Callewaert started to publish long before the computer age, in 1974. He sent his PhD dissertation to the press typed on paper and then revised three typeset proofs. In 2009, he sent his most recent publication to the publisher on a memory stick: 2,187 pages. Many of the early articles, especially those of the pre-computer age, may no longer be easily available and for that reason eleven articles were selected and thoroughly revised for this publication (pp. 3-169). The research career of Callewaert was at the beginning strongly inspired by F. Camille Bulcke (Ranchi) and Charlotte Vaudeville (Paris). He followed their advice and worked mainly on manuscripts with Nirguna Bhakti literature, preparing critical editions and English translations. In order to complete the overall view of this research in that area, in this book are further given a summary of nine books published in the period 19892009 (pp. 171-216) and a summary of eight articles (19962011, pp. 217-44).
During his career he has photographed many manuscripts now threatened with destruction (the result is now digitized in the University of Heidelberg Library); he has prepared critical editions and translations in collaboration with several outstanding colleagues, and he realized how wrong he was in 1971 when defining his research future: to copy as many manuscripts as possible and to reconstruct the archetype, of the original Kabir and others, after a stemmatic comparison of the manuscripts. For, scribes committed errors, intentionally or unknowingly, and variant readings, Callewaert thought, should enable a researcher to establish the relationship between the manuscripts. What eventually turned out to be a wrong methodology became a very exciting adventure, when Callewaert started to discover the singers in the manuscripts. This evolution too is discussed in the present volume, From Chant to Script.
After ce 1000 an important change took place on the religious scene in India. With the arrival of the Muslims and the establishment of Muslim governments in Delhi and elsewhere, Hinduism was confronted with a powerful religious tradition that was not only supported by military strength but was also endowed with a strong tradition of mysticism. Along with this double challenge, India was invaded by a language, Persian, that became the official language of the imperial court. From ce 1300 onwards a remarkable phenomenon changed the religious history of India. Popular mystic reformers appeared, reacting vehemently against both the Brahmanical ritualism and the corruption in Islamic practices. They preached a monotheistic religion, without caste distinction, stressing very personal devotion and giving their message in the vernacular languages, not in Sanskrit.
The language of this bhakti literature is a mixed medium that, until now, has not been described in detailed grammars and dictionaries, as was the case with Sanskrit. The vocabulary of this medium was borrowed, not only from Sanskrit and Persian but also from local idioms and dialects, and wandering singers adopted many terms and expressions as they travelled from one region to another. Consequently, each fresh edition in this field requires new grammars and glossaries.
The challenge of research in this area is the fact that this literature is only accessible in manuscripts and little has been critically edited. Secondly, the language in which these hymns were sung has been studied only imperfectly, although a lot of progress has been made in the last twenty years. It is important that a wider readership should be able to access and understand the texts available, and it is here that we should situate the usefulness of the Bhakti HindiEnglish Dictionary.
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