MEALAC | Sheldon Pollock

Sheldon Pollock

Sheldon Pollock
The William B. Ransford Professor of Sanskrit & Indian Studies
626 Kent Hall
212-854-6781
sp2356@columbia.edu
Office hours fall semester 2009: W 4:15-5:30pm

Biography

Sheldon Pollock is The William B. Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, formerly George V. Bobrinskoy Distinguished Service Professor of Sanskrit and Indic Studies at the University of Chicago. He was educated at Harvard University (AB mcl Classics 1971; AM Sanskrit and Indian Studies 1973; PhD Sanskrit and Indian Studies 1975). His areas of specialization are Sanskrit philology and Indian intellectual and literary history, and, increasingly, comparative intellectual history.

Pollock currently directs the international collaborative research project Sanskrit Knowledge Systems on the Eve of Colonialism. Related to this is the Master Class on "Comparative Intellectual Histories of the Early Modern World" held at the International Institute for Asian Studies (Leiden) in May-June, 2006. For a brief account of the procedings see the IIAS Newsletter 43 (Spring, 2007).

He served as General Editor of the Clay Sanskrit Library, for which he translated a number of volumes (including the Uttararamacarita of Bhavabhuti, and the Rasamanjari and Rasatarangini of Bhanudatta); and he is joint editor of "South Asia across the Disciplines," a collaborative publication venture of the U. of California Press, U. of Chicago Press, and Columbia U.

His two new book projects are provisionally titled "Liberation Philology" and "Reader on Rasa: A Historical Sourcebook in Indian Aesthetics."

In 2008, Pollock's students arranged a conference in his honor entitled Language, Culture and Power. In the same year, he received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and in 2009, the President's Award for Sanskrit from the Government of India. His newest initiative is the Ambedkar Sanskrit Fellowship Program at Columbia, which aims to establish an endowment to fund a doctoral award for critical classical studies.

Recent and forthcoming publications:

"Future Philology? The Fate of a Soft Science in a Hard World." In James Chandler and Arnold Davidson, eds. The Fate of the Disciplines. Special number, Critical Inquiry volume 35, number 4 (Summer 2009): 931-61 (download)

"The Real Classical Languages Debate" (The Hindu, 27 November 2008) (download)

The Bouquet of Rasa and the River of Rasa (Rasamañjari and Rasatarangini) of Bhanudatta. Edited, translated, and annotated, with an Introduction. New York: New York University Press. The Clay Sanskrit Library, 2009, 398 pp. (download Introduction)

“Is there an Indian Intellectual History?” Journal of Indian Philosophy (in press) (download)

“Towards a Political Philology: D. D. Kosambi and Sanskrit.” Economic and Political Weekly (D. D. Kosambi Centenary Volume), July 26, 2008: 52-59. (download)

Rama’s Last Act (Uttararamacarita) of Bhavabhuti. Edited, translated, and annotated, with an Introduction; forward by Girish Karnad. New York: New York University Press. The Clay Sanskrit Library, 2007, 451 pp. (download Introduction)

“Pretextures of Time,” History and Theory 46 (October 2007): 364-381. (download)

“Literary Culture and Manuscript Culture in Precolonial India.” In Simon Eliot, Andrew Nash, Ian Willison, eds. History of the Book and Literary Cultures. London: British Library, 2006, pp. 77-94. (download)

“Empire and Imitation.” In Craig Calhoun, Frederick Cooper, and Kevin Moore, eds. Lessons of Empire. New York: New Press, 2006, pp. 175-188. (download)

The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2006.

“Ratnasrijñana.” In R. K. Sharma, ed. Encyclopedia of Indian Wisdom: Dr. Satya Vrat Shastri Felicitation Volume. Delhi: Bharatiya Vidya Prakashan, 2005, pp. 637-43. (download)

The Ends of Man at the End of Premodernity. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005 (download)

Visvatmaka Desabhase [The Cosmopolitan Vernacular], tr. Akshara K.V. Heggodu (Karnataka): Akshara Prakashana, 2003, D.R. Nagaraj Nenapina Akshara Chintana Maale. (A collection of essays on Kannada literary culture in Kannada translation, with a new introduction)

Ed. Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern South Asia: Explorations in the Intellectual History of India and Tibet, 1500-1800 (Duke U. Press, in press).

Ed. Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2003.(download)

“Introduction.” In Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia: pp. 1-36. (download)

“Sanskrit Literary Culture from the Inside Out.” In Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia: pp. 39-130. (download)

Ed., with Carol Breckenridge, Dipesh Chakrabarty, and Homi Bhabha. Cosmopolitanism. Durham: Duke U. Press, 2002.


