Unknown Like Ḹ: Complications in Sanskrit "Alphabet Poem" Stotras.
Beginning with Rūpa Gosvāmin (late fifteenth century-1564), at least four poets composed poems in the Sanskrit virudāvalī genre that included akṣamayī kalikās, rhythmic compositions wherein each successive segment begins with the letters of the Sanskrit varṇakrama, from a to kṣa, in sequence. The fa...
| Published in: | Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 144; no. 3; pp. 605 - 627 |
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| Format: | Article |
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American Society for Premodern Asia (ASPA)
Jul-Sep2024
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=179099203&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 179099203 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: JOY jtl: Journal of the American Oriental Society maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul-Sep2024 vid: 144 iid: 3 pid: 1463 pub: American Society for Premodern Asia (ASPA) artinfo: ui: 179099203 10.7817/jaos.144.3.2024.ar023 ppf: 605 ppct: 22 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 5.9MB tig: atl: Unknown Like Ḹ: Complications in Sanskrit "Alphabet Poem" Stotras. aug: au: Buchta, David affil: Brown University su: Sanskrit poetry Sanskrit literature Rūpagosvāmī, fl. 16th century Indic literature Epithets sug: subj: Sanskrit poetry Sanskrit literature Rūpagosvāmī, fl. 16th century Indic literature Epithets ab: Beginning with Rūpa Gosvāmin (late fifteenth century-1564), at least four poets composed poems in the Sanskrit virudāvalī genre that included akṣamayī kalikās, rhythmic compositions wherein each successive segment begins with the letters of the Sanskrit varṇakrama, from a to kṣa, in sequence. The fact that a number of the letters of the varṇakrama rarely or never occur in word-initial position, including the nasals ṅa, ña, and ṇa, the retroflex consonants, the aspirated consonants jha and tha, the anusvāra and visarga, and the vowels ṝ, ḷ, and especially ḹ, creates potential obstacles in the composition of such poems. This paper examines the four known works with these "alphabet poems," and identifies six strategies that the poets employed in coining epithets beginning with such challenging letters: 1) the use of ekākṣarakoṣas, dictionaries of single-letter words, 2) reference to the shapes of the written letter, 3) onomatopoeia, 4) grammatical derivations, 5) fictitious sandhi-based back-derivations, and 6) metalinguistic puns. The paper thus argues that the difficulty these letters present was, for these poets, a desirable feature of this structure, allowing them to display their learning, whether in service of a royal patron or in a context of Vaiṣṇava devotion. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal of the American Oriental Society is the property of American Society for Premodern Asia (ASPA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal of the American Oriental Society holder: American Society for Premodern Asia (ASPA) dt: @attributes: year: 2024 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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