BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE Hindi in Classroom and Beyond, 2024
PBL is known among its practitioners as a didactic method that greatly boosts students' efficienc... more PBL is known among its practitioners as a didactic method that greatly boosts students' efficiency in learning to learn. It allows for a shift of the center of gravity from knowledge content to skills. Despite its long university career, it is not as widely widespread in human studies as, e.g. in social sciences or in medical studies for which it had been created.
The text entitled Śivbhūṣan or Śivrājbhūṇaṇ (henceforth Shivrajbhushan) by Bhūṣaṇ Tripāṭhī (hence... more The text entitled Śivbhūṣan or Śivrājbhūṇaṇ (henceforth Shivrajbhushan) by Bhūṣaṇ Tripāṭhī (henceforth Bhushan) (1613-1715) which is the basis of the analysis held in the book, is a poem produced within the courtly literary culture of Braj language. The latter is part of the Hindi literary tradition. Shivrajbhushan is an example of the rītigranth (‘treatise on method’) literary genre.
Along with the attempt to define the value of the work and the pragmatic dimension of the literary expression of court literary culture of Braj language, the problem of history in the indigenous intellectual tradition of the Indian subcontinent was taken into account.
The basis for addressing this problem are multiple judgments, especially belonging to the political (19th century) and academic (19th and first half of the 20th century) discourses, on the alleged lack of history in India. As one may suppose, such judgments arise form the lack of clear (native Indian) categories that would be equivalent to the Western notion of history. The cases of acceptance of this type of judgments and changing ways of defence against them constitute in the book the main point of departure: 1) for an attempt to conceptualise the forms of recording the past which would be equivalent and equal to the traditional Western „history”; 2) a characterisation of the specific form of history of which Bhushan's poem is an example.
Bhushan's oeuvre is one of the few—known to the scholarship—examples of works of the courtly literary culture of Braj language composed in the Deccan, far from the geographical range of those languages which are classified today within the literary tradition of Hindi.
The analysis of the poem and the historical context in which it has been produced indicate that Bhushan's work forms an important element within the discourse of power of its time and place. It provides arguments that a significant part of the literary expression was an essential branch, and perhaps even a core, of the discourse of power. However, the uniqueness of this form of history lies in the fact that its medium is a poetic-rhetorical text, as multidimensional as is the whole literary culture within which it has been created. Close reading and analysis of the poem allow to assume that the specific functions of legitimisation of power and recording of the past are strengthened and emphasised with the help of the sophisticated form and the refined convention. The poetry operating on different levels of transtextual references and using multidimensional semantic or figurative messages must have been aimed at reaching various audiences—and in a variety of ways—depending on the competence, specificity of the environment or the sensitivity of the recipient.
If narrative history is a form of appropriation of the past, Bhushan's poem, although it does not reveal the narrative structures, can be perceived as a planned and institutionally sanctioned form of such appropriation. It must be borne in mind that Bhushan created above all the knowledge of history of his times, i.e. the knowledge that was still in statu nascendi. As the one who created poetic images (i.e. functional equivalents of what is narrative in traditional history of the West), he must have aimed at constructing a framework for collective, still unformed memory. What must have been crucial in the process of its shaping, was the practice of repetitive performances, during which the strength of the sound-rhythmic associations and the correspondence between the structures of the form and the convention of the genre had to manifest itself with particular intensity.
Reading the poem in the context of other traditional representations and concepts and the analysis of the significance of various elements of the imaginary world of religion and myth—exploited by the poet—disclose the presence of discourse of power in the content of the work. The poetic images of Shivaji’s fame, his strength or energy, his ability to protect the earth or the subjects, the ability to feed, his wealth, or generosity in the form of the magic potency of giving, are in fact reflections of a number of concepts grounded in various Indian literary traditions. The outline of the royal extravaganza in Bhushan's poem was an important part of the aestheticization of power. It has been used to build an image consistent with the traditional Indian concept of kingship (S. rājadharma). In the historical context of Shivaji’s political ambition, the commission of such poem on the eve of the royal consecration should be viewed as an important part of a large-scale, costly enterprise of legitimisation of his rule in accordance with the orthodox social order (S. varṇāśramadharma).
The work is dominated by the „heroic taste” (vīra rasa), it lacks clear references to the private life of the ruler, which seem to be the effect of deliberate omissions. There is no room for some of the typologies from the Sanskrit kāvya poetry often aplied by other rīti poets. All this indicates a purposeful attempt to adjust the formal aspects of the oeuvre to the circumstances and conditions in which it has been created, or finally to the functions it was supposed to fulfill. In the pre-colonial era, in a world with a well-developed manuscript culture, probably coupled with the practice of public performance, and in which print technology has not yet been widespread, poetry seems to be this form of „writing” which is much more durable and far more communicative than e.g. prose. Under such conditions, the „historian” needed to use or adapt various existing means of literary expression to the planned or entrusted task. Bhushan successfully used—in an extremely skilful way—the available immanent poetics the application of which was probably a conditio sine qua non of gaining the necessary authority. If indeed, as postulated by V. N. Rao, D. Shulman and S. Subrahmanyam (2001), „each community writes history in the mode that is dominant in its own literary practice” the features of Bhushan's work presented in the book should be considered as an argument confirming their thesis. It turns out that not only the style, but also the rītigranth genre of poetry, seemingly rigid or—also seemingly—significantly limiting the range of content that it can transmit, in the hands or mouth of Bhushan, the poet of rīti literary stream, becomes flexible and capacious. A hyperbole, figures of „delight”, figures in which the cause is due to effect, or in which the comparans and the comparandum interchange their functions or characterise each other, or a number of other figural conventions, serve the aesthetic function of the literature. However, thanks to the skilful combination of motifs and other appropriate transtextual references, those figural conventions become means of constructing images that serve highly pragmatical purposes. The analysis of Shivrajbhushan poem, observed ways of adapting the form to non-literary functions, provide a strong argument for the pragmatic character of at least a part of the courtly literary culture of Braj language.
