Paratexting Persian Purāṇas Probing Religious and Communal Boundaries in South Asian History

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Published: Feb 24, 2025
Updated: 2025-02-24
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2025-02-24 (2)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14434/tc.v17i2.40322
Keywords:
Purāṇa, Hindu narrative, Persian purāṇa manuscripts, paratext, literary communities, religious communities, Persian and South Asian manuscript cultures
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Essays
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Pranav Prakash
Christ Church, University of Oxford

Abstract

Purāṇa is a Sanskrit term reserved for a genre of Hindu narrative literature that grapples with themes like the creation and dissolution of the cosmos, the genealogies of gods and sages, the dynastic chronicles of royal figures, and the cyclical movement of time, among others. Purāṇas were recast into Persian genres throughout the second millennium CE, and a notable collection of Persian purāṇa manuscripts therefore survives today. This essay examines the paratextual elements of Persian purāṇa manuscripts with the aim of elucidating how the ethos of literary communities transcended religious and communal boundaries in early modern and colonial South Asia. In so doing, it reflects on the limits and challenges of deploying paratextual theory in the context of Persian and South Asian manuscript cultures.


 

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Author Biography

Pranav Prakash , Christ Church, University of Oxford

Pranav Prakash specializes in the comparative study of religions, literary cultures, and book arts in Persian and South Asian societies. His research grapples with historical sources and textual materials found in multiple languages, most notably Persian, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, and Maithili. His articles are featured in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Journal of Persianate Studies, and Asian Ethnology, among others. He is a fellow of Christ Church, University of Oxford, and the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography, Rare Book School, University of Virginia. He is a trustee of the American Printing History Association, New York. He is the recipient of the Honorary Fellowship of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies (IASS), Collège de France; the Exchange Fellowship of the Newberry Library, Chicago and École Nationale des Chartes, Paris; and the Junior Research Fellowship of the American Institute of Indian Studies, University of Chicago.

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