“Go Home, Purūravas”: Heterodox Rhetoric of a Late Rigvedic Dialogue Hymn

Elizabeth Thornton

doi:10.1080/15362426.2019.1618059

Advances in the History of Rhetoric May 2019

“Go Home, Purūravas”: Heterodox Rhetoric of a Late Rigvedic Dialogue Hymn

Elizabeth Thornton University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay attempts to de-link the study of the Rigveda from both colonial philology and ongoing Hindu nationalist projects. It brings the rhetoric of form, especially as theorized by Kenneth Burke, to open up space for critics and commentators with a broader range of relationships to Brahmanical liturgy. To further the goal of delinking, it first narrows the scope of analysis to dialogue hymns, which are reminiscent of debates found within Buddhist conversion narratives rendered in versified Sanskrit. It then centers formal linguistic figures that these two layers of Sanskrit poetry have in common. Finally, conceptualizing these formal devices, it uses analytic categories from a South Asian critical tradition (alaṃkāraśāstra). Framed and constrained in this manner and applied to the (ex-)lovers’ quarrel of Purūravas and Urvaśī (in R.V. 10.95), a Burkean analysis reveals an exchange that both satisfies the “appetites” and allays the concerns of conservative audiences, who otherwise might fear that their wives could follow Urvaśī’s example and happily part with their wedded partners-in-sacrifice.

Journal: Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published: 2019-05-04
DOI: 10.1080/15362426.2019.1618059
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Open Access: Closed
Topics: modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism
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“Go Home, Purūravas”: Heterodox Rhetoric of a Late Rigvedic Dialogue Hymn

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

References (19)

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