Author: user

Conference: Radical Phenomenology in India | 2nd June, 2025 | Trinity College, Oxford

Conference: Radical Phenomenology in India | 2nd June, 2025 | Trinity College, Oxford

Posted on by user

Radical Phenomenology in India: Extreme structures of consciousness in Indic philosophies

Conference

Monday 2nd June, 2025 – Trinity College, Oxford – Garden Room
 
Indic philosophical traditions are full of striking states of consciousness that often bend or break the usual ways in which the mind functions. Partly rooted in distinctive yogic methods of self-reflection, these Indic philosophies and soteriologies aim at some of the most extreme re-structurings of conscious known to history. Some advise destroying our egoic structure, some train us to see the world free of all reification or desire, others advise re-identifying as other selves through possession, while still others flood all experience with intense emotion that is itself the target of a uniquely refined enjoyment. Viewed together, these philosophies offer alternative ways of existing as minds, and creative technologies for manipulating the very nature of the self.
 
All welcome – queries to: jessica.frazier@theology.ox.ac.uk
 
Conference Schedule
 
10-11.30am
Gavin Flood, University of Oxford 
Is there an Indian Phenomenology?
 
Aamir Kaderbhai, University of Oxford
All Things are Sublime: A Phenomenology of jīvanmukti in the Mokṣopāya
 
11.45am-1.15pm
Jessica Frazier, University of Oxford
‘Otherwise…’; Phenomenological Plasticity in Classical Yoga
 
Ankur Barua, University of Cambridge
How To Be Out Of Your Mind: The Phenomenology of Perplexity in South Asia
 
2-3.30pm
Ruth McNeil, King’s College London
Experiences of śūnya in the Vijñānabhairava
 
Hrvoje Cargonya, University of Zagreb
Expansiveness and Bhakti Aesthetics in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism
 
3.45-5.15pm
Geoffrey Ashton, University of San Francisco
Revitalizing Samkhya through Phenomenology: Reading the Samkhya Karika through Goethe’s Organics
 
Daniel Ruin, University of Oxford
“[L]’autre, sans manger, contemple”: Henry Corbin and the Phenomenology of the Witness in the Śvetāśvatara– and Kaṭha–upaniṣad-s
 
5.15pm CLOSING DISCUSSION
 
“Is Hindu Culture Relevant?” Leicester Friends Talk | 17th May with Shaunaka Rishi Das | FREE event

“Is Hindu Culture Relevant?” Leicester Friends Talk | 17th May with Shaunaka Rishi Das | FREE event

Posted on by user

Is Hindu Culture Relevant?

Special talk by Shaunaka Rishi Das

Dear Friends,

Leicester Friends of OCHS are delighted to invite you to the relaunch of our regular talks. After a pause, we are returning with a fresh schedule and a new venue in support of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.

New Venue: Glenfield Memorial Hall, 5 Stamford St, Glenfield, Leicester LE3 8DL
Date: Saturday 17th May 2025
Time: 5pm
Guest Speaker: Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS), 
Talk Title: Is Hindu Culture Relevant?

This event marks a new chapter for our local community, and we would be honoured by your presence. Join us for an evening of engaging discussion, reconnecting with familiar faces, and welcoming new friends.

Light refreshments will be served. Free event, all are welcome – please feel free to bring friends and family!

Warm regards,
Leicester Friends of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Any questions, please write to: lf@ochs.org.uk

 

Please support the work of the OCHS through https://ko-fi.com/ochsoxford

Donate for Free on Amazon

Set up your Amazon account so that it directly donates free to OCHS every time you make a purchase, Amazon will donate a small per cent to a charity of your choice, on Amazon Smile select OCHS as your chosen charity and you will be supporting the Centre for free

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1074458-0

Next Gita Study Group on 29th April

Next Gita Study Group on 29th April

Posted on by user

Gita Study Group

Verses to honour Pope Francis

As we approach a new term, and as Spring is being seen a felt around us, I am reminded that Krishna says that he is the flower baring spring. This makes the joy of seeing a bluebell’s bud open, or noticing the scent of Verbena a meditation on the Supreme. Each wonderful thing being a spark of his splendour. Lovely thoughts.

