Witness to Marvels

Front matter

a

SŪ

—

Preface

Acknowledgments

Conventions Regarding Transliteration and Nomenclature Conventions Regarding Dates

1. Heavenly Orchestrations: The World of the Legendary Pirs of Bengal 11. The Tale of the Birth of Satya Pir 12. The Marvelous Tales of Süphi Saints 13. A Pregnant Ambiguity 2. The Enchanting Lives of the Pirs: Structures of Narrative Romance 2.1. The Myth-History Conundrum 2.2. Narrative Bios as Autotelic Fiction 2.3. Prolegomena to the Mānikpīrer Jahurānāmā of Jaidi 2.4. Exploring the Romance of Manik Pir’s Birth

3. Subjunctive Explorations: The Parodic Work of Pir Katha 3.1. Narrative Strategies in Fictional Hagiography 3.2. Entertaining Encounters that Shape the Religious Ideal 3.3. The Pir in a Subjunctive World 3.4. Irony and Parody in Pir Katha 3.5. Mimesis and Parody in the Tale of Badar Pir x

CONTENTS

4. Mapping the Imaginaire: The Conditions of Possibility

44. The Reality of the Bengali Imaginaire

4.2. The Bonbibī Jahura Nama of Mohammad Khater

4.3. The Semiotic Context of Bonbibīs Tale

4.4. The Ray Mangal of Krsnaram, Precursor to the Tale of Bonbibi 4.5. The New World Order of the Sunderbans

Manipulating the Cosmic Hierarchy: A Practical Act of Conceptual Blending

5.1. The Gāji Kalu o Cāmpāvati Kanyār Puthi of Abdur Rahim

5.2. Gāji's Love for Campavati and the Conflict with Daksina Ray 5.3. Gāji's Marriage to Campavati and the Ascetic Trek

5.4. Revisions to the History of Bada Khan Gaji and Daksin Ray 5.5. Conceptual Blending to Fashion a New Cosmo-Moral Order

Pragmatics of Pir Katha: Emplotment and Extra-Discursive Effects 6.1. From Literary Emplotment to Social Discourse

6.2. The Vaisnav Avatar of the Age

6.3. Gendered Witness to Satya Pir's Powers

6.4. The Significance of Satya Pir in Musalmāni Terms

6.5. The Never-Ending Mission of Satya Pir

Epilogue Works Cited

Primary Texts in Bangla and Sanskrit

Primary Texts in Translation

Monographs, Dissertations, Field Studies, and Two Novels Secondary Works: Articles and Essays

Language and Reference Sources

Manuscripts Consulted: Satya Pir