6
6
4
4
1
1
.
.
I
I
N
N
T
T
R
R
O
O
D
D
U
U
C
C
T
T
I
I
O
O
N
N
T
T
O
O
A
A
N
N
I
I
N
N
C
C
A
A
R
R
N
N
A
A
T
T
I
I
O
O
N
N
(iii)
The form or body assumed is non-natural and incorruptible (aprākṛta) and
has nothing of the grossness of earthly forms (apārthiva). It is an intelligen-
tial essence (jñānātmā), but it consists of a Vigraha or concrete form of pure
existence, bliss and intelligence (saccidānanda-vigraha) like the form of the
deity himself. The Avatāra thus retains absolute knowledge, absolute exis-
tence and absolute bliss, as well as omnipotence and the power to grant sal-
vation (mokṣadatva-svabhāva)….
(iv)
The Avatāra assumes human nature in two ways… the shape and form of
man (manuṣya-saṃniveśatva) and the ordinary human acts (manuṣya ceṣṭā).
(v)
The humanity is real, but it is human reality without its imperfections.…
(vi)
As the Avatāra retains divine power and perfection he is capable of perform-
ing superhuman (atimartya) acts.
(vii)
Although some of the Avatāras appeared in past ages, yet being eternal they
are still worthy of worship. Each Avatāra has not only a distinctive form or
body, but also a place of habitation in a particular Loka [“world”].
(viii)
The Avatāra is a partial descent or manifestation in the sense that the deity
exists at the same time in his essential and complete form. The obvious ob-
ject of descent is to do good to the world, but since the supreme being can-
not be regarded as having a particular motive, the descent occurs as an as-
pect of his grace (Prasāda), which is a display of his inherent Śakti, to his
faithful devotee….
…the Vrndāvana [Kṛṣṇa] legend is taken not as religious myth but as reli-
gious history.
It would be better to allot Parrinder’s work some—at least provisional—validity,
than to dismiss it “by default” as Soifer does. I will thus comment briefly on some
of Parrinder’s “characteristics” at appropriate stages below, and will address others
of them in detail in my Discussion chapter (Chapter 6). And I will much cite
other, less problematic, aspects of his work throughout my study
19
.
The general issue here has been much debated by academics under the head-
ings of “emics” (‘categories regarded as meaniful and appropriate by the native
members of the culture whose beliefs and behaviours are being studied’) and “etics”
(‘analyses expressed in terms of the conceptual schemes and categories regarded as
meaningful and appropriate by the community of scientific observers’). There is no
space here for me to summarize even the key points of this debate; I will settle for
19
NB I will, however, largely exclude from my consideration a number of other works that primarily
take a philosophical or theological approach to ideas of the avatar—those, for example, of Heinrich
Barlage (1977), James Crowe (1989) and N.V.George (1997). (For references to a few other similar
studies see Daniel Bassuk (1987b:xii)). Whilst other scholars to whom I will refer (Whaling, Par-
rinder, Bassuk) hail from explicitly Christian backgrounds, and yet others (Sheth) focus on philoso-
phical issues, they include in their studies extensive historical perspectives on the avatar—obviously
of some relevance to me.
1
1
.
.
3
3
E
E
x
x
p
p
l
l
a
a
i
i
n
n
i
i
n
n
g
g
E
E
m
m
b
b
o
o
d
d
i
i
m
m
e
e
n
n
t
t
6
6
5
5
agreeing with James Lett (1990:138), from whom I have taken these italicized
definitions, and who concludes that: ‘Ultimately, the value of emics and etics must
lie in their utility, or the extent to which they contribute to our understanding of
sociocultural phenomena’. Mine will very much be a pragmatic approach, and, in
this, I see no reason for preferring emic over etic categories—much recent schol-
arly preaching to the contrary notwithstanding. The points listed above by De, for
example, obviously closely reflect (some) traditional ideas, but they are not very
suitable for my purposes. They are more convoluted than Parrinder’s characteris-
tics, and no better in encapsulating the great diversity of Indian avatar traditions.
And, other emic lists drawn from particular localized or individualized traditions
are similarly problematic
20
. Sathya Sai Baba’s own list of sixteen ‘marks’ of the
avatar (p.116 below) has almost no significance as an objective description. We
will see that he himself is extremely inconsistent in relating the details of this list,
and, moreover, that the various details he includes are drawn from works that
originated in contexts that are traditionally unconnected with the avatars .
As I indicated earlier, in the time that I have been writing this thesis, major ad-
vances have been made in the area of information technology
21
, and these, if used
wisely
22
, can provide great (if “etic”) assistance to almost any scholarly endeavour.
CAQDAS, “computer aided qualitative data analysis” is an emerging field
23
, and
one upon which I would have drawn more, had I encountered it earlier in the
course of my studies. As it is, I have been fortunate that the majority of my
sources for this study, both primary and secondary, are available in digital form.
Just one month into my project, the Sathya Sai Organisation made available online
all thirty-odd volumes of Sathya Sai Baba’s collected speeches (“Sathya Sai
Speaks”). I later discovered online versions of all of Sathya Sai Baba’s writings
(the “Vahini” series) and, later still, his discourses to students (“Summer Showers”)
and some of his most famous “interviews”. Using this material then, and a variety
of digital search software (and other resources, such as the online “index” to
Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings—mentioned earlier, p.6), what I did, initially, was to
20
See, e.g.: Daniel Bassuk (1987a), p.79; Adwaita P. Ganguly (1996), p.40.
21
E.g.: Google has grown from a gimmick (in which one might just as well click the “I’m feeling
lucky” button) to an access-point for the full text of millions of academic works (via Google Books,
Amazon, Oxford Scholarship Online, JSTOR etc.); Wikipedia, which did not exist when I began this
study, has become an authoritative source of concise information on all manner of subjects.
22
See John Brockington (1998), pp.519ff. for a discussion of some of potential benefits and pitfalls
resulting from the use of electronic texts in studying the traditional Indian epics.
23
See, e.g., Uwe Flick (2006).