‘Rati Viparite’: Gitagovinda and Erotic (Trans)migrationsin Nineteenth Century Bengal I

Rangeet Sengupta*Jadavpur University

Abstract

The paper deals with some of the translations and adaptations of Gitagovinda, a 12th centurySanskrit text, in the late 18th and 19th century Bengal. These translations and derivativeadaptations were shaped by the colonial experience in Bengal and reveal important strands ofcolonial discourse and exchange. The English translation of the text by William Jones (in 1789),the famed philologist and the founder of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, served as one of theseminal texts of Orientalist exploration in South Asia. Also discussed in the paper are RasamayaDasa’s Bengali translation of Gitagovinda (published in 1817) and the several adaptations of the textpublished by the Battala printers. The ambivalence about eroticism in the text has been discussed,along with the subsequent histories of the text as a cultural commodity in colonial Bengal.

My paper deals with the myriad histories of Gitagovinda as a text in late eighteenth andnineteenth century Bengal. There were efforts, spurred by the colonial encounter inSouth Asia, to interpret Gitagovinda as an allegorical discourse – symbolically encapsulatingspiritual truth. Yet, as the Kolkata Book Market flourished, other ideations of the textbecame widespread – the predominant amongst them being the interpretation of the textas an elaborate depiction of sexual ⁄ erotic encounter. I would contend that the biogra-phies of Gitagovinda as a commodity in colonial Bengal bring into play contending dis-courses, especially those which interpret the central concept of rasa. While a mundanereading of the word equates it with ‘seminal fluid’, a sublimated reading interprets it as‘aesthetic essence’, or even as ‘the sap of spiritual ecstasy.’ Rasa, in its physical form assemen, circulates through physical bodies and engenders elaborate figurations ofexchange, control and power. Rasa, according to aesthetic interpretations of the word,would circulate as commodified texts through networks in the book market. The Britisharrived as traders in Bengal and ended up being its rulers. As traders, they could haveindulged in unabashed commercial exchange of commodities. However, as rulers, theyneeded to redefine exchange of commodity as an ethical enterprise – a project to establishorder and participate in a cultural exchange of ideas. The biographies of Gitagovinda paral-lel this ambivalence – it was both interpreted as a sacred scripture (evoking sublimatedrasa of spiritual devotion) as well as an obscene text (evoking mundane, erotic rasa). It isin this ambivalence that the problematic nature of colonial commodity may be discernedand its discourses of symbolic power fully revealed.

In a short essay in which he tried to define the dominant traits of Bengali lyric poetry,Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay (the famed novelist, editor and the crafter of India’snational song) would say:

Bengali lyric poets can be classed into two groups. One of the groups tries to situate and visual-ize man amongst the beauties of the natural world; the other group endeavors to distance itselffrom external nature and concentrates on the human heart. One, venturing to search for the

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human heart, uses physical nature as its guiding lamp and enlightens all objects by Nature’s radi-ant glow; the other, enlightens all by the glow of its inner spirit …. The foremost exponent ofthe first group is Jayadeva, the spokesperson of the second group is Vidyapati. (Chattopadhyay,‘‘Vidyapati o Jayadeva,’’ 85)

Bankimchandra’s essay, published in 1886, reveals various curious strands of thought. Thedichotomy of inner ⁄outer nature, a veritable ‘Cartesian rupture’, is perhaps symptomaticof the late phase of Bengali Renaissance. Bankimchandra suggests that the first group ofpoets use external nature (vajya prakriti) to reveal and enlighten objects (vastu). Jayadevawas the 12th century poet of the Sanskrit poem Gitagovinda, a pastoral poem, in whichhe uses lush and erotic imagery to depict the amatory exchanges between Krishna and hiscowherdess-consort, Radha. Earlier in the essay, Bankimchandra connects this worldlinesswith the verdurous plenty of Bengal. He states that Jayadeva’s poetry always describes‘sweet-scented nights, soft mountain winds, trailing vines, lotus stalks, the blossomedflower … the murmur of bees and cuckoos’ and along with it ‘brows, vine-like arms, fulllips, languid eyes’ of women. He surmised that as Aryans settled in Bengal, its hot andhumid climate and its fertile lowlands made Aryans lose their tejas (vigor) and adopt adocile, indolent, sedentary lifestyle. Their poems reveal inertia of spirit and an inclinationfor the amorous, obscene and physical world. In his Krishna-charitra, his effort to establishKrishna as a historical figure, Bankimchandra scoffs at the narratives which depictKrishna’s amatory dalliance with the Gopis, the cowherd-maidens of Vrindavan (Chatto-padhyay, Krishna-Charitra 99). Bankimchandra would emphasize that Jayadeva is an arche-type for a group of poets, especially Bharatchandra. ‘Whatever I have said aboutJayadeva, is applicable to Bharatchandra …,’ he declared (Chattopadhyay, ‘‘Vidyapati oJayadeva,’’ 86). Bharatchandra, the 18th century Bengali poet, famous for his euphonicand erotic verses, was thus considered by Bankimchandra to be a successor of Jayadeva.Jayadeva’s poem was hence not merely a remnant of the middle ages, it was for Bank-imchandra emblematic of a trend which had contemporary parallels. He would add, itwas this inertia of spirit and indulgence in eroticism that had led to Bengal’s (and India’s)degradation – its enslavement by British imperialism.

