Two wives for a perfect life: Nag'mati and Padmavati in Jayasi's Padmāvat as symbols of the integration of bhoga and yoga

The paper contains an original analysis of the two main female characters of Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s celebrated poem Padmāvat – Padmavati and Nag’mati. It shows how their features and their dialectical relationship correspond to specific elements of the spiritual itinerary devised by the Sufis of Avadh during the XIV to XVI centuries. Many passages are thereby selected and commented upon with a view to delineating the vivid personalities of the two women and, correspondingly, to framing them within the wider narrative scope of the poem. Building both on textual and secondary sources, the paper suggests that the integration of the two (apparently) opposite poles of yoga and bhoga represents the key element of the spiritual path described by Jayasi. In order to corroborate this hypothesis, several references to coeval texts produced by Nath, Sant, Bhakta and Sufi authors are presented in the paper. It emerges therefrom the specificity of the world-vision brought about by Sufi literature in Avadhi language – as opposed to the contemporary literatures in Braj-bhasa and Khari-boli – since it emphasizes the necessity of the integration of daily life and spiritual life. Islamic mysticism in India - as it found its expression in Avadhi love-poems (premakhyans) - was essentially this-world-oriented and open to everyday life.