Archives: Fellows

Fellows

Dr Natalia Lidova

Dr Natalia Lidova

Biography:

Dr Natalia Lidova is one of the leading Russian scholars within the field of Sanskrit literature and Hindu culture. She has worked as a Visiting Professor at Delhi University, J.N.U., Benaras Sanskrit University, Poona University and Calcutta University.

Selected publications:

  • Yajna and puja. A comparison of the ritual archetypes. – Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay, vol.74, 2000, p.127-138;
  • The Vedic Sources of Hindu Creation Myth. – prakrti.The Integral Vision. General Editor K.Vatsyayan. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, 1995;
  • Drama and Ritual of Early Hinduism. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1994 (Second edition, 1996);
  • Amrtamanthana.Vedic Ritual and Epic Myth. – IX World Sanskrit Conference. Abstracts, Melbourne, 1993;
  • Ritual Sources of Sanskrit Drama. – Indian Traditions through the Ages. New Delhi, 1990;
  • Rangadevatapujana in the Natyasastra and the Agamic Rituals. – VIII World Sanskrit Conference. Abstracts, Vienna, 1990.
Dr Rajan Khatiwoda

Dr Rajan Khatiwoda

Biography:

Rajan is a Research Associate at the South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University and the Research Unit “Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal”, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Rajan has a PhD in South Asian Studies (Heidelberg University) and MA in Classical Indology (Nepal Sanskrit University, Balmeeki Vidyapeeth). Rajan has been a Research Assistant and Cataloguer at the Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project (NGMCP) at the Nepal Research Centre (NRC) in Kathmandu for 9 years (2004-2013). He is the Honorary Leader of our Kathmandu Office.

Research Area/s:

His interests span widely from Śaivism to Indian Philosophy, Manuscriptology and Epigraphy with a special focus on medieval and pre-modern Nepalese legal History, and the emergence and practices of the Śākta traditions in the Kathmandu Valley.

Selected Publications:

His publications include:

  • “Documented Evidence Relating to the Implementation of the Mulukī Ain in Mid-19th Century Nepal”, in: Studies in Historical Documents of Nepal and India, herausgegeben von Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels und Astrid Zotter (im Erscheinen) (2018). Co-authored with Manik Bajracharya und Simon Cubelic.
  • “Reporting across Borders in a Time of Turmoil: Eight Reports from Lokaramaṇa Upādhyāya from the Years 1837–1844,” in: Abhilekha 34: 138-172 (2017). Co-authored with Simon Cubelic.
  • “Nepalese Monarchy in an Age of Codification: Kingship, Patriotism, and Legality in the Nepalese Code of 1854“, in: Transnational Histories of the “Royal Nation”, herausgegeben von Milinda Banerjee, Charlotte Backerra and Cathleen Sarti, 67–86. Cham: Springer International Publishing (2017). Co-authored with Manik Bajracharya und Simon Cubelic.
  • “Reporting across Borders: Four Reports of Lokaramaṇa Upādhyāya from the years 1831–1837”, in: Abhilekha 33: 120–133 (2016). Co-authored with Manik Bajracharya und Axel Michaels.
  • “Six 19th-20th Century Documents on Elephants from the National Archives of Nepal”, in: Abhilekha 32: 96–105 (2015).  „Acyutāṣṭakavyākhyā by Vācaspati Panta: A testimony to Nepalese Scholarship“, in: Abhilekha 28: 90–103 (2012).
Professor Himanshu Prabha Ray

Professor Himanshu Prabha Ray

Biography

Himanshu Prabha Ray is former Chairperson of the National Monuments Authority, Ministry of Culture, and former Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. As a recipient of the Anneliese Maier research award of the Humboldt Foundation in 2013, she is affiliated to Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich. She is also editor of Archaeology and Religion in South Asia in the Routledge Series.

