Devoted to the Goddess: The Life and Work of Ramprasad by Malcolm McLean; Wendy

Doniger
Review by: Rachel Fell McDermott
The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Nov., 1998), pp. 1207-1208
Published by: Association for Asian Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2659371 .
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 BOOK REVIEWS-SOUTH ASIA 1207

"devotedto exploringtheseissuesfurther," in greatdetail,and implicitlyin simpler

prose(p. 39).
Issues are exploredby pursuingsevenepisodes,in chronologicalorderone to a
chapter,all significant,most well known: The purna swaraj debate of late 1929
precedingthe LahoreCongressmeeting.The Lucknowriotsof November1928 and
May 1930. The Gandhi-Emersontalks of March/April1931. The year-longduel
betweenGandhi (in jail) and the Governmentof India in 1932-33. Nehru and
Congressstrategy1936-37. Congressand provincialoffice1937-39. The negotiations
leading to the CrippsDeclarationof 1942. Togetherthesesevencoverthe political
currentovertheseyears,fromtheBritishangle in thesensethatwhileLow is careful
to remind readers that "nationalist initiatives . . . initiated the encounter, and their
aggregatedresponsesfinallywon the day" (p. 40), it was the Britishresponseto that
initiativethatmade this possible.The cast of charactersis reasonablyrich.Gandhi
figuresin fiveof the episodes.Othersappear less frequently. All move at the level
wherepolitical intercourseis routinelypreservedon paper, the paper is lodged in
archives,and Low can get into them.Get in he has. Though partsof the book have
appearedelsewhere,the bulk ofit represents fresharchivalinvestigation,and thelist
of thesearchivesis as long as yourarm.So are the bottom-of-the-page footnotes,by
my count 1,448 clippedguides to the documentsthatunderpinthe sevenepisodes.
No questionbut thatthisis a veryscholarlypiece ofwork.
One last comment.It is throughthesevenepisodesthatthe "distinctivenature"
of the Britishresponseto Indian nationalistpressurehas been "depictedrathermore
precisely."Withouttheseven,laid out in narrative fashion(e.g., theLucknowriots),
theambiguitythemewouldbe at bestintriguing. With themit becomesreal,acquires
substance,can be observedat work.So whenthe seventhepisodeis over,and Low in
sentencetellsus that"by 1945 theambiguitythatpervadesthisbook
his next-to-last
had in all essentialsrun its course"(p. 344), we're with him, the themesticks,a
concludingpitchwould be redundant.Wisely,thebook comesto an end rightthere.
I can onlyhopethatin timeit will be on theshelvesofall thosewitha seriousinterest
in Westerncolonialexperiencegenerally,in Britain'sIndian experienceparticularly,
and who can affordthepublisher'soutrageousprice.
PETER WARD FAY
CaliforniaInstitute
ofTechnology

Devotedto the Goddess:The Life and Workof Ramprasad. By MALCOLM

McLEAN. SUNY Seriesin Hindu Studies. Edited by WENDY DONIGER.
Albany: State Universityof New York Press, 1998. xix, 205 pp. $59.50
(cloth); $19.95 (paper).

It is hightimethatsomeonewrotea good book about RamprasadSen (ca. 1718-

75). A stock example of Bengali devotionalismto the goddess KilT, Ramprasad
appearsin all bookson BengaliSaktism.He is creditedwithrevivinggoddessworship
in eighteenth-century Bengal, and he greatlyinfluencedRamkrsna(1836-86). Yet
almost nothingis knownabout Ramprasadexcept that his biographyis miredin
legendand controversy. Malcolm McLean is the firstscholarto writea carefulstudy
of the poet's lifeand work,a task to whichhe bringsthreestrengths: wide reading
in Bengali secondaryliterature,familiaritywith Bengali religious history,and
linguisticfluency, allowinghim to interpret
Ramprasad'softenellipticalphraseology.
1208 THE JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES

The resultingbook not only gives fleshto a cardboardicon, but also challenges
received notions. For McLean argues that we misunderstandRamprasad if we
categorizehim as a bhaktipoet; he is, instead,a thoroughgoing Tantric.
Methodologically,McLean seeks to bypass the futilesearchforthe historical
Ramprasad.As he demonstrates froma studyoflsvarcandra Gupta'searliestbiography
of the poet, from1853 (translatedin the appendix),text-critical scholarshipcannot
get behind hagiography.The same is true for the over threehundredpoems in
Ramprasad'sname:establishingauthorship, dates,and criticaleditionsis impossible.
Far preferable,suggestsMcLean,is to followthe deconstructionists in "reading"the
legends and receivedliterarycanon as "texts" importantfor the emergingSakta
communityof the eighteenthand nineteenthcenturies.Not "who is Ramprasad
really?"but "whatdoes he mean to Bengaligoddessworshipers?"
McLean's principalcontributionlies in threeunprecedentedclaims. First,he
arguesconvincinglythat Ramprasadwas consciouslymodeled afterCaitanya,since
Sktas neededa spiritualexemplarto matchthatof theirVaisnavarivals.Second,he
assertsthatalthoughRamprasadlookslikeCaitanyain form(birth,death,recognition
by Muslim rulers,and religiousmadness),in contenthis lifeand poetryare farfrom
Vaisnavadevotionalism. Rather,McLeancontendsthatRamprasadwas nota dreamy-
eyed bhakta,worshipingthe Goddess's image with petitionary self-surrender,but a
Tantricwhosepoetic languagecould easily-purposely?-be misunderstood. When
Ramprasadspeaksof theMother'simage,he is visualizingHer in his body,through
Tantric kun/alin7yoga, with an eventual goal of monistic union, not dualistic
reverence. To bolsterthis secondclaim,McLean makesa third:Ramprasad'spoetry
closely resemblesBengali Baul songs, both of which draw heavilyupon Tantric
physiognomy and philosophy.If McLean is righton the importanceof Tantra in
Ramprasad'spoetry-and I thinkhe is-then it is ironicthatRamprasad'spresent-
day interpretersemphasizethe devotionalovertheTantricstrainsin his poems.The
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ruseof hidinga Tantricin bhakta'sclothinghas
succeeded.
McLean concludesby proposingthat Ramprasad'srelevanceto modernpeople
lies in his depictionof a "mad bitch goddess" who symbolizesthe ambiguity,
unpredictability,and uncertaintyoflife.In thishe corroborates David Kinsley'sjustly
popularinterpretation in TheSwordand theFlute:KdlTand Krsna,Dark Visionsofthe
Terribleand theSublimein HinduMythology (Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress,
1975). As in Feuerbach,whomMcLeandrawsuponforcomparative purposes,so here:
theologyis reducedto anthropology.
AlthoughSUNY could have done a betterediting job, and althoughI might
quibble withsomeofMcLean'sinterpretations-inparticular, I am less inclinedthan
he to see acrimonybetweenSaktas and Vaisnavas in late medievalBengal-I am
delightedby this book. It will appeal to specialistsinterestedin KalT and Bengali
religioushistory,and to interpreters anywheregrapplingwith legacies that text-
criticalscholarshipcan no longerilluminate.
RACHEL FELL McDERMOTT
BarnardCollege

Movements
Subnational in SouthAsia. Edited by SUBRATA K. MITRA and R.
ALISON LEWIS. Boulder,Colo.: WestviewPress,1996. xiv,256 pp. $59.00
(cloth).