Katherine Butler Schofield

Imke Rajamani

Margrit Pernau

* This book presents a different vision of the monsoon and the feelings associated with the rainy season: monsoon feelings have a history, which encompasses both continuity and change* The essays in the book explore the rain-drenched worlds of poetry, songs, paintings, architecture, films, gardens, festivals, music, and medicine, in South Asia from the twelfth century to the present* Each of the essays in the book is written by a specialist in the field of South Asian arts and cultureThe monsoon is the season of pouring rain and intense emotions: love and longing, hope and fear, pleasure and pain, devotion and joyous excess. Through a series of evocative essays exploring rain-drenched worlds of poetry, songs, paintings, architecture, films, gardens, festivals, music, and medicine, this lavishly illustrated collection examines the history of monsoon feelings in South Asia from the twelfth century to the present. Each essay is written by a specialist in the field of South Asian arts and culture, and investigates emotions as reflections and agents of social, cultural, and political change across borders of language and religion and between different arts and cultural practices. This history of emotions in the rain is as rich, surprising, beautiful and devastating as the thundering monsoon clouds, and will delight general and scholarly audiences alike. Contents: Note on Transliteration; Monsoon Feelings: Introduction - Imke Rajamani; The Spring of Hindustan : Love and War in the Monsoon in Indo-Persian Poetry - Sunil Sharma; A Theology of Feeling: The Radhavallabhi Monsoon in the Eighteenth Century - Richard David Williams; Clouds, Cuckoos and an Empty Bed: Emotions in Hindi-Urdu Barahmasas - Francesca Orsini; Dark, Overwhelming, yet Joyful: The Monsoon in Rajput Painting - Molly Emma Aitken; It is a Day for Enjoyment and Revelry : The Monsoon Garden - Catherine B. Asher; Delight, Devotion and the Music of the Monsoon at the Court of Emperor Shah Alam II - David Lunn and Katherine Butler Schofield; The Cuckoo's Song: Imagery and Movement in Monsoon Ragas - Laura Leante; Rimjhim ke Taraane Leke Aayi Barsaat : Songs of Love and Longing in the Bombay Rain - Rachel Dwyer; Hindi Cinema's Rainmaking Formula: Thodasa Roomani Ho Jaayen and Lagaan - Imke Rajamani; The Most Dangerous Season of All : Monsoon in Unani Medical Writings - Claudia Preckell Celebrating Monsoon Feelings: The Flower-Sellers Festival of Delhi - Margrit Pernau; Coda. A Meeting of Earth and Sky: The Monsoon in the Repertoire of Thumri - Vidya Rao; Authors' Biographies; Glossary; List of Figures; Bibliography; Filmography; Acknowledgements; Index.

A History of Emotions in the Rain

Monsoon Feelings

Francesca Orsini

Examining materials from early modern and contemporary North India and Pakistan, Tellings and Texts brings together seventeen first-rate papers on the relations between written and oral texts, their performance, and the musical traditions these performances have entailed. The contributions from some of the best scholars in the field cover a wide range of literary genres and social and cultural contexts across the region. The texts and practices are contextualized in relation to the broader social and political background in which they emerged, showing how religious affiliations, caste dynamics and political concerns played a role in shaping social identities as well as aesthetic sensibilities. By doing so this book sheds light into theoretical issues of more general significance, such as textual versus oral norms; the features of oral performance and improvisation; the role of the text in performance; the aesthetics and social dimension of performance; the significance of space in performance history and important considerations on repertoires of story-telling. The book also contains links to audio files of some of the works discussed in the text. Tellings and Texts is essential reading for anyone with an interest in South Asian culture and, more generally, in the theory and practice of oral literature, performance and story-telling.

Katherine Butler Schofield

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