² Enthoven, R. E., The tribes and castes of Bombay, Bombay, 1920–1922, 11, 427–33.Google Scholar Some of the information supplied to Enthoven (by D. R. Bhandarkar) reveals a high degree of heterodoxy within the sect which may be true of the late nineteenth century but has left no trace in the Marathi literature. See also Farquar, J. N., An outline of the religious literature of India, Oxford, 1920, 247–9.Google Scholar Reference to a few other sources on the Mahānubhāvas is made in Gonda, J., Die Religionen Indiens, 11, Stuttgart, 1963, 177Google Scholar, but beware some semi- ‘ghost’ works: ‘Sastri, B. M.: Mahānubhāv Panth’Google Scholar is the Marathi work of Bāḷakṛṣṇaśāstrī Mahānubhāva referred to in n. 4, below. ‘Kalelkar, N.: La secte Mānbhāv’Google Scholar is an unpublished doctoral thesis that I have yet to see. For some of the main works on the sect in Marathi see Raeside, I. M. P., ‘A bibliographical index of Mahānubhāva works in Marathi’, BSOAS, XXIII, 3, 1960, 464–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³ Holte, V. B., Mahānubhāva saṃśodhana, Malkapur, 1962, 148.Google Scholar

⁴ Times of India, 15 11 1907.Google Scholar For an account of another cause célèbre see Mahānubhāva, Bāḷakṛṣṇaśāstrī, Mdhānubhāva-panthaz, second ed., Mahur, 1960, 346–58.Google Scholar

⁵ For these and other title of Mahānubhāva works mentioned subsequently detailed references can be found in Baeside, art. cit. Individual references will only be given for works published since 1960.

⁶ This episode, usually known as śevaṭaceṃ prakaraṇa (the final event), appears only in some MSS of Līḷācaritra, but it fills an obvious lacuna in the other versions which jump without any transition from the point where Cakradhara's life is threatened to his ‘going north’. Kolte, V. B.'s Śrīcakradhara caritra, Malkapur, 1952Google Scholar, covers all aspects of Cakradhara's life and has a final chapter (pp. 284–318) which deals exhaustively with the evidence that bears on his dates.

⁷ Kolte, V. B. (ed.), Mhāiṃbhaṭa-sankalita Śrī Govindaprabhu caritra, second ed., Malkapur, 1960, introd., 18.Google Scholar

⁸ Kolte, V. B., ‘Mahānubhāvānce dona āmnāya’ in his Mahānubhāva saṃśeodhana, 123–36.Google Scholar

⁹ Nene, H. N., Mahārāṣṭrīya ādya caritrakāra Mahindrabhaṭṭa sankalita Līḷācaritra, Nagpur, 6 parts, 1936–1950.Google Scholar The more recent edition of Tulpule, S. G. (5 parts, Poona, 1964–1966)Google Scholar reprints the same text but with some useful notes and vocabularies.

¹⁰ Kolte, V. B., Mahānubhāva tattvajnāna, Malkapur, 1945, 13.Google Scholar A summary of the main points of Mahānubhāva doctrine, for which I have not thought it useful to give detailed references, can be found in Kolte, , Śrīcakradhara caritra, 214–50.Google Scholar

¹¹ Sūtrapāṭha, Vicāra, 20.Google Scholar None of these correspond with the names of the eight Bhairavas of the Śaiva system. Interestingly the remaining two, Karālī and Vikarāḷī are almost the same as the names of two of the 12 sages (Karāla and Vikarāla) to whom Kāpālika doctrine was revealed. Cf. Lorenzen, D. N., The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas: two lost Śaivite sects, New Delhi, 1972, 37.Google Scholar

¹² See esp. Sūtrapāṭha, Anyavyāvṛtti, 1–10.Google Scholar Even though the details are quite different, the concept of an elaborate hierarchy of Devatā has a close parallel in Madhva. Perhaps both systems descend from the lost Pancarātra texts to which Madhva refers. (Cf. Siauve, S., Les hiérarchies spirituelles selon l'Anuvyākhyāna de Madhva, Pondichéry, 1971, 9–14.)Google Scholar

¹³ ekārṃ prema sancarīti; prema boije, bhakta bolije … bhaktāsi āpaṇapeṃ, samora deti;… jnāniyāsi pathīsi ghālīti' (Sūtrapāṭha, Uddharaṇa, 13–14, 60, 62).Google Scholar There may be slight variations between my citations from Sūtrapāṭha and those of Kolte. The Nene editions are extremely rare outside India and my own copy of Sūtrapāṭha is only a pantha edition published in Nagpur in 1959 without scholarly pretensions.

¹⁴ A student of the University of Pennsylvania, Miss Anne Feldbaus, is at the moment embarking on this formidable task as a thesis subject.

¹⁵ āpaṇayāteṃ kavhaṇīṃ neṇe, āpaṇa kavhaṇāteṃ neṇije aisāṃ, sthānīṃ asāveṃ (Sūtrapāṭha, Ācāra, 22).Google Scholar

¹⁶ deśācāṃ seoaṭīṃ jhāḍātaḷīṃ janma kṣepāveṃ (ibid., 26).

¹⁷ ibid., 39.

¹⁸ ibid., 29–30.

¹⁹ ibid., 60.

²⁰ ibid., 64.

²¹ Śūtrapāṭha, Vicāra, 82–5.Google Scholar Cf. also Līḷācaritra, Uttarārdha, 283Google Scholar—yāvari gasāvi jarāsandhācī goṣfi sānghitalī.

