"The Siksapatri(1826) is a scripture presented as a letter to devotees from Svaminarayana (1781-1830), the founder and principal deity of the eponymous Svaminarayana tradition. Designated by millions as a revelatory scripture down to the belief of its divine authorship, the text is treated as a succinct and authoritative index of Svaminarayana beliefs and practices. Early manuscripts of the text are so cherished that some, like the one enclosed in a glass cabinet in the Oxford Bodleian libraries, are treated as relics. For the first time, Avni Chags thorough text-historical analysis of the Siksapatriadds nuance to the story of its canonization. Featuring the first English translation of an earlier, shorter version of the text (1823), The Relic in the Glass Cabinet submits the texts authorship, intent, and historical development to critical scrutiny. Based on a comparative study of two Siksapatrirecensions, Chag demonstrates that the text did not originally align with the specific Vaisnava theological identity it now claims. Instead, doctrinal commitments were added after Svaminarayanas passing, fundamentally reshaping how the text, its author, and his tradition have been understood. The Relic in the Glass Cabinet offers novel dimensions to existing scholarly interpretations of early Svaminarayana history, theology, and literature.

It tells an untold story of the complex histories of textual production, exploring the interplay between historically contingent circumstances and inherited, albeit negotiated, religious ideas and practices, all at the formative moment of a traditions inception in early nineteenth-century western India, present day Gujarat"-- Provided by publisher.