The talk will scrutinise theories on the emergence of a vernacular literary tradition in the “Hindi Belt” (Madhyadeśa) and examine the earliest extant works coming from the region. While both Hindi and Urdu have produced literary histories that extend for a millennium or more, most early claims are untenable in the light of later philological research. The talk will examine the role of Jain stories and of a primarily Jain literary idiom rooted in Apabhramsha and originating in Gujarat in setting examples for later works. It will also discuss the gendered aspect of vernacularisation and investigate alternatives to binaries, such as centre and periphery or cosmopolitan and vernacular.
 

Imre Bangha is Associate Professor of Hindi at Oxford. He studied Indology in Budapest and holds a Ph.D. from Visva-Bharati. His publications include English, Hindi and Hungarian books and articles on literature in Brajbhasha and other forms of classical Hindi with special focus on the poetry of Ānandghan, Ṭhākur, Viṣṇudās, Tulsīdās, Kabīr, Bājīd as well as on Nāgarī Rekhtā compositions. Currently, he is working on the emergence of the Hindi literary tradition and on the early literary use of Hindustani.