Neelima Shukla-Bhatt has focused her research on prominent religious figures such as Narasinha Mehta, Mira, and Gandhi, who all hail from western India. Shukla-Bhatt, a native of Gujarat, brings to her research a depth of knowledge in the language, history, and culture of that region. The first part of the book (up to Chapter 4) is based on her Reference Shukla-Bhatt2003 doctoral dissertation. In what follows, I summarize the book chapter by chapter, and then offer three critical remarks.

In her introduction, Shukla-Bhatt provides an overview of the region, language, and historical background of the saint-poet Narasinha, who was born as a Nagar Brahmin in the city of Junagadh in the fifteenth century. The Narasinha tradition is theologically distinctive in its integration of Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava and nirguṇa trends, and it is also noteworthy for its challenges to caste hierarchy. Shukla-Bhatt explains that she uses the classical Indian concept of rasa or aesthetic delight as her main tool for analyzing the bhakti tradition, a subject about which presently we will have more to say.

The first chapter explores Narasinha's popular lyrics on Krishna-līlā. While Shukla-Bhatt points out that the poet drew many themes from classical Sanskrit works such as the Bhāgavata Purā ṇa and the Gītagovinda, she argues that Narasinha's poems also contain Gujarat folk elements that would have made them especially familiar to the local audience.

The second chapter examines the jñān-bhakti corpus attributed to Narasinha. The songs belonging to this corpus include instructions regarding the nature of the spiritual path, and moral teachings such as the rejection of gender- and caste-based discrimination. This corpus includes the famous song Vai ṣṇavajana to, which was Gandhi's favorite.

The third chapter examines hagiographies of Narasinha, making reference to local Gujarati texts as well as to transregional texts such as Mahipati's Bhaktivijaya and Priyadas's Bhaktirasabodhinī. Each text incorporates local elements so that readers can relate easily to Narasinha's life and the ideal of devotion that it represents. For example, for Gujarati readers, who are known for their mercantile culture, Krishna appears as a merchant, and Narasinha's wealth of devotion is contrasted with material prosperity. This juxtaposition interrogates conventional understandings of success. These hagiographical episodes are often linked to Narasinha's songs, and thus narratives and songs complement each other to enhance the aesthetic experience of rasa for the audience.

The fourth chapter explores the musical and performative aspects of Narasinha's lyrics. Narasinha was one of the earliest known poets to compose songs in the Gujarati vernacular. His songs are popularly sung in communal bhajan settings. As this bhajan singing develops, the rhythm typically becomes quicker, heightening the emotional experience of the participants. Shukla-Bhatt also provides examples of the use of Narasinha's songs in dance performances. She points out that due to their moral and aesthetic appeal, Narasinha's lyrics are sung and danced not only in a religious context but also in a broader cultural context.

Then, in the fifth chapter, Shukla-Bhatt examines various perceptions of Narasinha that developed in the course of time. Narasinha was not incorporated into the Pushtimarg or Swaminarayan traditions, the two most influential Vaishnava schools in Gujarat. This was partly due to theological differences, yet both traditions held high regard for Narasinha, incorporating aspects of his teachings that were compatible with their own. Beyond Gujarat, Narasinha's songs became popular in Rajasthan. Furthermore, they have been echoed in Ismaili devotional songs (gināns), demonstrating Narasinha's appeal beyond the Hindu fold. In recognition of this broad range of influence, modern academic scholarship on Gujarati literature since the nineteenth century has bestowed upon Narasinha the title ādikavi, that is, the “first poet,” of the Gujarati language. In so doing, scholars have recognized the literary and secular merits of Narasinha's songs in addition to their religious value.

In the sixth chapter of her book, Shukla-Bhatt explores Gandhi's engagement with Narasinha's legacy, focusing on his use of the song Vai ṣṇavajana to, and the term Harijan. While Gandhi was attracted to Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity, his Jain mentor Raychandbhai recommended that he explore the path of bhakti as represented by Narasinha. As a native of Gujarat, Gandhi was familiar with the saint-poet's hagiographical narratives. Despite his birth as a Brahmin, Narasinha associated with people of low-caste status in order to sing devotional songs with them. Since Narasinha's life stories and his songs had moral appeal and aesthetic value, Gandhi represented Narasinha as the embodiment of moral virtue, and used this image of the great Gujarati poet in his fight against untouchability.

The book's final chapter explores popular culture as ‘a site of meaning making’ and examines how the Narasinha tradition is portrayed in it, both in audio form (CDs and audio cassettes) and in audio-visual form (film, TV serial, and YouTube).

