New Project "Modelling Text Editions as Linked Data (edition2LD)"
The project "Modelling Text Editions as Linked Data (edition2LD)" of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities headed by Dieta Svoboda-Baas and Sabine Tittel is funded by the NFDI consortium Text+. Based on textual data of the Research Unit "Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-Modern Nepal", it aims at developing a largely automated workflow to represent editions as RDF triples which can be reused by other research project.
The Research Unit Welcomes Marija Grujovska as a New Team Member
The Research Unit welcomes Marija Grujovska, who will carry out her doctoral research within the framework of the project, as a new team member. Marija completed her BA studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology at Vienna University and was awarded her MA degree in "Cultural and Religious History of South Asia" at Heidelberg University. Her dissertation project focuses on the administrative history of the Tripureśvara Mahādeva Temple in Kathmandu from its establishment in the early 19th century up to the present, combining methods of archival and field research.
A Short Video Portrait of the Research Unit is Available
We are pleased to present you a newly prepared short video portrait of the research unit "Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal".
It is available here at: https://youtu.be/UtJDtjTZxik.
New Publications in the Series "Documenta Nepalica"
Documenta Nepalica Vol. 3Bajracharya, Manik (Hrsg.), Slavery and Unfree Labour in Nepal: Documents from the 18th to Early 20th Century, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2022 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Vol. 3), DOI: 10.17885/heiup.1003. |
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Documenta Nepalica Vol. 5Bijay Basukala, Niels Gutschow, Nutandhar Sharma, Patan-Vãbāhā : History and Inventory of a Newar Buddhist Monastery, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2022 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Band 5), DOI: 10.17885/heiup.1116. |
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Nepal Day 2022 at the Heidelberg University
A two-days long event ‘Nepal Day’ was organised during by the South Asia Institute (SAI) on the 21st and 22nd of July 2022 to celebrate 35 years of academic cooperation between SAI and Nepal as well as 60 years of the SAI.
The event began with signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Heidelberg and the Tribhuvan University by Rector Prof. Bernhard Eitel and Rector Prof. Shiva Lal Bhusal. This was followed by an introduction of the Nepal delegation as well as welcome addresses by Prof. Rahul Mukherji, Director of SAI, Rector Prof. Bhusal and Prof. Christiane Brosius. The first day of this event also included a conversation between Prof. Niels Gutschow and Prof. Axel Michaels titled ‘What have we learnt from Nepal?’ Both of them first travelled to Nepal in 1962 and 1972 respectively, and headed numerous projects for several years that explored rituals and historical connections.
The Nepal day also created an opportunity for ongoing projects on Nepal to present their work. These included: ‘Nepal Heritage Documentation Project’ (presented by Rajan Khatiwoda and Bharat Maharjan), ‘Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal’ of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (presented by Dr. Manik Bajracharya and Dr. Astrid Zotter), ‘Urban Transformation and Placemaking’ (presented by Prof. Christiane Brosius and Sujan Chitrakar) and ‘Himalyan Socio-Hydrology: Evidence from Nepal’ (presented by Prof. Marcus Nüsser and Dr. Susanne Schmidt).
This was followed by lectures of Prof. Sagar Raj Sharma (Kathmandu University) titled ‘Dilemmas of a Nation in Transition’ dealing with the socio-economic and environmental challenges of Nepal, and by Prof. Martin Gaenszle (University of Vienna) titled ‘Ethnic Traditions and Global Archives: Changing Research Conditions in Nepal’. Prof. Gaenszle’s lecture highlighted some of the evolving potentials of ethnographic documentation by means of digital archives and reflected on the challenges accompanying them.
On 22nd July, Prof. Brosius moderated a roundtable on future cooperation between Heidelberg Univeristy, Tribhuvan University and Kathmandu University.
