Mobilizing Krishna's World

Savant Singh (1694–1764), the Rajput prince of Kishangarh-Rupnagar, is famous for commissioning beautiful works of miniature painting and composing devotional (bhakti) poetry to Krishna under the nom de plume Nagaridas. After his throne was usurped by his younger brother, while Savant Singh was on the road seeking military alliances to regain his kingdom, he composed an autobiographical pilgrimage account, “The Pilgrim’s Bliss” (Tirthananda); a hagiographic anthology, “Garland of Anecdotes about Songs” (Pad-Prasang-mala); and a reworking of the story of Rama, “Garland of Rama’s Story” (Ram-Carit-Mala).

Through an examination of Savant Singh’s life and works, Heidi Pauwels explores the circulation of ideas and culture in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries in north India, revealing how Singh mobilized soldiers but also used myths, songs, and stories about saints in order to cope with his personal and political crisis. Mobilizing Krishna’s World allows us a peek behind the dreamlike paintings and refined poetry to glimpse a world of intrigue involving political and religious reform movements.

Heidi Pauwels is professor of Asian languages and literature at the University of Washington. She is the author of Cultural Exchange in Eighteenth-Century India: Poetry and Paintings from Kishangarh (E.B. Verlag, Berlin; forthcoming), The Goddess as Role Model: Sita and Radha in Scripture and on Screen (Oxford University Press, 2008), In Praise of Holy Men: Hagiographic Poems by and about Hariram Vyas (Groningen, 2002), and Krishna's Round Dance Reconsidered: Hariram Vyas's Hindi Ras-pañcadhyayi (Curzon, 1996).Sivaramakrishnan K. :

Kalyanakrishnan "Shivi" Sivaramakrishnan is Dinakar Singh Professor of India and South Asia Studies, professor of anthropology, professor of forestry and environmental studies, and codirector of the Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University.Yang Anand A. :

Anand A. Yang is professor of international studies and history at the University of Washington. He is coeditor of Interactions: Transregional Perspectives on World History (Hawai'i, 2005), coeditor of Thirteen Months in China: A Subaltern Indian and the Colonial World (Oxford, 2017), and author of Empire of Convicts: Indian Penal Labor in Colonial Southeast Asia (California, 2021).Kaimal Padma :

Padma Kaimal is Batza Professor of Art and Art History at Colgate University. She is the author of Scattered Goddesses: Travels with the Yoginis (Association for Asian Studies, 2013) and Opening Kailasanatha: The Temple in Kanchipuram Revealed in Time and Space (Washington, 2021).

Heidi Pauwels is professor of Asian languages and literature at the University of Washington. She is the author of Cultural Exchange in Eighteenth-Century India: Poetry and Paintings from Kishangarh and Goddess as Role Model: Sita and Radha in Scripture and on Screen.

"Those interested in Indian religions, bhakti and the formation of mod-ern Hinduism, the history of literatures and languages in South Asia, the emergence of a public sphere and early modernity, and the relationship of images to literature willfind this volume particularly rewarding."

"In this remarkable study based on previously untranslated materials, Pauwels offers us a rare glimpse of the world of one such yogi-raja, Sawant Singh (aka Nagaridas), as he navigated the lush and treacherous Krishna-Bhakti landscape connecting temple, religious retreat, and court in the tumultuous mid eighteenth century."—William Pinch, author of Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires

"Pauwels takes us deep into the world of a renowned rasika or connoisseur of divine beauty and love who transcended sectarian debates to seek out joyful companionship in devotional feeling."—Molly Aitken, author of The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting

"A tour de force. Heidi Pauwels brings into focus the histories and relationships of the sectarian communities that lived, thrived, and competed in eighteenth-century north India."—John Stratton Hawley, author of A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement