Leaving Kashi
Sanskrit knowledge and cultures of consumption in eighteenth-century South India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8961847 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anand Venkatkrishnan (0000-0002-0234-3782, University of Chicago, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 567-581 |
| Publication date | 2020-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Indian Economic & Social History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0019-4646 • E-ISSN: 0973-0893 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019464620948705 |
| OpenAlex | W3082249239 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 10 |
Recent studies of scholarly life in early modern India have concentrated on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. My essay has two aims: to push this study into the long eighteenth century, and to contextualise the new configurations of Sanskrit scholarship in the movement of people between Banaras and Thanjavur, theorised here as centres of gravity and of levity, respectively. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the Maharashtrian scholar Raghunātha Gaṇeśa Navahasta moved from his post as temple priest at Chāphaḷ, in the Sātārā district, down south to Thanjavur, to receive the patronage of Queen Dīpābāī. At the behest of the queen, Raghunātha began writing in Marathi instead of Sanskrit, in order to reach a wider audience. Despite his elite education as a young man in Banaras, his Sanskrit writing itself was likely accessible to the same audience that the queen had envisioned. What were Raghunātha’s true aspirations, and how did changes in his working conditions shape his career? In this essay, I trace Raghunātha’s entrepreneurial spirit through his Bhojanakutūhala, or Curiosities on Consumption. Although traditionally the prerogative of cultural historians of food, the Bhojanakutūhala reveals just as much about the intellectual context of its author as he travelled from north to south. I conclude by comparing Raghunātha’s career with that of his contemporary and namesake, Raghunātha Paṇḍita
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Consumption (sociology · Context (archaeology · Hinduism · Literature · Political science · Prerogative · Queen (butterfly · Sanskrit · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies
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Letters Home
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |