Printing to Instruct Vedānta through the Rāmcaritmānas

Abstract

Scholarship concerning the technology of print and print as a means of building a ‘public’ in South Asia has recently flourished (e.g. Orsini, Nijhawan, Mandhwani). However, the publication of books/periodicals on philosophical and religious topics in vernaculars like Classical and Modern Hindi is still relatively understudied. This paper intends to investigate these aspects in connection with Advaita Vedānta, a philosophical tradition considered at the centre of Hinduism since the colonial-period elaborations of it. It seeks to investigate how the technology of print influenced publications on Vedānta in vernacular through the Rāmāyaṇa–tattvam. The book is a concise selection of verses from Tulsīdās’s Rāmcaritmānas (16th c.), published in 1960s by the Ajmer-based Vedant Prachar Mandal. I will analyse the re-organization and significant selection of the Mānas for the small book format. Moreover, I will interrogate the ‘philosophical message’ attributed to the Mānas, trying to frame this in the activities of its publishing house, active at least since the independence of India in North India.