12 Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 24:2 (2004)

Transitions and Translations: Regional

Power and
Vernacular Identity in the Dakhan, 1500
1800
!"IT #!$%
The theoretical underpinnings of
reductionist understandings of literary
culture were seriously eroded through the
1970s, and its analysis turned largely
hermeneutic This approach has indeed
produced dramatic !rea"throughs in our
understanding of literary creation and its
forms #ut $ suggest that is also useful to
try and connect (!ut not reduce)
discourses % which were after all e&ercises
in communication % with other features of
the communities that formed around them
This conte&t is, $ feel, especially signi'cant
in the early modern period, when new
forms of !elonging increasingly centered
on and created speech communities that,
in short order, !ecame (nations) or
(races)* and so the +nglo,-a&on, -la.ic,
Teutonic, /atin, and other races too" the
stage The esta!lishment of these
identities often in.ol.ed the self,conscious
creation and propagation of a (national)
literary culture
-heldon 0olloc" has pointed out that the
process of .ernaculari1ation !egan with
(the conscious decisions of writers to
reshape the !oundaries of their cultural
uni.erse !y renouncing the larger world
for a smaller place2 3ew local ways of
ma"ing culture % with their wholly
historical and factitious local identities %
and, concomitantly, ordering society and
polity came into !eing, replacing the older
translocalism)
1
$mplicit in this
formulation is that agency resides in the
author, the communicator whose choice of
medium demarcates its sphere of
intelligi!ility #ut the communicator4s
choice may not !e unconstrained:
language is e.er,changing and he or she
ris"s miscommunication or non,
communication
2
$n this loo" at literary
change, $ shall therefore attempt to widen
the range of linguistic materials studied
!eyond those that were a.owedly literary
-econd, 0olloc"4s formulation implicitly
suggests that the process of
.ernaculari1ation was somehow
irre.ersi!le This was certainly so in the
5est: the generally reactionary 6ongress
of 7ienna (1814%19) did not negotiate in
/atin #ut in -outh +sia, an e:ort at
re.i.ing the old cosmopolitan language of
-ans"rit was actually made in the late
se.enteenth century $ shall e&amine the
parado&ical fate of this e:ort through the
eighteenth century
#ut still, how is the author4s choice
made; <i.en how deeply the grammatical
structures of many languages are mar"ed
!y hierarchies of power that shape the
forms of appropriate utterance, could the
choice of medium ha.e !een unconnected
with the power of patronage; =ther
>uestions also arise: how were the
communicants .isuali1ed !y the
communicators; ?ow were they changed
!y that communication; 5hat energi1ed
1@ Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 24:2 (2004)
the pre,formati.e processes that, li"e
contours of the earth, channeled the
ri.ulets that Aowed into the larger historic
speech communities of the early modern
period; +nd 'nally, how did some of these
communities !ecome the dialects with
armies that we called o:icial languages in
the century gone !y;
@
$ shall approach
these >uestions !y attempting % so far as
my s"ills permit % to delineate the main
features of the polyglot milieu that was the
matri& of these processes in -outh +sia
% &o'e(olution o) Identity and
*anguage;
+ signi'cant !ody of regional studies
e&ists in the 'eld of early modern
language The !eginnings of the Telugu in
+ndhra ha.e !een e&amined !y 6ynthia
Tal!ot in Pre-Colonial India in Practice*
she notes astutely how the 'nd,spots of
Telugu inscriptions mirror the political
power of the Ba"atiya dynasty, which used
this language to assert its authority .is,C,
.is the Bannada,preferring 6alu"yas of
Balyani
4
$n Daharashtra the spread of
Darathi inscriptions was associated with
the Ba"atiyasE contemporaries and ri.als,
the Fada.as of Ge.agiri
9
$n (Heco.ering
#a!el) -anIay -u!rahmanyam notes,
among other things, the unac"nowledged
dialogue across linguistic !oundaries
among 0ersian histories, Tamil and Telugu
narrati.es, and Tamil fol" epics
J
/oo"ing
at Dughal north $ndia, -hantanu 0hu"an
recently proposed a demanding agenda:
that (adamantly heteroglot) literary
communities should !e approached !y
loo"ing at (an entire literary area with its
multiple literary .oices and the manner in
which these interacted with each other)
7
?e goes on to suggest that em!edding
eastern ?indi dialects in 0ersian or
0ersianate Krdu te&ts was a choice that
aristocratic men of letters made to in.o"e
intimate domains of a:ection and loss
8

This line of thought di.erges from the
maIor current among historians who ha.e
loo"ed at the phenomenon of polyglossia
and hy!ridi1ation +s 0hu"an points out,
most scholars, inAuenced !y the idea of
popular language as the primiti.e core of
nationhood, ha.e tended to identify
language choice in terms of its teleological
contri!ution to some as yet inchoate
integrati.e proIect
9
$n 1978 Hichard
Laton pu!lished an important contri!ution
to the study of the social role of Ga"hani
?indi and argued that its adoption !y the
-u' lineages he studied was instrumental
in the spread of $slam !eyond the
0ersianate elite in the city of #iIapur
10
+
similar integrationist analysis of the
Dughal decision to adopt 0ersian as its
administrati.e and literary language was
proposed !y Du1a:ar +lam, who wrote in
1998: (The non,sectarian and li!eral
feature of 0ersian made it an ideal forum
through which the Dughals could
e:ecti.ely negotiate the di.ersities of the
$ndian society The culture and ethos of
the language matched with their .ision of
an o.er,arching empire)
11
The e.idence that +lam pro.ides for this
is, howe.er, a select anthology of
ecumenical statements in 0ersian These
would !e a.aila!le to someone who had
learned the language, !ut that e.idence
does not address the issue of how 0ersian
was .iewed !y the millions who did not
"now it, and certainly could not read the
li!eral scholars he cites +lam, after all,
descri!es how e.en the li!eral 0ersian
sylla!us was ultimately imposed !y
imperial 'at under +"!ar, and most
students simply wanted to learn enough to
>ualify for go.ernment employment #y
implication, though, the adoption of
0ersian had in fact e&cluded many ?ence,
+lam continues, when the empire was
challenged !y regionally !ased ethnicities,
the Dughals came to reali1e that (the
increasing cultural a:irmation of the
region e&pressed in its linguistic di.ersity
had to !e accommodated in more
meaningful ways They recogni1ed the
need to culturally integrate and
accommodate with, and not simply
dominate, the regions This could !e
illustrated from the interest they showed
in ?inda.i)
12
$mplicitly, therefore, +lam
admits that the choice of 0ersian o.er
some ?inda.i language did e&clude the
numerous users of those regional tongues,
