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- Convenors:
-
Neeraja Poddar
(Philadelphia Museum of Art)
Arthur Dudney (University of Cambridge)
- Location:
- Room 216
- Start time:
- 29 July, 2016 at
Time zone: Europe/Warsaw
- Session slots:
- 3
Short Abstract:
The papers in this panel explore the themes of copying, repetition and reproduction in the context of early-modern South Asian manuscripts in order to understand how such books were valued, used and disseminated.
Long Abstract:
The papers in this panel explore the themes of copying, repetition and reproduction in the context of early-modern South Asian manuscripts in order to understand how such books were valued, used and disseminated. These include manuscripts in both pothi and codex format—with and without illustrations—ranging from literature and religious treatises to dictionaries and indexes. Common to them is the fact that multiple versions and editions of each were made through copying by hand. The result of such non-mechanical reproduction is that copies might not be "perfect" with variations introduced by artists and scribes, either deliberately or inadvertently. The purpose of this panel is to explore the significance of such variations. Rather than thinking of them as merely discrepancies or mistakes, we regard them as junctures where the authors' or artists' engagement with contemporary sectarian concerns, literary trends, artistic strategies and popular culture may be manifest.
Papers might compare different editions or versions in order to investigate issues such as: What is the core of a text? Which viewpoint is preferred at a particular historical moment? How are narratives transformed as they are copied? What is the impact of scribal error when such an error becomes sanctified by usage? We have invited proposals from scholars who work in a variety of disciplines including Art History, Literature, and Religious Studies, especially welcoming proposals that draw upon methodologies from Digital Humanities.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
The convenors will provide some context for the panel as a whole.
Paper long abstract:
Through some specific examples, the convenors aim to provide a framework for the panel as a whole. We hope to contextualise the various cultural traditions under discussion, and to go some way to rectifying the paucity of papers dealing with art historical topics. At the end we will cede our time to allow for a brief general discussion.
Paper short abstract:
One of the earliest [1582 CE] of Hindi manuscripts, the Fatehpur manuscript titled "Pada Surdasji Ka", contains three sections, each apparently copied from a different exemplar. Some two dozen poems appear in more than one section each, with interesting implications.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will expand on an observation I made in the introduction to Sur's Ocean: Poems from the Early Tradition (Bryant and Hawley, Harvard: 2015, p. xxix).
"The earliest surviving manuscript [of the poems of Surdas], J1 [dated 1582 CE]— prepared "In Fatehpur, in the kingdom of Akbar," as noted by the scribe —apparently links together fragments of three earlier manuscripts; of the 239 Sur pads the manuscript contains, there are about two dozen that appear twice, and even at this early date, the two forms of each duplicated pad are substantially different from one another. This is yet another measure of how quickly the tradition was evolving: our earliest snapshot already shows a vigorously branching organism."
Each of the three sections of the Fatehpur manuscript represents a distinct set of poems with a distinct organizational principle (apparently random in one, raga-ordered in a second, confined to the topic of vinaya in a third), reinforcing the notion that the scribe(s) of this manuscript were recording, without further editing, the work of three earlier scribes. We thus have, within this one document, a broad sweep across scribal styles of the sixteenth century.
Of the many interesting studies which this document enables, I will in the present paper pursue the question: In the case of those poems which appear in more than one of the three sections, what principles govern the striking differences between one version and the other? More specifically, are these differences "scribal", "editorial", "oral", or "performative"?
Paper short abstract:
This paper studies the micro pattern of textual variations at both word and sentence level in early Kabirian padas and what motivated behind the phenomena. Such variations reflect how the multifacetedness of the Kabirian tradition is gradually shaped.
