Chapter Seven: Literature of the Rasika Tradition

4. Śrī Maithilī Mahopaniṣad

Immediately after verse 18 in chapter five of the Vālmīki Saṃhitā appears a short Śrī Maithilī Mahopaniṣad. It gives the three-syllable mantra Oṃ Rāma for release from the spiritual, divine, and material forms of suffering, and identifies Rama as the supreme attainment and supreme object of knowledge.¹ It concludes with the already familiar mantra-lineage.

5. Śrī Rāma-rahasya Upaniṣad

In his Sāketa-suṣamā, the Vaishnava scholar Pandit Saryudas quotes the Śrī Rāma-rahasya Upaniṣad to the effect that Saketa is the ultimate cause of infinite Vaikunthas.²

Saṃhitā literature

Numerous saṃhitās were composed around sweet Rama worship. Dating them is so disputed that it is very difficult to reach a decision from either internal or external evidence. Among the examples Otto Schrader cites in support of saṃhitā authenticity, only one or two of these titles occur. Yet it would be mistaken to date all the others after Schrader solely on that basis.

These works circulated within an extremely restricted sphere. Some remain so closely guarded inside the Rasika Sampradaya that they are kept entirely from the outside world. The author nevertheless examined approximately twenty saṃhitās containing magnificent accounts of rasika practice.

Their special importance for literature, discipline, and doctrinal construction must therefore be acknowledged. The continuous current of practice flowing through them has provided supreme refuge and delight to many worshippers of the sweet rasa. The tradition’s list of accepted saṃhitā works is vast—