| Language of the Snakes: Prakrit, Sanskrit, and the Language Order of Premodern India Contributor(s): Ollett, Andrew (Author) |
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ISBN: 0520296222 ISBN-13: 9780520296220 Publisher: University of California Press OUR PRICE: $39.55 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Asian - Indic - Language Arts & Disciplines | Linguistics - Historical & Comparative - History | Asia - India & South Asia |
| Dewey: 891.3 |
| LCCN: 2017018705 |
| Series: South Asia Across the Disciplines |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 6" W x 8.9" (1.00 lbs) 324 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Indian - Cultural Region - Asian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Language of the Snakes traces the history of the Prakrit language as a literary phenomenon, starting from its cultivation in courts of the Deccan in the first centuries of the common era. Although little studied today, Prakrit was an important vector of the kavya movement and once joined Sanskrit at the apex of classical Indian literary culture. The opposition between Prakrit and Sanskrit was at the center of an enduring "language order" in India, a set of ways of thinking about, naming, classifying, representing, and ultimately using languages. As a language of classical literature that nevertheless retained its associations with more demotic language practices, Prakrit both embodies major cultural tensions--between high and low, transregional and regional, cosmopolitan and vernacular--and provides a unique perspective onto the history of literature and culture in South Asia. |