Dipesh Chakrabarty has discussed how the dialectical tensions between the realist(bastab) and idealist ideations of Bengal and its social reality informed much of Tagore’spoetry and prose (Chakrabarty 51–4). Tagore would depict the socio-cultural realities of19th century Bengal in many of his short stories – the rampant illiteracy, caste oppression,child marriages and poverty. On the other hand, he would celebrate the eternal, unm-aligned beauty of his ‘Golden Bengal’in many of his poems and lyrics. Bankimchandra’swriting was a precursor to this trend.1 Infact, his ‘‘Vande Mataram’’ (which went on tobe the national song of India) praises the very traits of Bengal which he blames in the1886 essays as the cause for Bengal’s moral degradation. He effusively lauds his Mother-land as being: ‘richly-watered, richly-fruited, cooled by the vernal breeze, verdurous withharvested crops.’2 Bankimchandra’s criticism of Jayadeva hence has far more extensiveroots – it reflects ambiguity about representing the materiality of existence which per-vaded much of the colonial discourse in Bengal. William Jones (the famed philologist andthe founder of Asiatic Society of Bengal) would claim that Bengal, ‘fertile in the produc-tions of human genius’, could not better be explored but by his fellow countrymen inBengal. He said in his inaugural discourse on the Institution of the Asiatic Society: ‘if inany country or community such an union could be effected, it was among my country-men in Bengal’ (Jones, ‘‘Discourse,’’ x). This necessarily involved ambiguity about theerotics of exchange – the colonial ⁄ commercial exchange was often metaphorically equa-

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ted with conjugal ⁄ erotic exchange between two cultures. Moreover, this exchange wasto serve as a sublimated discourse for mundane exchange – the British were not merelyexchanging ⁄procuring commodities (so it would be believed) but wisdom. Similarly,intercourse depicted in Gitagovinda was not to be projected merely as sexual, but subli-mated into a discourse of spirituality. No wonder, then, that Jayadeva’s Gitagovinda wouldbe one of the first texts to be translated by the Orientalists in Bengal.

Gitagovinda has been a remarkable achievement of post-classical Sanskrit literature. Thecultic worship of Krishna as an incarnation of Vishnu had already been initiated centuriesbefore the Common Era and had struck deep roots in the collective consciousness of theSouth Asians through the narrative yarns of the Mahabharata, Harivamsha, the BhagavatPurana and several other pauranic texts.3 Gitagovinda, was however, an innovative rendi-tion as it expanded certain themes merely hinted in the earlier narratives and imbibedstray elements from later poetry and criticism (Sattasai of Hala, Gaudavaho of Vakpati,Dhyanyalokalocana by Abhinavagupta, Kavyamimamsa by Rajashekhara among others).4

Many of these innovations were imbibed from folk narratives and non-Sanskrit ⁄Prakritpoetry. Jayadeva brought about a synthesis of not only Sanskrit and Prakrit narratives butalso experimented with moraic meters of Prakrit poetry (Mukhopadhyay 149–55). Jayad-eva’s Krishna is hardly an incarnation; he is predominantly a cowherd in the idyllic landof vraja. Jayadeva described how Krishna’s amorous encounters with the other cowherd-esses in the Spring-time had displeased Radha and made her spurn Krishna. This led to aperiod of separation, during which they pined for each other’s love. The companion ofRadha acted as a messenger (duti) and described to each how much the other suffered inthe beloved’s absence. Ultimately, Krishna surrendered himself at Radha’s feet and askedfor forgiveness. This led to reconciliation and a climactic union between the lovers. Gita-govinda represents erotic discourse by using metaphoric formalizations which evoke andallude to earlier Sanskrit poetry (among others, Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhava). It had servedas a devotional text for the Vaishnavas. By deciding to translate such an influential textinto English, and recreate its euphonic Sanskrit poetry into English prose, William Joneswas not merely bringing about a cultural exchange; he was also strategically entrenchingOrientalist discourse in the ambiguous terrains of erotic ⁄ colonial encounter.

