Author: Indo-Asian News Service
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: February 24, 2004
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5967_584013,001600060001.htm
Two Indian experts are part of an
ambitious Israel-led project to chart the literary evolution of two millennia
of Sanskrit poetry, or 'kavya'.
"Since the discovery of Indian poetry
by Western scholars in the 18th century, several histories have been written,
but the story of Sanskrit's poetic evolution remains largely untold," said
H.V. Nagaraja Rao of the International Sanskrit Research Centre at Mysore
University.
"We have only a very rudimentary
idea of major thematic shifts and stylistic breakthroughs of the 'mahakavya'
tradition that held sway in the golden era of Indian literature between
the first and 12th centuries -- epitomised in the works of the famous fourth
century Indian poet and playwright Kalidasa," Rao told IANS.
"Our aim is to map the crucial social
milieu of historic moments when innovative literary fashions were created,
or when poets deviated from their predecessors to break new paths in 'kavya',"
he said.
Rao is a Sanskrit grammar expert
and is currently a research fellow at the Hebrew University's Institute
for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem.
Rao is one of the 14 renowned Sanskrit
scholars taking issue with the notion that 'kavya' poetic forms did not
change through the centuries.
The project is being coordinated
by Yigael D. Bronner of the Department of East Asian Studies at Tel Aviv
University and Hebrew University professor of Indian studies David Shulman.
Other team members include Sanskrit
specialists from the US, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and
Indonesia.
K. Srinivasan of the R.K.M. Vivekananda
College at Chennai will join Rao later this year.
The Israeli study abandons previous
chronologies of 'kavya', which focused on the influence of India's 18 major
regional languages.
"Instead, the study concentrates
on key moments of shift and innovation to expose the hidden tensions within
an evolving poetic praxis, naturally focusing on revolutionary changes
of Sanskrit prosody, syntax, diction, theme, style, figuration and structural
integration," says Bronner.
The research findings will be published
next year in a volume of essays.
