.113 The title of Jagaddhara’s ambitious collection of hymns provides a useful starting point. “Stutikusumāñjali” is a compound of three words. An añjali is a particular gesture of the hands that creates a space, either by cupping the hands to create a bowl shape, or by placing the hands together, fingers pointed upward, with an enclosed cavity between the hands. The gesture is one of respect and

113.  Clark, Compelling God, and Andrea Marion Pinkney, “The Sacred Share:  Prasāda in South Asia” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 2008), 331–​349.



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often used in worship. The bowl or cavity created by the hands can be filled with flowers that are then offered in respect or worship. Kusuma means flower, and thus kusumāñjali refers to the offering of a handful of flowers. Stuti means praise, or more specifically a poem or hymn expressing praise. According to this metaphor, therefore, the flowers being offered are praises or hymns of praise—​hence the title of this text can be translated as “flower-​offering of praise.” Various verses refer to or play with this metaphor,114 including this one, which uses the compound “stutikusumāñjali” itself: This flower-​offering of praise (stutikusumāñjali) has been prepared here at the lotus-​feet of the lord adorned by the crescent moon by this servant, who collected it from the vine of fresh, beautiful praise-​poetry watered by uninterrupted devotion. May it make the hearts of the virtuous full of longing with its fragrance.115 This verse makes the central metaphor explicit:  Jagaddhara offers his praise-​ poems at Śiva’s feet like a collection of beautiful flowers and hopes to inspire his human audience through its “fragrance.” In this sense, Jagaddhara’s poetry is an offering analogous to other offerings in worship, such as fresh flowers or fruit. The artistry and quality of such offerings are far from irrelevant. The logic of this verse suggests that this beautified offering, nurtured by devotion, is first presented to the deity and then appreciated by a religious community. The poet is the first to offer the poetry, and thus the rest of us are only appreciating the leftovers from this paradigmatic exchange, though of course each time the devotee recites the poem it is offered anew for the enjoyment of both Śiva and its human audience. Jagaddhara’s descriptions of his own poetry suggest that it can be seen as verbal or aural prasāda, a blessed offering of words enjoyed by the deity but also by the community of devotees joined together through the shared appreciation of its beauty. In part, this is an interpretation of how devotional poetry operates, using shared appreciation of beauty as a means of forging a shared community. An aestheticized sense of bhakti is critical to how this works. As I explore in Chapter 7, Jagaddhara suggests that bhakti can be seen as the consumption or enjoyment of the aesthetic experience produced by poetry to Śiva. Bhakti, in this sense, is a sharing, a participation, but one that is markedly aesthetic. Just as the semantic

114. E.g., SKA 5.3, 36.2, and 37.12. 115. ayam iha kiṅkareṇa racitaś caraṇāmbujayoḥ stutikusumāñjalir bhagavatas taruṇendubhṛtaḥ /​ viralabhaktisiktanavasūktilatāvacitaḥ kalayatu saurabheṇa sukṛtāṃ spṛhayālu manaḥ //​ SKA 38.26 //​

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range of bhakti includes the suggestion of food shared within a community, thus bringing that community together through participation and sharing, it can also include the participation and sharing involved in aesthetic experience. Thinking about poetry as prasāda in certain devotional contexts helps to explain the logic of some religious poetry, and moreover, uses a central South Asian category to do so. It reveals new avenues to explore in how we think about prayer. Authors may choose to compose beautifully poetic prayers not only because they please the deity, but also because their beauty allows them to be appreciated and savored by a human audience, and thus it facilitates a particular kind of participation and community. Moreover, poetry allows for the creation of this active community outside of specific times and places, for many stotras circulated widely and were appreciated in both private and public contexts. Like material prasāda, bhakti poetry circulates and creates community through its consumption. This approach also contributes to our general analysis of prasāda itself. Andrea Marion Pinkney, who has studied this topic extensively, has argued that previous descriptions have created a distinct divide between two types of prasāda:  one, a physical, sanctified material produced during devotional rituals, and two, an abstract, conceptual category related to an emotion or disposition of a divinity, which can also be described by the related adjective, prasanna.116 She argues that these two meanings are actually closely related, and even causal: “When a revered being is said to be prasanna, the natural and inevitable effect of that disposition is prasāda.”117 My own analysis illustrates Pinkney’s insights by showing additional ways that material and dispositional prasāda are closely related.118 Poetry as prasāda is substantiated; it has form and circulates. Yet it is also immaterial, and it can express, describe, and cultivate specific types of dispositions. As one final illustration of these ideas, let us look at a verse in which Jagaddhara actually describes poetry in terms of prasāda. He says: Flowing with nectar, alleviating the anguish of misfortune, ideal for calming the fever of affliction that comes from wandering in the desert of cyclical existence, and full of rasa like the fresh, nectarian oil flowing from the entire sandalwood tree—​

116.  Andrea Marion Pinkney, “Prasāda, the Gracious Gift, in Contemporary and Classical South Asia,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 81 (September 2013): 735. 117. Ibid., 752. 118.  Pinkney certainly recognizes that offerings to a deity can be both material and non-​ material, and she analyzes prasāda as a form of “powerful language,” using theories of the speech act. My work on stotra literature builds on her analysis by examining poetry, in particular, as prasāda (Pinkney, “The Sacred Share,” 306–​314).



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that grace (prasāda) of the goddess of speech, embodied as the nectar of the best poets’ poetry, is supreme!119 The verse operates on multiple levels. As this translation indicates, the central meaning of prasāda here is the favor or grace of the goddess of speech embodied as poetry; the nectar of poetry is her prasāda. But the verse also suggests the clarity (prasāda) of that poetry, one of the classical literary qualities (guṇas). Furthermore, the adjectives in the verse, in addition to describing good poetry, also evoke the prized qualities of sandalwood.120 Thus, prasāda here also suggests the calmness, the serene disposition, that comes from this precious wood and its oil. In this way, the verse brings together many of the themes explored in this section—​the beauty and quality of verbal and material offerings; the way poetry embodies a complex set of relationships between human and divine participants; the aesthetic dimensions of these relationships; and the relationship between the physical and the dispositional.

Conclusion This chapter has considered the value and implications of analyzing praise-​poetry as prayer. Jagaddhara’s collection of hymns to Śiva provides a valuable starting point for this analysis. The organization and content of the SKA spell out what is implicit within stotra literature in general, namely the potential for this versatile genre to embody a host of language-​based religious practices, such as petition, benediction, visualization of a deity, and the invocation of auspiciousness. These practices, moreover, are not separable from the poetry with which the poet describes, praises, and performs them. Using poetic language, such hymns establish specific types of relationships between the poet, his human audiences, and Śiva. The SKA is both a collection of stotras and an extended commentary on the nature of this genre, from its status as literature to the many efficacious practices it is seen as encompassing. This ambitious text functions simultaneously as a collection of prayers, the expression of a particular kind of devotional Śaivism, a model intended to inspire and guide others, and a self-​conscious reflection on its own nature that argues for the advantages of following its example.

119.  madhusyandī mandīkṛtavipadupādhir bhavamarubhramakleśāveśapraśamakam anīyo vijayate /​ akhaṇḍaśrīkhaṇḍadravanavasudhāsārasarasaḥ prasādo vāgdevyāḥ pravarakavikāvyāmṛtavapuḥ //​ SKA 5.26 //​See also SKA 39.15, in which he says that he has “obtained the prasāda of the lord, embodied as poetry, which secures the relishing of great nectar (prāptaḥ sūktivapur jitorjitasudhāsvādaḥ prasādaḥ prabhoḥ [39.15d]). 120. On the qualities of sandalwood, see James McHugh, Sandalwood and Carrion: Smell in Indian Religion and Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 180–​199.

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Taking our cue from Jagaddhara’s composition, we can develop various ways of interpreting poetry as prayer. In the SKA, he offers multiple interpretations for how poetic prayer works. He compares it to a beautiful offering of flowers to Śiva, which I have suggested then functions as a type of verbal or aural prasāda that is enjoyed by a community of aesthetically oriented devotees. Like a gift, poetry as prasāda suggests the way it is part of an economy of exchange that goes beyond strict transactions. Jagaddhara also likens poetry to a virtuous, beautiful woman who delights her husband. More specifically, he dramatizes the offering of praise-​poetry as the interaction between Sarasvatī and Śiva. Jagaddhara depicts his prayers as effective because of their ability to please and persuade both human and divine audiences through their poetic qualities. In the example of his hymn to Hari-​Hara, we saw how Jagaddhara uses poetic figures to invoke the unique auspiciousness of Śiva’s amazing form specifically for the benefit of his human audience. The most explicit goal of Jagaddhara’s prayers is to win Śiva’s favor for the poet’s own salvation, but they also bring together Śaiva devotees in beautified, devotional worship that celebrates and relies upon sophisticated Sanskrit literary traditions. In each of these cases, the poetic qualities of Jagaddhara’s prayers are integral to their success. Finally, I  have suggested that at least this author’s interpretation of poetic prayer challenges a persistent view in the study of Hinduism that “true” prayer is a spontaneous and natural outpouring of the heart. Such presumptions neglect the wide spectrum of religious and academic reflection on prayer, and they have led to distorted assessments of Hindu traditions. In Kashmir, with its rich history of literary production, many stotra authors were deeply concerned with the relationship between prayer, poetry, and poetics, as we will see in detail in the next two chapters. When we take poets like Jagaddhara seriously, we gain a richer, more nuanced view of the possibilities and popularity of poetic prayer. Greater attention to the diversity of critical reflection on prayer also enables more sensitivity to the complexities and creativity of Hindu sources, which, in turn, provides new perspectives on poetic prayer as a complex, diverse phenomenon in South Asia and beyond.

6

Stotra as Kāvya As the beauty of spring refreshes a pleasure-​grove, as the rainy season replenishes a lake dried up by the heat, so will this collection of praise-​poems (stava) revitalize good people’s appetite for poetry (kāvya), which has wasted away before its time. Jagaddhara, Stutikusumāñjali 38.191 In his SKA, Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa makes a bold claim about his hymns of praise: they will make a good audience interested in poetry again. This claim has both rhetorical and historical significance. The idea that Sanskrit hymns of praise are what will rejuvenate classical Sanskrit literature is striking because of the marginal status stotras historically had within Sanskrit literary culture. Jagaddhara challenges us to think about the relationship between stotra and kāvya in Kashmir, especially in the eyes of poets themselves. At the same time, the SKA was composed at a time of transition in Kashmir, as older patterns of literary production appear to have dissolved in the face of political upheavals. To what extent does this collection of hymns actually represent a renewal of literary culture in Kashmir? This chapter explores the complicated and often ambiguous status of stotras within Sanskrit literary culture. This includes the practices of poets and their audiences, from literary critics to commentators to devotional communities. After considering the history of stotra and kāvya in general, I turn to Kashmir and the SKA as a case study for how devotional poets sought to elevate the status of stotras in the world of Sanskrit literature. Jagaddhara reaffirms the value of classical

1.  iyaṃ madhuśrīr iva kelikānanaṃ sarovaraṃ prāvṛḍ ivātapakṣatam /​ stavāvalī kāvyakutūhalaṃ satām akālajīrṇaṃ taruṇīkariṣyati //​This verse is also quoted at the end of Premavallabha Tripāṭhī’s introduction to his edition of the SKA, suggesting that at least this scholar took Jagaddhara’s claim seriously (Panta, Śrīkṛṣṇa, Premavallabha Tripāṭhī, and Govinda Narahari Vaijāpurakara, eds., Stutikusumāñjali, with the Laghupañcikā commentary [Sanskrit] of Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha and the Premamakaranda translation [Hindi] of Premavallabha Tripāṭhī [Kāśī:  Acyuta Granthamālā-​Kāryālayaḥ, 1964], 29).

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Sanskrit poetry and poetic theory even as he re-​envisions this literary world as being justified and revitalized by devotional praise of Śiva. The SKA, in particular, is historically significant for the testimony it provides for the vitality and creativity of Sanskrit literary production in Kashmir—​despite narratives about its death or decay after the thirteenth century.

Overlapping Stotra and Kāvya The history of the relationship between stotra and kāvya—​between Sanskrit hymns of praise and classical Sanskrit literature2—​is largely uncharted. This is a symptom of a larger lacuna, namely the dearth of substantial scholarship on historical developments within the vast corpus of stotra literature from the time of the Sanskrit epics onward. But the lack of clarity also stems from this history itself, which includes many conflicting and unstated views. While our focus in the present context remains on developments within Kashmirian stotra literature, a general appreciation for the dynamics around the place of stotras in the discourse around kāvya serves as an important backdrop for interpreting their history in Kashmir. The most basic way to approach the issue is simply to ask: Are stotras kāvya? Since Valmiki’s Rāmāyaṇa famously narrativized the origins of literature in South Asia, kāvya has been marked as a special category.3 Does stotra belong within it? At first this may seem straightforward. Surely, with their diverse meters, poetic ornaments, and emotional content, stotras build on the tradition of poetry celebrated in Valmiki’s text. But from another perspective, perhaps stotras are closer in spirit to the hymns of the Vedas, which were also poetic and metrical, and yet which decidedly did not belong in this new category of literary expression.4 The issue is complicated by the fact that kāvya itself is a complex category. What exactly is kāvya? There is no canonical definition, though there are many that share features. Our first evidence for the formal theorization of kāvya comes surprisingly late, with the works of Bhāmaha and Daṇḍin in the seventh century.

2. For the sake of simplicity, I am describing kāvya in terms of Sanskrit, but of course Prakrit and Apabhramsha were also important to kāvya from an early period (Sheldon Pollock, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India [Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006], 13–​14). 3. See Sheldon Pollock, “Sanskrit Literary Culture from the Inside Out,” in Literary Cultures in History:  Reconstructions from South Asia, ed. Sheldon Pollock (Berkeley:  University of California Press, 2003), 39–​130, 76–​80, and Pollock, Language of the Gods in the World of Men, 77–​79, on the Rāmāyaṇa and the beginnings of kāvya. 4. As Sheldon Pollock notes, “Abhinava[gupta] and every other reader of kāvya in South Asia before colonialism would have been mystified to see the West turn the Ṛgveda into literature” (“Sanskrit Literary Culture from the Inside Out,” 55).



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Bhāmaha’s definition—​“poetry is word and meaning together” (śabdārthau sahitau kāvyam)—​influenced many later definitions, as did Mammaṭa’s in the eleventh century—​“This (i.e., poetry) is word and meaning: without faults, furnished with excellencies, sometimes without (decorative) figures” (tad adoṣau śabdārthau saguṇāv analaṃkṛtī punaḥ kvāpi).5 As these examples suggest, most definitions and descriptions of kāvya emphasize the special relationship between word and meaning in such compositions; it is not just what one says, but how one says it. Another common gloss, especially in Sanskrit commentaries, sidesteps the complexity of the question by defining kāvya as that which is produced by good poets (kavi). Such definitions leave a fair degree of ambiguity, for what exactly fits in each definition is not immediately clear. Theoretical discussions of kāvya use various classifications to map the realm of the literary. Kāvya is often used in a broad sense to refer to literary compositions, including dramas that were performed and literary compositions of various lengths that were read or recited. In the narrower sense of literature as opposed to drama, kāvya is generally subdivided into prose, verse, and mixed forms, with the first further categorized as fictional narrative (kathā) and historical narrative (ākhyāyikā), and the latter split into “great poetry” (mahākāvya) and some category of shorter poetry (e.g., laghukāvya, khaṇḍakāvya, muktaka).6 The mahākāvya is also referred to as sargabandha—​a great poem marked by internal divisions or chapters—​and many theorists focus on this ambitious literary form. Daṇḍin, for example, does not give a detailed description of minor poetic forms since they are found within sargabandhas.7 Yet short poetic works have been extremely popular since the early days of kāvya. There are many ways of classifying such works, including as “fragmentary literature” (khaṇḍakāvya) that shares features with mahākāvya but is only a shorter, partial selection of such poetry, and as “minor poetry” (laghukāvya), a popular category because it contrasts so directly with “major poetry” (mahākāvya). But the apparent simplicity of this category masks a great deal of complexity. Early theorists do not explain the category with any detail or precision. In the seventh century, Bhāmaha refers to “unconnected” or “non-​ cohesive” poetry (anibaddha) and Daṇḍin mentions several different short

5. Bhāmaha, Kāvyālaṅkāra 1.16 and Mammaṭa, Kāvyaprakāśa 1.4, both translated by Siegfried Lienhard in his A History of Classical Poetry: Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1984), where he provides a helpful list of prominent definitions of kāvya (11 n30). 6. See V. K. Chari, “The Genre Theory in Sanskrit Poetics,” in Literary India: Comparative Studies in Aesthetics, Colonialism, and Culture, ed. Patrick Colm Hogan and Lalita Pandit (Albany:  SUNY Press, 1995), for a discussion of kāvya and genre theory, and specifically page 70 for a figure depicting divisions within the kāvya genre. This is just one way of analyzing kāvya, however; compare to Lienhard, History of Classical Poetry, 47. 7. Kāvyādarśa 1.13, quoted in Lienhard, History of Classical Poetry, 65.

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forms—​muktaka (single-​stanza poem), kulaka (short group of stanzas), kośa (collection of stanzas), and saṃghāta (series of stanzas).8 Subsequent theorists generally do not distinguish clearly between different kinds of laghukāvya; the category remains troublingly ambiguous.9 In part this may have been because it was seen as secondary to other genres that were regarded as the central subject of literary production and reflection. Nonetheless, kāvya was generally understood to include both major works like mahākāvya and shorter poems that still adhered to literary standards, such as the use of poetic figures, careful construction of the structure of the poem, and attention to both words and their meaning (e.g., speaking indirectly, avoiding redundancies). Historians of Sanskrit literature have noted in a variety of ways, however, that there are types of texts, as well as specific, unique texts, that stand in unclear relation to kāvya literature more broadly.10 In his History of Classical Poetry, Siegfried Lienhard considers the boundaries of kāvya and argues that we cannot automatically accept stotra literature (along with other examples, such as didactic poetry) on the same level as drama, mahākāvya, and lyrical poetry (by which he means short, independent poems like the single verses collected in the Amaruśataka), which he sees at the center of literary culture.11 His strategy is to imagine literary and non-​literary texts, and then to conceive of a border zone between these two. In other words, some poetic texts only partially conform to the conventions of kāvya, and thus they do not belong at the center but rather on the threshold or periphery

8. Kāvyālaṅkāra 1.30 and Kāvyādarśa 1.13; see also Lienhard, History of Classical Poetry, 66. 9. See Lienhard, History of Classical Poetry, 104: “The few critics who give definitions of this intermediary field [i.e., poems somewhere between independent verses and full mahākāvyas] are vague and their accounts do not tally.” 10.  As a piece of indirect evidence, consider the sparse treatment of stotras in the excellent volume on the history of kāvya edited by Yigal Bronner, David Shulman, and Gary Tubb (Innovations and Turning Points:  Toward a History of Kāvya Literature [Delhi:  Oxford University Press, 2014]). The authors certainly recognize that this work—​already almost 800 pages—​is far from an exhaustive history of kāvya. Nevertheless, it is striking that stotras are only discussed briefly, primarily in the form of the CŚ and SūŚ, and, interestingly, in a longer section focused on the evidence for kāvya in Tibet (Dan Martin, “Indian Kāvya Poetry on the Far Side of the Himālayas:  Translation, Transmission, Adaptation, Originality,” in Innovation and Turning Points, ed. Bronner, Shulman, and Tubb, 572–​582). This marginal position mirrors the general treatment by Sanskrit literary theorists, though not the popularity of these hymns more broadly. 11. Lienhard, History of Classical Poetry, 2–​3. The fact that the most common category under which stotras are classified in modern histories of Sanskrit literature is “lyric poetry” usually ends up highlighting the challenges of analyzing stotras, since it inadequately maps onto the extant literature. While Lienhard notes the difficulties in applying the standard Western division of literature into epic, drama, and lyric, he still attempts repeatedly to use these categories to analyze Sanskrit literature (see, e.g., History of Classical Poetry, 45, 160; also Chari, “The Genre Theory in Sanskrit Poetics,” 74-​75



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of poetry.12 Lienhard’s helpful chart classifying the commonly articulated subdivisions of kāvya includes an anomalous protrusion from the box labeled “kāvya in the narrow sense” (i.e., not dramatic works) called simply “texts on the threshold of poetry.”13 Such works either are only poetic in part, or function in ways that are outside of the norms of standard kāvya, yet a reader may still relate to the text as a work of literature. From this perspective, a work that combines scientific exposition and poetry (śāstrakāvya) or a hymn (stotra) “may be no less poetry than any other kāvya, although its primary intention might be didactic, religious, etc. Its status as poetry is somewhat dubious, to be sure, as it is not accepted by all readers, nor is it a homogeneous work of art.”14 Sheldon Pollock, in his own history of Sanskrit literary culture, notes that some genres and major texts do not fit neatly into the boundaries of literature proposed by theorists like Bhoja; in fact, the vitality of a literary culture depends on constantly pushing at the limits of classifications and definitions. Thus, he says, “we encounter works that, in light of the taxonomy I have set out, would have to be considered as ambiguous or hybrid, or as having passed into or out of the realm of the literary over time.”15 The examples he focuses on to illustrate this are the genre of “science-​literature” (śāstrakāvya) also discussed by Lienhard and two major texts, Kalhaṇa’s Rājataraṅgiṇī and Vyāsa’s Mahābhārata, which indicate the “permeability and instability of Sanskrit textual categories.”16 He does not explicitly consider stotras in this context, but they too challenge standard taxonomies. S. K. De’s summary in his Aspects of Sanskrit Literature indicates this marginal status succinctly:  “the Stotra became an important, if a somewhat neglected, wing of the Kāvya poetry itself.”17 Such analyses paint a picture that is anything but clear. On one hand, stotras share many features with mainstream kāvya, including the use of diverse meters and many literary figures, attention to compositional structure, and frequent focus on heightened emotional content. Many Sanskrit hymns seem to belong naturally to the category of short, minor poetry (laghukāvya), and modern historians are eager to identify some hymns as belonging to a specific subdivision of

12. Lienhard, History of Classical Poetry, 3. 13. Ibid., 47. 14. Ibid.,  47–​48. 15. Pollock, “Sanskrit Literary Culture from the Inside Out,” 55. 16.  Ibid., 55, 59; this phrasing is used specifically in relation to Vyāsa’s Mahābhārata but can be extended to apply to all of the examples he gives in this section. For Lienhard on śāstrakāvya, as well as kāvyaśāstra, see History of Classical Poetry, 3, 225–​227. 17.  S. K. De, Aspects of Sanskrit Literature (Calcutta:  Firma KLM Private Ltd., 1976 [1st ed. 1959]), 103; later he refers to literary stotras as “constituting an unobstrusive [sic] wing of the Kāvya itself” (114).

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kāvya called stotrakāvya.18 On the other hand, there are numerous challenges to this classification.19 Stotras often function in religious contexts in ways different from kāvya, including public liturgical recitations and private devotional prayer. The audience for these hymns of praise is also different, at least officially, for they are addressed (directly or indirectly) to the deity or figure being extolled.20 And of course, the corpus of stotras is massive and heterogeneous. This, more than anything, probably accounts for the hesitation on the part of theorists to definitively classify hymns of praise. There is just too much variety in the quality, length, style, and function of Sanskrit stotras, especially in comparison to forms like mahākāvya, for which theorists’ descriptions and prescriptions were far more formalized.21 Overall, this means that stotras occupy a peripheral, ambiguous position within the world of kāvya. Nevertheless, while the genre of the hymn may be posed theoretically on the threshold of literature, the history of this genre shows that many individual stotras did indeed participate in the realm of kāvya in a variety of ways.

18.  Kedar Nath Sharma, for instance, refers to hymns from Kashmir as stotrakāvyas throughout his Kaśmīrī Stotraparamparā evaṃ Dīnākrandan Stotra. An entire dissertation at the University of Mysore was devoted to the topic of stotrakāvya as a category. The author, P. K. Gāyathri, describes the poetic features of hymns in various periods and shows how some poetic theorists quote from stotras in their works on alaṅkāraśāstra but provides no evidence for the premodern acceptance of stotrakāvya as a category. Nevertheless, Gāyathri claims that, looking back on the history of stotra and kāvya, one can identify stotrakāvya as a distinct literary form, and that all the ways modern scholars have named such literary hymns—​devotional poetry, religious poetry, stotra-​sāhitya, eulogistic poetry, laghukāvya, religious poem, prayer, praises, psalms—​“could be conveniently merged into Stotra-​Kāvya” (P. K. Gāyathri, “Stotra-​Kāvya in Sanskrit: Origin and Development” [Ph.D. diss., University of Mysore, 1981], 260–​262). More work remains to be done on the history of stotrakāvya as a category, but it seems likely that it was not accepted and used by the Sanskrit literary tradition as early and as frequently as modern use of the category implies. 19. In fact, if we look at Lienhard’s classification of literature, we can see that there are two different places stotras fit in: (1) under metrical poetry of the minor form, of which there are “numerous sub-​categories” (he places his discussion of stotras later in his history in his exposition of these sub-​categories); and (2) under “texts on the threshold of poetry” (Lienhard, History of Classical Poetry, 47). 20.  Gary Tubb argues that an “anti-​religious bias [  . . .  ] has led some scholars to ignore benedictory verses in their consideration of the history of Sanskrit poetry,” and in fact this may be one reason why texts like the CŚ have not received the critical attention they deserve as works of literature (“On the Boldness of Bāṇa,” in Innovations and Turning Points, ed. Bronner, Shulman, and Tubb, 325–​326). 21.  For Daṇḍin’s description of the mahākāvya form, see Indira Peterson’s translation of the relevant section of the Kāvyādarśa in Design and Rhetoric in a Sanskrit Court Epic: The Kirātārjunīya of Bhāravi (Albany: SUNY Press, 2003), 8–​9. This is not to say that kāvya literature is not diverse in both its content and its function for different communities.



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To begin with, many mahākāvyas themselves include stotras.22 Texts of all kinds usually begin with benedictory verses that are essentially mini-​stotras, but multi-​verse hymns are also embedded within the main body of many long poems. Kālidāsa’s mahākāvyas provide early examples of this, as we saw in Chapter 2. Yet such hymns may not be an integral part of the kāvya itself and may instead be a depiction or quotation from another genre. If a character in a long poem, for example, quotes from a technical treatise on, say, alchemy, it does not make the quoted text poetry in and of itself. In addition, many independent stotras have been celebrated across large regions as exemplary poetry, such as the Buddhist hymns of Mātṛceṭa, which circulated throughout South and Central Asia. Poems like the CŚ and SūŚ are packed with sophisticated poetic figures and devotional benedictions. Such “Centuries (of verses)” (-​śataka) present their own conceptual challenges. While some are anthologies of essentially standalone verses like the Amaruśataka, devoid of substantial religious content, others are cohesive benedictory hymns with significant religious content and potential application in devotional contexts.23 In Kashmir, short devotional poems were popular since at least the ninth century, as we explored in Chapter  3.24 Poems like Ratnākara’s VP and Ānandavardhana’s DŚ are difficult to classify.25 Both of these poems, however, suggest some of the ambiguity around the status of hymns within kāvya. The

22. De gives various examples in Aspects of Sanskrit Literature, 104. As he notes, these are generally philosophical hymns that “are indicative of an early tradition of literary (and not liturgical) Stotras” (ibid.). 23. For example, the verses of the CŚ resemble scriptural verses (dhyāna) that describe in detail the visual appearance of a deity as an aid for meditation and worship. Gary Tubb speculates that the original purpose of the poem may have been “offering a series of daily passages for use in contemplating an iconographical presentation of the Mahiṣamardinī figure [the goddess slaying the buffalo demon], somewhat after the fashion of a modern tear-​away calendar pad” (“On the Boldness of Bāṇa,” 327). 24. It is important to note that there are short poems from Kashmir that are not devotional as well. See, for example, Śambhukavi’s elegant royal panegyric, the Rājendrakarṇapūra; one of the only discussions of this work can be found in Luther James Obrock, “Translation and History: The Development of a Kashmiri Textual Tradition from ca. 1000–​1500” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2015), 39–​45. 25. In the VP, each verse ends with a benediction, and most texts whose names end with -​pañcāśikā are indeed stotras (e.g., the Sāmbapañcāśikā), but Ratnākara’s emphasis on narrative and character distinguishes the poem from most other stotras. For its part, the DŚ, with its virtuosic poetic figures, and especially with its elaborate pictorial element—​when the syllables of the hymn’s verses are rearranged to construct the image of a wheel, they create a hidden verse—​can be classified as citrakāvya, but it is also a devotional “century” of verses to the goddess. Sometimes it is given as an example of “fragment poetry” (khaṇḍakāvya) (Gary Tubb, “Kāvya with Bells On: Yamaka in the Śiṣupālavadha; Or, ‘What’s a flashy verse like you doing in a great poem like this?’ ” in Innovations and Turning Points, ed. Bronner, Shulman, and Tubb, 157).

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VP is not exactly a stotra, but it certainly belongs to the broader category of laghukāvya. The DŚ, as a devotional poem in the tradition of the CŚ and SūŚ, seems to be both a short kāvya and also a stotra,26 but Ānandavardhana’s own literary criticism raises questions about the status of this citrakāvya, as we saw in Chapter  3. Nevertheless, when we consider the long history of stotras in Kashmir, we find that many poets had high literary ambitions for their hymns. When we turn to other evidence for the relationship between stotra and kāvya in Kashmir, the situation does not become any clearer. I  have yet to find any sustained discussion of this relationship in commentaries on stotras (both those embedded in kāvyas and those that are independent poems). Some commentaries do provide additional evidence for the gray area occupied by such texts, however. For instance, while Ānandavardhana refers to his DŚ as a stotra, his commentator Kayyaṭa also refers to it explicitly as kāvya.27 But the significance of this overlap is not pursued by commentators on hymns in Kashmir. Within the active world of literary theory and criticism, where one might expect more reflections on questions like the literary status of stotras, poetic theorists tend to either ignore stotra literature or only quote from it infrequently.28 Commenting on this trend throughout the history of classical literature, Lienhard suggests that this is because so many stotras are of poor literary quality.29 This can only be partially correct, for of course there are many stotras that are regarded as being of high quality. The genre of the stotra itself must be the issue: it includes so many different types of compositions, and they function differently in such diverse contexts, that any description and analysis of this heterogeneous literary

26. In the final verse of this poem Ānandavardhana says that he composed “this difficult stotra to the goddess out of devotion” (tena suduṣkaram etat stotraṃ devyāḥ kṛtaṃ bhaktyā; DŚ v.  104cd). It is possible that stotra here simply means “praise”—​that is, he composed such difficult praise for the goddess—​but it is more natural to take stotra to mean a hymn of praise. 27. In the fourth of the opening verses of his commentary, Kayyaṭa refers to the text as “the poem composed by Ānandavardhana, the best of poets” (ānandavardhanakavipravarapraṇīta­ kāvye) (Kāvyamālā: A Collection of Old and Rare Sanskrit Kāvyas, Nātakas, Champūs, Bhāṇas, Prahasanas, Chhandas, Alaṅkāras, etc., Part IX, ed. Paṇḍit Shivadatta and Vāsudeva Laxmaṇ Śāstrī Paṇaśikar [Bombay: Nirnay Sagar Press, 1916], 1). 28. There are, however, some notable exceptions. A small number of poems, including the CŚ and SūŚ, have been regarded highly by the Sanskrit literary community at large—​as evidenced by commentaries, excerpts in anthologies, and quotations in theoretical works—​and can be classified as stotras because of their focus on devotional praise and benediction. On the occasional recognition of the emergence of new genres by literary theorists, see Bronner, Shulman, and Tubb, “Introduction” to Innovations and Turning Points,  25–​26. 29. Lienhard, History of Classical Poetry, 131.



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form will fail to adequately characterize it. This is true for all genres to a certain degree, but it is more pronounced with stotras. But it is notable that some authors in fact do quote stotras explicitly in their works on literary criticism and theory, albeit rarely. In his commentary on Ānandavardhana’s Dhvanyāloka, for instance, Abhinavagupta quotes two verses from his own stotra compositions.30 He cites one of them to illustrate how the “appearance of rasa” (rasābhāsa) can be used as a poetic ornament. The verse, given here in the translation by Ingalls, Masson, and Patwardhan, celebrates praising God as the highest purpose of speech: If all poetic qualities and every ornament of speech were to embellish you, my Muse, you would not show so fair as by taking your words whichever way they come, if thus they may delight your heart’s lover, Śiva. So only will you be beyond compare.31 Even though the verse appears to suggest the erotic rasa (śṛṅgārarasa), Abhinavagupta explains that this cannot be so since God is beyond all qualities and ornaments and thus does not fit the requirements for the protagonist of a love poem established by Indian aesthetics. By quoting a hymn, in other words, Abhinavagupta explains how some poetry can have powerful emotions that beautify the verse but do not actually produce rasa itself. But does that mean that stotras never produce rasa? The second time Abhinavagupta quotes his own stotra, he does so to demonstrate a verse in which elements normally associated with the erotic rasa can be used in a verse in which the primary rasa is antithetical to the erotic, in this case the peaceful rasa (śāntarasa). Here is the verse, again in Ingalls, Masson, and Patwardhan’s lovely translation: O moon-​crested lord of my life, at your sudden touch after deep pain of separation, my consciousness,

30. As far as I know these do not come from any of his extant hymns. 31. Abhinavagupta’s Locana commentary on Dhvanyāloka 2.5d (Daniel H. H. Ingalls, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, and M. V. Patwardhan, trans., The Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana with the Locana of Abhinavagupta, Harvard Oriental Series 49 (Cambridge, MA:  Harvard University Press, 1990), 242).

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like a puppet carved from a moonstone,32 melts and melts away.33 Abhinavagupta explains that in this verse the aesthetic factors for the peaceful rasa are described in a way that is colored by how they are used with respect to the erotic rasa, since this appeals to everyone.34 In this case Abhinavagupta is not rejecting the possibility that such stotra verses have rasa at all. For him, the devotional content of most stotras means that they lead primarily to the arising of the peaceful rasa. As we will see in Chapter 7, however, this analysis does not seem to have been accepted by all authors in Kashmir. Literary theorists after Abhinavagupta also infrequently cite stotras in their works. In his popular and influential Kāvyaprakāśa (c. 1050), Mammaṭa cites two Śaiva devotional verses. He quotes the first, which is attributed elsewhere to Utpaladeva though it is not found in the ŚSĀ collection,35 to exemplify the peaceful rasa and the stable emotion of dispassion. In his commentary on the section, Ruyyaka (c. 1150) attempts to identify precisely how its components match up with the formal aesthetic factors that lead to the arising of rasa. Mammaṭa cites Utpaladeva a second time to illustrate poetry in which there is bhāva but not rasa—​that is, poetry in which there is strong emotion that does not, however, lead to the arising of rasa for various reasons. He cites ŚSĀ 13.17 here as an example of a devotional poem in which emotional desire for God cannot actually lead to the erotic rasa because the relationship between a devotee and God does not meet the standard requirements for the erotic rasa established in the Nāṭyaśāstra.36 These examples from Abhinavagupta and Mammaṭa’s works reveal much about the status of stotra literature. The fact that they cite such poetry indicates the popularity and literary ambition of such hymns; as Sheldon Pollock writes in his work on rasa, “aesthetic theory would no longer be able to ignore” such praise-​poetry.37 Yet attempts to fit stotra literature into aesthetic theory more broadly reflect some ambiguity. In part this was because the pronounced devotion of many hymns did not naturally accord with the canonical list of nine rasas. Both

32.  The moonstone is said to be made of moonlight and to dissolve under its rays (e.g., Monier Monier-​Williams, A Sanskrit-​English Dictionary [London:  Oxford University Press, 1899], 386). 33.  Abhinavagupta’s Locana commentary on Dhvanyāloka 3.30 (Ingalls et  al., trans., Dhvanyāloka, 532). 34. Ingalls et al., trans., Dhvanyāloka, 531–​532. 35.  See Sheldon Pollock, A Rasa Reader:  Classical Indian Aesthetics (New  York:  Columbia University Press, 2016), 395–​396 n325. 36. Ibid., 226–​227. 37. Ibid., 21.



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Abhinavagupta and Mammaṭa quote stotras when they are talking about marginal cases, poems that raise questions because they do not fit neatly into the standard framework. In general, it also seems unclear exactly how the components of devotional poems can be analyzed with the aesthetic terminology used to analyze Sanskrit drama and poetry. Pollock sees Ruyyaka’s efforts to analyze one such verse in this way—​ŚSĀ 13.17, quoted in Mammaṭa’s Kāvyaprakāśa—​as a “strained effort to parse Utpaladeva’s poem” that shows how rasa theory could not comfortably accommodate such stotra literature. These challenges overall surely contributed to why stotras were so infrequently addressed by theoretical literature, and when they were discussed, it was done unsystematically and in brief. When we look back on the early history of stotras and kāvya as a whole, and specifically their relationship in Kashmir, we see that stotra literature was popular and widespread but had a marginal position within Sanskrit literary culture. Ambitious literary hymns were found within larger works of kāvya and also circulated as independent poems, but they were not theorized systematically and fit only loosely into contemporary classificatory systems. Theorists and commentators present no clear, dominant position on how stotras should be analyzed within the frameworks of kāvya and alaṅkāraśāstra. This was due partly to the complexity and diversity of the stotra genre itself, which can be seen in Kashmir as elsewhere. Yet many stotra authors in Kashmir prioritize the literary qualities of their hymns and aspire to the literary standards of kāvya. Jagaddhara, in particular, demonstrates a serious investment in the status of stotra within the realm of kāvya. In fact, he actually makes poetic praise the heart of kāvya itself, bringing what was on the periphery into the center of the literary universe.

Elevating Stotras, Revitalizing Kāvya The interval between the ninth and the twelfth centuries constitutes the most influential, and most studied, period of Sanskrit literary production in Kashmir. In contrast, the centuries that immediately followed, as far as Sanskrit literary culture is concerned, have fallen almost completely off the historical map. The most important literary text from this period is the fourteenth-​century SKA. Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa actively engages with the traditions of classical Sanskrit poetry (kāvya) and poetics (alaṅkāraśāstra) in Kashmir and reconfigures them in creative ways. In particular, he offers a revised vision of the status and scope of the stotra genre itself. Briefly reviewing the organization of the SKA will help clarify this ambition. Internally, the SKA consists of thirty-​eight stotras, plus an additional poem describing and praising the poet’s lineage (vaṃśavarṇana), for a total of over 1,400 verses.38 The

38.  There are different tallies of this total. In SKA 39.14 Jagaddhara depicts his own

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SKA is a unified text,39 unlike the tenth-​century ŚSĀ of Utpaladeva, which was compiled into a single collection by later editors.40 In Chapter 5, we saw how the first hymns in the collection form a kind of introduction to the work as a whole. In the fifth stotra, Jagaddhara establishes the criteria by which poetry should be judged and lauds the greatness of poetry by praising the work of good poets. In doing so, he locates his own work within the world of the high literary register of Sanskrit literature (kāvya) and within the purview of Sanskrit poetics (alaṅkāraśāstra). From the sixth to the twenty-​first stotra, Jagaddhara presents hundreds of poetic verses in praise of Śiva, using a variety of tones and styles. He prayers explore Śiva’s deeds and iconography, his devotion and worship, and the poet’s own abject state. Jagaddhara employs a range of literary figures (alaṅkāras) throughout his hymns, but in some cases these figures take on special prominence. A section of the SKA—​from the twenty-​second to the thirtieth stotra—​is best described as citrakāvya—​“flashy” poetry that dramatically emphasizes and explores a particular poetic figure, such as alliteration.41 While they continue to offer devotional praise to Śiva, they are markedly different from the other stotras in the SKA because they highlight a specific literary figure unifying individual stotras. The final group of stotras (thirty-​one to thirty-​eight), as well as the last poem describing the poet’s

composition as containing 1,425 verses. This probably does not include the thirty-​ninth poem describing Jagaddhara’s lineage, which consists of sixteen verses, but this is not spelled out. The edition of Panta, Tripāṭhī, and Vaijāpurakara lists 1,439 verses (including the thirty-​ninth poem) in its table of contents. K.P. Aithal, meanwhile, claims the text has 1409 verses (A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit and Other Manuscripts of the Chandra Shum Shere Collection in the Bodleian Library, Part 3: Stotras [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999], 83). 39. Several types of evidence corroborate this. There is a logical progression between many of the SKA’s individual hymns—​stotras twenty-​three through thirty, for example, systematically explore the literary figure called yamaka, the repetition of identical syllables with different meanings. Moreover, instead of having statements indicating the benefits of reciting individual stotras, the SKA has a section comparable to a phalaśruti near the end of the whole collection. The seventeenth-​century commentary of Ratnakaṇṭha treats the work as a cohesive text, as does another partial and unpublished commentary by an unknown author in the Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute, Jodhpur (Stutikusumāñjali ms. 39443). In addition, the colophons of all the manuscripts I have been able to examine identify Jagaddhara’s individual stotras as part of a larger work called the SKA, though several of Jagaddhara’s hymns did circulate independently. 40. This is clear from Kṣemarāja’s commentary on the first stotra of the ŚSĀ in the eleventh century (Alexis Sanderson, “The Śaiva Exegesis of Kashmir,” in Mélanges tantriques à la mémoire d’Hélène Brunner/​Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner, ed. Dominic Goodall and André Padoux [Pondicherry: Institut Français d’Indologie/​École Française d’Extrême-​ Orient, 2007], 399–​400n563). 41. On the range of meanings and translations of “citrakāvya,” see Tubb, “Kāvya with Bells On,” 151, and David Buchta, “Evoking Rasa Through Stotra:  Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Līlāmṛta, A List of Kṛṣṇa’s Names,” International Journal of Hindu Studies 20, no. 3 (December 2016):  358–​360, especially 359n20.



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lineage, form a kind of concluding section. They include praise for the power of poetry and praise itself, and they describe the benefits that accrue to those who engage in such literary devotion. The organization of the SKA that I  have briefly given here is significant in several ways. As far as I know, there are no earlier examples of such a vast and cohesive collection of stotras, and certainly none in Kashmir. In size, scope, and style it is an unprecedented and ambitious attempt to extend the domain of the stotra form, placing it within the larger category of Sanskrit kāvya and subjecting it to the analytic categories of traditional Sanskrit poetics. Moreover, the organization and content of the SKA present a series of reflections on the stotra form itself. The SKA’s individual stotras disaggregate the potential uses of this genre, such as benediction, homage, taking refuge, and expressing devotion. Jagaddhara chose to compose a cohesive, lengthy collection of stotras devoted to Śiva in a wide range of sophisticated meters. This form inscribes a great deal of content, including an expanded view of the literary status of a stotra and an implicit argument about the proper use of poetry and eulogy. As a whole, therefore, the SKA offers an ambitious new vision for the stotra form and its future, one that reorients the aesthetic powers of Sanskrit literature toward devotional praise and prayer. The SKA presents itself as both religious praise-​poetry (stotra) and as classical Sanskrit literature (kāvya). Its status as stotra literature is readily apparent; the word stuti is part of its title, its internal divisions are all called stotras, and its verses frequently refer to the larger composition with terms like stava.42 Jagaddhara does not explicitly identify his text as kāvya, but there are numerous ways that he indirectly positions his own poetry as belonging to this category. For instance, in the fifth stotra, called the Kavikāvyapraśaṃsāstotra (Hymn in praise of the poetry of good poets), he repeatedly extolls those poets who praise Śiva with beautiful poetry, and of course this is what he himself is trying to do throughout the SKA. He says, for example: As they review their own poetry (kāvya), the half-​closed eyes of the most skilled poets abandon their natural restlessness, but their eyebrows, leaving behind their inborn gentleness, take it up!43

42. In the thirty-​eighth hymn Jagaddhara repeatedly refers to his composition as a stavāvalī, a “series” or “garland” (āvalī) of “praise-​poems” (stava). This calls to mind Utpaladeva’s famous ŚSĀ, especially in SKA 38.15, where Jagaddhara describes his collection as maheśvarastavāvalī, a very close synonym to the title given to the edition of Utpaladeva’s hymns. 43. kāvyaṃ vibhāvya nijam ardhanimīlitāni naisargikaṃ jahati cāpalam īkṣaṇāni /​ gṛhṇanti tan masṛṇatāṃ sahajāṃ vihāya bhrūvallayas tu kṛtināṃ kavipuñgavānām //​ SKA 5.14 //​

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According to this image, great poets savor their own poetry and their eyes become still as they are absorbed in the experience; but their eyebrows show their appreciation for their poetry through constant movement. Elsewhere, Jagaddhara describes Śiva as being “celebrated eagerly by groups of poets experienced in the skills of poetry (kāvya) and the arts,” and this praise and celebration of Śiva is precisely what he does throughout the entire SKA. He repeatedly implies that his own hymns of praise belong to the category of kāvya.44 Jagaddhara also positions his poetry in relation to the Sanskrit literature that came before him. He holds the category of kāvya, as well as the poet (kavi), in high esteem. But he also disparages the plethora of worldly works that distract from the devotional poetry he values above all else: How can my words win the hearts of the learned, since they are spoiled by the sport of drinking the nectar of the various compositions offered by earlier poets?45 Nevertheless, it will be attractive for certain special people in the world who are devoted to the expression of praise-​poetry (stuti) to the lord and are experiencing the affliction of worldly existence—​ people like me.46 Jagaddhara claims that while the learned may be spoiled (durlalita) from the sport or love-​play (krīḍā) that consists in the experience or act of enjoying earlier poetry, his poetry will be attractive or desirable (spṛhaṇīya) for some people. In a world of many poems, what makes Jagaddhara’s desirable and unique is its devotion to and praise for Śiva, which can overcome the suffering of worldly existence. Jagaddhara recognizes a continuity between his own poetry and the vast world of Sanskrit literature that precedes him, except that his attains a special desirability because of its religious sentiments and efficacy.47

44.  E.g., SKA 22.1ab, translated later in this chapter:  kāvyakauṣalakalāsu kovidaiḥ kīrtitaḥ kavikulaiḥ kutūhalāt. 45. Here Jagaddhara does not explicitly use the word kāvya, but refers instead to the compositions of earlier poets (pūrvakavipraṇītavividhagrantha). But the simplest definition of kāvya had long been whatever is produced by good poets (kavi). 46. etāḥ pūrvakavipraṇītavividhagranthāmṛtāsvādanakrīḍādurlalitaṃ haranti hṛdayaṃ vācaḥ kathaṃ dhīmatām /​ keṣāñ cit punar īśvarastutipadavyāhārahevākināṃ yāsyanti spṛhaṇīyatāṃ bhuvi bhavakleśaspṛśāṃ mādṛśām //​ SKA 5.36 //​ 47. Jagaddhara is primarily concerned with kāvya “heard,” rather than “seen” (i.e., drama). But many of the central categories of poetics originated not in the analysis of literature but of theater. The discussions of rasa and other aesthetic features associated with the theater discussed in the Nāṭyaśāstra, roughly dated to the first centuries of the first millennium and attributed to Bharata, became canonical for later writers on theater and also literature more



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Most dramatically, however, Jagaddhara sees his poetry revitalizing interest in kāvya, as we saw in the epigraph to this chapter: As the beauty of spring refreshes a pleasure-​grove, as the rainy season replenishes a lake dried up by the heat, so will this collection of praise-​poems (stava) revitalize good people’s appetite for poetry (kāvya), which has wasted away before its time.48 More literally, the verse says these praise-​poems will make their interest in poetry “young” again (taruṇīkariṣyati), since it had grown “old before its time” (akālajīrṇa). For Jagaddhara, the vitality of his devotional poetry to Śiva can vivify the classical tradition of Sanskrit literature. In part, of course, this is a rhetorical claim about the greatness of his own poetry, but it may also indicate that Jagaddhara sought to revive the composition and appreciation of poetry in fourteenth-​century Kashmir, a time when this tradition seems to have been on the decline. From this perspective, his championing of the stotra form is also a way of adapting a Sanskrit literary heritage. Of course, almost every Sanskrit stotra includes poetic features that create some continuity with kāvya literature more broadly. But Jagaddhara models his SKA after classical kāvya more dramatically than any other earlier stotra in Kashmir. For instance, unlike the majority of stotras, the SKA includes extended, syntactically dependent groupings of verses (kulakas). Such groupings are especially common in Sanskrit mahākāvyas. Kālidāsa’s Kumārasaṃbhava, for example, opens with a well-​known kulaka describing the Himālaya mountain, father of Pārvatī. Short kulakas are found throughout the SKA, and several hymns include lengthy ones. The first twenty-​five verses of the twentieth stotra, for instance, all praise Śiva’s smile. They are syntactically dependent on the first verse, except that verses sixteen through twenty-​five refer to a dream that Pārvatī had about Śiva and form a nine-​verse kulaka within the larger set. Such complex literary constructions, unusual for most stotras, signal that Jagaddhara envisions his poem in the same league as the great works of kāvya.49 The most obvious parallel between the SKA and Sanskrit literature more generally is the ubiquitous use of literary “ornaments” (alaṅkāras). Such figures adorn every one of Jagaddhara’s verses, and indeed every quarter verse. Simple

broadly. Occasionally, Jagaddhara gestures to this early history by using metaphors relating to dance and theater, as in SKA 36.5, translated in Chapter 5. 48.  iyaṃ madhuśrīr iva kelikānanaṃ sarovaraṃ prāvṛḍ ivātapakṣatam /​ stavāvalī kāvyakutūhalaṃ satām akālajīrṇaṃ taruṇīkariṣyati //​ SKA 38.19 //​ 49. For examples of other such groupings in the SKA, see SKA 8.9–​33, 9.61–​79, 10.9–​24, and 22.1–​11.

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and sophisticated similes and metaphors abound, as do various types of alliteration, consonance, and assonance.50 He incorporates and combines an impressive array of specific literary figures in his poetry, such as complex instances of “poetic fancy” (utprekṣā). He speculates, for instance, that the heavenly bodies in the sky, jealous of the crescent moon on Śiva’s head, seem to have resorted to his feet as his toenails, which have been colored gold by the filaments falling from the flower-​garlands on the heads of gods, demons, and kings bowing at Śiva’s feet.51 Other figures include “rhetorical doubt” (saṃśaya or saṃdeha)52 and “the appearance of paradox” (virodhābhāsa). Exemplifying the latter, he prays that fearsome Śiva will destroy your fears, and refers to him as both bhava (another name for Śiva) and abhava—​which looks like “not bhava” but here means “beyond limited, cyclical existence.”53 Jagaddhara’s extensive application of and experimentation with a wide variety of literary figures aligns his poetry with the larger tradition of Sanskrit kāvya. Let us consider his use of one literary figure in particular:  śleṣa, complex punning or what Yigal Bronner glosses as “simultaneous narration.”54 Literally, śleṣa means an “embrace” and refers to the use of a single sequence of phonemes to express two or more meanings. It benefits from the compilation of dictionaries and other language resources, as well as literary practices like the resegmentation of syllables to form different words. The SKA begins and ends with śleṣa. In its first five verses, Jagaddhara uses a series of śleṣas to compares his poetry (sarasvatī) to the Sarasvatī river, a stringed instrument, a virtuous woman, a royal goose, and Pārvatī.55 The final verse of the last stotra in the SKA returns to the subject of sarasvatī, both the goddess of speech and poetry itself, using śleṣas to suggest that Jagaddhara has saved her from degrading promiscuity and returned her to amorous fealty and felicity, specifically by saving her from political eulogy and devoting her to Śiva alone.56 Simple and complex śleṣas occur throughout the SKA

50. For some particularly clear examples of these, see SKA 2.2, 2.5, 3.6, 3.8, 3.10, 13.6, 14.7, and 17.1. Such figures, especially the repetition of the same words with different meanings (lāṭānuprāsa), are closely related to the figure of yamaka, which I discuss later in this chapter. 51. pāyād vas trijagadguruḥ smaraharaḥ sopagrahāṇāṃ śiraḥśyāmākāmukamatsareṇa caraṇau paṅktir grahāṇām iva /​ yasya prahvasurāsureśvaraśiromandāramālāgalatkiñjalkotkara­ piñjaronmukha­nakhaśreṇīnibhenāśritā //​ SKA 3.48 //​ 52. See, for example, SKA 37.7. 53.  sa yasya cāpāt sapadi cyuto ‘cyutaḥ śikhābhir ugro viśikhaḥ śikhāvataḥ /​ purāṇy akārṣīd apurāṇi bhairavo bhayāni bhindyād abhavo bhavaḥ sa vaḥ //​ SKA 7.3 //​ 54.  Yigal Bronner, Extreme Poetry:  The South Asian Movement of Simultaneous Narration (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010). 55. SKA 1.1–​1.5. In 1.1–​1.3 the word sarasvatī itself has two meanings, while in 1.4 and 1.5 it is only the adjectives describing it that have multiple meanings. 56. SKA 39.16 (translated in Chapter 5).



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with such frequency and centrality that it is worth considering their role more closely. Śleṣa is a powerful literary and aesthetic tool. Much of its potential can be seen in Jagaddhara’s Dīnākrandanastotra (Cry of the wretched), an emotionally climactic poem that is also the longest individual section of the SKA—​about 10 percent of the whole text. Jagaddhara uses śleṣas throughout this hymn’s 143 verses. Consider the hymn’s third verse: I am blessed! Even though my views are blinded by the darkness of delusion, by fate and by grace I have composed this beautiful, skillfully indirect poetry endowed with good qualities to worship mountain-​dwelling Śiva. 57 This translates the verse’s primary meaning, but through the multivalence of several words and compounds it contains a second, “skillfully indirect” meaning: I am blessed! Even though my eyes are blind with the disease of darkness, by fate and by grace I have taken up this sweet-​sounding vīṇā, curved and stringed, in order to worship mountain-​dwelling Śiva. The verse compares the poet and his poetry to a blind musician and his offering of music from the string instrument called the vīṇā. Both poet and musician are blind in their own way, but they are actually blessed, since they make offerings in the worship of Śiva. Jagaddhara’s use of śleṣas in this stotra often allows him to adopt an insistent or even argumentative tone beyond the basic meaning of his words. For instance, he challenges Śiva in a verse that narrates two things at once, converging in a singular statement in the second half of the verse:

“This fickle idiot58 has strayed from his own high place and will wander on many bad paths”—​

“She has descended from her own lofty abode, she moves here and there, her nature is water, and she follows different courses on earth”—​

57. dhanyo ‘smi mohatimirāndhadṛśo ‘pi yasya sānugraheṇa vidhinā parikalpitā me /​ valgusvanā guṇavatī dhṛtavakrabhaṅgir ārādhanāya giriśasya sarasvatīyam //​ SKA 11.3 //​ 58.  As we saw in Chapter  5, Sanskrit poets sometimes allow the interchangeability of the consonants “ḍ” and “l”. In one reading of the verse, the compound must be read as jaḍaprakṛtiḥ (“one whose nature is idiotic”), and in the other as jalaprakṛtiḥ (“one whose nature is water”); cf. SKA 11.22.

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If you abandon me, thinking such thoughts, then why do you hold the Ganges river on your head? She is just like this!59 The juxtaposed sections translate the same set of syllables twice. Here Jagaddhara uses śleṣas to argue with Śiva, using logic based on a play of words and Śiva’s standard iconography (in this case, the Ganges river that descends from the heavens to Śiva’s head before flowing on to the earth) to obtain his chosen deity’s favor. In some cases, Jagaddhara’s śleṣas govern the majority or entirety of a verse. Here are the two meanings of one verse: What can I say about my great misfortune? After forcibly teaching me about being unsupported, shunned by the wise, lusterless, ineffectual, and devoid of any joy, it deposited me at Sthāṇu’s feet. What can I say about my great misfortune? After quickly pointing out that it had no branches, flowers, shade, fruits or sap, it left me at the base of a bare trunk (sthāṇu).60 In the first meaning, fate has made Sthāṇu—​another name for Śiva—​the poet’s only refuge. The second heightens the perception of his pitiable state with the image of the forlorn and bare tree trunk (sthāṇu). As we have seen in similar cases, on one hand the verse expresses the poet’s devotion and complete dependence on Śiva, but on the other it contains a veiled criticism that Śiva should be more than simply a bare trunk for his devotees. In such verses the poet enriches the emotional content of his poetry and also challenges Śiva himself. Jagaddhara participates in a long tradition of “skillfully indirect” poetry in Kashmir. This goes back at least to the ninth century, when Ratnākara used deliberate distortion and wordplay in his VP. Moreover, these distortions develop the characters of the poem’s hero and heroine and also advance its plot, as McCrea

59.  atyunnatān nijapadāc capalaś cyuto ‘yaṃ bhūrīn bhramiṣyati jaḍaprakṛtiḥ kumārgān /​ matveti cet tyajasi mām ayam īdṛg eva gāṅgas tvayā kim iti mūrdhni dhṛtaḥ pravāhaḥ //​ SKA 11.39 //​ 60.  kiṃ varṇayāmi gurutāṃ vipadaḥ pade māṃ sthāṇor nyayuṅkta yad iyaṃ sahasopadiṣya /​ niḥśākhatāṃ sumanasām anupeyabhāvaṃ vicchāyatāṃ viphalatāṃ rasahīnatāṃ ca //​ SKA 11.82 //​



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and Bronner have argued.61 In general, this applies to Jagaddhara’s use of śleṣa and intentionally distortional speech as well. Śiva’s features and deeds are praised through Jagaddhara’s verses, as is Jagaddhara’s wretchedness. There is no plot per se in his work as a whole, but śleṣa serves the themes and tone of individual stotras. As we have seen in the examples from the Dīnākrandanastotra, śleṣa highlights Śiva’s greatness and Jagaddhara’s low state, but in doing so it supports Jagaddhara’s arguments that Śiva must help the poet.62 Overall, Jagaddhara uses śleṣa to make explicit or implicit comparisons, facilitate intimate and often bold exchanges with Śiva, and develop the themes of individual stotras. Jagaddhara’s creative and sophisticated use of literary figures throughout the SKA and the size, scope, and complexity of this text suggest his ambition for the stotra form. His drive to champion this genre is also evident in his views on the nature of poetry and the relationship between praise hymns and poetics that are encoded throughout his verses. Frequently Jagaddhara incorporates elements of poetic theory into his poetry; in the SKA, the central analytic categories of Sanskrit poetics become interwoven into the overarching project of praising Śiva.63 Through his incorporation and affirmation of poetic theory in his composition, Jagaddhara establishes a broad, inclusive perspective on poetry that allows for the full acceptance of his stotras within the framework of Sanskrit literature (kāvya) and poetics (alaṅkāraśāstra). Like almost all authors who address the nature and value of poetry in Kashmir after Ānandavardhana, Jagaddhara pays tribute to the importance of rasa and dhvani. He says, for instance, that learning is only fruitful when it blossoms in poetry (vāṇī) that is sweet and full of rasa (sarasamadhurā), and he lauds that praise to Śiva that always produces rasa (rasakṛt) for connoisseurs.64 Elsewhere he states that in the end there is no true friend or support other than the nectarian praise of Śiva in which there is sweet suggestion (madhuradhvani).65 As with many of these statements, this can be interpreted technically or not; madhuradhvani could simply mean “whose sounds are sweet,” but the technical meaning of dhvani

61.  See Yigal Bronner and Lawrence McCrea, “The Poetics of Distortive Talk:  Plot and Character in Ratnākara’s ‘Fifty Verbal Perversion’ (Vakroktipañcāśikā),” Journal of Indian Philosophy 29 (2001):  435–​464, and also Bronner’s paraphrase of their work in Bronner, Extreme Poetry, 158. 62. For another example, see SKA 11.39, translated earlier, in which Jagaddhara asks how Śiva could reject him when he is just like the Ganges river goddess Śiva bears on his head. 63. This can be seen in earlier works, such as Maṅkha’s Śrīkaṇṭhacaritra, but it is more widespread and insistent in the SKA than in earlier poetry. 64. SKA 17.5 and 23.26. 65. SKA 30.4.

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(“suggestion,” “implicature”) is also present. Sweetness (mādhurya) is also an important category for poetics, part of the old triad of poetic qualities generally accepted by Sanskrit writers. Jagaddhara often implies that only poetry with such literary figures has religious efficacy. For instance, he says that only speech (sarasvatī) fresh with rasa (sarasā) and intent on the lord is capable of destroying the affliction of rebirth.66 The importance of both rasa and dhvani can be seen in this elegant śleṣa verse comparing poetry for Śiva to fresh rain clouds for peacocks (whose breeding season is linked to the rainy season, and who, according to the conventions of Sanskrit poetry, sing and dance with the onset of rain clouds): Surely, this pure sequence of numerous praises (nava) full of poetic suggestion (dhvani) with rasa at its core will make the blue-​throated, majestic Śiva, decorated by a digit of the moon, totally happy, just as this unbroken row of new clouds, thundering loudly and laden with water, delights the blue-​throated peacock decorated by plumes of abundant beauty.67 Through such verses, Jagaddhara characterizes rasa and dhvani as the key features of devotional poetry that succeeds in pleasing Śiva. Jagaddhara does not, however, identify and praise specific rasas; in part, this may be tied to his sensibilities as a poet seeking to “show” rather than “tell” such emotion. (We will consider one notable exception to this—​aestheticized devotion [bhaktirasa]—​in the next chapter.) He usually depicts rasa and dhvani in general terms as essential features of the best Śaiva poetry. He certainly sees himself composing poetry that employs dhvani and gives rise to rasa for some audiences. He says that he does not produce rasa for those who do not have Śaiva devotion, implying that he does for those who do, and elsewhere he explicitly describes himself as producing rasa.68 He often refers to his own Śaiva poetry as being full of rasa (e.g., uditarasā).69 He hopes that good people—​that is, poetic connoisseurs—​will

66. SKA 7.15. 67.  dhruvaṃ navānāṃ rasagarbhanirbharadhvanir ghanānām anagheyam āvaliḥ /​ pṛthuprabhāvaṃ śaśikhaṇḍamaṇḍitaṃ praharṣiṇaṃ nīlagalaṃ kariṣyati //​ SKA 38.10 //​Note that for the peacock reading, the third quarter must be read as a long compound: pṛthuprabhāvaṃśaśikhaṇḍamaṇḍitaṃ. 68. SKA 17.8 and 30.77. Of course, in these verses rasa does not necessarily have a technical meaning as aestheticized emotion, but they are highly suggestive of such discourse nonetheless. For more on the nuances of such examples, see Chapter 7. 69. SKA 23.10.



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relish (rasayantu) the rasa he has created.70 Such statements usually emphasize two things: the devotion of his poetry to Śiva, and the fact that it is full of rasa or dhvani. For Jagaddhara, rasa and dhvani are values closely associated with kāvya, and he strives to establish them as central to his devotional, literary hymns. Many of his verses combine affirmations of rasa and dhvani with other central concepts of Sanskrit poetics. The third verse of the first stotra, for example, uses śleṣas to compare poetry to a woman who can please her husband: This devotional poetry (sarasvatī) (of mine) has a beautiful style (ramyarīti). It is faultless (anaghā) and shines with poetic qualities (guṇojjvalā). It is sweet with pleasing meters, full of rasa, and adorned (with literary figures) (alaṅkṛtā). May it please the heart of the lord just as a beloved wife of noble conduct, sinless and shining with good qualities, sweet, pleasing in appearance, and beautifully adorned, pleases the heart of her husband! 71 Jagaddhara’s characterization presents a synthesizing view of good poetry, one that celebrates the poetic styles or “ways” (rīti), poetic qualities (guṇa), prosody, rasa, and poetic figures (alaṅkāra). This general and inclusive depiction is seen in many other verses, such as SKA 5.31, which introduces an extensive list of concepts as it uses śleṣa to praise both the poet and his poetry: the standard poetic qualities (guṇa) of vigor (ojas), sweetness (mādhurya), and clarity (prasāda); the poetic ways or styles (rīti, mārga); the three functions of language, namely direct denotation (abhidhā), secondary expression (bhakti, a synonym for lakṣaṇā), and suggestion or implicature (vyakti, a synonym for dhvani); appropriateness (aucitya); adornment with poetic figures (alaṅkāra); prosody; and refinement, including the implied use of Sanskrit (indicated here by the epithet aprākṛta, “refined” or “not vulgar,” in addition to “not Prakrit”).72 Since Jagaddhara picks up on so many central concepts from Sanskrit poetics, it is worth emphasizing what he does not reiterate. Most importantly, he never refers to dhvani as the soul of poetry, as Ānandavardhana and his followers had

70. SKA 39.10. 71.  ramyarītir anaghā guṇojjvalā cāruvṛttarucirā rasānvitā /​ rañjayatv iyam alaṅkṛtā manaḥ svāminaḥ praṇayinī sarasvatī //​ SKA 1.3 //​ 72.  ojasvī madhuraḥ prasādaviśadaḥ saṃskāraśuddho ‘bhidhābhaktivyaktiviśiṣṭarītir ucitair arthair dhṛtālaṅkṛtiḥ /​ vṛttasthaḥ paripākavān avirasaḥ sadvṛttir aprākṛtaḥ śasyaḥ kasya na satkavir bhuvi yathā tasyaiva sūktikramaḥ //​ SKA 5.31 //​

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done.73 Nor does he subscribe to the tripartite classification of poetry, based on the role of suggestion, into higher poetry (in which dhvani is predominant), intermediate poetry (in which dhvani is secondary), and lower poetry (citrakāvya, in which there is no dhvani). The SKA affirms the centrality of rasa and dhvani and the importance of other categories from poetics like the poetic qualities (guṇas). Jagaddhara seems far more concerned with incorporating and preserving these various features of the tradition of Sanskrit poetics in Kashmir than he is with adjudicating between competing positions. Notably, Jagaddhara’s SKA also celebrates citrakāvya poetry, and this brings together many of the themes covered thus far. In particular, he champions the combination of citrakāvya with other styles of poetic composition, both in verses sprinkled throughout the collection and in a multi-​hymn section of the text focused on citrakāvya. This section presents a systematic view of one type of citrakāvya poetry, based on the formal analysis of the type, location, and regularity of repeated syllables (yamaka).

Embracing Citrakāvya Citrakāvya is a widespread and striking feature of Sanskrit kāvya. The term citrakāvya means “brilliant” or “flashy” poetry, or in some cases “picture poetry.” It can refer to various kinds of wordplay, including striking patterns, puzzles, riddles, and verses that encode instructions for creating a specific image (e.g., a lotus). In general, citrakāvya involves some specific poetic virtuosity, either by emphasizing a poetic figure or presenting a particular challenge for its audience.74 Jagaddhara fully embraces the complexities of this style. Nine consecutive stotras in the SKA can be classified as citrakāvya.75 This citrakāvya section begins dramatically with the twenty-​second stotra, which is markedly different from the hymns that precede it. While the first twenty-​one stotras deploy a variety of poetic

73. See Ingalls et al., trans., Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana, 47. 74. On citrakāvya and the historiography of Sanskrit literature, see Steven M. Vose, “Jain Uses of Citrakāvya and Multiple-​Language Hymns in Late Medieval India:  Situating the Laghukāvya Hymns of Jinaprabhasūri in the ‘Assembly of Poets’,” International Journal of Hindu Studies 20, no. 3 (December 2016). 75. The names of these stotras themselves suggest they should be interpreted differently than the others, and they have also been understood as citrakāvya by later readers. Ratnakaṇṭha explicitly identifies them as citrakāvya in the opening lines of his commentaries on each (except for the twenty-​eighth stotra, which he does not explicitly identify as citrakāvya, but it clearly fits into the same literary pattern as the stotras around it). In his twentieth-​century Hindi translation/​commentary on the SKA, Premavallabha Tripāṭhī, who generally follows Ratnakaṇṭha’s interpretations, introduces most of these stotras by explicitly calling them citrakāvya. Tripāṭhī’s translation/​commentary, called the Premamakaranda, is integrated in his edition of the SKA (Panta, Tripāṭhī, and Vaijāpurakara, Stutikusumāñjali).



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figures to offer homage and praise Śiva, often focusing on specific themes like service or devotion, the twenty-​second stotra elevates and highlights the use of poetic figuration, and specifically alliteration. The title of the stotra makes this clear: it is called the Kādipadabandhastotra (Hymn composed of words beginning with “k”) because each word in its eleven verses praising Śiva begins with the letter “k.” Consider the first verse, given here with the separate words divided by a hyphen: kāvya-​kauśala-​kalāsu kovidaiḥ kīrtitaḥ kavi-​kulaiḥ kutūhalāt /​ kaumudī-​kumuda-​kānta-​kīrtibhiḥ kāmitaḥ kuśala-​kārya-​kāribhiḥ // He is celebrated eagerly by groups of poets experienced in the skills and artistry of poetry; he is sought out by those whose deeds have auspicious results, and whose brilliance is beautiful like moonlight or white lotuses.76 While the literal meaning of such verses is generally pleasing, their main poetic appeal derives from their aural components, their poetic figures based on qualities of sound (śabdālaṅkāras).77 No other parts of the SKA fully repeat the twenty-​second stotra’s dramatic alliteration, but the eight stotras that follow present a different kind of citrakāvya. This set begins with the twenty-​third stotra (Hymn composed as an overlapping chain of words), in which a verbal “chain” is formed by the repetition of the three syllables that end each quarter verse (pāda) at the beginning of the next quarter verse, including from the end of one verse to the beginning of the next. The final verse ends with the same three syllables with which the poem begins. This type of pattern is called a yamaka. Yamaka refers to the “twinning” or “repetition” of a string of syllables with a different meaning for each iteration. As scholars have noted, yamaka is distinct from but closely related to śleṣa; it is “a pun spelled out.”78 Jagaddhara employs yamaka systematically from the twenty-​ third to the thirtieth stotra (295 verses, roughly 20  percent of the SKA). The titles given to these stotras indicate the general approach taken in each. For example, in the

76. SKA 22.1. 77.  Gary Tubb notes that the same is true even for Māgha, one of the greatest poets of Sanskrit literature. Describing his use of yamaka in the Śiśupālavadha, Tubb points out that “the difficulty of composing yamakas often precludes the achievement of anything very organized on the level of meaning” (Tubb, “Kāvya with Bells On,” 177). 78.  Edwin Gerow, Glossary of Indian Figures of Speech (Paris:  Mouton, 1971), 223; see also Bronner, Extreme Poetry, 21, 60–​64, 178–​180. On yamaka in general, see Tubb, “Kāvya with Bells On,” and Renate Sohnen, “On the Concept and Presentation of ‘Yamaka’ in Early Indian Poetic Theory,” in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 58, no. 3 (1995).

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twenty-​fourth stotra (Hymn with repetition in two places), a set of at least two (but usually more) syllables is repeated at the end of the first and third quarter verses and another set at the end of the second and fourth. The twenty-​sixth stotra (Hymn with repetition at the beginning of its verses) involves the repetition of syllables at the beginning of each quarter verse. Similarly, the twenty-​seventh (Hymn with repetition in the middle of its verses) and the twenty-​eighth (Hymn with repetition at the end of its verses) contain repetition of syllables within and at the end of their quarter verses, respectively. This sequence of stotras culminates in the thirtieth stotra (Hymn with great repetition), the densest and most complex hymn in this section of the SKA. Notably, these yamaka verses are in a variety of meters, making the accomplishment of elaborate repetitions even more impressive. One can see a logical progression in the sequence of stotras in this section, and also within most of these individual stotras themselves.79 In general, the end of these hymns is signaled by changes and crescendos in the use of yamaka. An internal progression is especially apparent in the thirtieth stotra. Over the course of the entire hymn, the difficulty and ambition of the yamakas that Jagaddhara employs increase. He begins with partial-​verse yamakas—​that is, repetition of part of a quarter verse in another quarter verse—​and gradually increases the intensity of repetition. The twenty-​third verse, for example, begins a section in which a different three-​syllable series is repeated three times in each quarter verse: sadaya modaya modayamokṣadaṃ kṛśamadaḥ śamadaḥ śam adaḥ kuru /​ na hi tatā hitatāhitatāyanaiḥ kṛtanute tanute tanu te śubham //​ O compassionate one, make me rejoice! You are beyond pride and bestow equanimity. Give me your blessing which leads to salvation! O you who are praised by protectors [ like Viṣṇu80], when your favor is manifest it spreads more than just a little auspiciousness!81

79. Note that the tradition of using yamaka to create patterns within large literary works goes back at least to Kālidāsa and is an important part of many mahākāvyas (Tubb, “Kāvya with Bells On,” especially 159–​173). 80. The translation of this line follows Ratnakaṇṭha’s interpretation (Laghupañcikā, p. 206). 81. SKA 30.23. The semantic content of the verse, such as the petitions and praises to Śiva and the celebration of the power of praise itself, are certainly in line with the SKA as a whole, but it is not very elegant. The focus here is clearly on poetic figures based on the sound and form of the language (śabdālaṅkāra) rather than those based on its meaning (arthālaṅkāra).



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By the forty-​second verse, each verse contains eight repetitions of the same two syllables (e.g., manyā), once at the start and once at the end of each quarter verse; by the fifty-​ninth verse, each verse contains eight repetitions of the same three syllables (e.g., sahasā) at the beginning and end of each quarter verse. The sixty-​ eighth verse repeats a different set of two syllables four times at the beginning of each quarter verse (e.g., kalakalakalakala), and in the seventy-​first, the last half of each quarter verse is the first half of the next. In the seventy-​second, the first and second quarter verses are the same, as are the third and fourth, and in the seventy-​ third and seventy-​fourth, the first half of each verse is identical to the second half. This progression culminates with a meditation on Śiva’s iconographical form filled with allusions to his famous exploits in the seventy-​fifth and seventy-​sixth verses, which are identical. In the other words, the same set of syllables makes up two verses with entirely different meanings—​it is a śleṣa unpacked. This particular repetition exemplifies the specific figure known as mahāyamaka, “great repetition,”82 which gives this hymn its name (Mahāyamakastotra). Jagaddhara concludes the stotra with five more verses filled with yamaka that focus on the multiple audiences for the hymn. He prays that his offering of praise-​poetry pleases Śiva (SKA 30.79) and then shifts to his human audience for the final two verses. In the penultimate verse he hopes that his poetry, with its praises of Śiva, will delight the hearts of the wise like a sun in the darkness.83 Then in the final verse he says: varṣāvarṣāyamāṇā sahṛdayaśikhināṃ saṃhitānāṃ hitānāṃ dātrī dātrī tṛṇānām iva lavanapaṭur duṣkṛtānāṃ kṛtānām /​ kalyā kalyāṇadāne nutir iyam aśubhaṃ tarjayantī jayantī viśvaṃ viśvambharāntaṃ prasaratu surabhīnandanasyandanasya //​ It pours down rain for the peacocks84 who are the learned (sahṛdaya) and bestows great benefits. It is capable of cutting down sins that have been committed, like a sickle for grass. It gives good fortune, banishes misfortune, and surpasses all. May this praise to Śiva, who travels on a bull, extend to the ends of the universe!85

82. This figure is sometimes referred to as ślokābhyāsayamaka (Gerow, Glossary of Indian Figures of Speech, 233–​234). 83. kāntā kāntāramadhye sarid iva sakulakṣmādharāyāṃ dharāyāṃ yātā yā tāratamyaṃ kva na vimalamatiprekṣaṇena kṣaṇena /​ sābhāsā bhāratīyaṃ tanur iva taraṇer andhakāre ‘ndhakāreḥ stutyā stutyā budhānāṃ madayatu hṛdayaṃ glānitāntaṃ nitāntam //​ SKA 30.80 //​ 84. Peacocks are conventionally understood as rejoicing at the coming of the rainy season. 85. SKA 30.81.

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His comparison of learned, sensitive readers (sahṛdaya) enjoying his poetry to peacocks overjoyed at the coming of rain (a standard poetic convention) calls to mind this chapter’s epigraph; once again we see his poetic hymns praised as that which will revitalize and delight poetic connoisseurs. At the same time, yamaka is still front and center in this verse, which concludes an eighty-​one-​verse hymn and a multi-​hymn section packed with yamaka and verbal ornaments in general. Why does Jagaddhara give yamaka such a prominent role, to the extent that the formal features of the poetry in this section often seem to overshadow its semantic content? The systematic organization of Jagaddhara’s yamaka-​focused stotras is significant. This organization establishes a progression, a dramatic crescendo that creates movement within the SKA overall, and also within individual stotras. This is perhaps particularly important in such a lengthy stotra composition. Here it would seem to be a literary ornament, rather than the sustained narrative of other forms of poetry, that governs internal movement. Jagaddhara’s systematic presentation of yamakas also suggests the inheritance and preservation of a body of knowledge. The reason for this may have been at least partially pedagogical. Following Bronner’s lead, it is possible to recognize the teaching potential for a collection of stotras that also encodes systematic information about the formal analysis of poetry.86 Jagaddhara’s treatment of yamaka mirrors that of the early works on poetics, like Daṇḍin’s Kāvyādarśa: it focuses on the formal features of yamaka and catalogues the various places within a verse the repetition can occur.87 Like Jagaddhara’s commentary on the Kātantra system of grammar, which was clearly intended to instruct students, the SKA may have been intended as a tool for teaching. The inclusion of a significant citrakāvya section also suggests that Jagaddhara was attempting to be inclusive in his continuation and adaptation of Sanskrit literary traditions. Many literary critics—​modern and premodern, South Asian and non–​South Asian alike—​have denigrated citrakāvya over the centuries, but Sanskrit poets frequently composed citrakāvya poetry, and the use of extensive yamaka was common.88 As Pollock notes, Ānandavardhana’s criticism of citrakāvya in the ninth century hardly influenced the practice of poets, and “if anything, the

86. Yigal Bronner, “Singing to God, Educating the People: Appayya Dīkṣita and the Function of Stotras,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 127, no. 2 (2007). 87. Tubb, “Kāvya with Bells On,” 159. 88. For examples of South Asian critics, see Pollock, Rasa Reader, 74–​75; Bhaṭṭa Lollata’s assessment, as quoted by Hemacandra, is particularly harsh: “All the variety of sound figures, ‘twinned’ forms (yamaka) and the rest . . . completely impede the rasa, and if not simply a poet’s egotistical ostentation, are a result of his blindly following convention” (ibid., 75). Gerow, following Ānandavardhana, presents the common modern view: “After the triumph of the dhvani theory, yamaka comes to be considered the type par excellence of citrakāvya, the lowest of the three varieties of poetry, which embodies nothing of poetic value and displays mere virtuosity” (Gerow, Glossary of Indian Figures of Speech, 225). On Ānandavardhana’s divisions of poetry, see Lawrence J. McCrea, The Teleology of Poetics in Medieval Kashmir,



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popularity of citrakāvya only increased in the following centuries.”89 Recent work on the history of kāvya has shown just how widespread citrakāvya and yamaka, in particular, were.90 In fact, yamaka was a common feature of mahākāvyas from Kālidāsa onward, and Jagaddhara seems to have been consciously following in the footsteps of mahākāvya authors by including such a large section of yamaka-​based citrakāvya in his work.91 He gives citrakāvya the respect and gravity it deserves as a form of poetry championed by the authors of prestigious mahākāvyas, just as generations of great poets had done before him. It also demonstrates his mastery of this complex and erudite style of composition.92 Furthermore, while many Sanskrit literary theorists are skeptical of how conducive yamaka is for the evocation of rasa, they also recognize that yamaka has its place. Ānandavardhana, for instance, accepts that yamaka can be appropriate as long as it is not used for evoking rasas that are seen as especially delicate, such as the erotic (śṛṅgāra) or the tragic (karuṇa).93 Abhinavagupta even defends the use of yamaka and other such figures in romantic poetry against the charge of artificiality if it does not undermine the evocation of rasa.94 As Gary Tubb’s analysis of Māgha’s use of yamaka argues, yamaka can be used effectively to evoke rasas such as the miraculous (adbhuta) that do not necessarily require specific human interactions, like those between two lovers for the erotic. This means that in his description of mountains in the fourth canto of his mahākāvya Māgha can employ extensive yamaka—​flashy and spectacular like the glittering, gem-​studded mountains he describes—​to evoke the astonishing, miraculous rasa.95 Given Ānandavardhana’s views on yamaka, it may be that the reason for using such complex citrakāvya in his DŚ was to evoke the miraculous rasa; in other words, since his devotional praise to the goddess did not involve normal human interactions, the most suitable rasa may have been the

Harvard Oriental Series 71 (Cambridge, MA: Published by the Dept. of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University; distributed by Harvard University Press, 2008), 232–​246. 89. Pollock, “Sanskrit Literary Culture from the Inside Out,” 52n28. 90. See the essays in Bronner, Shulman, Tubb, eds., Innovation and Turning Points, especially Chapters 5, 7, and 8. 91. See Tubb, “Kāvya with Bells On,” for the early history of yamaka and kāvya. 92. Vose prioritizes and expands upon a similar argument in his analysis of Jinaprabhusūri’s citrakāvya hymns (“Jain Uses of Citrakāvya”). 93.  Tubb, “Kāvya with Bells On,” 158–​ 159 (which quotes the relevant passage in the Dhvanyāloka, 2.16 f.), and 187. 94. J. L. Masson, “When Is a Poem Artificial? A Note on the Ghaṭakarparavivṛti,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 95, no. 2 (1975). 95. Ibid., 187–​188.

