Narrating Shivaji the Great

Authors

  • James W. Laine Macalester College Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.34407

Keywords:

Maharashtra, narrative, Shivaji, Śivabhārata

Abstract

This article investigates the narrative constraints that led Kavindra Paramananda to include accounts of family feuds in his epic poem, the Sivabharata, even while the purpose of the text was to praise the Maharashtrian king Shivaji (d. 1680) as a great epic hero. Written at the time of the king's coronation and presumably under his direction, the Sivabharata may have taken the Mahabharata as a useful model for dealing with family conflict when aspects of such conflict were impossible to ignore. The essay also considers the effects of assumed narrative frames when modern scholars, like the author himself, challenge those assumptions.

Author Biography

  • James W. Laine, Macalester College

    James W. Laine is Arnold H. Lowe Professor of Religious Studies at Macalester College in Saint Paul Minnesota (USA). He has published four books, including the controversial Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India (2003) and more recently, Meta-Religion: Religion and Power in World History (2014).

References

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Keluskar, K. A. 1921. The Life of Shivaji Maharaj, Founder of the Maratha Empire. Trans. N. S. Takakhav. Bombay: Manoranjan.

Laine, J. W., with S. S. Bahulkar. 2001. The Epic of Shivaji: Kavindra Paramananda's Sivabharata. Translation and Study. Hyderabad: Orient Longman.

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Published

2017-08-10

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Laine, J. W. (2017). Narrating Shivaji the Great. Religions of South Asia, 10(2), 159-171. https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.34407