Abstracts ordered alphabetically according to surnames
Shubham Arora (University of British Columbia): Harihara’s Śṛṅgāradīpikā: A “new” Sanskrit treatise on erotics
This paper investigates the intellectual history of kāmaśāstra (theory of erotics) by analyzing Harihara’s Śṛṅgaradīpikā (c. thirteenth–fifteenth century CE), a text that has received little scholarly attention and has never before been examined in English. It asks how and why the Śṛṅgaradīpikā expands the categories of erotics by incorporating concepts and categories from parallel traditions of poetics and yogic practices. Harihara presents his work as a new treatise on erotics, but he does not specify what constitutes its novelty. To address this, the paper compares the Śṛṅgāradīpikā with earlier kāmaśāstra texts and highlights three features unique to Harihara: the classification of women and men, the eleven stages of love, and the eighty-four sexual postures. The analysis demonstrates that while Harihara builds on already established erotics, particularly Kokkoka’s Ratirahasya, he also heavily engages with the poetics, especially Rudrabhaṭṭa’s Śṛṅgāratilaka (the kāmaśāstra and the concept of pleasure were reimagined in the second millennium CE.
Christopher R. Austin (Dalhousie University): The Tārakāmaya Wars in the Harivaṃśa and Mahābhārata
The Mahābhārata’s supplement, the Harivaṃśa, provides an account (33-38) of a celestial battle of the gods and demons, ending in the death of the asura Kālanemi at Viṣṇu’s hands. This great battle is called the Tārakāmaya War (‘saṃgrām[a] tārakāmay[a]’), and it appears to be continuous with, or provide the culmination to, a battle related at Harivaṃśa 20. This earlier conflict had arisen on account of Soma’s abduction and rape of Bṛhaspati’s wife Tārā ― a conflict likewise designated ‘tārakāmaya’. Thus, in their recent Harivaṃśa translations, both Couture and Brodbeck quite understandably take Viṣṇu’s defeat of Kālanemi at Harivaṃśa 38 to connect directly to the mistreatment of Tārā told at Harivaṃśa 20. In this paper, I present an alternate reading of the tag, demonstrating that there are at least three ‘Tārakāmaya’ wars known in the Harivaṃśa and Mahābhārata, and that they each have an independent rationale for the designation ‘saṃgrām[a] tārakāmay[a]’, a śloka-quarter phrase used almost universally in b- or d-pada position: (a) the battle prompted by Soma’s rape of Tārā, (b) the battle of Skanda or Kumāra against Tāraka, and (c) the battle of Viṣṇu and the gods against Kālanemi, wherein two demons named Tāra and Maya are the initiating figures. In the process, I attempt an unraveling of a few mythological threads knotted around the figure of Kumāra, as well as an analysis of epic usages of the -maya suffix.
Raj Balkaran (independent scholar): Voicing the Goddess: Translating the Devī Māhātmya for English Utterance
The Devī Māhātmya is a foundational scripture of Hindu Goddess traditions, celebrated for its theological richness and ritual power. This paper introduces a new English translation crafted for the sake of utterance. It is concerned not only with what words mean, but with how they sound, how they are embodied, and how they carry presence. This translation therefore aims not only to faithfully convey meaning but also to convey the very sonic structures—anaphora, salutation formulas, rhythmic flow—that have long sustained the text’s liturgical life. In sum, this work honours that the Goddess of the Devī Māhātmya was never intended to be silenced by text—but to be heard aloud.
