What further delay our panel is titled Circulation Literature and the early modern public sphere and are our first speaker today is Professor Sargent.
Get good from Bermuda.
[INAUDIBLE] be speaking about travelling some circulation and the multilingual local of world literature in early modern Marathi.
Such and please. Thanks a lot. Hope I am audible.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So so what? I want to thank the organisers of this seminar for again, generously having me.
And it's always so illuminating and educative to be part of these conversations.
I was born, prepared and now for her very important,
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,
so I would like to share screen.
Yes, there's a green shared screen icon there.
Can you see it? Just a minute, I was, I would guess.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I got that right. You know, your your mike is still close to your face.
No, it's better. It's picking up a lot of film.
OK. What do you call it? Yeah, just your you know your Brad Pitt.
OK. It's better. Yeah. So just keep it a little bit far from your face.
OK, thank you. OK. So I'm going to speak about travelling centres and the question of circulation
and the formation of multilingual local of world literature in early Marathi,
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.
But my focus is also on how what impact does it have on social and cultural spaces.
And one of the arguments that I'm trying to develop, though not very convincingly,
is that it is one of the practises that is critical to understand the early modernity,
which in itself is a kind of debated issue, something that I would end my presentation by just suggesting that.
But so do these often understood as criticism of rituals like the pilgrimages travelling as a part of pilgrimage
or the plethora or religious travel has played an essential role in circulation of the group's texts,
believes genres in the transitional vernacular sphere in Indian subcontinent,
as is known for nationalist scholars like me that given these movements and circulation produced national integration.
And on the other hand, for the nativist understanding,
it assumes that this was largely an assertion in celebration of monolingual DC against the opposition to the hegemonic of Sanskrit McGeer tradition.
South Asian scholars like Shodan policy, but this part of the process of bernet liberalisation,
or the historical process of choosing to create literature along with its complement of political discourse in local space,
according to models supplied by US, support our debate, usually cosmopolitan culture.
So he's strength. He visualises the process of our naturalisation as a kind of linear, top down process.
Not just that. Furthermore, in postcolonial travel studies,
very often they limit themselves in East West Travels and do not pay a significant
attention to India South Asian travel practises before the advent of colonialism.
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.
Nationalist, we will. But the idioms that spread through the youth ranks Brahman as producing national integration seems to uphold Pollock's views.
Your argued that the historical focus of Brahman and actually complicate Pollock's Sanskrit centric view of subcontinental cultural history,
which is based on the kind of vertical binaries of the Moraga and the See.
I also argue that the experiences of trans regional travelling to other nations in South Asia by influential
Marathi composers suggest no later than early 14th century equinox in the late 16th century and RAM,
dass Lummi in 17th century, have played a critical role in not only shaping their own boy texts and cultural politics,
but also contributing significantly to cultural change in the society.
I also go on to suggest that while what exactly constitutes early modernity is debateable as be based.
Chakraborty has pointed out,
some significant features of early modernity can be discerned in the vernacular discourses of the late 16th and 17th century Marathi composers,
especially the writings of centres like you cannot see them thus.
And my position is that that whole phenomena of the present Martin has played a crucial
role in bringing about this shift that we label as early modernity in the Mughal period.
If the widely accepted debt of the eurozone debt of Nnamdi Abedi's 13:50 is taken into consideration,
the last three decades of his life coincides with the rule of Dalzell and in the
decade it is unsurprising given his travels and decades long offer of Brahman in
the northern India that his language and Keynes reflect society and culture
transformed by the presence of Islam in a Hindustani composition attributed to Nambu.
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.
That is, both the Hindu and Turks are supposed to be knowledgeable, like the Hindu praising the temple and the Turk in a mosque.
Gaultier believes that this composition in the Hindustani, like the one mentioned here,
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.
Now, this propagation of neocon philosophy after his return from the North, according to quality,
is to be understood in the backdrop of Islam as a strategic mode of containing conversion.
Oh, this is the modern interpretation of Nnamdi when his travels, and as I think Christian Novitsky has pointed out,
that details regarding Namdas travels has been very fuzzy and unclear whether he actually returned to monastery or not,
though Meraki tradition sees that he returned to Marrakesh to attend to his mother.
But again, we don't know much about it. While one may or may not agree with this explanation,
but now they return to their philosophy towards the end of his life and the Hindustani compositions on his name embody the American philosophy,
according to Totally. One cannot help but note the shift in language and the type of bilingualism and multilingualism
distinct view in those compositions from the period of the shadows emerging in Marathi.
Prior to his works now, these pilgrimages brought him in contact with other cultural regions,
other nations, languages and the religious anarchistic practises.
