Mantras in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

The Hari-bhakti-vilāsa (HBV) is a Sanskrit ritual compendium written around 1534 by Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmin (1501–1586). The author was a brāhmaṇa from Śrī Raṅgam and grand-disciple of the celebrated Bengali mystic and reformer Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya (1486–1533), the founder of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava saṃpradāya (for more on the rather complicated question of the authorship of the text, see Dāsa 2001, xii–xvi). The HBV has often (e.g., De 1986) been called “the Smṛti of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas,” but that is an inaccurate term, since the HBV lacks many integral elements of smṛti texts, such as deliberations on legal issues or the responsibilities of different social groups. Rather, the HBV is a nibandha, or in the terms of Teun Goudriaan (Goudriaan & Gupta 1981: 141–142), a “ritual compilation.” These texts are Tantric works of usually known authorship, which present material on ritual ceremonies, usually in the form of quotations from older authorities.