Sudha Berry (independent scholar): Krauñca – Birds and Mountain
The cooing pair of krauñca birds engrossed in their love for each other at the outset of the Rāmāyaṇa, usually regarded as a depiction of a pair of curlews, are well known in Sanskrit literature. The killing of one of the pair by a Niṣada hunter and the piercing cry of its grief-stricken mate caused the author Valmiki to be overcome with emotion and impelled him to compose a sloka, thereby providing the emotional impetus and poetic form for the entire epic. Lesser known is a mountain named krauñca, references to which appear in both the Taittiriya Āraṇyaka and the Mahābhārata. The word ‘krauñca’ comes from kruñc, a Class I verb root which means “‘to curve or make crooked’ or ‘to be crooked, move crookedly, to become small, shrink, or to make small, lessen, to go towards, to approach. Curlews do have a long curved beak so krauñca may indeed be an appropriate moniker for them and perhaps the mountain krauñca is also curved? The mountain krauñca has a story associated with it which culminates in the piercing of the mountain by Kārttikeya. Although the meaning of the word ‘krauñca’ is primarily associated with being crooked, the concept of piercing appears in both the story of the krauñca’s piercing cry in the Rāmāyaṇa and the piercing of the mountain krauñca by Kārttikeya. This would suggest that there may also be an association of krauñca with the concept of piercing. I propose to investigate the story of the mountain krauñca to learn the significance of its piercing and whether that reveals any links between the krauñca birds and the krauñca mountain.
Yigal Bronner (University of Alberta): KEYNOTE On Alaṅkāras: Reconsidering Ornaments In Indic Literary Theory and Beyond
The most important concept in Indic poetics is the "ornament" (alaṅkāra), a term referring to a host of highly disparate figures of speech and literary devices. It is not for nothing that the systematic investigation of literature in most South Asian languages is named after this term. Yet ornaments enjoy a very dubious reputation in Indology. To the sensibilities of many modern readers and critics, the very idea of the aesthetic power of ornaments--physical as verbal--is suspect. This approach partly intersects with an emic movement led by Ānandavardhana (c. 875 Kashmir). This movement sought, among other things, to demote ornament, the hitherto king of literary theory, to the status of a secondary accessory to be used only in a way that would please the newly discovered "soul" of poetry: the resonance of rasa. In Indology, there seems to be a lasting preference to side with this approach. In this talk, I rethink the historical and theoretical role of ornaments in the Sanskrit tradition: Why the metaphor of ornamentation? How do ornaments work aesthetically? What do the very different devices have in common and what makes them all “ornaments"? What explains their enduring presence in the Sanskrit and Vernacular traditions? And what can we learn from their analysis in premodern South Asian thought?
Deepro Chakraborty (University of Alberta): An Historical Account of the Kātantra Texts in Kashmir
The Kātantra grammar was one of the most influential schools of Sanskrit grammar. Originally composed by Śarvavarman (c. 1st century AD) in fewer than 800 sūtras, it gave rise to a vast corpus of grammatical literature over nearly two millennia. The Kātantra grammar was adopted across diverse intellectual traditions: by Buddhist monks in Central Asia and Tibet, Jain scholars in western and southern India, and Brahmins in Bengal and Kashmir. After Bengal, Kashmir made the most substantial contributions to the Kātantra corups. However, despite their wide circulation and importance, Kātantra texts from Kashmir remain comparatively understudied. From at least the eleventh century, the Kātantra school gained prominence in Kashmir, where a distinct recension of the Kātantrasūtras was in circulation. Several important Kātantra texts were produced in this milieu, including at least three commentaries (vṛtti): Śiṣyahitā by Ugrabhūti (11th century), Bālabodhinī by Jagaddhara (14th century), and Laghuvṛtti by Chucchuka or Citsukha (date uncertain). The first two are further accompanied by extensive subcommentaries (nyāsa): Ugrabhūti’s own Śiṣyāvalokana and Śitikaṇṭha’s Bālabodhinīprakāśa (15th century), respectively. Moreover, certain prakriyā texts were composed in the valley. Remarkably, the Kashmiri tradition of the Kātantra grammar developed largely independently of the mainstream tradition elsewhere in India, which was heavily shaped by Durgasiṃha’s commentary. Hence, these texts preserve distinct features that shed light on the historical trajectory of the Kātantra grammatical tradition. Since most of these works remain unedited, earlier accounts of the Kashmiri Kātantra tradition are incomplete and often inaccurate. Drawing on manuscript evidence, this presentation aims to offer a new survey of the Kashmiri tradition of Kātantra. This account will include a list of Kātantra texts from Kashmir, prosopographical details of their authors, and a historical overview of the Kātantra tradition in the region.
