Dadu Lieder.

• Author: Gaeffke, Peter

Monika Thiel-Horstmann (now Boehm-Tettelbach) was recently appointed Professor of Modern Indian Studies at the University of Heidelberg after an impressive career which stretched from Sanskrit studies to important work in medieval Indo-Aryan literature, and included appointments in Bonn and Bamberg. Her first book was on Sadani grammar and folk songs. Then she studied the Dadu Panth. The result is published in this and other volumes.

The Dadu Panth is among the north Indian religious groups (sampradaya) that are studied by an energetic and productive group of scholars, who meet every three years to discuss their progress. Among them, Monica Boehm-Tettelbach occupies a senior status and her work on Dadu (1544-1601) has importance for many. There not only existed a close relationship between Dadu Dayal, as he is called by his followers, and Guru Nanak, but also the holy scriptures of the Dadu Panth contain a large portion of the works of Kabir, collected in the Kabir Granthavali. Moreover, like the Sikhs, the Dadu Panth exists today as a vigorous religious community with a remarkable history of its own.

Since the founders of many of these groups, especially the so-called nirguna sampradayas, did not write theological literature, but addressed their followers in songs, the collection of these songs, holy scripture for the believer, has become an invaluable source for many aspects of medieval Indian life. While scriptures of the Kabir Panth and those of the Sikhs (the Adi Granth) are now translated and accessible outside the circle of specialists, of the holy writings of the Dadu Panth only the Kabir Granthavali has received such attention. With the present volume, Monika Boehm-Tettelbach has made accessible the central part of the holy texts of the Dadu Panth: 419 (against 450 in earlier editions) songs, mostly composed by its founder Dadu Dayal, based on her critical edition, Dadu Pada (published in Nirguna Bhakti Sagara: Devotional Hindi Literature, ed. W. M. Callewaert and B. O. de Beeck, South Asia Studies, no. 25 [New Delhi, 1991], 1:76-279).

In her introduction to the book under review, Boehm-Tettelbach familiarizes the reader with the basic issues of medieval Indian religious writings, the life of Dadu, and contemporary information about him. Then she describes the formal aspects of the songs; a summary of the religious ideas presented follows and, finally, there is a chapter on the tantrik elements in this poetry.

As a Sanskritist...