Innovations and Turning Points: Toward a History of Kāvya Literature

416 Pages·2014·95.801 MB·English

by  Yigal Bronner, David Dean Shulman, Gary Alan Tubb

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Innovations and Turning ^Points
TOWARD A HISTORY
KAVYA LITERATURE
SOUTH ASIA RESEARCH
M ith a panoramic
overview of South Asian
Innovations and Turning ^Points
:lassical literature, this
hook Identifies critical moments
of breakthrough and innovation in
Sanskrit literature—moments when
the basic rules of composition and the
aesthetic and poetic goals underwent
dramatic change. It contests the still
prevalent notion that Sanskrit poetry
was impervious to change and that it
underwent decline after a supposed
acme in the period of Kalidasa.
The essays in this volume focus
on extended moments of brilliant
innovation within the kavya tradition,
including the new poetic models put
in place by Bharavi and Magha, the
revolutionary period in Kannauj linked
to Bana, his predecessors and his great
successors, and the transformative
work of poets of genius such as
Bilhana, Sriharsa, Rajasekhara, and
Murari. It also examines the origins of
kavya and the creative experiments
with its forms and practices in early
modern Hindi and, beyond the
subcontinent, in Java and Tibet.
South Asia Research
Series Editor
Innovations and Turning Toints
Patrick Olivelle
A Publication Series of
TOWARD A HISTORY
The University of Texas South Asia Institute
and of
Oxford University Press KAVYA literature
INDIAN EPIGRAPHY NECTAR GAZE AND POISON BREATH
A (iuide to (he Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, An Analysis and Translation of the Rajasthani Oral
Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages Narrative of Devnarayan
Richard Salomon Aditya Malik
A I >l< m ON ARY pF OLD MARATHI BETWEEN THE EMPIRES edited
S. G. Tulpule and Anne Fcldhaus Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE
Patrick Olivelle yigaf CBronn er
IX )NORS. 1 )l VOTEES, AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD
Icmple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu MANAGING MONKS Tdaoicf S/iufman
1 xrnllc C. Orr Administrators and Administrative Roles in
Indian Buddhist Monasticism &ary UuSS
Jonathan A. Silk
JIMUTAVAHANA’S DAYABHAGA
I lie Hindu Law of Inheritance in Bengal
Edited and Translated with an Introduction and SIVA IN TROUBLE
Notes by Festivals and Rituals at the Pasupatinatha Temple
l.udo Rocher of Deopatan
Axel Michaels
A PORTRAIT OF THE HINDUS
Bahha/ar Solvyns & the European Image of India A PRIEST’S GUIDE FOR THE GREAT FESTIVAL
1740-1824 Aghorasiva’s Mahotsavavidhi
Robert L. I lardgrave Richard H. Davis
MANU’S CODE OF LAW DHARMA
A Critical Edition and Translation of the Its Early History in Law, Religion, and Narrative
Malta va - Dltar masastra Alf Hiltebeitcl
Patrick Olivelle
INNOVATIONS AND TURNING POINTS
Toward a History of Kitty* Literature
Edited by
Yigal Bronner, David Shulman, and GaryTubb
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
National Itisfihjfr of Advanced Studies
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OXFORD
For Vidwan H. V. Nagaraja Rao
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Contents
Acknowledgements xiv
I. Introduction 1
by Yigal Bronnery David Shulman, and Gary Tubb
1. A. Asti kas'cid vag-visesah 1
B. Awareness of Change 6
C. What Is New about This Book 26
II. Kalidasa and Early Classicism 33
2. Waking Aja 35
by David Shulman
A. Theme as Frame 35
B. The Rhythms of Emptying 38
C. On Repetition 47
D. How Time Moves 61
3. Baking Uma 71
by Gary Tubb
A. Patterns of Innovation in the Mahakavya 72
