Announcements

  • 09/12/2023

    Harald Wiese: Sanskrit as an Indo-European Language

    Students of Sanskrit can choose among several good manuals. Whichever they may choose, learning Sanskrit is a daunting task. Sanskrit as an Indo-European Language by Harald Wiese is not an alternative textbook for learning Sanskrit. Instead, it is to accompany these textbooks and written in the hope to make Sanskrit learning easier by explaining words and grammatical forms from an Indo-European point of view. 

  • 08/29/2023

    Harald Wiese: Exchange, gifting and sacrificing: Premodern Indian perspectives

    In both the Vedic and the classical periods, a special elite class of people existed that were called Brahmins. In a rough manner, one might say that their material wellbeing depended on dakṣiṇā in the Vedic period and on dāna in the classical one.

    Broadening the perspective beyond dakṣiṇā and dāna, the present monograph is on all sorts of giving in the context of pre-modern India, using Vedic, Sanskrit, Buddhist and, to a much lesser extent, Roman and Christian sources. The Brahmanical theory of the gift (i.e., the theory of dutiful gifting, dharmadāna) is a major focus of, and has provided a major motivation for, this study.

  • 08/22/2023

    Dominik Wujastyk et al.: On the Plastic Surgery of the Ears and Nose

    A thousand-year-old Ayurvedic manuscript containing the Compendium of Suśruta was announced to the scholarly world in 2007. The Nepalese manuscript, since adopted by UNESCO as part of the Memory of the World, reveals the state of classical Indian medicine in the ninth century. It enables us to study the changes in this medical classic that have taken place from the ninth to the nineteenth century, when printed texts began to dominate the dissemination of the work. The present monograph describes the research project focussed on this manuscript and offers an edition, study and translation of the historically important chapter about the plastic surgery on the nose and ears.

  • 08/08/2023

    New publication - Dhārī Devī, Goddess of the Floods

    The trajectory of the Dhārī Devī Temple epitomises the idea of catastrophes as watersheds. In particular, flood disasters have accompanied transformation processes of the site located on Alaknanda River in the Indian Himalayas. As early as 1894, a flash flood had a significant impact on the site and the identity of the deity. Local flood legends gained new topicality with the planning of a hydroelectric power plant in the vicinity. They became part of debates surrounding the construction scheme that required the relocation of the sacred site. In her book Dhārī Devī, Goddess of the Floods Frances Anke Niebuhr explores flood discourses and illuminates their influence on a development project. It further demonstrates how previous controversies framed the public interpretation of two flood disasters in 2012 and specifically of the "Himalayan Tsunami" in 2013.

  • 08/01/2023

    New publication - God, Jesus and the Ancestors: An Ethnography of the Ancestors’ Rites in the Taiwanese Catholic Church

    In God, Jesus and the Ancestors: An Ethnography of the Ancestors’ Rites in the Taiwanese Catholic Church the author Marco Lazzarotti describes the Ancestors Ceremonies as practiced in the Taiwanese Catholic Church. The author’s point is to demonstrate how the Chinese symbolic universe made a deep translation of the "new" symbolic system represented by the Catholic doctrine. At the same time the effort of the Catholic Church in order to adapt the Gospel message to the local situation built up a particular phenomenon that the author defined as cultural dialogue. It is this dialogic relationship the process that the author defines as Culture.

  • 07/25/2023

    New publication - bāteṁ. Hindi-Grammatik kommunikativ : Übungsbände 1+2

    As part of the four-volume textbook bāteṁ. Hindi-Grammatik kommunikativ (Two textbooks, each with an accompanying workbook) by Elmar Josef Renner and Vipul Goswami, workbook volumes 1 and 2 have now been published.

    The Copenhagen Hindi Course contextualises grammar in 46 lessons. This allows a communicative teaching approach. The contexts are taken from the lives of the authors and their families and friends. Instead of representing a textbook that pledges to offer a complete view on Hindi speaking society, the textual fragments underlying the exercises invite teachers and learners to offer their own perspectives while communicating in Hindi in order to acquire it.

    Each lesson is centered around one main grammatical structure and provides a variety of exercises which makes the workbook applicable in various course formats.

