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- Convenors:
-
Richard David Williams
(University of Oxford)
Stefania Cavaliere (University of Naples "L'Orientale" )
- Location:
- Room 213
- Start time:
- 27 July, 2016 at
Time zone: Europe/Warsaw
- Session slots:
- 3
Short Abstract:
This panel considers early modern literary productions that had essentially non-religious interests and priorities, examining texts from different knowledge systems to excavate the intellectual history of pre-colonial South Asia.
Long Abstract:
Untapped troves of historical chronicles, theoretical treatises, and reference works on the arts and sciences lie buried in archives of manuscripts and early printed books. While many of these early modern texts relate to theology or devotional poetry, a significant portion of these materials was grounded in non-religious knowledge systems, with essentially "secular" priorities and authorities. However, to date these intellectual productions have largely been neglected. Many are lost in the catalogues - relegated to "Miscellaneous" or other uninspiring categories - while others have been ignored because their subjects (such as falconry or puppetry) were considered superficial or irrelevant in Western scholarship, however significant they were in their original context.
Taking inspiration from Narayana Rao and Subrahmanyam's excavation of nītiśāstra (2009), this panel will consider literary productions that took their cue from secular, rather than strictly religious, interests. Rather than tackling the notion of the "secular" as formulated in its modern Indian setting (i.e. as non-discriminatory between religions, etc.), this panel invites papers that examine early modern scholarship in the vernaculars, Persian, and Sanskrit, on the arts and sciences, including statecraft, folklore, genealogy, erotics, music, mathematics, lexicography, and medicine. Collectively, the papers will investigate the strengths and priorities of South Asian knowledge systems, prior to the advent of European colonialism.
Following recent work which has demonstrated the pervasive connections between bhakti and rīti cultures, we also invite scholars of religious literature to present how their texts may have been informed by, or reflected upon, non-religious knowledge systems.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Fabrizio Ferrari (University of Chester)
Paper short abstract:
Picchilātantra is a short Śākta tantra mostly dealing with yantra and mantra. In a section on Śītalādevī, the worship of snuhī (Euphorbia) is recommended to protect from poxes. The paper discusses the intersection of medical and ritual knowledge in premodern Bengali culture.
Paper long abstract:
The paper discusses premodern medical knowledge in Bengal in relation to pox fevers and the worship of Śītalā. Moving from an analysis of Picchilātantra, a short Śākta ritual tract dated c. late sixteenth century and dealing with magic, I discuss remedies against various forms of tumours, swellings and ulcers. In particular, the therapeutic use of snuhī (various plants of the Euphorbia genus), known as the Indian spurge tree or oleander spurge, will be examined. The plant is attested since the first centuries CE in the materia medica of Carakasaṃhitā and Suśrutasaṃhitā where its latex is used against eruptions and ulcers. The inclusion of snuhī in a relatively late Tantra praising Śītalā (a remover of poxes) and Bengali deities such as Jvarāsur (the fever demon), Raktābatī (goddess of blood infections) and Gheṇṭukarṇa (god of itches and skin diseases), but also the ominous ass (gardabha), a beast of burden traditionally carrying deities and demons associated with fevers and poxes, permits to assess the way in which ritual and scientific texts have exchanged knowledge by means of religious narratives. The location of this episode at the cusp of medieval and modern Bengal is of particular interest as it informs our understanding of later policies for the control of epidemics in colonial Bengal.
Nida Sajid (Georg-August-Universität )
Paper short abstract:
This paper investigates the ways in which the imaginative topography and the humanist vocabulary of Nazir Akbarabadi's poetry intersects with as well as diverges from the existing norms of literary creativity and devotional literature to articulate a secular ethics in the eighteenth century.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores different modalities through which questions of secular ethics inform the works of an eighteenth-century poet, Nazir Akbarabadi. While some critics have consistently argued for keeping his poetic works within the confines of religious and mystical experience, others have explored venues to suture together distinct manifestations of secularism and subalternity in Akbarabadi's poetry. Taking into account these debates in literary criticism, this paper investigates the ways in which the imaginative topography of Akbarabadi's poetry intersects with as well as diverges from the existing norms of literary creativity and devotional literature in the eighteenth century. Paying particular attention to the complex terrain of religious ideologies and aesthetic production, the main objective of this paper is to heighten our awareness of Akbarabadi's revisionist reading of customs and practices that mark the embeddedness of an individual self in social collectivities. By investigating and potentially destabilizing the religious/secular opposition, Akbarabadi creates possibilities of articulating a shared community of affective belonging to overcome the shortcomings religious orthodoxies. This paper specifically looks at how the humanist vocabulary in Akbarabadi's poetry delineates the borders of 'everyday' life in the marketplaces of Agra and, concomitantly, shapes a complex aesthetics as well as praxis of social justice within networks of trade and religious authority. By offering a self-reflexive stance on the intertwined worlds of desire, consumption, and piety, Akbarabadi challenges essentialist constructions of difference and identity and provides a nuanced rethinking of poetry as a dynamic, multidirectional act of ethical engagement in the eighteenth century.
