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Pradyumna-Kāmadeva in the Major Vaiṣṇava Purāṇas
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Abstract
Chapter 4 documents Pradyumna’s changing identity and significance in the context of the evolving Vaiṣṇava tradition, chiefly through an analysis of the abduction narrative as it is retold in the Viṣṇu, Bhāgavata, and Brahmavaivarta Purāṇas. Without radically changing the original Harivaṃśa scene, the sources reveal that three characteristics of Pradyumna have begun to emerge through a process of mutual fertilization: he is Kāmadeva, the handsome God of Love incarnate; he is a master of māyā or illusion; and he is a double of his father Kṛṣṇa. Important shifts in the meaning and role of bhakti (devotion) in Kṛṣṇa worship between the fifth and tenth centuries ce are identified as key factors underlying these developments. Particularly, Pradyumna’s identity as both the God of Love reborn and the double of Kṛṣṇa becomes hugely significant for the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, which is deeply invested in a theology of Kṛṣṇa as a magnetic object of desire.
Title: Pradyumna-Kāmadeva in the Major Vaiṣṇava Purāṇas
Description:
Abstract
Chapter 4 documents Pradyumna’s changing identity and significance in the context of the evolving Vaiṣṇava tradition, chiefly through an analysis of the abduction narrative as it is retold in the Viṣṇu, Bhāgavata, and Brahmavaivarta Purāṇas.
Without radically changing the original Harivaṃśa scene, the sources reveal that three characteristics of Pradyumna have begun to emerge through a process of mutual fertilization: he is Kāmadeva, the handsome God of Love incarnate; he is a master of māyā or illusion; and he is a double of his father Kṛṣṇa.
Important shifts in the meaning and role of bhakti (devotion) in Kṛṣṇa worship between the fifth and tenth centuries ce are identified as key factors underlying these developments.
Particularly, Pradyumna’s identity as both the God of Love reborn and the double of Kṛṣṇa becomes hugely significant for the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, which is deeply invested in a theology of Kṛṣṇa as a magnetic object of desire.
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