Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Indian epic'

This project delineates a cultural history of modern Hinduism in conversation with contemporary Indian literature. Its central focus is literary adaptations of the Sanskrit epic the Mahābhārata, in English, Hindi, and Bengali. Among Hindu religious texts, this epic has been most persistently reproduced in literary and popular discourses because its scale matches the grandeur of the Indian national imagining. Further, many epic adaptations explicitly invite devotion to the nation, often emboldening conservative Hindu nationalism. This interdisciplinary project draws its methodology from literary theory, history, gender, and religious studies. Little scholarship has put Indian Anglophone literatures in conversation with other Indian literary traditions. To fill this gap, I chart a history of literary and cultural transactions between both India and Britain and among numerous vernacular, classical, and Anglophone traditions within India. Paying attention to gender, caste, and cultural hegemony, I demostrate how epic adaptations both narrate and contest the contours of the Indian nation.

This thesis examines Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court John Marshall's opinion for _Johnson and Graham's Lessee v. William M'Intosh_ (1823) in light of the fictional history he employed in justifying the decision of the Court. I work from Hannah Arendt's conceptions of myth and legend as corrective of history, and conclude in line with Milner S. Ball that the legal transcription of custom into statute finds a natural corollary in the poetic license exercised by forging precedence from obiter dicta. In my examination, I treat law as literature insofar as it allows one to elucidate the elements of _Johnson v. M'Intosh_ that are amorally imperial in nature, and on which America is founded. While legend and law can be formally quite similar, I argue that racist, ethnocentric decisions like _Johnson v. M'Intosh_ demonstrate that if we desire for our laws to endure as the paramount social embodiment of justice, it is essential that the forms of law and legend remain disparate. As I conclude, the violence done Indian tribes by the statutory institution of Marshall's mythical opinion as authoritative, "true" history is unforgiveable and irreparable.
Cette thèse examine l'opinion du président de la Cour suprême des Etats-Unis, John Marshall, sur l'arrêt _Johnson and Graham's Lessee v. William M'Intosh_ (1823), au regard de l'histoire fictionnelle qu'il employait pour justifier la décision de la Cour. Cette thèse étudie la conception d'Hannah Arendt du mythe et de la légende comme correctif de l'Histoire, et conclut, en accord avec Milner S. Ball, que la transcription légale de la coutume en loi trouve un corollaire naturel dans la licence poétique exercée dans la construction de la préséance de l'obiter dicta. Puisque épopée et loi peuvent être formellement similaires, je soutiens que des décisions racistes et ethnocentriques telles que _Johnson v. M'Intosh_ démontrent que si nous désirons que nos lois restent l'incarnation sociale prédominante de justice, il est essentiel que les textes de lois et l'épopée restent distincts. Comme je conclus, la violence faite aux tribues indiennes par l'institution, par Marshall, de l'épopée comme faisant autorité car officielle, "vraie" Histoire, est impardonnable et irréparable.

Análise histórico-literária do poema épico De Gestis Mendi de Saa, escrito por José de Anchieta no século XVI. Sob a perspectiva de uma época de reforma e contra-reforma religiosa, procurou-se mostrar como as guerras figuradas, neste poema, pelo padre Anchieta imitam os discursos de autoridades como Santo Agostinho e Tomás de Aquino e o direito canônico vigente do Concílio de Trento. Neste embate de bandeira católica contra bandeira protestante em terras brasílicas, os índios serão figurados não como inimigos dos portugueses, mas, por serem pagãos, do próprio Deus de Roma que, por meio do herói desta epopéia, busca a inserção deles no mundo cristão.
A historical and literary analysis of the epic poem \"De Gestis Mendi de Saa\", written by José de Anchieta in the 16th century. Under a perspective of religious Reformation and Counter-reformation period, this work tried to demonstrate how the depicted wars in this poem by the priest José de Anchieta imitate the speeches of the medieval authorities - Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas - and the canonical law of the Council of Trent time. In this struggle between catholic and protestant flags in Brazilian soil, the Indians are considered as non-enemies of the Portuguese, but for being gentile, also of the very roman God that by means of the hero of this epic pursues their insertion through the Christian world.

