Kriti-SAMHiTA: The Plurality of Indian Knowledge Systems

WEBINAR 

Bardic Epic to Court Poetry: Theme and Variations

Speaker: Prof. Kesavan Veluthat, formerly, Professor of History, Delhi University, and Director of the Institute for the Study of the Heritage of Coastal Kerala, Kodungallur

Chair: Prof. David Shulman, Renée Lang Professor of Humanistic Studies, Department of Comparative Religion, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Prof. Kesavan Veluthat has taught at Delhi University, Mangalore University, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris; Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam; and at JNU. He was Director of the Institute for the Study of the Heritage of Coastal Kerala, Kodungallur. His books include, The Political Structure of Early Medieval South India (1993), The Early Medieval in South India (2010), and The Buffalo Century: Vāñcheśvara Dīkṣita’s Mahiṣaśatakam: A Political Satire for All Centuries (2020).

This talk seeks to explain the variations in epic themes when they are reworked in the mahākāvyas (“grand poems”) in Sanskrit. It sees the epics as largely products of a pre-state society and the mahākāvyas, as of a state society. Taking up instances from the Kirātārjunīya, a poem from the 5th century CE, it argues that the mahākāvyas adapted and reused themes from the epics in order to suit the new sensibilities and requirements, which were different from that of a lineage-based chiefdom.

Tenth in a series of lectures organised by IIC-International Research Division with the support of Ministry of External Affairs

Registration link:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__jFJD91lReCmRCrY1ucRWQ