Special Guest Lecture on ‘Narrative Analysis of Bhāgavata Purāṇa’ by Dr. Shakuntala Gawde, Associate Professor, Department of Sanskrit, University of Mumbai
About the Speaker
Dr. Shakuntala Gawde, Associate Professor and former Head in the Department of Sanskrit at the University of Mumbai, is an accomplished academician, researcher, and educator with a dedicated tenure spanning over a decade. A gold medallist in both B.A. and M.A. (Sanskrit), Dr. Gawde’s M.Phil and PhD is also in Sanskrit. Her areas of interest span across Vedānta, Hinduism, Religious Studies, Purāṇa Studies, and Aesthetics and has lent her expertise as a resource person to courses on Upaniṣads, Leadership Science, and Aesthetics. In recognition of her outstanding contributions, Dr. Shakuntala Gawde was honoured with the prestigious Academisthan Best Teacher of the Year Award in September 2021. Her extensive publications, include a recent book titled ‘Narrative Analysis of Bhagavata Purana’, 3 edited books and 3 co-edited books apart from articles in national and international journals, and chapters in encyclopedias. Her completed projects include those on ‘Bhāgavata Purāṇa’ and ‘Govardhanamahatmya’.
Abstract of the Lecture
Bhāgavata Purāṇa is the most popular text in the Purāṇic genre. Bhāgavata Purāṇa is a storehouse of legends, discourses, philosophical theories and bhakti principles. Bhāgavata is woven into the structure of the ‘grand narrative’ wherein stories are intricately woven through the placement of interlocutors within a grand narrative framework. The Bhāgavata is characterised as a multilevel narrative, often embedding two to three narrative layers within a single storyline, thereby creating a complex and dynamic storytelling structure. It is a ‘multilayered’ and ‘multidimensional’ narrative, as it has attracted commentators from different schools of philosophy to write commentaries.
The lecture will explore different narrative styles and techniques used in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, demonstrating how these tools aid in decoding its textual depth. Through selected examples, the discussion will illustrate the applicability of Indian and Western narrative frameworks.