The thesis investigates the cultural interventions of Hindu nationalist, C. Rajagopalachari (CR), by offering a close reading of his re-tellings of the Hindu epics, The Mahabharata (1951) and The Ramayana (1956). It positions them alongside the writings of M. K. Gandhi and the key responses to Katherine Mayo’s controversial text Mother India (1927). The thesis explores the central female protagonists of the epics – Sita and Draupadi – asking how these poetic representations illuminate the ways in which femininity was imagined by an influential Hindu ideologue during the early years of Indian Independence. Using close textual analysis as my principal method I suggest that these popular-literary representations of sexual identities in Hindu culture functioned as one means by which Hindu nationalists ultimately sought to regulate gender roles and modes of being. I focus on texts emerging in the years immediately before and after Independence and Partition. In this period, I suggest, the heroines of these versions of the epic texts are divested of their bodies and of their mythic powers in order to create pliant, de-sexualised female icons for women in the new nation to emulate. Through an examination of the responses to Katherine Mayo’s Mother India (1927), and of Gandhi’s writings, I argue that there one can discern an attempt in the Hindu Indian script to define female sexual identity as maternal, predominantly in service to the nation. These themes, I argue, were later articulated in CR’s recasting of the Hindu epics. CR’s epics represent the vision of gender within Hindu nationalism that highlights female chastity in the epics, elevating female chastity into an authentic and perennial virtue. I argue, however, that these ‘new’ representations in fact mark a re-working of much older traditions that carries forward ideas from the colonial period into the period of Independence. I explore this longer colonial tradition in the Prologue, through a textual analysis of the work of William Jones and James Mill. Thus my focus concerns the symbolic forms of the nation – its mythologies and icons – as brought to life by an emergent Hindu nationalism, suggesting that these symbolic forms offer an insight into the gendering of the independent nation. The epics represented an idealised model of Hindu femininity. I recognise, of course, that these identities are always contested, always unfinished. However I suggest that, through the recasting of the epic heroines, an idea of female sexuality entered into what senior Hindu nationalist and Congressman, K.M. Munshi, called ‘the unconscious of India’.

The Historia de la Nueva Mexico, by Gaspar Perez de Villagra, has been one of the less studied epic poems in Hispanic American literary criticism. The purpose of this study is to show the text's literary characteristics and justify its inclusion within the tradition of Ariosto's romanzi, which was earlier followed by La Araucana, paradigm of the epic discourse in Hispanic America. The analysis borrows from a structuralist-narratologic methodology developed in the works of Gerard Genette, Felix Martinez Bonatti, Cedomil Goic and Julia Kristeva. The study begins with the analysis of the different definitions of 'epic genre' from Aristotle and Horatio to the twentieth century and the theories of Genette about architextuality. Once establishing the definitions, the study proceeds to differentiate between the two generic variants: the romance and the epic. The purpose here is to show that the principles of textual disposition applied by epic authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Hispanic America belong to the romance, and this gives the discourse a very distinct structural physiognomy. A comparative analysis of some of the best known epic poems in Hispanic America show their structural singularity, as well as their inclusion within Ariosto's tradition. The texts analyzed are: Arauco domado, Peregrino indiano, Puren indomito, Argentina y Conquista del Rio de la Plata, La Christiada, and Bernardo. In Chapter Four the study centers on the transtextual relationships established between La Araucana and Villagra's poem, which determine the individuality of the Historia de la Nueva Mexico and its inclusion within the Hispanic American literary canon. The poem's uniqueness is based on its peculiar narrative structure, the hypertextual relationship it maintains with the Ercillan paradigm, as well as the juxtaposition of codes that determine an intertextual space. This space is the aesthetic image of ideological tensions in the narrator's perspective. It is the tensions which place both the narrator and the text within the ideological and artistic parameters of the Baroque period.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Theatre, 2005.
Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [1], ii, 129 p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-129).

