• ISBN13: 9780199489558
• Binding: Hardcover
• Subject: Politics and Current Affairs
• Publisher: Oxford UP
• Publisher Imprint: Oxford UP
• Publication Date: May 13, 2019
• Pages: 304
• Original Price: INR 1095.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 390 grams

Multilinguality gained a new impetus in North India with the influx of West Asian Muslim communities around the thirteenth century. Over a period of time, it entered everyday life as well as creative and scholarly pursuits. The fifteenth century, in particular, saw unprecedented vitality for literary practice and the poet-scholar Vidyapati from Mithila was one of the many luminaries of the time. This volume encompasses an intimate linguistic, literary and historical study of three of Vidyapati’s major works: a Sanskrit treatise on writing (Likhanavali); a celebratory biography in Apabhramsa (Kirttilata) and a collection of mythohistorical tales in Sanskrit (Purusapariksa). Through this examination, the author reveals a world that is marked by a range of ideas, expertise, literary tropes, ethical regimes and historical consciousness, drawn eclectically from sources that belong to ‘diverse’ politico-cultural traditions. Using Vidyapati’s narratives, A Political History of Literature illustrates that many ideals extolled in fifteenth century literary cultures were associated with an imperial state—a state that was a century away from coming into being—and testifies that ideas incubate and get actualized in realpolitik only in the long duration.

Pankaj Jha teaches history at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi, India.