<uha: Transitions and Translations 14
who then had to !e conciliated $n his
200@ re.ision of this essay, he ends !y
noting that the coup de grace for $ndo,
0ersian came when (0ersian, the language
of power par e&cellence, was di.orced
from power) !y the #ritish go.ernment of
$ndia
1@

/et me de.elop this important
o!ser.ation +nother aspect of language
choice is that language and accent, li"e
other hard,to,ac>uire identity mar"ers,
can !e used not merely to include !ut also
to exclude 6onsider, for e&ample, the role
of Lnglish in twentieth,century $ndia:
retained !ecause it !elongs to no one
geographically !ounded ethnicity, it has
wor"ed as a language of power and the
mar"er of the power,elite This use of
Lnglish is challenged, howe.er, !y the
nationalist idea of authenticity residing in
the (mother tongue): the resulting
compromise has usually !een to impose a
.ernacular on the poor while reser.ing the
choice of Lnglish to the aMuent and
powerful
14
Dughal $ndia was una:ected
!y nationalism and the monolingual ideal
that has often accompanied it $nsofar as
power was to !e centrali1ed in the hands
of the ruling family and its associates, the
language of power should not tie the
emerging imperial state to any speci'c
ethnicity The maIor threat to +"!ar could
come from his Tur"i "in at Ba!ul and the
Tur"ic K1!e"s who loomed !ehind them,
which ruled out Tur"ish Then again,
+"!ar was a ruler with e&pansi.e
am!itions: the regional connotations of
northern ?inda.i or its southern
e>ui.alent, Ga"hani, would ha.e tied the
empire too closely to regional elites who,
in turn, were identi'ed with the regimes
that he had Iust superseded or was still
su!.erting $t is noteworthy that these
wea"er powers had increasingly sought to
em!ed themsel.es in the emerging
regional tongues
19
$ now turn to a region
where this process was acti.e
*anguage &o+,etition in -estern
India
The Darathi language is attested from at
least the eighth century 6L, !ut its maIor
eMorescence coincided with the rule of
the Fada.as of Ge.agiri in the thirteenth
century This culminated in the famous
Jnyanesvari (or nyanesvari, completed in
1290) +s Tulpule and Neldhaus o!ser.e,
(-uch great literary achie.ements were
made in this period that it has come to !e
"nown as the O<olden +geE in the history of
the Darathi language This period saw the
rise and de.elopment of the 7ar"aris and
the Dahanu!ha.as, the two sects that
produced the !ul" of =ld and Diddle
Darathi literature)
1J
The Fada.as were supplanted in 1@18 !y
go.ernors sent from Gelhi, who in turn set
up the #ahmani sultanate from c1@90
The sultanate disintegrated at the end of
the 'fteenth century, !eing succeeded !y
the 3i1am -hahis in western Daharashtra
$mportant wor"s of Diddle Darathi
literature continued to !e produced
Nurthermore, Darathi remained the
language of administration and
go.ernment at the local le.el, where
hereditary o:icials maintained their grip
on authority +s 6hatrapati -i.aIi4s
minister, BrishnaIi +nanta -a!hasad,
wrote in 1J94, (/ands held !y the
$dalshahi, 3i1amshahi, Dughalai were
con>uered P!y -i.aIiQ $n those lands, the
farmers had !een until then completely in
the hands of the hereditary headmen,
accountants and district o:icers)
17
These
o:icials maintained records (and pro!a!ly
spo"e) in a .ariant of Diddle Darathi
modi'ed !y a signi'cant infusion (as we
shall see !elow) of 0ersian and +ra!ic
loan,words
Llsewhere, $ ha.e argued that the
centrali1ing authority of early modern
states in the peninsula operated
signi'cantly through the e&ploitation of
e&tant 'ssures and clea.ages in local
society
18
=ne of these points of entry was
.ia the adIudication of local disputes, as
+ndre 5in" pointed out in his path,
!rea"ing !oo" almost two decades ago
19
These conAicts were most often settled at
assem!lies % !otsa"ha, ma#lis, etc %
essentially according to the (common
sense) of the country These Iudicial
processes, in turn, generated a discourse
19 Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 24:2 (2004)
of entitlement !y inheritance and the
"a$har (historical narrati.e) was therefore
well adapted to discourses of ethnic pride
and the conse>uent claims to regional
dominance !y autochthonous landholders
+ growing !ody of research suggests the
importance of such gentry communities in
the politics of early modern $ndia
Du1a:ar +lam pointed this out in 198J: in
resistance to the Dughal empire, (the
re!els and 4distur!ers4 had !een identi'ed
in terms of either their class, namely,
%amindars, or their caste, clan and
region)
20
Nurthermore, in a polyglot
milieu, familiarity is signaled !y using
common speech inaccessi!le to others*
e&clusion or dominance !y using an o:icial
language of power (in contemporary north
$ndia, this pattern is e&hi!ited in the use
of regional language or dialect .ersus
Lnglish) Hegional names reAected
dominant ethnic communities: Bol.an,
Darathwada, Rhalawad, Bathiawad,
#aiswada, <ondwana, ?adauti,
Dhairwada, Hohil"hand, #undel"hand $t
will !e e.ident that $ am mo.ing towards a
speech,community de'nition of ethnicity,
while admitting such additional limiting
mar"ers as the e.idence sustains
21
#ut my
use of ethnicity is not spatially !ounded in
the way that (nationality) is assumed to
!e $n fact, ethnicities in hierarchical
societies cannot escape ran"ing, and are
often formed !y the intrusion of ple!eian
or elite minorities into areas where they
were pre.iously un"nown
22

5as Ga"hani also ta"ing shape as the
language of an incipient southern (Tur")
ethnicity; The si&teenth century saw the
sultanates of southern $ndia increasingly
thrown !ac" on local resources !y the rise
of 0ortuguese power in the $ndian =cean
and the Dughal empire in north $ndia The
cores of three long,li.ed sultanates were
centered in di:erent language 1ones: the
+dil -hahi in the Bannada,spea"ing area,
the 3i1am -hahi in west Daharashtra, and
the Sut! -hahi in +ndhra The same
period saw a rise in the patronage of
Ga"hani as well as the use of regional
languages li"e Darathi and Telugu
Hichard Laton noted the turn to Ga"hani
composition among some -u' pirs from
the late 'fteenth century onward ?e
suggested that part of the reason for its
adoption was that
it was e.idently the only .ernacular of
#iIapur with which !oth Duslims and
?indus % at least those integrated with
the city % were familiar Ga"hani could
reach more people than could the elitist
0ersian language =f course, the use of
Darathi or Bannada would ha.e reached
many more than e.en Ga"hani #ut
Ga"hani had the ad.antage of !eing
written in the 0erso,+ra!ic script, which
would permit, when necessary, the easy
importation of $slamic .oca!ulary
2@
5as the choice as strictly functional as
Laton suggests; The idea that literacy
should !uild towards the a!ility to read
the Boran, and therefore start with the
+ra!ic script, was widespread in the