Prof. Ray is Series Editor on the Archaeology and Religion in South Asia book series: http://www.routledge.com/books/series/AR/

Selected Publications

Her recent publications include:

  • ‘Anchoring maritime crossings. Coastal heritage of the Bay of Bengal’, International Institute of Asian Studies Newsletter, 2020;
  • ‘Nagapattinam Bronzes in Context’, CSMVS Research Journal, 2019;
  • Archaeology and Buddhism in South Asia, Routledge, 2019;
  • ‘Early Historic Gujarat and the Trading World of the Western Indian Ocean’, in E. Alpers and C. Goswami eds., Transregional Trade and Traders: Situating Gujarat in the Indian Ocean From Early Times to 1900, Oxford University Press, 2019;
  • ‘Warp and Weft: Producing, Trading and Consuming Indian Textiles Across the Seas (First- Thirteenth Centuries CE’, in P. Machado & S. Fee eds., Textile Trades, Consumer Cultures, and the Material Worlds of the Indian Ocean: An Ocean of Cloth, Palgrave Macmillian, 2018;
  • Beyond Trade: Cultural Roots of India’s Ocean, Aryan Books International, 2015;
  • The Sea, Identity and History: From the Bay of Bengal to the South China Sea, Satish Chandra & Himanshu Prabha Ray eds, Manohar Publishers, 2013;
  • The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia, Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Professor Ravi M. Gupta

Professor Ravi M. Gupta

Biography

Professor Ravi M. Gupta holds the Charles Redd Chair of Religious Studies and serves as Director of the Religious Studies Program at Utah State University, and was a Visiting Scholar at the Maxwell Institute during Fall 2020. In 2000 he completed his Masters in The Study of Religion at Oxford University. Professor Gupta holds a doctorate in Hindu Studies from Oxford University and has taught at the University of Florida, Centre College, and the College of William and Mary. He has received four teaching awards, a National Endowment for the Humanities summer fellowship, and two research fellowships at Oxford. He is a Permanent Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and a past president of the Society for Hindu Christian Studies.

Research Area

Sanskrit, Hinduism, World Religions and Theory and Method.

Research Interests

The Bhagavata Purana’s Sanskrit commentaries, Vaishnava bhakti traditions, interreligious dialogue, the relationship between faith and scholarship and religion and ecology.

Selected Publications

  • Translater: Bhagavata Purana (Columbia University Press, 2017).
  • Caitanya Vaisnava Philosophy: Tradition, Reason and Devotion (Ashgate, 2014).
  • The Chaitanya Vaishnava Vedanta of Jiva Goswami (Routledge, 2007).

Chapters and Articles

  • “”He is our master”: Jesus in the Thought of Swami Prabhupada”, Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 23/7, 15-19 (2010).
Professor Daniel J. Ehnbom

Professor Daniel J. Ehnbom

Biography

Daniel Ehnbom is Associate Professor at the McIntire Department of Art at the University of Virginia. He was with the Macmillan/Grove Dictionary of Art (1996) in London as a contributor and consultant from 1984 and as South Asia Area Editor for Painting and Sculpture from 1988.

Research Areas

Painting and Indian architecture, South Asia in general, including Sri Lanka and contiguous regions of Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Research Interests

Mughal and pre-Mughal or Sultanate painting; Western Indian painting; Pala or Eastern Indian painting; Rajput painting; Rajasthani painting; Bundi, Kota, or Hadauti painting; Mewar or Udaipur painting; Bikaner painting; Jodhpur or Marwar painting; sculpture and architecture, especially Early Indian sculpture; Maurya sculpture; Sunga or Shunga sculpture; Sanci or Sanchi; Kusana or Kushana or Kushan sculpture.

Selected Publications

  • Realms of Earth and Sky: Indian Painting from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century (Fralin Museum of Art, 2014).
  • Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection (Hudson Hill Press, 1985).
  • Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and Origins of Mughal Painting (Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976).
Dr Santanu Dey

Dr Santanu Dey

Biography:

Dr Santanu Dey is today an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira (a residential autonomous College affiliated to the Calcutta University) located at Belur Math near Kolkata, India. He completed his Masters in 2001 at Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi, India, and a MPhil in 2004, also at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. In 2015 Dr Santanu Dey did his Ph.D. on the topic ‘Resuscitating or Restructuring Tradition? Issues and trends among Gaudiya Vaishnavas in late Nineteenth and early Twentieth century Bengal’, likewise from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Dr Santanu Dey is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Oxford University, and a UK Life Member of Bangiya Sahitya Parishat and Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture Library, Golpark.

