Introducción

(“Mother India”) Modern Hindu “deity”

whose primary image is a map of the subcontinent, often prominently marked with the network of India’s sacred sites (tirthas). The presupposi-tion behind most of these particular sacred sites is that the land itself is holy, but the idea of Bharat Mata takes this idea to a more abstract level, sanctifying the whole subcontinent. Although this map and its image of Mother India are usually not actual objects of worship, they carry important symbolic mes-sages. In an abstract way, the holiness of Mother India unites all Hindus regard-less of their sectarian affiliation.

Moreover, it suggests that India is one unified culture despite its striking regional diversity. These ideas can be found in specific areas, particularly in the networks of tirthas knitting the country together, yet in contemporary times this image’s underlying purpose is often political rather than religious.

At times it simply represents national pride, but at other times it has a more sinister hidden agenda. This identification of Indian culture with the motherland can be used as a way to marginalize religious minorities—pri-marily Muslims and Christians, whose holy places lie in other countries—as

“foreigners,” and people whose patrio-tism and connection to the Indian nation are potentially suspect.

Bharatmilap

(“Meeting Bharata”) A particular scene in the dramas known as the Ram Lila, which are reenactments of the Ramayana, the earlier of the two great Hindu epics. This scene records the meeting between the god Rama and his brother Bharata, which takes place after Rama has been in exile for fourteen years, during which Bharata has faith-fully served as ruler in his brother’s place. According to connoisseurs of the Ram Lila, this brief scene is filled with some of the most rapturous emotion in the play. Certainly there is the exaltation that the time of separation has ended, but the scene’s popularity also comes from the way it reflects certain basic cul-tural values. The brothers are consid-ered the heart of the traditional Indian joint family since they remain at home their entire lives, whereas their sisters become part of their marital families.

The eldest brother in every generation eventually becomes the head of the joint household, but he cannot succeed with-out the support and cooperation of his younger brothers. Rama and Bharata are thus models for the brothers in a tradi-tional joint family: Rama for treating his younger brother with love and care, and Bharata for obediently carrying out his Bharatmilap

older brother’s wishes for the good of the family as a whole.

Bharavi

(6th c. C.E.) Sanskrit dramatist who is best known as the author of the drama Kiratarjuniya. This play describes the meeting between the god Shiva, dis-guised as the tribal hunter Kirata, and the warrior-hero Arjuna. Arjuna is one of the five Pandava brothers, who are the heroes of the epic Mahabharata. In Hindu mythology, Arjuna is the world’s greatest warrior, but he is also afflicted with pride. The play describes how the arrogant Arjuna becomes humbled at the hands of this tribal hunter, who in contemporary terms would be of very low social status. In the end, however, Shiva reveals his true form to Arjuna and blesses him for his valor.

Bhartrhari

(5th c. C.E.) Sanskrit poet-philosopher who authored the Shatakatrayam

(“Three Hundred”), a three-part collec-tion of poems on political life, love, and renunciation. According to legend, Bhartrhari was born the son of the brah-min Vidyasagara and his shudra wife, Mandakini. Vidyasagara was the adviser to the king of Kalinga and was given the kingdom upon the ruler’s death; after Vidyasagara’s death Bhartrhari’s brothers designated him as king. Bhartrhari was very happy until he realized that his wife was being unfaithful to him. When her secret was discovered she tried to poi-son him. Completely disillusioned, Bhartrhari renounced the world to live as an ascetic, during which time he reputedly composed his poetry.

Although this is a good story, since many of these poems stress the degra-dation inherent in courtly life, Bhartrhari was most likely a courtier. His poetry treats all of the conventional pur-poses of life. The first two sections are about power (artha), sensual desire (kama), and righteous action (dharma), whereas the final section is concerned with the ultimate end, or liberation of the soul (moksha). For further informa-tion see Barbara Stoller Miller (trans.), The Hermit and the Love-Thief, 1978.

Bhartrprapancha

(7th c. C.E.) In Indian philosophy, the first exponent of the Bhedabhada (“identity-in-difference”) philosophical school. The period during which Bhartrprapancha flourished is uncer-tain, but he precedes the eighth-century Bhedabhada commentator Bhaskara.

The Bhedabhada position identified three levels of being: the Ultimate Reality known as Brahman, the “wit-ness” consciousness (sakshin) in the human being, and the world. This school paradoxically asserted that these three levels were identical, yet different.

Thus the world is identical to Brahman but subject to change and decay, unlike Brahman. In the same way, while each human soul is identical to Brahman, it is also subject to bondage and reincarna-tion (samsara), unlike Brahman. The Bharavi

An image of the god Vithoba. Bharud poetry was composed by poet-saints in the Varkari Panth,

a religious community devoted to Vithoba.

bondage of the soul was caused by the primal ignorance known as avidya, but it could be erased by a combination of action and awareness (jnanakar-masamucchaya). The basic philosophi-cal problem for Bhartrprapancha and his followers came from their belief that Brahman was actually transformed into both the world and the Self, a philosophical outlook known as parina-mavada. Since they believed that Brahman underwent real changes, it was subject to bondage and ignorance.