A literary work, particularly if it is an example of high-style poetry, is always a work of art, even if it is to be understood in terms of professional craft. Rītigranth genre served primarily the aesthetic functions. However, it has been significantly adapted to the complex discourse that clearly dominated the content of the work.
The analysis of Bhushan's allows to conclude that poetry created within the courtly literary culture of Braj language can be functional, within its cultural ecology, as both—expositio rerum gestarum and a broader reflection on the past. Not only it exposes, but also explains, directing the recipient to such an assessment of events that could serve the patron's political interests. Neither Bhushan can be called a historiographer, nor his poetic work of art can be named history-writing in the most common traditional sense that arises from Western intellectual traditions. But this literary culture did not arise out of those traditions in which both categories—historian and historiography existed. The literary culture under consideration had its own forms of recording the past. Their recognition can be regarded as an important contribution to the political, social and cultural reconstruction of the regional history of the Indian subcontinent.
(1927-2020) tworzył w języku hindi, choć po ukończeniu studiów doktoranckich w Stanach Zjednoczon... more (1927-2020) tworzył w języku hindi, choć po ukończeniu studiów doktoranckich w Stanach Zjednoczonych spędził tam łącznie niemal trzy dekady swego życia, a jego praca akademicka wymagała publikowania w języku angielskim. Wykładowca literatury angielskiej, który dojrzały etap swojego życia zawodowego związał
The paper examines two mid-18 th century poems, Sujān vilās and Dīrghnagarvarṇan, composed in Bra... more The paper examines two mid-18 th century poems, Sujān vilās and Dīrghnagarvarṇan, composed in Brajbhasha (Braj Bhasha) by Somnāth, at the then recently established court of the Jat rulers. It focuses on the description of the city, i.e. nagaravarṇana convention rooted in Sanskrit poetics and common in Sanskrit kāvya literature, further adopted by the authors belonging to the courtly ornate poetry of the Hindi literary tradition. In Somnāth's works which offer three instances of the nagaravarṇana, this convention sees its transformation into a fully-fledged literary genre. The poetics of the Brajbhasha literary production have been by then enriched to a considerable extent by Persian literary practices, with both courtly literary cultures, the Persian and the Brajbhasha, enjoying patronage of the Mughal center of power leading thus to diffusion of its various cultural practices, including the literary, to many neighboring states and dominions. The present inquiry situates Somnāth's works in this historico-literary settings with a view to define features of the nagaravarṇanas and thus trace the development of this literary genre and map its changing functions. Those functions, as argued here, point to disparate forms of patronage that underlie both compositions-probably a single, composite literary project.
Watch out, Pun! Śleṣa in Brajbhasha Courtly Literature* SUMMARY: The paper examines several insta... more Watch out, Pun! Śleṣa in Brajbhasha Courtly Literature* SUMMARY: The paper examines several instances of the use of śleṣa in a 17 th-century Braj poem commissioned by Shivaji Bhosle and composed in the Deccan. The subject of analysis is viewed from two perspectives: of the text's genre (rītigranth) and the equivalence between the objects of comparison. To this end, the study brings into focus, on one hand, the issue of striking explicitness vis-à-vis deliberate unveiling of double meaning by the poet, and on the other, the relations between selected literary figures and the nature of śleṣa embedded within given examples. Besides showcasing an aspect of the poet's virtuosity, the paper seeks to provide a template for wider discussion on the specifically Indian phenomenon of śleṣa in Braj courtly literary culture.
The visit of Shivaji Bhosle at Aurangzeb's court in 1666 is a famous subject of modern historical... more The visit of Shivaji Bhosle at Aurangzeb's court in 1666 is a famous subject of modern historical and popular accounts. A contemporary relation of this event is to be found in vernacular poetry, which according to the Western understanding of traditional history should not be considered factually reliable. Academic research of at least the last two decades has seen many attempts to oppose this view and to theorize Indian vernacular litera-tures as legitimate ways of recording the past. This article offers an analysis of a few 17 th-century Braj stanzas by Bhushan against the background of modern professional historical accounts, all of them devoted to the 1666 event, in order to demonstrate intersection points between two separately molded ways of intentional history-writing and to support the credibility of recording the past by the early modern poet.
This article is an attempt to identify history in an early modern text belonging to Hindi literar... more This article is an attempt to identify history in an early modern text belonging to Hindi literary tradition. Theoretical foundations that enable such venture are to be found in the narrativist philosophy of history, since it enabled to grant equal status to those discourses about the past which do not meet narrow criteria of world-history. V. Rao, D. Shulman and S. Subrahmanyam, working on South India, proposed that an analysis of texture allows to identify history in the compositions not belonging to the Western tradition of historiography. It is worth verifying whether their method applies to other literary traditions of India. The same researchers undermined the legitimacy of talking about prose as the only possible way of writing history – by claiming that history is written in the dominant literary genre of a particular community, space and time. Their hypotheses are hereby confronted with passages from Bhūṣan’s Śivrājbhūṣaṇ (1673).
