Religion, Narrative and Public Imagination in South Asia: Past and Place in the Sanskrit Mahabharata

The 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. Its perennial popularity in contemporary South Asia can hardly be overestimated.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. Arguing that the combination of structural and thematic features which have helped to establish the enduring cultural centrality of religious narrative in South Asia was first outlined in the text, the author shows the Mahabharata's complex orientation to the cosmic, social and textual past. He demonstrates that the formation of a very specific cultural and cosmic geography is outlined most clearly in the Mahabharata.