However, the verses I thought we could begin the term considering are from the second chapter of the Gita. I choose them in honour and celebration of the life of the late Pope Francis. He was a sincere and humble man of God, and I think we can see his dedication to a spiritual life reflected in how he restrained and retrained himself, as these verses suggest for us all. They also graphically illustrate how easily we fall short of our ideals, further illustrating the committent of Pope Francis.

Chapter 2, verses 59-63

Verse 59
Though the embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.

Verse 60
The senses are so strong and impetuous, O Arjuna, that they forcibly carry away the mind even of a man of discrimination who is endeavouring to control them.

Verse 61
One who restrains his senses, keeping them under full control, and fixes his consciousness upon Me, is known as a man of steady intelligence.

Verse 62
While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.

Verse 63
From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.

Our next Bhagavad-gita Study Group meets on Tuesday, 29th of April, 5-6pm. We will host hybrid sessions, both in person, at the OCHS, 13-15 Magdalen Street, OX1 3AE, and also online at:

Email secretary@ochs.org.uk to get on the Gita Study Group mailing list and receive a Zoom link.

I look forward to seeing you.

Warm regards,
Shaunaka

 

Sanskrit Kickstarter

Sanskrit Kickstarter

Posted on by user

A Sanskrit Kickstarter: 15–16 March

Embark on a transformative journey into the heart of Sanskrit – the language of the Gods.

This immersive online weekend school welcomes all levels, from absolute beginners to seasoned practitioners.

Delve into the rich, meditative depths of this ancient language, the cornerstone of Indian history, science, religion, and culture. Explore the elegant Devanāgarī script, learn authentic pronunciation, and unlock the layers of meaning and grammar that make Sanskrit so captivating.

Course page

Sessions

History of Sanskrit
Tutor: Dr Rembert Lutjeharms

An Early Morning Hymn to Śiva
Tutor: Prof. Gavin Flood

Speaking Sanskrit
Tutor: Dr Premraj Neupane

Found in Translation
Tutor: Dr Zoë Slatoff

Sunday Morning Mantra
Tutor: Gaiea Sanskrit

A Mantra to Śiva
Tutor: Prof. Gavin Flood

Sound, Silence, and Script: The Sacred Syllable OM in Early India
Tutor: Prof. Finn Moore Gerety

The Forest in the Trees
Tutor: Dr Zoë Slatoff

Complimentary Zoom Sessions

As an extra thank you, enrolment in the Sanskrit Kickstarter gives you free access to next term’s (May–June) five campus-wide Zoom Sessions on a variety of related topics.

Online via Zoom

Saturday 15–Sunday 16 March 2025
11.00am–5.30pm with breaks between each session.

(Recordings will be made available for any sessions you may miss)

Enrolment Fee: £345

When the ‘esoteric’ strikes back: Revising the field of tantric studies

When the ‘esoteric’ strikes back: Revising the field of tantric studies

Posted on by user

The Intersection of Hinduism and Contemporary Society project

Presenting our next online guest lecture in the Invited Speaker Series

When the ‘esoteric’ strikes back: Revising the field of tantric studies

Friday, 29th November 2024, 6pm UTC/GMT
By Dr. Monika Hirmer (Friedrich-Alexander Universität, Erlangen–Nürnberg, Germany)

Registration

Please register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ochs-ihcs-invited-lecture-series-monika-hirmer-tickets-1086879308269?aff=oddtdtcreator

We will send you a zoom link two days before the event.

Abstract

South Asian tantric traditions have fascinated Western scholars ever since the first colonial encounters, when the term ‘Tantrism’ was coined to indicate a set of practices deemed irrational and morally deprived, as opposed to the supposedly rational and morally superior religious practices of the West. This Orientalist view has nowadays been superseded by more nuanced perspectives, which acknowledge the complexity of South Asian tantric traditions, and emphasise, as some of their primary features, the presence of a guru, the importance of rituals and yantras, and pervasive correspondences between the micro- and macrocosmic realms. Acknowledging the inherent fluidity of tantric practices has paved the way for the most recent scholarly developments in the field, which explore the thus-far understudied interactions between pan-Indian and folk traditions, and mainstream and unconventional ritual practices in South Asia.

