ABSTRACT
In the introduction to his recent study of BP, Daniel P. Sheridan states that ‘in modern times the Bhāgavata has been either neglected or misunderstood by scholars of religion in the West’. 1 The charge of neglect is not easy to sustain as far as the past twenty years are concerned, since several books on BP by both Western and Indian scholars have appeared in this time. In 1968 A.S. Biswas published his linguistic study of BP, the subsequent year saw the publication in Germany of Gail’s book on bhakti in the BP and, in India, of Tripathi’s cultural study. 2 In 1970 appeared Rukmani’s critical study. She says in her introduction that it was ‘the absence of a comprehensive book … on the Bhāgavata Purāṇa’ which partly determined her choice of subject. 3 Her book is comprehensive in that she touches upon a wide range of topics: bhakti, the development of Vaiṣṇavism in different parts of India, image worship and various social customs.