Paper long abstract:
Widespread textual variations feature the Kabirian poems that spread widely in north India. Scholars generally agree that even early Kabirian poems consist of various traditions due to their appropriation by different communities, who compile anthologies that favour works of particular themes or styles. This paper proposes to study the patterns of textual variations at a more micro level, which started to construct the multifacetedness of Kabirian tradition subtly at an early stage. The corpus under study are the early Kabirian padas in Winand Callewaert's The Millennium Kabīr Vānī. Collating the padas out of early manuscripts that are similar, or almost identical, to one another, I try to trace how the variations took shape. Except for obvious scribal errors and spelling discrepancies, many textual variations yield different but reasonable readings. These phenomena can be categorized into three major types: 1) substituting a word with a quasi-homonym, such as rasa/sara (śara), jugati (yukti)/joti (jyoti), satari (sattara)/satagura (sadguru), etc.; 2) substituting a word with a synonym or context-dependent quasi-synonym, such as suni (śūnya)/sahaja, raghurāī (raghurāja)/khudāi (khudā), etc.; 3) rewriting a half-line, or a whole line. Though possibilities of purely casual factors like the slip of pen cannot be totally ruled out, particularly in the first category. Most variations and the fact that they were transmitted and studied urge us to think about the motivations behind, including technical reasons like prosody concern and ideological trends like bhaktification, mystification, de-Islamization, etc. Intellectual context such as sahajayāna mysticism, Indo-Persian cultural reconciliation also made certain variations viable.
Paper short abstract:
Paper presents a method of comparative analysis of internal structure of vāṇīs included in manuscripts produced by members of Dādūpanth in 17th century Rājasthān that can throw new light on their early formation, relative chronology, filiation, and their uses in the spiritual life of the community.
Paper long abstract:
Paper deals with internal structure of sākhī collection of Kabīr included in a huge textual corpus collected by a member of the Dādūpathī commmunity in early 17th century Rājasthān, sets it in context of other authors' works included in the same pothī and compares it with the text in Śyāmasundaradāsa's Kabīra granthāvalī. Analysis shows that the pothī took its final shape gradually and the work involved collaboration of several scribes and/or editors who may have built upon the effort of the original compiler Rāmdās. Close inspection of the page margins has revealed the existence of at least two series of page numbers, a later one written over an erased older sequence, indicating transposition of larger blocks of texts. Main point of this rearrangements appears to be an intention to bring together texts of the five most venerated sants - we can observe gradual emergence of the popular format of pañc-vāṇī. Combined with informations included in colophons inserted in different parts of the manuscript, these findings point to probable existence of at least two other, earlier collections that may have served to Rāmdās as sources of Kabīr's sākhīs and also supplied a model of their thematic organization into sections, or aṅgas. The latter was derived from the already existing sākhī collection of Dādū. Also, presumed existence of earlier or parallel vāṇīs may explain the similarities and differences between the text under scrutiny and Śyāmasundaradāsa's Kabīra granthāvalī of uncertain or contested date.
Paper short abstract:
Textual history of the Shiri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS), religious book of Sikh, is available in form of Goindval pothis. Singh's theory of pothis as 'working drafts' for the SGGS and Hans Walter Gabler's synoptic edition of Ulysses is way forward for textual criticism in the new brave world of DH.
Paper long abstract:
Textual history of the Shiri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS), the religious book of Sikhs and an authoritative and best-copy unto itself, is available in form of 'Goindval pothis'. After final addition of 'baani' (hymns) of Guru Teg Bahadur (ninth in succession of ten Sikh gurus) to the Adi Granth bir of Guru Arjan Dev (fifth guru), the canon was closed for any further addition and declared the Guru of Sikhs in 1608. The SGGS is closed to any kind textual editing or criticism.
