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UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Translation and History: The Development of a Kashmiri Textual Tradition from ca. 1000- 1500 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/68q7m3vv Author Obrock, Luther James Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Translation and History: The Development of a Kashmiri Textual Tradition from ca. 1000-1500 By Luther James Obrock A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in South and Southeast Asian Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Robert Goldman, Chair Professor Alexander von Rospatt Professor Munis Faruqui Professor Abhishek Kaicker Summer 2015 Abstract Translation and History: The Development of a Kashmiri Textual Tradition from ca. 1000-1500 by Luther James Obrock Doctor of Philosophy in South and Southeast Asian Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Robert Goldman, Chair This dissertation investigates the Sanskrit works of four authors—Somadeva (fl. ca. 1080), Kalhaṇa (fl. ca. 1150), Jonarāja (ca. 1389-1459), and Śrīvara (fl. 1459-1505)— in the Valley of Kashmir. These authors produced a corpus of unique yet interconnected texts, writing in one of two particularly Kashmiri genres—either Kashmiri translational story literature, ślokakathā, or a regional poetic history, [rāja]taraṅgiṇī. The deployment and development of these two genres from the end of the eleventh to the early sixteenth centuries shows the development of a regionalized literature embedded in and adapting to changing social worlds. The first two works set the stage for this discussion. Somadeva’s eleventh-century Kathāsaritsāgara, a same-language translation of the Bṛhatkathā, is exemplary of the ślokakathā genre. It crystalizes a specific set of source critical techniques and attitudes that are necessary for the production of a Kashmiri Sanskrit historiography. Using Somadeva’s insights, Kalhaṇa fashions a new way of writing history in his twelfth century Rājataraṅgiṇī. Three centuries later in the much changed political and cultural landscape of the Kashmiri Sultanate, Jonarāja and Śrīvara continued Kalhaṇa’s historical project in their own (rāja)taraṅgiṇī-s. Finally Śrīvara translated Jāmī’s Persian romance the Yūsuf wa Zulaykhā into a ślokakathā, the Kathākautuka in 1505. To understand this development and the texts’ places in their moments of composition, this dissertation undertakes a series of contextualizations not to look for a homogenous or homogenizing “literary culture” of Sanskrit in Kashmir but rather to trace Somadeva, Kalhaṇa, Jonarāja, and Śrīvara’s creative engagement with Sanskrit texts and genres. This dissertation shifts discussion away from the dominant scholarly idiom of cosmopolitanism to see Sanskrit literary production as deeply imbricated in the changing historical context of second millennium Kashmir. In this way I speak not of Sanskrit as a totalizing literary culture but rather of regionally and historically situated authors shaping new modes of Sanskrit discourse in the world. Sanskrit then, in such an understanding, is not a static form or mode to which authors appeal but a vital voice taking part in the shifting elite spheres from the Lohara Dynasty to the Shāh Mīrī Sultans in Kashmir. 1 Acknowledgements: This dissertation traces the development of two Kashmiri genres over a span of five hundred years. Although it concentrates on just four authors, the amount of primary and secondary materials to explore is vast. While writing of this dissertation was at times a solitary affair, the core of this work springs out the conversations with other scholars, colleagues, and friends; it would never have been possible without their unfailing support and encouragement. This project has benefitted from the input of many people and institutions around the world. I would like to acknowledge them briefly at the outset, with apologies to any that I may have forgotten. This dissertation grew out of my graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. My committee members have been especially helpful. I owe my advisor, Professor Robert Goldman an enormous debt of gratitude for overseeing this project from its beginning to its completion. He has been unfailingly generous with his time, expertise, criticism, and support. Professor Alexander von Rospatt patiently read through both my work and through the Sanskrit with me, and has been an ideal engaged reader. Munis Faruqui helped refine my thinking about historical processes in the Indo-Persian world. My time as a graduate student in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at Berkeley was a formative influence on my thinking. I would especially like to thank