The Transition of Nagaravarṇana in Brajbhasha Literature. Exploring Genre and Patronage in the Eighteenth Century
The Transition of Nagaravarṇana in Brajbhasha Literature. Exploring Genre and Patronage in the Eighteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines two mid-18th century. poems, Sujān vilās and Dīrghnagarvarṇan, composed in Brajbhasha (Braj Bhasha) by Somnāth, at the then recently established court of the Jat rulers. It focuses on the description of the city, i.e. nagaravarṇana convention rooted in Sanskrit poetics and common in Sanskrit kāvya literature, further adopted by the authors belonging to the courtly ornate poetry of the Hindi literary tradition. In Somnāth’s works which offer three instances of the nagaravarṇana, this convention sees its transformation into a fully-fledged literary genre. The poetics of the Brajbhasha literary production have been by then enriched to a considerable extent by Persian literary practices, with both courtly literary cultures, the Persian and the Brajbhasha, enjoying patronage of the Mughal center of power leading thus to diffusion of its various cultural practices, including the literary, to many neighboring states and dominions. The present inquiry situates Somnāth’s works in this historico-literary settings with a view to define features of the nagaravarṇanas and thus trace the development of this literary genre and map its changing functions. Those functions, as argued here, point to disparate forms of patronage that underlie both compositions – probably a single, composite literary project.

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