1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910811230003321

Autore

Wilden Eva

Titolo

Manuscript, print and memory : relics of the Cankam in Tamilnadu / / Eva Wilden

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin, [Germany] : , : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

3-11-035276-1

3-11-038779-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (462 p.)

Collana

Studies in Manuscript Cultures ; ; Volume 3

Classificazione

AM 42800

Disciplina

894.8/1109

Soggetti

Sangam literature - History and criticism

Tamil literature - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Tedesco

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Preface -- List of Abbreviations -- Contents -- I. Introduction -- II. The Manuscripts -- III. Transmissional History -- III.1 The Invocation Stanzas (kaṭavuḷ vāḻttu) -- III.2 Traditional Colophons -- III.3 Mnemonic Stanzas -- III.4 The Caṅkam Legends -- III. 5 Reception in the Grammatical Tradition -- III.6 Summary: The Rise and Fall of a Canon -- IV The Editing Process -- V Conclusion: The Restitution of a Canon -- Literature -- List of Acknowledgements for the Illustrations -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The ancient Tamil poetic corpus of the Caṅam ("The Academy") is a national treasure for Tamilians and a battle-ground for linguists and historians of politics, culture and literature. Going back to oral predecessors probably dating back to the beginning of the first millennium, it has had an extremely rich and variegated history. Collected into anthologies and endowed with  literary theories and voluminous commentaries, it became the centre-piece of the Tamil literary canon, associated with the royal court of the Pandya dynasty in Madurai. Its decline began in the late middle ages, and by the late 17th century it had fallen into near oblivion, before being rediscovered at the beginning of the print era. The present study traces the complex historical process of its transmission over some 2000 years, using and



documenting a wide range of sources, in particular surviving manuscripts, the early prints, the commentaries of the literary and grammatical traditions and a vast range of later literature that creates a web of inter-textual references and "ations.