Stephan Popp (Universtiy of Vienna)
Paper short abstract:
This paper shall treat Mughal use of astrology for justifying the emperors' claim to power. Especially, it will regard their claim to a messianic role and to be born rulers with a then scientific proof.
Paper long abstract:
In an age in which astrology was still seen as a science, the chronicles of the Mughal Empire (1526 -1707) were describing the horoscopes of their emperors and princes as a scientific proof for their superior ability to reign and wage war. Obviously, a diagram combining a set of twelve conditions with eight interconnected major and several minor modifiers hardly results in a single interpretation even if it is true. Horoscopes therefore suit a ruler's need to prove his claim to power very well by choosing the desired interpretation. Akbar had this done extensively in his chronicle, the Akbarnāma, for himself and his sons. His grandson Shah Jahan followed his example, but with a much less genuine interest in astrology. Yet, his claim to be a "Second Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction" (after Timur, the founder of the dynasty) calls for a horoscope as well, in which several obvious deficits are gracefully omitted in his still unedited chronicle Bādshāhnāma by Muhammad Amīn Qazvīnī. His later historiographer Lahorī later re-edited the horoscope giving very different explanations for Shah Jahan's claim, especially the Auspicious Conjunction.
This lecture will demonstrate the use of horoscopes as an instrument of propaganda in Mughal chronicles, aiming not at experts but to impress the general public.
Nadia Cattoni (Lausanne University)
Paper short abstract:
The Braj poet Dev (17th c.) wrote texts focused on descriptions of the nāyikā, the feminine figure of love poetry. To innovate in a genre codified by others, he introduced in one of his work erotic systems of knowledge from scientific treatises. The paper will present the link between the two genres.
Paper long abstract:
In early modern literature, especially in the so-called rīti poetry, kāma is a central topic. Poets create love poetry focusing principally on the feminine protagonist, the nāyikā, describing with meticulousness their body and attitudes. The Braj poet Dev (1643/73?-1767?) is no exception to this general trend, and became a specialist of descriptions of the nāyikā in a genre called nāyikābheda. He wrote hundreds of poems on this theme, following rules defined by poets preceding him.
But, in one of his works, Dev decided to innovate and to offer new lists of descriptions of the nāyikā. For that purpose, he took inspiration in texts on erotic, and by this, transferred erotic systems of knowledge from scientific treatises to rīti poetry.
In this paper, I propose to go through Dev's Rasavilāsa (1726?) and to show its links with two Sanskrit kāmaśāstras, the Ratirahasya (12th c.) by Kokkoka and the Anaṅgaraṅga (16th c.) by Kalyānamalla. Through examples, I will show the link between these two genres, but also the way the poet Dev plays with these references, introducing by various methods contents from kāmaśāstras.
Richard David Williams (University of Oxford)
Paper short abstract:
This paper considers eighteenth-century works on music and the arts written in Brajbhasha, and explores how they articulated politically-resonant forms of cultural prestige.
Paper long abstract:
When the ruler of a small eighteenth-century kingdom was being assaulted and pillaged by multiple armies - Rajputs, Marathas, Mughals, and Afghans - why would he invest his resources in ensuring that he was seen as a master of the arts, a connoisseur of music, and the ideal lover?
For a long time the eighteenth century was characterised as a period of political collapse and cultural efflorescence. This was no coincidence, according to the prevalent historiography, but rather the product of two main factors: the destabilisation of the Mughal Empire led to the rise of large successor courts that took in large numbers of refugee artists and musicians, and the ascendant rulers of these courts were neglectful of their responsibilities and decadently invested themselves in recreational arts. Following new social and cultural histories that have undermined these assumptions, this paper considers the widespread production of intellectual works relating to music and aesthetics in Brajbhasha in the eighteenth century. While major centres like Lucknow and Murshidabad were significant, many smaller courts also patronised important works and together represent a more complicated landscape of cultural production. For these patrons, intellectual investments in the arts were evidently not "recreational" as understood in colonial and post-colonial terms, but conveyed fundamentally political resonances. This paper considers how we might characterise these new literary and artistic productions, giving due acknowledgement to the violence and political upheaval behind their patronage, but without crudely reducing them to the tools of propaganda or legitimation.
Julie Vig (University of British Columbia)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines how the notion of court or darbar is articulated in a mid-to-late eighteenth century Braj-Punjabi text with the goal of providing a case study on how courtly life at the periphery of imperial contexts was articulated in relation to the “religious” and the “secular”.
