Category: Academic

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

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

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 Kaṭhaupaniṣad-s
 
5.15pm CLOSING DISCUSSION
 
4 June: Talk on “The Hindu Self and Its Muslim Neighbours: Contested Borderlines on Bengali Landscapes” by Dr Ankur Barua

4 June: Talk on “The Hindu Self and Its Muslim Neighbours: Contested Borderlines on Bengali Landscapes” by Dr Ankur Barua

Shivdasani Visiting Fellow talk

by Dr Ankur Barua

Week 6, Wednesday 4 June, 2.30-3.30, OCHS Library 

Various patterns of amicability and antipathy have been generated across Hindu and Muslim borderlines in Bengal and these patterns emerge at dynamic intersections between self-understandings and social shifts on contested landscapes. The characterization of relations between Hindus and Muslims either in terms of an implacable hostility or of an unfragmented peace is historically inaccurate, for these relations have been modulated by a shifting array of socioeconomic and sociopolitical parameters. From within these crucibles, we witness the “indigenization” of Islam – that is, the attempt to speak the multiple languages of Islam by using local idioms, subjectivities, and institutions. Thus, certain processes of sociocultural otherization are concurrent with conscious efforts at highlighting everyday forms of exchanges across the milieus of Hindus and Muslims.

Dr Ankur Barua has a B.Sc. in Physics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, and read Theology and Religious Studies at the Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge. His primary research interests are Vedāntic Hindu philosophical theology and Indo-Islamic styles of sociality.

He researches the conceptual constellations and the social structures of the Hindu traditions, both in premodern contexts in South Asia and in colonial milieus where multiple ideas of Hindu identity were configured along transnational circuits between India, Britain, Europe, and USA.

12 June: Talk on “Mysticism Through the Lens of Comparative Philosophy” by Dr Ashwini Mokashi

12 June: Talk on “Mysticism Through the Lens of Comparative Philosophy” by Dr Ashwini Mokashi

Week 7, Thursday 12 June, 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library

This paper examines R.D. Ranade’s contributions to mysticism through a comparative philosophical lens, focusing on his synthesis of Indian and Western philosophical traditions. Ranade, a prominent Indian philosopher, described mysticism as an intuitive, direct apprehension of the divine, grounded in meditation, devotion, and ethical living. Ranade’s philosophy also emphasizes the importance of ethical conduct, including selflessness and detachment, as essential preparation for mystical experience. By integrating these insights, the paper highlights Ranade’s unique, rational mysticism and its universal relevance across cultures and philosophical traditions.

Ashwini Mokashi is a lecturer in Hindi and a tutor in Marathi at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Oxford University. She is a Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and a Member of Wolfson College, Oxford. Her academic focus is on Comparative Philosophy, exploring the intersections between Ancient Indian and Classical Greek thought. Among her publications is Sapiens and Sthitaprajna (2019), which examines the parallels between Seneca’s Stoicism and the Bhagavad-Gita. She has also translated the book in Hindi ‘Sapiens aur Sthitaprajna (2024).

22 May: Talking About OCHS Publications “Encounters with the Inconceivable: Experience and Inclusivism in Early Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Theology” with Dr Rembert Lutjeharms

22 May: Talking About OCHS Publications “Encounters with the Inconceivable: Experience and Inclusivism in Early Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Theology” with Dr Rembert Lutjeharms

Dr Rembert Lutjeharms

Week 4, Thursday 22 May, 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library

These seminars will focus on books published by members of the OCHS. This will be an opportunity for students to engage with OCHS faculty on books they have written and to promote discussion and research on topics that are important to the books’ authors. This term’s seminar will discuss Dr Rembert Lutjeharms’ ‘Encounters with the Inconceivable: Experience and Inclusivism in Early Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Theology’, in Pluralism and Plurality in Classical and Contemporary India, edited by Brian Black and James Madaio (London: Routledge, 2025).

