Preface

Bhūtārthakathane . . . Sarasvatī: Reading Poetry as a History Book brings together ten essays that explore a central tension in the study of historical poetry—the pull between the impulse to extract ‘hard’ historical facts from poetic texts and the need to attend to the history of poetry itself: its forms, conventions, and evolving self-awareness. The contributors present poets who were not only engaged in distinctly historical projects but were also consciously, bravely, and at times even audaciously making history themselves. They show that premodern South Asian poets deliberately reflected on their past and present while addressing future audiences, participating in literary conversations that had often been unfolding for centuries. This volume will be of interest to scholars of literary history and historical literature, as well as to anyone interested in the study of South Asian poetry.