Vishnupriya Srinivasan

Vishnupriya Srinivasan has been a researcher at the Pondicherry Center of the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) since 2023, where she is participating in the project “Hindu Temple Legends in South India,” which focuses on textual and narrative traditions associated with the temples of South India. As part of this project, she is preparing a digital critical edition and a translation of the Kāmākṣīvilāsa. She is also interested in the evolution of the rituals described in this text and in contemporary practices observed at the Kāmākṣī Temple. To shed light on certain passages and better contextualize developments surrounding this temple and Kanchipuram, she is also studying the Saubhāgyacintāmaṇi and the Lalitopākhyāna.

Her research focuses more broadly on rituals, the Śrīvidyā tradition, Advaita Vedānta, and Sanskrit literature.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and Sanskrit, a master’s degree in Sanskrit, and a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Bharathidasan University, which she completed in 2025 (dissertation: “A Critical Study of Kaivalyanavanītam”).

In addition to her research, she teaches Sanskrit, primarily to a small group of students in private lessons, and has led several structured courses on the online platform Vyoma Samskrita Pathasala.

• 2015, Master’s degree in Sanskrit, Bharathidasan University
• 2013, Bachelor’s degree in Sanskrit, University of Madras
• 2013, Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Sri Sairam Engineering College, Anna University
• 2025, Ph.D. in Sanskrit, Bharathidasan University (dissertation on the Advaita treatise Kaivalyanavanītam)

• Researcher, “Light on Haṭha Yoga: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Haṭhapradīpikā” project, AHRC–DFG project, Pondicherry Centre, March 1–August 31, 2023.
• Researcher, “Hindu Temple Legends in South India” project, Pondicherry Centre, since September 1, 2023.

• Assistant Professor of Sanskrit, Central University of Tamil Nadu, 2015–2017
• Assistant Professor of Sanskrit, Ethiraj College, Chennai, May 2017–December 2017
• Instructor (part-time, courses), Vyoma Saṁskṛta Pāṭhaśālā (online Sanskrit learning platform), since 2020.

Translated with DeepL.com