Negative and Destructive Criticism among Early Modern Sanskrit Intelligentsia

The early modern period of Indian history spanning over three centuries (c.1500-1800 CE)

is marked with numerous scholarly adventures that encountered fosterage and deterrence,

meliorations and decline, and defenders and censurers. While the intellectual renaissance

centred in Kāśī (modern Vārāṇasī) attracted scholars from all corners of India and

facilitated a rigorous exchange of scholarship, competitive patronage for and recognition

of erudition as an essential component of the socio-political dynamics immensely

contributed to the maintenance of enthusiasm for knowledge. Careful studies of the early

modern Sanskrit literature of manifold genres may reveal hidden depths of the

intellectual currents that triggered unprecedented trends and created, nourished, and, in

some cases, ruined literary giants and their camps. This paper briefly examines a few

instances of negative and destructive criticism in early modern Sanskrit literature,

particularly exegetical literature, where scholarly encounters aimed at vigorously beating

the opponents and their lines of argument at any cost. Further, it discusses how personal

identities were ruthlessly debunked in the guise of literary criticism under the congenial

socio-political currents and literary ethics gradually deteriorated.