recite the sacred text known as the Ve d a
in order to humble the pride of the local
brahminpriests. Jnaneshvar’s greatest
work was the Jnaneshvari, a Marathi-
language commentary on the Bhagavad
Gita, one of the most influential Hindu
religious texts. He is also famous for his
songs in praise of Vithoba, which the
Varkaris still sing today. For further
information see G. A. Deleury, The Cult
of Vithoba, 1960; and Justin Abbott and
Narhar R. Godbole (trans.), Stories of
Indian Saints, 1982.
Jnaneshvari
Marathi-language commentary on the
Bhagavad Gita, one of the most influen-
tial Hindu religious texts. The
Jnaneshvari was composed by the
Maharashtrian poet-saint Jnaneshvar,
whose intentions in writing it were to
make the Bhagavad Gita accessible to
the common people, who were not able
to read the text in the original Sanskrit,
and to give his own learned interpreta-
tion of the text’s contents. This emphasis
on giving ordinary people full access to
religious life was one of the consistent
themes in the (devotional) bhaktimove-
ment and, like many other figures,
Jnaneshvar is reported to have faced
considerable opposition from the brah-
minpriests, who thought that such
advanced teachings should not be
revealed to the common public.
Jogi
(variant of yogi, “adept”) An epithet for
various sorts of ascetics. It often refers
to the Nathpanthis, followers of the
teacher Gorakhnath. Their designation
as “jogis” comes from the fact that the
practice of yoga, particularly hatha
yoga, is one of the major emphases in
their religious life. The term may also
refer to the Aghoris.
Joking Relationships
Within the traditional Hindu joint family,
the types of relationships within a single
generation differ markedly according to
family status, particularly among the
family’s adult brothers and their wives.
As the eventual head of the family, the
oldest brother is usually portrayed as a
serious and grave authority figure,
toward whom everyone must act with
respect. The eldest brother’s wife is also
given considerable respect, but she is
also said to share a “joking relationship”
with her husband’s younger brothers, as
do all wives with their husband’s
younger brothers. Whereas womenare
expected to behave decorously toward
relatives with higher status, joking rela-
tionships have much greater freedom of
expression. These are usually character-
ized as full of banter and casual conver-
sation that would be inappropriate with
a person of higher status.Jones, Sir William
(1746–1794) Founder of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal and one of the fathers
of modern Indology. Jones came to
Calcutta from England in 1783 as a
Supreme Court judge during the gover-
norship of Warren Hastings, considered
one of the founders of the British
Empire in India. He was employed by
the East India Company, who, in its pur-
suit of trade and profit, acquired politi-
cal power over regions of India. Jones
immediately applied himself to the
study of Sanskrit, in part to discover the
particulars of traditional Hindu law,
since the East India Company’s general
policy was to allow different religious
communities to be governed by their
own traditional laws. Jones was a lin-
guistic genius who had mastered the
current and classical European lan-
guages, as well as Persian. He immedi-
ately recognized Sanskrit as a distant
relative of Greek and Latin, and through
his influence the serious study of
Sanskrit texts began. From a legal per-
spective, his most important work was a
translation of the laws of Manu(Manu
Smrti). This was one of the most impor-
tant texts in the dharma literatureand
prescribed ideal rules and regulations
for all sorts of human conduct. ThisJnaneshvari