Religion, Narrative, and Public Imagination in South Asia: Past and place in the Sanskrit Mahābhārata

Religion, Narrative and Public Imagination in South Asia Past and place in the Sanskrit Mahābhārata......Page 6
Copyright......Page 7
Contents......Page 10
List of figures......Page 12
Acknowledgements......Page 13
Sanskrit pronunciation guide......Page 15
Abbreviations......Page 16
A study of the story to end all stories......Page 18
Public imagination and the Mahabharata......Page 21
The Mahābhārata and the contrary mongoose......Page 24
What the Mahābhārata does......Page 30
The riddle of style and purpose: narrative, cognition and culture......Page 32
Past, place and narrative as theory......Page 37
Introducing the Mahābhārata......Page 41
The critical text of the Mahābhārata......Page 42
Situating the Mahābhārata......Page 49
The shape of this book......Page 53
A note on the translations......Page 55
Introductory remarks......Page 65
Ritual structure and the Mahābhārata......Page 67
The ritual of listening: book 18 of the Mahābhārata and its phalaśruti......Page 75
Narratives in dialogue: the dicing sequence and the Nalopakhyana......Page 81
Śakuntala and the modernity of the Mahābhārata......Page 84
Yudhisthira’s peace: the final books of the Mahābhārata......Page 90
The dicing sequence of the Mahābhārata......Page 96
Concluding remarks......Page 104
Introductory remarks......Page 111
Churning the Mahābhārata......Page 113
A brief note on demotic dharma and the Mahābhārata......Page 123
Extending and consolidating the Vedic past......Page 125
The Śaunaka ‘brand’......Page 127
Vedish not Vedic......Page 129
The situational exploration of the past: a case study in the tragic history of Karna......Page 135
From textual to personal authority: exploring the past the Buddhist way......Page 138
Concluding remarks......Page 146
The apotheosis of the Sabha......Page 154
The world on the eve of battle......Page 162
Pilgrimage and power in the Mahābhārata......Page 168
Concluding remarks......Page 176
The Mahābhārata and epigraphy......Page 181
The Mahābhārata and literary culture......Page 187
The ‘presence’ of the Mahābhārata in early medieval Kaśmir......Page 191
Concluding remarks......Page 202
6 Conclusions : Towards an old approach to philology......Page 206
7 Epilogue : The construction of the signifi cant past in the Hindi televisual Mahābhārat......Page 209
1. A summary of the books of the Mahabharata......Page 216
2. A brief timeline for early South Asia......Page 223
Bibliography of works cited......Page 224
Index......Page 234