The University of Hyderabad (UoH) organized a distinguished lecture by Dr. Mandakranta Bose, Professor Emerita and Director of the Centre for India and South Asia Research at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver on “Rabindranath and the Vaishnava Imagination in Art and Poetry” on October 9, 2017 at Sir C.V. Raman Auditorium, UoH.
While delivering the lecture Dr. Bose focused on the influence of Vaishnavism in literature and in the Rajput and Pahadi paintings on Tagore’s poetry. Thought the influence began with Jayadeva’s Gitagovinda, it was his later exposure of the Padavali’s Vidyapathi and a horde of others had strengthen his Vaishnava Imagery.
Dr. Bose said that the point of divergence was the love of Radha and Lord Krishna was not metaphysical in the perspective of Rabindranath Tagore namely rhythm, diction and imagery which got reflected in his poems.
Prof. Appa Rao Podile presided.
About the Speaker:
Bose, MA (Cal et UBC), MLitt, DPhil (Oxon), is Professor Emerita and Director of the Centre for India and South Asia Research at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Dr. Bose is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and the Royal Society of Canada. Her research interests comprise the textual tradition of performing arts of India, Sanskrit literature, the Rāmāyana, and gender studies. Her recent publications include a critical edition of a musicological text, Sangitanarayana (Delhi: IGNCA, 2009), Women in the Hindu Tradition (London & New York: Routledge, 2010), A Woman’s Rāmāyan. a: Candrāvatī’s Bengali Epic, with Sarika P. Bose (London & New York: Routledge, 2013), and many articles including several on Tagore and on Hindu cultural and religious traditions. Her most recent articles available on line are The Rāmāyan. a in the Hindu Tradition, A Bibliography, (Oxford: OUP, 2016) and “Theology, Sexuality and Gender in Hinduism” in The Oxford Book of Theology, Sexuality and Gender. (Oxford: OUP, 2015). She has also coedited a book, The Other Women in The Rāmāyan. a with John and Mary Brockington which has just been published (London & New York: Routledge, 2016). The Rāmāyan. a through Folk Paintings of Bengal is scheduled to be published later in 2016 from New Delhi: Neogi Books. She is currently editing and contributing to a volume on Hindu goddesses for Oxford University Press, Oxford. Dr. Bose has been a visiting professor at many universities, including Calcutta and Oxford.