$slamic world #ut the o!stacles to
rendering Darathi or Bannada into the
0erso,+ra!ic script are no more serious
than those encountered in rendering
Tur"ish, 0anIa!i, -wahili, Dalay, or indeed
Ga"hani into it Nurthermore, !ecause oral
transmission initiated !y lectors reading
aloud would !e a maIor form of
propagation, the phonetic corruption of
+ra!ic religious terms would creep in
regardless of the language of composition
+s the simple technical e&planation is
insu:icient, $ would suggest that Ga"hani
may ha.e !een the only .ernacular that
the -u's "new, and that they saw no need
to go !eyond the circle of Ga"hani,
"nowing ple!eians (which would include
the women and retainers of their 0ersian,
"nowing patrons) ?ence they needed no
rustic languages +s Laton pointed out, at
their most acti.ist they were no more than
passi.e proselyti1ers or reformers of the
esta!lished community*
24
unli"e, say, the
ferociously proselyti1ing Resuits, who not
only learned local .ernaculars worldwide
!ut also too" steps to !ring them into the
world of print
The Ga"hani language then !ecame an
aspect of a dominant ur!an elite, and was
percei.ed as such Thus the famous
Darathi "ha$ta poet, Tu"aram, in
<uha: Transitions and Translations 1J
depicting the modern age of decay
($aliyu!a), points to the use of
avindhavani % (the speech of those who
ha.e unpierced ears,) ie, Duslims % !y
e.en #rahmans as one of its features
29
$n
the 1J90s, Rayarama 0indye claimed to
compose freely in twel.e languages
including da$sinatya yavani&
2J
'avana was
!y then a common term for Duslim, and
Rayarama clearly recogni1ed that the
southern or da$sinatya yavanas had a
language distinct from 0ersian, which he
simply termed yavani
The Ga"hani language thus !ecame
e&pressi.e of a regional religious identity
The si&teenth,century "ha$ta poet
L"nathEs (?indu,Tur" samvad) illustrates
among other things the power,relation
in.ol.ed The (Tur") is actually a Duslim
who gets into a wrangle with a #rahman
The Duslim spea"s something close to
Ga"hani with many +ra!ic loan,words,
while the #rahman does not choose to
display his "nowledge of -ans"rit although
he >uotes a -ans"rit slo$a) ?e uses a
Darathi .ery close to L"nathEs own !ut
shares signi'cant .oca!ulary with his
antagonist Nor e&ample, after the (Tur")
has used the #ali,7amana legend to attac"
?indu !elief, the #rahman replies, ((ali
$hudaca $hasa "anda) (#ali was a fa.ored
sla.e of the /ord) The case,mar"er is
Darathi !ut three out of four words are
0ersian ?e then goes on to assimilate the
story of +dam and L.e with that of Hama
and -ita, Ha.ana !eing identi'ed with
-atan
27
-o Ga"hani, li"e Krdu in north $ndia,
was a language of the ur!an centers and
the elite $t was perhaps an errant
aspiration to ur!anity that led Tu"aramEs
sinful $aliyu!ina #rahman to pop a pan-
vida into his mouth and then use avindha
speech
28
Nurthermore, as already
mentioned, o.er time central authority
de.eloped a more intrusi.e presence in
the localities $n such a setting, o:icial
languages and the power to prescri!e
them would impact deeply upon the
formation of speech communities
-uperiors are truly such only in the
presence of inferiors* elites, only if they
dominate o.er su!alterns
-o the court o:icials that am!itious
leaders of gentry clusters in.o"ed,
resisted, and emulated were (particularly
after the fall of 7iIayanagara), 0ersiani1ed
rather than -ans"riti1ed $t was important
for local potentates, proprietors of all
sorts, and e.en hum!le peasant plainti:s
to get some understanding of o:icialese
and polite usage #ut on the other hand,
the strength of the gentry lay in local
followings and e&tended "in networ"s
These would !e reinforced, as we shall see
in the case of the 6hatrapatis -i.aIi and
-am!haIi, !y the in.ocation of a shared
ethnic rootedness % in a sense, an
e&panded sense of "inship where!y all
spea"ers of a gi.en language were a"in
-uperiority would then !e signaled !y the
use of a higher register indicating access
to !ut not assimilation into a (high)
language Total assimilation to the
glorious imperial court was dangerous, if
tempting
29
-o the (high) languages of the
royal courts gradually in'ltrated the
.arious regional tongues, and multiple
linguistic registers had to !e mastered !y
great and small ali"e This changed the
way they spo"e
$ndeed, if we ta"e e.en a cursory loo" at
the .olume of records, orders, summons,
and warnings sur.i.ing through the
trou!led si&teenth and se.enteenth
centuries, it seems li"ely that the form of
written document that a commoner would
most fre>uently hear or see would !e an
o:icial document such as a %ahirnama,
$at"a, mucal$a, dospatra, ha$i$ata,
ta$idpatra, i%arpata, dasta$, $arina, or
mah%ar ?ow common an understanding
of the structure and function of such
documents !ecame is shown !y the fact
that the immensely popular L"nath (19@@%
99) and Tu"aram (1J08%90) !oth
composed de.otional poems that played
upon these formats Nor e&ample, L"nath
wrote an ar% !eginning:
Ar%dast ar%dar
"and!i "andena)a%
Ale$am salam
Sahe"ance sevesi
17 Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 24:2 (2004)
"ande sarira$ar
Jivaci se$dar
(udha#i $ar$un
Pr!ane Sarira"ad
*ille *ayapuri Sar$ar Sahe"anci a#na
!heun svar #ahlon
Ton par!ane ma%$uri yeun sar$ar $am
suru $aravayas la!lo
ton par!ane ma#$urce #amadar
am"ha#i sete &&&&
P+ petition from the sla.e to the
cherisher of sla.es, on whom !e peace:
the writer has the form of the #ody,
which is !aili:,custodian of /ife,
together with the cler" who is its
$ntellect, situated in the su!di.ision of
the /i.ing (follows)
?a.ing recei.ed the /ord4s command at
the Nort of the #ody, $ set o: for the
aforementioned su!di.ision and !egan
conducting go.ernment !usiness The
ta&,farmer of the su!di.ision is
Gam!haIi Q
This poem ingeniously mimics the
structure and tone of reports from touring
su!ordinates to central ministers, down to
descriptions of malfeasance and accounts
of the writerEs e:orts to remedy the
situation as a para!le for the frail human
!ody !eset !y e.il desires and impending
death -o a:airs of the par!ana (!ody) on
which #udhaIi (the consciousness) is
reporting are represented as !eing in
disorder, with BamaIi (Gesire) as the
maha#an (head of the merchants),
co.etousness as the (female) despandina
(hereditary registrar) and BrodhaIi (Hage)
as the naya$vadi (chief of police), etc
Then Rarasandha, a mace,!earer, !rings
news that Geath in the form of a #rahman
auditor (FamaIi 0ant) is a!out to ta"e
charge +t this terror the par!ana almost
empties of life* Besgan. (?air,.ille) turns
white* Bangan. (the Lar.illes) close their
gates* 3a"apur (3oseham) !egins to run,
<andapur (+nuston) !egins to Aow,
@0
and
so on $t ends:
E$a Janardana$a "anda
"and!i roshan hoya he ar%dast&
@1

Head as ?industani, which the geniti.e
case,mar"er ("a) suggests, it means: (L"a