Neil Dalal (University of Alberta): Svarūpa-ānanda: Constructing an Advaita Vedāntin Argument for Intrinsic Wholeness
The well-known Advaita Vedāntic compound “saccidānanda” posits our true identity as pure nondual existence, consciousness, and ānanda. Ānanda appears to be quite different from existence or consciousness. An individual’s existence and consciousness are arguably presupposed in every given cognition and therefore are self-evident and continuous; however, ānanda in the sense of joy or bliss is transient, only evident within a spectrum of positive mental states, and consists of different degrees. One may thus downplay the role of ānanda in Advaita Vedānta or even claim it contradicts nonduality. In this paper, I reconstruct Advaita’s counter-position, an argument for innate ānanda as our original nature. This argument differentiates ānanda from cognitive states based on its interiority, differentiates it from any causal relationship to objects, and identifies it with witnessing consciousness. These points indicate one’s true self (ātman) as the singular source of happiness; and ānanda as a metaphysical wholeness which is untouched by suffering.
Arti Dhand (University of Toronto): New God, Old Shoes - Kṛṣṇa in the Udyogaparva of the Mahābhārata
Barring Kṛṣṇa’s self-revelation in the Kaurava court, Book V of the Mahābhārata is not the most dramatic of its many volumes, mostly absorbed in anxious deliberations and negotiations, initially for peace and ultimately for war. Its discursive character, however, belies a transition of a more momentous kind, in the Hindu conception of deity. Whereas Kṛṣṇa is widely billed in text and tradition as an embodiment of Viṣṇu, in the Udyogaparva we see him out of Viṣṇu’s shadow, a distinctive figure at odds with the heritage of Viṣṇu. This paper will argue that the Udyogaparva introduces a new paradigm of God into Hinduism.
Chris Framarin (University of Calgary): Morality and Prudence in the Early Debates of the Śāntiparvan
In the opening chapters of the Śāntiparvan, Yudhiṣṭhira states his intention to forsake the kingship and become a renunciate. His respondents offer wide-ranging arguments against this plan and finally convince him to reverse his decision. It is tempting to understand this passage as a moral debate over how Yudhiṣṭhira might best serve the interests of others. Yudhiṣṭhira’s guilt seems especially pronounced in these chapters, and he cites concerns about harming others in justifying renunciation. His respondents cite his obligations as king and householder, to protect the kingdom, perform sacrifices, and so on - activities that they explicitly tie to the flourishing of the general welfare. In this paper, I argue that these chapters should also be appreciated for the depth of their reflections on suffering. Yudhiṣṭhira’s ultimate decision to serve as king and suffer as king, in turn, raises significant questions about the role of suffering in the good life - and the full life.
Elisa Freschi (University of Toronto): Kumārila's contribution: Philosopher or Ritualist?
Sanskrit philosophy has often been taught through schools, and this approach has positive, but also negative sides, since it tends to suggest that no individual thinker has ever made a substantial contribution and that there was no historical development within each school. In this talk I will try a different approach and focus on one of the main Sanskrit philosophers, Kumārila (7th c.). I will hint at his contributions to ontology (especially on the theory of universals), epistemology (on intrinsic epistemic justification, on the epistemology of absence, on the non-transparency of cognitions etc.), philosophy of language (on how words mutually determine each other in a sentence, around the action; on sentence meaning being achieved metaphorically), philosophy of action, and to the evidences against rational theology. Since many of his philosophical contributions are embedded within discussions of rituals I will also conclude with the overall problem of how to assess philosophical contributions and to distinguish them from non-philosophical ones. I will argue that “philosophy” is a general category, that does not belong to only one or a few civilizations, but that it can be declined in different ways and that there is no need to see rituals as superstitious or by definition anti-philosophical. On the contrary, they become philosophically relevant and interesting as soon as a philosophical eye focuses on them.