B. Kalidasa and Asvaghosa: Common Origins and
Contrasting Visions 75
C. Prevailing Images in Kalidasas Vision of Purity and Power 82
4. On Beginnings: Introductions and
Prefaces in Kdvya 86
by Herman Tieken
|! A. Introduction 86
VIII CONTENTS CONTENTS ix
B. Types of Beginnings 88 D. The Prehistory of the Kakawin 202
C. The Storyteller in the Text and His Relationship E. Sabddlamkara in the Metrical Inscription of
to the External Author 93 856 CE and the Bhattikavya 208
D. The Significance of the Absence of an F. Yamaka in the OJR: The Problem of Univocality 211
Introduction in Mahdkavya 96 G. Yamaka in the OJR: The Aesthetic Effects of
E. Kdvya and Epic 97 Doubling and Repetition 214
E The Scribes’ Background 98 H. Bhattis Arthalamkara and the OJR 217
G. The Proliferation of Genres within the Kdvya Tradition 101
IV. The Masters of Prose 233
H. The Preface 103
I. Epilogue 103
9. The Nail-Mark That Lit the Bedroom:
III. The Developing Mahdkavya 109 Biography of a Compound 237
by Yigal Bronner
5. Pace and Pattern in the Kiratdrjuniya 111
A. Introduction 237
by Peter Khoroche
B. The Sanskrit Compound and the Problems
A. Bharavi s Originality 111 of Translation 240
B. Changes of Pace in Narration and Description 112 C. Score and Structure 245
C. Characteristics of Bharavi s Style 116 D. Sanskrit Compounds and the Ecosystem of Love 250
D. The Subject of the Poem 121 E. Center and Periphery: Female Subjects and the
Forces of Nature 254
6. The Conquest of Cool: Theology and Aesthetics in
F. Conclusion 259
Maghas S'iiupalavadha 123
by Lawrence McCrea 10. Banas Death in the Kadambari 263
A. The Poetics of Inaction 125 by Herman Tieken
B. The Ideal of Emotional Restraint 130
A. Introduction 263
C. Literary'Techniques and Aesthetic Objectives 135 B. His Fathers Voice 263
D. Conclusion 139 C. Speaking of Death 265
7. Kdvya with Bells On: Yamaha in the Sisupalavadha 142 D. Fathers and Sons 267
by Gary Tubh E. Breaking the Rules of the Genre 269
of F. Banas Genealogy 271
A. Maglu the Bells 144
G. Banas Trademark 272
B. Yamaha and the Problem of Citra 151
H. Inventing Ones Own Death 274
C. Yamaka in the Mahdkavya 159
D. Maghas Yamakas 173 11. Persons Compounded and Confounded:
E. Conclusion 192 A Reading of Bana’s Kadambari 277
8. A Constant Flow of Pilgrims: Kdvya and by David Shulman
the Early I listory of the Kakawin 195 A. Introducing Kadambari 277
by Thomas M. Hunter B. Who’s Who 279
A. Introduction 195 C. Sources, Models, Telos 285
B. The Historical Setting 197 D. The Yoga of Syntax 287
C. The (Tories of Temple Architecture and the E. What Words Can Do 293
Metrical Inscription of 856 CE 200 F. I’m Still Me 295
X CONTENTS Contents xi
G. Disjunction as Resolution 303 VI. Poets of the New Millennium 491
H. Conclusion 305
17. The Poetics of Ambivalence: Imagining and Unimagining
12. On the Boldness of Bana 308
the Political in Bilhanas Vikramdhkadevacarita 493
by Gary Tubb
by Yigal Bronner
A. Ban as Benedictory Verses 311
A. Introduction: The Place of a Poet 493
B. Anthology Verses: The Moonlight Sequence 334
B. Setting the Right(?) Tone: Bilhanas Introductory
C. Verse Sequence: The Poor Traveler in Winter 344
Appeal to His Audiences 495
C. On Thickening: Imagining the Political in the VDC 501
The Sons of Baqa 355
D. On Thinning: Unimagining the Political in the VDC 508
13. Something New in the Air: Abhinanda’s Ramacarita E. On Ambivalence: Bilhanas Poetic Stance 512 '
and Its Ancestry 357 R Afterlives and Afterthoughts: Bilhanas Posthumous
by Gary Tubb Career and Its Lessons 515
A. Poetic Pedigrees 360 18. Putting the Polish on the Poets Efforts: Readijng the
