Sukanya Sarbadhikary | Shyama-Shyam, Kali-Krishna, 'Prithak Pranav'

Abstract - We shall try to revisit varied constructions of deity-figures like Krishna and Kali, and the sects representing them, that is, vaishnavas and tantra-predominant shaktas, in Bengal. While the overarching historical lens posits these deities/sects as radically different, even antagonistic, with syncretic attempts following periods of intense strife; literary archetypes, developed in proximate association with regional philosophy, intuit most subtle traditions of their equivalence. I focus on three kinds of texts of the early modern period, and analyse traditions of divine correspondence represented therein: Krishna-Shiva sharing souls, Kali becoming Krishna, Krishna becoming Kali, Kali-Shiva as the same essential energy, Kali-Krishna sexual union, and this synthesis understood variously as Kali’s/Krishna’s play with herself/himself etc. These divinities are fundamentally equated as transformations (prithak) of the original cosmic buzz (AUM/Pranav), and complex practices of sonic philosophy ground these equivalent deities within esoteric bodies. These practices and texts thus fuse Kali/Shiva/Krishna, and this tantric-devotional, Shakta-Vaishnava continuum encompasses a longue-durée ethical habitus including idols, songs, poems, proverbs, theatre, pictures, manuscripts, and bodies. This lifeworld of sacred interchangeability enables, responds to, as well as supersedes historical realities of sectarian difference, opposition, and syncretism. Literary ontology thus nestles and surpasses historical religious constructions in Bengal. About The Speaker - Dr. Sukanya Sarbadhikary is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Presidency University, Kolkata. She did his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2012. Her researches focus on the interface of the anthropology of religion, anthropology of embodiment, religious studies, and philosophy. I try to locate the body, senses, intuition, experience, imagination, and sacrality, in the interstices of everyday lives and strong philosophical traditions. Her first book The Place of Devotion: Siting and Experiencing Divinity in Bengal-Vaishnavism’ (University of California Press) was published in 2015. She is currently working on a range of devotional instruments, communities involved in their making, playing, listening, meditating, and associated traditions of sonic metaphysics in Bengal. She also works more broadly in the area of South Asian devotion, including recent works on Orissan Jagannath worldviews, and tantric-devotional lifeworlds. She also published various articles in various reputed national and international journals.