While tantric scholarship has advanced significantly, the fact that its focus is mostly limited to South Asia excludes some of the most prominent cross-cultural interactions, namely those engendered by the diffusion of tantric practices in the West. In fact, tantra in the West remains largely ignored by eminent scholars in the field of tantric studies, and is instead explored under different rubrics, such as ‘new religious movements’, ‘esoteric traditions’ and ‘Neotantra’, giving rise to a schism between tantric traditions in South Asia and tantric traditions in the West. Without denying the distinctiveness of tantra in the West and its problematic appropriation strategies, I argue that, as long as the field of tantric studies fails to incorporate Western tantric traditions, it recreates the same colonial dichotomies and violent hierarchies that were advanced by Orientalist scholars—only that, this time around, the ‘Other’ is the West, in opposition to a more authentic and, therefore, superior South Asia.

Indic Manuscript Database Launch

Indic Manuscript Database Launch

Posted on by user

OCHS INDIC MANUSCRIPT DATABASE LAUNCH

Venue: Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies Online,
13–15 Magdalen Street, OX1 3AE, Oxford.
– All are welcome!

10.50-11.00 Tea/coffee
11.00-11.05 Welcome: Professor Gavin Flood, Dean of Hindu Studies

11.05-11.20 Introduction: Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen
11.20-12.00 OCHS Indic Manuscript Database Launch: Dr Ulrik Lyngs

12.00-12.15 Break

12.15-12.30 Gauḍīya Patrikā: A Digital Archive of Bengali Vaiṣṇava Periodicals: Dr Lucian Wong
12.30-13.00 Creating AI models for Handwriting and Text Recognition in South Asian Manuscripts (Digital Scholarship Development Grant): Tom Derrick

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00-15.00 Technical deep dive for developers: Understanding & extending our Database & Web Apps: Dr Ulrik Lyngs

Sign up by email to secretary@ochs.org.uk
You can also join the event via Zoom. 

Lecture List: Michaelmas Term 2024

Lecture List: Michaelmas Term 2024

Posted on by user

Lecture List
Michaelmas Term 2024

Sunday 13 October – Saturday 7 December 2024
Library opening hours are Monday to Friday, 9.30-5.30.

Hinduism 1: Sources and Formations

Prof. Gavin Flood FBA
Weeks 1-8, Monday, 2.00-3.00,
Gibson Building

These lectures offer a thematic and historical introduction to the sources and development of Hindu traditions from their early formation to the medieval period. We will explore the formation of Hindu traditions through textual sources, such as the Vedas, Upaniṣads and Bhagavad Gītā, along with the practices and social institutions that formed classical Hindu traditions. The lectures will include an introduction to Hindu philosophy.

Sanskrit

Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen
Weeks 1-8, Wednesday, 4.30-5.30, Friday, 10.00-12.00,
OCHS Library 

The course provides an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper of the Theology and Religion Faculty in Elementary Sanskrit. Students of Pali will join the Sanskrit course in Michaelmas Term and for the first four weeks of Hilary Term. From week 5 of Hilary Term, Sanskrit and Pali will be taught as two separate courses, i.e. Sanskrit Prelims and Pali for Sanskritists.  

Sanskrit Prelims: A range of relevant Hindu and Buddhist texts will be chosen for translation and philological comment in the Sanskrit course. The class is designed to introduce students of Theology and Religion to the essentials of Sanskrit grammar, syntax, and vocabulary and its importance for the exegesis of Sanskrit texts. Students will learn to appreciate the interpretative nature of translation as a central discipline for the study of religions. By the end of the course students will have gained a basic competency in translating classical Sanskrit and reading relevant passages from texts such as the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, the Bhagavadgītā, the Haṭhayogapradīpikā and the Buddhist Heart Sūtra. The course book will be Walter Maurer’s The Sanskrit Language. Sanskrit Prelims continues throughout Michaelmas and Hilary Terms and for the first four weeks of Trinity. 

