Śakuntalā: Texts, Readings, Histories

978-81-88965-60-1

Women Unlimited, New Delhi, 2010

Language: English

282 pages

5.5 x 8.5 inches

Price INR 550.00
The importance of Śakuntalā as personifying Indian womanhood in Indian literature and culture is undisputed. This books attempts to explore some of the links between culture, history and gender, and between literature and history, through reading variant versions of the narrative of Śakuntalā.
INR 550.00
In stock
SKU
978-81-88965-60-1
The importance of Śakuntalā as personifying Indian womanhood in Indian literature and culture is undisputed. This books attempts to explore some of the links between culture, history and gender, and between literature and history, through reading variant versions of the narrative of Śakuntalā. These include the stories in the Mahābhārata, the play by Kālidāsa, and the 18th century kathā in Braj. The transformation of Śakuntalā from an autonomous assertive figure in the Mahābhārata, to the quintessential submissive woman in the Kālidāsa version, is carefully examined by the author through a fascinating reading of the texts and translations of the play in India and Europe.

Romila Thapar

Romila Thapar has specialised in early Indian history and has written extensively on the many aspects of the past. Her books include Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas; From Lineage to State; History and Beyond; Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian History; Early India; Somanatha: the Many Voices of a History; The Aryan: Recasting Constructs; The Past as Present: Forging Contemporary Identities through History; The Public Intellectual in India; The Historian and Her Craft: Collected Essays and Lectures; among others. She has been a visiting professor at universities in Asia, Europe, and the US, and is currently Professor Emerita at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. In 2008, she was awarded the Kluge Prize (the American Nobel) for Lifetime Achievement in the field of History.