The article is focused on the notion of dāna and its use in Śivrājbhūṣaṇ, a late 17th-century rī... more The article is focused on the notion of dāna and its use in Śivrājbhūṣaṇ, a late 17th-century rītigranth composed by Bhūṣaṇ in the court of Śivājī Bhoṃsle, shortly before the coronation. The ruler had it composed in Braj, a vernacular that had already risen to the status of a transregional language. The poem, which used to be reduced by literary historians to a simple panegyric, belongs to South Asian early modern court literature, the authors of which were explicitly manifesting their xture in Sanskrit literary tradition and simultaneously ful lled complex political agendas. The royal patronage infused the poetry with political essence, but the liter- ary conventions dictated the ways in which the political substance should be weaved into the poems. Basing on the textual analysis of Bhūṣaṇ’s work, I draw attention to the high frequency and various ways of use of the notion of dāna by the poet. This aims to prove that poetical representation of royal generosity embodied in various practices of dāna—liberally put to display—was one of the major tools of validating,vitalizing and bolstering royal authority.
The article is devoted to the 17 th-century poet Bhushan, author of Śivarājabhūṣaṇa, a rītigranth... more The article is devoted to the 17 th-century poet Bhushan, author of Śivarājabhūṣaṇa, a rītigranth most probably commissioned by the emerging Maratha ruler Shivaji Bhonsle. The existing histories of Hindi literature provide multiple accounts on the life of the poet, often calling them the hearsay tradition. Although many of them are drawn from a Maratha chronicle (bakhar), a proper study on the source of such accounts is still lacking. One more source that gives a chance to retrieve the cur-ricula of Bhushan is Śivarājabhūṣaṇa, the only homogenic text that is attributed to the poet. The manuscripts and the editions of this text, especially the stanzas referring to the poet himself, do not show significant changes or interpolations. It allows us to treat it as a relatively reliable source, and therefore the treatise can serve as a basis for the reconstruction of the poet's life and the circumstances of its composition. All portions of the text which refer to his biography are presented in order to provide complete data that can be drawn out of the internal evidence.
BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE Hindi in Classroom and Beyond, 2024
PBL is known among its practitioners as a didactic method that greatly boosts students' efficienc... more PBL is known among its practitioners as a didactic method that greatly boosts students' efficiency in learning to learn. It allows for a shift of the center of gravity from knowledge content to skills. Despite its long university career, it is not as widely widespread in human studies as, e.g. in social sciences or in medical studies for which it had been created.
The text entitled Śivbhūṣan or Śivrājbhūṇaṇ (henceforth Shivrajbhushan) by Bhūṣaṇ Tripāṭhī (hence... more The text entitled Śivbhūṣan or Śivrājbhūṇaṇ (henceforth Shivrajbhushan) by Bhūṣaṇ Tripāṭhī (henceforth Bhushan) (1613-1715) which is the basis of the analysis held in the book, is a poem produced within the courtly literary culture of Braj language. The latter is part of the Hindi literary tradition. Shivrajbhushan is an example of the rītigranth (‘treatise on method’) literary genre.
Along with the attempt to define the value of the work and the pragmatic dimension of the literary expression of court literary culture of Braj language, the problem of history in the indigenous intellectual tradition of the Indian subcontinent was taken into account.
The basis for addressing this problem are multiple judgments, especially belonging to the political (19th century) and academic (19th and first half of the 20th century) discourses, on the alleged lack of history in India. As one may suppose, such judgments arise form the lack of clear (native Indian) categories that would be equivalent to the Western notion of history. The cases of acceptance of this type of judgments and changing ways of defence against them constitute in the book the main point of departure: 1) for an attempt to conceptualise the forms of recording the past which would be equivalent and equal to the traditional Western „history”; 2) a characterisation of the specific form of history of which Bhushan's poem is an example.
Bhushan's oeuvre is one of the few—known to the scholarship—examples of works of the courtly literary culture of Braj language composed in the Deccan, far from the geographical range of those languages which are classified today within the literary tradition of Hindi.
The analysis of the poem and the historical context in which it has been produced indicate that Bhushan's work forms an important element within the discourse of power of its time and place. It provides arguments that a significant part of the literary expression was an essential branch, and perhaps even a core, of the discourse of power. However, the uniqueness of this form of history lies in the fact that its medium is a poetic-rhetorical text, as multidimensional as is the whole literary culture within which it has been created. Close reading and analysis of the poem allow to assume that the specific functions of legitimisation of power and recording of the past are strengthened and emphasised with the help of the sophisticated form and the refined convention. The poetry operating on different levels of transtextual references and using multidimensional semantic or figurative messages must have been aimed at reaching various audiences—and in a variety of ways—depending on the competence, specificity of the environment or the sensitivity of the recipient.
If narrative history is a form of appropriation of the past, Bhushan's poem, although it does not reveal the narrative structures, can be perceived as a planned and institutionally sanctioned form of such appropriation. It must be borne in mind that Bhushan created above all the knowledge of history of his times, i.e. the knowledge that was still in statu nascendi. As the one who created poetic images (i.e. functional equivalents of what is narrative in traditional history of the West), he must have aimed at constructing a framework for collective, still unformed memory. What must have been crucial in the process of its shaping, was the practice of repetitive performances, during which the strength of the sound-rhythmic associations and the correspondence between the structures of the form and the convention of the genre had to manifest itself with particular intensity.
Reading the poem in the context of other traditional representations and concepts and the analysis of the significance of various elements of the imaginary world of religion and myth—exploited by the poet—disclose the presence of discourse of power in the content of the work. The poetic images of Shivaji’s fame, his strength or energy, his ability to protect the earth or the subjects, the ability to feed, his wealth, or generosity in the form of the magic potency of giving, are in fact reflections of a number of concepts grounded in various Indian literary traditions. The outline of the royal extravaganza in Bhushan's poem was an important part of the aestheticization of power. It has been used to build an image consistent with the traditional Indian concept of kingship (S. rājadharma). In the historical context of Shivaji’s political ambition, the commission of such poem on the eve of the royal consecration should be viewed as an important part of a large-scale, costly enterprise of legitimisation of his rule in accordance with the orthodox social order (S. varṇāśramadharma).
The work is dominated by the „heroic taste” (vīra rasa), it lacks clear references to the private life of the ruler, which seem to be the effect of deliberate omissions. There is no room for some of the typologies from the Sanskrit kāvya poetry often aplied by other rīti poets. All this indicates a purposeful attempt to adjust the formal aspects of the oeuvre to the circumstances and conditions in which it has been created, or finally to the functions it was supposed to fulfill. In the pre-colonial era, in a world with a well-developed manuscript culture, probably coupled with the practice of public performance, and in which print technology has not yet been widespread, poetry seems to be this form of „writing” which is much more durable and far more communicative than e.g. prose. Under such conditions, the „historian” needed to use or adapt various existing means of literary expression to the planned or entrusted task. Bhushan successfully used—in an extremely skilful way—the available immanent poetics the application of which was probably a conditio sine qua non of gaining the necessary authority. If indeed, as postulated by V. N. Rao, D. Shulman and S. Subrahmanyam (2001), „each community writes history in the mode that is dominant in its own literary practice” the features of Bhushan's work presented in the book should be considered as an argument confirming their thesis. It turns out that not only the style, but also the rītigranth genre of poetry, seemingly rigid or—also seemingly—significantly limiting the range of content that it can transmit, in the hands or mouth of Bhushan, the poet of rīti literary stream, becomes flexible and capacious. A hyperbole, figures of „delight”, figures in which the cause is due to effect, or in which the comparans and the comparandum interchange their functions or characterise each other, or a number of other figural conventions, serve the aesthetic function of the literature. However, thanks to the skilful combination of motifs and other appropriate transtextual references, those figural conventions become means of constructing images that serve highly pragmatical purposes. The analysis of Shivrajbhushan poem, observed ways of adapting the form to non-literary functions, provide a strong argument for the pragmatic character of at least a part of the courtly literary culture of Braj language.
A literary work, particularly if it is an example of high-style poetry, is always a work of art, even if it is to be understood in terms of professional craft. Rītigranth genre served primarily the aesthetic functions. However, it has been significantly adapted to the complex discourse that clearly dominated the content of the work.
The analysis of Bhushan's allows to conclude that poetry created within the courtly literary culture of Braj language can be functional, within its cultural ecology, as both—expositio rerum gestarum and a broader reflection on the past. Not only it exposes, but also explains, directing the recipient to such an assessment of events that could serve the patron's political interests. Neither Bhushan can be called a historiographer, nor his poetic work of art can be named history-writing in the most common traditional sense that arises from Western intellectual traditions. But this literary culture did not arise out of those traditions in which both categories—historian and historiography existed. The literary culture under consideration had its own forms of recording the past. Their recognition can be regarded as an important contribution to the political, social and cultural reconstruction of the regional history of the Indian subcontinent.
(1927-2020) tworzył w języku hindi, choć po ukończeniu studiów doktoranckich w Stanach Zjednoczon... more (1927-2020) tworzył w języku hindi, choć po ukończeniu studiów doktoranckich w Stanach Zjednoczonych spędził tam łącznie niemal trzy dekady swego życia, a jego praca akademicka wymagała publikowania w języku angielskim. Wykładowca literatury angielskiej, który dojrzały etap swojego życia zawodowego związał
The paper examines two mid-18 th century poems, Sujān vilās and Dīrghnagarvarṇan, composed in Bra... more The paper examines two mid-18 th century poems, Sujān vilās and Dīrghnagarvarṇan, composed in Brajbhasha (Braj Bhasha) by Somnāth, at the then recently established court of the Jat rulers. It focuses on the description of the city, i.e. nagaravarṇana convention rooted in Sanskrit poetics and common in Sanskrit kāvya literature, further adopted by the authors belonging to the courtly ornate poetry of the Hindi literary tradition. In Somnāth's works which offer three instances of the nagaravarṇana, this convention sees its transformation into a fully-fledged literary genre. The poetics of the Brajbhasha literary production have been by then enriched to a considerable extent by Persian literary practices, with both courtly literary cultures, the Persian and the Brajbhasha, enjoying patronage of the Mughal center of power leading thus to diffusion of its various cultural practices, including the literary, to many neighboring states and dominions. The present inquiry situates Somnāth's works in this historico-literary settings with a view to define features of the nagaravarṇanas and thus trace the development of this literary genre and map its changing functions. Those functions, as argued here, point to disparate forms of patronage that underlie both compositions-probably a single, composite literary project.
