News

New book - Archeology and Text: The Temple in South Asia

19 January 2010

The findings of the 2007 OCHS Shivdasani Conference, Archaeology and Text, have been published by Oxford University Press. The collection is edited by OCHS Shivdasani fellow, Himanshu Prabha Ray (JNU).

In his preface, Gavin Flood, OCHS Academic Director, says, “The temple signifies a new kind of understanding of religious life, an understanding closely linked with medieval political developments and rise of powerful dynasties. Indeed, the temple marks the importance of the region during this time was clearly a political centre and expression of power.”

Hindu leaders launch international plan to fight climate change

6 November 2009

Hindu leaders have launched an action plan for long-term environmental change following a meeting with His Royal Highness The Prince Philip and His Excellency Ban-ki Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Bhumi Project (Sanskrit for ‘Mother Earth’) was launched as part of this week’s Many Heavens, One Earth summit at Windsor Castle, attended by over 200 faith leaders from nine major world religions.

Sanskrit to be taught at Oxford

5 November 2009

Sanskrit was recently approved by the Board of the Faculty of Theology to be taught at the level of the preliminary exam (first year).

 
This means that Sanskrit will be taught in Theology alongside New Testament Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Pali.
 
There has always been an emphasis on the need to study traditions through their languages at Oxford and this development can be seen in that spirit.

OCHS - OUP launch Hindu Studies Journal

2 November 2009
3 November 2008 sees the official launch of the Journal of Hindu Studies at the American Academy of Religion Conference in Chicago.
 
The Journal is a joint venture between the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Oxford University Press.
 
According to the Journal's editor and OCHS Academic Director, Prof. Gavin Flood, 'Religion has become centre stage in public discourse, closely linked to cultural or identity politics, and now perhaps more than at any other time in recent history, there is a need for critical evaluation and discussion.

Friends update October 2009

31 October 2009

Dear Friends,

We have the mists and mellow fruitfulness of autumn, the beautiful canopies of changing colour, and the crisp crunch of leaves underfoot, but the temperature is worthy of remark. An Indian summer they call it, a term that should attract the ears of Hindu studies scholars, but instead it refers to a North American Indian phenomena, although having said that our doctoral student Gopal Gupta, is from Boise, Idaho, so he's a North American Indian, but of course not a native North American Indian in that other sense of the term ... basically it’s warm in Oxford.*

We will launch our Bhumi Project this week, an outreach project of the Centre aimed a developing environmental awareness and encouraging good practice among Hindu communities. I usually reserve next month’s news until next month’s update, but this is too good to withhold. The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies was asked to help get the Hindu community together on this issue by the Alliance of Religion and Conservation (ARC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Conference Report: Thinking Inside the Box

15 October 2009

The conference ‘Thinking Inside the Box: the idea of a category in Indian philosophy’ was held at Somerville College, on the weekend of 10–11 October.

An international group of highly regarded speakers addressed the issue of categorisation in a number of different Indian philosophical traditions.

During the course of the conference a number of themes and issues began to emerge. One was the general problem of categorisation.

Friends update - September 2009

5 October 2009

Dear Friends,

 
I hope you had a relaxing and peaceful summer and found somewhere with a bit of sun in which to bask.
 
Summer in Oxford started at June's end with Mediterranean heat, followed swiftly by a wonderfully wet July, to which we can add an overcast and fantastically forbidding August, in pursuit of a mellow and maliciously warm September. In short we have survived yet another English summer.
 
The students are coming, tumbling into Oxford with gratitude and expectation.

Thinking Inside the Box: Shivdasani Conference 2009

27 August 2009

The second OCHS Shivdasani Conference – Thinking Inside the Box: The Concept of a Category in Indian Philosophy – will be held at Somerville College, Oxford on 10–11 October.

 
This conference explores the use of categories in Indian philosophy, to include linguistic categories, aesthetic and emotional categories, universals and logical categories, metaphysical and ontological categories, and other possible processes of categorisation across different philosophical schools and diverse concepts.

Manuscriptology and Sanskritic text editing: A two-week international workshop

27 July 2009

A two-week international Workshop on Manuscriptology and Sanskritic Text Editing is being organised by Jadavpur University, Kolkata; the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies; Indira Gandhi National Centre for The Arts, National Mission for Manuscripts, New Delhi: and Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan.

The workshop will take place from 10–22 August 2009 at at Jadavpur University.

Practical training will be given at the archives of Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan; Sanskrita Sahitya Parisat, Kolkata; The Asiatic Society, Kolkata; and School of Vedic studies, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.

Hindu plans for environmental change launched at OCHS

17 July 2009

National Hindu leaders have pledged to work together to create long-term plans for environmental protection and education which have the potential to reach every Hindu living in the UK. Ideas considered include a Hindu benchmark for a range of products and services, endorsement for ethically sourced food, and advocating sustainable lifestyles. These plans will be developed and implemented over the next nine years – a timeframe chosen to encourage long-term planning.

The leaders met on Thursday 16 July, at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies as part of an international initiative led by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) and the OCHS, and backed by the United Nations Development Programme. Working with 11 world faiths, ARC is helping each to develop long-term plans for environmental protection. This built on an initial meeting in April aimed at developing relationships and exploring possibilities.

OCHS newsletter summer 2009

16 July 2009

Journal of Hindu Studies launches second issue

The Journal of Hindu Studies, a joint publication between the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Oxford University Press, launched its second issue in April. The publication of this Journal is a significant step in the Centre's progress. It and the OCHS-Routledge Hindu Studies series go far in fulfilling the Centre's role as a leading source of academic publishing.

The Journal has quickly become the premiere journal in the field bringing together articles by many of the world's leading scholars of Indian traditions. It is also an excellent opportunity to highlight the best work of the Centre's scholars.

OCHS summer school

9 July 2009

The OCHS Continuing Education Department held its first summer school here in Oxford in July. Anuradha Dooney devised and taught a weekend course along with Dr Jessica Frazier.