Jones had translated Gitagovinda as a translation exercise while endeavoring to masterSanskrit (Canon 304). Already famed as a linguist and a polyglot, Jones had beenappointed puisne judge to the Supreme Court of Bengal on 4th March 1783. The subse-quent years were spent in extensive study of Indian culture and the setting up of theAsiatic Society of Bengal (on 15th January 1784), which would pioneer orientalist explo-rations of the continent. Jones’s primary aim had been to compile a set of legal tracts forthe Indians, in order to facilitate a more efficient judicial system. Jones suspected that thenative jurists, who helped the British judges in the disposition of cases concerning nativesubjects, distorted scriptural texts and corrupted judgment. In a letter dated 17th March1788 to Lord Cornwallis, the Governor-General of India, Jones would declare: ‘… if wegive judgment only from the opinions of the native lawyers and scholars, we can neverbe sure we have not been deceived by them.’ (qtd. in A. Banerjee 31). This deep mistrustultimately led Jones to master Sanskrit and bring about the compilation of Vivadabhangar-nava and its subsequent translation into English (completed in 1796–1798 after Jones’sdeath, by Henry Thomas Colebrooke). Yet, the mistrust itself is a more ambiguous figu-rative trope; it extends and often mingles with Jones’s interactions with the Sanskritscholars, especially Radhakanta Tarkavagisha and Ramlochan, who assisted him in hisSanskrit studies. Ramlochan was more of a personal instructor – it was under his tutelagethat Jones starts exploring Gitagovinda, in the early months of 1789. Radhakanta, a

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student of the famed Jagannatha Tarkapanchanana, helped him in the study, compilationand translations of the legal code. Abhijit Mukherji and Rosane Rocher’s studies of thescholars who collaborated with Jones chart out a fascinating discourse of collaborationand evasion, mistrust and influence. Brian A. Hatcher reminds us that Jones ‘harboreddeep suspicions about the veracity and reliability of his pandit interlocutors’ (Hatcher691). Yet, he also praised their erudition and would claim that he gained exquisite plea-sure from conversing easily with that class of men, ‘who Pythagoras, Thales and Solon’had conversed with (Jones, Letters 2:756). This ambiguity about the scholars was alsoreflected in Jones’s treatment of texts like Gitagovinda. In the ambiguity of Jayadeva’streatment of love, Jones saw a reflection of his ambiguous relationship with his instruc-tors. Jones, the miner who had ‘just opened’ the ‘Sanscrit mine,’ simultaneously aims to‘out-pandit the pandits’ (Teltscher 224) as well as affirm ‘that Pythagoras and Platoderived their sublime theories from the same fountain’ (Cannon 246). Colonial exchangecan hence be sublimated as exchange of wisdom, paralleling the polyvalence of Jayadeva’serotic discourse.

In his essay ‘‘On the Mystical Poetry of the Persians and Hindus’’, Jones admits ofpresence of eroticism in Indian poetry. He states:

[N]ow, admitting the danger of a poetical style, in which the limits between vice and enthusi-asm are so minute as to be hardly distinguishable, we must beware of censuring it severely, andmust allow it to be natural, though a warm imagination may carry it to a culpable excess; foran ardently grateful piety is congenial to the undepraved nature of man, whose mind, sinkingunder the magnitude of the subject, and struggling to express its emotions, has recourse to met-aphors and allegories, which it sometimes extends beyond the bounds of cool reason, and oftento the brink of absurdity. (364)

Jones elaborates that language has a mystical function and states that in poetry there isoften an allegorical failure of utterance. Jones discovers such language in the hymns ofSpenser (On Love and Of Beauty) and ‘in a higher key with richer embellishments’ in thesongs of Jayadeva and Hafiz, in Masnavi of Rumi and the Srimad Bhagavatam. He estab-lishes the link between the ‘nuptial contract’ of Radha and Krishna and the Songs of Solo-mon. He confesses that the songs of Jayadeva and Hafiz are likely to be misinterpreted,yet, he is reluctant to lay down exact boundaries between sacred and profane love. Jones’sreluctance stems from a decided hesitance in arriving at a conclusion about the functionof language, and about the precarious evocation of the ‘language of command’ (for theuse of the phrase in this context, see Cohn 16–56). He realises the perilous nature of hisenterprise, the possibility of it to lapse into the realm of subversion, the eruption of theobscene and the figuration of love as ‘voluptuous libertinism.’ This ambivalence is charac-teristically Jonesian. He translates verse into prose, omitting passages that are ‘luxuriant’and ‘bold’ for ‘an European taste’– and yet pretends that this metamorphosis has notresulted in any essential change. ‘[Y]ou may be assured, that not a single image or ideahas been added by the translator’ (Jones, ‘‘On the Mystical Poetry,’’ 375), he claims.

Jones does convey a generous note of sensuality in many of his passages. He recreatesmuch of the reference to spring-time fecundity in the Third Song of Gitagovinda (thevery passage to which Bankimchandra refers to in his essay):

The gale, that has wantoned round the beautiful clove-plants breathes now from the hills ofMaylaya; the circling arbours resound with the notes of the Cocil and the murmers of honey-making swarms. Now the hearts of damsels, whose lovers travel at a distance, are pierced withanguish. (Jones, ‘‘Gitagovinda,’’ 376)

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Some of his images are also frankly erotic. Here is a passage in which the duti describesto Radha the dalliance of Krishna with the milk-maids:

One of them presses him with her swelling breast, while she warbles with exquisite melody.Another, affected by a glance from his eye, stands meditating on the lotos of his face. A third,on pretence of whispering a secret in his ear, approaches his temples, and kisses them withardour. (Jones, ‘‘Gitagovinda,’’ 378)

Jones’s omissions are also significant. In the Eleventh Song (Fifth Canto), the duti urgesRadha to hasten off to the Jamuna-bank, where Krishna awaits her. She tells Radha asshe would lie on Krishna’s dark chest during communion (she uses the phrase ‘rati vipa-rite’, a reference to the woman-on-top position), she would be luminous like lightning inthe dark sky. Jones uses the simile, ‘The reward of thy speed, O thou, who sparklest likelightning, will be to shine on the blue bosom of Murari.’ He, however, leaves out refer-ences to ‘rati viparite’ which obviously bears subversive undertones and hints at a reversalof the gendered discourse of power. He does not refer to the subsequent advice of themessenger: ‘Loosen your clothes, untie your belt, open your loins!’(Gitagovinda V.13, seeStoller Miller 93).5 In the Fourteenth Song (Seventh Canto), Radha – anguished byKrishna’s absence, imagines that he must be reveling with another ‘voluptuous beauty.’Jones is quite articulate in this passage: ‘… she floats on the waves of desire, and closesher eyes dazzled with the blaze of approaching Cama: and now this heroine in love’swarfare falls exhausted ….’ Interestingly, Jones leaves out the references to the ‘drops ofsweat’ (shramajalakanabhara) that appear on her body. This bit of elision is indeed symp-tomatic of how Jones’s revisioning of the images of Gitagovinda endeavors to maintain theallegorical veil of lovemaking as spiritual communion – and sanitize it of the mundanityof sweat and grime. ‘Love’s war,’ as a metaphor, should be able to sustain the paradoxicalambivalence of the colonialist exchange.

Jones’s translations would initially result in quite a stir in Europe. There would be sev-eral German translations – F. H. Dalberg’s 1802 translation; Fr. von Majer’s version (alsoin 1802) and A. W. Riemenschneider’s 1818 translation (Vatsyayan 228). Dalberg’s trans-lation, which recreates Jones’s English translation into German, was the version that Goe-the read and remarked, ‘what strikes me as remarkable are the extremely varied motivesby which an extremely simple subject is made endless’(Goethe and Schiller 395). Manyof these early versions were retranslations of Jones’s English translation. Christianus Lassenlocated original Sanskrit manuscripts, producing an annotated Sanskrit text, textual inter-pretation and a Latin translation in 1836. A French version was also produced in 1850 byHippolyte Fauche.

As print culture spread in Calcutta in the early decades of the 19th century, Gitagovindaand its myriad adaptations became quite popular in Bengali. A Bengali edition of the textwas prepared by Rasamaya Das and published by the Baptist missionaries of Serampore in1817. Rasamaya Das translated the poem in rhymed, payar metre (a moraic meter of 8–6beats) – the most popular Bengali metrical form. He also incorporated Chaitanyadasa’slate 16th century commentary on the poem, Balabodhini, which interprets the poem as aVaishnava allegory of sacred, spiritual love. Rasamaya Das’s translation would runinto several editions and would later be published in cheaper adaptations from Battala,Kolkata’s Grub Street. Two such editions are Sri Jayadeva Goswami krita Sri GitagovindaMul Grantha: Payaradi Chande Virachita (published from the Kumartuli ShastraprakashPress in 1850) and Jayadeva Kaviraj Goswami krita Sri Gitagovinda Mul Grantha: Taha Rasa-maya Dasa katrik Payaradi Chande Virachita (published by the Kamalaya Press in 1851).The Battala Printing Presses produced a huge corpus of cheap books, often producing

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texts which were considered to be subversive and obscene by the enlightened Renais-sance intelligentsia, Hindu and Christian reformers, and later by the government itself.The growth in number of readers led to a democratization of readership and a redefini-tion of public taste. As Sumanta Banerjee elaborates in The Parlour and the Streets, themarginalized lower-middle class urban and rural populace identified with the polyvalenceof Battala Book Market – often to the scandalized disapproval of the elite, Renaissancecounterparts. It is here that Jayadeva’s poem carved out its own niche, selling quiteprofibably and spawning several imitations – derivative and associated narratives of sacredand profane love.6 The dialectical strands of prem (spiritual, sublimated love) and kam(erotic love) inscribed and reinscribed each other as Gitagovinda, perhaps for the first timein its eventful textual history, sold as a commodity in the alleys of North Kolkata.

