Editorship and History Making: On Historicizing Modern Editions of Tiruniḻalmāla

In the following essay I am going to comment briefly on the intersection between literary and performative genres that originated in early modern Kerala and to some extent continue till date. More specifically, on their relationship with the rich tradition of representing the past through producing works that follow recognizable patterns of composition and conventions of presentation. This more general consideration shall appear here as a backdrop to a study on contemporary editions of an early Malayalam work named Tiruniḻalmāla. The editions follow the relatively recent discovery of the work in question and its subsequent reinstatement in the history of Malayalam literature. I shall argue that the specific ways this reinstatement was presented by the editors, including a particular place they claimed for this work within the formation processes of Malayalam literature, constitute competing acts of general history writing concerned with the ongoing debate on how should the cultural identity and regional history of Kerala be best represented.

Cooch Behar: Medieval Regional History in a Bengal Frontierland

For constructing the medieval political history of Cooch Behar, also known as Koch Bihar, the Persian manuscript of Bah rist n-i-Ghaybī, discovered in 1919 by Jadunath Sarkar in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, is very significant. This text facilitates our understanding of important historical events in eastern India during the time of Mughal Emperor Jahangir (1601–27). The text also provides important details of peasants’ revolts during the Mughal occupation, with remarkable implications until recent times regarding border relations between India and Bangladesh. The article examines the historical facts presented in this important text and corroborates them with other sources to argue that this text should be read as a chronicle for the history of warfare, society and peasants’ life in the region throughout the seventeenth century, with significant implications for later historical developments in Cooch Behar.

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND INITIATIVES IN THE REGIONAL HISTORY MUSEUMS IN BULGARIA

The main role for access to cultural values, i.e., for their socialization in the modern society, have cultural institutions. This paper proposes results for researching of 186 museum educational programs and initiatives divided into 27 regional history museums in Bulgaria. Methodology aims to outline the main directions for deriving categories related to quantitative and qualitative indicators on meeting certain educational needs. A key element in the research is to establish the degree of interaction of cultural institutions with the school education system in the country. The results of the collected statistical data and the thematic analysis of the educational activities can be of benefit to the scientific community for specialists in the field of culturology, pedagogy, museology, cultural heritage and other scientific fields. The research is part of a research project with Contract № KP-06-M35/3 from 18.12.2019 entitled: „Research of contemporary educational programs of cultural institutions in Bulgaria“, funded by the National Science Fund, part of the Ministry of Education and Science.

Edition der Kulmer Stadtbücher

The strategic plan of the Copernicus-Vereinigung, a scholarly organisation devoted to the regional history of West Prussia, to edit the four yet unpublished civic registers (Stadtbuch) out of a total of ten surviving from late-medieval Kulm (Chełmno), was motivated to no small degree by the intention of demonstrating that Prussia constituted an integral part of the Hanse. However, the editorial principles employed by the editors of the six volumes which have appeared hitherto were anything but unitary. Hence, it is greatly to be desired that future editors orient themselves according to modern editorial guidelines. Moreover, there is much work to be done on standardizing seemingly minor technical matters: the capitalization of words, the typographical representation of Siamese-twin letters (when to transcribe a scribal mark as ‘sz’ and when as ‘ß’), superimposed letters (ue) and redundant double consonants, on the abbreviations for various currencies and the description of the scribal hands. This article is intended as a contribution towards generating a common set of principles – a standard tool-kit, if you will – for editing Hanseatic civic registers.

ONCE AGAIN ABOUT METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION OF REGIONAL HISTORY OF LITERATURE

Review on the book: History of the Ural Literature. XIX century: in 2 volumes. / Edited by Prof. Е. C. Sozina. М.:Izdatel'skii Dom YaSK, 2021. 1439 p.:illustrations. In Russian.

Questions around Rām Vijay

In conversation with Sri Narayan Chandra Goswami, the renowned sattradhikar (abbot) of the Natun Kamalabari Sattra in Assam, the co-editors of the volume, along with translator and annotator Parasmoni Dutta, raise questions relating to the history of the monastic Vaishnavite performance tradition Sattriya. Performed by monks as part of their devotional service in the sattras (monasteries) of Majuli in Assam, this tradition is attributed to the Assamese saint and social reformer, Sri Sankaradeva (1449–1568), whose play Rām Vijay is the only play in his oeuvre focusing on Ram through his marriage to Sita. Using the play as a catalyst for the discussion, Sri Narayan Chandra Goswami expounds on a range of issues—the socio-historical and cultural dimensions of Sattriya; its patronage by kings; its use as a popular means of proselytizing bhakti (a personalized devotional worship); and the representation of everyday life in the larger social and cultural context of the regional history of Assam.