This book is the first monograph on Narasinha in English. Hence it is a major contribution to the academic study of Hindu devotional (bhakti) traditions in the early modern and the modern periods. Nevertheless, the following three points require some consideration.

First, it is unfortunate that Shukla-Bhatt's engagement with the concepts of rasa and bhakti-rasa is rather superficial, considering her statement, ‘in this book rasa is used as the main tool for analysis' (p. 21). For the analysis of rasa, she refers to Bharata (second century CE), Ānandavardhana (ninth century CE), and Abhinavagupta (eleventh century CE). As for bhakti-rasa, she treats Rūpa Gosvāmī (sixteenth century CE) as the representative. According to Shukla-Bhatt, Rūpa ‘developed a sophisticated theory of bhakti-rasa’ (p. 20). These are certainly important figures. However, Shukla-Bhatt fails to establish a clear link between Abhinavagupta and Rūpa.

In this regard, Bhojadeva, the Paramāra king in the eleventh century, could have been discussed. Bhoja developed a distinct theory of rasa that influenced sixteenth-century bhakti-rasa theorists such as Rūpa and Kavikarṇapūra.Footnote ¹ In relation to bhakti-rasa, one might have expected some discussion of the concept of rasa in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa as the text relates rasa with bhakti in many of its verses.Footnote ² Likewise, Shukla-Bhatt could have examined Vopadeva's commentary Muktāphala and Hemādri's sub-commentary Kaivalyadīpikā since these thirteenth-century works coined and articulated the concept of bhakti-rasa for the first time.Footnote ³

An awareness regarding the variety that exists among rasa and bhakti-rasa theories would have improved Shukla-Bhatt's analysis of Narasinha's songs. For example, she points out a close parallel between the experience of rasa in drama and that of bhakti-rasa in devotional singing (bhajan). However, she also states, ‘The only difference is that in drama, acting is the function of the performers, and the emergent aesthetic delight or rasa is enjoyed primarily by the audience; whereas, in bhajan singing, especially in communal settings, the performer and the audience are not necessarily different’ (p. 132). In other words, Shukla-Bhatt states that in drama the performers cannot experience rasa. This analysis is based primarily on Abhinavagupta's theory. However, it is well known that there were other rasa and bhakti-rasa theorists who argued that the actor or performer can also experience rasa.Footnote ⁴ From their perspectives, the parallel between drama and bhajan could be understood more clearly.

Second, Shukla-Bhatt's discussion of the authorship of the jñān-bhakti lyrics is less than satisfactory. Shukla-Bhatt acknowledges that the contemplative focus of the jñān-bhakti lyrics, coupled with their relatively late dating, has led some scholars to question Narasinha's authorship of these lyrics (p. 71). Nevertheless, she supports Narasinha's authorship of both the Krishna-līlā and the jñān-bhakti lyrics based on the opinion of contemporary singers that ‘the complete experience of bhakti requires both love and contemplation’ (p. 72). It is hardly justifiable to use contemporary artists' experiences to address the textual issue of dating and authorship. Her reasoning also does not answer the question of why the jñān-bhakti lyrics appear later than the Krishna-līlā lyrics, if Narasinha indeed wrote both of them.

A third matter of concern is Shukla-Bhatt's analysis of Gandhi's sexuality and his attitude toward the erotic elements in the Krishna legends: she does not capture their complexity. Shukla-Bhatt states, “Gandhi, with his focus on morality, minimized the centrality of Krishna-līlā in the saint's tradition” (p. 181). She also asserts that Gandhi, because of his stress on celibacy, was opposed to the erotic mood in devotional songs (pp. 213, 218). However, Gandhi's emphasis on celibacy did not always entail the rejection of erotic elements. Explaining the reason behind his controversial practice of sleeping naked with his female followers, Gandhi compared those ladies with the Gopīs who appeared naked in front of Krishna.Footnote ⁵ Gandhi's reference to the “stolen clothes” story depicted in Bhāgavata Purā ṇa X. 22 points to the complexity involved in his notion of celibacy, as well as to the influence of the Krishna legends on him. These are matters that Shukla-Bhatt does not adequately address.

These three points of criticism do not detract from the merits of the book, which is filled with rich analyses of many aspects of this important saint-poet. The book is highly recommended for students and researchers interested in ethnomusicology, history, South Asian studies, cultural studies, and the study of religion.Footnote ⁶