Against the general belief of Goindval Pothis as collection of 'baani' passed on from one guru to the next, Pashaura Singh proposed a theory of pothis being 'working drafts' of Guru Arjan Dev to fix the structure and contents of the SGGS. Hans Walter Gabler's married the continental theories of textual criticism with those from Anglo-American for his synoptic edition of Ulysses. He used various pre-publication materials as well as post-publication changes made by James Joyce to create his synoptic edition. Also we can see this idea of edition with multiple edits rather than one authoritative edition in digital textual editing like that of O'Donnell's edition of the Caedmon's Hymn. With Digital Humanities providing capabilities for realising projects with complexities and scale, this paper will be presenting how synoptic edition of Ulysses and working drafts theory, in the brave new world of digital humanities, provides a way forward for undertaking a textual criticism and editing project for the SGGS without actually challenging any beliefs and authority.
Paper short abstract:
This paper presents scroll paintings of the Markandeya Purana from Telangana India, ranging from 1625 to 2000. In observing the modification of the visual narrative through its replication, I argue that changes reflect the social and cultural context of the communities involved with these paintings.
Paper long abstract:
In the Southern Indian state of Telangana, itinerant storytellers narrate genealogies of the local castes using a scroll painting on cloth as a visual aid to their performance. These scrolls are the only archive of these otherwise oral narratives; hence key markers of their evolution. Once a scroll commission has been decided, performers bring an old scroll to the painters and request for a 'copy'. Often considered identical, a closer look at several scrolls of the same narrative highlights a certain degree of alteration. This paper focuses on the Markandeya Purana, used to narrate the origin of the weavers' caste of Telangana. On the basis of five painted scrolls of the same story, ranging from 1625 to 2000, I will observe the nature and degree of modification undergone by the visual narrative. In so doing, I wish to question the extant of the concept of replication. While performers decide for changes in the overall organisation and iconography of the narrative, painters are responsible for the materiality, technique and style of the scroll. I will illustrate each of these aspects and argue that changes reflect the social and cultural environment of the communities involved in the production, presentation and reception of these scrolls, i. e. painters, performers and patrons. I will consider variation but also fixity to be speaking for the necessities of the communities. Finally, I will explain that through reproductions over the course of time, aspects of the visual narrative have become conventions while others are repeatedly revised.
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyzes the paratextual and material aspects of four types of manuscripts in two literary vernaculars— Brajbhasha and Urdu— to reconstruct a notion of what it meant to make a work ‘public’ in early modern North India, and of the type of public that these manuscripts presuppose.
Paper long abstract:
In a society like that of early modern India that deliberately resisted the technology of print, how did one make a work 'public'? How do we distinguish manuscripts copied for private or limited circulation from those intended for wider circulation? Do any of these audiences constitute what we would call a 'public'? This paper examines four types of textual artifacts— the gutka, the pothi, the bayaz and the kitab— in two literary languages, Brajbhasha and Urdu, in order to identify paratextual and material elements that signal participation (or lack thereof) in particular reader communities.
The paper provides the example of two lyrical forms, the Brajbhasha pad and the Urdu ghazal, demonstrating how a single lyric could appear in multiple types of manuscripts corresponding to very different performative contexts and reader communities. These lyrics appear in the private notebooks of individuals, in the communal anthologies of religious sects, and in 'books' clearly intended for an unknown but imagined audience. Examining elements like prefatory and concluding formulae, pagination, rubrics, paper, format, marginal notations and bindings can tell us much about the type of 'imagined community' the text addresses. In this respect, the form of manuscripts tell us as much as do their contents, and the imagined audiences suggest a textual field that is much more complicated than the 'published/unpublished' distinction of print culture. This provides a foundation for reconstructing the 'book market' in the pre-colonial North, an historical object that has thus far proved elusive.
Paper short abstract:
The 17th-century Persian book Dabistān-i Maẕāhib is a valuable source for writing about religious groups in Mughal India. This paper explores what scholars have variously understood as the original text. How should we account for significant manuscript variations in our research and writing?
