1 00:00:00,030 --> 00:00:12,990 What further delay our panel is titled Circulation Literature and the early modern public sphere and are our first speaker today is Professor Sargent. 2 00:00:12,990 --> 00:00:16,410 Get good from Bermuda. 3 00:00:16,410 --> 00:00:28,500 [INAUDIBLE] be speaking about travelling some circulation and the multilingual local of world literature in early modern Marathi. 4 00:00:28,500 --> 00:00:33,640 Such and please. Thanks a lot. Hope I am audible. 5 00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:42,660 Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So so what? I want to thank the organisers of this seminar for again, generously having me. 6 00:00:42,660 --> 00:00:49,260 And it's always so illuminating and educative to be part of these conversations. 7 00:00:49,260 --> 00:00:53,400 I was born, prepared and now for her very important, 8 00:00:53,400 --> 00:01:03,570 valuable feedback that she gave on the rooftop that I was working on and I would go straightaway into my presentation and I have a point here, 9 00:01:03,570 --> 00:01:14,200 so I would like to share screen. 10 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:17,860 Yes, there's a green shared screen icon there. 11 00:01:17,860 --> 00:01:24,310 Can you see it? Just a minute, I was, I would guess. 12 00:01:24,310 --> 00:01:33,070 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I got that right. You know, your your mike is still close to your face. 13 00:01:33,070 --> 00:01:37,720 No, it's better. It's picking up a lot of film. 14 00:01:37,720 --> 00:01:43,180 OK. What do you call it? Yeah, just your you know your Brad Pitt. 15 00:01:43,180 --> 00:01:48,230 OK. It's better. Yeah. So just keep it a little bit far from your face. 16 00:01:48,230 --> 00:01:57,660 OK, thank you. OK. So I'm going to speak about travelling centres and the question of circulation 17 00:01:57,660 --> 00:02:02,250 and the formation of multilingual local of world literature in early Marathi, 18 00:02:02,250 --> 00:02:19,080 early modern Marathi. And my focus is going to be on the practise of a particular or on on body Brahman order or at that I as it's being discussed. 19 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:26,430 But my focus is also on how what impact does it have on social and cultural spaces. 20 00:02:26,430 --> 00:02:31,800 And one of the arguments that I'm trying to develop, though not very convincingly, 21 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:38,820 is that it is one of the practises that is critical to understand the early modernity, 22 00:02:38,820 --> 00:02:46,410 which in itself is a kind of debated issue, something that I would end my presentation by just suggesting that. 23 00:02:46,410 --> 00:02:57,510 But so do these often understood as criticism of rituals like the pilgrimages travelling as a part of pilgrimage 24 00:02:57,510 --> 00:03:05,610 or the plethora or religious travel has played an essential role in circulation of the group's texts, 25 00:03:05,610 --> 00:03:13,710 believes genres in the transitional vernacular sphere in Indian subcontinent, 26 00:03:13,710 --> 00:03:21,720 as is known for nationalist scholars like me that given these movements and circulation produced national integration. 27 00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:25,500 And on the other hand, for the nativist understanding, 28 00:03:25,500 --> 00:03:39,810 it assumes that this was largely an assertion in celebration of monolingual DC against the opposition to the hegemonic of Sanskrit McGeer tradition. 29 00:03:39,810 --> 00:03:45,870 South Asian scholars like Shodan policy, but this part of the process of bernet liberalisation, 30 00:03:45,870 --> 00:03:54,240 or the historical process of choosing to create literature along with its complement of political discourse in local space, 31 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:59,310 according to models supplied by US, support our debate, usually cosmopolitan culture. 32 00:03:59,310 --> 00:04:08,250 So he's strength. He visualises the process of our naturalisation as a kind of linear, top down process. 33 00:04:08,250 --> 00:04:12,510 Not just that. Furthermore, in postcolonial travel studies, 34 00:04:12,510 --> 00:04:19,080 very often they limit themselves in East West Travels and do not pay a significant 35 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:24,600 attention to India South Asian travel practises before the advent of colonialism. 