The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India (Philip E. Lilienthal Books)

Average Customer Rating: [ not yet rated ] List Price: $80.00 Asia Trips Trips Price: $64.00 Your Savings: $ 16.00 ( 20% ) Subject To Change Without Notice Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: University of California Press
Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 891.209 EAN: 9780520245006 ISBN: 0520245008 Label: University of California Press Manufacturer: University of California Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 703 Publication Date: 2006-05-23 Publisher: University of California Press Studio: University of California Press
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Editorial Reviews: In this work of impressive scholarship, Sheldon Pollock explores the remarkable rise and fall of Sanskrit, India's ancient language, as a vehicle of poetry and polity. He traces the two great moments of its transformation: the first around the beginning of the Common Era, when Sanskrit, long a sacred language, was reinvented as a code for literary and political expression, the start of an amazing career that saw Sanskrit literary culture spread from Afghanistan to Java. The second moment occurred around the beginning of the second millennium, when local speech forms challenged and eventually replaced Sanskrit in both the literary and political arenas. Drawing striking parallels, chronologically as well as structurally, with the rise of Latin literature and the Roman empire, and with the new vernacular literatures and nation-states of late-medieval Europe, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men asks whether these very different histories challenge current theories of culture and power and suggest new possibilities for practice.