Religion, narrative and public imagination in South Asia : past and place in the Sanskrit Mahabharata / / James Hegarty

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910461604503321
• Autore: Hegarty James.
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Abingdon, Oxon : , : Routledge, , 2012
• ISBN: 1-283-45994-9; 9786613459947; 1-136-64589-6; 0-203-80512-7
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (241 p.)
• Collana: Routledge Hindu studies series
• Disciplina: 294.5/923046
• Soggetti: Hinduism in literature; Electronic books.; South Asia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-216) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Religion, Narrative and Public Imagination in South Asia Past and place in the Sanskrit Mahābhārata; Copyright; Contents; List of figures; Acknowledgements; Sanskrit pronunciation guide; Abbreviations; 1 Introduction; Visiting the Mahābhārata; A study of the story to end all stories; Public imagination and the Mahabharata; The Mahābhārata and the contrary mongoose; What the Mahābhārata does; The riddle of style and purpose: narrative, cognition and culture; Past, place and narrative as theory; Introducing the Mahābhārata; The critical text of the Mahābhārata; Situating the Mahābhārata; The shape of this bookA note on the translations; 2 Ritual and textual structure in the Mahābhārata; Introductory remarks; Ritual structure and the Mahābhārata; The ritual of listening: book 18 of the Mahābhārata and its phalaśruti; Narrative frames and reception in the Mahābhārata; Narratives in dialogue: the dicing sequence and the Nalopakhyana; Śakuntala and the modernity of the Mahābhārata; Yudhisthira's peace: the final books of the Mahābhārata; The dicing sequence of the Mahābhārata; Concluding remarks; 3 Constructing a significant past; Introductory remarks; Churning the Mahābhārata; A brief note on demotic dharma and the MahābhārataExtending and consolidating the Vedic past; The Śaunaka 'brand'; Vedish not Vedic; The situational exploration of the past: a case study in the tragic history of Karna; From textual to personal authority: exploring the past the Buddhist way; Concluding remarks; 4 Constructing significant places; Introductory remarks; The apotheosis of the Sabha; The world on the eve of battle; Pilgrimage and power in the Mahābhārata; Concluding remarks; 5 The Mahābhārata in early South Asia; Introductory remarks; The Mahābhārata and epigraphy; The Mahābhārata and literary cultureThe 'presence' of the Mahābhārata in early medieval Kaśmir; Concluding remarks; 6 Conclusions : Towards an old approach to philology; 7 Epilogue : The construction of the signifi cant past in the Hindi televisual Mahābhārat; Appendices; 1. A summary of the books of the Mahabharata; 2. A brief timeline for early South Asia; Bibliography of works cited; Index
• Sommario/riassunto: The Sanskrit Mahabharata is one of the greatest works of world literature and pivotal for the understanding of both Hindu traditions and wider society in ancient, medieval and modern South Asia. This book presents a new synthesis of philological, anthropological and cognitive-linguistic method and theory in relation to the study of narrative text by focusing on the form and function of the Mahabharata in the context of early South Asia.Arguing that the combination of structural and thematic features that have helped to establish the enduring cultural centrality of religious narrative