On Unresolved Tensions in Rāmabhadra Dīkṣita's Śṛṅgāratilakabhāṇa.

Talia Ariav, Whitney Cox

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

Abstract

This article presents an interpretation of the Śṛṅgāratilakabhāṇa of Rāmabhadradīkṣita, a poet active in the vicinity of Thanjavur at the turn of the eighteenth century. The bhāṇa is an erotic-comic monologue, which in Rāmabhadra's hands is used, in our reading, to ironic and self-subverting ends. While the play concludes with the sort of happy ending conventional to its genre, it contains potent unresolved tensions, which we understand as deliberate elements of Rāmabhadra's authorial project. At the center of our interpretation are questions about the representation of sexual consent and coercion, and the ways in which the monological techniques of the genre make possible Rāmabhadra's innovative explorations of time, perspective, and self-reflexivity.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)47-71
Number of pages25
JournalJournal of South Asian Intellectual History
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2021

Keywords

  • SEXUAL consent
  • EIGHTEENTH century
  • MONOLOGUE
  • bhāṇa
  • consent
  • erotic poetry
  • Late South Indian Sanskrit poetry
  • subversion

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