Team
University of Naples "L'Orientale" - Host Institution
Project management
dr. Daniela Cappello: danyradhat@hotmail.com
Administrative contact
dr. Benedetta Bovenzi: bbovenzi@unior.it
FLORINDA DE SIMINI
Principal Investigator
Florinda De Simini is associate professor (2019-) in Ancient and Medieval History of India at the Dipartimento Asia, Africa Mediterraneo of the University of Naples “L’Orientale”. After getting a PhD in Indic and Tibetan Studies from the University of Turin (2013), she has been a postdoctoral fellow at the Leiden International Institute for Asian Studies (2013), at the University of Hamburg (2013-14), and a “Petra-Kappert-Fellow” at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (SFB 950) at the University of Hamburg (2015-16). From 2014 until 2017 she has been responsible for the research project “Political Power and Religious Groups in Early Medieval India: A study of epigraphic materials and unpublished manuscripts concerning the Śaiva traditions (6th to 12th century)”, financed by and carried out at the University “L’Orientale”. From 2017 to 2019 she has been research fellow at the same institution.
Her scholarly interests encompass the history of Śaivism through written sources, South Asian epigraphy in Sanskrit and Kannada, as well as the cultural aspects of the production and transmission of handwritten documents in South Asia. Besides this, she has also studied Sanskrit normative literature (Dharmaśāstra) and the reception of South Asian religions in the West. Concerning the study of the Śivadharma corpus, she has dealt with the codicological and philological aspects that characterize the tradition of the Śivadharma, producing the first scholarly contributions solely dedicated to the topic; she has moreover worked on the Nepalese corpus, trying to place it within the historical context of medieval Nepal, and connect its emergence with the religious and political landscape of the Kathmandu Valley. In the framework of the Śivadharma Project, she will work on the Sanskrit texts of the Śivadharmottara and its spread and impact on various forms of Śaivism throughout South Asia, as well as focus on Śaiva inscriptions from the Deccan. She is also scientific coordinator for the University “L’Orientale” within the ERC Synergy Project DHARMA, “The Domestication of Hindu Asceticism and the Religious Making of South and South-East Asia”. For a list of F. De Simini’s publications, visit this page.KENGO HARIMOTO
Research Associate
Kengo Harimoto is research associate (assegnista di ricerca) at the University of Naples “L’Orientale,” Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo, which he joined in 2020, after working at Mahidol University (2015—2020), University of Hamburg (2006–2015), University of Groningen (2002–2006) and Temple University (2000). He studied at the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D. 1999), Kyushu University (MA 1990) and Nagasaki University (BA 1987). His research interests include: Indian Philosophy, History of Yoga, Buddhist Studies, Purāṇas, manuscripts and inscriptions. He worked on projects on the Skandapurāṇan and Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project.
In the framework of Shivadharma Project, he is developing the idea of Śivadharma corpora—different sets of texts crafted and transmitted under the heading “Śivadharma” from different geographical areas. At the present stage, there may be two corpora: the now familiar Śivadharma corpus from Nepal; and likely another from Kerala, on which Harimoto is currently focusing. As part of the same project, he is also working towards clearing out other research questions, such as the Śivadharmasaṅgraha, a component in the Nepalese corpus, the authors of the Sanskrit commentaries on the Śivadharmaśāstra and the Śivadharmottara transmitted in Kerala.
CSABA KISS
Research Associate
Csaba Kiss is research associate (assegnista di ricerca) at L’Orientale University of Naples, Dipartimento Asia, Africa Mediterraneo since 2019. Until 2023 his research was framed within the ERC-Synergy grant DHARMA and focused on the study of lay and tantric Śaivism in mediaeval India, as well as on the historical development of the yoga traditions and of caste-systems. Since 2023, he has joined the Project Śivadharma with the goal of preparing the critical edition of the tenth chapter of Śivadharmottara, and study it as a source for the spread of Śivadharma in North India and Nepal.
