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!
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 Drawing upon a wide array of pre-colonial texts, including religious scriptures, epic narratives, and regional historical documents, we will delve into the narratives and characterisations that have historically marginalised forest-dwellers, casting them as the “Other.”
On 16th May 2024, Dr Yixiu Jiang (Leiden University) will give a lecture titled “Dreaming of Buddhahood—Measuring Bodhisattva Progress in Early Mahāyāna”.
Congratulations to our Saarthak Singh, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (FWO) Junior Postdoctoral Fellow, for the prestigious 
