TY - JOUR
T1 - A community of grace
T2 - The social and theological world of the Pusti Mārga vārtā literature
AU - Saha, Shandip
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - In the history of Hindi literature, the oldest extant text of medieval Hindi prose is the collection of hagiography known as the as the vārtā literature which, since the seventeenth century, has been central to the religious life of the Hindu devotional community known as the Pusti Mārga. This article argues that a close examination of these texts in their proper social and historical context reveals that the vārtā literature was written and revised during a time when the Pusti Mārga was slowly expanding its sphere of religious influence in Western and Central India. The result was a body of literature whose principal purpose was to shape the religious self - identity of the Pusti Mārga by stressing the community as a close-knit and exclusive fellowship of believers who owed their final allegiance to Krsna and the community's religious leaders who were known as mahārājas.
AB - In the history of Hindi literature, the oldest extant text of medieval Hindi prose is the collection of hagiography known as the as the vārtā literature which, since the seventeenth century, has been central to the religious life of the Hindu devotional community known as the Pusti Mārga. This article argues that a close examination of these texts in their proper social and historical context reveals that the vārtā literature was written and revised during a time when the Pusti Mārga was slowly expanding its sphere of religious influence in Western and Central India. The result was a body of literature whose principal purpose was to shape the religious self - identity of the Pusti Mārga by stressing the community as a close-knit and exclusive fellowship of believers who owed their final allegiance to Krsna and the community's religious leaders who were known as mahārājas.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=43449126783&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/s0041977x06000103
DO - 10.1017/s0041977x06000103
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:43449126783
SN - 0041-977X
VL - 69
SP - 225-242+iii
JO - Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
JF - Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
IS - 2
ER -