Abstract
In commenting on the lack of individual personality in Sanskrit poetry, Daniel H.H. Ingalls has written that impersonality appears in its extreme form in India only in Sanskrit…As to how poetry could exist in the absence of individualism the answer is easier. It existed, just as Indian religion existed under the same circumstances, by making a virtue of its lack. To the Vedantin the advantage of stripping off the personality was that only thus could he arrive at what he considered to be real, at something permanent, unchangeable, and unitary. To the Sanskrit poet the advantage of abandoning personal idiosyncrasy and adventure was that the resultant character by being typical came closer to being universal.
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Notes
Ingalls, Daniel H.H., An Anthology of Sanskrit Court Poetry. Harvard Oriental Series, 44. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1965, pp. 24–25.
Schweitzer, Albert, The Quest of the Historical Jesus. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1910, pp. 4, 3.
Nikhilananda, Swami, trans., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna- Vivekananda Center, 1942, p. 330.
Kṛşnadāsa kaviraja, Caitanya-caritāmrta, ed. Rādhāgovinda Nātha. Calcutta: Bhakti- prācara bhāndāra, 1355 B.S. 1:13:67–71.
Jayānanda, Caitanya-maṅgala. Calcutta: Bangiya sāhitya parisad (?), n. d. p. 10.
Vṛndāvana-dasa, Caitanya bhāgavata. Calcutta: Gauḍya math, 448 Gaurābda. I:1:228.
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© 1979 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Dimock, E.C. (1979). On Impersonality and Bengali Religious Biography. In: Nagatomi, M., Matilal, B.K., Masson, J.M., Dimock, E.C. (eds) Sanskrit and Indian Studies. Studies of Classical India, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8941-2_13
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