Events

Regimes of Knowledge in the Early Indic World, Part of the 2019-2020 Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, Śāstram: Form, Power, and Translation in Indic Scholasticism

Friday, February 7, 2020 - 1:30pm to Saturday, February 8, 2020 - 5:30pm

Room S-102, Franke Institute for the Humanities, Regenstein Library

Venue: Franke Institute for the Humanities, Room S-102, Regenstein Library, open to all members of the University community

The domain of śāstra – disciplined, textualized systematic thought, composed in Sanskrit and other languages – forms premodern southern Asia’s greatest archive for the history of knowledge. The intellectual sophistication of these many domains and their intertextual complexity present formidable challenges to interpretation, often to the expense of framing wider questions about what could be termed śāstra’s micro- and macro-sociologies. In this two day symposium, leading scholars will present attempts to rectify this imbalance, seeking to offer preliminary theories and case studies of its worldly existence from Kashmir to Java, and from antiquity into the medieval period. Schedule:

Friday, February 7th:

1:30: Welcome, Opening Remarks, and Introduction 2:00-2:45 Isabelle Ratié (Paris-III) “A śāstra for whom? On the intended readership of the Pratyabhijñā treatise” 2:45-3:00 Response (Gary Tubb, SALC, UChicago) 3:00-3:30 Discussion 3:30-4:00 Break 4:00-4:45 Whitney Cox (SALC, UChicago) “Yāmuna’s insurgent Brahmanism” 4:45-5:00 Response (Anand Venkatkrishnan, Divinity, UChicago) 5:00-5:30 Discussion 5:30-6:30 Reception

Saturday, February 8th:

12:15 Welcome 12:30-1:15 Tom Hunter (UBC/Neubauer), “When Śāstram Met Literature: the Tale of Tantri in the Language Order of Premodern Java” 1:15-1:30 Response (Andrew Ollett, SALC UChicago) 1:30-2:00 Discussion 2:00-2:30 Break 2:30-3:15 Mark McClish (Northwestern), “Nīti as Śāstra: Text, Tradition, and Authority in Ancient Statecraft” 3:15-3:30 Response (Wendy Doniger, SALC/Divinity emerita, UChicago) 3:30-4:00 Discussion 4:00-4:15 Wrap-up 4:15-5:30 Reception

Dates:
Friday, February 7, 2020 – 1:30pm to Saturday, February 8, 2020 – 5:30pm
Room S-102, Franke Institute for the Humanities, Regenstein Library