The modernity of Sanskrit / Simona Sawhney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sawhney, Simona.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sanskrit literature--History and criticism.

Sanskrit literature.

Hindi literature--Sanskrit influences.

Hindi literature.

Physical Description:

xi, 213 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2009]

Summary:

Sanskrit texts have usually been discussed either within the analytic frames of anthropology and religious studies or with a veneration that has substituted for analysis. Going beyond such approaches, Simona Sawhney argues that only a literary approach that resists the closure of interpretation can reveal the fragility, ambivalence, and tension that mark the canonical texts.

Today we witness, Sawhney contends, the near-total appropriation of Sanskrit literature by Hindu nationalism. The Modernity of Sanskrit challenges this appropriation by exploring the complex work of Rabindranath Tagore, M. K. Gandhi, and Mohan Rakesh, and proposes that Indian nationalist writings about classical Sanskrit texts are in fact a charged site for postcolonial reflections on politics and art in India.

Contents:

1 Smara: The Memory/Love of Kalidasa 20

2 Literary Modernity and Sanskrit Poetry: The Work of Mohan Rakesh 51

3 Allegory and Violence: Gandhi's Reading of the Bhagavad Gita 86

4 The Lure of Violence: Dharamvir Bharati's Andha Yug (The Blind Age) 125

5 Poetry beyond Art 154

Epilogue: Poetry and Justice 183.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-210) and index.

ISBN:

0816649952

9780816649952

0816649960

9780816649969

OCLC:

229031122