Research work of
Dr. Barthwal was used by many scholars and even today all research student(in hindi) read his books and take notes.
Nirvikar Singh (University of California, Santa Cruz CA 95064) mentioned about Dr Barthwal in his first draft in September 1999 on - Guru Nanak and the ‘sants’ : A Reappraisal
Below are some abstract where he used Dr. Barthwals Name in his first draft:
” The idea that there is a coherent body of Sant teachings (sant mat) and that individual Sants belong to a common spiritual line of descent (sant parampara) distinct from that of sectarian Vaishnavas did not become fully crystallized until the mid-nineteenth century. Originating in certain late esoteric Sant circles more self-conscious about belonging to a tradition than were the earlier Sants, it has however gained general acceptance among the members of Sant panths (communities of shared belief and practice)….The pioneering works in this regard were Pitamber D. Barthwal’s The Nirguna School of Hindi Poetry (1936) and Parashuram Chaturvedi’s historical study published in 1952, Uttari Bharat ki sant-parampara….The more recent work of Charlotte Vaudeville and W.H. McLeod also reflects this point of view, as does the present volume. (pp. 3-4)”
The criticism of Sikh writers as nonscholarly believers, while the constructs of writers such as Barthwal and Chaturvedi are accepted as relatively objective, displays a striking inconsistency. The Orientalist problem is more general than just one of Westerners writing on the East!
“The ‘Sant tradition’ as construct
Mark Juergensmeyer (1987) provides a summary of the ‘central Sant motifs’, based on the work of P. D. Barthwal (1936). Barthwal is acknowledged as a pioneer in attempting to identify “the major themes of Kabir, Nanak, Dadu and others of the ‘nirguna school’”, whose effort “has not been superseded”. Briefly, these themes are:
1. The Absolute as Nirguna
2. The Interior Path of Spirituality
3. The Necessity of a Guru
4. The Fellowship of Satsang
Much of Juergensmeyer’s elucidation of these themes draws on the modern Radhasoami example, though he also discusses Kabir and Guru Nanak. Certainly, these four broad themes can be found in the teachings of Guru Nanak, and we return to this concordance later in the paper”
As to the Rajasthani and Panjabi forms in the sakhis, Barthwal, like Shukla, is of the opinion that they reflect “the language of renunciates” discourse (sadhukkari bhasha), prevalent at the time. Actually the language of Kabir’s sakhis resembles the language of the Gorakh-banis…(p. 121)
Though agreeing with Shukla and Barthwal about the influence of the Nath-panthi language and style on the language of Kabir’s sakhis, Chaturvedi remarks that many such sakhis appear directly influenced by folk-songs and ballads in dohas. (p. 122)
"
.....Barthwal’s book is permeated with the attitudes illustrated by the above quotes. His entire introductory chapter, in fact, frames the ‘Nirguna School’ as something like a purification of traditional Hinduism in the face of an antagonistic cultural invader, but one that did not reject all the essence of Hinduism. In his view, even the Sufis’ “monistic pantheism was a gift from the Hindu philosophy” (p. 9)
"To summarize, Barthwal and Chaturvedi are used as authorities by Western scholars seeking to construct a posteriori a medieval ‘Sant tradition’, and to situate Guru Nanak within it. Aside from the direct shortcomings in the arguments used, the sources are also problematic. This is especially so in light of attempts to respond to criticism by constructing false oppositions between ‘scholars’ and ‘believers’ or ‘historians’ and ‘theologians’, when the sources used by Western scholars are themselves subject to the same potential criticism"
References
Barthwal, Pitamber D., (1936), The Nirguna School of Hindi Poetry, Banaras: Indian Book Shop, republished with minor changes as Traditions of Indian Mysticism: based upon Nirguna School of Hindi Poetry, New Delhi: Heritage Publishers, 1978.
If you have not read abt Dr. barthwal earlier then click at this link - mera chintan blog:
http://merachintan.blogspot.com/2009/09/blog-post_30.html (यंहा आपको अन्य लोगो की टिप्पणिया भी मिलेगी )
एक और लिन्क पेश कर रहा हूं स्तम्भ चित्रावली से वंहा भी डा. बड्थ्वाल जी की बारे मे पढने को मिलेगा आप लोगो को तथा सभी मित्रो की टिप्पणिया भी.
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