He holds a master’s degree in Indology from ELTE University, Budapest (2000). He obtained his doctorate from the University of Oxford (2010) for his edition of selected chapters of the Matsyendrasaṃhitā, a thirteenth-century Śaiva tantric text on yoga. He joined the Early Tantra Project (ANR-DFG) in 2008 to produce a volume on the Brahmayāmala, one of the earliest Bhairavatantras, and while he was research assistant at ELTE University, he worked on texts of the tantric Kubjikā tradition and of the jātiviveka genre.
His main task in the project is to study and edit the Vṛṣasārasaṃgraha, a text of the Śivadharma-corpus, and also to work on a post-tenth-century Śaiva Tantric manual, the Nityāhnikatilaka.
DANIELA CAPPELLO
Postdoctoral Fellow & Project Coordinator
Daniela is our project coordinator and research fellow in the Śivadharma Project (2023/2024). She takes care of the organization of events, the communication with internal and external stakeholders, and of the promotion of our research output on social media, blogs and other platforms. She holds a PhD in Modern Languages and Literatures of South Asia from Heidelberg University (2021), where she worked on the Bengali poetry of the 1960s avant-garde the Hungry Generation, a topic that is the subject of her forthcoming book (Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, 2024). Her main research interests are Bengali language and literature, modern print cultures in India, literary and cultural history of the Bengali-speaking regions.
As part of the Project, she will investigate the circulation and impact of the Śivadharma corpus in modern Bengal.
DOROTEA OPERATO
Postdoctoral Fellow & Library Assistant
Dorotea Operato is a postdoctoral fellow (assegnista di ricerca) at L’Orientale University of Naples, Dipartimento Asia, Africa Mediterraneo, since April 2023. She holds a PhD in Modern South Asian Studies from the same University. For her PhD, she worked on the role of Śaiva Siddhānta in the construction of Tamil cultural and ethno-linguistic identity during the twentieth century, with a focus of Mu. Aruṇācalam’s thought and works. Her main research interests are in contemporary language issues in India and contemporary Tamil literature.
Her task in the project is to investigate the circulation of the Civatarumōttaram and its quotations in Tamil literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
MARTINA DELLO BUONO
Postdoctoral fellow
Martina Dello Buono was PhD candidate at the University of Bologna (2020–2023), where she received a fellowship from the Śivadharma Project, and now holds a PhD in Digital Humanities. From January 2024, she is a postdoctoral fellow (assegnista di ricerca) at L’Orientale University of Naples, Dipartimento Asia, Africa Mediterraneo, sponsored by the project FARE ricerca (Ministero Italiano dell’Università). Specializing in Digital Scholarly Editing, her research led her to focus on developing user-friendly web applications, with a particular emphasis on UI/UX design and web technologies. Notably, she has worked on several significant projects, including PhiloEditor, a text annotator and viewer of editions of the same work, Il quaderno di Paolo Bufalini, a digital edition of a notebook, and Tell me the Truth, a web application designed to enrich RDF-based datasets and translate triples into natural language. Martina has overseen the design and development of these pioneering projects.
As a member of the team, she is responsible for designing and developing the Shivadharma Database web application, a web Content Management System (CMS) aimed at streamlining the preparation, publication, and updating of Digital Scholarly Editions. This application provides scholars with a user-friendly CRUD (Create Read Update Delete) web interface to reconstruct and annotate a text, allowing for additional components such as apparatus, notes, translations, citations, and parallels.
For a list of M. Dello Buono’s publications, visit this page.
ANTONELLA SANTORO
PhD Candidate
Antonella Santoro is a PhD student at the Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo of L’Orientale University of Naples since the academic year 2022/2023. Her research is part of the ERC project DHARMA.
She obtained her MA in 2022 at the same department with a thesis entitled Analysis of Epigraphic Sources on the Cāḷukya Dynasty of Kalyāṇa (X-XII century), aiming to trace the history of this dynasty and track its main characteristics and moments of change. This topic also became the subject of her doctoral research project.
During her PhD she will analyze epigraphic sources related to the Cāḷukya dynasty of Kalyāṇa, focusing on the relationship between the political and religious spheres. The starting point of her research is the translation of a corpus of Kannada inscriptions in the South Indian Inscription XI (pt.2) catalogue, contributing to the creation of a repository according to the guidelines given by the DHARMA project.
