In the Shade of the Golden Palace

Alaol and Middle Bengali Poetics in Arakan

Thibaut d'Hubert

South Asia Research

Offers a contextualized study of the making of Middle Bengali Muslim literature in the Buddhist kingdom of Arakan (Bangladesh/Myanmar) based on original sources.
Analyzes the poetics of vernacular literary traditions in the multilingual context of South and Southeast Asia.
Sheds new light on Indo-Persian literature in Bengal and the surrounding regions.

In the Shade of the Golden Palace

Alaol and Middle Bengali Poetics in Arakan

Thibaut d'Hubert

Description

In the Shade of the Golden Palace explores the work of the prolific Bengali poet Alaol (fl. 1651-71), who translated five narrative poems and one versified treatise from medieval Hindi and Persian into Bengali. The book maps the genres, structures, and themes of Alaol's works, paying special attention to his discourse on poetics and his literary genealogy, which included Sanskrit, Avadhi, Maithili, Persian, and Bengali authors. D'Hubert focuses on courtly speech in Alaol's poetry, his revisiting of classical categories in a vernacular context, and the prominent role of performing arts in his conceptualization of the poetics of the written word. The foregrounding of this audacious theory of meaning in Alaol's poetry is a crucial contribution of the book, both in terms of general conceptual analysis and for its significance in the history of Bengali poetry.

This book shows how multilingual literacy fostered a variety of literary experiments in the remote kingdom of Arakan, which lay between present-day southeastern Bangladesh and Myanmar, in the mid-17th century. D'Hubert also presents a detailed analysis of Middle Bengali narrative poems, as well as translations of Old Maithili, Brajabuli, and Middle Bengali lyric poems that illustrate the major poetic styles in the regional courts of eastern South Asia. In the Shade of the Golden Palace therefore fulfills three functions: it is a unique guide for readers of Middle Bengali poetry, a detailed study of the cultural history of the frontier region of Arakan, and an original contribution to the poetics of South Asian literatures.

In the Shade of the Golden Palace

Alaol and Middle Bengali Poetics in Arakan

Thibaut d'Hubert

South Asia Research

Acknowledgements
Map of Arakan and eastern South Asia in the seventeenth century

Introduction: Poetics in the margins
Chapter 1: The formation of Bengali literature in Arakan (ca. 1430-1638)
Chapter 2: Literary urbanity in Mrauk U
Chapter 3: New beginnings: Alaol's early career in Mrauk U
Chapter 4 Alaol's poetry and Mrauk U's political turmoil
Chapter 5: Alaol's poetics: when locality rhymes with originality
Chapter 6: Indo-Afghan historical imaginaries and the romance genre
Chapter 7: Lyric poetry and desi aesthetics in eastern South Asia
Conclusion: Middle Bengali poetics and the multilingual literary history of Bengal
Bibliography
Appendix 1: Summaries of Alaol's Padmavati and the story of the goldsmith's wife
a. Summary of Alaol's Padmavati
b. The story of the goldsmith's wife in Sayphulmuluk Badiujjamal
Appendix 2: Analytical tables of Alaol's songs
Appendix 3: Original texts of the Middle Bengali and Old Maithili songs
Appendix 4: A Persian appraisal of Alaol's life and works

Index

In the Shade of the Golden Palace

Alaol and Middle Bengali Poetics in Arakan

Thibaut d'Hubert

South Asia Research

Author Information

Thibaut d'Hubert is an assistant professor of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago.

In the Shade of the Golden Palace

Alaol and Middle Bengali Poetics in Arakan

Thibaut d'Hubert

South Asia Research

Reviews and Awards

"In this wonderful book, Thibaut d'Hubert shows that what may appear as marginal poet in a marginal location -- Alaol in seventeenth century Mrauk U -- was in fact a major poet whose poetry and poetics illuminate crucial questions of literary creativity, cultural transmission, and aesthetic thinking and practice at the intersection of multiple languages in the early modern world. A masterful study, this richly textured and wide-ranging book will guide generations of scholars and students into how to study literature in ways that do justice to the complexity of texts, authors, and audiences. It will be on reading lists for every course on South Asian and world literatures." --Francesca Orsini, Professor of Hindi and South Asian Literature at the University of London

"Thibaut d'Hubert offers a comprehensive and sensitive account of the remarkable seventeenth-century Bengali poet Alaol. Decentering Bengal itself—Alaol wrote from Arakan in today's Myanmar—the author brings alive a prenational world of rich multilingual literary experimentation. Philologically deep and at the same time brimming with refreshing insights into poetry and performance, this book will change the conversation on Bengali literary history."--Allison Busch, author of Poetry of Kings

"This book represents pioneering scholarship that expands our understanding of early modern South Asian and Persianate culture in Bengal through a multidisciplinary approach. d'Hubert's familiarity with source materials and his command of languages are formidable, to say the least, which allows him to present texts in literary and social contexts in bold and comparative ways."--Sunil Sharma, Boston University