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How did languages relate to one another and to intellectual agendas in a highly multilingual milieu like premodern India?
Surrender to God Across Languages explores this question through the intellectual history of self-surrender, a main soteriological doctrine of the Śrīvaisnavas, a South Indian religious community that worshiped Visnu-Nārāyana as the Supreme God. Author Manasicha Akepiyapornchai studies six theological treatises from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries composed in Sanskrit and Manipravalam. Each is written by one of five key intellectuals of the community: Vātsya Varadaguru, Periyavāccān Pillai, Meghanādari Sūri, Pillai Lokācārya, and Vedāntadeśika.
Akepiyapornchai argues that there was a complex interplay between interlinguistic changes and doctrinal developments, in such a way that it is impossible to fully account for one without the other: languages shaped self-surrender by providing distinctive conditioning factors both scripturally and theologically at each point in time. However, the intellectuals also navigated differently through the multilingual terrain, making choices that responded to their social circumstances and transformed the linguistic spheres in which they operated. Focusing on the Śrīvaisnavas' self-surrender, this book presents one of the most dynamic moments of premodern Indian multilingual and intellectual history.
Drawing on theories of language politics and translation, it also proposes the new theoretical framework of "language sphere" to better capture the linguistic and intellectual interaction from a micro perspective. Despite being formulated with the present case study in mind, this framework has broader implications that can help readers understand multilingual cultures beyond premodern India.
About the author
Manasicha Akepiyapornchai is Assistant Professor of Classical Studies of South Asia in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her primary area of research focuses on the intellectual history of South Asia during the medieval and early modern periods, especially the role of religion, philosophy, and multilingualism in religious and intellectual communities in South India. Professor Akepiyapornchai is also working on various collaborative projects related to the Śrīvaisnava community and the Brahmanical culture in Thailand.