Pali Prelims: The Pali course is designed to provide an easy philological introduction to Pali Buddhist texts via Sanskrit and introduce students of Theology and Religion to the essentials ofPali grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. A range of relevant Pali Buddhist texts will be chosen for translation and philological comment. We will read classical Theravāda Buddhist discourses from the Pāli Canon such as the Fire Sermon (Ādittapariyāya-sutta) and Dependent Origination (Paṭiccasamuppāda) as well as passages from the Dhammapadaand the Jātaka tales. Students will learn to appreciate the interpretative nature of translation as a central discipline for the study of religions. The course book will be Dines Andersen, A Pāli Reader and Pali Glossary, 2 vols. (1901) supplemented by Rune E. A. Johansson, Pali Buddhist Texts: An Introductory Reader and Grammar (1981).  

Pali students will attend the same ‘Sanskrit and Pali’ classes as Sanskrit students in Michaelmas Term and weeks 1-4 of Hilary Term. From week 5 of Hilary Term, Pali and Sanskrit students will study in separate classes. 

Readings in Śāktism: The Netratantra

Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen
Weeks 2, 4, 6, and 8, Tuesday, 3.00-4.00,
OCHS Library

The Netratantra (NT), the ‘Tantra of the Eye’, is an important Śākta-Śaiva text in Kashmir and Nepal, dating from around the early ninth century. The NT occupies a middle ground and claims universality as a sarvasāmānya tantra overriding the distinctions between the orthodox Vedic scriptures, the Śaiva Siddhānta, the Mantramārga, and the Kulamārga as well as divisions outside of Śaivism. The text has absorbed material from different social strata and a variety of Indian traditions in its aim for a universal appeal. Indeed, the NT is strongly influenced by goddess worship and the Kulamārga and represents an important early point of entry and incorporation of the Śākta tradition into Śaivism. Thus, along with Śaivism and the tantric traditions there seems to have developed a distinct tradition, that we might call Śāktism, focused on the Goddess as śakti in her many forms.

We will read and discuss Śākta sections of the NT in transliteration based on the oldest surviving Nepalese manuscript (Amṛteśatantra, NAK MS 1-285, NGMPP Reel No. B 25/4 from 1200 CE) with reference to the KSTS edition and the OCHS Manuscript Database. These reading sessions and seminars are intended for students who have an elementary or intermediate knowledge of Sanskrit and are interested in Śāktism, yoga, and the tantric traditions.

Senior Seminar in Indian Religions

Convened by Dr Jessica Frazier
Weeks 2, 4 and 6, Wednesday, 5.00-6.30,
OCHS Library 

This series of regular seminars brings together scholars and students working on Indic philosophies and religions. It focuses on topics of current research: in each session, two people will present a context they are investigating for 20min, and then open it for discussion on key questions. This term we will have a great list of speakers, all sharing ideas, puzzles, and questions from their work on Indian Philosophy for the group to discuss. All scholars, graduates and finalists in all areas are welcome to join.

All events are in the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS) Library, 15 Magdalen Street, OX1 3AE.

Week 2

Dr Marie Helene Gorisse, Birmingham: “On how to distinguish curd and camels: The Jain-Buddhist dispute over the non-one-sidedness of things”

In this talk I will assess whether – with its doctrine of non-one-sidedness (anekāntavāda) – Jain philosophy of language really fails at denoting. This will be the occasion to examine what distinguishes it from Buddhist philosophy of language. I will notably focus on Akalaṅka and on the Buddhist criticism as featured in Śāntarakṣita.

Dr Jessica Frazier, Oxford: Radical Phenomenology in Indian Cultures: Devising a Symposium

Indian thought aims humans at some of the most extreme re-structurings of conscious known to history. Across different traditions, some have advised systematically destroying the structures of the ego, dissolving all reification, totally absorbing in a single object, or re-identifying as the whole of reality.  This discussion asks what phenomenologies exist, and what they add to our understanding of the untapped potentialities of consciousness, with an eye to setting up a Symposium in Spring. All welcome to discuss and get involved!

