"A Story of Other Sanskrits" - Elaine Fisher

A Story of Other Sanskrits: Non-Brahmin Imaginaries in the Vernacular Millennium

Vīraśaivismhas historically been depicted as an Indic “Protestant Reformation,” by its very definition eschewing the language of Brahminical oppression, Sanskrit. A twelfth-century movement founded upon intercasteequality, true Vīraśaivism, we are told, was and always should be expressed in the vernacular, in simple Kannada. What, then, do we make of the disruptive presence of Sanskrit in the space of social protest, seemingly subverting an originally vernacular religion by smuggling Brahminical normativity in through the back door? This talk surveys the rich, multicasteengagement with the Sanskrit language evident throughout the archive of early modern Vīraśaivacommunities, reflecting on the significance of this evidence for how we can recover stories of non-Brahmin social agency in the premodern world.

Elaine Fisher is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University.