Paper long abstract:
Based on recent scholarship engaging with the idea of court in late Mughal and sub-imperial contexts, this paper examines how the notion of court or darbar is articulated in the context of Kuir Singh's Gurbilās Pātshāhī Das, a mid-to-late eighteenth century text written in Braj-Punjabi that relates life stories of Guru Gobind Singh in the form of historical poetry. The implications of the concept of court — whose political function has been predominantly emphasized in scholarship about Sikh courts — can be interpreted in different ways and do not translate the more textured concept of darbar which is best rendered by notions such as "gathering" and "audience" rather than "court" alone (Murphy, 2012). The concept of darbar can imply the presence of a formal institution held in power by a sovereign figure, as is suggested by "court," or another kind of social formation, such as Fenech argues, "a group of disciples surrounding a charismatic religious figure." (Fenech, 2013). In relation to Guru Gobind Singh's court, for instance, both senses may apply. The status of the "court" in the Sikh context therefore is still open to debate. The goal of this paper is, on the one hand, to present a case study of how the notion of court or darbar is articulated in a regional context. On the other hand, it illustrates how the complexity of the idea of court or darbar in Sikh contexts allows us to interrogate further the relationship between the categories of secular and religious in early modern India.
Aleksandra Turek (University of Warsaw)
Paper short abstract:
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate on the example of the “Chavali” poems from Shekhavati that regional works can serve not only a ludic purpose but to strengthen intercaste solidarity. The “Chavali” poems are works that commemorate the successful co-operation of Rajputs and Jats in Shekhavati.
Paper long abstract:
Local works transmitted on the outskirts of the mainstream literature can be a good source for reconstruction of a social reality of premodern India. Folk works usually codify local point of view that can vary from information given in official records. The "Chavali" poems are late 19th c. oral works from the Shekhavati region of Rajasthan, composed to commemorate the deeds of a local gang of dacoits. The poems can be analysed in a broader context as works that spread a message of intercaste co-operation in the region. The group of brigands marauding in the region consists of Rajput warriors, members of tribal Mina and of agricultural Jat community. The gang is led by Rajput Dungji and his nephew Javarji. All their ventures are, however,successful due to support of their Jat companion. The historical sources and scholarly works on Shekhavati relate a well-known fact about the traditional hostility between Rajputs and Jats, the two dominant communities in the region. The "Chavali"poems present quite the opposite image of relations between these two groups what will be demonstrated and analysed in the paper. The poems present the co-operation in the sphere of unlawfulness because in the milieu of dacoits, notwithstanding their traditional differences, both Dungji and Lotiya Jat became local heroes for Shekhavati folks. I will try to demonstrate in the paper that extrinsic works such as the "Chavali" poems gain popularity due to building a bridge between Rajputs and Jats, and thus they present heroes who act jointly and severally for the good of the poor.
Piotr Borek (Jagiellonian University in Kraków)
Paper short abstract:
It was not a sincere devotion that loaded court poetry with alaukik themes. Using them was a way to fulfil patron’s political agenda to boast his power. Shifting divine glory into the ruler’s space could be hazardous, but convention allowed to pretend that it is only an aesthetic play.
Paper long abstract:
The formal frame of poetics and the religious content stamped the early modern texts in North India. Although the compositions belonging to the court literature are prevalently associated with the formal frame, they do not lack rich references to the elements of religious imagery, such as gods, goddesses, their miraculous space, objects and companions, other supra-natural beings or divine heroes. Both frames used to circumscribe the poetry, but a closer look on its function, curricula of production, and primarily on the way the required frames were being applied, surprisingly proves that they did not have to constrain the authors. The poet's craftsmanship consisted in reconciling people's religiosity and the traditional requirements of poetics with the mundane needs of pragmatic and power-oriented patron.
By analysing multiple examples of religiously-thematised stanzas from the 17th-century rītigranth by Bhūṣaṇ, I argue that they had no devotional considerations. The religious imagery has been used by the poet in order to propagate Shivaji's fame and powerfulness, which must have been part of ruler's political agenda. Religious and mythological themes have been materialised in two ways. One was with the help of various comparisons with the ruler or his dominion. This may still appear conventional and unoriginal, but the other, far more innovative, consisted in a certain abuse which made the image of the divine glory lose for the sake of the emerging leader. Only the authority of the dominant genre or the poetical convention was able to justify such heresies.
Stefania Cavaliere (University of Naples "L'Orientale" )
Paper short abstract:
In the literary framework of the Prabodhacandrodaya tradition, my paper aims to illustrate some dynamics of peace and war both as political strategies the virtuous king has to follow to achieve a fruitful rule and as a moral conduct to liberate his soul
Paper long abstract:
Notwithstanding its theoretical complexity, the versatility of the the allegorical war between Mahāmoha and Viveka allowed it to adapt to completely different religious, historical and linguistic traditions. The Vijñānagītā by Keśavdās is a Hindi adaptation of the Prabodhacandrodaya drama reflecting the historical and cultural background of 17th century North India. Stressing on the soteriological power of its content, this text acquired a tremendous momentum and became a kind of moral vademecum for the audience, ranging from classical purāṇic lore to treatises on morals for the sake of the king's education. Interpreted within the framework of classical treatises on nītiśāstra, the ideals of peace and war expounded in this story assume a practical application in the legitimation of the political and moral autority. Along with their metaphisical implications, they are utilitarianly employed in the narration of power and this allegorical battle becomes a lens to unveil some historical events belonging to the Indo-Islamicate milieu against which it is set.