This context influenced his own work as he compose his own composing in other languages like maybe Hindi,
Hindustani or whatever, as it was known in those days. The latest interesting debate in Marathi has happened on the language of Nambu,
which I don't want to go into right now because it would be going in a different direction.
Responding to the social and cultural conditions in other areas, it affected his philosophy.
The experience of trans regional travelling to other places in South Asia by these writers have played a critical role.
As I said, in their own cultural politics as now,
India's own position on Hindu worshipping in temple and Muslims worshipping in mosques would be futile.
And this is the finger of NAM. There obviously has significant relevance outside Marathi speaking region, as Novitsky has comprehensively shown.
Now there is one of the first figures of the genre of Bhakti religious expression in central,
western and northern India in Punjab, and he's revered in several religious lineages.
Apart from the what carries that argument is the pun designed amongst six.
Radhe is one of the important gods in the body of the Guru Granth Sahib.
As this part of multiple tradition, there is no agreed upon hagiography or agreed upon corpus of songs,
though the songs like tribute to him are available in many languages like Brads.
In the ways that I feel, I just study Punjabi apart from Marathi.
Understanding this into vernacular circulation,
even though he geographies are often very unreliable and and inaccurate when it comes to depicting the details of these travels,
as in the case of some ram dass. But they do provide some clue that these internet are circulation of some,
as complicate the conventional understanding of pre-colonial South Asian vernacular literatures and cultures based on simplistic vertical.
I know he's off Sanskrit, cosmopolitan, my view and the Battlefield DC,
as well as the notion that the vernacular compositions were derivative modelled upon some super alternate Sanskrit forms.
So in this internet necklace circulation, we are looking at the horizontal kind of movements that are integral to what
qualifies as vernacular ization rather than just Sanskrit and B.S. in direction.
So this is a neglected aspect when we try to understand the cultural history of modern Indian languages.
It also complicates the modern and monolingual nativist reading of cultural history of the subcontinent.
While the conventional conceptualisation of Boyle has often are understood, world literature in opposition to the national literature,
more recent theoretical paradigms of world literature that emphasise circulation like David Damrosch does,
and histories of larger internal literary processes as bonus duties and does, allows us to read British literature as world literary phenomena.
This is where I join. Even with Francesca, our seniors conceptualising multilingual locally in a very different context,
where she looks at the pre-colonial genres as world hagiography scholars that now they appear to to
cut in a dream with return and ask him to complete namdas mission to compose one billion amongst us.
We also learn that a holy man named Bob Vegetate the new who was a spiritual descendant of Guru
Rago Jason or an associate to appeared in the dream and initiated him in the box of spirituality.
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,
especially what goes under the category of some bread-and-butter emperor.
Like Equinox Group two currency group, but Imparato reveals the confluence of Hindu, Islamic and Hindu traditions.
I'll go check them. They belong to the Patriots on Friday and was also famous as Hazrat last year.
My shock amongst Muslims and I'll go to dinner was himself known as has been cited as historians point out,
and comparing to current worked with great predecessors like this one and not be noticed a
significant shift in subjectivity language that reveals greater influence of Arabic and Hindustani,
and a major shift in the universe of discourse that includes saints or centres from larger
subcontinent and subjectivity are autobiographical and persist into Karam is distinct,
distinctive, I think, compared to other important composers before him.
Let's tie up with the hagiography is to create image of Tulkarem in cultural memory, the shift in party into the next duality.
And this is one of the points that I want to make can be demonstrated in this typical composition.
For instance, where you say is that the secret is the family who leaves the land while we protect our little dish.
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.
He does appear more mean that you see another can't open that up to the, you know, do the reverse.
So kind of USD. And so he has a kind of canon of centres in one of his compositions.
And so the nation of this in Tulkarem is not merely Maharashtra, but larger subcontinental space not to be confused with modern nation.
Of course,
this universe of subcontinental but deformed nonsense non-sensitive languages consisting of non upper caste Hindu composers can be contrasted now,
whereas famous invocation to Galicia and beginning of his great commentary that he imagines each portion
of the image as representing various Sanskrit philosophers who like redundant demands and so on.
This also highlights the entire textual and multilingual space of Buffy that cuts across cultural geographies.
Creating an inter lingual and inter textual book began in, for instance, the later compositions and not like the secret book of the six,
like the Guru Granth Sahib, is another instance of subcontinent to the canon.
Thus, Marathi literary culture that emerged with interaction with Sanskrit military tradition.
Also Arabic Hindustani tradition developed into a larger trance regional inter textual literary world over centuries.
