Re-siting the Syncretic Spirit of Medieval Indian Literature

It would be unfair to place the present volume of ‘A History Of Indian Literature: From The Courtly To The Popular, 500-1399’ by Sisir Kumar Das in the context of his earlier well-received, critically acclaimed, scholarly yet reader-friendly volumes covering the period 1800-1910 (Western Impact: Indian Response) and 1911-1956 (Struggle For Freedom: Triumph And Tragedy) published in 1991 and 1995, respectively. However, the comparison is unavoidable, rather inevitable. The sudden death of Professor Das has robbed us of a comprehensive volume on an important period of Indian literary history spanning the Bhakti Movement in the South and the flowering of long narratives, transcreations of epics. It was an age sparkling with vitality and healthy defiance that interrogated social orthodoxy, encouraged creative re-readings and allowed pluralism to flourish.