Mulla Da'ud's CHANDAYAN:
the First Work of Hindi Literature?
Saturday April 16, 2011, 10:30-3:30
Columbia University, Knox Hall, room 208
~~~~~~~~~~~
The workshop is sponsored by the South Asia Institute and the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia University. It is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required:
*REGISTRATION
FORM*
~~~~~~~~~~~
Workshop
schedule:
10:00-10:30
coffee ~~
10:30-12:30:
readings
12:30-1:30:
lunch ~~
1:30-3:30:
discussion
~~~~~~~~~~~
STUDY
MATERIALS FOR
THE
WORKSHOP
(copies of
selected
parts
of this material will be made available at the
workshop itself and will
be read and discussed)
In English:
*An overview of the plot by Naseem Hines*
*"The snakebite episodes within Chandayan: a journey within a journey," by Naseem Hines*
*An introduction to the (related) 'Madhumalati' by Aditya Behl and Simon Weightman*
*An overview of the Chhatisgarhi version by Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger (see Chapter 6)*
*"Baramasas in Hindi and Urdu," by Francesca Orsini*
*"Baramasa in Chandayan and in folk traditions," by Shyam Manohar Pandey*
~~~~~~~~~~~
In Hindi:
*An introduction to the text by Mataprasad Gupta*
*The text as edited by Mataprasad Gupta*
*A glossary by Mataprasad Gupta*
~~~~~~~~~~~
In Urdu:
*An introduction to the text by Muhammad Ansarullah*
*The text as edited by Muhammad Ansarullah*
~~~~~~~~~~~
WORKSHOP PACKET MATERIALS (selected
by Allison
Busch):
1.
Stuti
Khand -- We
will
focus especially on verses 1, 6, 8, 9,17
All of the major Hindi Sufi
works
begin with a “stuti khand” or “praise chapter.” These
introductions, which draw upon the Persian Masnavi
tradition, reveal
interesting theological and
political details. We also can learn something about how
the author
situates his work.
2. Chanda and Lorik
first meet
and fall in love -- focus on
v. 153 (Gupta)= v. 152 (Ansarullah);
vv. 169-73 (Gupta)= vv. 168-72 (Ansarullah)
Love or “piram” is one of the
major
themes of the Indo-Muslim Sufi narrative. Here Daud
takes
up the poetic theme of viraha, lacing it with yogic and
Sufistic
imagery. (NB the verse numbering is slightly different
between the
Gupta and Ansarullah editions)
3. The second snake
bite episode
-- focus
on
verses 315, 320, 323, 324
Chand, Lorik’s beloved, has now
been
bitten by a snake for the second time. Lorik despairs of
her life and laments. (For an analysis of some of the
Sufi resonances,
see the article by Naseem
Hines.)
4. Maina’s Barahmasa --
focus on verses 339,
344, 345
A typical
motif in
these Sufi tales is the rivalry between the
protagonist’s abandoned
first
wife and his favored beloved. Here Maina, Lorik’s first
wife, expresses
her anguish at being
abandoned to Surjan, a traveling merchant. Her lament
takes the form of
a barah-masa, a typical
Indian folk genre. (See articles by Orsini and Pandey on
the workshop
website.)
~~ *list of other workshop topics* ~~ *fwp's main page* ~~
