The Quotidian Revolution: Vernacularization, Religion, and the Premodern Public Sphere in India

429 Pages·2016·11.503 MB·English

by  Christian Lee Novetzke

Q U OT I D I A N
THE
R E V O LU T I O N
Vernacularization, Religion, and the Premodern Public Sphere in India
CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE
THE QUOTIDIAN REVOLUTION

T H E Q U OT I D I A N
R E V O LU T I O N
Vernacularization, Religion,
and the Premodern Public Sphere in India
Christian Lee Novetzke
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York(cid:3273)Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2016 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Novetzke, Christian Lee, 1969- author.
Title: The quotidian revolution : vernacularization, religion, and the
premodern public sphere in India / Christian Lee Novetzke.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, 2016. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identi(cid:1006)ers: LCCN 2016012704| ISBN 9780231175807 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780231542418 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Marathi literature—History and criticism. |
Marathi language—Social aspects—History. | Maharashtra (India)—History.
Classi(cid:1006)cation: LCC PK2405 .N68 2016 | DDC 891.4/609—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016012704
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
(cid:4432)(cid:4738)(cid:4895)(cid:4469)(cid:4808) (cid:4449)(cid:4469)(cid:4824)(cid:4601)(cid:4544)(cid:4712): Milenda Nan Ok Lee
(cid:4432)(cid:4738)(cid:4895)(cid:4469)(cid:4808) (cid:4793)(cid:4240)(cid:4601)(cid:4712)(cid:4839)(cid:4601)(cid:4712)(cid:4544): Sudhir Waghmare, New Modikhana
To my parents
Mary E. Novetzke
William E. Novetzke
and
In memory of my father-in-law
Sharatkumar Kale (1940–2013)
Who waited for everyone

Contents
Preface: The Shape of the Book ix
Acknowledgments xvii
Note on Translation, Transliteration, and Abbreviations xxiii
Introduction: The Argument of the Book 1
PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
The Yadava Century 39
CHAPTER TWO
Traces of a Medieval Public 74
CHAPTER THREE
The Biography of Literary Vernacularization 103
PART TWO
CHAPTER FOUR
The Vernacular Moment 131
vii
CHAPTER FIVE
The Mahanubhav Ethic 170
PART THREE
CHAPTER SIX
A Vernacular Manifesto 213
CHAPTER SEVEN
Sonic Equality 243
Conclusion: The Vernacular Millennium and the
Quotidian Revolution 285
Notes 309
Glossary 359
Bibliography 369
Index 385
viii(cid:3273)(cid:3273)CONTENTS
Preface
The Shape of the Book
This book is about the moment in recorded history when literary Marathi
appeared in medieval India. Situated in Maharashtra of the thirteenth cen-
tury, the book traces this history by examining Marathi inscriptions and
the (cid:1006)rst two extant texts of Marathi literature, the L(cid:1208)(cid:1491)(cid:269)caritra (c. 1278 (cid:4432)(cid:4469))
and the J(cid:120)(cid:269)ne(cid:2003)var(cid:1208) (c. 1290 (cid:4432)(cid:4469)). This study also explores the lives of the two
key (cid:1006)gures associated with those texts, Chakradhar (c. 1194 [1273 depar-
1
ture from Maharashtra]), the founder of the Mahanubhav religion, and
2
Jnandev (c. 1271 [1296 entombment]), who later becomes a key (cid:1006)gure of
the Varkari religion. The book presents these (cid:1006)gures and texts as emblems
of the process of vernacularization in Maharashtra, using them to argue
that through this process public culture was invested with the idioms of
the “everyday” and the quotidian became valorized in public and political
expression. Vernacularization was compelled by a critique of social ineq-
uity as a result of this emphasis on ordinary life. This critique of social
inequity, and the literary sphere engendered by vernacularization, inaugu-
rated the (cid:1006)rst trace of a nascent public sphere in the region.
The book is divided into three parts, each composed of either two or
three chapters, bounded by an introduction and a conclusion. The intro-
duction presents the book’s key subjects and materials, and surveys the
primary ideas, concepts, and debates the book engages. Part 1 provides
a view of what I call the Yadava century, the period presided over by the
Yadava dynasty in the region of Maharashtra from 1189 to 1317 (cid:4432)(cid:4469). The pri-
mary textual and archival evidence for these three chapters is the Marathi
ix