QUOTE: Potency of Othering

 King, A.S. and Brockington, J.L. ed. (2005). The intimate other: love divine in Indic religions. Orient Longman:India

[Pofessor John Brockington] demonstrates on how Bhakti must be understood through its historical and social context.  He shows how the narratives of the Mahabarata and Ramayana, the persons of Krishna and Rama, and even the characterisations of the original authors were transformed by understandings of bhakti.  The poems were originally heroic poems that grew over the years of retelling to incorporate religious and didactic material, especially after Rama and Krishna were recognized as avatars of Vishnu.  Professor Brockington further argues that the Puranas... further developed the emotional bhakti in their summaries of the ancient stories.  He then argues that it is the rise of the Bhakti movement in the strict sense that transformed the way in which Rama and Krishna and so the epics themselves are regarded.  The vernacular adaptations of the epics and their dramatic presentations become a potent medium for the transmission of ideas.  Tulsida’s Ramcharitmanas gives the name of Rama and the concept of  ramarajya greater prominence and reflects the increasing popularity of Hanuman.