Jesse Pruitt
Research Fellow (Borsista di ricerca)
Jesse Pruitt is a research fellow (borsista di ricerca) at L’Orientale University of Naples from May 2023, working on chapters 7–9 of the Civatarumōttaram. He receives a fellowship from the Śivadharma Project. He is a doctoral candidate (2018–) at the University of Toronto, Department for the Study of Religion.
MICHAEL BLUETT
Editor and proofreader
École française d’Extrême-Orient, Pondicherry Centre - Partner Institution
administrative contact
Mrs Prerana Patel: preranapatel@efeo-pondicherry.org
DOMINIC GOODALL
Team Member — Member of the Advisory Board
Dominic Goodall is a Sanskritist and historian of religion who has been a member of the EFEO since 2000. He became Head of the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO in 2002, where he remained until April 2011. Then, posted in Paris from 2011 to 2015, he gave lectures at the École pratique des hautes études (Religious Sciences Section), principally on Cambodian inscriptions in Sanskrit and on the history of Śaivism from unpublished sources. He is now once again posted in Pondicherry, where he continues to pursue his scholarly interests, in particular in Sanskrit poetry and in the history of the Śaiva Siddhānta.
Among his publications are editions and translations of works of poetry in Sanskrit and of hitherto unpublished Śaiva scriptures and theological commentaries.
He is currently a professor (directeur d’études) at the EFEO, co-editor with Dr. Marion Rastelli of the Viennese dictionary of tantric terminology, the Tāntrikābhidhānakośa, and a contributor to the Hamburg Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa (EMCAA).
In May 2016, he was elected membre correspondent étranger de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
Within the Śivadharma project, Dominic Goodall is editing a chapter of the Śivadharmottara (chapter 10) and is participating in various group reading-sessions of Śivadharma-related material that take place in the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO. These sessions focus notably on: 1) the C16th Tamil translation of the Śivadharmottara, of part of which Rajarethinam is producing an annotated English translation; 2) the Kacciyappa Muṉivar’s Tamil māhātmya of the sacred site of Tiruttaṇi, which includes a paraphrase in several hundred verses of the Śivadharmottara, and which is being translated by Professor K. Nachimuthu; 3) passages of the Bṛhatkālottara with the two doctoral students of Pondicherry University who are attached to the project, namely H. Venkataraman and Sushmita Dash.
A list of D. Goodall’s publications, visit this page.
KRISHNASWAMY NACHIMUTHU
Researcher - Member of the Advisory Board
Krishnaswamy Nachimuthu was professor and head at the Department of Tamil of the Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur (2013-2016); coordinator of the Department of Linguistics, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur (2016-2017); professor of Tamil and former chairperson, CIL, SLL&CS, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (2007-2013). From 1973 to 2007 he was professor and head at the department of Tamil (1973-2007), Kerala University. From 1979 to 1981, Krishnaswamy Nachimuthu was research associate in the “Lexicographic Project”, Institute of Indology, Cologne University, Germany (1979-1981). Between 1994 and 1998 he was visiting professor of Tamil, Warsaw University, Poland. From 2012 to 2019 he worked as senior researcher in the ERC-Advanced Grant Project “Going From Hand to Hand: Networks of Intellectual Exchange in the Tamil Learned Traditions” (Netamil, PI: Eva Wilden), based at the University of Hamburg (CSMC) and at the EFEO, Pondicherry centre, working on the critical edition of the commentary of Teyvaccilaiyār to the Collatikāram of Tolkāppiyam.
Krishnaswamy Nachimuthu specializes in traditional grammar, history of language, lexicography, historical and cultural studies, Tamil philosophical literature, translation and comparative studies with reference to Malayalam Hindi and Tamil in addition to place name studies. He has published/edited 20 books in addition to more than one hundred and fifty research papers in Tamil English and Malayalam on the above subjects. He guided about 25 Ph.D.scholars and about 50 M.Phil scholars.
