Telling Kr̥ṣṇa’s Tale: The Brajvilās by Brajvāsīdās

Presenter:

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the Brajvilās, a Brajbhāṣā work composed by Brajvāsīdās in the second half of 18th century. The author belonged to Vallabha’s Puṣṭimarga and his Brajvilās constitutes a remarkable abridgment of Sūrdās’ Sūrsāgar. A considerable corpus of 18th-century compositions consists of digests or commentaries on previous texts, yet this kind of production stands for the great part unstudied. Such is the case of the Brajvilās as well, untranslated and largely neglected by scholarship up to date. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is firstly to trace its spread as a text and point out its structural characteristics. Secondly, the analysis of the inception of the work will allow to understand how Brajvāsīdās related to his sources, both Sanskrit and vernacular. The aim is to shed light on a composition which may have arguably played a significant role in the knowledge and popularization of the god Kr̥ṣṇa’s līlās after Sūrdās’ Sūrsāgar–in Vallabhite environment and beyond.