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miraculous. Hence using flashy poetic devices like the elaborate “great wheel” image constructed out of syllables from the poem’s verses may have been part of his evocation of astonishment and wonder in praise of the goddess.96 Something similar seems to be going on in Jagaddhara’s poetry, where his extended section of citrakāvya often seems designed to evoke the miraculous. Consider this verse, in which the syllables in the second and fourth quarter verses are identical: tava savahariṇaṃ ghnatī maharṣiṃ yam akṛta cāpalatā navāsamādhim /​ punar api dṛg alambhayat tavainaṃ yamakṛtacāpalatānavā samādhim //​ Your bow, which killed the sacrificial animal, caused that great sage (Dakṣa) unprecedented mental anguish (asamādhi97). On the other hand, your glance, which humbled Yama’s insolence, caused this same sage (Dakṣa) to obtain mental peace (samādhi).98 In the well-​known story to which this refers, Śiva destroys Dakṣa’s sacrifice and beheads Dakṣa himself, foreshadowed in this verse by his killing of the sacrificial animal, a stand-​in for Dakṣa—​hence his extreme anxiety. Yet Śiva is eventually placated and brings Dakṣa back to life, thereby humbling the insolence of Yama, the god of death, and removing all of Dakṣa’s agitation. Amazingly, Śiva is able to both cause and relieve mental anguish (samādhi and asamādhi), and the suggested wonder of this is aided by the repetition of syllables in the second and fourth quarter verses:  the syllables are the same, yet the meanings are so different. Jagaddhara combines the extensive use of yamaka and other poetic figures with the dhvani-​ and rasa-​centered view of poetry that came to dominate the Kashmirian tradition of poetics. There is one final explanation for Jagaddhara’s extensive use of yamaka that warrants attention. As Tubb notes, yamaka, and poetic figures based on sound (śabdālaṅkāra) in general, can be a kind of verbal echo for a brilliant subject being described, such as beautiful mountains. Moreover, “an extended performance of yamaka-​style repetitions, like any regular repetition of sounds that goes on long

96. As David Buchta argues, “The composition of such highly embellished stotras was not uncommon. This extensive use of ornamentation is, I  would argue, befitting devotional poetry, where the ornamented poem decorates and glorifies the object of devotion, just as a temple icon is elaborately ornamented” (“Evoking Rasa Through Stotra,” 358). I would add that the ornamentation of temple icons—​and temple complexes overall—​also aims to evoke astonishment and wonder in devotees. 97.  As Ratnakaṇṭha explains in his commentary, navāsamādhim here means “he whose mental anguish (ādhi) is unprecedented (nava) and unequalled (asama)” (Laghupañcikā, p. 204). 98. SKA 30.12.



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enough, may also have a sort of hypnotic or musical effect, that will build cumulatively as long as the performance continues.”99 Jagaddhara acknowledges the value of sound in many of his yamaka verses, such as this one: bhrāmyatu draviṇatṛṣṇayā bhṛśaṃ mānasaṃ sadinamānasaṃ sadi /​ tvatstavāmṛtam ṛte tu dustare bandhuradhvani na bandhur adhvani //​ [O Śiva], my mind could wander repeatedly, out of a thirst for wealth, in the assembly hall respected by great kings, but on the difficult path there is no friend but the ambrosia of your praise, full of sweet sounds.100 The yamaka in bold in the second and fourth quarters is readily apparent, but note also the alliteration throughout the non-​yamaka quarters as well. The key phrase bandhuradhvani describes the ambrosia of praise as “having pleasing sounds,” which may be a reference specifically to the kind of poetic repetition found in this extensive yamaka section of the SKA. But dhvani is also the technical term for aesthetic suggestion, as Jagaddhara knew, and thus the verse also praises praise-​ poetry full of pleasing suggestion.101 Poetic ornaments based on sound, such as yamaka, can echo the semantic content of a poem and can create musical or even hypnotic effects, but I would push this analysis of such figures one step further: yamaka can produce aesthetic pleasure for an audience even if that audience does not comprehend the meaning of that poetry. One can speculate that Jagaddhara may have intended for his poetry to be appreciated even by those who did not fully understand his complex Sanskrit. In his fifth stotra, he hints that some poetry can produce delight just by being heard:  he praises those poets “whose poetry, sweet like nectar, produces rapture when it is heard, even if its taste (rasa) isn’t savored.”102 Ratnakaṇṭha’s commentary explains that poetry rich with suggestive meaning can produce wonder just by being heard.103 Jagaddhara does not often circumvent the actual experience of rasa in this way and he consistently stresses its importance in good poetry. But occasionally he does suggest a different way of appreciating poetry, as when, later in the fifth stotra, he says:

99. Tubb, “Kāvya with Bells On,” 161–​162. 100. SKA 30.4. 101.  Ratnakaṇṭha interprets dhvani as suggestion in his commentary and quotes the Kāvyaprakāśa’s statement (going back to Ānandavardhana) that dhvani is the mark of the best (uttama) variety of poetry (Laghupañcikā, p. 202). 102. yeṣām acarvitarasāpi camatkaroti karṇe kṛtaiva bhaṇitir madhurā sudheva //​ SKA 5.5cd //​ 103.  bhaṇitir upacāravakralakṣyavyaṅgyārthasaṃnibaddhoktiḥ karṇe kṛtaiva śrutamātraiva camatkaroti. Laghupañcikā, p. 33.

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Even those who don’t understand the bare meaning of its words listen to it, like deer hearing a melody, and become transfixed, as if in a painting.104 I praise that poetry of the best of poets!105 Perhaps, therefore, Jagaddhara’s extensive use of yamaka can be seen as part of a larger attempt to create poetry that is pleasing even for those who are not able to understand its full meaning.

Beyond Death and Decay We have seen how the SKA adopts the dominant features of Sanskrit kāvya and subscribes to the central positions of Sanskrit poetics to a far greater extent than earlier stotra literature. This important text also serves as a key witness in an influential debate about the history and nature of Sanskrit literary production in Kashmir. In his provocative article “The Death of Sanskrit,” Sheldon Pollock analyzes the dramatic shifts in the quality and quantity of Sanskrit texts—​particularly of Sanskrit literature and treatises on poetics—​that occurred during certain phases of Indian history. He considers four cases in particular, and the first is “the disappearance of Sanskrit literature in Kashmir, a premier center of literary creativity, after the thirteenth century.”106 His analysis uses the strong metaphor of death to describe the collapse or decay he chronicles, and he tries to explain the deep and complex factors that may have led to the demise of a certain kind of Sanskrit vitality in each case. In Kashmir, he argues, this was primarily due to the collapse of a stable social-​political system.107 He acknowledges that some kind of literary culture remained alive in Kashmir, but argues that this culture was reduced to mere “reinscription and restatement.”108 Thus he claims that “what was lost was [ . . . ] the ability to create new literature.”109 Pollock’s bold arguments have certainly garnered their share of criticism as well as misinterpretation. Some readers have too readily interpreted the “death

104. The phrase citrasthitāḥ here also suggests those who are fixated on citrakāvya itself. 105. śabdārthamātram api ye na vidanti te ‘pi yāṃ mūrchanām iva mṛgāḥ śravaṇaiḥ pibantaḥ /​ saṃruddhasarvakaraṇaprasarā bhavanti citrasthitā iva kavīndragiraṃ numas tām //​ SKA 5.17 //​ 106. Sheldon Pollock, “The Death of Sanskrit,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 43, no. 2 (April 2001): 395. 107. He refers to this as “the courtly-​civic ethos of Kashmir,” which he argues unraveled in the first centuries of the second millennium (ibid., 398). 108. Ibid. 109. Ibid.



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of Sanskrit” as a singular event closely tied to modernity, even though Pollock chronicles multiple cases of a rapid decline in Sanskrit production that span from the premodern and pre-​Mughal to colonial rule in Bengal. In his response to Pollock’s essay, Jürgen Hanneder argues for the inappropriateness of the metaphor of death. While he agrees with Pollock that “there are, sometimes dramatic, discontinuities in the history of Sanskritic culture as expressed in literary activity, that Sanskrit has in a sense died frequently, even though one cannot ignore the fact that it has reinvented itself in various ways,” he suggests that evidence supports a weaker argument for a “description of change,” rather than “death,” in the types of Sanskrit texts produced and in their circulation and consumption.110 More than anything, Hanneder tries to cast doubt on any argument based on negative evidence, such as the lack of literary works from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in Kashmir. As for later examples, he cites many that can be appreciated for their literary merit, such as the devotional poetry of Sāhib Kaul and Ratnakaṇṭha.111 Luther Obrock has challenged Pollock’s assessment of Sanskrit literary culture in fifteenth-​century Kashmir, arguing for the creativity and achievement of Śrīvara in particular.112 To this day, Pollock’s essay continues to generate productive (and often heated) debate about the conditions surrounding the vitality of Sanskrit literary production throughout the subcontinent, and it has necessitated careful consideration of our sources, including many that had been previously ignored.113 This is certainly true in the case of Kashmir. Pollock vividly describes the rich literary culture of twelfth-​century Kashmir, home to Sanskrit poets and scholars accomplished enough to rival those of any other period in Indian history. Yet by the end of that century, the brilliance of those literati had all but died out, he argues, never to be revived to anything close to its former glory:

110. Jürgen Hanneder, “On the Death of Sanskrit,” Indo-​Iranian Journal 45 (2002): 294, 298. 111. Ibid., 302. 112.  In contrast to Pollock’s low estimation, for example, Obrock argues that Śrīvara’s Jainataraṅgiṇῑ “is a work of intense creativity, pushing the boundaries of the Rājataraṅgiṇῑ-​ genre and the expressive power of Sanskrit as a political and literary language, inspired by and reacting to the vastly changed cultural landscape of fifteenth-​century Kashmir” (“Translation and History,” 93–​94). Obrock shows how the genres of ślokakathā and rājataraṅgiṇī, what he characterizes as “Kashmiri translational story literature” and “regional poetic history,” respectively, were developed and deployed in creative ways between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries in Kashmir. 113. The stakes for such debates are high. Rajiv Malhotra, for example, framed the issue in stark terms in his controversial book, The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred? Oppressive or Liberating? Dead or Alive? (New Delhi: HarperCollins, 2016). Whatever one’s views on the vitality of Sanskrit in the past and in the present, the debate about it is very much alive today.

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The production of literature in all of the major genres (courtly epic, drama, and the rest) ceased entirely, and the vast repertory of Sanskrit literary forms was reduced to the stotra (hymn). The generation of poets immediately following Maṅkha’s [fl. 1140] is almost a complete blank, and we know of only one work from the entire following century and a half. As for new literary theory, which had been produced in almost every generation from 800 on [ . . . ]—​this was over. The last work to circulate outside of Kashmir was the Alaṅkāraratnākara (Mine of Tropes) of Śobhākaramitra, probably from the end of the twelfth century. When in the fifteenth century Sanskrit literary culture again manifested itself, it was a radically-​altered formation, in respect to both what people wrote and how, historically, they regarded their work. [emphasis in bold added]114 I quote Pollock’s description at length because this chapter, and the discussion around stotra as kāvya, speaks directly to his argument. The “one work” known during this period of apparent decline is the SKA itself, from the latter half of the fourteenth century. It stands as a solitary witness to Sanskrit literary culture during this time, and it prompts us to reconsider Pollock’s assessment of this period.115 Pollock claims that the diversity of Sanskrit literary production was reduced to a single form, the stotra, and that “in terms of new literary works, the great experiments in moral and aesthetic imagination that marked the previous fifteen hundred years of Sanskrit literature have entirely disappeared, and instead, creativity was confined within the narrow limits of hymnic verse.”116 It is inevitable that if the SKA is our only extant literary text for a given period, it would represent a major reduction of literary forms. Yet as I have shown, the SKA is a highly creative and experimental text that promotes its own status as literature and cultivates an intricate relationship to the discourse of Sanskrit poetics. Jagaddhara is rooted in the traditions of Sanskrit literature and poetics (in addition to related disciplines like grammar and prosody), and he honors many of the conventions of the stotra form, even as he creates a strikingly innovative religious and literary text. Far from narrowly limiting creativity, the stotra form was uniquely able to accommodate great experimentation in content, form, and style, embodying what I would call a creative consolidation of earlier traditions. In the SKA, we see not stagnation but a flourishing of literary value, as the text inherits and refigures the traditions

114. Pollock, “Death of Sanskrit,” 396. 115. This does not mean that the SKA was the only text composed during the period, or that it will remain the only witness as the search for additional texts continues, as Hanneder argues (“On the Death of Sanskrit,” 301ff.). 116. Pollock, “Death of Sanskrit,” 398.



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of Sanskrit poetry and poetics through the flexible stotra form. Moreover, this versatility cannot be identified as a static feature of stotra literature. Authors like Jagaddhara deliberately expanded the possibilities and status of this genre through their literary interventions in diverse contexts, and this tradition continues in the present day. Given the history of stotras in Kashmir, and the content of the SKA in particular, there are good reasons to revise Pollock’s description of “the dry sediment of religious hymnology” that remained when other literary forms faded away.117 This is not to reject Pollock’s argument in full, for there certainly were dramatic changes in Sanskrit literary culture in Kashmir and we can speak about certain types of literary production ending. But it is important to recognize multiple types of creativity as a measure of vitality. Innovation continued in Kashmir even after the thirteenth century. Sometimes this was in state-​sponsored projects, like those of Śrīvara in the late fifteenth century; other times it was not, as in Jagaddhara’s SKA, which seems to have been removed from elite political culture in Kashmir. Jagaddhara’s experimentation with the stotra genre and his valuation of the strategies of Sanskrit poetry and poetics showcase the great potential of this literary form. Given such testimony, it is no surprise that the stotra continued to be a vital, dynamic genre of religious poetry in Kashmir for centuries, and in fact was the site for literary activity that assimilated features of other genres. A number of stotras in Kashmir after the fourteenth century continue to engage with Kashmir’s literary heritage in innovative ways, as we saw in Chapters 3 and 4.  These include Yaśaskara’s Devīstotra, Avatāra’s Īśvaraśataka, Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha’s hymns, and Sāhib Kaul’s poetry. When we consider these compositions collectively, we see that (1) stotras are key witnesses in the debate over Sanskrit literary culture’s trajectory in Kashmir, and (2) they are brimming with innovations that influenced and presumably inspired future authors in the region. They evince the enduring popularity of stotras not just as expressions of devotion or pedagogical tools, but as ways of creatively engaging with a literary past in order to create a new literary future. Stotra literature in Kashmir is filled with innovation and novelty, which Bronner, Shulman, and Tubb have argued is so central to the history of kāvya.118 Poets themselves dwell on this in their metapoetic comments on what is valuable in poetry. Jagaddhara, for instance, repeatedly draws attention to the quality of poetry that is “nava”—​literally “new” or “fresh,” but nava is also a noun derived from the root √nu, “to praise,” and therefore it is a synonym for stotra, stuti, and

117. Ibid., 417; see Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry,” 357–​358, for a brief but persuasive critique of Pollock. 118. “Introduction” to Innovation and Turning Points, ed. Bronner, Shulman, and Tubb.

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stava.119 Stotra authors themselves, as well as the history of their enduring appeal, present Sanskrit hymns of praise as the exact opposite of “dry sediment”; they are a fresh, evolving strand of Sanskrit literary culture in Kashmir that developed long after the thirteenth century.

Conclusion In the fourteenth century Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa composed an ambitious religious and literary experiment, a collection of hymns that self-​consciously brought the stotra form and its devotional, religious concerns squarely within the purview of kāvya and Sanskrit poetics. In the simplest terms, he positions stotra as kāvya. In contrast to the marginal status within the Sanskrit literary universe that stotras seem to have occupied for centuries, Jagaddhara places stotras at the center of a revitalized literary landscape. As he establishes this position for stotras he incorporates and expands upon earlier traditions of poetry and poetics in Kashmir in innovative ways, giving special prominence to the “flashy” style of poetry (citrakāvya) and the poetic figure of “repetition” (yamaka) that were popular for centuries even after they were sidelined by some Sanskrit literary theorists. Jagaddhara sees his stotras as vivifying literary traditions that had fallen on hard times in Kashmir, and his SKA consists of a sustained attempt to interweave the discourses of Śaiva worship and Sanskrit literature and poetics. This dynamic text affirms some of Pollock’s thesis on the trajectory of Sanskrit in Kashmir—​Jagaddhara saw his poetry addressing a stagnation in Sanskrit literary culture—​even as it challenges his characterizations of the nature and quality of Sanskrit production in the region from the thirteenth century onward. The history of the stotra form—​and specifically stotra as kāvya—​diverges dramatically from the narrative of stagnation suggested by the “death of Sanskrit,” and the SKA is a crucial link in a long history of literary hymns that experimented boldly and creatively with their religious and poetic content. Within this history, the SKA is not an anomaly. Poets in Kashmir repeatedly explored the relationship between devotional hymns, Sanskrit literature, and poetic theory, and their compositions testify to their own production and valuation of innovation and freshness. One of the most dramatic way that poets engaged with the brilliant and influential discourse on aesthetics in Kashmir was through depictions and reflections on the relationship between religious and aesthetic experience. For poets, this relationship was encapsulated in the controversial idea of a devotional rasa (bhaktirasa), the focus of Chapter 7.

119. See, for example, SKA 5.5 and 23.4.

7

Devotion as Rasa Everywhere and always—​ in speech, in thoughts, in the actions performed by all the organs of the body—​ may the taste of devotion (bhaktirasa) be my companion! Utpaladeva, Śivastotrāvali 5.221 In addition to being an important center for religious innovation and literary production, Kashmir was also the site of major developments in aesthetics from the end of the eighth century onward. This provides a dynamic and unique context for considering the history of stotras. Poetic theorists in Kashmir may have had little to say about devotional stotras, but poets themselves frequently adopted language and ideas from aesthetics in unusual and creative ways. Stotra authors were particularly drawn to the language of rasa. Rasa literally means “taste,” among other meanings. As a technical term it refers to an aestheticized emotion. Theories about rasa developed in Kashmir came to dominate subsequent debates about literature and theater across the subcontinent up to the present day. Rasa was also a key point of contact in the analysis of religious and aesthetic experience. For poetic theorists, this frequently revolved around the rasa known as the peaceful (śāntarasa). Abhinavagupta, for example, held that śāntarasa was the highest of all the rasas, and the key to understanding the closely related yet still distinct nature of religious and aesthetic experience. But when stotra authors incorporate terminology and ideas from aesthetics into their poetry, they frequently gravitate toward the language of devotion (bhakti). Kashmirian theorists rejected the claim that devotion was a distinct rasa, but poets themselves present a more ambiguous case. Today, the term bhaktirasa is a common way to describe the heightened, blissful experience of devotion across North India.2 The devotional rasa was made

1. vāci manomatiṣu tathā śarīraceṣṭāsu karaṇaracitāsu /​ sarvatra sarvadā me puraḥsaro bhavatu bhaktirasaḥ //​ 2. Neelima Shukla-​Bhatt, Narasinha Mehta of Gujarat: A Legacy of Bhakti in Songs and Stories (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 3.

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famous by Vaiṣṇava authors who criticized the dominant views of the Kashmirian theorists, and the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition, beginning in the sixteenth century, championed bhaktirasa as the preeminent aesthetic category and a key description of religious experience. Most scholarship on bhaktirasa studies these Vaiṣṇava explorations of the relationship between bhakti and rasa.3 While scholars have good reasons to study these developments, the Śaiva hymns of Kashmir suggest that there are earlier reflections on the aesthetic dimensions of devotion that can contribute to our understanding of the relationship between aesthetics and religion in South Asia.4 In this chapter I  explore the most striking and divergent ways that authors of devotional hymns engage with the dynamic tradition of Indian aesthetics in Kashmir. But to fully appreciate the moves that these authors make, we must review the key developments of this aesthetic tradition, and particularly its perspectives on rasa, devotion, and stotras themselves.

Aesthetics in Kashmir Kashmir was home to the production of some of the most influential works on Indian aesthetics ever produced. Histories of Indian aesthetics often turn to Kashmir near the end of the eighth century and hardly leave for the three centuries that follow as they describe the debates and innovations pursued by an impressive series of Kashmirian intellectuals, including Udbhaṭa, Vāmana, Rudraṭa, Ānandavardhana, Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka, Mukula Bhaṭṭa, Kuntaka, Abhinavagupta, Mahima Bhaṭṭa, Mammaṭa, and Ruyyaka, to name only the most well-​known figures. There was what Randall Collins describes as a “structural crunch,” leading to the production of highly sophisticated works in a variety of disciplines over a number of generations.5 Recent scholarship allows the major developments and debates within this discourse to be charted with relative confidence.6 The earliest formal analysis of aesthetics anywhere in South Asia is found in Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra, which presents a

3. Sometimes Vaiṣṇava frameworks for thinking about rasa and bhakti have even been applied anachronistically in Śaiva contexts. For example, in his Hindi-​language study, Kedāra Nātha Śarmā analyzes Loṣṭaka’s Śaiva hymn, the Dīnākrandanastotra, in terms of the bhaktirasa typology laid out by Rūpa Gosvāmin (Kaśmīrī Stotraparamparā evaṃ Dīnākrandana Stotra, 59–​62). 4.  For another attempt to trace alternative discussions of bhaktirasa, see Anand Venkatkrishnan, “The River of Ambrosia:  An Alternative Commentarial Tradition of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa,” Journal of Hindu Studies 11, no. 1 (2018): 1–​14. 5.  Randall Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies:  A Global Theory of Intellectual Change (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998), 74–​76. 6. The details of these developments, and indeed many of their major features less relevant to the study of stotras, are outside the scope of this chapter.



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systematic theory of drama (nāṭya). The most influential feature of the Nāṭyaśāstra for aesthetics more broadly is its discussion of rasa and related aesthetic factors. The famous aphorism on rasa simply states: “Rasa arises from the conjunction of factors, reactions, and transitory emotions.”7 As Sheldon Pollock notes, attempts to explain this single statement “remained for a full millennium and a half what it meant to explain aesthetic experience.”8 The Nāṭyaśāstra compares rasa to the taste of a drink: Just as taste arises from the conjunction of various condiments, spices, and substances, so rasa arises from the presentation of various factors and emotions. That is to say, just as physical tastes, that of lassi, for instance, or other such drink, are produced by substances such as brown sugar, plus condiments and spices, so the stable emotion, in the presence of the various factors and emotions, turns into rasa.9 The text discusses eight such aesthetic tastes: the erotic (śṛṅgāra), comic (hāsya), tragic (karuṇa), violent (raudra), heroic (vīra), fearful (bhayānaka), macabre (bībhatsa), and miraculous (adbhuta), along with the corresponding factors for each. A ninth—​śāntarasa, the peaceful—​was added later. Components of Bharata’s theory of drama were gradually assimilated by the discourse on poetics and literary theory (alaṅkāraśāstra).10 The focus of this collective tradition of aesthetic discourse was on the formal features of the work of art. For poetics, this meant the focus was primarily on classifying, defining, and illustrating individual figures of speech (alaṅkāras) as comprehensively as possible. Rasa was a problematic category for the early poetic theorists, however, because it is based on emotional content.11 In South India, the first formal poetic theorists, Bhāmaha and Daṇḍin, subsumed rasa within their analysis of literary figures, but early theorists in Kashmir struggled with the tension in this arrangement.12

7. Trans. Sheldon Pollock, A Rasa Reader: Classical Indian Aesthetics (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016), 50. 8. Ibid., 7. 9. Trans. ibid., 50–​51; see also Daniele Cuneo, “Unfuzzying the Fuzzy: The Distinction between Rasas and Bhāvas in Bharata and Abhinavagupta,” in Puṣpikā: Tracing Ancient India Through Texts and Traditions; Contributions to Current Research in Indology, Volume I, ed. Nina Mirnig, Peter-​Daniel Szanto, and Michael Williams (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2013), 56. 10. Pollock, Rasa Reader,  6–​7. 11.  Lawrence J. McCrea, The Teleology of Poetics in Medieval Kashmir, Harvard Oriental Series 71 (Cambridge, MA: Published by the Dept. of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University; Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2008), Chapter 2, and in summary, 52–​54. As he points out, this tension was so pronounced that Rudraṭa abandons any attempt to present an integrated approach, and instead offers separate formalist and rasa-​based analyses (ibid., 51–​52). See also Pollock, Rasa Reader,  10–​11. 12. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 10–​11,  65–​74.

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A crucial shift occurred in the ninth-​century Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana.13 Lawrence McCrea has argued that Ānandavardhana’s innovations represent a revolutionary re-​envisioning of poetics that significantly altered the future of the discourse. Ānandavardhana applied “to the analysis of poetic language a teleological approach to textual interpretation modeled on that of the Mīmāṃsakas” (specialists in Vedic hermeneutics), an approach that took unity of purpose—​and specifically the communication of a single, predominant rasa, ideally through the semantic process of poetic suggestion (dhvani)—​as the key to interpreting poetic texts.14 In other words, supplanting the position of literary “ornaments” and other formalist features, rasa (especially suggested rasa), which is based on emotional content, took center stage in the discourse around aesthetics. Yet Ānandavardhana was primarily concerned with how rasa arises, not how it is experienced; rasa for Ānandavardhana seems to be manifested in the text and the main character of a work, thus conforming to the early formalist interpretations, including that of the Nāṭyaśāstra.15 His most enduring contributions were his propositions that rasa is what defines literature, the best literature has rasa as its unifying feature, and this rasa manifests not through direct or indirection statements but through a new function of language called suggestion or implicature (dhvani).16 The importance of these innovations for the study of religion becomes clearer in the work of two subsequent Kashmirian figures: Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka and Abhinavagupta. Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka brought about a paradigm shift in aesthetic discourse: he transferred the focus of analysis from the characters of the play or work of literature to its audience as the locus or substratum of rasa.17 Building on Ānandavardhana’s

13.  Ānandavardhana’s breakthroughs, however, were indebted to innovations by his Kashmirian predecessors, especially Udbhaṭa; see Yigal Bronner, “Understanding Udbhaṭa:  The Invention of Kashmiri Poetics in the Jayāpīḍa Moment,” in Around Abhinavagupta:  Aspects of the Intellectual History of Kashmir from the Ninth to the Eleventh Century, ed. Eli Franco and Isabelle Ratié (Leipzig: Lit Verlag, 2016). 14. McCrea, Teleology of Poetics, 442. 15. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 87–​88. Some scholars, however, have criticized Pollock for drawing too sharp of a line between different views about the locus of rasa. For a critique of Pollock’s early work on the history of rasa and its locus, see Cuneo, “Unfuzzying the Fuzzy,” 59n28; some of the points Cuneo raises are also discussed in Pollock, Rasa Reader,  41–​44. 16.  These are the translations for dhvani used in the two most important translations of Ānandavardhana’s work, respectively: Daniel H. H. Ingalls, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, and M. V. Patwardhan, trans., The Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana with the Locana of Abhinavagupta, Harvard Oriental Series 49 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990), and Pollock, Rasa Reader; see the latter, 88n261, for an explanation of “implicature.” For a critical review of these translations, see James Reich, “Meaning and Appearance: The Theology of Literary Emotions in Medieval Kashmir” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2016), 45–​47, 53–​54n16. 17.  Sadly, Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s major work, the Hṛdayadarpaṇa, is no longer extant. Sheldon Pollock’s work on his quotations and reformulations in other works, however, has made his views at least partially accessible and helped to clarify just how revolutionary he was.



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application of terminology from Mīmāṃsā, the tradition of Vedic hermeneutics, to the analysis of poetic language, Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka argued that rasa is a unique experience totally different from normal worldly experiences based on perception and inference. In Mīmāṃsā’s analysis, scriptural language engenders action through a three-​part process called bhāvanā, “actualization.”18 Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka analyzes literary experience as comparable to the action inspired by scriptural language,19 and innovates a new, tripartite process of actualization for literary works. As Pollock explains, this consists of: 1. “expression,” by which literary language,20 with its figures of speech and layers of meaning, demolishes the historical referentiality of a narrative; 2. a special kind of “actualization,”21 which refers to the “communization” (another innovative concept) of its emotions for the viewer/​reader in a “universalized” or “commonalized” form;22 3. and finally “experience,” the savoring of rasa.23

18.  Literally “production,” “causing to be or come into being”; on the translation “actualization,” see Pollock, Rasa Reader, xv n4. As a technical term in Mīmāṃsā it is the process by which the content of scripture becomes teleologically oriented as injunction for the reader. Pollock explains how bhāvanā is a specifically hermeneutic form of knowledge, in the threefold sense Gadamer explored in such depth. It is understanding that necessarily involves interpretation and application; that is, such understanding includes the relation of what is understood to the present context of that understanding/​interpretation (Sheldon Pollock, “What Was Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka Saying? The Hermeneutical Transformation of Indian Aesthetics,” in Epic and Argument in Sanskrit Literary History: Essays in Honor of Robert P. Goldman, ed. Sheldon Pollock [Delhi: Manohar, 2010], 162). 19.  As Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka says, “in literature we hold rasa to constitute a kind of sentence meaning” (fragment #12 in Pollock, Rasa Reader, 149); on rasa as an action, see ibid., 147. 20. That is, poetic language set off from normal discourse (as well as the language of scripture). Note that he uses the term abhidhā for this literary language, but, as Pollock argues, this is different from the standard usage of the term for “denotation” (i.e., not literary, figurative usage) (“What Was Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka Saying?,” 153). For a critique of Pollock’s interpretation, see Reich, “Meaning and Appearance,” 148–​150. 21. This second step is sometimes confusingly called bhāvanā as well, but also bhāvakatva (Pollock, “What Was Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka Saying?,” 151). Pollock describes bhāvakatva as “the literary process whereby the emotional states represented in the literary work are made into something in which the reader or spectator can fully participate” (ibid., 154). Reich challenges this interpretation and argues that Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s theory was based on his commitment to non-​dual Vedānta more than Mīmāṃsā (“Meaning and Appearance,” 154–​170). 22. This occurs through the process of “communization” (sādhāraṇīkaraṇa) (Pollock, “What Was Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka Saying?,” 156). 23. This third part is called “experience” (bhoga) or “experientialization” (bhogīkṛttva), but an experience that is more than “enjoyment” (the common translation), involving disengaged reactions to the various emotions being produced. I  have used Pollock’s translations for

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In other words, an audience savors the experience of emotions that have been universalized and made to transcend specific historical referents by the power of poetic expression. As Pollock describes the third stage: “experiencing” the emotions that have been made “common” by the power of literary “expression” and thus rendered accessible to the reader—​horror without the danger of real horror, desire without the impropriety of real desire—​is profoundly cathectic, since no phenomenal reality is there to trouble us. This absorptive experience is an event unique to aesthesis, and completely different from normal experience.24 Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s radical move—​“to put the subjective experience of the reader front and center in his aesthetic analysis”25—​paved the way for Abhinavagupta’s aesthetic theory, which came to dominate the field to a large extant. It would be hard to overstate Abhinavagupta’s stature in the history of Indian aesthetics. His writings—​ or, more frequently, their summary in Mammaṭa’s Kāvyaprakāśa, Hemacandra’s Kāvyānuśāsana, or later works—​became the definitive presentation of aesthetics in Kashmir. His “Eye” (Locana) commentary on Ānandavardhana’s Dhvanyāloka, in particular, has colored most views on aesthetics down to the present day. Given the success of this text, it is even more surprising that his other major work on aesthetics, a commentary on Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra, seems to have been largely unavailable throughout most of South Asia.26 In his writings, Abhinavagupta synthesizes insights from both Ānandavardhana and Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka and presents extensive, careful arguments in defense of his positions. On one hand, he defends Ānandavardhana and his presentation of suggestion against Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s critiques. But, on the other hand, he also largely absorbs and accepts Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s ideas. In fact, Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s own creativity and influence frequently have been overlooked because so much of his thinking was absorbed into Abhinavagupta’s own. Abhinavagupta argues for a rasa-​directed valuation of poetry and appropriates the tripartite model for the rasa experience. Following Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka, he identifies rasa as a subjective experience of the viewer/​reader, rather than belonging to the actor or character. But he also rehabilitates Ānandavardhana’s theory of suggestion by identifying suggestion as the second part of the tripartite process.

these key terms, which are, when necessary, neologisms to indicate Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s own innovative terminology. 24. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 147. 25. Pollock, “What Was Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka Saying?,” 162. 26. The one exception is a group of authors writing in twelfth-​century Gujarat (Pollock, Rasa Reader, 189).



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For Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka, “one actualizes an aesthetic experience by means of an emotional communization made possible by the unique powers of literary language.”27 Abhinavagupta simply argues that suggestion is the means of the emotional communization: “[What Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka calls] the poem’s operation of causing aesthetic enjoyment (bhogīkaraṇa) of the rasas is nothing other than the operation of suggestiveness.”28 In doing so, Abhinavagupta sought to transform Ānandavardhana’s theory of suggestion so that it no longer referred to the special function of language by which rasa is manifested in the text but rather to the means by which the audience experiences rasa. In other words, his commentary on the Dhvanyāloka aimed to bring Ānandavardhana’s theory of rasa into accord with the paradigm shift initiated by Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka: rasa no longer manifests in the text, it is experienced by the viewer/​reader. Abhinavagupta’s voluminous writings are full of sharp arguments and brilliant insights. He pushes the subjective turn further than Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka, focusing on how the experience of rasa is actually the experience of one’s own pure consciousness, the nature of one’s true self when it is free from all hindrances and limitations.29 He emphasizes that rasa is not some thing; it is, as he puts it, “this very process of relishing, which exists only as long as the relishing itself exists and does not last beyond it.”30 He also reorients drama and poetry toward moral instruction and the categories of human pursuits (puruṣārthas).31 The list of his contributions could go on, and as this brief discussion indicates, he brought rigor and innovation to his reformulations of his predecessors. The developments pursued by Ānandavardhana, Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka, and Abhinavagupta are the most dramatic and influential originating in Kashmir, but they far from exhaust the range of work produced there. Fascinating analyses by many others, such as Kuntaka, Mahima Bhaṭṭa, and Ruyyaka, attest to the vibrancy of the debate. Several themes throughout this discourse are particularly relevant for the study of stotras: the location of rasa; the merits or flaws of using “proper terms” from aesthetics in poetry; what is and is not considered a rasa; and specifically, whether or not there is a devotional rasa. As we have seen, theorists in Kashmir focused on the question:  Where is rasa located? The foundational aphorism in the Nāṭyaśāstra simply says that rasa “arises from the conjunction of the factors, reactions, and transitory emotions,” but as Pollock has argued this foundational treatise almost certainly assumed rasa

27. Ibid., 146. 28. Locana 2.4, trans. Ingalls et al., Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana, 225. 29. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 190. 30.  Trans. Pollock, ibid., 201; on this idea, see also ibid., 190–​191, and the translation on 202–​203. 31. Ibid., 192–​193.

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existed within the text itself.32 Early Kashmirian thinkers continued the formalist analysis of literary works, and even Ānandavardhana viewed rasa as a feature of the work of art; his concern with suggestion was how that rasa arose, not where. With Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka the paradigm shifts, so much so that it is hard today to imagine a view of drama and poetry that only sees rasa in the work of art. The view that rasa is savored by the audience was fully accepted by Abhinavagupta and most later theorists, including Mammaṭa, whose synthesis of aesthetic theory remains the most popular entry into the discourse as a whole. But Pollock makes a crucial point in his extensive analysis of rasa:  it is never simply an either/​or question, for rasa can be regarded as a property of a text-​object, a capacity of a reader-​subject, and also the transaction between the two. [ . . . ] In this, rasa precisely resembles the “taste” it metaphorically references, which may be regarded as existing at once in the food, the taster, and the act of tasting.33 The blurriness of these boundaries, while perhaps a challenge for aesthetic theorists, was one of the most productive and compelling features of this terminology for devotional poets in Kashmir. Another key debate in Kashmir was the role of aesthetic terminology—​“proper terms” (svaśabda)—​in the arising of rasa. That is to say, what is the benefit or detriment of using the actual words for technical terms in aesthetic analysis, such as “desire” or “the erotic”? Udbhaṭa was the first to argue that the use of such “proper terms” could be part of the creation of rasa.34 Subsequent authors quickly criticized Udbhaṭa’s position. Ānandavardhana, for instance, sought to establish that normal language functions cannot explain the arising of rasa, and therefore he identifies suggestion—​indicating desire precisely without saying desire, for example—​as the means by which rasa is manifested.35 Kuntaka mocks Udbhaṭa’s views, arguing that “by the same reasoning, any object, when denoted by its proper

32. Nāṭyaśāstra 6.31, trans. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 50; on Bharata’s views on the location of rasa, see ibid., 49, but also Cuneo, “Unfuzzying the Fuzzy,” 52–​62. 33. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 26. As Daud Ali observed in his study of aesthetics and courtly sensibilities, “[u]‌ltimately, the distinction between taste in the food and the taste in the mouth is false, for one could only perceive rasa in another if one possessed the capacity to feel/​produce it within oneself” (Courtly Culture and Political Life in Early Medieval India [Cambridge, UK:  Cambridge University Press, 2004], 202; also quoted in Cuneo, “Unfuzzying the Fuzzy,” 59n28). 34.  Pollock, Rasa Reader, 67 and 69; Yigal Bronner, “Understanding Udbhaṭa:  The Invention of Kashmiri Poetics in the Jayāpīḍa Moment,” in Around Abhinavagupta: Aspects of the Intellectual History of Kashmir from the Ninth to the Eleventh Century, ed. Eli Franco and Isabelle Ratié (Leipzig: Lit Verlag, 2016), 130–​131. 35. Pollock, Rasa Reader,  88–​89.



