Talk:Prof. Jesse Knutson

By Sachi Anjunkar

Jesse Knutson, Ph.D. is a Professor of Sanskrit at University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa as of April 2024. According to his university profile, his research interests are Sanskrit literature and literary theory, ancient and early medieval history and literary history of South Asia, Early Middle Bengali poetry, comparative premodern poetry and poetics.

In 2016, he signed a letter addressed to the State Board of Education, California Department of Education, dated May 17, 2016. The letter stated the following:

1. "There is no established connection between Hinduism and the Indus Civilization. The Rg Veda contains numerous mentions of horses and chariots but there is no conclusive material or fossil evidence for either at any Indus valley archeological site."
2. "It is inappropriate to remove mention of the connection of caste to Hinduism."
3. "The geographic location of the Indus Civilization lies in what is now contemporary India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The use of "South Asia" to describe this shared civilizational heritage is thus entirely appropriate in some places of the framework, even though South Asia is a modern term, and some source materials use the term ‘Ancient India.' "

Publications

Books:

1. Knutson, Jesse. Kāmandaki’s Essence of Politics (Nītisāra). Murty Classical Library of India, Harvard University Press, 2021.
2. Knutson, Jesse. Into the Twilight of Sanskrit Court Poetry: The Sena Salon of Bengal and Beyond. University of California Press, 2014. South Asian edition: Yoda Press, Delhi, 2016.
3. Knutson, Jesse. “The Poetics of Detachment in Medieval Kāvya: Anthologies and the Path of Literary Sanskrit in the Second Millennium.” Studies in History, 2021.

Selected Articles:

1. Knutson, Jesse. “An Orgy of Order: the Bhaṭṭikāvya’s Scientific Experiment and the Reproduction of Aesthetic and Political Life in Early Medieval South Asia.” Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, vol. 1-2, Nov. 2019.
2. Knutson, Jesse. “Eastern Gothic: From Kannauj to Bengal and Back in the Early Medieval Period.” In Clio and Her Descendants: Essays for Kesavan Veluthat, Primus Books, 2018.
3. Knutson, Jesse. “Kāvya and Us: Reading Innovations and Turning Points.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, vol. 38, no. 1, May 2018.
4. Knutson, Jesse. “Money, Morality, and Masculinity: Staging the Politics of Poverty in Sanskrit Theater.” Philosophy East and West, vol. 66, 2016.
5. Knutson, Jesse. “Political Pleasures in Late Classical India: Kālidāsa’s Spirituality and King Harṣadeva’s Imagination of Polygamous Urbanity.” Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, 2015.
6. Knutson, Jesse. “Poetic Justice: On Kalhaṇa’s Historical Aesthetics.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, vol. 35, no. 2, Aug. 2015.
7. Knutson, Jesse. “The Mahābhārata’s Infernal Paradise: On the Premodern Condition.” Studies in History, vol. 31, no. 2, Aug. 2015.
8. Knutson, Jesse. “The Gītagovinda and Beyond.” Journal of Vaiṣṇava Studies, vol. 22, no. 1, Fall 2013.
9. Knutson, Jesse. “History Beyond the Reality Principle: Literary and Political Territories in Sena Period Bengal.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, vol. 32, no. 3, Dec. 2012.
10. Knutson, Jesse. “The Vernacular Cosmopolitan: Jayadeva’s Gītagovinda.” In South Asian Texts in History: Critical Engagements with Sheldon Pollock, edited by Yigal Bronner, Whitney Cox, and Lawrence McCrea, Association for Asian Studies, 2011.
11. Knutson, Jesse. “The Political Poetic of the Sena Court.” Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 69, no. 02, May 2010.
12. Knutson, Jesse. "Samsṛktakābye o Baḍu Caṇḍidāser Śrīkrṣṇakīrttane Ākhyāner Sthān: Kichu Bhābanā." Gangeopatro, vol. 20, April 2008.