  • 07/24/2023

    New publication - Significant Others, Significant Encounters: Essays on South Asian History and Literature

    The volume Significant Others, Significant Encounters, edited by Philippe Bornet and Nadia Cattoni, is dedicated to Maya Burger, professor emerita at the Faculty of Arts, University of Lausanne. It gathers contributions by friends, colleagues, and former students that echo the multiple dimensions of her work. Organised in four parts, Indology, History of Religions, History of Orientalism, and Hindi and Translation, these contributions explore different examples of encounters with “significant others”. Analysing original historical and literary sources and reflecting on the methodological dimensions, the authors offer innovative perspectives on various processes of interaction and exchange between the Indian subcontinent and the wider world and within the subcontinent itself.

  • 07/19/2023

    HASP at the 27th European Conference for South Asian Studies in Turin, 26 - 29 July 2023

    Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing will be present at the 27th European Conference for South Asian Studies in Turin from 26th to 29th of July.

    If you are attending the conference, we look forward seeing you at our exhibition stall. Come along and have a look at our latest open access books. Browse through our publications and get a glimpse of our forthcoming releases for autumn and winter 2023.

  • 07/18/2023

    New publication - Computerlinguistische Datierung schriftsprachlicher chinesischer Texte

    The chronological classification of texts can be crucial for clarifying authenticity and interpretation. The dating of written Chinese sources can be made difficult due to imitation of antique models and unclear authorship. In his book Computerlinguistische Datierung schriftsprachlicher chinesischer Texte Tilman Schalmey examines the development and application of computational methods for dating Chinese texts. It introduces a lexeme-based method that aims at counteracting the stylistic rigidity of the written language and aiding philological work. Moreover, this study examines language change, the general suitability of digital methods for the study of Classical Chinese texts and the Hanyu da cidian 漢語大詞典 as an important data source for lexicographic dating.

  • 06/07/2023

    New publication – Postnational Perceptions in Contemporary Art Practice

    Postnational Perceptions in Contemporary Art Practice by Bindu Bhadana focuses on the works of Chitra Ganesh (b.1974), Tejal Shah (b.1979) and Nikhil Chopra (b.1976) in order to highlight the changing relationship of the gendered body with national identity in contemporary art practice. Ideas of national belonging are challenged precisely through a concerted focus on identities marginalized by the nation. It proposes the ‘postnational’ as an empowering term to mark the shift away from the nation, and, employing a post-structural framework, it argues that the nature of national identity is in itself a construct.

  • 05/23/2023

    New journal - Nidān: International Journal for Indian Studies

    The journal Nidān: International Journal for Indian Studies is now hosted by HASP. All back issues are available for free. The issue 8,1 (2023) is scheduled for summer.

  • 04/05/2023

    New publication - Volume 14 of the series "Geographien Südasiens"

    We are pleased to inform you that the proceedings of the 12th Annual Conference of the AK Südasien have been published. The conference took place on 21/22 January 2022 in Bonn/ online. The proceedings are  available free of charge in open access on our website.

  • 03/23/2023

    Monika Horstmann, Dalpat S. Rajpurohit: In the Shrine of the Heart: Sants of Rajasthan

    In the early modern period, the Sants emerged in North India as devotees of a formless interior god. The volume introduces seven Sant authors living in Rajasthan in the period from the first half of the sixteenth to the eighties of the seventeenth century. It explores their complex cultural background, their literary conventions, and their sectarian network, and presents samples of their poetry in the original Hindi with English translations.

    Sant poetry has been transmitted in oral and written form. It owes its continuing vitality largely to congregational and private performance. This fact has been illustrated by a number of audio and video samples included in the HTML version.

  • 01/26/2023

    New publication - Puṣpikā - Tracing Ancient India through Texts and Traditions

    In the series Puṣpikā – Tracing Ancient India through Texts and Traditions: Contributions to Current Research in Indology, the proceedings of the International Indology Graduate Research Symposium (IIGRS) are published. Puṣpikā is a peer-reviewed series that provides early-career scholars with a platform to share the results of their research on pre-modern South Asian cultures.

    This is the 6th volume in the series, containing thirteen articles based on the talks presented at the 12th IIGRS online and in Vienna, Austria on 22–24 July 2021.

  • 11/18/2022

    The journal ASIEN is now online!

    ASIEN: The German Journal on Contemporary Asia is published by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Asienkunde (DGA) in Hamburg. In cooperation with the DGA, all older volumes already published have been made available in Open Access. They can be downloaded from the journal website of Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing (HASP).

