Digital Commons @ Adelphi University

Monaghan, Kellyann

Flooded House and Clothes Line

Donovan, William

Background 2

O\u27Connor, E. A.

Yasik, A. E.

Horner, S. L.

Teachers\u27 Knowledge of Special Education Laws: What Do They Know?

Weida, Courtney Lee

Bradbury, Carlee

(Re)Designing Girlhood Cultures: Case Studies in Collaboration & Creativity

Written in Her Own Voice: Ethno-educational Autobiographies of Women in Education

Williamsburg Art & Historical Center Salon Art Exhibition

McCarthy, M. J.

Kang, E.

Donavan, C.

Exploring Elementary Students\u27 Environmental Attitudes and Commitment Towards the Environment:  Grandpa, Don\u27t Put That Down the Storm Drain!

Baker, Charles Richard

Accounting and Economic Systems: A Tribute to the Work of Jacques Richard

Adeniji-Neill, Dolapo

Mungai, Anne

Written in Her Own Voice: Ethno-Educational Autobiographies of Women in Education

Kim, Hanna H.

Adelphi University
Adelphi Digital Commons
Anthropology Faculty Publications Anthropology
2016
In service of God and Geography: Tracing Five
Centuries of the Vallabhacharya Sampradaya. Book
review: Seeing Krishna in America: The Hindu
Bhakti Tradition of Vallabhacharya in India and its
Movement to the West, by E. Allen Richardson
Hanna H. Kim
Adelphi University
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.adelphi.edu/ant_pubs
Part of the Anthropology Commons
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Anthropology at Adelphi Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in
Anthropology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Adelphi Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
kherold@adelphi.edu.
Repository Citation
Kim, Hanna H., "In service of God and Geography: Tracing Five Centuries of the Vallabhacharya Sampradaya. Book review: Seeing
Krishna in America: The Hindu Bhakti Tradition of Vallabhacharya in India and its Movement to the West, by E. Allen Richardson"
(2016). Anthropology Faculty Publications. 29.
https://digitalcommons.adelphi.edu/ant_pubs/29
E. Allen Richardson. Seeing Krishna in America: The Hindu Bhakti Tradition of Vallabhacharya
in India and Its Movement to the West. Jefferson: McFarland, 2014. 240 pp. $45.00 (paper), ISBN
978-0-7864-5973-5.
Reviewed by Hanna H. Kim (Adelphi University)
Published on H-Asia (January, 2016)
Commissioned by Sumit Guha
In Service of God and Geography: Tracing Five Centuries of the Vallabha Sampradaya
The range of scholarly interest in the Vallabha Sam-
pradaya is as extensive as the path bywhich this Krishna-
centered devotional sect has evolved, thrived, and ad-
justed to shifts in power, politics, and geography over
the past five centuries.[1] Much of this scholarship is
oriented toward specialists of Indian bhakti (devotional)
movements and Sanskrit treatises and commentaries, and
those interested in the patronage relations between sec-
tarian communities, Mughal states, and Rajput king-
doms. Indeed, the Vallabha Sampradaya’s development
into an influential bhakti community is a story that illus-
trates much about Hindu sectarian community construc-
tion and the political and textual maneuvers intended
by its leaders to anchor the new Sampradaya within
the Vaishnava bhakti landscape of northern and west-
ern India. E. Allen Richardson has written a highly read-
able account of the Vallabha Sampradaya that does not
presume specialist background knowledge or familiarity
with the concept of bhakti and other common vocabu-
lary of Hindu traditions and ritual practices. Richard-
son balances his focus on the historical and material re-
alities of the Vallabha sect’s rise to wealth and power
over a vast geography with a sensitive appreciation of
the devotional practices that characterize membership in
the Sampradaya. In Seeing Krishna: The Hindu Bhakti
Tradition of Vallabhacharya in India and Its Movement to
the West, Richardson offers a portrait of movement and
mobility—of religious leaders (goswamis); iconic forms of
god (swarup-s), texts, and teachings; and of devotees—
that, in its avoidance of reductionism toWestern concep-
tions of religion and religious behavior, offers a thought-
ful historical account of how a devotional community
continues to thrive thousands of miles away from its
points of origin.
Seeing Krishna is divided into three parts, each with a
set of complementary chapters. Part 1 is concerned with
the early history, organization, theology, and ritual prac-
tices associated with the Vallabha Sampradaya, which is
also known as Pushtimarg. Part 2 takes a closer look at
the patronage networks and mutually beneficial relation-
ships that leaders of the Vallabha Sampradaya cultivated
with reigning powers during the sixteenth to nineteenth
