MoU with National Mission for Manuscripts
On March 14, 2024, Prof. Dr Ute Hüsken visited the National Mission for Manuscripts in New Delhi to prepare the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the National Manuscript Mission together with its director, Dr Anirban Dash. The MoU came into force on March 25 when it was signed by the President of the Academy, Prof. Dr Hans-Georg Kräusslich. The National Mission for Manuscripts has set itself the goal of tracking down and preserving India's vast treasure trove of manuscripts. To this end, it maintains a constantly growing online catalogue of manuscripts on its website. The MoU provides for cooperation between the research centre "Hindu Temple Legends in South India" and the National Mission for Manuscripts, which, among other things, enables the exchange of researchers and collaborative work on manuscripts.
Digitization of historical prints
Following an agreement between the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP), the project team in Pondicherry (photographer M. Ramesh, coordinated by S.A.S. Sarma) completed the digitization of three valuable printed works from the IFP library in March 2024. Another print from the Cologne collection of Grantha and Telugu prints was kindly digitized by the University and City Library of Cologne already in October 2023 at the request of the research centre. The prints are historical editions of Sanskrit temple legends of Kanchipuram (Vaiṣṇava Kāñcīmāhātmya, Śaiva Kāñcīmāhātmya, Kāmākṣīvilāsa and Hastigirimāhātmya), which are currently being re-edited by the project researchers. The production of high-quality digital images ensures that these very rare prints (published in 1889, 1898 and 1907) are being preserved. In a further step, the digital images will be made available online together with transcriptions of the historical editions. This will make the texts, which have been difficult to access until now, provisionally available to the public until the new digital editions are completed.
Presentation as project of the month
The academy project "Hindu Temple Legends in South India" was selected by the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities as Project of the Month for March 2024. The presentation on the websites of the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education and the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities provides an insight into the work of the research unit:
Website of the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education
Website of the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities
Project workshop in Heidelberg
From October 16 to 27, 2023, the research unit organised an internal project workshop on "Digital Humanities Methods." Researchers T. Rajarethinam, Vigneshwaran Muralidaran and Vishnupriya Vigneshwaran from the Pondicherry branch travelled to Heidelberg to work with the team there.
The methods to be implemented in the project in the field of Digital Humanities were discussed in an intensive exchange and a basis was established to drive forward the progressing and increasingly cross-linked work processes.
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Ute Hüsken at Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
On July 18, 2023 project leader Prof. Dr. Ute Hüsken gave a lecture titled “Wie Götter heiraten: Tempelrituale im südindischen Hinduismus” (How Gods Marry: Temple Rituals in South Indian Hinduism) as part of the lecture series “Wir forschen. Für Sie” at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Using the example of the wedding of two gods, the special closeness of the world of humans and gods in the southern Indian temple city of Kanchipuram was highlighted. The lecture elaborated on how diverse the underlying narratives were transmitted through texts in Tamil and Sanskrit, temple architecture, and oral narratives. This provided a broader audience with an opportunity for exchange and insight into the work of the research project.
Consul General Michaela Küchler (German Consulate General Chennai) visits the academy project in Kanchipuram
On March 25, 2023, Consul General Michaela Küchler visited the academy project in Kanchipuram together with eleven delegates. They were welcomed by Prof. Dr. Ute Husken, Dr. Dominic Goodall and her team, who introduced them in two Shivaite temples to the goals and methods of the “Hindu Temple Legends in Kanchipuram” project. The group arrived early and first visited the Kailasanatha temple from the Pallava period (6th/7th century AD). The exquisite sculptures and inscriptions there provided ample opportunity to explain both the local Shivaite legends and the history of the temple. After a break, which Dr. Hüsken used to talk about contemporary South Indian temple culture, the delegation was gained a concrete insight into various facets of this important living Hindu ritual tradition in the large Ekambaranatha temple.
Workshop ‘Narratives on the Yathoktakari Perumal Temple’
Between February 27 and March 3, 2023, the project ‘Hindu Temple Legends in South India’ organized a workshop at the project's Indian branch office at the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in Pondicherry, followed by an excursion to Kanchipuram. The workshop was attended by the German and the Indian project team as well as by international scholars.
The workshop focused on the Yathoktakari Perumal Temple, one of the major Vishnu temples in Kanchipuram. The first three days of the workshop were dedicated to the collaborative reading and analysis of the different versions of the temple's origin story, which are trasmitted in the Kanchipuram's Sanskrit and Tamil temple legends. The next two days were spent visiting the Yathoktakari Perumal Temple and other relevant sites in and around Kanchipuram to examine how the textual narratives are represented on site. The workshop thus demonstrated the project's approach of creating a dialogue between various texts, as well as between the texts and the places they describe.
Volume Featured on New Books in Indian Religions Podcast
On January 19, 2023, the volume Temples, Texts, and Networks: South Indian Perspectives, edited by Malini Ambach, Jonas Buchholz, and Ute Hüsken, was featured on the podcast New Books in Indian Religions. Ute Hüsken and Jonas Buchholz appeared on the podcast and were interviewed by host Raj Balkaran about the volume, which was published by Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing (HASP) in October 2022.
Interview in Academies Union Newsletter
An interview with Prof. Dr. Ute Hüsken and Dr. Jonas Buchholz appeared in the January 2023 newsletter of the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities. In the interview, Prof. Hüsken and Dr. Buchholz present the newly launched project ‘Hindu Temple Legends in South India’ and answer questions about the project's research agenda as well as about the cooperation with the Indian branch of the project.
Visit of the Indian Consul General
On November 2, 2022, the Consul General of India in Munich, Mohit Yadav, along with Kailash Bhatt, head of the cultural wing, visited the South Asia Institute in order to get acquainted with the new Academy project ‘Hindu Temple Legends in South India’. After a welcome address by the director of the South Asia Institute, Prof. Kama Maclean, the senior professor and former secretary of the Academy Prof. Axel Michaels introduced the Munich delegation to the Academies Programme. This was followed by a 45-minute presentation of the project by Dr. Jonas Buchholz and the project leader Prof. Ute Hüsken. The Consul General was impressed by the project and showed particular interest in its digital aspects as well as cooperations with Indian institutions and researchers.
New Publication
Ambach, Malini, Buchholz, Jonas, and Hüsken, Ute (eds.): Temples, Texts, and Networks: South Indian Perspectives, Heidelberg: Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, 2022. https://doi.org/10.11588/hasp.906
The volume Temples, Texts, and Networks: South Indian Perspectives, edited by Malini Ambach, Jonas Buchholz, and Ute Hüsken, was published by Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing on October 20, 2022. The book is freely available online in PDF format. A hardcover edition can be purchased via stationary bookshops and online booksellers. Apart from the contributions by the project members, the volume contains constributions by international scholars dealing with temple legends as a textual genre and with networks between individual Hindu temples.
Inaugural Workshop in Pondicherry
From Octomber 10 to 14, 2022, the project ‘Hindu Temple Legends in South India’ organized an inaugural workshop at École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in Pondicherry, where the project's Indian branch office is located. Ute Hüsken, Jonas Buchholz, and Liudmila Olalde travelled to India to attend the workshop. The workshop served the purpose of bringing together the German and Indian teams and establishing workflows for the cooperation between the research unit in Heidelberg and the branch office in Pondicherry