36 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:35,910 So in some way, I'm trying to make a small contribution in that direction as well, though John 7He in his critique of the arguments. 37 00:04:35,910 --> 00:04:45,750 Nationalist, we will. But the idioms that spread through the youth ranks Brahman as producing national integration seems to uphold Pollock's views. 38 00:04:45,750 --> 00:04:57,540 Your argued that the historical focus of Brahman and actually complicate Pollock's Sanskrit centric view of subcontinental cultural history, 39 00:04:57,540 --> 00:05:04,540 which is based on the kind of vertical binaries of the Moraga and the See. 40 00:05:04,540 --> 00:05:12,370 I also argue that the experiences of trans regional travelling to other nations in South Asia by influential 41 00:05:12,370 --> 00:05:20,440 Marathi composers suggest no later than early 14th century equinox in the late 16th century and RAM, 42 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:29,860 dass Lummi in 17th century, have played a critical role in not only shaping their own boy texts and cultural politics, 43 00:05:29,860 --> 00:05:35,890 but also contributing significantly to cultural change in the society. 44 00:05:35,890 --> 00:05:42,850 I also go on to suggest that while what exactly constitutes early modernity is debateable as be based. 45 00:05:42,850 --> 00:05:45,670 Chakraborty has pointed out, 46 00:05:45,670 --> 00:05:55,600 some significant features of early modernity can be discerned in the vernacular discourses of the late 16th and 17th century Marathi composers, 47 00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:59,860 especially the writings of centres like you cannot see them thus. 48 00:05:59,860 --> 00:06:10,480 And my position is that that whole phenomena of the present Martin has played a crucial 49 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:24,230 role in bringing about this shift that we label as early modernity in the Mughal period. 50 00:06:24,230 --> 00:06:33,440 If the widely accepted debt of the eurozone debt of Nnamdi Abedi's 13:50 is taken into consideration, 51 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:39,890 the last three decades of his life coincides with the rule of Dalzell and in the 52 00:06:39,890 --> 00:06:48,590 decade it is unsurprising given his travels and decades long offer of Brahman in 53 00:06:48,590 --> 00:06:53,060 the northern India that his language and Keynes reflect society and culture 54 00:06:53,060 --> 00:06:59,810 transformed by the presence of Islam in a Hindustani composition attributed to Nambu. 55 00:06:59,810 --> 00:07:10,970 Yeah, it goes like this Hindu only Hindu and to the cook cannot do Guyana's S.A. You can do the hula Soleimani must. 56 00:07:10,970 --> 00:07:20,390 That is, both the Hindu and Turks are supposed to be knowledgeable, like the Hindu praising the temple and the Turk in a mosque. 57 00:07:20,390 --> 00:07:26,690 Gaultier believes that this composition in the Hindustani, like the one mentioned here, 58 00:07:26,690 --> 00:07:37,590 is a strategy to contain conversion to Islam by arguing that both the religious modes of worship are futile and hence it's futile to convert as well. 59 00:07:37,590 --> 00:07:44,630 Now, this propagation of neocon philosophy after his return from the North, according to quality, 60 00:07:44,630 --> 00:07:50,780 is to be understood in the backdrop of Islam as a strategic mode of containing conversion. 61 00:07:50,780 --> 00:08:00,350 Oh, this is the modern interpretation of Nnamdi when his travels, and as I think Christian Novitsky has pointed out, 62 00:08:00,350 --> 00:08:12,290 that details regarding Namdas travels has been very fuzzy and unclear whether he actually returned to monastery or not, 63 00:08:12,290 --> 00:08:18,860 though Meraki tradition sees that he returned to Marrakesh to attend to his mother. 64 00:08:18,860 --> 00:08:25,460 But again, we don't know much about it. While one may or may not agree with this explanation, 65 00:08:25,460 --> 00:08:33,950 but now they return to their philosophy towards the end of his life and the Hindustani compositions on his name embody the American philosophy, 66 00:08:33,950 --> 00:08:42,740 according to Totally. One cannot help but note the shift in language and the type of bilingualism and multilingualism 67 00:08:42,740 --> 00:08:49,580 distinct view in those compositions from the period of the shadows emerging in Marathi. 