Watch out, Pun! Śleṣa in Brajbhasha Courtly Literature* SUMMARY: The paper examines several insta... more Watch out, Pun! Śleṣa in Brajbhasha Courtly Literature* SUMMARY: The paper examines several instances of the use of śleṣa in a 17 th-century Braj poem commissioned by Shivaji Bhosle and composed in the Deccan. The subject of analysis is viewed from two perspectives: of the text's genre (rītigranth) and the equivalence between the objects of comparison. To this end, the study brings into focus, on one hand, the issue of striking explicitness vis-à-vis deliberate unveiling of double meaning by the poet, and on the other, the relations between selected literary figures and the nature of śleṣa embedded within given examples. Besides showcasing an aspect of the poet's virtuosity, the paper seeks to provide a template for wider discussion on the specifically Indian phenomenon of śleṣa in Braj courtly literary culture.
The visit of Shivaji Bhosle at Aurangzeb's court in 1666 is a famous subject of modern historical... more The visit of Shivaji Bhosle at Aurangzeb's court in 1666 is a famous subject of modern historical and popular accounts. A contemporary relation of this event is to be found in vernacular poetry, which according to the Western understanding of traditional history should not be considered factually reliable. Academic research of at least the last two decades has seen many attempts to oppose this view and to theorize Indian vernacular litera-tures as legitimate ways of recording the past. This article offers an analysis of a few 17 th-century Braj stanzas by Bhushan against the background of modern professional historical accounts, all of them devoted to the 1666 event, in order to demonstrate intersection points between two separately molded ways of intentional history-writing and to support the credibility of recording the past by the early modern poet.
This article is an attempt to identify history in an early modern text belonging to Hindi literar... more This article is an attempt to identify history in an early modern text belonging to Hindi literary tradition. Theoretical foundations that enable such venture are to be found in the narrativist philosophy of history, since it enabled to grant equal status to those discourses about the past which do not meet narrow criteria of world-history. V. Rao, D. Shulman and S. Subrahmanyam, working on South India, proposed that an analysis of texture allows to identify history in the compositions not belonging to the Western tradition of historiography. It is worth verifying whether their method applies to other literary traditions of India. The same researchers undermined the legitimacy of talking about prose as the only possible way of writing history – by claiming that history is written in the dominant literary genre of a particular community, space and time. Their hypotheses are hereby confronted with passages from Bhūṣan’s Śivrājbhūṣaṇ (1673).
The article is focused on the notion of dāna and its use in Śivrājbhūṣaṇ, a late 17th-century rī... more The article is focused on the notion of dāna and its use in Śivrājbhūṣaṇ, a late 17th-century rītigranth composed by Bhūṣaṇ in the court of Śivājī Bhoṃsle, shortly before the coronation. The ruler had it composed in Braj, a vernacular that had already risen to the status of a transregional language. The poem, which used to be reduced by literary historians to a simple panegyric, belongs to South Asian early modern court literature, the authors of which were explicitly manifesting their xture in Sanskrit literary tradition and simultaneously ful lled complex political agendas. The royal patronage infused the poetry with political essence, but the liter- ary conventions dictated the ways in which the political substance should be weaved into the poems. Basing on the textual analysis of Bhūṣaṇ’s work, I draw attention to the high frequency and various ways of use of the notion of dāna by the poet. This aims to prove that poetical representation of royal generosity embodied in various practices of dāna—liberally put to display—was one of the major tools of validating,vitalizing and bolstering royal authority.
The article is devoted to the 17 th-century poet Bhushan, author of Śivarājabhūṣaṇa, a rītigranth... more The article is devoted to the 17 th-century poet Bhushan, author of Śivarājabhūṣaṇa, a rītigranth most probably commissioned by the emerging Maratha ruler Shivaji Bhonsle. The existing histories of Hindi literature provide multiple accounts on the life of the poet, often calling them the hearsay tradition. Although many of them are drawn from a Maratha chronicle (bakhar), a proper study on the source of such accounts is still lacking. One more source that gives a chance to retrieve the cur-ricula of Bhushan is Śivarājabhūṣaṇa, the only homogenic text that is attributed to the poet. The manuscripts and the editions of this text, especially the stanzas referring to the poet himself, do not show significant changes or interpolations. It allows us to treat it as a relatively reliable source, and therefore the treatise can serve as a basis for the reconstruction of the poet's life and the circumstances of its composition. All portions of the text which refer to his biography are presented in order to provide complete data that can be drawn out of the internal evidence.
En vue d’une objection ancienne et du stéréotype valide dans le monde académique, selon lequel l’... more En vue d’une objection ancienne et du stéréotype valide dans le monde académique, selon lequel l’Inde ne dispose pas de sa propre histoire, un groupe d’académiciens indiens a lancé dans les années 80 du 20ème siècle un projet pluriannuel visant à écrire une nouvelle histoire de l’Inde. Comme point de départ du projet on a adopté la critique des historiographies elitistes dominantes jusqu’ici. Cette critique et les hypothèses sous-jacentes du programme ont constitué la base pour la nouvelle série des publications par Oxford University Press, Subaltern Studies. Writings on South Asian history and society. Les principes ont été formulées dans l’article initial de Ranajit Guha, l’aîné de l’équipe. Est-ce que la protestation et l’objectif ambitieux de ces historiens ont été suffisables pour créer une nouvelle histoire « indienne », et donc la nouvelle méthodologie ? Est-ce que les représentants du groupe ont réussi à construire leurs propres méthodes et même accéder, ou au moins aborder ...
