Читать книгу The Rise of Wisdom Moon - Krishna mishra - Страница 47

introduction

declare the source of their inspiration by the inclusion of the word udaya, “rise, ascent” in the title. More than a dozen such plays, some written as late as the nineteenth century, are known, of which several have enjoyed relative success. Among them, we may note in particular “The Sunrise of Comprehension” (Sankalpasuryodaya) by the famed teacher of the “qualified non-dualist” (visistadvaita) Vedanta tradition, Venkata·natha (fourteenth century, also known as Vedanta·deshika); the medical allegory entitled “The Rise of Ambrosia” (Amrtodaya) of Gokula·natha (ca. early seventeenth century); and “The Rise of the Moon of Chaitanya” (Caitanyacandrodaya) of Karna·pura (early sixteenth century).25 The latter is distinguished by its combining of allegory with historical elements drawn from the lives of Chaitanya (1486–1534), the renowned apostle of devotion to Krishna, and his contemporaries. A Jain play, “The Conquest of King Confusion” (Moharajaparajaya), composed by Yashah·pala in the thirteenth century similarly combines allegory with history in recounting the conversion to Jainism of King Kumara·pala of Gujarat.26

“The Rise of Wisdom Moon,” written early in the second millennium, entered into circulation just as the regional languages of the subcontinent began gradually to supplant the dominance of Sanskrit in Indian literary cultures.27 This process of vernacularization, however, offered new avenues for the diffusion of Krishna·mishra’s play, and from the fifteenth century onward, we find it being translated or transfigured throughout a wide range of north and south Indian tongues, including Hindi, Braj, Bengali, Gujarati, Urdu, Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, and no doubt oth- ________

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