A book is a ledger of debts. Were it not for the many people who advised, cajoled, interceded, corrected, debated, rejected, lobbied, encouraged, discouraged, joked, observed, and embraced, this book would not be. This is also true of my own career and my own scholarship, for beyond this or any one work. Such debts cannot be paid, much less adequately acknowledged, by the trite formula of an acknowledgments section. I ask all those thanked here, and those I could not thank (or forgot to thank—I’m getting old), to forgive me for not doing more.
At Columbia University Press, I have had the tremendous fortune to work with Wendy Lochner, an extraordinary editor. I am thankful to Christine Dunbar, Justine Evans, Zachary Friedman, Ben Kolstad, Milenda Lee, Susan Pensak, Robert Swanson, and others at the Press for their help and patience with me and this book. Rivka Israel’s expert eyes have helped smooth my prose and sharpen its meaning. Mariam Sabri provided expert proofreading for the final text. My thanks to Sudhir Waghmare, wonderful artist and dear friend, who graciously offered the use of his painting of an everyday scene in New Modikhana, Pune, for my book cover.
A number of institutions and funding agencies support this work in various forms. I thank the American Institute of India Studies, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright-Nehru Program for vital support during research and writing. The University of Pennsylvania supported some of this work through research funding at a very early stage. The University Seminars Publication Fund at Columbia University provided a generous subvention. My thanks to David Magier, Alice Newton, Robert Pollack, and Serinity Young.
My home institution, the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, and in particular the programs in South Asia Studies, Comparative Religion, and Global Studies, have offered me not only financial support but an intense and diverse intellectual environment coupled with a level of collegiality that makes my life among my extraordinary colleagues at UW a sheer delight day after day. In particular, I would like to thank Ana Mari Cauce, Judy Howard, Reşat Kasaba, Priti Ramamurthy, Michael Shapiro, Bob Stacey, Jim Wellman, and Anand Yang for their support and for making leave and research possible. Among my wonderful colleagues at UW, several made particular efforts to read and comment on my work. My thanks to Jameel Ahmed, Sareeta Amrute, David Bachman, Deepa Banerjee, Paul Brass, Dan Chirot, Frank Conlon, Collett Cox, Sara Curran, Purnima Dhavan, Jennifer Dubrow, Avinash Gamre, Maria Elena Garcia, Reşat Kasaba, Sabine Lang, Tony Lucero, Sudhir Mahadevan, Joel Migdal, Shruti Patel, Heidi Pauwels, Robert Pekkanen, Saadia Pekkanen, Priti Ramamurthy, Cabeiri Robinson, Richard Salomon, Keith Snodgrass, Clark Sorenson, Nathalie Williams, and Anand Yang. I would also like to thank Dvorah Oppenheimer, Toni Read, Tamara Leonard, and Keith Snodgrass, who helped this book come into being through crucial support.
I have presented this work in several venues where I received very useful feedback: Stanford University, Columbia University (and the University Seminars), and Harvard University; the American Academy of Religion, the Association for Asian Studies, and the Annual South Asia Conference at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Two workshops were especially important for the development of several parts of this book. I am thankful to Anne Monius, Jon Keune, and Gil Ben-Herut who invited me to a workshop at Harvard Divinity School, my old home, and my thanks to my colleagues at that workshop who offered excellent advice to me. In particular, I am grateful to V. Narayana Rao, Tony Stewart, as well as Anne, Jon, Gil, Jack Hawley, and others who attended this workshop. I also thank Srilata Raman for her invitation to a conference at Yale in the spring of 2015 in honor of Vasudha Dalmia. I received wonderful advice from several participants, especially Srilata, Vasudha, Phyllis Granoff, Kumkum Sangari, Adheesh Sathaye, Heidi Pauwels, Martin Fuchs, Katie Lofton, and Nikhil Govind.
A number of colleagues and friends have offered sage advice and interventions along the way. For these many kindnesses, insights, debates, and emendations, I thank Dean Accardi, Purushottam Agarwal, Daud Ali, Jeffrey Brackett, Allison Busch, Jae Chung, Paul Courtright, Kurush Dalal, Naisargi Dave, Don Davis, Richard Davis, Prachi Deshpande, Milind Dhere, Wendy Doniger, Irina Glushkova, Dan Gold, Thomas Blom Hansen, James Hare, Paul Harrison, Linda Hess, Dan Jasper, Suman Keshari, Jon Keune, Steven Lindquist, David Lorenzen, Tim Lubin, Philip Lutgendorf, James Mallinson, William Mazzarella, Farina Mir, Lisa Mitchell, Anne Murphy, Rosalind O’Hanlon, Andrew Ollett, Patrick Olivelle, Gail Omvedt, Shreeyash Palshikar, Laurie Patton, Sudhir Patwardhan, Andrea Pinkney, Seth Powell, Teena Purohit, Nate Roberts, Prerna Rotellu, Ram Rawat, Uzma Rizvi, Adheesh Sathaye, Lee Schlesinger, Anna Schultz, Svati Shah, Neelima Shukla-Bhatt, Shana Sippy, Drew Thomases, Anand Venkatkrishnan, Rupa Viswanath, the Waghmares, and Karin Zitzewitz. I wrote this book while writing another one with Andy Rotman and Will Elison. I thank them for covering for me as I switched back and forth, for reading parts of this book when I needed their
do-se-bhale-teen support, and providing a constant and amiable refuge. Sumit Guha read the book and remained a constant interlocutor, and his work, a touchstone for excellence for me. I have a particular debt of gratitude to express to Jim Laine and Davesh Soneji for anonymous reasons. Shailendra Bhandare generously shared images of
gadhegal and discussed them with me, for which I’m very thankful. And to Whitney Cox, who read this book and, in some cases, several parts of it several times, my thanks for critical insights that pushed this work to be far better than it would have been without him.