En vue d’une objection ancienne et du stéréotype valide dans le monde académique, selon lequel l’... more En vue d’une objection ancienne et du stéréotype valide dans le monde académique, selon lequel l’Inde ne dispose pas de sa propre histoire, un groupe d’académiciens indiens a lancé dans les années 80 du 20ème siècle un projet pluriannuel visant à écrire une nouvelle histoire de l’Inde. Comme point de départ du projet on a adopté la critique des historiographies elitistes dominantes jusqu’ici. Cette critique et les hypothèses sous-jacentes du programme ont constitué la base pour la nouvelle série des publications par Oxford University Press, Subaltern Studies. Writings on South Asian history and society. Les principes ont été formulées dans l’article initial de Ranajit Guha, l’aîné de l’équipe. Est-ce que la protestation et l’objectif ambitieux de ces historiens ont été suffisables pour créer une nouvelle histoire « indienne », et donc la nouvelle méthodologie ? Est-ce que les représentants du groupe ont réussi à construire leurs propres méthodes et même accéder, ou au moins aborder ...
The paper examines several instances of the use of śleṣa in a 17th-century Braj poem commissioned... more The paper examines several instances of the use of śleṣa in a 17th-century Braj poem commissioned by Shivaji Bhosle and composed in the Deccan. The subject of analysis is viewed from two perspectives: of the text’s genre (rītigranth) and the equivalence between the objects of comparison. To this end, the study brings into focus, on one hand, the issue of striking explicitness vis-à-vis deliberate unveiling of double meaning by the poet, and on the other, the relations between selected literary figures and the nature of śleṣa embedded within given examples. Besides showcasing an aspect of the poet’s virtuosity, the paper seeks to provide a template for wider discussion on the specifically Indian phenomenon of śleṣa in Braj courtly literary culture.
Indian Vernacular History-writing and Its Ideological Engagement: A Contemporary Account on Shiva... more Indian Vernacular History-writing and Its Ideological Engagement: A Contemporary Account on Shivaji’s Visit to Agra (1666) in Brajbhāṣā Verse The visit of Shivaji Bhosle at Aurangzeb’s court in 1666 is a famous subject of modern historical and popular accounts. A contemporary relation of this event is to be found in vernacular poetry, which according to the Western understanding of traditional history should not be considered factually reliable. Academic research of at least the last two decades has seen many attempts to oppose this view and to theorize Indian vernacular literatures as legitimate ways of recording the past. This article offers an analysis of a few 17th-century Braj stanzas by Bhushan against the background of modern professional historical accounts, all of them devoted to the 1666 event, in order to demonstrate intersection points between two separately molded ways of intentional history-writing and to support the credibility of recording the past by the early moder...
This article is an attempt to identify history in an early modern text belonging to Hindi literar... more This article is an attempt to identify history in an early modern text belonging to Hindi literary tradition. Theoretical foundations that enable such venture are to be found in the narrativist philosophy of history, since it enabled to grant equal status to those discourses about the past which do not meet narrow criteria of world-history. V. Rao, D. Shulman and S. Subrahmanyam, working on South India, proposed that an analysis of texture allows to identify history in the compositions not belonging to the Western tradition of historiography. It is worth verifying whether their method applies to other literary traditions of India. The same researchers undermined the legitimacy of talking about prose as the only possible way of writing history – by claiming that history is written in the dominant literary genre of a particular community, space and time. Their hypotheses are hereby confronted with passages from Bhūṣan’s Śivrājbhūṣaṇ (1673).
The paper examines several instances of the use of śleṣa in a 17th-century Braj poem commissioned... more The paper examines several instances of the use of śleṣa in a 17th-century Braj poem commissioned by Shivaji Bhosle and composed in the Deccan. The subject of analysis is viewed from two perspectives: of the text’s genre (rītigranth) and the equivalence between the objects of comparison. To this end, the study brings into focus, on one hand, the issue of striking explicitness vis-à-vis deliberate unveiling of double meaning by the poet, and on the other, the relations between selected literary figures and the nature of śleṣa embedded within given examples. Besides showcasing an aspect of the poet’s virtuosity, the paper seeks to provide a template for wider discussion on the specifically Indian phenomenon of śleṣa in Braj courtly literary culture.
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Along with the attempt to define the value of the work and the pragmatic dimension of the literary expression of court literary culture of Braj language, the problem of history in the indigenous intellectual tradition of the Indian subcontinent was taken into account.
The basis for addressing this problem are multiple judgments, especially belonging to the political (19th century) and academic (19th and first half of the 20th century) discourses, on the alleged lack of history in India. As one may suppose, such judgments arise form the lack of clear (native Indian) categories that would be equivalent to the Western notion of history. The cases of acceptance of this type of judgments and changing ways of defence against them constitute in the book the main point of departure: 1) for an attempt to conceptualise the forms of recording the past which would be equivalent and equal to the traditional Western „history”; 2) a characterisation of the specific form of history of which Bhushan's poem is an example.
Bhushan's oeuvre is one of the few—known to the scholarship—examples of works of the courtly literary culture of Braj language composed in the Deccan, far from the geographical range of those languages which are classified today within the literary tradition of Hindi.