centuries and, in so doing, that ensured the sect’s growth
and wealth. Part 3 chapters focus on the migration of
Pushtimargiya followers to the United States and Canada
and include ethnographic material collected by Richard-
son from attendance at Pushtimargiya events, conversa-
tions, and correspondence with devotees.
Richardson’s guiding framework, as he moves from
the historical materials in parts 1 and 2 to the slightly
more ethnographic content of part 3, is the metaphor of
movement, characterized by a shift in location; a “sacred
journey”; a dramatic change in social and economic cir-
cumstances necessitating a physical move; or, like Kr-
ishna in the ras lila (Krishna drama), fleeting appearances
and disappearances, and “changing locations at will” (p.
8). In this emphasis on a quality of movement as a key
characteristic of the Vallabha Sampradaya, Richardson
1
H-Net Reviews
suggests that its leaders were primed for the emergence
of strategies, and, when circumstances required it, they
demonstrated their skills to contain andmanage changes.
This sense of mobility, Richardson argues, is what ac-
counts for the Vallabha Sampradaya’s geographical shifts
within India and its later dispersal to places outside of In-
dia.
Founded by Vallabhacharya (1479-1531), the Vallabha
Sampradaya’s early history and subsequent growth was
characterized by the movement of its founder from the
south of India to the Krishna-centered region of Braj and
its surrounding villages. At Govardhan Hill in Braj, the
swarup (icon) of Krishna in the form of Shrinathji re-
veals itself, and this moment, termed by Richardson as
the “theophany,” becomes the historical, if not hagio-
graphical, beginning for the Vallabha Sampradaya. Val-
labhacharya’s successor is his son, Vitthalnath (1515-85),
whose successors are his seven sons. Through the pa-
triline connected to Vallabhacharya, the Sampradaya is
both consolidated and dispersed as each of the seven sons
is recognized as the head of a branch of the Vallabhkul
(descendants of Vallabhacharya) and associated with a
gaddi (throne, or seat of authority). The male head of
each gaddi, who is also known as goswami, is responsi-
ble for the daily care of the swarup which resides in the
haveli or mansion associated with a gaddi. Richardson’s
account of the Vallabha Sampradaya’s expansion from
Braj outward to Rajasthan and Gujarat includes histor-
ical materials that document the patronage relationships
between goswamis and various rulers. Richardson makes
a direct connection between the sites chosen for havelis
and the resources available for the support of the gaddi:
goswamis who successfully mingled and established rela-
tions with local rulers, whether Mughal or Mewari, could
receive land grants, grazing rights, and whole villages for
taxation and rent collection; and, these resources would
sustain a thriving haveli whose renown as a pilgrim-
age destination would then ensure economic gains to
the surrounding areas. Richardson sketches the expan-
sion of Pushtimargiya lines of patronage that supported
the highly aestheticized dimensions of the Pushtimargiya
bhakti, such as its pichhavai (silk scroll) paintings, elab-
orate ornamentation and dress of the Krishna swarups
(shringar), palace-like havelis, devotional poems (padas)
and songs (kirtans) for daily performance in havelis, and
the production of lavish culinary delights (bhog).
It is the devotional requirements for the care of the
Pushtimargiya swarup in each gaddi’s haveli as well as
the devotional expectations for laypersons that Richard-
son so excellently describes. For beginning students of
North Indian bhakti, Richardson’s descriptions of such
concepts as bhakti, bhava, darshan, murti, swarup, puja,
and seva are spare and yet evocative. Richardson is sensi-
tive that readers, and perhaps his own students too, may
struggle to comprehend aspects of devotional practice
that seem outside of more familiar Western categories
of religious experience. He thus guides the reader to
appreciating the theological foundation and devotional
aesthetic of Pushtimarg without overwhelming refer-
ences to texts or philosophical vocabulary. Whether
in seventeenth-century India or in twenty-first-century
United States, Pushtimargis, in the haveli and in the
home, direct devotional emphasis on the loving care of
the Krishna swarup. The desire to give and receive pushti,
or “nourishing grace,” guides the actions of the devotee.
By daily caring for the swarup, and receiving the nourish-
ing grace of Krishna, the devotee can hope to experience,
as Richardson writes, a “higher realm” (p. 38). Seva in
Pushtimarg, Richardson points out, fosters a highly inti-