In India several people provided extremely valuable assistance. I thank Prashant Kothadiya, Ujwala Mehendale, Tukaram at the ACM Office, Professor Avinash Awalagaonkar, and Dr. Suman Belvalkar. The late Meera Kosambi was a delightful interlocutor, strong critic, and constant supporter. Dr. Sucheta Paranjape was my Marathi teacher when I first went to India in 1990, and I have been learning from her ever since. My gratitude to you, Sucheta, is immense. Mukund and Bharati were ideal neighbors, and their friendship made our stay in Pune a delight. Without Jennifer, none of this work could have been done; I thank her and her family. Gayatri Chatterjee’s friendship and her intellectual spirit have made my life and work inestimably better, and this book bears the imprint of a thousand conversations on three continents with you, Gayatri. Sadly, I have left unnamed and unthanked several individuals and institutions in India that were vital to my work. I wish it were otherwise, but I cannot thank them, at their request.
In India and the U.S., I have had the good fortunate to discuss many of the subjects of this book with devotees of both Jnandev and Chakradhar, with Varkaris and Mahanubhavs. I make no pretense to a level of understanding of these texts that comes from the deep religious convictions possessed by my generous interlocutors. I appreciate their time in explaining these texts and ideas to me. Their faith is deeply moving and humbling, and I offer them my profound gratitude.
Among the many scholars to whom I owe thanks, I would like to single out a few people in particular whose work is central to my own in this book.
My studies of the Mahanubhavs, their texts, and of Chakradhar are possible solely because of the pioneering work of Anne Feldhaus. Anne’s presence—through her brilliant books and articles and her generous advice along the way—was constant during the writing of this book. She read the final manuscript, making it stronger with many essential critiques and insights. And though Anne doesn’t agree with all I’ve written here, I presented this book to her as one submits one’s work to one’s guru. Thank you, Anne.
This is a book that would not be possible without Sheldon Pollock’s scholarship over the last several years, and I draw inspiration from the extraordinary depth and scope of his work. His intellectual curiosity knows no bounds. Shelly read parts of this manuscript and supported its publication, even though we disagree here and there. Yet, when I do disagree with him, it is with the greatest respect for a scholar I deeply admire.
A word of thanks to my teachers, particularly Rachel McDermott, Fran Pritchett, and Elizabeth Castelli. My formative time with them continues to shape my work.
To Jack Hawley, who has remained my adviser in several capacities for twenty years, who read this work in various forms, and who has carried on conversations with me about all aspects of my scholarship, even the most arcane, with a generosity and intellectual warmth that is singular—thank you Jack.
As the book went to press, I learned of the death of my teacher and friend, Eleanor Zelliot (1926–2016). Eleanor inspired my interest in issues of caste, gender, and social justice. I am forever grateful, dear Eleanor.
To my family, thanks seems too small a thing. India is a home to me because of my family and friends there. To the Paranjapes, Leles, Baiskars, and Kales I express my thanks for letting me into their family. This has been the best part of my “research.” William Novetzke, Mary Novetzke, Danielle Greene, Dan Greene, Vidula Kale, Michael Coggins, Minal Kale, Stephen Pierson, and the beloved
bacche: Jahnavi, Nishka, Meha, Bhairavi, Amanda, and Catherine: I am thankful for this lovely, warm, artifice we call family—it means everything to me.
I have special thanks to offer to my mother-in-law, Shobha Kale. She and I discussed and worked on almost all the translations in this book drawn from the Jñāneśvarī and many of the inscriptions as well. Though she’s a “real doctor,” not like me, she entered my world too, and allowed me to enter her world, particularly her reverence for the Jñāneśvarī, as well—and I think we not only produced some excellent translations but we had a great time doing it. I wish for all jāvi to have such luck!
To my children—Sahil and Siyona—you tolerated many times when I could not go for that bike ride, have that tickle fest or that dance party, read that story to you, or just contemplate the universe with you, as you two so love to do. Books make for bad Babas, and I know, sooner not later, I will have rather had all those moments with you, or even just a single one of them, than a hundred more books like this one.
My partner Sunila S. Kale read this book several times in many forms and endured endless conversations about it. But more than this, our constant conversation and my reading of her work is the strongest influence on my own. She’s in every word here, even those words with which she disagrees. But more than this: she makes all the rest of it possible, this life of love and thought with her that I cherish.
Seattle, Washington