Research Area/s:

Modern Indian History, Socio-cultural history of Colonial Bengal, Religion and modernity, Cultural Studies, and Pilgrimage studies.

Research Interests:

Vaishnava Studies, Religion and Colonial Modernity and literary history of Bengal.

Selected Publications:

  • “Piety in Print: The Vaishnava Periodicals of colonial Bengal”, Journal of Hindu Studies 13/1, (2020).
  • “Vaishnava Institutional Processes in colonial Bengal”, in: Ferdinando Sardella & Lucian Wong eds., The Legacy of Vaishnavism in colonial Bengal, Routledge Hindu Studies Series, Abingdon and New York (2020).
  • “Debating historical validity of Vaishnava texts in colonial Bengal”, in: Samina Sultana ed., Itihas Prabandhamala, Annual Proceedings of the Itihas Academy, Dhaka (2015).
  • “Oupanibeshik Juge Banglar Baishnab Andolaner prabhab o prabanata” Dashadishi journal 3, 160-177 (2015).
  • “Dinesh Chandra Sen and the archiving of a Vaishnava Literary Heritage: Search for Bengali identity in colonial Bengal”, Bengal Past and Present 132, 1-68 (2013).
  • “Vaishnava Periodicals and Aspects of Bengali Devotionalism in Colonial Bengal”, in: Santanu Dey ed., Religion and Culture in India across the Ages: Historical Reflections, Rkm Vidyamandira, Belur Math (2013).
  • “Vaishnava Reform movement and the making of a national culture in colonial Bengal”, in: Santanu Dey et al., Indigenous Traditions and Historical Forces: Impact of Bhakti Movement on Indian Nationalism, Manav Prakashan, Kolkata (2012).
  • “Kedarnath Datta and the Process of re-asserting Gaudiya Vaishnava identity in Bengal at the cusp of the 20th century”, in: Ratna Ghoshal ed.,  The Study of Social History, Progressive Publishers, Kolkata (2013).
  • “Autobiographic and Hagiographic constructions of Kedarnath Datta as a Gaudiya Vaishnava Reformer in colonial Bengal”, History Journal 11, 64-75 (2012).
Dr Måns Broo

Dr Måns Broo

Biography:

Dr Måns Broo is a senior lecturer at the Department of Comparative Religion, Åbo Akademi University, Finland. He was awarded the 2017 Donner Research Prize for his book The Rādhā Tantra: A critical edition and annotated translation (Routledge, 2017). Dr Broo is also  editor of the award-winning Finnish yoga magazine Ananda.

Research Area/s:

Aspects of intentionality, agency and identity formation in contemporary Finnish popular culture, Hindu Studies and Yoga.

Research Interests:

Yoga – both its history and contemporary forms –, the intersections between Vaiṣṇavism and Tantrism in pre-modern Bengal, Caitanya Vaishnava ritual practices, modern middle-class Hinduism, and issues of agency and identity within modern yoga practices.

Selected Publications:

  • The Rādhā Tantra: A critical edition and annotated translation (Routledge, 2017).
  • Spiritual Guidance Across Religions: A Sourcebook for Spiritual Directors and Other Professionals Providing Counsel to People of Differing Faith Traditions (SkyLight Paths, 2014).
  • As Good as God. The Guru in Gaudiya Vaisnavism (Abo Akademi University Press, 2003).

Chapters and Articles:

  • “Diversification, Mainstreaming, Commercialization and Domestication – New Religious Movements and Trends in Finland”, in: James R. Lewis & Inga Bårdsen Tøllefsen eds., Handbook of Nordic New Religions, Brill, Leiden, 2015.
Mrs Mary Brockington

Mrs Mary Brockington

Selected Publications:

  • “Showing what is not: the use of illusion in classical Sanskrit Rāma plays”, in: Danuta Stasik ed., Oral—Written—Performed: the Ramayana narratives in Indian literature and arts, CrossAsia eBooks, 2020.
  • “From Kanauj to Laos: development of the “Floating Maiden” episode in the Southeast Asian Rāma tradition”, in: S. Settar & Parul Pandya Dhar eds., Connecting Cultures: Rāmāyaṇa retellings in South India and Southeast Asia. Proceedings of an international conference held in Bangalore, 2017, Manipal University Press, Mangalore, 2020.
  • The Other Rāmāyaṇa Women: regional rejection and response, ed. by John Brockington and Mary Brockington, Routledge Hindu Studies Series, Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.
  • “Mānaku’s Siege of Laṅkā series: words and pictures”, Artibus Asiae 73.1: 231-58, 2013.
  • The Motif of the Separating Sword in World Art and Literature: A Study of Its Origins and Development, Edwin Mellen Pr, 2008.
  • Rāma the Steadfast: An Early Form of the Rāmāyaṇa, tr. by John Brockington and Mary Brockington, Penguin Books, London, 2006.
  • Epic Threads, Oxford University Press India, 2003.
  • Epic Threads: John Brockington on the Sanskrit Epics, ed. Greg Bailey and Mary Brockington, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2000.
  • Composing a Tradition: Concepts, Techniques and Relationships, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2000.

Editorial work:

  • Stages and Transitions: temporal and historical frameworks in epic and historical literature.  Proceedings of the second Dubrovnik International Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas, 1999. Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, 2002.
  • Composing a Tradition: concepts, techniques, and relationships. Proceedings of the first Dubrovnik International Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas, 1997. Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, 1999
Professor John Brockington FRSE

Professor John Brockington FRSE

Biography

Professor John Brockington graduated from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1963 and joined the Sanskrit Department at Edinburgh in 1965. In 1968 Professor Brockington completed his D.Phil with a thesis on the language and style of the Rāmāyaṇa. He remained at Edinburgh throughout his teaching career and is now emeritus Professor of Sanskrit in the School of Asian Studies, of which he was the first Head (1998-1999); he was also the first Convenor of the Centre for South Asian Studies (1989-1993). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2001.

He was the Secretary General of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies from 2000 to 2012 (and is now a Vice President) and he was the chair of the organising committee of the 13th World Sanskrit Conference, held at Edinburgh in July 2006. Professor Brockington has given lectures by invitation at many universities in India and Europe and was awarded the honorary Vidyāvācaspati degree by Silpakorn University, Bankok, in 2015.  He was a founder member the Executive Committee of the Dubrovnik International Conferences on the Sanskrit Epics and Puranas.

Research Areas

The Sanskrit epics and the history of Hinduism.

Research Interests

His research has focused on the Rāmāyaṇa in its many forms. Other research interests include the Mahabhārata, the Purāṇas and the development of Vaiṣṇavism.

Selected Publications

  • Translator: Rāma the Steadfast: An Early Form of the Rāmāyaṇa (Penguin Classics, 2006).
  • Epic Threads: John Brockington on the Sanskrit Epics (Oxford University Press, 2000).
  • A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit and other Indian Manuscripts of the Chandra Shum Shere Collection in the Bodleian Library, Part II, Epics and Purāṇas (Clarendon Press, 1999).
  • The Sanskrit Epics (E. J. Brill, 1998).
  • Hinduism and Christianity (Palgrave Macmillan, 1992).
  • Righteous Rama: the evolution of an epic (Oxford University Press, 1985).
  • The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in its Continuity and Diversity (Edinburgh University Press, 1981).

Chapters and Articles

  • “Stories in stone: sculptural representations of the Rāma narrative”, in: Oral–Written–Performed: the Rāmāyaṇa narratives in Indian literature and arts, ed. by Danuta Stasik (Heidelberg: CrossAsia eBooks, 2020): 37-51.
  • “Religious Practices in the Sanskrit Epics”, in Hindu Practice, ed. by Gavin Flood, in The Oxford History of Hinduism, gen. ed. Gavin Flood (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 202): 79-98.
  • “Illustrated Rāmāyaṇa manuscripts”, in: Mitrasampradānam: a collection of papers in honour of Yaroslav Vassilkov (Saint Petersburg: MAE RAS, 2018): 204-21.
  • “Hanuman in the Mahabharata”, Journal of Vaishnava Studies 12/2, 129.135 (2004).
  • “Yoga in the Mahābhārata”, in: Ian Whicher & David Carpenter eds., Yoga: The Indian Tradition, Routledge, London (2003).
Professor Knut Jacobsen

