Categorie: News

In collaboration with the University of Birmingham and the Arihanta Institute, the Jaina Studies group at Ghent University is once again co-organiser of the lecture series “Dialogues in European Jain Studies”.

The event series features a variety of topics and methodologies ranging from philosophical, anthropological, historical, philological, and applied approaches to Jain Studies, and more. All the lectures are held online and are intended to be accessible in times zones ranging between Europe, North America, Africa, and India.

For more information on the programme and for registration: https://dialogues.arihantainstitute.org/.

On 10th October, Mr Saurabh Kumar, Ambassador of India to Belgium and Luxembourg, and to the European Union, accompanied by Mr Venkateswaran Narayanan, First Secretary Press, Information and Culture visited Ghent University to meet the Rector, Prof Rik Van de Walle,  as well as the Indian Professors working at UGhent at different departments, and the research team at the Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies.

H.E. the Ambassador expressed his admiration for the research work being done and learnt more about current and future activities in collaboration with Indian research institutes.

We are thrilled to announce that the The Gandhāra Corpora Project, the Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies, and the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies will host a lecture by Professor Nicholas Witkowski from the University of San Diego.

• Title: Monastic Monsters: Historicizing Outcaste Characters in the Grotesquerie of Indian Buddhist Literature
• Date and Time: October 3, 2024, at 4pm (CET)
• Location: Faculteitszaal, Blandijn, faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte, Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent

For more information, including the full abstract and bio of the speaker, see here.

• co-lecturers-in-charge: Dr. Rosina Pastore and Dr. Paride Stortini
• programme director: Prof. Dr. Eva De Clercq

• lecturer-in-charge: Dr. Anna Sokolova
• programme director: Prof. Dr. Eva De Clercq

Dr. Udayakumar S., Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru has just joined the Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies (GCSAS) of Ghent University as a Visiting Scholar with a research stay fellowship granted by VLIRUOS.

Dr. Udaykumar is an ethnoarchaeologist and a member of the Nilgiri Archaeological Project. During his time at Ghent University, he will be working on the project “Kota women’s technical knowledge of traditional pottery-making” and delve into methodologies for petrographic analysis.

Welcome Uday!

Co-organised by the Department of Asia, Africa and Mediterranean, L’Orientale University (Naples) and the Department of Languages and Cultures, Ghent University.
Organisers: Stefania Cavaliere and Rosina Pastore.

The workshop will take place on 10-20 July 2024 in Procida, an island in the Gulf of Naples (Italy), at the Procida School for Higher Education.

Leading experts from India, Europe, and America will present and examine with the global readership early modern Hindi texts composed between the 16th and 19th centuries and discuss challenges of interpretation, variations, and other aspects of the texts. Academics and students with a solid foundation in Brajbhasha or another form of early Hindi, and familiarity with essential grammatical terminology in English or Hindi, are welcome to join.

The afternoon sessions of the workshop will be held in hybrid mode.

PROGRAMME

July 10, Wednesday

16:30 Welcome session lead by Imre Bangha

• Welcome party

July 11, Thursday

9:30-11 Monika Horstmann, Prithīnāth

11:30-13 Heidi Pauwels, poems by Nāgarīdās and Rasikbihārī

14:30-16 Anne Murphy, Hir-Waris Shah

• Boat trip to Procida

July 12, Friday

9:30-11 Jaroslav Strnad, Kabir

11:30-13 Monika Horstmann, Prithīnāth

14:30-16 Imre Bangha & Philip Lutgendorf, Kavitāvalī (online) 

July 13, Saturday

9:30-11 Monika Horstmann, Prithīnāth

11:30-13 Heidi Pauwels, Kabir selections by Bhisham Sahni

14:30-16 Imre Bangha & Philip Lutgendorf, Kavitāvalī (online)

July 14, Sunday

9:30-11 Jaroslav Strnad, Kabir

11:30-13 Anne Murphy, Hir-Waris Shah

14:30-16 Richard Williams, Bhīmvilās by Kisnā Āṛhā

July 15, Monday

9:30-11 Richard Williams, Bhīmvilās by Kisnā Āṛhā

11:30-13 Eva De Clerq, Paümacariu, apabhraṃśa

14:30-16 Stefania Cavaliere and Giuseppe Cappello, Bhāṣā Yogavāsiṣṭhasāra

 July 16, Tuesday

• Trip to Pompeii

July 17, Wednesday

9:30-11 Hanuman Prasad Shukla, tbc

11:30-13 Eva De Clerq, Paümacariu, apabhraṃśa

14:30-16 Rosina Pastore, the Ānandavilāsa by Jasvant Singh

July 18, Thursday

9:30-11 Rosina Pastore, Savaiyās by Jasvant Singh

11:30-13 Yogesh Pratap Shekhar, Barvai Nāyikābhed by Rahīm

• Trip to Ischia

July 19, Friday

9:30-11 Yogesh Pratap Shekhar, Barvai Nāyikābhed by Rahīm

11:30-13 Annalisa Bocchetti, Citrāvalī

…

• Farewell dinner 

July 20, Saturday

9:30-11 Closing session chaired by Hanuman Prasad Shukla

Taking screenshots or recording the sessions is not allowed.

For more info, email to rosina.pastore@ugent.be

This symposium aims to explore the multifaceted portrayals of Indian forest-dwellers in pre-modern textual sources, shedding light on the complex dynamics of “othering” and its implications for understanding historical interactions between sedentary civilisations and indigenous forest communities. Drawing upon a wide array of pre-colonial texts, including religious scriptures, epic narratives, and regional historical documents, we will delve into the narratives and characterisations that have historically marginalised forest-dwellers, casting them as the “Other.”

Convenors

Daniela De Simone (Ghent University) and Ananya Vajpeyi (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi)

Keynote lecture

Brian Black (Lancaster University), Nāgas in the jātakas and Mahābhārata: Narratives of exclusion and inclusion

Full programme available here.

Time & venue

17th June 2024, 09:30-17:00

18th June 2024, 10:00-15:00

Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Room 6.60, Blandijnberg 2 (Campus Boekentoren), Gent.

The Indian Studies team at Ghent University in collaboration with the Indian Embassy to Belgium and the Yoga Federatie Nederlandstaligen België organise two free yoga sessions to celebrate the International Day of Yoga on 21^st June at 9:30 AM in Koning Albertpark.

No registration is required, both beginners and experts are welcome (and don’t forget your Yoga mat!)

On 16th May 2024, Dr Yixiu Jiang (Leiden University) will give a lecture titled “Dreaming of Buddhahood—Measuring Bodhisattva Progress in Early Mahāyāna”.

This will be a hybrid talk, so everyone is welcome to attend in person or follow along online!

Time: 16/05/2024, 14.30 (2.30pm)
Location: Camelot meeting room (3.30), Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Gent
For registration & link: contact Prof. Charles DiSimone (charles.disimone@ugent.be)

Abstract
The gradual progress toward liberation—the path (mārga)—constitutes a central concern for almost all Buddhist discourse. The bodhisattva path, intended for those who aspire to buddhahood, is commonly presented within a scheme of ten stages or bhūmis. While most scriptures on the ten bhūmis describe a bodhisattva’s progress in terms of his virtues, one unique sūtra—the *Svapnanirdeśa (lit. “Teaching on Dreams”)—instructs bodhisattvas how to determine their current developmental stage through 108 kinds of dreams. This presentation will approach the concept of the bodhisattva bhūmis in early Mahāyāna from the new perspective that the Svapnanirdeśa provides.