Religion, Narrative and Public Imagination in South Asia

Taylor & Francis

Religion, Narrative and Public Imagination in South AsiaPast and Place in the Sanskrit Mahabharata\nAuthor(s): James Hegarty\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9781138948198, 978-1138948198\nSynopsis\nThe Sanskrit Mahabharata is one of the greatest works of world literature and pivotal for the understanding of both Hindu traditions and wider society in ancient, medieval and modern South Asia. This book presents a new synthesis of philological, anthropological and cognitive-linguistic method and theory in relation to the study of narrative text by focusing on the form and function of the Mahabharata in the context of early South Asia.\n\nArguing that the combination of structural and thematic features that have helped to establish the enduring cultural centrality of religious narrative in South Asia was first outlined in the text, the book highlights the Mahabharatas complex orientation to the cosmic, social and textua.