Paper long abstract:
A text that has found renewed interest among scholars of early modern India is the Persian compendium of religion called Dabistān-i Maẕāhib. Written between 1645 and 1658, the Dabistān presents a lively ethnohistorical account of customs and habits of various religious communities in Mughal north India. Written like a travelogue, it moves between various modes of description including mythical revelations, story telling, and authorial commentary. The Dabistān is also valuable because it is the earliest work outside of the Sikh tradition that contains first hand accounts of the Sikh community, including the author's conversations with Gurus Har Govind (d. 1644) and Har Rai (d. 1661). Focusing on the section titled 'Nanak Panthi', my paper explores what translators, commentators, and historians have variously understood as comprising the original text. Scholars rely on particular manuscript editions in their translations and analysis without necessarily reflecting on how these choices precondition interpretive possibilities. A closer look at early manuscripts of the Dabistān-i Maẕāhib kept at the Aligarh Muslim University and the British Library also suggests that later print editions omit crucial information, sometimes even entire passages. This has serious implications for how we have understood the groups and historical moments depicted in this unique work.
Paper short abstract:
Khvāndamīr's Ḥabīb al-siyar has been copied all over the Persianate world. By having a look at colophons and other paratextual elements contained in hundreds of manuscripts, the questions of when, where, and whom the work was copied for and/or read and possessed by shall be addressed.
Paper long abstract:
Many books of the past are today readily considered "important" or "popular" in the meaning of widely read and studied during a long period. Unfortunately, in most of the cases, this assumption remains without any evidence as the field of manuscript studies on whether and how a work was actually copied and read is still in its beginnings. This paper focuses on one of the major historical narratives of the Persianate world, the general history Ḥabīb al-siyar (Beloved of careers). Written by the Herati court secretary Ghiyās al-Dīn Khvāndamīr in the 1520s, it was copied extensively during three hundert years all over the Persian reading world, i.e. Anatolia, Iran, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. By having a look at colophons, ownership stamps and other paratextual elements contained in hundreds of manuscripts extant today, the questions of when, where, and whom the work was copied for and/or read and possessed by shall be addressed. Connected to this is the important issue of how the actual text had been changed and transmitted by scribes and readers. By analysing these alterations, it is possible to get insights in the different ways the Ḥabīb al-siyar was read and adapted at various places and at various times. This brings up the broader question of what modern researchers might detect when the focus of research shifts from reconstructing "original" texts for an edition to the question of how a text like the Ḥabīb al-siyar was reshaped from the 1520s to the 1850s.
Paper short abstract:
This paper is a study of the intertextual significances between a medieval treatise on Arabic syntax and its commentary, based on later manuscript versions, addressing the socio-cultural significance of manuscript dissemination and their contextual reading among Arabicised communities in the Deccan.
Paper long abstract:
The early modern Deccan formed an important part of the transregional networks of Arabic scholarship stretching across the Western Indian Ocean region. This can be exemplified by the itinerary and academic transactions of the Egyptian scholar Muḥammad Abū Bakr al-Damāmīnī (d. 828/1424). At the beginning of the 15th century he travelled from the Red Sea region across Gujarat and the Deccan to seek patronage from various Sultans in exchange for the composition of commentaries on Arabic grammar works. In the 16th and 17th centuries transcriptions of his commentary al-Manhal al-sāfiy on Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Balkhī's al-Wāfiy (d. 8th/14th century) continued to circulate at the royal courts and among the Sufi communities of Ahmadnagar and Bijapur in the Deccan.
In this paper, I will focus on the dissemination of these later manuscripts in order to analyse different historical moments in the changing textual relationships between al-Damāmīnī's and al-Balkhī's works. Apart from the transcriptions of al-Damāmīnī's commentary based on his 15th century composition from the courts of the Niẓām Shāhīs and ʿĀdil Shāhīs, two transcriptions of al-Balkhī's treatise survive in the Royal Library and the Qādiriyya library at Bijapur. The latter two manuscripts contain several marginalia, among them extracts from al-Damāmīnī's commentary. I will argue that, by studying the intertextual and format changes of these circulating manuscripts, it is possible to evaluate the socio-cultural context in which these texts were read and their value among the Arabicised communities of the early modern Deccan.