Theory of Avatara and Divinity of Chaitanya (Hardcover)  | Released: 2002

The present book is a comprehensive and comparative study of the origin and development of the concept of Avatra in the theological and biographical literature of India: Vedic, Sanskrit, Pali and Bengali. It seeks to understand the incarnated divinity of Chaitanya (14861533) and the socio-religious and psychological factors responsible for his apotheosis during his life-time. The study also shows how the concept of Avatra, though un-Vedic in origin, has absorbed many Vedic elements of solar myth and natural allegory, has synthesized various elements from the epico-purȇic tradition and has ultimately blossomed forth as an eclectic theory in the Bengal school of Vaiavism. It further shows that both Vaiavism and the concept of Avatra owe their origin to Ka Vsudeva, the great synthesizer of the Aryan and non-Aryan cultures in ancient India and ascribes the theoretical development of the concept of Avatra in the medieval period to various attempts of interpreting Chaitanyas life and personality. In this study, Avatravda does not merely remain to be a theological doctrine, but turns out, on in-depth scrutiny, to be also a method of analysis and interpretation of both history and its maker with stress on synthesis and syncretism. The study dwells upon many relevant topics like relationship between Avatravda and Vyhavda, psychosomatic symptoms of Avatrahood, zoomorphism and mythic elements in the stories of the ten incarnations of Viu, historical significance of the episode of Kalki and chronology of the mytho-historic Avatras with the help of the purȇic calendar of the four ages.Table of Contents: 1. The Hindu Concept of Avatara : Its Origin and Development 2. Signs and Symptoms of Avatarahood 3. The Avataras : Legends and Allegories 4. The Avataras : Myth and History 5. Krsna Vasudeva as the Nucleus 6. The Theory of Avatara in the Bengal Vaisnavism 7. Chaitanya the Avatara 8. Meaning of the Great Advent 9. Epilogue Select Bibliography Index