Bhakti and Embodiment

Barbara A. Holdrege

"This book explores the connections between bhakti and embodiment and is concerned more specifically with constructions of divine bodies and devotional bodies in Krishna bhakti traditions. Grounding general reflections on bhakti and embodiment in an analysis of two case studies: the Bhagavata Purana, one of the most important scriptures in the Vaisnava bhakti canon, and the Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition, an important bhakti movement inspired by the Bengali leader Caitanya in the sixteenth century that invokes the canonical authority of the Bhagavata Purana as the basis for its own distinctive teachings"-- "With the emergence of bhakti (devotion) movements in the post-Vedic period, the body was re-figured to accord with the epistemological framework of the discourse of devotion. This historical shift from Vedic to bhakti traditions is characterised by various transformations which can...