The 13th International Indology Graduate Research Symposium (IIGRS 13) will be held at the University of Cambridge, UK, from 29-30 September 2023. We will convene in Rooms 8-9, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.
The programme and book of abstracts can be found below:
If you are interested in attending, please email iigrsuk@gmail.com to register your attendance.
IIGRS 13 abstracts
Programme
Day 1: Friday, 29th September 2023
9:00: Welcome
Panel 1: Buddhist Texts and Perspectives. Chair: Alexandra S. Ilieva
9:10: Parjanya Joshi, A Defense of Buddhist metaphysics against charges of Determinism
9:40: Sabin Maharjan, The concept of Dharmāvabodha-kṣānti (acceptance regarding the realization of Dharma) and its philosophical significance in Mahāyāna Buddhism
10:10: Gleb Sharygin, Māyājāla-sūtra – a canonical proto-Yogācāra sūtra?
10:40 — Break —
Panel 2: Mantras and Manuscripts. Chair: Jonathan Duquette
10:55: Ilya Comet, Classifying Vedic mantras: a (growing?) trend among vedabhāṣyakāras
11:25: Olli-Pekka Antero Littunen, A Multi-layered Māhātmya – Esoteric and Exoteric Aspects of a Vārāṇasīmāhātmya
11:55: Janina Kuhn, Towards a critical edition of the Pṛthvīrājavijaya
12:25 — Lunch Break —
13:25: Professor Diwakar Acharya, Keynote Lecture: The Kingdom of the Malayaketus along the Gandaki River
This presentation will present a story of the kingdom of Malayaketus based on five Sanskrit inscriptions issued by Malayaketu kings or their deputies on their behalf; one of which is from Nepal and is almost unknown till now. This kingdom covered at least 14 valleys in ‘the foothills of the Himalayas’ along the Gandaki River in present-day Bihar, UP, and Nepal Terai, and existed between the ninth and eleventh centuries, a period regarded as dark because of the scarcity of inscriptions from the region. Among other things, we will reflect on the language of these inscriptions and through the lens of these inscriptions peep into the court culture of this kingdom.
14:10 — Break —
Panel 3: Writing and Beyond: Social Impacts. Chair: Hina Khalid
14:20: Meera Trivedi, “Where women are revered, there the gods rejoice”: The Influences Shaping Women’s Writings in Late Colonial India
14:50: Tulika Singh, Multivalent Conceptions of Nonnormative and Disabled Bodies in Early Indian Textual Traditions
15:20 — Break —
Panel 4: Poetry and Purāṇas. Chair: Pranav Prakash
15:35: Juhi Patel, The Song of the Bee: An exploration into the transcendentally immanent relationship between the devotee and the Divine
16:05: Riccardo Paccagnella, What is Necessary to Read a Sanskrit Text? A Glimpse into the Mind of a South Indian Sanskrit Poet in the 17th Century
16:35: Arya Adityan, Narrative dimensions of Animality: A Study of Varāha in Skandapurāṇa and Panjurli daiva in Tulu oral epics
Group photo
Day 2: Saturday, 30th September 2023
Panel 5: Notions of the Self. Chair: Hershini Soneji
9:00: Prerita Govil, Assessing the Self and Self-Knowledge in Vyasa’s Bhagavadgītā
9:30: Nirali Patel, The nature of the self in the cosmology of Sāṃkhya
10:00 — Break —
Panel 6: Ritual and Ceremonial Texts. Chair: Ankur Barua
10:20: Anne Keßler-Persaud, Apālā and the ritually replaced hero: An alternative interpretation of the Ṛgvedic Apālāsūkta (RV 8.91)
10:50: Kexin Zheng, The Śaivization of the Tulāpuruṣadāna Ceremony
11:20: Liwen Liu, Grace and Divine Agency—The Apologetics of Violence in Tantric Śaivism
11:50 — Lunch Break —
Panel 7: Yoga, Music, and Martial Arts: A Textual Perspective. Chair: Madhulika Chebrol
13:15: Ruth Westoby, The mighty body of yoga (yogadehaṃ mahābalam): bodily sovereignty in haṭha yoga
13:45: Shani Goldfrad, The Self, Composed: Introspection as Musical Tension in the Kamalāmbā Navāvaraṇa Kṛtis
14:15: Lucy May Constantini, Alternative Methodologies: Making Sense of Texts in Relation to the Embodied Practice of Kaḷarippayaṟṟ ̆, a South Indian Martial Art
14:45 — Break —
Panel 8: Vijñāna: Maths and Astrology. Chair: Vincenzo Vergiani
15:05: Anupam Kumar Suman, On the first three adhyāyas of Bṛhajjātakam: The melting pot of the Indian and the Greek knowledge system
15:35: Priyamvada Nambrath, Deciphering Vernacular Mathematics: Going Local in a Sanskritic World
16:05: Closing Remarks
Proceeds will be published in Puṣpikā 7. Details on submission can be found here.
You can find the programmes of former symposia in the historical archive.
IIGRS 