bondage of the soul was caused by the
primal ignorance known as avidya, but
it could be erased by a combination of
action and awareness (jnanakar-
masamucchaya). The basic philosophi-
cal problem for Bhartrprapancha
and his followers came from their belief
that Brahman was actually transformed
into both the world and the Self, a
philosophical outlook known as parina-
mavada. Since they believed that
Brahman underwent real changes, it
was subject to bondage and ignorance.
This position was untenable and unac-
ceptable from a religious perspective
because Brahman was deemed to be
perfect and unchanging. This difficulty
may account for the school’s relatively
short life.
Bharud
The name for a specific genre of bhakti
(devotional) poetry, found particularly
among the Varkari Panth, a religious
community centered around the wor-
shipof the Hindu god Vithobaat his
temple at Pandharpur, in the modern
state of Maharashtra. The bharud is
essentially a dramatic poem in which
the speaker takes on one or more roles
to convey the message of devotion to
God. It was especially favored by the
poet-saint Eknath, who used the genre
to adopt the personae of women,
untouchables, Muslims, and other mar-
ginal people. In modern times these
bharuds have become the basis for pop-
ular dramas, usually performed during
the biannual Varkari pilgrimage to
Pandharpur. While singing the songs of
the earlier saints during a pilgrimage is
an important religious act, these mod-
ern renditions are mainly for entertain-
ment. The actors playing the roles in
these bharuds frequently add in their
own words and actions, which are often
quite bawdy.
Bhashya
(“commentary”) Any commentary,
whether on a text or an oral teaching.
The need for commentary was presup-
posed in most texts on Hindu philoso-
phy as well as in the secret ritual
tradition known as tantra. Philosophical
works were often nothing more than
collections of brief aphorisms, which
were intentionally kept short to
facilitate memorization but which
clearly needed further explanation. In
the case of tantra, commentary was
essential because the texts were written
using coded language to conceal their
contents from the uninitiated. This
may have been in the form known as
sandhabhasha, which often uses
erotic language to indicate religious
practice, or it may simply have been
a technical language in which
everyday words had contextual meanings.Bhaskara
In Indian philosophy, an eighth-cen-
tury proponent of the Bhedabhada
(“identity-in-difference”) school. The
Bhedabhada position identified three
levels of being: the Ultimate Reality
known as Brahman, the “witness”
consciousness (sakshin) in the
human being, and the world. They
paradoxically asserted that these three
levels were identical, yet different.
Thus the world is identical to Brahman
but subject to change and decay,
unlike Brahman. In the same way,
while each human soul is identical
to Brahman, it is also subject to
bondage and reincarnation (samsara),
unlike Brahman. The bondage of the
soul was caused by the primal
ignorance known as avidya, but
it could be erased by a combination
of action and awareness (jnanakar-
masamucchaya). The basic philosoph-
ical problem for the Bhedabhada
school was that because they believed
that Brahman was actually trans-
formed into the world and the Self
(parinamavada), it followed that
Brahman was subject to bondage and
ignorance. This idea was difficult to
defend, since the transcendence of
Brahman was well established byBhaskara