Today is DAY 2 of The World Sanskrit Conference, which is in its 15th year this year. It is being held in India this time around, and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 5, 2012.
Over the five days of the conference proceedings, I hope to be able to post, each day, the list of topics that are being discussed at the various special panels that have been arranged by the organisers. The purpose is simply to get a measure of the ocean of knowledge that is this ancient language, and the worldwide spread of scholars who continue to partake of this ocean’s treasures.
I hope the lists over the next few days will be an inspiration for all of us who love Sanskrit, and an eye-opener for those who consider it a ‘dead language.’
World Sanskrit Conference
Day 2: January 7, 2012
Forenoon Sessions- Round I
10.00 AM to 11.30 AM
Veda
Chair: Hans Henrich Hock
10.00 – 10.30 Vinaya Kshirsagar: On a case in the Śaunakīya Caturadhyāyikā
10.30 – 11.00 Mamta Mehra: sAmavEdE DHArIsvaraha
11.00 – 11.30 Kalindi Pathak: pAdhavrththEhe sADHakAnAm samAsasanDHInAm thathvAnvESHakamaDHyayanam
Special panel
Models and Theories in Sanskrit Grammar and Linguistics
Chair: Jan E.M. Houben
10.00 – 10.30 Brendan S. Gillon: Sanskrit grammar and computational linguistics
10.30 – 11.00 Gérard Huet: Departing from Pā_ini for good reasons
11.00-11.30 Oliver Hellwig: Ratha = “Chariot” or “hero”? Computational approaches to polysemy in Sanskrit
Vyākarana
Theme: General Pāṇinian Theory and Methodology
Chair: George Cardona
10.00 – 10.30 Iwona Milewska: Main currents in the European tradition of Sanskrit grammars
10.30 – 11.00 Peter M. Scharf: Is rule precedence in the Ashtādhyāyī uniform?
11.00 – 11.30 Malgorzata Sulich-Cowely: Is it possible that Kāryāsiddhatva and Śāstrāsiddhatva are not mutually exclusive?
Poetry, Drama and Aesthetics
Chair: Natalia Lidova
10.00 – 10.30 R.P. Goldman: Poet as seer, Poetry as seen: Reflections on visualization as a critical element in the conceptualization of Kāvya
10.30 – 11.00 C. Rajendran: Demystifying poetry – The Hermeneutic principles of Mahimabha__a
11.00 – 11.30 Anna Trynkowska: A reading of the Amaruśataka.
Religious Studies
Chair: Bettina Baümer
10.00 – 10.30 Himanshu Shekhar Jha: Foundations of faith: A historical perspective
10.30 – 11.00 Hari Ram Mishra: Mitra in Vedic and Avestan religion
Law and Society
Chair: Donald Davis
10.00 – 10.30 Asha Rani Pandey: samskrithavAngmayE arTHavyavasTHA vaidhikam krSHivignyAnam cha
10.30 – 11.00 Anagha Joshi: Hindu law of deposits
11.00 – 11.30 Manjusha D. Gokhale: Significance of Monkey in Indian Culture
Philosophies
Chair: Prahladachar
10.00 – 10.30 Patrick McAllister: The import of Śabdārtha in the theory of Apoha
10.30 – 11.00 Smitha Sabu: Socio-political causes behind the origin of philosophical dramas
11.00 – 11.30 Ramchandran Bhavani: The role of Liñ affix in Mimāmsā philosophy
Yoga in Indian philosophy
Chair: Shashi Tiwari
10.00 – 10.30 Shashi Tiwari: Yogic Prānavidyā – A means of Self-realisation in Upanishads
10.30 – 11.00 Bina Gupta: Karmayoga and its relation to Jñānayoga and Bhaktiyoga: Some reflections
11.00 – 11.30 Jennifer Cover: An eighteenth century illumination of the seven steps of Rājayoga
IASS Consultative Committee 10.00-11.30 A.M.