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term—​like ‘candy’—​would provide the full experience of savoring the thing.”36 However, Abhinavagupta offers a more nuanced discussion, for “how can you possibly create aesthetic emotion if you are prohibited from using any of the vocables in the lexicon of affective states, as a strong reading of the ‘flaw of using the actual words’ for emotions would entail?”37 In other words, the use of words in their day-​ to-​day sense that also happen to be technical terms in aesthetic discourse cannot automatically preclude the arising of rasa. In this way, Abhinavagupta steps back from the critique of other theorists, recognizing that objecting to any use of terms used for aesthetic elements presents too strict of a limitation. Mammaṭa continues this line of thinking in his Kāvyaprakāśa.38 The question of how exactly words that have technical meanings in aesthetics are used in poetry will be crucial to understanding how stotra authors engage with aesthetic discourse. Theorists in Kashmir were also invested in what is and is not a rasa. In general, the nine rasas of the Nāṭyaśāstra—​only eight of which were original to the text, as the peaceful, śāntarasa, was added later—​were the only accepted rasas. But the evidence shows that there was debate about whether or not this list was exhaustive, and several candidates for additional rasas were explicitly rejected by theorists, who were presumably responding to views suggested or espoused by earlier interlocutors. These include “affection” (preyas), “faith” (śraddhā), and, most importantly in the present context, “devotion” (bhakti).39 Abhinavagupta rejects bhakti as a distinct rasa, and he argues that bhakti supports—​and is therefore subsumed within—​śāntarasa.40 The importance of bhakti as a category in aesthetics may have been on the rise—​as the stotras discussed later in this chapter suggest—​and Abhinavagupta must have considered it necessary to argue against its status as an independent rasa. Some authors argue that bhakti is not a distinct rasa precisely because of the nature of the emotion itself. In his Kāvyaprakāśa, Mammaṭa develops the distinction (explored by earlier theorists) between poetry in which there is rasa, and poetry in which emotion (bhāva) is present but prevented from fully developing into a

36.  Trans. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 102. The same argument is advanced by Dhanika (c. 975) (ibid., 167). 37. Trans. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 192; for Abhinavagupta’s arguments, see ibid., 222–​224. 38. See ibid., 225, 228–​232. 39. Rudraṭa (c. 850) in particular championed the “affectionate” as rasa and, moreover, challenged the traditional list of rasas (V. Raghavan, The Number of Rasas [Adyar:  The Adyar Library, 1940], 107, and Pollock, Rasa Reader, 84–​86). 40. For translations of the relevant sections of the Abhinavabhāratī, see J. L. Masson and M. V. Patwardhan, Śāntarasa and Abhinavagupta’s Philosophy of Aesthetics (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1969), 139 and 143, and Pollock, Rasa Reader, 206–​207.

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rasa because of its object.41 As he explains: “When desire is directed to a deity or comparable figure, or when what is principally manifested is a transitory emotion, we have ‘emotion’ rather than rasa.”42 Thus in cases where desire is directed toward a deity (or another figure like a king or teacher), it cannot be fully enhanced by mutual consummation; or, if it were, it would be a subspecies of the peaceful rasa, as Abhinavagupta argued.43 He uses examples from the devotional poetry of Utpaladeva to illustrate this special category. While what exactly “emotion poetry” is remained a live debate for centuries, even this brief description shows how Kashmirian theorists downplayed devotion as an aesthetic category and the stotra form, with its focus on praising deities, as a type of Sanskrit literature. Given the sophistication and diversity of religious traditions in Kashmir, it is no surprise that some theorists also chose to reflect on the relationship between religion and aesthetics, and particularly religious and aesthetic experience.44 Kashmirian theorists came to see them as closely related but still distinct. In one of the extant fragments of Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka, he says that “nothing can compare with” the rasa brought forth by poetic language, “not even the rasa spiritual adepts bring forth.”45 The point, in part, is that while spiritual adepts have to put forth great effort to achieve the “taste” or “nectar” of spiritual attainment, those who are able to appreciate great works of art experience rasa easefully. Abhinavagupta too distinguishes between the “relishing of rasa” (rasāsvāda) and the “relishing of brahman” (brahmāsvāda).46 In his commentary on the Dhvanyāloka he asserts the superiority

41.  Pratihārendurāja describes such works as “emotion poetry” (bhāvakāvya) in his early tenth-​ century commentary on Udbhaṭa’s Kāvyālaṅkārasārasaṃgraha; see Pollock, Rasa Reader, 68 and, for the translation of the relevant section of Pratihārendurāja’s commentary, 69–​70. See also David Buchta, “Evoking Rasa Through Stotra: Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Līlāmṛta, A List of Kṛṣṇa’s Names,” International Journal of Hindu Studies 20, no. 3 (December 2016): 357–​358. 42. Trans. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 226. 43. Ibid., 227. 44. Scholars are still investigating and debating the complexities of how different authors, and especially Abhinavagupta, relate aesthetic theory and theology (for a recent example, see David Peter Lawrence, “The Disclosure of Śakti in Aesthetics: Remarks on the Relation of Abhinavagupta’s Poetics and Nondual Kashmiri Śaivism,” Southeast Review of Asian Studies 35 [2013]). The strongest, most ambitious argument—​that to fully understand Abhinavagupta’s aesthetic theories, as well as those of other Kashmirian authors, one must take seriously their religious commitments and contexts—​is in Reich, “Meaning and Appearance.” 45. Fragment #3, trans. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 149. 46. Masson and Patwardhan, Śāntarasa and Abhinavagupta’s Philosophy of Aesthetics, 162–​ 163. For two pioneering but dated essays on the topic, see Edwin Gerow, “Abhinavagupta’s Aesthetics as a Speculative Paradigm,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 114, no. 2 (April–​ June 1994), and Gerald Larson, “The Aesthetic (Rasāsvāda) and the Religious



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of devotion and the joy that comes from finding repose in God to any aesthetic experience: Above the joy that comes from having determined the nature of all objects by every valid means of knowledge, above the joy that is found in relishing transcendent aesthetic flavor, is put the bliss of repose in God the all-​highest, for the relishing of aesthetic flavor is no more than the reflection of a drop of that ambrosial bliss.47 This is as far as theorists went in linking these two experiences; they were committed to preserving a boundary between art and life. The perspectives of poets themselves, however, remain less clear. As we will see, bhaktirasa in particular was a key category for Śaiva poets to explore the intersection between religious and aesthetic experience, even as it was downplayed repeatedly by aesthetic theorists. Outside of Kashmir, later authors did champion bhaktirasa and criticize Abhinavagupta’s position. Much of this discourse focused on the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, a devotional Vaiṣṇava scripture probably composed in South India in the tenth century. The text itself used terminology from aesthetics to describe how devotees should relate to the text.48 In western India in the thirteenth century, Vopadeva’s exposition of select verses from the Bhāgavatapurāṇa and Hemādri’s commentary on Vopadeva’s text dramatically use rasa theory to analyze the emotional relationships between devotees and Viṣṇu/​Kṛṣṇa and define the canonical rasas as aspects of a single devotional rasa. This trend culminates in the major and innovative reflections on religious aesthetics developed in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition,

(Brahmāsvāda) in Abhinavagupta’s Kashmir Śaivism,” Philosophy East and West 26, no. 4 (October 1976). See also Bettina Bäumer, “Brahman,” in Kalātattvakoṣa. Vol. I:  Pervasive Terms—​Vyāpti, ed. Bettina Bäumer (Delhi:  Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts/​ Motilal Banarsidass, 1996), and Donna M. Wulff, “Religion in a New Mode: The Convergence of the Aesthetics and the Religious in Medieval India,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 54, no. 4 (Winter 1986). 47.  Trans. Ingalls et  al., Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana, 655. See also Masson and Patwardhan, Śāntarasa and Abhinavagupta’s Philosophy of Aesthetics, 158. Masson and Patwardhan’s pioneering work has great value, but it is dated and problematic in a number of ways. For example, while they recognize that Abhinavagupta distinguishes between these two experiences, they also criticize him for confusing “art and life,” and they claim that he sees śāntarasa as a “universal experience” lying behind literature, and thus not something unique to the aesthetic realm (xvi). Their confusion can be seen in their own statement of surprise that Abhinavagupta “never thought of extending his theory to purely religious texts. After all the most obvious and in a sense the best examples of śāntarasa are to be found in religious and philosophical literature, and not in belles lettres” (xii). Their conflation of Advaita Vedānta with advaita Śaivism as found in Kashmir during the time of Abhinavagupta also frequently limits their analysis of Abhinavagupta’s language. 48. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 22, and Venkatkrishnan, “River of Ambrosia,” 7.

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based on the life and teachings of the charismatic Caitanya (1486–​1534). Theorists in this tradition, most notably Rūpa Gosvāmin and his nephew Jīva Gosvāmin, not only championed bhaktirasa but also radically reconfigured the ontology and epistemology of rasa itself. Rasa once again became the experience of the character, but the real-​world devotees became both the characters and the actors in Kṛṣṇa’s divine play.49 The majority of scholarship on bhaktirasa has centered on these Vaiṣṇava reflections on rasa theory and theology,50 but Śaiva poetry from Kashmir suggests that there were earlier and divergent explorations of bhakti as a central category for both religious and aesthetic experience, though these reflections are far less systematic than the revolutionary developments of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas centuries later. In general, stotras have an ambiguous status in Sanskrit poetics, mirroring their marginal position within the Sanskrit literary world. They frequently focus on emotion and expressive language rather than narrative, though of course there are exceptions to this. But the emotion that most often takes center stage in these hymns—​as the emotional content being both expressed and encouraged in an audience—​is devotion. In some cases, bhakti is the explicit subject matter of the hymn; there are at least three poems called “Hymn of devotion” (Bhaktistotra) that were composed or circulated in Kashmir.51 In fact, many stotras use the word bhakti itself in connection with terms from aesthetics, and thus the controversy about “proper terms” in poetry bears directly on how stotras engage with aesthetic discourse. As we have seen, while they share many features with kāvya in general, they are hardly ever analyzed in the same way as other forms of literature. Rarely were they used as examples in literary treatises, and when they are they often fit awkwardly into the analytic framework being deployed. In his commentary on the

49. For a summary of these radical reformulations of rasa theory and translations of key passages, see Pollock, Rasa Reader, 22–​24, 285–​309, and also Wulff, “Religion in a New Mode,” 681–​684. 50. For a brief overview, see David Buchta and Graham M. Schweig, “Rasa Theory,” in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume Two: Sacred Texts, Ritual Traditions, Arts, Concepts, ed. Knut Axel Jacobsen (Leiden:  Brill, 2010); for extended studies, see David L. Haberman, Acting as a Way of Salvation:  A Study of Rāgānugā Bhakti Sādhana (Delhi:  Motilal Banarsidass, 1988); Barbara A. Holdrege, Bhakti and Embodiment: Fashioning Divine Bodies and Devotional Bodies in Kṛṣṇa Bhakti (New  York:  Routledge, 2015) (especially Chapter  2); David Buchta, “Pedagogical Poetry: Didactics and Devotion in Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Stavamālā” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2014); and Buchta, “Evoking Rasa Through Stotra”; for translations of key works, see Pollock, Rasa Reader, 285–​309 and David L. Haberman, ed. and trans., The Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu of Rūpa Gosvāmin (New Delhi:  Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in association with Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2003). 51. These are the Bhaktistotra of Avadhūtasiddha, also called the Bhagavadbhaktistotra, which may not have been composed in Kashmir but was quoted with respect by Kashmirian Śaivas; the Bhaktistotra included in Utpaladeva’s ŚSĀ; and Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa’s Bhaktistotra, the seventeenth hymn in his SKA.



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Dhvanyāloka, for instance, Abhinavagupta quotes from his own hymn in praise of Śiva to illustrate poetry in which there is only the semblance of rasa; in his example, the subject (in this case Śiva) does not fit the requirements for the beloved according to standard aesthetic theory, so this semblance of rasa only serves to ornament the primary purpose of the verse, praising Śiva.52 This is precisely the kind of poetry that Mammaṭa describes as containing “emotion” (bhāva) but not rasa, and he quotes from the ŚSĀ of Utpaladeva to exemplify it, indicating once again the genre’s ambiguous status. In the eyes of some scholars, the rasa framework as developed in Kashmir was simply not equipped to accommodate devotional literature without being strained.53 All of these issues come together in the category of bhaktirasa itself. When we turn away from the prescriptions of the poetic theorists to the practices of Śaiva poets in Kashmir, we find the concept of bhaktirasa is more popular and its status more ambiguous than the views of Abhinavagupta and other theorists suggest. In fact, bhaktirasa persisted in Kashmir for centuries as a compelling and contested category.

Tasting the Nectar of Devotion in the Wish-​Fulfilling Gem of Praise Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa’s StC was probably composed during the same period in which aesthetics in Kashmir was undergoing a series of transformations in the wake of first Ānandavardhana and then Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s innovations. One of the hymn’s central themes is bhakti itself, as we saw in Chapter  4. Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa uses the term bhakti thirteen times throughout his stotra, and he emphatically proclaims the efficacy of bhakti. For instance, he calls devotion a wish-​fulfilling gem (bhakticintāmaṇi), a wish-​fulfilling tree, and a seed that bears endless fruit.54 Most notably, however, Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa uses the phrase bhaktirasa in two verses.55 The word rasa has myriad meanings, of course, including taste, sap, juice, nectar, mercury, and pleasure. But his use of the phrase raises the question:  To what extent does bhaktirasa have aesthetic significance here? In other

52. Dhvanyālokalocana 2.5d, trans. Ingalls et al., Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana, 242. For a second instance where he quotes his own hymn, see Dhvanyālokalocana 3.30, trans. Ingalls et al., Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana, 532. Here, elements of the erotic ultimately support the suggestion of the peaceful in the poem. 53. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 22. 54. StC vv. 26, 55, and 43. By using the phrase bhakticintāmaṇi, which so closely parallels the hymn’s title (Stavacintāmaṇi), v. 26 highlights the close relationship between devotion (bhakti) and praise, prayer, and hymns (stava). 55. StC vv. 50 and 68.

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words, does Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa use bhaktirasa as a technical term from aesthetic discourse? If so, it may be in fact the earliest extant usage of the technical term. Unfortunately, we cannot ascertain this so easily. In one of the verses that uses the phrase, Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa describes devotees as those who are “inspired by bhaktirasa”: “Whatever I grab is only you; You are whatever I see. Where would you hide from us?” Inspired by this taste of devotion (bhaktirasādhmātā), fortunate ones run to the lord with the matted hair.56 Bhaktirasa here probably means the “taste of devotion” or perhaps even the “experience of devotion” indicated by the statements in the first half of the verse. While the term bhaktirasa in this verse is intriguing, it is difficult to link it to aesthetic discourse more directly. The situation changes somewhat when we turn to the other verse that employs this phrase. In v. 50, Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa proclaims: Such a thousand-​fold expansion of the experience of relishing (āsvāda) to the very end is not seen anywhere other than the nectar (pīyūṣa) of your bhaktirasa, O lord.57 Once again bhaktirasa could be interpreted here in a nontechnical sense as the experience or taste of devotion. In this case, the devotee enjoys the nectar that has the taste of devotion, or else the nectar that consists of the experience of devotion. However, the central metaphor of the verse—​relishing a special nectar—​suggests the primary metaphor of aesthetic theory in Kashmir, going all the way back to Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra:  the analogy between the taste of rasa and the taste of a mixed drink. The language of āsvāda in particular—​the experience of relishing—​ evokes aesthetic discourse.

56. eṣa muṣṭyā gṛhīto’si dṛṣṭa eṣa kva yāsi naḥ /​ iti bhaktirasādhmātā dhanyā dhāvanti dhūrjaṭim //​ StC 68 //​My translation follows Kṣemarāja’s commentary and fills in the implied meaning of the short statements in the first half of the verse accordingly (literally, “You are this, which is grasped by the fist; [and] this, which is seen; where do you go [away] from us?”) Kṣemarāja explains ādhmātāḥ as proddīpitasaṃvidaḥ, “those whose consciousness is lit up” (StC, commentary on v. 68, p. 77). 57. yāvad uttaram āsvādasahasraguṇavistaraḥ /​ tvadbhaktirasapīyūṣān nātha nānyatra dṛśyate //​ StC 50 //​



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Given the context of these verses, it seems unlikely that Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa used the phrase bhaktirasa in a technical sense, at least directly. Yet we also see him experimenting with terminology and metaphors from aesthetic theory to depict Śaiva devotion, and specifically the Śaiva devotion expressed and celebrated in poetry. It is more than a coincidence that these early uses of the phrase bhaktirasa, which describe the experience of Śaiva devotees, occurs around the same time as this distinctive language and its central metaphor are being refigured in aesthetic theory to focus on the subjective experience of the audience.58 It is possible that Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa’s experimentation with such terminology influenced the way it was developed by aesthetic theorists themselves. At the very least, he seems to have been drawn to the power of this language as a tool in his poetic toolbox—​ and this appeal only increased for subsequent authors. What was ambiguous and modest in Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa’s poetry becomes more dramatic and pronounced in Utpaladeva’s.

The Taste of Devotion as the Experience of Non-​duality In Chapter 4, I argued that Utpaladeva’s ŚSĀ models a specific kind of bhakti and teaches its human audiences how to interpret and express non-​dualistic devotion. We saw that for Utpaladeva, bhakti is both an expedient means and an end in itself; it is a process to be enjoyed. While on the surface bhakti implies a relationship between two or more different things, for Utpaladeva it means the relishing of a shared state, an underlying unity. When one sings a hymn of praise with devotion, therefore, one is offering that hymn while savoring the oneness between the deity being praised and the one who offers that praise. For Utpaladeva, bhakti is the enjoyment of a state that does not need to be obtained, only recognized and realized for oneself in the midst of diversity.59 The central metaphor Utpaladeva uses to describe bhakti is also the most striking:  in his poetry, devotion is a nectar. He specifically uses the compound bhaktirasa and also describes bhakti as a nectar or elixir using synonyms closely related to rasa, such as amṛta, sudhā, and rasāyana. He does this much more than Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa, who probably preceded him. As with Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa, Utpaladeva’s use of this general metaphor and the term bhaktirasa in particular raises the question: To what extent did he mean this as a technical term? Surely such a learned figure as Utpaladeva, an accomplished poet whose expository

58.  We do not know, however, the relative chronology of Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa and Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s compositions. 59. See Chapter 4.

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writings indicate an extensive knowledge of many bodies of philosophical literature, must have been at least somewhat familiar with aesthetics in Kashmir. To what extent was he actively engaging this discourse? Scholarship on Utpaladeva has only recently begun to address these questions, despite the prominence of aesthetic terminology in his poetry. Utpaladeva uses the specific phrase bhaktirasa ten times in the ŚSĀ,60 and these verses are highly suggestive of Sanskrit aesthetic discourse in general. Most importantly, they often describe the relishing (āsvāda) of rasa61; in one verse, he says that even in the constant repetition of the name “Śiva” the devotee enjoys (āsvādayan) a “special, great rasa” (kam api mahārasam) that never grows old or redundant (apunaruktam).62 Āsvāda became a central term in the analysis of aesthetic experience. When Abhinavagupta discusses the parallel nature of religious experience and aesthetic experience, for example, he does so in terms of āsvāda (brahmāsvāda and rasāsvāda, respectively). Abhinavagupta also relies heavily in his aesthetic analysis on the concept of camatkāra—​an experience of sudden delight or rapture. This term too appears in Utpaladeva’s poetry, and it seems that his hymns were a major influence on Abhinavagupta’s aesthetic theories.63 Navjivan Rastogi has argued in detail that Utpaladeva’s philosophical and poetic works established the framework for Abhinavagupta’s aesthetic theories, particularly through his reflection on the term camatkāra.64 We can see the close

60. Almost every time the phrase bhaktirasa is used, Utpaladeva also uses a second-​person pronoun as the first member of the compound (tvad-​, bhavad-​, tāvaka-​). The ambiguity of the genitive here seems deliberate—​it is both the devotee’s feelings of love and devotion for Śiva, and also Śiva’s for the devotee. Constantina Rhodes Bailly notes this as well, and even says that tvadbhakti and tvadbhaktirasa are probably the most common recurring phrases in the ŚSĀ, but she does not address the aesthetic implications of these terms (Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir:  A Translation and Study of Utpaladeva’s Shivastotravali [Albany:  SUNY Press, 1987], 15). 61. E.g., ŚSĀ 17.42, which refers to the “relishing of sweet bhaktirasa” (svādubhaktirasāsvāda-​). 62. ŚSĀ 5.23. 63. The history of camatkāra as a key concept remains a desideratum; what V. Raghavan noted almost fifty years ago in his short essay on camatkāra remains as true today: “its early semantic history is indistinct” (Studies on Some Concepts of the Alaṃkāra Śāstra [Madras: The Adyar Library and Research Centre, 1973], 293). As Raniero Gnoli notes, “The first to use this term in a technical sense was probably Utpaladeva” (The Aesthetic Experience According to Abhinavagupta [Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1985], xlv–​xlvi). For camatkāra in the works of Abhinavagupta, Kṣemendra, and later authors, see David Shulman, “Notes on Camatkāra,” in Language, Ritual, and Poetics in Ancient India and Iran: Studies in Honor of Shaul Migron, ed. David Shulman (Jerusalem:  The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2010). 64. Navjivan Rastogi, “Utpala’s Insights into Aesthetics and His Impact on Abhinavagupta’s Aesthetic Speculation,” in Utpaladeva, Philosopher of Recognition, ed. Raffaele Torella and Bettina Bäumer (Shimla:  Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 2016), especially 132–​171, 176–​189.



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relationship between camatkāra and devotion in Utpaladeva’s poetry in verses like this one: With eyes closed, relishing (carvaṇā) the rapture (camatkāra) of inward devotion, may I constantly worship even blades of grass in this way: “Homage to Śiva, that is, to me!”65 Here we see an implicit comparison between the devotee delighting in the praise of Śiva, understood as no different from his own self and the whole universe, and the connoisseur who relishes an aesthetic experience. This experience, moreover, is described in terms of camatkāra, just as it is in Abhinavagupta’s formal aesthetic analysis. Utpaladeva also characterizes bhaktirasa as something that is nourished or enhanced.66 Some earlier theorists in India, such as Bhaṭṭa Lollaṭa and Ānandavardhana, used the concept of nourishment (paripoṣa) to distinguish regular emotions from aesthetics sentiments (rasas): the former become the latter when they are “enhanced” or “nourished” by the full array of aesthetic elements, such as descriptions of a scene or the costumes used in a drama.67 More frequently, however, Utpaladeva simply relies on the central metaphor behind the use of the term rasa in aesthetic discourse—​the comparison of aesthetic sentiment or experience to a flavor that is tasted. Bhaktirasa is something that is enjoyed; it is sweet, nectarian, and fluid.68 Such characterizations infuse Utpaladeva’s devotional poetry with terminology pregnant with aesthetic overtones.69 Some interpretations of Utpaladeva’s writings argue that he did indeed espouse bhakti as a distinct rasa within aesthetic analysis. Rastogi has argued that the overall appreciation of joy and beauty within the monistic Śaivism of Kashmir leads to the “elevation of bhakti as an aesthetic sentiment (rasa)” and even as a

65. antarbhakticamatkāracarvaṇāmīlitekṣaṇaḥ /​ namo mahyaṃ śivāyeti pūjayan syāṃ tṛṇāny api //​ ŚSĀ 5.15 //​Here carvaṇā refers to the act of “chewing” or relishing and camatkāra refers to the state of bliss or enjoyment that comes from this act. But there is generally some slippage between the two terms; camatkāra, in particular, can refer to both the act of relishing and the experience that comes from that relishing (hence rapture, following Pollock, Rasa Reader). 66. For example, see ŚSĀ 16.5, translated later in the chapter. 67. Pollock, Rasa Reader,  15–​16. 68. See, for example, ŚSĀ 16.4 and 5.16. 69. This is not unique among Śaiva authors, and it is especially common among later authors like Abhinavagupta and Kṣemarāja. But the enthusiasm with which Utpaladeva embraces terminology from aesthetics is notable.

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“metasentiment (mahārasa),” the “matrix of all the aesthetic sentiments.”70 According to this view, Utpaladeva embraces bhakti as the preeminent aesthetic category, and perhaps it was precisely this implication that Abhinavagupta was responding to a few generations later in his rejection of bhakti as an independent rasa.71 As intriguing as this perspective is, however, there are undeniable differences between Utpaladeva’s use of terms like bhaktirasa and their technical meaning in aesthetic discourse.72 To begin with, his use of such terms does not seem to be related in any direct way to specifically aesthetic elements. In his poetry, bhaktirasa is not produced by experiencing the theater or a hearing a poem, with all of the specific dramatic and literary elements they include; rather, it arises because of Śiva’s will or grace. This means it is also not limited to contexts in which those elements are present. In fact, Utpaladeva prays that bhaktirasa be with him always: Everywhere and always—​ in speech, in thoughts, in the actions performed by all the organs of the body—​ may the taste of devotion (bhaktirasa) be my companion! 73 This perspective contrasts sharply with the technical understanding of rasa as a uniquely aesthetic phenomenon that arises in specific contexts. Utpaladeva also characterizes bhaktirasa as something new, disconnected from his previous experiences, which further contrasts with the technical understanding of rasa: In the same way that the taste of your devotion (bhaktirasa), previously unknown to me, arose for me, O lord, may that same bhaktirasa be nourished.74 Here he suggests that it is by Śiva’s grace alone that he experienced bhaktirasa. Even as he deploys concepts like rasa and nourishment loaded with meaning from

70.  “Utpala’s Insights into Aesthetics,” 109. Rastogi mentions that Gopinath Kaviraj also interpreted bhaktirasa in Utpaladeva’s poetry as a distinct rasa (ibid., 110). 71. Ibid., 109–​111. 72. Rastogi himself acknowledges that Utpaladeva does not deal with aesthetic theory directly (ibid., 102). 73.  vāci manomatiṣu tathā śarīraceṣṭāsu karaṇaracitāsu /​ sarvatra sarvadā me puraḥsaro bhavatu bhaktirasaḥ //​ ŚSĀ 5.22 //​ 74. yathaivājñātapūrvo ‘yaṃ bhavadbhaktiraso mama /​ ghaṭitas tadvad īśāna sa eva paripuṣyatu //​ ŚSĀ 16.5 //​



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debates in aesthetic circles, Utpaladeva shows a disinterest in the core intellectual problems of aesthetics, such as the formal analysis of poetry and the mechanics and typologies of aesthetic experience. Daniele Cuneo has argued that for Utpaladeva, terms like rasa and camatkāra are not aesthetic in the sense of representing a theory of art, especially in contrast to Abhinavagupta’s usage a few generations later. But, he suggests, they are aesthetic in the etymological sense of being reflections on sense perception.75 Surveying pre-​Abhinavagupta references to art, including the writings of Utpaladeva, Cuneo notes: these instances do not certainly imply a full-​fledged speculation on art nor, I would argue, are they indicative of “a concern for art in itself.” Quite the contrary, I would claim that they are employed as suggestive metaphors or as simple instances of an “ordinary” or “common” experience, possibly a very intense one.76 Cuneo argues that we must differentiate the theories of Utpaladeva from those of Abhinavagupta, and that the former cannot be said to have an aesthetic theory in the same way as the latter. And yet, as Cuneo notes, Utpaladeva turns to metaphors from aesthetics as the primary means of describing the religious experience of non-​duality presented in his poetry. In the end, we cannot simply say that Utpaladeva accepted bhaktirasa as an aesthetic category, either as one of a set list of rasas or as an overarching sentiment. There are just too many differences between the technical discourse on aesthetics and the way he employs what would, in that discourse, be technical terms—​rasa, āsvāda, and so on. Throughout his philosophical writings Utpaladeva shows himself to be a remarkable, careful thinker; had he chosen to, he certainly could have engaged with aesthetic theory in a systematic way, as Abhinavagupta did a couple of generations later. But Utpaladeva’s work addresses questions and issues quite different from aesthetics. He simply has a different project, in both his philosophical writing and his poetry. Yet Utpaladeva also does not ignore aesthetics. In fact, reading the ŚSĀ one is struck by how pervasive terms from aesthetics are, particularly the complex set of metaphors related to the concept of rasa. Rastogi and other scholars have rightly emphasized the importance of Utpaladeva’s ideas for later developments within aesthetics, especially the dominant position charted by Abhinavagupta. On

75. Daniele Cuneo, “Detonating or Defusing Desire: From Utpaladeva’s Ecstatic Aesthetics to Abhinavagupta’s Ecumenical Art Theory,” in Utpaladeva, Philosopher of Recognition, ed. Raffaele Torella and Bettina Bäumer (Shimla:  Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 2016),  38–​40. 76. Ibid., 46.

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one hand, Utpaladeva marks the dramatic and widespread incorporation of aesthetic terminology into philosophical and religious works in Kashmir.77 But, on the other hand, it also seems that the way Utpaladeva expanded the metaphors related to rasa and highlighted the concept of camatkāra had a profound influence on Abhinavagupta’s analysis of aesthetic experience and thus on aesthetics more broadly. The stotra genre is key to understanding these developments. To begin with, stotras bridge the worlds of Sanskrit literature and, in this case, Śaiva devotion and theology. As we saw in Chapter 5, for some authors stotras were a way of appropriating the power of Sanskrit literary culture for the sake of religious worship and prayer. Utpaladeva’s adoption of terminology from aesthetics reflects this impulse. As literary texts, stotras can reframe the language of aesthetics in accessible ways for devotional contexts. Utpaladeva’s focus on rasa, and specifically bhaktirasa, arises out of the central concerns of his stotras themselves. First and foremost, Utpaladeva seeks to both describe and engender a particular type of ecstatic experience. This consists primarily of devotion, but critically, for Utpaladeva this devotion is the taste of non-​duality. Rather than a relationship between two things, this devotion is the savoring of an underlying unity between multiple, diverse things. This is why rasa and related terms are so compelling. As Pollock notes in the passage quoted earlier, the complexity of aesthetic rasa resembles that of taste itself, “which may be regarded as existing at once in the food, the taster, and the act of tasting.”78 The central metaphor of rasa—​in part because of its ambiguities—​ allows Utpaladeva to talk about an experience that acknowledges diversity even as it celebrates an essential unity. The myriad meanings of the word rasa contribute to this; its meanings as various precious liquids (water, milk, sap, nectar, etc.), for example, suggest its fluidity and an intensity of experience.79

77.  As Raffaele Torella puts it:  “[Utpaladeva’s] philosophy is characterized by this unique blend of epistemology, metaphysics, religious experience, linguistic philosophy and aesthetic speculation. Precisely to Utpaladeva do we owe the entrance of aesthetics into philosophical-​ religious speculation. His concept of camatkāra (wondrous enjoyment) marks a higher level of experience, which leaves the reality and beauty of the manifested world intact, but at the same time projects it into a totality whose centre is Supreme Consciousness. This will be developed by Abhinavagupta into a full-​fledged aesthetic system, destined to become the main stream of aesthetical speculation of pre-​modern India as a whole” (“Importance of Utpaladeva: An Introduction,” in Utpaladeva, Philosopher of Recognition, ed. Torella and Bäumer, 2016], 10). 78. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 26. 79. Regarding the “drink metaphor,” Cuneo argues: “Briefly, the standard metaphor for the enjoyment of the absolute—​be it in a relation of complete identity or in the loving relation of the devotee brimful of the sentiment of bhakti—​is the drinking of a psychotropic liquid. [ . . . ] As far as its relationship with the rasa theory is concerned, my working hypothesis is



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Utpaladeva’s interest in the language of aesthetics makes sense in particular because of the historical changes taking place in this discourse in the period just before he composed his poetry. As with Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa, it seems to be more than a coincidence that Utpaladeva’s depiction of rasa, āsvāda, camatkāra, and so on are all related to his characterization of the devotee’s experience of Śiva. This mirrors the shift in Kashmirian aesthetics at that time toward an analysis of the reception of poetry, rather than the study of its formal features. Put more strongly, I would argue that the major shift taking place in aesthetic discourse—​the shift in focus from the work of art and its formal features to its audience and their affective reception of it—​ may have made aesthetic terminology particularly appealing for Utpaladeva, who was not concerned with aesthetic experience as something distinct from the world, but rather with religious experiences that transformed everyday life. It is no surprise that Kṣemarāja, who wrote commentaries on both Utpaladeva and Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa’s poetry and was a pupil within Utpaladeva’s lineage, develops this adoption of aesthetic language to characterize the experience of Śaiva non-​dualism. Utpaladeva does not participate directly in the formal discourse of aesthetics, and he also does not simply borrow or analogize its key components. Instead, he assimilates metaphorical terminology that fits the needs of his project, develops and expands it, and ignores the rest. The ŚSĀ itself is not a contribution to Sanskrit aesthetic discourse; instead it presents extensive reflections on the nature of religious experience, and specifically non-​dualistic expressions of devotion, which appropriate the central metaphors popular and well-​developed within aesthetics and expand upon them in creative and influential ways. Utpaladeva has no interest in preserving a divide between an aesthetic realm and a religious one. It would be left to later Śaiva authors—​Abhinavagupta in particular—​to reestablish the technicality and independence of aesthetic discourse. Later authors were deeply influenced by Utpaladeva’s brilliant philosophical expositions and moving devotional poetry, but they turn away from his move to collapse aesthetic experience into the experience of non-​dual devotion.

Devotion as Rasa in Stotra Literature? In contrast to Utpaladeva, Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa takes the conventions of aesthetic discourse very seriously in his SKA. He spends many verses praising good poets

that it is the same ‘drink metaphor’ that developed independently, on the one hand, as a metaphor for any extremely intense sensory experience that reaches the very essence of the appreciated object—​such as in the Śivastotrāvalī—​and, on the other hand, possibly along similar lines, as a metaphor for the experience of art—​first in the Nāṭyaśāstra, and consequently in Abhinavagupta’s grand aesthetic theory” (“Detonating or Defusing Desire,” 49n35).

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and good poetry, and he alludes to the views of his Kashmirian predecessors in his celebration of the key features of poetry. Moreover, he seeks to elevate the status of the stotra genre itself, as I argued in Chapter 6. Part of this includes folding bhakti, which is front and center in so many stotras, into his reflections on aesthetic theory. It is no surprise that the SKA, as a collection of literary hymns to Śiva, expresses and reflects on bhakti repeatedly over the course of its verses. Bhakti stands out as one of the dominant themes of Jagaddhara’s composition, just as it does in the poetry of Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa and Utpaladeva. In general, its meanings are familiar—​love and devotion, sharing and participation—​yet the size and scope of this text gives the opportunity for more detailed investigations. Bhakti appears early in the SKA and recurs throughout its hymns. In the opening stotra, Jagaddhara compares poetic speech (embodied as Sarasvatī) to Pārvatī: out of devotion she seeks to propitiate the lord just as Pārvatī was inspired by her devotion to pursue Śiva’s hand in marriage.80 Bhakti is the condition out of which poetic praise arises. There may be obstacles, just as Pārvatī’s parents opposed her pursuit of Śiva as a husband, but loving devotion overcomes these to triumph in the end. Repeatedly Jagaddhara celebrates poetry that is “steeped in devotion” (bhaktisikta)81 and “purified by Śiva’s devotion” (śivabhaktipavitrita).82 He praises the greatness of devotion to Śiva, and goes so far as to hold it higher than liberation.83 Furthermore, Jagaddhara sees devotional poetry, such as his own SKA, inspiring devotion in others. For instance, he praises “poetry that causes devotion to blossom” (gīr bhaktivikāsadā).84 Near the end of his collection in particular, he prays for the cultivation of bhakti in the text’s audience. The blessing in v. 38.29 ends with this prayer: “On each and every path, may devotion to benevolent Śiva, which eliminates the suffering of those afflicted by fierce misfortunes, blossom in perfect fullness within each and every person.”85 At the end of the thirty-​eighth hymn, Jagaddhara prays that the “wonder” or “rapture” (camatkṛti) of Śiva’s devotion be unwavering in the

80. SKA 1.5. 81.  E.g., in SKA 1.29. The metaphor of being steeped or drenched in the nectar of devotion remains appealing today across traditions; see, e.g., Shukla-​Bhatt, Narasinha Mehta of Gujarat, 18. 82. SKA 38.24. 83. SKA 3.44. 84. SKA 30.17. 85. pathi pathi mathitogravyāpadāpannatāpā nari nari paripūṛṇā jṛmbhatāṃ śambhubhaktiḥ //​ SKA 38.29cd //​



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hearts of the virtuous—​a phrasing that suggests the aesthetic appreciation of this devotional poetry.86 While many verses depict bhakti as an experience or state of the devotee directed toward Śiva, bhakti is not unidirectional. As the root √bhaj implies, bhakti involves sharing, participation, and mutual affection. Jagaddhara, like Utpaladeva and other authors from Kashmir, usually construes the term bhakti with a genitive, such as “Śiva’s bhakti,” or “your bhakti” when the speaker addresses him directly. As in English, this Sanskrit construction is ambiguous, depending on whether it is interpreted as a subjective or objective genitive—​Śiva’s bhakti can mean bhakti for Śiva, or the bhakti Śiva himself has for his devotees. For Utpaladeva, this was a productive ambiguity because of his emphasis on non-​duality and the ultimate identity between the devotee and the lord. For Jagaddhara, this ambiguity suggests how it is bhakti that is “shared” between the devotee and Śiva. Jagaddhara substantiates this idea in his usage of verbal forms related to bhakti. He frequently calls out to his human audience to be devoted or resort to Śiva. The first five verses of the thirty-​first stotra, for instance, all end with the same phrase: “Be devoted to the lord, Pārvatī ’s beloved” (vibhuṃ bhajadhvaṃ girijābhujaṅgam).87 Similarly he entreats his human audience to literally “partake of Śiva’s devotion” (śambhubhaktiṃ bhajadhvam).88 Elsewhere he calls out to the goddess Sarasvatī, telling her to be devoted to Śiva.89 But Jagaddhara also uses this language of bhakti in relation to Śiva. He describes Śiva as “sharing” (bhajasi) his beneficence with his devotees,90 and he calls out to Śiva directly, urging him to “share” (bhaja) his compassionate glance or words with his devotees and thereby favor them.91 Such verses demonstrate how Śiva participates in this bhakti, even if the primary weight of the term is on the disposition or experience of the devotee. Jagaddhara composed an entire hymn on the theme of bhakti, called the Bhaktistotra. The explicit aim of the poem is to praise devotion to Śiva. In the first verse Jagaddhara asks Sarasvatī to amuse herself in his heart and to know that he is “eager to praise Śiva’s devotion”92 now that his delusion has ended. Shortly after

86.  iti śubhaṃ bhagavaccaritastutivyatikareṇa yad arjitam ūrjitam /​ bhavatu tena manasy anapāyinī sukṛtināṃ śivabhakticamatkṛtiḥ //​ SKA 38.30 //​For a translation of SKA 38.27–​30, see the Conclusion. 87. See the fourth quarter of SKA 31.1–​5. 88. SKA 17.26. 89. See, for example, SKA 24.2–​3. 90. bhajasi [ . . . ] kāmadayā natajanam [ . . . ]; SKA 24.19ab. 91. SKA 30.15 and 24.20, respectively. See also SKA 30.39. 92. analasaṃ śaṃsituṃ śambhubhaktim; SKA 17.1.