Desenvolvemos aqui um estudo comparativo entre as epopéias gregas, Ilíada e Odisséia, e as indianas, Mahbharata e Ramayana. Analisamos, primeiramente, similitudes existentes entre essas obras. Nessa primeira etapa, mostramos que elas utilizam procedimentos literários semelhantes, têm os mesmos objetivos e apresentam aspectos mitológicos semelhantes: heróis descendentes de deuses, conformidade nas características dos deuses e temas análogos, além de detalhes análogos relativos ao gênero épico clássico, tais como o tempo pretérito arquetípico, a narração em terceira pessoa e estruturas discursivas semelhantes. Após o desenvolvimento dessa análise, voltamos nossa atenção para a atitude de súplica dos personagens, com o objetivo de demonstrar algumas diferenças significativas entre as atitudes de súplica exibidas pelos heróis gregos e pelos heróis indianos. Podemos observar em todas essas epopéias um quadro semelhante referente à atitude de súplica que busca restabelecer a ordem alterada: o herói ora ao seu deus para obter proteção e força que o tornem capaz de derrotar o inimigo, causador da desordem. Para além desse quadro, no entanto, com análise mais atenta, podemos verificar que o suplicante revela também intenções mais íntimas, ligadas aos anseios referentes à sua vida futura e cujo estudo nos leva a conhecer concepções teológicas e filosóficas da sociedade da época de produção dessas obras. Com o conhecimento das diferenças entre certos conceitos pertinentes à cultura grega e cultura indiana, obtemos elementos para a compreensão das diferenças entre as atitudes de súplica apresentadas pelos heróis dos épicos referentes a essas culturas. Assim, esse relacionamento entre deuses e homens é um aspecto fundamental nessas obras. Faz parte dos valores determinados de antemão pelo destinador sóciohistórico, com os quais o sujeito da enunciação constrói esses discursos. Nessas construções lingüísticas da Antigüidade há um contrato veridictório proposto e assumido referente à exposição alegórica do poder de atuação dos heróis. Nesse contrato, o enunciatário aceita a proposta de que esse poder é conferido pelos deuses. Desse modo, o sujeito da enunciação se desdobra em enunciador e enunciatário, cujas caracterizações nos permitem ter acesso à enunciação. O estudo das diferenças entre as atitudes de súplicas dos heróis gregos e dos heróis indianos foi levado a cabo através de um exame da construção dos sujeitos, em que analisamos marcas diversas existentes no texto - que nos permitem recuperar a enunciação - e também temas sustentados por formações ideológicas. Assim, após inserir cada texto no contexto de sua formação ideológica, examinamos o sentido construído pelo sujeito do discurso de cada obra, e procuramos mostrar essas diferenças
The aim of this thesis is to present a comparative study between the Greek epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, and the Indian epics The Mahabharata and The Ramayana. In a first instance we shall analyze some of the several similarities occurring within these epic poems. During this first stage, we shall highlight how these poems make use of similar literary elements; have similar objectives, present similar mythological aspects (i.e. heroes descending from gods; resemblances in the characteristics of the gods) and present similar themes. We also point out similarities in regard to the genre, such as the use of archetypal past tenses and of a third person narrative, as well as of similar discursive structures. After this first analysis we direct our attention to the pleading attitude of the characters in order to highlight some of the significant differences between the attitude of supplication exhibited by the Greek hero and the attitude of supplication exhibited by the Indian hero. Similar scenarios can be recognized in the body of all these epic poems in regard to this attitude of supplicating for the power to re-establish a harmony that has been disrupted: in all of them a hero prays to his god with the hope that he will be granted the protection and strength with which he will be able to defeat the cause of disturbance, depicted as the enemy. However when a more careful analysis is carried out we verify that the supplicant sometimes is also manifesting personal objectives, which are connected to his own expectations about his future. The study of these more subtle personal intentions took us to a thorough study of both the theological and philosophical thought processes of the Greek and Indian societies during the historical periods when these poems were produced. This study of the differences found within the above mentioned thought processes provided relevant information which in turn enabled us to better understand the subtle differences found in the pleading attitudes of the epic heroes related to these cultures. These relationships between gods and men are a fundamental aspect of these writings. They are directly linked to values previously established by the social and historical determiners, with which the subject of the enunciation builds up these discourses. In these linguistic structures of ancient times we find what can be referred to as a pre-established agreement between the enunciator and the enunciater. This agreement is directly connected to the allegorical exhibitions of the acting powers of the heroes, i.e. the enunciater accepts without questioning the proposal that the heroes\' superhuman powers are granted by the gods. Thus the subject of the enunciation unfolds itself between the enunciator and the enunciater, whose characterizations allow us to have access to the enunciation. In summary this study of the differences between the pleading attitude of the Greek hero and the Indian hero was undertaken through examining the construction of the subjective. We analysed several different elements of the texts - this allowed us to recover the enunciation - and we also analyzed themes supported by the ideological backgrounds of the texts. In this way, after inserting the text within the context of the specific historical ideological scenario of each one, we were able to examine the linguistic meanings brought up by the subjective of the discourses and subsequently seek to clarify the resulting differences

