Paradoxical Authorship: Tracing Authority in the Gorakhbāṇī
How do we understand an author who may or may not have existed hundreds of years ago, but is necessary to true comprehension of a text? The Gorakhbāṇī, the teachings of Gorakh, is a philosophical text believed to have been composed sometime in the seventeenth century. Amongst other things, it stressed the necessity of a teacher or guru to understand true meaning stating, "The word of truth is a golden calculation. He who is without a teacher is an imposter, the disciple of the teacher remains virtuous. He who is wandering without a guru falls into vice" (Bathwal, Gorakh-Bānī, 149). However, the guru that this text is attributed to is the semi-legendary Indian ascetic Guru Gorakhnāth who is believed to have lived hundreds of years previously, if at all. This problem creates specific difficulties when it comes to understanding the authorship of this pre-modern Indian text. In this essay I argue that the guru that is discussed throughout this text needs to be equated with the author of the text. While his existence is imperative to the understanding of the truth of this text, he is also necessary nonexistent. Building upon the theories of Roland Barthes and Michele Foucault, the aim of this paper is to suggest than the authorship of the Gorakhbāṇī should be understood according to its own paradoxical rubric.
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Digital revista |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas
2012
|
| Online Access: | http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0185-30822012000200011 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|