The Sanskrit Reading Room SOAS is returning and moving online for 2021! As always, please write to srr@soas.ac.uk to register your interest in our sessions. Due to timezone differences, the schedule is not as regular as in previous years. Registration for individual sessions will be announced separately closer to the events. Texts and meeting links will be shared with registered participants in advance. See you soon ..read more

by Valters Negribs audio (please contact srr@soas.ac.uk for the readings) A Reading of Tantrāloka 724c-756b (4.40c-72b) and its Sources: The natural-born (sāmsiddhikaḥ) guru. Sanskrit Reading Room with Professor Alexis Sanderson, 7th of February 2020, Balliol College, Oxford Abhinavagupta was a Kashmirian polymath, known especially for his exegesis of Tantric Śaiva and Śākta literature and his contributions to aesthetic theory. Tantrāloka (“Light on Tantra”), composed around 1000 CE, is his most notable exegetical work. Tantrāloka is presented as a paddhati (exegesis or ritual manual) based on ..read more

On non-twiceborn protagonists in Sanskrit and vernacular literature. by Oliver Fallon In a spirited and enthusiastic reading Ananya Vaipeyi introduced us to stories of non-twiceborn characters from the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata and later depictions in Bhavabhūti’s Uttararāmacarita and Tulsidās’ Rāmcaritmānas. First up was Śambūka who is scapegoated for the death of a brahmin boy in the last book of the Rāmāyaṇa. The sage Nārada tells Rāma that the boy had died because someone in his kingdom had transgressed the laws of caste and he had failed to prevent it. He should search his kingdom and ..read more

By Daniel Simpson audio (please contact srr@soas.ac.uk for the readings) The Gorakṣaśataka – or “Hundred Verses of Gorakṣa” – is one of the earliest texts to teach the physical methods of haṭha yoga, although its author does not use that term. Among the text’s innovations are dynamic ways of controlling the breath in prāṇāyāma and other techniques to awaken a subtle inner power called Kuṇḍalinī, which is raised up the spine to attain liberation. As part of his research for the ERC-funded Haṭha Yoga Project, James Mallinson is preparing a critical edition of the Gorakṣaśataka (among other ..read more

By Graham Burns audio  (please contact srr@soas.ac.uk for the readings) Tuesday 22 October 2019 saw the second in this term’s series of collaborations between the Sanskrit Reading Room and the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies, when Dr. Jason Birch, post-doctoral researcher on the ERC funded Haṭha Yoga Project based at SOAS (www.hyp.soas.ac.uk), introduced and read from the Yogabīja. Haṭhayoga is an important practice tradition within yoga. It developed in India from around the 11th century CE and spawned numerous texts, many of which are only just beginning to be explored in depth by scholars ..read more

The Sanskrit Reading Room 2019/2020 was inaugurated on 2.10.2019 with a special performance and lecture by Ananth Rao of ANU Canberra. He was accompanied by Aparna Rao on the keyboard. This is a summary by ROHINI BAKSHI audio video (part 1, part 2, part 3) Editing, recordings and images by Lidia Wojtczak Dr. Rao’s musical recitation and exposition of selected verses from the Rāmāyaṇa began with an invocation. He chanted six verses, the first three of which were addressed to Viṣṇu, Gaṇeśa and Madhvācarya. The next three were addressed to Vālmīki, Vyāsa and Śuka – renowned for their contribution ..read more

Ruth Westoby October 2019 audio (please contact srr@soas.ac.uk for the text) James Mallinson, Reader in Indology and Yoga Studies at SOAS and Principle Investigator of the Hatha Yoga Project (http://hyp.soas.ac.uk/) read a passage from the Vivekamārtaṇḍa on Tuesday 8th October 2019 co-hosted by the Sanskrit Reading Room and the Centre of Yoga Studies. Dr Mallinson has been preparing a critical edition of the Vivekamārtaṇḍa as part of his five-year ERC-funded project which is now entering its final year. This work has recently been read at a workshop in Portland, Oregon, with leading Sanskritis ..read more

Join us at the inaugural session of the 2019/2020 Sanskrit Reading Room for the unique opportunity to hear a selection of moving verses from the Bālakāṇḍa recited by the storyteller Ananth Rao, who will be accompanied by Aparna Rao on the keyboard. Ananth will sing the verses in Sanskrit and explain their meaning in English.  This event is free and open to all. Wednesday, 2nd October, 3-5 pm Wolfson Lecture Theatre, Paul Webley Wing (Senate House), SOAS ..read more

Yigal Bronner will give 2 lectures at SOAS on Thursday, April 25: Introducing Panditproject.org: Prosopographical Database of Indic Texts, 1-3pm, B201, Brunei Gallery Dandin’s Open Mirror, 5-7pm S113, Paul Webley Wing. click below to download the fliers Brough Lecture with Yigal Bronner PANDiT project with Yigal Bronner   ..read more

By Karen O’Brien Click here for audio On November 28, 2018, the Sanskrit Reading Room was led by Dr Philipp Maas (University of Leipzig), who read the story of the king Māndhātṛ in the Mahābhārata (MBh 3.126). Māndhātṛ’s tale appears in the third book of the epic and occurs within the wider narrative context of a pilgrimage that is undertaken by the Pāṇḍavas in order to prepare for the upcoming struggle. This pilgrimage section of the Mahābhārata contains nine interconnected stories, including the story of Māndhātṛ. Scholars now recognize that the Mahābhārata underwent several stages of redact ..read more