68 00:08:49,580 --> 00:08:56,240 Prior to his works now, these pilgrimages brought him in contact with other cultural regions, 69 00:08:56,240 --> 00:09:01,070 other nations, languages and the religious anarchistic practises. 70 00:09:01,070 --> 00:09:10,130 This context influenced his own work as he compose his own composing in other languages like maybe Hindi, 71 00:09:10,130 --> 00:09:21,290 Hindustani or whatever, as it was known in those days. The latest interesting debate in Marathi has happened on the language of Nambu, 72 00:09:21,290 --> 00:09:25,700 which I don't want to go into right now because it would be going in a different direction. 73 00:09:25,700 --> 00:09:32,270 Responding to the social and cultural conditions in other areas, it affected his philosophy. 74 00:09:32,270 --> 00:09:39,530 The experience of trans regional travelling to other places in South Asia by these writers have played a critical role. 75 00:09:39,530 --> 00:09:44,000 As I said, in their own cultural politics as now, 76 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:56,240 India's own position on Hindu worshipping in temple and Muslims worshipping in mosques would be futile. 77 00:09:56,240 --> 00:10:06,530 And this is the finger of NAM. There obviously has significant relevance outside Marathi speaking region, as Novitsky has comprehensively shown. 78 00:10:06,530 --> 00:10:12,080 Now there is one of the first figures of the genre of Bhakti religious expression in central, 79 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:17,930 western and northern India in Punjab, and he's revered in several religious lineages. 80 00:10:17,930 --> 00:10:22,670 Apart from the what carries that argument is the pun designed amongst six. 81 00:10:22,670 --> 00:10:30,410 Radhe is one of the important gods in the body of the Guru Granth Sahib. 82 00:10:30,410 --> 00:10:37,070 As this part of multiple tradition, there is no agreed upon hagiography or agreed upon corpus of songs, 83 00:10:37,070 --> 00:10:41,210 though the songs like tribute to him are available in many languages like Brads. 84 00:10:41,210 --> 00:10:46,130 In the ways that I feel, I just study Punjabi apart from Marathi. 85 00:10:46,130 --> 00:10:50,540 Understanding this into vernacular circulation, 86 00:10:50,540 --> 00:11:03,950 even though he geographies are often very unreliable and and inaccurate when it comes to depicting the details of these travels, 87 00:11:03,950 --> 00:11:13,850 as in the case of some ram dass. But they do provide some clue that these internet are circulation of some, 88 00:11:13,850 --> 00:11:22,890 as complicate the conventional understanding of pre-colonial South Asian vernacular literatures and cultures based on simplistic vertical. 89 00:11:22,890 --> 00:11:28,890 I know he's off Sanskrit, cosmopolitan, my view and the Battlefield DC, 90 00:11:28,890 --> 00:11:35,700 as well as the notion that the vernacular compositions were derivative modelled upon some super alternate Sanskrit forms. 91 00:11:35,700 --> 00:11:46,380 So in this internet necklace circulation, we are looking at the horizontal kind of movements that are integral to what 92 00:11:46,380 --> 00:11:52,080 qualifies as vernacular ization rather than just Sanskrit and B.S. in direction. 93 00:11:52,080 --> 00:12:01,260 So this is a neglected aspect when we try to understand the cultural history of modern Indian languages. 94 00:12:01,260 --> 00:12:08,010 It also complicates the modern and monolingual nativist reading of cultural history of the subcontinent. 95 00:12:08,010 --> 00:12:16,530 While the conventional conceptualisation of Boyle has often are understood, world literature in opposition to the national literature, 96 00:12:16,530 --> 00:12:23,190 more recent theoretical paradigms of world literature that emphasise circulation like David Damrosch does, 97 00:12:23,190 --> 00:12:32,490 and histories of larger internal literary processes as bonus duties and does, allows us to read British literature as world literary phenomena. 