Week 4

Dr Zishan Khawaja, Manchester: Svabhāva, Pratītya Samutpāda and Nirvāṇa: Is Nāgārjuna Consistent?

This talk thinks about whether there is a consistent philosophy in the work of Nagarjuna, focusing specifically on the apparent tension between a rejection of intrinsic nature, a commitment to dependent-origination, and the description of Nirvana as the cessation of conceptual proliferation.

Dr Szilvia Szanyi, Oxford: Sthiramati on Rebirth and the Notion of the Self

Sthiramati (c. 6th century CE) is one of the most prominent commentators of the Yogācāra tradition, especially on the treatises of Vasubandhu (c. 4th–5th century CE). Despite his crucial role in shaping the identity of the Yogācāra school, Sthiramati’s works and original contributions to addressing key issues in Buddhist philosophy are still often overlooked in scholarship. In the first half of my talk, I will briefly discuss Sthiramati’s interpretation of the various mental afflictions (kleśa) that contribute to the emergence and entrenchment of the mistaken notion of the self in the cognitive architecture of the human mind. In the second half, I will examine Sthiramati’s highly technical account of rebirth, which interestingly combines some earlier and novel considerations to explain the perpetuation of saṃsāric existence.

Week 6

Dr Monima Chadha, Oxford: Vasubandhu’s account of Agency and Responsibility

In Abhidharmakośabhāṣya IX, Vasubandhu denies the ultimate existence of persons and selves because they lack causal efficacy. Who, then, is the agent of (moral) action and the bearer of moral responsibility?

Dr Karen O’Brian-Kopp, KCL: A shared argument between Patañjali, Vasubandhu and Asaṅga on causality and rebirth.

This talk examines cross-traditional dialogue in early South Asia between the Sāṃkhya-Yoga philosopher Patañjali and the Buddhist philosophers Vasubandhu and Asaṅga concerning how ethical causality, or karma, determines rebirth.

Readings in Phenomenology

Prof. Gavin Flood FBA
Weeks 1-8, Monday, 12.00-1.00,
OCHS Library

Phenomenology is one of the most important developments in philosophy in the twentieth century, and it has also had a deep impact on other theoretical fields more widely conceived. This term we read Merleau-Ponty, The Phenomenology of Perception

Concept of Mind in Hindu Tantrism

Prof. Gavin Flood FBA
Weeks 4, 6 and 8, Thursday, 2.00-3.00,
OCHS Library 

These lectures present an account of the concept of mind in Hindu Tantra. Through a study of religious and philosophical texts in the post-Gupta period we come to understand how the mind is conceptualized both as that which keeps a person bound to the cycle of reincarnation and as having transformative potential in allowing a person to achieve liberation or salvation. The lectures trace a history of the idea of the mind from the earliest occurrences of the terms for ‘mind’ (manas and citta) in Vedic and Buddhist literature, to tantric traditions of Śiva and the Goddess. The inspiration behind the lectures is Herbert Guenther’s masterful study of the mind in Buddhism published in 1956.

The Concept of Mind in Indian Thinking
Week 4, Thursday 7 November, 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library

This first lecture will describe the concept of mind in early sources from the Vedas to Buddhism. The category of the ‘mind’ would seem to be quite ancient and appears for the first time in the Ṛg-veda and is arguably a foundational category of pre-philosophical speculation along with speech (vāc) and sacrifice (yajña). It is Buddhism that develops a keen mentalistic vocabulary and influences classical Yoga’s understanding. It is these traditions, the Vedic, the Buddhist, and the Yogic, that I will argue influence and form tantric concepts of mind.

The Mind in Śaiva Scriptures
Week 6, Thursday 21 November, 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library

This second lecture raises the question about models of mind presented in Śaiva scriptures and how the category of ‘mind’ – as a translation of citta and manas – has a both a negative and positive evaluation, that which keeps us trapped in compulsive responses to world and as that which has the capacity to liberate.

