Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T01:00:26.296Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Reconciliation of Jñāna and Bhakti in Rāmacaritamānasa*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

F. R. Allchin
Affiliation:
Reader in Indian Studies, University of Cambridge

Extract

Rāmacaritamānasa is a truly remarkable work, and the celebration of the fourth centenary of its composition calls for some recognition. Consider the artless guile of its author: at the start he protests that he is no poet, without skill in letters, lacking in all arts and sciences, lacking in all literary skills; and yet he has presented us with a creation of extraordinary skill and beauty, revealing, within the Indian context, a broad grasp of learning and a zeal to reconcile divergent doctrines. On the one hand Tulsīdās protests that he has done the work simply for his own personal satisfaction (svāntaḥ sukhāya), and on the other he proclaims that its virtue is the infiniteness of its theme. This is why Rāmacaritamānasa deserves attention, and why its study can be so rewarding.

Type
Research Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 81 note 1 Rāmacaritanānasa (RCM) I. Caupai 9, 4–6.

page 81 note 2 RCM I. śloka 7.

page 81 note 3 RCM I. Caupai 10, 1–5; I. Caupai 12, 5; 1. Caupai 33, 3, etc.

page 81 note 4 RCM III. Caupais 35–6.

page 81 note 5 Carpenter, J. E., Theism in Medieval India (1921), pp. 510–11.Google Scholar

page 81 note 6 RCM I. Caupai 13, 1–5; I. Caupais 19–28.

page 81 note 7 Dasgupta, S. N., History of Indian Philosophy, II, ch. XIV, pp. 437–43.Google Scholar

page 82 note 1 RCM VII. Caupai 115, 4 — dohā 118. This section has been discussed in some detail by several writers, including Macfie, J. M., The Rāmāyan of Tulsīdās (1930), pp. 244ff.Google Scholar; Ranade, R. D., Pathway to God in Hindi Literature (1959), pp. 6875.Google Scholar

page 82 note 2 RCM VII. Caupai 119, I — dohā 120.

page 83 note 1 akatha Kahānī RCM I. 21, 4; see also Karbī, (akatha kahānī prema kī) (Kabīr Granthāvalī), pp. 91, 139, etc.Google Scholar

page 84 note 1 Yoga sütra II. 29–32.

page 85 note 1 RCM I. Caupai 36ff.

page 85 note 2 Katre, S. L., ‘Jñānadīpikā, an early work of Tulsīdās’, Munshi Indological Felicitation Volume (1963), pp. 401–11.Google Scholar

page 86 note 1 Yoga Vāsistha, Nirvāna Prakarana 14–27.

page 86 note 2 Jñānaśvari XII. 60–3.

page 88 note 1 Allchin, F. R., The Petition to Rām (1966), 5860.Google Scholar

page 89 note 1 RCM I. dohā 25.

page 89 note 2 RCM III. Caupai 35, 2.

page 89 note 3 RCM I. Caupai 2, 407.

page 89 note 4 Vinayapatrikā 136, 10–12.

page 89 note 5 Ibid. 57, 1–9.

page 90 note 1 Panikkar, R., The Trinity and the Religious Experience of Man (1973), 7182.Google Scholar

page 90 note 2 Cf. Muller, Max, Three lectures on the Vedānta Philosophy (1894), pp. 82–4, 154ff.Google Scholar; Tillich, P., Systematic Theology, I (1853), 253 etc.Google Scholar

page 90 note 3 Macfie, , loc. cit. pp. 91–2, 252–4Google ScholarCarpenter, , loc. cit. pp. 512–15.Google Scholar

page 91 note 1 I Cor. 2: 12–13.

page 91 note 2 Tillich, P., loc. cit. III, 139.Google Scholar

page 91 note 3 Ibid. p. 142.

page 91 note 4 Ibid. p. 159.

page 91 note 5 Maclagan, E., The Jesuits and the Great Mogul (1932), pp. 23ff.Google Scholar

page 91 note 6 RCM I. dohā 21.