B. Anthology Verses 366 Karnasundari as a Reflection on Poetic Creativity 525
(Abhinanda’s Mahakavya 374 by Phyllis Granoff
1). Abhinanda’s Meta-comments 387
A. The Play: Reading Beyond the Plot 525
E. Conclusion 392
B. Creating the New and Improbable: The Poet’s Task in
14. 1 he Plays of Bhavabhuti 395 the Karnasundari 537
by Gary Tubb C. Conclusion 545
A. Bhavabhuti s Distinctive Use of Language 398 19. Shadows 550
B. Constructive Progress in the Sequence of the by Charles Malamoud
Plays 403 A. Chaya 550
C. The Intermingling of Aesthetic Theory and B. Sesa and Slesa 553
Emotional Description 410 C. The King, the Earth, and the Cardinal Regions 555
15. T he Poetics of Perspective in Rajasekhara’s D. Sarasvatl and Damayantl’s Wisdom 557
Young Ramdyana 415 E. Love’s Shadow 560
by Lawrence McCrea 20. Indian Kavya Poetry on the Far Side of the Himalayas:
A. The Centrality of Ravana 417 Translation, Transmission, Adaptation, Originality 563
B. Spectacles and Spectators 424 by Dan Martin
C. The View from Below 433 A. Introduction 564
D. The View from Above 439 B. Early Kavya in Tibet: The Evidence of the Stotras 572
C. Local Tibetan Poetry 582
16. Muraris Depths 443
D. Kavyds Tibetan Naturalization 585
by David Shulman
A. Introducing the Anarghardghava 443 VII. Regional Kdvyas 609
B. Polishing the Sun 447
C. A Poet’s Craft 452 21. Sakalya Mallas Telangana Ramdyana:The Udararaghava 613
D. Moon-struck Rama 459 by David Shulman
E. A Kinematic Spectrum and the Murari Twist 473 A. Spreading the News 613
K Conclusion 483 B. Poet and Wrestler 615
X CONTl'NTS CONTENTS Xlll
C. Telangana Sanskrit 617 G. The East Javanese Figural Tradition III: The Contributions
D. Playing with Aspect anti Mode 622 of Mpu Panuluh 766
E. Radical Retelling 627 H. The East Javanese Figural Tradition IV: Mpu Dharmaja
22. The Classical Past in the Mughal Present: and the Smaradahana 772
The Brajbhasha Riti Tradition 648 I. Conclusion 777
by Allison Busch
Notes on Editors and Contributors 787
A. Literary Newness in Dialogue with Tradition 648
Index 791
B. New Directions in Indian Kdvya:
The Mancarit of Narottam Kavi 650
C. The Self-presentation of the Orchha Court in
the Virsimhdevcarit of Kes'avdas 662
D. Being Sub-imperial: Multilayered Cultural Identity in
)
the Lalitlalam of Matiram Tripathl 677
E. Conclusion 685
23. Poetry and Play in Kavikarnapuras Play Within the Play 691
by Gary Tubb
A. ’Playing with Sounds: The Role of Yamakas 693
B. The Renunciation of Yamakas 700
C. Playing with Identities: The Role of Roleplayings 707
24. Modernity in Sanskrit? Viswanatha Satyanarayanas
A mrta-sar mist ham 714
by Velcheru Narayana Rao
A. Viswanatha Satyanarayana: An Introduction 716
B. Amrta-sarmistham: A Close Reading 720
C. Modernity in Amrta-sarmistham 727
D. Minor Characters in the Play 729
E. Sanskrit Drama in Performance 734
25. A Distant Mirror: Innovation and Change in
the East Javanese Kakawin 739
by Thomas M. Hunter
A. Introduction 739
B. Not Vakrokti 740
C. Processions: A Thematic Link between Asvagho$a,
Kalidasa, and the Kakawin Poets 745
I). Airlangga and the Dawn of the Classical Kakawin Style 750
E. The East Javanese Figural Tradition 1: Mpu Kapwa and
the Development ofTechniques of Suggestion in
the East Javanese Kakawin 755
E I he East Javanese Pigural Tradition II: I he Question of
Rasa and ihr Hhapa Kakawin Form of the Lyrical Verse 760
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XV
uniform and computer-legible. The Committee on Southern Asian Studies (COSAS)
,h the University of Chicago generously supported publication of this large
volume.
