Bhaktirasabodhini

(“Awakening the Delight in Devotion”)
Name of a commentary on the
Bhaktamal of Nabhadas; this commentary was written by Priyadas in 1712. In
the Bhaktamal, Nabhadas had given
brief six-line biographies of over two
hundred contemporary bhakti (devotional) figures. These biographies are
notably free of astonishing and miraculous events and usually stress the devotee’s personal qualities, to serve as a
model for others. In the
Bhaktirasabodhini, Priyadas gave greatly expanded accounts for each devotee
mentioned by Nabhadas, often narrating amazing stories to which Nabhadas
made no reference. In his biography of
the poet-saint Ravidas, Nabhadas drew
from the texts written by the biographer
Anantadas, but in other cases his
sources are not clear. The accounts in
the Bhaktirasabodhini are suspect as
genuine biographies of these saints,
given Priyadas’s penchant for miraculous events and his chronological distance from his subjects. Still, the text is
extremely valuable as a mirror of his
time, and careful analysis can reveal
much about contemporary religious
tensions and issues.