Otter, Felix
Die Revitalisierung von Vāstuvidyā im kolonialen und nachkolonialen Indien
Vāstuvidyā, the old Indian esoteric lore of building a house, has been the object of several attempts at revitalisation since the first half of the 20th century. This book examines these attempts in the context of ideological and historical developments with the methods of textual analysis. The relationship between the revived version(s) of Vāstuvidyā with the precolonial formulations of the lore, the relevance of the apologetic discourse of the indigenous sciences for the revitalisation of Vāstuvidyā, and the discourse strategies employed in colonial and post-colonial Vāstu literature are the central themes of the book.
Book Reviews
Review of Felix Otter: Revitalisierung von Vāstuvidyā im kolonialen und nachkolonialen Indien. Heidelberg: CrossAsia-eBooks, 2016. Reviewed by Simon Cubelic for H-SOZ-Kult, 06.07.2018.
Sreeramula Rajeswara Sarma: The Growing Influence of "Vāstuśāstra" in India. Review of: Felix Otter: Revitalisierung von Vāstuvidyā im kolonialen und nachkolonialen Indien. Heidelberg: CrossAsia-eBooks, 2016. In: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 115 (2), 2020: 97-102.
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.
Wege durchs Labyrinth: Festschrift zu Ehren von Rahul Peter Das
Wege durchs Labyrinth is a commemorative volume in honor of Professor Dr. Rahul Peter Das. It contains contributions in German and English by colleagues, students and fellow scholars of Professor Das. The essays collected here represent various thematic areas that Professor Das has also worked on in his extensive scientific oeuvre. These include Sanskrit studies, historical linguistics, text editions in New Indo-Aryan languages, sociolinguistics, South Asian religious history, Bengali and Hindi literature, history of science in Indology/South Asian studies, and also Tamil studies. Some of the contributions link directly to Rahul Peter Das' work or particular writings, while the totality of the essays reflect his various research interests and different methodological approaches.
Contributors to this Festschrift are Carmen Brandt, Renata Czekalska, Ines Fornell, Eli Franco, Ratul Ghosh, Olav Hackstein, Hans Harder, Martin Kämpchen, Klaus Karttunen, Makoto Kitada, Frank J. Korom, Agnieszka Kuczkiewicz-Fras, Halina Marlewicz, Ulrike Niklas, Tatiana Oranskaia, Felix Otter, Adapa Satyanarayana, Britta Schulze-Thulin, Sabine Franziska Strich, Heinz Werner Wessler and Benjamin Zachariah.
