Medieval Landscapes: The Idea of the Middle Ages in Bengal

Open this record in the interactive library

Catalogue identifier: klm000039
Alternate titles and import identifiers: KLM000039
Author or attribution: Eduardo Acosta
Record type: Dissertation
Language: English
Date / edition: August 2022
Source / repository: University of Chicago, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations; UChicago Knowledge
Access: Open access
Subjects: KLM Research Sources — Batch 10; Bengali Kali Literature; Theses and Dissertations; Historical Accounts and Colonial Records

Description and curator notes

Acosta examines how Bengal’s medieval past was constructed through landscape history, courtly culture and colonial literary classification. Its Kali relevance is concentrated in the final chapter, which traces the Vidyāsundar narrative and its relationship to the Kālikāmaṅgal genre. The discussion compares Bengali, Sanskrit and regional literary strands, including the versions associated with Bharatchandra, Ramprasad Sen and other poets. Pages 208–214 explore Kali’s narrative intervention, the coexistence of erotic and devotional readings, and the changing public setting of goddess worship in eastern India. The author treats literary genealogies as uncertain rather than assuming a single recoverable origin. For this library, the dissertation supplies a substantial scholarly context for Bengali Kali literature and useful citation trails to historical editions. It is not a complete edition of those poems, and most of the dissertation concerns wider regional history rather than Kali alone. Readers can consult the entire dissertation freely through the university repository.

Research source KLM000039, Batch 10 export dated 5 November 2026.
The access, completeness, rights and reading assessments below come from the curator export, not a new independent verification by this library.

Medieval Landscapes: The Idea of the Middle Ages in Bengal
English title: Medieval Landscapes: The Idea of the Middle Ages in Bengal
Author or attribution: Eduardo Acosta
Publication date: August 2022
Publisher or repository: University of Chicago, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations; UChicago Knowledge
Edition details: Ph.D. dissertation, 257 PDF pages; preliminary matter followed by numbered text pp. 1–247. Chapter 5, pp. 182–224, treats the Vidyāsundar tradition; especially pp. 208–214 for Kali and Kālikāmaṅgal.
Language: English; includes transliterated Bengali and Sanskrit passages with discussion and translations
Type: Doctoral dissertation
Subjects: Bengali Kali Literature; Theses and Dissertations; Historical Accounts and Colonial Records
Acosta examines how Bengal’s medieval past was constructed through landscape history, courtly culture and colonial literary classification. Its Kali relevance is concentrated in the final chapter, which traces the Vidyāsundar narrative and its relationship to the Kālikāmaṅgal genre. The discussion compares Bengali, Sanskrit and regional literary strands, including the versions associated with Bharatchandra, Ramprasad Sen and other poets. Pages 208–214 explore Kali’s narrative intervention, the coexistence of erotic and devotional readings, and the changing public setting of goddess worship in eastern India. The author treats literary genealogies as uncertain rather than assuming a single recoverable origin. For this library, the dissertation supplies a substantial scholarly context for Bengali Kali literature and useful citation trails to historical editions. It is not a complete edition of those poems, and most of the dissertation concerns wider regional history rather than Kali alone. Readers can consult the entire dissertation freely through the university repository.
Kali relevance: Substantial analysis of Kali in Bengali Kālikāmaṅgal and Vidyāsundar traditions, particularly chapter 5; distinguishes the goddess from unrelated Kali Yuga references elsewhere in the thesis.
Read complete source text
Source or repository record
Rights: Copyright © 2022 Eduardo Acosta. Legitimately free to read in UChicago Knowledge; no open reproduction license displayed. Link to the document; do not republish the dissertation.
Evidence class: Modern academic doctoral dissertation; secondary historical and literary interpretation, not scripture or direct historical testimony.
Reading limits: Completeness verified through PDF sequence, beginning, contents and ending; selected relevant chapter passages read. Not a full close reading of all 257 pages, and cited primary manuscripts have not been independently inspected.
Composition date: 2022 dissertation; examines mainly eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Bengal, with earlier Bengali literary traditions
Witness date: Modern doctoral dissertation; not a manuscript witness or edition of the primary works discussed
Access verification: Confirmed free complete institutional PDF on 2026-11-05; no login or payment. Repository identifies the dissertation as open and lists 257 pages.

Source and repository links:
https://knowledge.uchicago.edu/records/y8439-2mp91/files/Acosta_uchicago_0330D_16486.pdf?download=1
https://knowledge.uchicago.edu/records/y8439-2mp91

Source access

Read or locate the original source at University of Chicago, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations; UChicago Knowledge

Rights and reading conditions

Citation

Eduardo Acosta. Medieval Landscapes: The Idea of the Middle Ages in Bengal. University of Chicago, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations; UChicago Knowledge. August 2022. Ph.D. dissertation, 257 PDF pages; preliminary matter followed by numbered text pp. 1–247. Chapter 5, pp. 182–224, treats the Vidyāsundar tradition; especially pp. 208–214 for Kali and Kālikāmaṅgal.

This page supplies catalogue metadata and links. It does not reproduce the underlying source text. Historical, religious, healing and interpretive claims belong to the cited sources, not to an independent verification by this catalogue.