Conference "Studies on Dharma in the Himalayan Region" in Naples
A two-days long (27—28 April 2022) conference ‘Studies on Dharma in the Himalayan Region’ was organized in Naples by the project ‘Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal’ of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in collaboration with the ‘The Śivadharma Project’ and the Institute of Asian Studies of the University of Turin. The conference was participated by several scholars and professors from a variety of disciplines, such as philology, jurisprudence, anthropology, and history of South Asia. The aim of the conference was to discuss and enrich the multifarious understandings of the concept of dharma with a special focus on the area of Nepal from medieval up to the modern times. During the conference, from the Heidelberg side, Manik Bajracharya and Rajan Khatiwoda discussed the concept of slavery in the first Nepalese legal code (Ain) of 1854 in comparison with the Hindu legal scriptures, dharmasastras. Simon Cubelic presented on caste and tribute exaction regulated in the Ain of 1854. Axel Michaels’ paper focused on King Rana Bahadur Shah’s (ruled 1777—99) manipulating of dharmasastric principles in order to legitimize his illegitimate actions. Ramhari Timalsina highlighted echoes of dharmasastras in the late 18th- to 19th-century Nepalese legal testimonies. Similarly, Astrid Zotter presented on the tradition of writing Hindu legal tomes (dharma-nibandha) in late medieval and early modern Nepal.
Nepal as a Focus of the Asian Studies in Heidelberg
The South Asia Institute (SAI) of the Heidelberg University has maintained a branch office in Kathmandu for last 35 years.
As the Managing Director of the South Asia Institute, Prof. Dr. Rahul Mukherji, emphasizes, Nepal has become a focus of Asian studies at Heidelberg University. "Worldwide, there is no such concentration of disciplinary and region-specific competences, research and projects." ...
New Publication
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Ute Hüsken, Vasudha Narayanan, Astrid Zotter (edd.), Nine Nights of Power. Durgā, Dolls, and Darbārs, SUNY series in Hindu Studies, 2021, ISBN13: 978-1-4384-8407-5 (available as Hardcover, Google eBook and Kindle Edition, s. here). |
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New Publication of the Book Series "Documenta Nepalica"
Documenta Nepalica Vol. 2Rajan Khatowoda, Simon Cubelic and Axel Michaels (edd.), The Mulukī Ain of 1854. Nepal's First Legal Code, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2021 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Vol. 2), DOI: 10.17885/heiup.769. |
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Conference “Workshop on Resources and Technologies for Indigenous, Endangered and Lesser-resourced Languages in Eurasia (EURALI)”
On June 20th the "Workshop on Resources and Technologies for Indigenous, Endangered and Lesser-resourced Languages in Eurasia (EURALI)" took place in Marseille as a part of LREC 2022. Sabine Tittel presented a poster and demonstration called "Towards an Ontology for Toponyms in Nepalese Historical Documents" on a place name ontology for the Documenta Nepalica.
Lecture Series
As part of the lecture series "Asian Religions and the Politics of Heritage", organized by the Südasien-Institut & Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (Website of the series: https://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/abt/IND/en/index.php), the following lectures took place:
"Heritage Politics at the Paśupatinātha Temple in Nepal",
Prof. Dr. Axel Michaels,
Thursday, June 24, 2021, 11:15 a.m., see here.
"Places of Value: Inscriptions as Valorisation Practices at Cultural Heritage Sites in Kathmandu Valley",
Dr. Simon Cubelic,
Thursday, July 8, 2021, 11:15 a.m., see here.
Integration of the first 137 inscriptions from DANAM into Documenta Nepalica
As part of the pilot project “Anthropology of Inscriptions: Memory and Cultural Heritage in the Public Sphere” (HCTS/Flagship Initiative “Transforming Cultural Heritage”) the first batch of inscription catalogue entries from Digital Archive of Nepalese Arts and Monuments (DANAM) was successfully integrated within the Documenta Nepalica database. The dataset of 137 inscriptions from around 60 monuments (recognizable by the identifier “NHDP”) can now be explored within the catalogue of the Documenta Nepalica containing more than 60.000 entries from public and private archives of Nepal. From now on, the inscription catalogue entries will be transferred regularly. The transfer is part of a larger endeavor of both projects to interrelate their databases. This will enable more dynamic and interdisciplinary queries to Nepal’s textual, art historical and intangible heritage. The Documenta Nepalica catalogue search can be accessed here.
Symposium "The Digital Preservation of Asian Manuscripts and Documents" (February 26, 2021)
On February 26, 2021, 10:00 - 12:00 CET, the virtual, international Symposium "The Digital Preservation of Asian Manuscripts and Documents" took place. The symposium was organized in cooperation with the department "Digital Archiving and Research" of the Otani University, Kyoto.