An Ongoing Conversation

Originally published in 2011, and now available in an excellent Indian edition, this set of essays in honour of and in dialogue with the ideas and writings of one of the most challenging and demanding scholars of our times is exciting, at times difficult and even arcane, and almost invariably thought provoking. Organized around five themes that have been central to Sheldon Pollock’s prolific and profound scholarship, the essays range from the densely and often dauntingly specific to more broad and general explorations, offering something for almost any scholar interested in the relationship between the past and the present, between literary cultures and the worlds in which they circulate as well as the worlds they construct, between linguistic, scholarly and literary traditions and realms of power. Almost inevitably, complex analyses of Sanskritic traditions loom large in this anthology, providing a welcome respite from the sharply polarized and somewhat futile ways in which the language has come to figure in present-day ‘popular’ urban, middle-class, upper caste perceptions in India. As important, other linguistic and literary traditions figure as well—notably Tamil, Hindi and Persian. The foreword by Nicholas Dirks summarizes the major strands of Pollock’s scholarship and its implications with remarkable clarity and brevity, setting the tone for the scholarly engagements that follow.