Professor Knut Jacobsen

Biography

Knut A. Jacobsen is Professor in the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion at the University of Bergen, Norway. He works in the intersection between history, philosophy and religion. His main fields of research include Sāṃkhya and Yoga theory and practice, transnational Hinduism, and Hindu sacred geography, travel and pilgrimage. He is the author of five 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), Yoga in Modern Hinduism: Hariharānanda Āraṇya and Sāṃkhyayoga (Routledge, 2018), and Hinduism in the world: Migrations and global presence (Routledge 2025) 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. (Routledge 2024). He is the editor in chief of the seven volumes Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism (Brill 2009-2023) and Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism Online (https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/db/enhi).

Research Interests

Knut A. Jacobsen is a historian of Indian religions and philosophies and work with Indological, historical and ethnographic methods. He works especially with the Sāṃkhya and Sāṃkhya-Yoga systems of religious thought and has published several monographs on different aspects Sāṃkhya and Sāṃkhya-Yoga. His research has shown that Sāṃkhya is more than one of India’s systems of thought, it manifests at sites of pilgrimage, in rituals, iconographies and art, in monastic institutions and religious identities, and is a cultural phenomenon. His current research project aims at giving an analysis of the diversity of Sāṃkhya traditions, historically and contemporary and based on textual and ethnographic research. He has a long term research interest in Sāṃkhya and theories about, and relations to nature. Another field of his research is Hinduism, space and travel with projects and publications on pilgrimage, migrations, transnational Hinduism and diasporas. Jacobsen’s research interests also include the wider religious pluralism in India and the South Asian diasporas.

Selected Publications

MONOGRAPHS IN ENGLISH

  • Jacobsen, Knut A. Hinduism in the World: Migrations and global presence. London: Routledge, 2025.
  • Jacobsen, Knut A. Yoga in Modern Hinduism: Hariharānanda Āraṇya and Sāṃkhyayoga. London: Routledge, 2018.
  • Jacobsen, Knut A. Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: Salvific Space. London: Routledge, 2013.
  • Jacobsen, Knut A. Kapila: Founder of Sāṃkhya and Avatāra of Viṣṇu. New Delhi:
  • Munshiram Manoharlal, 2008.
  • Jacobsen, Knut A. Prakṛti in Sāṃkhya-Yoga: Material Principle, Religious Experience, Ethical Implications. New York: Peter Lang, 1999.

EDITED VOLUMES IN ENGLISH (Selected)

  • Jacobsen, Knut A. (ed.) Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Seven Volumes Leiden: Brill, 2009-2023
  • Jacobsen, Knut A. (ed.). Hindu Diasporas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
  • Jacobsen, Knut A. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of South Asian Religions. London: Routledge, 2021.
  • Jacobsen, Knut A. and Ferdinando Sardella (eds.). Handbook of Hinduism in Europe. Two volumes. Leiden: Brill, 2020.
  • Jacobsen, Knut A., John Cort, Paul Dundas and Kristi Wiley (eds.). Brill’s Encyclopedia of Jainism. Leiden: Brill, 2020.
  • Jacobsen, Knut A. and Kristina Myrvold (eds.) Religion and Technology in India: Spaces, Practices and Authorities. Abingdon: Routledge, 2018.
  • Jacobsen, Knut A. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016 (2nd edition, 2024).
  • Jacobsen, Knut A., Mikael Aktor and Kristian Myrvold (eds) Objects of Worship in South Asian Religions: Forms, Practices and Meanings. Abingdon: Ashgate, 2015.
  • Jacobsen, Knut A. (ed.) Yoga Powers: Extraordinary Capacities Attained Through Meditation and Concentration. Leiden: Brill, 2012. .
  • Jacobsen, Knut A. (ed.) Modern Indian Culture and Society. 4 vols. Editor. London: Routledge, 2009.
  • Jacobsen, Knut A (ed.) Theory and Practice of Yoga: Essays in Honour of Gerald James Larson. Leiden: Brill, 2005.
  • Jacobsen, Knut A. and P. Pratap Kumar (ed.) South Asians in Diaspora: Histories and Religious Traditions. Leiden: Brill, 2004.