A critique of A K Ramanujan’s ‘Varieties of Bhakti’

Etymologically, ‘BHAKTI’ is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘bhaj’ (root), which means, ‘to share’, ‘to revere’, ‘to participate’, and ’to worship’. While in the modern world the dominant denotation of the ‘bhakti’ is often limited to ‘devotion’, it encompasses a wide range of meanings from faith and spiritual knowledge to attachment and love.

In “Varieties of Bhakti,” AK Ramanujan uses two Indian and two English poems to analyze the tradition of devotional poetry. He underlines the similarities and differences in these four works while highlighting how they can be read as “scared parodies or imitations of love-poetry.”

CRITIQUE

Confined by societal norms and cultural expectations, the protagonist in Cennamallikarjuna (by Mahadevyyakka) is trapped in a net of legalities (in-laws) that bind her. “These are what you enter into, not what you are born with.” All her in-laws (Maya, world, and tigers) represent things that stop her from getting closer to the lord.

In the Indian poems, the protagonist is blinded by her pure devotion and love of God — that she doesn’t mind giving up everything she has. Her illegitimate relationship in the social order which violates her expected loyalty to her husband is what’s preventing her from uniting with the lord.

The married women’s union with the lord essentially symbolizes the “paradox of religious experience, and union with the inaccessible.” Mahadevyyakka’s poem uses a vigorous speaking style and includes the vulgar Kannada word ‘cuckolding’ which creates a linguistic shock, because of its placement in a Bhakti poem, but it also expresses the poetess’s desire to shatter the framework of so-called legitimacies. She rejects modesty as a virtue. The removal of the clothes depicts her rebelliousness against the indecent pruderies of society. Legends tell of her wandering naked in search of her Divine Lover; her poetry or vacanas tell of her frustration with societal norms and roles that restricted her.

The “unthinkability of divorce for Indian women saint” makes the adultery even more daring — as she is rebelling against the societal ties and human relationships. Indian saints express their devotion to the lord as lovers. Human life, societal ties, and worldly relations are seen as distractions.

The Radha –Krsna doctrine in Vaisnava (by Govindadasa) also highlights that “all human souls are feminine and the lord is the divine spouse.” Hence, the women, (the soul) that goes in the search of the lord. This is one commonality between Vaisnava, Vacana, and John Donne’s ‘Holy Sonnet’ — the women are reaching towards the lord.

In George Herbert’s ‘Love’, God is not mentioned directly, and ambiguity is achieved using the word ‘Love’, without any pronouns. (Love neither masculine nor feminine)

“Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

Who made the eyes but I”

One major difference between these poems is that in Indian Bhakti works, the whole world is presented as an enemy because it distracts them from the lord, and in English devotional poems particularly Donne’s there is a specific “satanic enemy”.

The challenges expressed in Vaisnava’s Poem and St. John highlight their agony, which is often associated with the journey of enlightenment. Radha had to conquer “Darkness,” and pain from the “thorns,” to reach the lord. Here, darkness is used as a metaphor for her ignorance and her pain represents her struggle.

Women bhaktas wrote of the obstacles of home, family tensions, the absent husband, meaningless household chores, and restrictions of married life, including their status as married women. In many cases, they rejected traditional women’s roles and societal norms by leaving husbands and homes altogether, choosing to become wandering bhaktas; in some instances, they formed communities with other poet-saints. Their new focus was utter devotion and worship of their Divine Husbands.

Poems of Indian poets can also very much be read as love conventions if someone doesn’t have prior knowledge of Hindi Mythology.

The use of simple and colloquial dialect by the Indian poets reflects a “revolt against Sanskrit”, defiance against “ritual and Brahmanical learning” that refused female Bhakti poets.

Bhakti poems were written in simple language so everyone can understand them. They were for everyone, as the great 15th-century bhakti poet, Kabir said: “Sanskrit is as the water of a well, but vernacular (bhasa) like a running brook.”

Conclusion

This linguistic simplicity also occurred in the western world with Herbert’s Christian simplicity. Western poets however were more concerned with the conflict between religion and poetry. And Ramanujan points out that the presence of such conflict can highlight different views of poetry in culture. Being saints before a poet, bhakti poets only wrote devotional poems, without any self-consciousness about their love for the lord.

Another major difference between bhakti poets and English poets is that most of these works were written in Indian Languages, and might even have been oral compositions — probably created by “illiterate saints” with pure love, without any literary knowledge. However, still, they (Vacana) manage to have a Herbert-like sophistication.

Ramanujan emphasizes that the similarities occur due to the universality of human experience and primordial archetypes. But the differences help in defining the uniqueness of each work and world.