The Padmavat (1540 CE) by the Indian Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi is a classic of pre-modern Indian literature. It relates how the Rajput king Ratansen of Chitor finds and marries the beautiful princess Padmavati, and how the sultan Alauddin Khilji, on hearing of her beauty, besieges Chitor in a fruitless attempt to capture her.'The Ruby in the Dust' presents a reading of Padmavat that challenges existing interpretations of Jayasi’s work and describes how its semantic polyphony reflects the poet’s role as mediator between his spiritual and worldly patrons. The perspective of De Bruijn’s reading corrects the identification with modern, nationalist notions of Hindu and Muslim identity that have dominated interpretations of this work until now, revealing a confluence of poetry and history that inspired the many retellings of the tale of Padmavati in Persian and other Indian languages made until the present day.Dr. Thomas de Bruijn is specialist op het gebied van vroege en moderne Zuid-Aziatische literatuur. Hij was felllow aan het International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) en doceerde aan INALCO, Paris. Ruby in the dust - 2 table of contents - 6 preface - 10 A note on transliteration - 12 Introduction - 14 Part 1 - 28 Chapter I Th poet and the literary field - 30 Chapter II Text, transmission and reception - 72 Chapter III The literary context of Padmavat - 102 Chapter IV Structure and meaning in Padmavat - 150 Part 2 - 204 Chapter V A poem of love - 206 Chapter VI The metaphoric scheme of light - 242 Chapter VII The messenger - 260 Chapter VIII Conclusion: Jayasi and the literary field - 272 References - 278 Appendix - 296 Glossary - 358 Index - 362