Text to Tradition

Deven M. Patel builds a nuanced, complex, and compelling picture of the cultural roles the Naisadhiyacarita fulfilled over a period of some 700 years. The result is a fascinating case study of the ways the Sanskrit tradition sought to come to grips with a major work. -- David Shulman, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Text to Tradition is the first reception history of any classical Indian text. It is studded with brilliant insights and thoughtful readings of sometimes very difficult, and often unpublished, materials. -- Sheldon Pollock, Columbia University

Written in the twelfth century, the Naisadhiyacarita (The Adventures of Nala, King of Nisadha) is a seminal Sanskrit poem beloved by South Asian literary communities for nearly a millennium. This volume introduces readers to the poem's author, his reading communities, the modes through which the poem has been read and used, the contexts through which it became canonical, its literary offspring, and the emotional power it still holds for the culture that values it. Text to Tradition privileges the intellectual, affective, and social forms of cultural practice that inform a region's people and institutions. It also proposes a new way to conduct literary historiography, understanding literary texts as "traditions" in their own right and emphasizing the various players and critical genres involved in their reception. The book underscores the importance of the close study of individual works to building a history of literary cultures. In addition, it creates a groundbreaking model for approaching the study of other venerated South Asian texts.