Every region of India is and has been multilingual, with speakers of different languages and speakers of multiple languages. But literary ‘multilingual locals’ are often more fragmented than we think. While multilingualism suggests interest, and proficiency, in more than one literary language and tradition, very real barriers exist in terms of written vs. oral access, mutual interaction, an…
Examining materials from early modern and contemporary North India and Pakistan, Tellings and Textsbrings 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 c…