The Gauḍiya Vaiṣṇava tradition, an important Kṛṣṇa bhakti tradition inspired by the Bengali leader Caitanya in the sixteenth century, developed a multileveled ontology of the divine name, nāman, that builds upon and reimagines in significant ways the rich reflections on the nature of language, mantras, and namans found in earlier Indian traditions—in particular, Vedic notions of mantra and Purāṇic formulations of mantra and nāman. This presentation begins with a brief analysis of three distinct constructions of Vedic mantras in different discursive environments that provide the historical and conceptual foundation for the post-Vedic formulations of Purāṇic and Gauḍīya sources: the epistemology of cognition of the Vedic mantras in the Ṛg-Veda Saṃhitā; the cosmogonic function of the Vedic mantras in the Brāhmaṇas’ discourse of sacrifice; and the soteriological function of root mantras such as Om in the Upaniṣads’ discourse of knowledge. I will then turn to a consideration of Purāṇic traditions and will focus more specifically on constructions of mantra and nāmanin the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the consummate textual monument to Kṛṣṇa bhakti. Finally, I will provide an extended analysis of the contributions of the early Gauḍīya authorities, who appropriate and recast Vedic and Purāṇic formulations by ascribing the ontology of the divine name and the practice of nāma-saṃkīrtana a pivotal role in the Gauḍīya bhakti-śāstra, discourse of bhakti, and in the associated regimen of sādhana-bhakti that defines the distinctive tradition of the Gauḍīya bhakta-saṅgha, community of devotees.
This presentation begins with a brief analysis of three distinct constructions of Vedic mantras: the epistemology of cognition of the Vedic mantras in the Ṛg-Veda Saṃhitā; the cosmogonic function of the Vedic mantras in the Brāhmaṇas’ discourse of sacrifice; and the soteriological function of root mantras such as Om in the Upaniṣads’ discourse of knowledge. I will then turn to a consideration of Purāṇic traditions and will focus more specifically on constructions of mantra and nāman in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the consummate textual monument to Kṛṣṇa bhakti. Finally, I will discuss the ontology of the divine name and the practice of nāma-saṃkīrtana within the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava discourse of bhakti, and in the associated regimen of sādhana-bhakti that defines the distinctive tradition of the Gauḍīya community of devotees inspired by the Bengali leader Caitanya in the sixteenth century.