Epic and Argument in Sanskrit Literary History

Sheldon Pollock is Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies at Columbia University. He is the general editor of the Murty Classical Library of India (Harvard University Press), and author of, among other books, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India (University of California Press).

• Acknowledgements vii Vidyasagarah Suvarnapurusah: A Brief Survey of Robert P. Goldman's Scholarship Deven M. Patel ix Hermeneutical Glosses on Scholarly Work on the Mahabheirata and the Puranas Greg Bailey 1Is the Script Relevant? Further Evidence from a Nevari-script Riimayana Manuscript John Brockington 17The Boy 'Slowpoke' as Deep Thinker: In Defense of 'Straying' Wives against Father's Uxoricidal Rage James L. Fitzgerald 31Time in the Mahabharata and the Time of the Mahabharata Luis Gonailez-Reimann 61 Karma, Curse, or Divine Illusion: The Destruction of the Buddha's Clan and the Slaughter of the Yadavas Phyllis Granoff 75 Mapping Bhakti through Friendship in the Sanskrit Epics Alf Hiltebeitel 91 I'll Wash Out Your Mouth With My Boot: A Guide to Philological Argument in Mughal-era Banaras Christopher Minkowski 117What was Bhatta Nayaka Saying? The Hermeneutical Transformation of Indian Aesthetics Sheldon Pollock 143The Other Kind of Brahman: Rama Jamadagnya and the Psychosocial Construction of Brahman Power in the Mahabharata Adheesh Sathaye 185Illusory Evidence: The Construction of Maya in Valmiki's Riimayana Sally J. Sutherland Goldman 209 The Dana-stuti Hymns of the Rgveda Romila Thapar 235 Memories of Bob Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson 255 List of Contributors 263