Fifteen scholars congregate here to pay honor to Charlotte Vaudeville, the scholar most renowned especially for her works pertaining to bhakti literature and practices. No wonder that most of the tributes in the present volume are also related to that subject, of which the significance cannot be overestimated. Following an encomium of Professor Vaudeville by the editors, pages xiii-xvii in the front matter list the works by Charlotte Vaudeville - including twelve books between 1955 and 1986. In addition, the list at the time of this volume's publication mentions two more books plus three more articles meant to appear in print.

In a brief review, it is difficult to make choices in such a wonderful collection. It seems to me that as a tribute to Charlotte Vaudeville, the contribution by Francoise Mallison stands out. It deals with a specific area, Gujarat; a specific cult, the one of Ranachoda; a specific text, the Sanskrit sthalapurana of the site; and last, but not least, it does not spend time on theories, but with great sensitivity, almost modestly, presents the features of the god worshipped and the worshippers who eulogize him. Her account is vivid. The reader begins to feel personally drawn toward the countless pilgrims present in the temple's many feasts during the year. The vividness is the more striking, since many of the characteristic elements of local cults are known throughout India: the deity of Visnu with the Krsna avatara, and the text of the myth, the Dankapura mahatmya, among its many themes, elaborates on the linkage of Visnu and Siva, and so on. The essay is illustrated with pictures, including one of the temple at Dakar. (Among the few editorial errors in the volume is the absence of any reference on the page with pictures to the publication from which they were taken.)

Singling out one article does not at all mean that other contributions are negligible! The volume is arranged alphabetically in accordance with the names of the authors (perhaps to prevent reviewers from making a hasty choice). Certainly, any thematic arrangement would have been difficult to make in the variety of contributions. The series of essays begins with Ali S. Asani's "The Ginan Literature of the Ismailis of Indo-Pakistan." This inclusion of a Muslim tradition adds considerably to our understanding of the wide compass of <>bhakti as a specific phenomenon, resisting external categories of regions or religious lore. The article has many interesting observations concerning the life of a tradition of worship. Hans Bakker follows with an amply documented study on "The Footprints of the Lord." He deals with the question to what extent Visnu's famous three strides are related to certain sacred sites in India. Also the footprints of the Buddha come under discussion. "The case of the footprints of the Lord exemplifies the continuous aniconic strand throughout 'higher' forms of Indian religion that took its start in Vedic culture itself," the author concludes (p. 33). H. C. Bhayani and Hasu Yagnik write on "Krsna in the Gujarati Folk-song Tradition." Some of their observations on the function of the songs may not be very helpful, but they delight the reader with some verse specimens in the material they studied. "Following Rama, Worshipping Siva," by Diana Eck, studies the interwovenness of Rama, Hanuman, and Siva. She shows how and why not only in the literary evidence, but in cultic life today, the three are found in close proximity. Alan W. Entwistle studies "The Cult of Krishna-Gopal as a Version of Pastoral," placing his theme in a comparative context that is still exceptional among Indologists, and draws on Western forms of expression as in works of Virgil, Dante, etc. Naturally, he expresses his indebtedness to Charlotte Vaudeville in his venture, as she translated songs of Surdas under the title Pastorales. "Paithan and the Nagas," by Anne Feldhaus, focuses on the ancient town and trading center, its importance to the complex history of >bhakti, and the link between bhakti and the aquatic primordial serpents that do not refrain from mingling occasionally with human beings (and that seem to derive from times long before the Aryas arrived). The essay not only quotes traditional texts, but also refers to customs and views adhered to today. Peter Gaeffke's "Muslim Marriage Rites in the 17th and in the 19th Century" is an interesting account of the persistence of cultic forms; though it has something to say on the power of Love, the essay is more tangential to the "Devotion Divine" in the book's title than the other contributions. Friedhelm Hardy's essay has the intriguing title, "TirupPan-Alvar: The Untouchable who rode Piggy-back on the Brahmin." TirupPan-Alvar is the name of an untouchable musician who in the legendary history is absorbed in south-Indian temple devotion, more precisely in Sri-Vaisnavism. The essay is fascinating, although at the outset it suggests a somewhat too schematized intellectual history, almost as if the Tamils at a certain moment decided that they should import a totally foreign idea from the north in order to make their own religious world truly "monotheistic." John Stratton Hawley, "A Feast for Mount Govardhan," begins by tracing very briefly the course of Professor Vaudeville's study of what he calls "the folk origins of Hinduism" (p. 155). He is conscious of the decree that no scholar shall do research that is immune to critique, and he turns to the Braj region - the same region that attracted Vaudeville early in her career - in order to write a pleasingly critical note in honor of the great interpreter of the great themes in popular >devotion. He does so on the basis of many fascinating quotations of the govardhan lila that he witnessed in Brindavan in 1976. R. S. McGregor, "An Early Hindi (Brajbhasa) Version of the Rama Story: The Ramayan-Katha (A.D. 1442) of Visnudas," also takes us back to the Braj country. The author enlightens us on the work of the early Hindi poet Visnudas and his use of the Valmiki Ramayana, adding interesting historical details, such as references to Muslims that make Visnudas' work new and different. The pages with selections from the text, including lines on bhakti and japa, will be welcome to many readers. Following the contributions by Francoise Mallison, we find "Death and Regeneration: Brahmin and Non-Brahmin Narratives," by Frederique Apffel Marglin in collaboration with Purna Chandra Mishra. Although the conclusions drawn about differences between brahmin and non-brahmin narratives will not convey anything surprising or profound to a social historian, the focus of the essay on goddesses, specifically on Mangala, adds a theme of great importance to the collection, as well as interesting details of cultic life. Gunther D. Sontheimer writes about "Bhakti in the Khandoba Cult." Khandoba is a popular deity in Maharashtra. The author sheds light on features of bhakti that "are generally not central in the poetry of the bhakti saints or in the 'puranic' and 'sectarian' literature" (p. 231). In this contribution, as in others, the texts quoted from folk literature, particularly the ones testifying to the devotion of viras, heroes, are illuminating. "Without the heroism of a paik (hero), / there is never any happiness" (p. 237). "On the Dual Identity of Nagas," by Monika Thiel-Horstmann, deals with a militant group of Vaisnava bhaktas called nagas. According to the author, these warrior-monks organized themselves much earlier (even a couple of centuries earlier) than the date usually given (viz., the beginning of the eighteenth century). This treatise on heroic bhaktas complements the preceding contribution by Sontheimer. (It may be noted that none of the essays that speak of militant features of devotion suggests the scale of the phenomenon or makes much of political events; none hints at the Sikhs.) The collection concludes with S. G. Tulpule's "The Dog as a Symbol of Bhakti." It presents fascinating texts from the Vedas to Ekanath, Tukaram and Kabir. The humble, faithful, dog occurs over and over, not merely as perfect devotee, but even as a mukta.

This festive collection will be a feast to many. It is a worthy response to the splendid inspiration of Charlotte Vaudeville.

KEES W. BOLLE REED COLLEGE

COPYRIGHT 1996 American Oriental Society

COPYRIGHT 1996 Information Access Company