Conference: After Timur Came
Held at SOAS, London, 28-30 May 2007
The fifteenth century was a very fertile period for literary, musical production in Persian and the literary vernaculars, supported by a range of autonomous provincial fiefdoms in Jaunpur, Delhi, Malwa, Gwalior, as well as independent chieftains in Mewar, Alwar and the Doab, which despite pursuing different objectives, some of these regional powers corresponded and interacted with each other. This is also the period when propagators of Krishna Bhakti first "reclaimed" Braj and established an important presence there with ramifications that went as far as Bengal, and when iconoclastic religious figures like Kabir and Nanak emerged. So far these polities and textual traditions (courtly, Sufi, Bhakti, Jain) have largely been studied in isolation - and in general this period has been overshadowed by the later Mughals, who have attracted much greater scholarly attention.
Within this fragmented and diverse socio-political environment, for whom and for what purpose were texts produced? If texts now occupied a multiplicity of 'new spaces', what were the relationships between different genres of texts and how were these 'new spaces' constituted?
A multilingual approach that includes Persian, Hindavi, Avadhi, Braj Bhasha, Apabhramsa and Sanskrit allows us to ask a new set of research questions: what were the spaces of literary production and patronage? What reasons guided the choice of language for composition? What was the range of usages in each high language and vernacular? What social and political forces did genres mediate? What does a typology of scholars, patrons and audiences suggest about cultural hierarchy and contact?
While the emphasis will be on literature (both written and oral), we also seek to illuminate the place of texts within overall patterns of patronage (art, architecture, scholarship) and in general the relationship between text and artefact, as e.g. in the case of illustrated manuscripts or architectural inscriptions.
In particular we would like speakers to address one or more of the following areas:
- the cultural orientation or projects of the rulers of Jaunpur, Malwa and Delhi, and of the Rajas of Gwalior, the kind of court and courtiers they attracted, the range of cultural production they supported, and the circulation of ideas, scholars and performers between them.
- the range of Sufi literary production, and their geographic and social location.
- how do Naths and Sants fit within the picture?
- How does Krishna bhakti affect the socio-political and literary-religious make up of the region? Can we trace the pattern of its spread?
- the political and cultural role of "Rajputs" in north India (e.g. Meos, Chauhans): what evidence do we have about the genres and poets and scholars they patronised?
- literary production by and for Jains, the groups who patronised them and their participation in the various polities.
- the networks of merchants (Jain and non-Jain) and their role as patrons and carriers of literary and religious tastes.
- What Sanskrit literary genres are favoured in this period, and are they at all sensitive to the rise in vernacular production all around? How does the social and religious makeup of the patrons of Sanskrit affect the kind of literature that is being produced?
- What kind of Persian literature was written and patronised in this period? Were rulers supposed to be poet-kings? Which genres were favoured?
- Are Hindavi, Avadhi and Braj Bhasha local, cosmopolitan or genre-specific vernaculars at this time?
Participants:
Simon Digby (independent scholar)
Sunil Kumar (University of Delhi)
Samira Sheikh (Ismaili Insitute, London)
Aditya Behl (UPenn)
Raziuddin Aquil (CSSS, Calcutta, and University of Edinburgh)
Ramya Sreenivasan (University of Buffalo)
Imre Bangha (University of Oxford)
Francesca Orsini (SOAS)
Katherine Brown (University of Leeds)
Dilorom Karomat (AHRC project)
Jeevan Deol (SOAS)
Purushottam Agrawal (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
Chris Minkowski (University of Oxford)
Paul Dundas (Edinburgh) conspectus of Jain literary production in 15C (tbc)
Stefano Pellò (Venice) Persian poetry in 15c India
Discussants:
Vasudha Dalmia
Daud Ali
Whitney Cox
Kumkum Sangari
Allison Busch