Grounding the Mind
Week 8, Thursday 5 December, 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library

Having described models of the mind in tantric literature, this lecture will raise the question as to what lies behind these representations? Why do our texts understand mind and consciousness in the ways that they have, such that they can also be overlaid with a distinct dualistic or non-dualistic metaphysics? In this lecture we will probe a deeper cultural and social level that is the precondition for the discourse we have exposed. We need to move to a cultural ontology that is the necessary condition for the languages of awareness to develop. To do this, once more we must revert to our texts: to the proto-philosophical ideas in the scriptural revelation we have described along. We see that concepts of mind are not isolated from the wider cultural and social life within which these reflections arose. There are three elements to this underlying cultural ontology we can identify: sacrifice (yajñā), self (ātman), and boundary variability  (also called ‘body’, śarīra).

Lectures of the J.P. and Beena Khaitan Visiting Fellow

Spiritual Migration: The first Hindu guru to settle in Europe

Prof. Knut Jacobsen
Week 3, Thursday 31 October, 2.00-3.00,
OCHS Library

One type of Hindu migrants is the spiritual migrants eager to spread the message of Hindu spirituality and Hindu civilization to the rest of the world. The lecture analyses this type of Hindu migrants, the motivations and purposes and in particular looks at the first Hindu guru to settle permanently in Europe, and perhaps in the Western world, who was from Bengal and arrived in Europe in 1911. The lecture looks in particular at his spiritual linage. By relating his teachings to those of his guru, a better understanding of his mission and teaching can be attained.

Plurality of Sāṃkhya traditions

Prof. Knut Jacobsen
Week 5, Thursday 14 November, 2.00-3.00,
OCHS Library

It has been argued that when approaching early Sāṃkhya traditions, one should allow for the greatest possible plurality. In this lecture I argue that it is advisable that this principle be followed when trying to understand Sāṃkhya in all periods of Indian history. Some contemporary approaches to Sāṃkhya tend to essentialize Sāṃkhya and make it ahistorical. While this ahistorical method is inherently problematic in itself, Sāṃkhya is much more than the Sāṃkhyakārikā and Sāṃkhyasūtra tradition. The different Sāṃkhya philosophies and traditions represent a variety of views, and in the lecture, I argue that plurality characterizes the history of Sāṃkhya. The Sāṃkhya teachers did probably represent a wide range of views and seem not only to have repeated a fixed system of doctrines.

 

Knut A. Jacobsen is Professor in the Study of Religions at the University of Bergen, Norway. His main fields of research include Sāṃkhya and Yoga theory and practice, Hindu sacred geography and pilgrimage, transnational Hinduism, religion and public space, and pluralism of religions in South Asia and in the South Asian diasporas. He is the author of four monographs, Prakṛti in Sāṃkhya-Yoga: Material Principle, Religious Experience, Ethical Implications  (Peter Lang, 1999), Kapila: Founder of Sāṃkhya and Avatāra of Viṣṇu (Munshiram Manoharlal, 2008), Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: Salvific Space (Routledge, 2013), and Yoga in Modern Hinduism: Hariharānanda Āraṇya and Sāṃkhyayoga (Routledge, 2018), and is the editor or co-editor of numerous books, the latest of which are the two volumes Handbook of Hinduism in Europe (Brill 2020), Routledge Handbook of South Asian Religions (Routledge 2021), Hindu Diasporas (Oxford University Press 2023) and Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India, 2nd ed. (2024). He is the editor in chief of the seven volumes Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism (Brill 2009-2023).

Lectures of the Shivdasani Visiting Fellow

Who Wants to Live Forever? Gender and the Fear of Death in Bengali Jogi Literature

Dr Joel Bordeaux
Week 1, Thursday 17 October, 2.00-3.00,
OCHS Library

Popular legends centered on the prince Gopicandra can be found in several northern Indian languages. This story builds on the ‘royal renunciate’ motif familiar from Buddhist hagiography but with the twist that the titular protagonist is entirely uninterested in trading his throne and palace for the trials of a religious mendicant and must instead be persuaded to do so by his mother the queen. Alternately farcical and poignant, these stories emerged, alongside much of what we now know as Hatha Yoga, within the broader milieu of the medieval Nath Sampradaya.  

