Classical Sanskrit Tragedy: The Concept of Suffering and Pathos in Medieval India

Bihani Sarkar's book explores the tragic in classical Sanskrit literature, arguing that constructions of absence and grief are central to Kalidasa's compositions. It provides a complete history of the tragic in Indian literature from the second to the fourth centuries, drawing on a wide range of Sanskrit dramas, poems, and treatises. Sarkar demonstrates the importance of tragedy for classical Indian poetry and drama in the early centuries of the common era, challenging and reshaping our received understanding of tragedy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 25 August 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Classical Sanskrit poetry and drama are often thought to lack a concern with the tragic, but Bihani Sarkar's book challenges this assumption. In the first study of tragedy in classical Sanskrit literature, Sarkar draws on a wide range of Sanskrit dramas, poems, and treatises, many of which are translated into English for the first time. The book argues that constructions of absence and grief are central to Kalidasa's compositions and that these 'tragic middles' are much more sophisticated than previously understood. Sarkar examines five of Kalidasa's works, including the Abhijñanasakuntala, Raghuva?sa, Kumarasambhava, Vikramorvasiya, and Meghaduta, to demonstrate the importance of tragedy for classical Indian poetry and drama in the early centuries of the common era. These depictions from the Indian literary sphere, with their particular function and interest in the phenomenology of grief, challenge and reshape our received understanding of tragedy in a wholly new way.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780755639243