South Asian Studies at the University of Alberta

The journal HSSA is delighted to publish a new research article by A. J. Misra and J. Arzoumanov entitled "Calendars, Compliments and Computations" https://doi.org/10.18732/hssa95 This paper presents, for the very first time, a comparative survey of the canon of two seventeenth-century works on astronomy, one in Persian and one in Sanskrit, to reveal the intimacy between the two works and to analyze the process of translation between these two profound cultures of India.

Calendars, Compliments, and Computations: A Comparative Survey of the Canon in the Persian Zīj of Šāh Jahān and its Sanskrit Translation, the Siddhāntasindhu | History of Science in South Asia Calendars, Compliments, and Computations A Comparative Survey of the Canon in the Persian Zīj of Šāh Jahān and its Sanskrit Translation, the Siddhāntasindhu Authors Anuj Misra University of Copenhagen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0586-660X Jean Arzoumanov University of Chicago https://orcid.org/...

One of our former departmental colleagues, Matthew Scarborough, is a co-author on this new paper in Science that is being widely reported in the press:

Language trees with sampled ancestors support a hybrid model for the origin of Indo-European languages Indo-European languages emerged south of the Caucasus around 8300 years ago, followed by an expansion northward to the Steppe regions.

Today we say congratulations and farewell to our colleague Dr Patricia Sauthoff who is leaving the University of Alberta to take up a new position at the University of Hong Kong as Lecturer in the History of Science and Medicine in the department of History at Hong Kong Baptist University. We are grateful to Dr Sauthoff for her research, publication and teaching on a range of topics in South Asian studies here at the U of A. We'll miss you! Lucky Hong Kong!

Book release! Forthcoming in Summer 2023.

On the Plastic Surgery of the Ears and Nose: The Nepalese Version of the Suśrutasaṃhitā.

by D. Wujastyk, J. Birch, A. Klebanov, M.K. Parameswaran, M. Rimal, D. Chakraborty, H. Bhatt, V. Lele, P. Mehta.

A thousand-year-old Ayurvedic manuscript containing the Compendium of Suśruta was announced to the scholarly world in 2007. The Nepalese manuscript, since adopted by UNESCO as part of the Memory of the World, reveals the state of classical Indian medicine in the ninth century. It enables us to study the changes in this medical classic that have taken place from the ninth to the nineteenth century, when printed texts began to dominate the dissemination of the work. The present monograph describes the research project focussed on this manuscript and offers an edition, study and translation of the historically important chapter about the plastic surgery on the nose and ears.

A Heidelberg Asian Studies Publication.

https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/preview?lang=en

Making gems in Indian Alchemical Literature | History of Science in South Asia Making gems in Indian Alchemical Literature Authors Dagmar Wujastyk University of Vienna https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0807-3266 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18732/hssa98 Keywords: factitious gems, alchemy, rasashastra, Rasaratnākara Abstract This article examines the practice of producing factitious gems...

A major new study by Jacob Schmidt-Madsen of the history of game-play in India. This study focuses on the singular courtly game of phañjikā described in the 12th-century Mānasollāsa attributed to King Someśvara III of the Western Cālukya Empire.
https://doi.org/10.18732/hssa82

An exciting new article on seventeenth-century astronomy in India is published today in HSSA, from the desk of A. J. Misra (Copenhagen).
Abstract:
In the history of exchanges between Islamicate and Sanskrit astral sciences, Nityānanda's Siddhāntasindhu (c. early 1630s), composed at the court of the Mughal emperor Shāh Jahān (r. 1628─58), is among the earliest examples of a Persian astronomical text translated into Sanskrit. The present paper studies the mathematics of the three methods of computing the true declination vis-à-vis Nityānanda's recension of his Sanskrit translations from his germinal Siddhāntasindhu to his chef d'œuvre, the Sarvasiddhāntarāja (1638).
https://doi.org/10.18732/hssa75

An exciting new article on seventeenth-century astronomy in India is published today in HSSA, from the desk of A. J. Misra (Copenhagen).
Abstract:
In the history of exchanges between Islamicate and Sanskrit astral sciences, Nityānanda's Siddhāntasindhu (c. early 1630s), composed at the court of the Mughal emperor Shāh Jahān (r. 1628─58), is among the earliest examples of a Persian astronomical text translated into Sanskrit. The present paper studies the mathematics of the three methods of computing the true declination vis-à-vis Nityānanda's recension of his Sanskrit translations from his germinal Siddhāntasindhu to his chef d'œuvre, the Sarvasiddhāntarāja (1638).

https://doi.org/10.18732/hssa75

Geometrical Knowledge in Early Sri Lanka | History of Science in South Asia Geometrical Knowledge in Early Sri Lanka Authors Chandana Jayawardana The Open University of Sri Lanka https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1748-2301 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18732/hssa69 Abstract This article addresses on history of mathematics (specially one of its specific branch, geometry) in Sri Lanka. D...

SSHRC project workshop in Vienna

https://eurogenes.blogspot.com/2022/06/david-reich-on-origin-of-yamnaya-people.html?m=1

David Reich on the origin of the Yamnaya people (!?) Harvard's David Reich is doing a talk next month about the genetic history of West Asia and nearby parts of Europe. This is a quote from an ...