The analysis of the poem and the historical context in which it has been produced indicate that Bhushan's work forms an important element within the discourse of power of its time and place. It provides arguments that a significant part of the literary expression was an essential branch, and perhaps even a core, of the discourse of power. However, the uniqueness of this form of history lies in the fact that its medium is a poetic-rhetorical text, as multidimensional as is the whole literary culture within which it has been created. Close reading and analysis of the poem allow to assume that the specific functions of legitimisation of power and recording of the past are strengthened and emphasised with the help of the sophisticated form and the refined convention. The poetry operating on different levels of transtextual references and using multidimensional semantic or figurative messages must have been aimed at reaching various audiences—and in a variety of ways—depending on the competence, specificity of the environment or the sensitivity of the recipient.
If narrative history is a form of appropriation of the past, Bhushan's poem, although it does not reveal the narrative structures, can be perceived as a planned and institutionally sanctioned form of such appropriation. It must be borne in mind that Bhushan created above all the knowledge of history of his times, i.e. the knowledge that was still in statu nascendi. As the one who created poetic images (i.e. functional equivalents of what is narrative in traditional history of the West), he must have aimed at constructing a framework for collective, still unformed memory. What must have been crucial in the process of its shaping, was the practice of repetitive performances, during which the strength of the sound-rhythmic associations and the correspondence between the structures of the form and the convention of the genre had to manifest itself with particular intensity.
Reading the poem in the context of other traditional representations and concepts and the analysis of the significance of various elements of the imaginary world of religion and myth—exploited by the poet—disclose the presence of discourse of power in the content of the work. The poetic images of Shivaji’s fame, his strength or energy, his ability to protect the earth or the subjects, the ability to feed, his wealth, or generosity in the form of the magic potency of giving, are in fact reflections of a number of concepts grounded in various Indian literary traditions. The outline of the royal extravaganza in Bhushan's poem was an important part of the aestheticization of power. It has been used to build an image consistent with the traditional Indian concept of kingship (S. rājadharma). In the historical context of Shivaji’s political ambition, the commission of such poem on the eve of the royal consecration should be viewed as an important part of a large-scale, costly enterprise of legitimisation of his rule in accordance with the orthodox social order (S. varṇāśramadharma).
The work is dominated by the „heroic taste” (vīra rasa), it lacks clear references to the private life of the ruler, which seem to be the effect of deliberate omissions. There is no room for some of the typologies from the Sanskrit kāvya poetry often aplied by other rīti poets. All this indicates a purposeful attempt to adjust the formal aspects of the oeuvre to the circumstances and conditions in which it has been created, or finally to the functions it was supposed to fulfill. In the pre-colonial era, in a world with a well-developed manuscript culture, probably coupled with the practice of public performance, and in which print technology has not yet been widespread, poetry seems to be this form of „writing” which is much more durable and far more communicative than e.g. prose. Under such conditions, the „historian” needed to use or adapt various existing means of literary expression to the planned or entrusted task. Bhushan successfully used—in an extremely skilful way—the available immanent poetics the application of which was probably a conditio sine qua non of gaining the necessary authority. If indeed, as postulated by V. N. Rao, D. Shulman and S. Subrahmanyam (2001), „each community writes history in the mode that is dominant in its own literary practice” the features of Bhushan's work presented in the book should be considered as an argument confirming their thesis. It turns out that not only the style, but also the rītigranth genre of poetry, seemingly rigid or—also seemingly—significantly limiting the range of content that it can transmit, in the hands or mouth of Bhushan, the poet of rīti literary stream, becomes flexible and capacious. A hyperbole, figures of „delight”, figures in which the cause is due to effect, or in which the comparans and the comparandum interchange their functions or characterise each other, or a number of other figural conventions, serve the aesthetic function of the literature. However, thanks to the skilful combination of motifs and other appropriate transtextual references, those figural conventions become means of constructing images that serve highly pragmatical purposes. The analysis of Shivrajbhushan poem, observed ways of adapting the form to non-literary functions, provide a strong argument for the pragmatic character of at least a part of the courtly literary culture of Braj language.
A literary work, particularly if it is an example of high-style poetry, is always a work of art, even if it is to be understood in terms of professional craft. Rītigranth genre served primarily the aesthetic functions. However, it has been significantly adapted to the complex discourse that clearly dominated the content of the work.
The analysis of Bhushan's allows to conclude that poetry created within the courtly literary culture of Braj language can be functional, within its cultural ecology, as both—expositio rerum gestarum and a broader reflection on the past. Not only it exposes, but also explains, directing the recipient to such an assessment of events that could serve the patron's political interests. Neither Bhushan can be called a historiographer, nor his poetic work of art can be named history-writing in the most common traditional sense that arises from Western intellectual traditions. But this literary culture did not arise out of those traditions in which both categories—historian and historiography existed. The literary culture under consideration had its own forms of recording the past. Their recognition can be regarded as an important contribution to the political, social and cultural reconstruction of the regional history of the Indian subcontinent.
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Along with the attempt to define the value of the work and the pragmatic dimension of the literary expression of court literary culture of Braj language, the problem of history in the indigenous intellectual tradition of the Indian subcontinent was taken into account.
The basis for addressing this problem are multiple judgments, especially belonging to the political (19th century) and academic (19th and first half of the 20th century) discourses, on the alleged lack of history in India. As one may suppose, such judgments arise form the lack of clear (native Indian) categories that would be equivalent to the Western notion of history. The cases of acceptance of this type of judgments and changing ways of defence against them constitute in the book the main point of departure: 1) for an attempt to conceptualise the forms of recording the past which would be equivalent and equal to the traditional Western „history”; 2) a characterisation of the specific form of history of which Bhushan's poem is an example.