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this, he praises this bhakti by describing a devotee repeating a common name for Śiva: The bold cry “Śarva! Śarva!” arises in his throat like the sound of a roaring lion. Tears arise in his eyes and his devotion to Śiva is visible in extensive thrills breaking out as if from love-​play. He alone, full of confidence, scorns the very dwelling of Indra.93 Jagaddhara depicts bhakti as something expressed through physical responses, reminiscent of the physical reactions that are supporting factors in the aesthetic process. The comparison to love-​play is also noteworthy, since it too echoes Sanskrit kāvya. Lastly, the verse indicates a certain audacity that comes from Śaiva devotion: bhakti here makes him laugh at the realm of the gods. The majority of Jagaddhara’s Bhaktistotra praises bhakti as efficacious in two main ways: it is an antidote for worldly attachment and entanglement, and it eliminates the fear of death because it leads ultimately to liberation. Bhakti, in other words, protects one from Kāmadeva and Kāla or Yama, the gods of worldly love and death.94 A  five-​verse section of the hymn contrasts bhakti with the worldly desire for women,95 and other verses describe it as one’s sole refuge, especially at the time of death. Forget logic, forget politics, forget even one’s livelihood, says Jagaddhara; only bhakti can really save one from suffering.96 Near the end of the stotra he suggests the great power of bhakti with a striking image: he says bhakti makes Śiva, the lord of the universe worshipped by all other gods, act like a caged bird one keeps for sport (krīḍā)! That is the amazing power and greatness of bhakti, lauds Jagaddhara.97 Aside from this striking image, there is nothing particularly surprising about this general depiction of bhakti in Jagaddhara’s Bhaktistotra. It has physical manifestations; it involves a close connection with Śiva; it helps conquer worldly desires and the fear of death; and it has the power to win Śiva’s favor and affection. But

93. kaṇṭhe kaṇṭḥīravaravasadṛg dṛksamudgodgatāśror helonmīladvipulapulakodbhūtabhūteśa bhakteḥ /​ yasyodeti dhvanir anibhṛtaḥ śarva śarvety akharvaṃ garvaṃ bibhradd hasati vasatiṃ vāsavīyāṃ sa ekaḥ //​ SKA 17.4 //​ 94. E.g., SKA 17.14. 95. SKA 17.22–​26. 96. SKA 17.19. 97. SKA 17.29.



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Jagaddhara also depicts Śivabhakti as a unifying feature among various types of Śaivas, here using the alliterative Bharga as another name for Śiva: Bhargabhakti arises in many forms to liberate all of these fortunate ones: those whose hearts are attached to their favorite solitary place, those ascetics who wear garments made of bark, those whose impurities are cleansed by the waters of knowledge, those who dwell on the banks of the Ganges, and those adorned with bundles of matted locks exuberantly displayed.98 Jagaddhara sees bhakti taking different forms for different practitioners—​for various kinds of hermits and ascetics, for scholars, for devotees—​but they are connected through bhakti’s power to lead to liberation. In general, Jagaddhara’s vision of bhakti remains largely free of technical Śaiva terminology that would indicate a specific affiliation or theology limiting the audience for the text. Jagaddhara’s presentation of bhakti, as well as the SKA as a whole, aims to be theologically inclusive. The rhetoric of Jagaddhara’s poetry, emphasizing bhakti and praise for Śiva, forms a kind of indirect argument for a nonsectarian Śaiva community. At the same time, however, the erudition and poetic proficiency of the SKA make it inaccessible to a non-​learned audience. Jagaddhara is a scholar’s poet. As I  argued in Chapter  6, his poetry self-​consciously adopts the complex style of Sanskrit kāvya. And as we saw in Chapter  5, his poetry is a far cry from the type of devotional poetry that is said to arise spontaneously from an overflow of emotion and is easily accessible to all. The SKA is well crafted and deliberate, emotional but also contemplative and sophisticated, requiring real study to fully digest. Jagaddhara mixes a generally exoteric Śaiva theology, an inclusive vision of bhakti, and a complex appreciation of Sanskrit literary culture. The result is a distinct arrangement of Śaiva devotion and Sanskrit poetics. In his Bhaktistotra, Jagaddhara shows this in how he aestheticizes bhakti by repeatedly asserting its centrality to the quality of anything literary. One could even say he bhakti-​cizes aesthetics, to use an awkward neologism—​in other words, he makes bhakti a critical component of aesthetics. For instance, in one verse he says that as a poet he cannot produce rasa for those in whom bhakti is not manifest.99 The key term in this verse—​rasakṛt, “producing rasa”—​can simply mean producing pleasure or delight, but of course Jagaddhara was well aware that rasa was

98. kāntaikāntavyasanamanasāṃ valkalālaṅkṛtānāṃ jñānāmbhobhiḥ kṣapitarajasāṃ jāhnavītīrabhājām /​ gāḍhotsekaprakaṭitajaṭāmaṇḍalīmaṇḍanānāṃ nānākārā bhavati kṛtināṃ muktaye bhargabhaktiḥ //​ SKA 17.16 //​ 99.  yeṣām antaḥ sukṛtasaraṇiḥ sthāṇavīyā na bhaktir vyaktiṃ dhatte rasakṛd asakṛn nāsmi teṣu smiteṣu /​ lokaḥ śokaṃ tyajati sahasā yatra tad bhaktiyuktaṃ yuktaṃ manye ruditam uditaślāgham ullāghahetum //​ SKA 17.8 //​

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also the central concept in the analysis of the subjective experience of poetry and drama. In such verses, he hints that bhakti itself is a prerequisite for an experience of the beauty of poetry devoted to Śiva. Jagaddhara’s Bhaktistotra culminates in a provocative śleṣa verse exemplifying these themes. This verse means two things at once, based on several key puns: gāvas can mean cows or words, or in this case poetry; rasa can refer to an aesthetic experience, but also milk; bhakti can mean something like devotion, but also consumption, or the partaking or enjoyment of something. Translating such puns as suggesting a comparison, the verse means: First, poetry produces rasa, just as cows produce milk, which is closely related to the savoring of an unparalleled nectar. Then bhakti toward Śiva, the consumption of the milk, produces the unique experience of rapture that naturally neutralizes one’s fatigue.100 Finally, because one’s own self shines forth, which alone causes a repose in consciousness surging with incomparable, supreme bliss, there is contentment, a complete satiation. What can misfortune, that malicious servant, do now?101 Many of the terms in this verse echo both Śaiva theology and Sanskrit poetics in Kashmir:  “taste” (rasa), “relishing” (āsvāda), “rapture” (camatkāra), “consciousness” (saṃvid), “repose” (viśrānti), and so on. In fact the metaphor of poetic language producing rasa like a cow goes back at least to Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka; one of his extant fragments states: “Poetic language, like a cow, brings forth this rasa at the thirsty promptings of her calves, and so nothing can compare with it, not even the rasa spiritual adepts bring forth.”102 While Jagaddhara does seem to refer to the idea of a related but separate aesthetic and religious experience in the opening lines of this verse,103 his emphasis as a whole is on the experience of devotion, especially since this verse concludes his hymn on devotion.

100. This also suggests the freedom from obstacles that is an essential element in the aesthetic experience of rasa. 101. gāvas tāvad duhānā rasam asamasudhāsodarāsvādabandhuṃ bhaktir bharge nisargaklama­ śamanacamatkārabhogaikabhūmiḥ /​ tṛptiḥ svātmāvabhāsād anupamaparamānandaniḥsyanda­ saṃvidviśrāntyekāntahetor iti sapadi vipatkiṅkarī kiṅ karotu //​ SKA 17.30 //​ 102. Fragment #3, trans. Pollock, Rasa Reader, 149. 103. Ratnakaṇṭha, in his commentary on this verse, interprets the opening lines in terms of the quiescent (śānta) rasa and thereby seems to support the idea that aesthetic experience (rasāsvāda) and religious experience (brahmāsvāda) are related but not identical (Laghupañcikā, 146).



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Jagaddhara suggests that bhakti is the consumption or enjoyment of the aesthetic experience produced by poetry devoted to Śiva. This bhakti means sharing and participation, but specifically in an aesthetic sense. For Jagaddhara, poetry is offered to the deity, enjoyed by the deity, and then also enjoyed by the communal audience for that poetry. In this way, as I  argued in Chapter  5, we can think about religious poetry as analogous to prasāda, a verbal or aural prasāda. Like a food offering, devotional poetry can be presented to the deity and then enjoyed communally. In many religious contexts in South Asia, bhakti suggests sharing within a community—​the sharing of food, the sharing of devotion, and so on—​which brings that community together through communal participation. What Jagaddhara develops is the idea that bhakti can include the participation and sharing involved in aesthetic experience. His Bhaktistotra indicates the importance of considering the aesthetic dimensions of bhakti poetry and the communal participation envisioned in its consumption. For some Sanskrit poets, at least, beauty is central to both the personal and communal aspects of bhakti. But what about bhakti as a rasa? The verse just quoted states that poetry produces rasa like a cow produces milk, and bhakti is like the enjoyment of that rasa. Throughout the SKA, Jagaddhara relies on the comparison between bhakti and a nectar that is enjoyed.104 As we have seen, he celebrates poetry that is “steeped in devotion” (bhaktisiktā), and he compares it to a beautiful creeper “watered by devotion” (bhaktisiktā).105 For Jagaddhara, the best poetry is full of both rasa and bhakti, as verses like this one indicate: The best human birth is high-​born in a good family, the best high-​born birth leads to the fame caused by learning, the best learning blossoms into poetry that is sweet and full of rasa, and the best poetry is full of devotion (bhakti) to Śaṅkara that spreads love.106 Such verses do not explicitly identify bhaktirasa, and one might argue that rasa and bhakti can be associated without necessitating the idea of bhaktirasa as a unique aesthetic category. Yet they can also support the view that Jagaddhara sought to evoke bhaktirasa through his poetry.

104. See, for example, SKA 25.19, where he refers to “one who is delighted by the nectar that is devotion” (muditasya bhaktisudhayā). 105. SKA 1.29 and 38.26, respectively. 106.  tan mānuṣyaṃ prabhavati satām uttamā yatra jātiḥ saikā jātiḥ prasarati yaśo yatra pāṇḍityahetu /​ tat pāṇḍityaṃ sarasamadhurā jṛmbhate yatra vāṇī vāṇī sāpi prathayati ratiṃ śāṅkarī yatra bhaktiḥ //​ SKA 17.5 //​In his commentary on this verse, Ratnakaṇṭha supplies the word “fortunate” (dhanya) to describe the best of each type (Laghupañcikā, 142). Following this reading, the verse could also be translated:

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While most of his references to bhakti as a nectar are indirect, Jagaddhara also uses the phrase bhaktirasa or closely related phrases on several occasions. For instance, he says: Pleasing for the virtuous because of its great nectar, your bhaktirasa is supreme, O lord. It saves those who dwell at your feet from a pool of impurity in the degenerate age.107 While this verse explicitly uses the phrase bhaktirasa, Jagaddhara is too accomplished a poet—​and too well acquainted with contemporary standards of literary criticism—​to state baldly what he wants to evoke through his poetry. Here the phrase does not have the technical meaning of a specific type of rasa; it refers instead to flavor or pleasure derived from the nectar extracted from Śiva’s metaphorical lotus-​feet. And yet the sentiment of bhakti is in fact what Jagaddhara seeks to cultivate through his poetry, and the image of dwelling at Śiva’s feet certainly evokes this. Moreover, the term Jagaddhara uses to refer to Śiva’s devotees, sat, can mean simply “good” people, but it can serve also as shorthand for sahṛdaya, the aesthetic connoisseur or ideal audience (as Ratnakaṇṭha makes explicit throughout his commentary). Given Jagaddhara’s sustained engagement with the tradition of Sanskrit poetics, it is doubtful that he used such terminology accidentally. One way to interpret what he is doing is to think back on the debate around “proper terms” (svaśabda). It seems that Jagaddhara, harkening back to Udbhaṭa, may be using the phrase bhaktirasa to help this very rasa arise. At the same time, he uses puns to sidestep the debate about “proper terms,” perhaps with an awareness of the later tradition that considered the naming of emotions and so on as an impediment to rasa. In other words, when he uses the phrase bhaktirasa in this and related verses it does not mean bhaktirasa as an aesthetic category, since that would be too direct. Yet a sensitive audience would be attuned to such terminology, and its use, along with the rest of the language and content of such verses, could suggest this very bhaktirasa in the technical sense. This makes such an audience’s appreciation twofold: an enjoyment of the bhaktirasa evoked by

A human life is fortunate when it is high-​born in a good family. That high-​born birth is fortunate when it produces the fame caused by learning. That learning is fortunate when it blossoms into poetry that is sweet and full of rasa. That poetry, too, is fortunate, when its devotion (bhakti) to Śaṅkara spreads love. //​ SKA 17.5 //​ 107.  bhaktirasas tava deva satāṃ jayati mahāmṛtahṛdyaḥ /​ caraṇatale bhavato vasatāṃ kalimalapalvalahṛd yaḥ //​ SKA 24.4 //​The verse occurs in one of the SKA’s stotras that highlights yamaka, “twinning” or repetition. The first and third quarters end with the syllables va-​sa-​tāṃ, while the second and fourth end with -​a-​hṛd-​yaḥ.



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the verse, and also the recognition that the use of this phrase itself only appears to be a poetic fault.108 As a poet, Jagaddhara walks a fine line within the Kashmirian debate about “proper terms.” He frequently uses specific terms from aesthetics to praise good poetry and depict Śaiva devotion, but he also shows awareness that there are limits to what such direct references can do. Like Abhinavagupta, he understands that technical terms from aesthetics are still words that can be used in their normal sense without spoiling the aesthetic power of that poetry, and, notably, he exploits this to add layers of meaning to his SKA. Overall, Jagaddhara develops the tradition of using aesthetic terminology to talk about Śaiva religious experience established by earlier Śaiva stotra authors in Kashmir. Yet in comparison to authors like Utpaladeva, he is more committed to the standards of Sanskrit literature and literary theory. His presentations of bhakti and bhaktirasa are more explicitly linked to Sanskrit poetics, and he was probably invested in bhakti as a specific rasa, perhaps even as the dominant rasa in stotra literature. But like Utpaladeva, Jagaddhara does not suggest that bhaktirasa is separate from the one who recites a stotra. It does not reside only in an audience that appreciates a stotra as a work of literature. Instead, Jagaddhara hints at bhaktirasa, and rasa in general, as something experienced and shared between the poet or reciter of such hymns and their audience, including Śiva himself. Thus, Jagaddhara demonstrates a unique combination of views: he honors the history of Sanskrit poetics throughout his work, while he subsumes this within a Śaiva devotionalism that breaks down distinctions between artist and audience. Jagaddhara holds up bhakti as an aestheticized experience connecting the poet, his human audience, and Śiva, and he demonstrates how this complex theme is central to stotra literature in general.

Commentating on the Taste of Devotion Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa, Utpaladeva, and Jagaddhara’s hymns received learned commentaries, the first two by Kṣemarāja in the eleventh century and the third by Ratnakaṇṭha in the seventeenth. These largely extend the views on devotion and aesthetics found within the stotras themselves, but they do so using distinctive interpretive techniques.109 In his commentary on the StC, Kṣemarāja often invokes central terms from aesthetics related to the experience of a poem or drama’s audience, such as rasa.

108. For other examples, see SKA 37.2, where he compares praise-​poetry to a beautiful vine that bears fruit when it is watered by the nectarian water of Śiva’s bhakti (śivabhaktisudhā­ rasāsekaiḥ), and SKA 9.25, where Śiva’s devotees are described as being constantly satisfied because of enjoying the nectar of Śiva’s bhakti (bhāvatkabhaktirasapāraṇanityatṛptam). 109. On Kṣemarāja’s interpretive strategies, see Hamsa Stainton, “Poetry and Kṣemarāja’s Hermeneutics of Non-​dualism,” in Tantrapuṣpāñjali:  Tantric Traditions and Philosophy of Kashmir; Studies in Memory of Pandit H.N. Chakravarty, ed. Bettina Sharada Bäumer and Hamsa Stainton (Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, 2018), 339–​368.

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Infrequently he identifies a specific rasa, such as when he explicitly says that StC v. 48 suggests adbhutarasa, the wondrous rasa.110 This refers to the experience of devotees who are amazed by the power of the lord, since he makes everyone, from an insect to Brahmā, eligible for the contemplation on him that leads to liberation. In general, however, Kṣemarāja stresses that rasa refers to the blissful experience of the Śaiva devotee. The metaphor of relishing or savoring (āsvāda and related words) and the resulting experience of wondrous rapture (camatkāra) are also central in his commentary. When Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa praises those who are “eager to enjoy Śiva’s majesty,” Kṣemarāja glosses “to enjoy” as “to relish without differentiation from one’s own self” (svātmābhedena camatkartum).111 In such instances, Kṣemarāja adopts the metaphors of Indian aesthetics—​specifically, the metaphor of certain experiences being like the relishing of a flavor or taste that produces joy or bliss—​but he leaves aside a central feature of aesthetic experience: the demarcation of an aesthetic realm, distinct from normal experience, through a variety of elements (e.g., a stage, costumes, poetic language). Kṣemarāja uses terms like camatkāra and rasa in the context of poetry, where one might expect them, but for him they refer to the blissful experience of the Śaiva devotee. At the same time, Kṣemarāja also uses aesthetic language to characterize the experience of Śiva himself. His commentary is based on a non-​dualistic theology that seeks to reinterpret anything that might be seen as creating a division between the individual and Śiva. But it also follows the emphasis of the StC itself and concentrates on the experience of the individual. Occasionally, both Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa and Kṣemarāja suggest that Śiva is the ultimate agent and enjoyer. In StC v. 63, Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa pays homage to Śiva as the enjoyer of the universe in general terms (bhoktre); Kṣemarāja specifies that Śiva is the “relisher” (camatkartre).112 When Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa depicts Śiva united with Umā (even though he has incinerated Kāmadeva and destroys all desires), Kṣemarāja describes Śiva as “immersed in the extraordinary erotic sentiment brought to perfection by the supporting and stimulating factors.”113 Thus he uses standard terms from aesthetics to explain the vision of Śiva presented in this hymn. While the majority of Kṣemarāja’s commentary focuses on the experience of the Śaiva devotee, it also applies the terminology of aesthetics to Śiva himself. This shift in focus from the Śaiva devotee to Śiva himself is not surprising, given the ontological identity between the devotee and Śiva espoused by non-​dual Śaivas.

110. adbhutaraso dhvanyate; StC, p. 188. 111. StC v. 20 and commentary, pp. 29–​30. 112. StC, p. 73. 113.  ālambanoddīpanavibhāvasaṃpūrṇāsāmānyaśṛṅgāraniviṣṭatvam; StC v.  51 and commentary, pp. 60–​61.



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These trends are intensified in his commentary on the ŚSĀ, where his approach more closely matches Utpaladeva’s own take on aesthetic terminology and non-​dual theology. As in his commentary on the StC, Kṣemarāja uses terms and concepts from aesthetics to characterize and cultivate a distinct Śaiva experience of non-​duality. Like Utpaladeva, he sees this experience as extraordinary (alaukika) and yet ultimately one that encompasses all other experiences. Traditionally it is the world of the theater or literature that is considered alaukika, a space separate from the normal world (loka). Experiencing grief in the theater, for instance, is very different from experiencing grief in everyday life. Kṣemarāja is interested in what is alaukika, but he is not concerned with the world of literature or the theater as a distinct space. So when Utpaladeva refers to a special rasa one experiences when repeating the name “Śiva,” Kṣemarāja calls it alaukika, and does the same elsewhere for the special worship of devotees who pray to Śiva without asking for anything.114 Śaiva devotion, like literature and drama, creates an extraordinary experience, and both are facilitated in part by poetic language, but there is a crucial difference. For Kṣemarāja, the extraordinary experience facilitated by Śaiva devotion does not necessarily remain distinct from the world. It can transform one’s experience of the entire world into something alaukika, something extraordinary and beyond normal experience. In his view, the experience of the world can be entirely alaukika for the devotee. This transformation, this radical re-​envisioning of the world, is what Kṣemarāja attempts to cultivate in his commentary, through the help of terminology from aesthetics (e.g., rasa, āsvāda, camatkāra, dhvani). For both Utpaladeva and Kṣemarāja, poetry and aesthetics are ways of moving beyond normal, dualistic language and understandings to cultivate an extraordinary experience for their audiences grounded in a radical theology of non-​dualism. Notably, in this way Kṣemarāja follows the lead of the poets he comments upon far more closely than that of his own guru, Abhinavagupta, who argued for a distinctive aesthetic sphere in which terms like rasa could preserve their technical meaning. One final example from Kṣemarāja’s commentaries suggests his views on rasa. In the opening verses (maṅgalaślokas) of his commentary on the SP, he says: With words burst forth out of the abandon of this immersion, I will reflect a little on this hymn of praise (stuti), the illustrious Sāmbapañcāśikā. May this supreme nectar (rasa) be relished (rasyatām) by connoisseurs (rasajñaiḥ).115

114. For other examples, see his commentary on ŚSĀ 1.26 and 17.24, and his introduction to ŚSĀ 13.4. 115. etadāveśavaivaśyapronmiṣaddhiṣaṇā vayam /​ vimṛśāmo manāk chrīmatsāmbapañcāśikāstutim //​ so ‘yaṃ parāmṛtaraso rasajñair iha rasyatām /​ maṅgalaślokas 2-​3ab //​ SP, p. 1.

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Kṣemarāja associates this hymn of praise (stuti) with rasa and hopes that it is enjoyed by those who appreciate rasa (rasajña). As we have seen, he does not conceive of this audience as spectators like those in a theater; rather, he presents these connoisseurs as devotees who are able to hear and recite these poems in theologically inflected ways; in other words, as Śaiva bhaktas who are also aesthetes. Overall, while Kṣemarāja actively applies the compelling metaphors developed in the field of aesthetics to Śaiva devotional practices, he ignores any separation between an aesthetic realm and normal existence. Instead, he emphasizes the experience of the Śaiva devotee who hears, recites, or composes such hymns. Aesthetic terminology has become a way of analyzing and describing religious experience without necessitating a specific theory of art as a distinct realm of human experience. For Kṣemarāja, this description of the devotee’s experience parallels (and ultimately merges with) the experience of Śiva as the ultimate enjoyer, for whom the dynamics of the universe are nothing but his own play to be relished. Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha also frequently resorts to aesthetic terminology in his commentary on the SKA. He regularly identifies specific aesthetic ornaments and types of suggestion in particular verses,116 and on occasion he interprets the SKA in terms of śāntarasa, the peaceful rasa.117 More often, however, he explicitly refers to bhaktirasa as he interprets phrases of the SKA. When Jagaddhara refers to poetry “steeped in devotion” (bhaktisikta), Ratnakaṇṭha expands this to “steeped in the nectar that is bhaktirasa” (bhaktirasāmṛtasikta).118 He does the same when Jagaddhara exuberantly claims that he is creating rasa through his poetry, explaining that this means bhaktirasa.119 Such examples could easily be multiplied.120 In general, Ratnakaṇṭha interprets the SKA as cultivating bhaktirasa in its human audience. In the third stotra, Jagaddhara offers various blessings (āśīrvāda) to his human audience, and when he uses verbs based on the root √puṣ, “to nourish,” Ratnakaṇṭha usually explains them in terms of bhaktirasa. For instance, in v. 3.32 Jagaddhara prays that Śiva’s radiant chest will nourish his audience, and Ratnakaṇṭha comments: “May it nourish you by producing bhaktirasa.”121 There is one illustrative exception to this practice of glossing puṣṇātu in terms of bhaktirasa. In one of the final verses of this hymn, Jagaddhara offers a blessing that his own

116.  In his commentary on SKA 1.1, for example, he identifies the verse as containing śabdaśaktimūla upamādhvaniḥ—​ “A suggested simile rooted in the power of words,” a category developed by Ānandavardhana (see Ingalls et al., Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana, 290–​291, 335–​336). 117. See, for example, his commentaries on SKA 1.3, 17.30, and 38.10. 118. Commentary on SKA 1.29 (Laghupañcikā, 9). 119. Commentary on SKA 30.77 (Laghupañcikā, 219). 120. See, for instance, Ratnakaṇṭha’s commentary on SKA 5.3, 11.30, and 24.1. 121. bhaktirasotpādanena poṣayatv ity arthaḥ (Laghupañcikā, 22).



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poetry praising Śiva may nourish his human audience. Ratnakaṇṭha explains this as “causing them to flourish by means of the rasa that is the nectar of oneness with Śiva” (śivaikatāmṛtarasena vardhayantu).122 Like Jagaddhara, Ratnakaṇṭha interprets bhakti as an experience of shared love, connection, and ultimately identification with Śiva, and he relies on the metaphor of rasa to characterize this experience. There is, however, an interesting point of tension between Jagaddhara and Ratnakaṇṭha’s views on bhakti. Frequently Ratnakaṇṭha wards off potential criticisms of the SKA by arguing that its subject matter is bhakti, and therefore it is beyond the normal assessment of poetic virtues and faults. He makes this argument in his commentary on the very first verse, which one might criticize for beginning with the syllable hlā-​, which can be considered harsh to the ear (śrutikaṭu). Ratnakaṇṭha argues that there is no fault here, for the subject of the text is bhakti (bhaktiviṣaya).123 He resorts to this defense periodically throughout his commentary to sidestep a variety of potential criticisms of the SKA, such as the charge of a clumsy word order or a poor choice of words.124 While Ratnakaṇṭha is not the first to use this reasoning in the defense of devotional poetry, Jagaddhara himself certainly cared about the literary quality of his poetry. He had lofty ambitions for the stotra form, as I  argued in Chapter  6. Repeatedly Jagaddhara indicates that the quality of such devotional poetry varies, and that the best among such compositions—​including his own SKA—​deserve praise for their poetic merit. So it seems more likely that Jagaddhara himself would disagree with Ratnakaṇṭha’s bracketing of bhakti poetry to avoid potentially critical poetic analysis.125 Jagaddhara did see bhakti as central to his poetry, but he also sought to embrace the world of Sanskrit literary culture, including literary criticism.

Conclusion Bhakti was a major theme among Śaiva poets in Kashmir. Their poetic hymns expressed, described, and cultivated devotion. For some authors, bhakti was also a key point of contact between religious and aesthetic reflection. Comparing devotion to a nectar or taste that is savored provided these poets with a compelling way to talk about religious experience, particularly within a non-​dualistic context, and it also connected their poetry to the rich world of Sanskrit literature and poetic

122. SKA 3.58 and its commentary (Laghupañcikā, 29). 123. Laghupañcikā, 2. 124. E.g., in his commentary on SKA 3.50, 5.11, and 20.41. 125. Occasionally Jagaddhara does disparage his own poetry in ways that suggests its flaws do not matter (e.g., SKA 11.28), but these are highly rhetorical verses exhibiting literary merit that belies their affected humility.

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theory. There was no clear, consistent perspective on the status of bhakti as an aesthetic category among Śaiva poets in Kashmir. Instead, we see multiple perspectives and a fair degree of ambiguity. Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa, Utpaladeva, and Jagaddhara bear witness to the complexity of foregrounding devotion in their literary hymns, and the commentators on their poetry only amplify this complexity. Their work as poets run at least partially against the grain of the dominant poetic theorists in Kashmir, who downplayed the place of bhakti in aesthetic discourse (perhaps, in fact, in response to stotra authors). Some of the ambiguity around bhaktirasa among poets may be related to the ambiguous status of stotras themselves. To what extent do these hymns belong to the world of formal, classical Sanskrit literature? Should they be analyzed using the same aesthetic categories as other works of kāvya? The poets discussed in this chapter would probably have different opinions. The status of stotras as poetry, and their relationship to formal poetic theory, does not seem to have been important to Utpaladeva. But Jagaddhara championed stotra literature as the best form of kāvya, specifically because of its bhakti, and therefore he seems to have cared deeply about the relevance of poetics in the analysis of devotional poetry. In general, bhaktirasa seems to have had a somewhat successful life in Kashmir outside of aesthetic theory itself. Utpaladeva and other stotra authors suggest how bhaktirasa and other key terms were vibrant, crucial, and contested categories at the intersection of religion and aesthetics. Kashmir provides examples of multiple different ways that religious and aesthetic experience can be related and interpreted, and these are earlier and different than the Vaiṣṇava developments of bhaktirasa studied more commonly in scholarship. Analyzing this devotional poetry from Kashmir reveals a markedly different view of Hindu poetics than the standard emphasis on the position of poetic theorists. Kashmirian poets explored multiple, divergent ways of making theories about poetry and aesthetic experience meaningful for the experience and interpretation of devotion; in other words, their poetic prayers suggest not one but rather many different versions of what we might call a poetics of devotion.

8

Stotra as Tradition [I pay homage to] Ānanda, Somānanda, Utpaladeva, Śambhunātha, the best of teachers, Lakṣmanagupta, Abhinavagupta, Kṣemarāja and Yogarāja, the venerable gurus Mana Kāk, the Śaiva teacher Rāma [=Swami Rāmji, c. 1853–​1915], his disciple Mahtāb Kāk [d. 1942], and Īśvarasvarūpa [=Swami Lakshman Joo], the benevolent form of Śiva incarnate as the lineage of gurus. Sunday Puja, 107–​1081 Studying literary hymns in different periods of time reveals patterns in their functions and appeal for religious communities. Again and again, Hindus in Kashmir have embraced this flexible genre. Sometimes this allowed for distinctive combinations of aesthetic and theological concerns, as we saw in the case of Utpaladeva, or for arguments about the status of devotional poetry with a larger literary world, as we saw with Jagaddhara. In this chapter, we turn to another role that hymns—​particularly as public prayers that can articulate different types of relationships and circulate in multiple contexts—​have played in Kashmir: the role of mediators between the past and the present. Part of the enduring appeal of the stotra genre has been the way that such hymns open up dialogue between specific communities in the present and Kashmir’s dynamic literary and religious history. In doing so, such hymns have actively established continuity with the past even as they embody striking innovation.

1.  ānandaṃ somānandaṃ utpaladevaṃ ācāryavaraṃ śrīśambhunātham /​ lakṣmaṇa-​guptam abhinavaguptaṃ kṣemarājaṃ yogarājaṃ ca //​ śrīgurū-​manakākaṃ śaivācāryaṃ rāmaṃ tat śiṣyaṃ śrīmahatābakākam /​ gurusantati-​rūpe avatāritaṃ śaiva-​śambhuṃ īśvarasvarūpaṃ ca //​ In this chapter, I have transliterated text from Sunday Puja as it appears in the printed edition; this includes many idiosyncrasies, such as hyphens added in between certain words. The only exception is that I have added spaces in the transliteration between words that are otherwise linked in the Devanagari text.

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It is in this sense of both continuity and innovation that I  describe stotras as tradition in this chapter. I  emphasize these hymns as tradition to draw attention to tradition as a process; in this case, as a set of practices and texts that consciously preserve, reiterate, and honor patterns established in the past even as they are reformulated in the present. The term “tradition” is, of course, ambiguous. Yet, as Stephen Prickett has suggested in his Modernity and the Reinvention of Tradition, this may be a necessary and productive feature of the term, because what it stands for is not a single historical meaning but rather an ongoing process of revision and debate.2 Nevertheless, let me clarify that I do not use the term here in the limited sense of something “passed down” without any change (Latin traditio: “handing over”), for it is the dynamic nature of tradition that explains the continued vitality of both the word and what it describes. Nor do I use the term in an epistemological sense; that is, tradition as an authoritative means of obtaining knowledge opposed to rationality.3 By using the term “tradition” I seek to focus attention on the process by which specific authors and communities creatively use patterns established (or claimed to be established) in the past to adapt in the present. There are several advantages to exploring stotras as tradition, at least in certain contexts. First and foremost, it emphasizes the basic idea that stotras frequently represent self-​conscious preservation and continuation alongside dramatic creativity. As Prickett argues, all traditions are, at least in some sense, “the product of some degree of self-​conscious creation.”4 While conceptually (and etymologically) one might be inclined to see tradition as static, in practice tradition is far more fluid. In philosophical hermeneutics, historical tradition is recognized as essential to any interpretation. In his widely influential Truth and Method, for instance, Hans-​Georg Gadamer sought to articulate the positivity of our prejudices. In other words, he championed the possibility of embracing the ineluctability of our inherited preconditions for understanding so that we

2.  In his Modernity and the Reinvention of Tradition:  Backing into the Future (Cambridge, UK:  Cambridge University Press, 2009), Prickett offers numerous insights into the contested and tumultuous history of the term. As he argues in his conclusion, tradition as a word is not merely ambiguous in causal language, “it is necessarily ambiguous. A tradition represents a choice. What it stands for is not so much a linear descent but an ongoing history of tension and conflict” (237). 3. For a discussion of moving beyond the common view in philosophy that “traditionality and rationality mutually exclude each other,” see Christoph J. Nyíri, “Introduction:  Notes Towards a Theory of Traditions,” in Tradition:  Proceedings of an International Research Workshop at IFK, Vienna, 10–​22 June 1994, ed. Christoph J. Nyíri (Wien:  Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften, 1995). 4. Prickett, Modernity and the Reinvention of Tradition, 15; see also his discussion of the conjunction of imagination and tradition (16).



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can move through them to new interpretations, “fusing the horizons” of our historically bounded understanding with the partially unfamiliar “horizons” of meaning of whatever we seek to understand.5 In analyzing stotras in this chapter, I stress how they are part of the process of tradition, the pivot points of dialogue between older patterns of meaning and new ones that adapt them in the present. Stotras are not the only literary forms that do this, of course. Narrative, in particular, is a potent way of orienting the past toward the present. Sacred biographies of persons and places, for example, are part of the dynamic process of tradition, creating meaning in the present based on perceived relationships to the past. Other types of literary activity are also fruitfully understood as traditions, such as commentaries and philosophical debates. In their study of Buddhist philosophy of language in India, for instance, Lawrence McCrea and Parimal Patil argue that the concept of a “text tradition” is a much better way to understand what is generally classified as belonging to one or another “school of philosophy.” Rather than conforming to a single, shared philosophical position or system, different groups of authors, many of whom write commentaries on or responses to specific works by their predecessors, share “a set of building blocks and common textual resources” that mark them as belonging to a text tradition even in the midst of criticism and disagreement.6 While stotras in Kashmir do not constitute a text tradition in the sense that McCrea and Patil describe, the concept of a text tradition productively suggests the ways that authors (and, in the case of stotras, religious practitioners) creatively engage with and even break from the past while still being invested in explicit or implicit continuity with that past. Yet the degree to which claims about continuity with the past are actually related to historical evidence varies greatly. This fact was most forcefully analyzed in the influential volume of essays on “the invention of tradition,” which

5.  Hans-​Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, translation revised by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall (New York: Continuum, 2000), 300–​307. 6.  Lawrence J. McCrea and Parimal G. Patil, Buddhist Philosophy of Language in India:  Jñānaśrīmitra on Exclusion (New  York:  Columbia University Press, 2010), 4. For a similar understanding of tradition in a literary context, see Deven M. Patel, Text to Tradition: The Naiṣadhīyacarita and Literary Community in South Asia (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014). As he explains, “most simply, a literary tradition may refer to sets of textual and scholarly practices that grow up around a root or source text (mūla-​grantha in Sanskrit). Tradition, thus, explains an ongoing set of self-​aware text-​critical and aesthetic engagements with a powerful literary object that span centuries" (ibid., 4).

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spawned a host of similar studies, including many focused on religious “traditions.”7 Eric Hobsbawm offers the following explanation in his introduction to the volume: “Invented tradition” is taken to mean a set of practices, normally governed by overtly or tacitly accepted rules of a ritual or symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behavior by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past. In fact, where possible, they normally attempt to establish continuity with a suitable historic past. [ . . . ] However, insofar as there is such reference to a historic past, the peculiarity of “invented” traditions is that the continuity with it is largely factitious. In short, they are responses to novel situations which take the form of reference to old situations, or which establish their own past by quasi-​obligatory repetition.8 Hobsbawm and the contributors to this volume are certainly right to chart the ways that traditions seek to manufacture links to the past. Many do imply links with the past through their repetition of established patterns even as they downplay the historicity of their own initiation. At the same time, too much emphasis on the “invention” of traditions potentially obscures the revitalizing processes of all traditions. As Gadamer, Prickett, and many other scholars have discussed, all enduring traditions are dynamic, adaptive, and changing in their own ways. Using the term “tradition” to describe ways that stotras create links to the past has additional benefits as well. These hymns are not merely expressions of personal devotion. As Norman Cutler argued in his work on Tamil devotional hymns, and as we have seen throughout this study, the context for such poetry is tripartite: in addition to the poet or devotee who offers a hymn and the deity or other official addressee who receives it, there is a human audience that can be implied or explicitly involved.9 Christian Novetzke, in his study of the history of the tradition surrounding the fourteenth-​century poet-​saint Nāmdev, persuasively argues for the need to understand bhakti in some contexts as a form of public memory. As Paul Valliere puts it, “ ‘Remember!’ is the first commandment of tradition.”10 7. See, for example, James R. Lewis and Olav Hammer, eds., The Invention of Sacred Tradition (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007). 8. Eric Hobsbawm, “Introduction: Inventing Traditions,” in The Invention of Tradition, ed. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 1–​2. He goes on to claim that the change and innovation of the modern world over the last two hundred years has given rise to particularly interesting examples of invented tradition. 9. See Norman Cutler, Songs of Experience: The Poetics of Tamil Devotion (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), especially Chapter 1, “Poet, God, and Audience in the Poetry of the Tamil Saints.” 10. Paul Valliere, “Tradition,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 13 (2nd ed.), ed. Lindsay Jones (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005), 9268.



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Novetzke’s approach departs from the standard interpretations of bhakti as either personal, private devotion or a current of social protest.11 While most academic scholarship on bhakti traditions has focused on vernacular hymns, Sanskrit stotras must also be understood as a part of the history of bhakti, and they too can productively be understood in certain contexts as a form of public memory. It is true that the tradition around stotras in Kashmir is less cohesive and less explicitly concerned with historical figures and periods than the complex traditions surrounding Nāmdev and other figures. As such, it allows for far less emphasis on what Novetzke characterizes as the “process by which bhakti both historicizes moments and itself becomes historicized and inserted into historical contexts.”12 Nevertheless, as we will see, stotras can be a form of memory—​they can bind a community together through a remembered past—​and, as a form of sharing within a community, they have their own publics. As Novetzke suggests, memory, like bhakti, is a form of collective participation, and “where the two worlds intersect, bhakti and memory, is the space where publics are created.”13 In Kashmir, the composition, recitation, and circulation of stotras were—​and remain—​practices that engage with and remember the past in ways that reform it to meet specific needs in the present. Many of the hymns discussed in previous chapters already suggest ways that Kashmirian authors adapt and refigure earlier traditions. This is certainly true for the Kashmirian exegetes. Kṣemarāja’s BhASt, for instance, reframes the Svacchandabhairava tradition within his non-​dualistic Śākta-​Śaiva synthesis. His stotra establishes a new theological understanding of this deity through its interpretation of its iconography. This was part of Kṣemarāja’s ambitious exegetical work to appropriate the dominant forms of religious worship in the Kashmir valley. In the case of the Krama tradition, we saw that many authors followed in the footsteps of Jñānanetra and composed hymns as a way of transmitting and elaborating upon the Krama teachings. These hymns function as a tradition of exegesis and, by linking contemporary authors with Jñānanetra and his succession of followers, establish their preceptorial lineage and authority in the present. The SKA offers another instructive case. As I argued in Chapter 6, Jagaddhara sees his devotional hymns revitalizing a tradition of Sanskrit literature on the decline. He affirms the value of Sanskrit kāvya even as he re-​envisions it as being justified and revitalized by devotional praise of Śiva. In the fourteenth century, a time when it seems there was a major contraction of Sanskrit literary and religious traditions in Kashmir, Jagaddhara turned to the stotra form in order to

11.  See Christian Lee Novetzke, Religion and Public Memory:  A Cultural History of Saint Namdev in India (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), particularly 1–​2 and 10. 12. Ibid., 2. 13. Ibid., 26.