(L"nath) is (solely) the sla.e of Ranardana
-o that this ser.itude may !e illuminated
P!y the di.ine presenceQ this petition is in
the hand) Ranardana of course refers to
Brishna* !ut L"nath4s guru was also
named Ranardana and is said to ha.e !een
a fort commandant under the 3i1am -hahi
sultans of +hmadnagar
The de.otional poets may of course ha.e
wished to display their linguistic .irtuosity
as well as de.otion* !ut an e&ample of how
deeply these o:icial processes imprinted
ordinary Darathi can !e seen from a
deposition !y one #a!aIi Brishna Bul"arni
in 1J90 (with 0erso,+ra!ic deri.ates
highlighted):
arz $ela $i aple $ul$arnapanaci nivad
karkirdi Mali$ Am"ar Sahe" #ala hota
tenhepramane aple vadile $hat hote
yavari aple vadile baphat #aleyavar
darmyane Ata#i Tanpra"hu apla
varisdar Marhateyace nivadiyasi kusur
$arun !hetla hota
@2

P-u!mitted a petition that a decision on
our hereditary .illage accountant4s o:ice
was made in the administration of Dali"
+m!ar -ahe!, and our father had
e&ercised the o:ice in conformity with
that decision Then after our father4s
demise +taIi Tanpra!hu our co,heir got a
fraudulent decision in his fa.or from the
Darhata administrationQ
/anguages were mar"ed !y a tension
!etween hy!ridi1ation and identity The
resulting mi&ed idiom, with an interesting
infusion of -ans"rit tatsamas (loan words)
is found, for e&ample, in -i.aIi4s letter to
GadaIi 3aras 0ra!hu, deshpande of the
Hohida .alley, where the maIor appeal is to
a territorial rootedness in the .alley as
well as putati.e wider su!continental
identity (again, 0erso,+ra!ic is
highlighted):
shahasi bemangiri tumhi va amhi $arit
nahi Srirohidesvara tumce $horiyatil adi
$uladeva tumca don!armatha
patharavar sendrila!at svayam"hu ahe
tyani amhas yas dilhe va pudhe sarva
manoratha +indvi svara#ya $arun
puravinar ahe tyas "avas haval hou
naye khamakha san!ava&
@@

PFou and $ are not !eing disloyal to the
-hah -rirohides.ara, the original
<uha: Transitions and Translations 18
presiding deity of your .alley, e&ists in
self,created form ne&t to the sendri tree
on the plateau at the crest of your
mountain: he has gi.en me success and
will in future ful'll the desire of creating
a ?inda.i "ingdom -o say to the #a.a
(addressee4s father): (Go not !e
unnecessarily downcast)Q
#ut while such local "nowledge and
identity could !e .alua!le to the head of a
small principality, a su!continental
imperial system could !ene't from a high
language that fa.ored no speci'c ethnicity
% the role played !y 0ersian in the Dughal
Lmpire $n later years, -i.aIi and his son
and successor -am!haIi seem to ha.e
considered the possi!ility of -ans"rit
playing such a role Thus the
,a#avyavahara$osa % a thesaurus of o:icial
usage % was prepared shortly after -i.aIi4s
coronation as 6hatrapati This has
sometimes !een presented as an e:ort at
the triumphant return of -ans"rit with the
end of Duslim rule - # 7arne"ar, for
e&ample, claims that the author was
commissioned to write this te&t in order to
sa.e the language of the gods
(deva"hasa)&
@4
The te&t itself is much more
modest: (?a.ing completely uprooted the
!ar!arians (mleccha), !y the !est of "ings
a learned man was appointed to replace
the o.er.alued Fa.ana words (atyartham
yavanavacanair) with educated speech
(vi"udha"hasam)&)
@9
There is, for a period,
a signi'cant change in register in o:icial
documents, with a new prominence gi.en
to -ans"ritic terminology, e.en though
Darathi remained the o:icial language $
shall return to this theme later in this
essay
The early emergence of regional
.ernaculars had !een associated to some
degree with the translation, or more
precisely adaptation, of -ans"rit wor"s:
the most famous e&ample in early Darathi
literature is the Jnyanesvari-nyanesvari
of 1290 The si&teenth,century scholar
L"nath also composed some maIor
transcreations, paralleling the slightly
later wor" of Tulsidas in north $ndia 5e
may get some insights into the polyglot
milieu of a se.enteenth,century court .ia
the ,adhamadhavavilasacampu
@J
$ts
author, Rayarama 0indye, e&empli'es the
multiple s"ills possessed !y the
se.enteenth,century literatus ?e clearly
had some training in the -ans"rit poetic
tradition and >uotes !oth #hamaha and
#hoIa at the outset and ac"nowledges the
Amara$osa #ut he accords a high status
to the .arious .ernaculars, and there are
few indications of language hierarchy in
his te&t The te&t presents itself as
narrating the literary feats of the poet
Rayarama 0indye at the court of -ahaIi
#honsle in Barnata"a when the latter was
an +dil -hahi general, car.ing out a new
domain in the remains of the 7iIayanagara
empire
@7
Rayarama states that -ahaIi
himself listened to the play of twel.e
languages that it contained
@8
The te&t
opens with a prose introduction discussing
the opinions of di:erent literary critics on
the poet4s choice of his theme, and then
follow '.e cantos on what $ would Iudge
con.entional themes: water,frolics, the
Aowery !ed, the description of the heroine
from head to toe, the si& seasons, and so
on
The si&th canto, howe.er, presents
something altogether new $t re.erts to
prose and descri!es how the assem!ly of
connoisseurs was ama1ed !y the cantos
and as"ed the reader who the author was
The answer is that he is associated with a
maharaIa* the audience then as"s who that
latter is, which occasions se.eral
ingeniously crafted lines in praise of the
#honsle "ing
@9
3e&t the arri.al of the
poet, who comes from Daharashtra to
-ahaIi4s court, is descri!ed Lntering,
Rayarama ta"es his appointed place and
ma"es an o:ering of twel.e coconuts The
"ing is intrigued and as"ed why: the poet
responds that they sym!oli1e the twel.e
languages in which he composes:
(-ans"rit, 0ra"rit, <opacaliya, <urIara,
7a"tara, Ghundhar, 0anIa!, ?industhan,
#aggul, Fa.ani, Ga"sinatya Fa.ani,
Barnata"a)
40
$ ha.e to postpone a
complete analysis of these language
names, which would ha.e to !e
accompanied !y an analysis of the actual
poems presented (occasionally under
19 Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 24:2 (2004)
di:erent language,names) in the ele.enth
canto #rieAy, howe.er, $ suggest that
Pra$rit refers to Darathi, which may
suggest a lin" to classical 0ra"rit and the
understanding that it was a literary
language with a grammatical traditions of
its own, and .opacaliya to #raI or <waleri
(<waliyar has o!.iously the same meaning
as <opacal, the land of the cowherds
P!val- or !oval-Q or perhaps the 6owherd,
ie, Brishna) /a$tara is clearly #undeli:
the name may refer to the accoutrements
of war, or it may !e a -ans"riti1ation of
"hasa (va$tra as mouth, !y e&tension,
speech or "hasa-"ha$ha) hundhar refers
to northern HaIasthani, and +industhan is
what is su!se>uently la!eled He"hta
(a!!ul is northwestern Darathi or
+hirani (The #aghul vamsa ruled in the
eponymous pro.ince of #aglana to the
1J40s $n 199J they in.ited the -outhern
