Notices by Birgit Kellner (birgitkellner@zirk.us)

Later this week (7-8 Nov): "Manuscript Collections across Eurasia", workshop of the Cluster of Excellence "EurAsian Transformations", convened by Bruno deNicola, Nina Mirnig and Bernhard Palme -- bringing together international experts on and/or custodians of important collections of pre-modern written artifacts across Eurasia, including less-known collections located in Central, South Asia and Eastern Iran or in European institutions holding objects from those regions.

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/eurasian-transformations/events/workshops/manuscript-collections-across-eurasia

The Austrian newspaper Der Standard reports on the recent Madhyamaka conference in Vienna -- with more than 150 participants from more than 25 countries and 76 universities, likely the largest of its kind so far, organized by my colleague Anne MacDonald.

https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000233657/buddhismus-konferenz-in-wien-viel-laerm-um-nichts?ref=mastodon

Buddhist philosophy is filling rooms again! In Vienna at Anne MacDonald's conference "Madhyamaka in South Asia and Beyond" #BuddhistPhilosophy #IndianPhilosophy

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/ikga/madhyamaka-in-south-asia-and-beyond

Now available in Open Access: "Kamalaśīla and His Place in the
Intellectual History of Buddhism", special issue of Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques, 77(1) 2023:

https://www.zora.uzh.ch/view/subjects/A120.html

Contributions by: Eltschinger, Chiou, Sato, Sferra, Saccone, Ding, Matsuoka, Kellner.

Fresh from the press:

Rafal Stepien, Buddhism between Religion and Philosophy: Nagarjuna and the Ethics of Emptiness. Oxford University Press. #BuddhistPhilosophy

Diwakar Acharya generously shared his exciting new research on early Sāṃkyha and Yoga in Vienna, in a two-part lecture jointly hosted by the University and Academy institutes, organized by Nina Mirnig. Memorable evenings! #Indology #IndianPhilosophy #SouthAsianPhilosophy

Fresh from the press: Hiroko Matsuoka, Pei-Lin Chiou and Serena Saccone (eds.): Kamalaśīla and his place in the intellectual history of Buddhism. With contributions by: Francesco Sferra, Chigaku Satō, Ryusei Keira, Vincent Eltschinger, Yi Ding, Birgit Kellner, as well as Matsuoka, Chiou and Saccone.

https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/asia/77/1/html?lang=de

#BuddhistPhilosophy #IndianPhilosophy #TibetanBuddhism #IndianBuddhism

Ingo Strauch (Univ. Lausanne) will tell us more about scratches, scribblings and Buddhists in the west of the Indian Ocean on 16 April. Join us in person in Vienna or online!

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/ikga/veranstaltungen/event-detail/beyond-india

#BuddhistStudies #IndianOceanTrade #IndianEpigraphy

Interested in learning more about premodern South Asian philosophical perspectives on language this summer? There's a summer school coming up in Vienna (8-13 July), organized by Marco Ferrante, with a great group of teachers:

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/ikga/veranstaltungen/event-detail/philosophical-perspectives-on-language-in-premodern-south-asia

#IndianPhilosophy #SouthAsianPhilosophy

Great discussion after a great talk on Akalaṅka's criticism of Dharmakīrti by Shree Nahata (Oxford) yesterday at the University of Vienna. Jaina philosophy definitely needs more attention (and is starting to get it!). #JainaPhilosophy #BuddhistPhilosophy #IndianPhilosophy

Spread the word: University of Vienna offers a doctoral position (so-called "predoc") in Buddhist Studies, for four years starting March 1st, 2024.

Details: https://jobs.univie.ac.at/job/University-assistant-predoctoral/1019201101/ #BuddhistStudies #PhDFellowship

"Immediacy, Consciousness, Knowledge. A Symposium on South Asian and European Philosophy" (Univ. Bologna): very nice turnout for Alex Watson this morning :) #IndianPhilosophy #SouthAsianPhilosophy #BuddhistPhilosophy #GlobalPhilosophy

https://disci.unibo.it/it/eventi/immediacy-consciousness-knowledge

Kick-off event of the new Austrian Cluster of Excellence "EurAsian Transformations -- Resources of the Past and the Challenge of Diversity" later today in the OEAW's magnificient Festsaal (mostly in German):

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/detail/veranstaltung/neues-licht-auf-transformationsprozesse-in-eurasien

Fresh from the press and also available in Open Access: Dominik Haas' superb study "Gāyatrī.
Mantra and Mother of the Vedas", published with the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. #Indology #SouthAsianReligions

Details and download:
https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/produkt/g-yatr/99200943?name=g-yatr&product_form=4981

A wildly fascinating aspect of late Indian Buddhism is the interaction (or intersection) of Tantric Buddhism with the tradition of logic and epistemology. Just appeared, a highly recommended, thorough study in this area:

Serena Saccone, Péter-Dániel Szántó 2023. Tantra and Pramāṇa. A Study of the Sāramañjarī. Series Minor 98. Uniorpress, Napoli and Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien.

The book is available Open Access: http://www.fedoabooks.unina.it/index.php/fedoapress/catalog/book/468

Spread the word!

This just came in: a massive two-part memorial volume for Helmut Krasser, who passed away in 2014, published in the Hamburg Buddhist Studies series (https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/publikationen/hamburg-buddhist-studies.html). 918 pages (and remarkably affordable!). #BuddhistStudies #BuddhistPhilosophs #IndianPhilosophy

The Oral History of Tibetan Studies project at Oxford, initiated by Rachael Griffiths, is an incredible resource (https://oralhistory.iats.info/); if you wish you can now listen to an interview with Ernst Steinkellner for nearly four (!) hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx7qNu2J4XA -- one of altogether 89 interviews that were conducted so far.

Students of Indian and Buddhist philosophy, rejoice: you can finally read the sixth chapter of Jinendrabuddhi's 8th century Pramāṇasamuccayaṭīkā in Sanskrit, masterfully edited by Ono, Muroya and Watanabe, and learn about "futile rejoinders" (jāti) and other intricacies of debate logic. To order the print copy or download the open-access PDF, click https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/produkt/jinendrabuddhi-s-vi-l-malavat-pram-asamuccaya-k/99200813?name=jinendrabuddhi-s-vi-l-malavat-pram-asamuccaya-k&product_form=4955 #IndianPhilosophy #BuddhistPhilosophy

I learned a lot from this paper as a preprint, now it's finally out: Davey Tomlinson, Limiting the Scope of the Neither-One-Nor-Many Argument: The Nirākāravādin's Defense of Consciousness and Pleasure. Enjoy! https://www.academia.edu/79605618/Limiting_the_Scope_of_the_Neither_One_Nor_Many_Argument_The_Nir%C4%81k%C4%81rav%C4%81dins_Defense_of_Consciousness_and_Pleasure #BuddhistPhilosophy

Jens-Uwe Hartmann will tell you all you can currently know about a vexed Buddhological problem: Aśvaghoṣa's spurious (or not?) Sūtrālaṃkāra. June 19th, starting 5pm CEST at the IKGA in Vienna or online (in German), details and link:

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/ikga/veranstaltungen/event-detail/neues-zu-einer-alten-buddhologischen-streitfrage