It is important to understand that this ambivalence about the nature of love describedin Gitagovinda was not a colonial innovation. It was often at the centre of the debatesabout the nature of the text, about the variants of its two main recensions and ultimately,about the interpretations of Vaishnava theology of love. As Barbara Stoller Miller hadelucidated in her masterful study of the text and its variants, the Larger Recension of theGitagovinda evolved later and was mostly influenced by the Vaishnava theistic interpreta-tion of the text as an allegory of spiritual love. The influential commentaries of the LargerRecension, especially Kumbhakarna’s Rasikapriya (15th century) and Chaitanyadasa’s Bala-bodhini (c. late 16th to early 17th century) had been the cornerstones of Vaishnava reviv-alism, upholding the orthodox interpretations of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s GaudiyaVaishnavism. Yet, the earliest texts found by Stoler Miller are Shorter Recensions of thetext. The Shorter Recensions do not have the mangalasloka verses at the end of eachcanto. She surmises that the mangalasloka verses enable the sublimation of the eroticencounters that the text describes. These were later added to the text with an intentionto emphasize its sacrality and imbibe it in the traditions of devotional Vaishnavism (StollerMiller 192). Yet, heterodox interpretations made their presence felt throughout the his-tory of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. These traditions of Sahajiya Vaishnavism would grow instature in and after the 17th century (Dasgupta 115), especially in specific centres inBengal like Shrikhanda and Khardaha. The Sahajiyas thought of men and women to berepresentatives of Krishna and Radha and hence earthly communion, was also consideredas the re-enactment of Krishna’s cosmic play – the union of the male and female princi-ples. Such a communion, engaged in with an awareness of its cosmic significance, leadsto divine joy. Edward Dimock, in his seminal study of these traditions, pointed out thatfor these heterodox Vaishnavs ‘[t]he distinctions between spiritual and carnal love andpoetic and doctrinal expression are wiped away. Accordingly, Sahajiyas adopted thepoetic paraphernalia of the orthodox Vaishnava and read the basic image the other way’(Dimock 15).

It is evident that for the Sahajiyas the word rasa would hold quite a different meaning.For orthodox Vaishnavas, like Sri Rupa Goswami (who wrote the theological elaborationon spiritual moods, Rasamritasindhu), rasa is a reference to spiritual mood or perhaps theecstasy derived from spiritual communion with Krishna. On the other hand, for Sahajiyasrasa is the current of love flowing through physical bodies, which embodied the svarupa(true form) of the Krishna as the male principle. It is this rasa, in union with rati (thefeminine counterpart) that materialized as bija (seed) (Dasgupta 133). Rasa, for Sahajiyas,hence has a physical dimension and its exchange and circulation (as a commodity) chartsthe flow of energy in the cosmos. As Stoller Miller points out, Jayadeva ‘intentionallyblurred’ the distinctions between these two interpretations of the word in his poem(Stoller Miller 219–20). Thus his text became polyvalent. No wonder, many of the

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Sahajiya adherents claimed Jayadeva to be their progenitor. It is evident, that they wouldhave definitely read the erotic exchanges of Gitagovinda in quite a different way than, say,Chaitanyadasa. In other words, Jones did not create a new discursive space – he and hiscontemporaries merely situated their discourse of power amidst the conflicting registersand inflections of pre-colonial era.

The urban re-settlement of these migrating, subversive voices in Kolkata engendered are-evaluation of Krishna-Radha romance. Jones’s pandit, Radhakanta Tarkavagisa, hadwritten a digest in 1783 named Puranarthaprakasha (Revelation of the Puranas), at the behestof Warren Hastings, the Governor of Bengal (Rocher 628). Radhakanta was a memberof the sabha (scholarly gathering) of Nabakrishna Deb, scion of the Shobhabazar RajFamily and an important supporter of Company’s rule in Kolkata. Radhakanta’s exegesisof the Puranas can be seen as an effort to reassert the allegorical significance of the pauran-ic narratives. As popular culture evolved in Kolkata, however, the mundane interpreta-tions of Krishna-Radha romance became increasingly popular. This surfaced as subversivenarrative songs (panchali), extempore poetic renditions (kabigan) and devotional songs(kirtan) (S. Banerjee, Logic in a Popular Form 84–5). These popular urban discourses oftenchallenged the orthodox ideations of the divine and reformulated them according to thenew, urban experience. These urbane forms often incorporated ritual obscenity – some-times displacing earlier rural forms to urbane settings, which acquired newer meanings ina new environment (S. Banerjee, Unish Shataker Kolkata 40) Kabiyal-poets like Lakshmik-anta, Horu Thakur (1738–1808), Ram Basu (1787–1829), Nitai Bairagi (1751–1818),Nilmani Patani; panchali composers like Dasarathi Ray (1805–1857) and kirtan composerslike Madhusudan Kan (1818–1868) became immensely popular. Many of these narrativesabout Krishna-Radha were published by the Battala printing presses and went throughseveral editions. At the same time, the so-called libidinous excesses in many of these andrelated texts also made them infamous. Propelled by generous patronage from the localzamindars and the nouveau riche and adored by the masses, these narratives became verita-ble commodities in the popular book market.

