PondicherryAs part of the DHARMA project, Coline Lefrancq and Bérénice Bellina (both researchers at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) are going to the EFEO Centre in Pondicherry in July to study the ceramics and material associated with several archaeological sites in Tamil Nadu, held in the collections of the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department. They are carrying out this mission with a view to setting up a multi-disciplinary project on trade networks in collaboration with V. Selvakumar, Valérie Gillet and Yohan Chabot.
G. Vijayavenugopal presents a paper titled "Mathas in Tamilnadu: A Matha for Washermen" at the Seminar on Social Changes in Medieval Tamilnad, organized by the Society for the Study of Pandyan History in Madurai on July 15. He will also attend the Annual Seminar of the Tamilnadu Historical Society in Kanchipuram on July 23-24, where the journal AVANAM will be released. Sarma participates in a Two-Day International Workshop on Vedic Knowledge, organized by Veda Sroutha Gurukulam, Edappal, Kerala, in collaboration with Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit (Regional Centre, Tirunavaya) on July 3-4, 2024. He presents a paper titled "Kerala’s Contribution to Vedic Scholarship: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives." Emmanuel Francis (CNRS/ projet DHARMA), Renato Davalos (DHARMA) and N. Ramaswamy (EFEO) embark on two extensive field trips this month: • In the first half of July, they travel north of Pondicherry to Kolar in southeastern Karnataka, visiting various sites between Pondicherry and Kolar. S. A. S. Sarma and M. Vigneswaran will join them for the Kolar segment to read inscriptions related to donations for temple rituals prescribed in Yāmala tantra, and possibly Florinda de Simini as well. • In the second half of July, the team will explore the Kaveri basin south of Pondicherry. Margherita Trento and Florinda de Simini will join them for this trip or part of it. Muralikrishnan presents a paper titled "Female Worship in Kerala Tantra" at the Two-Day International Workshop on Vedic Knowledge at Veda Sroutha Gurukulam, Narayanamangalath Mana, Edappal, Kerala, on July 4. S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma presents a paper titled "Kriyāviśeṣaṇānāṁ napuṁsakatvam iti viṣaye vicāraḥ (Bhattarahasyānusāreṇa)" at the Sastrasabha, a traditional conference organized by Kanchi-Kamakotipeetham in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, on 21 July. He will also present a paper titled "Pramitādhikraṇa vicāraḥ" at the Advaitavedāntasadas, a traditional conference organized by Kanchi-Kamakotipeetham in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, on 23 July. Furthermore, he will present another paper titled "Kriyāvisheshaṇa vicāraḥ" at the Advaitavedāntasadas, a traditional conference organized by the Jayendrasarswatiswami Maha Sabha and Kanchi-Kamakotipeetham at Orikkai in Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu, from 21 to 23 July. Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Veda Sastra Patasala, Kanchipuram, has requested S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma to prepare six question papers from different texts of Vyakaranasastra for their examination. This examination will be conducted from 7 to 11 August, and S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma will be responsible for preparing these question papers. Additionally, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Veda Sastra Patasala, Kanchipuram, has asked S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma to conduct the examination and evaluate the answer sheets from 7 to 11 of August. Catherine Nelli, a Fulbright scholar from Brown University studying the reception-history of the Jayadeva’s celebrated twelfth-century Sanskrit poem the Gītagovinda, particularly in France (through French translation) and in Bengal, is visiting the Centre for a few weeks to pursue her studies and to participate in various Sanskrit reading sessions. Zakariya Pamuji Aminullah, a doctoral student at the University of Hamburg, is joining the Centre from 16 July to 15 August. His project, supported by an EFEO scholarship, focuses on identifying Indian influences in the Candrakiraṇa, a lexicographical work in Old Javanese. He will take part in reading sessions led by Dominic Goodall. Yingxin Zhang, a doctoral student at the University of Chicago, has received a grant from the Chicago South Asian Studies Committee for a three-month stay, from July to September, to come to the EFEO Center in Pondicherry. She hopes to explore manuscripts and textual criticism, using EFEO resources to deepen her understanding of regional Sanskrit commentaries. S. Saravanan is taking part in the "Sixteenth International Workshop on Tamil Epigraphy," a ten-day training program in Thanjavur, organized from August 1 to 10 by the Tamil University of Thanjavur in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology of the state of Tamil Nadu and the Groupe de Recherches en Études Indiennes. From August 26 to 30, a hybrid reading workshop is being held to study parts of an upcoming edition of the Yogacintamani by Sivanandasarasvati, a previously unpublished 17th-century Sanskrit treatise on yoga that expands upon an earlier treatise of the same name by a certain Godavaramisra. The work is rich in citations from a wide range of sources and contains discussions that demonstrate considerable scholarship. The work on the edition will be supported by a grant from the American NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities), and the editors will be Shaman Hatley (University of Massachusetts, Boston), Jim Mallinson (SOAS/Oxford), and Jason Birch (SOAS), who will all attend the workshop. |
