On Burglars and Makers of Links

Tradition and the Reuse of Indic Texts

Authors

  • Jacqueline Suthren Hirst University of Manchester Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.v6i2.149

Keywords:

commentary, interauthor, narrative, originality, Pali, plagiarism, Sanskrit, Urtexts

Abstract

The article argues that, whereas a great deal of exciting scholarly work has been done on the ways in which South Asian narratives are told, retold and ‘recycled’ across different religious, social and regional contexts, to date little has been written on the way in which philosophical and other commentaries make use of earlier material. Indicating how the contributions in this special issue start to redress the balance, it notes the importance of looking at the ways in which such texts are constructed, not least in the light of contemporary issues about what constitutes originality or plagiarism.

Author Biography

  • Jacqueline Suthren Hirst, University of Manchester

    Dr Jacqueline Suthren Hirst is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Religion (South Asian Studies) at the University of Manchester. Her research interests span Advaita Vedānta, gender, and religion in modern South Asia, and are united in a concern for pedagogy. Her books include Śaṃkara’s Advaita Vedānta: A Way of Teaching (2005) and, with John Zavos, Religious Traditions in Modern South Asia (2011). She is grateful to Dr Anna King and Dr Dermot Killingley for inviting her to be the guest editor of this volume.

References

Barthes, Roland. 1977. ‘The Death to the Author.’ In his Image, Music, Text, trans. Stephen Heath. New York: Hill and Wang (first published in French in 1968).

Bhansali, Sanjay Leela (director). 2008. Padmavati. (Bollywood-style opera, performed Théâtre du Chatelet, Paris, and also in Italy; an adaptation of the French composer Albert Roussel’s 1923 opera-ballet Padmavati).

Blackburn, Stuart. 1996. Inside the Drama-House: Rama Stories and Shadow Puppets in South India. Berkeley: University of California Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520202054.003.0002

Bose, Mandakranta (ed.). 2004. The Ramayana Revisited. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/0195168321.003.0010

Brockington, J. L. 1984. Righteous Rama: The Evolution of an Epic. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Brockington, John, and Mary Brockington (intro. and trans.) 2006. Rama the Steadfast: An Early Form of the Ramayana. London: Penguin.

Brodbeck, Simon, and Brian Black (eds). 2007. Gender and Narrative in the Mahabharata. Hindu Studies Series. London: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11407-006-9000-x

de Bruijn, Thomas. 2005. ‘Many Roads Lead to Lanka: The Intercultural Semantics of Rama’s Quest.’ Contemporary South Asia, Teaching across South Asian Religious Traditions, guest editors J. Suthren Hirst and J. Zavos, 14(1): 39–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09584930500194892

Clooney, Francis X. 1993. Theology after Vedanta: An Experiment in Comparative Theology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Cutler, Norman. 1992. ‘Interpreting Tirukkural: The Role of Commentary in the Creation of a Text.’ Journal of the American Oriental Society 112(4): 549–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/604470

Frishkopf, Michael. 2003. ‘Authorship in Sufi Poetry.’ Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, special issue, Literature and the Sacred, 23: 78–108. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1350077

Ganeri, Jonardon. 2008. ‘Sanskrit Philosophical Commentary.’ Journal of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research 25(1): 107–27. Available at http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pollock/sks/articles/Ganeri(commentary).pdf (accessed 23 September 2011).

Giraudoux, Jean. 1982. Siegfried et le limousin, Théâtre complet (la pléaide). Paris: Gallimard. (First published Paris: Grasset, 1922.)

Hegarty, James. 2011. Religion, Narrative and Public Imagination in Early South Asia: Past and Place in the Sanskrit Mahabharata. Hindu Studies Series. London and New York: Routledge.

Lutgendorf, Philip. 1991. The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

McDaniel, Justin Thomas. 2005. ‘The Art of Reading and Teaching Dhammapadas: Reform, Texts, Contexts in Thai Buddhist History.’ Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 28(2): 299–337.

Minkowski, Christopher. 2005. ‘What Makes a Work Traditional? On the Success of Nilakantha’s Mahabharata Commentary.’ In F. Squarcini (ed.), Boundaries, Dynamics and Construction of Traditions in South Asia. Firenze, Italy: Firenze University Press; New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.

Muesse, Mark W. 1999. ‘Religious Studies and “Heaven’s Gate”: Making the Strange Familiar and the Familiar Strange.’ In Russell T. McCutcheon (ed.), The Insider/Outsider Problem in the Study of Religion: A Reader: 390–94. London: Cassell.

Narayanan, Vasudha. 1994. The Veracular Veda: Revelation, Recitation and Ritual. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.

—2002. ‘Casting Light on the Sounds of the Tamil Veda: Tirukkoneri Dasyai’s “Garland of Words”.’ In L. L. Patton (ed.), Jewels of Authority: Women and Textual Tradition in Hindu India: 122–36. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pagel, Ulrich. 1997. Review of Jeffrey D. Schoening. 1995. The Salistamba Sutra and its Indian Commentaries, 2 vols. Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00036752

Parchomovsky, Gideon, and Alex Stein. 2009. ‘Originality.’ Virginia Law Review 95(6): 1505–50. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40344775.

Pauwels, H. M. R. 2008. The Goddess as Role Model: Sita and Radha in Scripture and on Screen. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369908.001.0001

Ramanujan, A. K. 1991. ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation.’ In Paula Richman (ed.), Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia: 22–49. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Richman, P. (ed.). 1991. Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

—2001. Questioning Ramayanas: A South Asian Tradition. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Roebuck, V. J. (trans.). 2010. The Dhammapada. London: Penguin Classics.

Sax, William. 2002. Dancing the Self: Personhood and Performance in the pandav lila of Garhwal. New York: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/0195139151.003.0002

Sreenivasan, Ramya. 2007. The Many Lives of a Rajput Queen: Heroic Pasts in India c.1500–1900. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Suthren Hirst, J. G. 2005a. ‘A Questioning Approach: Learning from Shankara’s Pedagogic Techniques.’ Contemporary Education Dialogue (Bangalore) 2(2): 137–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/097318490500200202

—2005b. Samkara’s Advaita Vedanta: A Way of Teaching. Hindu Studies Series. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon.

Suthren Hirst, J. G., and John Zavos. 2011. Religious Traditions in Modern South Asia. London and New York: Routledge.

Published

2012-12-31

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Hirst, J. S. (2012). On Burglars and Makers of Links: Tradition and the Reuse of Indic Texts. Religions of South Asia, 6(2), 149-160. https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.v6i2.149