The proliferation of erotic narratives in the popular book market became a matter ofconcern for the administration and the social reformers – both indigenous and European– who were scandalized by this and endeavored to put a leash on this growing trend.James Long, renowned educator and Anglo-Irish priest, prepared two descriptive cata-logues of Bengali books and pamphlets (in 1853 and 1855). In his second catalogue,which lists 1400 Bengali books and pamphlets published in the previous sixty years, Longwould remark that Gitagovinda was a work which had been ‘very popular and very inde-cent’ (Long, Descriptive Catalogue of Bengali Works 100). Long also lists other derivativetexts. His brief descriptions of these texts enable us to identify a common theme – Anang-amanjari (‘loves of Krishna and Radha’), Krishna Keli (‘sports of Krishna’), Krishna LilaRasadoy (‘Krishna’s Courtship’), Man Bhanjan (‘Krishna’s removing of his wife’s jealousy’),Ras Bilas (‘Krishna and the Gopis’), Duti Sambad (‘Krishna’s message to his spouseRadha’), Radha Krishna Bilas (‘gives Krishna and Radha’s life’).

An 1850 edition of Krishna Keli describes how Radha’s companion visits Krishna atMathura and compels him to return to Vrindavan for a while. Radha is initially reticentto meet Krishna, as estrangement had given rise to apprehension. She suspects thatKrishna has been unfaithful, indulging in amorous activities with Kubja, his maid inMathura. She mockingly welcomes Krishna as ‘Kubja’s Lord’ (‘Kubjar nath’). DwijaVishwanath describes: ‘Softly Krishna approaches her ⁄And tied her locks with his lotus-hands’ (162).7 In Kalankabhanjan, Krishna assures Radha that wherever he might stay, healways thinks of Radha.8 The proliferation of these texts signaled a subversive

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counterpointing of the dominant allegorical interpretation of the text (colonial as well asGaudiya Vaishnava). It also indicates the influence of Shakta revivalism in 18th centuryBengal, with an increased focus on the feminine principle (Giri 522–3). Texts like Radha-tantram (c. 1777), Anandabhairav (1832), Amritaratnabali, Amritarasabali had synthesized theKrishna-Radha narrative with the Tantric structure of Shiva-Parvati dialogue. In Radha-tantram, Krishna prays to the Devi for siddhi (yogic potencies). The Devi appears beforehim and asks him to practice kulachara (ritual sexual rites). Krishna incarnates as a mortalin order to obey the Goddess’s command and the devi herself reincarnated in the form ofRadha-Padmini. The Krishna-Radha communion hence achieves a newer significance.Radha becomes the Goddess Supreme who helps Krishna to achieve liberation and bliss.Krishna prays to the Devi: ‘I am Mahavishnu Vasudeva, I have incarnated as Krishna. OBeauty, in this mortal form I am practicing austerities in order to commune with you’(qtd. in Giri 524). This heterodox envisioning of the Radha-Krishna story becamepopular and appeared in print. In Dasarathi Ray’s Sri Krishner Mathura Lila Varnan (1850),Radha prays to Kali for Krishna companionship (73–4). The thematic device of loverspraying to Kali for accomplishing a communion has been quite common in the 18th cen-tury in the Kalikamangal ⁄ Vidyasundar tradition. Bharatchandra Ray’s adaptation of theVidyasundar story, in the second part of his religio-historical verse narrative (mangalkavya),Annadamangal, also depicts such a prayer to the Goddess. Bankimchandra’s linking of Jay-adeva with Bharatchandra hence reflects thematic and structural association of these texts.

Bharatchandra’s Annadamangal, and especially Vidyasundar, would become one of themost popular Bengali poetic compositions of the 18th century. Bharatchandra had com-posed Annadamangal at the behest of Raja Krishnachandra Ray of Nadia. Vidyasundardepicts the love affair between Vidya, the princess of Burdwan, and Sundar, the prince ofKanchi. Moved by the descriptions of Vidya by a bard, Sundar travels to Burdwan underthe guise of a student in order to meet Vidya. He prays to Kali, who guides him, thusenabling his entry into Vidya’s bedroom. Their love is consummated, and soon, Vidyabecomes pregnant. When this becomes known, Sundar is caught and imprisoned by theKing of Burdwan, Vidya’s father. However, Sundar’s poetic acumen (this is influenced bythe Chaura Panchashika of Dandin) wins the King’s heart and he eventually grants himlife. Ashutosh Bhattacharya links the text with Jayadeva and other Vaishnava poets whohad written erotic verses as well as with the tradition of Sanskrit poetics which focuseson rasa-s (sentiments or emotions) (Bhattacharya 817). Like Gitagovinda, Vidyasundar isthought to be an exposition on the various emotions associated with love. Like Jayadeva’spoem, Bharatchandra’s piece also involves a duti or a messenger, the florist of the royalcourt (malini). It is the malini who acts as the medium between the young lovers. Severalother poets, like Kanka, Krishnaram Das, Balaram Chakraborti, Ramprasad Sen (thefamous Sakta) had composed their versions of the romance, since the 16th century.

