Dr Jessica Frazier
Dr Rembert Lutjeharms
Next Symposium: Friday 30 May 2025
The 41st annual The Sanskrit Traditions Symposium will take place in Oxford, at Trinity College, on Friday 30 May 2025, hosted by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. We invite proposals for papers on any aspect of South Asia’s rich Sanskrit religious and intellectual culture.
Proposals of 300-500 words should be submitted by Saturday 29 March 2025. They should be sent to the organising committee: stimw@ochs.org.uk.
The deadline for the submission of the accepted papers will be Monday 28 April 2025.
Papers and Format – Papers are presented by leading scholars in the field as well as by research students. Papers are pre-circulated so that participants can read them before the seminar to ensure the best possible use of discussion time. Papers are therefore not read out at the seminar itself but instead briefly introduced by the chair who will then raise questions to the paper-giver, before opening the discussion. Papers should be no longer than 20 A4 pages (or under 8,000 words), including notes and references. We also welcome shorter research reports from graduate students. To facilitate discussion for those short of reading time, paper-givers should provide a one-page abstract of the key argument of the paper, along with their paper. Please include your email address for further feedback.
Please note that this will be an in-person event.
Please submit the email address you want us to use to send you information about the event, including the programme and papers (when available). We will only use your email address for communication related to the Sanskrit Traditions Symposium.
Research Reports, also pre-circulated, will be allocated 15 minutes of discussion time. In this case, the chair will introduce the report presenter who will then briefly summarise his or her own research together with the questions the presenter would like the audience to comment on. The chair will then open the discussion to all present.
Research Reports should be no longer than 8 pp, A4, and should be presented in a font size no smaller than Times New Roman 12 point. Line spacing should be no less than 1.5.
To facilitate discussion, report presenters should provide a one page abstract of the main lines of their research and the key questions they would like addressed. Please include your email address for further feedback.
Date: Friday 31 May 2024
Time: 11.00 am – 4.45 pm (BST)
Location: Trinity College, Oxford
The Sanskrit Traditions Symposium is a forum for the discussion of the Sanskrit traditions of South Asia, and the texts and cultures that have risen out of them. It brings together established and rising academics for the focused examination of research pertaining to various aspects of South Asia’s rich Sanskrit religious and intellectual culture. It thereby seeks to sustain and build upon the long history of scholarship in this important area of study.
The History of Sanskrit Traditions (in the Modern World)
Dermot Killingley & Jacqueline Suthren Hirst
A little known illustrated manuscript of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa
John Brockington
When a Bengali Parrot Narrates the Sanskrit Bhāgavata:
Modernization and Mādhurya-nization in Guṇarāj Khān’s Śrīkṛṣṇavijay
Kiyokazu Okita
Sexual versus devotional (Festival of) Love in 13th-14th century Kerala
Christophe Vielle
Fourth paper:
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Week 5, Friday 27 May
The Sanskrit Traditions Symposium is a forum for the discussion of the Sanskrit traditions of South Asia, and the texts and cultures that have risen out of them. It brings together established and rising academics for the focused examination of research pertaining to various aspects of South Asia’s rich Sanskrit religious and intellectual culture. It thereby seeks to sustain and build upon the long history of scholarship in this important area of study.
The Symposium will be held online this year. The papers to be presented are:
The Development of the Terms Māyā, Īśvara and Saccidānanda in the Early Advaita Vedānta
Ivan Andrijanić (University of Zagreb)
With the Eye of a Scholar and the Insight of a Physician: Gangadhar Ray Kaviraj and the Carakasaṃhitā
Cristina Pecchia (Austrian Academy of Sciences and University of Vienna)
Śūdra’s Salvation Through Reading the Bhāgavatapurāṇa: A Debate Among Early Modern Vaiṣṇavas
Radha Blinderman (Harvard University)
Vedantic Comedy and Religious Nationalism in V. Raghavan’s Modern Sanskrit Drama, Vimukti
Charles S. Preston (University of Chicago
The Sanskrit Traditions in the Modern World Symposium celebrated its 37th event on 28th May 2021, bringing together a global community of scholars working on Sanskrit sources of all kinds, in a shared conversation hosted by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. The Symposium enjoys a unique structure of having pre-circulated papers introduced by a scholar who then turns over to a response from the author, and opens the floor to general discussion from the audience. This year, as ever, this allowed for vigorous and collegial engagement on a range of topics. Approximately fifty participants from as far afield as Canada, Australia, India and across Europe joined in.
This year the Symposium’s papers were on Kuṇḍalinī in the early Haṭha corpus (Ruth Westoby, SOAS), Dharmaśāstra in the 2019 Ayodhya Verdict (C. T. Fleming), the Intertextuality of the Dharma-maṅgala (Rebecca Manring), and Sanskrit Humour in Kutiyattam Performance (Elena Mucciarelli & Adheesh Sathaye). The respondents were Jason Birch, Mandakranta Bose, Ishan Chakrabarti, and Jacqueline Hirst.
The Symposium was a great success, bringing together the enduring community of Sanskrit scholars in a lively, rich, and warm conversation; we look forward to May 2022.
Gavin Flood
Exploring Eclecticism in Svāminārāyaṇa Scripture
Avni Chag
Was the Thirteenth Year Over?
Simon Brodbeck
Fragments and Perspectives: The Abduction of the Princesses of Kāśī in the Mahābhārata
Zuzana Spicova
(To be announced)
Mandakranta Bose
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