Graduate student, Sweta Dutta, gave a recent talk titled “Merciful tongues and bountiful blessings: Language, Authority and Charisma in Phakirrāmi.” The Phakirrāmi, a 19th century Middle Bengali text, Phakir Rām Dās invokes various religious figures from the Brahmanic and Puranic traditions to offer legitimacy to Satya Pīr, a belief system found in Bengal.
Dutta studies premodern Islam in South Asia, specifically Bengali Sufi literatures from the 16th-19th centuries. Her research looks at the relationship between authorship and audience reception in littoral political economies and she wishes to trace a history of vernacular religious life in the Gangetic deltas.
Dutta Gives Brown Bag Talk
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
The College of Arts