Bharatchandra’s text would be immensely popular in Battala, and a famous illustratededition of Annadamangal would be published by Gangakishore Bhattacharya in 1816.Vishwanath Deb would publish several editions of Vidyasundar, along with other eroticpieces like Rasamanjari (also by Bharatchandra), Ratimanjari and Adiras. In 1829, three dif-ferent editions of Vidyasundar would be released in the same year.9 Long, in his Descrip-tive Catalogue recapitulates:

Of Erotic subjects there are various books which have passed through many editions of proseand poetry and have a wide circulation, as the Adi Ras, Beshea Rahasyea, Charu Chita Raha-sea, Hemlata Ratikanta, Kam Shastra 1920, Kunjari bilas, Lakshmi Janarda Bilas. Prem Ashtok;Prem Bilas; Prem Natak, Prem Taranga; Pulakan Dipika; Prem Rahasyea; Shringar Tiluk; 1st

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ed. 1817. Ratibilas; Sambhog Ratnakar; with 16 filthy plates. Ramani ranjan; Ras manjari; Rassagar; Rasrasamrita; Rasatarangini; Rasomanjari; Rassin’du Prem Bilas; Rati Kali, 1st ed.1820,Rati Shastra, Ras ratnakar; Shringar Ras, Shringar tilak; Stri Charitra; Stri Pulakhon Dipika;These works are beastly equal to the worst of the French school. (Long, Descriptive Catalogue ofBengali Works 73–4)

What is remarkable is the engagement with the critical concept of rasa, evident from thenames of these books. Long’s 1855 catalogue of ‘515 persons connected with Bengali Lit-erature’ names many of the publishers of these books. Panchanan Banerjee composed fourof these books, his Rasik Tarangini (1855) became extremely popular. Members of theelite mainstream occasionally composed and published erotic works – MadanmohanTarkalankar, who taught in the Sanskrit college, wrote Rasa Tarangini. BhabanicharanBandyopadhyay, the upholder of conservative Hindu values, wrote Duti-bilash. EvenAkshaykumar Datta, the editor of the Tattwabodhini Patrika, an organ for disseminatingenlightened Brahmo values, had composed Anangamohan (Basu 145). Long’s list of bookspublished in 1857 reveals a huge popularity of many of these pieces. Following is a list ofassociated works and their circulation numbers according to Long’s data (Long, ReturnsRelating to the Publications in Bengali Language 1–62):

Name of thePress

Name of theBook, Author Size Pages

Price*

Copies Long’s CommentsRs. As.

Anglo IndianUnion Press

Annadamangal byBharat Chandra

16 mo. 432 0 8 2000 Mythological history ofDurga and Siva

Anglo IndianUnion Press

Adi Ras, by Kali Das 16 mo. 16 0 1 ⁄ 4 1000 Slokas on differentkinds of women.Indecent.

Bangala Press ChapalachitchapalaNatak, by YaduChatturjyea

18 mo. 62 0 8 500 An indecent drama

BisvaprakashPress

Ramani Lila, byShib Chandra Banerjy

12 mo. 47 0 4 500 An indecent poem

ChaitanyaChandrodoyPress

ManBhanjan, byKali Krishna Das

8 vo. 66 0 4 1000 On the quarrelsbetween Krishna andRadha

ChaitanyaChandrodoyPress

Jiban Tara, byRasik Chandra Roy

8 vo. 90 0 4 1000 A tale of the loves ofJiban and Tara

ChaitanyaChandrodoyPress

Gitagovinda, byJayadeva

16 mo. 163 0 8 1000 A poem in praise ofKrishna

Harihar Press Jiban Tara, byRasik Chandra Roy

8 vo. 90 0 4 1000 An indecent tale oftwo lovers, theirtravels etc.

Harihar Press Muktalatabali, byDurgaparsadBhattacharjyea

8 vo. 136 0 5 1000 Krishna and his wife’sascent – account of ajeweled tree

KamalaloyPress

Krishna Kela, byBishvanathTarkalangkar

8 vo. 192 0 3 1200 The sports of Krishna

LakhmibilasPress

Videa Sundar byBharut Chandra

18 mo. 122 0 2½ 3750 In 4 months nearly thewhole sold; a mostpopular tale; cleverbut obscene

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Continued

Name of thePress

Name of theBook, Author Size Pages

Price*

Copies Long’s CommentsRs. As.

PurnachandrodoyPress

Annada Mangal 18 mo. 450 1 0 1000 With ten illustrations

ShastraPrakash Press

Duti Sambad, tr. byKrishna Lal

12 mo. 40 0 1 1500 Extracts from BrahmaVaivarta Puranarelating to Krishna

Videa Ratna Press Man bhanjan byKali Krishna Das

12 mo. 60 0 3 1000 Krishna removing hiswife’s jealousy

Videa Ratna Press Panchali Part 2, byDasharath Roy ofBurdwan

12 mo. 230 0 4 1000 Popular Songs on theadventures andhistory ofKrishna – filthy.