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creatively reimagine a future for these traditions, one that brought them together in an experimental collection of devotional hymns. Thus, the stotra form facilitated what I call a creative consolidation of religious, literary, and aesthetic traditions. Jagaddhara inherited a rich but seemingly struggling heritage and sought to revitalize it through his hymns to Śiva. The remainder of this chapter will consider more recent cases where stotras have been essential for the creative negotiation of complex religious and literary heritages, first in the seventeenth century and then in the twentieth. Both Sāhib Kaul and Swami Lakshman Joo turned to stotras in their articulation of distinctly Kashmirian forms of religious community, and both invoke and revitalize Kashmir’s past traditions as they adapt to the needs of the present. As we will see, Swami Lakshman Joo was particularly important for the perception of “Kashmir Śaivism” as a distinct religious tradition, and stotras remain key to this formulation.

Sāhib Kaul and Kashmirian Tradition In Chapters 3 and 4, we saw how Sāhib Kaul’s poetry showcases the versatility and potential of the stotra form. As Alexis Sanderson has argued, Sāhib Kaul’s family emigrated to Kashmir in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century from Mithila in northern Bihar and were subsequently incorporated into Kashmirian Brahman society.14 Sāhib Kaul’s compositions reflect and also probably facilitated this assimilation, for they actively engage with Kashmir’s literary and religious heritage and help to establish a distinctly Kashmirian religious tradition that combines elements from the Kauls’ homeland with what they encountered in Kashmir. Some of Sāhib Kaul’s works, especially his ritual manuals, are rooted squarely in his family’s East Indian heritage.15 Others, however, indicate his explicit engagement with Kashmirian traditions. This is particularly true in his ŚāSt, a hymn of eighteen verses to the goddess Śārikā. Sanderson has pointed out that this stotra reflects the Maithila Kauls’ assimilation of local Kashmirian religious tradition, for Śārikā is a distinctly local Kashmirian goddess.16 Moreover, he

14. Alexis Sanderson, “The Śaiva Exegesis of Kashmir,” in Mélanges tantriques à la mémoire d’Hélène Brunner/​Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner, ed. Dominic Goodall and André Padoux (Pondicherry:  Institut Français d’Indologie/​ École Française d’Extrême-​ Orient, 2007), 409–​410; Alexis Sanderson, “Kashmir,” in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Volume One: Regions, Pilgrimage, Deities, ed. Knut A. Jacobsen (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 124–​126; and Alexis Sanderson, “The Śaiva Religion Among the Khmers, Part I,” Bulletin de l’Ecole Française d’Extrême-​Orient 90–​91 (2003–​2004): 361–​366. 15. Sanderson, “Kashmir,” 124. 16. As Sanderson notes, Sāhib Kaul “venerated the Kashmirian goddess Śārikā as his lineage deity and wrote a number of devotional works in which the Śākta Śaiva tradition of his adopted homeland rooted in the non-​dualistic doctrines of Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta is fully integrated” (“Śaiva Exegesis,” 410).



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argues that the Kauls integrated themselves in the religious world of Kashmir by means of “their adoption of the metaphysical and soteriological theory of the Kashmirian Śākta tradition and their inclusion of the local goddesses in a new, hybrid pantheon.”17 In the penultimate verse of the ŚāSt, Sāhib Kaul identifies himself as its author and refers to Śārikā as a lineage deity (vaṃśadevī), implying that she is his own lineage deity.18 His worship of the Kashmirian goddess Śārikā in this way indicates his adoption of local traditions. At the same time, it also suggests the process by which this may have occurred, for these hymns may have been circulated and publicly performed, thus advertising the orientation of this particular community and helping the Kauls integrate into the Brahman population of Kashmir. The ŚāSt also has another level of meaning. Its verses (vv. 2–​9) give the coded instructions for constructing the goddess Śārikā’s mantra (mantroddhāra); as the poet explains, “He, Sāhib Kaul, composed this hymn to [his] lineage deity, the goddess Śārikā, which [provides the means for] constructing her mantra.”19 The final verse describes the benefits of reciting this stotra: One who recites, listens to, or teaches this rich stotra with true devotion, even if he is without your mantra, O goddess, will obtain the great fruit born of mantras, without a doubt.20 In other words, reciting or even hearing this stotra bestows the benefits of repeating her mantra because this mantra is encoded in its verses.21 In this way this poem elides some of the boundaries between mantras and stotras, making the former—​which generally require initiation for their esoteric practice—​more accessible through the devotional recitation of the latter. Encoding Śārikā’s mantra in this way allowed for its circulation among other members of Sāhib Kaul’s community. The ŚāSt thereby reflects not only the Kauls’ adoption of local Kashmirian religious traditions, but also how Sāhib Kaul used the stotra form to

17. Sanderson continues: “But there is indirect evidence that they also integrated themselves into the purely Kashmirian ritual tradition by adopting the practice of Śaiva initiation and the like based on the tradition of the Svacchandatantra and seen in such detailed manuals as the Kalādῑkṣāpaddhati and Agnikāryapaddhati” (“Kashmir,” 125). 18. jñānasvāmiprāptasadbuddhisāraḥ jñātajñeyaḥ sarvataḥ svātmabhāvī /​ stotraṃ mantroddhāry adaḥ śārikāyāḥ sāhibkaulo vaṃśadevyāś cakāra //​ ŚāSt 17 //​ 19. stotraṃ mantroddhāry adaḥ śārikāyāḥ sāhibkaulo vaṃśadevyāś cakāra; ŚāSt 17cd. 20. yo vāpy etaṃ kīrtayet stotraṃ āḍhyaṃ samyagbhaktyā śroṣyati śrāvayed vā /​ nirmantro ‘pi prāpnuyād devadevi niḥsandehaṃ mantrajaṃ satphalaṃ saḥ //​ ŚāSt 18 //​ 21. Based on vv. 2–​9, the mantra can be reconstructed as oṃ hrīṃ śrīṃ hūṃ hraiṃ aiṃ śaiṃ śārikāyai namaḥ.​I am grateful to Somadeva Vasudeva for his help in decoding this mantra.

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make such traditions more accessible and widespread. This is particularly true because this sophisticated hymn combines its coded presentation and reflection on the efficacy of Śārikā’s mantra with poetic and energetic descriptions of devotion. In addition to his many short poetic works, Sāhib Kaul also composed his DNV, an ambitious literary hybrid that challenges standard attempts at classification. As we saw in Chapter 3, this “tour de force of devotional poetry in the most refined and complex style”22 offers an expanded and poetic presentation of each of the names presented in the Bhavānīsahasranāmastotra and gives a complex literary version of its frame story. In doing so, it combines elements of mahākāvya literature, Śaiva-​Śākta scriptures, theological expositions, and devotional stotras. Sāhib Kaul explicitly refers to it as a work of kāvya.23 Both the content and style of the first five chapters reflect the conventions of Sanskrit mahākāvya, and some later chapters include various types of “brilliant” or virtuosic poetry (citrakāvya). For example, DNV 14.74 presents the name Dolā (“swing” or “the swinging one”) using only the two consonants “d” and “l,” thereby expressing in language the power of oscillation conveyed by this name for the goddess. Other types of citrakāvya include citrabandhas or verbal images, such as the image of a lotus (padmabandha) formed by the syllables of v. 15.1. In this way, the DNV carries on the tradition of both mainstream mahākāvyas and literary hymns like the DŚ of Ānandavardhana and the SKA of Jagaddhara. The DNV, however, is far more narrative than these predecessors. While Sāhib Kaul’s major composition shares many features with kāvya literature, much of the DNV actually consists of Śiva’s teachings to Nandin, and in this way it also parallels Śaiva scriptures, which frequently consist of a dialogue between Śiva and Pārvatī or another disciple. The Bhavānīsahasranāmastotra itself is said to belong to the Rudrayāmalatantra, although this was something of an open-​e nded, catch-​a ll scripture to which many individual compositions are said to belong. Moreover, as Jürgen Hanneder has demonstrated in detail, the third chapter of the DNV adapts the entire Pratyabhijñāhṛdaya of Kṣemarāja, a Śākta-​inflected summary of the Pratyabhijñā theology that has remained popular since its composition. 24 The language of Kashmir’s Śaiva traditions is found throughout the DNV, even as it focuses on praising

22. Sanderson, “The Śaiva Religion Among the Khmers,” 365. 23. See his concluding verses for most chapters (e.g., DNV 1.90). 24.  Jürgen Hanneder, “Sāhib Kaul’s Presentation of Pratyabhijñā Philosophy in His Devīnāmavilāsa,” in Le Parole e i Marmi:  Studi in Onore di Raniero Gnoli nel Suo 70° Compleanno, Serie Orientale Roma 92.1–​2, ed. Raffaele Torella (Rome: Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, 2001).



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the goddess. Thus, the DNV also engages the rich scriptural and exegetical traditions of Kashmir, particularly the non-​d ual theology of the Pratyabhijñā. Finally, the DNV also shares much with stotra literature more broadly. Compositions that consist of a litany of “thousand names” (sahasranāman) of a deity are generally categorized as belonging to a distinct subcategory within the stotra genre (although this classification is far from unanimous or standardized). Specific sections of the DNV are undeniably stotras, such as Nandin’s hymn of praise to Śiva in the final part of c­ hapter 2 (vv. 2.52–​73), which consists almost entirely of vocatives and epithets (it only switches to a theological reflection on Śiva’s nature, adapting the entirety of the Pratyabhijñāhṛdaya, when it continues in Chapter 3). Between this hymn to Śiva, Śiva’s praise of the goddess in Chapters 4 and 5, and the poetic verses praising the various names of the goddess in Chapters 6 to 15, the majority of the DNV’s verses consist of praise, glorification, and homage directed toward either Śiva or the goddess. Lastly, like most stotras, the DNV concludes with a phalaśruti section detailing the benefits of reciting and hearing this text (Chapter  16). Here Sāhib Kaul refers to this work as the best or “king of praise-​poems” (stavarāja).25 The DNV cannot be simply called a stotra, a kāvya, or a Śaiva or Śākta scripture; it combines elements of these different genres into an experimental, hybrid poem. In the context of the Kauls’ assimilation into Kashmirian culture, the DNV is important in two main ways. First, Sāhib Kaul experimented with the stotra form as he engaged with Kashmir’s literary traditions. Like the SKA, his poem combines features of stotras and kāvya to create a work that harnesses the literary power of Sanskrit in a devotional context. One could argue that in doing so, Sāhib Kaul participates in a Kashmirian literary and aesthetic text tradition, albeit one that is less explicit than most philosophical text traditions. Second, the DNV combines the Śākta, goddess-​centered tradition of his own lineage with the complex theological forms of Śaivism prevalent in seventeenth-​century Kashmir. Through his poetry, and the DNV in particular, Sāhib Kaul creatively integrates Kashmir’s religious and literary heritage into his own community’s nascent Śaiva-​ Śākta Kashmirian tradition. Sāhib Kaul’s literary activities suggest how the Kauls successfully integrated into the Brahman community in Kashmir. As the examples of the ŚSt and DNV indicate, this involved deliberate engagement with and continuation of past traditions as well as creative additions and reworkings to carefully position this community within its Kashmirian context. The uniqueness and flexibility of the stotra form made it a particularly suitable means of facilitating this process.

25. DNV 16.4.

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Stotras for the Twentieth Century: The Life and Teachings of Swami Lakshman Joo The most important figure in the Indian and international perception of Hinduism in Kashmir in the twentieth century was the Śaiva scholar and guru Swami Lakshman Joo (1907–​1991). He was particularly influential in the development of what came to be called “Kashmir Śaivism.” Swami Lakshman Joo was a unique, dynamic teacher who was deeply committed to Kashmir’s religious and literary traditions but also adapted them in ways that reflected broader trends in the development of Hinduism in the twentieth century. Stotras were a key component of his religious vision and activity, and they facilitated his engagement with and innovation on earlier traditions. Stotras recur throughout his life story. Swami Lakshman Joo reported, for instance, that it was his father’s recitation of Utpaladeva’s ŚSĀ that inspired him to study Sanskrit in the first place. He later went on to publish an edition of and Hindi commentary on this text.26 When he traveled to South India to meet the famous guru Ramana Maharshi, Swami Lakshman Joo composed his own Sanskrit praise-​poetry to him, which he called Ramaṇastutiḥ (Hymn of praise to Ramaṇa).27 According to Swami Lakshman Joo’s own disciples, devotion, particularly devotion expressed through stotras, remained “the undercurrent of his spirituality.”28 He turned to stotra literature throughout his life as a source of personal inspiration. This affinity was manifest in Swami Lakshman Joo’s literary activities as well. He was an active scholar, and he sought to combine rigorous scholasticism and theology with his devotionalism. His publications include editions of multiple stotras, including Utpaladeva’s ŚSĀ with a Hindi commentary, the SP with a Hindi commentary, the Pañcastavī with a Hindi translation, and the Amṛteśvarabhairava­ mahimnaḥstotram.29 Much of his literary activity, in other words, consisted of his scholarship on stotras. Given the centrality of stotras in his own life, it is not surprising that Swami Lakshman Joo emphasized stotras in his teaching, both for Indian and international students. He would regularly instruct disciples to recite the ŚSĀ while

26. Bettina Bäumer, “Introduction” to Saṃvidullāsaḥ: Manifestation of Divine Consciousness; Swami Lakshman Joo, Saint-​Scholar of Kashmir Śaivism; A  Centenary Tribute, ed. Bettina Bäumer and Sarla Kumar (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2007), 4. 27. Ibid., 24. 28. Ibid., 4. 29. Śivastotrāvalī of Utpaladevāchārya; Sāmbapañcāśikā with Bhāṣā Ṭīkā; Śrī Dharmācāryakṛtā Pañcastavī; Śrī Amṛteśvara-​Bhairava Mahimnastotram.



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worshipping the guru as Śiva.30 According to his disciples, he presented devotion to the guru (guru-​bhakti) as the “master key” for understanding the scriptures, and stotras were a direct way to cultivate and express this devotion.31 This influenced the interests of his students, many of whom published editions and translations of stotras, or composed their own. His Indian devotees published a collection of hymns and verses, Shri Gurustuti and Other Stotras, that gathers together twentieth-​ century hymns by Rameshvar Jha and Jai Lal Koul alongside verses selected by Swami Lakshman Joo and stotras by Abhinavagupta and Jñānanetra.32 The French scholar Lilian Silburn, one of his foremost Western disciples, published multiple editions and translations of stotras in the twentieth century that shaped early perceptions of Śaivism in Kashmir.33 Stotras also play a prominent role in the worship practices of Swami Lakshman Joo’s community, and in particular its liturgical traditions. Stotras have long been collected for both personal and communal use, but in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries formal and publicly available Hindu hymnals became increasingly common. Swami Lakshman Joo directly shaped the formation of a hymnal used by his community for weekly worship, called Sunday Puja, which has continued to be developed and republished after his death. In doing so, Swami Lakshman Joo—​ like many contemporary Hindus—​was surely influenced by Christian models of regular congregational worship with a common hymnal. Sunday Puja includes the following hymns: –​ Gurustuti, composed by Rameshvar Jha in the twentieth century in honor of Swami Lakshman Joo –​ Pādukāstuti, composed by Jai Lal Koul in the twentieth century –​ Dehasthadevatācakrastotra, attributed to Abhinavagupta –​ The Kālikāstotra of Jñānanetra –​ Collections of unidentified verses, including multiple verses from Jagaddhara’s Stutikusumāñjali34

30.  Mohan Lal Sopory, “The Making of a Yoginī,” in Saṃvidullāsaḥ, ed. Bäumer and Kumar, 156. 31. Bäumer, “Introduction” in Saṃvidullāsaḥ, ed. Bäumer and Kumar, 9. 32. Devi, trans. (Hindi) and Dhar, trans. (English), Shri Gurustuti. 33. Lilian Silburn, Hymnes de Abhinavagupta (Paris: Institut de civilisation de l’Université de Paris: E. De Broccard, 1970); Lilian Silburn, La Bhakti: Le Stavacintāmaṇi de Bhaṭṭanārāyaṇa (Paris:  Boccard, 1964); Lilian Silburn, Hymnes aux Kālī:  La Roue des Energies Divines (Paris: Institut de Civilisation Indienne, 1975). 34.  Between pp.  27–​34 of Sunday Puja, for instance, SKA 1.6, 1.7, and 1.9 are numbered verses 1–​3, SKA 11.38 is numbered verse 14, and SKA 11.32 is numbered verse 15; on p. 99, in a later collection of verses in the hymnal, one finds SKA 1.7.

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–​ –​ –​ –​

Kramastotra35 Bahurūpagarbhastotra Śivamahimnastotra Sadgurulakṣmaṇadevasya Aṣṭottara-​śata-​nāmāvalī, a devotional composition expressing homage to Swami Lakshman Joo –​ Abhinavagupta’s Bhairavastotra36 The hymnal also urges the regular recitation of verses from Utpaladeva’s ŚSĀ, time allowing.37 The collection ends with another hymn in highly Sanskritized Hindi, labeled an āratī, to Swami Lakshman Joo. The Sunday Puja anthology reflects Swami Lakshman Joo’s non-​dualistic Śaiva-​Śākta orientation, his scholasticism, and his veneration of Abhinavagupta in particular. Moreover, the poetry to Swami Lakshman Joo himself illustrates this community’s emphasis on guru-​ bhakti and worship of the guru as Śiva as a primary means of realizing its non-​dual theology. This collection, as well as Swami Lakshman Joo’s life, teaching, and literary activities, suggests several broader points on the role of stotras for this community in the twentieth century. His emphasis on certain hymns in his teaching and publications, and the selection for the Sunday Puja hymnal, created a devotional canon for the tradition. These hymns connect this contemporary community with the great poet-​teachers of Kashmir’s past, particularly Abhinavagupta, and link these with Swami Lakshman Joo as the twentieth-​century equivalent. For example, in the section of the hymnal called “Compulsory Recitation” there are a series of verses in the style of a stotra in which the reciter offers homage to Śiva and transmitters of his teachings, and specifically to Kashmir’s famous non-​dual Śaiva gurus. There are three main categories of figures in this sequence:  divine forms of Śiva and legendary sages, the means by which Śiva’s divine teachings have passed down to human beings; historical teachers from Kashmir, most notably Abhinavagupta and his teachers and disciples; and the modern lineage of Swami Lakshman Joo. The section begins by invoking Śiva in the popular forms of Amṛteśvarabhairava, Svacchandabhairava, and Śrīkaṇṭha, and then the legendary sage Durvāsa and his mind-​born offspring. It proceeds eventually to a human lineage beginning with Saṅgamāditya, who is said to have settled in Kashmir, followed by his son

35. This is not the Kramastotra of Abhinavagupta; on these hymns, see Silburn, Hymnes aux Kālī, 109–​115 and 125–​148. 36.  It is identified in the table of contents only by the beginning of its first verse, vyāptacarācara-​, and in the printed colophon it is called the Śivacāmarastuti, but its verses, with a few variants, are the same as the well-​known hymn to Bhairava by Abhinavagupta (Sunday Puja, 129-​132) 37. Ibid., 45.



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Varṣāditya and his grandson Aruṇāditya.38 The list continues with Ānanda, and his son Somānanda, the well-​known Kashmirian philosopher, and his disciple Utpaladeva, who has recurred throughout this book. This sequence—​from forms of Śiva down to Somānanda—​closely matches an autobiographical passage attributed to Somānanda himself and appended to his Śivadṛṣṭi.39 Sunday Puja moves from Utpaladeva through the illustrious lineage that followed before shifting abruptly to Swami Lakshman Joo’s lineage in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries: [I pay homage to] Ānanda, Somānanda, Utpaladeva, Śambhunātha, the best of teachers, Lakṣmanagupta, Abhinavagupta, Kṣemarāja and Yogarāja, the venerable guru Mana Kāk, the Śaiva teacher Rāma [=Swami Rāmji, c. 1853–​1915], his disciple Mahtāb Kāk [d. 1942],40 and Īśvarasvarūpa [=Swami Lakshman Joo], the benevolent form of Śiva incarnate as the lineage of gurus.41 Śambhunātha and Lakṣmanagupta were Abhinavagupta’s teachers in the tenth century, and Kṣemarāja and Yogarāja were his disciples in the eleventh. The description here then jumps to the nineteenth century and the lineage leading to Swami Lakshman Joo himself (Mana Kāk → Swami Rāmji → Mahtāb Kāk → Swami Lakshman Joo).

38.  oṃ amṛteśvarabhairavaṃ svacchandanāthaṃ śrīkaṇṭhanāthaṃ ṛṣi durvāsasam /​ mānasa-​putraṃ tryambakanāthaṃ āmardakanāthaṃ śrīnātham //​ mānasaputrīṃ ardhatryambakākhyāṃ tryambakādityam /​ saṅgamādityaṃ varṣādityam aruṇādityam //​ Sunday Puja, 107. 39. See John Nemec, The Ubiquitous Śiva: Somānanda’s Śivadṛṣṭi and His Tantric Interlocutors (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 20–​24, for a discussion, edition, and translation of this passage. 40. On Sri Manas Ram Monga (popularly known as Maneh Kāk or Mana Kāk), Swami Rāmji or Rām Joo (also known as Shri Rāmapada), and Swami Mahtāb Kāk, see Jankinath Kaul, “Swami Ramji—​The Maha Maheshwar Acharya,” in Eminent Personalities of Kashmir, ed. K. L. Kalla (New Delhi: Discovery Publishing House, 1997), 161–​165, Ram Chandra Raina, “Guru-​Paramaparā: Three Generations of Śaiva Saints” in Saṃvidullāsaḥ, ed. Bäumer and Kumar, 69–​72, and Bäumer, “Introduction” in Saṃvidullāsaḥ, ed. Bäumer and Kumar, 5–​8. 41.  ānandaṃ somānandaṃ utpaladevaṃ ācāryavaraṃ śrīśambhunātham /​ lakṣmaṇa-​guptam abhinavaguptaṃ kṣemarājaṃ yogarājaṃ ca //​ śrīgurū-​manakākaṃ śaivācāryaṃ rāmaṃ tat śiṣyaṃ śrīmahatābakākam /​ gurusantati-​rūpe avatāritaṃ śaiva-​śambhuṃ īśvarasvarūpaṃ ca //​ Sunday Puja, 107–​108.

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These verses, and the final sections of the Sunday Puja hymnal overall, serve to identity Swami Lakshman Joo in two distinct ways. First, they present him as the embodied form of Śiva—​in fact, he was commonly known as Īśvarasvarūpa, “embodiment of the lord,” a title given to him by his disciple Sharika Devi.42 The section of Sunday Puja called Sadgurulakṣmaṇadevasya Aṣṭottara-​śata-​nāmāvalī presents the “108 names of the true guru Lakṣmaṇa,” Swami Lakshman Joo. Near the start, it proclaims: Homage to you, the beloved guru Lakṣmaṇa! Homage to you, the beloved guru who is Śiva, Śiva the guru, supreme Bhairava, beloved Lakṣmaṇa, the embodiment of the lord!43 Second, the organization and progression of Sunday Puja establishes Swami Lakshman Joo himself as the contemporary link to the famous Śaiva gurus in Kashmir’s past. As one scholar-​devotee reports, “Many of his visitors, disciples, and students, were struck by the impression when they met Swamiji that they were in the presence of Abhinavagupta.”44 The implication is that through Swami Lakshman Joo’s own person one is able to access both lord Śiva and the perceived splendor of premodern Śaiva gurus, especially Abhinavagupta. Guru-​bhakti, devotion to the guru, takes center stage in this form of Śaivism. The focus of the main halls in Swami Lakshman Joo’s ashrams is a picture of Swami Lakshman Joo himself, and devotees offer flowers before him (and other venerated figures in his lineage represented throughout the room) at the end of the communal worship. This worship of the guru is part of a non-​dual Śaiva theology:  one worships the guru as Śiva because this is the best entry into seeing everything as one with Śiva. Stotras are particularly effective in this context. They facilitate a devotion to the guru that makes complex theology accessible. Stotras connect devotees to a dense history of theological scholarship without requiring any high level of scholastic competence. For many people who try to study premodern Śaiva traditions, especially those that flourished in Kashmir, it quickly becomes clear that these are extremely sophisticated and challenging traditions to study. Stotras, on the other hand, are generally accessible, and they can be recited by members of the

42.  Prabha Devi, “Śrī Guru Īśvara Svarūpa” in Saṃvidullāsaḥ, ed. Bäumer and Kumar, 61, and Bettina Bäumer and Sarla Kumar, “Glossary” in Saṃvidullāsaḥ, ed. Bäumer and Kumar, 232. 43.  tubhyaṃ namaḥ śrīgurulakṣmaṇāya /​ tubhyaṃ namaḥ śrīgurave śivāya /​ gurave śivāya parabhairavāya /​ īśvarasvarūpāya śrīlakṣmaṇāya //​1 //​Sunday Puja, 113. 44. Bäumer, “Introduction” in Saṃvidullāsaḥ, ed. Bäumer and Kumar, 10.



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community regardless of their level of comprehension. Yet they usually encode larger theological positions and therefore link the reciter with these complex systems, as we saw in Chapter  4. As in many contemporary Hindu communities, Swami Lakshman Joo’s disciples regularly gather for recitation on Sundays to accommodate the work week. Reciting from a “Sunday worship” book on a weekly basis demands less of the busy modern devotee than the daily ritual requirements prescribed by the Śaiva scriptures. As a whole, this community follows Swami Lakshman Joo’s lead in placing a high value on scholastic engagement with Śaiva theology, but reciting stotras that are seen as embodying this complex theology in a simpler form allows them to engage with these traditions at multiple levels. At the end of the day, it is devotion to the guru, and the identity between the guru and Śiva, that is stressed in much modern practice within this community. As a modern guru, Swami Lakshman Joo brought thousands of devotees into close relationship with Kashmir’s religious and literary traditions. In his yogic discipline and his personal charisma, his active teaching career, and his rigor and productivity as a scholar, he surely followed in the footsteps of many of the great gurus of Kashmir. At the same time, he was also unique. The tradition that developed around him clearly positions itself in relation to Kashmir’s religious past, but it is still his tradition, in the sense of something distinct and closely connected to him as an individual. Notably, while Swami Lakshman Joo had many prominent disciples who have carried on his legacy in their own original ways, he does not have a recognized successor as guru. This is why he is sometimes identified as having been the last guru of Kashmir Śaivism. Yet this designation should give us pause. Implicit here is a claim about a tradition called “Kashmir Śaivism” that ostensibly links Swami Lakshman Joo with a recognizable religious tradition distinct to the region of Kashmir. But “Kashmir Śaivism” has its own history as a designation, and, as we shall see, it is no accident that the place of stotras in this primarily gnostic tradition parallels the place of stotras in Swami Lakshman Joo’s life and teaching.

Stotras and “Kashmir Śaivism” Even during his lifetime, Swami Lakshman Joo was frequently held up as the “sole surviving teacher and exponent of Kashmir Śaivism.”45 While there were other twentieth-​century gurus, like Swami Muktananda of Ganeshpuri, who contributed to the international popularity and profile of “Kashmir Śaivism,” Swami Lakshman Joo had the greatest influence on how it has been perceived and reproduced, particularly through his instruction of international students and scholars (who in turn have been influential in the self-​perception of “Kashmir Śaivism” by

45. Ram Chandra Raina, “Guru-​Paramaparā: Three Generations of Śaiva Saints,” 69.

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Kashmiri Pandits themselves).46 Swami Lakshman Joo’s articulation of this tradition placed stotras at the crucial intersection of Śaiva devotion, meditation, gnosis, and theology. The term “Kashmir Śaivism” is used generally as a shorthand way of referring to a non-​dualistic (advaita), Kashmirian form of Śaivism with prominent Śākta elements, and sometimes specifically the tradition known as the Trika. This formulation takes as its core a set of non-​dual theological teachings and exegetical practices that center on liberating knowledge, rather than the role of religious practice, and ritual action in particular, in contrast to the dualist Śaiva Siddhāntins. “Kashmir Śaivism” has had great success as a designation for what is taken as a cohesive religious tradition that has its roots in ninth-​century Kashmir and has survived in limited form to the present day. Both scholars and laypeople continue to contribute to an already impressive body of literature purporting to describe and analyze the tradition of “Kashmir Śaivism.” Despite the widespread use and popularity of this term, its history is recent. Describing his search for manuscripts in Kashmir in 1877, the Indologist Georg Bühler refers to “Kashmirian Śaivism” and calls it a “real separate religion, with peculiar ceremonies and sacrifices and transcendental doctrines.”47 Starting in 1911, the Research Department of the Dogra state of Jammu and Kashmir began publishing the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies (KSTS), which first made dozens of texts preserved in Kashmir available outside of the region. This series shaped perceptions of what was seen as a “Kashmirian” form of Śaivism. It emphasizes non-​dual theological works—​as opposed to ritual treatises, for example—​and highlights the interpretation of Śaivism seen in the works of Abhinavagupta and the commentaries and short treatises of his disciple Kṣemarāja. The first volume, for example—​the ninth-​century Śivasūtra with the commentary of Kṣemarāja—​ offers a unique vision of gnostic, non-​dualistic Śaivism that transcends ritual practice. But the term “Kashmir Śaivism” itself gained currency with the publication of J. C. Chatterji’s book called simply Kashmir Shaivaism [sic] in 1914, as the second volume of the KSTS, by the Research Department of the state of Kashmir.48

46.  Swami Muktananda and many others recognized this authority by visiting Swami Lakshman Joo in Kashmir. 47. Georg Bühler, Detailed Report of a Tour in Search of Sanskrit Manuscripts Made in Kashmir, Rajputana, and Central India, Extra Number of the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (London: Trübner, 1877), 23–​24 (quoted in Alexis Sanderson, “Swami Lakshman Joo and His Place in the Kashmirian Śaiva Tradition,” in Saṃvidullāsah, ed. Bäumer and Kumar, 110–​111n36). 48.  The volume has been reprinted multiple times, including J. C. Chatterji, Kashmir Shaivaism (Albany: SUNY Press, 1986).



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Interestingly, the full title was originally intended to be “The Kashmir Shaivaism, being a brief Introduction to the History, Literature and Doctrines of the Advaita Shaiva Philosophy of Kashmir, specifically called the Trika System,” acknowledging its focus on the non-​dual philosophy of the Trika.49 The qualifications of this longer title, however, have frequently been glossed over. After these early twentieth-​century developments, the term “Kashmir Śaivism” became the established way of describing the Śaivism of Kashmir, and the form of Hinduism in Kashmir more broadly, that has continued to the present day.50 Chatterji’s book and the ambitious KSTS publishing project initiated a long academic tradition of identifying a particular stream of primarily non-​dual theological reflection as the core of a distinct Kashmirian school of Śaivism.51 While “Kashmir Śaivism” is convenient, and there are certainly distinctive features of religious life in Kashmir, there are numerous problems with the designation that have been recognized by scholars for decades.52 To begin with, there have been multiple varieties of Śaivism in Kashmir, and these communities were often

49. J. C. Chatterji, ed., The Shiva Sūtra Vimarshinī, Being the Sūtras of Vasu Gupta with the Commentary called Vimarshinī by Kṣemarāja, Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies Vol. 1 (Srinagar, Kashmir: Archaeological and Research Department, 1911), iiifn*. 50.  Also key to this trajectory are publications related to Lal Dĕd, the circa fourteenth-​ century figure often seen as an expounder or embodiment of “Kashmir Śaivism,” especially after the publication of George Grierson and Lionel Barnett’s Lallā-​Vākyāni; or, the Wise Sayings of Lal Děd, a Mystic Poetess of Ancient Kashmir (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1920), in which they identify her as “a follower of the Kashmīr branch of the Śaiva religion” (1; see also Dean Accardi, “Asceticism, Gender, and the State:  Saints of the Kashmiri Sultanate, 1550–​1650” [Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2014], 314). This study was aided by Mukunda Rāma Śāstrī, who worked closely on the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies, and it had a major influence on later works. As Accardi notes, for example, it is one of the main sources for Richard Carnac Temple’s The Word of Lalla the Prophetess (1924), which draws heavily from Grierson and Barnett’s translation as well as J. C. Chatterji’s Kashmir Shaivaism (“Asceticism, Gender, and the State,” 317). While this history deserves further research, I would argue that it not a coincidence that Lal Dĕd’s devotional poetry was and continues to be such an influential (and contested) source for the development of Kashmirian traditions. On the historiography of Lal Dĕd, see Accardi, “Asceticism, Gender, and the State,” 314–​322, and “Orientalism and the Invention of Kashmiri Religion(s),” International Journal of Hindu Studies 22, no. 3 [December 2018]: 411–​430). The latter is also particularly useful for understanding the work of J. C. Chatterji and Mukunda Rāma Śāstrī. 51. This project, it is important to note, was closely bound up with the political and cultural agenda of the Hindu Dogra rulers of the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir (1846–​ 1947), in association with British Colonial scholars. See Mridu Rai, Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004), and Accardi, “Orientalism and the Invention of Kashmiri Religion(s).” 52. See, for example, Alexis Sanderson, “Śaivism in Kashmir,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 13, ed. Mircea Eliade (New  York:  Macmillan, 1987), 16–​17, and Paul Eduardo Muller-​ Ortega, The Triadic Heart of Śiva: Kaula Tantrism of Abhinavagupta in the Non-​dual Shaivism of Kashmir (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 16–​18.

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in competition. “Kashmir Śaivism,” in contrast, suggests that there was one dominant tradition representing the majority of the Śaivas (and Hindus) in the region. Second, the forms of Śaivism found in Kashmir were not exclusive to this region. Kashmir was certainly a stronghold for some of these traditions, and many manuscripts were preserved by its active scholastic community (aided by Kashmir’s climate, which helped delicate manuscripts last longer). But many of the Śaiva traditions found in Kashmir were not Kashmirian in an exclusive sense. Lastly, the popularity of studying “Kashmir Śaivism” occludes the reality that there were other religious traditions in Kashmir besides the Śaivas, including Buddhists and Vaiṣṇavas. What is called “Kashmir Śaivism” does not exclusively or adequately represent the religious makeup of Kashmir, either historically or today. This is not a new critique. Yet even when these challenges are acknowledged, many authors move on to discuss “what has come to be known as Kashmir Śaivism” without considering the historical development of this as a distinctive tradition. In the excellent encyclopedia of Hinduism published by Brill, for instance, an entry on “Kashmir Śaivism” is included in the section on “Religious Traditions,” and it is identified as a distinct tradition alongside other sectarian traditions like Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism and the Kabirpanth. The entry focuses almost exclusively on philosophical non-​dualism.53 While this is certainly crucial to what is generally meant by “Kashmir Śaivism,” perhaps the most interesting feature of this tradition is how it became articulated as a specific tradition in the first place. On one hand, this process is a distinctly recent phenomenon; on the other, it is part of a much longer, gradual shift in the religious life of Kashmir. Alexis Sanderson has argued that by the beginning of the twentieth century in Kashmir, certain systems of Śaiva ritual requiring formal initiation—​as opposed to the exoteric Smārta ritual system—​had died out in the valley.54 From around the twelfth century onward, and especially after the thirteenth century, there was a contraction in the Śaiva literature transmitted, produced, and circulated in Kashmir. This was already evident by the time Jayaratha composed his commentary on Abhinavagupta’s Tantrāloka in the thirteenth century.55 The Trika, in particular, seems to have become divorced from a system of ritual practice. In part this followed from the non-​dualistic, gnostic logic of the Trika itself, since it relegated ritual to a secondary status and taught that knowledge was the key to liberation. This allowed for the articulation of an advanced form of Trika Śaivism that emphasized Śaiva meditation, devotion, and study in support of gnosis. Over

53. David Peter Lawrence, “Kashmir Śaivism,” in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 3, ed. Knut A. Jacobsen et al. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2012). 54. Sanderson, “Swami Lakshman Joo and His Place in the Kashmirian Śaiva Tradition,” especially 110–​112. 55. Ibid., 96–​105.



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time, there occurred a gradual separation of this gnostic form of the Trika from its system of ritual practice that originally served as the basis for its gnostic interpretations of practice.56 As Sanderson has argued, the Trika survived up to the twentieth century primarily as a set of theological doctrines and exegetical resources, and as a system of Śaiva meditation that functioned along with pan-​Indian Smārta ritual, rather than as a specific ritual system that required formal initiation.57 Nevertheless, Sanderson reports from his own experience as Swami Lakshman Joo’s student in the 1970s that this teacher’s Śaivism was still a living tradition that creatively engaged with an inherited past, particularly through an emphasis on Śaiva meditation, study, and devotion.58 Kashmirian authors and practitioners have turned to the stotra form to articulate this devotion and to support their gnostic study and practice of meditation. Stotras are well suited to support devotional worship that can still be non-​dualistic, as we saw in Chapter 4. For instance, the StC suggests that ultimate worship is inner worship done with knowledge, rather than external actions, and it teaches a non-​dualistic approach to religious activity by offering and celebrating its own interpretation of external worship.59 These broad trends—​a gradual separation of a non-​dual theology from Śaiva ritual; an emphasis on Śaiva devotion, meditation, and study; and the utility of stotras in supporting these developments—​ meant that by the twentieth century the centrality of stotras for the Śaivism being practiced in Kashmir was only increasing. Swami Lakshman Joo’s focus on stotras in his teaching, as well as his own literary and religious activities, ensured a central role for stotras in the modern formulation of “Kashmir Śaivism” as a distinct tradition. They are particularly suited for this role because they can be used in religious practice without inherently implying the necessity of ritual, though they are adapted to different ritual contexts. In this way, they support devotional and meditational practices that give life to the dominant theological and exegetical components of “Kashmir Śaivism.” They are seen as both facilitating and expressing devotion and other types of religious experiences, but doing so in a way that is still conducive to non-​ dualism, and in fact illuminates how this non-​dualism can be translated into seemingly dualistic forms of worship. In lieu of strict ritual obligations, stotras can be adopted for personalized religious practice that better fits the inclinations of the modern devotee. And of course, these stotras are also poetry. They invite

56. Ibid., 105–​120. 57. Sanderson, “Śaiva Exegesis,” 433–​434, and “Swami Lakshman Joo and His Place in the Kashmirian Śaiva Tradition,” 116–​120. 58. Sanderson, “Swami Lakshman Joo and His Place in the Kashmirian Śaiva Tradition,” 113–​114. 59. See, for example, StC 113, translated in Chapter 4.