Many scholars are not represented in these pages, although they actively
paitlt ipated in and greatly enriched the discussions of the kavya group in
I* m ..ilt in. Among them we would like to thank, in particular, Chris Minkowski,
Acknowledgements
I i Inivasan, Margalit Finkelberg, Amiel Vardi, Dmitri Segal, Ann Feldhaus,
.. i p i Srrcbryani, Charles Hallisey, Janet Gyatso, Aditya Malik, Deven Patel,
|i ist Knutson, Diana Finnegan, Shreya Vora, Isabelle Onians, David Mellins,
Maksim Rusanov, Mugdha Yeolekar, the late Minati Kar, Madhav Deshpande, %
IViteri Koskikallio, Maayan Nidbach, Ophira Gamliel, Tammy Klein, AyaTamal,
and Il.iint Loewy Shacham.
Wc arc grateful to Professor Patrick Olivelle of the University of Texas at
Ausdn for his support and encouragement in including this volume in the series
. dlicd by him. The appearance of the book after so miny years of labor in differ-
, m pans of the world is due in no small part to the vast amount of work applied
This book had an auspicious beginning in 2003-4, when many of
m a laigc and unruly manuscript by the team at Oxford University Press, India.
the contributors gathered at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS)
Wi ihank them all.
in Jerusalem for a year of reading and otherwise imbibing kavya in
I Vi haps the greatest source of constant inspiration for this project in its var-
Sanskrit and other languages (Old Javanese, Tibetan, Brajbhasha,
luii. Imarnallons has been the unique wisdom and unparalleled erudition of
Bengali). It was an intoxicating year, as week by week new papers
Vidw.m II. V. Nagaraja Rao. From the weekly Kasika classes he gave us in his
emerged on the great Sanskrit kavya texts (in many cases the first
pan lime io the spontaneous lectures he offered in crisp Sanskrit and the end-
serious interpretations of these works). A follow-up Summer School
|i . fountain of verses that would bubble up, beautifully recited, from moment
in 2003 expanded the initial program to include second-millennium
in moment, wc gained priceless knowledge, and the knowledge of how little we
regional Sanskrit works. The chapters in this volume were mostly
know. I his book is humbly dedicated to him.
generated in these two extended settings. Editorial work on what
rapidly became an almost unmanageable volume continued in spurts
in Jerusalem and Chicago, especially during the rare periods when
the three editors could be physically present in the same room.
We wish to thank the IAS, its then Director, Professor Benjamin
Kedar, the indefatigable and imaginative Administrative Director, the
late Pnina Feldman, and the entire staff of the Institute, for going out
of their way to create a utopian environment for our work. Alexander
Cherniak, fluent in all the languages of India and most others as well,
served as our faithful research assistant throughout; we thank him
for correcting our mistakes in Sanskrit with devastating regularity.
In Chicago, wc especially thank Alicia Czaplewski, the legendary
administrator of the Department of South Asian Languages and
Civilizations, for her wise ministrations. Katarzyna (Kasia) Pazucha
and Jessica Nauright worked diligently at trying to render the chapters
I
Introduction
Yigal Bronner, David Shulman, and Gary Tubb
)
A. Asti kascid vdg-vises ah
There is a tradition that Kalidasa, one of the greatest of the Sanskrit
poets, was originally an ignorant yokel. Married, in complicated
circumstances, to a highly sophisticated princess, he was so ashamed
by his lack of education that he sought the help of the goddess Kali.
She filled him with the power of poetic invention. When he returned,
thus transformed, to his new bride and spoke to her with his new¬
found gift, she was amazed and said: asti kascid vag-visesah, literally,
“There’s something different about your speech.”
This is a pregnant statement. For one thing, each of the first three
words uttered by the princess is the opening to one of Kalidasas three
major poems: asti is the first word of the Kumarasambhava\ kascid of
the Meghaduta\ and vag of the Raghuvamsa. So the sentence provides a
conspectus of the poet’s oeuvre, possibly in the order in which these
works were composed.1 Moreover, the tradition has put into the
mouth of the princess an implicit evaluation of these three works as
distinctive, indeed ground-breaking. Although our record of
pre-Kalidasa Sanskrit poetry is sparse, there is good reason to think
that each of the three works does something profoundly new. On the
level of genre alone, each innovates radically—and much more could
be said about syntax, thematics, metrics, and other parameters of style.
1. See Tubb 1982 on the relative priority of Kumdrasambhava to Raghuvaifiia.