Abstract
The subject of this article, the Ardhakathanak of Banarasidas (a Jain
author from Jaunpur), is an autobiographical poem in the Braj Bhasa
dialect of Hindi dating from 1641 AD. The article examines the construction
of the text, looking at the creative ways in which Banarasidas builds
subtle literary devices by exploiting features inherent in Hindi
and in the metres chosen for the poem. It is suggested that a conventional
critical approach to the poem, following traditional Sanskritic literary
categories, can fail to perceive the strengths of this decidely vernacular
composition, and that a new methodology of vernacular aesthetics
is needed to do it justice. The problems of maintaining the poem's
literary qualities in English translation are explored, both by examining
published prose versions and by an experiment with metrical English
verse.
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