International conferences at the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies

The Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies welcomes four international conferences during the first decade of October, 2010.

The first conference (Oct. 2-3) is dedicated to the ancient South Asian Fire ritual (Homa) and its variations – from Vedic to Hindu and Buddhist.  It will begin with a special performance of the Newari Homa in front of the Science Center on Saturday, Oct. 2, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

It is followed by the 14^th Harvard Round Table on the Ethnogenesis of South and Central Asia (Oct. 4-5). This year’s main topics are: South Asian linguistics, genetics, archaeology and texts.

The third conference, the Radcliffe Exploratory seminar on Comparative mythology, starts on Oct. 6. It focuses on theoretical issues of comparative mythology and its relations to genetics, paleontology, archaeology, and linguistics. Special attention is given to the deep reconstruction of ancient myths.

Exploration of comparative mythology continues on Oct. 8, immediately after the Radcliffe seminar, with the Forth Annual Conference of the International Association for Comparative Mythology (IACM). This year, the conference begins with examining the core notions and terms of comparative mythology. It is followed by sessions on Indo-European mythology, myth and politics, the hero and his poets, and further reflexes on ancient mythology.

Attendance of the Radcliffe seminar is by invitation only, but the rest of the conferences are open to the public. The IACM conference has an entrance fee of $50.

For more information, please consult the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies website.