poet Hudra"a.i to compose a -ans"rit
family history in twenty cantos)
41
'avani is
0ersian, and a$sinatya (southern) 'avani
is Ga"hani (Pan#a" and *arnata$ are self,
e.ident) 6learly, as suggested a!o.e,
Ga"hani was .iewed as the tongue of a
regional ethnicity that happened to share
a !roader religious identity with the
northern Fa.anas, !ut was nonetheless
distinct from their tongue
The ne&t canto represents a literary
competition in which .arious learned men
of the court challenge each other with
lines from .erses that ha.e to !e
completed in conformity with meter and
meaning Then a canto occasioned !y the
appearance of -ahaIi armed and
accoutered and so on Then, interestingly,
-ahaIi as"s the poet to respond e&tempore
to themes (samasya) in the .ernaculars
Rayarama agrees if the contest is
conducted in the presence of the young
prince The Iealous .ernacular poets see
this as an opportunity, and rush to o:er
di:icult themes Rayarama utters a slo$a
saying that the -ans"rit lion ad.ances
roaring to sei1e the unattaina!le !right
and !ashful word, while the others sit
concealed in the many,!ranched
languages li"e mon"eys (sa$hamr!a)
42
This angers the "hasa poets who resol.ed
to set him the most di:icult lines when
they get the chance Rayarama then
e&hi!its his .irtuosity at another session
!y completing .erses using lines thrown
him in di:erent ?inda.i languages The
'rst is clearly in #undeli and the theme
heroic $t cele!rates the con>uest of
Barnata" !y -ahaIi, and ends with an
ingenious play on "er (wild fruit) and "airi
(enemy) to !oast that the womenfol" of his
enemies were forced to Aee into the
woodlands
"a#at $arnata$ "ha#an $arnatu$
"atanmen $an!de hata$ setanmen
"alam$i "at la$hen "ar"ar "avarisi
"airan$i vadhu phire "airan$i "anme
P6on>uering Barnata" clea.ing the
Barnata"is, the Bangdas who recoiled
from the spears % and the e&iled wi.es of
the enemy roam in the Iungles where the
wild fruit growsQ
This is then followed !y an amorous image
of Brishna (Banha) in #raI, then a heroic
.erse in Bhari #oli, with a pun on 0ran!
(sword), 0ran!i (0ortuguese;), and phir
ran! !ayo hai& (Houghly translated, the
couplet suggests that 0ortuguese women
lose color or !lench when -ahaIi ta"es up
his sword) These feats pleased the worthy,
!ut now !oth the -ans"rit and .ernacular
poets present were o:ended +
linguistically interesting poem is la!eled
(He"hta) and written in the feminine
.oice:
a$al curai meri $ama$al pithare ne
maha"ali mahara#a dil!ir $are hai
#ilhe sa duniye $e !anim sa" $ati $adhe
#a$e sat sattar ha%ar svar $hare hai 1
PDy small wit is stolen P$ am infatuatedQ
!y the great lord, the mighty maharaIa
has made me hea.y,hearted
?e who slays all enemies, in whose
ser.ice se.en and se.enty thousand
horsemen stand readyQ
=ne of the more stri"ing aspects of the
Campu is the prominence gi.en to
#undeli =ne is strongly tempted to lin"
this with Bol:4s wor" on the #ondiliyas,
and that of -u!rahmanyam on their role as
au&iliaries of the Dughals in southern
$ndia
4@
The Dughal connection is
e&plicitly suggested in a .erse addressed
<uha: Transitions and Translations 20
to 3arayana (7ishnu) !y his en.oy after
sur.eying the earth:
tum soye raho sirsindhu maha
aru uttar dachan rachan $o
it Sah#u hai ut Sahi#aha&
P6ontinue to repose in the sea of mil":
the north and south are protected
here is -ahIu and there is -ahiIahaQ
Gid ethnic gentry power determine the
panoply of languages on display; Darathi
is introduced .ery late in the se>uence of
poems, and then at the re>uest of the
court Iester (vidusa$a), and the response
is punning .erse on the defeat of Dir
Rumla, the capture of the fort of <uti, and
eating shit (/ater more heroic Darathi
.erse is introduced, including a series of
poems e&hi!iting di:erent meters in the
same language, and signi'cantly
concluding with a series of Darathi
dohas) $n poem @0 Gurg Tha"ur as"s the
poet to compose in Darathi: ($avi thor yas
"hasa apra) (0oet, great is this our
language) 0oem @1 then renders the
theme of the wi.es of -ahaIi4s enemies
hiding in the forest and see"ing to conceal
themsel.es among the #hil women
$n 1J18, se.eral decades prior to the
composition of RayaramaEs poem, Thomas
-te.ens, -R, in order to populari1e his
rendering of 6hristian doctrines into
DarathiTBon"ani, introduced se.eral
.erses in praise of the Darathi language
into the 'rst chapter of his wor", and
wrote it in the traditional ovi meter The
language is declared to !e the diamond
and tur>uoise among gems, the peacoc"
among !irds, the $alpataru (fa!ulous wish,
granting tree) among trees, the no!lest of
tongues, the -unday and Donday among
days, etc
44
$ would suggest that this
prefatory material was inserted in order to
mo!ili1e em!ryonic language,pride to
reinforce the acceptance of the te&t
#ut a return to -ans"rit is also .isi!le at
the close of the se.enteenth century,
perhaps reAecting the new am!itions of
regional satraps in the wide .istas opened
!y the e.ident collapse of the Dughals
6onsider the career of the
/ive$acintamani, an encyclopedic
7irashai.a Bannada prose te&t of the
thirteenth or fourteenth century translated
into Darathi ovi .erse in 1J04 0ortions of
the Bannada te&t were then rendered into
Tamil later that century and into -ans"rit
c 1729 The -ans"rit translation was !y
3ir.anamantri, minister at the court of the
Beladi naya$a, -omashe"hara
49
-ans"rit
scholarship was acti.e and inno.ati.e at
this time Dultiple sources of patronage
had also opened up: most nota!ly, the
Dughal emperor himself
4J
-heldon
0olloc" has descri!ed how the $mperial
court generated unparalleled cross,
cultural interactions from the si&teenth
century onward
47
<reat e&pectations were
current among the literati + widely
circulated slo$a attri!uted to the great
-ans"rit scholar Ragannatha ran:
dillisvaro va #a!adisvaro va manorathan
purayitum samarthah
anyair nripalair "ahu diyamanam sa$aya
va syallavanaya va syat
P(Dy) desires can !e ful'lled !y either
the lord of Gelhi or the lord of the world
5hat is an a!undant gift for other "ings
will merely supply me .egeta!les or Iust
the salt to Aa.or themQ
48
0olloc" also suggests that some of
RagannathaEs -ans"rit .erse was modeled
on the well,esta!lished 0ersian theme of a
lamentation o.er the unattaina!le
!elo.ed
49
The northern #honsle "ingdom
esta!lished !y -ahuIiEs son -i.aIi seems, in
the last years of -i.aIi, and more
.igorously under -am!haIi, to ha.e aimed
at a reinstatement of -ans"rit as a
language of history and e.en of diplomacy
5e ha.e the well,"nown Siva"harata,
90
as
well as se.eral lesser,"nown -ans"rit
$avyas -i.aIi patroni1ed the important
,a#avyavahara$osa, a thesaurus of
-ans"rit o:icial terms There was also a
certain e:ort to correspond with the
HaIput courts of HaIasthan in -ans"rit
91
$n
part, this may ha.e !een a counter to the
increasingly $slamic tone of +urang1e!
