Extreme Poetry. The South Asian Movement of Simultaneous Narration

376 Pages·4.339 MB·English

by  Bronner Yigal.

EXTREME POETRY
south asia across the disciplines
SOUTH ASIA ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES
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edited by dipesh chakrabarty, sheldon pollock,
and sanjay subrahmanyam
Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and
jointly published by the University of California Press, the University
of Chicago Press, and Columbia University Press
Extreme Poetry: Th e South Asian Movement of Simultaneous
Narration by Yigal Bronner (Columbia)
Th e Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British
Colonial Punjab by Farina Mir (California)
Unifying Hinduism: Th e Philosophy of Vijnanabhiksu in Indian
Intellectual History by Andrew J. Nicholson (Columbia)
Everyday Healing: Hindus and Others in an Ambiguously
Islamic Place by Carla Bellamy (California)
South Asia Across the Disciplines is a series devoted to publishing fi rst
books across a wide range of South Asian studies, including art, his-
tory, philology or textual studies, philosophy, religion, and the inter-
pretive social sciences. Series authors all share the goal of opening up
new archives and suggesting new methods and approaches, while
demonstrating that South Asian scholarship can be at once deep in
expertise and broad in appeal.
extreme poetry
the south asian movement
of simultaneous narration
Yigal Bronner
columbia university press new york
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2010 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Bronner, Yigal.
Extreme poetry : the South Asian movement of simultaneous narration / Yigal Bronner.
p. cm.—(South Asia across the disciplines)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 231- 15160- 3 (cloth : alk. paper)— ISBN 978- 0- 231- 52529- 9 (electronic)
1. Sanskrit poetry— History and criticism. 2. Puns and punning in literature.
I. Title. II. Series.
PK2916.B72 2010
891'.21009—dc22 2009028171
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid- free paper.
Th is book was printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the
author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or
changed since the manuscript was prepared.
For my parents,
Dina and Fred Bronner
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do ārat sabad jis kavit mem na hoi
do ārat sabad bāj rījhe na koi
A poem that doesn’t have
Dual- meaning words,
Such a poem does not
Attract anyone at all—
A poem without
Words of two senses.
— Ma{navī Kadam Rā’o Padam Rā’o of Fakhr- e Dīn Nizāmī, p. 133, translation
¨
by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi

CONTENTS
Figures and Tables xiii
Ac know ledg ments xv
A Note on Sanskrit Transliteration xvii
% 1 & introduction 1
1.1 Ślesa: A Brief Overview of the Mechanisms of Simultaneity 3
1.2 Th e Many Manifestations of Ślesa: A Brief Sketch 6
1.3 What (Little) Is Known About Ślesa 7
1.4 Th e Anti-Ślesa Bias: Romanticism, Orientalism, Nationalism 9
1.5 Is Ślesa “Natural” to Sanskrit? 13
1.6 Toward a History and Th eory of Ślesa 17
% 2 & experimenting with lesa
in subandhu’s prose lab 20
2.1 Th e Birth of a New Kind of Literature 20
2.2 Th e Paintbrush of Imagination: Plot and Description
in the Vāsavadattā 25
2.3 Amplifying the World: Subandhu’s Alliterative Compounds 33
2.4 Showcasing Ślesa: Th e Opening Lines of the Vāsavadattā 38
%x& contents
2.5 Teasing the Convention: Th e Targets of Subandhu’s Ślesa 44
2.6 Bāna’s Laughter and the Response to Subandhu 50
2.7 Conclusion 55
% 3 & the disguise of language:
lesa enters the plot 57
3.1 Kīcakavadha (Killing Kīcaka) by Nītivarman 58
3.2 Th e Elephant in the (Assembly) Room: Nītivarman’s Buildup 60
3.3 From Smoldering to Eruption: Draupadī’s Ślesa
and Its Implications 64
3.4 Embracing the Subject: Ślesa and Selfi ng 71
3.5 Embracing Twin Episodes: Ślesa and the Refi nement
of the Epic 75
3.6 Flowers and Arrows, Milk and Water: Responses to
Nītivarman’s Ślesa 78
3.7 Sarasvatī’s Ślesa: Disguise and Identity in
Śrīharsa’s Naisadhacarita 82
3.8 Conclusion 88
% 4 & aiming at two targets:
the early attempts 91
4.1 Th e Mahabalipuram Relief as a Visual Ślesa 92
4.2 Dandin: A Lost Work and Its Relic 99
4.3 Dhanañjaya: Th e Poet of Two Targets 102
4.4 Lineages Ornamented and Tainted:
On Ślesa’s Contrastive Capacities 106
4.5 What Gets Conarrated? Dhanañjaya’s Matching Scheme 112
4.6 Ślesa and the Aesthetics of Simultaneity 115
4.7 Why Conarrate the Epics? 119