I N V I T A T I O N
GOA UNIVERSITY
Visiting Research Professors Programme
D D Kosambi Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies
and
Department of History, Goa University
PUBLIC LECTURES
on
From the Margins to the Centre?
Some Narratives of Knowledge and Power from Early India
By
Professor Kumkum Roy
D.D. Kosambi Chair Professor, Goa University
(Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
On
12th January(Friday) & 18th January(Thursday)
At 2.30 pm on both days
Venue: Seminar Hall, Social Sciences Block
For Details visit: www.unigoa.ac.in/vrpp
THE TALKS ARE OPEN TO ALL
Ramrao Wagh Prof N S Bhat Prof Pratima Kamat,
VRPP Coordinator Coordinator Head, Dept of History
From the Margins to the Centre? Some Narratives of Knowledge and Power from
Early India
By
Professor Kumkum Roy
ABSTRACT
The first lecture focuses on three figures in the early Brahmanical and Buddhist traditions.These are Satyakama, son of a serving woman, who gained and imparted knowledge about the ultimate reality. The second figure, Matanga, had a far more conflictual relationship with the Brahmanical tradition. The third, Jivaka appears to have negotiated the relationship betwern knowledge and power far more pragmatically. I explore some of the implications of these variations.
The second lecture focuses on the transgressive figure of Amba/.Shikhandin, the opponent of Bhisma in the Mahabharata. Finally, I turn to Manimekalai, the heroine of the Tamil epic of the same name, pointing out how the way she is envisaged opens up possibilities of a different relationship between knowledge and power.
BIO of Professor KUMKUM ROY
Professor Kumkum Roy teaches ancient history at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her publications include The Emergence of Monarchy in North India (1994), A Historical Dictionary of Ancient India (2010), and The Power of Gender and the Gender of Power (2010).
She holds PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, MA(History) from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and BA(History) from Presidency College, Kolkata. Her doctoral research was on the emergence of monarchy in north India, mid-first millennium BCE. This was based on a study of later and post-Vedic textual sources, which were analyzed to explore the complex connections between the emergence of political institutions and domestic relations. She is deeply interested in the teaching of history in schools, developing curriculum and textbooks in collaboration with the Delhi SCERT and the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). One of her main areas of interest is in engendering studies of early Indian social history in particular and gender/ women’s studies in general. Her current research interests include exploring questions of inter-textuality in early and early medieval Sanskrit texts, with a special focus on representations of gender, marginalized peoples, and liminal spaces
