Hites Raõjan Sanyål’s History of Båõglå Kîrtan: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

Hites Raõjan Sånyål’s magisterial work in Bengali, Båõglå Kîrtaner Itihås (Calcutta: K. P. Bagchi & Company, 1989) contains a Mukhabandha [Foreword] by Gautam Bhadra of Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, the Abataranikå [Introduction], fourteen Chapters, Bibliography, and Index. The book, unfortunately, suffers from editorial oversight. Therefore, numerous instances of repetitious statements in the Bengali original have been excised from this translation and in view of this journal’s limitations of space the translator has taken the liberty to editorialize for the sake of brevity and cogency as well as add some relevant extraneous sources for necessary details. Thus, I have mainly used the materials of the first, second, ninth, and tenth chapters by intermixing passages from all four in order to provide a chronological and coherent narrative.