On The Shelf

TORU DUTT: COLLECTED PROSE AND POETRY
Edited by Chandani Lokuge
OUP
Price: Rs 650
When Toru Dutt died in 1877 at the age of twenty-one, she had already mastered English, French, Bengali and Sanskrit, and had written exceptional novels, poems, and essays. Now, finally many of these are once again being put in circulation. They, of course, deal with a world opening up to a perceptive young mind. But more than that, they are valuable depictions of the Indo-European encounter.

THE EPIC OF PAPUJI
By John D. Smith Katha
Price: Rs 250
An old Marwari epic is presented in English. It comes with all the expected staples: a valiant Rajput hero and the various ritualised songs to worship him. Interestingly, Smith also examines how the epic is transmitted in Marwar today, and says that while making a documentary in 2002 he found that it had become a largely deracinated tradition.