Bhushan's oeuvre is one of the few—known to the scholarship—examples of works of the courtly literary culture of Braj language composed in the Deccan, far from the geographical range of those languages which are classified today within the literary tradition of Hindi.
The analysis of the poem and the historical context in which it has been produced indicate that Bhushan's work forms an important element within the discourse of power of its time and place. It provides arguments that a significant part of the literary expression was an essential branch, and perhaps even a core, of the discourse of power. However, the uniqueness of this form of history lies in the fact that its medium is a poetic-rhetorical text, as multidimensional as is the whole literary culture within which it has been created. Close reading and analysis of the poem allow to assume that the specific functions of legitimisation of power and recording of the past are strengthened and emphasised with the help of the sophisticated form and the refined convention. The poetry operating on different levels of transtextual references and using multidimensional semantic or figurative messages must have been aimed at reaching various audiences—and in a variety of ways—depending on the competence, specificity of the environment or the sensitivity of the recipient.
If narrative history is a form of appropriation of the past, Bhushan's poem, although it does not reveal the narrative structures, can be perceived as a planned and institutionally sanctioned form of such appropriation. It must be borne in mind that Bhushan created above all the knowledge of history of his times, i.e. the knowledge that was still in statu nascendi. As the one who created poetic images (i.e. functional equivalents of what is narrative in traditional history of the West), he must have aimed at constructing a framework for collective, still unformed memory. What must have been crucial in the process of its shaping, was the practice of repetitive performances, during which the strength of the sound-rhythmic associations and the correspondence between the structures of the form and the convention of the genre had to manifest itself with particular intensity.
Reading the poem in the context of other traditional representations and concepts and the analysis of the significance of various elements of the imaginary world of religion and myth—exploited by the poet—disclose the presence of discourse of power in the content of the work. The poetic images of Shivaji’s fame, his strength or energy, his ability to protect the earth or the subjects, the ability to feed, his wealth, or generosity in the form of the magic potency of giving, are in fact reflections of a number of concepts grounded in various Indian literary traditions. The outline of the royal extravaganza in Bhushan's poem was an important part of the aestheticization of power. It has been used to build an image consistent with the traditional Indian concept of kingship (S. rājadharma). In the historical context of Shivaji’s political ambition, the commission of such poem on the eve of the royal consecration should be viewed as an important part of a large-scale, costly enterprise of legitimisation of his rule in accordance with the orthodox social order (S. varṇāśramadharma).
The work is dominated by the „heroic taste” (vīra rasa), it lacks clear references to the private life of the ruler, which seem to be the effect of deliberate omissions. There is no room for some of the typologies from the Sanskrit kāvya poetry often aplied by other rīti poets. All this indicates a purposeful attempt to adjust the formal aspects of the oeuvre to the circumstances and conditions in which it has been created, or finally to the functions it was supposed to fulfill. In the pre-colonial era, in a world with a well-developed manuscript culture, probably coupled with the practice of public performance, and in which print technology has not yet been widespread, poetry seems to be this form of „writing” which is much more durable and far more communicative than e.g. prose. Under such conditions, the „historian” needed to use or adapt various existing means of literary expression to the planned or entrusted task. Bhushan successfully used—in an extremely skilful way—the available immanent poetics the application of which was probably a conditio sine qua non of gaining the necessary authority. If indeed, as postulated by V. N. Rao, D. Shulman and S. Subrahmanyam (2001), „each community writes history in the mode that is dominant in its own literary practice” the features of Bhushan's work presented in the book should be considered as an argument confirming their thesis. It turns out that not only the style, but also the rītigranth genre of poetry, seemingly rigid or—also seemingly—significantly limiting the range of content that it can transmit, in the hands or mouth of Bhushan, the poet of rīti literary stream, becomes flexible and capacious. A hyperbole, figures of „delight”, figures in which the cause is due to effect, or in which the comparans and the comparandum interchange their functions or characterise each other, or a number of other figural conventions, serve the aesthetic function of the literature. However, thanks to the skilful combination of motifs and other appropriate transtextual references, those figural conventions become means of constructing images that serve highly pragmatical purposes. The analysis of Shivrajbhushan poem, observed ways of adapting the form to non-literary functions, provide a strong argument for the pragmatic character of at least a part of the courtly literary culture of Braj language.
A literary work, particularly if it is an example of high-style poetry, is always a work of art, even if it is to be understood in terms of professional craft. Rītigranth genre served primarily the aesthetic functions. However, it has been significantly adapted to the complex discourse that clearly dominated the content of the work.
The analysis of Bhushan's allows to conclude that poetry created within the courtly literary culture of Braj language can be functional, within its cultural ecology, as both—expositio rerum gestarum and a broader reflection on the past. Not only it exposes, but also explains, directing the recipient to such an assessment of events that could serve the patron's political interests. Neither Bhushan can be called a historiographer, nor his poetic work of art can be named history-writing in the most common traditional sense that arises from Western intellectual traditions. But this literary culture did not arise out of those traditions in which both categories—historian and historiography existed. The literary culture under consideration had its own forms of recording the past. Their recognition can be regarded as an important contribution to the political, social and cultural reconstruction of the regional history of the Indian subcontinent.