In versions of the story transmitted through Bengali householder Nath/Jogi communities, the dowager queen is an immortal sorceress who exhorts the prince to likewise pursue immortality through ascetic self-cultivation. Her rationale in these texts draws on yogic theories linking [male] mortality to the expenditure of a finite reserve of vital reproductive fluids, but the non-monastic authors of the texts apparently harbor reservations about both the possibility of a woman effectively transmitting such teachings and the very enterprise of celibate asceticism. 

Polyglot Mantras for Pragmatic Ritualists: Sanskrit and its Others in Bengali Spellbooks

Dr Joel Bordeaux
Week 7, Thursday 28 November, 2.00-3.00,
OCHS Library

Inexpensively produced Bengali booklets with titles like Fulfilling the Heart’s Desires Through Mantra —in many senses, the modern descendants of famous tantric digests like the Mantra-mahodadhi and Bṛhat-Tantrasāra— are both ubiquitous and understudied. They typically feature unsourced Bengali and Hindi charms for quotidian ends, presenting these ‘mantras’ alongside their Sanskrit counterparts with minimal ritual instructions. These vernacular mantras especially appear to be tailored more for use by ojhās (village healers/cunning men) and housewives than for traditional elite tantric virtuosi.

Drawing on discussions of so-called śābara mantras in premodern Sanskrit sources, this  presentation surveys possible emic rationales for the ritual efficacy of vernacular mantras before turning to formal and rhetorical analysis from etic perspectives, with particular attention to those sections designated explicitly for women, childcare, and other domestic concerns. Preliminary reading suggest that these are often less normatively ‘Hindu’ and closer in genre to vernacular verbal charms than the mantras presented under less explicitly feminized subheadings.

Joel Bordeaux is a specialist in South Asian religions with a PhD from Columbia University (2015). He has published on East Indian Śākta traditions, early modern Hindu statecraft, Nath Yogi literature from Bengal, and Tibetan Buddhism in Anglophone popular culture. He is a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden  and a member of the research group Body and Embodiment in the Middle Bengali Imaginary based at Jagiellonian University (Kraków). https://linktr.ee/JoelBordeaux

Other Talks and Seminars

In Memoriam: Translating Rabindranath Tagore's Elegiac Poems - Smaran (Remembrance) and Palataka (Fugitive)

Dr Sanjukta Dasgupta
Week 2, Monday 21 October, 2.00-3.00,
OCHS Library

Along with the recurrent themes of love, freedom, mysticism and  transcendentalism that characterize his poetry, the first Nobel laureate of India, poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) has addressed the challenges of death, loss, longing and letting go in his poetry, throughout his long literary career. The sensitive elegiac poems of Smaran and Palataka trace the journey of the aggrieved poet’s eventual liberation from a sense of torment and guilt through introspection and mystical contemplation. In this talk I will focus on my translations into English of two volumes of Tagore’s Bengali elegiac poetry titled Smaran and Palataka, that bemoan the death of his wife Mrinalini in 1902 and  daughter Madhurilata in 1918.  Smaran and Palataka have been translated into English by me for the first time and the book titled In Memoriam: Smaran and Palataka  has been published by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, in 2022. 

Sanjukta Dasgupta, Professor and Former Head, Dept of English and Former Dean, Faculty of Arts, Calcutta University has been the recipient of several national and international fellowships and awards. She has lectured and taught at various universities in the USA, UK, Europe and Australia. Dasgupta is a poet, short story writer, critic and translator and has 27 published books.

Join our team! Postdoc in Jain Studies

Join our team! Postdoc in Jain Studies

Posted on by user

Bhagawan Sumatinath Jain Postdoctoral Study

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS) is pleased to announce that we are accepting applications for the Bhagawan Sumatinath Jain Postdoctoral Study fellowship. Deadline for applications is 18 November 2024.

