Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

—and similar disciplines do not cause Maya to release her hold. The work next treats the five devotional dispositions and the six constituent elements, followed by the doctrines of “one’s own happiness” and “the Beloved’s happiness,” and the inferiority of the former.

Hanuman is the guru; the name of his subtle form is Kripa Sahachari. The text then sets out the bliss of attainment and distinguishes gross and subtle forms. It explains the means of destroying tamas, the results of worshipping ghosts, spirits, gods, and other beings, and the characteristics of exclusivity. Hanuman himself is the model of exclusive devotion.

The chosen Lord is attained only through six kinds of exclusive fidelity, like the fidelity of the chataka bird to rain from the Svati star: exclusivity of name, attire, chosen Lord, speech, consecrated food, and mode of life.

In the relation between majesty and sweetness, sweetness is savoured only after majesty has been savoured. The work next determines the form of the Divine Couple and explains the principle of Sita-Rama within it, followed by the eternity of the universal form and the nature of exclusive refuge.

Its ideal devotee is described at great length as possessing love, faith, freedom from desire, freedom from doubt, truthfulness, simplicity, good conduct, orientation to the guru, firmness, good speech, harmonious expression, cleverness, veracity, refined sensitivity to rasa, charm, freedom from laziness, joy, freedom from anxiety, compassion, protectiveness, generosity, mercy, humility, respect for others, liberality, absence of pride and anger, solitude, freedom from pretence and fear, emotional sensitivity, selflessness, renunciation, passionate devotion, lovability, freedom from delusive possessiveness, and liberation.

The happiness of śṛṅgāra is described extensively at the end, together with the ten stages of separation.

Rāmarasāmṛta-sindhu

The work concludes with parā-bhakti and contains sixteen “currents” in all.

It gives a distinctive reworking of Rama’s life. Hanuman accompanies him in Janakpur’s flower garden. In the Chitrakuta episode, Rama goes on a forest excursion at the Divine Maiden’s insistence. The gods pray, “How then will the wicked be slain?” Yet there is no narrative of quarrel. The episode of the boatman also occurs while Rama is travelling to Mithila.¹

The surviving loose-leaf manuscript contains the following extents: first current, seventy-two leaves; second, forty-two; third, fifteen; fourth, twenty-four; and fifth, twenty-eight—