98 00:12:32,490 --> 00:12:41,130 This is where I join. Even with Francesca, our seniors conceptualising multilingual locally in a very different context, 99 00:12:41,130 --> 00:12:51,210 where she looks at the pre-colonial genres as world hagiography scholars that now they appear to to 100 00:12:51,210 --> 00:12:58,320 cut in a dream with return and ask him to complete namdas mission to compose one billion amongst us. 101 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:04,050 We also learn that a holy man named Bob Vegetate the new who was a spiritual descendant of Guru 102 00:13:04,050 --> 00:13:13,110 Rago Jason or an associate to appeared in the dream and initiated him in the box of spirituality. 103 00:13:13,110 --> 00:13:22,750 Such kind of legends and stories. Duke may not have a historical basis, but it does tell us something about the way traditions are put together, 104 00:13:22,750 --> 00:13:29,740 especially what goes under the category of some bread-and-butter emperor. 105 00:13:29,740 --> 00:13:37,910 Like Equinox Group two currency group, but Imparato reveals the confluence of Hindu, Islamic and Hindu traditions. 106 00:13:37,910 --> 00:13:43,010 I'll go check them. They belong to the Patriots on Friday and was also famous as Hazrat last year. 107 00:13:43,010 --> 00:13:51,580 My shock amongst Muslims and I'll go to dinner was himself known as has been cited as historians point out, 108 00:13:51,580 --> 00:13:58,060 and comparing to current worked with great predecessors like this one and not be noticed a 109 00:13:58,060 --> 00:14:06,130 significant shift in subjectivity language that reveals greater influence of Arabic and Hindustani, 110 00:14:06,130 --> 00:14:13,270 and a major shift in the universe of discourse that includes saints or centres from larger 111 00:14:13,270 --> 00:14:21,770 subcontinent and subjectivity are autobiographical and persist into Karam is distinct, 112 00:14:21,770 --> 00:14:27,280 distinctive, I think, compared to other important composers before him. 113 00:14:27,280 --> 00:14:35,320 Let's tie up with the hagiography is to create image of Tulkarem in cultural memory, the shift in party into the next duality. 114 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:41,560 And this is one of the points that I want to make can be demonstrated in this typical composition. 115 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:49,930 For instance, where you say is that the secret is the family who leaves the land while we protect our little dish. 116 00:14:49,930 --> 00:14:58,420 And yet they hurried, said the and the. So when he's talking of this data is including Go Rajkumar, but he's also intriguing. 117 00:14:58,420 --> 00:15:05,710 He does appear more mean that you see another can't open that up to the, you know, do the reverse. 118 00:15:05,710 --> 00:15:13,540 So kind of USD. And so he has a kind of canon of centres in one of his compositions. 119 00:15:13,540 --> 00:15:24,400 And so the nation of this in Tulkarem is not merely Maharashtra, but larger subcontinental space not to be confused with modern nation. 120 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:26,920 Of course, 121 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:36,370 this universe of subcontinental but deformed nonsense non-sensitive languages consisting of non upper caste Hindu composers can be contrasted now, 122 00:15:36,370 --> 00:15:43,300 whereas famous invocation to Galicia and beginning of his great commentary that he imagines each portion 123 00:15:43,300 --> 00:15:52,810 of the image as representing various Sanskrit philosophers who like redundant demands and so on. 124 00:15:52,810 --> 00:15:59,350 This also highlights the entire textual and multilingual space of Buffy that cuts across cultural geographies. 125 00:15:59,350 --> 00:16:10,090 Creating an inter lingual and inter textual book began in, for instance, the later compositions and not like the secret book of the six, 126 00:16:10,090 --> 00:16:15,160 like the Guru Granth Sahib, is another instance of subcontinent to the canon. 127 00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:21,240 Thus, Marathi literary culture that emerged with interaction with Sanskrit military tradition. 128 00:16:21,240 --> 00:16:31,600 Also Arabic Hindustani tradition developed into a larger trance regional inter textual literary world over centuries. 