Em nosso trabalho, analisamos duas epopéias coloniais do Brasil, a \"De Gestis Mendi de Saa\", de José de Anchieta, e \"Caramuru\", de Santa Rita Durão, buscando verificar suas semelhanças e diferenças no que tange a seu discurso religioso e a suas formas de representar o índio brasileiro.
In this dissertation I analysed two colonial brazilian epic poems, \"De Gestis Mendi de Saa\", by José de Anchieta, and \"Caramuru\", by Santa Rita Durão, searching to verify their similitudes and differences concerning their religious discurse and their ways of representing brazilian indians.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Biodiversity and Conservation Biology)
The primary objective of this study was to investigate patterns in diversity, abundance, distribution and community structure of epi-pelagic copepods across the South West Indian Ocean Ridge (SWIOR). A survey was conducted across the SWIOR at two off-ridge and five seamount stations between 26.94 oS to 41.48 oS in November and December 2009. Copepod species richness and abundance was compared at vertical and horizontal scales day and night, at irregular time intervals across the Agulhas Return Current (ARC), Subtropical Front (STF) and Sub-Antarctic Front (SAF). A total of 49 genera and 135 epi-pelagic copepod species were identified along the SWIOR transect, and the Order Calanoida had the most genera. Species richness was highest in the ARC and lowest at the stations associated with the frontal areas of the STF and the SAF. The total number of copepod species was higher during the night than day. Total copepod abundance along the transect was highest towards the frontal area of the STF, and the genus Oithona spp. comprised almost 50% of the total number in all copepod samples. Three distinctive copepod assemblages were identified by multivariate analysis, and communities were associated with the STF, ARC and SAF. Clausocalanus laticeps, Metridia lucens and Calanus simillimus were only recorded in the southern part of the survey area and their absence in the north may demonstrate the strong stratification of the STF, and more likely to be the physiological properties, adaptation to their environment and life histories.

