Textures of Time: Writing History in South India 1600-1800

Along with the clock and the railroad, did the British colonists bring the questionable gift of history to India? Is it true that historical consciousness did not exist in India before its conquest by the British at the end of the eighteenth century? Generations of western writers have claimed this to be true; that Indians in pre-colonial times were indifferent to historical fact and approached their past through myth, legend, and story.

Textures of Time sets out not merely to disprove that idea, but to demonstrate through a brilliant blend of storytelling and scholarship the complex forms of history that were produced in South India between the 17th and 19th centuries. Through a nuanced reading of the rich language of folk epic, courtly poetry, and prose narratives, the authors reveal the divide between fact and fiction in South Indian writings and make a clear case for the existence of historical narrative in pre-colonial India.

Velcheru Narayana Rao is Krishnadevaraya Professor of South Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an author of A Poem at the Right Moment. David Shulman is Professor of Indian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of several monographs and translations, including The Wisdom of Poets. Sanjay Subrahmanyam is Directeur d'études at the Écoles des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. He is the author of several books, including Penumbral Visions.