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their audiences to enjoy and savor them, and they also encourage the various types of Śaiva engagements with aesthetics explored in Chapter  7. Collectively, these features of stotras have supported the continued vitality of “Kashmir Śaivism” as a form of Śaiva practice, rather than simply a theological and exegetical system, as we have seen in the case of Swami Lakshman Joo. While the designation “Kashmir Śaivism” took on its distinctive meaning in the twentieth century, there is also a long history to Kashmirian Śaiva traditions. Stotras have been important throughout this history, but in the twentieth century, with the decline of many distinctly Śaiva ritual systems, these hymns became crucial components of Śaiva devotional practice. As Swami Lakshman Joo’s life and teaching indicate, these hymns served as the key link between the guru, the disciple, and Śiva, and they illustrate how this modern community has connected self-​consciously to the past as it redefined itself in the twentieth century.

Conclusion At the end of his discussion of T. S. Eliot and his influential 1919 essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” Stephen Prickett suggests that what is remarkable is how this famous literary critic, “by allowing the present to re-​interpret the past, [ . . . ] points openly to the process by which tradition, whether literary, theological, or even historical, is constantly at work, re-​fashioning and re-​creating our understanding of the world in which we find ourselves.”60 As this chapter has explored, albeit in brief, Kashmirian stotras have been a part of tradition as a process. In the seventeenth century, Sāhib Kaul’s devotional poetry provides evidence for how one community of immigrants to Kashmir integrated themselves into a complex religious and literary culture while using its Maithila Śākta heritage as a resource for innovation. In the twentieth century, Swami Lakshman Joo, based in part on his own life experiences, made stotras central to his scholarship and teaching. This became particularly pronounced for his own disciples, for whom devotion to the guru was and is central to their religious life. This guru-​bhakti is frequently expressed and facilitated by the public and private recitation of stotras, and in some cases even by their composition. Lastly, stotras have been pivotal to the articulation of “Kashmir Śaivism” as a distinct regional tradition, since they facilitate devotional practice that is still non-​dual in the absence of a strong ritual infrastructure, which faded, at least in part, because of non-​dual gnostic reinterpretation. In each of these cases, stotras can be seen as establishing links to the past. They create continuity with specific traditions and figures from Kashmir. At the same time, they are far from static iterations of the past. They embody and facilitate change and adaptation, often self-​consciously, as in Sāhib Kaul’s reference to the

60. Prickett, Modernity and the Reinvention of Tradition, 225.



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Kashmirian goddess Śārikā as his lineage deity. In their deliberate balancing of continuity and change, these stotras exemplify the need to study tradition as more than simply unchanging or invented.61 Stotras are certainly not the only texts that could be studied in this way. But several things are notable about stotras in relation to the concept of tradition. As prayers, they explicitly or implicitly involve a human audience that can form distinctive publics, as Jagaddhara seems to do with his SKA and as the Sunday Puja hymnal used in Swami Lakshman Joo’s ashrams certainly does. Stotras are also closely tied to religious practice, either personal or communal, in a way that other texts, such as commentaries, generally are not. And as this chapter has shown, the flexibility of the stotra genre allows authors great latitude for creativity even as they make claims to specific religious and literary heritages. Repeatedly, we can see how stotras have been useful as traditions adapt because of how they work at points of intersection. In Kashmir, they have been used to bring together religious and literary practices, individuals and communities across many centuries, and scholarship and theology with devotional practice. All of this can serve, as the examples in this chapter illustrate, to connect the present with the past in a way that charts a new path for the future.

61. My argument about hymns as tradition is not exclusive to Kashmir or South Asia. For an example in a North American context, consider the essays in Edith L. Blumhofer and Mark A. Noll, eds., Singing the Lord’s Song in a Strange Land: Hymnody in the History of North American Protestantism (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004). In their introduction, the editors describe the scene in early twentieth-​century Chicago:  “Chicago teemed with immigrants, and for Protestants among them, hymns helped bridge the gap between their old and new lives. Hymns evoked memories, touched emotions, carried theology, elaborated on religious experiences, and effectively popularized Christian faith and patriotic convictions.” They explain that their book explores how Protestants used hymns to clarify identity and relate to America and American Christianity. [The book] considers how hymns helped immigrants in different times and parts of the country negotiate a new identity as Americans and contribute as well to the emergence of a richly textured body of American worship resources. How did hymns help immigrants become Americans? Did they nurture ethnic identity? Ease transitions? How did ethnic traditions of religious song mingle, and what results followed? The authors of this collection look at the role of hymns in shaping personal and corporate life and reflect on the value of hymns for studying those spheres. (ibid., vii–​viii) With surprisingly few modifications, many of these questions and insights are relevant to the study of stotras in South Asian contexts.

9

 Conclusion

Sanskrit stotras demonstrate and, frequently, reflect upon the close link between religious and poetic expression in India—​the relationship between poetry and prayer at the heart of the present work. This is a particularly rich relationship for hymns from Kashmir, a region whose reputation as the abode of Śāradā, the goddess of learning, was justified by centuries of remarkable literary production in a variety of fields. In this book, I have examined the long trajectory of literary hymns in the region, from as early as the eighth century to the twentieth, dwelling on notable compositions from several different periods and analyzing themes relevant across stotra literature. Neither this extended history nor these specific texts have received much scholarly attention, and both offer fruitful perspectives on the history and nature of the stotra genre, as well as on the complex connections between poetry and prayer in South Asia. The book presents an introduction to the stotra genre that draws together recent scholarship and assesses the current state of the field, especially in its first two chapters. This includes a definition of the stotra form, a survey of its central features and attempts to classify it, and an overview of its history in South Asia. The book also offers, to the best of my knowledge, the first English-​ language history of stotras for any region in North India. This history analyzes major themes and developments not just during the most well-​studied period of Kashmir’s history—​roughly from the ninth to the twelfth century—​but also in the sparsely charted centuries that follow. Over the course of this study, I have offered new interpretations of some well-​known texts and also focused on important works that have barely been addressed in contemporary scholarship, such as the fourteenth-​century SKA of Jagaddhara and the seventeenth-​century DNV of Sāhib Kaul. Taking a long view of Kashmir’s history has revealed how generations of Hindus in Kashmir have engaged with their own literary and religious heritage. This book began by introducing a constellation of terms whose shifting relationships helped us navigate over a millennium of literary production. Let

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us return to these same themes—​Kashmir, poetry, poetics, stotra, bhakti, and prayer—​here in the concluding remarks of this book. Stotras have a long history in Kashmir, and they have played a prominent role in its influential literary culture. Many of the most prominent poets and intellectuals in the region composed their own stotras. When we consider the history of literary hymns in Kashmir over the centuries, we can discern common themes explored by authors in Kashmir that help mark a regional tradition of stotra composition, as we saw in Chapter  3. Stotras were potent vehicles for theological reflection and instruction, particularly for non-​dualists concerned with explaining and exemplifying the nature of non-​dualistic praise, prayer, and devotion. Poets in Kashmir frequently show subtle appreciation for the multiple audiences for their hymns, both human and divine. Whether they are highly technical or exoteric, densely poetic or simply constructed, addressed to a deity or directed toward one’s own mind or a specific human audience, their stotras show a repeated concern with the possibilities and complexities of their audiences. Historically, stotras from Kashmir stand out for their creativity and flexibility, as they often are literary experiments or hybrids that challenge conventions and re-​envision earlier traditions. This is true even for periods when other genres were less vibrant or Sanskrit literary production in general had dwindled significantly. Investigating the long history of Sanskrit stotras in Kashmir, in other words, complicates the narrative of a “death of Sanskrit” in the region, as we saw in Chapter 6. The combination of literary and religious complexity, innovation, and self-​awareness of many centuries reveals some of the distinctiveness of these literary hymns. Although many of these features are shared by stotras outside of Kashmir, they are particularly prevalent and frequently combined in this region, making it a unique context for the development of the stotra genre. The history of poetic hymns in Kashmir also highlights the complex relationship between stotra and kāvya. The early history of this relationship suggests that despite the widespread popularity of stotras throughout South Asia, they had a marginal position within Sanskrit literary culture at large. They were not theorized systematically and they fit only loosely into systems for classifying and analyzing literature. Yet at least in Kashmir, many stotra authors present their hymns as works of literature, aspire to the standards of kāvya, and seem to seek the respect of literary theorists. The two hymns Ratnākara includes in his HV, for example, are lengthy and complex poems closely integrated into this ambitious mahākāvya. Independent hymns like the SP and Ratnakaṇṭha’s hymns to the sun harken back to successful earlier works, especially Mayūra’s SūŚ. But it is the SKA that best explores the relationship between stotra and kāvya. As we saw in Chapter 6, Jagaddhara aggressively expands the scope of the stotra form in structure, content, and style by adopting features of traditional Sanskrit literature. He self-​consciously positions his collection of stotras as kāvya, and he sees his work

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revitalizing a tradition of literature that had “grown old before its time.”1 In fact, he champions the stotra as the ideal form of Sanskrit literature, embodying Sarasvatī herself. Thus, Jagaddhara brings poetic praise, which had long existed on the periphery of learned discourse, into the center of the literary universe. Many literary hymns from Kashmir also engage directly with ideas and terminology from aesthetic discourse. Some poets, like Utpaladeva, appropriate and develop the metaphors and terminology of aesthetics without showing much interest in it, at least as a distinctive discourse. But others seem deeply concerned with how their poetry measured up to other works of literature and the criteria for evaluating poetry developed by poetic theorists. Jagaddhara repeatedly affirms the values of Kashmirian poetics and suggests that stotras should meet high literary standards. As a whole, stotras from Kashmir suggest that both literature and aesthetics are contested systems of meaning that can be productively incorporated into the sphere of devotional worship. Individual poets may have done this in their own ways, but ongoing developments within these fields were too compelling to be ignored or deemed irrelevant to the sphere of theology and devotional worship.2 This study of stotras in Kashmir also clarifies and develops a number of general insights into the stotra genre itself. The popularity of such compositions is due in large part to their flexibility. They can express a wide variety of theological positions or enough ambiguity to suggest more than one, or represent certain subjective states. Perhaps most characteristically, they alternate between (or blend together) various uses of language well suited for religious contexts, such as benediction, celebration, and petition. Stotras can be both texts and acts, both in their composition and in their performance by individuals or groups. When a stotra expresses surrender to a deity, for example, the one who recites that stotra enacts the same act of surrendering. They encode and express theology, and also facilitate the enactment of theological positions in devotional activity. For instance, they inscribe specific theological understandings about the identify of both the addressee and the speaker. The speech-​acts of the stotra rely upon theological assumptions, such as who is worthy of praise and what the relationship is between the addressee and the speaker. They are also powerful teaching tools, not just for theological ideas but also for literary values and techniques, among other topics. Stotras are also compositions in which what is said and how it is said are both significant.3 Sanskrit literary theorists have long debated this relationship, since Bhāmaha characterized kāvya as “ ‘a unity of word and meaning,’ a text where

1. SKA 38.19; see Chapter 6 for its translation and analysis. 2. This of course is shown by poets outside of Kashmir as well, such as the author(s) of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa. 3.  This balance, of course, is not the same in every text, and this general point is most interesting in how it is substantiated in specific instances.

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form and content require and receive equal attention.”4 Studying poetics, therefore, offers valuable resources for analyzing such literature. There are a variety of ways of understanding the efficacy of such compositions—​whether it comes from pleasing or entertaining a deity, or purifying the speaker, or from the very repetition of certain syllables.5 In many cases, this analysis of stotras contributes specifically to the evolving body of scholarship on Śaivism by drawing attention to ways that authors have integrated theology and poetics with Śaiva worship and devotion. Studying stotras in Kashmir illustrates how Sanskrit stotras serve a variety of different functions. In the case of the Krama tradition, for example, stotras were an important part of the development and transmission of its central teachings, as successive generations of Krama teachers composed their own hymns. Sāhib Kaul’s seventeenth-​century stotras demonstrate and perhaps facilitated the assimilation of the Maithila Kauls into the culture of Kashmir. In the twentieth century, stotras were a means for some Kashmiri Pandit communities to connect their own devotional practices and teaching lineage with illustrious teachers in the past and a sophisticated literary and religious heritage. They also played a pivotal role in the distinctive development of “Kashmir Śaivism” as a tradition, as we saw in Chapter 8. The stotras I  have discussed throughout the book indicate another striking feature of such hymns, at least in Kashmir: stotras are often about stotras, or praise and prayer more generally. The StC and the SKA, for instance, both celebrate praise (stava, stuti) in their titles, and most of the literary hymns from Kashmir reflect on the genre itself. They explore the many practices stotras encompass, from the offering of homage and blessings to petitionary prayer to the taking of refuge. Through the use of countless literary figures, they explore the possibilities of poetic language, and the potential for poetic language to point beyond its own limitations. For non-​dualist authors, this was crucial. They were able to demonstrate and articulate non-​duality using poetry that circumvents the duality implied by the standard use of language. Poetry expresses and suggests ideas in very different ways than expository language does, and this has proven to be particularly appealing to religious authors seeking to articulate complex theology and sophisticated visions of divinity. Literary figures, for instance, may be able to evoke a god whose paradoxical nature is both immanent and transcendent, or

4. Sheldon Pollock, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), 90. 5.  For example, in “Some Remarks on the Structure and Application of Hindu Sanskrit Stotras,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 28 (1984), Gudrun Bühnemann notes: “Although I do not intend to deny the spirit of love and devotion as motives for the composition and recitation of stotras I would like to draw attention to the tendency of specimens of this kind of literature to be used as magical formulas” (78).

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both singular and multiple, more successfully than descriptive language. Some authors use the address inherent in the stotra to establish non-​duality; Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta offer homage to the lord who is no different from their own self, for example, and Nāga praises his own consciousness immersed in the experience of unity. Many poets even question the possibility of offering real praise to a supreme deity, albeit rhetorically. As a whole, Kashmirian poets show a remarkable tendency for self-​conscious reflection in their stotras. In general, stotras are about relationships. They share this with other devotional poetry, what A. K. Ramanujan called “a poetry of connections.”6 The poetry of stotras—​as prayer—​acts out relationships and creates connections, establishing who or what is worth praising and appealing to, and in what way. As prayers and as poetry of connections, stotras frequently draw attention to their complex audiences, both human and divine. In the SKA, Jagaddhara praises and seeks to cultivate an audience of Śaiva devotees who are also aesthetic connoisseurs, able to appreciate complex theology precisely because of their ability to savor erudite poetry. He also implies that Śiva himself has aesthetic taste, preferring beautiful poetry just as he prefers other types of beautiful offerings. In other cases, stotras seem designed to serve pedagogical functions, or to be exemplars for others to imitate. Through reciting stotras, or perhaps through composing one’s own, devotees may be able to internalize specific ways of experiencing the world, such as the non-​dual vision proclaimed by Utpaladeva in his ŚSĀ. In each case, stotras affirm specific identities and relationships between human and divine actors, whether by establishing hierarchies or emphasizing ultimate unity. As I have highlighted throughout the present work, the flexibility of the stotra genre has contributed to its popularity throughout the many changes in Kashmir’s religious and literary history. This study has also analyzed various expressions of and reflections on bhakti, one of the most important themes in the study of religion in South Asia. On a basic level, I have argued that any assessment of the history and historiography of various perspectives on bhakti must not neglect the fact that many Sanskrit authors have continued to express and explore bhakti to the present day. Sanskrit stotras implicitly and explicitly showcase a multitude of perspectives on bhakti. Some poets, like Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa, depict bhakti as an efficacious means, while Utpaladeva also characterized the highest bhakti as a state of enjoyment, a relishing of unity between the devotee and deity, borrowing and expanding on metaphors from poetics to present an image of non-​dualistic Śaiva devotion. Stotras are depicted as arising from bhakti and also as tools for cultivating bhakti in their human audiences. For Jagaddhara, bhakti and aesthetics are inextricably linked;

6.  Hymns for the Drowning:  Poems for Viṣṇu by Nammāḷvār, trans. A. K. Ramanujan (Princeton, NJ:  Princeton University Press, 1981), 166; see also Norman Cutler, Songs of Experience: The Poetics of Tamil Devotion (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), 19.

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only true devotees will be able to appreciate the aesthetic power of his poetry, while devotion is best expressed poetically. For many stotra authors, bhakti is important in large part because it is what is shared, what is appreciated, between the poet or speaker and both human and divine audiences. I  have argued, for instance, that for Jagaddhara, poetry is offered to the deity, received by the deity, and then also enjoyed by the communal audience for that poetry in an analogous manner to the food offered by devotees, received by the deity, and then enjoyed by a community of devotees as prasāda. Many of the literary hymns from Kashmir position themselves as verbal and aural offerings that establish paradigmatic relationships of devotion, sharing, and participation—​all encompassed by the term bhakti and linked to poetry as a beautiful offering. Looking more broadly at devotional poetry in South Asia, the Kashmirian stotras I  have discussed offer a vision of Śaiva bhakti markedly different from many other versions of bhakti. As part of his characterization of Tamil bhakti poetry, Ramanujan says: “to the extent that the poetry espouses bhāva or ‘natural,’ ‘spontaneous’ feeling, it tends to draw on the common stock of speech, local dialect, colloquial tones, and turns away from the standard literary language or poetic diction.”7 Similarly, Christian Novetzke notes that bhakti is often “contrasted with other options within the sphere of religious action and sentiment, especially between bhakti and technical or scholastic modes of approaching God.”8 Consider these words of Basavaṇṇa, a Śaiva devotee whose claims could not be further from those made by Jagaddhara: I don’t know anything like timebeats and metre nor the arithmetic of strings and drums; I don’t know the count of iamb and dactyl. My lord of the meeting rivers, as nothing will hurt you I’ll sing as I love.9 In contrast, for many poets in Kashmir bhakti also went hand in hand with scholasticism and complexity. For Ratnākara, Abhinavagupta, Nāga, Jagaddhara, and others, theologically and poetically sophisticated expressions of devotion mirror the complexity of a supreme deity and religious approaches to divinity. Devotion and prayer do not necessarily need to be spontaneous or natural, in the sense

7. Hymns for the Drowning, 164. 8. Christian Lee Novetzke, Religion and Public Memory: A Cultural History of Saint Namdev in India (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 11. 9.  Trans. A. K. Ramanujan, Speaking of Śiva (New  York:  Penguin Classics, 1973), 37. Jagaddhara does take a humble approach in some of his poetry, as in his Dīnākrandanastotra, but he generally affirms the value of literary complexity.

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of effortless and easily accessible. Sanskrit stotras often demonstrate that they can require great learning and sensitivity. Bhakti can be a relishing described in aesthetic terminology, as it is in Utpaladeva’s poetry, or it can be seen as relying heavily on aesthetic sensibilities, as it does in Jagaddhara’s SKA. Prayer can consist of sustained contemplation, visualization, or study in addition to exuberant expressions or petitions. It can require time, thought, and concentration. Dwelling on complex descriptions of a supreme deity’s nature that require subtle appreciation may be an elite practice, but it is certainly a part of India’s religious history, and one that has continued to the present day. In part, therefore, I have striven throughout this book to rehabilitate alternative ways of conceiving of devotion and prayer in South Asia to complement the progress that has been made in the study of vernacular expressions of and reflections on bhakti. I have tried to give voice to Sanskrit bhakti in the second millennium, in particular, albeit in one region. At least in Kashmir, Sanskrit bhakti was not flat or static; it has continued to evolve, sometimes dramatically. Given the work of various scholars on the “poetics of bhakti,”10 it is tempting to talk about the poetics of Sanskrit devotion in Kashmir. In other words, one might reasonably seek to identify a specific theory about the relationship between poetry and Śaiva devotion running throughout the many literary hymns produced in Kashmir. In this book, however, I have tried to show something different: the tradition of stotras in Kashmir is not unified by any single such theory; instead it is marked by the range and complexity of its exploration of the stotra form, including the relationship between poetry, poetics, devotion, and prayer. While I have discussed many shared themes and strategies among these stotras, the history of these hymns in Kashmir is full of innovation and reflection. Poets in Kashmir repeatedly turned to the stotra form to engage boldly with the world of Śaiva devotion and worship, the broad tradition of Sanskrit literature, and in many cases the well-​ developed tradition of aesthetics in Kashmir. Studying the history of stotras in this region, one is struck both by the shared themes raised by the genre itself and by the innovative reinterpretations of these themes that were developed to meet the changing needs of new contexts. A particularly important example is the category of bhaktirasa, both in the technical sense as the aesthetic sentiment of devotion and in the general sense of the “taste” or experience of devotion. Kashmirian poets do not offer one perspective on bhaktirasa, and yet many of them incorporate it into their poetry or imply its importance as a poetic category. Sometimes this consists in an engagement with Sanskrit poetics, while in the other cases it represents a deliberate appropriation of its metaphors, or in some cases simply a vague tone of devotional, poetic enjoyment. A  “poetics of Sanskrit devotion” certainly

10.  E.g., “the poetics of Tamil devotion” (Cutler, Songs of Experience), and “the poetics of [Gujarati] devotion” (Rachel Dwyer, Poetics of Devotion:  the Gujarati Lyrics of Dayārām [Richmond: Curzon, 2001]).

294 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

has a history in Kashmir, but its developments and complexity resist simplistic formulations. Throughout this book, I have used prayer as a way of talking about the diverse and complex language-​based religious practices of Sanskrit hymns. There are multiple ways that this book contributes to the study of prayer more broadly. Just by using and theorizing prayer as a category for analyzing stotras, it addresses the lack of scholarship on Hindu prayer. Hindu prayer is of course as diverse as Hindu traditions themselves, but focusing on these literary hymns leads to multiple insights that may prove useful for engaging comparative scholarship on prayer. We have seen that the language of prayer in these hymns challenges the narrow and historically contingent view of “true” prayer as a spontaneous, emotional outpouring from the heart, a kind of private, natural conversation with a deity. The hymns analyzed here are more often than not highly erudite, inviting careful study while also expressing and cultivating intense emotion and aesthetic appreciation. These prayers, especially the SKA, can also be seen as meta-​prayers—​that is, they frequently offer perspectives on their own nature and function as prayers. We saw that Jagaddhara, for instance, dramatizes the way that poetic prayer works in the interaction between Sarasvatī and Śiva. In other cases, this study has shown how prayer can serve pedagogical functions, including as a kind of performance of theology that models how non-​dualistic ideas in particular can be expressed in language. Perhaps most importantly, we have seen repeatedly that these hymns are about prayer as connection. Here this study intersects with other recent scholarship across disciplines that sees the building of relationships as a central feature of prayer.11 In her work on prayer as a gift, for example, Stephanie Clark highlights that “gift giving creates or maintains relationships between the parties involved.”12 Scholars working on unaffiliated Nones see connection as a primary reason that these people still pray.13 In many ways, Elizabeth Drescher’s description applies in contexts far removed from the modern Nones she studies:

11. For a social scientific perspective on prayer-​as-​connection, see Kevin L. Ladd and Bernard Spilka, “Inward, Outward, and Upward: Cognitive Aspects of Prayer,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 41, no. 3 (2002). 12. Stephanie Clark, Compelling God: Prayer in Anglo-​Saxon England (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017), 273. 13. Discussing whether or not “atheists should pray,” Kevin Ladd explains: Stretching the definition of prayer as far as possible (and perhaps too far) still includes a target, a non-​self component with which the practitioner seeks to connect. In most cases, the underlying understanding of prayer is that the most important benefits occur as a result of such a connection. For traditional believers, this means prayer “works” because of God’s action in both instigating and responding to prayers. For those who are not explicitly praying to a deity, it appears that what they equate with prayer “works” in their opinion when it emphasizes connectedness beyond themselves. (Of course, the definition of “works” is yet another challenge to clarify!)

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Prayer for Nones facilitates spiritual being and becoming in relationship with other beings and the natural world, and—​sometimes, just maybe—​ with a supernatural being or force. Prayer connects Nones to the concerns of others and connects them to their own religious past and to the religious contexts of the lives of people who are important to them.14 When we think about poetry as prasāda, we begin to appreciate how prayer opens up the circulation of meaning. In doing so, it constitutes—​as well as models and teaches—​a series of relationships. The emotional content of these hymns, particularly bhakti as more than just devotion, suggests this circulation and building of relationships. Moreover, as we saw in Chapter 7, these Kashmirian poets envision this process as one colored by aesthetic sensibilities at every level. These themes come together in the title of this book, which suggests the basic argument at its core. Any thorough analysis of the stotra genre in general, and Kashmirian stotras in particular, must consider how these hymns combine poetry and prayer in unique ways. Kashmirian authors were drawn repeatedly to the stotra form because of the ways it allowed them to harness the powers of poetry and poetics for religious, devotional ends; they marshaled the power of poetry as prayer. Rather than shying away from the scholasticism of Sanskrit literary culture, their devotion and prayers more frequently embrace it with open arms. Stotra authors often engage directly with the categories of kāvya and alaṅkāraśāstra and self-​consciously explore the powerful potential and malleable boundaries of the stotra genre itself. Understanding the ways that stotras turn poetry into prayer is just one way of approaching this rich genre, but it is an especially critical one. Stotra literature truly is an ocean, and one that can be navigated in many ways. Desiderata include the critical editing of manuscripts, ethnographic work on the performance of stotras in both public and private contexts, analysis of the countless anonymous stotras seen as having less literary merit, investigations into the use of stotras in specific ritual manuals, the history and practice of anthologizing stotras, and the historiography of stotras in Indian and international interpretations of religion in India. My own work on these topics will continue in the years ahead, and I hope that others will take up the study of this important current of religious and literary culture in South Asia and pursue similar and related studies for other regions. In addition, I  have sought to provide new opportunities for comparative work within the study of South Asian religious literature.15 Stotras,

(“Should Atheists Pray?” http://​forums.ssrc.org/​ndsp/​2013/​07/​10/​should-​atheists-​ pray-​part-​two/​. Posted July 10, 2013. Accessed August 15, 2018.) 14.  Elizabeth Drescher, Choosing Our Religion:  The Spiritual Lives of America’s Nones (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 181. 15. With this, I echo the hope of scholars who have studied the history of stotras in South India. As Steven Hopkins wrote near the end of his study of Vedāntadeśika’s hymns:

296 Poetry as Pr ayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of K ashmir

moreover, provide some of the best textual sources for examining the history and present vitality of prayer in South Asia, as well the complex relationship between religious and artistic expression. Ideally, then, this book will support productive comparative work within the field of religious studies. With this book, I  have endeavored to show some of the reasons why the stotra has remained such a compelling genre for religious practice and reflection, including its poetic features, its flexibility, and its potential to integrate complex, overlapping features of human existence, from theology and worship to art and aesthetics. For centuries, stotras have embodied and explored the often-​complex relationship between poetry and prayer, and all evidence suggests that they will be as central to South Asia’s future as they have been throughout its past. It is only fitting that such a study concludes with verses from the SKA, which figures so prominently in multiple chapters of this book. The concluding verses of Jagaddhara’s final hymn16 evoke many of the themes explored here, from the power of praise-​poetry to the complex audiences for such hymns to the acts of prayer performed by so many stotras. Perhaps most of all, such verses indicate how stotras are seen as combining the power of poetry and prayer. In verses dense with alliteration and other literary figures, Jagaddhara proclaims: O Gaṇapati, lord of the troops, superintendent of the three worlds! O tranquil-​and six-​faced Skanda! O lord Nandin, worthy of praise by the gods! Convey to Śiva, destroyer of the three cities, this flower-​offering of fully blossoming poetry presented with devotion by this servant at his feet. Having offered this collection of praise-​flowers to Śiva, which is respected and presented in the divine assembly by Gaṇapati,17 Skanda, Nandin and so on, who have been pleased,

By focusing on the work of one such literary figure here, I hope to have contributed to an area of study that begs for comparative work within South Asia literatures. Comparing and contrasting Deśika’s synthesis of poetry and philosophy with analogous syntheses in the work of a Rūpa or a Jīva Goswāmi in the Gauḍiya Vaiṣṇava tradition, or in Śaiva poet-​philosophers like Abhinavagupta or Appayya Dīkṣita, for instance, would shed light on common patterns that cross regional, genre, and linguistic traditions in Indian literatures. (Singing the Body of God, 236) 16. SKA 38; this is followed by a poem describing the poet’s lineage. 17.  “Lion-​rider” (siṃhasyandana) here refers to Gaṇapati, as Ratnakaṇṭha glosses it in his commentary, to match the triad of deities in the previous verse. For examples of Gaṇeśa riding a lion, see John A. Grimes, Ganapati:  Song of the Self (Albany:  State University of New York, 1995), 101, 105.

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I have obtained his pure blessing. By means of this blessing, may this come to be: May foul thoughts dwindle away in each and every region. May pure understanding thrive first and foremost to conquer every difficulty. On each and every path, may devotion to benevolent Śiva, which eliminates the suffering of those afflicted by fierce misfortunes, blossom in perfect fullness within each and every person. I have obtained great auspiciousness by performing such praise of Śiva’s activity. By means of this auspiciousness, may the rapture of Śiva’s bhakti be unending in the hearts of the virtuous!18

18.  ayi pramathanāyaka trijagatām adhiṣṭhāyaka prasannamukha ṣaṇmukha tridaśavandya nandīśvara /​ nivedayata bhaktitaś caraṇakiṅkareṇārpitaṃ puraḥ puraripor imaṃ vikacavākyapuṣpāñjalim //​ SKA 38.27 //​iti pariṣadi siṃhasyandanaskandanandiprabhṛtibhir abhirāddhair vandyam āvedyamānam /​ stutikusumasamūhaṃ prābhṛtīkṛtya śaṃbhor yad amalam upalabdhaṃ śarma tenedam astu //​ SKA 38.28 //​bhuvi bhuvi kuvikalpaḥ svalpatām etu jetuṃ dhuri dhuri duritaughaṃ varddhatāṃ śuddhabodhaḥ /​ pathi pathi mathitogravyāpadāpannatāpā nari nari paripūṛṇā jṛmbhatāṃ śambhubhaktiḥ //​ SKA 38.29 //​iti śubhaṃ bhagavaccaritastutivyatikareṇa yad arjitam ūrjitam /​ bhavatu tena manasy anapāyinī sukṛtināṃ śivabhakticamatkṛtiḥ //​ SKA 38.30 //​

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Index

Abhinavagupta aesthetic theory in Kashmir and, 7–​8, 232, 234, 237, 251 Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa’s Stavacintāmaṇi and,  72–​73 commentary on Ānandavardhana’s Dhvanyāloka by, 12–​13, 205–​7, 240–​41 authorship of stotras and, 24, 35, 55–​56, 57–​58,  81–​84 influence of, 20, 84, 94, 236 Krama tradition and, 79–​80, 81–​82 Kṣemarāja and, 132–​33, 134, 135–​36 non-​dualism and, 127–​32, 148–​49, 156–​ 57, 270​n.16,  290–​91 on aesthetics as a distinctive sphere, 240​n.44, 247n.69, 258–​59, 261 on camatkāra,  246–​47 on rasa, 231, 236–​43, 247–​48, 250–51n.79 Śaivism in Kashmir and, 270​n.16, 280,  282–​83 Sunday Puja and, 265, 275, 276, 277 Swami Lakshman Joo and, 274–​75, 276–​77, 278, 280 Utpaladeva and, 246–​47, 249–​50, 251 yamaka and, 223 See also Bhairavastotra; Kramastotra aesthetics, 6–​9, 16, 17–​18, 25, 71, 108, 134, 169, 191–​92, 193–​94, 196, 204–​9, 215–​18, 222, 224–​26, 230, 231–​64, 289, 291–​94, 295 See also alaṅkāraśāstra; bhaktirasa; Nāṭyaśāstra; rasa

Āgamas, 2–​3, 38, 51, 62–​63, 98–​99, 101n.19 Aghoraśiva, 36 alaṅkāra, 3, 7, 48–​49, 71–​72, 208–​9, 211–​12, 217, 219, 220n.81, 224–​25 See also aesthetics; alaṅkāraśāstra; anuprāsa; citrakāvya; śleṣa; upamā; utprekṣā; virodhābhāsa; yamaka Alaṅkāraratnākara, 88, 228 alaṅkāraśāstra, 6–​9, 88, 202n.18​, 207–​9, 215, 228, 233, 295 See also aesthetics; alaṅkāra; rasa Amṛteśvara, 19–​20, 148, 175, 186​n.94, 274,  276–​77 See also Netratantra Ānandabhairava, 81–​82n.72,  83–​84 Ānandavardhana citrakāvya and, 71–​72, 203–​4, 222–​24 influence of, 7–​8, 88, 215–​16, 232, 234–​ 35, 236–​39, 243, 272 on alaṅkāra, 7 on rasa, 7, 223–​24, 234, 238–​39, 247 on yamaka,  223–​24 stotras of, 21, 72, 95, 204, 205 See also Devīśataka; Dhvanyāloka anonymous stotras, 4, 65–​66, 83–​84,  295–​96 anuprāsa (alliteration) Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa’s use of, 176–​77, 208–​9, 211–​12, 218–​19, 225,  296–​97 Nāga’s use of, 139–​40 Ratnakaṇṭha’s use of, 89 Sāhib Kaul’s use of, 93–​94 Appayya Dīkṣita,  55–​57

324

324 Index Aranya, Hariharananda, 59–​60 Ardhanārīśvara, 30–​31, 85, 144, 178–​80,  185–​86 Ardhanārīśvarastotra (of Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa),  186–​87 Ardhanārīśvarastotra (of Kalhaṇa), 85 āśīrvāda (blessing, benediction), 29, 170, 176–​79, 180,  262–​63 āsvāda (relishing), 195n.119, 240–​41, 244, 246–​47, 249, 251, 256, 259–​60, 261 Avatāra, 66, 88, 229   Bālabodhinī, 86–​87,  222–​23 Bāṇa, 43–​44, 48–​49, 72, 112​n.66 See also Caṇḍīśataka Bhairava, 30–​31, 51–​52, 82–​84, 106n.40, 127–​29, 132–​33, 134–​35, 144, 156–​57, 278 See also Amṛteśvara; Ānandabhairava; Bhairavānukaraṇastotra; Bhairavastotra; Svacchandabhairava Bhairavānukaraṇastotra (BhASt), 82–​83, 84, 97, 132–​36, 147, 156–​57, 269 Bhairavastotra (BhSt) of Abhinavagupta, 81–​82, 94, 127–​29, 132, 276 See also Abhinavagupta bhakti, 14–​17,  291–​94 aesthetics and, 25, 193–​94, 216–​17, 230, 231–​32, 239–​64,  293–​94 Ānandavardhana and, 71–​72 Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa and, 120, 243, 264,  291–​92 citrakāvya and, 71–​72, 88, 223–​24, 272 cultivation through stotras of, 37–​40 definitions of, 14, 104, 125, 252, 253, 257, 268–​69,  291–​92 Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa and, 142–​43, 146–​47, 193–​94, 251–​59, 262–​63, 264,  291–​92 literary criticism and, 71–​72, 263 non-​dualism and, 101–​4, 124–​27, 142–​43, 245, 250, 253, 263–​64, 278 prasāda and, 193–​94, 257, 291–​92, 295 Sanskrit stotras and, 2–​3, 15–​17, 57–​60, 62–​63,  231 Swami Lakshman Joo and, 94–​95, 274–​75, 276–​77, 278–​80,  282–​84 Utpaladeva and, 120–​21, 124–​27, 245–​46, 253,  291–​93

vernacular poetry and, 1, 2–​4, 14–​17, 43–​ 44, 60–​62, 268–​69,  292–​93 See also “bhakti movement”; bhaktirasa; guru-​bhakti “bhakti movement,” 14–​16, 291–​93 bhaktirasa Abhinavagupta and, 231, 240–​42, 243, 247–​48,  249–​51 Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa, and, 243–​45 commentaries on stotras and, 259–​63 debate about status of, 25, 206–​7, 239, 241–​42, 243,  247–​48 Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa and, 216–​17, 251–​52,  257–​59 Kṣemarāja and, 259–​62 Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha and, 262–​63 stotras and, 25, 231–​32, 241, 243, 250, 263–​64,  293–​94 Utpaladeva and, 122, 231, 245–​50 Vaiṣṇava perspectives on, 16, 25, 231–​32, 241–​42,  264 See also aesthetics; bhakti; Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism; rasa Bhāmaha, 5–​6, 183n.85, 198–​200, 233,  289–​90 Bharata, 6–​7, 210–11n.47, 232–​33, 236, 237–​38, 239, 244, 250–51n.79 See also Nāṭyaśāstra Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa, 72–​75, 115–​20, 243–​46, 251, 252, 259–​60, 264, 291–​92 See also Kṣemarāja; Stavacintāmaṇi Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka, 7–​8, 191n.112, 232, 234–​38, 240–​41, 243, 256 bhāvanā, 117–​18,  234–​35 Bhāvopahārastotra, 66, 80 Bhṛṅgīśasaṃhitā, 4, 65–​66 Blanton, Anderson, 9–​10, 162–​63,  165–​66 Bronner, Yigal, 6, 8–​9, 28–​29, 56–​57, 69–​70, 169, 183n.85, 212–​13, 214–​15, 222,  229–​30 Buchta, David, 11n.30, ​16n.49, 35n.41, 57, 71–​72, 97​n.2, 99–​100, 224​n.96 Buddhism Kashmir and, 18–​19, 20–​21, 281–​82 prayer and, 9–​10 Śaivism and, 110–​11, 112–​13, 120–​21

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Index stotras and, 1, 2–​3, 42–​44, 45–​46, 48–​49, 61–​58, 62–​63, 104–​5,  203 text traditions and, 267 Bühler, Georg, 86​n.93, 280 Bühnemann, Gudrun, 28–​29, 31​n.20, 34, 37, 290​n.5   camatkāra (also camatkṛti), 145–​46, 246–​47, 249–​50, 251, 252–​53, 256,  259–​61 See also wonder Caṇḍī, 32–​33, 48–​49, 109–​10,  112–​14 Caṇḍīśataka, 32–​33, 43–​44, 48–​49, 50, 112​n.66, 200​n.10, 202​n.20, 203–​4, 204​n.28 Chatterji, J. C., 280–​81 Chattopadhyay, Bankimchandra, 59–​60 citrakāvya Ānandavardhana and, 71–​72, 203–​4,  223–​24 Avatāra’s Īśvaraśataka and, 88 bhakti and, 71–​72, 88, 223–​24, 272 definitions of, 208–​9, 218 development of Sanskrit aesthetics, and, 6n.13 Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa’s Stutikusumāñjali and, 208–​9, 217–​23, 224–​26, 230 Sāhib Kaul and, 272 Citsphārasārādvaya (CSSA), 92–​93, 95,  152–​53 Cittasaṃtoṣatriṃśikā (CST), 3, 136–​42 Clark, Stephanie, 9–​10, 164, 184, 294 Clooney, Francis, SJ, 97–​98, 122​n.107, ​ 162n.8 Collins, Randall, 17–​18, 232 Cuneo, Daniele, 249, 250–51n.79   Daṇḍin, 6 ​ n.12, 173–74n.50, 198–​200, 222, 233 De, S. K., ​35n.39, 200–​1 Devīnāmavilāsa (DNV), 53, 91–​94, 151–​52, 272–​73,  287 Devīśataka (DŚ), 71–​72, 88, 203–​4, 223–​24, 272 See also Ānandavardhana devotion, see bhakti; bhaktirasa dhvani Ānandavardhana and, 7, 234 citrakāvya and, 222–​23n.88 definition of, 7, 215–​16, 234

