One of the significant developments in contemporary Cultural Studies is the emergence of the concept of "modernities" in its multiple and vernacular iterations as opposed to "Modernity", purportedly understood with reference to the epistemic legacies set forth by the Western frameworks. This article takes on Simonti Sen (2005) - who assumes colonialism to be a watershed that renders rupture between the "traditonal" and the "modern" - and demonstrates why the tradition/modernity dichotomy is a "false paradox" when it comes to discussing travel(ling) in the Indian context. Working on the interface of literature, translation and historiography, this article unpacks Working on the interface of literature, translation and historiography, this article unpacks Sen's historicist and textualist reading of the Mahabharata, and examines how it forecloses the multifarious hermeneutic possibilities of the text, while problematising a certain reductive translation upon which her reading is apparently premised.