129 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:34,270 And this, again, I refer to back end, 130 00:16:34,270 --> 00:16:45,400 but it's a very important work where he focuses on how roads and and multiple institutions that came up during the time 131 00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:54,610 of Mughal Empire contributed greatly to the decline of the tantric traditions and their emergence of beef in the North, 132 00:16:54,610 --> 00:17:03,580 so that it is relevant to understanding that the Persian custom palace in Marathi as well. 133 00:17:03,580 --> 00:17:14,410 And I was just mentioning this musil Mani Ayabonga composed by Toccara, so. 134 00:17:14,410 --> 00:17:22,630 To Karen, Spoilery typically reviews the picture of internal lingual and inter-regional map of the world literature within it, 135 00:17:22,630 --> 00:17:28,420 the figure of Meraki, but can be understood only in the background of larger world of books. 136 00:17:28,420 --> 00:17:33,760 And this is the approach used by David Damrosch to talk about what literature as being, 137 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:40,420 what figures and the ground so finger of Marathi book has to be understood. 138 00:17:40,420 --> 00:17:45,760 The ground of larger grants Marathi spaces. 139 00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:50,500 Sorry to interrupt you, but you have five more minutes. Yes, I will. 140 00:17:50,500 --> 00:17:55,240 I'm about to finish this last one. Yeah, yeah. 141 00:17:55,240 --> 00:18:01,840 Thanks. Thanks for that. And this is one of the things that I want to suggest. 142 00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:06,340 Apart from the things that I've been saying, one of these to be read as. 143 00:18:06,340 --> 00:18:14,350 But the regional traditions have to be understood as figures against the grounds of larger book space. 144 00:18:14,350 --> 00:18:19,450 And the crucial role played by pilgrimages and from money. 145 00:18:19,450 --> 00:18:24,250 While most of the historical accounts of global modernity are Eurocentric. 146 00:18:24,250 --> 00:18:30,910 There is an increasing tendency amongst social and cultural historians like John Richard Pollock and Sanjay Subramaniam, 147 00:18:30,910 --> 00:18:38,140 who questioned Eurocentric that the narrative of modernity in South Asia by proposing the term early modernity, 148 00:18:38,140 --> 00:18:45,310 which again is taken from Western historiography to highlight continuities between 18th and 19th century. 149 00:18:45,310 --> 00:18:53,710 Like the global interconnectedness, the rise of large stable states like the Mughal imparting increasing population and so on. 150 00:18:53,710 --> 00:19:00,610 However, the paycheque to with whose own intellectual project emphasises the importance of provincialism Europe. 151 00:19:00,610 --> 00:19:06,790 You know what? Historical research ironically has expat expresses scepticism towards the film. 152 00:19:06,790 --> 00:19:13,600 He points out that the notion of modernity must be clearly articulated in thinking about early modernity. 153 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:17,980 He insists upon making a distinction between the processes of modernisation, 154 00:19:17,980 --> 00:19:22,960 like the processes of building institutions like state or market and modernity, 155 00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:27,730 as reflexive ideological discourses of political philosophy, 156 00:19:27,730 --> 00:19:36,430 and points out that most of the discussions of early modernity have emphasised the former and not sufficiently engaged with the latter. 157 00:19:36,430 --> 00:19:40,990 Nevertheless, in a in Marathi sphere and approach, 158 00:19:40,990 --> 00:19:50,560 you will talk at length about its reflexive discourses on statecraft and political philosophy did exist in Marathi in 17th and 18th century, 159 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:56,290 like the famous three days on StageCraft. But probably in 1715. 160 00:19:56,290 --> 00:20:08,590 And the notion of Ramrod Jain Eknath, apart from popularisation of film like Raj Khan by the renowned Meraki Oh Me RAM Dass, also known as Smart RAM, 161 00:20:08,590 --> 00:20:12,310 dass and I would like to suggest, rather than argue, 162 00:20:12,310 --> 00:20:19,980 that the presence of the features of early modernity in the late 16th and 17th century master was a great deal to that. 163 00:20:19,980 --> 00:20:24,480 The current common practise is. 164 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:32,020 The idea of Ramrod Genie not seems to have prepared ground for the emergence of rigorous Ramsgate under the leadership of Summered 165 00:20:32,020 --> 00:20:42,960 rammed us later on and just about Teramind become a major influence and there is an emergence of major command traditions in Meraki, 166 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:50,790 for instance, what you see there and more open in 18th century, who has believed was one hundred in the East Room, 167 00:20:50,790 --> 00:21:02,610 in which nine zero liberal scholars like Aruna today believe that it was not state gossip when the Rahm story had become very popular in North India, 168 00:21:02,610 --> 00:21:05,730 the idea of Frohnmayer now must come to his mind. 169 00:21:05,730 --> 00:21:13,470 This is a speculation, but it was definitely travel that must have introduced him to this media narrative. 