20 May: Postgraduate Seminar in Hindu Studies with presentations from Gonzalo Fernandez, Utsa Bose, and Sharvi Maheshwari

20 May: Postgraduate Seminar in Hindu Studies with presentations from Gonzalo Fernandez, Utsa Bose, and Sharvi Maheshwari

Convened by Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen

Week 4, Tuesday 20 May, 2.00-3.45, OCHS Library

This series of termly seminars focuses on current DPhil research in Indic religions with a Study of Religion oriented approach: in each seminar, 2-3 DPhil candidates will present on a topic they are investigating for 20 min and then open it for discussion on key questions. These informal seminars offer an excellent way to discover and learn about current research in the field of Hindu Studies as well as an opportunity for candidates to present and receive valuable feedback on work in progress. All researchers, graduates and finalists in all areas are welcome to join. Tea and biscuits will be served.

An Examination of the Soteriological Role of Yoginīs in Śākta Tantric Śaivism

Gonzalo Fernandez

My thesis investigates the role that yoginīs (semi-divine spirits) have to play in granting liberation to their devotees, a topic that has not been addressed in any detail by scholars. The method is text-historical and philological and involves an analysis of tantras and exegetical materials in order to determine the different ways in which yoginīs liberate. The principal focus of the thesis will be on the Netratantra, an early ninth century work that serves as a prototypical example of yoginīs performing a salvific role and reveals a number of different methods employed to achieve this aim.

The key goals of liberation and the grant of supernatural powers evidenced in the tantras allowed Śākta tantric Śaivism to absorb other traditions and to broaden its appeal. This includes low caste heterodox practices involving possession and the worship of yoginīs. It is argued that this incorporation of popular extraneous religious practices was made possible by interpreting yoginīs as salvific agents of Śiva or as aspects of Śiva’s active power (Śakti). It is further argued that the different methods employed by yoginīs to liberate their devotees came to be understood through the lens of a distinctive Śākta soteriology, that was increasingly congruent with the core teachings of Śākta tantric Śaivism.

Translation, Meaning and Metaphor: Two Śākta Readings of a Pandemic in Calcutta

Utsa Bose

The so-called third bubonic plague pandemic—believed to have originated in southern China— reached British Hong Kong in 1894, from where it travelled to Bombay in 1896. From Bombay, it soon spread to other cities in British India. In April of 1898, Calcutta, the capital of British India, was declared infected with plague. While the pandemic saw a great scramble for diagnosis, changes in medical management and general administration, it also brought to the fore fundamental questions regarding causation, life, and suffering.

While the plague pandemic has been looked primarily through the lens of medical and scientific history, the philosophical and theological challenges it engendered have received comparatively lesser attention. Calcutta, while being the capital of British India, was also undergoing a strong Śākta revivalism in this period, and these religious undercurrents inflected narratives about the plague. My presentation looks at two such Śākta readings of the plague, analysing the similarities, divergences and methods through which the pandemic was understood, explained and translated.

The Transfer of Energy Among Goddesses: Codification and Transformation in Bhaktapur’s Śākta Traditions

Sharvi Maheshwari

This presentation examines how goddess figures in Bhaktapur, Nepal, engage in dynamic processes of transformation and energy transfer within the city’s rich Śākta traditions. Rooted in the cultural and religious history of the Newar community, these practices reflect a fusion of local tantric rituals with broader pan-Indic and Brahmanical influences. To analyze this ritual complexity, I introduce a conceptual model—referred to as The Codes—which helps deconstruct and reassemble tantric practices by identifying the logics behind ritual absorption, symbolic exchange, and the layering of traditions. The model reveals how goddess systems in Bhaktapur evolve through a process of ritual codification, absorbing elements from other traditions to gain legitimacy and broader appeal.

The presentation draws on ethnographic fieldwork and performance analysis of the Navadurgā festival cycle to illustrate these patterns. Through three case studies, I explore how energy is transferred among goddesses and between divine and human actors, highlighting the polyvalent nature of these figures. Ultimately, this research contributes to understanding how peripheral Śākta traditions both preserve and adapt their identities in response to historical and cultural shifts, offering a new lens on ritual transformation in South Asian religious practice.