In the Śivadharma Project he is involved in the subproject “The Reception of the Śivadharma in Tamil-Speaking Areas”, studying the spread, in pre modern times, of works of the Sivadharma corpus throughout the Tamil speaking South and the collaborative work on a first English translation of selections from the Tamil Tiruttaṇikaippurāṇam and of other Tamil works that draw upon or echo the Śivadharmottara.
T. RAJARETHINAM
Researcher
T. Rajarethinam did his bachelor’s degree in Tamil, Vivekananda college, Agasteeswaram, Kanyakumari. He received his Master’s degree, M.Phil Degree and Ph.D in Tamil from the Department of Tamil, University of Kerala, Trivandrum. Following this, he worked as project fellow under VI. Subramaniam in the International School of Dravidian Linguistics (ISDL), Trivandrum, as well as under V. Jeyadevan in the Lexicon Revision Project, University of Madras. From 2007 to 2012 he worked as lecturer in the Department of Tamil, PGP Arts and Science College. His advisors have been Gloria Sundramathy, V. I. Subramaniam and K. Nachimuthu. His areas of research are Tamil Akam Grammar, Caṅkam literature, Literary Theories and Poetics, Manuscriptology. From 2012 to 2019 he was research affiliate in the ERC-Advanced Grant Project “Going From Hand to Hand: Networks of Intellectual Exchange in the Tamil Learned Traditions” (Netamil, PI: Eva Wilden), based at the University of Hamburg (CSMC) and at the EFEO, Pondicherry centre, where he worked on the critical edition of Tolkappiyam Poruḷatikāram Akattiṇaiyiyal with the commentary of Nacciṉārkkiṉiyar.
In the framework of the Śivadharma Project, he is employed in the subproject “The Reception of the Śivadharma in Tamil-Speaking Areas”, and focuses on a first English translation of selected chapters from the Tamil version of the Śivadharmottara. For a list of publications, visit this page.SAS SARMA
Team Member
Subramanya Iyer Anantha Subramanya Sarma did his graduation and post-graduation in Sanskrit at the Government Sanskrit College (University of Kerala), Trivandrum. After completing his post-graduation course, he joined as a research scholar the Adyar Library and Research Centre, where he worked under K. Kunjunni Raja and K. V. Sarma on various indological projects. While at the Adyar Library he began work on his Ph.D at the University of Calicut under the guidance of N. V. P. Unithiri, and produced a critical edition of the Kapilasmṛti, which he submitted as a doctoral thesis in 1991 and subsequently published with Cesmeo (Torino, Italy, 2007).
S. A. S. Sarma joined the Pondicherry Centre of the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) as a researcher in 1989, and has contributed since then to several projects, such as the preparation of the Pāṇiṇīya-Udāharaṇa-Kośa (PUK) project; the “Indian Analysis of the Sanskrit Language and Literature” project, led by F. Grimal, which resulted in the editions of the commentaries on Anargharāghava (ed. Hari Narayana Bhat IFP/EFEO), Mahāvīracarita and Mālatīmādhava (ed. F. Grimal IFP/EFEO), and Gajasūtra (ed. SLPA Anjaneya Sarma); the Digital Tēvāram project (published in the form of a DR-Rom in 2007), with Jean-Luc Chevillard; the NETamil Project (2012-2019).
In the field of Śaiva studies, he is preparing a critical edition of the commentary of Trilocanaśiva (12th century), on Somaśambhupaddhati, a Śaiva ritual manual, while also editing the Mṛgendrapaddhati of Aghoraśiva, another ritual manual, with its commentary by one Vaktraśambhu. Sarma’s interest in Śaiva texts also prompted him to study Kerala ritual manuals.
Within the Śivadharma Project, he will produce a critical edition of chapter 12 of the Śivadharmaśāstra, while also focusing on the Śivadharmavivaraṇa, the only known Sanskrit commentary on the Śivadharmaśāstra and the Śivadharmottara.