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influence of Kashmirian aesthetics and,  17–​18 Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa’s Stutikusumāñjali and, 215–​18, 224, 225 Kṣemarāja and, 108, 261 Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha and, 262–​63 See also aesthetics; Ānandavardhana; Dhvanyāloka; rasa Dhvanyāloka,  7, 12–​13, 71–​72, 217–​18, 223, 234–​35, 240–​41,  242–​43 See also Abhinavagupta; Ānandavardhana; dhvani Dīnākrandanastotra (of Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa), see Stutikusumāñjali Dīnākrandanastotra (of Loṣṭaka), 85, 181, 232​n.3 Doniger, Wendy, 31–​32 Drescher, Elizabeth, 163–​64, 294–​95   Eck, Diana, 31–​32   Gadamer, Hans-​Georg, 235​n.18, 266–​67,  268 Gaṇeśa, 30–​32, 154, 296 Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, 16, 35, 57, 99–​100, 231–​32, 241–​42, 282, 295–​96n.15 See also Rūpa Gosvāmin; Viṣṇu Gill, Sam, 9​n.21, 160, 166–​67 gītā, 2–​3,  29–​30 Gītagovinda,  15–​16 goddess of speech and learning, see Sarasvatī; Śāradā Gonda, Jan, 12–​13, 28–​29, 30–​31, 34–​35, 41, 42, 160n.5, 167​n.32 guru-​bhakti, 43–​44, 94, 274–​75, 276–​79,  284   Hanneder, Jürgen, 151–​52, 226–​27, 228n.115,  272–​73 Haracaritacintāmaṇi, 66, 85 Haravijaya (HaVi) Caṇḍīstotra in, 109–​10, 112–​15 introduction to, 17–​18, 69–​70, 109 religious developments in Kashmir and, 19, 97, 110, 114–​15 Śivastotra in, 110–​12 stotras in, 48, 69–​70, 109–​10 See also mahākāvya; Ratnākara

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326 Index Hari-​Hara, 178–​80,  196 Hawley, John Stratton, 14–​15, 16 Heiler, Friedrich, 164–​65, 166–​68, 169 Hindi, 22–​23, 75, 87–​88, 274, 276 Hobsbawm, Eric, 267–​68 Hopkins, Steven, 15n.46, 56, 60–​61, 62, 99, 100, 168n.37, 185–​86, 295–​96n.15 hymn, see stotra   Ingalls, Daniel H. H., 7n.16, 12–​13, 71–​72,  205 Islam, 17n.51, 18–​19, 20–​21, 58, 86–​87, 91n.115, 150–​51, 162 Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā (ĪPK), ​ 83n.78,  120–​21 Īśvaraśataka, see Avatāra   Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa, 24–​26, 30–​31, 86–​88, 90, 94–​95, 109, 135–​36, 142–​52, 156–​57, 159, 169–​96, 197–​98, 207–​23, 224–​26, 228–​30, 251–​59, 262–​63, 264, 265, 269, 272, 275, 285, 287, 288–​89, 291–​93, 294, 296 aesthetics/​poetics and, 24–​25, 171, 191–​ 92, 193–​94, 196, 207–​8, 215–​18, 222, 224–​26, 230, 251–​53, 254, 255–​59, 262–​63, 264, 289, 291–​93 bhakti and, 142–​43, 146–​47, 193–​94, 251–​59, 262–​63, 264,  291–​92 bhaktirasa and, 216–​17, 251–​52, 257–​59 dating of, 86–​87 disambiguation from another Jagaddhara, ​86n.93 non-​dualism and, 142–​43, 147–​49, 174 play on the name of, 184–​85 other works by, 86–​87 See also Rājānka Ratnakaṇṭha; Stutikusumāñjali Jagannātha Paṇḍitarāja, 30–​31, 55–​56, 58 Jain stotras, 1, 2–​3, 42–​44, 46n.93, 48–​49,  61–​63 James, William, 164–​65 Jayanta Bhaṭṭa’s Nyāyamañjarī,  17–​18 Jayāpīḍa,  69–​70 Jayaratha, 20, 7​ 9n.59, 81–​82n.72, 85n.88,  282–​83 Jewish prayer, 162 Jha, Rameshvar, 59–​60, 274–​75

Jīva Gosvāmin, 57, 241–​42 See also Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism Jñānanetra[nātha] (also known as Śivānanda[nātha]), 19, 77–​80, 94–​95, 269,  274–​75 Joo, Swami Lakshman, 274–​80 hymns in praise of, 59–​60, 274–​75 “Kashmir Śaivism” and, 270, 274, 279–​80,  282–​84 lineage of, 276–​77, 278 scholarship of, 75, 94–​95, 274, 276, 279, 284 stotras and, 25, 87–​88, 94–​95, 270, 274–​77, 278–​79, 283–​84,  285 teaching of, 274–​75, 279, 282–​83, 284 See also guru-​bhakti; “Kashmir Śaivism”; Sunday Puja   Kabir, 155n.217, 282 Kālī, see Jñānanetra[nātha]; Krama Kālidāsa, 5–​6, 45–​46, 47–​48, 186​n.96, 203, 211, 220n.79, 222–​23 Kālikāstotra (KāSt), 77–​79, 136, 141–​42, 275 Kashmir aesthetics/​poetics in, 7–​9, 17–​18, 231–​ 42, 243, 251, 264, 289, 293–​94 as hub of learning, 17–​18, 65, 69–​70, 227, 232 literary culture in, 197–​98, 226–​30, 269, 273, 288–​89 regional identity of, 17–​18, 270–​71, 279–​84 religious history of, 17–​21, 23, 110, 114–​ 15, 150–​51, 269, 270–​71, 273, 274, 279–​84,  290 stotras in, 4, 21, 23, 24, 57–​58, 65–​96, 228–​30, 265, 288 See also “Kashmir Śaivism” “Kashmir Śaivism” (also Kashmir Shaivism, Kashmiri Śaivism), 20, 270, 274–​75, 279–​85, 290 Kātantra, 86–​87,  222–​23 kavaca, see protection hymns kāvya definitions and theorizations of, 5–​7, 71, 191n.112, 198–​201,  289–​90 history of, 5, 6–​7, 8–​9, 41–​42, 44–​ 46, 114–​15, 198–​99, 207, 222–​23, 226–​30,  288–​89

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Index revitalization of, 197, 207, 210–​12, 228–​ 30, 269, 288–​89 stotras and/​as, 3, 8, 41–​42, 47–​49, 50–​51, 53, 61–​62, ​70n.20, 72, 109, 114–​15, 150, 190n.110, 197–​207, 209–​ 30, 242–​43, 254, 255, 264, 272–​73, 288–​90,  295 See also alaṅkāraśāstra; citrakāvya; laghukāvya; mahākāvya; praśasti; stotra; stotrakāvya Kāvyaprakāśa, 7–​8, 88–​89, 116n.88, 206–​ 7, 225n.101, 236, 238–​39 See also Mammaṭa Krama history and transmission of, 19, 20–​21, 76–​82, 84, 86–​87n.94, 110n.55, 129, 135–​37, 141–​42, 269, 290 influence on Abhinavagupta and Kṣemarāja, 81–​82, 84, 129, 130, 132,  135–​36 introduction to, 76–​77, 136 stotras and, 23, 67, 76–​82, 84, 109, 127, 129–​32, 135–​42, 269, 276, 290 See also Jñānanetra[nātha]; Kramastotra; Nāga; non-​dualism Kramastotra (of Eraka[nātha]), 79–​80, 82, 129 Kramastotra (KrSt) (of Abhinavagupta), 81–​82, 83–​84, 127, 129–​33, 276 See also Abhinavagupta; Krama; Kramastotra (of Eraka[nātha]) Kṛṣṇa, 16, 30–​31, 34–​35, 37–​38, 46–​47, 52, 57, 99–​100,  241–​42 See also Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism Kṣemarāja aesthetics and, 105–​8, 134, 247n.69, 251,  259–​62 Bhairavānukaraṇastotra of, 82–​83, 84, 97, 127, 132–​36, 147, 156–​57, 269 commentary on Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa’s Stavacintāmaṇi by, 72–​74, 118n.97, 244n.56, 251, 259–​60 commentary on Sāmba’s Sāmbapañcāśikā by, 67–​68, 69, 105–​ 9, 133–​34, 157, 261–​62 commentary on the Śivasūtra by, 280 commentary on Utpaladeva’s Śivastotrāvalī by, 109–​76, 123,

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125n.119, ​208n.40, 244n.56, 251, 259, 261 introduction to, 84 Krama and, 81–​82, 84 non-​dualism and, 20, 24, 82–​83, 84, 97, 105–​6, 127, 132–​36, ​149n.197, 269, 280 Pratyabhijñāhṛdaya of, 151–​52,  272–​73 Swami Lakshman Joo and, 265, 277 Yogarāja and, 84, 265, 277 See also Abhinavagupta Kṣemendra, 73–​75, 118n.97 Kuntaka, 7–​8, 232, 237, 238–​39   laghukāvya, 5–​6, 48–​49, 199–​200, 201–​2,  203–​4 Laghupañcikā (of Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha), see Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha; Stutikusumāñjali Lakṣmī, 30–​31, 37, 58, 138 Lal Dĕd (Lalleśvarī), 150–51, 2 ​ 81n.50 Leclercq, Jean, 166–​67 Lienhard, Siegfried, 2 ​ 00n.9, 200–​1, ​ 202n.19,  204–​5   Mahābhārata, 2–​3, 6n.13, 46–​47, 48n.100, 52, 114, 200–​1 mahākāvya Daṇḍin and, 173–74n.50, 199 definitions and theorizations of, 5–​6, 48–​49, 199–​202 features of, 211–​12, 222–​24 popularity in Kashmir of, 21 Ratnākara and, 69–​70, 109, 110–​12, 114–​15,  288–​89 Sāhib Kaul’s Devīnāmavilāsa and, 91–​92,  272 stotras in, 2–​3, 41–​42, 47–​48, 53–​54, 62–​63, 69–​70, 110–​12, 114–​15, 203,  288–​89 See also Haravijaya; kāvya; Ratnākara māhātmya, 2–​3,  29–​30 Mahimnaḥstava (also Śivamahimnaḥstava and other variations), 31–​32, 35–​36, 49–​51, 150n.201 Mammaṭa, 7–​8, 88–​89, 116n.88, 198–​99, 206–​7, 232, 236, 237–​40, 242–​43 See also Kāvyaprakāśa

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328 Index maṅgala (auspiciousness), 57, 78, 142–​43, 145–​46, 159, 170, 173, 174, 176–​80, 181, 195–​96, 220, 297 See also maṅgalaśloka; Stutikusumāñjali maṅgalaśloka, 106, 173, 174, 261 Maṅgalastotra, see Stutikusumāñjali mantra, 3, 30–​31, 32–​34, 37, 39–​40, 51–​52, 53, 73–​74, 89, 116–​17, 138, 139, 144, 160–​61, 191–​92,  271–​72 Mārtaṇḍa temple, 18–​19, 67–​68 Masson, Jeffrey M., 12–​13, 205, 241n.47 Mayūra, 43–​44, 45–​46, 48–​50, 69, 72, 89, 101, 200​n.10, 203–​4, 204​n.28,  288–​89 McCrea, Lawrence, ​16n.49, 69–​70, 214–​15, 234, 267 Milton, John, 163 Mīmāṃsā, 7, 41–​42, ​118n.94, 234–​35   Nāga, 3, 80, 81–​82, 95, 131, 136–​43, 154–​55, 290–​91,  292–​93 See also Krama namaḥ śivāya (also oṃ namaḥ śivāya), 30–​ 31, 32–​33, 116–​17, 144, 174, 175 namaskāra (homage), 29, 93, 102, 116–​17, 131–​90, 209, 247, 265, 273, 276–​77,  278 See also namaḥ śivāya; prayer Namaskārastotra, see Stutikusumāñjali nāmastotra, 3, 33, 34–​35, 42, 50–​51, 52–​53, 91–​92,  272–​73 Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa (of Kerala), 49 Narmamālā, see Kṣemendra Naṭarāja, 30–​31, 144 Nāṭyaśāstra, 6–​7, 206, 210–11n.47, 232–​34, 237–​38, 239, 250–51n.79 See also Bharata Nayar, Nancy Ann, 55–​56, 60–​61, 98–​99,  100 Netratantra, 19, 84, 148, 175 non-​dualism Abhinavagupta and, 20, 57–​58, 82–​84, 127–​32, 135–​36, 156–​57,  290–​91 aesthetics and, 249, 251, 260–​62 bhakti and, 17, 38, 97, 100, 101, 103, 118, 120–​22, 124–​27, 146–​47, 157,

245, 250–​51, 253, 261, 263–​64, 276, 284,  291–​92 Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka and, 235n.21 history in Kashmir of, 19, 66–​67, 72–​ 73, 95–​96, 116, 288 “Kashmir Śaivism” and, 280–​84 Krama and, 76–​77, 79, 80–​81, 136–​42 Kṣemarāja and, 20, 69, 84, 97, 105–​6, 132–​36, 156–​57, 251, 260–​62, 269 Nāga and, 136–​42, 290–​91 prayer, praise, and, 24, 66–​6 7, 69, 97–​1 03, 105, 115–​1 6, 119, 121–​2 2, 123–​2 4, 125, 126–​2 7, 129–​3 0, 132, 133–​3 4, 135–​3 6, 141, 142–​4 3, 146–​4 7, 154–​5 5, 157, 288, 290–​9 1,  294 Sāhib Kaul and, 93–​94, 151–​56, 157, ​ 270n.16,  272–​73 Sāmbapañcāśikā and, 69, 100–​9 Stavacintāmaṇi and, 72–​73, 115–​20, 260 stotras and, 24, 38, 53–​54, 66–​67, 77, 79, 82–​84, 93–​94, 95–​96, 97, 100–​9, 115–​20, 121–​22, 123–​43, 146–​50, 152–​57, 245, 250–​51, 253, 260, 269, 283–​84, 288,  290–​92 Stutikusumāñjali and, 142–​43, 146–​50,  156–​57 Swami Lakshman Joo and, 276, 278, 284 Utpaladeva and, 76, 120–​27, 157, 245, 249, 250–​51, 253, 261, 290–​91 See also “Kashmir Śaivism”; Krama; Pratyabhijñā; Śaiva Siddhānta; Śaivism; Trika Novetzke, Christian, 14n.41, 14–​15, 268–​69,  292   Obrock, Luther, 226–​27 Origen,  161–​62   Pārvatī, ​31n.19, 48–​49, 69–​70, 88, 109, 124, 144, 185–​86, 188, 211, 212–​13, 252, 253,  272–​73 See also Śiva; Vakroktipañcāśikā Patil, Parimal, 267 Patwardhan, M. V., 12–​13, 205, 241n.47 Peterson, Indira, 60–​61

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Index phalaśruti, 32–​33, 37, 46–​47, 58, 71n.22, 91–​92, 104–​5, 111–​73, ​208n.39,  273 Pinkney, Andrea Marion, 194 poetics, see aesthetics; alaṅkāraśāstra “poetics of devotion,” 1, 264, 293–​94 Pollock, Sheldon, 5, 44–​45, 49–​50, 167​n.32, 190n.110, 191n.112, 198n.4, 200–​1, 206–​7, 222–​23, 226–​30, 232–​33, 234n.15, 234–​36, 237–​38,  250 See also rasa; Sanskrit prasāda, 24, 145, 159, 177, 184n.88, 192–​95, 196, 217, 257, 291–​92, 295 praśasti, 44–​46, 60, 62–​63 Pratyabhijñā, 20–​21, 57–​58, 76, 120–​21, 151–​52,  272–​73 See also “Kashmir Śaivism”; non-​ dualism; Sāhib Kaul; Śivastotrāvalī; Somānanda; Swami Lakshman Joo; Utpaladeva prayer as technology of the self, 11–​12 bhakti and, 37–​38, 103–​4, 122, 124, 125, 126, 142, 146–​47, 252–​53, 264, 292–​93,  295 Christianity and the study of, 161–​63, 164,  165–​67 definitions and theorization of, 9–​12, 159–​69, 195–​96,  294–​96 dramatization of, 24, 159, 187–​92, 196, 294 emotion and, 122, 124, 163, 164–​68, 196, 292–​93,  294 healing and, 9–​10, 36, 41, 43–​44, 49, 68–​69, 104–​5,  162–​63 Hinduism and, 12–​13, 160–​61, 164–​66, 167–​68,  294 Judaism and, 162 materiality of, 9–​10, 162–​63, 166–​67 “New Directions in the Study of,”  162–​64 non-​dualism and, 24, 66–​67, 69, 97, 99, 101–​3, 105, 115–​16, 119, 121–​22, 123–​24, 125, 126–​27, 131–​32, 133–​34, 135–​36, 141, 142–​43, 146–​47, 154–​55, 157, 288, 290–​91, 294 Nones and, 163–​64, 294–​95

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petitionary, 49, 104–​5, 123, 160, 161–​62, 164, 165–​67, 181–​87, 261, 290–​91, 292–​93,  294 poetry and stotra as, 1–​2, 4, 8–​9, 11–​13, 24, 25–​26, 34–​35, 38, 41–​42, 58, 59–​ 60, 61–​62, 65, 88, 92–​93, 99, 100, 157, 159–​60, 167–​69–​, 201–​2, 265, 285, 287, 290–​91, 292–​96 Stutikusumāñjali and, 142, 143, 146–​47, 169–​96,  209 See also āśīrvāda; maṅgala; namaskāra; prasāda; stotra Prickett, Stephen, 266–​67, 268, 284 protection hymns, 3, 33–​35, 39–​40, 50–​51, 52, 53, 181, 186–​87 punning, see śleṣa Purāṇas, 2–​3, 17, 33–​34, 38, 41–​42, 48–​49, 50–​51, 53, 56–​57, 60–​61, 62–​63, 68n.9, 90n.111, 116–​17, 144, 148, ​ 191n.112, 241–​42, 289n.2   Raghavan, V., 12–​13, 27–​28, 31–​32n.21, 81–​ 82, 239n.39, ​246n.63 Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha, 69, 86–​91, 229, 262–​63,  288–​89 Rājataraṅgiṇī, 17, 85, 200–​1, 226–​27 Rāmānuja, 55–​56,  98–​99 Ramanujan, A. K., 291, 292–​93 Rāmāyaṇa, 2–​3, 5, 6n.13, 34, 46–​47, ​ 182n.78, 198 rasa adbhuta (the miraculous), 71–​72, 223–​24,  259–​60 aesthetics in Kashmir and, 6–​8, 17–​18, 25, 134, 231, 232–​43 aphorism on, 232–​33 as a problem for alaṅkāraśāstra, 233 as mahārasa (“metasentiment”),  247–​48 as milk, nectar, or another liquid, 122, 123, 250, 256, 257 as the experience of one’s own consciousness, 237 as the process of relishing, 237, 246–​47,  256 bhakti (the devotional), 25, 122, 126n.122, 216–​17, 230, 231–​32, 239–​64,  293–​94

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330 Index rasa (cont.) bhāva (“emotion”) instead of, 206,  239–​40 citrakāvya, and, 71–​72, 223–​24, 225–​26 compared to the taste of a drink, 232–​33 dhvani and, 7, 215–​18, 224, 234, 236–​37 in the Nāṭyaśāstra,  232–​33 Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa on, 215–​18, 224,  225–​26 just from hearing poetry, 225–​26 karuṇa (the tragic), 223 locus of, 7–​8, 134, 234–​38 number of, 25, 239–​40, 241–​42 religious experience and, 155, 231, 240–​ 41, 246–​47, 250, 256n.103 śānta (the peaceful), 166–​70, 231, 233, 239–​40,  262–​63 “semblance of” (rasābhāsa), 205,  242–​43 śṛṅgāra (the erotic), 205–​6, 223 stotras and, 25, 205–​7, 215–​18, 231–​64 svaśabda (proper terms) and, 237, 238–​ 39, 242–​43,  258–​59 Vaiṣṇava perspectives on, 25, 231–​32,  241–​42 yamaka and, 223–​24, 225–​26 See also Abhinavagupta; alaṅkāraśāstra; Ānandavardhana; āsvāda; bhaktirasa; Bharata, Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa; Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka; dhvani; Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism; Utpaladeva Ratnākara, 17–​18, 19, 69–​71, 72, 80–​82, 97, 109–​15, 135–​36, 150, 203–​4, 214–​15, 288–​89,  292–​93 See also Haravijaya Rudra, 33, 42, 148–​49, 174 See also Śiva Rudraṭa, 232, 233n.11, 239n.39 Rūpa Gosvāmin, 11n.30, 1​ 6n.49, 16, 35, 55–​56, 57, 99–​100, ​232n.3,  241–​42 See also Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism Ruyyaka, 7–​8, 206–​7, 232, 237   Saccidānandakandalī (SCĀK), 92–​93, 152n.206, 1​ 54n.214, 155 Sadāśiva, 36, 148 See also Śaiva Siddhānta; Śiva

Sahajārcanaṣaṣṭikā (SAṢ), 92–​93,  155–​56 Sāhib Kaul, 20–​21, 25, 53, 91–​94, 95, 151–​ 56, 157, 226–​27, 229, 270–​73, 284–​ 85, 287, 290 See also Citsphārasārādvaya; Devīnāmavilāsa; Saccidānandakandalī; Sahajārcanaṣaṣṭikā; Śārikāstava; Śivajīvadaśakam; Śivaśaktivilāsa; Svātmabodha Śaiva-​Śākta traditions, 18–​21, 23, 76–​77, 91–​93, 109, 110, 112–​13, 148–​49, 150–​51, 269, 270–​71, 272–​73, 276, 280, 284 See also “Kashmir Śaivism”; Krama; Pratyabhijñā; Sāhib Kaul; Śaivism; Śrīvidyā; Trika Śaiva Siddhānta, 19–21, 36, 38, 73, 110–11, 114–16, 148–150, 280 See also Āgamas; non-​dualism; Tantras Śaivism, 18–​21, 23, 67–​68, 84, 105–​57, 173, 192, 195, 247–​48, 273, 274–​75, 278, 279–​84,  289–​90 See also “Kashmir Śaivism”; Krama; non-​dualism; Pratyabhijñā; Śaiva Siddhānta; Śaiva-​Śākta traditions; Śiva; sun worship śakti(s), see Śiva śaktipāta, 148–​50,  156–​57 Sāmba, 49, 68, 106n.38 See also Sāmbapañcāśikā Sāmbapañcāśikā (SP), 49, 67–​69, ​ 70n.20, 72, 100–​9, 111n.61, 133n.142, 133–​34, 147, 157, ​203n.25, 261–​62, 274,  288–​89 See also Kṣemarāja; Sāmba; sun worship Śambhukṛpāmanoharastava,  89–​90 See also Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha Sāṃkhya, 59–​60, ​101n.17,  110–​11 Sanderson, Alexis, 17n.51, 19, 23, 66n.3, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81–​82, 83–​84, 86–​87n.94, 91, 94, 110, 114–​15, 136, 150n.200, 270–​71,  282–​83 Śaṅkara, 30–​31, 34–​35, 52, 53–​56, 58, 66,  83–​84 Sanskrit as literary language, 5, 6

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Index as political language, 6, 44–​45 “death of,” 1​ 67n.32, 226–​30, 288 “prayer” in, 160–​61 religious life and, 1, 62 vernacular poetry and, 1, 2–​4, 15–​17, 43–​ 44, 60–​62, 268–​69,  292–​93 See also “bhakti movement”; Sheldon Pollock; stotra Sanskrit cosmopolis, 44–​45, 69–​70 śāntarasa, see rasa Śāradā, 17–​18, 287 Sarasvatī /​ sarasvatī, 24, 50, 173, 187–​92, 195, 196, 212–​13, 216, 217, 253–​54, 288–​89,  294 See also Śāradā Śārikāstava (ŚāSt), 92–​93,  270–​72 Śatarudrīya (also Śrīrudram), 33, 42, 52 Saura stotras, see Sāmbapañcāśikā; sun worship Schleiermacher, Friedrich, 161–​62 Septimus, Yehuda, 9–​10 Shulman, David, 8–​9, 169, 229–​30 Silburn, Lilian, 274–​75 Śiva aesthetics and, 24, 171, 192, 193–​94, 215–​ 17, 242–​43, 247, 260, 291 as consciousness or the self, 76, 78, 82–​83, 93, 115–​16, 120, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132–​33, 141, 142–​43, 147, 152–​53, 154–​55,  247 as guru, 53–​54, 274–​75, 276, 277,  278–​79 as sahṛdaya, 192, 260, 291 bhakti of, 2 ​ 46n.60, 253, 255 criticism/​challenges toward, 170, 182–​ 83, 184, 188, 213–​14 epithets of, 33, 42, 170, 174, 177, 183, 184, 214, 273 famous exploits and iconography of, 51, 66, 85, 90, 91–​92, 109–​13, 114, 142–​43, 144, 148, 151–​52, 169–​70, 173, 176–​80, 181, 185–​86, 208–​9, 211–​12, 214–​15, 221, 224 grace/​favor/​compassion of, 42, 119–​20, 126, 128–​29, 129n.127, 132, 145, 146–​ 47, 148–​50, 153, 170, 176, 177–​79, 180, 181–​82, 184,  248–​49

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hypocritical worship of, 74–​75 internal/​mental worship of, 36, 82–​84, 117–​18, 129–​30, 155, 156 intimacy with, 119, 142–​43 multiple forms/​levels of, 73–​74, 76, 82–​83, 84, 110–​11, 115–​16, 119–​20, 127, 128, 133, 144, 147–​48, 154–​55, 174, 175, 178–​80, 185–​86,  276–​77 nature of, 110–​11, 115–​16, 119, 120, 122, 123, 133, 142–​43, 144–​48, 170–​71, 174–​75, 176–​78, 184,  185–​87 Pārvatī and, 48, 69–​70, 91–​92, 109, 144, 183, 185–​86, 188, 211, 212–​13, 252,  272–​73 pleasing of, 35–​36, 122, 124, 126, 181–​82, 187–​88, 192, 196, 216, 221 śakti(s) and, 82–​83, 92–​93, 115–​16, 128, 129–​30, 131, 132n.138, 132, 148–​50, 154–​55, 156–​57,  191–​92 Sarasvatī and, 24, 159, 187–​92, 196, 212–​13, 253, 294 teachings revealed by enlightened beings rather than, 19 See also Ardhanārīśvara; Bhairava; Haravijaya; Mahimnaḥstava; namaḥ śivāya; Naṭarāja; non-​ dualism; Pārvatī; Rudra; Sadāśiva; Śaivism; Śaiva-​Śākta traditions; Śivastotrāvalī; Stavacintāmaṇi; Stutikusumāñjali; Sūrya; Vakroktipañcāśikā Śivajīvadaśaka (ŚJD), 92–​93,  154–​55 Śivaśaktivilāsa (ŚŚV),  92–​93 Śivastotrāvalī (ŚSĀ), 57–​58, ​73n.31, 75–​76, 120–​27, 206–​8, 209n.42, 242–​43, 245–​51, 261, 264, 274–​75, 276, 291 composition, editing and arrangement of, 76 in relation to Utpaladeva’s other writings, 76, 120–​22 Kṣemarāja’s commentary on, 75, 123, 125n.119, ​208n.40, ​261 See also bhakti; bhaktirasa; Kṣemarāja; non-​dualism; Utpaladeva Śivasūtra, 19, 280

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332 Index śleṣa, 6, 69n.11, 72–​73n.28, 88, 106–​8, 142–​43, 145–​46, 170, 173, 177–​78, 180, 181–​82n.78, 183, 187–​89, 192, 212–​16, 217, 219, 221, 256, 258–​59 definitions of, 212–​13 yamaka and, 219 See also aesthetics; alaṅkāraśāstra; yamaka Śobhākaramitra, 88, 228 Somānanda, 20, 120n.101, 265, 276–​77 Śrīvidyā, 53–​54, 91–​92, 152 See also Śaiva-​Śākta traditions Stavacintāmaṇi (StC), 72–​75, 115–​20, 150, 157, 173n.49, 243–​45, 259–​61, 283,  290–​91 dating and provenance of, 72–​73 Kṣemarāja’s commentary on, 72–​ 73n.28, ​73n.31, 73–​74, ​149n.197, 244n.56,  259–​61 See also bhakti; bhaktirasa; Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa; Kṣemarāja, Kṣemendra; non-​dualism; Utpaladeva stotra aesthetics/​poetics and, 8–​9, 25, 204–​7, 230, 231–​32, 237–​64, 289, 291–​94,  295 anonymous, 1, 4, 65–​66, 83–​84,  295–​96 anthologies of, 12–​13, 30–​31, 35, 42–​43, 87–​88, 275–​77,  295–​96 as mystical, spontaneous or emotional outpourings, 13, 120–​22, 123–​24, 167–​ 68, 196, 255, 292–​93, 294 as kāvya, 8–​9, 24–​25, 197–​230, 288–​90,  295 as prasāda, 24, 159, 184n.88, 192–​95, 196, 257, 291–​92, 295 as prayer, 11–​13, 24, 25, 159, 160–​61, 167–​ 96, 289–​91,  294–​96 as theology, 3–​4, 24, 34–​35, 55–​58, 66–​ 67, 95–​96, 97–​157, 288, 289–​91 as tradition, 25, 265–​67, 268–​85, 290 bhakti and, 1–​3, 15–​17, 30–​31, 37–​40, 57–​61, 62–​63, 71–​72, 76, 94, 103–​4, 114, 120–​21, 124–​26, 146–​47, 193–​94, 231–​32, 242–​64, 268–​69, 274–​75, 284, 291–​94, 295

bhaktirasa and, 231–​32, 241, 243, 250, 264,  293–​94 classifications of, 3, 4, 23–​24, 30–​40,  62–​63 collections of, 1, 2, 12–​13, 27–​29, 30–​31, 35, 42–​43, 52, 57–​58, 59–​60, 75–​76, 83–​84, 86–​87, 94–​95, 99–​100, 109, 120–​21, 192–​93, 195, 206, 207–​8, 209, 230, 274–​77 commentaries on, 21, 50, 52, 62–​63, 67–​68, 69, 72–​74, 75, 79–​80, 84, 87–​89, 90, 91, 94, 105–​9, 123, 125n.119, 129, 133–​34, 143n.172, ​ 149n.197, 157, 178–​79, 204, ​208n.39, ​ 208n.40, ​218n.75, 226, 251, 256n.103, 258–​63,  274 definitions of, 1, 2, 23–​24, 28–​30, 62–​63 features and functions of, 1–​4, 23–​24, 28–​40, 62–​63, 105–​6, 108–​9,  287–​92 general history of, 2–​3, 23–​24, 28,  40–​63 in Kashmir, 1–​2, 4, 21–​26, 57–​58, 65–​ 96, 226–​30,  287–​95 in Tantric worship, 21, 51–​52, 53, 65–​66n.1 lack of scholarly attention to, 22–​23, 40 mantra and, 3, 30–​31, 32–​34, 37, 39–​ 40, 51–​52, 53, 73–​74, 89, 116–​17, 160–​61,  271–​72 non-​dualism and, 24, 38, 53–​54, 57–​58, 66–​67, 77, 79, 82–​84, 93–​94, 95–​ 96, 97, 100–​9, 115–​20, 121–​22, 123–​43, 146–​50, 152–​57, 245, 250–​51, 253, 260, 269, 283–​84, 288, 290–​92 other genres and, 2–​3, 29–​30, 44–​46 popularity of, 1, 2–​3, 16, 21–​23, 24, 27–​ 28, 37, 41, 42–​43, 45–​46, 49–​50, 55, 57, 59–​60, 61, 62–​63, 65, 67, 95–​96, 167–​68, 196, 203–​4, 206–​7, 229, 288–​90,  291–​92 scholarly approaches to, 3–​4, 22–​23,  98–​100 vernacular bhakti poetry and, 1, 2–​4, 15–​ 17, 43–​44, 60–​62, 268–​69,  292–​93 stotrakāvya,  201–​2 See also kāvya; laghukāvya; mahākāvya; stotra

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Index Stutikusumāñjali (SKA) aesthetics/​poetics and, 24–​25, 171, 191–​ 92, 193–​94, 196, 207–​8, 215–​18, 222, 224–​26, 230, 251–​53, 254, 255–​59, 262–​63, 264, 289, 291–​93 Ardhanārīśvarastotra in, 185–​86 as tool for teaching, 222 Āśīrvādastotra in, 176–​79, 180, 262–​63 authorship of, 86–​87 Bhagavadvarṇanastotra in, 185–​86 bhakti and, 142–​43, 146–​47, 193–​ 94, 242–​43, 251–​59, 262–​63, 292–​93,  297 bhaktirasa and, 216–​17, 251–​52, 257–​59,  292–​94 Bhaktistotra in, 242–​43, 253–​57 dating of, 86–​87 “death of Sanskrit” and, 227–​30 Devīnāmavilāsa and, 272, 273 Dīnākrandanastotra in, 181–​84, 185,  213–​15 Hasitavarṇanastotra in, 185–​86 history of Kashmir and, 150–​51 introduction to, 86–​88 Islam and, 86–​87, 150–​51 Kādipadabandhastotra in, 218–​19 kāvya and, 24–​25, 197–​98, 207–​30, 255,  288–​89 Laghupañcikā commentary by Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha on, 86–​89, 90–​91,  262–​63 Maṅgalastotra in, 178–​80 manuscripts of, 87–​88, 2 ​ 08n.39 Namaskārastotra in, 174–​76, 180 non-​dualism and, 142–​43, 147–​49, 174 organization of, 169–​70, 195, 207–​9, 219–​20,  222 phalaśruti section of, 171–​72, ​208n.39 prayer, praise, and, 24, 30–​31, 143, 146–​47, 157, 159, 169–​96, 255, 290–​91, 294, 296 reception of, 87–​88, 90–​91, 171–​72 Śaiva theology of, 142–​51 Śaraṇāgatoddharaṇastotra in, 181, 184–​85 Śaraṇāśrayaṇastotra in, 186–​87 scholarship on, 22–​23, 87–​88, 287

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Stavacintāmaṇi and, 150, 157, 173n.49,  290–​91 Swami Lakshman Joo and, 87–​88, 275 Tantric content in, 148–​50 title of, 86–​87, 169–​70, 192–​93, 290–​91 tradition and, 269, 285 Sunday Puja, 25, ​83n.80, 87–​88, 94–​95, 265, 275–​79, 284, 285 See also Swami Lakshman Joo sun-​god, see Sūrya sun worship, 18–​19, 30–​31, 32–​33, 36, 41, 46–​47, 48–​49, 67–​69, 89, 100–​9,  157 See also Kṣemarāja; Mayūra; non-​ dualism; Rājānaka Ratnakaṇṭha; Sāmba; Sāmbapañcāśikā; Sūrya Sūrya, 18–​19, 30–​31, 32–​33, 36, 41, 46–​47, 48–​49, 58, 67–​69, 89–​90, 100–​9, 154, 157 Sūryaśataka (SūŚ) (of Mayūra), 43–​44, 45–​46, 48–​50, 69, 89, 101, ​200n.10, 203–​4, ​204n.28,  288–​89 Svacchandabhairava, 20, 65–​66n.1, 84, 94, 132–​33, 134–​36, 143n.172, 269, ​ 271n.17,  276–​77 svaśabda (proper terms), 237, 238–​39, 242–​43,  258–​59 See also aesthetics Svātmabodha (SĀB),  153–​54 Swaminarayan hymns, 12–​13, 59–​60   Tagore, Rabindranath, 59–​60 Tamil, 1, 3–​4, 14, 15n.46, 60–​61, 98–​99, 268–​69, 292, 293–​94n.10 Tantras, 2–​3, 33–​34, 50–​51,  62–​63 See also Āgamas Teiser, Stephen, 9–​10, ​165n.24 “text tradition,” 267, 273 theology,  97–​157 characterizations of, 97–​98 poetry and, 24, 55–​56, 57–​58, 66–​67, 76, 95–​96, 278–​79, 288, 289–​90 prayer and, 9–​10, 11–​12, 161–​62, 164–​65 scholarship on stotras and, 3–​4, 55–​56,  98–​100 See also non-​dualism; stotra; vedāntastotras Trika, 20–​21, 110, 112–​13, 114–​15, 280–​81,  282–​83

34

334 Index Tsentourou, Naya, 163 Tubb, Gary, 8–​9, 169, ​202n.20, 203n.23, ​ 203n.25, 219n.77, 223–​25, 229–​30   Udbhaṭa, 232, 234n.13, 238–​39, 258–​59 upamā (simile), 108, 211–​12, ​262n.116 Upaniṣads, 1​ 3n.39, 34–​35, 102, 110–​11 Utpaladeva, 20, 24, 55–​56, 57–​58, 75–​ 76, 120–​27, 142–​43, 155n.220, 157, 167–​68, 206, 207–​8, 209n.42, 245–​52, 253, 259, 261, 264, 265, 274, 276–​77, 289, 290–​93 aesthetics/​poetics and, 122, 206–​7, 231, 239–​40, 243, 245–​51, 259, 264, 289,  291–​93 as author in different genres, 76, 120–​ 22, 123–​24,  126–​27 bhakti and, 120–​22, 124–​27, 157, 245–​ 46, 253, 291–​93 bhaktirasa and, 122, 231, 245–​50 non-​dualism and, 76, 120–​27, 157, 245, 249, 250–​51, 253, 261, 290–​91 Swami Lakshman Joo and, 274, 276–​77 See also Kṣemarāja; non-​dualism; Pratyabhijñā; Śivastotrāvalī utprekṣā (poetic fancy), 111–​12, 180, 211–​12   Vaiṣṇavism, 2–​3, 14, 15–​16, 18–​19, 25, 35, 55–​57, 98–​100, 112–​13, 155n.217, 179–​80, 231–​32, 241–​42, 264, 281–​82, 295–​96n.15 See also Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism; Vedāntadeśika; Viṣṇu Vakroktipañcāśikā (VP), 69–​70, 203–​4,  214–​15 Valliere, Paul, 268–​69 Vedāntadeśika, 15n.46, 55–​57, 60–​61, 99, 168–69n.37, 295–​96n.15 vedāntastotras, 3, 34–​35, 53–​55 See also theology

Vedic hymns, 2–​3, 12–​13, 36, 40–​43, 48–​ 49, 60, 62–​63, 69, 89, 98–​99, 167–​ 68, 176n.59 Vijayeśvara, 74, 148 virodhābhāsa (apparent contradiction), 93–​94, 108, 116, 145–​46, 157, 179–​80,  211–​12 Viṣṇu, 30–​32, 33, 34–​35, 37–​38, 48, 52, 55–​57, 58–​60, 69n.11, 106–​7, 148, 154, 174, 178–​80, 220, 241–​42 See also Vaiṣṇavism; Viṣṇusahasranāman Viṣṇusahasranāman, 33, 52–​53, 91–​92 See also nāmastotra   wonder/​amazement, 35, 71–​72, 111, 116, 132, 140–​41, 145–​47, 157, 170–​71, 173, 179–​80, 185–​87, 223–​24, 225, 252–​53,  259–​60 See also camatkāra   Yama, god of death, 113, 128, 144, 181, 182–​ 83, 185, 224, 254 yamaka (repetition, twinning) Ānandavardhana and, 222–​24 in Avatāra’s Īśvaraśataka, 88 in Jagaddhara Bhaṭṭa’s Stutikusumāñjali, ​ 208n.39, ​212n.50, 218, 219–​23, 224–​26, 230, 258n.107 lāṭānuprāsa and, ​212n.50 musical effects of, 224–​25 popularity of, 222–​24 rasa and, 223–​26 wonder and, 224 Yaśaskara, 88, 229 yoga, 59–​60, 68, 69, 103, 104–​5, 110–​11, 138, 145, 155, 172, 279 Yogarāja, 84, 265, 277   Zaleski, Philip and Carol, 166–​67 Zayn al-​‘Ābidīn, 150–​51