ISBN: 978-0-924304-63-7. 424 pages.

South Asian Texts in History charts the contours of a reenvisioned and revitalized field of Indology in the light of the groundbreaking research of Sheldon Pollock. One of the many exciting aspects of Pollock’s work is its unprecedented combination of classical textual study with cutting edge theoretical and social scientific inquiry—a combination which this book sets out to emulate. Pollock has trained and inspired a new generation of scholars, many of whom have contributed to this volume. The essays are organized into five groups that reflect the major domains of Pollock’s immense contributions to the field: the epic Ramayana, Sanskrit literature and literary theory, systematic thought in premodern South Asia, the birth of a new vernacular cultural order in the subcontinent during the second millennium CE, and India’s early modernity. Most of the essays concentrate on materials in Sanskrit, but there are also considerable contributions to the history of Hindi, Tamil, and Persian literatures. The book presents for the first time an overview of the groundbreaking contributions of Sheldon Pollock to South Asia scholarship over the past three decades, while offering a set of critiques of key elements of his theories.

“This volume will make a signal contribution to the modern study of South Asia by engaging on many levels with the ideas of a scholar who has revolutionized our understanding of Indian cultural history. Pollock has generated hypotheses of enormous scope and great boldness; it is only right and natural that these have sparked controversy and criticism, and this volume reveals the richness of the debate that has developed.” —David Shulman, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

“Sheldon Pollock has revolutionized modern Sanskrit studies both a teacher and as a scholar. This volume is a tribute to that dual inspiration and will itself set new standards for philological and cultural studies of the Indic world for many years to come.” —Arjun Appadurai, Goddard Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University