Deep Rivers: Selected Writings on Tamil Literature.

• Author: Selby, Martha Ann
• Position: Book review

Deep Rivers: Selected Writings on Tamil Literature. By FRANCOIS GROS. Translated by M. P. Boseman. Edited by Kannan M. and Jennifer Clare. Institut Francais de Pondichery Publications Hors Serie, vol. 10. PONDICHERY: INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE PONDICHERY AND TAMIL CHAIR, DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, 2009. Pp. xxxviii + 519.

This rich collection of provocative and lyrically written essays comprises the shorter works of Francois Gros, composed over the decades of his monumental forty-year career as an Indologist and Tamil scholar. As M. P. Boseman writes in his translator's note, "These articles are as much works of literature as of scholarship" (p. vii). The volume presents for the first time in English all of Gros's major essays on Tamil literature, which were originally written in French. Born in Lyon in 1933, Gros received formative training in classics (his early specializations were in Greek and comparative Indo-European). He went on to study ethnology and continued to develop competencies in other languages (Hindi, Tamil, and Sanskrit). The turning point in his career was his appointment as a fellow at the French Institute of Pondicherry (founded in 1954) by Jean Filliozat. Kannan M.'s introduction, which details Gros's fascinating life as well as the depth and breadth of his interests, is followed by Gros's own "Reflections" on his long career. The book is divided into three sections. The first is devoted to classical literature (cankam and bhakti), followed by an invaluable set of articles on contemporary Tamil writing, while the third brief section includes short bibliographic essays as well as articles on miscellaneous topics.

Francois Gros is a great supporter and documenter of the antiquity of the Tamil language and the unique quality of its early literature. He is also a tremendous exponent of translation. As he writes, "What stands the test of time is only the material that has in terms of philology been most rigorously worked on: it remains the most solid: translation; literal exegesis; attention to the reading of what the texts spontaneously say rather than to the speculations that may be drawn from and then substitute for them" (p. xxx). Gros also reminds us that it is just as important to train one's exegetical skills on the modem (p. xxxiii), remarking that contemporary Tamil literature is a "natural expression of ... living Tamil culture" (p. xxxv).

The lead article in the first section on classical literature, titled "Agastya's Shift from North to South: The Weight of the South in Indian Studies," is a basic and useful "overview of the historical and institutional part...