Le Kutiyattam du Kerala est un théâtre épique qui entremêle drame et récit et dont le jeu d’acteur, central, se caractérise par une constante distanciation. Cette hypothèse d’ordre esthétique – l’« épique » renvoie à Brecht – est démontrée dans une approche pluridisciplinaire, ethnoscénologique. Tout commence par une « première scène » et un enfant jouant un rôle d’Acteur, puis devenant acteur-conteur. Fil conducteur de la thèse, cette cérémonie contient « tout », tous les fondements et les ingrédients de l’esthétique épique, ensuite explicités par l’exemple du Ramayana, l’épopée que le Kutiyattam porte en scène, entre autres œuvres anciennes en sanskrit. Le Livre I traite des « compétences », et tout d’abord du je des concepteurs et maîtres du Kutiyattam, les Cakyar (première partie). Après cette ethnographie, il s’attache aux apprentissages sous-tendant la formation du corps-acteur, véritable enjeu en soi par son extrême codification (deuxième partie). Le Livre II, dédié aux « performances », étudie les textes en jeu (troisième partie) dans les cinq cycles performatifs ramaïques représentés dans les temples : cinq actes dramatiques en sanskrit et les longs récits en malayalam qui s’y enchâssent, consignés dans les manuels scéniques des praticiens. Ces textes forment un répertoire unifié présentant des structures d’emboîtements multiples où se combinent des principes d’arrêt du temps, de changement de perspective et de retour en arrière générateurs de distanciation. Le jeu scénique (quatrième partie) exalte cette dramaturgie : performeur aux multiples fonctions – personnage, conteur, danseur et surtout régisseur –, l’acteur jongle en maître avec ces principes lorsqu’il entre dans la « substitution », jeu de rôles aux saisissants effets de simultanéité. Les annexes (vol. 3) contiennent des analyses complémentaires (annexes I) et les textes (annexes II) et supports audiovisuels (3 DVD-DL avec livrets) nécessaires à l’étude des performances. La forme de la thèse et le montage des films reflètent la dramaturgie étudiée en procédant à des arrêts et à des extensions du temps. Note : Les titres, résumés et mots clés figurant sur version originale de la thèse portent une accentuation qui, pour des raisons techniques, n’a pas pu être reproduite ici
Kutiyattam of Kerala is an epic theatre that interweaves drama and narrative, characterized by an acting technique wherein the performance of the central actor makes constant recourse to a distancing effect. This hypothesis – esthetic in nature while "epic" refers to Brecht – is demonstrated through a multidisciplinary, ethnoscenogical approach. Everything begins with a so-called "first performance" in which a child plays at being an Actor-character, and then becomes a storyteller. This ceremonial, which serves as a common thread throughout our study, contains "everything", i.e. all of the foundations and ingredients of the epic esthetic, which we go on to explain using the example of the Ramayana – one of the numerous ancient Sanskrit texts that Kutiyattam brings to the stage. Book I first proposes an ethnography of the Cakyar-masters of Kutiyattam (first part), emphasizing their unique skills. It then analyses the training that underpin the codification of the actor’s body, demonstrating the challenge of being an actor in itself, before even assuming a character/persona (second part). Book II is dedicated to the performances. It begins by examining the texts (third part) of the five Ramayana cycles that are performed in the temples: five acts in Sanskrit into which are interwoven narratives in Malayalam, written in performers’ acting manuals. Taken together, these texts form a unified repertoire characterised by iterative embedded structures that interlock the principles of stop-in-time, change in point of view and flash-back. The acting (fourth part) enhances this dramaturgy. The performer who has multiple functions – character, storyteller, dancer, and director – juggles these principles, especially when he enters into the "substitution" process, a role-play that engenders striking effects of simultaneity. The annexes (Book III) contain the additional analyses (annex I) and the texts (annex II) and audiovisual materials (3 DVD-DLs with booklets) related to the performances. The thesis itself, including the montage of the films, is structured in such a way that it reflects the dramaturgy of Kutiyattam, and notably its use of stop-in-time. Note : Titles, summaries and keywords appearing in the dissertation contain accents, which, because of technical reasons, could not be reproduced here