R. SATHYANARAYANAN
Team Member
R. Sathyanarayanan is Associate Professor at the Ecole Francaise D’Extreme Orient (EFEO), Pondicherry Centre. After getting the title Śiromani (Sāhitya) in Sanskrit literature from Madras Sanskrit College in 1989, Sathyanarayanan completed his M.A. and M.Phil from the University of Madras in 1991 and 1992, respectively. He received gold medals and First Rank in his Śiromani and also in his M.A., for having stood first in the University Examinations. He joined the Pondicherry Centre of the École française d’Extrême Orient (French School of Asian studies), in October 1991. He obtained his doctoral degree (on Ānandaraṅgacampū – A study and Translation) from Pondicherry University in 2003. He was involved in several projects, such as the edition of “Pondicherry Inscriptions”; and the catalogue of the palm-leaf manuscripts of IFP collection (1998). In 2002, Dr Sathyanarayanan shifted his field of research to Śaiva-siddhānta and Dharmaśāstra. As a result, he has edited or co-edited several Sanskrit texts, such as the Prāyaścittasamuccaya, the Dhyānaratnāvalī, and Pañcāvaraṇastava. He is currently preparing a critical edition of the Ratnatrayaparīkṣā of Śrīkaṇṭhasūri, along with the commentary Ullekhinī of Aghoraśiva with Dr. T. Ganesan (IFP), a critical edition of the unpublished Jñānapāda of the Kāmikāgama with Mr. M. N. Kalyanasundaram, a critical edition and translation of the Śrīraṅgamāhātmya, a critical edition and translation of the Siddhāntadīpikā of Rāmanātha.
In the Śivadharma project, we works on a critical edition of chapter 11 of the Śivadharmottara, on the rites of expiation (prāyaścitta).
For a list of R. Sathyanarayanan’s publications, visit this page.
SUSHMITA DAS
Doctoral Candidate
Sushmita Das obtained her graduation and post- graduation in Sanskrit from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. From November 2018 Sushmita registered for Ph.D. Degree course with Pondicherry University and is carrying out her studies at Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), Pondicherry under the supervision of Dr. S.A.S. Sarma. As part of her Ph.D programme she plans to study the emerging roles of women in Śaiva Literature, especially in the Śivadharma corpus, Bṛhatkālottara and Devīpurāṇa.
As part of the Śivadharma Project, Sushmita will be preparing critical editions of selected chapters of the Bṛhatkālottara, a Saiddhāntika scripture of 9th cen. A.D.
While Sushmita will study the role of women in Saiva Religion as described in the Sivadharma corpus, she will also try to put together and edit the passages that describes the role of women. She also will be associating in the editing of chapter 11 of the Sivadharmottara that explains the expiations.
Sushmita is also working on the Devīpurāṇa, one of the ancient Śākta Upapurāṇa from Bengal.
GANESH VENKATARAMAN
Doctoral Candidate
Upon completing his Vedic studies for seven years in Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda from Kumbhakonam Vedic School, he joined The Madras Sanskrit College to undergo Sanskrit studies, where he pursued his philosophical studies in Mīmāmsā and completed his masters.
For a brief period Mr. Venkataraman was working as a Sanskrit teacher in a private school near Pondicherry. Then he joined EFEO at the end of 2017 for his doctoral studies to prepare a critical edition of selected chapters from an unpublished Śaiva scripture Bṛhatkālottara. He has chosen chapters of Rudraśānti, Aghorakalpaśānti and Śivaśānti from Bṛhatkālottara and some passages from Śivadharma corpus has been incorporated for his doctoral dissertation. He has worked in the Śivadharma Project from March 2019 until August 2021.
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM University of Bologna - Partner Institution
administrative contact
MARCO FRANCESCHINI
Team Member – Member of the Advisory Board
Marco Franceschini is Senior Assistant Professor at the University of Bologna. His research interests are in Sanskrit literature in ancient and medieval India. Predominantly, they range from Vedic literature (An Enhanced Vedic Concordance, 2007) to Indian classical poetry (kāvya) in Sanskrit (critical edition and translation of the Padyacūḍāmaṇi of Buddhaghoṣa, 2010), extending to the paleography of the Grantha script and the study of paratexts in manuscripts written in Grantha and Tamil scripts (A Study on Scribal Colophons, 2016).
