commentarial literature known as
nibandhas(“collections”). The compil-
ers of the nibandhas culled references
on a particular theme from the Vedas,
dharma literature, puranas, and other
authoritative religious texts, placing
these excerpts into a single volume.
Each of the Viramitrodaya’s twenty-two
sections is devoted to a particular aspect
of Hindu life, such as daily practice,
worship, gift-giving (dana), vows, pil-
grimage, penances (prayashchitta),
purification, death rites (antyeshthi
samskara), and law; the final section is
devoted to final liberation of the soul
(moksha). In addition to citing the
relevant scriptural passages, Mitra
Mishra also provides extensive com-
mentary of his own. His work became
an important source for later legal inter-
pretation, particularly in eastern India.
Mleccha
Sanskrit word traditionally used to
designate a foreigner or a non-Aryan.
The word mleccha is also used to
indicate a person who has become
an outcaste and thus has no place in
established society. The verb from which
the word mlecchais derived means
“to speak confusedly or indistinctly,”
indicating someone who has not yet
mastered the language.
Mnemonics
The best-known example of a mnemonic
system comes in the study of the Vedas,
the oldest Hindu religious texts.
Traditionally, the power of the Vedas is
not derived from the meaning of the
words, but in the very sounds them-
selves. It was imperative for the text to
be conveyed without error. This posed a
significant challenge. The Vedas have
been orally transmitted by an elaborate
system of learning strategies, keeping
the text unchanged for over three thou-
sand years, identical in all parts of India.
This remarkable feat was achieved by
memorizing the text in differing pat-
terns: as verses, as the individual words,
as pairs of words in sequential succes-
sion (ab, bc, cd, and so forth), and
according to some reports, backwards.
The ultimate aim of all of these patterns
was to render the text into sheer sound,
rather than phrases with definite syn-
tactic meaning, since the latter could be
subject to substitutions. Although this
effort has succeeded in preserving the
sacred sounds, in many cases the mean-
ings of these words have become
unclear, especially for words which
appear only once. This problem was evi-
dent as early as the fifth century B.C.E.,
when Yaska, the grammarian, wrote the
Nirukta, explaining the meaning of
many of these words.Modes of Devotion
Devotion to God (bhakti) has been the
most important force in Hindu religion
for more than the past millennium.
However, the form and tone of this
devotion have varied considerably in
different times and places. The most
thorough articulation of different possi-
ble modes of devotion was done by
Rupa Goswami, who lived in the mid-
sixteenth century. Rupa was a devotee
(bhakta) of the god Krishnaand a mem-
ber of the Gaudiya Vaishnavareligious
community founded by the Bengali
saint Chaitanya. Devotion to Krishna is
characterized by the emphasis on rela-
tionship, particularly the visualization
of mythic incidents from Krishna’s life,
through which one can enter his divine
world, and thus take part in his divine
“play” (lila) with the world.
Rupa distinguished five such modes,
which were characterized by growing
emotional intensity. The first was the
“peaceful mode” (shanta bhava), in
which the devotee found mental peace
through the realization of complete
identity with Brahman. This was seen as
an inferior mode, since the deitywas
seen impersonally, and the devotee had
no personal relationship with God. The
other four modes were based on human
relationships, from the most distant to
the most intimate and loving: masterModes of Devotion