    The current issue is freely available online after an embargo period of one year; some articles are also available immediately after publication without a time limit. A print edition is also available.

  • 10/24/2022

    New publication - Temples, Texts, and Networks

    For many centuries, Hindu temples and shrines have been of great importance to South Indian religious, social and political life. Aside from being places of worship, they are also pilgrimage destinations, centres of learning, political hotspots, and foci of economic activities. In these tem­ples, not only the human and the divine interact, but they are also meeting places of different members of the communities, be they local or coming from afar. The current volume pays close attention to the con­nections between individual Hindu temples and the affiliated communities, be it within a particular place or on a trans-local level.

  • 08/22/2022

    New publication - The Heart of Change: Issues on Variation in Hindi

    The present volume, which comprises seven English contributions and four in Hindi, addresses issues of linguistic variation – a phenomenon central to the study of language use – in regard to the major official language of India. It combines multiple theoretical and pragmatic approaches to a variety of linguistic phenomena conceptualised under the designation 'Hindi’ and attempts to obtain a more accurate portrayal of the changing reality behind this versatile taxonomic term.

  • 06/23/2022

    New publication - Sound, Meaning, Shape: The Phonologist Wei Jiangong (1901-1980) between Language Study and Language Planning

    One of the leading proponents of the radical linguistic reforms in 20th century China, Wei Jiangong remains hardly known in the West. In Sound, Meaning, Shape describes Mariana Münning how Wei, who was rooted in traditional philology and conceptualizing language as a tool, helped to promulgate a standard language, led the compilation of the world’s most popular dictionary, and helped to drive script reform.

  • 05/25/2022

    New publication - Theorising Emotions: An Enquiry into the Emotion Knowledge of Premodern Tamil Treatises

    It is impossible to imagine human history without emotions. But what is known about theoretical emotion knowledge in premodern South India? In Theorising Emotions Barbara Schuler offers a first systematic examination of emotion knowledge as found in Tamil treatises and commentaries written from the 11th to 17th century.

  • 04/11/2022

    CrossAsia-eBooks / CrossAsia-ePublishing renamed HASP - Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing

    Under a new name, Heidelberg University Library is further expanding its successful open access publishing activities with innovative new services. What started as CrossAsia-eBooks / CrossAsia-ePublishing within the FID Asia in 2016 will be continued as Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing - HASP since the beginning of 2022 within FID4SA - Specialized Information Service South Asia. Take a look at our preview with titles planned for spring 2022.

     

  • 12/13/2021

    New publication - Japan's Contemporary Media Culture between Local and Global

    In this collection on Japan's Contemporary Media Culture between Local and Global the editors bring together a wide range of inquiries into Japan’s contemporary media culture, situating popular media content and its related practices and theories in the complex interplay between local and global. The chapters draws attention to several prominent phenomena, suggest new approaches to media culture, and highlight the importance of positionality with regard to research on media culture. The volume documents the results of a series of PhD student workshops held in Kyoto and Leipzig between 2017 and 2019, and continues the discussions started there.

  • 09/29/2021

    New publication - The Imperial Library of the Northern Song by Johannes L. Kurz

    The Imperial Library of the Northern Song by Johannes L. Kurz is a translation of the Lintai gushi by Cheng Ju, a book that deals with the imperial book collections under the Northern Song. The library collections of the early Northern Song were created from scratch, only to be partially destroyed again in the disastrous fire of 1015 and during the shift of the capital from Kaifeng to Hangzhou. Cheng Ju’s Lintai gushi is the oldest surviving source of information on the Northern Song (960‒1126) imperial libraries. The Lintai gushi bears witness to the various activities undertaken to rebuild comprehensive book collections and thus to fill the gap in the history of imperial Song libraries.

  • 08/25/2021

    New publication - Kunst, Markt, Kommunikation: Die zeitgenössische Kunstwelt in Indien im Wandel (2000-2018)

    Contemporary visual art has long since ceased to take place only in Western art centres. In particular, "emerging art markets" such as India or China, with their aspiring middle and upper classes, have increasingly attracted the attention of the global art field since the beginning of the 2000s. However, these art markets do not simply fit into the Western art establishment, but differentiate themselves into (trans)local art fields. The book Kunst, Markt, Kommunikation traces how (trans)local art institutions, knowledge spaces and resources have evolved in India between 2000 and 2018 and suggests that the transformation of the contemporary art world in India can be understood as a decided process of localisation.