Forenoon Sessions- Round II
12.00 PM to 1.30 PM
Veda
Chair: G.C. Tripathi
12.00 – 12.30 Vijay Kumar Sharma: shAsthrIyasangIthE shruthihi
12.30 – 1.00 Jayashree Sathe: On the interpretation of apasyaḥ and apasyuvaḥ in Yajurveda
1.00 – 1.30 Naoko Nishimura: Processing of dairy products in the Vedic ritual, compared with Pāli
Vyākarana
Theme: General Pāṇinian Theory and Methodology
Chair: George Cardona
12.00 – 12.30 Subodh Sharma: sa vAchakO vishESHANAm sanBHavAth DHyOthakO vA
12.30-1.00 George Cardona: Combinations of upasargas and tinanta forms: Lexical versus grammatical positions
Models and Theories in Sanskrit Grammar and Linguistics
Chair: Jan E.M. Houben
12.00 – 12.30 G. Penn and P. Kiparsky: On Pānini and the generative capacity of contextualized replacement systems
12.30 – 1.00 Wiebke Petersen: On the descriptive techniques for phonological classes in Pānini’s grammar
1.00-1.30. Amba Kulkarni, Devanand Shukla, Sheetal Pokar: Mathematical modelling of ākāṅkṣā and sannidhi for parsing Sanskrit
Poetry, Drama and Aesthetics
Chair: C. Rajendran
12.00 – 12.30 Natalia Lidova: The World enacted in a Game. The Concept of the krīLanīyaka in the Nātyaśāstra
12.30 – 1.00 Damodharan: Rasābhinaya in Kerala classical theatre: Some innovative aspects
1.00 – 1.30 Manjula Viradiya: ADHyAthmikadhrSHTyA mAyArasaha
Religious Studies
Chair: Bettina Baümer
12.00 – 12.30 Hamsa Stainton: The courtship of Śiva and Sarasvatī in the poetry of Jagaddhara of Kashmir
12.30 – 1.00 Aleksendra Wenta: A solar esotericism of the Kalikrama: In search of Tāntric epistemology
1.00 – 1.30 Minati Rath: jagannATHasya EthahyE vAmadhEvasamhiyAha yOgadhAnam
Law and Society
Chair: Donald Davis
12.00 – 12.30 Patrick Olivelle: Differing roles of Judge in the Arthaśāstra and Dharmaśāstras
12.30 – 1.00 Pankaja Ghai Kaushik: Law of evidence in Dharmaśāstra and Indian Evidence Act, 1872: An analytical study
1.00 – 1.30 Donald Davis: Critical remarks on Professor P.V. Kane’s view of the relationship of Dharmaśāstra to Itihāsa and Purāna
Sanskrit and Science
Chair: Bruno Dagens
12.00 – 12.30 Jonathan Duquette: On lexical borrowing from Sanskrit in modern scientific discourse
12:30 – 1:00 Vanishri Bhat: Algebra and geometry in Śulbasūtras
1.00 – 1.30 Jean Michel Delire: European astronomers in the court of Savai Jaisimha II
Afternoon Sessions - Round I
3.00 PM to 4.30 PM
Veda
Chair: Ganesh Dutta Sharma
3.00 – 3.30 Srikant Bahulkar: Medhajanana in the Atharvaveda tradition
4.00 – 4.30 Vijay Shankar Shukla: The Atharvaveda: Fountainhead of the medical sciences
4.30 – 5.00 : Sumant Shilpa and Julieta Rotaru: A new edition and an annotated translation of Kauśikasūtra
Models and Theories in Sanskrit Grammar and Linguistics
Chair: Jan E.M. Houben
3.00 – 3.30 Dahl Eystein: Formal semantics in Vedic linguistics: Prospects and limitations
3.30 – 4.00 Kristen de Joseph: The poetics of Vedic accentuation revisited
4.00 –4.30 Leonid Kulikov: Vedic quasi-denominatives: Their syntax and semantics
4.30 – 5.00 Velizar Sadovski: Form invariants and variations in Veda and Avesta: a comparative and historical approach
Vyākarana
Theme: General Pā_inian Theory (cont.) and Syntax
Chair: Surendra Kumar Bramachari
3.00 – 3.30 Sharon Ben-Dor: On the terms gā, mā and dā etc. in the Aṣṭādhyāyī
3.30 – 4.00 Tiziana Pontillo: Where the sense is intended although the corresponding speech unit is not employed: Lopa and other devices directly or indirectly compared Patañjali
4.00 – 4.30 Stephen Thomson: Do the Uṇādi-sūtras serve to show that every Sanskrit word derives from a Dhātu?
