This volume of tribute to Sheldon Pollock, by general acclamation the most influential and game-changing Sanskritist of the last fifty years (at least in the United States), grew out of a conference at Columbia University (Pollock's present institutional home) in 2008, organized by several of Pollock's students at the University of Chicago, where he was for many years a professor of Sanskrit. The editors were all his students, as were fourteen of the sixteen contributors. Among the greatest tributes to Professor Pollock is that so many of his students turned out to be so good, as the present volume amply testifies. Among their strengths is that they have learned to critically examine the Sanskrit and vernacular texts in hitherto unexamined sociopolitical and material contexts. In addition, however, they often challenge Pollock's conclusions, even as they adhere closely to his overall methodology.
The volume is divided into five distinct areas that...