Alessandro Graheli (University of Toronto): Mukula and Jayanta on Compositionality
Bhaṭṭa Mukula and Bhaṭṭa Jayanta are two influential authors who flourished in ninth-century Kashmir. Mukula wrote the Abhidhāvṛttamātṛkā, a small treatise on semantics and pragmatics applied to poetry, while Jayanta’s opus magnum is the Nyāyamañjarī, an extensive work on classical Nyāya. The Mīmāṃsā theories of sentence compositionality — the Bhāṭṭa’s “correlation of what is expressed” (abhihitānvaya) and the Prābhākara’s “expression of what is correlated” (anvitābhidhāna) — are central features in both Mukula’s poetics and Jayanta’s epistemology. This paper exploresthe history of Mukula’s and Jayanta’s ideas on compositionality, in relation to their predecessors Śabara, Kumārila, Prabhākara, Maṇḍana, Uṃveka, and Śālikanātha:
• Are Jayanta’s and Mukula’s expositions indebted to Śālikanātha’s? If not, who are the “Prābhākaras” they are referring to?
• Who coined the labels abhihitānvaya and anvitābhidhāna?
• Did Mukula and Jayanta know the famous maxim attributed to the Bhāṭṭas by Śālikanātha, “a sentence’s meaning is invariably an object of secondary indication” (vākyārtho lakṣyamāṇo hi sarvatraiveti na sthitiḥ)?
• Are Mukula and Jayanta aware of the central role played by memory in Śālikanātha’s version of anvitābhidhāna, where the sentence meaning is decoded by the listener with the aid of recollected (smṛta) word meanings?
• “Hey brahmin, your son is born” and “Hey brahmin, your unmarried daughter is pregnant” are two examples used by both Mukula and Jayanta in the context of compositionality. May they serve as evidence of their knowledge of Śālikanātha, who also employs one of the two examples, or is it more plausible that Mukula and Jayanta inherited them from Maṇḍana’s Brahmasiddhi?
Timothy Lorndale (McGill): Arjuna’s Other Queen: Pampa’s Vikramārjunavijaya and the Elevation of Subhadrā
This presentation grows out of on-going research on Pampa’s Vikramārjunavijaya (ca. 941 CE; VAV), the earliest, extant telling of the Mahābhārata in Old Kannaḍa (haḷagannaḍa). The project that I am currently working on looks at the characters of Draupadī and Subhadrā, and how their respective marriages to Arjuna help to reframe the epic’s narrative in Kannaḍa. My research thus far has focused on (1) how the change in Draupadī’s marriage from a polyandrous to a polygynous relationship affects the Mahābhārata’s well-known story; (2) the way the VAV must renegotiate Draupadī’s relationship with the other Pāṇḍavas, who are, of course, no longer her husbands, but instead her brothers-in-law. For this presentation, I wish to explore the elevation of Subhadrā, who takes on a previously unprecedented role in this work as Arjuna’s chief queen. In particular, I will focus on the work’s fourth and fifth āśvāsas, which depicts their courtship, in order to examine how the VAV transforms the famous story of Subhadrā’s abduction into a tale of mutual love.
Bill M. Mak (University of Toronto/ University of Science and Technology of China): Nakṣatra rituals in late Vedic India
This paper examines the formation, structure, and content of the late Vedic astral rituals associated with the 27/28 nakṣatras, as described in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, one of the oldest sources on the Indian jyotiṣa tradition. Particularly striking is the first aṅga of the text, which focuses on the rituals associated with the four astral constituents: nakṣatra, tithi, muhūrta, and karaṇa. By the early centuries of the first millennium, this body of Vedic astral knowledge was quickly supplanted by other, more popular forms of Indian astral science characterised by planetary motion. However, it survives in household rituals and practices connected to the almanacs (pañcāṅga). Broadly speaking, the nakṣatras remain a characteristic feature not only of the Indian astronomical/astrological tradition but also in various aspects of Indian society, including medical practices and different forms of religious rituals.
