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Vernacularizing Jñāndev: Hagiography and the Process of Vernacularization

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Abstract

The process of vernacularization involves more than literary language, but also invokes social ethics and an investment in the idioms of everyday life. Vernacularization can reach beyond texts to enact its force upon biographies as well, altering the ethics and quotidian memory of sacred figures. The paper examines how texts and biographical memory identified with the medieval Marathi “saint” (sant) Jñāndev (about thirteenth century) underwent a process of vernacularization that altered the social ethics of texts associated with Jñāndev and with the public memory of the saint himself. In particular, issues of caste and gender as subjects of the process of vernacularization are discussed, and especially in the context of producing bhakti publics—social spheres of devotion—that merge with the Vārkarī religious tradition in Maharashtra.

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  1. The Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA

    Christian Lee Novetzke

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  1. Christian Lee Novetzke
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Correspondence to Christian Lee Novetzke.

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Novetzke, C.L. Vernacularizing Jñāndev: Hagiography and the Process of Vernacularization. Hindu Studies 22, 385–409 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11407-018-9239-z

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