mate relationship between the one serving and the object
of the service. The desired outcome for those performing
seva is the transformation of the self, that is, an onto-
logical outcome that would result in the surrendering of
the self. When the Vallabha Sampradaya travels to the
United States and Canada, it is, as Richardson observes,
the jarring clash between the imperative to succeed, to
go out into the world and achieve the “American Dream,”
and the internally motivated desire to surrender the self
and form a relationship with Krishna, that may be diffi-
cult for the younger generation to reconcile (p. 172).
Richardson’s ability to travel back and forth in a nar-
rative sense, as both an analyst of Pushtimarg, from the
perspective of a historian, and as a sensitive observer of
a tradition as it is practiced, adds to the analytical merits
of Seeing Krishna. Readers unfamiliar with the Vallabha
Sampradaya will gain an understanding of this bhakti
sect that neither overlooks its rootedness in history nor
its strategies for gaining power and wealth. Simultane-
ously, readers will gain an introduction to the texture
of Pushtimargiya devotional practices that are contextu-
alized in time and space. Pushtimarg, Richardson con-
veys, emphasizes surrender to Krishna, but this deeply
personal objective is situated within a devotional com-
munity with a long history that has directly affected its
material and political strength. For example, Richard-
son provides documentary evidence outlining how the
Vallabha Sampradaya interacted withMughal and Rajput
rulers to secure its economic stability through three cen-
turies. This interaction of Pushtimarg with Mughal and
Rajput leaders is well known and Richardson’s analysis of
2
H-Net Reviews
these complex relationships of patronage illuminates the
avenues by which a sectarian movement ensured its sur-
vival. Likewise, it is the educational background, wealth,
and social capital of the Gujarati Pushtimargiya follow-
ers that supports their plans, following migration to the
United States, to create a “sacred geography” in rural
Pennsylvania that attempts to reproduce the spatial and
sensory qualities of being in Braj, India.
Whereas patronage underwrote and fostered the
growth of the Vallabha Sampradaya in earlier centuries,
Richardson writes that it is “globalization” that shapes
“Pushtimarg in the modern world” (p. 101). Following
migration to the United States, the educated and well-to-
do Gujarati Pushtimargiya followers deployed their en-
trepreneurial skills and devotional determination to con-
struct havelis and various simulacra of the sacred geogra-
phies in India. Richardson’s focus in this last part of See-
ing Krishna is to document the variety of events that con-
stitute Pushtimargiya achievements in the United States
and Canada, including the construction of Vraj, the “spir-
itual headquarters of the Vallabha Sampradaya in the
Western world,” and numerous other havelis (p. 111).
There is no question that Pushtimargis are “seeing Kr-
ishna” in America. Richardson’s interactions with devo-
tees in various havelis and events confirms this observa-
tion; however, there are challenges to following a tradi-
tion that demands an inner surrender of self on a contin-
uous basis when the social context rewards religious be-
havior focused on “self-fulfillment” and “personal gain”
(pp. 170-171). There is the challenge of constructing a
sense of coherent community of Pushtimargiya followers
whose family ties in India are to one gaddi and goswami
but whose participation in haveli activities in the United
States may occur under the guidance and teaching of an-
other goswami and his wife or visiting members of the
Vallabhkul. There are also logistical challenges of need-
ing to bring goswamis, priests (mukhiyas), specialized
musicians and singers, cooks, and others whose services
are required for proper daily seva of the haveli swarup.
Pushtimargiya traditions, in their requirements for devo-
tional spaces and sacred geographies that are connected
to gaddis and goswamis, must find “substitutions” and
yet these are only partial (p. 176). Havelis can adopt
and have, as Richardson observes, adopted a “denomi-
national model” allowing for autonomy from the state
and for donations to be solicited (p. 179). This de-
nominational model, while financially relevant, also rests
on assumptions about religion, religious experience, and
membership. Thus Pushtimarg, according to Richard-
son, is to some extent becoming an American kind of
Hindu group, complete with summer camps, senior pro-
grams, standardized curriculum for youth, and commu-
nity events to introduce their community to those out-
side of it. These activities are also ones that other Vaish-
nava bhakti groups in the United States, such as the
BAPS (Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam) Swami-
narayan Sanstha, are supporting. This raises question
of competition as a basis for possible changes in how
Pushtimarg is representing itself and organizing its activ-
ities in America. Though Richardson does not probe fur-
ther on Hindu sectarian competition in the United States,
Pushtimarg as a minority Hindu group in a dominantly
non-Hindu social and religious landscape undoubtedly
has to address questions of whether its younger gener-
ation may find other sectarian Hindu groups more ap-
pealing and how its devotional practices, intended for do-
mestic spaces, can be, if at all, broadened to a wider pub-
lic. Much as the Pew Foundation study cited by Richard-
son points to Americans’ changing religious loyalties, the
matter of loyalty to Pushtimarg in America may be tested
by its followers who find its focus on household worship,
haveli-centered ritual practices, and surrendering to the
swarup of Krishna in the form of a child at odds with their
lifestyle and perceptions of self and community. Richard-
son defers from answering whether Pushtimargiya iden-
titywill change; morewisely he points to the long history
of Pushtimarg and its successful resettlement and adjust-
ments to new surroundings over five centuries.
Seeing Krishna is an excellent introduction to the
Vallabha Sampradaya, particularly commendable for its
extension of the historical lens to the North American
diaspora. Richardson’s rapport with a global network
of Pushtimargiya interlocutors has added to his ethno-
graphic material and gives a sense of how devotees in
North America are thinking about their tradition’s pres-
ence outside of India. Readers familiar with ethno-
graphic research may, however, wish for a greater sense
of Richardson’s fieldwork and for more of his interlocu-
tors’ actual voices. For example, it is not always possi-
ble to discern if the data in part 3 is paraphrased from
Richardson’s participant-observation in Pushtimargiya
events, or from experiences gathered over time. Another
matter that interrupts the easy flow of Richardson’s writ-
ing is the absence of authors’ names where their schol-
arship is directly quoted or cited in the text. For exam-
ple, Richardson provides Karen Prentiss’s very useful re-
defining of “bhakti” but the attribution to Prentiss only
appears in an endnote (p. 13). Perhaps this style choice
was intended to ease students’ reading of the text but this
concession does obscure the scholarly need to consider
3
H-Net Reviews
the sources that Richardson has used in the context of
the arguments and interpretations he is making. A fur-
ther comment on sources (other than Pushtimargiya pri-
mary source materials): the bulk of Richardson’s biblio-
graphic sources do not include more recent scholarship
on the Vallabha Sampradaya, including the superb histor-
ical, textual, and ethnographic research by Shandip Saha
and Emilia Bachrach.The absence of newer sources does
not affect the contribution of Richardson’s work. How-
ever, Seeing Krishna deserves a much broader reading au-
dience. In its next incarnation, perhaps there can be some
updating of the bibliography to complement the updat-
ing of Krishna’s movement, from Mount Govardhan, to
Nathdwara, to western Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. Fi-
nally, minor typographical errors aside, there is one date
that mystifies. The year of Vallabhacharya’s birth is ini-
tially introduced as 1470 and subsequently as 1478 (pp.
16, 19). Neither matches the more commonly used year,
1479, but perhaps the latter discrepancy is no more than
a typo and the former falls in the latitude reserved for
holy men.
Note
[1]. All spellings of non-English words follow E.
Allen Richardson’s usage, including the absence of dia-
critics in the text.
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at:
https://networks.h-net.org/h-asia
Citation: Hanna H. Kim. Review of Richardson, E. Allen, Seeing Krishna in America: The Hindu Bhakti Tradition of
Vallabhacharya in India and Its Movement to the West. H-Asia, H-Net Reviews. January, 2016.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=42594
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-
No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
4


English

In service of God and Geography: Tracing Five Centuries of the Vallabhacharya Sampradaya.  Book review: Seeing Krishna in America: The Hindu Bhakti Tradition of Vallabhacharya in India and its Movement to the West, by E. Allen Richardson

Adelphi University

Not a member yet