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Narratives

Nov 06, 2023
8:00 - 9:30 AM PST

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Presiding: Eva De Clercq
Eva De Clercq is Associate Professor at Ghent University, Belgium. Her courses include all levels of Sanskrit and Prakrit (incl. Apabhramsha and Classical Hindi), as well as South Asian literature and South Asian religious traditions. Her main research interests are the Jain versions of the Indian epics especially in Apabhramsha, and later medieval and early modern Digambara history. The first volumes of her translation of Swayambhudeva's Paumacariu have been published in the Murty Classical Library of India (Harvard University Press) as ‘The Life of Padma’.
Narratives
Presenter: Simon Winant
Simon Winant is a PhD student affiliated with Ghent University and funded by FWO who works on Jain Sanskrit adaptations of the Indian epic Mahābhārata. In his current project ‘Evangelists and Epigones: Sanskrit adaptations of Mahābhārata by Jains in 13th-century Gujarāt’ (FWO), he explores two Mahābhārata adaptations composed in 13th century north-western India: the Pāṇḍavacarita (1213 CE) by Devaprabhasūri and the Bālabhārata (1240 CE) by Amaracandrasūri. rnBy comparing these two adaptations with the authoritative Mahābhārata associated with Hindu traditions, Simon hopes to contribute to a better understanding of North Indian literary culture with regards to language choice, courtly support and religious ideology. Besides Sanskrit epics and Jainism, Simon’s research interests also include early Sanskrit kāvya authors, Prakrit, Kannada, and historical linguistics.
Invitation to Bhīma’s Beheading and Quenched Fire: Strategies of Suspense in Devaprabhasūri’s Jain Mahābhārata Adaptation
Over the millennia, Jains have composed a large number of works by adapting popular narratives such as the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata. In recent years, Jain Studies scholars have become increasingly cognisant of the fact that several Jain adaptations of these epics have often unjustly been ignored on the basis of being perceived as mere epigonic works. From this, they seek to remedy this oversight and reevaluate the literary merits of these works. However, the scholars who explore the novelty and uniqueness in these Jain adaptations works have either mostly focused on how Jains reworked these narratives to reflect the Jain worldview and ethos, or have analysed the Jain adaptations through the lens of the rasa-theory. Little has been said on how Jains added narrative tension and suspense to episodes that were, and still are, extremely familiar to Indian audiences to the point of predictability. Through a close reading of Devaprabhasūri’s Pāṇḍavacarita (1213 CE), I will show how this Jain Mahābhārata adaptation employs story devices such as switching away from a main character’s perspective and fake-out deaths of important characters. In his adaptation of Arjuna’s exile as well as in his adaptation of the slaying of the asura Baka, Devaprabhasūri uses both types of story devices to create suspense. In doing so, I wish to shed light on alternative strategies of reading that allow us to understand some of the novelty of Jain literary works beyond their capacity for moral instruction.
Presenter: Heleen De Jonckheere, SOAS
Heleen De Jonckheere is a scholar of Jain literature and Jain history. Her current research focuses on the conceptualisation and practice of translation and adaptation in the Jain context and in South Asia in general, and on the religious implications of translation. Her further interests include Jain narrative literature, Jain manuscript culture, religious plurality in historical India as well as the interactions of popular forms of religiosity with more established forms of religion. She received a PhD from Ghent University in December 2020 and continued her work at the University of Chicago and the University of Toronto. At present, Heleen is appointed as lecturer in South Asian Religions at SOAS, University of London.
The Absurd and the Grotesque in the Dharmaparīkṣā: a Taste of Embodied Humour
Heleen De Jonckheere is a scholar of Jain literature and Jain history. Her current research focuses on the conceptualisation and practice of translation and adaptation in the Jain context and in South Asia in general, and on the religious implications of translation. Her further interests include Jain narrative literature, Jain manuscript culture, religious plurality in historical India as well as the interactions of popular forms of religiosity with more established forms of religion. She received a PhD from Ghent University in December 2020 and continued her work at the University of Chicago and the University of Toronto. At present, Heleen is appointed as lecturer in South Asian Religions at SOAS, University of London.