He has spent periods of research in India (Visiting Scholar at the EFEO, Pondicherry, 2008, 2009 2012), UK (University of Cambridge, 2013, 2014) and The Netherlands (Scaliger Fellow, Leiden University, 2015). He has taken part and is still participating in several international projects, based in Cambridge (UK), Delhi, Hamburg, Hamburg/Pondicherry, Naples, Hamburg/Paris. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Associazione Italiana di Studi Sanscriti (Italian Association for Sanskrit Studies).
For a list of M. Franceschini’s publications, visit this page.
ALESSANDRO BATTISTINI
Postdoctoral Researcher
Alessandro Battistini was a postdoctoral researcher (2019-2022) at the University of Bologna, Dipartimento Storia Culture e Civiltà. He studied at the Universities of Milan and Varanasi, and holds a PhD from Sapienza University of Rome (2016). He was awarded a Gonda Fellowship at the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden (2016-2017) and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Kyoto University (2017-2018) through a fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
His main interests include court poetry, Indian games and puzzles, manuscriptology, Sanskrit aesthetics. He has traveled extensively in India to collect manuscripts and has edited and translated citrakāvya (figurative poetry) works from Kashmir and South India. As part of the Śivadharma Project, he investigates the production of Śaiva Kāvya in the courts of South India.
CHIARA LIVIO
Postdoctoral Researcher
Chiara Livio is a Gonda Fellow at the IIAS in Leiden. She studied at the University of Milan and holds a Ph.D. from Sapienza University of Rome (2020). Her main interests include Indian classical poetry in Sanskrit, court epics (mahākāvyas) from Kashmir in particular, Sanskrit aesthetics, and manuscript studies.
For the Śivadharma Project, she contributed to the study of the production of Śaiva Kāvya in South India at the University of Bologna, and mediated between the digital and the humanities domains to smoothen the collaboration among researchers.
FRANCESCA TOMASI
Team Member – Member of the Advisory Board
Francesca Tomasi is associate professor in Archival Science, Bibliography and Librarianship at the Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies at the University of Bologna. Her research is devoted to digital humanities, with a special attention to scholarly editions of primary sources, and a primary focus on metadata, controlled vocabularies and formal ontologies. She is member of different scientific committees of both associations and journals. In particular, she is President of the Library of the School of Humanities in the University of Bologna (BDU – Biblioteca di Discipline Umanistiche), Director of the international second cycle degree in Digital Humanities and Digital Knowledge (DHDK), Head of the Digital Humanities Advanced Research Center (DH.ARC), and President of the Italian Association of Digital Humanities (AIUCD – Associazione per l’Informatica Umanistica e la Cultura Digitale). She attended several conferences in the field of digital humanities both as invited lecturer and as speaker in international meeting (among them: DocEng, TEI, IRCDL, DH, TPDL).
She wrote about 80 papers, mostly in peer-review journals, and is author of some books. She is the editor of a digital scholarly environment (Vespasiano da Bisticci, Letters), and head of some other projects (see here).
For a list of F. Tomasi’s publications, visit this page.
Other Institutions
Former Śivadharma Team Members and International Collaborators
India, Japan, the Netherlands, France…
LUCAS DEN BOER
Research Associate
Lucas den Boer is postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University/FWO.
He was a Postdoctoral Researcher at L’Orientale University of Naples, Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo (2020–2022). Here, he was the recipient of a fellowship (borsa di ricerca) from the Śivadharma Project (October 2020–December 2021), and then of an assegno di ricerca sponsored by the Project FARE ricerca (Ministero Italiano dell’Università).
His research interests centre on the history of Indian philosophy, with a particular focus on the social history of Indian thought in the first millennium CE. He holds an MA in Philosophy from the University of Groningen (2015) and a PhD in Asian Studies from Leiden University (2020). Prior to his position in Naples, he was a Research Associate in the ERC project ‘Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State’, hosted by the British Museum, the British Library, SOAS, and Leiden University.
