Liminal Spaces, and Identity Transformations in South Asian Literatures and Arts : Essays in Honour of Professor Alexander Dubyanskiy

Cinzia Pieruccini; Paola M. Rossi; Alexander Dubyanskiy; Tatiana Dubyanskaya; Danielle Feller; Edeltraud Harzer; Diletta Falqui; Zuzana Špicová; Anita M. Borghero; Danuta Stasik; Chettiarthodi Rajendran; David Pierdominici Leão; Anna Trynkowska; Ariadna Matyszkiewicz; Hermina Cielas; Marta Karcz; Weronika Rokicka; Darya Vorobyeva; David Smith

doi:10.54103/consonanze.139

Liminal Spaces, and Identity Transformations in South Asian Literatures and Arts : Essays in Honour of Professor Alexander Dubyanskiy

Authors

Paola M. Rossi (ed)

University of Milan

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8565-3390

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139

Keywords:

Vrātya culture , Epic literature, Classical Kāvya , Hindi poetry, Travel literature , Aesthetics, Narrative sculptures , Sacred thresholds, Ritual performance, Initiation, Bhakti, Gender identity , Social identity dynamics , Sovereignty

Synopsis

The present volume is a collection of 16 papers presented at the International Seminar ‘Liminal Spaces, and Identity Transformations in Indian Cultural History’ in Milan, in September 2019, when we were on the brink of a historical change unknowingly. And afterwards, during the pandemic experience, exploring liminality, as category of reality applied to Indian culture and especially to art and literature, appeared to be a means to cope with an emergency the likes of which had never been seen before. Obviously, this work does not aspire to be exhaustive, nonetheless, the heterogeneity of the contributions offers a multifaceted perspective: in actual fact, since liminality implies potentially myriads of interpretations, it appears to provide us with one of the main keys to addressing the entanglement of reality, especially the complexity of the Indian civilization, past and present. The focus is particularly on the literary and artistic aspects of such an extraordinary cultural heritage, from the Vedic period up to modernity; literature and arts are the lens through which variegated anthropological issues, crossing different historical phases, are investigated: firstly, the ritual question, in compliance with van Gennep and Turner’s approach, but also religious experiences, sovereignty and violence, dialectics of identity, social dynamics, gender identity, etc. Literature and arts, but still by means of their own aesthetic devices, mirror critical points characterising such issues, as if poetry and artwork, zooming in on specific transition elements, were themselves on the threshold of manifold layers of reality, able to pass through their interstitial discontinuities. Finally, it is a great honour to dedicate such a volume to the memory of Professor Alexander Dubyanskiy (1941–2020), eminent scholar in Indian literature, especially in Tamil poetry, who experienced multiple aspects of liminality both of the South Asian culture and life.

Chapters

An Introduction. Liminal Experience as Aesthetic Experience?

Paola M. Rossi

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c159
A Theme of Self-Humiliation in the Poetry of Tamil Bhaktas

Alexander Dubyanskiy

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c160
A Soviet Man on a Rendezvous with India: Alexander Dubyanskiy’s First Field Trip in Letters

Tatiana Dubyanskaya

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c161
From Palace to Heaven: Vimāna in the Sanskrit Epics

Danielle Feller

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c162
Conquering the Sun: Sovereignty and Liminality in the Vedic

Paola M. Rossi

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c163
The Liminality of Gŗhapati, the Leader of an Aggressive Sodality, the Vrātyas

Edeltraud Harzer

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c164
Rudra’s Involvement in Ambā’s Liminal Ascetic Path

Diletta Falqui

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c165
«You Are the Same Śikhaṇḍinī»: Narrative Constructions of Śikhaṇḍin’s (Gender) Identity in the Mahābhārata

Zuzana Špicová

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c166
Choosing What Should Be Left Unsaid: Is It an Outcome of Grammatical Issues or Rather Evidence of Cultural Transformations?

Anita M. Borghero

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c167
The Liminal on the Battlefield of Laṅkā in the Imagery of the Rāmcaritmānas

Danuta Stasik

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c168
The Novice on the Threshold of Royalty: Anxieties and Apprehensions in Kādambarī

Chettiarthodi Rajendran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c169
Unfolding Politics, Merging into the Sacred: Liminality and Transfiguring Digvijayas in the Pāṇḍyakulodayamahākāvya

David Pierdominici Leão

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c170
Female Adolescence in Indian Lyric Poetry

Anna Trynkowska

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c171
On the Sublime (and) Beautiful in Raghuvaṃśa. Edmund Burke Reads Kālidāsa

Ariadna Matyszkiewicz

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c172
Voices From the Stone, Figures on the Stage. The Development of Avadhāna and Avadhānī’s Identity

Hermina Cielas

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c173
On the Threshold of Social Changes. The Translation into Sanskrit of Choma’s Drum by K. Shivaram Karanth

Marta Karcz

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c174
Bengali Travel Writers of the Mid-20th Century in Search of an Asian Identity

Weronika Rokicka

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c175
Heavenly Musicians of Cave Temples as Liminal Beings of the Sacral-Profane Boundaries

Darya Vorobyeva

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c176
Liminality or Court Culture? An Introduction to the Narrative Pillar Sculptures at the Modhera Sun Temple.

David Smith

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c177

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Author Biography

Paola M. Rossi, University of Milan

Associate Professor in Indology and Tibetology; she teaches Sanskrit Language and Literature, and Indology in the University of Milan (Università degli Studi di Milano). Vedic Studies, early Buddhism and early kāvya literature are her main fields of research.