Libbie Mills (University of Toronto): Cross-Field Collaboration
In presenting current work, I want to speedily highlight cross-field collaborations in the three projects I have in play:
1. South Indian temple architecture: a collaboration with Architectural historian Adam Hardy (Welsh School of Architecture). Goal: publication of a book connecting the textual and architectural records with the builders in between.
2. North Indian temple architecture: a collaboration with architectural historians Adam Hardy and Patrick George. Goal: analysis of the tricky rekhā system for the calculation of the batter of the north Indian tapering temple roof (comparable to the entasis of the columns of Greek and Roman architecture).
3. Terracruda: a collaboration with archaeologist Mònica Lopez Prat (fellow, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in Italy) and computer scientist Angelica Lo Duca (researcher with expertise including data science, text analysis, and open data, Institute of Informatics and Telematics of the National Research Council (IIT-CNR) in Pisa). Goals: to bring the textual and archaeological records together, for the betterment of our understanding of both; and also, more experimentally, to see how far we can get in creating a domain-trained AI model to generate translations from Sanskrit to English and Italian.
Amber Moore (University of Toronto): The Generous Prince and Padmāvatī's Gift: The Female Gaze and a Lesser Known Version of the Maṇicūḍāvadāna.
Although classic versions of the Maṇicūḍāvadāna (MA), such as the one included in the Mahājjātakamāla (MJM), and the Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā (BĀK) include brief accounts of Padmāvatī Devī, who becomes the bodhisattva Maṇicūḍa’s wife, versions of the MA in Nepal accord the lotus-born devī and a range of other female figures a depth of attention not seen elsewhere. Other figures include the goddess Vajrayoginī, Padmāvatī’s celestial companions, Mādhavī and Reṇāvatī, Padmāvatī’s two previous incarnations as a woman, and her mother in a previous life. Also included in this account is a story of the female forest deity who attempts to prevent the Bodhisattva Maṇicūḍas’ death. As such, this paper discusses a recension of the MA that delves into experiences of the female gaze and lives of female figures in detail, demonstrating how an array of female protagonists were established in connection with the localization of the tale which incorporates the use of śṛṅgāra, ‘or ‘romantic love,’ as a distinct soteriological aspect of the avadāna and the bodhisattva path.
Jason Neelis (Wilfrid Laurier University): Names on Rocks, Stories in Texts and Images, and Places in Macrohistorical Contexts
Indological research on proper names, toponyms and narratives can be enhanced by taking holistic approaches to varied textual, epigraphical, visual, and material source-types. In this presentation for Canadian colleagues, I would like to provide selected examples to demonstrate how I take an “Indology-plus’ type of approach to current and ongoing projects. I will discuss Upper Indus inscriptions and rock art from northern Pakistan, Gandhāran versions of Buddhist previous-birth stories in literary and visual cultures, and ideas related to emplacement and localization of peoples and stories in both place and time by studying macro-historical claims and contexts.
Antoine Panaïoti (Toronto Metropolitan University): Of the “six-stepped discussion” in Nāgārjuna and Pakṣilasvāmin Vātsyāyana
This paper aims to elucidate the relationship between the "discussion in six steps" (ṣaṭkotika vāda) that features in Nāgārjuna's Vigrahavyāvartanī (autocommentary ad stanza 2) and the notion of "misguided discussion comprising six steps" (ṣaṭpakṣīrūpakathābhāsa), which Pakṣilasvāmin Vātsyāyana discusses at length in his Nyāyabhāṣya (commentary ad Nyāyasūtra V.1.39-43). Pace K. Bhattacharya, who asserts that they have "nothing to do with [one another]" (1978: 5 [note 2]), I will argue that, though certainly dissimilar in some important regards, the dialectical forms discussed by Nāgārjuna and Pakṣilasvāmin Vātsyāyana under the “six-stepped discussion” heading exhibit family resemblances (in the late Wittgenstein's sense of the term). These relate, first, to these forms' appearance as a result of a failure (on behalf of both parties in a debate) to produce a disambiguating “reason [that establishes] the difference [between two relevant types of cases]” (viśeṣahetu), second, to the invocation of debates relating to the ontological status of "sound" (śabda) to illustrate the forms at hand, and, third, to their close connection to the issue of the (supposed) shared deficiency of one party's “negation” (pratiṣedha) of a given thesis and his or her opponent’s “counter-negation” (pratiṣedhapratiṣedha) in defense of the same.
