Who are the enemies of the bhaktas? Testimony about "saktas" and "Others" from Kabir, the Ramanandis, Tulsidas, and Hariram Vyas.

• Author: Pauwels, Heidi
• Position: Report

INTRODUCTION

It is becoming clear that religious identities that have hardened in modern times cannot be projected back unproblematically onto the past. Current perceptions of religious demarcations, especially the dichotomy between Hinduism and Islam, do not hold good for the premodern or even early modern period (Alam 1989; Gilmartin and Lawrence 2000; Mittal 2003; Khan 2004). Rather than postulating a binary, newer scholarly approaches conceive of a continuum of religious expression with porous religious boundaries. At a popular level it seems that formal adherence to a great religion was less important than what inspired and what worked.

That is not to say that there is no evidence of religious enmity, some of which can be investigated by asking how the "self" was demarcated from "the other"? In this paper I seek to contribute to the rethinking of the monolithic category of "Hinduism," by investigating one of the fault-lines within that category and comparing that with the fault-line between Hinduism and Islam. Instead of asking which Hindus and Muslims have coexisted peacefully and which ones have been inimical (see, e.g., Khan 2004: 4), I will examine which of the multiple groups now regarded as Hindu regarded each other with hostility. I am thus following Jacqueline Hirst, who has investigated premodern and modern views of "the other," revealing how these shift over time (Hirst 2008).

I will focus on issues of identity formation for the now arguably mainstream devotional trend in Hinduism, bhakti. Here Vasudha Dalmia has been a trailblazer by looking at perspectives on conversion in the seventeenth-century hagiographies of the Krishna devotional Vallabha Sampradaya (Dalmia 2006). I will study slightly earlier bhakti authors of different sectarian adherence, of the fifteenth and sixteenth century, to see whom they considered to be "the other." Which practitioners did they consider inimical to their own beliefs? Did Islam figure prominently? Using terms from Hirst (2008): who was the "opponent other," with whom one could have disagreement while working within a basic joint frame of reference, as opposed to the "wholly other," who remains outside the field of discourse? My investigation aims in particular to bring to scholarly attention an often-neglected category that nevertheless figured prominently in bhakti rhetorics, namely the sakta. (1)

Diatribes against saktas are widespread throughout North Indian bhakti texts, in nirguna as well as in Rama and Krishna bhakti. I will investigate each category in turn, using the examples of Kablr, Tulsidas, and Hariram Vyas respectively, examining their poetry as well as early hagiographical material about these bhaktas. (2) Moreover, I will examine denunciations of groups not explicitly identified as sakta but assigned characteristics attributed to saktas elsewhere. These characteristics are, first, a religious preference, namely the worship of goddesses (sakti), which often entails blood-sacrifice; hence the second, related, characteristic, a dietary distinction, the consumption of meat. Further, the term sakta often implies sexual ritual praxis, interpreted by outsiders as sexually loose mores. (3) All of these elements have an unorthodox, non-Brahminical ring and are often associated with low-caste practice.4 However, it is not merely that the sakta is considered unorthodox, as the bhakta does not hesitate to make fun of orthodox ritualists either. Thus, this paper seeks to lay out how saktas and practices associated with them were regarded in North Indian bhakti communities during the fifteenth and sixteenth century. In addition, I will also investigate how the bhakta's view of the sakta as "other" relates to that of the "Muslim" as other.

Throughout my investigation of the boundaries of the bhakti community, I will pay attention to what constitutes the discursive field for bhakti. Some of the questions raised: What terms were used for "others" and what linguistic registers chosen? What genres were selected: narrative, proverbial pithy saying, or hymn? What musical or metrical compositions were the vehicles of such expressions? This will give us some hints about the performance context. Who would have understood the texts? Were they intended for a public or private context: in the bazaar, at the ghats in a place of pilgrimage, in a temple, private house, or court? Who were the audiences addressed, potential prominent sponsors or the rank and file? Finally, why were these groups targeted? In excluding others, what communities were affirmed or created, with appeal to what identities of the audience? Was the goal to establish a new community, a new allegiance of the audience, or to keep believers within the fold? In other words, I seek to lay bare the techniques and discursive stratagems at play in the game of defining the religious other and thereby one's own identity.

1. NIRGUNA BHAKTI OF KABIR: DIATRIBES AGAINST SAKTAS IN BANARSI BAZAARS

   Say "Kablr" and people think immediately of poems in which he equates Hindu and Turk and sees both communities as equally misguided. Such poems seem to confirm the Hinduism/Islam binary, yet also to transcend it. Since the most famous poems attributed to him reject both forms of orthodox religion and preach a religion of the heart, many consider Kablr an "apostle of peace" between the two communities. If his sermons get sarcastic and his tone is not exactly conciliatory, he can be forgiven, because, after all, he is attacking the establishment. We can even celebrate him as a subaltern voice opposing the status quo.

