Individualisation, deindividualisation, and institutionalisation among the early Mahānubhāvs

The Old Marathi literature of the Mahnubhvs provides a classic example of individualisation and its mitigation. Beginning in the second half of the 13th century, the Mahnubhvs are a bhakti group (samprady) that places a high value on asceticism and recognises five principal incarnations of one supreme God, called Paramevar. This chapter will examine the characterisation of two of the divine incarnations, Cakradhar and Guam R, in their Mahnubhv hagiographies, and the account of the early years the incarnations' disciples spent without the benefit of the incarnations' presence. The three principal texts I will discuss are: 1) the Lcaritra, the biography of Cakradhar (composed after 1274 and before 1287 CE);1 2) The Deeds of God in ddhipur (ddhipurcaritra), the biography of Cakradhar's guru, Guam R (composed 1287 CE);2 and 3) In the Absence of God (Smtistha), the account of the early Mahnubhv disciples in the period after Cakradhar's departure and Guam R's death (composed 14th-15th century CE?).3

Institutionalisation · Political science · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Law · Medieval and Classical Philosophy

• The Quotidian Revolution

  Christian Lee Novetzke•Quotidian Revolution•2016

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