Sukanta Chaudhuri (Kolkata, India) Textual Studies in Bengali: Terms

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Sukanta Chaudhuri (Kolkata, India) Textual Studies in Bengali: Terms

Tagung „InterNationalität und InterDisziplinarität der Editionswissenschaft“, Bern 2012 – Plenarvorträge Sukanta Chaudhuri (Kolkata, India) Textual studies in Bengali: Terms, ideas, strategies As far as the terminology of textual studies in the Indian languages is concerned, the basic challenge is not of translation but of formulation. (Maybe the one always implies the other.) I will talk only of my own language, Bengali, which has an unusual history of engagement owing to the iconic presence of Rabindranath Tagore. Some basic factors should be borne in mind: • Though there is an intensive tradition of textual studies in classical Sanskrit, this has left little or no mark on the study of modern Indian literatures. • Bengal has a famously vibrant literary milieu, but till very recently, this seldom led to close interest in the material text. • Bengali has a basic but restricted terminology for textual studies and editorial practice. Critics seeking to apply Western methods and concepts must build up their own terminology as they go. The term sampadana, ‘editing’, is becoming somewhat commoner in the context of scholarly editing as opposed to compilation or anthologizing. A few works by Tagore, and one or two by other writers, have seen critical editions of note; but even here, the chief intent is often annotation rather than textual editing. For scholarly editing and textual analysis, the usual term is pathantarbhittik samalochana, ‘criticism based on textual variations’. This suggests a potential integration of textual inquiry with hermeneutics – but also, possibly, an eclectic or even motivated examination of the textual evidence. The other major relevant practice is the Grantha Parichay, an outline of the work’s compositional and publication history. Written in narrative form, it is not a bibliography, whether in the enumerative, descriptive or analytic sense, but combines features of all three in embryo. The focus is on dissemination rather than composition. It has limited affinity with genetic criticism, though some of its material would suit the latter’s purpose. In other words, Bengali scholars have initiated lines of enquiry allied to, though not always derived from, some major aims of Western textual scholarship. These lines of enquiry can be productively assimilated to Western theories and practices, while eschewing any Procrustean process of ‘translation’. More saliently, they also need to be related to each other within the Bengali context, in the interest of mutually supportive growth. This could produce a new synthesis of many components of textual enquiry that might be fruitfully applied in turn to Western theories and practices. The first requirement is a massive agenda of archival and bibliographical work: location registers, bibliographic controls and (preferably digital) archiving. There are some substantial straws blowing in a newly favourable wind: several digitization programmes, a short-title catalogue well in progress, even the electronic editing of Bengali texts; also the successful cracking of serious entry-level challenges like the distinctive features of the Bengali alphabet. I will end by pointing to these promising lines of development. Prof. Dr. Sukanta Chaudhuri Department of English Jadavpur University Kolkata 700032 E-Mail: [email protected] .

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