D'après plusieurs théoriciens (Lukàcs, Bakhtine, Hegel), l'épopée est incompatible avec la modernité. Pourtant, les conceptions récentes du genre laissent apparaître la possibilité d'une modernité épique. L'épopée subit néanmoins un certain nombre de transformations, conséquentes à l'évolution des mentalités. L'Inde de la fin du XIXe siècle et du début du XXe siècle offre un terreau idéal au surgissement d'une modernité épique, puisque les auteurs sont confrontés aux bouleversements de la colonisation. Ils sont pris entre l'appartenance à une double culture (Aurobindo, Dutt), et l'affirmation de la culture indienne, bouleversée par la colonisation. Une véritable modernité indienne fait en outre son apparition à cette époque. Façonnée par l'influence occidentale, elle comporte ses propres caractéristiques, nées du contexte colonial et de la culture indienne. Il s'agit donc de comparer la modernité épique indienne avec la modernité épique française de la fin du XIXe siècle. Le Poème de l'Assassinat de Meghanāda de Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1861), Kāmāyanī de Jayśankar Prasād (1936), Savitri de Sri Aurobindo (1950) permettent de saisir différents états de cette modernité. La comparaison avec La Légende des siècles de Victor Hugo fait apparaître des spécificités indiennes, mais aussi des traits communs, afin de dégager les caractéristiques de la modernité épique de l'époque. Un véritable dialogue entre la dimension communautaire de l'épopée d'un côté, l'aspiration à l'universalité et l'introduction d'une subjectivité moderne de l'autre, émerge. La modernité transforme les figures héroïques, les rapports au groupe ou à l'espace, ainsi que la représentation du temps et de l'Histoire
According to some scholars (Lukàcs, Bakhtine, Hegel), an epic can't be written in the modernity. Nevertheless, the recent conceptions of the genre make appear that an epic modernity is possible. They imply however that the epic undergo some changes, because of the evolution of mentalities. At the end of the XIXth Century and at the beginning of the XXth Century, India becomes an ideal field for modern epic, because the authors go through the transformations caused by colonialism. They experience the dilemma between a double culture (Aurobindo, Dutt) and the need to assert the Indian culture, undermined by colonialism. Besides, an Indian modernity appears in the meantime. Formed by the Occidental modernity, it has its own characteristics, caused by the colonial context and by the Indian culture. Our purpose is to compare the Indian epic modernity with the French epic modernity. The study The Slaying of Meghanāda by Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1861), Kāmāyanī by Jayśankar Prasād (1936), Savitri by Sri Aurobindo (1950) has allowed us to show different aspects of this modernity. By comparing these poems with La Légende des siècles by Victor Hugo, the Indian specificities appear, as do some similarities. There is a dialogue between the collective nature of the epic on the one side, the impulse to universality and the assertion of a modern subjectivity on the other side. Modernity transforms heroes, the representation of groups, of space, of time and of History

Cette étude des figures et de la symbolique des animaux sauvages dans l’Inde ancienne, repose sur une lecture des Veda et des épopées que sont le Rāmāyan_a et le Mahābhārata. Elle consiste à dresser un portrait aussi complet que possible d’animaux emblématiques de la forêt : loup, chacal, hyène, ours, lion, tigre, panthère, éléphant, rhinocéros, sanglier, et buffle. À la fois animaux vrais et conceptuels, leur image apparaît complexe et en partie attachée à la définition du milieu où ils vivent, l’aran_ya ou les « terres sauvages ». Essentiellement présents au travers de leurs relations avec l’homme, qui éprouve une fascination constante à leur égard, ils sont repoussés ou sollicités, conduisant dans ce dernier cas à une animalisation de l’individu. Avant tout lexical, le phénomène interroge sur sa nature profonde, et sur les liens entre l’homme et l’animal qui se révèlent ici par un transfert de force et de puissance. Cette relation amène logiquement à envisager l’animal sauvage cette fois dans un environnement divin et/ou démoniaque où, entre mythes et sacrifices, il apparaît tantôt comme protégé du dieu, tantôt comme l’une de ses multiples formes possibles, souventredoutable
This study about the images and the symbolism of the wild animals at ancient India is based on a reading of the Veda and the epics that are the Rāmāyan_a and the Mahābhārata. It consists in drawing up a portrait as complete as possible of emblematic animals of the forest: wolves, jackals, hyenas, bears, lions, tigers, panthers, elephants, rhinoceroses, wild boars, and buffalos. Equally real and conceptual animals, their picture seems complex and partially attached to the definition of the environment where they live, the aran_ya or the wilderness. Mainly represented through their relations with man, who is constantly fascinated by them, they are either pushed away or appealed, in that case leading to an animalisation of the individual. Primarily lexical, the phenomenon questions its deep nature and the links between man and animal, which reveal themselves by a transfer of strength and power. This relation tends logically to consider the wild animal in a divine and/or demoniac environment where, between myths and sacrifices, it appears sometimes as a protégé of the god, sometimes as one of its multiple forms, often dreadful

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1994.
Includes text of the epic in Rājasthānī and transcription. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 2942-2947).