Epic and vernacular production in Tomar Gwalior in the fifteenth century

The development of literature in the vernacular in fifteenth-century Gwalior has been attributed to its local rulers' intentionality at that time. The patronage of the Tomars, a Rajput dynasty, for retellings of the epics in Classical Hindi has been ascribed to a reaction to 'Muslim' sovereignty and to a desire to ascertain their 'son of the soil' credentials. This paper complicates this commonplace reduction of the motives of patronage, and opens up the study of the complex contemporaneous environment, where other forms of literature were being produced as well. To better situate the emergence of Classical Hindi, this paper presents a contextualized overview of the literary production of two other prominent communities, besides the Hindu Tomar court, namely that of the Jain merchants, and of the Sufis catering to the military garrison. The study of these multiple patrons and audiences suggests that the impetus of vernacularization is not to be reduced to a single court, but emerged from complex interactions between different milieus and extended networks of circulation.The development of literature in the vernacular in fifteenth-century Gwalior has been attributed to its local rulers' intentionality at that time. The patronage of the Tomars, a Rajput dynasty, for retellings of the epics in Classical Hindi has been ascribed to a reaction to 'Muslim' sovereignty and to a desire to ascertain their 'son of the soil' credentials. This paper complicates this commonplace reduction of the motives of patronage, and opens up the study of the complex contemporaneous environment, where other forms of literature were being produced as well. To better situate the emergence of Classical Hindi, this paper presents a contextualized overview of the literary production of two other prominent communities, besides the Hindu Tomar court, namely that of the Jain merchants, and of the Sufis catering to the military garrison. The study of these multiple patrons and audiences suggests that the impetus of vernacularization is not to be reduced to a single court, but emerged from complex interactions between different milieus and extended networks of circulation.A