Tellings and renderings in medieval Karnataka
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T.S. Satyanath
Abstract
Indian literature provides examples of multiple renderings of a text that are radically different from the purported original. Scholars have suggested that it is better to refer to these as tellings, since they have a symbolic relationship as different versions of a story. In fact, medieval Indian tellings and renderings could be regarded as cultural transactions with a complex intertextuality amongst them. Multiple tellings and renderings also acted as pluralistic epistemologies for categories such as gender, caste, religion, sect and language, not only interconnecting them but also protecting the rights of these categories over their knowledge. Taking written, oral and non-verbal representations from the Karnataka region, this paper attempts to understand the processes and methods at work in the cultural transactions that produced these representations.
Abstract
Indian literature provides examples of multiple renderings of a text that are radically different from the purported original. Scholars have suggested that it is better to refer to these as tellings, since they have a symbolic relationship as different versions of a story. In fact, medieval Indian tellings and renderings could be regarded as cultural transactions with a complex intertextuality amongst them. Multiple tellings and renderings also acted as pluralistic epistemologies for categories such as gender, caste, religion, sect and language, not only interconnecting them but also protecting the rights of these categories over their knowledge. Taking written, oral and non-verbal representations from the Karnataka region, this paper attempts to understand the processes and methods at work in the cultural transactions that produced these representations.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Foreword ix
- Introduction 1
- Caste in and Recasting language 17
- Translation as resistance 29
- Tellings and renderings in medieval Karnataka 43
- Translating tragedy into Kannada 57
- The afterlives of panditry 75
- Beyond textual acts of translation 95
- Reading Gandhi in two tongues 107
- Being-in-translation 119
- (Mis)Representation of sufism through translation 133
- Translating Indian poetry in the Colonial Period in Korea 145
- A. K. Ramanujan 161
- An etymological exploration of ‘translation’ in Japan 175
- Translating against the grain 195
- Index 213
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Foreword ix
- Introduction 1
- Caste in and Recasting language 17
- Translation as resistance 29
- Tellings and renderings in medieval Karnataka 43
- Translating tragedy into Kannada 57
- The afterlives of panditry 75
- Beyond textual acts of translation 95
- Reading Gandhi in two tongues 107
- Being-in-translation 119
- (Mis)Representation of sufism through translation 133
- Translating Indian poetry in the Colonial Period in Korea 145
- A. K. Ramanujan 161
- An etymological exploration of ‘translation’ in Japan 175
- Translating against the grain 195
- Index 213
