Theologising the Inaugural Verse: Śleṣa Reading in Rāmāyaṇa Commentary

摘要

In full-length commentaries from the early second millennium, intellectuals from the Śrīvaiṣṇava community of South India recast the Rāmāyaṇa within the frame of a shared metaphysics oriented towards the paramount overlordship of the god Viṣṇu. By employing innovative strategies and incorporating the performative modes of temple oratory, these intellectuals sought to transform the paradigmatic exemplar of Sanskrit literary culture into a soteriological work within the conceptual categories of Sanskrit aesthetics. This paper examines the procedures and purposes of this hermeneutic project as evident in the sixteenth-century commentary of Govindarāja.