Visions and Revisions in Sanskrit Narrative

Studies in the Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas

Raj Balkaran, McComas Taylor

• Publisher: ANU Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781760465896
• eBook ISBN: 9781760465902
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Philosophy of Religion

Sanskrit narrative is the lifeblood of Indian culture, encapsulating and perpetuating insights and values central to Indian thought and practice. This volume brings together eighteen of the foremost scholars across the globe, who, in an unprecedented collaboration, accord these texts the integrity and dignity they deserve. The last time this was attempted, on a much smaller scale, was a generation ago, with Pur??a Perennis (1993). The pre-eminent contributors to this landmark collection use novel methods and theory to meaningfully engage Sanskrit narrative texts, showcasing the state of contemporary scholarship on the Sanskrit epics and pur??as.

Table of contents

• List of illustrations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Contributors
• Introduction: Visions and revisions of Sanskrit narrative
• 1. Narrative argument and interlocutory frames in the Mahābhārata
• 2. Āstīka, black magic and apotropaic ritual: Peacemaking brahmins and the snake sacrifice in the Mahābhārata’s Ādiparvan
• 3. Transitions and transmissions in the Mahābhārata: Revisiting the Ugraśravas/Śaunaka frame dialogue
• 4. Battling inner conflicts: Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Saṃjaya in the Udyogaparvan of the Mahābhārata
• 5. The Ambopākhyāna reconsidered: Reading Ambā’s story as part of the Rāma Jāmadagnya myth cycle
• 6. Claiming the narrative: Subjectivity and intertextuality in the Ambopākhyāna
• 7. Bhīma: The shadow king
• 8. Some moral tasting notes on the Udyogaparvan of the Mahābhārata
• 9. The Bhagavadgītā’s determinism and world literature
• 10 .Mineral, vegetal, animal or divine? The flying palace Puṣpaka’s manifold metamorphoses
• 11. From Ayodhyā to the Daṇḍaka: Rāma’s journey in exile according to the Jain Rāmāyaṇas
• 12. Gembedded narratives: Jewelled peacetime tales of Rāma’s exile and Rāvaṇa’s domicile as alternative afterlife anticipations in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa
• 13. Train stations, enterprising priests and the deadly blows of kuśa grass: Reading the purāṇas with a magic‑realist lens
• 14. Textures of purāṇic transmission: A contemporary vernacular exposition of a Sanskrit purāṇa
• 15. The Śivaśarmopākhyāna of the Padma Purāṇa as a bizarre compendium of epic and purāṇic tales of Pitṛbhakti
• 16. Same, same but different: The Tamil Kāñcippurāṇam and its Sanskrit source
• 17. The ‘purāṇification’ of the death of Kṛṣṇa
• 18. Lambs, lightning, nakedness and fire: Polythetic networks and literary elaborations of the Purūravas–Urvaśī narrative