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In this unique verse novel, "The Bawd's Counsel", Dāmodaragupta paints a vivid tableau of eighth-century urban life in Northern India. Instead of the gods, sages and heroes of legend that people the Sanskrit literary epics, here gurus, princes and merchants jostle upon the streets of Benares, Patna and in the gardens of Mount Abu with bawds, prostitutes, rakes and rustics, and they are shown grappling with matters of life, death, love, lovelessness and livelihood. These mortal actors have been woven into tales that are narrated with considerable grace and wit. The author, a minister at the court of a Kashmirian king, evinces particular empathy with those who have drawn the shortest straws—the abandoned prostitute in love, for instance, or the married woman seduced into a socially ruinous adulterous relationship. Caustically irreverent humour, meanwhile, is meted out to religious hypocrites, to the tiresomely self-important, and to men of rank with more money than sense. In spite of the intrinsic interest of the work—both as a piece of literature and as a document of the social history of its time—it has not received much attention in recent years, either in India or elsewhere. A German translation of an incomplete nineteenth-century edition was published in 1903, which was in turn rendered into French and the French then into English, and there have been translations into Hungarian and Japanese. This volume, which contains not only a fresh edition that draws on a hitherto unconsulted Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript of the thirteenth century, but also a metrical English translation, aims to bring this novel to the wider audience it deserves.

Manners and customs. --- India, North --- Inde (Nord) --- North India. --- Social life and customs --- Mœurs et coutumes

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This book analyzes the folk songs from the Bhojpuri-speaking regions of North India to explore how ideas of gender, caste, and class are socially constructed, transmitted, questioned, and reaffirmed through their performance.

Folk songs, Bhojpuri --- Music --- History and criticism. --- Social aspects --- India, North --- Social life and customs. --- Art music --- Art music, Western --- Classical music --- Musical compositions --- Musical works --- Serious music --- Western art music --- Western music (Western countries) --- Bhojpuri folk songs --- India, Northern --- North India --- Northern India --- Uttar Bhārat --- Uttara Bhārata --- Anthropology --- Caste --- Holi --- Jaunpur --- Uttar Pradesh --- Patriarchy --- Rama --- Sita

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This is an interdisciplinary volume exploring a range of historical, anthropological and literary ideas and issues in South Asian Borderlands. Going beyond the territorial and geo-political imaginaries of contemporary borderlands in South Asia, chapters in this book engage with the questions of sovereignty, control, policing as well as continuing affections across politically divided borderlands. Modern conceptions of nationhood have created categories of legality and illegality among historically, socially, economically and emotionally connected residents of South Asian borderlands. This volume provides unique insights into the interconnected lives and histories of these borderland spaces and communities.

Borderlands --- Transnationalism --- Boundaries --- Social aspects. --- India, North --- Himalaya Mountains Region --- History. --- Borders (Geography) --- Boundary lines --- Frontiers --- Geographical boundaries --- International boundaries --- Lines, Boundary --- Natural boundaries --- Perimeters (Boundaries) --- Political boundaries --- Territory, National --- Trans-nationalism --- Transnational migration --- International relations --- Border-lands --- Border regions --- India, Northern --- North India --- Northern India --- Uttar Bhārat --- Uttara Bhārata

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Moving beyond the existing scholarship on language politics in north India which implicitly or explicitly focuses on Hindi-Urdu debates, this text examines the formation of the Maithili movement in the context of expansion of Hindi as the 'national' language.

Language policy --- Sociolinguistics --- Maithili language --- Hindi language --- Urdu language --- Political aspects --- India, North --- Languages --- Political aspects. --- Bihari language (Urdu) --- Gujri language --- Gurjari language --- Islami language --- Moorish language (India) --- Undri language --- Urudu language --- Hindustani language --- Apabhramsa language (Maithili) --- Bihari language (Maithili) --- Maitili language --- Maitli language --- Methli language --- Tirahutia language --- Tirhuti language --- Tirhutia language --- Bihari languages --- India, Northern --- North India --- Northern India --- Uttar Bhārat --- Uttara Bhārata --- Language and culture --- Linguistics --- Sociology --- Integrational linguistics (Oxford school) --- Communication policy --- Language planning

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"Examining materials from early modern and contemporary North India and Pakistan, Tellings and Texts brings together seventeen first-rate papers on the relations between written and oral texts, their performance, and the musical traditions these performances have entailed. The contributions from some of the best scholars in the field cover a wide range of literary genres and social and cultural contexts across the region. The texts and practices are contextualized in relation to the broader social and political background in which they emerged, showing how religious affiliations, caste dynamics and political concerns played a role in shaping social identities as well as aesthetic sensibilities. By doing so this book sheds light into theoretical issues of more general significance, such as textual versus oral norms; the features of oral performance and improvisation; the role of the text in performance; the aesthetics and social dimension of performance; the significance of space in performance history and important considerations on repertoires of story-telling. The book also contains links to audio files of some of the works discussed in the text. Tellings and Texts is essential reading for anyone with an interest in South Asian culture and, more generally, in the theory and practice of oral literature, performance and story-telling."--Publisher's website.

Folk literature, Indian. --- Folk songs, Indian. --- Storytelling --- Story-telling --- Telling of stories --- Indian folk songs --- Indian folk literature --- Oral tradition --- Literature --- Music --- History. --- Criticism, Textual. --- Performance --- Oral interpretation --- Children's stories --- Folklore --- Oral interpretation of fiction --- Indian literature --- Art music --- Art music, Western --- Classical music --- Musical compositions --- Musical works --- Serious music --- Western art music --- Western music (Western countries) --- Belles-lettres --- Western literature (Western countries) --- World literature --- Philology --- Authors --- Authorship --- Tradition, Oral --- Oral communication --- Oral history --- Oral tradition. --- Storytelling. --- Performance. --- India, North. --- North India. --- India, North --- Northern India --- Uttar Bhārat --- Uttara Bhārata