Elizabeth M. Rohlman, (University of Calgary): Locating the Urban within Sanskritic Literatures: Or, can classical and medieval Indian cities be relevant in a post colonial world?
While popular culture generally associates the sacred geography of India with natural landmarks such as the River Ganga or Mount Kailash, the reality is that Hindu traditions have envisioned cities as the ideal religious landscapes for millennia. My current research seeks to trace the classical conception of sacred Hindu cities, with particular focus on how historical norms are translated into diverse and pluralistic mega cities in India and throughout the Hindu diaspora. While this project explicitly focuses on the ways in which historical memory shapes contemporary urban Hinduism, it is my intention to expand the project into a broader conversation about the role of historical memory in the practice of urban religion more broadly. This paper addresses a foundational question for this larger project: how, exactly, do we define “the urban” in classical and medieval Sanskrit literature? And to what extent does such a definition correlate with contemporary, global realities?
Adheesh Sathaye (University of British Columbia): Getting the Vetala Off My Back: Notes on a Forthcoming Edition and Translation of Shivadasa’s Vetālapañcaviṃśati
Nine years ago, I had the honour of speaking to an enthusiastic research group at the University of Alberta about my then-new digital humanties project that sought to produce a stemmatically grounded edition and translation of Shivadasa’s Vetālapañcaviṃśati, the Twenty Five Tales of the Vetala. As the project nears completion through a forthcoming release in 2027 with the MCLI, I will present key
results and reflections on how the work has proceeded. With regard to the Sanskrit text, I will offer some thoughts about the shift from purely stemmatic methods to what I am calling “close-kin” reconstruction. I will then turn to translation methods, comparing my take on key verses and passages to earlier translations as well as AI-generated ones, to assess whether there might be a humanistic value in emulating Shivadasa’s “vernacular Sanskrit” original text.
Tulika Singh (University of Alberta): Kuṣṭha as an inauspicious disorder in the Suśrutasaṃhitā
This paper examines the representation of “disease related to the skin” (kuṣṭha) in the Suśrutasaṃhitā, arguing that early South Asian traditions framed it as both inauspicious and socially disabling. Far from being treated as a purely medical condition, kuṣṭha was characterized as an “abnormal disease” (vikr̥tavyādhi) and a “disease caused by transgression” (pāparoga), categories that reveal its moral and social implications. These perspectives resonate with contemporary legal and normative discourses, such as the Arthaśāstra and the Manusmṛti, which likewise construe skin disease as stigmatizing and dangerous. Within the Suśrutasaṃhitā, the diagnostic chapter identifies kuṣṭha as a pāparoga, placing it among the most severe of illnesses, with effects that may extend into future births. Similarly, the section on auspicious and inauspicious signs for successful treatment underscores its disabling social force: the sight of messengers afflicted with vikr̥tavyādhi—such as advanced and incurable stages of skin disorder (galatkuṣṭha), according to Ḍalhaṇa’s commentary—is considered contemptible and predictive of unfavorable results. Such views parallel the Arthaśāstra, which presents pāparoga, possibly referring to skin disease, as more disastrous for a ruler and his reign than any other affliction. Taken together, these sources demonstrate how physical conditions of the skin were conceptualized not only as medical challenges but also as socially stigmatizing and inauspicious, effectively amounting to a form of disability in early South Asian thought.
