The wisdom of poets : studies in Tamil, Telugu, and Sanskrit

The classical literatures of Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu are among the richest in the world. These essays explore major issues and themes in the poetry and poetics of these three literatures, focusing on the role of the poet as making present an experience of the divine, and addressing the problem of the self and its processes of disintegration, disguise, and recomposition. The Essays Collected Here Explore The Central Problems Found In Sanskrit Literature And In The Classical Literatures Of South India - What Is The Nature Of The Poetic Voice? What Kind Of Experience Is At Stake? How Does Poetic Language Come To Embody Truth? How Is This Truth Conceived By The Poeticians And Theoreticians Who Produced Grammars Of Poetic Perception And Effect? In This Book, The Author Offers An Innovative Approach To The Poetics Of Medieval Poetry In Tamil And In Telugu, Where The Poet Turns Out To Be Very Close To A Magician Or Sorcerer, And The Project Of Poetry Is To Induce Or Intensify The Presence Of God. Several Essays Deal With The Theory Of Self And The Organization Of The Internal World Of Imagination, Forgetting, And Memory In These Classical Literatures. This Book Will Be Welcomed By Scholars And Specialists Of Medieval South Indian And Sanskrit Literature.--book Jacket. I. Authority, Structure, Voice -- 1. Toward A Historical Poetics Of The Sanskrit Epics -- 2. The Yaksa's Questions -- 3. Poets And Patrons In Tamil Literature And Literary Legend -- 4. From Author To Non-author In Tamil Literary Legend -- Ii. Selves, Membered And Remembered -- 5. On Being Human In The Sanskrit Epic: The Riddle Of Nala -- 6. Embracing The Subject: Harsa's Play Within A Play -- 7. The Prospects Of Memory -- 8. Dreaming The Self In South India -- Iii. Metaphysics Of Presence -- 9. Bhavabhuti On Cruelty And Compassion -- 10. Fire And Flood: The Testing Of Sita In Kampan's Iramavataram -- 11. First Man, Forest Mother: Telugu Humanism In The Age Of Krsnadevaraya -- 12. Does God Have Moods? David Shulman. Includes Bibliographical References. These essays explore major issues and themes in the poetry and poetics of Sanskrit, Tamil and Telegu. Focusing on the role of the poet as making present an experience of the divine, several essays address the problem of the self and its processes of disintegration, disguise and recomposition.