Thursday, April 24, 2025 – 5pm, Foster 103
Elizabeth A. Cecil, Associate Professor, Department of Religion, Florida State University
The earliest surviving Sanskrit inscriptions from Java, sponsored by the fifth-century ruler Pūrṇavarman, embed royal authority in living landscapes and ritual spaces. Engraved on natural rock at river confluences, these multimedia works juxtapose Sanskrit poetry with calligraphic designs and images of human and animal footprints. Engaging viewers through text, image, and environment, Pūrṇavarman’s inscriptions materialize kingship as a confluence—of Indic political forms, ecological terrain, and Indigenous epistemologies.