Epic Translation: Ranna's Sahasabhimavijaya and the Afterlife of the Mahabharata in Medieval Karṇaṭa / Timothy Buck Lorndale.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Lorndale, Timothy Buck, author.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. South Asia Regional Studies, degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

South Asian studies.

Asian literature.

Medieval literature.

South Asia Regional Studies--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--South Asia Regional Studies.

Local Subjects:

South Asian studies.

Asian literature.

Medieval literature.

South Asia Regional Studies--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--South Asia Regional Studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (260 pages)

Distribution:

Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2022

Contained In:

Dissertations Abstracts International 84-04A.

Place of Publication:

[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] : University of Pennsylvania, 2022.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This dissertation is a study of the Mahabharata epic's reception history in medieval South India. It focuses on an early, but understudied, translation of the epic into Old Kannada, the Sahasabhimavijaya (SBhV) of Ranna. This work has typically been read from a historico-political perspective, which casts the poet's patron, Satyasraya of the Western Caḷukyas, onto the role of Bhima, one of the epic heroes. Thus, the SBhV is usually deemed to be a "double narrative" that maps Satyasraya and the Caḷukya dynasty's claims to power over South India onto the world of the Mahabharata and its heroes. However, this dissertation departs from such an approach in favor of a more literary orientation, arguing that the SBhV retells the epic through the alternate perspective of Duryodhana, the leader of the Kauravas and the narrative's traditional anti-hero. To unpack this unique re-interpretation of the Mahabharata, it draws on a narrative critical method, especially influenced by Mieke Bal and Gerard Genette. Narratology has been useful in providing a vocabulary to think through the specific ways in which the SBhV orders the sequence of the epic's narrative anew, gives it a different rhythm, and disrupts our expectations through focalization. This dissertation contends that it is possible to trace the SBhV's literary response to the epic tradition and its immediate social location in medieval Karṇaṭa by concentrating on the minutiae of the narrative and the modes in which it narrates the Mahabharata. It demonstrates that the epic is filtered through the Kaurava's interpretive lens. In other words, the SBhV's telling of the Mahabharata is framed by Duryodhana's perspective, his values and biases. These narrative innovations are explored through a series of connected essays that focus on themes like dharma, mourning, and friendship.

Notes:

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 84-04, Section: A.

Advisors: Ali, Daud; Committee members: Soneji, Davesh; Obrock, Luther; Zydenbos, Robert J.

Department: South Asia Regional Studies.

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2022.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175

ISBN:

9798351441016

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.