Needle at the Bottom of the Sea: Bengali Tales from the Land of the Eighteen Tides
“Brave and vivid.”—New York Review of Books
These enchanting stories from early modern Bengal reveal how Hindu and Muslim traditions converged on timeless themes of human morality, social culture, and survival.
 
The Bengali stories in this collection are first and foremost tales of survival. Each story in Needle at the Bottom of the Sea underscores the need for people to work together—not just to overcome the challenges of living in the Sundarban swamps of Bengal, but also to ease hostilities born of social differences in religion, caste, and economic class.
 
Translated by award-winning scholar of early modern Bengali literature Tony K. Stewart, Needle at the Bottom of the Sea brims with fantasy and excitement. Sufi protagonists travel through a world of wonder where tigers talk and men magically grow into giants, a Hindu princess falls in love with a Muslim holy man, and goddesses rub shoulders with kings and merchants. Across religion, class, and gender, what binds these fabulous stories together is the characters’ pursuit of living honorably and morally in a difficult, corrupt world.
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Needle at the Bottom of the Sea: Bengali Tales from the Land of the Eighteen Tides
“Brave and vivid.”—New York Review of Books
These enchanting stories from early modern Bengal reveal how Hindu and Muslim traditions converged on timeless themes of human morality, social culture, and survival.
 
The Bengali stories in this collection are first and foremost tales of survival. Each story in Needle at the Bottom of the Sea underscores the need for people to work together—not just to overcome the challenges of living in the Sundarban swamps of Bengal, but also to ease hostilities born of social differences in religion, caste, and economic class.
 
Translated by award-winning scholar of early modern Bengali literature Tony K. Stewart, Needle at the Bottom of the Sea brims with fantasy and excitement. Sufi protagonists travel through a world of wonder where tigers talk and men magically grow into giants, a Hindu princess falls in love with a Muslim holy man, and goddesses rub shoulders with kings and merchants. Across religion, class, and gender, what binds these fabulous stories together is the characters’ pursuit of living honorably and morally in a difficult, corrupt world.
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Needle at the Bottom of the Sea: Bengali Tales from the Land of the Eighteen Tides

Needle at the Bottom of the Sea: Bengali Tales from the Land of the Eighteen Tides

Needle at the Bottom of the Sea: Bengali Tales from the Land of the Eighteen Tides

Needle at the Bottom of the Sea: Bengali Tales from the Land of the Eighteen Tides

Paperback(First Edition)

$24.95 
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Overview

“Brave and vivid.”—New York Review of Books
These enchanting stories from early modern Bengal reveal how Hindu and Muslim traditions converged on timeless themes of human morality, social culture, and survival.
 
The Bengali stories in this collection are first and foremost tales of survival. Each story in Needle at the Bottom of the Sea underscores the need for people to work together—not just to overcome the challenges of living in the Sundarban swamps of Bengal, but also to ease hostilities born of social differences in religion, caste, and economic class.
 
Translated by award-winning scholar of early modern Bengali literature Tony K. Stewart, Needle at the Bottom of the Sea brims with fantasy and excitement. Sufi protagonists travel through a world of wonder where tigers talk and men magically grow into giants, a Hindu princess falls in love with a Muslim holy man, and goddesses rub shoulders with kings and merchants. Across religion, class, and gender, what binds these fabulous stories together is the characters’ pursuit of living honorably and morally in a difficult, corrupt world.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780520388932
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication date: 03/07/2023
Series: World Literature in Translation
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 424
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 7.75(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Tony K. Stewart is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Humanities, Emeritus, at Vanderbilt University and a specialist in the early modern literatures of the Bengali-speaking world. His most recent work is Witness to Marvels: Sufism and Literary Imagination, winner of the 2021 Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy Book Prize from the Association for Asian Studies.

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction 

The Auspicious Tale of the Lord of the Southern Regions
The Rāy mangal of Krsnarām Dās

Scouring the World for Cāmpāvatī 
Gāji kālu o cāmpāvatī kanyār puthi of Ābdul Ohāb

Glorifying the Protective Matron of the Jungle 
Bonbibī jahurā nāmā of Mohāmmad Khater

Wayward Wives and Their Magical Flying Tree
Satya nārāyaner puthi of Kavi Vallabh

Curbing the Hubris of Moses 
Khoyāj Khijir’s Instruction to Musā in Nabīvamśa of Saiyad
Sultān translated with Ayesha A. Irani

Glossary 
Acknowledgments
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