Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c8.s1.9

c8.s1.9

In the following pages we propose to give a general survey of the Rasa-śāstra of Caitanyaism by a rapid analysis of the two works of Rūpa Gosvāmin mentioned above, which form the chief original authorities on the emotionalism of Bengal Vaiṣṇavism. The quaint figurative title of the first work, which means "The Sea of the Nectar of Devotional Sentiment" (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu), is fairly appropriate in designating an abstruse treatise of bewildering proportions and of boundless depths of analytical acumen. The quinta essentia of the devotional sentiment is the Ujjvala or Madhura Rasa, by which is meant, in terms of Vaiṣṇava emotionalism, the Śṛṅgāra or Erotic sentiment of Kṛṣṇa as the ideal hero, the term Ujjvala (=bright) having been apparently suggested by Bharata's description¹ of the Rasa, and Madhura characterising its sweet and intoxicating character. But sufficient justice could not be done to this essential sentiment in a work which crowds in its broad scope the various subtle moods and aspects of Bhakti in all its maze of sinuous detail. The next work, the *Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi*, therefore, is offered as a supplement, which strictly confines itself to this topic of Vaiṣṇava amatory psychology; and its strange poetical title, with its obvious pun, indicates that the Ujjvala Rasa, being the bright sapphire (*nīlamaṇi*) borne out of the depths of the Sea of the Nectar of Religious Devotion, is to be embalmed as a name or symbol of the Lord of sapphire-like radiance in a work bearing this blessed name.