The role is 0.75 FTE on a fixed-term contract lasting three years with a part-time annual salary of £28,000.

As part of your application, please provide a copy of your current CV, a covering letter (max 1 page), an outline describing your proposed research plan (max 3 pages), and 2 references with email contact information. The ideal candidate will hold a PhD (or be close to completing a PhD) in a relevant field.

Responsibilities of the role:
– Carry out a research project in the field of Jain Studies
– Organise a research symposium (in-person or online)
– Engage and network with leading Jain Studies scholars based in the UK and other European countries
– Publish (or at least submit for publication) two journal articles
– Work on making the PhD thesis ready for publication
– Develop an online course for the OCHS Continuing Education Department

Please note that this is an in-person role and the candidate is expected to be in Oxford during term time.

 
Apply for this position by email to Shawna at secretary@ochs.org.uk
 
About the OCHS 

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS) is the global leader in Hindu Studies. We are committed to the academic study of Hindu cultures and traditions in all periods and parts of the world. As an academic institution, the OCHS is not affiliated with any religious or political group and welcomes staff, students, and visitors of all backgrounds. Our unique scholarly environment opens the way to ground-breaking research in interdisciplinary fields of study.

Teaching Hindu Studies and Indian Languages are core activities at the Centre. We collaborate closely with the University of Oxford; our Fellows tutor, teach and supervise students of the University. Our mission is to contribute to a more holistic global discourse and educate students to become first-class scholars and future leaders in fields including education, philosophy, religion, ecology, literature, and politics.

Building upon the academic status of the Centre we have been able to provide Continuing Education consisting of online courses and weekend schools. We currently have 40 courses available and more than 11,000 enrolments, making Hindu Studies accessible to a global audience. We enjoy meaningful engagement with many levels of society, not least with local Hindu communities, which sets us apart and models a holistic approach. It is within this comprehensive, cultural awareness that we are able to provide chaplaincy services and support Hindu art, literature, and culture.

Dharmaśāstra and Hindu Law with Prof. Patrick Olivelle

Dharmaśāstra and Hindu Law with Prof. Patrick Olivelle

Posted on by user

MASTERCLASS 2024

Dharmaśāstra and Hindu Law with Prof. Patrick Olivellev

26 May–23 June 2024

You may recall last year we held a very successful masterclass with Prof. Gavin Flood on Tantra. The combination of a hugely important and popular topic with a globally-leading scholar proved irresistible!

So after long and careful planning, we are delighted to offer this year’s Masterclass: Dharmaśāstra and Hindu Law presented by Prof. Patrick Olivelle. See below for more information on Prof. Olivelle’s many qualifications.

In this series, we will ask:

Was there a dharma before the Dharmaśāstras?
What is law?
How do we resolve disputes?
How do we live a good life?
How do we sustain order?

Each Masterclass is followed by a Q&A in which we discuss:

History of dharma and Dharmaśāstra,
How traditional scholars of India have understood dharma over the past millenia,
What happens when the Dharmaśāstra hits the ground? How is it applied in different ages and scenarios?
How society is affected by Dharmaśāstra and how societies are formed around Dharmaśāstra.

You will receive:

Five live Zoom sessions including time for Q&A
Recordings of sessions
Completion Certificate (if completing optional essay) or Participation Certificate
Access to student forum
Specially selected readings

If you’d like to learn more about this special not-to-be-repeated Masterclass, click here or drop me a line.

Your Tutor

Patrick Olivelle is Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.

His current research focuses on the ancient Indian legal tradition of Dharmaśāstra. He has edited and translated the four early Dharmasūtras and prepared a critical edition of the Law Code of Manu (Mānava Dharmaśāstra).

Among his many other works is an award-winning translation of the early Upaniṣads. Prof. Olivelle has won several prestigious fellowships, including Guggenheim, NEH, and ACLS. He was elected Vice President of the American Oriental Society in 2004 and President in 2005.