Buddhist Studies
Theme: Sectarian Polemics
Chair: Shohei Ichimura
3.00 – 3.30 Sujata Purkayastha: A critique of Śankarācārya’s refutation of Vijñanavāda
3.30 – 4.00 Vijay Kumar Singh: Fundamental nature of things as described in Vigrahavyāvartanī and the right view
4.00 – 4.30 Marek Mejor: Buddhist-Jaina controversy about the notion of taking life (Prāṇātipāta)
Poetry, Drama and Aesthetics
Chair: R.P. Goldman
3.00 – 3.30 Vasant Kumar Bhatt: kAlidAsasya mahAkAvyayOhO sArTHakAnAm pATaBHEdhAnAm vishiSHtam kAraNam moulikapATAnusanDHAnam cha
3.30 – 4.00 Marco Franceschini: Recasting poetry: Motifs from the Raghuvaṃśa reshaped in Buddhaghosha’s Padyacūḍāmaṇi
4.00 – 4.30 Divya Mishra: The problem regarding the date of Viśākhadatta
Modern Sanskrit Literature
Chair: Jürgen Hanneder
3.00 – 3.30 Ambalal Prajapati: Appreciation of ‘Sanskrit Gītañjalī’ a collection of Sanskrit poems
3.30 – 4.00 Nicolas Dejenne: An analysis of the re-writing of Paraśurāma-saga in a contemporary Sanskrit kāvya – Bhagvān Paraśurāma by Krishnadatta Sharma Shastri
4.00 – 4.30 Chandima Gangodawila: How far the works of Ven. Dauldena Gnanissara contributed to the development of modern Sanskrit studies in Sri Lanka?
Epics and Purānas
Chair: Adam Bowles
3.00 – 3.30 Wendy J. Phillips-Rodriguez: Scripts vs. manuscripts: two independent evolutionary processes in the Mahābhārata textual tradition
3.30 – 4.00 Alf Hiltebeitel: The southern recension makeover of the Umā-Maheśvara Samvāda in the Mahābhārata
4.00 – 4.30 Thennilapuram Mahadevan: The text-critical importance of the Śakuntalā-Yayāti transposition in the Mahābhārata
Tantra and Āgamas
Chair: Diwakar Acharya
3.00 – 3.30 Meera Rastogi: An inquiry into evolution of conceptual development of Pratyabhijñā system of Kashmir
3.30 – 4.00 Oscar Figueroa-Castro: Abhinavagupta’s Anuttara in historical perspective
4.00 – 4.30 Michael Slouber: Vulnerability and protection in the Śaivatantras
Sanskrit and Science
Chair: Bruno Dagens
3.00 – 3.30 Krishna Sharman: Gemmology in Pan-Indian tradition
3.30 – 4.00 Ashok Kumar Das: Metallurgy in ancient Indian Sanskrit literature
4.00 – 4.30 Pankaj Bhattacharya: The binary digits zero and one: A discussion in the light of Līlavātī and Āryabhatīya
Manuscriptology
Chair: Vijay Shankar Shukla
3.00 – 3.30 Prabhudevi Amogh: Manuscript preservation in India: An overview
3.30 – 4.00 Satya Prakash Sharma: Manuscripts as a source of understanding of art
4.00 – 4.30 Sudhir Lal: Critical text: Indian context (Nature, Development and Continuity)
Afternoon Sessions- Round II
5.00 PM to 6.30 PM
Veda
Chair: Sannidhanam Sudarshana Sharma
5.00 – 5.30 Nirmala Kulkarni: Text critical study of the Pativedanāni hymns
5.30 – 6.00 Ambarish Vasant Khare: The origin and development of Mahānāmni verses
6.00 – 6.30 Chetana Vedi: upaniSHathsu vaiSHvAnarasya sankalpanA
Vyākarana
Theme- General Pāṇinian Theory (cont.) and syntax
Chair: Surendra Kumar Brahmachari
5.00 – 5.30 Toru Yagi : On the so-called predicative instrumental
5.30 – 6.00 K. Yamuna: Nipātas – A syntactical analysis
6.00 – 6.30 Ratna Basu: Sampradāna-kāraka: In the understanding of Pā_ini and his followers
Buddhist Studies
Theme: Sectarian Polemics
Chair: Shohei Ichimura
5.00 – 5.30 Meera Viswanathan: Contesting the Brāhmana: Humour and argument in the Vajrasūci
5.30 – 6.00 Vijay Kumar Jain: boudhDHadharshanE anEkathAyAm EkathA
6.00 – 6.30 Shohei Ichimura: An examination of Prof. Murti’s attempt of equation between Hindu Advaita theory and that of Buddhist Yogācāra theory of Advaya
Poetry, Drama and Aesthetics
Chair: Natalia Lidova
5.00 – 5.30 Indrani Deka: Marriage – Its customs and rituals as depicted in Ṥrīharṣa’s Naiṣadhīyacarita
5.30 – 6.00 Chandan Kumar Chakraborty: Some mysterious and curious weapons in the Great Epeics.