Sally Goldman, Prachi Deshpande, Abhishek Kaicker, Vasudha Paramasivan. Hannah Lord Archambault read through much of the dissertation in its early stages and unfailingly steered me onto a better course. I am also indebted to fellow Berkeley graduate students Gregory Goulding, Janet Um, Kris Anderson, Isaac Murchie, Kashi Gomez, Lauren Bausch, and Jennifer Lorden. Another special thanks goes to the staff at the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, especially Lee Amazonas, Jenny Smith, and Elodie Steffen, who helped to guide me through the program at Berkeley. I owe my Sanskrit teachers another profound debt of gratitude. Professor James L. Fitzgerald first introduced me to Sanskrit as an undergraduate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and offered both generous support and the model of an ideal Sanskrit scholar. I would also like to thank Johanna Stiebert and David Tandy who were also both sources of inspiration at the University of Tennessee. Somadeva Vasudeva introduced me to the world of Kashmiri Sanskrit. Harunaga Isaacson of University of Hamburg was also an ideal teacher. My stay in Hamburg,was also intellectually enlivened by classes and discussions with Kengo Harimoto, Iain Sinclair, and Andrey Klebanov. François Grimal and Anjaneya Sharma were ideal teachers of traditional Sanskrit grammar and aesthetic theory in Pondicherry, where I studied supported by a generous scholarship supplied by the Institut Français de Pondichéry. The stimulating intellectual environment of the Institute Français de Pondichéry and the Ecole Française d’Êxtreme Orient and the conversations and readings with many scholars had a huge formative influence. I would like to acknowledge the scholars I had the pleasure to meet and read with there Dominic Goodall, Valérie Gillet, S. A. S. Sharma, Alex Watson, and S. Lakshmi Narasimhan. Whitney Cox has been unfailingly gracious in his time and expertise, and the seeds of many issues raised in this dissertation arose in coversation with him. The participants at the Madison panel on Kalhaṇa kindly included my work on Śrīvara. I would like to thank Daud Ali, David Shulman, Lawrence McCrea, Chitralekha Zutshi, i Yigal Bronner for offering much insight into the world of Sanskrit historiography in Kashmir. Walter Slaje graciously mentored me at the Martin-Luther Universität Halle- Wittemberg Deutcher Akademischer Austauch Dienst. The year I spent in Halle was formative, and I am indebted to Professor Slaje’s insightful readings and knowledge of Kashmiri textual culture. Thanks are also due to Roland Steiner and Katrin Einicke. The Zukunftsphilologie project based at the Freie Universität zu Berlin provided a wonderful forum and community of scholars. I thank especially Manan Ahmad, Islam Dayeh, Georges Khalil, Muzaffar Alam, Anubhuti Maurya, Mudassir Mufti, Audrey Truschke, Adam Talib, Hasan Siddiqui, and Ananya Vajpeyi. The two conferences on Jāmī in the Dar al-Islam and Beyond stimulated much intersting conversation. Special thanks is due to the organizers Thibaut d’Hubert and Alexandre Papas for their valuable input. Prashant Keshavmurthy translated the Persian quoted here and was unfailingly generous in his comments and insights. Further I would also like to thank Tyler Williams, Dalpat Rajpurohit, Abir Bazaz, Kiyokazuo Okita, Sudev Sheth, Hamid Algar, and Satoshi Ogura. I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Thomas and Debra Obrock. To you both I owe everything. ii Table of Contents Chapter 1. Genre and History in Medieval Kashmir 1.1. Introduction: Contextualizing Genre and History 1 1.2. Regional and Cosmopolitan in Second Millennium Kashmiri Sanskrit 2 1.3. Toward a Kashmiri Historiography 4 1.4. Continuity and Change: Circulation and Encounter in Second 7 Millennium Kashmir 1.5. Plan of the Dissertation 10 Chapter 2: The Kathāsaritsāgara as Textual Criticism 2.1. Introduction: The Ślokakathā in History 13 2.2. Kathā in Theory and Practice: Genre and Source in the Kathāsaritsāgara 15 2.3. Somadeva and Textual History 21 2.4. Totality and Fragmentation in the Kathāsaritsāgara 25 2.5. Conclusion: The Kathāsaritsāgara and the Rājataraṅgiṇī 29 Chapter 3: Toward a Kashmiri Historiography 3.1. Introduction: Reading Kalhaṇa Reading the Past: The Rājataraṅgiṇī 31 and Its Influences 3.2. Kashmiri Textual History and the Making of the Rājataraṅgiṇī 34 3.3. Kāvya, Politics, and the Past in Kalhaṇa’s Rājataraṅgiṇī 37 3.4. History or Poetry? Rasa in the Rājataraṅgiṇī 45 3.5. Toward a Literary History of a Literary History 49 Chapter 4: The Limits of Kalhaṇa’s Historiography 4.1. Introduction: The Poetics of the Past and Present in the Rājataraṅgiṇī 51 4.2. Kalhaṇa’s
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