14 May: Documentary Film Screening of “Goddess Durga Unveiled: The Timeless Power of Emotion” by Dr Ranjamrittika Bhowmik

14 May: Documentary Film Screening of “Goddess Durga Unveiled: The Timeless Power of Emotion” by Dr Ranjamrittika Bhowmik

Dr Ranjamrittika Bhowmik

Week 3, Wednesday 14 May, 2.30-4.00, OCHS Library

My documentary film, Goddess Durga Unveiled: The Timeless Power of Emotion, was produced by the Berlin University Alliance and is an output for my postdoctoral research for our project, Museums and Society:Mapping the Social at the department of European Ethnology, Humboldt University of Berlin. It is on the journey of Goddess Durga as a museum object in Europe and as a living Goddess in India, affective associations, Durga puja traditions in India, postcolonial museology, while telling her story through living traditions. It has been screened at the Babylon theatre in Berlin and will be screened at King’s College, London on 13 May.

You can read a little more about it and watch the trailer here:

https://museumsandsociety.net/en/news/publications/goddess-durga-unveiled-the-timeless-power-of-emotion-2

Ranjamrittika Bhowmik is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of European Ethnology, Humboldt University of Berlin. She received her DPhil in South Asian Studies from the University of Oxford in 2023. Her doctoral research explores esoteric yoga traditions in northeastern India through shared Buddhist and Hindu lineages, focusing on the Rājbaṃśī community and their oral literature in the Rājbaṃśī lect. Her work engages with mysticism, tantric traditions, metaphor, and the politics of alternative social imaginaries, examining concepts of the subtle body and the literary and performative expressions of dissent. Trained in Cultural Anthropology and Comparative Literature, her postdoctoral project—at Humboldt University and the Museum of Asian Art, Berlin—investigates the history of emotions, forgotten object histories, memory, decolonization, AI ethics, and intersectionality. She has held fellowships from Jadavpur University, the Government of India, the European Union & the Universities of Milan, University of Lausanne, University of Oxford, and the OCHS.  Ranjamrittika is committed to conserving and promoting intangible cultural heritage, indigenous knowledge systems, and the oral traditions of marginalized communities.

View the trailer here.

8 May: Talk on “Cow, Union Buster! Identitarianism and Organizing in Bombay’s Mills, 1850s − 1990s” by Dr Parashar Kulkarni

8 May: Talk on “Cow, Union Buster! Identitarianism and Organizing in Bombay’s Mills, 1850s − 1990s” by Dr Parashar Kulkarni

8 May: Talk on “Cow, Union Buster! Identitarianism and Organizing in Bombay’s Mills, 1850s − 1990s” by Dr Parashar Kulkarni

Virtual Classroom

Dr Parashar Kulkarni 

Week 2, Thursday 8 May, 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library

This book-length project examines the role of cow protection in resisting labour struggles in Bombay’s cotton mills from the birth of industrialization in the 1850s to its eventual decline in the 1990s. Relying on public discourse in newspapers, government reports, and union documents, it shows that cows, sacred to Hindus, became a symbol of identity and a basis for elective affinity between mill owners, political/religious leaders, and a pro-capital city government. Mill owners funded cow protection societies, political/religious leaders supported cow protection and mediated directly with mill owners, and the state offered legitimacy, further resisting the negotiating power and innovations of labour unions to demand better living and working conditions. By implicating cow protection (identitarianism/ communalism more broadly) in the political economy of industrial capitalism, this essay shifts attention from its primarily nationalist, majoritarian, and often agrarian discourse.

Parashar Kulkarni specializes in the political economy of religion in colonial and contemporary South Asia and the British Empire. He is currently visiting the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at UCL. Previously, he has taught at Yale-NUS College and has a PhD from New York University. (https://sites.google.com/view/parasharkulkarni/)

Oxford Student Theology Society Talks for Trinity Term 2025

Oxford Student Theology Society Talks for Trinity Term 2025

Please join the Oxford Student Theology Society for the first of three talks in Trinity Term 2025!

Wednesday 14th May (3rd week), 5pm
What is theology? Christian Theology and the Community of the Church
by Prof. Johannes Zachhuber, Trinity College Oxford
Location: Christ Church, Lecture Room 1

Wednesday 21 May, 5pm
Interpretative Community and Philosophical Hermeneutics
by Prof. Hindy Najman
Location: MacGregor Room, Oriel College
Wednesday 11 June, 5pm
The Comparative Imperative: Why We Need Comparative Religion
by Prof. Gavin Flood
Location: MacGregor Room, Oriel College

The talks will last about 30 minutes to be followed by Q&A and refreshments.

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

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

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

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.