List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preface
Note on transliteration
Introduction
Part I - Devotion and Aesthetics in the Narasinha Tradition
1. Lyrics of Play - Krishna in the Human World
2. Lyrics of Awakening - Mysticism and Moral Reflection
3. Exemplary Bhakti, Exemplary Singing - Narasinha in Sacred
Narratives
4. Singing as Bhakti - Musical Performances of Narasinha's
Songs
Part II - The Narasinha Legacy in Religious and Popular
Cultures
5. The Saint of the Threshold, the First of Poets - The Narasinha
Tradition in Gujarat and Beyond
6. A Saint-poet in the Making of a Mahatma - Narasinha Mehta and
Gandhi
7. Songs and the Saint in Modern Media - Narasinha in Popular
Culture
Concluding Remarks
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Neelima Shukla-Bhatt is Associate Professor of South Asia Studies at Wellesley College.
"Neelima Shukla-Bhatt has written a beautiful book on Narasinha
Mehta, a poet-saint beloved in Gujarat since the fifteenth century.
His poetry has circulated in diverse ways across centuries and
regions, through melodic everyday songs, the social justice of
Mahatma Gandhi, and the global reach of YouTube, which demands the
comprehensive and accessible elucidation that Shukla-Bhatt is the
first to provide in English on this iconic figure. Importantly,
Shukla-Bhatt considers Narasinha's poetry as a resource for healing
a region with a recent troubled past, and for imagining a
harmoniously pluralistic future. In the course of providing social
history,
Shukla-Bhatt brings the aesthetic possibilities of Narasinha's
compositions to the fore: Read his poetry through her graceful
prose, and be truly enchanted." --Karen Pechilis, author of
Interpreting Devotion: The Poetry and Legacy of a Hindu Female
Saint of India
"This wonderful book explores the life, legend, and after-life of a
great poet-saint who profoundly influenced Mahatma Gandhi. A work
both of cultural history and aesthetic appreciation, it
demonstrates how words and music can play a pivotal role in shaping
moral codes as well as social behavior. Analytically sharp and
elegantly written, this book will be of great interest to literary
historians and scholars of South Asia." --Ramachandra Guha, author
of
Gandhi Before India
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