In the Śivadharma Project, he contributed to the sub-project “Traces of the Śivadharma in Buddhist and Śākta Territory: Bengal and Odisha.” His research explored the early history of Buddhist and Śaiva institutes of learning in East India and the socioreligious dynamics in which these maṭhas and mahāvihāras operated.
MARGHERITA TRENTO
Research Associate
Margherita Trento is associate professor (maîtresse de conférences, en cours de nomination) at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), affiliated to the Centre d’études sud-asiatiques et himalayennes – CESAH (formerly Centre d’Études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud – CEIAS) in Paris.
She was postdoctoral researcher (borsista di ricerca) at the University of Naples “L’Orientale,” Dipartimento Asia, Africa Mediterraneo (2019–2020). She holds a bachelor degree in Indology from the Università Ca’ Foscari in Venice (2006), and a master degree in Religious Studies from the Università degli Studi di Torino (2010). After her master, she studied early modern history at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (2010-2012), and Tamil and Telugu at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales in Paris (2011-12). She continued to study Tamil, among other things, during her PhD in the department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations (SALC) at the University of Chicago (2012-2019).
Her research focuses on the social, cultural and religious history of Tamil-speaking South India in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the Śivadharma Project, she contributes to the sub-project “The Reception of the Śivadharma in Tamil-Speaking Areas.”
OFER PERES
Research Associate
Ofer Peres was a Postdoctoral Researcher (borsista di ricerca) at L’Orientale, University of Naples Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo (2020–2021). In his research, Ofer explores the interrelations of religious and literary textual traditions, focusing on the dynamics of traditional narratives and their role in propelling theological and ethical transitions in the religious domain. His area of expertise is South-Asian religions, particularly Vedism and Hinduism, and their textual traditions, mainly in Sanskrit and Tamil. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Religion from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prior to his position in Naples, he was a Research Associate in the ERC project “NEEM: The New Ecology of Expressive Modes in Early Modern South India,” hosted by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
In the Śivadharma Project, he contributes to the sub-project “The Reception of the Śivadharma in Tamil-speaking Areas,” focusing on the puranic works of Maṟaiñāṉa Campantar (the Arunakiri-purāṇam and the Kamalālayac-ciṟappu) and their relation to the Civatarumōttaram.
NIRAJAN KAFLE
Ashoka University
Nirajan Kafle teaches at Ashoka University. He was a postdoctoral researcher (borsista di ricerca, 2019–2022) at L’Orientale University of Naples, Dipartimento Asia, Africa Mediterraneo. His research is focused on the study of lay religious practices in Early Medieval India, with particular focus on historical development and exchanges between the main branches of Hinduism, Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism. Previous to this position in Naples, he held a post-doctoral research position at Leiden University in the NWO project ‘From Universe of Viṣṇu to Universe of Śiva’. His research within this project focused on the origin and development of the ritual calendar system meant for lay Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava people, on the basis of the Śivadharma and the Viṣṇudharma respectively. His research also engages with other Sanskrit textual traditions, mainly Purāṇas and the Mahābhārata, as well as other lay materials, while his interests also cover Śaiva Tantra, Kāvya, inscriptions and Vedic texts. After getting an MA in 2005 (Honours with gold medal) in Classical Indology from Nepal Sanskrit University, Kathmandu, he finished his PhD from Leiden University in October 2015, with a thesis consisting of a critical edition and annotated translation of the Niśvāsamukha, along with the first chapters of the Śivadharmasaṅgraha. He has worked both in Kathmandu at the Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project, and at the EFEO centre of Pondicherry as a research officer and Sanskrit teacher.
In the framework of the Śivadharma Project, he works on the subproject “The Śivadharma in the Kathmandu Valley: Religious hybrids and the invention of a corpus”, focusing on Śaiva-Vaiṣṇava relationships in medieval Nepal.
GIULIA BURIOLA
Research fellow (borsista di ricerca)
Giulia Buriola Meneghin was the recipient of a fellowship (borsa di ricerca) from the Dharma Project from November 2020 till May 2021. As part of the tem, she contributed to the creation and implementation of the TEI guidelines for encoding digital critical editions of manuscripts in close collaboration with Prof F. De Simini, Prof A. Griffiths, and Dr A. Janiak.