170 00:21:13,470 --> 00:21:25,550 And that is this whole, the state famous statement by Simon Bullock about Trump's Marrickville becoming prominent as a kind of it. 171 00:21:25,550 --> 00:21:40,620 It provides an imaginary yeah and for political imagination, stretching the whole question of Ramayana, a politics cultural politics of our mind. 172 00:21:40,620 --> 00:21:49,110 We back towards 14th 15th century when extent one can agree with Pollock's reading of the Muslims or other Turks, 173 00:21:49,110 --> 00:21:53,550 as seen as late as are often seen as enemies. And she writes space better. 174 00:21:53,550 --> 00:22:03,420 That thus is a form of drama. However, the utopian ramrod project of the ignored leader does hardly seems to be built on the binary terms. 175 00:22:03,420 --> 00:22:09,360 The presence of Muslim rulers is seen as more a symptom rather than causes of social decadence. 176 00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:19,590 The cause of this decadence is, of course, the Kali Yuga, and the solution is obviously remembering and celebrating name of God and before. 177 00:22:19,590 --> 00:22:29,040 And this is about some around us who in his during the course of his travels have is believed to have met the sick, 178 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:32,400 sick guru Guru Haruko Bin at Srinagar. 179 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:41,520 And that is what scholars should come with and some good thing and students all got to point out, and he founded multiple Mahut. 180 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:46,590 So the picture is that of a guru ergo beauty and misery and beauty. 181 00:22:46,590 --> 00:22:54,960 Two swords seems to have influence around his own practise of getting this Gupta or sword in. 182 00:22:54,960 --> 00:23:02,640 Is that Kobe or his armrest? 183 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:11,190 Because of lack of time, I won't go into details, but if there are other questions, I will definitely, I think, go around with this. 184 00:23:11,190 --> 00:23:17,940 But I will just mention this and stop you. Is that his mean work is that's aboard. 185 00:23:17,940 --> 00:23:24,940 The early days was enough. It was called. 186 00:23:24,940 --> 00:23:33,200 It saw massive absolute, which was later expanded, and according to some people, it it it, it was more spiritual. 187 00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:43,670 While the leader of the US would return after his nuclear arsenal became focussed on the importance of a punch as well as Roger. 188 00:23:43,670 --> 00:23:55,010 And this is where one of his famous lines say that Mercuri Cattaneo, Bernard Goos3d, Roger Carter, these rapists, our partner, said of what we say. 189 00:23:55,010 --> 00:24:01,370 So first, come singing the praises of three seconds that I just got our priorities, description and everything. 190 00:24:01,370 --> 00:24:07,270 I have put in more detailed discussion because this is a very critical aspect of early modernity. 191 00:24:07,270 --> 00:24:13,250 But due to lack of time, I'm not going into it, and this is where I stop. 192 00:24:13,250 --> 00:24:17,990 So basically, my argument is that do you pay extra dough? 193 00:24:17,990 --> 00:24:27,860 Not very accurately. Or we have very little historical evidence about these practises taken by these centres. 194 00:24:27,860 --> 00:24:33,590 Head geographies have said multiple things and multiple accounts of it. 195 00:24:33,590 --> 00:24:45,650 But these practises have definitely played a role in shaping of new kind of cultural poetics and cultural politics. 196 00:24:45,650 --> 00:24:50,330 That thanks. Yeah. Thanks very much. Thank you. 197 00:24:50,330 --> 00:24:51,392 Very.