Highland philology

The present volume is a collection of textual studies on various features of the history and culture of Kashmir. It is mainly based on revised versions of lectures delivered at a “Kashmir panel” held at the 31st German Oriental Conference (DOT) in Marburg in 2010. It deals with the transfer of India’s sacred geography to the highlands of Kashmir in a miniaturized form, a previously unnoticed recording of an appearance of Halley’s Comet in Kashmir by the poet-historian Śrivara, the historical traces of vocal and instrumental music (sangita) in Kashmir, as well as with the poetical figure bhasaślesa (simultaneous expression of different meanings in two or more languages) as a peculiarity of Kashmiri writers and critics. Further subjects are the formation of a specifically Kashmiri literary genre— the Kashmiri katha—and the development of a special style connected to it, and the question, when, where and why did Bhatta Jayanta write his Nyayamanjari. A collection of four contributions, dealing with different aspects of the Moksopaya/Yogavasistha literature, completes the volume.