Modern Sanskrit and the Rise of Life Writing: Genre, Self, and Narrative (South Asian Literature in Focus)

This book challenges the prevailing notion that Sanskrit ‘died’ centuries ago by examining an unexplored frontier: modern life-writing in Sanskrit.Countering colonial-era assumptions that only ancient Sanskrit literature merits scholarly attention, this volume demonstrates how contemporary Sanskrit authors have revitalized the language through autobiographical and biographical narratives, genres that never fully developed in classical Sanskrit literature.Divided into two parts, the book first explores autobiographical writing, analyzing how contemporary authors use Sanskrit prose and verse to record lived experiences, from Partition trauma to everyday life accounts.Freed from traditional patronage constraints, these writers employ innovative forms while maintaining creative continuity with earlier literary traditions.The second section examines biographical narratives, exploring how modern biographers adapt Western genres to South Asian contexts and other multifaceted issues.It also fe