after 1J78 $n the last years of -i.aIi4s
reign, and throughout that of -am!haIi,
titles were -ans"riti1ed to a considera!le
degree and we 'nd signi'cantly more
-ans"rit words in o:icial documents This
continued with the succession of HaIaram
21 Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 24:2 (2004)
(1J89) and the desperate guerilla struggle
of the ensuing years, when e.ery
ideological appeal was thrown into the
scales, with routine use of #ihad !y the
Dughals, and appeals such as this from
the Daratha ruler: (s.amice raIya mhanaIe
de.a,!rhamanaci !humi Fa raIyaci
a!hi.rddhi .ha.i ani Daharashtradharma
raha.a)
92
(That the /ord PHaIaramQ holds
this "ingdom is e>ui.alent to the <ods and
#rahmans holding it This "ingdom must
!e sustained and the dharma pertinent to
Daharashtra sur.i.e)
5e also ha.e a return to a stronger
emphasis under HaIaram and Tara!ai on
the ethnic Daratha character of the
"ingdom $n a letter % li"ely one of many
sent in the desperate year 1J90 % HaIaram
wrote to #aIi -arIerao Redhe, (he Marasta
ra#ya ahe) (this is a Daratha "ingdom)
9@
5riting in 1J9@, the e&perienced minister
BrishnaIi +nanta -a!hasad nostalgically
read ethnic assertion into -i.aIi4s
coronation as Chatrapati in 1J74 ($n this
epoch all the great "ings ha.e !een
!ar!arian (mleccha)2 now a Darast
padshah !ecame chatrapati This was no
ordinary e.ent)
94
$n fact, the copious
contemporary documentation sur.i.ing
from that e.ent suggests that it was
designed to !e much more pan,$ndian and
-ans"ritic than Darathi in character #ut
!y the !eginning of the eighteenth
century, Maharashtradharma was in.o"ed
in .arious conte&ts, without re>uiring
further de'nition
$t is interesting that the Pesh)as who
too" e:ecti.e control of the Daratha state
in the early eighteenth century, while
la.ishly patroni1ing the traditions of
-ans"rit learning, did not promote it
seriously in the sphere of go.ernment and
diplomacy -ome -ans"rit correspondence
continued, as for e&ample in a letter sent
with two emissaries to Rodhpur in 17@J
#ut the te&t is a word,for,word translation
of a Darathi o:icial te&t with all the
con.entions of that genre $t also !ears a
great formal resem!lance to HaIasthani
letters in the same collection $ surmise
that scri!es all three languages were
modeling themsel.es on well,esta!lished
0ersian epistolary con.ention The letter
ends with the con.entional (5hy should $
write much;) in -ans"rit
99
Deanwhile,
!ac" in Daharashtra, the language of the
administrati.e documents of the era
reAects, if anything, the strong legacy of
sultanateTDughal statecraft and
eighteenth,century ?industani usage
5hen foreign authorities were to !e
impressed it was done !y incorporating
large amounts of 0ersian -o for e&ample
around 1779, the minister 3ana 0hadnis
wrote to the "ing of Lngland on !ehalf of
the infant pesh)a e&plaining recent e.ents
in the "ingdom (0ersian words are printed
in !old):
Tyas Madhavraosahe" vai$unthavasi
#aliyavar kiblegah 3arayanarao Sahe"
daulat $aru la!le& Te vakhti
,a!hunatharao !harantila biradar yani
daga $arun apla daulat $aravi ha irada
$ela kiblegah yans phamd $arun
marile& +i !osta +induce mahzabat
bahut na-munasab1
9J
PThen after the no!le Dadha.rao too"
up his hea.enly a!ode, the auspicious
and no!le 3arayanrao !egan to rule +t
that time, Haghunathrao, a close
relati.e, decided to ta"e o.er the
"ingdom !y treachery and "illed the
auspicious one !y a de.ious stratagem
+ccording to ?indu orthodo&y, this
action is deeply impermissi!le Q
=n the other hand, the Darathi language
was tenaciously retained, e.en though
0ersian was, at the time, the maIor
language of diplomacy in -outh and 5est
+sia This contrasts with the Dughal
a!andonment of Tur"ish after #a!ur (d
19@0) The Darathi language, much
changed !y loanwords, was still retained
e.en as DahadaIi -inde secured from his
protUgU, the Dughal emperor -hah +lam,
the title of (plenipotentiary deputy) for the
Pesh)a and go.erned from Gelhi in the
latter4s name $t is signi'cant, therefore,
that unli"e the -ans"rit
Siva"harata-Sivacarita, when a .erse
history of the pesh)ai was composed
around 1772, it was in Darathi in the ovi
meter, though e.idently written !y a
-ans"rit,"nowing literatus, deeply
<uha: Transitions and Translations 22
immersed in the traditions of the purana
and $avya literature
97
6learly, that
linguistic identity had assumed a new
signi'cance in the politics of -outh +sia
This new signi'cance of Darathi was also
in e.idence twenty years later when the
Lnglish Last $ndia 6ompany stripped the
southern !ranch of -ahaIi #honsle4s
descendants of the last 'g leaf of
so.ereign authority that remained to them
in ThanIa.ur -arfoIi #honsle read the
writing on the wall and added some of his
own The great patron of -ans"rit learning
and Barnata"a music had a long narrati.e
history of the family written and car.ed on
the walls of the -ri #rihadis.aras.ami
temple in their former capital -urrounded
with e&amples of literary -ans"rit and
Tamil epigraphs, the last
(6holadesadhipati -rimant HaIsri
DaharaIa Bshatrapati -arfoIi HaIe -ahe!)