²² purāṇa kṣīrābdhiparyanta dekhati, āgama aṣṭabhairavaparyanta dekhati; Bāi, gītā śrīkṛṣnokti; era avaghīṃ vyāsokti (Sūtrapātha, Vicāra-mālikā, 108–9).Google Scholar

²³ cāturvarṇyaṃ cared bhaikṣyam, yā śāstrāsi anusarije (Sūtrapāṭha, Ācāra, 81).Google Scholar Cf. Līḷācaritra, Uttarārdha, 138.Google Scholar

²⁴ Līḷācaritra, Uttarārdha, 336, 427.Google Scholar

²⁵ Līḷācaritra, Ekānka, 7.Google Scholar Cakradhara had little subsequent contact with Govindaprabhu. He went back to Ritpur only twice (Ekānka, 21Google Scholar; Pūrvārdha, 33–7)Google Scholar and while there lived separately from Govinda who, being both choleric and eccentric, tended to receive him with blows as often as with affection.

²⁶ Sūtrapāṭha, Ācāra, 25.Google Scholar Cakradhara's explicit reason was that Mahur, like Kolhapur, was a centre of Devī worship and he felt that the power of the goddess was an impediment to true mokṣa— tiyeṃ sābhimāniyeṃ, sthāneṃ sādhaicāsi vighna karīti. The temple of Devī, under the name of Renukī, shares the hill of Mahur with Dattātreya and their local legends are intermixed.

²⁷ Sūtrapāṭha, Vicāra, 282–5.Google Scholar

²⁸ Līḷācaritra, Ekānka, 1.Google Scholar

²⁹ āvo melā, mātāpurāsi jāe mhaṇe (Govindapraibhu-caritra, 322).Google Scholar

³⁰ Bāḷakṛṣṇaśāstrī, , op. cit., 143.Google Scholar

³¹ ibid., 296–7.

³² Kolte, , Mahānubhāva scṃśodhana, 42.Google Scholar

³³ Sūtrapāṭha, Ācāra, 186.Google Scholar

³⁴ Bāḷakṛṣṇaśātrī, , op. cit., 147.Google Scholar

³⁵ ibid., 375.

³⁶ ibid., 371.

³⁷ ibid., 318.

³⁸ ibid., 300.

³⁹ The Līḷāsaṃvāda, occasionally mentioned in some of the older sources as if it were a separate work, is merely an alternative name for the Līḷācaritra.

⁴⁰ Līḷācaritra, Pūrvārdha, 315.Google Scholar I have translated pivaḷi dānḍi quite literally, for it is impossible to be sure which of the many derived meanings of danḍa/dandī/dānḍī gave rise to this bit of alchemist's jargon.

⁴¹ Kolte, V. B. (ed.), Ravaḷobāsakṛta Sahyādrivarṇana, Poona, 1964.Google Scholar

⁴² Kolte, V. B. (ed.), Muni Keśirāja-viracita Mūrtiprakāśa, Nagpur, 1962.Google Scholar

⁴³ Nāgapure, P. C. (ed.), Jnānaprabodha, Amraoti, 1971.Google Scholar There is a more recent edition by Kolte, V. B., Malkapur, 1973Google Scholar, which I have not seen.

⁴⁴ Doḷake, G. M. (ed.), Narindra-viracita Ṛkmiṇī-svayaṃvara, Nagpur, 1971.Google Scholar The poem edited by Kolte in 1940 is incomplete. This is the first edition of the ‘full’ version, but it is by no means certain that the continuation is the work of Narendra himself.

⁴⁵ Jośī, J. S. and Mahānnbhāva, Kṛṣṇadāsa (ed.), Hayagrīvācāryakṛta Gadyarāja, Bombay, 1966.Google Scholar A fuller edition of this poem is under preparation at SOAS.

⁴⁶ yeṇeṃ mājhiyā mhāntārīyā nāgavatila (Smṛtisthaḷa, 15).Google Scholar

⁴⁷ tumacā asmāt kasmāt mīṃ neṇeṃ gā; maja śrīcakradhareṃ nirūpilī marhāṭīṃ; tiyāci pusā (ibid., 66).

⁴⁸ Kolte, V. B., Cakradhara āṇi Jnānadeva, Bombay, 1950.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ For a description of the most commonly used cipher see Raeside, I. M. P., ‘The Mahānubhāva sakaḷa lipi’, BSOAS, XXXIII, 2, 1970, 328–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵⁰ Kolte, , Mahānvbhāva saṃśodhana, 129–30.Google Scholar

⁵¹ One derivation that was popular with their detractors was from māngabhāū (ibid., 148).

⁵² For instance the Shri Gita Ashram at Hyderabad, founded by Kṛṣṇadāsa Mahānubhāva to serve the joint purpose of research centre, archive of Mahānubhāva manuscripts, and place of worship.

⁵³ The Akhila Bhāratīya Mahānubhāva Pariṣada was formed in 1953. It organizes an annual gathering (sneha-aammelana) in order to bring members of the sect together for cultural as well as religious exchanges. It also supports the publication of a monthly magazine, Mahānubhāva, and other sectarian literature.

⁵⁴ The Jai Krishna wing is also active and now has several maṭhas in North India. In 1971 Hindispeaking Jai Krishni Mahānubhāvas celebrated the foundation of a new temple in Delhi and the installation of a Kṛṣṇa mūrti which had been rescued from Pakistan and left without a home for many years (Maharashtra Times, 21 06 1970).Google Scholar

⁵⁵ It would be possible to guess at other factors which might have contributed to this revival: diminished Brahman influence in modern Maharashtra; the comparative success of the ‘green revolution’ in Berar in the 1960's and the resulting enhanced prosperity of the kuṇabī caste from which Mahānnbhāvas obtain most of their financial support, etc.