Description
Trade ReviewThrough a timeless character of legend and literature, we are allowed a ringside view of our most fascinating cultural--and gendered--history. India Today Thapar shows how it is possible to express complex ideas, rooted in philosophy and hermeneutics, without recourse to jargon. This book is a frontrunner for the prize of the best book on Indian history. Telegraph As fascinating as Sakuntala's journey is Thapar's retelling of it and her careful assumption of the role of a literary detective. Hindu Thapar's wide-ranging essays and monographs make a strong case for the urgency to historicize traditions and highlight the changing meanings of texts and oral cultures. Hindustan Times A virtuoso feat of historical and cultural analysis. Biblio Professor Thapar's book is not only significant in uncovering the historical impulses, often multiply driven, that empower certain readings or receptions of the story but also gives us in the process many of those forgotten stories -- Saswati Sengupta Religions of South Asia
Table of ContentsPreface 1. Preliminaries 2. The Narrative from the Mahabharata 3. The Abhijnana-sakuntalam of Kalidasa Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection-the play by Kalidasa 4. Popular and high culture as historical parallels 5. Adaptations: another popular tradition and its role in another court 6. Translations: Orientalism, German romanticism and the image of Sakuntala 7. Translation: colonial views 8. Sakuntala from the perspective of middle-class nationalism 9. Conclusion Endnotes
