God at Play, Volume 2

The oldest extant literature written in Marathi.

God at Play, or Līḷācaritra, is a remarkable biography of the medieval religious figure Chakradhar Svami. His followers, called Mahanubhavs, understand him to be an incarnation of Parameshvar, the one supreme God. Mhaimbhat, a Brahmin goldsmith who became one of Chakradhar’s most important followers, compiled this astonishingly down—to—earth religious text around 1278. It records not only Chakradhar’s ethical and theological teachings, but als...