Janet Um (University of British Columbia): The Avantisundarī and the Question of Genre
The Avantisundarī defies the genre distinctions set forth by early theorists of Sanskrit poetics. Attributed to the poet and theorist Daṇḍin (ca. 7th c. CE), this literary work is best known as a kathā, a prose poem based on content invented by the poet. As such, it follows certain literary conventions. For example, it has a love story as one of its main narrative arcs. And it employs literary topoi most commonly associated with the earlier story-telling tradition of the Bṛhatkathā (The Great Story). Despite having features associated with the kathā, commentators have referred to the Avantisundarī at times as an ākhyāyikā, a prose poem based on past events. To add further complexity, the work contains passages and episodes that are uncharacteristic of both of these prose genres. These include lengthy philosophical discourses, prescriptive passages from the dharmaśāstras, and royal genealogies as those seen in the purāṇas. In this presentation, I explore these unique features of the Avantisundarī in conversation with works of poetic theory, commentaries, and other literary prose compositions.
While these references to literary genre may seem at times nominal and at other times arbitrary, I suggest that they have a broader import. Not only does this conversation around the Avantisundarī and literary genre point to the changing role of literature in the late-first millennium CE, it also provides insight into new expressions of subjectivity and understandings of the self.
Julie Vig (York University): The Play of the Guru: Braj Historical Poetry in Early Modern Punjab
How can Sikh cultural production in the premodern and early modern period be placed within and understood through wider cultural and literary movements and forces such as the world of Brajbhasha traditions? To address this broad question, this talk examines an important relationship between the Sikh cultural world and the Braj literary world by examining the case of gurbilās literature. Gurbilās literature—or “the play or pastimes of the Guru”—refers to a collection of historical poems in Braj produced in early modern Punjab about the Sikh Gurus. I focus on three narratives from gurbilās texts portraying an important battle widely narrated in Sikh history: the battle of Bhangani (dated to 1688). My goal is twofold: On the one hand, I wish to reflect on the nature of the intertextual dynamics that characterize the relationship between these texts and on what these dynamics can tell us about the historical circumstances in which these texts were produced. On the other hand, I wish to explore how these three narratives, and more broadly gurbilās literature, interact along multiple poles with the wider world of Braj literary traditions.
Dagmar Wujastyk (University of Alberta): Marginal or Mainstream? Reflections on Indian alchemical traditions
South Asian alchemical traditions have often been portrayed as marginal to the intellectual and medical history of premodern India. This paper reconsiders that view by examining how alchemical knowledge was articulated in key Sanskrit texts, including the Rasahṛdayatantra, Rasārṇava, and later medical and scholastic commentaries. It examines how terminology, genre conventions, and intertextual references reveal the integration of alchemical discourse into broader scholastic, medical, and ritual traditions. Particular attention is given to the ways in which textual transmission and redaction shaped both the authority and perceived status of alchemy. By situating alchemy within the interconnected spheres of medicine, ritual, and natural philosophy, the presentation argues that its role in South Asian intellectual history was more substantial and integrated than often assumed, inviting a reconsideration of how we define central and peripheral domains of premodern knowledge.
Dominik Wujastyk (University of Alberta): Recovering an ancient Sanskrit medical classic: The Suśruta Project
With generous funding from the Canadian SSHRC, two projects have run at the University of Alberta that are focussed on The Compendium of Suśruta, one of the most important medical treatises of the ancient world. The trigger for this project was the discovery of a ninth-century Sanskrit manuscript of the Compendium in a library in Kathmandu. The first project (2020-2024) has produced numerous studies, a monograph on ancient Indian surgery and a digital edition of the Compendium as it was in the ninth century. The new project, launched in 2025, will explore the history of commentarial and editorial change that moulded the ninth-century work into the somewhat different text that circulated in manuscripts up to the nineteenth century and is embodied in today's printed editions. This presentation will discuss these projects' methodologies, technologies and discoveries