Religious Syncretism and Literary Innovation

Stefania Cavaliere shows that the Vijñānagītā of Keshavdas is much more than a translation of an allegorical Sanskrit drama, the Prabodhacandrodaya of Krishnamishra. The allegorical battle between aspects of the mind in Krishnamishra’s text becomes in Keshavdas’s hands a platform for a much broader discussion of metaphysics, theology and religious aesthetics, incorporating such diverse influences as the Yogavāsiṣṭha, the Purāṇas, the Dharmaśāstras, and the Bhagavad Gītā. In this way the Vijñānagītā reads more like a scientific treatise (śāstra) than a work of allegorical poetry, and reflects Keshavdas’s erudition and innovation in weaving together strands of bhakti, Advaita Vedānta and rasa aesthetic theory.