And this, again, I refer to back end,
but it's a very important work where he focuses on how roads and and multiple institutions that came up during the time
of Mughal Empire contributed greatly to the decline of the tantric traditions and their emergence of beef in the North,
so that it is relevant to understanding that the Persian custom palace in Marathi as well.
And I was just mentioning this musil Mani Ayabonga composed by Toccara, so.
To Karen, Spoilery typically reviews the picture of internal lingual and inter-regional map of the world literature within it,
the figure of Meraki, but can be understood only in the background of larger world of books.
And this is the approach used by David Damrosch to talk about what literature as being,
what figures and the ground so finger of Marathi book has to be understood.
The ground of larger grants Marathi spaces.
Sorry to interrupt you, but you have five more minutes. Yes, I will.
I'm about to finish this last one. Yeah, yeah.
Thanks. Thanks for that. And this is one of the things that I want to suggest.
Apart from the things that I've been saying, one of these to be read as.
But the regional traditions have to be understood as figures against the grounds of larger book space.
And the crucial role played by pilgrimages and from money.
While most of the historical accounts of global modernity are Eurocentric.
There is an increasing tendency amongst social and cultural historians like John Richard Pollock and Sanjay Subramaniam,
who questioned Eurocentric that the narrative of modernity in South Asia by proposing the term early modernity,
which again is taken from Western historiography to highlight continuities between 18th and 19th century.
Like the global interconnectedness, the rise of large stable states like the Mughal imparting increasing population and so on.
However, the paycheque to with whose own intellectual project emphasises the importance of provincialism Europe.
You know what? Historical research ironically has expat expresses scepticism towards the film.
He points out that the notion of modernity must be clearly articulated in thinking about early modernity.
He insists upon making a distinction between the processes of modernisation,
like the processes of building institutions like state or market and modernity,
as reflexive ideological discourses of political philosophy,
and points out that most of the discussions of early modernity have emphasised the former and not sufficiently engaged with the latter.
Nevertheless, in a in Marathi sphere and approach,
you will talk at length about its reflexive discourses on statecraft and political philosophy did exist in Marathi in 17th and 18th century,
like the famous three days on StageCraft. But probably in 1715.
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,
dass and I would like to suggest, rather than argue,
that the presence of the features of early modernity in the late 16th and 17th century master was a great deal to that.
The current common practise is.
The idea of Ramrod Genie not seems to have prepared ground for the emergence of rigorous Ramsgate under the leadership of Summered
rammed us later on and just about Teramind become a major influence and there is an emergence of major command traditions in Meraki,
for instance, what you see there and more open in 18th century, who has believed was one hundred in the East Room,
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,
the idea of Frohnmayer now must come to his mind.
This is a speculation, but it was definitely travel that must have introduced him to this media narrative.
And that is this whole, the state famous statement by Simon Bullock about Trump's Marrickville becoming prominent as a kind of it.
It provides an imaginary yeah and for political imagination, stretching the whole question of Ramayana, a politics cultural politics of our mind.
We back towards 14th 15th century when extent one can agree with Pollock's reading of the Muslims or other Turks,
as seen as late as are often seen as enemies. And she writes space better.
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.
The presence of Muslim rulers is seen as more a symptom rather than causes of social decadence.
The cause of this decadence is, of course, the Kali Yuga, and the solution is obviously remembering and celebrating name of God and before.
And this is about some around us who in his during the course of his travels have is believed to have met the sick,
sick guru Guru Haruko Bin at Srinagar.
And that is what scholars should come with and some good thing and students all got to point out, and he founded multiple Mahut.
So the picture is that of a guru ergo beauty and misery and beauty.
Two swords seems to have influence around his own practise of getting this Gupta or sword in.
Is that Kobe or his armrest?
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.
But I will just mention this and stop you. Is that his mean work is that's aboard.
The early days was enough. It was called.
It saw massive absolute, which was later expanded, and according to some people, it it it, it was more spiritual.
While the leader of the US would return after his nuclear arsenal became focussed on the importance of a punch as well as Roger.
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.
So first, come singing the praises of three seconds that I just got our priorities, description and everything.
I have put in more detailed discussion because this is a very critical aspect of early modernity.
But due to lack of time, I'm not going into it, and this is where I stop.
So basically, my argument is that do you pay extra dough?
Not very accurately. Or we have very little historical evidence about these practises taken by these centres.
Head geographies have said multiple things and multiple accounts of it.
But these practises have definitely played a role in shaping of new kind of cultural poetics and cultural politics.
That thanks. Yeah. Thanks very much. Thank you.
Very.