   It may then come as an unpleasant surprise that at times Kablr with equal vehemence opposed non-orthodox groups within the Hindu sphere that he considered the bhakta's enemies. Yet quite a few poems attributed to Kablr contain vitriolic diatribes against saktas. Such poems are attested early on and are often shared by the different branches that have transmitted his work. Several of the verses quoted below are found in at least two of the three major corpora of Kabir's work: most are found in the northern recension of the Sikhs, abbreviated as GG, or Guru Granth Sahib, and the western recension of the Dadu Panthis and Niranjani Panth, exemplified by KG, or Kabir Granthavall (see Tivari 1961). Some in addition appear also in the eastern recension of the Kabir Panth, known as the Bijak, abbreviated as B.5 References to the Guru Granth Sahib are uniform for any edition (now also online at www.http.srigranth.org ); references to B and KG are to the edition that brings the eastern and western recensions together (Callewaert and Op de Beeck 1991) unless otherwise indicated.

   Denunciation of saktas is a popular theme in Kabir's pithy distychs, called sakhi or doha, a genre of verse that is a vehicle for sarcasm par excellence. I will start with some quite biting dohas.

   From Samca Camnaka kau Amga:

   bai snaum kl kukari bhali, sakata kl burl mai vaha baithi harijasa sunaim, vaha papa bisahanajai (KG 21.10 = GG saloka 52, p. 1367) (6) Better a Vaisnava's she-dog than a s'akta's bad mother: The first will hear Hari's praise just sitting around; the other runs to invite sin! sakata te sukara bhala, rakhai sued gamum sakata bapura. mari gaya, koi na leihai namum (KG 21.12 = GG 143, p. 1372) A pig is better than a sdkta: (at least) it keeps the village clean. When the wretched sdkta dies, no one remembers his name. These strong words fit the familiar Kabirian reputation for sarcasm. The sakta's loose dietary habits and sexual morals are implicit in the comparisons of the sakta to a pig, indiscriminately eating everything, and his mother to a bitch, sleeping around.

   From Jlvata Mrta kau Amga:

   samta muem kya roie, jo apanaim ghari jai rovahu sakata bapuraiju, hatai hati bikai (KG 19.3= GG 16, p. 1365) If a holy man dies, why cry? He returned home. Cry for the wretc hed sakta: sold in the market once again. Here the sakta is contrasted with the truly liberated Sant or sadhw. the sakta will be reborn in sansara, whereas the really holy man will go to God for good.

   From Samgati kau amga:

   marl marum kusamga ki, kera kathaim beri va hdlai va clriai, sakata samga niberi (KG 24.2 = GG saloka 88, p. 1369 = B 242) I'm dying of bad company, like the plantain cut by the jujube; When one moves, the other is cut: [thus] sever contact with saktas. sadhu ki samgati rahau, jau ki bhusi khau khira khamda bhojana milai, sakata samga najau (KG 24.6 = GG 99, p. 1369) Keep the company of holy men, even if it means subsisting on chaff! Even for feasting on kheer and sugar, do not go near a sakta! From Sadha Mahima kau Amga

   sakata bamhmana matimilai, baisanaum milai camdala amkamala dai bhetie, mdmnaum mile gopala (KG 4.39) Don't consort with a sakta Brahmin, prefer a Vaisnava (be he a) Candala, Embrace him tightly: it's like meeting God. These dohas are exhortations to shun saktas, who are characterized as inherently harmful. The injunction to avoid saktas resembles instructions in orthodox Hinduism to shun low castes. However, the last verse indicates that low-caste Vaisnavas are to be embraced and, in contrast, that even Brahmins can be sakta, so the term is not a straightforward caste qualifier. Rather, saktas are reviled for polluting the soul, not the body.

   This is a well-represented sentiment, as the first doha is found in all three recensions, and the second in two. The western Kabir recension seems to have been especially fond of this type of doha. Besides the poem quoted above (KG 4.39), it has three extra dohas not attested in either of the other recensions:

   bhagata hajari kapara, tamaim mala na samdi sdkata kali kdmari, bhdvai tahdrn bichai (KG 4.34) The devotee is a precious cloth: dirt cannot touch it; The sakta is a black cloak: spread wherever one likes. camdana ki kutaki bhall, nam babura lakharamva sadhuna ki chapari bhall nam sdkata kau bara gamva (KG 4.37) Better a snippet of sandalwood than a dense garden of Babuls...