(=.erlord of the 6hola country, the
glorious great "ing so.ereign monarch,
the worthy "ing -arfoIi) had his personal
PsecretaryQ, #a!uraya, compose and
inscri!e a family history in unadorned
Darathi prose
98
This te&t stands at the .ery cusp of the
time when power and patronage in one of
the great centers of $ndian learning was
slipping from the #honsle court to the
(new men) rising in the port cities under
colonial auspices Goes -arfoIi4s choice of
language o:er us a hint of the connection
!etween the worlds of language politics
!efore and after the colonial deluge; $
hope $ ha.e demonstrated that this
>uestion is worth as"ing
./T0
The research em!odied in this article
was made possi!le !y my tenure of a
fellowship from the +merican 6ouncil of
/earned -ocieties $ am inde!ted to
-heldon 0olloc" for close reading of an
earlier draft, and the editorial sta: of this
Iournal for their painsta"ing wor" on a
di:icult manuscript Knless otherwise
noted, all translations are my own
1
-heldon 0olloc", (6osmopolitan and
7ernacular in ?istory,) Pu"lic Culture 12
(2000), 992
2
0olloc" has, of course, already warned us
against unthin"ingly adopting (a conceptual
style that typically reduces language to power
and precludes e.en as"ing what may !e
di:erent a!out their interaction in the past)
-heldon 0olloc", (The 6osmopolitan
7ernacular,) Journal of Asian Studies 97
(1998), @2
@
The oft,cited and much,criti>ued wor" of
#enedict +nderson on print capitalism and its
structuring e:ects may !e cited as an e&ample
of such analysis on a macro,scale
4
6ynthia Tal!ot, Pre-Colonial India in
Practice4 Society, ,e!ion and Identity in
Medieval Andhra (3ew For": =&ford Kni.ersity
0ress, 2001), @4%7
9
+ - +lte"ar, (The Fada.as of -eunadesa,)
part 8 in The Early +istory of the eccan
(19J0* repr ed <hulam Fa1dani PGelhi:
=riental #oo" 6o, 1982Q), 9J9%71
J
-anIay -u!rahmanyam, (Heco.ering #a!el,)
in Invo$in! the Past4 The 5ses of +istory in
South Asia, ed Gaud +li (Gelhi: =&ford
Kni.ersity 0ress 1999), 280%@21
7
-hantanu 0hu"an, (EThrough Throats 5here
Dany Hi.ers DeetE: The Lcology of ?indi in
the 5orld of 0ersian,) Indian Economic and
Social +istory ,evie) @8:1 (2001), @@%98
8
$ .enture to suggest that the rustic speech
of the unlettered wet,nurses and attendants in
the women4s >uarters might recall to
aristocratic men a !lissful period when they
were cocooned in deferential a:ection % a
period that ended with their induction into a
world of slaps from tutors and snu!s from
grandees (if nothing worse)
9
This insta!ility is highlighted !y -heldon
0olloc" when he condemns a +istory of 6rench
7iterature as (teleological to the core and
unhistorical e&cept in its !rute linearity)
0olloc", ($ntroduction,) in 7iterary Cultures in
+istory, ed -heldon 0olloc" (#er"eley:
Kni.ersity of 6alifornia 0ress, 200@), 11
(hereafter cited as 7CI+)
10
Hichard D Laton, Su0s of (i#apur 89::;
8<::4 Social ,oles of Su0s in Medieval India
(0rinceton: 0rinceton Kni.ersity 0ress, 1978),
91%4, 1@9%74 #y the late eighteenth century
we ha.e a poet complaining in '.e languages
that only -hi.a patroni1ed Tamil, that 6oastal
Duslims reIected him, saying, (+ra!i !at
tum"o malum nai ni"al Ia) (Fou do not "now
+ra!icV <et outV) 6ited in $ndira 7 0eterson,
(-pea"ing in Tongues: The 6ultural Giscourses
of /iterary Dultilingualism in Lighteenth,
6entury $ndia) (paper presented at 6olum!ia
Kni.ersity, 2 Gecem!er 200@)
2@ Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 24:2 (2004)
11
Du1a:ar +lam, (The 0ursuit of 0ersian:
/anguage in Dughal 0olitics,) Modern Asian
Studies @2:2 (1998), @49
12
+lam, (0ursuit of 0ersian,) @49, and the
re.ised .ersion of this paper, (0ersian in 0re,
colonial ?industan,) in 7CI+, 1J2%@
1@
+lam, (0ersian in 0re,colonial ?industan,)
188
14
+s ?arish Tri.edi elegantly puts it, ($ndia
remains a nation e:ecti.ely without a national
language, !ut at least % and perhaps precisely
for that reason % it remains a nation) ?arish
Tri.edi, (The 0rogress of ?indi,) in 7CI+, 981
19
3oted !y +lam, (0ersian in 0re,colonial
?industan,) 197%8
1J
- < Tulpule and +nne Neldhaus, A
ictionary of =ld Marathi (3ew For": =&ford
Kni.ersity 0ress, 2000), &i
17
6ited in #himrao Bul"arni, ed, Sa"hasad
(a$har (0une: +nmol 0ra"ashan, 1987), 29
18
-umit <uha, ($ndigenous ?istorical
Traditions and 6olonial ?istories: The Daratha
6ase) (paper presented at the annual meeting
of the +merican ?istorical +ssociation, -an
Nrancisco, @%J Ranuary 2002)
19
+ndre 5in", 7and and Soverei!nty in India
(1989* $ndian ed, ?ydera!ad: =rient
/ongman, 198J)
20
Du1a:ar +lam, The Crisis of Empire in
Mu!hal 3orth India4 A)adh and the Pun#a"
8<:<;8<>? (Gelhi: =&ford Kni.ersity 0ress,
198J), 2 and n 2
21
Da& 5e!er is still important for this
concept: (Lthnic mem!ership di:ers from the
"inship group precisely !y !eing a presumed
identity, not a group with concrete social
action, li"e the latter $n our sense, ethnic
mem!ership does not constitute a group* it
only facilitates group formation of any "ind,
particularly in the political sphere) Da&
5e!er, Economy and Society, trans < Hoth