*Price is given in Rupees and Annas. Sixteen Annas make a Rupee. Anna is no longer in use.

[I have retained Long’s spellings of the names of authors, publishers ⁄ printers and books. The list isnot exhaustive. I have left out various editions of the Panchalis, except one, which specificallymentions Krishna.]

The list suitably illustrates that the erotic signifiers in Gitagovinda, Vidyasundar and other derivativeworks had served as profitable commodities in the Battala book market. Long’s returns for thebooks published in 1853–1854 in Kolkata, mentions the number of copies sold along with thenumber of copies printed. For example, Chaitanya Chandrodoy Press had printed thousand copiesof Annada Mangal in that year. According to the report, nine hundred of those copies had beenalready sold (James Long, Returns Relating to Native Printing Presses 90–1). Radhabazar’s HinduPatriot Press had published an edition of Rasamanjari (1600 copies) while Kamalalay Press hadalready sold the entire set of 1200 copies of Vidya Sundar that it had printed (92–3). Banstola’sKhirodh Sindhu Press had already sold 900 copies of the 1000 copies that it had published of ManBhanjan, which (Long tells us) had been ‘[i]n great request among Vaishnabs’ (94–5). Long voicedout his concerns about the rampant ‘obscenity’ in Bengali books and demanded laws for curbingthese trends. In December 1853, he made an appeal to the Chief Magistrate of Calcutta. Later, in1855, he appealed to the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, Fredric James Halliday. Infact, in 1855,the Government imprisoned Mahesh, Vishambhar and Madhusudan Sil on the charge of printingobscene material and they were subsequently fined. Due to the initiative of the Chief Magistrate,G. F. Cockburn, the Obscene Books and Pictures Act was passed on 21st January, 1856. In thesubsequent development of institutional censorship and nationalist surveillance, several indigenousorganizations participated in the drives to cleanse the printed discourse of any vestiges of erstwhileobscenity.10 Keshab Chandra Sen established Ashlilata Nibarani Sadha on 20th September, 1870(Basu 152–3). The Sabha members kept a watch on the material printed by the Battala publishers.If anything was found to be obscene, the police was requested to issue warrants. Books likeVidyasundar and Rasamanjari were thought to be obscene, and publishers who sold them werepenalized. The subsequent editions of Gitagovinda would evidently respond to these changes.

Short Biography

Rangeet Sengupta has completed an MPhil, and is presently pursuing a PhD in English fromJadavpur University, Kolkata. His research primarily deals with the sculpting of South Asianprose aesthetics in the 18th and 19th centuries and the ways in which these developmentswere buffeted by colonial discourses and ideation ⁄ s. His research also focuses on the history of

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printed book in Bengal. He is interested in South Asian traditions of discourse and erotico-mysticism.

Notes

* Correspondence: 188 Raja S. C. Mullik Road, Kolkata - 700032 Kolkata West Bengal 700032, India. Email:rangeetsen@gmail.com

1 Tagore’s ‘division of labor’ between poetry and prose was adopted, as Chakrabarty asserts, only as an ‘initial’ strat-egy. He destabilized the dichotomy in his later works. However, in the period between 1890 and 1910 (the periodrelevant to the present discussion), he represented in his works ‘two completely contradictory images’ of the Bengalirural experience (Chakrabarty 151).2 If not stated otherwise, I myself have translated the Sanskrit and Bengali excerpts.3 For readings from these texts charting out the myriad developments of the Krishna myth, see Bryant.4 For discussions about these texts, see Stoller Miller 28–37.5 Gitagovinda V.13, see Stoller Miller 93.6 For an elaborate analysis of the sacred and profane dimensions of Love described in the Gitagovinda, see Siegel.7 Kubja, according to the conventional accounts of Harivamsha and Srimad Bhagavatam, had been a hedious, hunch-back chambermaid in Mathura’s palace. Krishna was pleased by her devotion and had transformed her into awoman of exceptional grace. The 19th century Calcutta narratives project her as Krishna’s mistress in Mathura –and models her as one of the contenders for Krishna’s love, similar to Radha’s ‘voluptuous’ adversary in Gitagov-inda.8 The author of this panchali is unknown. The National Library, Kolkata has a copy of this text which is boundwith Rasamaya Dasa’s translation of the Gitagovinda (1850 edition). The close association of these two texts is evi-dent.9 In 1829, Ramkrishna Mallick’s Press at Chorabagan published Vidyasundar and Rasamanjari; Mathuranath Mitra’sPress published Vidyasundar, Adiras and Ratimanjari; Pitambar Sen’s Press at Sealdah published Vidyasundar (See Basu144).10 For an extensive discussion on the implications of the Obscene Books and Picture Act on printing in Kolkata,see Roy 53–5.

Publisher’s Note

The second part of this article has been published in the May issue of Literature Compass, 9:5 (May2012) 387–393, 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2012.00887.x

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