Worlds Left Over: Curiosity and Enhanced Experience in Bāṇa’s Kādambarī

Abstract

This dissertation looks to the past in order to make claims about the future—or multiple possible futures—of a literary text. It does so by presenting a grounded ahistorical reading of Kādambarī, a remarkably difficult work of Sanskrit literary prose written by the court poet Bāṇa in the seventh-century capital city of Kannauj. This reading illustrates what I call “four-dimensional philology,” the self-reflexive interpretive practice whereby an influential conceptual resource from a text’s reception history functions as a point of departure for novel rereading. The main conceptual resource employed by this dissertation is Bhāmaha’s notion of “enhancement” (atiśaya). With it, I examine moments of heightened experience and expression in Bāṇa’s prose romance, particularly those involving divine horses and precious stones. Instead of limiting myself to the historical question of “what has been said about Kādambarī?” I instead opt for the irrealis mood, asking “what could be said?” in the hope of gaining greater clarity into what should be said about Bāṇa’s work. Ultimately, this dissertation aims to read Kādambarī better with the hope that we might better read ourselves. What is it about literature—especially difficult literature—that piques our curiosity? What forms can the ensuing “revelation” take? And why, after all this, would we ever wish to read Kādambarī again?