and 6 5ittich (#er"eley: Kni.ersity of
6alifornia 0ress, 1978 ), .ol 1, @89%90 + few
years ago, G ? + Bol: suggested that
identities such as (+fghan) or (HaIput) were
(soldier4s identities) rather than (ethnic or
genealogical denotations,) !ut the e.idence
ad.anced for this sweeping statement is
scanty Nurthermore, e.en !y his own account,
leaders had ethnic identities which were then
donned and do:ed !y their followers as
e&pedient -ee G ? + Bol:, 3au$ar, ,a#put
and Sepoy4 The Ethnohistory of the Military
7a"our Mar$et in +industan, 8>@:;8?@:
(6am!ridge: 6am!ridge Kni.ersity 0ress,
1990), 9J%8
22
-o, for e&ample, writing from -enIi (RinIi) in
the 1J90s, hundreds of miles from signi'cant
concentrations of Darathi spea"ers,
6hatrapati HaIaram could still say, (This is a
Daratha "ingdom) 6ited in -etumadha.arao
0agdi, +indvi Svara#ya ani Mo!al (0une: 7enus
0ra"ashan, 19JJ), 17
2@
Laton, Su0s of (i#apur, 141
24
Laton, Su0s of (i#apur, 1@@
29
H H <osa.i, ed, Srisa$alasanta!atha
(0une: -arathi 0ress, 2000), .ol 2, 102@
2J
Rayarama 0indye,
,adhamadhavavilasacampu, ed 7 B HaIwade
(0une: 7arda #oo"s reprint, 199J), 227
27
<osa.i, Sa$alasanta!atha, .ol 2, 98@,J
28
<osa.i, Sa$alasanta!atha, .ol 2, 102@
29
6lose assimilation with the Dughal court
led to the demise of the long,esta!lished
#aghul "ingdom in north Daharashtra -ee
-umit <uha, Environment and Ethnicity in
India c&8A::-8BB8 (6am!ridge: 6am!ridge
Kni.ersity 0ress, 1999), J2,80
@0
This refers to dysentery
@1
<osa.i, Sa$alasanta!atha, .ol 2, 927%8
@2
- 3 Roshi and < ? Bhare, eds,
Sivacaritrasahitya (0une: #harata $tihasa
-amshodha"a Dandala 19@0), .ol @, 22
@@
7 B HaIwade, Marathyancya Itihasanci
Sadhanen (Ghule, 1912), part 19, 272
@4
- # 7arne"ar, (-hi.aIi4s 0atronage to
-ans"rit /earning,) in Chhatrapti Shiva#i
Coronation Tercentenary Commemoration
/olume, ed # B +pte (#om!ay: Kni.ersity of
#om!ay, 1974%9), 89
@9
B 3 -ane has printed the
,a#avyavahara$osa, and cites the slo$a in his
epilogue to it* Sivacaritrapradipa (0une:
#harata $tihasa -amshodha"a Dandala 1929),
144%77
@J
0indye, ,adhamadhavavilasacampu
@7
To !e e&act, the poems are reported in the
te&t as composed on .arious occasions at the
court of -ahaIi #honsle, who is praised in
e.ery part of the te&t #ut there may !e
interpolations as well: the Darathi poem
(#huIangaprayaga) goes on to praise -i.aIi,
(who will wage war against four patshahs)
(,adhamadhavavilasacampu, te&t, 2J7)
@8
(d.adasa!hasalalita -hahanares.arane
a"arnile,) ,adhamadhavavilasacampu te&t, @
@9
,adhamadhavavilasacampu, te&t, 22J
40
,adhamadhavavilasacampu, te&t, 227
41
Hudra"a.i, ,ashtraudhavamsamaha$avya,
ed 6 G Galal (#aroda: <ai"wad =riental
-eries 7, 1917)
42
,adhamadhavavilasacampu, te&t, 249
<uha: Transitions and Translations 24
4@
Bol:, 3au$ar, ,a#put and Sepoy, 120%98*
-anIay -u!rahmanyam, (Nriday4s 6hild: ?ow
TeI -ingh !ecame Tecin"uraIan,) Indian
Economic and Social +istory ,evie) @J:1
(1999): J9%11@
44
Roseph / -aldanha, ed, The Christian
Puranna of 6ather Thomas Stephens
(Dangalore: -imon +l.ares, 1907), 7
49
0andita +.li"ara, ed, Shrini#!unashivayo!i
$rita /ive$acintamani (Gharwad: Barnata"a
Kni.ersity* 0une: 0une Kni.ersity, 19J@) The
modern edition of this wor" was itself a
statement in the cultural politics of 3ehru.ian
$ndia: it was !eing edited and Iointly pu!lished
!y state uni.ersities in Gharwad and 0une Iust
as .iolent demonstrations erupted o.er the
allocation of #elgaum district to Barnata"a
rather than Daharashtra
4J
This had !egun with +"!ar: see D +thar
+li, (Translation of -ans"rit 5or"s at +"!ar4s
6ourt,) in A$"ar and +is A!e, ed $>tidar +lam
Bhan (3ew Gelhi: 3orthern #oo" 6entre,
1999), 171%80
47
-heldon 0olloc", (3ew $ntellectuals in
-e.enteenth,6entury $ndia,) Indian Economic
and Social +istory ,evie) @8:1 (2001), 20
48
The pro.er!ial nature this slo$a came to
ac>uire is shown !y Hamacandra 0antEs
>uotation of its 'rst two words when
composing the introduction to the A#napatra in
1717 - 3 #anhatti, the editor of the te&t, was
a!le trace the allusion - 3 #anhatti, ed,
A#napatra (0une and 3agpur: -u.icar
0ra"asana Dandala, 198J), 98, 121
49
0olloc", (3ew $ntellectuals,) 20
90
0armananda, Siva"harata (0une:
+nandasrama 0ress, 19@0) Nor an Lnglish
translation see Rames 5 /aine and - -
#ahul"ar, trans, The Epic of Shiva#i
(?ydera!ad: =rient /ongman, 2001)
91
+"shaya"irti 7yasa and < ? Bhare,
(Kdepurcya 7yasa gharanaya"adila "ahi
patren,) (harata Itihasa Samsodha$a Mandala
Traimasi$a @@ (1992%@), 80
92
0agdi, +indvi Svara# ani Mo!al, 17
9@
HaIwade, Marathyancya Itihasanci
Sadhanen, part 19, @77%8
94
6ited in

Bul"arni, Sa"hasad (a$har, 7J
99
7yasa and Bhare, (Kdepurcya 7yasa
gharanaya"adila "ahi patren,) 80
9J
6ited in

D T 0atwardhan, introduction to
6arsi-Marathi *osa, 2nd ed (0une: 7arda
#oo"s, 199J), J
97
3arendra 5agle and + H Bul"arni, ed and
trans, /alla"haCs Parasrama caritra (#om!ay:
0opular 0ra"ashan, 197J)
98
T -am!amurti How, transcri!ed and ed,
The Marathi +istorical Inscription at the Sri
(rihadees)aras)ami Temple at Tan#ore
(TanIore: -ri Brishna 7ilasa 0ress, 1907),
passim and 119