Querying the Medieval : Texts and the History of Practices in South Asia

"Drawing on thinkers as diverse as V. N. Volosinov, R. G. Collingwood, and E. Laclau, this volume challenges the predominant idea of a text as "monological" both in its "authorist" and "contextualist" versions. The authors instead seek to understand texts as "dialogical" moments in the relations that agents have with themselves and with other agents. From this perspective, each author is able to pry open a particular text and reveal the articulative relation that each has had with the world in which it was situated. The result is a revised look at the relationship between history, national identity, and religion in medieval South Asia."--BOOK JACKET.

Indologist Ronald Inden has in the past raised questions about the images of a "traditional" or "medieval" India deployed by colonial scholars and rulers—"Orientalists"—and has also argued that a history of "early medieval" India very different from both the colonial and nationalist accounts could be written. This volume is designed as an important first step towards that goal. The authors look closely at three genres of texts that have been crucial to the representations of precolonial India. All three essays challenge not only colonialist scholarship but the attempts by religious nationalists to identify Hinduism as the essence of national identity in India and Buddhism as the essence of nationality in Sri Lanka.

Indologist Ronald Inden has in the past raised questions about the images of a "traditional" or "medieval" India deployed by colonial scholars and rulers -- "Orientalists" -- and has also argued that a history of "early medieval" India very different from both the colonial and nationalists accounts could be written. This volume is designed as an important first step towards that goal. The authors look closely at three genres of texts that have been crucial to the representations of precolonial India. All three essays challenge not only colonialist scholarship but the attempts by religious nationalists to identify Hinduism as the essence of national identity in Idia and Buddhism as the essence of nationality in Sri Lanka. Contents 6 1 Introduction: From Philogical to Dialogical Texts 10 2 Imperial Purānas: Kashmir as Vaissnava Center of the Words 36 3 Buddhist History: The Sri Lankan Pāli Vamsas and Their Community 106 4 Royal Eulogy as World History: Rethinking Copper-plate Inscriptions in Cola India 172 Index 237 A 237 B 237 C 237 D 238 E 238 F 238 G 238 H 238 I 239 J 239 K 239 L 239 M 239 N 240 O 240 P 240 Q 240 R 240 S 241 T 241 U 241 V 241 W 242 X 242 Y 242 Z 242 "This volume, through a close reading of a number of "early medieval" texts, seeks to undermine any easy characterization of medieval South Asia as a dark prelude to an enlightened modernity. It attempts to destabilize these characterizations through a rereading of three important genres of medieval texts crucial to the representation of precolonial India - Puranas, Vamsas, and inscriptional Prasastis."