The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern IndiaIn this work of impressive scholarship, Sheldon Pollock explores the remarkable rise and fall of Sanskrit, India's ancient language, as a vehicle of poetry and polity. He traces the two great moments of its transformation: the first around the beginning of the Common Era, when Sanskrit, long a sacred language, was reinvented as a code for literary and political expression, the start of an amazing career that saw Sanskrit literary culture spread from Afghanistan to Java. The second moment occurred around the beginning of the second millennium, when local speech forms challenged and eventually replaced Sanskrit in both the literary and political arenas. Drawing striking parallels, chronologically as well as structurally, with the rise of Latin literature and the Roman empire, and with the new vernacular literatures and nation-states of late-medieval Europe, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men asks whether these very different histories challenge current theories of culture and power and suggest new possibilities for practice. |
Contents
| 1 | |
The Sanskrit Cosmopolis | 37 |
The Vernacular Millennium | 281 |
Theory and Practice of Culture and Power | 495 |
Epilogue | 567 |
Appendix A | 581 |
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aesthetic Apabhramsha Asian beginning Bhoja Brahmans Brajbhasha Buddhist C1zukya çaka century chapter CO!a Common Era composed conceptual constituted cosmopolis cosmopolitan court courtly cultural-political culture and power culture-power deéE discourse domain dynasty earlier early epic epigraphical erary Europe European example existence expression fact genre grammar guage Gujarat idiom India inscriptions Jain Java k1vya kakawin Kaly1âa Kannada Karnataka Khmer king languages of Place later Latin linguistic literary culture literary language literate literature M1rgam Magadha Mah1bh1rata Maharashtra Marathi medieval millennium modern mopolitan nacular narrative nation oral Pallava Patañjali philological poem poetry poets political practices praéasti Prakrit premodern South Asia produced R1m1yaâa record regional Roman royal Samudragupta Sanskrit cosmopolis Sanskrit culture Sanskrit language Sanskrit literary scholars sense Shudra skrit social South Asia southern Asia space sphere style Tamil Telugu textual theory tion tradition transformation transregional Veda vernacular literary verse western words writing written