Text to Tradition: The Naisadhiyacarita and Literary Community in South Asia

295 Pages·2014·4.752 MB·English

by  Deven Patel

Text
to
Tradi tion
The Naiṣadhīyacarita and
Literary Community in South Asia
Deven Patel
teXt to trADition
South ASiA AcroSS the DiSciplineS
South ASiA AcroSS the DiSciplineS
d d d
EditEd by Muzaffar alaM, robErt GoldMan,
and Gauri Viswanathan
dipEsh Chakrabarty, shEldon polloCk,
and sanjay subrahManyaM, foundinG Editors
Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and jointly published by the uni-
versity of California Press, the University of Chicago Press, and Columbia University Press.
South Asia Across the Disciplines is a series devoted to publishing first books across a wide range
of South Asian studies, including art, history, philology or textual studies, philosophy, reli-
gion, and the interpretive 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.
For a list of books in this series, see page 279.
tExt to tradition
thE Naiṣadhīyacarita
and litErary CoMMunity
in south asia
Deven M. Patel
ColuMbia uniVErsity prEss nEw york
columbia university press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Patel, Deven M.
Text to tradition : the Naisadhiyacarita and literary community in South Asia / Deven M. Patel.
pages cm. — (South Asia Across the Disciplines)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-16680-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-53653-0 (electronic)
1. Sriharsa, active 12th century. Naisadhiyacarita. 2. Sanskrit poetry—History and criticism.
i. title.
PK3798.S77N364 2014
891ʹ.21—dc23
2013010312
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cover design: Jordan Wannemacher
Cover image: Enthroned Couple Entertained by Musicians, Indian Pahari, early 19th century.
Object Place: Kangra style, Punjab Hills, Northern India. © 2014 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
References to websites (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.
In memory of Aditya Behl,
friend and mentor

contentS
Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction  1
1. THE NAIṢADHĪYA ’S AESTHETIC  17
2. EIGHT CENTURIES OF COMMENTARY  49
3. THE NAIṢADHĪYA INTERPRETED AND OVERINTERPRETED  81
4. STRUGGLES OVER THE TEXT  107
5. SECONDARY WAVES OF READING  131
6. LEGENDS OF THE NAIṢADHĪYA  153
7. THE TRADITION EXPANDS TO THE REGIONS  175
CONCLUSION  203
APPENDIX 1: SANSKRIT TEXT OF CITATIONS FROM
COMMENTARIES AND NARRATIVES  211
APPENDIX 2: ENCOMIA ( PRAŚASTI ) TO ŚRĪHARṢA
AnD the NAIṢADHĪYA  229
Notes  233
Bibliography  261
Index  269

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
his book has my name attached to it, and all the shortcomings in
t
it are indeed mine alone. However, from the beginning, I am proud
that this project has been a collaboration of learned people from all
over the world, from Berkeley to Ujjain to Philadelphia and many places
in between. I fi rst acknowledge the formative role in my education and
life played by Robert Goldman, with whom I earnestly began my study of
Sanskrit kāvya and commentaries. His erudition regarding these subjects
left such a deep impression on me that I could not have written anything
but a dissertation that fused the two. I also thank Profs. Theodore Ric-
cardi, Nadine Berardi, and especially Gary Tubb and Sally Goldman for
teaching me to read and enjoy the Sanskrit language as an undergraduate
and graduate student. I owe a profound debt to Prof. Ram Karan Sharma,
with whom i’ve had the privilege and pleasure of studentship and friend-
ship for more than fi fteen years. His encouragement and seemingly limit-
less expertise on all matters related to Sanskrit shaped this book at every
turn. As well, I express my deep gratitude to Shrimati Annapurna Sharma
and to all members of Sharmaji’s household in Vigyan Vihar for their hos-
pitality over the years.
I learned much from many Sanskrit scholars in India during my vari-
ous stays. Among them, special recognition goes to Srinivas Rath. I had
initially planned to visit with him for one or two days in spring 2003. In-
stead, he became my host and mentor for almost a full year. Sitting in
his room on Kalidas Marg in Ujjain, India, I spent magical days listening
to one of the fi nest contemporary Sanskrit poets sing poetry and ex-
plain the subtle arts of the Sanskrit k avi . Among other works, we read
the entire N aiṣadhīyacarita together during this time, and I am eternally