    Published as volume 2 of Media and Cultural Studies series.

  • 06/10/2021

    New publication - »Das alles hier«. Festschrift für Konrad Klaus zum 65. Geburtstag

    »Das Weltall, die Gesamtheit des in der Welt Vorhandenen, wird in den Brāhmaṇas gewöhnlich mit dem Ausdruck idaṃ sarvam ›das alles hier‹ bezeichnet…«, reads Konrad Klaus' doctoral thesis. The completion of his 65th year – at the same time the completion of two decades as a university professor in Bonn – is a welcome occasion for us to honour Konrad Klaus with this Festschrift. »Das alles hier« may gladly also be interpreted in terms of the honoree's life's work to date: A rich academic work with multiple activities in teaching, research and science management with a large number of brilliant publications on philological and cultural-historical issues as visible signs.

  • 05/05/2021

    New publication - The Bhadrakarātrī-sūtra: Apotropaic Scriptures in Early Indian Buddhism by Kathrin Holz

    In her dissertation Kathrin Holz examines the Bhadrakarātrī-sūtra, an important representative of early Buddhist rakṣā literature, and thereby contributes to the investigation of this literary genre. This work ultimately presents an edition, partial reconstruction, and translation of the two extant Sanskrit manuscripts found in Central Asia, as well as a critical edition and translation of the Tibetan version of this text.

    The book is published as volume 27 of the series Monographs on Indian Archaeology, Art and Philology.

  • 04/14/2021

    New Publication - Begräbnistexte im Sozialen Wandel der Han-Zeit. Eine typologische Untersuchung der Jenseitsvorstellungen by Liang Chen

    During the Han period (202 B.C.- 220 A.D.), funerary texts were added to tombs in China. These were intended to serve as a means of communication between this world and the next. “Begräbnistexte im Sozialen Wandel der Han-Zeit” systematically analyses funerary texts from about 180 tombs and thus shows the development of the concept of the afterlife in connection with social change in the Han period.

  • 03/05/2021

    New Publication - Vom Wesen der Dinge: Realitäten und Konzeptionen des Materiellen in der chinesischen Kultur by Phillip Grimberg, Grete Schönebeck (Eds.)

    As part of the cooperation between the Deutschen Vereinigung für Chinastudien  and CrossAsia-eBooks we were able to publish another volume of the series “Jahrbuch der DVCS” as an open access publication: Phillip Grimberg, Grete Schönebeck (Hg.) - Vom Wesen der Dinge: Realitäten und Konzeptionen des Materiellen in der chinesischen Kultur

  • 03/04/2021

    New Publication - Translating Islam, Translating Religion: Conceptions of Religion and Islam in the Aligarh Movement by Arian Hopf

    The 19th century is characterized by a colonial encounter with South Asia. The religions of South Asia are analyzed, categorized and compared with Christianity by the Europeans. Missionary and Orientalist criticism, as well as modern science, present an entirely new confrontation for the Muslims of South Asia. The aim of "Translating Islam, Translating Religion" is to analyze Muslim responses to this confrontation, which imply both a translation of Islam according to the reference point of Christianity and a reinterpretation of the concept of religion itself. The focus here is on the Aligarh movement, which is intensively involved in these debates and tries to put forward a new interpretation of Islam.

  • 01/14/2021

    New Publication - A Course in Reading Classical Newari: Selections from the Vetālapañcaviṃśati

    A Course in Reading Classical Newari is intended for all who wish to acquire a basic knowledge of this acutely understudied language. The first part of the book provides an introduction to the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Classical Newari on the basis of the literary language of the late 17th century. Part two consists of twelve annotated reading passages that have been taken from various manuscripts of the as yet unedited Newari version of one of the most popular texts of the South Asian narrative tradition, the Vetālapañcaviṃśati. Appended to the book are a key to the exercises, translations of the reading passages, an index of verb forms, and a glossary.

