This monumental work, I gather, is an adaptation from the American edition of 2011 and not having consulted the original, I was naturally left wondering just how much the author ‘adapted’ with a South Asian readership in mind. It was, however, quite obvious to me that the present work represents the cumulative insight and expertise that Hiltebeitel has acquired over the years, particularly in relation to the study of the epics and dharma literature.
We are living in a present which is tense for many reasons. Identities are sought to be forged on the basis of particularly manufactured images of the past, in which aviation technology and plastic surgery and nuclear weapons go about almost in an existential abandon.
Women are often reminded rather patronizingly of their important role in shaping the world. This is of course a reference to their role as mothers of future citizens, warriors and leaders, of men who would go onto shape the world.
The book is an anthology of writings by women in Bengali, translated into English by various scholars and edited by, Ipshita Chanda and Jayeeta Bagchi.
Conjugality Unbound brings together an impressive range of scholarship that engages with the diverse implications and presuppositions of marriage as an institution and relationship in the Indian context, which is guided by social, cultural, economic, religious and legal parameters.
The medieval ages, however you mark its temporal coordinates, are a bright period in India’s history. My choice of the metaphor of ‘bright’ is deliberate, of course, because history textbooks, which make space for mostly dynastic and military details, make them appear dark.