Building of Vṛndāvana

Kiyokazu Okita, D.Phil. (2011), University of Oxford, is Associate Professor of Hindu Studies at Faculty of Liberal Arts / Graduate Program in Global Studies, Sophia University. He is the author of Hindu Theology in Early Modern South Asia (OUP, 2014). Rembert Lutjeharms, D.Phil. (2010), University of Oxford, is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Research Lecturer in Hindu Studies at the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford. He is the author of A Vaiṣṇava Poet in Early Modern Bengal (OUP, 2018).

"This rich, well-crafted collaborative volume on one of South Asia’s most important pilgrimage sites, the temple town dedicated to Kṛṣṇa at Vṛndāvana draws upon a range of literary, historical, musical and artistic evidence to examine the communities, conceptions and construction of the region of Vraja in the 16th and early 17th centuries. Original, timely and compelling, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of Hindu studies, Sanskrit and Hindi literature, historians of early modern South Asia, including its art and music, and anyone interested in the centrality of place, space and pilgrimage to the religious imagination." - Dr. Crispin Branfoot (Reader in the history of South Asian art and archaeology. SOAS, University of London) "This masterful book immerses the reader in the landscapes, temples, texts, and artistic traditions of early modern Vṛndāvana. A variety of sources and methods are blended seamlessly to paint a picture of this dynamic town, as it grows from a small community to a major center of Kṛṣṇa worship. The introduction provides the most engaging overview of Vṛndāvana's history and theology that I have read. This book is a joy to read, and one that you will return to over and over again." - Prof. Ravi M. Gupta (Charles Redd Chair of Religious Studies, Utah State University)

• List of IllustrationsNotes on ContributorsIntroductionRembert Lutjeharms and Kiyokazu OkitaPart 1: Builders1 A Sixteenth-Century Testimony on Vṛndāvana’s First-Generation PioneersHeidi Pauwels2 The Hari-bhakti-vilāsa as a Specimen of Early Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism in VṛndāvanaMåns BrooPart 2: Building3 The Gauḍīya Reimagining of Vraja as a Bimodal DomainPilgrimage Place and Transcendent SpaceBarbara A. Holdrege4 Building Vṛndāvana as a Locus of RasaThe Stotras of Rūpa GosvāmīDavid Buchta5 Building the Spiritual VṛndāvanaMusic and the Rāsa Dance at the Centre of Kṛṣṇa DevotionGuy L. BeckPart 3: Buildings6 A Temple of Stone and a Temple of LoveGovindadeva in the Religious Imagination of Early Gauḍīya VaiṣṇavasRembert Lutjeharms7 Kings of the MountainsGovardhana-līlā and Kachavāhā Patronage at the Govindadeva Temple in VṛndāvanaCynthia Packert8 The Ideal Real Vṛndāvana of Jayasiṃha’s Dining RoomJohn Stratton HawleyIndex