Home Faculty Programs Courses Languages Events News Faculty Openings Affiliates Admissions		Sheldon Pollock The William B. Ransford Professor of Sanskrit & Indian Studies 626 Kent Hall 212-854-6781 sp2356@columbia.edu Office hours fall semester 2009: W 4:15-5:30pm Biography Sheldon Pollock is The William B. Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, formerly George V. Bobrinskoy Distinguished Service Professor of Sanskrit and Indic Studies at the University of Chicago. He was educated at Harvard University (AB mcl Classics 1971; AM Sanskrit and Indian Studies 1973; PhD Sanskrit and Indian Studies 1975). His areas of specialization are Sanskrit philology and Indian intellectual and literary history, and, increasingly, comparative intellectual history. Pollock currently directs the international collaborative research project Sanskrit Knowledge Systems on the Eve of Colonialism. Related to this is the Master Class on "Comparative Intellectual Histories of the Early Modern World" held at the International Institute for Asian Studies (Leiden) in May-June, 2006. For a brief account of the procedings see the IIAS Newsletter 43 (Spring, 2007). He served as General Editor of the Clay Sanskrit Library, for which he translated a number of volumes (including the Uttararamacarita of Bhavabhuti, and the Rasamanjari and Rasatarangini of Bhanudatta); and he is joint editor of "South Asia across the Disciplines," a collaborative publication venture of the U. of California Press, U. of Chicago Press, and Columbia U. His two new book projects are provisionally titled "Liberation Philology" and "Reader on Rasa: A Historical Sourcebook in Indian Aesthetics." In 2008, Pollock's students arranged a conference in his honor entitled Language, Culture and Power. In the same year, he received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and in 2009, the President's Award for Sanskrit from the Government of India. His newest initiative is the Ambedkar Sanskrit Fellowship Program at Columbia, which aims to establish an endowment to fund a doctoral award for critical classical studies. Recent and forthcoming publications: "Future Philology? The Fate of a Soft Science in a Hard World." In James Chandler and Arnold Davidson, eds. The Fate of the Disciplines. Special number, Critical Inquiry volume 35, number 4 (Summer 2009): 931-61 (download) "The Real Classical Languages Debate" (The Hindu, 27 November 2008) (download) The Bouquet of Rasa and the River of Rasa (Rasamañjari and Rasatarangini) of Bhanudatta. Edited, translated, and annotated, with an Introduction. New York: New York University Press. The Clay Sanskrit Library, 2009, 398 pp. (download Introduction) “Is there an Indian Intellectual History?” Journal of Indian Philosophy (in press) (download) “Towards a Political Philology: D. D. Kosambi and Sanskrit.” Economic and Political Weekly (D. D. Kosambi Centenary Volume), July 26, 2008: 52-59. (download) Rama’s Last Act (Uttararamacarita) of Bhavabhuti. Edited, translated, and annotated, with an Introduction; forward by Girish Karnad. New York: New York University Press. The Clay Sanskrit Library, 2007, 451 pp. (download Introduction) “Pretextures of Time,” History and Theory 46 (October 2007): 364-381. (download) “Literary Culture and Manuscript Culture in Precolonial India.” In Simon Eliot, Andrew Nash, Ian Willison, eds. History of the Book and Literary Cultures. London: British Library, 2006, pp. 77-94. (download) “Empire and Imitation.” In Craig Calhoun, Frederick Cooper, and Kevin Moore, eds. Lessons of Empire. New York: New Press, 2006, pp. 175-188. (download) The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2006. “Ratnasrijñana.” In R. K. Sharma, ed. Encyclopedia of Indian Wisdom: Dr. Satya Vrat Shastri Felicitation Volume. Delhi: Bharatiya Vidya Prakashan, 2005, pp. 637-43. (download) The Ends of Man at the End of Premodernity. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005 (download) Visvatmaka Desabhase [The Cosmopolitan Vernacular], tr. Akshara K.V. Heggodu (Karnataka): Akshara Prakashana, 2003, D.R. Nagaraj Nenapina Akshara Chintana Maale. (A collection of essays on Kannada literary culture in Kannada translation, with a new introduction) Ed. Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern South Asia: Explorations in the Intellectual History of India and Tibet, 1500-1800 (Duke U. Press, in press). Ed. Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2003.(download) “Introduction.” In Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia: pp. 1-36. (download) “Sanskrit Literary Culture from the Inside Out.” In Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia: pp. 39-130. (download) Ed., with Carol Breckenridge, Dipesh Chakrabarty, and Homi Bhabha. Cosmopolitanism. Durham: Duke U. Press, 2002.