In 2021 she obtained a Ph.D. in Indian History at the University of Rome, “Sapienza”, under the supervision of Prof R. Torella and the co-supervision of Prof F. De Simini (“L’Orientale”, University of Naples). She received her MA in Modern South Asian Studies from Hamburg University (2017), with a thesis on the esthetical theory of emotions within the Rāmāyaṇan and one of its modern Hindi versions, N. Kohli’s Abhyudaya (1989). She obtained a second MA (one-year) from Leiden University (2018), with a thesis on the development and decay of Tātācārya family in a 15th-to-16th century Vijayanagara through the analysis of chapter 123-125 of the hagiographic work Prapannāmṛtam (17th cent). This subject also became part of her doctoral research, resulted in a thesis with the title Wandering Ācāryas, Converted Kings, and the Making of a Religious Network: A Study on Śrīvaiṣṇava Priesthood (15th to 17th century).
KENJI TAKAHASHI
University of Tokyo
Kenji Takahashi is an assistant professor at Tokyo University. He was an Overseas Research Fellow at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” (2019–2021), Dipartimento Asia, Africa Mediterraneo, thanks to the support of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences. He graduated (MA) in Indological Studies at the Graduate School of Letters of Kyoto University (2015), where he also received a PhD in 2019. During his stay at the University of Naples (2019-2021), he will do research on the topic of “Adhyātma Philosophy in Ancient India”.
In the frame of the Śivadharma project, he contributes to the sub-project “The Śivadharma in the Kathmandu Valley: Religious Hybrids and the Invention of the Corpus” with a research on the early Nepalese transmission of the Mahābhārata. For a list of K. Takahashi’s publications, visit this page.
Judit Törzsök
École Pratique des Hautes Études, PSL University
Judit Törzsök is a Director of Stuties at École Pratique des Hautes Études, PSL University. Judit Törzsök’s primary research area covers a wide range of studies in classical Śaivism, e.g., the Śākta Śaiva traditions, lay Śaivism, the genesis of Śaiva devotional literature in Tamil, and the nondualist Kashmirian exegetical works together with their scriptures, etc. Her on-going research in Jayadratha’s Haracaritacintāmaṇi (13th cent.) has been an indispensable part of Shivadharma research. It has led us to important insight into the role the Śivadharmottara had in the 13th century Kashmir.
Peter Bisschop
Leiden University
Peter Bisschop is Professor of Sanskrit and Ancient Cultures of South Asia at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies. His main focus of research concerns the historical development and spread of early Hindu religious traditions, in particular Śaivism. He is a world’s leading researcher of the anonymous Purāṇa literature and mythology therein. He has been the principal investigator of several major research grants. Since 2022, he has been leading an ERC Advanced Grant project PURANA: Mythical Discourse and Religious Agency in the Puranic Ecumene. He has been working on the Śivadharma corpus even before the launch of Shivadharma Project. A Śaiva Utopia, co-authored with Nirajan Kafle and Tim Lubin, is a result of such researches.
Yuko Yokochi
Kyoto University
Yuko Yokochi is Professor at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University. Her specializations include classical Sanskrit literature and Hindu mythology in Puranic literature and beyond. She made major contributions in the study of formations of Goddess myths and her worship. Her current major research interest is in early Śaivism. She has been working closely with the Shivadharma project especially in the preparation of several chapters of the Śivadharmottara.
Satoshi Ogura
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Satoshi Ogura is associate professor at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. His research interests are history of late medieval Kashmir (second Lohara dynasty, Shāhmīr and Chak sultanates) and translatios from Sanskrit into Persian at the Mughal court. He is currently working on editions of the Persian translations of the Rājataraṅgiṇī of Jonarāja and the Yogavāsiṣṭha made at Akbar’s court.
In the Śivadharma project, he surveys descriptions of early and medieval Śaivism in Arabic and Persian sources.