This position was untenable and unac-ceptable from a religious perspective because Brahman was deemed to be perfect and unchanging. This difficulty may account for the school’s relatively short life.

Bharud

The name for a specific genre of bhakti (devotional) poetry, found particularly among the Varkari Panth, a religious community centered around the wor-ship of the Hindu god Vithoba at his temple at Pandharpur, in the modern state of Maharashtra. The bharud is essentially a dramatic poem in which the speaker takes on one or more roles to convey the message of devotion to God. It was especially favored by the poet-saint Eknath, who used the genre to adopt the personae of women, untouchables, Muslims, and other mar-ginal people. In modern times these bharuds have become the basis for pop-ular dramas, usually performed during the biannual Varkari pilgrimage to Pandharpur. While singing the songs of the earlier saints during a pilgrimage is an important religious act, these mod-ern renditions are mainly for entertain-ment. The actors playing the roles in these bharuds frequently add in their own words and actions, which are often quite bawdy.

Bhashya

(“commentary”) Any commentary, whether on a text or an oral teaching.

The need for commentary was presup-posed in most texts on Hindu philoso-phy as well as in the secret ritual tradition known as tantra. Philosophical works were often nothing more than collections of brief aphorisms, which were intentionally kept short to facilitate memorization but which clearly needed further explanation. In the case of tantra, commentary was essential because the texts were written using coded language to conceal their contents from the uninitiated. This may have been in the form known as sandhabhasha, which often uses erotic language to indicate religious practice, or it may simply have been a technical language in which everyday words had contextual meanings.

Bhaskara

In Indian philosophy, an eighth-cen-tury proponent of the Bhedabhada (“identity-in-difference”) school. The Bhedabhada position identified three levels of being: the Ultimate Reality known as Brahman, the “witness”

consciousness (sakshin) in the human being, and the world. They paradoxically asserted that these three levels were identical, yet different.

Thus the world is identical to Brahman but subject to change and decay, unlike Brahman. In the same way, while each human soul is identical to Brahman, it is also subject to bondage and reincarnation (samsara), unlike Brahman. The bondage of the soul was caused by the primal ignorance known as avidya, but it could be erased by a combination of action and awareness (jnanakar-masamucchaya). The basic philosoph-ical problem for the Bhedabhada school was that because they believed that Brahman was actually trans-formed into the world and the Self (parinamavada), it followed that Brahman was subject to bondage and ignorance. This idea was difficult to defend, since the transcendence of Brahman was well established by Bhaskara

sacred texts such as the Upanishads, and this problem may account for the school’s relatively short life.

Bhasmasur

In Hindu mythology, a demon with great power but limited intelligence.

According to tradition, the god Shiva has given Bhasmasur the power to change anyone to ash (bhasma) simply by placing his hand on that person’s head. Bhasmasur falls in love with Shiva’s wife Parvati and attempts to place his hand on Shiva’s head, and the god has to flee. Bhasmasur is destroyed when the god Vishnu tricks him into putting his hand on top of his own head, which instantly transforms him into ash.

In metaphorical usage, the term Bhasmasur denotes any problem that has grown out of hand through lack of foresight.

Bhava

(“being”) Epithet of the god Shiva.

See Shiva.

Bhavabhuti

(early 8th c. C.E.) Sanskrit dramatist and playwright noted for his ability to express and transmit emotions through language. His best-known play, the romance Malatimadhava, is famous not only in its own right, but because the primary villain is an evil ascetic believed to be a member of the defunct ascetic group known as Kapalikas. The Kapalikas were devotees (bhakta) of Shiva, and their reputed practices emu-lated Shiva in his wrathful form as Bhairava. They wore their hair long and matted, smeared their bodies with ash (preferably from the cremation ground), and carried a club and a skull bowl (kapala). According to some sources, they also indulged in forbidden behavior—drinking wine, eating meat, using cannabis and other drugs, per-forming human sacrifice, and orgiastic sexuality—which caused them to be avoided and feared. Bhavabhuti’s

description of this evil ascetic and his disciples is one of the earliest datable references to the Shaiva form of asceti-cism, and therefore important from a historical perspective.

Bhavani

(feminine form of Bhava) Epithet of the god Shiva’s wife, Parvati. See Parvati.

Bhavas

(“states”) In Indian aesthetics the bhavas are a set of nine states consid-ered the most basic unadulterated emo-tions: sexual excitement, laughter, grief, anger, energy, fear, loathing, wonder, and peace. To these nine bhavas corre-spond the nine rasas (“tastes”), or moods transmitted by various types of artistic expression: the erotic, comic, compassionate, cruel, heroic, terrifying, loathsome, marvelous, and peaceful.

Although these bhavas and rasas clearly correspond to one another, there is an important difference between them. A person’s emotive states come and go in response to circumstances that are often beyond one’s control. Because such nat-urally occurring emotions usually can-not be sustained, they are generally can-not objects of aesthetic satisfaction. This is not true in the case of rasa, since mood can be artificially generated by an artis-tic endeavor. Any parartis-ticular rasa can thus be sustained and satisfying. The single most dominant aim in all the Indian arts, therefore, is to create such a mood or moods for the audience.