CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Farooq, Adnaan |
|---|---|
| Title | The Ardhakathanaka: Historicising and Contextualising the Emotion of Friendship in the Seventeenth-Century Self-narrative |
| Summary | In the seventeenth century a Jain merchant from in Mughal India wrote a versified self- narrative by the name of Ardhakathanaka. The text is written in Brajbhasha which was a literary language of the people who lived in the area called the ‘Braj Bhum’ (land of the Braj). This life history is of immense value if we are to recover the social history of the mercantile community in the pre-colonial India because it is written by an insignificant man who was very much connected with the lives and concerns of the ordinary people. The narrative is placed in the urban centers of Mughal India and is about the struggles of a common North Indian merchant. The story of his life is deeply rooted in the communitarian space to which the author belonged. While narrating his story the author writes about several people with whom he shared his life. Foremost among these relations are his friendships which remain an essential part of his narrative. He frankly discusses his feelings and emotions towards his friends which throw light on the many aspects of lives of these petty merchants of the seventeenth century mercantile group. The text offers novel insights into the economic and social life of these individuals. Through the study of the emotion of friendship in this project, I attempt to delve into the idea of ‘household’ as perceived by these individuals. By studying the vocabulary used by the author to describe the emotion of friendship, I identify the hierarchical nature of friendship within this community owing to its exceeding level of caste consciousness. Through the centrality of ‘friendships’ in the life of the author, this investigation reimagines the economy and society in relation to these friendship alliances. |
| Supervisor | Radway, Robyn Dora; Krstic Tijana |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/farooq_adnaan.pdf |
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