The Collected Essays of A. K. Ramanujan

by Ramanujan, A. K.; Dharwadker, Vinay

• ISBN13: 9780195639377
• ISBN10: 0195639375
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-06-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Poet, translator, and folklorist, A.K. Ramanujan has been recognized as the world's most profound scholar of South Asian language and culture. This book brings together for the first time, thirty essays on literature and culture written by Ramanujan over a period of four decades. It is the product of the collaborative effort of a number of his colleagues and friends. Each section is prefaced by a brief critical introduction and the volume includes notes on each essay as well as a chronology of Ramanujan's books and essays.

Author Biography

A.K. Ramanujan formerly, until his death, William E. Colvin Professor of Linguistics, Chicago University

Table of Contents

General Editor's Preface	vii
Vinay Dharwadker
Introduction: Two Tributes to A.K. Ramanujan	xii
Milton B. Singer
Edward C. Dimock, Jr., and Krishna Ramanujan	xiv
I. General Essays on Literature and Culture	1	(124)
Introduction	3	(3)
Wendy Doniger
Where Mirrors Are Windows: Towards an Anthology of Reflections	6	(28)
Is There an Indian Way of Thinking? An Informal Essay	34	(18)
Towards an Anthology of City Images	52	(21)
Food for Thought: Towards an Anthology of Hindu Food-images	73	(23)
Language and Social Change: The Tamil Example	96	(19)
Some Thoughts on `Non-Western' Classics: With Indian Examples	115	(10)
II. Essays on Classical Literatures	125	(136)
Introduction	127	(4)
Vinay Dharwadker
Three Hundred Pamayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation	131	(30)
Repetition in the Mahabharata	161	(23)
Classics Lost and Found	184	(13)
Form in Classical Tamil Poetry	197	(22)
On Translating a Tamil Poem	219	(13)
From Classicism to Bhakti (with Norman Cutler)	232	(29)
III. Essays on Bhakti and Modern Poetry	261	(84)
Introduction	263	(7)
John B. Carman
On Women Saints	270	(9)
Men, Women, and Saints	279	(16)
The Myths of Bhakti: Images of Siva in Saiva Poetry	295	(14)
Why an Allama Poem Is Not a Riddle: An Anthological Essay	309	(15)
Varieties of Bhakti	324	(8)
On Bharati and His Prose Poems	332	(13)
IV. Essays on Folklore	345	(208)
Introduction	347	(5)
Stuart Blackburn
Alan Dundes
The Clay Mother-in-law: A South Indian Folktale	352	(6)
Some Folktales from India	358	(11)
Hanchi: A Kannada Cinderella	369	(8)
The Indian Oedipus	377	(21)
The Prince Who Married His Own Left Half	398	(14)
A Flowering Tree: A Woman's Tale	412	(17)
Towards a Counter-system: Women's Tales	429	(19)
Telling Tales	448	(15)
Tell It to the Walls: On Folktales in Indian Culture	463	(22)
Two Realms of Kannada Folklore	485	(28)
On Folk Mythologies and Folk Puranas	513	(19)
Who Needs Folkore?	532	(21)
Notes and References	553	(44)
Chronology of Select Books and Essays	597	(4)
A.K. Ramanujan
Contributors	601	(2)
Copyright Statement	603	(4)
Index	607