  • 12/18/2020

    New Publication - Tackling Urban Monotony: Cultural Heritage Conservation in China’s Historically and Culturally Famous Cities by Fabienne Wallenwein

    With the threat and emergence of monotonous cityscapes in a rapidly urbanizing China, the pressure to preserve local characteristics has taken center stage. Central and local governments at the beginning of the 1980s responded by prioritizing 24 cities with historical value and cultural relics. Drawing on international standards and experiences of early Chinese architects such as Liang Sicheng, the concept of “Historically and Culturally Famous Cities” begins to take shape. The study Tackling Urban Monotony: Cultural Heritage Conservation in China’s Historically and Culturally Famous Cities delineates three revitalized residential areas in the Jiangnan region. While Pingjiang Historic Block in Suzhou and Tongli Ancient Water Town are characterized by Ming and Qing period architecture, Tianzifang in Shanghai is a mixed-use urban block with lilong housing and factory buildings. Based on these three areas which now serve as exemplars for integrated conservation and development, the study argues and demonstrates how “Historically and Culturally Famous Cities” developed from their initial concept into a multi-layered conservation system.

  • 11/27/2020

    New Publication - Mythos und Moloch: Die Metropole in der modernen Hindi-Literatur (ca.1970-2010) by Johanna Hahn

    The study Mythos und Moloch examines Hindi urban literature in the period between 1970 and the present. Using popular myths such as the "deceptive city" (māyāvī śahar), characters such as the flaneur and places such as the tea stall, it shows how regional-language narratives form an interface between global and national discourses and local worlds of experience. Hindi urban literature opens a critical discourse space for social self-questioning in modern India.

  • 11/26/2020

    New publication - A Manual of Modern Kannada by Robert J. Zydenbos

    In search of a new challenge? Want to learn a South Asian language? Maybe Kannada? Then CrossAsia-eBooks has the ideal textbook - A Manual of Modern Kannada by Robert Zydenbos.

    Kannada (also known as Canarese) is one among the few great living Indian literary languages that have officially been recognized as classical languages by the Government of India on account of their historical importance and literary richness. Today it is spoken by roughly 65 million people, is the sole official language of the south Indian state of Karnataka, and is recognized as one of the leading modern literary languages of India. This manual was especially written for the teaching of this Dravidian language in an academic setting, but is also suitable for private self-learning.

  • 10/12/2020

    First volume of "Media and Cultural Studies" now online!

    The first volume of the series "Media and Cultural Studies" is online -Arbeitsmigration nach Saudi-Arabien und ihre Wahrnehmung in Pakistan by Sebastian Sons. For economic, political and cultural reasons, labor migration to Saudi Arabia is considered a system legitimizing and everyday phenomenon in Pakistan. The kingdom acts as an influential external actor in Pakistan on a (security) political, economic and cultural level. Critical issues related to migration are hardly ever discussed in the Pakistani public and instead are taboo. In recent years, however, new Pakistani public actors from civil society, media and international organizations have begun to challenge this taboo. This book analyzes which media practices and strategies are used to expand limited public spaces in Pakistan to migration by these actors.

     

  • 09/10/2020

    New publication - Chinese Perceptions of Russia and the West, ed. by Gotelind Müller und Nikolay Samoylov

    This book aims at investigating changes and continuities in Chinese perceptions of Russia and the West during the 20th century, paying heed to the fact that the respective ascriptions and “frontlines” were historically contingent: who and what represented “Russia“ or “the West“ at a given time and at a given place? Was “Russia“ part of “the West“, or not? And if it was, in which regard? With such questions in mind, this book was taking shape, growing out of a German-Russian project funded by the DFG-RFBR.

  • 09/08/2020

    Wege durchs Labyrinth: Festschrift zu Ehren von Rahul Peter Das

    The Festschrift in honour of Professor Rahul Peter Das "Wege durchs Labyrinth" edited by Carmen Brandt and Hans Harder combines German and English language contributions by colleagues, pupils and companions of Professor Das. The essays collected here reflect different thematic focuses, which Professor Das has also worked on in his extensive scientific oeuvre.

  • 05/29/2020

    Danuta Stasik (ed.): Oral-Written-Performed: The Rāmāyaṇa Narratives in Indian Literature and Arts

    The Rāmāyaṇa tradition is well known for an inexhaustible variety of forms and narrative structures transmitted by different media. Oral–Written–Performed examines selected textual, oral, visual and performing forms in which the Rāma story has functioned in Indian literature and arts. The volume addresses the question how narratives become vehicles for literary conventions and ideologies expressive of diverse sectarian concerns, or cultural values.