Garlanding Hinduism

Last November, at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, I presented the following paper.  I also presented it on Monday at the South Asia Graduate Student Forum at Columbia University.  The paper is entitled “Garlanding Hinduism: Nābhādās’s Bhaktamāl in the Colonial Context.”  Here’s a description:

The Bhaktamāl played a key role in the emergence of modern Hinduism.  From the time of its composition in the early seventeenth century, Nābhādās’s collection of hagiographies has served as a site for debate and discussion over the boundaries of an inclusive community united through loving devotion.  A key moment in the transmission and reception of this text came during the first decade of the twentieth century when two scholars, Sītārāmśaraṇ Bhagavān Prasād ‘Rūpkalā’ and George Abraham Grierson turned their attention to the Bhaktamāl and composed modern commentaries on it.  This presentation will consider these commentaries and, in so doing, hopefully shed some light on the emergence of a broadly defined Vaishnava and Hindu community

And here’s a PDF of the paper.


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  • About

    My name is James P. Hare. I’m a PhD candidate in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. I am writing my dissertation on Nābhādās's Bhaktamāl and its role in shaping modern Hinduism. Bhaktamal.org will track the progress of this project.

    To contact me, please send an email to jph2101 [at] columbia [dot] edu

    Thanks for visiting.