6.00 – 6.30 Kutumba Shatri: Where Abhinavaguptra set a wrong tradition.
Modern Sanskrit Literature
Chair: Jürgen Hanneder
5.00 – 5.30 Ajay Kumar Mishra: The socio-political investigation of contemporary Sanskrit poetry
5.30 – 6.00 Sudip Chakravortti: Literature of Ishwarachandra Vidyasagara
6.00 – 6.30 Malinee Goswami: Modern Sanskrit poetry: A projection
Epics and Purānas
Chair: Adam Bowles
5.00 – 5.30 Fernando Wulff Alonso: The fourth book of the Mahābhārata and its Greek sources
5.30 – 6.00 Joydeep Bagchee: The Paraśurāma legend in historical research
6.00 – 6.30 Vishwa Adluri: Philosophical aspects of bhakti in the Mahābhārata
Tantra and Āgamas
Chair: Diwakar Acharya
5.00 – 5.30 Navjivan Rastogi: Gāyatrī in the Monistic Śaiva tradition of Kashmir
5.30 – 6.00 Shruti Rai: Jñāna as Vikalpa
6.00 – 6.30 Yohei Kawajiri: Interpretations of the opening verse of the Iśvarapratyabhijñākārikā with special reference to a double character of the recognition
Sanskrit and Science
Chair: J.M. Delire
5.00 – 5.30 Indraratna Bokamoone: Preventive medicine in the light of Carakasaṃhitā
5.30 – 6.00 A. Jilsha: Non-vedic origin of Āyurveda
6.00 – 6.30 P.I. Ajithan: The term Tantra in early scriptures of Āyurveda
Sanskrit and Asian Languages and
Literature
Chair: Robert Zydenbos
5.00 – 5.30 Audrey Truschke: The power of language: Sanskrit grammars and lexicons of Persian
5.30 – 6.00 Elmar Renner: Are tatsamas as ‘sama’ as they seem? A comparative analysis of the tatsama use in Hindi, Maithili and Kannada scientific writing
6.00 – 6.30 Yigal Bronner: Birds of a feather: Vāmana Bhattabana’s Hamsasandeśa and its inter-texts
Religious Studies
Chair: Arvind Sharma
5.00 – 5.30 Hemlata Biltharia: Concept of vratas in Padmapurā_a and their contemporary relevance
5.30 – 6.00 Samniang Luermsa: Hell and heaven in the Mahavāstu Avadāna
6.00 – 6.30 Dipak Kumar Sharma: A discussion on Dāsyabhakti as found in the Bhaktiviveka
Manuscriptology
Chair: Vijay Shankar Shukla
5.00 – 5.30 C.M. Neelkanthan: Manuscripts/transcripts/oral traditions of preservation techniques of Rigveda chanting of Kerala
5.30 – 6.00 Subhadra Desai: Music and its relation with vedic chanting: Textual (oral) preservation and its development (in the form of music)
6.00 – 6.30 K.P. Sreedevi: Two Kerala commentaries on Saparyāhrdayam attributed to Śriśankara
Visit to Exhibitions and Book stalls (7.00 – 7.30 PM)
Sanskrit Nāṭyamahotsava (7.30 – 9.00 PM): Kathakali and Nāngiarkū: Usha Nangiar and her troupe
