Rūpa Gosvāmī’s Dūta-kāvyas

Classical and Modern Sensibilities

Abstract

The article, titled Rupa Gosvami's Duta-kavyas: Classical and Modern Sensibilities by Jan K Brzezinski, explores the dating and literary significance of Rupa Gosvami's early poetic works, particularly Hamsaduta and Uddhava-sandesa. It discusses the arguments for their pre-Caitanya authorship, primarily the lack of dedication to Sri Caitanya, and then presents counterarguments, especially for Uddhava-sandesa, based on internal textual evidence and geographical knowledge of Vraja.

The article then delves into the duta-kavya genre, characterized by a messenger conveying a love message, and compares Rupa Gosvami's works with Kalidasa's Meghaduta, highlighting Rupa's unique emotional involvement with sacred geography and his deeper exploitation of Puranic themes. Furthermore, it addresses Sushil Kumar De's critique of Gaudiya kavya, which often dismisses it as artificial and imitative. The author argues for evaluating Sanskrit poetry based on its own aesthetic theories, particularly the concept of rasa, a blissful state of aesthetic rapture. The article concludes by emphasizing how Rupa Gosvami's works transformed Sanskrit literary conventions to serve Krishna bhakti, aiming for a "sacred rapture" that integrates literary experience with devotional sentiment, thereby inspiring a new wave of Sanskrit and vernacular literature in Bengal.