The Chandayan: A Sufi Tale of Ishq between Languages, Cultures & People

Saturday, March 8
10:00 a.m. PT
Speaker: Naman P. Ahuja, Ph.D., Professor of Art History at the School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and General Editor of Marg Publications

Virtual Event

A racy yarn, the Chandayan recounts the romance of Lorik and Chanda, which becomes an allegory about ishq—love for the Divine. Composed in Hindavi (using the Old Hindi dialect of Jaunpuri Avadhi), the Chandayan is regarded as one of the foundational texts of the history of Hindi literature.  The 16th-century historian Badayuni tells us that the Chandayan was selected for religious instruction by the Sufi Maulana Da’ud in the Tughlaq period (1320–1413). The remains of five manuscripts that were profusely illustrated sometime between 1475 and 1525 are also foundational for studies in art history. They form the largest corpus of evidence of pre-Mughal painting in north India. In his lecture, Naman Ahuja will take us through some highlights of the paintings of this popular tale and reflect on how the “vernacular” Chandayan is a valuable source of social and cultural history that allows scholars to map the politics of language and patronage in the domains of the Sultanates.

Speaker Bio: Naman Parmeshwar Ahuja is Professor of Art History at the School of Arts & Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India and the General Editor of Marg Publications. He has curated some of the most important exhibitions of Indian art in the past ten years, including: The Body in Indian Art & Thought, which was shown at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels and the National Museum in Delhi in 2013; and India & The World, in which 120 objects from the British Museum were staged in strategic dialogue with Indian objects at the CSMVS in Mumbai and the National Museum Delhi. Ahuja’s MA and PhD are concerned with reading the sociocultural history of India through iconography, as seen in sculpture and painting, the art of Gandhara, Indian terracottas, and temple worship. He has held visiting professorships at the University of Zürich, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, the University of Alberta in Edmonton and at SOAS in London, his alma mater. His writings on the art and architecture of Indian temples, and the iconographic shifts in the images of ancient South Asia have been translated into Hindi, Marathi, French, Spanish, and Dutch. The Binney Lecture will be based in part on his recent book on the Chandayan.

Please reserve your spot. All participants will be sent the Zoom link and instructions via email once you secure your place.

Sponsored by the South Asian Arts Council.

Featured: Da'ud notes: Lorik is her Sun and Chanda, the Moon, his companion (detail). © The Chandayan, National Museum Karachi, folio: KH 43